I bit my lip and got to my feet again. Stop fooling yourself. You knew he wasn't going to speak to you now. That would be too easy. I was going to have to try something a lot more drastic.

I thought about what I would do for a second, then came to a difficult decision. I slowly made my way to the living room, where everyone was sitting to eat breakfast. I sat down within Leeteuk's field of vision and leaned against the wall again.

"Kyuhyun, your breakfast is on the kitchen table," said Ryeowook.

"I'm not eating," I said, looking at Leeteuk. "There are things I need to do before eating."

Leeteuk ignored me, but that was only to be expected.

Soon, the members were finished with breakfast and I got up to do the dishes. The manager hyung walked in just as I was finishing up, and after gathering us together, he started handing out schedules of the day.

"Kyuhyun, just letting you know that you have to go to school tomorrow," he said while handing me my schedule. My heart dropped; I had barely even started on the week's worth of work.

"Hyung, can I go later on in the week?" I asked, grasping at straws. "I'm really behind on the homework."

"No, tomorrow is the only day of the week you're free," said the manager hyung. I sighed, but having no other choice, I nodded in agreement.

"But our day ends early today, at 7pm. You can get your work done then," said the manager hyung.

"Okay," I said, and we all returned to our rooms to finish getting ready for the day.

We had two morning non-broadcast performances, then we were given packed lunches to eat on the bus. However, when the manager hyung handed me my lunch, I shook my head.

"I don't think I can get it down, hyung."

"Why not?" asked the manager hyung, and I stole a glance at Leeteuk. He was clearly listening in on the conversation.

"I'm not hungry," I said, and I put my head against the headrest and closed my eyes instead, ignoring the grumbling from my stomach.

I refused dinner after the three afternoon performances as well. Before the afternoon performances, I had merely felt uncomfortably hungry, but without eating dinner, I also felt lightheaded and tired. After returning to the dorm, I asked Leeteuk again whether he would talk with me just outside his room.

"I told you I was busy," said Leeteuk with an annoyed frown.

"Sunbaenim, I'm not going to eat until you talk to me," I said, in an attempt to make things clear.

"Are you threatening me?" Leeteuk asked, crossing his arms.

"No. I'm just letting you know," I said. I sat down across from his room again. "I'll wait until you're not busy."

From then on, every time Leeteuk went in or out of his room, I got to my feet and asked whether he was busy, and every time, Leeteuk just ignored me without even acknowledging that I was there. When I stood to greet Leeteuk for the fifth time that night outside his room, Leeteuk finally looked at me.

"Didn't you say you had schoolwork to do?" he said with a frown.

"It's not as important as this," I said as I sat back down on the floor.

The next time Leeteuk came out of his room, I got up again, but I felt so lightheaded that I stumbled into him.

"Sorry," I managed, one hand on my head and the other on the wall in an attempt to steady myself. I swallowed, then looked at Leeteuk. "Are you still busy, sunbaenim?"

Leeteuk, who had been about to step out of his room, turned around and went back into his room and closed the door without answering the question. I sat back down and closed my eyes, trying to forget the grumbling in my stomach. I stayed awake until I heard the lights go out in his room, then after about an hour, I also went to sleep in the hallway again.

I rejected breakfast again the next morning, but Ryeowook pulled me aside.

"Kyuhyun, you ate literally nothing yesterday as well," he said with a concerned frown. "You have to eat."

"No, not until I speak to Leeteuk hyung," I said, gripping at my stomach.

"Kyuhyun, we get it. You're stubborn. But so is Jungsu hyung. You're fighting a losing battle. Come to your senses," said Ryeowook, shaking my shoulders.

"We'll just see who wins," I said through clenched teeth, and I walked away from Ryeowook before he could stop me.

I was scolded and punished at school for not having finished my take-home work for two weeks in a row, which didn't help with the fact that I was starving myself. As I reached my 40th hour without a single morsel of food, the lightheadedness had evolved into a full-blown headache and my stomach had stopped grumbling altogether. The sensation of hunger was now gone, and a burning pain in the stomach replaced it instead. I barely had enough energy to stay awake, and definitely didn't learn anything during class.

I got a drive to the office after school from the manager hyung, where all of us were supposed to eat lunch together. I hesitated before refusing the food this time - I had never smelled anything so good before although it was the same lunch we had every day. The manager hyung held out my lunch for me to take, and my hands were halfway there to take it when I restrained myself.

"Hyung, I can't," I said, and I lowered my hands. I simply watched everyone else eat for a few seconds, but feeling it add to the hunger, I left the room to spend the rest of lunchtime in the bathroom alone.

We had dinner at the dorm, and I refused that, too. It was the hardest thing that I thought I'd ever had to do - but instead of eating, I sat down in front of Leeteuk's door again with my eyes closed.

However, soon, Sungmin and Donghae called me into our room where they sat me down at the foot of Sungmin's bed.

"What is it?" I asked, looking up at both of them.

"Eat," said Donghae, and he put a bowl of rice with vegetables in my hands. I closed my eyes to avoid looking at the food.

"No," I said, shoving the bowl back into Donghae's hands.

"Listen to your hyung," said Sungmin, and forced the bowl into my hands again.

"I have things to do," I said, and I tried to get up from the bed, but Sungmin pushed me back down.

"We're not letting you leave until you finish that bowl of food. If you want to go into the hallway and sit there again, you'd better start eating."

I glared at him. "I know what I'm doing," I said, holding out the bowl for Sungmin to take. He refused to take it.

"Start eating," ordered Sungmin. I shook my head with a laugh and tried to get up again, but Donghae forced me back on the bed for the second time. The laugh disappeared from my face.

"I'm not eating it. And I have to go and wait before I miss him go into his room," I said with a glare.

"So you'd better start eating," said Donghae angrily.

In frustration and being so irritable after the long time without food, I could only think of one solution. I threw the bowl of food across the floor, where all of the food spilled out, and the bowl shattered into pieces.

"I'll clean it up later," I said, and taking advantage of Sungmin and Donghae's shocked states, I walked back out into the hallway and sat down in front of Leeteuk's room.

For the third night in a row, I spent the night in the hallway, and for the third morning in a row, I declined breakfast. I was now well into my 60th hour without food, and the headache and hunger pains were more intense than ever before. As I watched the other members eat their breakfast and smelled the food, I felt the pain in my stomach intensify, and I was so overcome by the pain that I suddenly got to my feet and doubled over.

"Kyuhyun, are you okay?" I heard Ryeowook ask. However, before I could answer, much to my horror, I felt my stomach heave as I threw up on the floors of the living room. Before I knew it, I was on all fours, retching and coughing up the extra acid that had built up in the stomach in the long time that I hadn't eaten.

"Oh god," I said to the members in the living room, wiping the corners of my mouth with the back of my hand once my stomach settled again. "I'm so sorry. I know you were eating."

"Kyuhyun, this is crazy," said Ryeowook, rushing towards me. "Go get yourself cleaned up. I'll take care of things here."

"No, I can't let you do that," I said, but my entire chest and mouth felt like they were on fire, being burned from the acid that I had just thrown up.

"Don't worry about it. Get yourself cleaned up and come out after for a glass of water," said Ryeowook, and he pushed me into the bathroom.

"Ryeowook, thank you," I said. Ryeowook just nodded and closed the bathroom door behind me.

For the entire day, I moved as little as possible so that I could direct all of the energy I had to the two non-broadcast performances scheduled for that day. I even avoided talking so that I could conserve as much energy as possible. I used this energy to give all that I had to the stage, and as far as I could tell, it wasn't much worse than how I normally performed although it took multiple times more effort. As a result of my good performances, no one could use the excuse of the performances to force me to eat, allowing me to refuse to eat both lunch and dinner that day.

That night when we returned to the dorm, I sat against the wall across from Leeteuk's door again. However, I didn't have enough strength to stand and greet Leeteuk every time he came in and out of his room anymore; I just sat there, pushing down on my stomach and simply looking at Leeteuk as he walked by.

At around one o'clock in the morning, and for the fourth night in a row, I heard the light switch flick off in Leeteuk's room. I normally stayed awake for another hour or so after the light switch flicked off, but feeling so faint and dismayed, I laid down in the hallway right away as a tear escaped my eye and ran down the side of my face.

I tried to sleep, but I found that I couldn't - at the 80-hour mark without food, my body was so lacking in energy that it couldn't produce enough internal body heat anymore. Although it was mid-June, everything suddenly felt so cold. I sat up and curled up in a ball, shivering in the darkness for several hours. I was about to go to my room to bring a blanket when Leeteuk's door suddenly opened. Leeteuk stepped out of his room and flicked on the dim light in the hallway. I didn't even look up at him; I knew he was going to ignore me anyway. I just sat there with my knees in my arms against the wall, my teeth chattering and my entire body shaking.

Leeteuk stood at the doorway, staring at me for the longest time while my eyes welled up with tears of pain and frustration. Still shivering, I finally looked up at him while the tears poured down my cheeks. I was about to tell him that he'd won, that I couldn't do this anymore, and that I was sorry that I even tried doing this, when he finally spoke.

"Okay, Kyuhyun. You win," he said softly, looking into my eyes.

I stared back at him, unable to believe my ears. To my shock, I saw tears filling his eyes as well.

"Let's go for a walk," he said, then he bent down to take me by my hands and pulled me up to my feet.