The manager hyung talked to Donghae for at least two hours after Ryeowook delivered Donghae the food. I don't know what the manager hyung said to Donghae during that time, but after the talk Donghae came out of the room and sat down on the couch in the living room to join the other members. We eyed him carefully, but he seemed more or less like a non-smiling version of his normal self as opposed to the depressed person that I could barely recognize. Even more surprisingly, on the next day, he was strong enough to complete the performance with a smiling face as if nothing happened. The manager hyung then drove him down to Mokpo as soon as the performance was over so that he wouldn't feel pressured to perform during the week by the company until the next weekend.

After Donghae left for Mokpo, most of us started to get our schedules freed up, some due to cancellations that weren't re-booked and some due to the fact that no new ones were scheduled. We still hadn't been able to visit Heechul at the hospital, but we were promised a visit sometime during the week, which put us in fairly optimistic spirits.

As for what happened during the beginning of the next week, I still don't understand why it happened; maybe it was because we were all desperate for laughs after going through such a hard time. Each of us had vented anger and frustration already in his own way, and now, we were all just tired. Tired of everything. But nevertheless, it gave me a chance at the biggest breakthrough I've had with the team in a long, long time.

I was left alone at the dorm after the schedules freed up with Leeteuk, Shindong and Kangin, probably the three hyungs I still felt the most scared with. Hoping not to deal with them, I just kept in my room and I was catching up on my sleep when Kangin woke me up at around lunchtime.

"Kyuhyun, go and fry some ham or something for lunch. I think the housekeeper bought us a lot of Spam last week," said Kangin. I nodded and got up, then he looked at me threateningly. "Don't mess it up, or you'll regret it."

I hesitated for a second, but he wasn't asking for anything hard. How hard could frying ham be?

I got to my feet and walked into the kitchen. I got a frying pan out and put it on top of the stove. I opened the can of ham, then extracted the contents into the pan. I had the stove when I remembered the egg incident a few days ago. I was frying eggs and Ryeowook had asked me if I had used oil in the pan.

I opened the cupboard and hesitated in front of the many types of oil, then I cocked my head a little and reached for the one in the green-tinted glass bottle. I poured it out onto the pan, and returned it to the cupboard. I nodded to reassure myself. I was doing this right. Now I just had to make sure that I didn't burn this block of ham before slicing it.

I was still frying the ham a few minutes later when I realized that something didn't smell quite right. However, it didn't smell bad by any means, so I continued. However, the smell kept getting stronger and stronger until it clearly reached the living room.

"Kyuhyun, aren't you frying ham?" shouted Kangin from the living room.

I hesitated. "Um - I - I am," I said.

"Then what is the smell?" asked Kangin, and I heard him move into the kitchen. I turned my head to look at him come into the kitchen before quickly turning my attention to the ham again. I felt apprehensive for a second, but I convinced myself that I was definitely doing this right.

"Hey, move ov - " started Kangin, then he picked up the pan with the hunk of ham in it in disbelief. "You didn't slice it before you fried it?"

I froze. "Uh - " I thought you were supposed to slice it after frying it... Weren't you?

Kangin squinted as he looked in the pan again. "Why is there all this liquid in the pan?" he asked.

"Aren't I supposed to use cooking oil?" I asked timidly. "That's what Ryeowook did to fry eggs, so - "

Kangin stared at me as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing, then took another whiff and frowned. "What kind of oil did you use?"

"I just used regular oil," I said quickly, then I opened the cupboard to show him the bottle that I used. Kangin took one look at it, then turned his head to stare at me.

"You used sesame oil?" asked Kangin incredulously.

"Um - " Wasn't all oil the same? I felt my face flush. "I - I'm so sorry. I didn't know - "

I glanced up at Kangin, and I thought I saw a fleeting smile on his face, but it disappeared so fast to be replaced by a such a serious face that I was sure that I was mistaken.

"What did I say was going to happen if you messed this up?" asked Kangin.

"Sunbaenim, I'm so sorry," I pleaded. "Let me try it again. I'll get it right this time."

Kangin pointed a finger at me. "No. Never cook, ever again. If you ever set foot in the kitchen again - " He stopped, then shook his head total expasperation as he realized the situation. "But this isn't even cooking! How do you mess up at three different places while frying ham?" he shouted.

I lowered my head. "Um... I'm so, so sorry," I said quietly.

"Follow me," said Kangin, and he went into the living room while I followed him, butterflies filling my stomach. Within a few seconds, Kangin was back with the broom.

"Get on the wall," he said. I sighed. This order was getting so familiar that I didn't even bother hesitating or begging anymore; they never forgave before punishing anyway.

I slowly put my hands on the wall, and as soon as I did, a landed on me. I gasped in intense pain and surprise and braced myself for the next.

The second one landed very soon, but for some reason this one didn't feel quite right; it hurt, definitely, but there was something strange to it, for lack of a better word. Nevertheless, I saw Kangin's shadow swing it above his head again. I braced myself for the third blow and I heard the broom cut across the air, but there was a small thunk as something fell to the ground, then -

Nothing. Nothing touched me.

No pain, no thump, no... nothing.

Confused, I turned my head a little and looked at Kangin. I saw Kangin also looking flustered for a second, then to my shock, he let out a small laugh of amusement. I felt a small surge of anger in my chest. Was he beating me as a joke? I was looking at him seriously when Kangin looked at me, then at Leeteuk.

"It broke," said Kangin, the amused smile still on his face. Perplexed, I looked at what Kagin was holding up, and I realized what had happened. The broom had snapped in two and Kangin was holding on to one splintered half while the other half evidently had fallen to the ground as he was swinging the broom up again.

My mouth dropped open. How did that happen? As far as I could feel, he wasn't beating me harder than he usually did.

I carefully turned my head a bit more to look at the older hyungs in the living room, and I saw Shindong hold in a laugh as well.

Despite myself, I felt a small smile form on my own face. I wasn't sure why, but I smiled nevertheless. Kangin looked at my face and saw the small smile, then put his stern expression back on.

"Why are you laughing? You did nothing right," said Kangin.

I stopped smiling right away and looked at the floor again.

"Get up," ordered Kangin. I reluctantly pushed myself off the wall and put my head down as I turned around to face him. "Go to the store across the street and buy a new one," said Kangin. "And make sure it's not wooden this time."

"N - now?" I asked, flustered.

"We still need to clean around the dorm," said Kangin matter-of-factly.

I nodded and walked towards the front door slowly when I realized something.

"Wait, do I - do I use my own money?" I asked timidly.

"Well, you're the one that broke it."

Of course I broke it.

As I hesitated at the unfairness of the situation, Kangin spoke.

"Be back in ten minutes. I'm timing you," he said. Scared, I just bowed and rushed to the front door. I opened it, let myself out and closed it behind me, and I could have sworn that I heard all of them bursting out in laughter.

I half-walked, half-jogged to the department store across the street. I always saw the hyungs and other sunbaes in the industry wearing masks and sunglasses when they went out, but in all truth, all of that attracted even more attention. Since I was still new to the industry and didn't have many fans, I rarely got recognized on the streets anyway.

I found the cleaning items section and stood in front of a wall of different types of brooms, then sighed. If I were going to be the one to choose anyway, I may as well choose one that doesn't look like it would hurt. I looked for a few minutes, but none of them looked like it wouldn't hurt. I thought for a moment, then getting an idea, I stepped away from the wall of brooms. This might be the chance I'd been waiting for. The hyungs were laughing just as I was leaving - this might be worth a try. But I hesitated; could I afford this with my newly lowered salary? Then deciding that it was a good investment, I took out my wallet to gauge how much I could afford to spend.

I stepped inside the dorm well past the ten minutes that Kangin had alotted to me, and Kangin scowled.

"You're late."

"Sorry," I said. Kangin looked at me, then realizing my hands were empty, he frowned again.

"Did you buy it?"

"It's at the door," I said carefully. Kangin took big, charismatic strides to the front door, and he spoke in confusion while he my stomach tightened with nervousness.

"What is this?" he asked, then I heard a perplexed, "What - "

My stomach tightened with nervousness. I bit my lip and just prayed.

Please, please, don't get too angry. Please.

Then, to my pleasant surprise and relief, Kangin roared with laughter. In fact, he laughed harder than I'd seen him laugh in a long time. I felt my stomach loosening, and a trace of a smile crept up on my face as well.

Oh my god. I can't believe this worked.

As Leeteuk saw me smile, he frowned.

"Hey, Youngwoon, what are you doing in front of the kid?" asked Leeteuk sternly. Kangin didn't stop laughing, and poked his head around the corner and looked at Leeteuk to explain.

"He - " he started, but he stopped again because a new laughing fit overcame him. When he was finally ready to speak in a hoarse voice, he was wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

"He bought a vacuum cleaner."

I saw the surprised faces of the members, then I saw Leeteuk turn his head away from me to hide a grin while Shindong burst out laughing as well without trying to hide it.

"You really must not have wanted to get hit," said Kangin, looking at me. "You insolent, cheeky little thing."

"I think this is a good investment," I explained. Then I realized what it must have sounded like. "For cleaning around the dorm, that is, hyung," I added hastily. Kangin bowed his head to stop himself from laughing.

Then to my amazement, Kangin put his hand on my shoulder. "Good for you," he said, then he shook his head and looked at the vacuum again. "Go to your room," he said with an attempt at severe, but he was still smiling.

I bowed quickly with a smile from my neck and rushed into my room and closed the door, but as soon as I did so, I heard him burst out into laughter again. I smiled to myself, satisfied.

This was so worth the money.

*Author's note: The sesame oil/SPAM this is actually a pretty famous incident with the K-ELFs, I don't know why no one knows about it here. Ah well, in any case, the cooking fail apparently actually happened (block of SPAM in sesame oil) xD Ohhhh our Kyu.
And thank you so, so, so much for the support. I really appreciate it. Really. Really really. Thank you!!! <3

Oh, and I guess some people might not be familiar with sesame oil. It's oil, but it's used more as a flavouring agent than for cooking - you use it to coat boiled spinach or something in, and if you've ever had bibimbap, they'll often put in a few drops of sesame oil to give that extra flavour. You would never use it to fry anything... lol.