Kyuhyun woke up later than he wanted, still sleepy from his insomnia the night before.  He’d been thinking far too hard lately and really needed a day to do something mindless.  It was time to lock himself in his bedroom for an all-day Starcraft-a-thon.  But first things first, he thought, rubbing his eyes as he walked down the hall, he needed a shower. 

            Without thinking, he opened the door and walked into the bathroom, heading for the bathtub and running smack into someone, throwing him off balance.  He stumbled into the tile wall a bit, damp with moisture.

            “Little tired?” asked Ryeowook, laughing as he touched Kyuhyun’s arm to help steady him.

            Kyuhyun looked over at Ryeowook, shirtless and wet from just having gotten out of the shower.  In fact, all he had on was a towel wrapped around his thin waist.  He stared at his best friend too long and then shook his head to clear the vision from his head.  Clearly, all the bad karma he had collected from all the pranks and tricks he’d played on people over the years was coming back to haunt him this week. 

            “Sorry,” he said, turning around and exiting the room as quickly as possible.  He plopped down on his bed face first and groaned in frustration, mumbling to himself about his rotten luck when he heard his door open—which he’d forgotten to lock—and heard light footsteps heading for his bed. 

            Kyuhyun steeled himself to confront Ryeowook face to face for the first time in days, as he’d practiced doing in his head.  He’d avoided talking to Ryeowook because he knew that it would be hard to pretend he cared less about him than he did.  He ought to tell Ryeowook that he was intruding on his personal time by walking into his room unannounced.  They needed to discuss what was allowed and what wasn’t.  He took a deep breath, readying himself to turn over and let Ryeowook have it.

           Then all of a sudden, his foot was being tickled and he was reduced to a shrieking, laughing idiot in seconds, trying to rollover in bed to get his foot away but Ryeowook had a death grip on his ankle and easily kept hold of it.  He mercilessly tickled his foot until there were tears running down Kyuhyun’s face and he was pleading for his friend to stop.  Finally, Ryeowook let go of his foot and lay down on the bed next to Kyuhyun, who was lying on his side and trying to catch his breath.

           At least he’d pulled on his clothes before coming into the room, Kyuhyun realized, looking him over for a second.  Underneath his hoodie, it was obvious he didn’t have a shirt on and his mind instantly shot back to the firm abs he had just seen a minute ago in the bathroom.  His hair was still wet and hanging in his eyes from his shower and he smelled strongly of lavender scented shampoo and shaving cream.  Ever since Victoria accused him of being gay, he began to take note of what he noticed about the people around him.  Nothing was as overwhelming as all the little things he noticed about Ryeowook.

           “Are you ready to tell me why you’ve been acting strange around me the last few days?” he asked, running his hand through Kyuhyun’s messy hair.

           “What do you mean?” Kyuhyun asked, pulling up his best innocent act.

           “You’re avoiding me.”

           “I’m not avoiding you,” he swore, looking at anything but Ryeowook.  “I’ve been busy.”

           “Don’t even start with me,” he warned.  “Donghae called me and said that you aren’t allowed to come over and mope around their apartment today out of boredom because you drove them crazy yesterday.  I was off all day yesterday.  Normally you’d do something with me.  You’ve been avoiding me since the night you got drunk.  What gives?”

          “Nothing,” Kyuhyun insisted, rolling onto his back and looking up at the ceiling.

          “I can get you to talk.”

          “There’s nothing to say,” he argued.

           Ryeowook reached over and poked Kyuhyun in the side, which made him jump.  He turned his head and looked directly into his eyes. 

           “Don’t you dare!”

           Ryeowook jumped up unto his knees and began to tickle Kyuhyun again, his hands digging into both his sides so that he was thrashing back and forth to dislodge his hands.  He eventually just reached out and grabbed Ryeowook’s shoulders.  He then rolled them both over and pinned Ryeowook to his mattress, grabbing his wrists and pulling them up over his head.

           When Kyuhyun had managed to subdue his best friend, he couldn’t believe how much worse he’d managed to make matters.  Not only had he yet to say a single thing about Ryeowook barging into his room but he was now straddling him and holding him down.  On his bed.

           Both Kyuhyun and Ryeowook finally stopped laughing and Ryeowook gazed up at him, his eyes sparkling.  “It’s good to see you smiling again.”

           Kyuhyun didn’t even know he had a goofy, lopsided grin on his face until Ryeowook made mention of it.  The smile slowly wore off his face and the hands that held Ryeowook’s wrists grew clammy.  His emotions were a jumble inside him as he fought against how he would instinctively react, reining in his affection for his friend.  But it wasn’t going to work, not when Ryeowook looked at him like that.

           “Ryeowook,” he whispered.

           “Well isn’t this cozy,” a deep voice called out from the doorway.

           Kyuhyun jumped off Ryeowook so fast, he nearly rolled off the bed. 

           Ryeowook sat up, smiling over at their roommate.  “Good morning, Jongwoon!”

           “Morning,” he said, giving Kyuhyun a sideways glance.  “I feel like I interrupted something.  Want me to close the door?”

           “We were just having a bit of a disagreement,” Ryeowook said, standing back up and pulling down his hoodie.

           Jongwoon’s eye brows rose as he looked from one to the other.  “If Sungmin and I fought like that, I’d try to piss him off every day.  Just curious, who won?”

           Kyuhyun pointed at Ryeowook at the same time Ryeowook pointed at himself.

           “At least you’re in agreement about that.”

           Sungmin walked in at that moment, obviously noticing that he was being left out.  “Breakfast is ready!  What’s everyone doing in here?”

           “Arguing,” Jongwoon said, turning around and walking towards the kitchen.

           Sungmin frowned.  “Already?  Isn’t it a bit early in the day for that?”

           “It’s never too early to argue,” Jongwoon hollered from the kitchen.

           Kyuhyun felt his cheeks grow warm and hoped that Sungmin wouldn’t read into his blushing too much.  It was bad enough to be caught in that position from Jongwoon, whom he promised to cooperate with for Ryeowook’s sake.  If he had to guess, he was failing miserably.  But worse than disappointing Jongwoon would be making Sungmin worried.  You never wanted to be on his bad side.

           “Quit goofing off and get dressed.  You promised to help me cook for the dinner party tonight,” he reminded Ryeowook, who nodded.  “And you can help Jongwoon clean the house, Kyu, or so help me God, I won’t cook for you for an entire month.”

           “What dinner party?” asked Kyuhyun.

           “The one I told you about a couple weeks ago.  We’ve invited a few people over for dinner.  Who ended up saying they were coming?” Sungmin thought to himself.  “Changmin, Yunho, Minho, Taemin, and Key along with some of our absentee members, like Siwon and Henry.”

           “Henry’s in town?  Where’s he staying?” Ryeowook asked.

           “Upstairs,” Kyuhyun said, pointing above him.  “I had the pleasure of talking to him most of the day yesterday.  A man can’t watch a television show in peace up there without the little runt commenting on everything.”

           “You could have watched it down here,” Sungmin suggested.

           “I was visiting Donghae. He’s been lonely.”

           “Oh, you know what, you forgot Hyungsik, Minnie.  He’s really looking forward to coming,” Ryeowook said, smiling brightly.  “He’s been a little down lately and I think this will do him some good.”

           “That’s right,” Sungmin nodded.

           Kyuhyun’s mood turned sour.  That little twerp hung on Ryeowook as if he were his mother.  It was sick, Kyuhyun thought.  Ever since they performed together, he thought there was some bond between them that entitled him to calling Ryeowook whenever he wanted and coming over to the apartment any hour of the day.  Kyuhyun liked to hang out with his friends too but he didn’t stalk them.

           “Kyu, did Hyukjae say that you two were going to a movie tonight?  Does that mean you won’t be here?” Ryeowook asked, picking at the hem of his hoodie and peeking up at him.

           “Oh, no,” Kyuhyun said, shaking his head.  “We just forgot about the party.  I wouldn’t miss it for the world.  I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone.”

           Ryeowook smiled and nodded to Kyuhyun before walking out the door.  Sungmin lingered in the doorway and stared at Kyuhyun, his eyes narrowing.  “You’d better behave yourself.  You’ve been acting like a jerk all week but if you pull that during my party, I’m going to turn into the evil one.”

           Kyuhyun said nothing and let Sungmin leave the conversation at that.  He then tracked down his cell phone to let Hyukjae know about the change in their plans.  There was no way in hell he was going to leave with that many people in the house.  Especially with the kid in attendance.