“Ready to go, Kyu?”

Said person blinked and looked up from his spot on the couch. Having been one of the first ones to finish up, he told one of the other members to fetch him when they were about to leave before secluding himself in a corner of the waiting room, using some alone time with just him and his GameBoy. Sungmin stood at the door, his hair now re-dyed and carefully styled. His voice was gentle, almost tentative, carefully prodding the younger man out of his concentration.

Kyuhyun sighed, shutting off his game console. “Yeah. Just let me grab my things.”

It had been flattering at first, the way the others had tried to apologize to him for their accusations. Now, however, now it was just tiring. Now they tiptoed around him, as if he were a fragile dish about to fall over and break. Sometimes he wished to scream at them, let them know that he’s not that delicate, it’s okay to horse around a little around him.

But he wouldn’t. Silently, he followed Sungmin through the door, out of the salon, and into their waiting van. Once inside, the others immediately fell asleep, taking the fleeting chance they could at a little rest before they had to start the endless cycle of schedules. Kyuhyun longed to do so as well, but he forced himself to stay awake. There was nothing restful about a short nap. Not for him.

They could hear their fans’ screams even before they turned the corner. A whole mob awaited them outside the broadcasting station, complete with posters, presents, and flashing cameras. Kyuhyun paled at the prospect of wading through that warzone. He heard a groan from somewhere up front, and a faint smile flashed across his face. It seemed one of the other members shared his dread.

“Today is a good day to die,” Yesung said sardonically before hurling open the van door and leaping out. Eunhyuk and Donghae looked aghast at his morbid statement, but Kyuhyun chortled in approval at the Star Trek reference. With that, he climbed out and into the fray.

To put it simply, the bodyguards assigned to keep the fangirls back did not help in any way. The fangirls merely pushed them as well, shoving the bodyguards into the idols in turn. Kyuhyun found himself being herded here and there, tossed around like a sack of potatoes. Shouts came left and right, some from his desperate manager, most from the excited fangirls.

“Oh my god, it’s Super Junior!”

“Siwon-oppa, will you marry me?!”

“Kyuhyun-oppa, I love you!”

“Omo, Kyuhyun-oppa is so handsome!”

“Girls, get back!”

“Cho Kyuhyun, nobody likes you, quit Super Junior!”

It was one shout out of many, but for some reason, Kyuhyun heard that one cry the loudest. He froze, and in that exact moment, someone pushed a bodyguard and he slammed into Kyuhyun, knocking him off-balance. His arms laden with gift bags that he didn’t even realize had been pushed into his hands, he couldn’t even flail his arms to regain his balance. He felt himself tipping, then rocketing towards the ground, and he closed his eyes and just hoped that the fall wouldn’t hurt too much.

And then someone grabbed his arm, halting his fall. Kyuhyun’s head shot up, raising his eyes and meeting Heechul’s steady, cat-like gaze.

No words were exchanged between them, but as they stared into the other’s eyes, both knew that the message Heechul had been wanting to convey had been received. Heechul’s gaze softened, and Kyuhyun’s head moved in an almost imperceptible nod.

The mob was in a frenzy over the apparent fanservice moment. Heechul paused only to roll his eyes once before stalking into the building, with Kyuhyun following close behind.

The small waiting room was bustling with activity as stylists, coordinators, anchors, and fellow idols whisked in and out of the room. In one corner, Kyuhyun sat quietly in the chair as one of the hairstylists redid his hair. Surprisingly, this one remained quiet as they worked. He found nearly all hairstylists to be natural conversationalists. Gratefully, he retreated to his thoughts, grimacing slightly when they unfortunately led to his dreams.

The members assumed that the dreams had dwindled down to nothing, but honestly, nothing could be farther than the truth. If anything, they persisted, coming to visit him everytime he slept, everytime he napped. Each time, he woke up in the middle of the night breathless and in a cold sweat. But instead of waking the others, he only tiptoed to the bathroom to wash it off before returning to bed. He didn’t want the members to worry. They treated him enough like a child as it was, and they were so stressed themselves. He'd agreed to start opening up to the other members, but for this, at least, he thought he could handle it.

But he was growing weary of the routine, spending only a half-night’s rest - if it could be called a rest at all - and spending the other half staring up at the ceiling. Quite simply, he was exhausted.

And then there was the matter of the dream itself. Why this particular dream, this particular girl? Just who was this girl? The questions constantly tugged at Kyuhyun. He hated not being able to answer a question, being unable to solve a problem. He couldn’t help but feel that there was a purpose behind the dreams, which led to an even more dizzying question: What, exactly?

“Lonely…”

Kyuhyun blinked and looked up. “What?”

The hairstylist looked confused. “Excuse me?”

“Did you say something?” he tried again.

She narrowed her eyes at him, somewhat disturbed. “I… didn’t say a word.”

Kyuhyun felt a shiver go down his back. “N-nevermind, then.” He settled back in his chair, clenching his fists tightly. Several minutes passed, and nothing happened. Then-

“So lonely…”

He heard it again. A whisper, the softest whisper, as if someone had breathed it from behind him. High-pitched, the voice of a young girl. It reminded him of something. Sounded familiar. Kyuhyun paled and turned cold, feeling like spiders were crawling down his spine.

“Won’t someone play with me?”

Kyuhyun gasped and leapt out of the chair, breathing heavily. The hairstylist cried out in surprise. His eyes were wild as they darted around the room, searching.

He swore that the whisper came from right behind him, right near his ear. But nobody out of the ordinary was there. Nothing was there.

He let out a deep, pent-up breath and brought his hand to his mouth to try and even his breathing. Belatedly, he realized that his hand was trembling.

“Kyuhyun-ssi…” The hairstylist looked at him carefully, suspiciously. “Are… are you alright?”

“Yeah, I-I’m -” His voice cracked. He swallowed and cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Sorry about that.” Ever so carefully, he lowered himself back into the chair. Only until after he’d settled back in did he realize why the voice was so familiar.

It sounded exactly like the girl in his dreams.
 

After a long day of schedules, the Super Junior members finally experienced a short period of peace. Shortly after they’d returned, Kyuhyun claimed that he was tired and retired to his bedroom to rest. The others had gone off to their individual activities. Some went to their own rooms, some to the kitchen (Ryeowook), and the rest merely sat around. Sungmin curled up with his laptop on one end of the couch. After catching up on the recent happenings in the Hallyu scene, he browsed one of their many fansites and read some of the comments displayed there.

It was like a stab to his heart every time he read a hate comment, especially so when it was directed towards Kyuhyun. It was part of being an idol, he supposed. There wasn’t much more they could do about it.

With a sigh, he shut his laptop closed and rose off the couch. “I’m going to bed,” he said briefly to the rest of the members. They barely spared him a glance, and with a sigh, he headed for Kyuhyun’s and his shared bedroom.

He found Kyuhyun sitting up when he entered. He attempted a conversation. “Apparently, Cube’s setting up a new boy group,” he said conversationally, turning to shut the door. He walked over to his bed, dropping his laptop onto the sheets. “Six members, and I also read that they were -” Sungmin froze.

Something wasn’t right.

Kyuhyun seemed normal enough - eyes open, head up. But then Sungmin looked closer, and he realized that Kyuhyun’s lidded eyes were glazed over, unshining. His mouth hung slightly open. His posture was slouched and limp.

“K-Kyu?” Sungmin tried. “Are you alright?”

Slowly, tentatively, he moved to tap his shoulder.

And when he did, Kyuhyun’s eyes suddenly shot wide open, and he screamed. 

/waves. Well, hello all. ^^ 

Good news: I'm baaaaack (please don't kill me for being gone so long) 

I apologize to all of the readers I've kept waiting for so long. Trust me, they weren't ignored, I read all of your comments and took them into mind. It's true that I kind of lost inspiration for this fic for a while. I had it all planned out, but I just didn't how and when to start. I'm grateful to all my subscribers though, for being so patient, and to all of my new subscribers for taking the time to read this crappy fic. ^^

But then I read the news that Kyuhyun was going to star in the new musical, "The Moon Embraces the Sun," and I suddenly had so many Kyuhyun feels that I had to type this up. .____. Don't ask me how they're connected, they just are. 

But anyways, here's chapter 10! Please leave comments and tell me what you think!