this IS the update! i put together chap 1 and earlier chap 2 so this is new :)
 

The sun shone; its glistening sunrays sneaking their way into the tiny apartment of two separated lovers; one gone, the other sleeping on the floor.

Kyuhyun had not cared to put on the alarm for that morning, and he soon realized that the urge of calling in for sickness was greater than anything else in the world.

Except for reaching Sungmin.

Kyuhyun’s inbox (and outbox) was a tragic sight, and his list of calls definitely did not bring up his confidence. Merely an hour ago, he had sent two text messages and called his lover eight times. The whole night had been spent, thinking about how irritated he had become out of Sungmin’s behavior, not caring to admit his own flaws; yet, he had finally realized that whole thing had been outstandingly stupid. But trying to reach Sungmin had been a project started in vain.

The sleepless man sighed for himself as he sat up on the parquet floor, feeling how his shoulders, hips and head were all hurting from the awkward position he had been lying in. His nerves trembled and the recently pumped up mood had dropped down into an abyss of inevitable darkness. He was weak.

There were not many times Cho Kyuhyun would call himself fragile; he had been through too many things only making him snort. To him, a feeble side could only appear once he knew that his heart had landed at the right place. Being in love with Sungmin had therefore both weakened him, and strengthened him; swoon under a gentle touch of Sungmin, yet be able to walk with iron on his back, taking anything thrown at his the one he cared about.

However, there was definitely no sign of strength as Kyuhyun arched his back, stared up at the roof and uttered his lover’s name towards what seemed to be nothing.

Beeps echoed in his head continuously, driving him insane. He tapped the ground with his feet, feeling determined to get to wherever Sungmin was. That stubborn being had not answered his phone since he left, and he had shown no signs of existing at all. It was somehow enough for Kyuhyun to wonder if he was dreaming, however, the stinging beeps in his ears told him otherwise.

He stumbled through the streets, shared awkward apologies among the jostle of people in the buses and struggled to crack the code to exit the terrible dream he had supposed that he was in. Imagining his precious lover pulling hands through his hair or running his fingers over Kyuhyun’s upper arms did not make him wake up either. He remained in the blurred reality until he approached his goal – the flower shop.

A girl went past him just as he opened the door, and he noticed that it was the manager of the flower shop, Seo Joohyun. She stopped abruptly as she recognized Kyuhyun as well, and it did not take long before they began talking at the same time, immediately coming to the conclusion that they both wondered where Sungmin had gone.

Sitting on a stool in a small room while cutting stems off few flowers, Joohyun explained with rough anxiety that she had not seen him, and that he had not answered her phone. Considering the fact that Sungmin always came to his job and barely ever showed signs of grumpiness, the woman felt extra bewildered over his actions. Kyuhyun left the flower shop with no clue about how to find his lover. Perhaps, the anger could have brought him away, but Kyuhyun knew that Sungmin usually did not act that way. The sudden situation had struck him harder than ever before.

Kyuhyun walked home with his head hung low and his posture doing nothing for his back. Tears were constantly threatening to fall down his strained cheeks but he promised himself to not bring up unnecessary worry among fellow citizens by breaking down and sobbing in the middle of the street. His mind was pressured by thoughts of possibilities – although it had barely gone 24 hours, he still felt as if he was getting emptied of all his contents. Not even reaching towards the sky would attract a helping hand emerging between the clouds.

Finally as he reached the doorpost, he let his tears drain him.

Fights could bring people apart, but when it came to the extent of ignoring each other completely without reasoning, Kyuhyun found it above absurd. As the moments past, the minutes wandered and the clock ticked its way towards the never-changing 12, his soul lost its numbers and wore out his inner time appreciation. He some times asked himself what anything was worth if he had no one to share time with. His clingy friends at work did not make thing better by asking him about Sungmin, and certainly not because he never told them anything. He kept the beliefs that things would soon be fine again, but as his self melted slowly, he became more doubtful.

Barely the flashing sight of spotlights or the jolly sound of people enjoying their free time brought the withering man out of his haze. Hyukjae managed to pull him by his shoulder just before he smashed his body onto a lamppost.

“ man, watch out!”

A smile was poorly forced on to the young brunette’s face. If it were not for the fact that Hyukjae knew that his friend had not drunken anything, he would have taken the man with him to a therapist immediately because he knew that Kyuhyun could control his alcohol even though his aggression could rise after a certain amount. Unfortunately he did not know his friend enough to see if something was wrong immediately. Hyukjae was one of those slow appreciators, who could react five seconds after someone had yelled their name or wonder what had happened when the recovery was a fact.

“Let’s enter before you fall into a well or something”, the blonde said and pulled Kyuhyun by his arm, making him stumble a few times before managing to enter the slightly crowded bar with the other keeping close, as if they would get lost if they parted with a bare meter. Kyuhyun chuckled as he collided with several persons on his way to the brown, lacquered length of wood where sellers and customers exchanged drinks for money, and with uncertainty, fixed his gaze upon random items as he and his friend had seated themselves on one of the stools.

He wanted to think of other things; his heart could have been stronger than faltering, but somehow he had to guess that since it was his first time experiencing his beloved leave him and show no sign of existing, it would of course shake him harder than if he had been used to it.

Hyukjae unconsciously threw thoughts into his head as he went on joking about all different kinds of things, excusing his poorly developed riddles with the straight-to-the-point facts that he was turning drunk. He spilt liquor on his red T-shirt; proud over getting the last laugh since the stains were barely visible, but definitely roared when he noticed how his extraordinary black suit jacked got gum stuck to it. That urged Kyuhyun’s first smile to appear that evening.

“That’s what irony does to you”, he later said, propped on his elbow, and engulfed the contents of a tiny glass in one sweep. He felt the urge to correct his own, poorly collected brown jacket as he watched how his blonde friend desperately tried to get the gum off his own.

“Well ”, he answered, completely unaware of the woman appearing behind him and grabbing his shoulder, “I would’ve jerked irony off if I knew that it had plotted to hurt my damn expensive clothes, thank you.”

A female voice echoed behind him, and Kyuhyun watched with a sneaky glance how Hyukjae turned around to face a cute lady with an oval face and a black ponytail who looked back at him with a sincere smile.

“You’re funny.”

Just as the young brunette thought that Hyukjae was going to turn blunt in front of her, his aggressiveness had apparently given him confidence enough to give her the phrase consisting of: “It runs in my genes.”

She gave out another short laugh, her round eyes turning into smaller half-circles as she smiled, and she rested her arm on the blonde’s shoulder carelessly.

“Well your genes must be of the better kind, then.”

“You sure are a curious one.”

“I just like getting to know people.”

The woman smiled carefully, honestly showing no intentions of flirting but more like finding a life-long friend; which seemed like an extremely bad thing to do, especially considering their whereabouts at the moment.

“You up for a smoke or anything?”

Hyukjae consciously scratched his arm before giving her an apologetic smile, as if seeming knowing about her possible intentions.

“Nah, sorry, I’m here with my boyfriend.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes did not have to force themselves to widen, because that had already been given since those words had exited his friend’s mouth. The girl at least seemed to be surprised as she followed Hyukjae’s gaze and looked at the brunette a meter away, observing him carefully. He did not see her as a threat, although he was really wondering how Hyukjae wanted to deny the offer of spending time with an at least seemingly friendly girl.

“I’m just kidding”, he soon admitted, and raised his hand. “Hyukjae.”

Her glance fell back on to the blonde with hesitation, although her arm soon extended itself and her hand came to grab the other.

“Krystal.”

She bowed lightly as Hyukjae did the same. Kyuhyun observed their every move and especially the female’s since she seemed too awkwardly familiar but not familiar enough for him to ask anything about her. Instead, he let the conversation between her and Hyukjae continue among the crowd of jolly people, and the blonde asked her if she was not from around here. Her name had sounded awfully non-Korean.

“I’m half-American and Chinese.”

He nodded in understanding.

“And I’m just one of these one-lidded Koreans; nice to meet you!”

She once again flashed a pretty smile, her teeth nearly glowing in the blurry dark, and it seemed to be enough for Hyukjae to give in to her earlier offer.

“I think that cigarette would fit after all”, he said in a particular Hyukjae-way, and Kyuhyun simply stood up from his seat to third-wheel-ishly walk after the two acquaintances towards the exit, not really minding what they were going to do or for how long. He had gotten used to the warmth of the inside, which caused him to shiver as he crossed the threshold of the bar, his feet almost dragging after. It reminded him about the sudden coldness striking his body when Sungmin had opened the front door that fateful night.

He did not really mind Hyukjae giving much attention to the girl, and no one bothered to consider Kyuhyun’s existence. Perhaps because he clearly had shown that he was not interested in shaking hands with a stranger – something that could be the beginning of a friendship.                                                   

Perhaps because all he wanted was to have Sungmin in his arms.

The black-haired woman turned, again, to Kyuhyun as the three had walked a bit further from the bar to settle by the corner of a block. That time however, she had no intentions of leaving him alone, it seemed. Not until the brunette heard his own name slip out between the lady’s lips, he at least raised his chin.

It turned out that he had been right about his suspicions after all; why else would she recognize him, anyway?

“That’s my name”, he said and carefully bowed towards her, as if they had just met. She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side,

“Kyuhyun? Is it really you?” Her tone was teasing, and the brunette gave her a slight glare, since she to him could have been a little less provoking than asking him again. He ruffled his own hair as he confirmed with a nod, yet again, that he was Cho Kyuhyun and nobody else.

“Wow, I can’t believe I’m seeing my old crush hang around in these hoods” escaped , and Kyuhyun cocked his eyebrows, cautiously surprised over the sudden reveal of their past. He eyed her entire appearance; from the dark hair with faint yet big curls in her ponytail, over her bleached jacket and down at her dark sneakers. Somehow she seemed a bit casual for spending time at a bar, yet the outlines of a glittery chemise hiding beneath her jacket tempted him to be proven otherwise.

“What? So you were the stalk-ish one right?” He asked, not minding the least to care about wanting to block the past or considering a particular blonde dropping his chin just nearby.

That time it was Hyukjae’s turn to make a visible change of expression, as his brows furrowed intensively, observing the conversation being shared between the two others.

Krystal scratched her head and laughed, rather silently to Kyuhyun’s taste.

“Yeah, yeah I was the stalk-ish one…”

Kyuhyun crossed his arms and frowned, giving her a somewhat suspicious look.

“You still doing that stuff?”

“No, oh god no”, her laugh finally increased, “Even I can admit that it was creepy... Oppa.”

“Hey, hey, I’m not over that yet!”

Kyuhyun smiled carefully, remembering how she one time in the past had followed him home without him knowing, only to see where he lived so that she could knock on particularly his door and apologize for taking the wrong door to later just run home instantly. Kyuhyun had seen her run away from the building that day, and that had been the day when he realized that she was much more than just an acquaintance from the school nearby. She also had a tendency to call him oppa even though they were barely close.

Fortunately, as a rumor of Kyuhyun being a homoual had swirled across school like a wildfire, she had dissociated since apparently she was close enough to the people on that school to hear about it. Eventually the teen had been able to strife around in peace, although with a cold eye to the people around him. It had hardly been accepted to be gay. Only he himself knew that he merely was biual, but speaking up would only have put him in a worse situation.

“It was creepy.”

“Yeah”, Krystal agreed once again, that time sounding a little more distasted, “But what brought you here though?”

Kyuhyun let his arms fall to his sides, finally feeling somewhat casual after his experience being an outcast and letting his shoe clothed toes press against the ground while his heel remained in the air.

“Today? Well, I’m just spending time with Hyukjae.”

A silent praise fell upon him as the expression of the blonde turned less tense by the mention of his name. He extended his hand to put his hand on the younger male’s shoulder and let out something that sounded like a chuckle,

“Call me a bucko, but I am quite a fun guy to hang out with.”

He slightly pushed Kyuhyun’s shoulder, “And hey, I’m way older than you, punk.”

“Hyung”, the younger responded, a bit blissed over the fact that Hyukjae was open enough to let the other close to him.

The girl tilted her head to the side once again, a smile puffing up her cheeks in a pretty manner.

“I believe you.”

With only being a bit repelled over the slight reunion of the stalker and the victim, Kyuhyun gave a little more space to his comforting nerves. It was soon the second month since Sungmin’s disappearance, and even though Kyuhyun was starting to believe that something severe had happened to his boyfriend, he could not find a way to look it up more thoroughly. Anyone in their right minds would have put up notes or called their loved one’s parents and close ones; perhaps Kyuhyun’s distance was determined by the slight fear he had of letting anyone know, or simply he was beginning to think that nothing related to Sungmin’s disappearance had happened at all.

Whether all this was a struggle for his own delusional mind or if he really was fighting the reluctance of sending a detective firm onto Sungmin clutched his nerves.

Kyuhyun let a creased piece of paper slip out of his hand and on to the floor. Kangin would not have minded anyway. Since the bomb had been dropped and several people had to be kicked out, the team had slipped further away from each other, and anyone barely cared whatever happened to the appearance of the work place. Money had begun to be a weighty issue and the spirit had turned weaker – not that it had been very strong in the first place, but at least they had cheered on each other and been able to share normal conversations.

No one said a word to one another; it was almost as if the place had been raided on all its recourses to a functioning business, thought it would have been an understatement to say that a less operative business was the only problem they were all facing. Hyukjae was the only one Kyuhyun felt that he could actually share a conversation with about at least work-related things, but the unappreciative glances thrown by fellow co-workers kept silence sweeping over the area like the air itself. The only noise remaining often was the never-ending tapping on keyboards, something much disturbing to Kyuhyun’s taste. That the worse circumstances for the company had caused a highly difficult breakable tension raging among the people certainly did not make his anxiousness for the repetitive sounds any easier to cope with.

Kyuhyun felt an unpleasant feeling rush to his stomach, and a slight headache building up inside of his head. He ruffled his hair, sighing carefully, as he tried to convince himself that it was something temporary, but worries of a possible sickness, adding to the terrible feeling of staying in the atmosphere and the fact that a mere cough from the other side of the room made him massively anxious told him otherwise. He threw a glance at the digital clock beside him; there was just a little time left before his break, and he tried to endure it, knowing that rushing off work without a serious reason meant no good.

As his break was about to come to rescue, but was not there yet, Kyuhyun felt how the pressure in his stomach began rising upwards in his body, and he started to hurry to the toilet, feet stomping impatiently at the floor as he rushed past every human and every object in an unintelligible pace through a short, grey tinted corridor and into a toilet. He kneeled in front of an opened seat inside of a booth, grabbed a hold of it and let the contents of whatever was in his stomach be occasionally emptied into the oval-shaped rim. The grey door was left ajar, as time had been too selfish to let him lock himself to privacy, and all he could do was clench his hands around the toilet seat and try to breathe every time his throat and stomach were not constricting. The sensation of wanting to spew had come very sudden, and fortunately just on time. Even though he loathed remaining in his work area, listening to clattering against the plastic of the black keys and being pressured by the non-existent awkward conversations going on in the cloud of tension, he had no plans of showing himself weaker than any of the other workers. Every company could have bad days – one just had to get through it the best way possible. What remained as support to actually continue struggling with anything, was probably the reeling lie pounding on his insides, and to pretend that everything was normal was easier than to break down and realize that he had nothing to live for.

His closed eyes re-opened as he got a few seconds to breathe normally, and he felt a tedious and highly unappreciative sensation in his stomach, telling him something, but not enough for him to comprehend. His plump lips stayed parted with yellow drool and painfully thick vomit dripping down his chin, as he lifted a clouded and throbbing head, staring at the wall.

That was not even close to what he had planned. He was unsure of what felt worse; to stay at work and be bothered close to insanity by the awkwardness of the area and the computer sounds, or to come home, sick and weary, to an empty apartment and without a mere assurance that his loved one would eventually come home to take care of him.

A cough left his throat, and he leant closer to the stinking water, prepared for any more substance lifting from his stomach. He could almost feel the vomit beginning to pressure his insides, when a distant door closed itself and rushing steps tapped closer to his whereabouts. A familiar voice called out to Kyuhyun from behind, and it did not take long before the latter could feel a hand land on his shoulder, and the presence of his blonde friend as well as his breath hitting Kyuhyun’s neck. His vision blurred in the matter of seconds and he slowly turned his head to not retch unexpectedly, and met with a worrying gaze of his blonde-haired friend.

“Hi, Hyuk”, he said faintly.

“Kyuhyun, are you sick?” Hyukjae asked, ignoring the obvious fact but wanting to at least say something. The unpleasant smell of vomit crept its way up his nostrils and gave him an uncomfortable stomach of his own, but cared less as he hurriedly got up again and reached for the door handle to pull it down and with a click, closing the toilet door. There was no one in the area, and both felt comfort that way. The older crouched again beside the brunette, and just afterwards, Hyukjae carefully placed his hand on Kyuhyun’s clothed and slightly damp back. The blonde traced his palm up and down while eyeing the pained brunette, leaning into the toilet once again, ready for any sudden outburst of his insides.

Kyuhyun breathed, squeezing his lids shut momentarily and cringing lightly at the smell of his own spew. He tried to talk, but somehow his situation had taken too much of his current powers. Call him overly sensitive, but the repetitive feeling of retching had a troubling imprint on him as well.

“You need to go home… Okay? I can follow you.”

Hyukjae kept on rubbing the other’s back, and although his whole body felt extremely sore and the movements on his back slightly worsened it, he longed for the comfort, and thus never said anything against it.

“I can ask Minwoo to drive us? I think he brought the car today, so I can ask him. I mean if Sungmin isn’t home or-“

His talking immediately stopped as Kyuhyun gave in to another but very small flood of vomit passing through his sore throat, and his tears formed by themselves through his thick, shut eyelids. The hard grip around the toilet seat weakened by every minute passing and the cloud pressuring his head made him ready to faint any second. He was not used to the contractions of his inner walls, and especially not to that extent. His mother had given him many tips to avoid the flu or getting sick to the stomach. The last time Kyuhyun could remember spewing was about six or seven years earlier; he could barely remember the cause.

“Take it easy…” Hyukjae had honestly no idea what to say to the sick man, and so, he remained awkward in his every action and word. But the mere effort he was putting in was enough for Kyuhyun to feel a bit blissed. He tensed up a few times and his mouth stayed wide opened automatically all the while, prepared for the contents of his stomach at any point, but there emerged no more orange-ish liquid passing through his throat. And so, he suffered with empty retching for a while.

The silence apart from the retching, heavy breathing or talking got disturbed as two people burst through the entrance for the restroom, raised voices speaking to each other in a seemingly enraged manner. Their conversation fell almost incoherent to the two men in the booth’s ears as Kyuhyun’s head began throbbing even harder and Hyukjae directed his attention towards the other the best he could, only cursing at the loud screeches as the two men did what seemingly could be called screaming at each other from at most two meters’ distance between them.

Kyuhyun rested his cheek on his right hand, his head still hurting and his stomach threatening to send up another load of chyme, although he by that moment would have thought that nothing was left, considering the retching without progress that had earlier taken place. Hyukjae had by that point released his younger friend’s back and was leaning against the wall of the booth, feeling how his legs and knees were starting to hurt and weaken from the constant crouching position. The two men talking louder than megaphones were still inside, and their conversation was interpreted to be about problems with managers and other companies. The voices could not really be recognized, and Kyuhyun figured that it might have been the managers that they do not see very often. They stepped around in the area for another while, before unexpectedly, their tones became softer and less loud, and they exited the restroom and left behind a sighing Hyukjae and Kyuhyun.

“Should I follow you home?” The blonde asked, tilting his head to the side and trying to catch the tired man’s glance. Kyuhyun moaned slightly, and shook his head to the extent that was possible considering his position.

“Hyung…” He whined quietly, closing his eyes softly, “It’s okay. Sungmin will take care of me…”

Hyukjae furrowed his brows.

“So he’s home at this hour?”

Another wave of unkind anxiety spread across the brunette’s body, and he hesitated only a tad, before nodding.

“He spoke about quitting early or something.” He opened his eyes and smiled lightly at his friend, while pulling back from the dirty toilet to reassure that he could make it home himself. “I’m okay, hyung.”

He could have cursed himself for not yet have told his friend about what had really happened. But the thoughts he wanted to live in took over his will of opening up. It could have been reality.

Sungmin will take care of me when I come home…

unedited (just like everything else lol)
just some kyu pov of all of this! i was kinda disappointed with how little this depicted, though. perhaps i will give you another chapter of kyuhyun's suffering (mwahah) before i move on to the next part :)