I stretched out my stiff muscles and rubbed the sleep from my eyes before opening them and sitting up. I found myself in bed, in the apartment.

Must have been a dream, I thought and finally pushed the covers off to head into the bathroom. As usual, I showered, dried my hair, brushed my teeth and went back into the bedroom to get dressed. There was no way I was going to be late again today and it wouldn’t do me any good to continue thinking of Sungmin’s disappearance, but just that thought caused a stab of pain to the area of my chest where my heart was located. I brushed it off the best I could and headed towards the kitchen.

My heart almost stopped when I saw Sungmin in his spot at the table looking over his sheet music. I clutched another chair just to make sure I didn’t fall over from pure shock.

“Su-Sungmin? What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to calm down and think rationally.

“I live here, remember, or has that also escaped your attention?” He snapped back, looking straight at me with intense brown eyes.

“I just thought-“

“Thought what? That I got tired of you being a bastard and just left?” Wasn’t that exactly what happened? I shook my head and that seemed to be enough reason for him and he turned back to his papers. “Ryeowook called about an hour ago.”

That sentence struck me somewhere. I knew I had heard it before. I looked at the fox calendar hanging on the wall to my left and I realized a few important things. First, my meeting with Leeteuk, must not have been a dream, because I could have sworn I crossed the 12^th and 13^th of December off, but neither of them had the usual red line through them. Also, the 12^th was circled for some reason. I didn’t even think about what it meant when I crossed it off before, but now, I wondered what it stood for. 

“He wants us to go out to dinner with everyone tonight,” Sungmin looked up again, a little concern was evident on his face, probably at the face I was making, since I was still a little shocked from everything. “You can call in tonight and say you can’t make it, right?” I shook off the shock and though it would probably have some consequences later, I nodded and looked around for my phone. “Kyuhyun, are you seriously going to try to get tonight off, with such short notice?” I didn’t answer his surprised tone, and instead dialed my mentor’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hyukjae, I can’t come to work tonight, I caught a cold.” I said, without even bothering to cover the obvious lie. For extra measures, I added a simple cough.

“Now don’t lie,” cooed Hyukjae as if he was talking to a child. The red headed surgeon may not have been very work-oriented, but he was good at what he did. Most just didn’t see past the fact that he liked to take breaks with a certain nurse, by the name of Lee Donghae. I had known him since before I even went to medical school, and was proud when he accepted me as his intern. “If I have to be here then so do you. I would much rather be in home, in bed, but I can’t so you can’t either. Get used to it, Kyuhyun.”

“Should the hospital director get used to you and Donghae using his office as a free hotel room?” I smirked at the face he was probably making at the moment, as I heard him clear his throat and straighten up.

“You wouldn’t.”

“You do know I have him on speed dial right, considering he is my brother?”

“Fine. You get tonight off. No more. Have fun with your blond,” he grumbled.

“I might put in a good word to see if you can have a week of paid vacation time that just so happens to line up with Donghae’s possible vacation, but I think with work keeping me busy this week, I don’t know if I could do that.” I heard him in a breath before releasing it in hope, then he growled and muttered a small, “fine, have this whole week.” Before he could say anything more, I hung up the line.  “Look at that, I have this whole week off,” I said turning back to Sungmin who just stared at me in shock.

“How did you know about their secret rendezvous?”

“It’s common knowledge around the hospital and my brother is constantly complaining about it. He’s only waiting for the right moment to use it against them,” I said shrugging. I headed over to the coffee pot and dialing in the correct combination for the perfect cup of coffee, making myself look as normal as I could with myself screaming in joy on the inside.

“So he already knows?”

“Yes, but Hyukjae doesn’t know that.” I looked back to see Sungmin shaking his head.

“You are pure evil sometimes.” I let a smirk tug at my lips and gave another shrug.

“So, now that I don’t have to head to the hospital tonight, I have a lot of spare time and nothing to do,” I said, trying to sound disappointed when I was smirking at my plans on the inside. If I was going to die in three days, I was going to damn well make the most of them and make sure Sungmin knew just how important he was to me.

“And your point is?”

“I was thinking of accompanying a certain blond idiot to his music store and then spending the rest of the day in any way that he wanted to.” His eyes went wide and I almost laughed at how he looked like a fish with his mouth opening and closing like it did.

“Who are you and what have you done with Kyuhyun?” The overdramatic ‘kid’ actually jumped off his chair, ran and hid behind the sofa, with only his eyes peeking out from over the plush back. “Are you an alien ninja from a different planet trying to take me for brain experimentation and you’re just using Kyuhyun’s body hoping that I would come willingly?” This time I really did let out a small laugh.

“Ok, now I know for sure you’re not Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun never laughs, unless maniacally.” His eyes widened. “Hurry, tell me something only Kyuhyun could know!”

“If an alien ninja really wanted to take you for brain experimentation, which I have no idea why they would since yours is far from normal, then wouldn’t they have done enough research in case of these sort of questions?” Sungmin’s eyes narrowed and then he stood, defeated.

“You really are Kyuhyun, ‘cause only Kyuhyun would say something like that.”

“You sound disappointed.”

“It would have been fun to become all ninja-y and fight the alien. They should make a movie of that! Ninjas vs. Aliens!” I shook my head but let a smirk rise to my face again.

“Only you, Min.”

“Hey!” He shouted and crossed his arms.

“If you spent half the energy you use being loud, on getting ready for work, you’d be there in a minute looking like a millionaire.” Sungmin looked as though he was about to argue but caught sight of the clock and literally jumped over the couch to run to the bedroom, cursing all the way.

He was right, I wasn’t acting like myself. Something had changed and truth be told, I didn’t mind, I actually liked it. Maybe it was the threat of death in a few days that had me doing a one-eighty.

I watched as Sungmin came tearing out of the bedroom through the kitchen to grab his keys off the counter and then to the table to scoop up all the papers. He ran out the door, locking it right before he closed it. I counted to twenty before hearing the door being unlocked saw Sungmin run back into the bedroom and come out on one foot trying to put on the shoe he forgot. This time when he headed to the door, I followed him.

“Geez, Kyuhyun, it’d be nice if you were a little faster. We’re in a hurry!”

“Oh, yes, I’m the one that needs to hurry.”

Sungmin led the way out of the apartment and to the garage where his royal blue mustang sat parked next to my black jaguar. Why we both chose cars that had animal names, neither of us knew but we didn’t care either. He unlocked the doors with a press of the button and I climbed into the passenger’s seat, while he got behind the wheel. It only took a few minutes to get to the small brick building that was in between a chiropractor and a licensing office, but it had character. A bright red sign read “Foxy Music” in what looked like his own chicken scratch handwriting, only the sign was legible and his wasn’t. The windows had posters of concerts and instruments and offers of tutoring in different music related subjects. We pulled around back, to where employee parking was and rushed in through the back door, or I should say Sungmin rushed to push me through the door so he could be on time for music lessons that he instructed.

The inside of the building was a lot like Sungmin. The walls lined with instruments, posters or speakers from which some classic rock was playing. Music stands littered the floor in some areas, while actual instruments or shelves of sheet music were placed in other areas. Bright colors were everywhere, including his favorite color, pink. There was a little room in the back, that Sungmin used as his lesson room, which already had kids sitting in the plastic chairs, and music on the wire stands. I barely had any time to check out more of my surroundings, before Sungmin almost dragged me into the practice room that was already filled with students.

“Sorry, class!” said Sungmin, bowing, and earning a few sarcastic remarks and smiles from the stringed instrument class. I could tell all the kids loved him, though, what kid wouldn’t? Sungmin himself was like a big kid, who just a while ago was raving about ninja aliens. I was about to head to the back of the shop when two arms grabbed mine and pulled me to the front of the group. “Guys, this is Kyuhyun. He’s my… wait,” he said, raising the hand that wasn’t holding my arm to rub the back of his neck. “You guys are too young to understand.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” a little girl asked in her sweet and innocent voice. She had dark colored hair but light eyes, kind of reminding me of Leeteuk, but she looked a lot more normal and he was a lot older than six.

“Are you two going to get married?” Another girl, a blonde, piped up.

“Do you guys have kids?” asked a quiet looking boy, holding a what looked like a big violin between his knees, while the rest of the instrument rested against his chest.

“Does he have a brother?” a girl in blue asked.

With every question the children were throwing at us, Sungmin was getting redder and redder and my smirk was growing larger and larger.

“That’s enough guys,” I said, trying to spare Sungmin, even just a little. “Yes, I am his boyfriend, no we haven’t even really spoke of marriage, and no we don’t have kids. I do have a brother but he’s married to a guy named Heechul, and they are actually in the process of trying to adopt a pair of twins that were recently orphaned, though I can’t imagine why anyone would trust Heechul with anything small and fragile.” The man was an artist in less… conventional ways. It usually included fire, explosions and sharp pointy objects that wouldn’t exactly be child-safe. I didn’t even want to think of what kinds of accidents could happen with twins running around in a year or so. Pyrotechnics and children never mixed well.

I looked over to Sungmin, only to find him gaping at me, in surprise.

“They’re adopting?” I nodded, a little confused at the question. “How come this is the first I’ve heard of it?” The realization hit me; I never told Sungmin about it since we barely spoke to each other the past few months. 

“I guess it got put to the back of my mind. We can talk about it later,” I assured him and he nodded in agreement.

“Anyways,” Sungmin began, turning back to the class. “Kyuhyun here is going to try and learn to play the viola but he hasn’t ever played an instrument and can’t even read sheet music.” Some of the kids laughed at that and I raised an eyebrow at Sungmin who gave me a knowing smile. “Stay,” he commanded before heading to the back of the shop to grab a hard black case. He shoved it into my chest and gave me a look that stated that this was his form of payback.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Open it. I thought that much should be obvious,” said the blond and I sent him a light glare which he ignored. I flipped the silver locks on the one side and lifted the lid to find a delicate, dark wooded, viola and bow. Carefully, not exactly knowing what I was doing, I grasped it by the neck and pulled it out of the case. But really, how hard could playing a silly little viola be? It was just a piece of wood with metal strings, not a complicated machine. “At least you know where to pick it up. Let’s see what else you know.” Trying to look at little more confident, I undid the velcro that held the bow and went to pull it out but a hand stopped me.

“Don’t touch the hair or you’ll ruin it,” said Sungmin.

“Don’t worry, I won’t break the hair,” I tried to assure him, but his hand stayed and I felt tingles running up my arms at his warm touch.

“It’s not breaking it that I’m worried about.” He turned his head to look at me, and I was suddenly aware of how close we were to each other. “The natural oils in your skin will cover the bow hair and if enough gets on it, it would make that part unplayable. Then I would have to send the bow into the repair shop and get the hair replaced. The bow is the most important and most expensive part of stringed instruments, or at least the ones that require a bow.” He pulled my hand away to grasp it at one end. “You hold it here, at the frog.” I raised an eyebrow at the term and he smiled and shook his head, while twisting a little knob at the bottom that looked as though it was tightening the hair. “I didn’t come up with it,” he replied and handed the long, thin, piece of wood to me. I was surprised at how light it was though the balance seemed off and it was hard to keep it upright by gently clasping the end that Sungmin held. He made it seem so easy.

“Usually, you would start without the bow and just learn the finger placements but you’re smart, right? You can learn how to use the bow while learning intonation,” he said and left my side to stand at the front again.

“We’ll pick it up today with the top of When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” Sungmin picked up his own black case and pulled out a violin, which happened to be just a smaller version of what I was playing.

“Sungmin, how do you expect me to play this thing?” I asked a little frustrated at the lack of his attention, especially since he was the one who wanted me to learn how to play this piece of wood. I got a smirk from him before he set down his violin and took mine.

“Pay attention,” he stated before going through all the notes and where they were on each string and the “fingerboard.” Then he took the bow and showed me not only how to hold it but also how long it should be on the string for each different type of note. He then continued with showing me what rest notes looked like and what to do on them. After a moment, he gave up with teaching me how to read his language and just marked the note letter above each note. “Got it?”

“Not really.”

“You’ll learn.” I was sure he knew that none of it made too much sense to me. What did fractions and math have anything to do with music? Sungmin picked up his violin again, signaling to the other kids to do the same and after counting off, we started the song or at least, they started the song and I just tried to play something similar to notes. After about twenty seconds, I gave up and tried to make my bow move like how the other violas did, while listening to the song. I could hear a few sour notes here and there, but when I looked to Sungmin, he didn’t seem to be concerned about them and instead was drawing the bow across the strings so gracefully, he almost seemed like a dancer. The way he swayed side to side with the bow’s rhythm and the way his fingers just automatically knew where to get the best sound seemed almost unrealistic. I was amazed at his knowledge of music and “intonation” or whatever the term was. By the end of the song, I had completely forgotten what I was supposed to be doing and instead focused all my attention to Sungmin and his class who seemed to be doing really well.

I knew Sungmin was more musically inclined but I had no idea of what he really was like. When he went to college for music theory and got in on a violin and guitar scholarship, I always figured that it was just because he didn’t want to try for an academic scholarship and a music scholarship would have been easier. Every time Sungmin talked about music and his little shop, I brushed it off, despite how well it seemed to be doing. After playing on my own a little, I found that everything was much more complicated than I could imagine. How come I was finding so much in my final few days? I should have known all of this earlier, but three days seemed too short a time to learn everything I now wanted to know about all his interests.

Sungmin gave a few pointers to different students before running through a few other songs that I didn’t quite catch the name of. By the time some parents had arrived for pick up, Sungmin was grinning like an idiot and the kids sounded excited with how well they played.

“Remember guys,” Sungmin said when they started packing up, carefully placing each instrument in the right case and their music into a folder. “You have a concert in two weeks, and you still need to practice Rondeau.” A concert? I would have questioned it, but figured the reason he never told me was for the same reason I never told him about Hangeng and Heechul. Just thinking of how big the gap between us was, sparked a pain in my chest and something inside me burst with an idea of how to close that gap.

“Sungmin, I’ll be back in a minute,” I told him. “I need to make a call.” He gave me a questioning look before nodding with a smile. I walked out the back door and pulled out my phone before dialing a familiar number.

“This better be important.”