A Funeral For Cat Food
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Everyone knew Kyuhyun was...not exactly the kindest and most emotional person. He only had been seen crying only a few times. But they all knew that deep down he was as sensible as everyone else, he just chose to hide it. He never really cried, except those very emotionally intense concerts or events. He wasn’t fond of extreme emotional displays, and that included skinship. Other than with gaming, Kyuhyun wasn’t a really intense person. That didn’t mean he did the job in half-assed methods, he just used moderation…with anything but StarCraft. StarCraft was…very…addictive…or wine. Definitely wine. Wine was good.

But their prior knowledge of their maknae's tough-exterior-but-sensible-heart front couldn't have prepared them for the scene they were witnessing. Kyuhyun though sometimes very monotone in his actions and never doing anything out of the ordinary, schedules, StarCraft, once in a while going out with friends, indulging in large quantities of wine, always managed to surprise them once in a while. He was quite unpredictable, and it was his regularity that implemented his facet of his personality. He was witty and snarky in his responses of course, and that was something incurable that the members had grown used to, so his irregular surprisingly snarky replies were always part of his regular life, nothing out of the ordinary for them.

Nonetheless, his rather emotionless façade and his almost boring routine did not make him any less loveable to his hyung. They had grown used him being like that, just like Siwon was overly affectionate, or Yesung was touching philtrums or Heechul’s inappropriate comments. They were a severely mismatched group and every single one of them was aware of it. It was what made them stronger, after all, opposites attract.

Back to Kyuhyun…he didn’t own any pets or didn’t have that special connection to an animal like Yesung did with his turtles, or Heechul with his cats. He never really attempted to get one, nor did he appear to be interested in his bandmates’ pets. He was generally indifferent to them, he was sometimes caught petting Heebum or feeding Choco some treats, but that was it. He never approached the animals directly and always had this slight frown of disgust when someone shoved an animal in his hand. So seeing him in this state for that reason was oh so very strange.

The dark haired maknae was sitting on the couch, sobbing loudly as his fish and monkey hyungs tried to comfort him. They both had looks of cluelessness and bafflement. It seemed like they were fighting the urge to run and hide, and wait for the storm to pass. Leeteuk’s motherly senses immediately kicked in and he kneeled beside the sobbing man.

“What happened” inquired Leeteuk immediately, “is he hurt?” He scrutinized the two others sitting on the couch, wondering what they had done. He then briefly checked for injuries, but found none. His gaze returned to Donghae and Eunhyuk who both shrugged. “What happened? Tell me now.”

Donghae shook his head and bit his lower lip. He looked extremely guilty and refused to meet the leader’s eyes. “My fish died,” he said in a whisper.

They were all...speechless? No one seemed to find the right words to express the situation. They blinked at Donghae who just gave them a blank stare and a shrug of the shoulders. The tough maknae was crying because of the death of someone else's fish? How was that even possible? He didn’t like pets and certainly wasn’t one to cry over an animal’s death. They were all so confounded…Kyuhyun crying for that reason…that was impossible, right? It had to be some sort of joke the maknae was always so famous for and he threatened Donghae and Eunhyuk into participating. What was happening? Leeteuk just stared at Kyuhyun, trying to figure out what was really going on, but he couldn’t simply see that little spark of amusement the maknae usually had when playing a prank. The more he stared, the more he felt like Kyuhyun was actually upset and that the situation was not some practical joke.

“Kyuhyun? What’s going on?”

The maknae raised his tearful eyes to stare directly at the leader with a bit of hatred but mostly hurt and sadness. “Cat Food died…” he sniffled, “I used to always feed it when Hae hyung forgot and I loved to watch it swim and it would look at me and open his mouth cutely and he would hide in the decorative chest I bought him and…” and with that he began sobbing crying. He curled up into Donghae’s chest who tentatively patted his back in attempt to soothe his cries.

Heechul snorted loudly, which earned him a hateful look from the normally very peaceful and temperate Donghae. “You name your fish Cat Food?”

“I didn’t,” he replied quietly, glaring quite fiercely, “he did, but it’s not the time to discuss his choice of name for my fish.”

Kyuhyun suddenly lifted his head to shoot a very accusing glare at everyone, “you think this is a joke,” he hissed. “You think I’m just messing around?”

“Of course not Kyuhyun-ah we just-”

“Well sorry for finally growing attached to one of your stupid pets!”

And just like that, he took off and slammed the door to his bedroom, leaving his hyungs completely puzzled and helpless, with absolutely no idea of how to deal with the situation.

“So…” Sungmin began, breaking the silence, “what do we do now? Buy him a new fish? Have a funeral for his fish? Leave him to sulk in his room?”

Ryeowook returned from the kitchen where he had gone unnoticed a few minutes earlier before the big commotion. “Already one step ahead of you guys. Hyung, no offence but that was insensitive,” he said, frowning at Heechul who just raised his arms in protest.

“How was I supposed to know he was so sensitive to his rather peculiar choice of name for a fish? Cat Food? Seriously, that’s something I’d do as a joke, yet he says it with a straight face and is upset about it.”

Ryeowook resisted the urge to roll his eyes, knowing Heechul would also get worked up about it. He wasn’t really the one to talk, he had named his cat after a combination of the names of people he knew, that couldn’t really get any stranger. Either way, whether the choice of names was odd or not, something had to be done. Kyuhyun was genuinely upset with the death of the fish. He would really go ahead and try to comfort the maknae, but he wasn’t really experience in the general animal domain. He had to send someone who had already dealt with that, but was a bit more helpful than Heechul who made insensitive remarks, or simply stared awkwardly like Donghae. A grin spread on his face as he found the perfect man for the job.

He approached the said target with an expression everyone feared. Ryeowook was usually very nice and caring, but he could really be fearful and merciless especially when his only dongsaeng was concerned. He handed the cup of tea to the man and just gestured him to go forward towards the door or toward a very merciless time of nagging if he didn’t comply.

Yesung pushed the door open and dodged a pillow. He settled at the bedside, now dodging the blind hands Kyuhyun was flailing around to deter him from staying any longer.

“Kyuhyun-ah, I brought you some tea,” he said quietly.

“Why are you here? To make fun of me?”

Yesung patted the younger man’s back. “Did I making fun of you? It just took us by surprise, you always seem so indifferent to our pets, and we didn’t know you liked Donghae’s fish so much. I’m sure Heechul hyung didn’t mean it too; he’s just a bit blunt.”

Kyuhyun reluctantly sat up and accepted the cup of tea Yesung handed him. He then did another thing that surprised him a lot; he sat beside at the edge of the bed and rested his head on Yesung’s shoulder.

“You know, I was really upset too when I had to give up my turtle. It just happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it. We’re really worried about you. Are you upset about just the fish or something else?”

Kyuhyun sighed, and took a sip of his cup. “I am actually upset about the fish. I took care of it, not Donghae, so I really am sad that he died. I don’t know hyung…I was really attached to it, just like you and your turtles. It saddens me that no one believes I’m actually sad…”

Yesung cleared his throat awkwardly. It’s not that he didn’t believe Kyuhyun, it just didn’t compute in his head that Kyuhyun cared for an animal. It didn’t make sense to him. But he still sympathized. e He

He had quite a background in animal matter, and figured his methods couldn’t do any harm on Kyuhyun…

“Would you like us to give Cat Food a proper funeral?”

Now, Kyuhyun knew Yesung was weird, and it was no surprise to anyone in fact…but this suggestion was very weird, even for him. Well, no matter the strangeness of the suggestion and his seemingly content with his suggestion hyung, Kyuhyun figured that maybe that method had worked with him. He gave him a look of worry, his hyung’s freaky little head was the cause of many worries amongst his group, before he answered.

“Yes.”

.

.

.

“Let us commend Cat Food to the mercy of...the...Fish God?” Siwon began. “Kyuhyun-ah, would you like to say your final farewells to...Cat Food?”

The group members had all gathered by the river very late at night, to fulfill Kyuhyun’s wish and give the fish a proper funeral. It was very strange and actually kind of embarrassing, but the look in the leader’s eyes as Yesung came back from the bedroom with Kyuhyun in tow clutching his shirt like a five year old was unforgiving and his will was set in stone. Even Heechul, the master at bantering with the leader and most of the time winning had failed to change his mind. It’s not that he didn’t care; it’s just that the thing was a fish and he failed to understand why the maknae was so emotional over a fish. He now stood by the river with everyone else, thinking it looked somewhat sketchy to have a rather large group of men gathering at such hour, and that their manager would definitely not be pleased to know that one of the company vans had been abducted to make one trip for the entire group…a van that Donghae had insisted on driving which resulted in a pretty terrifying ride. He claimed that having had the idea and the guts to blatantly flirt with the secretary to get the keys was enough to claim temporary ownership of the van, and drive it to their location.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

Like every proper funeral, someone had been obliged to play the master of ceremony, in some cultures, a priest. Since their group was home to a very religious and devout man, the said individual had insisted on dressing up and bringing his bible. He looked ridiculous and he was going on about some religious things Heechul didn’t care for. He had to remind himself he was doing that for the sad maknae, and that the lecture he would receive by Leeteuk if he didn’t attend would be never ending.

“Cat Food was...a very simple fish and was the best type of fish one could ever hope for.” He sniffled loudly, “He never complained when Donghae was away or forgot to feed him and always went about his day in the most cheerful way a fish could ever hope for.” He stopped and began sobbing into Yesung’s shoulder. He continued, his voice cracking with emotion. “I'll never forget you, Cat Food. May you rest in peace.”

There was a moment of silence before Siwon continued. “We therefore commit Cat Food's body to the...Han River; river to river, water to water, fish guts to fish guts; in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life...as a fish...”

Kyuhyun gently placed the makeshift coffin of the fish and pushed it into the water. Siwon recited a final prayer before the meeting was adjourned.

Heechul was about to get in the car when he heard a quiet sigh behind him. He turned around to see Siwon rubbing the back of his head with a puzzled frown on his face.

“Why am I always stuck on priest duty?”

A/N

(I actually did this to my goldfish when it died when I was a kid. I buried it in a little box in the backyard.)

Well, I hope I won't get a myriad of angry comments. Sorry guys, really. I am just experience some withdrawal symptoms because of my lack of homework. I've been off school for a week, this is pathetic. I really don't know what I'm doing with my life and I'm having an existential crisis~~~~~~

In theory I should be posting some more stuff, since I have no homework anymore (sounds so strange to my ears). But...it'll probably be like this jumbling mess I just posted, so don't actually anticipate it. 

I should probably go to bed. Well, I hope that wasn't too offensive and you guys can still comment and subscribe and still somewhat enjoyed it. I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to religion and like some stuff like funerals because I'm scared of offending someone. 

I should stop. Please subscribe comment and enjoy. I'm off to bed!