01: tears
Kyuhyun is at a loss when Ryeowook starts sniffling for reasons unknown to him. A crying Ryeowook isn’t a welcome sight to Kyuhyun – his eyes turn red, his nose gets stuffy, and his throat emits these strange, plaintive, half-strangled sounds that are both pathetic and pitiful. Ryeowook presses his palms to his eyes during these times, when the tears fall too fast and too much, and Kyuhyun suspects it’s because he once about it; it reminds him of his own thoughtlessness, his selfishness, and he is torn between kissing this beautiful, broken boy or hiding in a corner of the room to ponder over his own faults in sullen silence.

(He feels stupid a little later after Ryeowook yells at him, a few skinned onions on the cutting board behind him.)



02: kangin
Honestly, Ryeowook supposes that Kangin could have taken the news better than this if he hadn’t walked in on Kyuhyun attempting to cop a feel on the living room couch, but he comes to know the signs even before he detects the cause. Every time Kangin is reminded of Kyuhyun (and, therefore, his relationship with Ryeowook), his left eye starts to twitch a little, his grip on whatever he has at hand tightens, and his aura radiates the overprotective hyung vibes to everything within a five meter radius. It comes in the form of a track being played on the radio, Kyuhyun’s smooth voice crooning love songs that melt Ryeowook’s heart a little more every day, a display of dogs in a pet shop they pass on the way to the studio, advertisements and photo books, or even uljjang clothing that screams KYUHYUN. Ryeowook’s never really figured out how to answer when the conversation goes like this:

“Has he been harassing you? Verbally? Physically? ually?”

“Hyung!” (splutter) “He’s my boyfriend, why would –”

“Exactly. Does he have an STD? Guys like him usually do. I’ve never understood why you went out with him in the first place.”

“He isn’t a !”

“So he doesn’t have one?”

(choke, turn red, and avoid the manager’s stare) “NO.”

“Oh god. I was afraid of that.”



03: belongings
Kyuhyun waits for Ryeowook’s head to pop out from under the bed covers, not even looking up from his music sheets to check, before Ryeowook speaks up with a frazzled, “Kyu—” He sighs and wonders why, exactly, he ends up with a person who is, possibly, more disorderly than he is, and directs Ryeowook to where the most recent lost item is.

Sometimes, Ryeowook doesn’t even have the chance to say anything before Kyuhyun sighs, takes off his headphones or puts down his camera, and opens his drawers to find a replacement for a tie or a necklace or maybe a scarf. He takes his time winding it around Ryeowook’s neck, letting his fingers brush against his collarbone, and Ryeowook beams at him like a little child, so happily that Kyuhyun can’t help but smile back.


04: movies
They watch horror movies at one in the morning with anyone who’s available and awake. Every Friday night and Saturday morning, they spend their time eating takeout pizza and perusing random DVDs Kibum brings over. Kyuhyun likes these days not only because he gets to curl up against Ryeowook without anyone noticing, but also because Ryeowook is easily scared; it reminds Kyuhyun of a date with a girl, but he has too much sense to tease Ryeowook about it.

He likes it best when it’s six am and the sun is rising as he wakes and looks at his friends who are still asleep and dreaming. He thinks that this is what college and normalcy could have been like, but regrets nothing when Ryeowook wakes up, soft and pliant, and says, “good morning.”


05: jealousy
Friends always tell him that one of his flaws is his possessiveness. Kyuhyun doesn’t particularly think it’s a fault – he’s merely protecting Ryeowook from potential predators, after all. By his standards, he’s not at Kangin’s level of insanity yet, but he’s coming close to it (or so Kyuhyun says). Kyuhyun shrugs and lets his hand rest on Ryeowook’s waist, for posterity’s sake, even if he can’t quite get rid of the jealousy issue yet.


06: bathroom
Once upon a time, Ryeowook was the member who locked himself in the bathroom to think, to sulk, or to cry, and anyone else would have been the unfortunate soul that alternated between threatening him and begging just to get him out of there. Now, though, he can sympathize with trying to coax Kyuhyun out of it. He’s still not sure why Kyuhyun is so pissed, but he bangs at the door anyway, even if he knows that it doesn’t really do anything.

It takes about forty minutes of yelling and pleading, but the best and only way Ryeowook succeeds is by reassuring the bastard that yes, he loves him, and no, he isn’t going to leave for another man, no matter how tall or good-looking or talented they are.


07: insults
Kyuhyun doesn’t really get into arguments with coworkers (other than his band mates) often, but when he finally does, the reason is very simple. It starts when someone makes a crass remark about the “boring kid who trails after Kyuhyun-sshi like a pathetic puppy”. Beside him, Kyuhyun freezes and Kibum groans, and it worsens when the person (what was her name? he never remembers unimportant things like that) turns to him and says, “He’s so annoying, don’t you think so?”

Kyuhyun continues to look at his phone, where he texts Ryeowook a particularly cheesy love message with a lot of hearts and smiley faces. Without raising his eyes, he says, “Not as annoying as you.”

She looks mortified, but doesn’t take back her words when Kyuhyun asks – no, orders her to. She goes off to rant to everyone else about how Kyuhyun defended some loser without taking her feelings into consideration, but it is only after she gets fired and banned from working with Super Junior again that she is told that the person she was badmouthing was Kyuhyun’s boyfriend, and none of the members were very pleased.



08: insecurity
Kyuhyun’s always been serious about singing, and Ryeowook knows this because he’s in the same situation himself. Sometimes he wonders what they have, if they don’t have their voices, wonders if maybe Kyuhyun isn’t really in love with him more than he is with his voice, and he falters and digresses, but all thoughts of that possibility are dispelled when Kyuhyun turns to look at him in the middle of a concert, hundreds of fans screaming their names, and smiles as if Ryeowook is his entire world.



09: shopping
They’re on vacation together in Paris, where they can walk in the streets relatively unnoticed. Kyuhyun pulls Ryeowook to the nearest street filled with high-fashion boutiques, and begins to regret the decision to take the older boy along after the fourth store they visit. Ryeowook vehemently disapproves of anything he picks out, choosing instead to fiddle with his phone or glower on a couch. Kyuhyun’s near his breaking point already, but Ryeowook hooks his thumbs into his pockets and shyly says that he doesn’t care what Kyuhyun wears, just as long as they find a place where the attendants don’t look like they want to get into Kyuhyun’s pants at the slightest provocation. Kyuhyun laughs and leafs through a catalogue the next day, relieved that he isn’t the only one with issues, for once.



10: video games
Ryeowook begins to lose spectacularly to Kyuhyun in a video game after the other rolls up the sleeves of his shirt, showing off more of his arms than necessary. He leans forward to adjust the cable of his controller, and Ryeowook’s breath hitches, subtly, when he sees a hint of his collarbone. He’s seen Kyuhyun in far less, before, but it still leaves him a little at a loss. Something about the hint of skin just gets on Ryeowook’s nerves, and he fumbles through Katamari Damacy while trying to avoid looking at Kyuhyun and the nearest surface available.



11: drunk
Kyuhyun can’t take as much alcohol as Ryeowook can, so he tries his best to remain sober throughout any impromptu drinking sessions, just in case Kangin pours more soju than Ryeowook can handle (which is, frankly, a lot). He dreads the aftermath, though, particularly because Ryeowook is (contrary to popular belief, not a quiet drunk) always convinced that Kyuhyun is in love with someone else. This makes Kyuhyun infinitely unhappy because he’s never been good at dealing with sad drunks, and Ryeowook has this effect of making him feel like he’s the worst boyfriend in history and doesn’t deserve Ryeowook. Ever. It takes thirty minutes to convince the older man that he’s hopelessly in love with him (and will always be, if he has anything to say about it), and two to know just who it was he was drinking with recently.

It doesn’t surprise him when he finds out it’s Kangin. Huh.



12: advances
Ryeowook’s learned that the best way to deflect these things is to go with it. They both end up considerably happier in the end, though Ryeowook would rather die before admitting that.



13: sleeping

Kyuhyun waits for Ryeowook to fall asleep, patiently, watches the long lashes flutter in a vain struggle to remain awake and eventually close, his fingers curling and uncurling, his breaths coming out in slow, deep exhalations. He does this because he never knows if it will be the last time, because he has spent a lifetime searching for this and he never wants to regret it. Ryeowook is beautiful in his innocence and weakness, like this, and Kyuhyun can’t help it if he leans closer to cover his lips in an open-mouthed kiss.



15: waking
Ryeowook wakes up in the middle of the night beside Kyuhyun, thinking that this is what eternity probably feels like. He sees it in the rise and fall of Kyuhyun’s back, hears his soft breathing in his ear, feels the warmth of his palm resting on Ryeowook’s stomach. Ryeowook’s never slept with anyone else outside of his family before, and the domesticity of it nearly startles him, makes him understand what it is like to coexist by choice; Kyuhyun’s hip is heavy against his thigh, and the elbow digging into his side feels uncomfortable, but all that is inconsequential, not with Kyuhyun so close he can barely breathe.