Mr. and Mrs. Cho are indeed surprised when their gate creaks and the back door opens at two in the morning, Mr. Cho comes down with a baseball bat on his hands while Mrs. Cho follows behind him with a broom and they see their only son removing his shoes lazily by the door while standing up.

It’s not unusual Kyuhyun is coming home. He doesn’t like his mother nagging him about school, about his inexistent girlfriend, about his future and the future of the world that is supposedly in his hands as per his mother’s nags. But he does miss his mother’s cooking and the feeling of comfort because there’s always apple juice in the refrigerator or chocolate chip cookies in the grocery and watching games or sci-fi movies with his father and being so into it that his mother will complain about being ignored in their family. So no, it’s not unusual their son is coming home. But it is unusual and not to mention very, very strange that Kyuhyun is coming home at two in the morning by the back door.

Mr. Cho almost hits his son with the bat had not Kyuhyun shriek and jump three meters away from his own father.

“What the – Dad!” Kyuhyun exclaims, startled, one of his shoe still on his foot and his sock halfway, dangling as he jumps on one foot in their living room.

Thankfully, his mother opens the lights on the kitchen and stops another attack from his father. His father looks at him with furrowed eyebrows and drops the baseball bat, removing his sleeping bonnet to reveal wrinkles on his forehead as he looked judgingly at his son.

“What are you doing here, Kyuhyun?” Mrs. Cho incredulously asks, voicing every judgment her husband is probably passing their son right now because he is too baffled to speak them.

“Coming home, Mom,” Kyuhyun says it like duh and raises his mother’s brow questioningly.

Kyuhyun slumps himself on one of the chairs at the dining table and removes both his shoes first because he knows this is one of the things his mother is judging as well but is not asking because they want to know more what is he doing there at their house at two in the morning when the semester is not yet done.

“And why would you enter at the backdoor?” Mr. Cho asks, walking towards his son.

“I thought I’ll wake you up if I enter through the front door, Dad,” Kyuhyun says, finally finishing his shoes and wiggling his toes for fresh air.

“Why are you wearing a suit?” Mrs. Cho further inquires, coming closer to Kyuhyun as well and studying Kyuhyun’s attire. “Wait, is this a tuxedo? This is a tuxedo, right?”

Kyuhyun hates wearing tuxedos with little bow ties because he hates bow ties. But this is his attire for the competition – this is their attire and he hates his mother for making him remember that quickly. He hasn’t even spent three minutes in their house and he remembers everything again. He is supposed to not remember everything at home. That’s why he went home.

“Yes, Mom, it’s a tuxedo. It’s for the choir competition,” Kyuhyun answers as curtly and as truthfully as he can without further digging the hole that’s already as wide as his organ on the left part of his chest is.

“But you hate tuxedos.”

“I still hate it. As a matter of fact, I hate it more now.”

“But you’re wearing one,” Mrs. Cho grins like she just won a game with his son.

“Yes,” Kyuhyun won’t admit defeat. He thinks sometimes that the reason why he bickers so much with his mom is because they’re too alike. “But I still hate it.”

“But you’re still wearing it,” Mrs. Cho says in a sing-song manner, like she won’t admit defeat that easily as well and is already declaring her win.

“But I still hate it,” Kyuhyun mimics his mother’s tone.

Mrs. Cho is about to say something again but fortunately, the hour is too early for Mr. Cho to hear the two people he loves the most in this world slowly turn into people he doesn’t want to listen to at that time. “Don’t you have a game tomorrow?”

Kyuhyun is glad his father asks something that is passed what happened that night, anything that can tear his mind from now, he’ll gladly answer to it. “I have,” Kyuhyun answers. “But it’s in the afternoon. We’re not on until at least six tomorrow.”

Mr. Cho nods and he and his wife exchange quick glances, like ninjas, like what parents do.

“Have you eaten dinner?” Mrs. Cho suddenly starts asking more normal questions, like nothing special happened and their son just happened to come home at two in the morning. No, there must be nothing wrong.

Honestly, Kyuhyun is famished. It was feast in the restaurant everybody ate but the empty bowl he was given by the lady was the empty bowl he was playing drums with his chopsticks when he dumped, quite stupidly, his head on the table and was still the empty bowl he left on his place, not a trace of meat or lettuce or rice in it.

He doesn’t really want to bother his parents. Not at this time of the night (or morning).

“I’ll make you vegetable curry.”

But his mother is already getting vegetables from the refrigerator and ingredients from the cabinet and somehow, he can’t find it in him to say no anymore. His mother’s vegetable curry is absolutely heavenly and he thinks if there’s something that can help him with what he is going through right now, other than be true to himself and his feelings, it’s definitely vegetable curry.

“It’s the fastest I can make,” Mrs. Cho says as she begins cutting the vegetables. “You look like you’ll vanish if you don’t eat soon.”

Kyuhyun smiles and that’s the first time in the evening after his duet with Jongwoon that it feels the most genuine. He thinks of a good comeback to what his mother said but all that comes out is, “Thanks, Mom.” Then, he stands up and joins his father on the living room, flipping channels like he is playing a game against their TV on who’s faster.

Mrs. Cho looks thoughtfully at Kyuhyun’s back and wonders what’s wrong. Because there has to be something wrong if Kyuhyun comes to them in the middle of the morning, in a suit, by the backdoor, with a piece of crumpled paper on his hand that he absent mindedly shoots on his bag as soon as she turns on the light.

Growing up, being an only son, Kyuhyun is not the type of child that is a brat, although that will come out to other people who doesn’t know him because of his arrogant, sometimes insolent attitude. But they never have a major problem with Kyuhyun growing up. He plays well with kids his age and even those older or younger, which was probably the reason why Sooyeon’s parents trust Kyuhyun so much. He is not exactly friendly but he is also not aloof.

He doesn’t say his problems because there is nothing before to share to his parents.

Mrs. Cho knows Kyuhyun doesn’t want to burden them but seeing how empty her son is, even though he is laughing with his father on the living room after they settled on late night gags, she just wants to know what’s wrong. But she doesn’t want to ask if Kyuhyun is not ready. She doesn’t want to interrogate especially if it seems like Kyuhyun doesn’t even want to think about it.

Because that’s why Kyuhyun went home, even though it’s easier to go to his room in the university dormitory. He traveled home even though there is almost no bus anymore because the places and the faces around him remind him of what’s wrong and he doesn’t want to be reminded of that because he’s not yet ready.

It’s like for Kyuhyun, one problem gets on top of another problem as another problem gets on top of that and it’s too overwhelming for him now that he can’t even begin to figure out what he should think about first. Should he think about what he lost forever now or should he begin figuring out what he did to make it all end in such painful way?

Kyuhyun laughs at the TV so much – too much, if you’re going to ask Mr. Cho – that he doesn’t notice his father glancing at him.

“Kyuhyun, the curry’s ready!” Mrs. Cho calls from the dining room.

He immediately stands up and just how Mrs. Cho looks at her son’s back knowingly as he headed for the living room moments ago, Mr. Cho did the same as Kyuhyun headed back to the dining room. He’s not saying anything but both his parents know he’s not alright.