When Kyuhyun woke, Ryeowook was miraculously showered and dressed.  To verify that he hadn’t slept until the afternoon, he rolled over to glance at the alarm clock.  8:09 A.M.  He turned back to his husband, who was trying on various baseball hats to see which one he liked best with the outfit he had on. 

            “The black and white one…assuming you’re wearing my plaid jacket most of the day,” Kyuhyun said, offering his opinion.

            Ryeowook set down his hats on the dresser and spun around to face his husband.  “You weren’t planning to use it today, were you?”

            “I had no plans on what I’d wear, since Changmin isn’t overly concerned with what I wear when I’m kicking his ,” Kyuhyun pointed out, grabbing Ryeowook’s pillow and hugging it.

            “Ah, that’s right!” Ryeowook said, nodding.  “It’s game day today, isn’t it?”

            “It is,” Kyuhyun said, yawning.  “But he said he’d kill me if I show up before eleven.”

            “You’re usually not intimidated by such threats,” Ryeowook pointed out.

            “Victoria made us a pan of brownies and he said he wouldn’t let me have any if I didn’t let him sleep in,” he explained.

            “The real motivator,” Ryeowook said, folding his arms over his chest and leaning back against the dresser.  “Don’t eat all of them and make yourself sick.”

            “I won’t eat them all…he gets half and I get half.”

            Ryeowook rolled his eyes.  “Don’t complain to me later about feeling sick to your stomach, I’m not going to have any pity on you.”

            “You’re just jealous because I can eat junk food and not gain weight,” he teased.

            “No, I’m not,” Ryeowook countered, walking over to the bed and smacking Kyuhyun with his own pillow.  “I would never want to eat that many sweets.  There’s nothing healthy about them.”

            Kyuhyun grabbed the pillow away from his husband, tossing it off the bed, and then grabbed unto Ryeowook and pulled him back into bed with him, showering him with kisses until his face turned red from laughing. 

            “Stop,” Ryeowook said, slapping his husband’s back.  “You’re going to make me late for breakfast.”

            Kyuhyun rolled onto his side, poking Ryeowook in the side where he was sensitive and smiling down at his success at continuing to make his husband squirm.  “Where are you headed so early?”

            “You don’t remember?” he asked, reaching down to squeeze Kyuhyun’s knee, where he happened to be the most ticklish.

            “No,” he laughed, grabbing Ryeowook’s hands to prevent any further attacks.

            “My parents are in town.”

            The mirth that had been in Kyuhyun’s eyes only a moment before quickly subsided and his grip on Ryeowook’s hands slackened.  The smile all but vanished from his face as he looked down at his husband.  “Oh…that’s right,” Kyuhyun said, averting his eyes.  “I forgot.”

            Kyuhyun never said anything directly about Ryeowook’s parents’ disapproval of his ual orientation, probably in an effort to keep him from feeling more upset than he already was about the subject, so he never mentioned the fact that he was never invited to join them.  Even without him saying a word about it, Ryeowook could feel the hurt within Kyuhyun.  And he was torn.  He was the only child of loving parents that had sacrificed so much to let him follow his dreams of becoming a singer and they were extremely proud of his accomplishments.  When he’d first told them that he was gay, they overreacted.  After nearly a year of strained relations between them, they began talking again on a regular basis.  The only catch was they didn’t want to hear about his love life.  In the beginning, it seemed a small price to pay to have his parents back in his life again.  And for the first couple years of his relationship with Kyuhyun, neither of them really cared whether they had their approval or not.  But they’d been together a long time and it seemed silly not to include his life partner to family functions still.

            Kyuhyun’s family had welcomed Ryeowook with open arms from the very beginning of their relationship.  Of course, they also accepted their son’s homouality without making him feel bad about himself.  They never guilted him about the pressure he’d put them under by keeping his secret or the fact that he’d never provide them with grandchildren.  It made him feel bad that Kyuhyun couldn’t expect the welcoming that he’d received.  At the same time, Kyuhyun was happy that Ryeowook had resumed talking to his parents again and refused to get between them in any way.

            So, he avoided the topic at all costs and never said much about it, finding it easier to pretend that everything was okay verses causing any upset over the matter.  It was, oddly enough, one of the only things that Kyuhyun was unwilling to speak his mind about and Ryeowook was frustrated by their avoidance of the issue, but also had no idea what to say that would make such rejection more palatable to his husband. 

            “When will you be home?” he asked, releasing Ryeowook’s hands and instead straightening his shirt so that it wouldn’t wrinkle.

            “Probably around seven or eight.  How about you?” he asked.

            “I’m sure I’ll be home by then.  Victoria won’t let me steal him all day, I’m sure.  Should I pick up something on my way home for dinner?”

            “Sure,” Ryeowook answered, reaching up to fix Kyuhyun’s haphazard hair which was falling in every which direction.  “Whatever sounds best to you is fine.”

            Kyuhyun nodded, his finger still the shirt under his flannel jacket, rubbing over his ribs.  Ryeowook grasped his hand with his.  Kyuhyun finally glanced at him.

            “Promise me you’ll have fun.”

            “You know I will,” Kyuhyun only said.

            “And beat the snot out of Changmin.”

            “That’s a given,” he said, cracking the slightest smile, looking away again.

            Ryeowook reached up and cupped Kyuhyun’s face, turning it back towards him.  “Kiss me goodbye, so I won’t miss you as much.”

            Kyuhyun rolled back over him and tightened his grip on Ryeowook’s hand before pressing his lips against his husband’s, thoroughly claiming his mouth with his own, not letting up until Ryeowook was lightheaded and under him. 

            Sometimes he wondered if Kyuhyun worried that his parents would talk him into leaving him for their sake.  Did he really think he was such a glutton for punishment?  Even if it did disappoint his parents that his partner was with a man instead of a woman, he’d be damned if he planned on sacrificing his own happiness to make everyone else happy.  Especially if it meant hurting Kyuhyun too.  Where he could possibly deny his own happiness, the last thing he could ever bear to do is make Kyuhyun unhappy.  The trouble was, he knew that it made Kyuhyun unhappy not to be included as well, but he refused to separate Ryeowook from his parents, knowing how important his own parents were to him.

            Kyuhyun kissed him as if he needed to remind Ryeowook what he meant to him, to remind him that he was loved above everyone else.  But it wasn’t needed.  He would always know this.  Still, to reassure him, Ryeowook kissed him back passionately until they were both breathless and had to pull back.

            “I love you,” Kyuhyun said, panting.

            “I love you too,” Ryeowook offered.  “Have fun today.  I’ll text you when I’m on my way home.”

            Kyuhyun nodded and released his husband so he wouldn’t be late.  Ryeowook quickly got out of bed before he thought the better of it and stayed with Kyuhyun and upset both their plans.  He grabbed the black and white hat and headed out the door with one last lingering look at his husband and then rushed out the door.

            “You look so well!” his mother said enthusiastically from beside him at the restaurant.  “Usually you look pale from travelling so often.”

            “We’ve had a couple weeks off from airplane trips and I’ve only been deejaying during the week, which isn’t too strenuous,” he teased, smiling warmly at seeing his mother fuss over him.  “I think that doing the musical this summer just put me over the edge a bit.”

            “You looked tired then,” his dad agreed in between bites of his food.

            “I can’t believe we haven’t seen you since your birthday already,” his mother said, sipping her tea.  “You don’t come home enough to visit.  Were it not for the fact we wanted an excuse to come see you, I never would have bothered coming all the way to Seoul for my uncle’s retirement party.  He never bothers to come see us.  I don’t think he’s been to our house once.”

            “He hasn’t,” Ryeowook’s father agreed.

            “Although, it was nice to see my cousins again.  It’s a good thing you didn’t come, dear.  Your aunts had a list of nice girls they wanted to set you up with.  I told them you were too busy to think of things like that.”

            Ryeowook laughed uncomfortably and scratched his head.

            “Your cousin just got done doing his military time,” his dad said, quickly changing the subject.  “Skinniest I’ve ever seen that boy.  No doubt he’ll gain all of it back in the next half year.”

            “Probably,” Ryeowook said, thinking of his earlier conversation with Kyuhyun about brownies.  “He has no self-control.”

            “I told him that he ought to start working out like you do,” he continued, “but I could tell that it was just going in one ear and out the other.  If he was smart, he’d go to school and make something of himself.”

            “I always like to point out that you’ve got your degree, even though you hardly need something like that when you’re famous already.”

            “Your mother never misses an opportunity to brag about you,” his father pointed out.  “They gave us such a hard time about living outside the city when you were younger, saying that if we didn’t get you into a better school, you’d never amount to anything.  I think they rather get the point whenever they hear your voice on the radio or see you in a commercial, but that’s not good enough for your mother.”

            “How dare they tell me that he wouldn’t amount to much just because he didn’t grow up in Seoul like their kids!  Obviously that had no effect on the matter.  And then they like to act as if it was just some miracle that he was born with a golden voice and that automatically put him where he is, as if his hard work to get into the company wasn’t mostly responsible.”

            “True,” Ryeowook nodded, continuing to eat his fruit.  “I still work hard.  I’m constantly learning new dances, rehearsing for concerts, recording songs, and filming videos.  I can barely keep track of it all.”

            “And some of the others have even more going on, don’t they?” she asked.

            “Especially the actors.  I only see Siwon when we’re in concerts these days.  Henry’s been promoting a lot lately too,” Ryeowook informed them.

            “Yeah, I saw him and Kyuhyun on a show together.  Of course, every time I turn the channel these days, I see Kyuhyun on there,” his father mentioned.  “His schedule must be terrible.”

            Ryeowook was s