Insomnia

            Ryeowook stared at his husband’s picture and sighed.  Donghae turned to Hyukjae and shook his head.  “I swear to God, if I ever fall for someone so hard that I’m coming apart at the seams because I have to be away from them for a few measly days—five years into the relationship—just put me out of my ing misery!”

            Hyukjae smiled as he got off the phone with Sungmin.  “This coming from the guy who dropped half his paycheck buying his girlfriend souvenirs yesterday?”

            “Some of them are for her birthday!” Donghae defended himself.

            Hyukjae rolled his eyes.  “I think we should go get something to eat.  Maybe drink some beer or something.  I’ll buy.”

            “Has hell frozen over?” Donghae murmured.  Hyukjae elbowed him roughly and Donghae playfully shoved him back before walking over to Ryeowook’s side.

            Ryeowook looked up from staring at his cell phone.  “Food sounds good,” Ryeowook agreed.

            Donghae looked down at the cell phone with a puzzled face.  “Hey, he’s wearing a shirt with stars around the collar—”

            “That’s our SS5 Japan shirt, stupid,” Hyukjae informed him, glancing down at the phone.

            “I know, dumb , let me finish!  Wookie’s also wearing a scarf with stars on it, which happens to be around the collar area.  I was just wondering if these two are doing some couple’s dressing thing now, too,” Donghae said, grasping onto the end of the scarf and tugging on it.

            Hyukjae shook his head.  “Kyu wouldn’t be caught dead doing some stupid couple outfit thing.  It’s a complete coincidence!”

            That’s what Hyukjae thought, but when Donghae and Hyukjae looked down at their eternal maknae and noticed how bright red his face was and how he was staring down at his lap to avoid looking at them, it became apparent that he was totally wrong.

            “What?  Ryeonggu!” Hyukjae called out accusingly, using Kyuhyun’s newest pet name for him.  “You aren’t seriously both wearing stars on purpose together, are you?”

            “You didn’t realize they do these weird code-like things?  I feel so proud of myself if I catch half of them!  It’s like that time they both took pictures of their feet and posted them on the same day,” Donghae said, ruffling Ryeowook’s hair before heading over to grab his jacket.  “And we’re totally taking you up on the beer offer, since you never buy normally.  I’m writing this down in my calendar.”

            Ryeowook finally looked up at Hyukjae who was still staring at the youngster in confusion.  He decided he’d better just answer his question and get it over with.  “I saw him pack his bag and decided to pack my scarf with the stars on it.  We play little games like that now and then.  It’s not really a couple’s outfit; it’s just a copying game with pictures.”

            “You two are so strange,” he said, shaking his head as they both walked over to the table to retrieve their jackets.

            “When you’re as famous as we are, it’s just an entertaining and affectionate extra we throw into the mix,” Ryeowook said, pulling on his jacket and shoving his phone in his pocket. 

            Ryeowook and the others ordered beer and food.  Although Ryeowook was trying to act mopey, it was hard to pull off around tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum (a.k.a. EunHae) and he had to admit that he was having fun despite his best efforts to be miserable without his husband along.  That hadn’t been the case at three in the morning when he was trying to fall asleep in a cold bed in a foreign country, of course, but the rest of the time seemed to be going rather smooth.  He’d seen a picture online of Kyuhyun eating out with the cast of The Three Musketeers and decided that he ought to take a picture of himself eating out with his companions as well, just to keep with the whole media picture game, and stood up to get them all in the shot.

            “Say cheese!” he commanded.

            “Cheddar!” Hyukjae said, smiling.

            Ryeowook snapped the picture and was surprised to find they all looked rather well, especially for having been in a concert the night before.  But they had also booked their rooms for Sunday night as well and were able to sleep in instead of having to get up early to vacate the hotel and catch an early flight back home.  Hyukjae and Donghae were headed on the next stop of their tour the following day.  Ryeowook would head home.  Originally it had sounded like Kyuhyun would come home as well, but he had more performances after the weekend, so he would not make it home after Sunday’s performance.  It was going to be a longer absence than they originally thought. 

            Ryeowook sat down and