Off the Air

June 2, 2014…

            Ryeowook smiled when he was sure that his next guest was on the phone at a signal from his coworkers at the radio station.  His husband was his next guest caller.  He cursed the way his heart began to beat in double-time and how he couldn’t keep from smiling constantly.  How everyone didn’t already know of their involvement together—just from the cheesy look on his face whenever he spoke to Kyuhyun on the air—was a mystery to him.

            Kyuhyun was his favorite guest to talk to, no matter which program he was on, because he knew Kyuhyun would amuse the viewers by saying something funny or meaningful, that he would be as supportive as possible, and he would never give Ryeowook a hard time, no matter the reason for his calls or the requests he made of Kyuhyun.  And so often, the moments that always seemed to show how close they were came from conversations on Sukira or Super Idol Chart, since there were no managers watching over them and critiquing their comments.  What came out of their mouths was genuinely how they spoke to one another and sometimes they let a little too much slip by accident.  But this time, he warned his husband to keep it professional and to speak formally, since there were going to be a lot of members coming on that day and he didn’t want his husband to sound disrespectful.

            “Hello,” Kyuhyun said over the radio.

            Ryeowook started right in with the first question.  “Super Junior’s Kiss the Radio’s 1st generation deejays are Leeteuk and Eunhyuk, 2nd generation deejays are Sungmin and Ryeowook.  The 3rd generation deejay is just me, who amongst our members is the 1.5th generation deejay?” he asked.

            “Isn’t it…no, that’s not right,” Kyuhyun said, thinking. 

            Ryeowook laughed at this, amused at his husband verbalizing his inner debate. 

            “It’s, ah…Yesung hyung.”

            Ryeowook smiled warmly, amazed that Kyuhyun still got the answer right even after having to think about it, but then again, he was married to the current deejay of Kiss the Radio, so he ought to be able to answer a few more questions than the average person. 

            “Sukira’s channel frequency is?”

            “Uhhh…89.1,” he hesitated an answer.

            Ryeowook chimed the miniature xylophone a second time to indicate a correct answer.  “What is the title of Sukira’s opening signal music?”

            This was an easy one and Ryeowook knew it, but he couldn’t give him all hard questions.

            Kyuhyun started singing, “Life couldn’t get better—Miracle!”

            Ryeowook chimed again.  “I think that this Sukira writer looks like this celebrity.  Choose the wrong one.  Number 1 Writer Ho and Lee Yeonhee, Number 2.”

            “Writer Ho and Lee Yeonhee!”

            Ryeowook laughed and hit a single key to indicate a wrong answer. 

            “Sukira’s deejay Ryeowook’s birthday is on?  Which month and which day?” Ryeowook asked, smiling.  Kyuhyun should know the answer to this, especially after their recent discussion on it, but that really didn’t mean a damn thing when it came to Kyuhyun and his inability to remember dates, which is exactly why Ryeowook had put this question on the list. 

            “Uhhh…wait a moment,” Kyuhyun said, stalling.  “It’s…”

            “If you really get this wrong…” Ryeowook threatened in a deceptively sweet voice.

            Kyuhyun began to laugh hysterically.  “August 21st!”

            Now he knew that Kyuhyun was just teasing and he really knew the date, because he knew perfectly well that it was in June.  The only thing he might have actually gotten wrong was the date.  “What did you say?”

            “June 21st!”

            “What?”

            “June 21st,” he answered again.

            “Ahhh, at least you guessed it right,” Ryeowook said, playing along with Kyuhyun’s pretending not to know.

            “No, Ryeowook-ssi…”

            “You really—August 21st—”

            “No, I got mixed up with Kibum’s,” Kyuhyun explained.

            Ryeowook knew that his husband was just having fun with him, however, and decided to keep going with the programming.  “You got four questions right…so, hello!”

            “Yes, hello.”

            “We’re finally on the line with Kyuhyun-ssi,” Ryeowook announced, congratulating himself for remembering the more formal introduction, which was hard to do when you never bother with it any other time.  “Please greet out listeners.”

            “Yes.  Hello, listeners of Sukira, I’m Super Junior’s Kyuhyun, nice to meet you.”

            Ryeowook began cheering and Kyuhyun followed suit and did the same, the little copycat.

            “As of now, Siwon’s got one right, Shindong’s got two right, and Kyuhyun has gotten four right, so you’re in first place,” Ryeowook informed him.

            “Okay, but Writer Ho and Yeonhee…that one’s wrong?”

            “Ummm, that one was considered a right.  So I chose another one,” Ryeowook responded, laughing at his husband’s dislike of losing points in any game without there being clear explanations of why.  After all, he wasn’t called GameKyu for nothing and the man played to win…at everything.

            “Writer Ho is the one that doesn’t like me, right?  She said that I wasn’t good looking,” Kyuhyun pointed out.

            Ryeowook has learned the hard way, over time, that there are just some things you should never, ever tell your spouse and one of them is that someone you’re friends with thinks they’re ugly.  Oh well.  At least it was a coworker and not a close personal friend, but still, the poor woman will never live it down.  Kyuhyun will never quite forgive her for the comment, even if she may have based it off of looking at some of the more unflattering pictures of him.  Although she didn’t.  She just isn’t into guys that look like Kyuhyun.  Not everyone has good taste, what can you do?

            “That’s right,” Ryeowook responded, laughing.  He then began to read the screen in front of him.  “Now listener Hodden is asking: whose birthday is on August 21st?”

            “Yes, Kibummie, Kibummie,” Kyuhyun answered.

            “Kim Kibum-ssi,” Ryeowook answered more formally, since he was running the program and ought to keep his husband in line a little.  “And Byun Hyebin-ssi is saying: Kyuhyun oppa got many questions right!”

            “Yes.”

            “What are you doing now, Kyuhyun-ssi?”

            “Ah, my musical practice just ended.”

            “Sing the Rain?”

            “Yes, Singin’ in the Rain.  Today was also a rainy day,” Kyuhyun mentioned.

            “Oh, right, that’s it.  Were you practicing outside again?”

            “It was raining outside and I went out without bringing an umbrella.”

            “Mmm.  Can you sing a song for us?  Live?  Since it’s raining?” Ryeowook asked, knowing full well that his husband would never refuse his request.  Also, Kyuhyun never had to prep to sound good before singing.  There was no such thing as taking him off guard, so it was always safe to ask.

            Kyuhyun sang the main part to the song, Singin’ in the Rain.  “Something like that?”

            Ryeowook clapped and then smiled warmly.  Certainly, he heard Kyuhyun sing on almost a daily basis, but it never got old.  He loved the sound of his husband’s voice and the fact that he could ask him to sing on the air for his listeners and know that he would do a wonderful job made him all the more pleased.

            “Yes, from the 5th of June to the 3rd of August, at the Chungmu Art Hall, I hope that everyone will come to watch Singin’ in the Rain.”

            “I’ll definitely watch it,” Ryeowook eagerly cried, mimicking the sound of a crazed fangirl—because that’s likely who it was online leaving the next message—and continued to read her post.  “I look forward to seeing Kyu oppa tap dancing in the musical, says Bae Heejin-ssi.”

            “I practiced three months for this musical,” Kyuhyun complained.

            “Yes, indeed.  During the Swing promotions, I saw Kyuhyun-ssi practicing his tap dancing,” Ryeowook explained.  And at home, unfortunately, where the sound of someone tapping on the floor constantly was about enough to make one pull out their hair.  There were a number of times that Ryeowook had to escape by heading upstairs to watch television with Heechul.  The only bummer hiding in the upper dorms was they always tried to talk him into cooking something for them.  It was a relief that Kyuhyun finally had all the dance moves down a