I Wanna Dance

            Hyukjae woke with a start when Donghae’s phone alarm started blaring Michael Jackson.  He scrambled to reach over Donghae to turn the damn thing off.  It took him a minute to figure out how to work the thing and then he set it back down, hoping he’d managed to turn it off and not hit snooze by accident.  Donghae was still sound asleep, sprawled across his half of the bed, his arm outstretched and the covers half kicked off him.  He was snoring loudly.  Hyukjae contemplated how best to punish him for such a rude awakening that hadn’t even managed to stir him.

            He could beat him with the pillow.  But that was too simple.  He could pour water on him, but that would get the mattress wet and he planned on staying more than one night.  His revenge couldn’t include wetting or dirtying the bed in any way.  He could pull his hair…but he felt that was actually too cruel.  After all, he’d stayed awake because he was writing about his breakup with Sungmin.  And Hyukjae had mixed feelings about having his heart written about by someone, but perhaps his heart was in good hands with Donghae.  There really wasn’t anyone he trusted more.

            Hyukjae began to poke Donghae in the side.  “.  Get up.”

            That was how they operated.  They loved to torment each other.  And there were very few areas out of bounds.  They rarely stretched their pranks or jokes to include their mothers.  That was about the extent of the boundary lines.  Certainly there weren’t any physical ones.

            Donghae barely twitched and continued to snore.

            “Dummy…time to get up.  We have to be at SM at noon,” Hyukjae said, tickling him on the knee.  This was one of his most sensitive areas…but apparently only when he was awake.  “We have to get dressed, brush our teeth, get some coffee, and pick up princess…and we only have an hour.”

            Still nothing.

            Hyukjae climbed on top of Donghae, who only groaned in his sleep.  Hyukjae tapped his cheek.  “Hae!  Hae, Hae, Hae…time to get up!”

            “Ten more minutes,” Donghae said, his voice raspy from sleep.

            “Na, na…you said we would get Choco today.  Remember?  I want to bring her with,” Hyukjae said, squeezing his cheeks together.

            “Go away,” he whined, slapping Hyukjae’s hand away and resting his arm over his eyes to block out the light.

            “Come on.  You promised.  I’m not the one who scheduled dance practice at noon.  Idiot,” Hyukjae reminded him, pulling on his ear. 

            Donghae grunted, the only response he was willing to give.

            “If you don’t get up, I’m going to annoy you until you do,” Hyukjae threatened.

            “You don’t scare me,” Donghae informed him.

            “I warned you,” Hyukjae said, reaching down to grab his knee again.  But apparently he’s only ticklish when he’s mostly awake, because all he did was squirm a little.  That left him no choice.  He was going to have to do something that would really piss Donghae off to get him out of bed and hope that it didn’t put him in a foul mood all afternoon.  Hyukjae grasped Donghae’s chin and then bent his head and kissed him.

            Donghae immediately tensed up.  He removed his arm from his eyes and was staring wide-eyed at Hyukjae by the time he pulled away. 

            “I told you,” Hyukjae said, jumping out of the bed and heading for the closet.

            “You kissed me!”

            “Wouldn’t be the first time,” Hyukjae reminded him.

            “But—you—what about Sungmin—I thought—”

            “Oh, come on!  Even Sungmin wouldn’t have gotten jealous of me kissing you.  But technically, he broke up with me yesterday, so I can kiss whoever the hell I want,” he reminded Donghae, grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt to change into.  “Now get your y little out of bed.  If you’re still in it when I get out, I’m going to do it again.”

            Hyukjae headed into the bathroom and closed the door.  Donghae sat up and stared in that direction, scratching his head, utterly confused.  “Was that supposed to be a threat?”

            It was one of the most awkward lunches that Ryeowook had ever been to.  Sungmin was nervous.  Leeteuk was sitting across from him at the table, smiling with that neutral grin of his that doesn’t tell you a damn thing about what he’s really thinking about what’s going on.  Heechul was standing behind Leeteuk, his arms folded in front of his chest, and frowning.  He was only holding his tongue because Leeteuk was in the room.  And Kangin was busy pigging out on Ryeowook’s cooking, completely oblivious to the tension in the room.

            “This is delicious, Wook.”

            “Thanks, hyung.”

            “Best thing I’ve eaten all week,” Kangin insisted before digging back into the lunch spread.  No one else was touching the food at the moment.  At least he was enjoying it.

            “You can’t possibly be serious,” Heechul finally said.

            Leeteuk looked over his shoulder at Heechul and smiled wider, but shook his head.  “Don’t.  Let him speak.”

            Sungmin looked down at his untouched plate.  “I want to publicly acknowledge it.”

            “Could you explain that to me a bit,” Leeteuk pressed.  “None of the rest of us have felt the need to publicly talk about our relationships and she’s a new girlfriend.  Isn’t she?  I mean, the last I knew, you were involved with Eunhyuk.”

            “You knew about that?” Sungmin asked.

            The smile faltered from Leeteuk’s face and he stared at Sungmin.  “I know everything.”

            “Sorry.  Of course you do.”

            “So, if you’ve just started dating her, why publicly acknowledge her?”

            “I don’t want any bad rumors starting about us.  I just want to lay it all out there ahead of time,” he told them.

            “Bull,” Heechul spat back at him.  “Tell us the real reason.”

            “Heechul,” Leeteuk said, a pleading tone to his voice.

            Ryeowook grasped Sungmin’s hand and squeezed it.  “Tell them, Minnie,” he quietly encouraged them.

            “I’m planning on marrying her…probably before I enlist.”

            Even Kangin stopped eating at this point and looked over at Sungmin.  “Huh?”

            “Marry her?” Heechul questioned, saying the words as if he had something bitter in his mouth he was trying to spit out.  “Why the hell would you marry her when you just started going out?”

            “Your parents,” Leeteuk said, nodding.  “I should have guessed.”

            Heechul looked down at Leeteuk and then back at Sungmin.  He was waiting for Sungmin to deny it, but when he didn’t, he realized that Leeteuk’s assumption was right.

            “No!  You’re not marrying some woman you barely know because mommy and daddy can’t handle you being gay.  I refuse to allow it!” Heechul shouted, pounding his fist on the counter.  “That isn’t going to happen.”

            “It is if he wants it to, Heenim.”

            Heechul shook his head.  “Hell no!”

            “Heechul!”

            “I’m not listening to this!  This is insane!  You’re honestly going to let him marry himself off just to keep the peace in his family?  You’d rather him have a miserable marriage than stand up to his parents?”

            “I can’t, hyung!” Sungmin insisted.  “My parents would never forgive me if they thought I’d been involved with another man.  They expect me to marry and give them grandchildren and that’s what’s going to happen.  It’s my duty.”

            “You’re only duty in life is to be happy and not to kill people along the way, as far as I’m concerned.  Parents be damned!” Heechul told him.  “Wookie, you should understand this more than anyone else!  Don’t you?”

            Ryeowook really could not answer honestly without hurting Sungmin, so he said nothing.  Their circumstances were not completely the same, so it was not a fair question to bring up. 

            “And Saeun and I have been good friends for a long time.  She’s not some strange woman I’m completely indifferent to.  Try to be understanding,” Sungmin begged, his eyes full of water.

            “What about Eunhyuk?” Heechul asked.  “What happens to him?  Did you already dump him in favor of your pretend bride?  Does he know why he’s being so easily tossed to the side?”

            “It wasn’t done easily,” Sungmin argued.

            “Oh really?  Are you trying to tell me you still love him?  Because I think you wouldn’t leave him at all if you really gave a .  If my parents told me to choose between them and Gunhee I’d tell them to kiss my .”

            “Right,” Kangin agreed, nodding.

            “You’re not helping,” Leeteuk only said.

            Kangin sighed and went back to eating.

            “I’m not going to change my mind.  I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.  This is the choice I’ve made.  I’m sorry if I disappoint you, but this is happening whether or not you approve of it,” Sungmin informed them.

            “If that’s the case, we’ll support you, of course.  We’re your brothers, after all.”

            “What?” Heechul cried out, looking over at Leeteuk.

            “If you want to publicly announce that you’re dating Saeun, we’ll support you in any way you’d like.  Just keep in mind that it will be a bit of a shock to some of the other members.  You should perhaps mention it to them before you make it known to the rest of the world.  That’s my only request.  Understood?”

            Sungmin nodded.  “Thank you, Teukie hyung.”

            Heechul ran his hands through his hair and pulled it back out of his face, thinking.  He shook his head and left the room. 

            “Will he be okay?” Sungmin asked.

            Leeteuk looked down the hallway.  “I’ll talk to him once he calms down a bit.”

            “Please eat, hyung,” Ryeowook said, waving his hand in front of the food.  “I slaved away all morning on this.”

            Leeteuk smiled, but Ryeowook could see that there was no happiness behind the smile as he began to load up his plate and eat.  Never, in all the years they’d been together, had so little food been consumed by a group of the members coming together to eat.  Except that one time everyone had the stomach flu except for Jongwoon and Siwon. 

            Hyukjae assumed the reason that th