“Here you go!” There was a soft knock at the door as the nurse carrying Sungmin’s breakfast came in. She smiled as she saw Heechul with him. “Hello Heechul. Shall I bring your breakfast in here too?”

Heechul agreed but looked suspiciously at the tray as Sungmin uncovered it. “What did you get?”

“The hot tray and an orange,” Sungmin said. He was about to take a bite of his scrambled eggs when their manager stuck his head in the room. “Okay so, I’m sending a crew in, Sungmin, and- Heechul what are you doing in here?”

“I was bored.”

Sungmin shrugged. “It’s okay, hyung. We’re ready.”

“Good. Okay boys, we’ve got the green light. Go ahead and start.”

“Do they need us to do anything special?” Sungmin asked and then took a bite of toast.

“Alright, are we ready in here too? I’m Bob Anderson, pleased to meet you both.” He shook their hands and smiled. “I’ll be the producer for the documentary. And no, don’t do anything special. I think for now we just want to get to know you guys. Just pretend we aren’t here and do what you normally do.”

Sungmin nodded and kept eating; they had done that on lots of TV shows before.

After breakfast Sungmin changed clothes into some sweat pants and a tee-shirt. The nurse then escorted him and the camera crew into a small gym where Ryeowook was already walking on a treadmill. Sungmin walked over and hugged him before he climbed onto a stationary bike nearby. 

“This is supposed to be fun, but just remember,” Another nurse poked her head over top of her large desk where she was doing paperwork. “Drink lots of water and don’t wear yourselves out too much. Tell me immediately if you start feeling dizzy or if you start having any sort of cramps.”

“We will. But do Leeteuk and Donghae get to come down here too?” Ryeowook asked. 

“Doctor Brooks and Tanya are taking things slowly with them like they did with you. We need to make sure that they get plenty of rest and fluids before allowing them to get up and move around too much. Each of you is still pregnant so your condition is still quite fragile.”

“But why isn’t Heechul down here too?” Sungmin asked. “He hasn’t had any babies yet.”

The nurse smiled. “A little exercise would be good for him and the babies too. He is invited but he wasn’t interested. Maybe tomorrow you guys can talk him into coming too?”

Ryeowook laughed. “Yeah right. Hee-cat hyung hates to exercise even more than I do. The only reason I agreed is I just couldn’t lie down any more!”

The nurse giggled. “Well, the gym is here because we do like to encourage our mothers to try to stay fit. Because healthy mothers really do tend to have healthier babies. But with you guys everything about this is still an experiment, so Tanya and our Dr. Brooks want to make sure we take things slowly. Tanya needs to have another look at you both today on the sonograms. But that probably won’t happen until after lunch.” 

A half hour later, when Kangin’s ringtone started playing from Sungmin’s pocket, he got off the treadmill and flopped into a near by chair to answer it. He felt like he was in terrible shape thanks to all the time he’d spent in bed lately, and his stomach was starting to hurt.

“Hey,” Sungmin smiled as soon as he heard his fiance’s voice though. “You guys were great this morning, saranghae.” 

“Thanks, we are on our way to another TV studio right now. How about you? Are you guys okay? Have they started filming there yet?”

“Filming started this morning during breakfast but we’re fine. Ryeonggu and I are in the gym here in the basement of the clinic right now. It is really nice they have all sorts of machines here but because of our open wounds we can’t go for a swim in the pool or sit in the hot tub.”

“Sorry about that, but how is our daughter?”

“She’s fine, and growing fast. She weighed nine ounces this morning.”

“So tiny. I can’t wait to see the two of you.”

“We miss you too, but right now you and the others have an important job to do. So have fun, okay?”

“Yeah I know but- uhoh, gotta go. We’re here.”

His stomach was still sore but with the tight bindings around it he wasn’t sure why until he stood up and saw his reflection in one of the windows. His shirt had blood on it. “Uhm… Nurse?”

Ryeowook and the nurse saw him at the same time and both of them gasped. The woman scrambled to the phone, issuing a code red in the fitness gym over the intercom. “Dr. Brooks to the gym please, we have a code red. Repeat, we have a code red in the fitness room, Dr. Brooks.”

Ryeowook helped Sungmin sit back down worriedly, “Oh my god. What happened?”

“I don’t know. I felt ok until Kangin called and I sat down over here.”

“You must have leaned too far forward,” The nurse said, leaving her desk to join them as she waited for the rest of the medical staff to respond to her code. She was already taking vitals on him. “Just rest, dear. Well, the good news is, your vitals are very good. I’m sure that you and the babies are going to be okay. Just try to rest. Breathe slowly, okay Sungmin?”

A handful of other nurses came into the room with a stretcher and Dr. Brooks was with them.

“Shut off that camera,” Dr. Brooks scowled at the film crew who had following them out into the hall and even right into the examination room. 

Sungmin shook his head, “Its okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Dr. Brooks smiled faintly. “Alright, but are you having any pain?”

“It does hurt but it isn’t anything like what happened at the press conference. Why are the bindings so tight right now though? They felt ok earlier.”

The doctor turned to one of his nurses. “Will you get my sister on the phone? I think we need to have her take another looks at the babies on the sonogram before we do anything else.”

One nurse left and another one stepped forward with a pair of scissors and helped him remove Sungmin’s ruined shirt and the blood soaked bandages that had covered his c section. “The bandage probably became twisted as you exercised causing blood to start seeping through the dressing.”

The wound was actually pretty small- and this was the first time that Sungmin had seen it without a dressing on it. But he shrugged; Rose had only weighed about four ounces at birth. He found it amazing that there were still more babies in there because his body really hadn’t changed all that much. 

Well, other than a sudden and very frustrating loss of muscle tone in his abs around two weeks ago. Once he figured out he was pregnant it made sense, but at the time he had been alarmed by his sudden weight gain and the growing protrusion of his lower belly. Luckily Kangin didn’t mind- after all his raccoon’s weight had been a veritable yoyo for years. But Sungmin had been working so hard on sliming and toning his body that he had been devastated anyway.

He sighed, wondering if the curious American public would continue to receive them as kindly as they had so far. So far things had been incredibly calm, but he could only pray that their popularity was holding strong at home too. All this time they had allowed ELF to think that they were straight and now admitting otherwise had been a huge gamble. Since they were pregnant there was no other choice and so far the concert promoters for the last stops on their tour dates were happy with the arrangements the company was making, but that didn’t mean their fans would still come to their shows. Thanks to the surge in their popularity in the US, most of their Asian fans seemed curiously optimistic as well, but Sungmin knew it wouldn’t take much to change that.

Still, he tried not to worry about it. Since they were pregnant there wasn’t anything they could do about it anyway at least for now. 

“Here I am,” Tanya said, stepping into the room with a smile. “Hi sweetie, are you feeling okay?”

Sungmin nodded as the nurses brought Tanya the ultrasound equipment. Tanya frowned though when she saw the film crew lined up along the back wall. “Are you sure you want them in here?”

Dr. Brooks sighed unhappily but shrugged. “The boys have all told me they are used to living in front of cameras. But as this is kind of a special situation I already asked him the same thing and Sungmin said they can stay.”

Tanya gave a hesitant nod. “Alright, but if at any time you feel uncomfortable with them here, please tell us, Sungmin.”

He nodded, glad that they seemed so concerned for him. “Okay.”

Once the examination started, even the doctors seemed to forget about the cameras. Sungmin noticed that one of the babies seemed even larger than it looked just yesterday but Tanya told him that it might be just because they were in different positions than before.

“You probably shouldn’t get too physically active just yet. The babies are still squirming around in response to the stress on your body. That and the three of them are crowded into a very small space to begin with.”

Doctor Brooks nodded adding, “We know you’re bored and tired of being in bed all the time but this proves that your incision is just as fragile as your babies. Really you’re very lucky to have such good muscle tone. Because that and the bandages are all that is keeping the babies in there. You can still get up and move around some during the day but I would say we should to limit your exercise in the fitness room to about a half hour twice a day. And if that goes well then maybe we’ll see about letting you go back to the hotel on Monday of next week.”

Sungmin smiled. That was good news all around. He had been scared that he was about to be confined to his hospital bed again. But hearing that he would still get to visit the fitness room too was even better! Now all he needed was a cheeseburger from Burger King to celebrate and he’d be set.

He walked out of the examination room and Ryeowook pounced right there in the waiting room, hugging him immediately. “Hyung, you’re okay! But what happened?”

“They said one of the bandages got twisted and started putting pressure on the babies and they started squirming around so I started bleeding.”

“It is so weird that we each have babies but that we’re still having more…” Ryeowook sighed.

Sungmin nodded. “At least you only have one more to go. What time is it?”

“Almost one- hey we can have lunch now!”

“Hopefully it isn’t another salad plate though.”

“The noodle thing yesterday wasn’t bad.”

“The salad tasted fine but I was hungry again an hour after we ate. Besides I still just want a cheeseburger.”

“Keep sulking, Kangin will give in eventually.” Sungmin rolled his eyes and Ryeowook giggled. “Of course he will. Hyung loves making you happy.”

“Hey!” Leeteuk called, waving his arms as the two of them walked past his room. “Have you guys seen this?”

They sat down beside their leader’s bed; the others were on TV again. But it soon became apparent that this was something else. A large table was set up and there were cameras all around it.

“We are taking you now to Seoul, in South Korea where an American claims to be the one responsible for the pregnancies of the Super Junior members.

A woman with red hair and sparkling green eyes was brought to the table and she smiled as she looked around. “Hello everyone,” She said in surprisingly good Korean. “I am Allison Davis. I am a research scientist and a fertility specialist. My work in Korea has been going very well but last year I became frustrated with the slow progress on government analysis of my work. So I decided on a plan that would show the world that our products are both safe and effective. What better way to prove that they work than by impregnating a man?”

“But what does that have to do with Super Junior?” One of the reporters asked.

Allison’s smile widened. “You fell asleep during Adonis Camp, didn’t you?” A few people in the audience laughed but Allison continued. “The boys of Super Junior are obviously gay so I knew that they would make the best test subjects. All they needed to do was finish ingesting my formulas at the right intervals and then have . Since there are so many of them I was sure that I could count on at least a few would do both.” 

“How could you do something so awful? They are human beings not lab rats!” someone cried.

Allison shrugged. “They aren’t in any danger. A little embarrassed maybe but-”

“A little? How could you do this? They are people but you gave them no choice at all!”

Allison laughed. “Well, even if I hadn’t done this, those adorable gay boys would still never be interested in you, little girl.”

Sungmin frowned. “Did she really say all that?”

“She’s laughing…” Ryeowook shook his head sadly. “I’m going back to my room. I’ll see you later, hyungs.”

Sungmin didn’t want to listen to the crazy lady anymore either so he followed Wook out into the hall. “Hey- are you okay, Ryeonggu?”

“I don’t know.”

Sungmin sighed as he watched Ryeowook kick out the film crew and close the door to his room. For now he decided he would let the younger male have his space. He went to his room and crawled into bed and put his call light on.

The nurse who answered it smiled when she saw him. “I was wondering when you would be back. Are you hungry yet?” 

Sungmin nodded. “Yes, but what is on the menu?”

“How about spaghetti with meat sauce?”

Sungmin shook his head. “What else?”

“I’m taking my lunch break in a few minutes, how about I bring you back a hamburger from Burger King?”

“Would you really?” 

She smiled. “Of course, I’m going there anyway. My boyfriend asked me to meet him there for a late lunch today. He is the manager so he can’t take a break until after their busy lunch rush is over.”

“Thank you,” Sungmin bowed politely. “I really appreciate this.”

“Well we can’t let you go hungry, can we? So do you want me to bring you anything in particular? I mean, do you have a favorite thing?”

“A hamburger and fries will be perfect since I can’t have any caffeine.”

“Okay then, I’m off to take my break, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Time seemed to take forever to pass but he knew it only seemed that way because he had been so hungry for burgers lately. To keep himself distracted he the TV.

He squealed happily when he saw Kangin and the others doing another interview. But this time the woman interviewing them was Oprah!

“So, you guys have been hiding who you really are all this time- not only from your fans but your families as well?”

“It wasn’t a choice any of us wanted to make,” Kibum said quietly. “But our image was already being molded for us by the company long before we ever began performing. And like they say, in show business image really is everything. So once we debuted we were stuck with it.”

Oprah nodded. “That makes sense. And it makes me wonder, was there ever a time when you felt that the pressure to be perfect for your fans threatened to pull your group apart?”

Kangin nodded. “Yes, more often than we would like to admit. But for me the worst was two years ago. I almost lost Sungmin because I was listening when management told me that the two of us were getting too close- on stage and off. Since I am older, the managers came to me first and I didn’t want to burden him with what the company said. I let him think that breaking up with him was my idea.” 

“You broke up with him to protect him?”

Kangin nodded solemnly. “I didn’t want him to be angry with the company. I hoped if he was mad at me maybe he would find someone else.”

Oprah was visibly surprised. “You would put the company you work for in front of your own heart?”

Kangin nodded but didn’t say anything. Siwon reached over and hugged him, but if he had been close enough, Sungmin would’ve smacked Kangin in the head.

“Why the hell couldn’t you just tell me?” Sungmin sighed, knowing his lover wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“The hyungs have always tried to protect the younger members,” Kyuhyun said. “Sometimes they forget that we are adults now too.”

“Yeah but I think even the company sometimes forgets that most of us literally grew up together in the SM dorm while we were training to perform. In some ways we really are closer to each other than we are to our own families,” Eunhyuk said. 

Yesung nodded, adding, “Sure we have our arguments and stuff sometimes but every family does.”

The others all nodded and Oprah smiled. “I see that. Okay we’re going to take a quick break, but when we come back we’ll have more of our special interview with Super Junior. So, please stay with us!”

“Hey there!” The nurse called from outside the doorway. “Are you still hungry?”

“Yes this!” Sungmin nodded vigerously. 

The nurse smiled and brought him the bag. “Do you want some more ice water?”

“Yesh- pleash,” Sungmin said, stuffing a pile of french-fries in his mouth. “So good…”

“Well, good. Just let me know if you need anything else.” The nurse said, setting the water jug back on the bedside stand.

“Thank you,” Sungmin called after her. By the time he was almost done eating the program was over but he hadn’t really been watching the rest of it.

“Hey,” Kangin said knocking on the door. When he saw what Sungmin was eating though, he scowled.

Sungmin just grinned and continued making his pile of French fries disappear. “I missed lunch and the nurse offered.”

Kangin frowned. “Missed lunch- why?”

“I started bleeding from my incision in the gym so I had to have a bunch of tests done again. Everything is okay but it took forever. How was your day?”

“I missed you,” Kangin said. “How is our daughter?”

“They are feeding her. When they’re done they’ll bring her in.”

Kangin nodded and sat down beside him. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Sungmin smirked. “Kiss me.”

Kangin looked at the film crew and shook his head. “Nope.”

“You said you love me,” Sungmin poked him in the chest. “Show me.”

Kangin sighed but he could see that he wasn’t going to win the argument. 

He had only meant to give him a little peck on the lips but Sungmin wrapped his arms around his neck and moaned softly as he on Kangin’s bottom lip. He melted into that sweet kiss, forgetting everything but how much he loved Sungmin. 

“Oh my god- are you two making out again?” Shindong rolled his eyes and elbowed Heechul. “You called it, hyung. Even cameras don’t stop them.”

Heechul looked pleased with himself as they ushered the film crew out and closed the door.