‘Cough!” Heechul coughed, taking deep breaths as he hit his chest with his right hand, trying to stop the coughing fit.

It’s been 2 days after they officially ended their promotions for the third album, and they were given a five-day break before resuming rehearsal for their second asia tour ‘Super Show II’. And right on the first day of the break, Heechul had gotten a cough and slight flu, plus a high fever. The other members have concluded that it must be the release from the stress of the hectic schedule, rushing from one music programme to another variety show, and thus they practically left him to hang on his dear life by going out with their loved ones. Why waste a holiday looking at Heechul sleep? Heechul was practically knocked out after he took his medicine.

Besides, Heechul don’t need all the members by his side, he just need his one and only.

“YAH HANKYUNG! GET ME A GLASS OF—COUGHCOUGH” Heechul shouted from his bedroom in his hoarse voice. Once again he hit his chest hard to stop that annoying coughing fit.

“I got it I got it,” came a weak reply, and within a minute the door was opened, and in waft a sweet aroma of Beijing fried rice. Heechul sat up on the bed, placing his pillow as a cushion as he leaned on it, watching the well built man wearing a pink apron practically waltz in. His actions are as graceful as always.

“Here,” Hankyung said, his soft voice like a velvet silk, smooth and gentle as he sat down on a chair beside the bed and placed the tray of food on the small space beside Heechul. He stretched out his hand and place them on Heechul’s forehead, and a smile slipped on his face. “Fever, no more,” he said, in his broken Korean that never failed to amaze Heechul. How can one guy that learned Korean for four years and more still fail in their Korean grammar?

“Feed me,” Heechul said, or ordered as Hankyung sighed. Sometimes he wondered what he had done to deserve all this. “I got it I got it,” Hankyung replied as he shifted from the chair to the space on the side of the bed. Picking up the bowl of fried rice, he scooped a mouthful and turned to Heechul. “Ahhh,” he said. Heechul leaned in and took the rice, before mumbling that ‘he’s not a kid’. Hankyung can’t help but smiled at the pretty boy in front of him, who was acting just like a spoilt brat. His spoilt brat.

After finishing his bowl of rice, Hankyung picked up the pink pills at the side of the tray and the glass of water, and saw Heechul stiffen. Hankyung sigh, knowing what would happen next, “Heechullie…you know you need to take the pills.” Heechul shook his head. “They’re your favourite pink?” Hankyung tried again.

“I’m not Sungmin,” Heechul said as he clutch his blanket, staring at the ‘oh-my-god it’s hot pink’ type of pink pills. “Brightly coloured stuff are poisonous!” he continued, stubborn as always.

“Nothing happened yesterday,” Hankyung said, referring that the pills only put Heechul to a deep slumber but had no side effects…or so he hoped.

“…I don’t care,” Heechul said, in his so spoilt prince manner.

And so Hankyung have to use his last card.

“I’d feed you?”

Two huge eyes shot up. And blinked. The older man his slightly chapped lips, thinking about the tempting offer. Without a reply Hankyung slipped the pills into his mouth with a gulp of water as he closed onto Heechul’s lips, using his tongue to push the pills in and the water to wash the slightly bitter taste down the older man’s mouth. As he pulled back, Heechul’s hands held him and pushed the younger man closer to him.

“You planned this,” Hankyung mumbled, feeling the other’s smirk on his lips, his own arms wrapping onto Heechul’s waist. “And you liked it,” Heechul replied, as he pulled back a little for air. Hankyung looked away, his face flushed red in colour.

“Go to sleep,” he said as he stood up, only to have his hand pulled back.

“Only with you,” the other said, childishly, his huge black eyes blinking back at Hankyung’s eyes. He gulped, then sighed. He will always give in to the other’s wishes, no matter how irritating, stupid, childish it was.

“After I washed this,” Hankyung said, pointing to the tray that seem to have laid forgotten by the side of the bed. Heechul smiled, his genuine one, and let Hankyung go. He never have to worry that Hankyung is finding excuses to run away, because he just can’t.

---

Hankyung look down at the pretty boy in his arms, and he reached out to that white pretty face, then smiled as the boy snuggled closer towards him. It was always been like that since they became friends. Heechul was his first ever friend in Korea, the only one that helped him, stand by him and pulled him through all hardships in this foreign land. The first impression he had of the boy, besides that he was pretty, he was straightforward. Heechul do as he please, and got what he wanted half the time. He was a brat, a genius one that has all the craziest but creative ideas that never fails to amuse him. Whenever Super Junior gather to play games, he was the one with the wackiest dares, and the only one that never seem to be able to wriggle himself out of any dares as well. Even Kangin and Eeteuk have to give in to him.

Heechul is strong, both mentally and physically, despite his feminine looks. He never let his illness get into the way, when he was injured he insisted in resuming practice and joined in the performance as soon as possible. He recalled the time before he debut, a group of guys had taunted him, and when Heechul saw he went forward and punched one of the guys so hard that all of them ran away. Hankyung chuckled lightly, and saw the said boy furrowed his beautiful arched brows a little before turning his back towards him.

He liked to joked, but he was all serious when it comes down to work. He likes to bring laughter to everyone, but when it comes to recording music, MC-ing and more, he’s all serious. He makes sure that he is able to remember the sequencing of the show run, to know who’s going on the show, make sure that he have listened to the music before hand and memorized the questions to ask. He made sure to remember the lyrics of his parts…sometimes even the others before each and every recording. He made sure he practiced, and took extra care of his vocal cords during the promotion period, not as to make the same mistake twice. The dance he had memorized, had to be worked on and perfected. He was one that had pushed all members for extra dance practice to make sure everything runs smoothly, because coordination between a 13-member group isn’t as easy as it seems.

He was a brat, but he’s one of the most caring ones among them. Though not a motherly figure like Ryeowook, but deep in his heart he truly cares. He just don’t know how to express it, that all that comes out of his mouth are harsh, irresponsible words. He can still remembered the time that Heechul made Eunhyuk cried on his birthday, then phoning him with a series of ‘I did it again’, ’What to do?’ and ‘How’s, before buying an expensive shirt as a present to Eunhyuk, which the latter wore happily to the birthday dinner later that day. Hankyung hugged the boy in his arms, slowly drifting to sleep himself as he remembered that the sight of Heechul throwing the shirt onto Eunhyuk and demanding him to wear it as it was a gift from him and ordered the poor birthday boy to stop crying, stuffing tissue onto his face.

---

It was around seven in the evening when Heechul woke up to the warmth of the lean muscular body beside him. He smiled upon seeing the handsome features of the younger man, and snuggled closer towards him. The same boy that he once saw as ‘weak’, quiet and yet, charming in his own way.

Hankyung was quiet, no doubt. The Heechul met Hankyung, he knew Hankyung is a quiet and sensitive boy, one that is thoughtful and will never bring trouble to anyone. Heechul snuffled a snigger remembering that time, Hankyung was his main bullying target. Besides the fact that his Korean is broken, he really is a quiet one. However, his blood will boil everytime he remembered how the group of boys taunted him in front of him. No one bullies Hankyung, unless the person is Kim Heechul, and that guy is no where near it. Of course, Hankyung won’t fight back. Maybe he didn’t fully understand the Korean they were shouting at him, but Heechul was more certain that it was the second option, that it is actually Hankyung’s character to keep quiet.

Heechul wrapped his arms over Hankyung possessively, a smug smile appeared on his face as he remembered delivering a punch he never knew he actually can, along with a string of curses that sent the group of them running. Ha. Serves them right.

Heechul has always been there when Hankyung needs an listening ear—In fact Hankyung was the only one able to make him shut up long enough without interrupting as he spilled his problems. He was always there to lend a helping hand, a shoulder to cry on and a comforting hug before the younger boy drifted off to sleep.

Yet in all ways weak and soft, Hankyung’s dance isn’t. It was strong, sometimes fierce, yet elegant. Hankyung danced with his soul, his heart and his mind, into every move, every step. It was captivating. The first time Heechul saw it, he knew that Hankyung was borned to dance. Though, he might add, modern dance does not give him justice he deserve, no matter how y he looked as he danced to the upbeat rhythm. Traditional dance and contemporary are his specialty instead. No wonder he won 2nd place in the whole of China for traditional dance. He deserve that much.

Now, that young man has grown up to be strong. Not the one that he have to look after, not the one that he have to worry about any more. He chuckled, snuggling in Hankyung’s chest. Instead, he was the one being protected, being loved. He learned how to fight for his rights, to fight for what he wanted.

---

“Heechul…?” Hankyung muttered, rubbing his eyes awake as he woke up, only to find the pretty man’s face a few inches away from him.

“Finally,” Heechul said as he kissed Hankyung quickly on the lips before pulling away. “I thought I was going to die of hunger. I’m feeling better now, go cook and I’d join you later.”

 “Yes, my princess,” he said, only to find himself on the wooden floor in mere seconds. Hankyung laughed, his brat was alive and kicking, literally.

---

The next day Eeteuk woke up to find Heechul in the kitchen. It was a rare occurrence, and in one sense, not a good sight. “Heechul…what are you doing?” he asked cautiously, as he made his way to the fridge.

“What does it look like to you? Breakfast of course!”

Eeteuk gulped. Heechul and breakfast does not match. “For…?” he asked again, his brain trying to come up with all sorts of excuses to escape from this ‘last breakfast’.

“Not for you obviously, Hankyung’s sick.” Heechul merely replied, as he switched off the stove and poured the congee onto a bowl labelled ‘hangeng’, given by fans of course.

“Oh. OHHH.” Eeteuk said upon hearing that, then laughed his unique laughter.

“Shut up,” was what he heard before Heechul marched upstairs with the tray, as Kangin walked pass him.

“What happened?” he asked, and Eeteuk gave a smug smile before replying, “Hankyung’s sick.”

“So?” Kangin asked, and Eeteuk laughed again.

“It  was Heechul that was sick, remember?”

“Oh. OHHH.”

---

“Hannie~” came a singsong voice as Hankyung sat up weakly from his bed, only to find Heechul coming in with a bowl of congee that looks bland and tasteless, together with two hot-pink pills. He winced. Heechul's cooking he can handle, but medicine...Aish.

“Do I have to take the pills…?” he asked, his statement coming out in full standard Korean, but in a cracked voice. Heechul laughed, “And I thought I was the one that hate the pills.” With that, he popped the pills into his mouth as he snoop down on Hankyung’s in a quick movement.

“I hate you…” Hankyung replied weakly, as Heechul gave a huge wide smirk b with confidence. One thing’s for sure, he’s hundered percent cured.

“No, you love me.”