Title: M.A.D.E

Pairing: slight Eunhae, Bandfic

Rating: PG-13

Genres: Angst, friendship, humour

Warnings: AU, Self-harm

A/N: This fic is inspired by the phrase "True friends aren't bought, they're MADE." The format is written from end to beginning, so it might be confusing, let me know if it is :) This format, which only reveals the most important truth at the end after a lead up of clues, was inspired by the movie Six Sense (although mine has nothing to do with ghosts, sorry to disappoint). This makes both title and summary very hard to write... But I had fun. Please enjoy ~

 

11.

 

Ryeowook, Ryeowook, Ryeowook……

 

Damn, why wouldn’t he open his eyes?

 

Where? Where had it gone wrong?

 

Don’t take away yet another person from me!

 

Someone was begging him. “Kyuhyun, stop it, it won’t help…please…” 

 

He turned around. Ten pairs of eyes stared back at him, lost, shocked, and scared.

 

…

 

“Kyuhyun?! Kyuhyun, don’t cry…”

 

 

10.

 

Siwon grinned brightly at them. Kyuhyun attempted to as well, and ended with an awkward upturn of the corner of his lips. “Guys, uh- remember Siwon? He’s come to live with us.”

 

A chorus of “Hi, Siwon”. The occasional, “Good to see you again”. Siwon’s mega-watt smile dimmed a little.

 

“Guys, what’s the matter? Is something wrong?” He looked at all the drawn-in faces. “Where’s Kangin-hyung?”

 

“Do I know you?” A cold voice interrupted the pretence of a reunion. 

 

Siwon jerked in surprise. Leeteuk’s cold eyes bore into him. “Teukkie-hyung, what are you saying?”

 

“Don’t call me that!” Leeteuk cut in sharply. “You don’t know me, you don’t know Kangin, you don’t know any of us!”

 

Heechul grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him hard as he ranted. “That’s enough! Don’t you remember all the times Siwon would pray for us when we fall ill? All the times he gave us his snack when we were punished for being bad and not allowed to eat lunch? All the times he stayed up to comfort someone and we could hear his gentle voice across the room?”

 

Leeteuk went limp, as if knocked unconscious. Heechul quickly caught him, and before anyone could panic, he seemed to be awake again in a few moments. 

 

Leeteuk looked up and beamed at him. “Oh, hi, Siwon! It’s been a while!”

 

Sungmin ran out of the room, banging the door behind him, and was quickly followed by the majority.

 

 

9.

 

“You have to take responsibility for this, the family is furious! If it was malfunctioning, as a professional researcher you should have-” An agitated, aggressive voice was ranting over the phone. 

 

Where’s Kangin? Is he alright?

 

“What Kangin?” The voice snapped. “At a time like this, you’re still worried about your ‘Kangin’ ?!”

 

What else should I be worrying about, then?!

 

“Maybe you can worry about your own wellbeing, because after this I doubt your research is going to continue being unnoticed! And if that’s not enough, you can help me worry about our ministry - No, our entire government, when the public finds out!”

 

I don’t care about your damned government! Kangin is my family!

 

“God, you must be crazy! I don’t have the time to speak to you anymore, just don’t show your face at the hospital! Who knows how much people would find out if anyone recognised you.”

 

Is Kangin hurt? Can you bring him home, or at least let me speak to him?

 

“No! We’ll be detaining him! If you know whats good for you, me and ‘him’, you’ll not step a foot out of your house for the next few days!”

 

Hello? Hello?! HELLO!

 

Smash. 

 

“Kyuhyun! What if the phone spoiled? If he hung up, you can always call again,” Shindong admonished him.

 

The other seven of them were all seated in front of the TV, but nobody was watching. Yesung had the remote, and was flipping listlessly from channel to channel. As Kyuhyun bent to pick up the phone, the sound of half-sentences and static noise suddenly stopped.

 

“- 8am this morning, a white Lexus has collided into a cab with a family of three in it. According to eyewitnesses, the Lexus was driving at a dangerous speed and disregarding traffic and safety rules. The cab driver and father suffered fatal injuries, while mother and son suffered minor injuries. 

The Lexus driver was reported by eyewitnesses to have been injured heavily in his left abdomen. However when reporters have arrived at the hospital they are currently in, the Lexus driver was not bleeding and refused to be checked by the hospital paramedics, though he was pale and as if in great pain, and an eyewitness claimed he had a different shirt on.

 

Four eyewitnesses claimed that the Lexus driver is actually a-” 

 

The TV was abruptly turned off. Dead silence prevailed in the room. Then Eunhyuk started to sob, muffled as if he was trying hard to hold it in.

 

Kyuhyun stood up again facing away from them, phone in a vice-like grip.

 

 Duuu…Duuu…

 

“Hello, this is the Ministry of Science and Technology Research, how may I help you?”

 

Smash. 

 

 

8.

 

 

“Ouch!” Donghae glared at the tiny paper cut on his finger, and started to tear up. “It hurts, it hurts, it really hurts!”

 

The others winced. “Looks really painful…”  Yesung shuddered.

 

Euhyuk came over to nurse Donghae’s little pinky, smiling wryly. “Seems like the older we get, the more afraid of pain we become, huh?” 

 

“Yeah, I remember when we could climb the tallest trees and never fear scrapes or cuts.” 

 

They all laughed. “We’re getting old…” 

 

Kyuhyun laughed along. Like this, no one would ever get hurt……

 

 

 

Kyuhyun woke up at six in the morning. He would have slept in later, but he’d thought he’d heard - 

 

A piercing, wild and frightened scream shocked him again.

 

Barely awake, he scrambled down in his pyjamas, trying to get to the source of the scream. When he skidded into the kitchen, it was to a crowd of boys dressed similarly, crowding around something.

 

Someone, Kyuhyun realised, when he saw Shindong, Sungmin and Leeteuk trying to hold down someone, and Eunhyuk crouched right next to that person, trying to talk in a comforting tone.

 

“C-calm down, let’s talk about this, put down the knife first…” Eunhyuk was trembling.

 

They noticed him coming. The crowd parted, and suddenly, all of them were trying to talk to him at once. 

 

“Kyuhyun! Thank god you’re awake, he-”

 

“We don’t know what happened, I was sleeping and then he started-”

 

“What’s happening, Kyuhyun?! Is he gonna - ”

 

“Hold him!” 

 

But Kyuhyun’s warning was too late. Donghae struggled free from the slacked grip of his captives and raised the gleaming knife, this time to his stomach, and sliced.

 

Heechul screamed. Eunhyuk lunged forward and grabbed the sharp edge of the kitchen knife with his bare hands, wrenching it out of Donghae’s hands. Tears of pain streamed down his face, but from the wound on his palms or that in his heart, Kyuhyun didn’t know.

 

“It’s true, it was all true, it won’t bleed, it’s not - not bleeding… not bleeding…” Donghae was getting dangerously close to hysterical. His arms and legs had a number of large, gaping slashes. Self-inflicted.

 

“Not bleeding…” Donghae raised both arms, and before anyone realised what was going on, used one hand to dig into a wound on his arm, tearing it wider.

 

Most of them were yelling. Someone fainted with a ‘thump’. 

 

Before he could do any more damage to himself, Kyuhyun pinned Donghae down, and gave him a sharp push to the left of his chest. Donghae’s eyes rolled back, and he was unconscious.

 

Shindong carried Donghae, and Kyuhyun nudged a bawling Eunhyuk up. Together, they made their way down the staircase into the basement.

 

 

7.

 

 

Sungmin cleared his throat loudly. But as usual, the other seven men were making a ruckus during dinner, joking and laughing.

 

“Hellloooo, I’m trying to speak here.” Still, he went unheard. Sungmin was Fed Up.

 

He stood up and yelled, “I’m going to get married and have children with my beloved!”

 

A shocked silence followed his outburst. But it was short-lived, as all of them immediately erupted into furious questionings. Sungmin wondered if they wanted to hear him speak or not.

 

“And we will have eleven children and I’ll name them all after the eleven Disney princesses! Even the boys!” 

 

This kept them quiet for a little longer.

 

“What’s going on, Sungmin?” Leeteuk asked. Finally. 

 

Sungmin began. “So some time ago I met this really nice girl when I was working at the cafe,”

 

Yesung snickered. “Sungmin thinks all pretty girls wearing pink are nice.”

 

Sungmin ignored him pointedly. “She’s perfect! She can sing so well, and she calls me oppa cutely, and we just click!” 

 

There was a loud bout of laughter. No one was taken by surprise that Sungmin chose his girlfriends like that. “So now you’re dating her?”

 

“Yes, and I usually would not tell you guys because I knew you would be like this,” Eunhyuk slapped him on the back, hard, and Donghae giggled. 

 

“But my darling Sa Eun says it’s time I brought her to visit my family, and she would be really interested to meet you guys.”

 

Kyuhyun, who had kept completely silent and emotionless during the whole thing, spoke up. “You told her about us?”

 

“Of course! I mean, we’ve been dating for a while now, and when she asked about my parents, I told her the truth, naturally. She was inconsolable when I told her I grew up in the orphanage. So, I told her that I have no parents, but I have a family who I grew up with, and that’s you guys.” Sungmin grinned proudly at the chorus of ‘awww’ and ‘Sungmin, you sap’.

 

Kyuhyun didn’t seem to be too pleased. “How long have you been dating?”

 

“Six months or so? God, I feel like I’ve known her for years, that’s how close we are.”

 

“Sungmin, I’m sorry, but she can’t come.” Kyuhyun looked down at his food, but he’s only been poking at it since the start.

 

“Why? Besides, I’ve already told Sa Eun to come… She’ll probably be arriving soon.” Sungmin frowned.

 

“Then tell her to go home!” Kyuhyun snapped. Everyone was suddenly silenced by Kyuhyun’s outburst.

 

Ding dong, Ding dong.

 

“That must be Sa Eun.” Sungmin gave Kyuhyun a long look. “I’m going to let her in.”

 

“This is my house, I said no!” Kyuhyun pushed back his chair to stand menacingly between Sungmin and the doorway. “Message her and tell her to leave.”

 

Kyuhyun had never used house ownership to force them into things before. In fact, they were already starting to forget that Kyuhyun had bought the house with the money inherited. After a while of playing and suffering together at the orphanage, it was hard to remember that Kyuhyun had been in his parents’ warm embrace up until he was five, when they passed away in an accident, unlike the rest of them who never knew their parents.

 

Kyuhyun liked everyone to be equal, so he doesn’t let them pay for rent, and often said the house belonged to all of them. Something must be up for him to say what he did.

 

“Kyuhyun, is something the matter? Why can’t Sungmin’s girlfriend come?” Leeteuk gently probed, reaching out to pat Kyuhyun on his shoulder.

 

Before Kyuhyun could think up of a reply, the clanging of keys and the ‘click’ of the door unlocking seemed to echo in the now-silent room. “I don’t think that’s Sungmin’s girlfriend,” Shindong said weakly.

 

Some clattering from behind Kyuhyun. “Kyuhyunnie! We’re back! Did you miss us?” A middle aged couple came in from the doorway, a few large luggages in hand. 

 

“We heard a bit of shouting from outside, and we waited but no one opened the door, so we had to fish for the key ourselves.” The lady peered at the room full of people. “Is everything alright?”

 

“Y-yeah,” Kyuhyun turned around slowly. 

 

“Oh, you guys must be our Kyuhyunnie’s friends! I didn’t even know he had so many friends, he’s always at home.” She chuckled. “Our boy sure grew up fast, eh? We’re Kyuhyun’s parents, thank you for taking care of him while we were overseas.”

 

The warmth of Leeteuk’s hand suddenly left his shoulder, and his comforting presence retreated from his side. 

 

“Kyuhyun?” Sungmin shakily voiced.

 

He turned back. Confusion, anger, betrayal……

 

“Since… since when did you have parents?”

 

“Oh, we adopted Kyuhyun when he was five. Kyuhyun told you about that?” Mrs Cho helpfully replied.

 

“And Kyuhyun, aren’t you going to greet us properly?” Mr and Mrs Cho extended their arms for a hug. Kyuhyun froze.

 

“Come on, don’t be shy!” Mrs Cho pulled Kyuhyun into a hug, while his father patter him on the back. When Kyuhyun turned back from all of the smothering, all of them were gone. 

 

He later found the door under the stairs agar.

 

 

6.

 

 

“Play, let’s go and play!” Donghae swung his legs happily. 

“Lets! Just like we used to do, back when we still had school holidays!” Eunhyuk, draped all over Donghae, grinned.

 

It was a lazy Saturday morning, with all seven of them gathered in the living room, haphazardly positioned all over the sofas and on the floor. Ever since Donghae and Eunhyuk had joined them in their steadily growing home, their days had been a lot more hectic, but also very, very exciting.

 

“Let’s go to somewhere with a lake!” Yesung tilted his head backwards to look at the rest of them upside down.

 

“Or a beach with a sparkling clear sea!” Heechul pumped a fist up. 

 

“And bring half a dozen watermelons!” Shindong was the first to jump up.

 

“Yay! Let’s go!” 

 

“Hey, remember that time in high school when we all went to that beach with all the bikini ladies? And when one of them started hitting on little preadolescent Yesung…” A roar of laughter. “Woah! That pool of blood!” 

 

“Hey!” Yesung was flushed an angry red. Everyone was chattering about all their past adventures and escapades in an instance. 

 

Leeteuk called, “Kyuhyunnie, go check the weather forecast! It’ll be horrid if it did rain while we were outside…”

 

Kyuhyun got up from his position sprawled on the floor to plop down in front of the computer. 

 

Click click. Today’s… Weather… Forecast…

 

Largely dry with sunny spells.

 

But if ersatz epidermis starts to soak in water or salt, it might shrink or break…

 

“Kyuhyun? How is it?” Leeteuk poked his head out of the noisy crowd. Kyuhyun hastily closed the computer.

 

“It’ll rain really hard all day. Let’s go another time.”

 

 

5.

 

 

“Guys, I want to go overseas.” Yesung dropped the bomb mere days after he came to live with them, in the middle of dinner, which was dangerous.

 

Shindong groaned. “I know Heechul is very hard to live with, but you needn’t run so quickly! What about me? And Leeteuk and Kyuhyun? We’re innocent!”

 

Heechul smacked him with his elbow. With Heechul’s gravy-stained fork in that hand, and an oiled, gleaming knife in the other, Shindong kept his mouth shut.

 

“But why? It’s really sudden.” Leeteuk asked.

 

“Well, you all know the club I sing in,” All grimaced. It was a smoky, deafening place. But Yesung liked singing anything, anywhere, so they supposed if he liked it, it should be fine. Or so they thought.

 

“So did some lonely rich old hag tell you that if you followed her to her husband’s country she’d take care of you for life?” Heechul stood and yelled, “She’s LYING!”

 

“It’s not like that!” 

 

“Yeah, what kind of old hag would want to pick Yesung up?” Kyuhyun snickered.

 

“Excuse me, I’m an ajumma killer! But that’s beside the point, it’s not an old hag!”

 

“Then is it a gay cheating on his wife?” Heechul wagged his eyebrows at Yesung. What other kind of person could one expect in such a club?

 

“Heechul, that’s you in a few years,” Leeteuk joked.

 

“Listen to me! It’s a talent scout!” An exaggerated chorus of inhaling. Yesung paused for dramatic effect.

 

“I, Kim Jong Woon Yesung, have been spotted by a Chinese talent scout, and he wants to bring me to China to join a talent show. And if I win, they’ll sign a contract with me!”

 

“Wow, Yesung, that’s fantastic!” 

 

“Go get that expensive bottle of red wine! This calls for a celebration!”

 

Later that night when Yesung was already in bed and falling asleep, someone peeked into his room. For once, it wasn’t Yesung creeping into others’ rooms. Kyuhyun stood at the doorway, the light from outside behind him. “Can I come in?”

 

Yesung, surprised, motioned him to enter, and to sit next to him on his bed. “Of course, this house is yours after all.”

 

“Ours,” Kyuhyun corrected. 

 

“Yeah, our house.” Yesung smiled.

 

“Precisely because its our’s, I……I wish you wouldn’t go, Yesung.”

 

Yesung studied Kyuhyun’s face carefully. Because the light was against him when he came in, Yesung couldn’t see Kyuhyun’s expression, but now, the slight orange glow accented the man’s furrowed brows, conveying all the worry and loneliness in the world.

 

Yesung knew Kyuhyun usually wouldn’t request for such a thing, nor would he express his sentimental emotions very much. Suddenly, Kyuhyun looked very young.

 

“I know this is a rare and important chance, and I shouldn’t ruin it, but I really don’t want you to go where I can’t protect you…I don’t want anyone to leave… I-I can’t tell you why yet, but - ”

 

Yesung ruffled his hair. “Since when did the dongsaeng start to protect the hyung? It should be the other way round.” 

 

Kyuhyun scowled at him, but Yesung only laughed. He had decided to believe in Kyuhyun. 

 

“Stop worrying. I won’t go.”

 

 

4.

 

 

Heechul came down the stairs, to the anxious stares of Kyuhyun and Leeteuk. “Shindong is still not coming out?” Heechul nodded in confirmation.

 

“Don’t you guys think he’s been acting really weird ever since he started living here?” Heechul frowned.

 

“Do you think he’s not used to the new environment yet?” Kyuhyun frets. Shindong has locked himself in his room for three days now, and Kyuhyun was starting to worry about what happened behind those closed doors. What if…he’s…not Right?

 

“Well, we needn’t worry about his physical health, at least.” Leeteuk chipped in. “He’s moved at least two dozens of different flavoured instant ramyeon into his room the minute he came……” Leeteuk paused. “I suppose that’s worrying for his health as well…”

 

Just then, the door clicked open. “Hey guys! Are we having breakfast?” Shindong sat himself in front of the dining table, as if the past few days of disappearing act had never happened. 

 

Kyuhyun gasped. “Shindong, how did you…gain so much weight within three days?” Indeed, when he first came, Shindong was average sized, even slightly on the underweight side. Kyuhyun was the only one who saw him like that, for Shindong had locked himself in before the other two could greet him. But now, Shindong seemed to have been inflated like a balloon.

 

“What are you going on about, Kyu?” Heechul looked at him weirdly. “Shindong’s always been like this,” 

 

That’s…that’s strange. Even the memories……

“In fact, I think Shindong’s lost a lot of weight, haven’t you?” Leeteuk gave him a thumbs up.

 

“Thank guys, but I think I’ll rather work hard at returning to my ‘formal glory’.”

 

Kyuhyun decided to leave it. Maybe God also has an appearance in mind for them…I’ll let nature take its course. 

 

Kyuhyun was starting to forget that they were not a part of nature.

 

 

3.

 

 

Leeteuk was excited that Heechul had come to live with him and Kyuhyun. It was great to have one more person in the house, even if Heechul did demand for him to give up his bedroom, which was the biggest and the closest to the stairs, and claim it for himself. 

 

However, enjoying the man’s presence did not mean he dared to wake Heechul up. 

 

It was already noon, and the breakfast Kyuhyun had made that morning for Heechul had gone cold. But god forbade if anyone dared to make Heechul eat cold breakfast for lunch. 

 

Leeteuk turned back from the closed door, feeling the courage he had mustered up dissolve at the thought of Heechul’s wrath. Together with his bravery went the uncomfortable sensation that he was forgetting something, or missing out something, or something was not quite right, which was a feeling he got when he approached Heechul’s bedroom.

 

“We need to wake him, it’s not healthy to sleep in so late.” Kyuhyun looked disapproving, but when Leeteuk motioned for him to go ahead, Kyuhyun hesitated, then ate his own words. “He’ll wake up when he wants to, it should be alright. I think.”

 

Leeteuk decided to ask Kyuhyun about the nagging sensation. “Hey, do you get this weird feeling like something’s amiss or you forgot something important when you go near the top of the stairs and the bedroom?” 

 

Kyuhyun looked up with a start. “You do?” 

 

“Yeah, ever since two days ago.”

 

Two days ago was when Heechul arrived. I guess I better perfect the software, or else it might crack under too much editing. 

 

 

2. 

 

 

Leeteuk was all over the place. He was in the kitchen, making bad ramyeon for Kyuhyun’s lunch, or in the living room, trying to clean up Kyuhyun’s mess, or right in Kyuhyun’s room, trying to help him make the bed.

 

Kyuhyun wasn’t used to it. In fact, it kind of got on his nerves.

 

But Leeteuk insisted that he was living in Kyuhyun’s house now, and he should be doing something to help out in the house. Kyuhyun told him that there was no need, it was strange to have someone move his things around, and he wasn’t used to have someone living with him. 

 

Leeteuk laughed.

 

“Half a year living by yourself and you have already outgrown the six-a-room system of the orphanage?” 

 

Kyuhyun almost smacked himself. Since then, to avoid letting the cat out of the bag, Kyuhyun has kept his mouth shut. As the days passed and Leeteuk persisted in trying hard to baby him, Kyuhyun began to think with a warm feeling in his chest that he could get used to this.

 

One day, Leeteuk found an obscure door on the first floor under the stairs, hidden by shadows and almost blending into the wall. When he opened it, he discovered another flight of stairs, eerily dark, leading into the basement. He didn’t even know the house had a basement.

 

Just as he was about to enter, there was a soft thudding of footsteps. Kyuhyun appeared at the bend of the stairway. When he saw Leeteuk, he dashed up and slammed the door behind him as if the darkness of the passage would creep out and swallow Leeteuk. 

 

A long time after, Leeteuk would come to the realisation that it indeed would. But for now, Leeteuk was blissfully unaware, and innocently gullible. 

 

“Kyuhyun, didn’t you go to the supermarket?” Kyuhyun did not reply him.

 

“What do you keep in the basement?” Leeteuk tried to probe him again. “Maybe I should help you tidy up a bit down there?”

 

That was when Kyuhyun looked at him with an alarmed, and very guilty face. That face then hardened to resolve and composure. 

 

“I can’t tell you yet. Maybe not ever. But Leeteuk, can you promise me to never ask me about it, go into the basement or tell the others about it?”

 

Leeteuk agreed, not pondering further about the issue. Kyuhyun was, of course, entitled to his own privacy. 

 

“But what do you mean by others?” Since childhood it had always been just the two of them.

 

Kyuhyun smiled with the delight of a little boy, a smile that brings more questions than answers.

 

 

1.

 

 

It was cold in the basement. It was also soundproof, in case his projects failed and caused an explosion. Or started screaming.

 

But Kyuhyun could not bring himself to go back up. Not until he finished his project.

 

Before him, a man laid face down on a glass platform illuminated with white light from below and around. Or rather, the shape of a man, for something with a gaping hole in its chest and multicoloured wires peeking out where a heart should be was most definitely not human.

 

Kyuhyun fiddled at the wires with a long metal probe, trying to work up the nerves to test the result of all his hard work. But the whole ministry was eagerly awaiting to know the result of the project they had commissioned Kyuhyun to do, and he could delay no longer. 

 

It felt as if the world was holding its breath for the birth of the most realistic robot in history. So realistic that it would not even be aware it was man-made.

 

Kyuhyun tucked all the wires in neatly, then took a circular cap of skin-like material to cover over the hole on its chest. He started up the system to jumpstart the robot’s circuits. The complexity of the project meant it would take a while. 

 

Kyuhyun had never really been a very emotional person, but at this point he grabbed a chair to seat beside the glowing platform and held its hand in his own trembling ones. He, his hand. Kyuhyun mentally corrected himself. One calls a friend a he, not an it.

 

He would be a humorous and motherly person. He would be the closest to Kyuhyun. He would only have a pain threshold of 10 dols, as opposed to the usual 45 dols, and have the composition of fats and muscles of the most ideal human. 

 

He would also have spent his life with Kyuhyun in an orphanage which Kyuhyun himself could hardly remember. And if he was a success, more and more would join them in the orphanage. Kyuhyun decided he liked the sound of many orphans growing up together, sticking together, living together. He would program their memories into that story, adding a new ‘childhood friend’ every time he made a new one.

 

Kyuhyun could feel the hand beneath him coming alive, becoming warm when it was once a lump of metal and synthetic material.

 

The hand was twitching. Kyuhyun quickly made the man breath in a mild anaesthetic, keeping him unconscious to move him out of Kyuhyun’s lab.

 

Kyuhyun began the struggle of carrying the man up into a bedroom. He was out of the basement for the first time in a few days. When he awoke, he would have woken up on the second day of his arrival at his best friend’s house.

 

Kyuhyun positioned him comfortably of the bed, then lingered at the doorway and stared for a long moment. 

 

As he stirred and his eyelids fluttered, Kyuhyun offered a tentative smile at his sleeping face. 

 

“Hi, Leeteuk.”