I apologize.  I think you've been waiting for me to write about Kyuhyun's return for a long time already.  Here's the first part of several drabbles...

Her

            In retrospect, I see now that it was a bad idea not to run my idea past Ryeowook first.  It was all innocently done on my end.  After all, there isn’t a her to speak of at all.  I made her up because, as I was beginning to get job offers to return to work once my enlistment ended, there were some people who brought up my lack of love life—asking me if I had any secret girlfriend that they should know about or if I was actively dating—but I knew what they were hinting at.  The rumors had been going around about Ryeowook and I behind the scenes for years.  There were so many people in the entertainment industry that did know the truth about us, the word had gotten out, at least as gossip, that we were together.  No one wanted to hire me if they thought it was true and might someday come to light.  There were enough scandals going around with kpop singers at the moment.  They wanted to believe that I was actively looking for someone to marry.  A woman!  So, I claimed that I had a girlfriend.  Don’t judge me!  Ryeowook had told people this before as well when asked.  It wasn’t abnormal for us to lie about our relationship status to outsiders or our fans.

            We have to do this in order to survive in our kinds of careers.  They never ask follow-up questions about who our significant others are.  If they do, we can just tell them that we can’t say more for the sake of their privacy.  Neither of us ever get mad at each other about that…I mean, within reason.  He did pretend to go on a date with a radio coworker once and I got pretty pissed off about that one.

            So, I thought a good solution to this whole thing would be to add a mysterious reference to a her at the end of a video.  The woman was a model and we intentionally kind of blurred her out a little so that people could wonder if she was really my girlfriend.  By the way, that was really stupid.  I should have remembered how Sungmin announcing he was in a real relationship backfired on him!  But, to be honest, there are members with long-term girlfriends right now that are close to getting married.  I’m a little worried for their sakes, if they choose to become engaged.  What will they do? 

            At any rate, when the video for Time With You came out, I knew things were not going to go well right away for several reasons.  First of all, Leeteuk called me and said that it was really good and he was proud of me, but the usual lack of enthusiasm he expressed when I released a new song told me everything he wasn’t saying.  He was uneasy about something.  So, I asked him what the problem was and he bluntly told me he expected the girl at the end to be the problem.  I was still disillusioned about the effect it would have and brushed it off.  But then he asked me if I’d heard anything from Wook yet—I left the dorm before the MV was released—and I realized that I hadn’t and began to panic a little.  Ryeowook was usually the first one to congratulate me and generally posted something public about my new music releases.

            The next indicator that things were going downhill was when my sister text me and said, It sounds good and it’s so thoughtful of you to include the boys!  It didn’t sound promising because she usually has better things to say.  So, I asked her what she really thought.  Wook’s going to kill you!  What were you thinking?  Has he seen it yet?

            At this point, I tried to call him.  I didn’t even bother texting because it was too easy for him to blow me off for hours, pretending he didn’t see it.  He did not answer.  Bad sign.

            My mother called a little while later and told me that she loved it—she has to say that because she’s my mother—and that she was proud of my hard work.  It sounded so much like Leeteuk’s response, it made me even more nervous.  Of course, she went on and on about her grandbabies being in the video, which distracted me a little, but once I was off the phone with her, my fears really started to escalate. 

            The managers were the first ones to tell me that the fans were jumping to conclusions that I had a girlfriend and getting super upset about it.  I mean, I did intend for people to jump to conclusions—or rather, I kind of hoped they would just wonder about it—not that they would start hunting down proof of some girlfriend I didn’t have so they could cyberstalk her, which was the impression I was getting.  I realized that I was going to have to publicly state that I wasn’t dating, which they might not even believe, just to get everyone to calm down.  But I still wanted people to think I was interested in dating, so they wouldn’t think I’m gay.  What a mess!

            As I was on my way home, I got a text message from Heechul that pretty much confirmed all my worst fears about Ryeowook.

            Bring home a bouquet of flowers.  A really big, expensive one.  Preferably purple.

            I frowned as I looked down at my phone.  “We need to stop at the bakery for cheesecake,” I told the manager.

            “We’re almost to the dorm,” he pointed out.

            “I am not going in there without cheesecake!” I informed him.  “I’d rather move into your house.”

            He’s worked for us long enough to know about my relationship with Ryeowook and also to have made a couple trips to the bakery before this, so he wasn’t about to question it.  We made a u-turn and headed to the bakery.

            And maybe some nice jewelry.

            I ignored the second part.  I am not buying Ryeowook jewelry just because he’s mad at me.  I have spent a small fortune on the jewelry that he does have from me.  I don’t really look at price tags when buying him things.  What he has is worth a small fortune.  I don’t want him to think I’m going to give him the most expensive gifts I have just to appease him because I’ve made him angry.  He loves cheesecake.  That’s is good enough to win him over if he’s upset with me.

            Except, as you know, I’m not always right.

            So, about a half hour later, I walked into the dorm with the box of cheesecake.  Heechul took one look at me from the couch, where he was flipping through channels, and shook his head.  I wasn’t even going to question why he was at the dorm at that point because if Wook was mad at me, he would probably keep it toned down marginally if someone else was there.  And, every once in a blue moon, Heechul will actually defend me if Ryeowook is being too mean.  This could only work in my favor.

            I couldn’t find my husband the moment I walked in and assumed he was cooking, since it was around dinner time.  If he was mad at me, it probably wasn’t for my sake, but for Heechul’s.  So, I headed that direction with the sacrificial offering.  Sure enough, he was standing by the stove and I set the box down on the counter beside him.

            He looked over at it.  “What’s that?”

            The box clearly states what bakery it’s from and they only put cheesecake in that size box, but I humored him.  “Cheesecake.”

            “Why did you buy it?”

            “I thought you would like to have some.”

            He looked up at me and I could actually see the anger in his gaze.  It looked as if his eyes were on fire and, if I looked into them too long, I would burst into flames.  He was even more upset than I thought he was.  “You’re on a diet because you wanted to eat healthier and watch your weight.  Aren’t you?  You asked me not to buy anything like this in order not to tempt you to eat empty calories, but then you go and buy junk food?”

            Oh, .  “I didn’t buy it for me.  I bought it for you.”

            “You think I’m going to eat a whole cheesecake by myself?  Are you trying to make me fat?”

            Heechul walked into the room and smacked me in the back of the head.  “I told you flowers, stupid!” he said, grabbing the box of cheesecake and walking over to another counter with it.  “If you two aren’t going to eat any, then I will.”