Once We Reached Japan

            Super Junior is all about teamwork.  How can you be in any doubt of this?  SM Entertainment admits to this day that they took all of their second rate artists and stuck them in a group together, expecting them to fail.  What they didn’t account for was our determination to make it.  We worked hard, we worked together, and we became one of the biggest names in all of kpop.  And where a bunch of other groups have come and gone in the time we’ve been around, we’re still standing.  That’s because we know how to work together, we work hard, and we don’t give up.

            So when we set our minds to do something, we never fail.  Operation Matchmaker was going well, if you consider our current goal was to keep the maknaes apart.  I know it seems somewhat counterintuitive, but we knew we had to make them miss each other. 

            At least, for about two weeks, we thought we were succeeding.  It was nearing the date of our departure for our first KRY concert when suddenly both Kyuhyun and Ryeowook went MIA on us, just a couple days ahead of time.  Kyuhyun had been feeling worse and worse since our studio recording.  I’d run into him for photo shoots, a video recording, and a couple practice runs for our upcoming concerts.  By the last one, he had a full-blown cold and his voice was nearly shot.  Ryeowook looked extremely agitated over this.  I knew he hadn’t seen Kyuhyun anymore than I had.  The other members had made sure of it.  We’d all worked hard.  But Ryeowook was practically blaming himself for not being around Kyuhyun to take care of him better. 

            Kyuhyun admitted that he wasn’t sleeping well, he was eating out all the time, and his schedule was chaotic.  And he looked like hell.  After they left practice, no one saw them return to the dorms.  Their phones were turned off as well.  And this didn’t just last a few hours, but for two days!  They didn’t return until the night before the flight out of Seoul, when they walked into Kyuhyun’s dorm.

            “Where the hell have you two been?” Eunhyuk asked, jumping up off the couch and meeting them at the door. 

            Both were wearing face masks and Ryeowook moved his away from his face.  “We went to Kyuhyun’s parents’ house for a couple days.”

            “What for?” he asked, watching as Kyuhyun slipped off his shoes and immediately headed to his room. 

            “He hasn’t been feeling well the last couple weeks, so I thought bringing him over to his mother’s house would help him rest up and feel better.  Sure enough, he slept much better there and he’s been eating well.  I think he sounds much better.  I was afraid he wasn’t going to have a voice for the concert this weekend,” Ryeowook said, letting out a deep breath.  “I think he’ll be okay now.”

            “Why did you go with?”

            “To make sure he didn’t stay up too late playing video games or eating junk food.  Someone has to keep their eye on him,” Ryeowook said.  “And now I’m going to head upstairs and pack my bag.  Then I’ll come back down and help him pack.”

            “I can help him pack,” Eunhyuk offered.

            Ryeowook shook his head.  “I’m going to stay here overnight so we don’t miss our flight.  He’s on a lot of cold meds right now.”

            Eunhyuk couldn’t think of a way to argue against him, so he said nothing. 

            “Are you getting sick too?”

            “No,” Ryeowook said, shaking his head.  “But Kyuhyun didn’t want me getting sick as well, so I promised him I’d wear a mask whenever I was around him.  I think he’s starting to recover though.  We may only need them another day or two.”

            “You two should have told me where you were going.  I’ve been worried sick,” Eunhyuk said, trying to guilt him.

            “I’m sorry, Hyukie-ah.  But it just seems that every time Kyuhyun tries to relax, one of you is interrupting him lately.  I noticed the same thing.  We thought it best if we just turned our phones off altogether for a bit.  Otherwise, I thought Kyuhyun would just get more stressed out,” Ryeowook informed him.

            So that’s how we discovered that the maknaes were onto us.  At least a little.  They were suspicious that something strange was going on and knew that if they just left the dorms and ignored their phones, we wouldn’t be able to touch them.  We’d either have to back off a little or become much sneakier.  Damn them.

            On the day of the flight, both the maknaes were in good moods.  In fact, they were