When He Gets Revenge

            That night, as I was getting into bed, I felt very satisfied with myself.  I’d accomplished a good deal.  Kyuhyun was absolutely foul during rehearsal and dinner.  He barely spoke to anyone, especially me.  Even Ryeowook.  And poor Ryeowook was beside himself, not knowing what to do to make the situation better.  I tried not to act smug.  I had to pretend as if I didn’t even know what was going on.  I mean, if I acted worried, he would try to appeal to my love for him to reconsider the sleeping arrangements.  That wasn’t going to happen.

            But I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.  This is the evil maknae we’re talking about.  He’s not some rookie pushover.  When he doesn’t get his way, he keeps trying until he finds a way.  We turned off the lights and we were both lying in bed, but neither of us were asleep.

            “I’m afraid of being away from all of you when I enlist,” Ryeowook said, after a long silence.

            “I hated it,” I admitted, “but it goes by quicker than you’d think.”

            “I worry about Kyu too.”

            “Kyuhyun’s a big boy.  He can handle it,” I told him.  “He just likes to be babied because he’s the youngest.  And you enable him to continue acting that way.”

            “I can’t help it.  I’m in love with him,” he said.

            “You will probably make a bigger deal out of him being away from you than he will actually feel about it himself,” I pointed out.  “He will survive without you for two years.  And then the two of you will probably not even move back into the dorms.  You’ll probably get your own apartments.  We’ll probably abandon them after you two enlist, especially if Hyuk and Hae are gone as well.”

            I heard Ryeowook sniffle and began to wonder if he was starting to get Kyuhyun’s cold or if he was crying.  Before either of us could say another word, there was a loud knock on the door.  Ryeowook pulled off his covers and shuffled over to the door, still sniffling.  He opened the door and there, standing in the doorway, stood Kyuhyun. 

            “I can’t sleep,” he said, walking into our room. 

            “What are you doing?” I asked, sitting up in bed.

            “I’m joining you two,” he announced.  “I can’t sleep alone in that room.  It’s too loud on the street below, the bed’s too cold, there are strange shadows on the wall, and the alarm clock is too bright.”

            “The alarm clock is bright in here too,” I told him.

            “But the bed isn’t cold and the shadows don’t worry me when someone else is with me, so maybe I’ll have better luck here,” he said, crawling onto the middle of the bed. 

            “We don’t have enough pillows.”

            “He can have one of mine,” Ryeowook said, moving one of his over to the middle of the bed and getting in next to Kyuhyun.  “Get under the covers, Kyu.”

            “We’re going to be squished!” I complained.

            “This is just like back when we were newbies.  Remember?  We sometimes slept four to a bed back then,” Kyuhyun reminded me.

            “But I hated it and I had trouble sleeping,” I told him.

            “I thought you said you couldn’t sleep unless you had someone with you,” he shot back at me.

            Damn him.  I couldn’t backtrack on my original reasons or he’d know I was lying.  The problem was, I was too tired to keep coming up with reasonable excuses.  I knew this was a bad idea, but giving in and letting them both go to Kyuhyun’s room would be worse, so I didn’t want to keep arguing.  Plus, maybe I’d notice something interesting if I faked sleep before they fell asleep. 

            Kyuhyun slipped under the covers and beat his pillow several times before settling in.  He laid down on his back, staring up at the ceiling.  Then he turned to his side and faced Ryeowook instead.  I stayed on my back.  I would need to be able to peek over at them, but I didn’t want to look obvious either. 

            “Well, this is cozy,” I grumbled.

            “Goodnight, Sungie-ah,” Ryeowook said, the mirth back in his voice.  “I love you.”

            “I love you too,” I muttered.

            “Goodnight, Kyu.  I love you.”

            “Goodnight.  I love you.”

            There was a long silence and then I said, “Goodnight, Kyu-ah.  I love you!”

            “Yeah, yeah.  I love you too.  Can we sleep now?”

            I stayed awake half the night, waiting and listening.  When Kyuhyun was snoring, I glanced over to see if they were cuddled up together, but they weren’t.  After a couple hours, Kyuhyun began to toss and turn a bit, and he smacked me hard in the face with his arm. 

            “Ow!” I cried out, grasping his arm and flinging it away from me.  This happened a couple more times as Kyuhyun attempted to spread out in his sleep.  Why the had to lie in the middle was beyond me, but it wasn’t going to happen a second night.  That was for sure.  It seemed I barely managed to fall asleep before my alarm went off.  Immediately, I jumped up and glanced over at the maknaes, eager to see if they’d rolled closer in the night, but Kyuhyun was already gone and I could hear the shower running.  Ryeowook was in the bathroom already.  I was pissed off.  I’d stayed awake almost the entire night and had nothing to show for it. 

            We were set to rehearse all day.  I felt a little unprepared and extremely nervous about my first concert in two years.  I tried to act calm, but little more than an hour of sleep wasn’t helping my nerves any.  Neither were the multiple cups of coffee I was drinking to keep myself awake.  The maknaes looked a little better than me, but not by much.  Kyuhyun told me he felt as if he’d had a restless sleep.