Super Junior; A Noraebang Love Story; KiHae
Title: A Noraebang Love Story
Fandom: Super Junior
Pairing: KiHae
Word Count: 2,074
Rating: PG
Summary: Noraebang never really makes sense. Then again, neither does Korea, Super Junior, or Kibum's life.
Genre: Humor, Fluff, Sap
A/N: i wrote this in like, an hour, so it's probably all over the place, BUT WHATEVER. it's kihae. love me for it. kind of based off a random daydreaming spree that got interrupted by Marry U coming on and then my imagination goes: oh that would be sweet if a guy sang--*EXPLODES INTO KIHAE*. and now i must go do laundry. oh, and happy 4th of july. woo. *waves miniature party favor*
They’re in noraebang and Kibum has no idea why or how they even coerced him into coming along this time. Donghae is standing in front of the table laden with drinks, laughing and dancing to a Wonder Girls’ song with Heechul (Kibum didn't even know he knew the dance for it, but apparently so). Heechul flings a hand out to the side and nearly smacks Donghae in the face, but he just laughs and pivots slightly, and Kibum catches sight of the smile stretched across his face.
Oh.
That’s why he came.
He settles himself lower into the plastic couch and checks the time in the top corner of the screen. Sungmin, Heechul, Yesung, Ryeowook, and Zhou Mi had all loudly debated, bickered, and earnestly insisted that they all pitch in an extra ten thousand won and get five hours and lots of drinks. Hankyung had caved to the demands first, then Eeteuk, and Kyuhyun held his steely resolve until the very end, arms crossed and mouth thin, but somehow got yanked bodily into the dark, flashing room, the door ominously snapping shut behind him.
So with three hours still left, Kibum has a long night ahead of him. More than half the members are well on their way to being hammered drunk, which Kibum thinks sounds like a nice, hazy idea. Instead he nurses a bottle of beer, feeling that if everyone else is going to be completely irresponsible, someone should be sober enough to stop the lot of them from getting arrested.
The Wonder Girls song ends and Donghae moves to give Heechul a well-intended hug, but of course three more are inputted already (Heechul has been on a roll), and he flails to the beginning sounds of Nobody, almost sending a finger into Donghae’s eye for the second time that night. Donghae just ducks around him again, laughing, and sits down next to Kibum heavily. He giggles and flops into his shoulder, sending Kibum’s heart and voice up a notch.
“Having fun?” he tries to say flatly.
Donghae just nods and smiles up at him, all white teeth and curling smiles and eyes that scream affection. Kibum’s stomach flips, lurches, and aches. When Donghae turns his attention to someone else, he puts his beer down and runs a hand over his face.
Donghae gets up and moves to go sit by Henry, who looks only slightly traumatized this time. It isn’t his first time to noraebang (they made sure of that long ago), but it still hasn’t quite fallen under his list of normal pastimes. Kibum is sure that if he were in Canada again, he would have chosen something sane, like a movie. Instead there’s a disco ball above his head, another colored one in the corner, and a music video of a bad break up playing behind So Hot, which doesn’t make sense at all, but then again what ever does in Korea.
Donghae slings an arm around the younger boy’s shoulder and pulls him close, pointing at the words on the screen and whispering something in his ear. Kibum can’t decide if he should feel warm at the affection or irrationally jealous and moody at the physical contact. He picks the first, for the sake of Henry. When Donghae sits on Eunhyuk (to the other’s painful displeasure) and deliberately squirms and wriggles to make him unnecessarily uncomfortable, Kibum picks the second. He also realizes that in the past four minutes, Donghae has made his way twice around the room in his inability to sit still for an instant. He sighs and picks up his beer again and tips it towards his mouth.
He sloshes a good bit of it down his front when Kyuhyun’s shoulder nudges him, and he looks over, opening his mouth to snap at him, irritated. Zhou Mi is on top of him, hands flat on his chest and a knee on the side of him, and Kyuhyun looks like he’s forgotten the world has existed.
…
Kibum turns back and closes his mouth, swallowing the bit of nausea and envious thoughts of himself and a certain someone in that very position. He shoots a glance out of his peripheral and nearly gags. He didn't know Zhou Mi was that cannibalistically hungry for face tonight.
Kibum scoots away a fraction of an inch and his knee just touches Kangin’s, who leaps away like he’s been burned. Kibum raises an eyebrow at him. Kangin scowls back, flushes, and hugs his arms tighter to himself grumpily. He never was one for noraebang.
Just then Eeteuk, who surprisingly looks to be the drunkest of them all, most likely in an attempt to forgo leader duties for one blissful, chaotic night, brushes his fingers through the hair at the base of Kangin’s neck, and the speed with which Kangin snaps his head around to pour attention on Eeteuk is admirable, despite slightly repulsive. Then again, Kibum shouldn’t talk, as he flicks his eyes over to where Donghae is splayed on the (dirty) floor and flipping through the book of songs, inputting random numbers every few seconds, tongue poking out from between his teeth in a strangely sexy way. Kibum’s attention has been on him the entire night, whether or not he’s been in his line of vision. Kibum also duly notes that Donghae’s lightly tousled hair is falling into his eyes more than usual, which probably means he needs a haircut, despite it doing funny things to Kibum the way it is now.
In Kibum’s opinion, he would look just fine if not better if the stylists would just leave Donghae’s hair (and the rest of theirs, he thinks, shooting a furtive glance at Yesung) alone, but he looks good with whatever they do anyway, save for that blond atrocity in their early days. Kibum thinks Donghae would look best with his hair his natural dark brown, long enough to brush the back of his neck and behind his ears, bangs falling into his darkening eyes, his teeth pulling his bottom lip in, his hands-
Kibum jerks a little to himself and realizes he had been staring at the back of Donghae’s head for longer than normal, like a crazy person. Siwon is also looking at him with considerable amounts of concern. Like he’s a crazy person.
Kibum buries his face in his hands and curses his life to the high heavens.
Just then, Eunhyuk grunts into the microphone and says “Twenty Oh Six.”
Kibum peers through his fingers as the beginning twangs of Dancing Out sound and sees smiles and grins and eyes light into life all around the room. Three people stand, then two more, and before he knows it someone is tugging him to his feet. He looks around; Kangin is up, scowl replaced with a cheeky grin, Yesung is playing kai bai bo with Ryeowook for one of the mics, and even Henry and Zhou Mi are standing, beaming. Eunhyuk, Donghae, Sungmin, Siwon, and Shindong immediately slide into formation only to slide apart again, throwing their arms across their chests, snapping their head into a nod-
Hankyung’s hand slips out of Heechul’s and he joins them, catching Eeteuk’s eye and motioning for him to participate. Eeteuk is a little too drunk to do it properly, but the moves are seared into his heart, mind, and muscle memory, and he manages okay anyway with many valiant attempts to remain upright.
The screen-song coordination seems to have gotten it right and suddenly it’s like a time warp, their younger selves bursting into life and energy and a sapphire blue on the screen. Kibum’s heart lurches in synch with the others, their faces flashing in black and white and color, a younger, happier, carefree time when all they wanted was recognition and someone to know their name, without the schedules and the sleep deprivation and the accidents and homesickness and defensiveness that they didn't quite realize was to come.
Kibum swallows. Hard.
Just then Heechul (both of them) bursts out of the group, shouting his lines, with added quips in between from the real one, most of them about how good-looking he is.
Siwon joins him, mimicking his hand gestures from the video, and he reaches back to pull Hankyung up with him, and then there’s an entire fangirl paradise taking part in the little room. Kibum grins and pushes the idea of fangirls out of his head; this is their time now, if only for a few hours. Hankyung brings him back with a shout of horror at the random bandana around his arm; Heechul laughs and says it was supposed to make him look like he had muscles. (“What do you mean, look like?“ Hankyung says, but he’s drowned out by the coos when a teenage Kyuhyun appears onscreen, much to the younger’s embarrassment.)
They jump around like idiots for the rest of the song, doing the dance, pushing people out of the way to be a diva for a few moments before it’s their turn to get shoved, laughing and improving with crazy moves of their own. When Donghae comes on screen, vibrant and confident, Kibum pretends his knees didn't buckle just a little bit. He gets a grip on himself and they do Happiness, Wonder Boy, Twins, and when Don’t Don and U come on, Henry and Zhou Mi willingly embarrass themselves along with the rest of them.
Something random comes on after that, and eventually they find their way back to their seats, out of breath, tired but exhilarated, the alcohol and endorphins mixing and flooding through their veins, making everyone just a little fuller inside. The room calms but not quite, there’s still considerably more chatter and reminiscing and stories buzzing around, and Kibum closes his eyes, breathes in-
And opens them again when a familiar tinkle comes on. He expects Eunhyuk’s voice again, but it’s Donghae’s Mokpo-laced accent that comes over the speakers.
“Love…Oh baby my girl…”
He sings Marry U all by himself, even though somewhere in the giant book My Everything is listed under 98 degrees (Kibum knows because he saw it when Sungmin had asked him what he should sing, Backstreet Boys or N*SYNC). They listen loyally, the lyrics sweet and sappy and the misty look in Eeteuk’s eyes means he’s thinking about when they sang at Super Show, the cheers of the fans, and how in that very moment, the song grew and took on a whole new meaning that was a whole lot more sincere.
For Kibum, that was the one time he meant it.
The song sounds nice, only slightly different with just Donghae’s voice rising and falling to the melody, but not in a bad way. It’s a Super Junior song; whenever any one of them sings it, their hearts sing with (whether they mean to or not). To their ears, it will always sound like a Super Junior song. No better, worse, or different.
The only thing is that at the very end, as the song is fading and he holds the note clear and sweet, Donghae opens his eyes and looks straight at Kibum.
Kibum nearly swallows his tongue. He composes himself enough to pretend to actually want another beer when he goes to open one, focusing his eyes on it diligently, Donghae taking a seat on the maroon plastic couch next to him even though there are others in the room. Kibum acts cool, like he knows what he’s doing, but it falls apart when Donghae picks up his hand from where it lays idle next to him, looks at it for a second like he’s deciding something, and slowly, deliberately threads his fingers, one by one, between Kibum’s.
They stay like that for longer than Kibum can count (he gives up after seventeen minutes, because 1,049 is a lot of seconds and by then it doesn't matter). Donghae pretends like nothing is different, nothing has changed, like they’ve held hands all the time, but this time it isn’t on stage, no one can see them through the flashing lights of the room, and Donghae is skimming his thumb along the top of Kibum’s hand.
It’s now that Kibum realizes that the light-headedness, lust, admiration, protectiveness, jealousy, and burning, unbridled affection he has for Donghae has somehow morphed into something that must be love.
(He confesses to him later that night, at home behind closed doors, and finds that Donghae already knows.)
***
started/finished: 7.5/4.09
Fandom: Super Junior
Pairing: KiHae
Word Count: 2,074
Rating: PG
Summary: Noraebang never really makes sense. Then again, neither does Korea, Super Junior, or Kibum's life.
Genre: Humor, Fluff, Sap
A/N: i wrote this in like, an hour, so it's probably all over the place, BUT WHATEVER. it's kihae. love me for it. kind of based off a random daydreaming spree that got interrupted by Marry U coming on and then my imagination goes: oh that would be sweet if a guy sang--*EXPLODES INTO KIHAE*. and now i must go do laundry. oh, and happy 4th of july. woo. *waves miniature party favor*
They’re in noraebang and Kibum has no idea why or how they even coerced him into coming along this time. Donghae is standing in front of the table laden with drinks, laughing and dancing to a Wonder Girls’ song with Heechul (Kibum didn't even know he knew the dance for it, but apparently so). Heechul flings a hand out to the side and nearly smacks Donghae in the face, but he just laughs and pivots slightly, and Kibum catches sight of the smile stretched across his face.
Oh.
That’s why he came.
He settles himself lower into the plastic couch and checks the time in the top corner of the screen. Sungmin, Heechul, Yesung, Ryeowook, and Zhou Mi had all loudly debated, bickered, and earnestly insisted that they all pitch in an extra ten thousand won and get five hours and lots of drinks. Hankyung had caved to the demands first, then Eeteuk, and Kyuhyun held his steely resolve until the very end, arms crossed and mouth thin, but somehow got yanked bodily into the dark, flashing room, the door ominously snapping shut behind him.
So with three hours still left, Kibum has a long night ahead of him. More than half the members are well on their way to being hammered drunk, which Kibum thinks sounds like a nice, hazy idea. Instead he nurses a bottle of beer, feeling that if everyone else is going to be completely irresponsible, someone should be sober enough to stop the lot of them from getting arrested.
The Wonder Girls song ends and Donghae moves to give Heechul a well-intended hug, but of course three more are inputted already (Heechul has been on a roll), and he flails to the beginning sounds of Nobody, almost sending a finger into Donghae’s eye for the second time that night. Donghae just ducks around him again, laughing, and sits down next to Kibum heavily. He giggles and flops into his shoulder, sending Kibum’s heart and voice up a notch.
“Having fun?” he tries to say flatly.
Donghae just nods and smiles up at him, all white teeth and curling smiles and eyes that scream affection. Kibum’s stomach flips, lurches, and aches. When Donghae turns his attention to someone else, he puts his beer down and runs a hand over his face.
Donghae gets up and moves to go sit by Henry, who looks only slightly traumatized this time. It isn’t his first time to noraebang (they made sure of that long ago), but it still hasn’t quite fallen under his list of normal pastimes. Kibum is sure that if he were in Canada again, he would have chosen something sane, like a movie. Instead there’s a disco ball above his head, another colored one in the corner, and a music video of a bad break up playing behind So Hot, which doesn’t make sense at all, but then again what ever does in Korea.
Donghae slings an arm around the younger boy’s shoulder and pulls him close, pointing at the words on the screen and whispering something in his ear. Kibum can’t decide if he should feel warm at the affection or irrationally jealous and moody at the physical contact. He picks the first, for the sake of Henry. When Donghae sits on Eunhyuk (to the other’s painful displeasure) and deliberately squirms and wriggles to make him unnecessarily uncomfortable, Kibum picks the second. He also realizes that in the past four minutes, Donghae has made his way twice around the room in his inability to sit still for an instant. He sighs and picks up his beer again and tips it towards his mouth.
He sloshes a good bit of it down his front when Kyuhyun’s shoulder nudges him, and he looks over, opening his mouth to snap at him, irritated. Zhou Mi is on top of him, hands flat on his chest and a knee on the side of him, and Kyuhyun looks like he’s forgotten the world has existed.
…
Kibum turns back and closes his mouth, swallowing the bit of nausea and envious thoughts of himself and a certain someone in that very position. He shoots a glance out of his peripheral and nearly gags. He didn't know Zhou Mi was that cannibalistically hungry for face tonight.
Kibum scoots away a fraction of an inch and his knee just touches Kangin’s, who leaps away like he’s been burned. Kibum raises an eyebrow at him. Kangin scowls back, flushes, and hugs his arms tighter to himself grumpily. He never was one for noraebang.
Just then Eeteuk, who surprisingly looks to be the drunkest of them all, most likely in an attempt to forgo leader duties for one blissful, chaotic night, brushes his fingers through the hair at the base of Kangin’s neck, and the speed with which Kangin snaps his head around to pour attention on Eeteuk is admirable, despite slightly repulsive. Then again, Kibum shouldn’t talk, as he flicks his eyes over to where Donghae is splayed on the (dirty) floor and flipping through the book of songs, inputting random numbers every few seconds, tongue poking out from between his teeth in a strangely sexy way. Kibum’s attention has been on him the entire night, whether or not he’s been in his line of vision. Kibum also duly notes that Donghae’s lightly tousled hair is falling into his eyes more than usual, which probably means he needs a haircut, despite it doing funny things to Kibum the way it is now.
In Kibum’s opinion, he would look just fine if not better if the stylists would just leave Donghae’s hair (and the rest of theirs, he thinks, shooting a furtive glance at Yesung) alone, but he looks good with whatever they do anyway, save for that blond atrocity in their early days. Kibum thinks Donghae would look best with his hair his natural dark brown, long enough to brush the back of his neck and behind his ears, bangs falling into his darkening eyes, his teeth pulling his bottom lip in, his hands-
Kibum jerks a little to himself and realizes he had been staring at the back of Donghae’s head for longer than normal, like a crazy person. Siwon is also looking at him with considerable amounts of concern. Like he’s a crazy person.
Kibum buries his face in his hands and curses his life to the high heavens.
Just then, Eunhyuk grunts into the microphone and says “Twenty Oh Six.”
Kibum peers through his fingers as the beginning twangs of Dancing Out sound and sees smiles and grins and eyes light into life all around the room. Three people stand, then two more, and before he knows it someone is tugging him to his feet. He looks around; Kangin is up, scowl replaced with a cheeky grin, Yesung is playing kai bai bo with Ryeowook for one of the mics, and even Henry and Zhou Mi are standing, beaming. Eunhyuk, Donghae, Sungmin, Siwon, and Shindong immediately slide into formation only to slide apart again, throwing their arms across their chests, snapping their head into a nod-
Hankyung’s hand slips out of Heechul’s and he joins them, catching Eeteuk’s eye and motioning for him to participate. Eeteuk is a little too drunk to do it properly, but the moves are seared into his heart, mind, and muscle memory, and he manages okay anyway with many valiant attempts to remain upright.
The screen-song coordination seems to have gotten it right and suddenly it’s like a time warp, their younger selves bursting into life and energy and a sapphire blue on the screen. Kibum’s heart lurches in synch with the others, their faces flashing in black and white and color, a younger, happier, carefree time when all they wanted was recognition and someone to know their name, without the schedules and the sleep deprivation and the accidents and homesickness and defensiveness that they didn't quite realize was to come.
Kibum swallows. Hard.
Just then Heechul (both of them) bursts out of the group, shouting his lines, with added quips in between from the real one, most of them about how good-looking he is.
Siwon joins him, mimicking his hand gestures from the video, and he reaches back to pull Hankyung up with him, and then there’s an entire fangirl paradise taking part in the little room. Kibum grins and pushes the idea of fangirls out of his head; this is their time now, if only for a few hours. Hankyung brings him back with a shout of horror at the random bandana around his arm; Heechul laughs and says it was supposed to make him look like he had muscles. (“What do you mean, look like?“ Hankyung says, but he’s drowned out by the coos when a teenage Kyuhyun appears onscreen, much to the younger’s embarrassment.)
They jump around like idiots for the rest of the song, doing the dance, pushing people out of the way to be a diva for a few moments before it’s their turn to get shoved, laughing and improving with crazy moves of their own. When Donghae comes on screen, vibrant and confident, Kibum pretends his knees didn't buckle just a little bit. He gets a grip on himself and they do Happiness, Wonder Boy, Twins, and when Don’t Don and U come on, Henry and Zhou Mi willingly embarrass themselves along with the rest of them.
Something random comes on after that, and eventually they find their way back to their seats, out of breath, tired but exhilarated, the alcohol and endorphins mixing and flooding through their veins, making everyone just a little fuller inside. The room calms but not quite, there’s still considerably more chatter and reminiscing and stories buzzing around, and Kibum closes his eyes, breathes in-
And opens them again when a familiar tinkle comes on. He expects Eunhyuk’s voice again, but it’s Donghae’s Mokpo-laced accent that comes over the speakers.
“Love…Oh baby my girl…”
He sings Marry U all by himself, even though somewhere in the giant book My Everything is listed under 98 degrees (Kibum knows because he saw it when Sungmin had asked him what he should sing, Backstreet Boys or N*SYNC). They listen loyally, the lyrics sweet and sappy and the misty look in Eeteuk’s eyes means he’s thinking about when they sang at Super Show, the cheers of the fans, and how in that very moment, the song grew and took on a whole new meaning that was a whole lot more sincere.
For Kibum, that was the one time he meant it.
The song sounds nice, only slightly different with just Donghae’s voice rising and falling to the melody, but not in a bad way. It’s a Super Junior song; whenever any one of them sings it, their hearts sing with (whether they mean to or not). To their ears, it will always sound like a Super Junior song. No better, worse, or different.
The only thing is that at the very end, as the song is fading and he holds the note clear and sweet, Donghae opens his eyes and looks straight at Kibum.
Kibum nearly swallows his tongue. He composes himself enough to pretend to actually want another beer when he goes to open one, focusing his eyes on it diligently, Donghae taking a seat on the maroon plastic couch next to him even though there are others in the room. Kibum acts cool, like he knows what he’s doing, but it falls apart when Donghae picks up his hand from where it lays idle next to him, looks at it for a second like he’s deciding something, and slowly, deliberately threads his fingers, one by one, between Kibum’s.
They stay like that for longer than Kibum can count (he gives up after seventeen minutes, because 1,049 is a lot of seconds and by then it doesn't matter). Donghae pretends like nothing is different, nothing has changed, like they’ve held hands all the time, but this time it isn’t on stage, no one can see them through the flashing lights of the room, and Donghae is skimming his thumb along the top of Kibum’s hand.
It’s now that Kibum realizes that the light-headedness, lust, admiration, protectiveness, jealousy, and burning, unbridled affection he has for Donghae has somehow morphed into something that must be love.
(He confesses to him later that night, at home behind closed doors, and finds that Donghae already knows.)
***
started/finished: 7.5/4.09