Without a Heart; chapter 5
C H A P T E R 05
The sky was suffocated with grey and white clouds, blocking out the sunlight that even during the day that everything feel cold, damp, dark, and miserable.
It was quiet. Too quiet.
A lone car was parked in the middle of a deserted parking lot, the borders expanding so wide that even if a bomb was dropped, no matter how big, it would swallow the whole place with a deafening explosion... and yet no one would ever hear it, passing like a breeze in a thunderstorm.
"Help me... please help me..."
The muffled sound of a girl's voice called out desperately through the air. The echoes of a faint thumping sound overlapping it, her white scathed fists banging with all their might onto the stained glass window as she screamed as loud as her lungs allowed her. Her eyes dwelled with tears as she glanced behind her at the time bomb wrapped tightly around the driver's seat.
Tick tock, tick tock... 1:59, 1:58, 1:57...
A man was pushing his way frantically through a crowd, running fast. His face drenched in sweat and his eyes wide, blood-shot and panic-stricken, looking around wildly at any corner, turn or curb.
"Sunha!!" he shouted. "Sunha!!"
The girl was locked in the car, not hearing him as he was too far away, having no idea where she was. Time was running out. Sunha cried hard and screamed louder, jerking the door handle in vain as the air became thicker and thicker.
Tick tock, tick tock... 0:40, 0:39, 0:38...
"Oppa!!" she screamed. She banged her fist hard, but all sounds she made were still muffled, no matter how loud she tried to be.
Tick tock, tick tock... 0:29, 0:28, 0:27...
"OPPA!!"
The scene froze at the girl's distraught face and dramatic music started to play.
---
"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!"
Donghae threw a piece of popcorn at the TV.
"Come on!!" he yelled, his voice cracking with frustration. The credits appeared and rolled down the screen, rendering his words into splutters.
"How can they just... right in the middle of... WHAT THE HECK IS THIS!!!!!"
Donghae collapsed back down onto the sofa, dropping down so suddenly that the popcorn in the bowl he was holding scattering up into the air and showered back down on top of his head.
For almost an hour, no one had dared to even breathe as each second completely intoxicated the room with suspense and utter excitement. Not that meant much, since the room only consisted of three people, one of which was only watching out of boredom.
Donghae and Kyuhyun shared the sofa, sitting at the edge of their seats and reacting passionately at each scene throughout the whole episode. Jay, on the other hand, sat on his own chair with his legs draped over the armrest, hugging a cushion against his chest with an overall nonchalant face. He hadn't been given the chance to voice his opinion on what was happening on the screen due to the unspoken rule the two younger ones firmly laid out, but now that it was over, he finally felt it was okay to break the atmosphere (not that it wasn't already broken by itself at this point) and threw a glance over at them. It was usually amusing seeing what was left of them after each episode.
After using up all his energy for the emotional rollercoaster of the drama, Kyuhyun was now just staring at the TV with a dramatically grim expression, shaking his head as he tastelessly chewed the rest of the popcorn in his mouth he had forgotten about before. Donghae, however, was evidently a little more out of it than Kyuhyun was, sitting motionlessly with the fluttering of his eyelashes being the only sign that he was alive. Acknowledging this state of shock, Jay moved his legs off the armrest and set his feet down with a thump. He moved the cushion off his chest and held it like a sack of potatoes, stretching up his arms over his head and letting out a long-suppressed yawn.
"I don't know why you're so disappointed," he said groggily. Jay coughed a few times to clear his throat that had closed up after so long. He patted his chest, looking back at the TV. "I mean, I know Choi Sulli's a favourite of yours, but every single drama she's been in, she's always in a car with a bomb." He threw the cushion at Kyuhyun, which bounced off his head without so much of a flinch. "You two watched all her dramas, right?"
Although seeming too immersed to have heard him, they both gave a mindless nod. Kyuhyun rubbed his eyes as the preview for tomorrow's episode came on.
"It's her thing, hyung," he admitted. His voice was lucid, probably because he was tired, so he wasn't arguing back. He sighed softly as the actress came back on screen, losing his train of thought once again. "But come on, she's pretty in this."
Choi Sulli was Donghae and Kyuhyun's favourite actress. They were fans of her acting, her beauty, her tears, her emotional characters and her plotlines, they were awed by everything about her even though they didn't even like watching or even cared about dramas.
This statement was no joke; they really didn't care about dramas. In fact, ever since they were little elementary school kids, they would annoy people who did, notable targets being Eunjung and their mothers, teasing them about their fondness for the ridiculously handsome actors, the continuous use of amnesia after a car accident, love rectangles, cancer, as well as being utterly dumbfounded as to why the entire nation's female population were smitten with Bae Yong Joon because of that one drama with a lot of snow and a helluva lot of unnecessary crying scenes.
Their snide remarks were cut midsentence, however, when they were spending a cold winter afternoon snowed in with Eunjung, being forced to watch the only thing that was showing on TV at that moment; her favourite drama. Upon the moment Choi Sulli appeared on the screen as the male lead's younger sister, all that Donghae and Kyuhyun believed and stood by in the last 20-plus years backfired and they fell under her spell.
But it wasn't like they'd watch just anything now; she was simply their exception. Eunjung and Heechul liked her too and would occasionally drop in to watch, although Jay only recently found the tolerance, especially since Kyuhyun and Donghae often openly made careless comments about his favourite actresses in the process, nailing it in as to how Choi Sulli was so much better than them. Jay wasn't usually a sensitive man, but under his stoic expression, it was discovered that his limit could be reached, and he dealt with these situations in his own way. Despite having been the eldest son, Jay rarely used his power of authority to its full potential, so Heechul and Kyuhyun got away with many things without punishment. This led to the misinterpreted conclusion that Jay didn't get mad at anything, and because he encouraged Kyuhyun not to lie to him, the younger ones felt it was okay to be completely and totally honest with their thoughts and feelings.
However, this theory was quickly proven wrong.
After a series of heated, colourful arguments about the difference between being ‘honest' and just ‘downright rude', a bruised jaw ensured that the duo (or Kyuhyun, at least) would not be as imprudent with their words in the near future.
The room fell silent aside from the theme song as the three young men watched the credits.
"It's unrealistic, you know," Donghae let out after a while. He heaved a sigh and pushed his hair back with his hand. "She just leaves the car door wide open for someone to strap a bomb in it." Kyuhyun chuckled; they seemed to be regaining their conscious state of mind now.
"And what's the deal with her banging on the windows this time?" Kyuhyun laughed. "Is something stopping her from unlocking the door? Or even winding the window down and climbing out? The windows are manual."
"Her last drama was better," Donghae remarked. The scene of Sulli crying and pounding her fists on the window replayed in slow motion. He crossed his arms and shook his head. "At least it made more sense when they tied her up."
"I wish they didn't have to blow Sulli up in every single drama they put her in," Kyuhyun muttered bitterly. He set the cushion blindly to the side, which was on Donghae's chest as they both laid back on the sofa in the same position side by side. Donghae hugged the cushion.
"I think it's because she looks pretty like this," he said, his voice completely nonchalant even though it was a pretty weird observation. Kyuhyun gave him a strange look, Jay doing the same thing even though he wasn't even in the conversation, but Donghae kept his eyes firmly on the television set, pretending they weren't there. He pointed at the screen. "She does the screaming thing really well. I think the angle through the stained glass makes her look good." He let out a hearty laugh when he realized something. "Why is it stained anyway? She just bought it in Episode 6, they had a 3-week episode arch about it."
Jay exchanged a glance with Kyuhyun, who just made circles around his temple his finger, an amused smirk on his lips. Donghae was unexpectedly very passionate when he watched something he liked, they were just lucky it wasn't a historical one. Unlike Jay who had never actually seen the exact extent of Donghae's annoying commentary, Kyuhyun had to put up with him whenever the professor showed a film for one of their classes. Donghae automatically turned into an irritating film critic and took every chance he had to point out inaccuracies in the storyline, the set, sometimes even trivial facts about the actor's personal life and how it was either a good or bad idea for them to be cast. These were things you'd expect from an 80 year old university professor, not a 23 year old student, but then again they couldn't expect a normal person without strange, quirky interests to be Kyuhyun's best friend.
Jay found the two friends on several occasions sitting for hours in front of the television watching a cable show; a cable show that had been installed at a very expensive price, something Kyuhyun spent months begging for. Jay wasn't sure what it was they were always watching, but every time he came in to see, it looked like a program about grass growing.
In real life.
Both of them were always watching that one show so attentively and discussing it with each other. Jay didn't know if they were just faking it as part of a scenario to drive him crazy, but Eunjung and Heechul had informed him this strange behavior happened even when they were around. One time, Jay came home to find a small fire in the middle of the front lawn, neither Kyuhyun nor Donghae anywhere in sight. They said it was an experiment, and they initially thought it didn't work and walked away. Jay grew to become slightly unnerved by these kinds of replies, and he came to feel that what they did in their spare time wasn't something he wanted to think about. God only knows how that fire started, and they were constantly reminded to give it a thought every now and then when they passed that burnt patch of grass.
Jay, along with everyone else, were in awe that the two friends had survived all those years together, unscathed.
The MBC News theme song boomed out of the speakers abruptly as the preview came to an end, as usual with a melodramatic whiteout. Jay stood up from his chair and rubbed the crick in his neck while Kyuhyun and Donghae continued to stay seated to watch, reaching for more popcorn that had now spilt onto the carpet beside them.
The blue MBC logo appeared as a deep male voice announced "THIS IS MBC NEWS..." before the camera panned down onto two shadowed figures sitting at the news desk. The light slowly brightened until the viewers were able to see the anchors' faces, in this time giving the camera a chance to change its angle accompanied with a faint drum roll.
"Hello, I'm Choi Siwon," the younger male anchor said with a confident stare into the camera.
"And I'm Baek Jiyoung," the woman followed. The camera focused on her face as she turned on her seat so the screen beside her came into view. Her expression became serious and grim when the image of an oil spill appeared on the screen.
"Right now, the oil spill off the Eastern shores of China has been halted temporarily as workers have managed to stop leakage from the 300 tonne-worth of oil barrels."
The screen changed to show images of a large Chinese harbour that was surrounded by black oil, on the ground, on the docks, everywhere, the shore scattered with the bodies of oil-soaked marine life.
"We've had technical difficulties contacting our reporters on the scene, but these images were taken approximately 7 hours ago, showing that there has been little to no progress from the catastrophic event two weeks ago."
Kyuhyun suddenly clapped his hands together.
"Ah, I almost forgot!" he exclaimed. Jay and Donghae both looked at him. Kyuhyun jumped to his feet and scrambled past his older brother, disappearing up the stairs to his room. The door shut with a snap, and the house fell silent for almost 10 whole seconds before he burst out again with his arms around his laptop.
After almost tumbling down the stairs, he scurried back over in front of the TV next to Donghae on the floor as the oil spill report continued. Donghae, who seemed just as confused as Jay a minute ago, suddenly looked intrigued, and the two of them huddled around the laptop. They looked back up at the screen again, watching anxiously, and Kyuhyun let out a cry of triumph.
"Yes!" he shouted happily, grinning from ear to ear at something on the monitor. "He did it!" He gave Donghae a high-five. Jay frowned, leaning over to see what they were doing. It was never good if they were this excited over something.
"What's going on?" he asked. Kyuhyun's cheerful expression suddenly dropped and he tried to prevent Jay from seeing. At the sight of hesitation, Jay immediately knew it was something he shouldn't be looking at. He reached over and placed his hand on the monitor and hardened his eyes. As if by a strange force, Kyuhyun quietly relented and shuffled back, allowing Jay to ducked over next to him to see the screen.
It was a file full of photographs of the oil spill, very exclusive photographs. Kyuhyun's mouse was hovering over a folder titled ‘SH5041', but it was obvious that he had just jumped out from the file when Jay asked to see it. Even from just looking at the thumbnail, Jay could tell it contained photographs of Shanghai Port, similar to those used in the report. He sighed with dismay and shook his head.
"Didn't Zhoumi tell you to stop going into his photo account?" he said in a tired voice. Kyuhyun's face flushed an embarrassed shade of red, and he closed the laptop.
"He promised he'd take these photos for me," he mumbled, becoming awkward like a child. "He just forgot to email them to me..."
"But isn't he coming back tomorrow? You couldn't wait?"
Kyuhyun shrugged innocently, slowly opening the lid of the laptop again.
"It's for an assessment," he said simply, as if that explained everything, and as if it were a believable reason. He put his hand back on the mouse ignoring Jay's stern glare, who was obviously unconvinced.
Zhoumi was a reporter photographer for MBC News, and also one of Kyuhyun's close friends. Originally an exchange student from China, he was 2 years older than Kyuhyun and met him and Donghae when they were in their first year of college. Kyuhyun, still starry-eyed and ambitious at this point, had dipped into a Journalism course to satisfy his curiosity about it. Without his best friend to accompany him and at the same time possessing a somewhat unapproachable exterior, Kyuhyun arrived at each lesson with a heavy heart, gradually causing his interest in Journalism, like everything else, to decline into boredom.
Zhoumi caught his attention early in the semester even before he saw his face. Kyuhyun usually had his eyes half-closed and his head leaned onto his fist, hot and grumpy from the thick atmosphere of the lecture room while the professor literally droned on about a topic he already learned by himself months ago. In the midst of a relatively dead crowd, a hand in the front row shot up in the air whenever a question was asked to the class. Kyuhyun noticed it was the deep male voice with a distinctive Chinese accent every...single...time, and it was annoying. He was very judgemental of people he didn't know and made no effort to hide it. This was why he couldn't make friends easily, and because of this, he came to realize he didn't need to make new friends. At all.
This was why Zhoumi becoming the 3rd person ever to befriend Kyuhyun came as a complete shock. No one would've expected them to even get along since they were both so proud...if that was even the right word to use.
After a few agonizing weeks of the same boring lecture room routine, Kyuhyun and Zhoumi came face-to-face for the first time. On that fateful day, Kyuhyun awoke from his half-sleep as the students behind him bumped into his chair as they got up. It was a cold day, so just for the sake of a free period, he headed to the only other place with heating he was allowed into without having to look like he wasn't going to do any work; the library.
That was where they met, the library. Despite having completely different states of mind, this was where fate brought them together.
Zhoumi was working hard, fervently writing up an article on his laptop as Kyuhyun passed by behind him. Naturally, Kyuhyun cast a careless glimpse at what he was doing, because... well, passing by anything provoked curiosity, but then he stopped when he something on the screen caught his eye.
Zhoumi typed his articles out in Chinese before translating them, so it was really no one's business to look, but Kyuhyun, having coincidentally taken Mandarin lessons back in high school and was considerably good at it, immediately recognized the simple nouns in the title: ‘ANCIENT' and ‘TRANSCRIPT'.
"What are you looking at?" were the first words the ever-curious Kyuhyun said to him. The moment Zhoumi looked over his shoulder and replied incredulously "You can read Chinese characters?" it was obvious that they were destined to meet and become friends.
Zhoumi had always been studious with every subject he took, earning himself a good reputation through his hardworking and sensible personality that won over many important people who would later help build up his career to what it was now. He graduated with honours, and just a year after working as a rookie reporter for the local news, he was accepted into a major television station and became the pride of his neighbourhood as well as hometown back in China.
On the other hand, Kyuhyun's enthusiasm for journalism started to wear off like all his other interests in life, but in this case he was forced to complete at least 2 years of the course before he was allowed to drop out. With his carefree personality, this could be considered modern-day torture; Kyuhyun literally couldn't keep focus because none of the subjects were intriguing at all. He often dropped into a daze without meaning to, or if he had his iPod or laptop with him, he'd get so absorbed into what he was doing that he'd sometimes randomly shout in the middle of a class, causing him to get kicked out. Thankfully, Zhoumi was there to prevent this from happening most of the time, and Kyuhyun did manage to survive the 4 tedious semesters.
Despite never taking the mythology/folklore degree Kyuhyun picked up after dropping out of Journalism, Zhoumi also became good friends with Donghae as well, as the three of them would meet up during breaks. They'd hang out together at the college café (since they were all on the same campus), where they played cards and placed bets on the most ridiculous things. The close bond between Zhoumi and Donghae grew especially since the two of them would occasionally make bets on Kyuhyun and his unpredictable albeit naïve way of life.
However, Zhoumi did have his own purpose in the group. Since Eunjung unofficially retired from her duties as a member of the group after having a baby, Zhoumi took over her role as the voice of reason, left to save the other two who shared the same childlike curiosity for finding things the practical way. Zhoumi never quite developed or understood that unique taste for stunts guaranteed to get them arrested, so his judgement wasn't clouded from seeing what was risky and what was just plain insane.
Jay, Heechul, Eunjung and Donghae's parents were very grateful.
However, the peace didn't last as long as most would've wanted. After he graduated and began travelling overseas, Zhoumi's voice of reason disappeared along with him, leaving Kyuhyun and Donghae to do only so much to resist their primal urges for fun, ultimately falling back into mischievous ways.
Jay usually scolded Kyuhyun about how bleak his future was by using Zhoumi as an example.
Zhoumi had a bright, secure future in his budding career, while Kyuhyun was now taking a weird course studying about nonsensical things like witches, fairies and vampires... at the same time not making a cent of money for rent or food. It was useless nagging about how useless the course was, it was useless nagging how much better off he would've been with the other course... but Jay did find that he got the message through and sent Kyuhyun into a sulk whenever he put him on the spot about their late mother. Despite being extremely proud, he cherished their mother like any other child in a family, so when Jay spoke about how she would've wanted him to rethink his future, Kyuhyun would go to his room and close the door. Jay knew he wasn't mad or upset, it was more that his pride was hurt and he began to try to show the heavens he wasn't a slacker like his brothers thought, even if it were only for a little while. He'd throw a comeback line every now and then to defend himself, saying that even though Jay was right about his future being uncertain, their mother's last wish was for them to do what they love if it made them happy. Jay didn't reply when he was given this answer, just smiling to himself since he knew their mother thought Kyuhyun would end up as a journalist when she said that.
Even though nowadays Zhoumi didn't see them as often as he used to, he still made time to meet up with Kyuhyun and Donghae even if it was only for an hour or two every few months. They'd do the usual; cards, coffee and bets, but because both his friends had long been curious about the exclusiveness of his work, they also talked about how Zhoumi was given authority to so, so many things now that he was a successful reporter. From here, the duo somehow gained access to Zhoumi's private online journalism mailbox, and when the word ‘somehow' was used in cases like these, it meant Zhoumi had wholeheartedly refused to give it to them and they found some other methods to get it.
This was where Zhoumi stored his photographs before they were transferred to the broadcast, so thanks to this stroke of luck, the curious Kyuhyun was able to catch a first glimpse of everything even before the MBC news crew did. It was almost as if it was Kyuhyun's life's mission; to know everything that was unimportant in life.
After many hopeless attempts to block Kyuhyun from his accounts, they eventually came to the agreement that Kyuhyun would at least try to stop going into the picture folders in return for the occasion favour that only someone of Zhoumi's status could fulfil. Yeah, even when almost breaking his neck doing these favours, Zhoumi knew Kyuhyun still snuck a peek every now and then when no one was looking, much to his dismay, but he kept his sanity on the thought that Kyuhyun wouldn't be so stupid enough to expose it all to the world.
Having been slightly stunned at witnessing Zhoumi's admit of defeat, Jay decided to take over the responsibility and tried his best to talk his younger brother into giving it up before the NIS came for him, but he soon became just as weary as Zhoumi.
Kyuhyun's eyes turned away from the screen over to his older brother.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" he said, finally faltering under Jay's gaze. It got uncomfortable after a while. He screwed up his forehead in a cute frown. "What? It's really an assessment, hyung! Believe me!"
"It's true," Donghae's muffled voice added. Having been ignored the whole time, he sat silently nibbling on the popcorn next to them, enjoying watching this scenario unfold right in front of him. Jay gave him a strange look.
"Just let me take out the photos, hyung," Kyuhyun said. "We're already in, and I'm only looking through the stuff he said he'd send to me."
He turned back to the laptop and scrolled down the page some more, coming across some more pictures that looked like less professionally taken outtakes from the oil spill. Jay peered over to see; even though it looked interesting and they weren't enough to be considered personal personal, Kyuhyun was still nonetheless invading someone else's privacy, and Jay felt uncomfortable watching him. He grabbed Kyuhyun's wrist and moved it away from the mouse.
"Can't you just wait until he comes back and gives it to you?" Jay suggested. "He's not just sitting in an office in Shanghai with air conditioning and fast internet, you know."
"But Mi hyung promised he'd send them to me by today," Kyuhyun protested, pulling his arm back.
"Remember how much trouble you got into last time when one of the photos leaked out?" Jay said seriously. Kyuhyun just let out a scoffing laugh, but did not look his brother in the eye.
"Oh come on, that wasn't my fault," he said in a bright, somewhat coaxing manner, turning back to the screen. He typed something up, shrugging again. "It only happened because I didn't have my laptop and had to use the public computer at the library. No big deal." His eyes suddenly lit up, something no doubt catching his attention. "Oh wow, I found it!" He looked excitedly over at Donghae. "He took the photos like I asked." Donghae scrambled over, pushing Jay aside in the process as he leaned over to see. A similar grin spread across his face too , and they high-fived.
"Sweeeeeet," Donghae murmured. He popped another piece of popcorn in his mouth, his eyes darting from side to side of the screen at a rapid pace. "How many did he take?"
"Hmm... looks about 50," Kyuhyun muttered, tilting his head to this side and squinting his left eye as he scanned through the rows of pictures. His expression again dissolved into a bright, satisfied smile. He muttered something to Donghae that Jay couldn't hear, pointing at the screen as the two huddled closer around the laptop. Even sitting inches away, this was a typical sign that yet again that Jay was more or less in another room from them.
Jay sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"For crying out loud," he muttered. "Will you two stop looking at his photos?!" He picked up the cushion that laid forgotten on the floor and threw it at Kyuhyun. This time his aim was more precise, and it slammed into his face. Kyuhyun caught a mouthful of cotton, the force enough to break the invisible barrier between him, Donghae and Jay.
"Ahhh, hyung!" he cried. He dusted the front of his hair that got messed up, a look of irritation on his face. "I told you we need it for my assessment!"
"When is it due?" Jay asked calmly, although he was obviously losing patience waiting for a legitimate answer. He pointed a sharp finger at Kyuhyun when he opened his mouth to reply. "And don't say tomorrow!"
"We're really studying, Jay hyung!" Donghae piped. He picked up the laptop and held it out so Jay could see the screen. It was a photograph of the port, but evidently of a different part of the port that didn't seem affected by the oil spill at all, leading Jay to believe that even though it was clearly taken by Zhoumi when he was at the Shanghai Port, it wasn't for work purposes. Jay furrowed his brow at the strange angle, where the camera was aimed at the bottom of the wooden pole that held up the boardwalk from the dark murky water below.
"What am I look at?" Jay said mindlessly, genuinely having no idea at all. It looked like a photo someone would take right before they tripped over backwards. At hearing this question, Kyuhyun's nervous appearance melted away into another grin. He shifted from his spot on the floor so he could see the laptop screen as well, pointing at a random spot on the photo.
"See this place?" he said brightly. "Not a lot of people know this, but it's said to be the very, very last sighting area of the famous Meiru-ying fish."
"The what now?"
"Aqua unicorns."
Jay stared for almost a whole minute, unable to even comprehend the stupidity of the name that it rendered him mute. Donghae, clearly seeing this, quickly grabbed the textbook. He opened up a page and held it up for Jay to see. It was a strange, illustrated picture of a creature that looked like a giant seahorse with a weird horn-shaped rock attached to its head.
"Aqua unicorns," Kyuhyun said again, leaning over and pointing at it on the page. "Ancient Chinese marine creatures with an exquisite horn on their heads. 3 times larger than a seahorse, they were first sighted in 7800BC on what is now known to be part of Shanghai Port."
"Ah..." was all that came out of Jay's mouth, still staring at the picture. "Aqua unicorns..." Donghae grinned at Jay and tapped his finger on the top of the book.
"But they're still pretty rare," he said matter-of-factly, a sense of pride in his voice that matched his best friend's. "There have only been around 2 sightings recorded in the papers that didn't make it past the local news." Kyuhyun touched his chin and gazed thoughtfully at the picture.
"I actually think we'd be able to find one if we went to Shanghai ourselves," he remarked, looking over at Donghae. "Don't you think so?" Donghae nodded in agreement. "I mean, they're not even half as rare as the land unicorns!"
"Exactly!"
Jay slowly pushed himself off the ground, backing away as he felt himself get sucked into a vortex he had experience before, a vortex he never wanted to get into ever again. Right now, he definitely wasn't in the same room as they were. He exhaled deeply, rubbing the back of his neck. Kyuhyun and Donghae paid no attention to him, now talking enthusiastically about these... aqua unicorns. Jay shook his head of the thoughts, stepping a safe distance away from their stratosphere. It was best to go away at moments like these.
"I'll go make dinner now," he said after a while. He waited awkwardly for a few more seconds in case they'd reply, but when Kyuhyun flicked through a few pages of the textbook before flinging it aside and both of them ducking back behind the laptop in excitement, he was pretty sure they were browsing through Zhoumi's files again.
"Okay," Jay said, pretending to be casual and not care. It was useless anyway. "Well, when you're done doing illegal stuff, it'd help if you clear the table before Heechul comes home." Kyuhyun responded by holding a thumbs up over his head. "You're not going to act like this when Minho comes over tomorrow, are you?"
Kyuhyun's face instantly lit up at the sound of his nephew's name, finally drawing away from the screen.
"Is Minho going to stay with us for the weekend?" he asked, genuinely interested now. Jay nodded, an amused smirk on his lips as Kyuhyun beamed, setting aside the laptop over to Donghae. The nephew who he loved was the one thing more important to him than prying into confidential documents. Donghae took advantage of this family moment and quietly pulling the distracted Kyuhyun's hand off the mouse. Kyuhyun, of course, didn't notice.
"Can I help get his room ready?" he asked. Jay chuckled at Kyuhyun's sudden enthusiasm for work.
"You can help by setting a good example," he told him, waving a finger at the laptop. "Minho's at the age where he picks things up easily." Kyuhyun grinned, putting his left hand at an angle to his forehead in a salute.
"No hacking," he promised. "You have my word."
Jay smiled faintly and crossed his arms; even though he was happy at the response, he knew Kyuhyun too well to expect this promise to go through just like that.
"But starting soon, right?" he said in a dry voice. "After you finish what you're doing?"
Kyuhyun just did that innocent expression he'd always use to get out of trouble when he didn't have, or didn't feel the need, to give an answer. Having seen this expression from the time Kyuhyun was a 6 year old, Jay had long been immune to the effects, unlike certain other people in the family. Jay could only shake his head with a scoffing laugh.
"Alright, just don't fill out on the popcorn. Dinner will be ready in an hour."
Again after receiving a nod of acknowledgement, Jay left.
Kyuhyun crawled back over to the laptop and pushed Donghae aside with his elbow. His unexpectedly powerful gesture made Donghae fall over onto the popcorn bowl beside him with a splash, sending the popcorn to fly everywhere.
"Yah..." Donghae grumbled irritably. Kyuhyun immediately shifted into his friend's spot and slipped the mouse out of his hand. Donghae sat back up and dusted the popcorn off his clothes, stuffing a few into his mouth. He pointed at the screen. "Here, try this one."
It was another folder at the bottom of the page. They weren't too sure what it was, but since it's in the same file as where the photographs Zhoumi promised to send Kyuhyun were, they figured it was okay to take a look. Kyuhyun clicked into it, where they found a series of photographs that looked like blurred pictures from oil spill, and also what looked like the figure of a woman, but the angle only managed to capture her leg or arm. It was obviously the ‘bloopers' footage Zhoumi had meant to delete, and despite it not being anything scandalous, Donghae and Kyuhyun often got a good laugh since Zhoumi's pride for his professional work was as broad as Kyuhyun's pride for himself.
"So, when did Mi hyung say he's coming back?" Donghae asked, glancing over his shoulder at the calendar on the wall. Kyuhyun looked at his watch, muttering to himself as he calculated the amount of time in his mind.
"Let's see...he said he's touching down in Korea at 6:30PM tomorrow," Kyuhyun said. "So, he's probably getting on the plane in an hour or two." Donghae leaned his back against the sofa and stared at the wall ahead with a dreamy expression.
"His plane's stopping at Thailand for a few hours, right?" he murmured, the scenes of the luxurious Thai tourist spots flashing in his big eyes. He sighed deeply to himself and shook his head in dismay at the thought. "So jealous..."
Kyuhyun chuckled hearing this. He skimmed through the rest of the photos, not really coming across anything interesting since they all seemed to be of the oil spill, totally irrelevant to what he wanted. He felt Donghae climb onto the sofa behind him with bowl of popcorn and grab his shoulder in a claw-like grip.
"Hey, go back!" he exclaimed. "Pretty girl!" Kyuhyun let out a cry of pain and scrolled up out of reflex, coming across the photos which actually showed the woman's face. It was still a blooper shot in the way she was standing, almost as if she wasn't supposed to be in the frame at all and Zhoumi was telling her to move to the side, his camera going off by itself to exhibit his authority as the cameraman. This was interesting, because the woman wasn't just a random passerby either. From just her outfit, it was obvious she was another reporter. Kyuhyun rubbed his shoulder and emitted a deep sigh, then leaned back and folded his arms, begrudgingly allowing Donghae to stare at the picture for a few moments. After two seconds, Kyuhyun let out a groan.
"Come on, hyung," he urged, glancing up at him. "We see Park Gyuri on TV every night." He tugged at Donghae's sleeve. "Can we please look at the rest now?" Donghae just continued to chew, his cheeks puffed full of popcorn. He protested with a wave of his hand when Kyuhyun moved the arrow over the close button.
"But we've never seen her like this," he said in a muffled voice, swallowing it all at once. He nibbled on another piece, tilting his head to the side. "She almost looks human." He wrinkled his nose, looking over at Kyuhyun questionably. "Isn't it weird that we've known Mi hyung for this long but we've never met any of his colleagues?"
Kyuhyun just smirked to himself, not even needing to give the question a thought. He took the chance of Donghae's change of subject to close the window of Park Gyuri's picture, effectively ending the detour on a quiet note. Donghae didn't complain this time, preoccupied with his thoughts. He laid back with his whole body taking up the space of the sofa, nonchalantly watching Kyuhyun scroll down the rows and rows of literally hundreds of blooper pictures. Donghae abandoned the bowl and hugged the cushion against his stomach as the popcorn scraped and twisted his insides. The room quietened until only the sound of the clicking mouse and faint hissing noises towards the kitchen could be heard.
"How do you keep finding his password anyway?" Donghae asked after a while. He cocked his eyebrow and arched up his neck to see over Kyuhyun's head. "And why won't you tell me what it is?"
"Because I promised him I wouldn't," Kyuhyun said simply. Donghae snickered.
"But I can guess, right?" he said with a grin, nudging him again. "Give one hint and I bet I can guess what it is."
"You'll never be able to guess it," Kyuhyun chuckled.
"Come on, I'm just as smart as you. I bet you guessed as well."
Both of them burst out laughing. Donghae placed his hands on Kyuhyun's shoulder and shook him lightly. As expected, his instinctive curiosity could only be held back for so long.
"Just give me a hint," he urged. "Kyuhyun, ah I'm your hyung!" Donghae poked his head down in Kyuhyun's face. Knowing him since elementary school, he could pick things up just from seeing his expression.
"Is it personal?" he threw out. "Is it his own name? No, probably not. Didn't work when I tried it... His ideal girl's name? Is it a girl's name?" Kyuhyun's shoulders quivered like they did when he was trying to stifle a laugh, hinting to Donghae that he was on the right track. "Ah~ so it is a girl's name!"
"Just telling you now, hyung," Kyuhyun said, his voice breaking into a laugh even though he tried to keep it steady. "You're never going to guess it right."
"You guessed right, didn't you?" Donghae said, widening his eyes and pointing accusingly at Kyuhyun's chest. Kyuhyun laughed again.
"Okay, maybe you'll be able to guess it right." Donghae hugged the cushion again and directed his eyes up at the ceiling, raking through the various possibilities.
Zhoumi was serious about his work and never stayed in one place for too long because of always travelling for a story, hence they were sure he wouldn't be able to date anyone for a consider period of time, or without either Donghae or Kyuhyun realizing. Zhoumi also wasn't the kind of man to become smitten with a girl just for her face, as he had interviewed quite a few celebrities, only a rare few leaving an impression on him.
"Is it... Zhang Liyin?" Donghae suggested. A famous Chinese singer who Zhoumi interviewed last year, Kyuhyun was caught off-guard at this pick, having completely forgotten that she was indeed a good candidate.
"What?!" he exclaimed with an incredulous laugh. "No, that crush faded a long time ago. I thought you knew already when he stopped trying to steer the conversation to how pretty she was." Donghae stared off in a daze as Kyuhyun got up from the floor with the laptop.
"Kyuhyun ah!" Jay's voice called out from the kitchen. "Come clear the table!"
"Coming, hyung!" Kyuhyun shouted back. He grinned back down at his best friend, lightly punching his arm to snap him out of it. "Let's go, we'll get in trouble." He shut the laptop and placed it on the table next to the sofa, dragging Donghae to his feet towards the kitchen. Donghae was still swimming in his thoughts, thinking hard when an idea suddenly clicked over his head. He stopped in his tracks.
"I know!" he cried out. "It's Park Gyuri, right?" Kyuhyun again smiled mysteriously and stepped behind his friend, pushing him with both hands so they were moving again.
"I'll give you another hint to narrow it down," he told him. "It's not Park Gyuri."
Donghae blinked.
"It isn't?" he blurted, turning his head around. Kyuhyun shook his head. "Then, who's the girl Mi hyung uses for his password?"
Kyuhyun just feigned a look of ignorance and shrugged.
"You're free to keep guessing," he said light-heartedly.
---------------------------------------------------------