Through A Looking Glass [4/?]
Title: Through A Looking Glass [4/?]
Author:
summerrainsonme
Rating: PG-13 to R
Pairings: Kyuhae, Yewook, Teuksora, Hanchul, Taeyeon/Jessica, Sunsun, Hyohyuk. Mentions of others.
Summary: You fall, and you fall hard.
Chapter IV
"Like a black hole, I get sucked in you."
Kyuhyun woke up feeling stiff. His body ached all over, especially his waist, which seemed to age ten years with one night's sleep. He groaned and turned over on his bed, flopping face-first on his pillow and burying his nose in the familiar smell of lemon-scented detergent.
He knew that he had to get up, though. Only half of his physics homework was done, he still had yet to finish composing his song for music class, and he was sure that there were a load of other things to do today - get food, do laundry, fold said laundry (damn his week for chores) and maybe (somehow) measly clean up their bachelor-like flat. His head felt strangely heavy, like he was on some sort of sleeping pill that hadn't worn off yet. He forced himself to roll over once more, accidentally miscalculating the distance and landing up on the floor instead.
He held his head in his palm, groaning, "Ow..." just as Sungmin came barrelling through the door with wild eyes. "What happened? Where's the thief? I know martial arts!" he yelled, turning around twice quickly before his eyes landed on Kyuhyun with his butt on the floor. "...uh, what the fuck are you doing?"
"I fell out of bed," he admitted with a grumble. Then, when Sungmin began to chuckle, "Stop laughing!"
"Sorry, but since when do you fall out of bed?"
"Since today. Goddamn..."
"Aw," Sungmin cooed sickly, scrunching up his nose in a fashion similar to an ahjumma's, "Did poor baby Kyu hurt his bum?"
Kyuhyun scowled. "I will kill you with a knife. And it will be slow. And painful."
"Sure you will," Sungmin threw off flippantly, spinning on his heel. "Take a shower you lazy ass, and come for food!"
For a second Kyuhyun indulged in the urge to stick out his tongue at Sungmin before hoisting himself off the floor, running a hand through his bangs. He blinked any leftover bleariness away, the little conversation with his roommate taking away any dazed off sleepiness that was left behind. His waist still hurt though, and if he forgot about his pride for a second, his backside did too.
Grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie he made his way into the bathroom in the hallway when his eyes caught sight of Donghae's leather jacket draped across the back of his chair. He paused, hesitating, before deciding that he would ask Sungmin for Donghae's friend's number (what was his name? Eun Hye? No, that's a girl's name...) so that he could just give it to that guy to give to Donghae. If he faced the actual dancer himself, Kyuhyun was afraid that he would be dragged into some other mess like last night.
Twenty minutes later Kyuhyun walked into the kitchen with his hair still wet and his nose still red from the water. He sat down on the kitchen table and hit it once, twice, before Sungmin looked around with an irritated expression. "Yah, you'll be hit with a spoon if you don't stop that."
"Your murder. Knife."
Sungmin rolled his eyes. "Instead of sitting there, call Heechul-hyung, won't ya? He's sleeping on the couch." Kyuhyun made a face, but Sungmin waved a spoon at him and the dark-haired boy was on his way, slipping his way into the living room. Heechul was indeed on the sofa, snoring away like nothing was wrong. Other than the fact that his hair was a few shades lighter than their maroon-coloured couch and it was sticking up in all directions.
Kyuhyun snickered under his breath. Heechul would massacre anyone if they had saw him this way. Good thing Kyuhyun wasn't just anyone.
With a mighty show of power, he used both of his hands to push Heechul off the sofa. Surprisingly, the other male was pretty heavy, and even when he fell off the snores continued. Kyuhyun frowned, unhappy with the outcome of his wake-up call.
He crossed around the sofa and began to kick the older, saying at the same time, "Yah! Hyung, wake up. If you don't Sungmin is going to hit you with a spoon and it's going to hurt really bad." When there was no response, he continued irrately, "Hyung! Wake up! God you're so annoying!"
"Don't treat your hyung like that, Kyuhyun-ah," Heechul groaned. "And get the fuck - why the hell are you kicking me, you little bitch - " In the middle of his rant he shot up like a bullet, his legs twisted in a spare blanket, giving Kyuhyun enough time to lithely escape away from Heechul's clutches.
Faced with Sungmin's curious look in the kitchen, he shrugged, "He's awake."
He ignored the other man's sigh of annoyance and peered over the rice-cooker. "Did you fix the coffee maker? I want some."
"You're too young to be drinking coffee," said the elder. "Wait until you're my age."
Kyuhyun crinkled his nose. "But I don't want to be an old man like you and Heechul-hyung." At that moment Heechul decided to walk through the door, ruffling his hair and grumbling under his breath. He glared at Kyuhyun enough to make iron melt. "Who's old?" Kyuhyun blew a raspberry his way and ducked quickly when Heechul made a swipe at his head.
"Don't you have someplace to be?" the redhead shouted from the kitchen, obviously grumpy.
"No class!" he yelled back just as loud, plopping down on the sofa and setting his feet on the table, switching on the tele. "I already did most of my work too." That was a lie, but it was usually enough to throw Sungmin off his case so that he could do it later on in the day - for some reason his best ideas were done at one in the morning.
Sungmin came into the room and pushed a plate of food in front of him. Three pieces of toast with jam on them, along with juice and a few pieces of fruit on the side. He looked at it and then looked up at Sungmin. "Don't we have some leftover galbi or something? Or even eggs?"
"Guess you need to go shopping, don't you," Sungmin sniffed. "Heechul took the galbi. Do your chores sometime this week, 'kay?"
"Bite me." Kyuhyun picked up the toast and took a large bite of it, staring at the screen and ignoring Sungmin. The older frowned and tapped Kyuhyun on the head, saying, "Hey, what about your job at the music store?"
"It's voluntary," he muttered in response. "I don't have to go there every week."
"Leeteuk-hyung misses you, I bet."
"Hyung-nim misses everybody."
Sungmin scoffed. "Yeah, well, we all decided that he liked you the best since day one." He went back into the kitchen, most probably to eat with Heechul. Kyuhyun knew that Sungmin would be paying him no more attention for the next few days or so - as long Heechul was around. To be honest, he really didn't mind. Sungmin scared him, with the way he could change from doting maternally to a could-care-less-about-the-world hyung.
Kyuhyun mused over going to the music store for a while. It was true that he hadn't been to the place for a while. Leeteuk had opened it and invited everyone to stop by whenever they could - it was a fairly popular place, considering how well-liked and known Leeteuk was around the campus. He often saw girls and older women go there too, just to see Leeteuk's warm smile. He couldn't blame them, really. Being with Leeteuk made him feel like he had a second mother.
He left a little note on the coffee table to let Heechul and Sungmin know where he was going, slipping into a pair of sneakers and pausing in his room to take along his piano in its' black case, slung across his black. He took the last piece of toast and drank the juice, shutting the door softly behind him as he walked out of the dorm building.
The day was just a little chilly, considering that it was late November. Kyuhyun had never been one to feel the cold, or even the heat. Weather didn't affect you much when it wasn't all that extreme, especially not in Seoul. He ignored the way that people stared at his ratty hoodie and pair of old sweatpants, probably taking him for some sort of homeless person. His hair was still wet, though, even as he reached the music store a block away.
It was a medium-sized thing, located in between a pretty famous cafe and a bookstore. Kyuhyun found himself coming to this little square often, finding that it had everything he ever wanted; food, quiet, books, and music. Perfect.
The store had clear windowpanes that were glass-painted with the curly script of 'Cheonsa', both in hangul and in English. There were posters of different bands that were popular at the moment and smaller, cuter little posters that he knew were the work of Leeteuk even though he would never admit it.
The bell rang jauntily as Kyuhyun entered, calling out to the empty store, "Hyung-nim?"
When no one answered he thought of turning around and just going home again, but then a large crash interrupted the stillness of the store. Kyuhyun jerked in surprise and ran lightly to the back, where the storage door was open. Leeteuk was on the floor, picking up CDs that had dropped from a box that was perched on a thin ladder.
"Ah, Kyuhyun-ah!" Leeteuk huffed as he continued, "I heard you outside. Where have you been?" Kyuhyun didn't answer him for a second, having dropped down immediately to help clean up the mess, but as he handed the plastic cases to Leeteuk he answered, "I've been studying, hyung-nim. And how come you're here by yourself? Where's Kangin-hyung?"
For some reason, whilst the other's face would positively brighten at the mention of his best friend, Kyuhyun saw that Leeteuk's smile had faltered a little. "He's back at the dorm. He's...ah, dealing with something right now, I guess."
Kyuhyun eyed his sunbae. "Then how come you're not with him?" Leeteuk, with his nature, would never leave someone alone when they were in pain or trouble. Kangin especially. "Hyung-nim, is Kangin-hyung okay?"
"Youngwoon is fine," Leeteuk said, his voice weary. Kyuhyun knew that it was time to back off when Leeteuk started to use Kangin's realy name. "He said that he just wanted some time to think things over. So I came to the store today instead."
Kyuhyun stayed silent for a long time, watching Leeteuk with cautious eyes as the other roamed around the store, turning on more lights and opening up the register. He wasn't sure what to do so he stood there carefully, shifting around once or twice. Leeteuk caught sight of him in one of his awkward motions and smiled. "Well, don't just stand there! Go get a broom and start sweeping or the like. I haven't been here in a while due to some things; you're lucky you caught me here today."
The very thought of Leeteuk not being the precious music store that he loved so dearly, from it's mellow-coloured walls to the rich carpet, confused Kyuhyun to a degree, but he supposed that Leeteuk just had some things that he had to take care of. The other was in his final year of college, after all, and he must've been busy.
Kyuhyun gave a little half smile and nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets while dragging himself to the back to get out the broom. He began to sweep from the corner, planning to use a vacuum on the carpet in the middle of the store where people usually sat and plugged in their iPods in the system to charge or to sample. Both males were covered with a comfortable silence as they worked; no words were ever really needed between them.
Time passed quickly, silently, like a fluttering bird. Soon the early morning colours that flooded across the sky changed to a dry autumn blue, and people began to mull across the streets. Kyuhyun felt oddly exhilarated. He couldn't get himself to be mad at anybody today; it was as if all the irritable feelings that stirred inside him usually had somehow disappeared. Not even when a little kid that came into their store had broken three CD cases. Maybe Leeteuk was rubbing off on him again.
Soon enough as the day weathered on slowly, people coming in and out to their leisurely desire, they both heard the large clock of the college campus - located just a few blocks down - ring once, twice, thrice, all the way up to twelve. Kyuhyun checked his own watch and found that he had been here for a long time.
"Hyung," he said, catching Leeteuk's attention. "I'm going to the cafe next door. Do you want anything to eat?"
"Just get me anything you're having," Leeteuk waved away, going back to help the blond guy that was looking intently at a CD.
Kyuhyun was hit with a blast of air as soon as he left the store. Thankfully no one looked at him weird with his ragged appearance, seeing as how many of them looked the same. There was just no time for vanity when the first semester was about to end, Kyuhyun thought, entering the cafe next door in two steps. Just thinking about the semester reminded him that he still had work to do. Kyuhyun figured that he could get back by six and then start on work - his procrastination skills were going to be the end of him one day.
It seemed as though that business was going slow for everyone, so Kyuhyun walked right up to an empty register, where the girl behind it was standing there, hiding under her cap shyly. Her fingers drummed on the marble counter as she said quietly, "What would you like to order?"
Kyuhyun looked up at the menu board and then at the large keep-oven behind the girl, where trays of baked goods were laid, fresh and ready for takeout. But then his eyes also made it's way over to the refrigerated portion, where crepes and waffles lay behind it. He loved all food, especially sweet things, so he didn't know what to get. Checking his wallet, Kyuhyun realized that he didn't have enough for both him and Leeteuk.
He bit his lips and looked up again. He could just get coffees, but they needed strength until the lunch break at around two. So Kyuhyun looked back at the girl behind the register, who was staring at him with wide eyed, wondering what was going on.
"Um," he started, hesitant. "I'll two coffees - one black, one with extra milk, and..." His eyes trailed unwillingly to the crepes again, and he wished that his lousy student money was just enough to buy more food. Energy from breakfast had long left him.
The girl rang up the orders for him, and when she came back she caught him staring at the display. Carefully, she asked, "Would you like one?"
Kyuhyun's attention snapped back to her, and he blinked. "Uh, no, that's fine," he said, feeling awkward at being caught ogling. The girl smiled, and Kyuhyun noticed that she was actually very pretty in a sort of modest way.
"You work next door, right?" she asked, a small blush creeping up her cheeks. Kyuhyun nodded. She smiled again, and Kyuhyun thought that maybe her face looked a little brighter this time. "With, ah, Leeteuk-ssi..."
Kyuhyun, still clueless with what was going on, nodded once more. "Yeah, with hyung..."
The girl darted away so quick Kyuhyun had to blink to see if she was really gone. She came back a second later with a white package, pushing it into his hands while another person came by to drop off the coffee. "Here," she motioned hurriedly. "On the house."
Kyuhyun was frazzled enough by trying to get the coffee tray and the package at the same time. "Are-are you sure? I mean, I can always pay you back-"
"Take it," the girl whispered, and smiled again. Except this time it looked more genuine, not the silly smiles that people had to put on for customers. "Have a nice day, sir!" Kyuhyun nodded back at her, briefly glancing at her nametag; Sora.
"Thanks, Sora-ssi," he replied, giving her a friendly wave in the process. He didn't notice Sora's beaming smile as she looked at his figure exiting the store.
Kyuhyun dropped the coffee tray and crepes on the counter. He had taken the first bite of his crepe - strawberry and chocolate - when Leeteuk appeared behind the counter again. He picked up his own coffee and sipped it, his eyes closing for a brief moment as he took the bitter drink in. Kyuhyun always put Leeteuk's coffee - bitter, one spoon sugar - on the older male's left while his was on the right. It was their tradition.
"Where'd you get that?" Leeteuk peered at Kyuhyun curiously as the younger sat cross-legged on one of the armchairs with his coffee beside him. He held his crepe with both hands, careful not to drop it, and took another bite. "I thought you only had money for coffee?"
"How'd you know?" Kyuhyun said through a muffle bite, making his cheeks puff. He swallowed. "Well, I was only going to buy coffee, but then the cashier lady told me to take the crepes too. I told her that it was fine or that I could pay later, but she was really insistent. There's one for you too."
Leeteuk was suddenly staring at him as if he was the most interesting thing on the planet. "Was her name Sora, by any chance?"
"Yeah, it was, actually." Kyuhyun set down his food and raised his eyebrows. "You know her?"
Leeteuk didn't answer, but his smile was enough of one for him anyway. Suddenly it all made sense - the girl's blinding grin, the free food. Kyuhyun opened his mouth to say something but was left with it open as another voice interrupted them both, and Kyuhyun recognized him as the blond guy from earlier. "Hey, Leeteuk-hyung! I found the CD, so you don't have to worry."
Kyuhyun burned holes into the side of Leeteuk's head while the other turned around and got up, hand on the counter. "Are you sure, Eunhyuk? Version A, like you wanted?"
"Yup," Eunhyuk exclaimed cheerily, stepping into view. "I told you that you'd have it; you have practically every song in the world, hyung."
Kyuhyun thought that maybe he seemed a little familiar, both in name and in face. He frowned, trying to place the other as he chewed down more of his dessert. At the same time Eunhyuk paid for his CD, spinning on his heel at the last second and beginning to walk out the door before pausing.
"Hey, you're that guy that was at the karaoke place, right?" Kyuhyun looked up, disinterested, when Eunhyuk addressed him, though on the inside he was cheering for placing name to face. The guy that Donghae talked about. Ugh, I still have to give him back his jacket. "The youngest one there. Kyu...hun?"
"Hyun," he corrected. "Kyuhyun."
Eunhyuk grinned and waved it away. "Nice to see you again, Kyuhyun-ssi! You never sang, by the way. Sungmin-hyung had whined about you on the ride home." Kyuhyun decided that this guy was way too cheery for a Sunday. "Of course, I wasn't listening half the time, but he did say that you sing good. What are you doing here?"
Kyuhyun glanced up at him from under his eyelashes, finishing the last of his food. "I work here."
"Oh?" Eunhyuk seemed briefly stumped for a moment before laughing. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, right? I mean, you're a music student after all..."
"Kyuhyun-ah!" Leeteuk yelled from across the room, where he was carrying an armload of DVDs by himself. "Do you think you can help me a bit here?"
"Why would you do that, hyung?" Kyuhyun sighed in exasperation as he shot up right away, moving past Eunhyuk quickly to take the top packets out of Leeteuk's hands. "You know that your back is bad right now, and you need to stop straining your waist so much. Kangin-hyung will kill me if he ever sees you like this."
"Kangin doesn't have to know," Leeteuk said, his voice a little shaky. Kyuhyun brushed it off to the weight that he was carrying. The fact that Eunhyuk was still there crossed Kyuhyun's mind and the younger turned around to see Eunhyuk's indecisive eyes, in the motion of moving forward as if he was going to help them too.
"Thank you for your purchase," Kyuhyun said breathlessly, bowing slightly. "Um..."
"I'll leave now," Eunhyuk filled in quickly, saving them both from awkward conversation. "Thanks for the CD, hyung! Kyuhyun-ssi, it was nice to see you again!" He waved as he left, and Kyuhyun let out a puff of air.
"He's one of my favourite dongsaengs," Leeteuk commented affectionately, shifting the bangs away from his face. "After you, of course."
"Flattery gets you nowhere," came Kyuhyun's flat response, causing the older to laugh. Eventually Kyuhyun smiled too, in between his sips of caffeine.
.
Taeyeon rubbed her aching eyes, pushing herself upward. Her back and neck hurt in awful places, aches that came from sleeping the whole night on the sofa. Her clothes lay in a rumpled mess on the floor near the coffee table, her purse on top. Her eyelashes felt clumped and she could detect that first signs of acne from the bumpy texture of her skin.
Groaning. Taeyeon swung her legs off the sofa, leaning back and revelling in the comfort it gave. It may have been a good place to sit on, but a horrible to sleep on. The arms were too hard, and they made her have to lay her head down at an awkward angle. Still, she preferred this over being in her house at the moment. It wasn't like her parents really cared, anyway.
The sounds of a beeping phone brought her from her daze. It was Tiffany's cell, laying on innocently on the coffee table. With a mighty heave, she forced herself to get up and reach for it, stretching along the way. Her body felt lethargic clothed in a pair of old sweatpants and a t-shirt, hair mussy and curling down her shoulder.
Tiffany had an alarm set which said, 'breakfast time! get up before you lose any skin cells. ^0^'. Taeyeon chuckled at her friend's choice of wording. Despite the girl's sharp exterior, she was weak with anything that was cute. Everyone knew of Tiffany's nature, and so they were never offended when she treated them all to her sarcastic demeanor. Jessica, however...she was a block of ice herself. The only time Taeyeon ever saw her smile was around Donghae and herself. It made her feel bad, because she really wanted her friends to be happy. She knew that Jessica really wasn't as cold as she made out to be.
Slowly, she walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge door, where a bright yellow post it note was stuck on a plastic container. Taeyeon grinned at the small 'Eat me' on the note and took it out, noticing that it was just a simple traditional breakfast.
"You're awake." Taeyeon spun around quickly at the sound of the voice. Jessica gave a little nod. "I thought you were never going to wake up, unnie."
"It was one hell of a night yesterday," Taeyeon said quietly, unaware of Jessica's eyes on her.
"Yes, it was," the blonde agreed. She turned to the fridge. "Anything you want? Juice? Milk?"
Taeyeon shook the plastic box in her hand. "I have all I need, thanks."
Jessica didn't answer, and Taeyeon sighed. She was used to this kind of behaviour from the blonde girl. It didn't mean that it hurt any less. Sometime soon, she needed to have a get together with just those girls. Maybe then something would change for Jessica. She could be happier.
In the midst of Taeyeon's musing, she didn't notice Jessica glancing at her from the corner of her eye. Carefully, turning over a small carton of milk in her hands, she asked, "How was it with Heechul?"
Taeyeon's hands stilled for a second. Putting the bowl of rice, kimchi and fried egg in the microwave, she said, "Fine, I guess. I wish things could have gone differently, though."
"You took it well?"
"Well," Taeyeon laughed emptily, "Just because you're a guy that likes another guy doesn't mean you're not any less human."
Taeyeon felt as though every word of hers was being criticized, put under a microscope as Jessica carefully calculated every word she said. Like she was testing Taeyeon's opinion, which was ridiculous, because Taeyeon didn't care what Jessica thought. (But she did.)
To her bafflement, the blonde girl smiled. "Yeah, that's true."
Taeyeon didn't care what brought it on; she just smiled back and hoped she wasn't too obvious.
.
"Hyukkie," Donghae groaned as his blond best friend came through the door, "Where have you been? There's no food, and I've been looking everywhere for that damned Chinese takeout pamphlet but I just can't find it anywhere so I called you but you didn't pick up and now I'm starving - "
"Goddamn, Donghae," Eunhyuk shut the door, "Couldn't you have, I dunno, gone out like every other sensible human being?"
Donghae rolled over on his stomach on the sofa, muffling his face in the cushions. "Noooooo."
Eunhyuk rolled his eyes at his best friend's behaviour and set his bag down near the door, bending down to take out his new CD. Holding it up, Eunhyuk grinned brightly and reveled in the simple feel of the CD in his hands. Donghae, upon not hearing Eunhyuk move, turned around again and looked up, sprawled on the sofa. "What's that?"
"This," Eunhyuk emphasized, eyes shining, "is the legendary first album of Epik High!"
"...really, Hyuk?"
"What?" Eunhyuk said defensively, holding the CD to his chest. "It's a very hard CD to get, okay. They don't have any more copies! Did you know that Teukie-hyung had it in his back room the whole time, just left it there because no one wanted to buy it? I got it on discount!"
Donghae sighed. "You and your fanboy ways."
"Shut up. It was a discount." The large smile slipped back on Eunhyuk's face as he cleaned the CD cover of unseen dust. "Teukie-hyung's store is always the best. He has everything."
"How is hyung nowadays?" Donghae flipped the channel on the television, running his hands through his hair. "I need to go visit him sometime."
"Doing pretty good, I'd say. He seemed pretty distracted, but that could've been because he's graduating this year and has a lot of stuff on his mind." Eunhyuk paused, placing his CD gently on top of his bag like it was priceless item. As he was taking his coat off, he added, "Did you know that he also has employees in the store? Well, only one, but still."
"Really? I thought he hated anyone messing up his 'carefully constructed business mogul'," Donghae quoted, remembering when he had attempted to help the elder only to have Leeteuk strain on edge of a panic attack.
"Yeah, but the guy was totally on hyung's wavelength. He was that guy from the party," Eunhyuk revealed. "Kyuhyun."
Eunhyuk didn't know what it was expecting, but it certainly wasn't Donghae rolling around, eyes bright. "Wait, let me guess. Tall, skinny, black hair, big eyes. Real quiet."
"That's what he seemed like, yeah," Eunhyuk agreed, suspicious. "You know him?"
Donghae just laughed. "I do. Thanks for that, Hyuk," Donghae said cheerfully, somehow getting his energy back in one fell swoop. He stood up and grabbed his keys and coat, saying, "I'll go get something to eat. You want anything?"
"Get me whatever you're having," Eunhyuk called as the door shut behind Donghae. Holding his Epik High CD close to his chest, he mused, "Wonder what the hell's wrong with him all of a sudden."
aish i'm so tired x . x night all of you~ (guess the song~)
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