Super Junior AU; Various Pairings; Love/War
Title: Love/War (20/?)
Fandom: Super Junior AU (Mafia)
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul (Hankyung/Heechul), Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kangin/Eeteuk, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Pairings in Chapter: Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, implied Kibum/Donghae
Word Count: 3,423
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Kim family and the Choi family are the two oldest families in Seoul: where other families have been born, grown, and then fell apart, they remain strong. Unfortunately, they are mortal enemies, and where one lives alongside the law, the other is beyond any control. It's up to the new generation of members to destroy the violence between them - even if it means destroying one family in the process.
A/N: I THINK I MIGHT HAVE SOMEWHERE TO GO WITH THIS \o/
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20
Donghae, having been unable to find Kibum, had left a message with Sungmin and had then gone out into the gardens around the back of the house. Bypassing the flower gardens and the maze in the middle, he walked down to the clearing at the bottom, where the artificial fountains were; the heavy sound of the water crashing down on the rocks was at once both soothing and distracting.
Donghae didn’t like silence. It left him uncomfortable, alone with his memories and mostly he just wanted to forget about what had happened in the past. The time that he spent in his own bedroom was reduced to sleep and getting dressed; mostly he was in Eunhyuk’s room, Sungmin’s room, chatting in the kitchen, out on a job, or down at the fountains. He could never think with the thunder of the water.
Possibly he fell asleep, stretched out on the grass under the sun, because suddenly Kibum was there, standing next to him on the grass. Donghae didn’t look at him for a minute, took a long, deep breath, and then sat up, trying to ignore the pounding of his heart, the almost-panic attack at being caught unawares. Trying to will his mouth into speaking, trying to will his head to stay up - trying to will himself to be normal. He hated that it was so difficult.
“I heard you were looking for me,” said Kibum, and his voice was unfailingly polite and it made Donghae cringe. He nodded slowly.
“I wanted to apologise,” he said, and for a second he thought that Kibum had maybe not heard him from the way he was frowning, because he was too quiet, voice too soft around him, but then Kibum shook his head.
“Why?” he asked.
“About before,” said Donghae. “I’m sorry for the way I act around you.”
“Well, that’s something,” muttered Kibum, and he sat down on the small wall surrounding the fountain.
“I don’t want to,” said Donghae.
“I know you don’t,” said Kibum. “I understand, Donghae.”
Donghae just frowned at him - how was it possible for Kibum to understand when even Donghae himself didn’t understand? He seemed to have spent most of his life not understanding why.
“You don’t have to apologise, Donghae,” said Kibum. “It’s not your fault.”
Donghae didn’t answer, and Kibum sighed. “I overhead what you were talking about earlier,” he said.
“What?”
“With Heechul-hyung.” Donghae was silent, attempting to look confused. Kibum sighed again. “About wanting to rescue Siwon.”
“What if we do?” said Donghae, too defensive, too quickly. “There’s no crime in wanting something.”
“But that’s not all you’re planning, is it?” said Kibum quietly. “You’re going to actually do it.”
Donghae didn’t say anything; the wind whistling past the short grass and the thundering of the water the only sounds in the background as the roaring started up in his ears. Roaring that had almost sent him insane, once; the roaring that he had heard every time it was too silent, every time he remembered. Roaring that he had to drown out each night with music blasting from his headphones. Roaring that he had never been able to hear down here, in this space that was his; Kibum had ruined it all.
Donghae clambered to his feet hurriedly, avoiding Kibum’s eyes, as if that would make it all go away. Kibum reached out and took hold of his arm before he could move away. “You realise I’m going to have to have to tell Eeteuk or Kangin about it,” he said. “I can’t just let you - go to see that traitor.”
Donghae had frozen at Kibum’s hand around his arm, the roaring almost deafening, but at that, he turned around and glared at him. “You ruin it,” he spat, and wasn’t sure whether he was angry at Kibum, whether he was angry at the situation or angry at something, someone else. Whatever it was, the venom in his voice made Kibum’s eyes widen and he let go, and Donghae fled back up the garden.
He wasn’t to know that Kibum had only noticed the emotion thrown at him. It was, in his own words, something.
***
“Do you remember at dinner a couple of days ago?” asked Kyuhyun into the darkness, aware that Zhou Mi was awake because his fingers kept brushing over his hip. “When Heechul said that he wanted to talk to you?”
Zhou Mi’s fingers hesitated for just a moment, and then they continued their movements. Kyuhyun didn’t know and thought that he was just possibly reading too much into it, but he thought that maybe Zhou Mi was trying to distract him - or even relax him for whatever he was about to be told.
“Heechul told you,” said Zhou Mi. “He found some information for me.”
“Don’t lie to me,” said Kyuhyun softly.
Zhou Mi’s hand withdrew and he shifted slightly so he could press his mouth against Kyuhyun’s collarbone. He was silent and then he murmured, “You wouldn’t approve.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” said Kyuhyun.
Silence ringed out. Zhou Mi sighed heavily but made no move to start speaking. Kyuhyun pulled the sheet covering him up from his hips to his chest and laid his arm over it, waiting. Zhou Mi would know what his silence meant. Kyuhyun was not going to give up.
“It’s about Siwon,” whispered Zhou Mi eventually.
Kyuhyun’s heart juddered in his chest. Deep down, he had known that Zhou Mi wouldn’t let it go. Zhou Mi clung too hard to things, was too willing to see only the good side of people; he should have known that he wouldn’t be able to let go of Siwon just like that.
“What about him?” Kyuhyun’s voice was calm and collected; it made Zhou Mi wince.
“Donghae spoke to me first,” he said, all in a rush, as if speaking quickly would get it over with faster. Actually, he hoped that speaking fast would mean that Kyuhyun was unable to understand him. “He said that he wanted to know why Siwon had done what he had done, and that we should come up with some way of getting him back from the Choi residence.”
“Yeah?” Kyuhyun’s voice was blank, devoid of any emotion at all. It made Zhou Mi’s heart sink. He switched tactics and started speaking in Chinese.
“So I spoke to Heechul about it and he spoke to Han Geng about it and they agreed with Donghae and so we were-”
He broke off quickly, suddenly terrified that it had gone too far. He should have kept the whole thing a secret, even from Kyuhyun. It had not been his place to reveal anything. What good would talking about it do? Other than - and he could feel it - severely pissing Kyuhyun off.
“What?” asked Kyuhyun, clearly having understood everything. His voice was so blank that it sent shivers down Zhou Mi’s spine.
“We’re going to get him back,” said Zhou Mi.
The blow-out didn’t come like Zhou Mi expected it. In fact, Kyuhyun seemed as though he hadn’t heard. “What?” he asked.
“We’re going to get Siwon back.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“We need answers,” said Zhou Mi simply.
Kyuhyun drew away from him slightly and even in the darkness Zhou Mi knew that he was staring at him in disbelief. “We do not need answers,” he said. “You don’t need answers. Why can’t you just accept that the Choi family are our enemies?”
“I don’t feel like Siwon is,” said Zhou Mi.
“He’s a Choi,” said Kyuhyun.
“Not always,” pointed out Zhou Mi. “He was a Kim, to us.”
“Do you realise how close it could have been?” asked Kyuhyun through gritted teeth. “If he’d decided to just kill you? Do you realise-” He broke off, voice and body tense.
“But he didn’t,” said Zhou Mi softly.
“It’s not as simple as that,” said Kyuhyun. “He could have.”
“He wouldn’t have killed me,” said Zhou Mi. “I know that.”
Kyuhyun pushed him away to sit up and bury his head in his hands. “You don’t know that,” he said. “Mi, he could have killed you and I-”
“Siwon was my friend,” said Zhou Mi quietly.
“So, what?” asked Kyuhyun, voice suddenly angry. “You’re going to break into the Choi house, is that it?”
“We don’t know yet,” said Zhou Mi, still in that quiet tone. “We haven’t made any plans.”
“You can’t do it,” said Kyuhyun, and in the darkness all Zhou Mi could see was the silhouette of his forehead pressed to the palms of his hands. “You can’t, Zhou Mi.”
“You-” said Zhou Mi, and he hesitated.
“It’s suicide,” whispered Kyuhyun. “You’re walking right into their hands.”
“I know,” said Zhou Mi simply, because he did.
“It’s not worth it,” said Kyuhyun. “You can’t do it.”
“I said that I would follow you,” said Zhou Mi. “I hoped that you would do the same for me.”
There was a brief silence, before Kyuhyun let out a hiss of air. “I guess that’s it,” he said. His voice was blank again, and that left Zhou Mi feeling like his stomach had just dropped out. Kyuhyun’s blank voice was something that always left him feeling like he’d just missed a step while climbing the stairs, always made him want nothing more than to reach out and wrap his fingers around his wrist and comfort him with his lips pressed to his palm. It wasn’t a voice that was often directed at Zhou Mi, and his fingers turned cold as he saw Kyuhyun’s face turn to face him in the dark, and then he sighed and swung his legs out of bed.
Zhou Mi was suddenly in a panic, reaching out to try to take hold of him somewhere, anywhere, but Kyuhyun neatly sidestepped his hand. “What are you doing?” asked Zhou Mi, voice high with panic.
“I’m not going to follow you,” said Kyuhyun quietly.
Zhou Mi’s hand dropped from the air, landing on the bed with a soft noise. “W-what?”
“I won’t follow you,” repeated Kyuhyun. “Not on this. I won’t tell anyone because - I won’t tell anyone. But I can’t follow you as you do this.”
“But I-”
“I can’t accept it,” said Kyuhyun, his shoulders lifting and then falling in what appeared to be a shrug. “It’s not - I can’t watch you do this. It’s going against everything that this family stands for. It’s going against everything that you once stood for. I can’t just stand here and let - I can’t stop you.”
“So what can you do?” whispered Zhou Mi, terrified of the answer.
“I can stay out of it,” said Kyuhyun. “I can stay out of everything.”
He reached down and picked up the t-shirt that he had taken off for bed and started to walk around the bed. Zhou Mi suddenly shot forward to the end of the bed and intercepted him, desperately taking hold of Kyuhyun’s arm. “Please, Kui Xian,” he said, not even caring if it sounded like he was begging. “You don’t have to - please, just-”
“I can’t do anything else, Mi,” said Kyuhyun.
“You can just - forget I ever said anything! Pretend it never happened! Please, Kui Xian, you can’t - do this to me - to us.”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Kyuhyun, and in the darkness Zhou Mi could suddenly see the wetness of his eyes. “You did.”
***
Zhou Mi was not known to be someone who easily held back his emotions, so he was surprised to find that he simply felt numb in the morning. He had been expecting tears, of some sorts, perhaps an inability to get out of bed. After Kyuhyun left, he just lay there until he fell asleep again and woke up in the morning; got out of bed; got showered and dressed; and then he made his way down to the kitchen to eat.
Hankyung noticed that he was quiet but was unable to ask him anything about it because it was that night that he was supposed to go to the club with Sungmin and he was busy trying to attend to every wish that Heechul happened to come up with. The only other person who was eating in the room at the time was Shindong, and he was reading over a report of some sort and wasn’t paying attention to anything else.
Kyuhyun didn’t turn up for breakfast, so eventually Zhou Mi climbed back up the two flights of stairs to his room to get the work that he needed for that day. He stopped inside the doorway, suddenly aware that there was something not right with the situation or with the way the room looked. He took a step inside the room and then it hit him. Kyuhyun’s things were missing from the side of the bed.
Suddenly there was a flurry of activity as he shot forward and pulled open the wardrobe; Kyuhyun’s clothes, previously mixed in with his - which caused no end of confusion in the mornings but they had never wanted to change it before - were all gone. Racing into the bathroom he saw that Kyuhyun’s razor was gone, his shampoo was gone, his shower gel was gone. Everything that Kyuhyun had once had, mixed in amongst Zhou Mi’s stuff, significant and telling, was suddenly gone.
He shot out of the room, his feet taking him straight to Kangin and Eeteuk’s office. He didn’t even bother knocking, he just threw open the door and demanded, “Where’s Kyuhyun?”
Eeteuk, the only one in the room, frowned at him in confusion. “Korean, please, Zhou Mi,” he said patiently.
“Where’s Kyuhyun?” repeated Zhou Mi, hysteria in his voice but in Korean at least.
Eeteuk winced. “Oh,” he said. It wasn’t comforting to Zhou Mi in the slightest. “I don’t know where he is right now…”
“His stuff is gone,” said Zhou Mi.
“I know,” said Eeteuk softly.
“Where has he gone?”
“He’s moved rooms.”
Zhou Mi faltered. “He’s moved - rooms?”
“He said that he - Zhou Mi, I think you need to talk to him about this.”
“Which room is he in?” asked Zhou Mi softly. “You’re right, I do need to talk to him.”
“He’s in the Grey bedroom, on the second floor,” said Eeteuk. “I don’t know if he’s there right now, but-”
“Thank you,” said Zhou Mi, and then he was pushing through the door again, climbing the stairs a lot more slowly than he had descended them, walking down the corridor to the bedroom in question, and then pushing the door to that open.
Kyuhyun looked around, startled, from where he was putting his clothes into the large, impersonal wardrobe on the other side of the room. His face took on a hard look when he realised it was Zhou Mi, and he turned back around and continued.
“What are you doing?” asked Zhou Mi, fingers shaking.
“What does it look like?” said Kyuhyun flatly.
“I thought you would - I didn’t think that it would go this far.”
“Well,” said Kyuhyun, still without turning around, although his hands stopped moving and he stood still. “Now you know.”
“Kui Xian,” said Zhou Mi, desperate now. “This is ridiculous. You can’t just - do this because I have to-”
“You don’t have to do anything,” said Kyuhyun, turning around to glare at him. “You’re choosing to do it.”
“I have to know,” said Zhou Mi.
“Oh, just forget it,” snapped Kyuhyun, and snatched up his nearest t-shirt and threw it angrily into the wardrobe. Zhou Mi stared at him for a minute and then something inside him snapped.
“So this is it?” he asked, voice low. “You’re - throwing everything away simply because I won’t - because I’m doing something that I need to do.”
“I can’t accept that,” said Kyuhyun. “I can’t believe that it’s something you need to do.”
“I’d thought you would trust me on this,” said Zhou Mi. “I thought you would be angry about it but trust my decision. I’m not stupid, Kyuhyun. I know what I’m doing.”
“You don’t,” insisted Kyuhyun. “How can you possibly say that you know what you’re doing? You’re going to betray the family that took you in and kept you when you had nowhere else to do - and for the son of the family who is trying to kill you!”
“You don’t understand,” shouted Zhou Mi. “He - Siwon didn’t try to kill me! I - just want answers.”
“Well, I don’t,” said Kyuhyun.
“Kui Xian,” said Zhou Mi, voice suddenly soft. “I don’t want this.”
“You’re choosing Choi Siwon over me, Zhou Mi,” said Kyuhyun.
“I’m not doing anything like that!”
“Then what are you doing?” asked Kyuhyun, eyes blazing. “What am I supposed to think? You were lying to me, Zhou Mi, and then this? What did you want me to say - oh sure, just stroll in there and start something with our worst enemies?”
“I thought you would trust me,” said Zhou Mi angrily. “I thought that you would believe in me just hard enough to know that I can do this and that we know what we’re doing. Think about what Heechul-hyung stands to lose. If this goes wrong, it will be - he’s the heir, Kyuhyun. He’s already lost Siwon - what if he loses Hankyung and his family?”
“So why is he doing it?” asked Kyuhyun hotly. “What is the point?”
“Because he trusts that Siwon’s story will be what he needs to hear,” said Zhou Mi quietly. Kyuhyun scoffed.
“Then he’s a bigger idiot than you are,” he said.
“I see,” said Zhou Mi stiffly. “I’m sorry you feel that way.” And he turned around and left the room; Kyuhyun shut the wardrobe door and sighed heavily. He didn’t go after him.
***
“You are going to rot in here,” said Heechul, standing at the end of Zhou Mi’s bed with his hands on his hips. “Rot, or starve to death, I don’t know which.”
Zhou Mi muttered something in Chinese from under the covers; Heechul turned expectantly to Hankyung, who winced and said; “I couldn’t hear him.”
“Seasoning,” said Heechul warningly. “Are you bitching about me in a language that I can’t understand?”
Zhou Mi said something else in Chinese, a little louder this time. Heechul scowled. “I know you’ve just gone through something terrible, Seasoning, but there are some things that you simply do not do.”
“Zhou Mi?” asked Hankyung in Chinese, sounding worried. “Maybe you should get up.”
Zhou Mi groaned and sat up, his hair all over his face. “Why won’t you just let me sleep?” he moaned in Chinese, pouting. Heechul rolled his eyes; he had got the general gist of it.
“Look,” he said. “I understand that you’re going through a tough time. I know - I know how you feel.” He looked across at Hankyung and when he turned back to Zhou Mi he was not quite so brisk about it. “I get it. But we have things we need to do and you’re part of this now, Seasoning.”
“But Kyuhyun-”
“He’s not part of the equation anymore,” said Heechul, and Zhou Mi knew him enough to know that Heechul did not mean to sound so harsh but simply couldn’t think of any other way to put it. “It was unfortunate that he had to be told and it was unfortunate that he reacted this way. We’re just lucky that he hasn’t told anyone else. We need to move quickly before he does tell anyone else.”
“How can we do this?” asked Zhou Mi. “Have you actually thought about what we’re going to do? How will we get out alive? What do we do if Siwon turns out to be the betrayer that everyone thinks he is? What if we lose everything, just for the sake of some answers?”
“We trust Siwon,” Hankyung said quietly in Chinese.
“We’ll get to that when we come to it,” said Heechul in a decided tone, although there was some uncertainty in his voice that left Zhou Mi surprised. Heechul was never uncertain of what he was doing - although this involved the Choi family, and they were unpredictable at the best of times.
Zhou Mi sighed. “What is it?” he asked. “Do you need to talk to me about something?”
“Yeah,” said Heechul with a smirk, leaning down to look Zhou Mi directly in the eye. “Donghae says he’s finished.”
“Finished?” Zhou Mi frowned in confusion. “Finished what?”
“His plan,” said Heechul. “He’s finished his plan for getting us there.”
“I’ll be right there,” said Zhou Mi.
Fandom: Super Junior AU (Mafia)
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul (Hankyung/Heechul), Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kangin/Eeteuk, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Pairings in Chapter: Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, implied Kibum/Donghae
Word Count: 3,423
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Kim family and the Choi family are the two oldest families in Seoul: where other families have been born, grown, and then fell apart, they remain strong. Unfortunately, they are mortal enemies, and where one lives alongside the law, the other is beyond any control. It's up to the new generation of members to destroy the violence between them - even if it means destroying one family in the process.
A/N: I THINK I MIGHT HAVE SOMEWHERE TO GO WITH THIS \o/
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20
Donghae, having been unable to find Kibum, had left a message with Sungmin and had then gone out into the gardens around the back of the house. Bypassing the flower gardens and the maze in the middle, he walked down to the clearing at the bottom, where the artificial fountains were; the heavy sound of the water crashing down on the rocks was at once both soothing and distracting.
Donghae didn’t like silence. It left him uncomfortable, alone with his memories and mostly he just wanted to forget about what had happened in the past. The time that he spent in his own bedroom was reduced to sleep and getting dressed; mostly he was in Eunhyuk’s room, Sungmin’s room, chatting in the kitchen, out on a job, or down at the fountains. He could never think with the thunder of the water.
Possibly he fell asleep, stretched out on the grass under the sun, because suddenly Kibum was there, standing next to him on the grass. Donghae didn’t look at him for a minute, took a long, deep breath, and then sat up, trying to ignore the pounding of his heart, the almost-panic attack at being caught unawares. Trying to will his mouth into speaking, trying to will his head to stay up - trying to will himself to be normal. He hated that it was so difficult.
“I heard you were looking for me,” said Kibum, and his voice was unfailingly polite and it made Donghae cringe. He nodded slowly.
“I wanted to apologise,” he said, and for a second he thought that Kibum had maybe not heard him from the way he was frowning, because he was too quiet, voice too soft around him, but then Kibum shook his head.
“Why?” he asked.
“About before,” said Donghae. “I’m sorry for the way I act around you.”
“Well, that’s something,” muttered Kibum, and he sat down on the small wall surrounding the fountain.
“I don’t want to,” said Donghae.
“I know you don’t,” said Kibum. “I understand, Donghae.”
Donghae just frowned at him - how was it possible for Kibum to understand when even Donghae himself didn’t understand? He seemed to have spent most of his life not understanding why.
“You don’t have to apologise, Donghae,” said Kibum. “It’s not your fault.”
Donghae didn’t answer, and Kibum sighed. “I overhead what you were talking about earlier,” he said.
“What?”
“With Heechul-hyung.” Donghae was silent, attempting to look confused. Kibum sighed again. “About wanting to rescue Siwon.”
“What if we do?” said Donghae, too defensive, too quickly. “There’s no crime in wanting something.”
“But that’s not all you’re planning, is it?” said Kibum quietly. “You’re going to actually do it.”
Donghae didn’t say anything; the wind whistling past the short grass and the thundering of the water the only sounds in the background as the roaring started up in his ears. Roaring that had almost sent him insane, once; the roaring that he had heard every time it was too silent, every time he remembered. Roaring that he had to drown out each night with music blasting from his headphones. Roaring that he had never been able to hear down here, in this space that was his; Kibum had ruined it all.
Donghae clambered to his feet hurriedly, avoiding Kibum’s eyes, as if that would make it all go away. Kibum reached out and took hold of his arm before he could move away. “You realise I’m going to have to have to tell Eeteuk or Kangin about it,” he said. “I can’t just let you - go to see that traitor.”
Donghae had frozen at Kibum’s hand around his arm, the roaring almost deafening, but at that, he turned around and glared at him. “You ruin it,” he spat, and wasn’t sure whether he was angry at Kibum, whether he was angry at the situation or angry at something, someone else. Whatever it was, the venom in his voice made Kibum’s eyes widen and he let go, and Donghae fled back up the garden.
He wasn’t to know that Kibum had only noticed the emotion thrown at him. It was, in his own words, something.
***
“Do you remember at dinner a couple of days ago?” asked Kyuhyun into the darkness, aware that Zhou Mi was awake because his fingers kept brushing over his hip. “When Heechul said that he wanted to talk to you?”
Zhou Mi’s fingers hesitated for just a moment, and then they continued their movements. Kyuhyun didn’t know and thought that he was just possibly reading too much into it, but he thought that maybe Zhou Mi was trying to distract him - or even relax him for whatever he was about to be told.
“Heechul told you,” said Zhou Mi. “He found some information for me.”
“Don’t lie to me,” said Kyuhyun softly.
Zhou Mi’s hand withdrew and he shifted slightly so he could press his mouth against Kyuhyun’s collarbone. He was silent and then he murmured, “You wouldn’t approve.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” said Kyuhyun.
Silence ringed out. Zhou Mi sighed heavily but made no move to start speaking. Kyuhyun pulled the sheet covering him up from his hips to his chest and laid his arm over it, waiting. Zhou Mi would know what his silence meant. Kyuhyun was not going to give up.
“It’s about Siwon,” whispered Zhou Mi eventually.
Kyuhyun’s heart juddered in his chest. Deep down, he had known that Zhou Mi wouldn’t let it go. Zhou Mi clung too hard to things, was too willing to see only the good side of people; he should have known that he wouldn’t be able to let go of Siwon just like that.
“What about him?” Kyuhyun’s voice was calm and collected; it made Zhou Mi wince.
“Donghae spoke to me first,” he said, all in a rush, as if speaking quickly would get it over with faster. Actually, he hoped that speaking fast would mean that Kyuhyun was unable to understand him. “He said that he wanted to know why Siwon had done what he had done, and that we should come up with some way of getting him back from the Choi residence.”
“Yeah?” Kyuhyun’s voice was blank, devoid of any emotion at all. It made Zhou Mi’s heart sink. He switched tactics and started speaking in Chinese.
“So I spoke to Heechul about it and he spoke to Han Geng about it and they agreed with Donghae and so we were-”
He broke off quickly, suddenly terrified that it had gone too far. He should have kept the whole thing a secret, even from Kyuhyun. It had not been his place to reveal anything. What good would talking about it do? Other than - and he could feel it - severely pissing Kyuhyun off.
“What?” asked Kyuhyun, clearly having understood everything. His voice was so blank that it sent shivers down Zhou Mi’s spine.
“We’re going to get him back,” said Zhou Mi.
The blow-out didn’t come like Zhou Mi expected it. In fact, Kyuhyun seemed as though he hadn’t heard. “What?” he asked.
“We’re going to get Siwon back.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“We need answers,” said Zhou Mi simply.
Kyuhyun drew away from him slightly and even in the darkness Zhou Mi knew that he was staring at him in disbelief. “We do not need answers,” he said. “You don’t need answers. Why can’t you just accept that the Choi family are our enemies?”
“I don’t feel like Siwon is,” said Zhou Mi.
“He’s a Choi,” said Kyuhyun.
“Not always,” pointed out Zhou Mi. “He was a Kim, to us.”
“Do you realise how close it could have been?” asked Kyuhyun through gritted teeth. “If he’d decided to just kill you? Do you realise-” He broke off, voice and body tense.
“But he didn’t,” said Zhou Mi softly.
“It’s not as simple as that,” said Kyuhyun. “He could have.”
“He wouldn’t have killed me,” said Zhou Mi. “I know that.”
Kyuhyun pushed him away to sit up and bury his head in his hands. “You don’t know that,” he said. “Mi, he could have killed you and I-”
“Siwon was my friend,” said Zhou Mi quietly.
“So, what?” asked Kyuhyun, voice suddenly angry. “You’re going to break into the Choi house, is that it?”
“We don’t know yet,” said Zhou Mi, still in that quiet tone. “We haven’t made any plans.”
“You can’t do it,” said Kyuhyun, and in the darkness all Zhou Mi could see was the silhouette of his forehead pressed to the palms of his hands. “You can’t, Zhou Mi.”
“You-” said Zhou Mi, and he hesitated.
“It’s suicide,” whispered Kyuhyun. “You’re walking right into their hands.”
“I know,” said Zhou Mi simply, because he did.
“It’s not worth it,” said Kyuhyun. “You can’t do it.”
“I said that I would follow you,” said Zhou Mi. “I hoped that you would do the same for me.”
There was a brief silence, before Kyuhyun let out a hiss of air. “I guess that’s it,” he said. His voice was blank again, and that left Zhou Mi feeling like his stomach had just dropped out. Kyuhyun’s blank voice was something that always left him feeling like he’d just missed a step while climbing the stairs, always made him want nothing more than to reach out and wrap his fingers around his wrist and comfort him with his lips pressed to his palm. It wasn’t a voice that was often directed at Zhou Mi, and his fingers turned cold as he saw Kyuhyun’s face turn to face him in the dark, and then he sighed and swung his legs out of bed.
Zhou Mi was suddenly in a panic, reaching out to try to take hold of him somewhere, anywhere, but Kyuhyun neatly sidestepped his hand. “What are you doing?” asked Zhou Mi, voice high with panic.
“I’m not going to follow you,” said Kyuhyun quietly.
Zhou Mi’s hand dropped from the air, landing on the bed with a soft noise. “W-what?”
“I won’t follow you,” repeated Kyuhyun. “Not on this. I won’t tell anyone because - I won’t tell anyone. But I can’t follow you as you do this.”
“But I-”
“I can’t accept it,” said Kyuhyun, his shoulders lifting and then falling in what appeared to be a shrug. “It’s not - I can’t watch you do this. It’s going against everything that this family stands for. It’s going against everything that you once stood for. I can’t just stand here and let - I can’t stop you.”
“So what can you do?” whispered Zhou Mi, terrified of the answer.
“I can stay out of it,” said Kyuhyun. “I can stay out of everything.”
He reached down and picked up the t-shirt that he had taken off for bed and started to walk around the bed. Zhou Mi suddenly shot forward to the end of the bed and intercepted him, desperately taking hold of Kyuhyun’s arm. “Please, Kui Xian,” he said, not even caring if it sounded like he was begging. “You don’t have to - please, just-”
“I can’t do anything else, Mi,” said Kyuhyun.
“You can just - forget I ever said anything! Pretend it never happened! Please, Kui Xian, you can’t - do this to me - to us.”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Kyuhyun, and in the darkness Zhou Mi could suddenly see the wetness of his eyes. “You did.”
***
Zhou Mi was not known to be someone who easily held back his emotions, so he was surprised to find that he simply felt numb in the morning. He had been expecting tears, of some sorts, perhaps an inability to get out of bed. After Kyuhyun left, he just lay there until he fell asleep again and woke up in the morning; got out of bed; got showered and dressed; and then he made his way down to the kitchen to eat.
Hankyung noticed that he was quiet but was unable to ask him anything about it because it was that night that he was supposed to go to the club with Sungmin and he was busy trying to attend to every wish that Heechul happened to come up with. The only other person who was eating in the room at the time was Shindong, and he was reading over a report of some sort and wasn’t paying attention to anything else.
Kyuhyun didn’t turn up for breakfast, so eventually Zhou Mi climbed back up the two flights of stairs to his room to get the work that he needed for that day. He stopped inside the doorway, suddenly aware that there was something not right with the situation or with the way the room looked. He took a step inside the room and then it hit him. Kyuhyun’s things were missing from the side of the bed.
Suddenly there was a flurry of activity as he shot forward and pulled open the wardrobe; Kyuhyun’s clothes, previously mixed in with his - which caused no end of confusion in the mornings but they had never wanted to change it before - were all gone. Racing into the bathroom he saw that Kyuhyun’s razor was gone, his shampoo was gone, his shower gel was gone. Everything that Kyuhyun had once had, mixed in amongst Zhou Mi’s stuff, significant and telling, was suddenly gone.
He shot out of the room, his feet taking him straight to Kangin and Eeteuk’s office. He didn’t even bother knocking, he just threw open the door and demanded, “Where’s Kyuhyun?”
Eeteuk, the only one in the room, frowned at him in confusion. “Korean, please, Zhou Mi,” he said patiently.
“Where’s Kyuhyun?” repeated Zhou Mi, hysteria in his voice but in Korean at least.
Eeteuk winced. “Oh,” he said. It wasn’t comforting to Zhou Mi in the slightest. “I don’t know where he is right now…”
“His stuff is gone,” said Zhou Mi.
“I know,” said Eeteuk softly.
“Where has he gone?”
“He’s moved rooms.”
Zhou Mi faltered. “He’s moved - rooms?”
“He said that he - Zhou Mi, I think you need to talk to him about this.”
“Which room is he in?” asked Zhou Mi softly. “You’re right, I do need to talk to him.”
“He’s in the Grey bedroom, on the second floor,” said Eeteuk. “I don’t know if he’s there right now, but-”
“Thank you,” said Zhou Mi, and then he was pushing through the door again, climbing the stairs a lot more slowly than he had descended them, walking down the corridor to the bedroom in question, and then pushing the door to that open.
Kyuhyun looked around, startled, from where he was putting his clothes into the large, impersonal wardrobe on the other side of the room. His face took on a hard look when he realised it was Zhou Mi, and he turned back around and continued.
“What are you doing?” asked Zhou Mi, fingers shaking.
“What does it look like?” said Kyuhyun flatly.
“I thought you would - I didn’t think that it would go this far.”
“Well,” said Kyuhyun, still without turning around, although his hands stopped moving and he stood still. “Now you know.”
“Kui Xian,” said Zhou Mi, desperate now. “This is ridiculous. You can’t just - do this because I have to-”
“You don’t have to do anything,” said Kyuhyun, turning around to glare at him. “You’re choosing to do it.”
“I have to know,” said Zhou Mi.
“Oh, just forget it,” snapped Kyuhyun, and snatched up his nearest t-shirt and threw it angrily into the wardrobe. Zhou Mi stared at him for a minute and then something inside him snapped.
“So this is it?” he asked, voice low. “You’re - throwing everything away simply because I won’t - because I’m doing something that I need to do.”
“I can’t accept that,” said Kyuhyun. “I can’t believe that it’s something you need to do.”
“I’d thought you would trust me on this,” said Zhou Mi. “I thought you would be angry about it but trust my decision. I’m not stupid, Kyuhyun. I know what I’m doing.”
“You don’t,” insisted Kyuhyun. “How can you possibly say that you know what you’re doing? You’re going to betray the family that took you in and kept you when you had nowhere else to do - and for the son of the family who is trying to kill you!”
“You don’t understand,” shouted Zhou Mi. “He - Siwon didn’t try to kill me! I - just want answers.”
“Well, I don’t,” said Kyuhyun.
“Kui Xian,” said Zhou Mi, voice suddenly soft. “I don’t want this.”
“You’re choosing Choi Siwon over me, Zhou Mi,” said Kyuhyun.
“I’m not doing anything like that!”
“Then what are you doing?” asked Kyuhyun, eyes blazing. “What am I supposed to think? You were lying to me, Zhou Mi, and then this? What did you want me to say - oh sure, just stroll in there and start something with our worst enemies?”
“I thought you would trust me,” said Zhou Mi angrily. “I thought that you would believe in me just hard enough to know that I can do this and that we know what we’re doing. Think about what Heechul-hyung stands to lose. If this goes wrong, it will be - he’s the heir, Kyuhyun. He’s already lost Siwon - what if he loses Hankyung and his family?”
“So why is he doing it?” asked Kyuhyun hotly. “What is the point?”
“Because he trusts that Siwon’s story will be what he needs to hear,” said Zhou Mi quietly. Kyuhyun scoffed.
“Then he’s a bigger idiot than you are,” he said.
“I see,” said Zhou Mi stiffly. “I’m sorry you feel that way.” And he turned around and left the room; Kyuhyun shut the wardrobe door and sighed heavily. He didn’t go after him.
***
“You are going to rot in here,” said Heechul, standing at the end of Zhou Mi’s bed with his hands on his hips. “Rot, or starve to death, I don’t know which.”
Zhou Mi muttered something in Chinese from under the covers; Heechul turned expectantly to Hankyung, who winced and said; “I couldn’t hear him.”
“Seasoning,” said Heechul warningly. “Are you bitching about me in a language that I can’t understand?”
Zhou Mi said something else in Chinese, a little louder this time. Heechul scowled. “I know you’ve just gone through something terrible, Seasoning, but there are some things that you simply do not do.”
“Zhou Mi?” asked Hankyung in Chinese, sounding worried. “Maybe you should get up.”
Zhou Mi groaned and sat up, his hair all over his face. “Why won’t you just let me sleep?” he moaned in Chinese, pouting. Heechul rolled his eyes; he had got the general gist of it.
“Look,” he said. “I understand that you’re going through a tough time. I know - I know how you feel.” He looked across at Hankyung and when he turned back to Zhou Mi he was not quite so brisk about it. “I get it. But we have things we need to do and you’re part of this now, Seasoning.”
“But Kyuhyun-”
“He’s not part of the equation anymore,” said Heechul, and Zhou Mi knew him enough to know that Heechul did not mean to sound so harsh but simply couldn’t think of any other way to put it. “It was unfortunate that he had to be told and it was unfortunate that he reacted this way. We’re just lucky that he hasn’t told anyone else. We need to move quickly before he does tell anyone else.”
“How can we do this?” asked Zhou Mi. “Have you actually thought about what we’re going to do? How will we get out alive? What do we do if Siwon turns out to be the betrayer that everyone thinks he is? What if we lose everything, just for the sake of some answers?”
“We trust Siwon,” Hankyung said quietly in Chinese.
“We’ll get to that when we come to it,” said Heechul in a decided tone, although there was some uncertainty in his voice that left Zhou Mi surprised. Heechul was never uncertain of what he was doing - although this involved the Choi family, and they were unpredictable at the best of times.
Zhou Mi sighed. “What is it?” he asked. “Do you need to talk to me about something?”
“Yeah,” said Heechul with a smirk, leaning down to look Zhou Mi directly in the eye. “Donghae says he’s finished.”
“Finished?” Zhou Mi frowned in confusion. “Finished what?”
“His plan,” said Heechul. “He’s finished his plan for getting us there.”
“I’ll be right there,” said Zhou Mi.