Super Junior AU; Hanchul; The Best Days of Our Lives
Title: The Best Days of Our Lives
Chapter: 6/25
Fandom: Super Junior AU (High School)
Pairing: Hankyung/crossdressing!Heechul (main), Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kyuhyun/Sungmin, bestfriends!Eunhae.
Word count: 2,703
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Coming into a strange new world can be strange enough. Unfortunately, someone’s forgotten to tell Hankyung something Very Important.
A/N: This is a strange little chapter. I'd like to call it development but I'm not sure whether it could be called that. I prefer to call it a Kyumin chapter. I'm falling a little in love with Sungmin as I'm writing him, and I'm not sure whether that's quite normal.
I remember when I was freaking out because this had hit 9000 words. It's now over 27000 words
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7
“I think that Kyuhyun must still be in the meeting, because his phone’s off,” said Sungmin as he came back into the room. “I left him a message. I told Shindong to not bother coming over. You know how Ryeowook doesn’t like talking about it.”
“I said the same thing to Siwon and Donghae,” said Heechul.
Eeteuk nodded. “Good,” he said. “I think we should-”
The door opened with a bang, and Yehsung stormed through holding Ryeowook by the top of his arm, Kangin behind them with a resigned expression on his face. “Sit down,” said Yehsung, and Ryeowook sat down on the sofa looking angrier that Hankyung had ever seen him before. “Explain,” said Yehsung in a carefully controlled voice. “I refuse to believe that he suddenly became like that.”
“Don’t believe it all you want,” said Ryeowook loudly and sounding like he was on the verge of shouting. “I told you. I was just sitting there and he came through and started yelling.”
“Sit down, Yehsung,” said Eeteuk sharply, as Yehsung opened his mouth to reply. Yehsung scowled at him but complied, glaring at them all as he did so. Eeteuk sat down on the floor in front of Ryeowook. “Tell us what happened,” he said in a soothing tone.
“I’d rather not,” said Ryeowook, and folded his arms across his chest. Kangin walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.
“I think,” he said quietly, “you should tell Eeteuk what you told us.”
Ryeowook didn’t look too happy at the prospect, and he looked around the group as if to ask for help. He noticed Hankyung, and his face fell. “Oh great,” he said, and now he sounded on the verge of tears. Yehsung shifted slightly. “Now he knows too.”
“Of course he knows,” said Heechul, and she sounded annoyed too. “We were hardly going to not tell him why Yehsung had run out of the room and Eeteuk’s trying to get you to stop crying, for god’s sake.” Eeteuk flashed her a Look, and turned back to Ryeowook.
“Tell me what happened,” he said firmly.
“I don’t know!” Ryeowook said, and seemed to become even smaller than he was, swamped by the sofa. “He’d come back from work and he was fine. I mean, he’d even brought takeaway for us. He said he’d had a drink with his friends, but we were fine. He was fine. We were joking and stuff, and I was cleaning up when he came back through and started screaming at me for making too much noise.”
“How much had he had to drink?” Eeteuk asked.
“I don’t know. Like I said, he seemed fine, but maybe it just took a while for it to catch up with him? I was just standing there and he was yelling, and I was trying to be quiet, so quiet, but he just lashed out at me.” He shuddered, and Yehsung moved in his seat again. “I locked myself in the room, but he wouldn’t stop banging - just over and over again, until the door started to creak, and I thought the lock was breaking. So I rang Yehsung, but couldn’t get through, and I was so desperate that I rang you.”
Silence met the end of his story, and Eeteuk grabbed hold of Ryeowook’s hand as the younger boy shivered again. Yehsung stood up and moved over to the door. “And yet,” he said bitterly, “you’ll be back home tomorrow, the two of you acting like nothing ever happened.”
“He’s my father,” said Ryeowook, in a resigned tone of voice which suggested that they’d had this conversation multiples times before. “I can’t just abandon him.”
Yehsung punched the wall hard. “Hey,” said Kangin with a frown. “I don’t mind you having a lovers tiff, but leave my property out of it.”
“Do you have any idea,” asked Yehsung in a strained voice, “to be on the phone to you, and all I can hear is him screaming in the background? To see your name pop up on caller ID, and wondering if this will be the time you go silent because he’s killed you. To have to go through the same thing every fucking few days?”
“It’s not exactly a picnic for me too!” Ryeowook screamed, as he finally lost the thin layer of self-control he had. “That’s my father, Yehsung! That monster that screams and hits me! I was the one who sat in that room, waiting for him to break through, waiting for it to happen. Waiting for him to come through and-” He shuddered, and started to cry. In the second Yehsung was on the sofa with him, his arms around Ryeowook’s shoulders and holding him close.
Heechul pulled on Hankyung’s sleeve. “Come on,” she whispered. “Ryeowook’s probably had enough already, I don’t think he’ll want us sitting in on this.” And even though Hankyung wanted to know more about it, he recognised the truth in what Heechul said.
*
On Monday, nothing more was said about the matter. Apart from flashing a few nervous glances at Hankyung, Ryeowook pretended nothing had happened, as did Yehsung. Hankyung was reminded of Heechul and Siwon - forget that it had ever happened, and that way you could move on and look only to the future. Only thing was, Hankyung couldn’t forget about it.
“Siwon,” he asked on Wednesday lunchtime, when most had already left, and after trying to think of a tactful way to say it and unable to come up with any, “what’s your family like?”
Siwon looked surprised at the question. “My family? Normal, I guess. Why?”
“I was just wondering.” Hankyung put his chopsticks down. “Just, you know, after Saturday. I was wondering what everyone else’s family was like.”
“It’s just me and my parents,” said Siwon, not asking him to elaborate on ‘Saturday’. “We’re normal. My dad works for some company in town,” and this was said with the vague ignorance of every teenage boy, “and my mother is the greatest housewife this side of Seoul.”
“That’s why he wants a pretty quiet thing for a wife, and keeps rejecting me,” said Heechul with a grin, and then ducked as Siwon hit out at her. “I’ve got a sister,” she announced. “She lives in the mountains, though, because she got married. She got married really young actually, I was only about eight. That was when I-” She stopped, smiled, and went back to her home-packed rice.
“My mother’s divorced,” said Shindong.
“I’ve got a younger sister,” said Sungmin, and gave a gleeful clap of his hands. “You should see her, she’s adorable.”
“Eeteuk used to be in the same situation as Ryeowook,” said Heechul suddenly, “that’s the reason for the hot chocolate.” Hankyung stared at her in shock, because that had been another thing playing on his mind and he hadn’t known when would be a good time to bring it up.
“Oh,” he said.
“Only it was worse,” continued Heechul. “It used to be really bad. Eeteuk missed loads of school, and his dad broke his arm a couple of times. It wasn’t even when he was drunk, he just hated him. His mother died giving birth, you see, and so he blamed Eeteuk.”
“Whenever it happened, he’d ring Kangin.” Siwon picked up the story. “And Kangin would come and get him and take him to his house and Kangin’s mother would make him some hot chocolate. Eeteuk claims it’s a general pick me up now. Adores Kangin’s mother too - calls her the mother he never had. They still go for tea once a week, actually.”
“Kangin gets on with his family,” said Sungmin. “They’re like the epitome of a perfect sitcom family. They love each other, and he even gets on well with his younger brother. He only moved out so Eeteuk could get out.”
“And Kibum’s only sleeping with Donghae because it pisses his parents off,” said Heechul, and then laughed as Siwon choked on a crisp. “Okay,” she allowed, “that’s an added bonus.”
“Another bad relationship?”
“I don’t think anyone could have a good relationship with Kibum’s parents,” said Sungmin, looking quite sick.
“Kibum! Where are you? Get home right now so you can study!” Heechul suddenly screeched, in a horrible grating voice that made the hairs on the back of Hankyung’s neck stand up. “Study,” she repeated. “Study, study, study.”
“I hate it when you do that,” said Siwon, scrunching his nose up in pain.
“That’s why I don’t study, you know,” Heechul told him. “Not because I’m lazy or stupid or anything like that, it’s because I’m terrified my mother will become like that if I show an interest.” She turned to Hankyung. “You should beware too,” she said. “Show an interest in a studying, and beware the screeching harpy syndrome.”
“Um, okay,” said Hankyung, and had to get some tablets from the nurse for the headache that Heechul’s imitation had brought on.
*
“Here,” said Kyuhyun on Friday morning, and handed Sungmin a suit carrier, which on opening revealed a crisp white shirt and a smart black suit, with a black tie. Everyone stared at him in confusion.
“Thanks,” said Sungmin, clearly understanding why he’d been handed such a thing, but looking amused anyway, “but what am I supposed to do with it until tonight?”
“I don’t know,” snapped Kyuhyun. “You’re the one who wanted it.”
“Oh,” said Sungmin, taken aback. “Okay. I’ll just put it in my locker, then.”
“Sorry,” groaned Kyuhyun as he covered his face with his hands. “I just don’t understand why you want to come.”
“Why does Sungmin need a suit?” Donghae asked, sounding as confused as Hankyung felt.
“Kyuhyun’s got a family dinner tonight, with the associates,” said Sungmin, “and I’m going along for moral support.”
“And I don’t understand why,” said Kyuhyun, and pulled a few books roughly from his locker. “They’re going to chew you up and spit you out.”
“What are they going to do if they know I’m there with you?”
Kyuhyun gave a hollow laugh. “What won’t they do? They already hate me.”
“Then say I’m just a friend.”
“And lie in front of my father? He’ll just ask awkward questions until one of us messes up and the associates will talk about the dishonest son.”
“Then we tell the truth, and I’ll deal with the comments and names. I’m used to that.” Sungmin slammed his locker shut with a bang. “I have the suit, I know the rules and I’m coming with you because you always come out of those things looking like you’ve just done life in prison and I’m sick of it. I’m coming, and that’s final.” And with that he stormed off, straight into a group of girls, who squealed and yelled about walking with him.
“Um,” said Kyuhyun, staring after him.
“If you say that Sungmin is hot when he’s being forceful,” groaned Yehsung, “I will rip your tongue out.”
“Oh,” said Kyuhyun. “Oh, okay.”
“Come on, Kyuhyun,” said Ryeowook, glaring at Yehsung. “Yehsung’s just annoyed because he’s not getting any.” And the two walked off.
“That’s a lie,” yelled Yehsung after them, and then grinned at the group. “And he knows it.”
“Be quiet,” said Shindong, “before I throw up.”
“Kim Heechul!”
The group glanced behind them, and saw the gym teacher pushing past people in his attempts to get up to them. “Oh god,” said Heechul, and handed Hankyung her bag. “Here,” she said. “Tell the teacher I’ll be late. He’s probably going to drag me to the head’s again.”
“Oh,” said Hankyung, as she ran off and the rest waved and smiled. “Right.”
“He doesn’t like Heechul because she used to be on the football team in middle school,” explained Eunhyuk. “But when we came here, she stopped doing it, and the coach wanted her to play.”
It seemed to make sense, but when he was leaving, holding Heechul’s bag, he heard the teacher say Kim, why aren’t you in correct uniform? and Heechul replied I’ve told you, I’ve got permission from the head.
“So,” said Eunhyuk, when Hankyung was still trying to listen to the conversation going on behind him, “we’ve been wanting to ask.”
“Who’s we?” Hankyung asked, because he wanted to be sure as to who he was agreeing to before he even found out what he would be agreeing to.
“Me, Donghae and Shindong,” said Eunhyuk, and his grin had an undertone of unreasonableness about it. “We want you to join the dance team.”
Hankyung, who had just been about to walk into the classroom, failed to notice that the door was closed in his shock and walked straight into it. “What?” He asked, holding his hands to his nose which felt like it should be broken, but probably wasn’t.
“Dance team,” said Donghae slowly. “We want you join it.”
“Why?” Hankyung asked, completely astounded.
“You’re really good,” said Shindong. “You’ve got this innate talent or something, I don’t know. We need you.”
“Think about it,” said Eunhyuk, and they walked off as the bell went and Hankyung slipped into the classroom. To be honest, he wouldn’t be able to tell you when Heechul eventually came back in, or even what the lesson was about. He thought about it until his head was spinning, and then he still didn’t have an answer.
*
“How did it go?” Heechul asked on Saturday, when Sungmin had skipped up the group at the park and Kyuhyun walked behind him with his hands pushed into his pockets.
“Fine,” trilled Sungmin, and threw himself to the ground beside Heechul to watch the game of football that the others had gotten themselves into.
“It was not fine,” said Kyuhyun, and remained standing.
“Did they not like you?” Hankyung asked Sungmin, but it was Kyuhyun who answered.
“Oh, they liked him,” and he refuse to look at them, and watched as Yehsung brought Ryeowook to the ground with a horrible tackle that was probably on purpose. “That was the problem.”
“Ew,” said Heechul, and wrinkled up her nose.
“There’s nothing wrong with being friendly,” said Sungmin, and grinned at the others so that Kyuhyun couldn’t see that he was being sarcastic.
“They tried to grope you, for fucks sake!” Kyuhyun burst out.
“I hate it when that happens,” said Heechul, deadpan.
“First they put you at the end of the table, next to my father, of all people-”
“We had some nice conversations,” said Sungmin. “He thinks it’s funny that I’m stronger than you.”
“-And then when it was mentioned that we were together, everyone decided it was a free-for-all and tried to attack you.”
“Attention’s nice,” said Sungmin. “It wasn’t that bad. The girls in Siwon’s class are worse than that.”
Kyuhyun gaped at him. “I can’t believe you’re being so blasé about all this!”
Sungmin stood up and walked over to him. “I wasn’t really expecting anything less,” he admitted. “Most people seem to think I’m easy when they find out. You don’t really have to put up with it, because it’s not obvious you’re - you know.” He gave Kyuhyun a little push towards the game. “Go play with them, and be careful not to break your leg again.”
“I did that when I was six,” said Kyuhyun, sighed, and walked off.
“That bad?” Heechul asked, as Sungmin sat back down with a sigh.
“Worse,” said Sungmin. “He doesn’t know about that guy trying to have it off with me in the bathroom. He just knows that something upset me at the time.”
“Did you hit him?” Hankyung asked, because for someone who liked cuddly animals and the colour pink as much as Sungmin, he sure as hell didn’t let people underestimate him.
“No,” said Sungmin slowly. “I didn’t hit him, but I’m not sure whether the pressure I put on him will ever allow him to have children.”
There was a bout of screaming from the pitch as Eeteuk managed to somehow kick the ball into his own net (a feat, considering he was the goal keeper). Hankyung started to feel slightly uncomfortable as Heechul and Sungmin giggled together, and he realised that the players probably wouldn’t be able to hear him if he himself screamed.
Chapter: 6/25
Fandom: Super Junior AU (High School)
Pairing: Hankyung/crossdressing!Heechul (main), Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kyuhyun/Sungmin, bestfriends!Eunhae.
Word count: 2,703
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Coming into a strange new world can be strange enough. Unfortunately, someone’s forgotten to tell Hankyung something Very Important.
A/N: This is a strange little chapter. I'd like to call it development but I'm not sure whether it could be called that. I prefer to call it a Kyumin chapter. I'm falling a little in love with Sungmin as I'm writing him, and I'm not sure whether that's quite normal.
I remember when I was freaking out because this had hit 9000 words. It's now over 27000 words
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7
“I think that Kyuhyun must still be in the meeting, because his phone’s off,” said Sungmin as he came back into the room. “I left him a message. I told Shindong to not bother coming over. You know how Ryeowook doesn’t like talking about it.”
“I said the same thing to Siwon and Donghae,” said Heechul.
Eeteuk nodded. “Good,” he said. “I think we should-”
The door opened with a bang, and Yehsung stormed through holding Ryeowook by the top of his arm, Kangin behind them with a resigned expression on his face. “Sit down,” said Yehsung, and Ryeowook sat down on the sofa looking angrier that Hankyung had ever seen him before. “Explain,” said Yehsung in a carefully controlled voice. “I refuse to believe that he suddenly became like that.”
“Don’t believe it all you want,” said Ryeowook loudly and sounding like he was on the verge of shouting. “I told you. I was just sitting there and he came through and started yelling.”
“Sit down, Yehsung,” said Eeteuk sharply, as Yehsung opened his mouth to reply. Yehsung scowled at him but complied, glaring at them all as he did so. Eeteuk sat down on the floor in front of Ryeowook. “Tell us what happened,” he said in a soothing tone.
“I’d rather not,” said Ryeowook, and folded his arms across his chest. Kangin walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.
“I think,” he said quietly, “you should tell Eeteuk what you told us.”
Ryeowook didn’t look too happy at the prospect, and he looked around the group as if to ask for help. He noticed Hankyung, and his face fell. “Oh great,” he said, and now he sounded on the verge of tears. Yehsung shifted slightly. “Now he knows too.”
“Of course he knows,” said Heechul, and she sounded annoyed too. “We were hardly going to not tell him why Yehsung had run out of the room and Eeteuk’s trying to get you to stop crying, for god’s sake.” Eeteuk flashed her a Look, and turned back to Ryeowook.
“Tell me what happened,” he said firmly.
“I don’t know!” Ryeowook said, and seemed to become even smaller than he was, swamped by the sofa. “He’d come back from work and he was fine. I mean, he’d even brought takeaway for us. He said he’d had a drink with his friends, but we were fine. He was fine. We were joking and stuff, and I was cleaning up when he came back through and started screaming at me for making too much noise.”
“How much had he had to drink?” Eeteuk asked.
“I don’t know. Like I said, he seemed fine, but maybe it just took a while for it to catch up with him? I was just standing there and he was yelling, and I was trying to be quiet, so quiet, but he just lashed out at me.” He shuddered, and Yehsung moved in his seat again. “I locked myself in the room, but he wouldn’t stop banging - just over and over again, until the door started to creak, and I thought the lock was breaking. So I rang Yehsung, but couldn’t get through, and I was so desperate that I rang you.”
Silence met the end of his story, and Eeteuk grabbed hold of Ryeowook’s hand as the younger boy shivered again. Yehsung stood up and moved over to the door. “And yet,” he said bitterly, “you’ll be back home tomorrow, the two of you acting like nothing ever happened.”
“He’s my father,” said Ryeowook, in a resigned tone of voice which suggested that they’d had this conversation multiples times before. “I can’t just abandon him.”
Yehsung punched the wall hard. “Hey,” said Kangin with a frown. “I don’t mind you having a lovers tiff, but leave my property out of it.”
“Do you have any idea,” asked Yehsung in a strained voice, “to be on the phone to you, and all I can hear is him screaming in the background? To see your name pop up on caller ID, and wondering if this will be the time you go silent because he’s killed you. To have to go through the same thing every fucking few days?”
“It’s not exactly a picnic for me too!” Ryeowook screamed, as he finally lost the thin layer of self-control he had. “That’s my father, Yehsung! That monster that screams and hits me! I was the one who sat in that room, waiting for him to break through, waiting for it to happen. Waiting for him to come through and-” He shuddered, and started to cry. In the second Yehsung was on the sofa with him, his arms around Ryeowook’s shoulders and holding him close.
Heechul pulled on Hankyung’s sleeve. “Come on,” she whispered. “Ryeowook’s probably had enough already, I don’t think he’ll want us sitting in on this.” And even though Hankyung wanted to know more about it, he recognised the truth in what Heechul said.
*
On Monday, nothing more was said about the matter. Apart from flashing a few nervous glances at Hankyung, Ryeowook pretended nothing had happened, as did Yehsung. Hankyung was reminded of Heechul and Siwon - forget that it had ever happened, and that way you could move on and look only to the future. Only thing was, Hankyung couldn’t forget about it.
“Siwon,” he asked on Wednesday lunchtime, when most had already left, and after trying to think of a tactful way to say it and unable to come up with any, “what’s your family like?”
Siwon looked surprised at the question. “My family? Normal, I guess. Why?”
“I was just wondering.” Hankyung put his chopsticks down. “Just, you know, after Saturday. I was wondering what everyone else’s family was like.”
“It’s just me and my parents,” said Siwon, not asking him to elaborate on ‘Saturday’. “We’re normal. My dad works for some company in town,” and this was said with the vague ignorance of every teenage boy, “and my mother is the greatest housewife this side of Seoul.”
“That’s why he wants a pretty quiet thing for a wife, and keeps rejecting me,” said Heechul with a grin, and then ducked as Siwon hit out at her. “I’ve got a sister,” she announced. “She lives in the mountains, though, because she got married. She got married really young actually, I was only about eight. That was when I-” She stopped, smiled, and went back to her home-packed rice.
“My mother’s divorced,” said Shindong.
“I’ve got a younger sister,” said Sungmin, and gave a gleeful clap of his hands. “You should see her, she’s adorable.”
“Eeteuk used to be in the same situation as Ryeowook,” said Heechul suddenly, “that’s the reason for the hot chocolate.” Hankyung stared at her in shock, because that had been another thing playing on his mind and he hadn’t known when would be a good time to bring it up.
“Oh,” he said.
“Only it was worse,” continued Heechul. “It used to be really bad. Eeteuk missed loads of school, and his dad broke his arm a couple of times. It wasn’t even when he was drunk, he just hated him. His mother died giving birth, you see, and so he blamed Eeteuk.”
“Whenever it happened, he’d ring Kangin.” Siwon picked up the story. “And Kangin would come and get him and take him to his house and Kangin’s mother would make him some hot chocolate. Eeteuk claims it’s a general pick me up now. Adores Kangin’s mother too - calls her the mother he never had. They still go for tea once a week, actually.”
“Kangin gets on with his family,” said Sungmin. “They’re like the epitome of a perfect sitcom family. They love each other, and he even gets on well with his younger brother. He only moved out so Eeteuk could get out.”
“And Kibum’s only sleeping with Donghae because it pisses his parents off,” said Heechul, and then laughed as Siwon choked on a crisp. “Okay,” she allowed, “that’s an added bonus.”
“Another bad relationship?”
“I don’t think anyone could have a good relationship with Kibum’s parents,” said Sungmin, looking quite sick.
“Kibum! Where are you? Get home right now so you can study!” Heechul suddenly screeched, in a horrible grating voice that made the hairs on the back of Hankyung’s neck stand up. “Study,” she repeated. “Study, study, study.”
“I hate it when you do that,” said Siwon, scrunching his nose up in pain.
“That’s why I don’t study, you know,” Heechul told him. “Not because I’m lazy or stupid or anything like that, it’s because I’m terrified my mother will become like that if I show an interest.” She turned to Hankyung. “You should beware too,” she said. “Show an interest in a studying, and beware the screeching harpy syndrome.”
“Um, okay,” said Hankyung, and had to get some tablets from the nurse for the headache that Heechul’s imitation had brought on.
*
“Here,” said Kyuhyun on Friday morning, and handed Sungmin a suit carrier, which on opening revealed a crisp white shirt and a smart black suit, with a black tie. Everyone stared at him in confusion.
“Thanks,” said Sungmin, clearly understanding why he’d been handed such a thing, but looking amused anyway, “but what am I supposed to do with it until tonight?”
“I don’t know,” snapped Kyuhyun. “You’re the one who wanted it.”
“Oh,” said Sungmin, taken aback. “Okay. I’ll just put it in my locker, then.”
“Sorry,” groaned Kyuhyun as he covered his face with his hands. “I just don’t understand why you want to come.”
“Why does Sungmin need a suit?” Donghae asked, sounding as confused as Hankyung felt.
“Kyuhyun’s got a family dinner tonight, with the associates,” said Sungmin, “and I’m going along for moral support.”
“And I don’t understand why,” said Kyuhyun, and pulled a few books roughly from his locker. “They’re going to chew you up and spit you out.”
“What are they going to do if they know I’m there with you?”
Kyuhyun gave a hollow laugh. “What won’t they do? They already hate me.”
“Then say I’m just a friend.”
“And lie in front of my father? He’ll just ask awkward questions until one of us messes up and the associates will talk about the dishonest son.”
“Then we tell the truth, and I’ll deal with the comments and names. I’m used to that.” Sungmin slammed his locker shut with a bang. “I have the suit, I know the rules and I’m coming with you because you always come out of those things looking like you’ve just done life in prison and I’m sick of it. I’m coming, and that’s final.” And with that he stormed off, straight into a group of girls, who squealed and yelled about walking with him.
“Um,” said Kyuhyun, staring after him.
“If you say that Sungmin is hot when he’s being forceful,” groaned Yehsung, “I will rip your tongue out.”
“Oh,” said Kyuhyun. “Oh, okay.”
“Come on, Kyuhyun,” said Ryeowook, glaring at Yehsung. “Yehsung’s just annoyed because he’s not getting any.” And the two walked off.
“That’s a lie,” yelled Yehsung after them, and then grinned at the group. “And he knows it.”
“Be quiet,” said Shindong, “before I throw up.”
“Kim Heechul!”
The group glanced behind them, and saw the gym teacher pushing past people in his attempts to get up to them. “Oh god,” said Heechul, and handed Hankyung her bag. “Here,” she said. “Tell the teacher I’ll be late. He’s probably going to drag me to the head’s again.”
“Oh,” said Hankyung, as she ran off and the rest waved and smiled. “Right.”
“He doesn’t like Heechul because she used to be on the football team in middle school,” explained Eunhyuk. “But when we came here, she stopped doing it, and the coach wanted her to play.”
It seemed to make sense, but when he was leaving, holding Heechul’s bag, he heard the teacher say Kim, why aren’t you in correct uniform? and Heechul replied I’ve told you, I’ve got permission from the head.
“So,” said Eunhyuk, when Hankyung was still trying to listen to the conversation going on behind him, “we’ve been wanting to ask.”
“Who’s we?” Hankyung asked, because he wanted to be sure as to who he was agreeing to before he even found out what he would be agreeing to.
“Me, Donghae and Shindong,” said Eunhyuk, and his grin had an undertone of unreasonableness about it. “We want you to join the dance team.”
Hankyung, who had just been about to walk into the classroom, failed to notice that the door was closed in his shock and walked straight into it. “What?” He asked, holding his hands to his nose which felt like it should be broken, but probably wasn’t.
“Dance team,” said Donghae slowly. “We want you join it.”
“Why?” Hankyung asked, completely astounded.
“You’re really good,” said Shindong. “You’ve got this innate talent or something, I don’t know. We need you.”
“Think about it,” said Eunhyuk, and they walked off as the bell went and Hankyung slipped into the classroom. To be honest, he wouldn’t be able to tell you when Heechul eventually came back in, or even what the lesson was about. He thought about it until his head was spinning, and then he still didn’t have an answer.
*
“How did it go?” Heechul asked on Saturday, when Sungmin had skipped up the group at the park and Kyuhyun walked behind him with his hands pushed into his pockets.
“Fine,” trilled Sungmin, and threw himself to the ground beside Heechul to watch the game of football that the others had gotten themselves into.
“It was not fine,” said Kyuhyun, and remained standing.
“Did they not like you?” Hankyung asked Sungmin, but it was Kyuhyun who answered.
“Oh, they liked him,” and he refuse to look at them, and watched as Yehsung brought Ryeowook to the ground with a horrible tackle that was probably on purpose. “That was the problem.”
“Ew,” said Heechul, and wrinkled up her nose.
“There’s nothing wrong with being friendly,” said Sungmin, and grinned at the others so that Kyuhyun couldn’t see that he was being sarcastic.
“They tried to grope you, for fucks sake!” Kyuhyun burst out.
“I hate it when that happens,” said Heechul, deadpan.
“First they put you at the end of the table, next to my father, of all people-”
“We had some nice conversations,” said Sungmin. “He thinks it’s funny that I’m stronger than you.”
“-And then when it was mentioned that we were together, everyone decided it was a free-for-all and tried to attack you.”
“Attention’s nice,” said Sungmin. “It wasn’t that bad. The girls in Siwon’s class are worse than that.”
Kyuhyun gaped at him. “I can’t believe you’re being so blasé about all this!”
Sungmin stood up and walked over to him. “I wasn’t really expecting anything less,” he admitted. “Most people seem to think I’m easy when they find out. You don’t really have to put up with it, because it’s not obvious you’re - you know.” He gave Kyuhyun a little push towards the game. “Go play with them, and be careful not to break your leg again.”
“I did that when I was six,” said Kyuhyun, sighed, and walked off.
“That bad?” Heechul asked, as Sungmin sat back down with a sigh.
“Worse,” said Sungmin. “He doesn’t know about that guy trying to have it off with me in the bathroom. He just knows that something upset me at the time.”
“Did you hit him?” Hankyung asked, because for someone who liked cuddly animals and the colour pink as much as Sungmin, he sure as hell didn’t let people underestimate him.
“No,” said Sungmin slowly. “I didn’t hit him, but I’m not sure whether the pressure I put on him will ever allow him to have children.”
There was a bout of screaming from the pitch as Eeteuk managed to somehow kick the ball into his own net (a feat, considering he was the goal keeper). Hankyung started to feel slightly uncomfortable as Heechul and Sungmin giggled together, and he realised that the players probably wouldn’t be able to hear him if he himself screamed.