What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger Chapter 1
Title: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
Pairing: HanChul, KyuChul, EunKiHae, KangTeuk, YeWook, other may appear in the future
Rating: R
Genre: AU, Action, Superhero (is that a genre?)
Summary: When Cho Kyuhyun was infected with the GAM Virus, he’d thought he was going to die. Everyone who got it did. If you contracted the virus, you were as good as gone. There was no treatment, no cure, and nothing to aid you toward a quick death. It was slow, painful, and most people committed suicide-or had loved one’s aid them in doing so-before the disease took them willingly.
Or that’s what he’d thought, anyway.
Prologue < ---- > Chapter 2
---
Kyuhyun didn’t know how long he’d remained in the bathroom, only that by the time he realized he couldn’t puke anymore and that the tears were drying on his face, he was alone.
Heechul had left at some point and the fog on the mirror was completely gone from Sungmin’s shower.
He stumbled out into the dark hallway, noting that everyone else was asleep as well. He didn’t care. His mouth still tasted like vomit and he was trying his hardest to keep from thinking about the fact that his family was dead.
That he’d almost died as well.
He felt disgusting, and nothing made sense anymore.
Heechul walked out of his bedroom holding the floral comforter. He sent Kyuhyun a level glare. Kyuhyun should have realized that Heechul’s one act of kindness wasn’t going to change the layers of asshole that Kyuhyun knew Heechul possessed. He was going to make him sleep on the couch, wasn’t he?
Heechul seemed to know what Kyuhyun was thinking and he scoffed, “These blankets smell like a fucking corpse. I’m throwing them away. Leeteuk would throw a bitch fit if I made you sleep somewhere else. Your new blankets are on the bed.” And he walked off into the living room.
Kyuhyun stared into the darkness that had swallowed Heechul up before stumbling to the bedroom. He was too tired to dwell on anything anymore. He was surprised that he could sleep at all. He wanted to simply curl up on the bed and cry until his throat was raw and his eyes dried up.
But crying took energy, and that was something Kyuhyun was low on. The moment he landed on the bed his eyes were already closing. Kyuhyun fell asleep before he could pull the blanket up over his legs.
Kyuhyun didn’t know how long he slept, only that he was awakened by the sound of screams. He blinked sleepily, confused, as he sat up. By the time he managed to remember where he was and why-before the depression and realization of death could sink in-Heechul had already run to the door, his bedmate stumbling sleepily behind him, looking even less awake than Kyuhyun was.
Kyuhyun decided to follow for the sake of an explanation, and got to the door to see everyone rushing out of their own rooms. The screaming had continued, but was fading, as if it was falling away rapidly.
Kangin threw open his door and it smacked against the wall behind it with a jarring bang. He looked pale, panicked, as he charged across the living room-Ryeowook managed to get to the light switch and turn it on-and headed for the front door.
Heechul was beside him in an instant, at the head of the group of scared looking men, “Again?”
Kangin had torn open the front door and was charging down the stairs, Heechul at his heels.
“God,” Kangin rasped, “you put a mattress in the basement right?” The screaming continued, faint now.
“Yeah.” Heechul sounded tense. Kyuhyun didn’t believe it was possible for Heechul to become flustered. He’d seen the man standing in the middle of a room full of corpses and outrun a wall of fire without batting an eyelash. Kyuhyun was more confused than ever.
“What if he goes through the foundation? What if he panics and goes solid and-”
“He won’t.” Heechul said firmly, and they passed floor after floor. Kyuhyun wondered why no one else in the apartment complex had woken up. The screams were earth shattering, and the rest of the group was yelling now, asking each other questions.
No one seemed to notice the confusion on Kyuhyun’s face as he followed obediently.
They reached the basement, and by that time the screaming had stopped. Kangin threw open the door and Kyuhyun caught a glimpse of Leeteuk curled up atop a mattress in the middle of the floor, sobbing as he clutched his chest.
Kangin reached his side in a matter of seconds. “Hey, hey it’s ok. I’m here. It’s ok.” He grabbed him in a hug and Kyuhyun could only stare as Leeteuk buried his face in Kangin’s neck and continued to cry.
The rest of them stood outside the room in silence. Kyuhyun didn’t notice as the others began leaving, heading back up the stairs. It seemed that as soon as they saw that Leeteuk was alright they knew there was nothing else they could do-what could they have done anyway?-and went back up to get a few more hours of sleep before morning.
Kyuhyun felt like he was intruding as he watched Kangin and Leeteuk. The entire situation seemed personal and private, as Kangin held Leeteuk’s face in his hands, wiping the tears away with his thumbs as he whispered comforting things, “It’s ok. I’m here. You can touch me. You aren’t going to fall anymore.”
Heechul grabbed his arm in a vice like grip and pulled him out of the doorway, closing the door behind him softly to give the two some privacy.
Kyuhyun was still utterly confused as he stumbled on the bottom step, falling. He managed to catch himself but was too tired to stand up again, so he opted for sitting on the stairs. Heechul stood at the foot of the stairwell, his gaze trained on the closed door.
“Leeteuk wasn’t supposed to have this power.”
Kyuhyun blinked sleepily. Heechul was still staring at the door, and he looked like he hadn’t moved at all. Kyuhyun wondered if he’d even spoken. “Huh?”
“Our bodies can only handle our original power.” Heechul continued, “Otherwise, it tears our bodies apart and we can’t control when these new powers appear. It’s the reason Leeteuk is a failed experiment.”
Kyuhyun swallowed.
“They didn’t want him because his first power was useless and his second one was unmanageable. The power they gave him is killing him.” Heechul finally whispered after a few moments of silence.
Kyuhyun felt cold all of a sudden and he didn’t know why. His own troubles-the loss of his parents, his confusion about everything that was happening-was pushed away by the soft tone of Heechul’s voice.
“The government tried to make him useful, and all they did was kill him.” Heechul turned around and began walking up the stairs.
Kyuhyun sat at the bottom and listened to the sound of Heechul’s footsteps. They faded after a while until he couldn’t hear them anymore. The silence was broken only by a few loud sobs and Kangin’s husky voice whispering things that Kyuhyun couldn’t understand.
Kyuhyun was alone…and he was more confused now than he had been earlier.
---
During his first week, Kyuhyun learned several things about the inhabitants of 1502 Yumyeong Apartments.
1. Ryeowook owned the kitchen and you entered at your own risk when he was cooking. Some members had scars to prove it.
2. Leeteuk was a mother hen and if he sensed so much as a whisper of tension between his housemates he would drag everyone into the living room for an intervention.
3. There was no such thing as privacy. You slept, showered, and ate together ALL THE TIME and you couldn’t go into a room without running into someone else.
4. Just because your power was considered useless didn’t mean you were free from helping with the missions. It just meant you had to work harder to pull your own weight and earn your keep.
5. Heechul was in charge of training.
6. Heechul was a bitch of a drill sergeant.
7. He still didn’t know anyone’s powers but Leeteuk’s and incidentally Donghae’s when the fish-loving boy decided to wake him up one morning by transforming into a cocker spaniel and licking his face.
8. You didn’t talk about your powers to the others and didn’t ask about them.
9. His power hadn’t woken up yet.
“Don’t worry Kyu, it will come to you eventually. Sometimes it can take up to a month.” Sungmin smiled cheerfully. Kyuhyun had become fast friends with the pink loving man ever since the shower incident that first night. Kyuhyun had been worried that Sungmin would think he was some kind of freak who liked to peek in on guys taking showers-which he wasn’t. Sungmin had announced that it was fine, and that everyone usually just jumped into the showers whenever they wanted to, to save hot water.
At first Kyuhyun had been afraid that the groups’ inner workings and friendships had been tightly established but he’d been accepted rather easily. There were only a few people that he still felt awkward with.
Kangin was abrasive and often snappy at his dongsaengs. Sungmin said he was just acting tough to compensate for his uselessness-this had caused Kangin to try and punch him in the face and he’d barely escaped.
Kibum was quiet and reserved. He didn’t talk much and Kyuhyun wondered how he could be so close to Donghae and Eunhyuk who were the total opposite of him. He shied away whenever Kyuhyun got close and any time Kyuhyun asked anyone why, Heechul always seemed to be there and would tell him to mind his own business and leave Kibum alone.
Hankyung-Hangeng was his real name, but no one seemed to pronounce it that way-was nice, but his Korean was minimal and it made conversations stilted and awkward. The only one who seemed able to fully understand what Hangeng was trying to say was Heechul.
This led to Kyuhyun’s final observation.
10. Heechul and Hangeng were in a relationship, the kind that consisted of lots of sex and whispered words in Korean and Chinese.
Kyuhyun found it odd that anyone would want to be in a relationship with Heechul. He was snappy, aggressive, sarcastic, and selfish. Of all people, h certainly hadn’t expected Hangeng to be with him; soft-spoken, gentle Hangeng.
Sungmin kept telling him that he shouldn’t judge everyone so readily, that Hangeng wasn’t as kind and gentle as he seemed and that he was one of the top fighters in the apartment. Sometimes Kyuhyun thought that Sungmin was hinting that he shouldn’t judge Heechul so readily either, but Kyuhyun brushed it aside.
Still, it didn’t stop him from noticing that Heechul was always more gentle, more laid back, when Hangeng was there. The two were practically inseparable but Heechul always seemed more on edge when Hangeng wasn’t around.
“Kyuhyun.”
“Huh?” Kyuhyun looked up, pulled out of his musings by Sungmin who continued to stare at him oddly.
“We’re going to start training today. In the gym.”
Kyuhyun winced. Training? Physical training? The last time Kyuhyun had done anything physically strenuous he’d been playing little league football because his father was the neighborhood coach. From what he remembered, he’d been dubbed the team’s “black hole” and they’d lost every single game and said that his sister played better than him which, at the tender age of nine, was quite the insult. She was a girl after all.
But now Kyuhyun didn’t mind being called weak, as long as he didn’t have to go and lift weights. The closest he got to lifting weights was watching a sports medicine drama-it had been too strenuous and boring to watch after the first episode.
“My…my asthma…” Kyuhyun put in, as Sungmin grabbed his arm in a steel grip and pulled him up from the couch where he’d been sitting, still trying to discover how they got cable on their crappy television.
“We won’t overwork you.” Sungmin chirped, opening the front door and leading Kyuhyun down the stairs. Apparently they didn’t use the elevator often because it was known to stop working at random intervals, usually when it was most needed or someone was inside of it, bleeding out of a chest wound.
“But you need to start training. Everyone here works, remember?”
Kyuhyun remembered. The first day after he’d arrived-somehow he’d managed to drag himself out of bed to find everyone else already awake-he’d been given the rundown about the apartment itself…like the fact that the only people who lived in the Yumyeong Apartment complex were the inhabitants of Yumyeong 1502. The rest of the building was abandoned, which made sense since they were supposed to be dead and dead people couldn’t exactly get a job and pay a landlady rent.
Kyuhyun didn’t know how they had electricity and running water but a few of the members were good with that kind of thing and Kyuhyun was under the impression that he wasn’t supposed to ask about their illegal activities too much.
Kyuhyun had also been briefed on their “mission”. They planned on finding and destroying The List which held everyone’s powers and told whether or not they were useful. No one knew anything else about it, or how The List knew what powers people had before these powers even awoke. But everyone in the apartment agreed that it needed to be destroyed and, if at all possible, the government responsible for it needed to be destroyed as well.
It all sounded like some really trippy sci fi shit to him but after being pulled through a wall-and falling through the floor-and seeing Donghae running around the apartment under the guise of myriad of animals (he favored a dog, but sometimes he hopped around as a bunny to amuse Sungmin), Kyuhyun wasn’t quite as surprised.
Still, the idea of taking out a government, or training, or using superpowers…it was just so unreal. And just because he’d been saved by these people they wanted him to follow along with them? He hadn’t asked them to save him!
Deep down he knew that he was grateful, but the bitterness never left. He assumed that everyone hadn’t brought up training or helping out because he’d been mourning the death of his family. But he couldn’t sit in his room and cry forever-not that he could sit in there and cry anyway when Heechul tended to kick him out when he wanted to be alone with Hangeng or would sit on the bed and tell him to suck it up because his crying wasn’t going to bring them back.
Sometimes Kyuhyun hated Heechul as much as he was sure Heechul hated him, but he never said anything about it because he remembered the warmth of Heechul’s hand on his back as he was bent over that toilet and he thought that there had to be something else to Heechul than his bitchy exterior.
No one else would want to live with him otherwise, right? And Hangeng certainly wouldn’t want to be his lover.
“Come on, we’re here.”
Kyuhyun didn’t know how many flights of stairs they went down or how he managed not to trip over his own feet as he’d gone down them while thinking so much, but now he stood next to Sungmin in front of Apartment number 1209. Sungmin reached for the door and opened it.
They were met with a brick wall.
“Oh, whoops.” Sungmin laughed to himself, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, “Wrong door. It’s that one.” He headed for the next apartment room. Kyuhyun followed behind him in confusion. Why was the door bricked up? If they were going to seal the wall off, why didn’t they just take the door down too?
The room was not what he expected. He felt like he’d just walked into a gym. It seemed as if several of the adjoining apartments’ walls had been knocked out to make room for all of the equipment. In the far corner, Kangin was bench pressing, and Shindong was-what was that called again? Spotting, yes, spotting!-Shindong was spotting him.
Kyuhyun was more impressed by the expensive, new looking equipment to pay attention to the immense weights that Kangin was currently lifting. “If you had enough money for all this equipment, why do you have such shitty wallpaper?” Kyuhyun mused aloud.
Sungmin smiled cheerfully back at him, “Because the last magazine was a fitness one.”
“Huh?” Kyuhyun opened his mouth to inquire further-Sungmin’s answer made no sense whatsoever-but was stopped by the sight of Kangin walking up to them. He was grinning, but it wasn’t the cheerful kind of grin that made Kyuhyun want to smile back. It was the kind of grin that promised pain, lots of pain.
“So you’ve finally come to play at my playground, eh?”
Kyuhyun didn’t like this playground. This was the kind of playground where bullies pushed you down the slide or stuck your face in the sandbox and forced you to eat dirt. His gaze drifted to the muscles on Kangin’s arms. Kangin was a big, big bully.
This was not going to end well.
---
Kyuhyun had never thought that having asthma could have been a good thing. It wasn’t until meeting the occupants of Yumyeong 1502 that he began to enjoy the fact. It had saved him from dying in the gas chambers and earlier that morning, it had kept Kyuhyun from dying by the hands of Kangin in the gym.
If Kangin had been allowed to have his wicked way with Kyuhyun it would have ended with the other man going into cardiac arrest. It was only after Sungmin pointed out that Kyuhyun had asthma that Kangin decided they’d tone down the original workout plan he’d created.
The toned down version was hell, Kyuhyun didn’t want to know what the full version was.
It started off with stretching-Sungmin had deserted him to go lift weights with Shindong-and Kangin had berated him for his lack of flexibility. Not being able to touch your toes was apparently fucking hilarious.
After stretching, Kangin decided to start him on some cardio. There was much running involved, and by the time that Sungmin managed to come over for damage control Kyuhyun was wheezing on the ground, reaching for an inhaler that he didn’t have. Kangin had apologized after seeing Kyuhyun’s face turn purple, and had decided that maybe they’d do weight lifting another day.
Kyuhyun didn’t know how Sungmin got him up the stairs. He almost has a second attack by the time they stumbled through the front door-well, Kyuhyun stumbled, Sungmin walked in behind him and was only slightly winded from his own intense workout.
They got to the kitchen and Kyuhyun tripped over his own feet on his way to the fridge, barely catching himself on the handle as he pulled it open and grabbed a bottle of water.
Eunhyuk stared up at him from where he sat at the table, his eggs halfway to his mouth. Kibum sat beside him, holding a cup of coffee and watching with vague interest. Kyuhyun unscrewed the bottle cap and chugged about a third of its contents before he needed to breathe again.
He choked a bit and took a few deep breaths.
“You ok?” Eunhyuk grabbed for his own strawberry milk and took a sip.
Kyuhyun turned to him wearily and felt that his glare sufficiently conveyed what he couldn’t say. Sungmin came in a moment later, smiling cheerfully.
“Good morning! Where is everyone?”
“Sleeping, I think. Donghae went to the shooting range with Leeteuk and Siwon earlier.” Eunhyuk put in.
Sungmin nodded.
“Sleep is a beautiful, miraculous invention.” Heechul muttered, walking into the kitchen, “If I could marry sleep I would. He’s probably hot.” He looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, but he still managed to look decent, which Kyuhyun found to be a remarkable feat, especially since Heechul had gone out late the night before with Sungmin and hadn’t returned till four in the morning.
“Why do you assume sleep is a guy?” Kibum asked softly, and it was the first time that Kyuhyun had heard him speak since he’d arrived at the place.
“Because if sleep were a girl, she’d be a bitch and I’d never get any rest.” Heechul announced, pushing past Kyuhyun and reaching into the fridge. He grabbed out an orange and leaned against the counter, beginning to peal it.
Kyuhyun wanted to tell him that it would probably be easier to do if he took off his gloves but he figured that wasn’t a safe subject.
“Does that make you a girl?” Hangeng joked.
“Ya!” Heechul smacked Hangeng on the back of the head and the two shared a grin.
“If I had said that he would have killed me.” Eunhyuk whined from where he sat. “That’s blatant favoritism, hyung!”
Kibum snorted and went back to the crossword puzzle he’d been filling out as Heechul turned to Eunhyuk and scoffed, “So says the boy drinking the strawberry milk I got on Tuesday.”
Kyuhyun had slumped into one of the remaining chairs by this time. He couldn’t feel his body, glad that is was deliciously numb from the exhaustive workout he’d had. He knew that the next morning was going to be horrible. He knew it. He’d wake up and feel like the shittiest thing alive.
He was not looking forward to it.
---
Kyuhyun was proven correct when he woke up to the feeling of his entire body throbbing. He could feel the pain pulsing with each heartbeat, spreading down to the tips of his toes. He groaned, rolled over on his bed, and tried not to make too much noise. He peeked out from under his pillow-he took to placing it over his head at night in case Heechul and Hangeng decided to have sex-and saw that Hangeng was the only one sleeping on the bed.
Hangeng slept a lot, now that Kyuhyun thought about it. He was always curled up beside Heechul even when the other man was awake and busy. He was usually the first to bed and the last to wake up. Also…Kyuhyun’s eyes narrowed a bit. He still couldn’t figure out why Hangeng looked so familiar. The first time that Kyuhyun had looked at him really looked at him he’d sworn that he’d seen him somewhere before.
He wasn’t about to ask him, however.
He tried to will himself to move, but even thinking about moving made his muscles scream in protest. He finally managed to get himself up with the promise of a hot shower. Walking was difficult, as was opening the door. Moving in general took too much energy.
He made it to the bathroom only to hear the sound of running water and three voices. He knew without staying to listen that it was Kibum, Eunhyuk, and Donghae. Three people in one shower was enough, he wasn’t going to try and get in on that threesome or whatever they were.
Kyuhyun still wasn’t completely comfortable with all of the guy love here. He liked the B on his bromance to be firmly attached. It wasn’t that he thought it was disgusting, it was just…awkward to walk in on or hear someone and realize that it was two guys.
Or three guys.
He didn’t think anyone was in a foursome.
He headed to the other end of the hallway, past the closed doors of the other members’ bedrooms, to the second bathroom. The door was slightly ajar and the light was on. Just as he was about to open it to see who was inside the door opened by itself and he was met facing a very annoyed looking Heechul.
“What do you want?” Heechul muttered. He was wearing nothing but a towel slung around his hips-slim hips, they jutted out unhealthily. He was just skin stretched over bone, it seemed. And those gloves…he was still wearing his leather gloves.
Kyuhyun didn’t particularly favor the idea of showering with Heechul, but he figured that he’d have to get over the awkwardness somehow. He’d already showered with Sungmin before, and Donghae and Siwon. This couldn’t be too bad.
“I need to take a shower.”
“That’s why there are two bathrooms.” Heechul looked pointedly down the hall. “Have fun.” He made to close the door but Kyuhyun stopped him.
“The other bathroom is full. Come on hyung, everyone else showers together.”
“No.” Heechul deadpanned, before closing the door firmly. Kyuhyun heard the click of the lock being turned as well.
Kyuhyun glared before knocking loudly. “Ya! Hyung!” He heard the shower being turned on, but other than that there was no response from Heechul. Dammit, why was he such a prissy bitch? “YA!” He began pounding at the door.
The door to his left was pulled open harshly and a glaring, sleeping Sungmin poked his head out. “What are you doing?”
Kyuhyun nearly jumped backwards. Sungmin still managed to look terrifying, even as he held a rabbit plushie and his bangs were tied back with a pink hair-tie. His headphones-which Kyuhyun never saw him without-hung around his neck although he didn’t hear any sound coming from them. It was at times like these that he believed Eunhyuk when he said that Sungmin was one of the best fighters they had. He looked like he could roundhouse kick Kyuhyun through the wall.
“Sorry.” Kyuhyun whispered.
Sungmin merely grumbled something inaudible before closing the door to his and Siwon’s room once more.
Kyuhyun decided that it was safest to go and eat breakfast and wait. It didn’t take long for Kibum, Eunhyuk, and Donghae to finish and he found the three in the living room, Donghae drying off Kibum’s hair with a towel and the three talking cheerfully. Kyuhyun wondered how Kibum could be so talkative when it was the three of them and yet so quiet and reserved when Kyuhyun was around.
He simply headed down the hallway to the now free bathroom.
He turned on the water, getting the temperature as close to hot as he could-Heechul was using up all of the remaining hot water and Kibum, Eunhyuk, and Donghae had taken a long time in there earlier-before he began to strip off his clothing.
He had stepped into the shower and was reaching for the shampoo when the door to the bathroom opened. He yelped in surprise, almost slipping before he managed to steady himself on the shower door.
He looked out of the curtain to see Kangin standing there in his sweat-drenched muscle-t, grinning.
Kyuhyun swallowed. If Kangin was there, that would mean he wanted to…shower right?
Kangin seemed to read the fear in Kyuhyun’s eyes-Eunhyuk said that he could smell fear, and Donghae said that he ate nails and wimpy new apartment mates for breakfast. Donghae was under the impression that before Kyuhyun had come, they’d had a thirteenth member-and he simply grinned wider. “Don’t worry, I just came to brush my teeth. I’m showering later.”
Kyuhyun nodded, “Ah, thanks hyung.” Right, hyung, Kangin was a stickler for honorifics. Kyuhyun closed the shower curtain, feeling horrifically self conscious as he grabbed the shampoo and began working it through his hair.
He closed his eyes, feeling the warm water seep into his skin, momentarily soothing the gigantic ache that rampaged his body.
And that was when the water turned frigid.
Kyuhyun shrieked, toppling out of the shower to the sound of Kangin roaring with laughter. The other man looked like he could barely contain himself as he stood beside the toilet that he had conveniently flushed. Kyuhyun wanted to be furious-well, he didn’t want to be he was-but he couldn’t be outwardly angry at Kangin. Kangin would kill him.
He merely pushed soapy bangs out of his eyes as he got off of the floor. “When you flush the toilet, do all of the showers go cold?”
Kangin snorted. “Of course.”
Kyuhyun smiled to himself, content with the knowledge that as he’d screamed, somewhere in the other shower, Heechul had been screaming as well.
---
By the time Kyuhyun came out of the bathroom, everyone else was awake and most of them had found their way to the kitchen.
“Good morning!” Leeteuk smiled brightly at Kyuhyun as he entered. The entire table was crowded, and Kyuhyun wondered where everyone sat when they were all together. Hangeng was slumped over in a chair besides Shindong, talking to him softly in his accented Korean while Kibum, Eunhyuk, and Donghae conspired in a corner.
Sungmin was still wearing his pink pajamas and clutching his stuffed bear as he found himself stuffed into a chair with Leeteuk, hanging halfway off of it. He still looked rather grumpy, so Kyuhyun decided not to sit next to him.
Not that he would be able to if he wanted. All of the seats were taken and everyone was already sharing to the point that Yesung was standing next to the counter where Ryeowook was cooking, holding his coffee.
“You look tired. Did Kangin overwork you?” Leeteuk asked worriedly, watching the way Kyuhyun braced himself on the counter.
Kyuhyun gave a weak smile. “The second day is always the hardest, right?”
“Che.” Eunhyuk laughed, “The third day is the worst, when your body feels like its falling apart and you have to go work out again.”
Kyuhyun groaned.
“By the way,” Shindong looked up with a knowing smile, “Did you enjoy your shower?”
The entire table began to snicker except for Leeteuk, who looked around in disapproval.
Kyuhyun tried to hide his embarrassment by snarking back, “Yeah well, Heechul hyung screamed louder than I did.”
“I know when to dodge.” Heechul sang as he waltzed into the room, reaching for the fridge and dodging Ryeowook’s swipe with the spatula. “Kangin does it every morning.” He looked back at Kyuhyun with a grin. “You scream like a girl, louder than Wookie did the first time.”
“Hyung!” Ryeowook cried out, mortified, hiding his face behind his oven mitt.
“They’re having a meeting tomorrow night.”
At yesung’s comment, the table went silent, the soft laughter disappearing as quickly as it had commenced.
“Who?” Leeteuk asked quietly.
“The generals we suspect are high up in the GAM project.” Ryeowook looked to Yesung as he continued to scramble eggs. Yesung held out a stack of photos and placed them on the table. “We know that there will be at least four gifted there guarding them.”
Kyuhyun craned his neck to see the pictures on the table from where he stood next to the counter, but he couldn’t tell much of anything.
“Only four? That means they’ll be powerful.” Leeteuk murmured, reaching up a hand to rub his forehead, as if fighting an oncoming headache. “And The List?”
“We don’t suspect they’ll have it there, but the gala may be an undercover information swap.” Yesung continued. “There are some important files that will be changing hands.”
“Let’s make sure those hands are ours then.” Heechul nodded, “Kibum, Kangin, Sungmin, Ryeowook and I will start making plans.” Heechul stood and the others named did as well (except for Kangin who wasn’t there), following him out of the room. Ryeowook passed on the spatula to Eunhyuk who looked down at the spatula and then back at the eggs as if terrified of the idea of cooking.
Kyuhyun was confused, more so as he heard someone grab Kangin out of the shower-probably Heechul-before heading out the front door. He looked to Leeteuk for an explanation. The older man smiled wanly, “That group is the best at coming up with plans. They always come up with something effective.”
Kyuhyun nodded, but he was still confused. He’d thought that Leeteuk was the leader so…why wasn’t he in charge of making plans?