Suju Fanfic: Be My Muse (Chapter One)
Title: Be My Muse
Main pairing: Siwon x Kyuhyun
Other pairings: ninja!Minsu
Genre: Romance
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: boy x boy relationship
Disclaimer: I do not own Super Junior/DBSK/JYJ
Summary: WonKyu in Junjou Romantica setting. Siwon was a writer who wanted to write homosexual relationships. Kyuhyun was the free-loader in his house. Literally.
Author’s Note:a very very belated birthday present for bl4ckm4lice, hope you enjoy this one Cita! <3
Also I'd like to thank whoever plagiarized my fic because he/she had brought my WonKyu muse back. Reading his/her work and seeing my own little pieces of WonKyu made me miss them. So thank you very much, whoever you are!
---
Be My Muse
Part One
By: Sharl
-Six months ago-
When he opened the door to their one room apartment, the first thing Kyuhyun noticed was how messy it was. Dirty clothes were piling up in one corner while the depleting piles of clean ones were stacked neatly in another corner. There were dirty dishes in the sink; boxes and boxes of takeouts were mounting on the garbage area. All in all, the apartment looked hardly habitable, which was not surprising considering it was Kyuhyun and Donghae were the ones who lived here.
Kyuhyun sighed. Well, at least I can throw away the takeout boxes.
He dumped his backpack and literature books onto the bed he shared with his brother. Opening the window might be a good idea, fresh air could come in. Skipping over some books on the floor, he reached for a huge black trash bag and began collecting the empty takeout boxes. Kyuhyun cringed mentally. Some of these were from two nights or even more. He took a pizza box (they ate this five nights ago) and shoved it in the bulging trash bag.
As he collected the takeouts, something in the corner caught his eye. He stopped what he was doing and looked at it: a picture of his mother and father, his now dead mother and father. A pang of sorrow went through him. His parents would be ashamed if they see how Kyuhyun and Donghae were living right now.
They both died in a car crash ten years ago, Donghae was sixteen while Kyuhyun was ten. As an older brother, Donghae took responsibility and quit from his high school to look for jobs immediately. He refused to take any help from their relatives, determined to bring up Kyuhyun himself.
And bring up Kyuhyun himself he did. Now Kyuhyun was nineteen years old and in second year in his university on full scholarship. Majoring in management, he hoped to get a decent job later on and maybe he’d be able to help Donghae for once. His brother had given a lot for him; Kyuhyun wanted to pay him back, sort of. Donghae’s happiness was the most important thing for Kyuhyun and the student would do anything to make him happy.
Well, almost anything if that was in his power to give. Cleaning up the apartment apparently wasn’t one of it.
It wasn’t like Kyuhyun hadn’t tried cleaning up before; he had and failed miserably. The proverb of ‘try again, fail again, fail better’ never worked out for Kyuhyun in terms of cleaning up. In fact the proverb should be ‘try again, fail again, fail worse.’ Somehow every time he tried to do any domestic duties he just ended up making even more mess. So Kyuhyun, being a smart student that he was, gave up rather early after Donghae ended up repainting the apartment and apologized to their landlord.
Kyuhyun sighed again. He couldn’t help but feel useless sometimes. After a long day at work, the least Donghae could have was a nice clean apartment, and maybe even a warm dinner waiting for him but Kyuhyun couldn’t give him that.
Suddenly his cell phone rang and it brought Kyuhyun out from his self-pity world. He dropped the trash bag and scrambled over a pile of books to get the device. “Hello?” he answered ten seconds later.
“Kyuhyun? It’s me,” Donghae’s voice filtered from the other line, “hey I’m sorry, I need to work overtime again tonight. Can you get something to eat by yourself?”
The younger brother felt disappointed. He actually had been looking forward to eat dinner with his brother. But if it’s work then there was nothing he could do or say about it, especially when he knew Donghae was working so hard for him. “Okay,” Kyuhyun answered in fake-cheerful voice, “Sure, don’t work too hard hyung, and don’t forget to eat either.”
“I will,” Donghae answered and then he hung up.
Kyuhyun sighed and stared at the phone for a minute too long. Then he remembered the trash bag which was still lying pitifully in the middle of the room and got up. Well, even if Donghae wouldn’t have dinner with him, Kyuhyun still had to take the trash out.
*
Kyuhyun frowned as he attempted to stir the brown liquid. Actually it resembled a brown goo rather than brown liquid, but Kyuhyun refused to admit defeat to a stove and a pot. It didn’t look anything like the picture in the book but maybe after few more minutes of stirring, the brown goo would liquidize.
After nearly forty minutes of stirring, it looked like condensed chocolate milk and Kyuhyun gave up. So much for making stew from leftover foods to economize.
*
The doorbell rang.
Kyuhyun got up from the bed lazily. He almost didn’t want to open the door but thinking that maybe it was Donghae who had misplaced his key again so Kyuhyun forced himself to move. His failure attempt in cooking earlier made him feel a little bit down. The fact that he didn’t have any money to buy dinner also made things worse.
A hungry Kyuhyun was a grumpy Kyuhyun and a grumpy Kyuhyun was a pain in the ass Kyuhyun. It was common knowledge.
He peeked from the peephole and frowned. Why the hell Choi Siwon was here? Siwon was Donghae’s best friend from high school period and as far as Kyuhyun knew, the only one left. Everybody else had stopped communicating with Donghae when the man dropped out, maybe thinking that he was now a poor orphan and not worth their time.
But not Siwon. Siwon had stayed, even when Donghae suggested that Siwon should spend more time with his university friends, Siwon flatly refused it. He claimed that he was a free man and thus was entitled for his own freedom to visit anybody he chose to visit.
The doorbell rang again and this time it came with incessant knocking. “Brat! I know you’re in there, open the door!”
Kyuhyun felt his eyebrow twitched. Siwon had taken his ‘freedom’ a bit too far ten years ago and nicknamed Kyuhyun as ‘brat’. Kyuhyun’s plea and begging to stop that nickname was ignored, and so even when he was now a respectable nineteen years old student, apparently he was still a ‘brat’ to Choi Siwon.
He opened the door with a violent swing and glared at the man. “What do you want?”
“Is Donghae home?” Siwon looked over Kyuhyun’s shoulder and the student could see the other man was trying not to cringe when he saw the mess. Suddenly Kyuhyun wanted to slam the door in Siwon’s face. Who was he to judge other people?
“Working overtime,” Kyuhyun said flatly.
“Oh,” Siwon seemed to be disappointed. “I thought I can catch up with him over dinner or something. I knew I should’ve called.”
“You should. Now excuse me, I’m about to do some assignment-”
“Have you had dinner yet?”
“-from this professor, what?” Kyuhyun stopped his rambling at the mention of dinner. He blinked once. And then he blinked again. Did Siwon just say dinner? The thought of food made his mouth water but Kyuhyun, being the stubborn and proud creature that he was, refused to admit defeat. He was about to answer ‘yes of course I have, what time do you think this is, idiot’ when his stomach grumbled quite loudly.
He heard the other man snickering and Kyuhyun glared at his stomach. Traitor.
“Do you want get some food? I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast and we can take home some for Donghae in case he’s hungry.”
Kyuhyun spent less than five seconds to consider everything. He needed the food, that’s for sure, but he hated Siwon. On the other hand, justifying the whole thing with bringing some warm food home for Donghae was a justifiable excuse. And because Siwon was loaded, Kyuhyun didn’t have to spend money. Not that he had any, but everything helped.
They headed for a diner four blocks away from the apartment. There were still plenty of people in the diner when they both came in, but a smiling waitress quickly ushered them to an empty table in a corner. She gave them menu and they both quickly ordered the food.
Kyuhyun nearly moaned when he bit into his grilled cheese sandwich. It tasted damn good.
He was halfway through the sandwich and about to take a spoonful of the delicious Caesar salad when the man in front of him suddenly spoke. Kyuhyun had almost forgotten Siwon’s presence. “So why does Donghae do a lot of overtime lately? Did he tell you why?”
The student swallowed down a cucumber. “Only that there is a project’s deadline.”
“Huh.”
Kyuhyun narrowed his eyes. After knowing Siwon for over eight years, he knew the other man’s habit quite well. His previous ‘huh’ was not just a ‘huh.’ It was his I-might-know-something-that-you-don’t-huh and Kyuhyun didn’t like that. “What?” he snapped.
“Nothing,” Siwon replied rather too cheerfully.
“Just tell me, damn it, I’m not a kid.”
“Well you are if you’re still demanding to know without legitimate reason.”
Kyuhyun bit down on a tomato with more force than necessary. He could hear Siwon’s smirk from across the table. But Kyuhyun was nothing if not stubborn, and so he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to give Siwon an excuse to call him a brat again. Besides, he should give his food a proper concentration it deserved.
After declining the desserts (Siwon, not Kyuhyun, because Kyuhyun would love to take a bite on that delicious looking Key-lime pie), they ordered a club sandwich for Donghae. It was already late and Donghae should be home soon if he hadn’t already.
The walk back to the apartment was much quieter. Not a lot of pedestrians, but there were still some cars and buses drove off. Kyuhyun pulled on his jacket tighter, wishing that he didn’t have to do his assignment but the paper was due three days from now and the sooner he had it done, the more time he could spend playing that new online game.
Unlike what people might think, although he was on full scholarship he was not a geek who buried his nose in a book all the time. He was a different kind of geek. He was a cool geek. Kyuhyun loved gaming especially the online versions one. All he needed was being dedicated with the time and stabilized internet connections.
Suddenly a tire’s screech was heard and then a loud continuous honk. Kyuhyun barely had the time to turn around when he saw a car approaching full speed towards him. His legs felt numb. All he could see was flashes of his early childhood, Donghae’s strong opposition towards their relatives and good grief Kyuhyun hadn’t even beaten his own record at Solitaire online.
Someone yanked him away from the road. “Are you an idiot?!” Siwon’s voice boomed at his ear. “Why didn’t you move away, you could’ve gotten killed!”
Kyuhyun didn’t know how to answer that. His mind was still too jumbled to form a coherent answer. His heart was still beating too fast because hey, he narrowly escaped death here. Somehow, at the back of his mind, a little part of his brain piped up: Siwon smelt like a cinnamon and expensive cologne.
*
Surprising news always came at the most unexpected moment.
One of his teachers in Junior High once told him that and only now that Kyuhyun actually experienced it firsthand. Donghae was pacing back and forth in their small apartment and Kyuhyun soon got bored watching his brother does that.
“Hyung,” he said tiredly, “can you sit down please?”
Donghae watched him for a moment before sitting obediently on the bed. Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow when his brother took a deep breath. And then another. Something was obviously off, something was bothering his older brother and Kyuhyun wanted to know what it was. Donghae was nervous and a nervous Donghae was not a good sign of anything.
“Can I make you some tea? We still have that chamomile kind that you like.”
“No, thanks I’m fine.”
Kyuhyun nodded. “O-kay. Now tell me, what the hell is going on? You’re acting totally weird.”
Donghae looked at him again, reminding Kyuhyun about a sick puppy from the university that everybody just loved and suddenly he was hugged. “No I can’t, I can’t leave you! I promise I’ll take care of you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do I can’t leave you!” his brother slobbered all over Kyuhyun’s shoulder.
It took the student two full minutes to process everything and connect the dots. And when he finally did, Kyuhyun felt a cold fear gripped him. “Hae,” he whispered fearfully, “are you going to go somewhere?”
A nod was his answer.
Kyuhyun gulped. “Where?”
Donghae pulled back and held him on arms length. “The company offered me a position in Taiwan. They wanted to open a new branch there and the guy that supposed to go there suddenly can’t make it so they have this vacant position and they offered me that.”
Taiwan. Taiwan was so far away. There would be an ocean between him and his brother. Kyuhyun stared dumbfounded. The irrational part of him urged the student to tell Donghae to refuse the offer because he couldn’t live with Donghae. But the rational part of his brain knew that this might be once in a lifetime chance. Donghae had worked so hard in this company and refusing an offer like this wouldn’t look good in his career. All those overtime works might just end up with nothing.
Unconsciously he held his brother tighter. He couldn’t lose Donghae, not like this. He licked his lips nervously. “Well, what do you think about it?”
Donghae looked torn. “This is a great opportunity. If I work there I will be counted as an expatriate and my take home pay would at least doubled, if not tripled. We can leave this small place and move somewhere bigger. I can finally take you on vacation. But if I accept the offer then I’d need to stay there for at least three years.”
Three years sounded awful. Three years were too long, they both knew that, especially since they never spend a day without seeing each other unless Donghae was on one of those rare company business trips. If he wanted to hear his brother’s voice, Kyuhyun had to call him and the phone bill would be unimaginably expensive.
But again, this was an opportunity too great to be refused. And for once Kyuhyun wanted Donghae to do something for himself. He had been taking care of Kyuhyun for so long. It was time for Donghae to be selfish and Kyuhyun wouldn’t accept otherwise.
“You should take the job,” he replied.
Donghae opened his mouth to protest but Kyuhyun beat him to it. “No, don’t worry about me. I’m nineteen years old Hyung, I can take care of myself.”
“But-“
“No buts.”
“But-“
“Hyung,” Kyuhyun looked at his brother more seriously, “Really, you should take the job. This offer is good you’ve said yourself. You’ll regret it if you reject this offer and I don’t want to see you disappointed.” He bit his lip thinking for a moment, “If you’re worried about where I’m going to stay, well. I guess I can stay with Siwon, I know you trust him.”
*
Siwon’s place was a five bedroom penthouse monstrosity.
Located at prestigious downtown area, just one room studio was probably three times as expensive as Kyuhyun’s college tuition, so a five bedroom penthouse monstrosity was something Kyuhyun never expected to ever live in with.
He always knew Siwon was a rich bastard, but he never expected him to be this rich. He was a second son to an international shipping company, the Choi group, Kyuhyun remembered Donghae had mentioned about this once. Being a second son allowed him to be rich without a lot responsibility with the company and apparently Siwon took this advantage to the max.
As far as Kyuhyun understood, the guy graduated with honors from top university. And being a son of an influential family, it was only logical for Siwon to take part in business world but he didn’t take any roles in it at all. In fact he was a full time author, publishing what, Kyuhyun didn’t know.
Actually living with Siwon might not be a bad thing. After all, the guy was his brother’s best friend (and Kyuhyun suspected, the guy liked his brother a lot more than he should have) so no harm would go to Kyuhyun. But what bothered the student the most was just how… neat this place was.
The penthouse was decorated with minimalism but it screamed expensive to every corner. Everything was black and white, with more black than white, and not a single book was out of place it nearly freaked Kyuhyun out.
He was going to live in a museum for the next three years.
Hyung, that Taiwan job better be worth it. Cursing under his breath, Kyuhyun finished unpacking his meager belongings and went outside his new bedroom. However, he immediately stopped short seeing Siwon. The owner of the house was sitting in the middle of living room, holding what looked like a giant stuffed panda bear in his lap.
“So, this is Tao.”
Kyuhyun blinked.
“….hi, Tao,” he croaked out finally.
*
Two weeks after living with the man, Kyuhyun couldn’t take it anymore. The guy was downright weird, if not a complete whacko.
For once, who in the right mind would wake up at five every morning to watch a rewind tape of last night’s nine PM news? And after watching the news, Siwon would go back to sleep until nine AM. Usually Kyuhyun would be in class by this time but he didn’t have class on weekends and apparently Siwon didn’t bother to change this habit on weekends. He would then make five cups of coffee and some breakfast, got a shower, cleaned up the apartment and then go back to sleep in his room until lunchtime.
He then would emerged from his hideously neat bedroom, made or ordered something for lunch, re-cleaned the apartment, watch a weird reality TV show or geeky nature documentaries until six PM. He would then eat leftover lunches as dinner and then he would start exercising, usually using a treadmill or lifecycle at the corner. After another shower, he would cleaned the apartment again, sit and read books or magazines or whatever he had on those neat bookshelves. By 8.30 PM, he would switch on the TV and inserted the tape to record the nine PM news.
And then there’s Tao, let’s not forget about Tao.
Tao was a giant stuffed panda bear (and by giant, Kyuhyun meant giant) who apparently was a replacement because Siwon couldn’t get the Chinese to give him one of the real panda bears. Panda bears were considered very rare, even endangered in China mainland. The United States of America had to go to extreme lengths diplomatically to get two panda bears for their Washington zoo so it was only logical that they refused to give Siwon a real living, breathing panda bear.
And so, deprived from the real thing, Siwon treated Tao as if he was living. The guy would get fresh bamboo delivered to the apartment every three days or so and set them in front of Tao.
If Kyuhyun suspected that Siwon was a whacko before, he was convinced after seeing that.
But the obscure routine, obscene amount of expensiveness, and even the creepy bamboo trees were nothing compared the neat habits Siwon possessed. The guy had the worst OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) syndrome Kyuhyun had ever known. Not a single crease on his clothes, every book must be catalogued and categorized based on colors; not authors or genres, but colors.
On top of the neat habits, the freak was also a clean freak. As if cleaning this apartment three times every freaking day was not enough, Siwon considered it necessary to have full cleansing every week -usually this was done on Sunday.
So imagine a person like Kyuhyun, who didn’t bother to throw away takeout boxes (it’s not like Kyuhyun didn’t want to clean up, he just couldn’t, remember?) was forced to live with a neat freak like Siwon. They argued on the first day about, well, about everything and every topic actually. From the bed sheets, Kyuhyun’s books and backpacks, Tao’s bamboo trees until even what they would eat for dinner later.
After silent agreement from both parties to call it a truce only to reargue everything the next day, finally after two weeks Kyuhyun couldn’t take it anymore. He offered a proposal to Siwon who just placed a new box of bamboo trees in front of Tao.
He stood with his arms crossed in front of a sitting Siwon. “Okay, let’s deal with this. I can’t do household chores no matter how simple. I’d just end up making even more mess rather than cleaning them up. And I can’t afford not to live with you because obvious reasons: Hyung called almost every day to your phone line, and I don’t have any money.”
“So what are you suggesting, brat?”
“Is there anything I can do? Except cleaning and cooking and those kinds of things. I mean I feel bad if with me being here just means that it’s bothering you. Is there anything you need that I can do? Buying groceries or take out the trashes or something? Anything?”
Siwon gave him a one look over and seemed to think about what Kyuhyun said. Finally the man spoke, “Actually,” he stroked his non-existent beard, “I need a muse.”
Kyuhyun tilted his head to the side. “A what?”
-End of Chapter One-
Part Two
Teaser
Main pairing: Siwon x Kyuhyun
Other pairings: ninja!Minsu
Genre: Romance
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: boy x boy relationship
Disclaimer: I do not own Super Junior/DBSK/JYJ
Summary: WonKyu in Junjou Romantica setting. Siwon was a writer who wanted to write homosexual relationships. Kyuhyun was the free-loader in his house. Literally.
Author’s Note:a very very belated birthday present for bl4ckm4lice, hope you enjoy this one Cita! <3
Also I'd like to thank whoever plagiarized my fic because he/she had brought my WonKyu muse back. Reading his/her work and seeing my own little pieces of WonKyu made me miss them. So thank you very much, whoever you are!
---
Be My Muse
Part One
By: Sharl
-Six months ago-
When he opened the door to their one room apartment, the first thing Kyuhyun noticed was how messy it was. Dirty clothes were piling up in one corner while the depleting piles of clean ones were stacked neatly in another corner. There were dirty dishes in the sink; boxes and boxes of takeouts were mounting on the garbage area. All in all, the apartment looked hardly habitable, which was not surprising considering it was Kyuhyun and Donghae were the ones who lived here.
Kyuhyun sighed. Well, at least I can throw away the takeout boxes.
He dumped his backpack and literature books onto the bed he shared with his brother. Opening the window might be a good idea, fresh air could come in. Skipping over some books on the floor, he reached for a huge black trash bag and began collecting the empty takeout boxes. Kyuhyun cringed mentally. Some of these were from two nights or even more. He took a pizza box (they ate this five nights ago) and shoved it in the bulging trash bag.
As he collected the takeouts, something in the corner caught his eye. He stopped what he was doing and looked at it: a picture of his mother and father, his now dead mother and father. A pang of sorrow went through him. His parents would be ashamed if they see how Kyuhyun and Donghae were living right now.
They both died in a car crash ten years ago, Donghae was sixteen while Kyuhyun was ten. As an older brother, Donghae took responsibility and quit from his high school to look for jobs immediately. He refused to take any help from their relatives, determined to bring up Kyuhyun himself.
And bring up Kyuhyun himself he did. Now Kyuhyun was nineteen years old and in second year in his university on full scholarship. Majoring in management, he hoped to get a decent job later on and maybe he’d be able to help Donghae for once. His brother had given a lot for him; Kyuhyun wanted to pay him back, sort of. Donghae’s happiness was the most important thing for Kyuhyun and the student would do anything to make him happy.
Well, almost anything if that was in his power to give. Cleaning up the apartment apparently wasn’t one of it.
It wasn’t like Kyuhyun hadn’t tried cleaning up before; he had and failed miserably. The proverb of ‘try again, fail again, fail better’ never worked out for Kyuhyun in terms of cleaning up. In fact the proverb should be ‘try again, fail again, fail worse.’ Somehow every time he tried to do any domestic duties he just ended up making even more mess. So Kyuhyun, being a smart student that he was, gave up rather early after Donghae ended up repainting the apartment and apologized to their landlord.
Kyuhyun sighed again. He couldn’t help but feel useless sometimes. After a long day at work, the least Donghae could have was a nice clean apartment, and maybe even a warm dinner waiting for him but Kyuhyun couldn’t give him that.
Suddenly his cell phone rang and it brought Kyuhyun out from his self-pity world. He dropped the trash bag and scrambled over a pile of books to get the device. “Hello?” he answered ten seconds later.
“Kyuhyun? It’s me,” Donghae’s voice filtered from the other line, “hey I’m sorry, I need to work overtime again tonight. Can you get something to eat by yourself?”
The younger brother felt disappointed. He actually had been looking forward to eat dinner with his brother. But if it’s work then there was nothing he could do or say about it, especially when he knew Donghae was working so hard for him. “Okay,” Kyuhyun answered in fake-cheerful voice, “Sure, don’t work too hard hyung, and don’t forget to eat either.”
“I will,” Donghae answered and then he hung up.
Kyuhyun sighed and stared at the phone for a minute too long. Then he remembered the trash bag which was still lying pitifully in the middle of the room and got up. Well, even if Donghae wouldn’t have dinner with him, Kyuhyun still had to take the trash out.
*
Kyuhyun frowned as he attempted to stir the brown liquid. Actually it resembled a brown goo rather than brown liquid, but Kyuhyun refused to admit defeat to a stove and a pot. It didn’t look anything like the picture in the book but maybe after few more minutes of stirring, the brown goo would liquidize.
After nearly forty minutes of stirring, it looked like condensed chocolate milk and Kyuhyun gave up. So much for making stew from leftover foods to economize.
*
The doorbell rang.
Kyuhyun got up from the bed lazily. He almost didn’t want to open the door but thinking that maybe it was Donghae who had misplaced his key again so Kyuhyun forced himself to move. His failure attempt in cooking earlier made him feel a little bit down. The fact that he didn’t have any money to buy dinner also made things worse.
A hungry Kyuhyun was a grumpy Kyuhyun and a grumpy Kyuhyun was a pain in the ass Kyuhyun. It was common knowledge.
He peeked from the peephole and frowned. Why the hell Choi Siwon was here? Siwon was Donghae’s best friend from high school period and as far as Kyuhyun knew, the only one left. Everybody else had stopped communicating with Donghae when the man dropped out, maybe thinking that he was now a poor orphan and not worth their time.
But not Siwon. Siwon had stayed, even when Donghae suggested that Siwon should spend more time with his university friends, Siwon flatly refused it. He claimed that he was a free man and thus was entitled for his own freedom to visit anybody he chose to visit.
The doorbell rang again and this time it came with incessant knocking. “Brat! I know you’re in there, open the door!”
Kyuhyun felt his eyebrow twitched. Siwon had taken his ‘freedom’ a bit too far ten years ago and nicknamed Kyuhyun as ‘brat’. Kyuhyun’s plea and begging to stop that nickname was ignored, and so even when he was now a respectable nineteen years old student, apparently he was still a ‘brat’ to Choi Siwon.
He opened the door with a violent swing and glared at the man. “What do you want?”
“Is Donghae home?” Siwon looked over Kyuhyun’s shoulder and the student could see the other man was trying not to cringe when he saw the mess. Suddenly Kyuhyun wanted to slam the door in Siwon’s face. Who was he to judge other people?
“Working overtime,” Kyuhyun said flatly.
“Oh,” Siwon seemed to be disappointed. “I thought I can catch up with him over dinner or something. I knew I should’ve called.”
“You should. Now excuse me, I’m about to do some assignment-”
“Have you had dinner yet?”
“-from this professor, what?” Kyuhyun stopped his rambling at the mention of dinner. He blinked once. And then he blinked again. Did Siwon just say dinner? The thought of food made his mouth water but Kyuhyun, being the stubborn and proud creature that he was, refused to admit defeat. He was about to answer ‘yes of course I have, what time do you think this is, idiot’ when his stomach grumbled quite loudly.
He heard the other man snickering and Kyuhyun glared at his stomach. Traitor.
“Do you want get some food? I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast and we can take home some for Donghae in case he’s hungry.”
Kyuhyun spent less than five seconds to consider everything. He needed the food, that’s for sure, but he hated Siwon. On the other hand, justifying the whole thing with bringing some warm food home for Donghae was a justifiable excuse. And because Siwon was loaded, Kyuhyun didn’t have to spend money. Not that he had any, but everything helped.
They headed for a diner four blocks away from the apartment. There were still plenty of people in the diner when they both came in, but a smiling waitress quickly ushered them to an empty table in a corner. She gave them menu and they both quickly ordered the food.
Kyuhyun nearly moaned when he bit into his grilled cheese sandwich. It tasted damn good.
He was halfway through the sandwich and about to take a spoonful of the delicious Caesar salad when the man in front of him suddenly spoke. Kyuhyun had almost forgotten Siwon’s presence. “So why does Donghae do a lot of overtime lately? Did he tell you why?”
The student swallowed down a cucumber. “Only that there is a project’s deadline.”
“Huh.”
Kyuhyun narrowed his eyes. After knowing Siwon for over eight years, he knew the other man’s habit quite well. His previous ‘huh’ was not just a ‘huh.’ It was his I-might-know-something-that-you-don’t-huh and Kyuhyun didn’t like that. “What?” he snapped.
“Nothing,” Siwon replied rather too cheerfully.
“Just tell me, damn it, I’m not a kid.”
“Well you are if you’re still demanding to know without legitimate reason.”
Kyuhyun bit down on a tomato with more force than necessary. He could hear Siwon’s smirk from across the table. But Kyuhyun was nothing if not stubborn, and so he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to give Siwon an excuse to call him a brat again. Besides, he should give his food a proper concentration it deserved.
After declining the desserts (Siwon, not Kyuhyun, because Kyuhyun would love to take a bite on that delicious looking Key-lime pie), they ordered a club sandwich for Donghae. It was already late and Donghae should be home soon if he hadn’t already.
The walk back to the apartment was much quieter. Not a lot of pedestrians, but there were still some cars and buses drove off. Kyuhyun pulled on his jacket tighter, wishing that he didn’t have to do his assignment but the paper was due three days from now and the sooner he had it done, the more time he could spend playing that new online game.
Unlike what people might think, although he was on full scholarship he was not a geek who buried his nose in a book all the time. He was a different kind of geek. He was a cool geek. Kyuhyun loved gaming especially the online versions one. All he needed was being dedicated with the time and stabilized internet connections.
Suddenly a tire’s screech was heard and then a loud continuous honk. Kyuhyun barely had the time to turn around when he saw a car approaching full speed towards him. His legs felt numb. All he could see was flashes of his early childhood, Donghae’s strong opposition towards their relatives and good grief Kyuhyun hadn’t even beaten his own record at Solitaire online.
Someone yanked him away from the road. “Are you an idiot?!” Siwon’s voice boomed at his ear. “Why didn’t you move away, you could’ve gotten killed!”
Kyuhyun didn’t know how to answer that. His mind was still too jumbled to form a coherent answer. His heart was still beating too fast because hey, he narrowly escaped death here. Somehow, at the back of his mind, a little part of his brain piped up: Siwon smelt like a cinnamon and expensive cologne.
*
Surprising news always came at the most unexpected moment.
One of his teachers in Junior High once told him that and only now that Kyuhyun actually experienced it firsthand. Donghae was pacing back and forth in their small apartment and Kyuhyun soon got bored watching his brother does that.
“Hyung,” he said tiredly, “can you sit down please?”
Donghae watched him for a moment before sitting obediently on the bed. Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow when his brother took a deep breath. And then another. Something was obviously off, something was bothering his older brother and Kyuhyun wanted to know what it was. Donghae was nervous and a nervous Donghae was not a good sign of anything.
“Can I make you some tea? We still have that chamomile kind that you like.”
“No, thanks I’m fine.”
Kyuhyun nodded. “O-kay. Now tell me, what the hell is going on? You’re acting totally weird.”
Donghae looked at him again, reminding Kyuhyun about a sick puppy from the university that everybody just loved and suddenly he was hugged. “No I can’t, I can’t leave you! I promise I’ll take care of you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do I can’t leave you!” his brother slobbered all over Kyuhyun’s shoulder.
It took the student two full minutes to process everything and connect the dots. And when he finally did, Kyuhyun felt a cold fear gripped him. “Hae,” he whispered fearfully, “are you going to go somewhere?”
A nod was his answer.
Kyuhyun gulped. “Where?”
Donghae pulled back and held him on arms length. “The company offered me a position in Taiwan. They wanted to open a new branch there and the guy that supposed to go there suddenly can’t make it so they have this vacant position and they offered me that.”
Taiwan. Taiwan was so far away. There would be an ocean between him and his brother. Kyuhyun stared dumbfounded. The irrational part of him urged the student to tell Donghae to refuse the offer because he couldn’t live with Donghae. But the rational part of his brain knew that this might be once in a lifetime chance. Donghae had worked so hard in this company and refusing an offer like this wouldn’t look good in his career. All those overtime works might just end up with nothing.
Unconsciously he held his brother tighter. He couldn’t lose Donghae, not like this. He licked his lips nervously. “Well, what do you think about it?”
Donghae looked torn. “This is a great opportunity. If I work there I will be counted as an expatriate and my take home pay would at least doubled, if not tripled. We can leave this small place and move somewhere bigger. I can finally take you on vacation. But if I accept the offer then I’d need to stay there for at least three years.”
Three years sounded awful. Three years were too long, they both knew that, especially since they never spend a day without seeing each other unless Donghae was on one of those rare company business trips. If he wanted to hear his brother’s voice, Kyuhyun had to call him and the phone bill would be unimaginably expensive.
But again, this was an opportunity too great to be refused. And for once Kyuhyun wanted Donghae to do something for himself. He had been taking care of Kyuhyun for so long. It was time for Donghae to be selfish and Kyuhyun wouldn’t accept otherwise.
“You should take the job,” he replied.
Donghae opened his mouth to protest but Kyuhyun beat him to it. “No, don’t worry about me. I’m nineteen years old Hyung, I can take care of myself.”
“But-“
“No buts.”
“But-“
“Hyung,” Kyuhyun looked at his brother more seriously, “Really, you should take the job. This offer is good you’ve said yourself. You’ll regret it if you reject this offer and I don’t want to see you disappointed.” He bit his lip thinking for a moment, “If you’re worried about where I’m going to stay, well. I guess I can stay with Siwon, I know you trust him.”
*
Siwon’s place was a five bedroom penthouse monstrosity.
Located at prestigious downtown area, just one room studio was probably three times as expensive as Kyuhyun’s college tuition, so a five bedroom penthouse monstrosity was something Kyuhyun never expected to ever live in with.
He always knew Siwon was a rich bastard, but he never expected him to be this rich. He was a second son to an international shipping company, the Choi group, Kyuhyun remembered Donghae had mentioned about this once. Being a second son allowed him to be rich without a lot responsibility with the company and apparently Siwon took this advantage to the max.
As far as Kyuhyun understood, the guy graduated with honors from top university. And being a son of an influential family, it was only logical for Siwon to take part in business world but he didn’t take any roles in it at all. In fact he was a full time author, publishing what, Kyuhyun didn’t know.
Actually living with Siwon might not be a bad thing. After all, the guy was his brother’s best friend (and Kyuhyun suspected, the guy liked his brother a lot more than he should have) so no harm would go to Kyuhyun. But what bothered the student the most was just how… neat this place was.
The penthouse was decorated with minimalism but it screamed expensive to every corner. Everything was black and white, with more black than white, and not a single book was out of place it nearly freaked Kyuhyun out.
He was going to live in a museum for the next three years.
Hyung, that Taiwan job better be worth it. Cursing under his breath, Kyuhyun finished unpacking his meager belongings and went outside his new bedroom. However, he immediately stopped short seeing Siwon. The owner of the house was sitting in the middle of living room, holding what looked like a giant stuffed panda bear in his lap.
“So, this is Tao.”
Kyuhyun blinked.
“….hi, Tao,” he croaked out finally.
*
Two weeks after living with the man, Kyuhyun couldn’t take it anymore. The guy was downright weird, if not a complete whacko.
For once, who in the right mind would wake up at five every morning to watch a rewind tape of last night’s nine PM news? And after watching the news, Siwon would go back to sleep until nine AM. Usually Kyuhyun would be in class by this time but he didn’t have class on weekends and apparently Siwon didn’t bother to change this habit on weekends. He would then make five cups of coffee and some breakfast, got a shower, cleaned up the apartment and then go back to sleep in his room until lunchtime.
He then would emerged from his hideously neat bedroom, made or ordered something for lunch, re-cleaned the apartment, watch a weird reality TV show or geeky nature documentaries until six PM. He would then eat leftover lunches as dinner and then he would start exercising, usually using a treadmill or lifecycle at the corner. After another shower, he would cleaned the apartment again, sit and read books or magazines or whatever he had on those neat bookshelves. By 8.30 PM, he would switch on the TV and inserted the tape to record the nine PM news.
And then there’s Tao, let’s not forget about Tao.
Tao was a giant stuffed panda bear (and by giant, Kyuhyun meant giant) who apparently was a replacement because Siwon couldn’t get the Chinese to give him one of the real panda bears. Panda bears were considered very rare, even endangered in China mainland. The United States of America had to go to extreme lengths diplomatically to get two panda bears for their Washington zoo so it was only logical that they refused to give Siwon a real living, breathing panda bear.
And so, deprived from the real thing, Siwon treated Tao as if he was living. The guy would get fresh bamboo delivered to the apartment every three days or so and set them in front of Tao.
If Kyuhyun suspected that Siwon was a whacko before, he was convinced after seeing that.
But the obscure routine, obscene amount of expensiveness, and even the creepy bamboo trees were nothing compared the neat habits Siwon possessed. The guy had the worst OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) syndrome Kyuhyun had ever known. Not a single crease on his clothes, every book must be catalogued and categorized based on colors; not authors or genres, but colors.
On top of the neat habits, the freak was also a clean freak. As if cleaning this apartment three times every freaking day was not enough, Siwon considered it necessary to have full cleansing every week -usually this was done on Sunday.
So imagine a person like Kyuhyun, who didn’t bother to throw away takeout boxes (it’s not like Kyuhyun didn’t want to clean up, he just couldn’t, remember?) was forced to live with a neat freak like Siwon. They argued on the first day about, well, about everything and every topic actually. From the bed sheets, Kyuhyun’s books and backpacks, Tao’s bamboo trees until even what they would eat for dinner later.
After silent agreement from both parties to call it a truce only to reargue everything the next day, finally after two weeks Kyuhyun couldn’t take it anymore. He offered a proposal to Siwon who just placed a new box of bamboo trees in front of Tao.
He stood with his arms crossed in front of a sitting Siwon. “Okay, let’s deal with this. I can’t do household chores no matter how simple. I’d just end up making even more mess rather than cleaning them up. And I can’t afford not to live with you because obvious reasons: Hyung called almost every day to your phone line, and I don’t have any money.”
“So what are you suggesting, brat?”
“Is there anything I can do? Except cleaning and cooking and those kinds of things. I mean I feel bad if with me being here just means that it’s bothering you. Is there anything you need that I can do? Buying groceries or take out the trashes or something? Anything?”
Siwon gave him a one look over and seemed to think about what Kyuhyun said. Finally the man spoke, “Actually,” he stroked his non-existent beard, “I need a muse.”
Kyuhyun tilted his head to the side. “A what?”
-End of Chapter One-
Part Two
Teaser