“What is it like to be in love?”

“Free. It feels free, like there’s nothing that can stop me, nothing can hold me down.
It feels as if I can do anything because of love and I’m free of the fear of failure because,
even if I can’t do everything, at least at the end of the day,
there’s still me and him. When all else fails, love won’t.”

Reign on Me series

Saturday, June 14, 2008

[032] Roses for Donghee

theme: o32. Roses.
pair: Shindong/Shindong
rate: G
words: 1423
#: 17/100


It was a Friday evening when Kangin came home from his radio show to find their dorm filled with all of the Super Junior members. As he closed the door behind him and slipped off his shoes, all attention was on him. He looked up,

“What is it?” He asked,

“Why are you holding a rose?” Eeteuk asked from his seat on the couch,

Kangin looked down, “Oh, yeah, I found this taped to our door,” he looked amongst the many people in the living room, “Ah, Shindong, it was addressed to you.”

Eyes widened and jaws dropped as Kangin handed it over, revealing the little tag attached to the stem. Shindong twirled it a bit in his hand as he looked down at the tag, his name written in neat script. While everyone anticipated something from him, he stood up, dropped the rose into a trash bin and retreated to his bedroom. Once the door closed behind him, a heavy silence fell on the other twelve.

“Did it say who it was from?” Eeteuk inquired,

“No, just said his name,” Kangin answered as he sat on the couch’s armrest,

“I’d never have taken Shindong for the cut-throat type,” Kibum commented from the computer where he and Kyuhyun played a game together, “just throwing it away without a second thought.”

“Whoever left that rose is either very in love or very crazy,” Kangin said lightly as he rose from his seat and walked over to the adjoining kitchen for a drink. When he came back to the living room with a glass of water he was startled to find the others all looking at him expectantly, “Eh?”

“Why do you say that?” Sungmin prompted from the ground, a pillow in his arms,

“Why the person is either in love or crazy? Well… for one thing it was left ON OUR DOOR,” Kangin stated taking a gulp of his drink, “Second, it didn’t say ‘to Shindong’,”

“But you just said it was addressed to him,” Shiwon countered,

Kangin nodded as he downed the rest of his water, “Yes, but it didn’t say ‘Shindong’. It said ‘Donghee’.”

“It said his real name?” Yesung blinked, “But even fans call him Shindong.”

“So you’re thinking this person’s more crazy than in love?” Kangin prompted, “Well, obviously Shindong thinks so too if he just threw out the rose.”

The members looked at each other in silent curiosity. Who had given Shindong the rose? And why did he just throw it away like yesterday’s trash?

The next evening Super Junior had a performance on M-net. Once they were finished and the crowd cheered and applauded, they tiredly made their way back to their dressing room. Upon arrival, they were greeted with another surprise.

On Shindong’s makeup table was a small bouquet of a dozen roses and once again a small card was left with it. Shindong held the small card in his hand, twirling it between his fingers as he looked at the flowers silently as if giving each rose silent praise. The others stood from their own vanities watching Shindong, each wanting to ask, but not quite daring to. Finally, he picked up the bouquet, dropped it into a trash bin with the card then walked off to change out of his costume. The moment he was out of earshot, the remaining twelve burst into chatter,

“More roses!” Ryeowook stated as he walked over to the bin to see them up close,

“And a bouquet to boot!” Heechul muttered as he spied the trashed flowers from his table. “I wish I got a bouquet of flowers once in awhile.”

“And he threw it out again,” Kibum smirked while shaking his head as he turned to his reflection, “Shindong hyung, I thought I knew you.”

“Once again it says Donghee,” Kangin commented as he sat before his table, he saw the others look at him in the mirror, “Right before we performed I realized I lost my earring and ran back here to find it. The roses were already there and I saw the card,” he answered simply before checking to see that his cartilage earring was still in place.

“Does this mean his admirer knew he’d be here and sent the roses here?” Hankyung asked,

“No, it means more than that,” Kyuhyun stated from beside the trash bin. Delicately he picked up the bouquet, “This place is very tight with its security - not even food deliveries are allowed in, let alone deliveries from flower shops… No, if these were sent put here then they were put here by the admirer themselves.”

Ryeowook took an obvious step away from the flowers, “Creepy,” he shuddered.

A few days later a few of the members were heading back to the dorm when, low and behold, two bouquets of roses were left on their doorstep. Shindong was last to get off the elevator and surprised to see the four other members he came home with standing still in front of the door.

“Did all of you forget your keys?” Shindong questioned as he pushed through and then found the object of their curiosities. He bent down and picked up the cards from both bouquets, “Donghee…” With that, he opened the front door and walked away.

The others looked at each other in confusion before following him in, hesitantly leaving the blooms where they were. The dorm was under a tense silence for the rest of the afternoon until Kangin came home. He pointed to the door with his thumb as he entered the living room,

“Um… roses-”

“We know,” Eeteuk interrupted as he glanced at Shindong.

“Is it for you again?” Kangin asked as he dropped his bag by the couch and took a spot on the floor.

Shindong nodded from his seat on the couch, “Just leave it. One of the neighbours will take them.”

“Is it… is it okay to leave them there?” Sungmin asked from beside Shindong.

Shindong nodded once more, “Yes, I know who they’re from.”

At his words, a silence fell upon them once more. After eleven minutes, the eldest finally spoke up, “Alright, we need - I NEED to know. Who are they from and why do you keep getting roses but throwing them out!?” Eeteuk demanded, jumping from his seat,

“Do you really want to know?” Shindong asked casually, raising a single eyebrow in question.

Eeteuk nodded fiercely, “I’ll die if I don’t know.”

Shindong glanced at Kangin. Curiously, the others followed suit until five pairs of eyes were on him. Kangin sighed heavily as he reached into his jeans pocket, pulled out a 10 000 won bill and handed it over to Shindong,

“You win.” He muttered grudgingly.

Four jaws dropped at that moment as the others burst into talk,

“This was some sort of bet?” Eunhyuk asked,

“What was the bet?” Yesung added,

“You both tricked us!?” Kyuhyun gasped.

Kangin looked at Shindong, “Since I had to pay up, you explain.”

“Kangin hyung and I were betting to see who was the most noisy in Super Junior,” Shindong said, “So I sent flowers to myself to arouse some suspicion. I bet on Eeteuk hyung.”

Eeteuk could do nothing but nod with the statement.

“So I bet against that,” Kangin explained, nodding at Eeteuk loyally before continuing, “And you’d think I would have won… There’s ten other people that could’ve asked Shindong first, but Eeteuk-sshi asked first, so I lost.”

“I feel so used,” Eunhyuk murmured,

“I feel left out,” Yesung nodded,

“I am completely hurt,” Kyuhyun shook his head.

“C’mon, I’ll treat you three to dinner,” Eeteuk said, throwing the pillow he was holding at Kangin, “I’ll protect you from these mean hyungs.”

“They’re not even my hyungs,” Yesung sighed as he stood up, heading towards the door.

“What about us!?” Kangin and Shindong questioned in unison.

“You two,” Eeteuk said, stopping before them, “Pay for part of the bill,” he swiped the bill from Shindong before herding the others out.

As the door closed behind them, Kangin plopped down next to Shindong on the couch,

“Can you believe that?” Shindong asked, “Taking them out AND taking the money?” He sighed, reaching into his pocket for two bills.

Kangin held out his hand as Shindong slapped them into his palm, “Yup,” Kangin replied, “I told you he’d react like that.”

Shindong sighed as they turned their attention to the television, “I didn’t even get to keep any of my flowers.”

Kangin handed back over one of the bills, “Buy yourself something nice.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ROLF!!! pure genius! love it that kangin and shindong don't quit!!!

Anonymous said...

“Whoever left that rose is either very in love or very crazy,” rofl <3

Eeteuk nodded fiercely, “I’ll die if I don’t know.” that's how I felt.

That was so funny. Really ingenious way to use the prompt, too.