For every mile of ocean crossed ☆ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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thingwithfeathers2011-10-24 11:21 pm
outstretched) wrote in thingwithfeathers2011-10-24 11:21 pm
Entry tags:
Going Your Way (QMi, one-shot)
Title: Going Your Way
Rating: G
Word Count: 4,565
Genre: Romance, Character Study
Fandom: Super Junior
Pairings: Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Warnings: WAFF, Kyuhyun's irl family as characters
Summary: NYC roommate busking AU. After college, Kyuhyun does what most people do: he finds an apartment out of his price range and looks for a roommate.
Author's Note: For![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
misura, who won my offer on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
qldfloodauction ages ago. Thank you for being so patient, and I'm sorry if this isn't quite what you wanted. I tried to get this out yesterday, WHEN QMI WERE ACTUALLY IN MY CITY OH GOD, but then I went and saw them instead(!!). So it's up today. Thanks to fonulyn and chiharu for giving me much-needed feedback. Notes/explanations at the end of the fic, and there's a whole meta page over here.
Cross-posts: DW and AO3.
Kyuhyun graduates from college with a bachelor's in Computer Science and, like most people, finds himself adrift.
His stellar GPA and lone internship don't count for much; the fact of the matter is that for someone with his major, he's on the wrong side of the country. Still, he likes it here, and he can't imagine leaving his family behind. He'll make it work, he thinks. Somehow.
So he does what most people of his age and social station do. He finds a temporary job in data entry, spends every week saving up money for a nebulous future without any real plans. He hunts for jobs when he's not too exhausted to do anything but flop into bed. He lives at home until he's driven from the nest by a mother who doesn't know how to navigate the waters of adult, but not quite.
He finds an apartment out of his price range in a five-story walkup in Astoria and looks for a roommate.
--
Kyuhyun sees his new roommate organizing a row of skin product bottles on the bathroom counter and is hit with a flash of homesickness. Zhou Mi turns to him, looking friendly and questioning.
"My sister uses that brand," he says, pointing, feeling awkward. Zhou Mi's eyes brighten.
"She has good taste," Zhou Mi replies and rests a hand on his chest as if he's praising himself.
When Kyuhyun tells his sister, she laughs.
--
After two months, Kyuhyun picks up an evening job reading audio books for the blind and stumbles home at one in the morning with pounding temples and the smell of the subway on his hands. One night, he comes home to find Zhou Mi sitting at their small table with a cup of peppermint tea, reading something on his iPad.
"What," Kyuhyun says, leaning against the kitchen wall for support.
"You wake me up when you run into things every night," Zhou Mi says. "It sounded like you could use some help."
Kyuhyun decides to take the path of least resistance. He half-falls into the open chair as Zhou Mi slides the mug towards him. Kyuhyun drinks it slowly, listening to the faint scratching sounds that leak through Zhou Mi's earbuds. His feet keep time as his mouth silently forms the words.
Zhou Mi reaches across the table and taps Kyuhyun's forehead with a finger before his eyes can close. "Your bed's over there," he says, smiling. Kyuhyun blinks stupidly at him and Zhou Mi helps him up with a roll of his eyes, tucks him into bed with a kindness that seems misplaced. They've been roommates for a few months, but their schedules don't overlap and they've barely talked.
"Good morning," Zhou Mi murmurs, before turning the lamp off and tiptoeing out of the room.
--
Zhou Mi gets free tickets to Carnegie Hall once every few months. He asks Kyuhyun once if he'd like to go. Kyuhyun murmurs something noncommittal, and Zhou Mi doesn't mention it again.
When Kyuhyun asks about it again sometime in the middle of September, a smile breaks across Zhou Mi's face.
They take one of Kyuhyun's rare days off and go to a recital, listen to Ravel and Debussy. They end up walking across Central Park at 11PM to get to a restaurant Kyuhyun knows across town, braving crazy hobos and serial killers in the name of expired unlimited metrocards and saved cab fare. Their loud voices dispel the autumn chill and the lurking quiet. "I loved that one piece," Zhou Mi says, "the one where—" his voice soars off into the darkness and the waving trees somewhere above Kyuhyun's head, and Kyuhyun loses a few minutes.
When he opens his eyes again, Zhou Mi is smirking at him. Kyuhyun cuffs him on the shoulder. "Showoff."
Zhou Mi just preens.
Kyuhyun downloads the song, later, but it's not the same in three-part instrumental. He settles for storing the memory of Zhou Mi's voice in the back of his mind, where it can't be lost.
--
On a whim, Kyuhyun decides to take a different route home from work and hears a familiar voice echoing in the distance.
He turns without thinking, strides down the endless hallway that connects the Shuttle, 1, 9 to the A, B, C, D and finds Zhou Mi at the halfway point. He's got a little setup, a scuffed speaker attached to an iPod and a worn-out microphone, and he's leaning into the music, eyes closed. There's money in front of him, although it doesn't look like much.
Kyuhyun steps out of the flow of hurrying traffic, leans against the opposite wall, and watches him for a while, counting the number of people who drop money into his cup. (Four.)
The song ends; there's no applause, just a silence that's broken by ripples of pattering feet and murmuring voices. Zhou Mi opens his eyes and looks surprised to see Kyuhyun across a river of travelers. Kyuhyun lifts a hand and smiles when he sees Zhou Mi's familiar grin.
He wades across the hallway to drop a dollar into the bucket. "Nice voice."
"That's all I get?"
"It's all going towards the rent, anyway."
Zhou Mi laughs.
"Let me try," Kyuhyun says.
"Try what?"
He reaches for the microphone.
"You can sing?"
Kyuhyun frowns at him. "Just listen."
Zhou Mi shrugs and hands him the mic, bending down to pick up the battered set list and hand it to him. "Anything in particular you—"
Kyuhyun pushes the paper away. "I don't need it."
That earns him a raised eyebrow, but Zhou Mi steps back, away from his equipment. He folds his arms and tilts his head towards the passerby; after you, the gesture says.
Kyuhyun takes a deep breath.
He opens his eyes to see two more dollars in the cup and Zhou Mi with an expression somewhere between considering and pleased.
"You're flat," he says, "but we can fix that."
--
In return for the occasional trips to Carnegie Hall, Kyuhyun invites Zhou Mi to the Met and discovers that he knows the place better than Kyuhyun does.
"When I first moved, I came here a few times a week," Zhou Mi explains as they walk through Egyptian Art. "Since it's practically free, I mean, and it was warm. Eventually, the guards let me in without asking."
Kyuhyun laughs, but it fades quickly. "How long did that last?"
"Hmm?" Zhou Mi pauses to glance at the floor plan. "This way. Um, a few months. Then I figured out busking, so."
"Was it hard to get started?"
"Sort of?" Zhou Mi leads them up a staircase. "You have to put the money up front for the license and carve out a place and time to perform. I wasn't shy, but it's weird to perform when no one's listening. I got used to it, though." He gives a self-deprecating laugh, and Kyuhyun shoots him a glance.
"Lots of people listen to you now." Zhou Mi doesn't say anything. "I listen to you," he tries. "Even when you try to sing too high and you sound terrible."
Zhou Mi snorts. "I listened to you when you couldn't hold a note on pitch," he says. "You still can't."
"Yeah, well, that's why I'm a programmer," he says. Zhou Mi looks at him, trying to gauge his mood.
"Sorry."
"No, I mean." Kyuhyun fidgets. "I shouldn't have asked."
"We've been roommates for a while," Zhou Mi says gently. "Don't you think it's strange that we don't really know anything about each other?"
"I know a lot about you," Kyuhyun says. "I know that you like Louis Vuitton and Doraemon and Mario."
"I know that you like to sing," Zhou Mi says. "And that you get home after working two jobs and still find time to play StarCraft."
"I know you like peppermint tea."
"You know lots of programming languages."
"You want a dog but we're not allowed."
"You've never been to Staten Island or the Bronx."
"You want to be famous," Kyuhyun says quietly.
They're in the Asian wing now, where almost no one ever goes, and they stare at each other, silent. Kyuhyun is the first to look away.
"We're almost there," Zhou Mi says, resting a conciliatory hand on his upper arm. Kyuhyun sighs and lets himself be pulled along, gently.
He leads Kyuhyun into a room that seems separate from the rest of the museum. It's a Ming dynasty-style cobblestone courtyard with plants and rock formations, surrounded by a wooden porch. Kyuhyun had no idea this room was here and looks up at the skylight, amazed.
Zhou Mi hangs back and watches him as he explores. "I used to come here and fill out job applications."
"What were you applying for?"
"Anything I could find," he says. "I tried to get an agent, but it was too expensive. I took some jobs as an extra on TV shows and spent a lot of time in holding, studying and listening to music. A few waiter jobs."
Kyuhyun laughs at that; Zhou Mi is currently working at two restaurants.
"How long were you here before you met me?"
"Three years," Zhou Mi says. "But I was doing okay for myself by the end of the second year. After the lease ran out, I stuck around because I liked my roommate, but he moved in with his girlfriend and the apartment was too small, anyway."
Zhou Mi sits down on the steps to the flagstone courtyard. After a brief hesitation, Kyuhyun sits beside him. There aren't any guards in sight to scold them, so it seems safe enough.
"Were you lonely?" Kyuhyun asks.
"No," Zhou Mi says. "It's hard to be lonely in a city full of people."
They sit in companionable silence for a while before Kyuhyun chuckles.
"One day, I'm going to tell people 'I knew Zhou Mi before he was famous,'" he says, "and 'Did you know that he used to hang out in the Met?'"
"Kyuhyun," Zhou Mi says, frowning, "Don't make fun of me."
"I'm not." Kyuhyun's only lying a little. "Is it a secret, that you used to come here?"
"I guess not," Zhou Mi says, not looking at him.
Kyuhyun watches him for a minute. "You're different," he says. "I think that's why I like you."
"You like me because I feed you," Zhou Mi retorts.
It's raining when they leave the museum. Kyuhyun pulls up short underneath the awning, ignoring the people who mutter behind him, and glares at the faint screen of raindrops falling between him and the green-coppered roofs across the street.
He jumps at the sound of an umbrella snapping open next to his ear. Zhou Mi grins and tips the umbrella towards him. "You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella," he sings.
Kyuhyun rolls his eyes. "That's too small for two people."
"No, it's not." Zhou Mi takes a step closer. The umbrella barely covers both of them. "See?"
Kyuhyun's shoulder is wet by the time they reach the subway station.
--
Kyuhyun's commute adjusts over time as he comes to know Zhou Mi's performance schedule. Two days a week, he gets off a stop early to bring Zhou Mi dinner and fiddles with his iPod while he eats. Sometimes he sings, sometimes he doesn't. A few hours later, they ride the R line home.
Zhou Mi is tucked into the corner between Kyuhyun and the wall, his arms wrapped around a shopping bag and deeply asleep. His head rests on Kyuhyun's shoulder. Kyuhyun stares out the window, watching faded awnings and curtained windows pass beneath them. He imagines, as he has since he was young, all the lives passing behind those closed windows, all the possibilities.
How would his life be if he'd chosen to live in the neighborhood they're passing, instead of Astoria? Another borough? Another roommate?
Kyuhyun's hand is resting on Zhou Mi's knee like it belongs there. It should bother him, but it doesn't.
"Zhou Mi," he whispers, nudging him awake. "We're here."
--
"How's the job search going?" Ahra says.
"Oh," Kyuhyun says and shovels another bite of salad into his mouth.
Ahra sighs. "You can't do data entry forever. Why haven't they turned off your heating yet?"
"Singing" pops out of his mouth before he realizes what he's going to say. The fork stops halfway to his mouth, and there's an awkward beat.
"What?" his sister says. Kyuhyun sighs, sets the fork down and tries to explain in a way that doesn't make him sound like he's lost his mind.
"You're busking," she says, "with your roommate."
"Only sometimes," he rushes to add. "Mostly Thursdays."
"You are busking with your roommate."
"I know," Kyuhyun says. "I'll. I'll look for a job."
"I want to meet him," she growls.
--
Instead of meeting the two of them for lunch, as they'd planned, she walks past them at the 51st street station. She double-takes at the same time Kyuhyun does, stumbling over her suitcase as Kyuhyun's voice goes sharp with surprise and Zhou Mi stammers to a confused stop.
Ahra catches herself quickly, then walks over to the two of them and introduces herself, offering her hand as if nothing unusual has happened. "Nice to meet you," Zhou Mi says as she looks him over. Kyuhyun ducks down to turn the speaker off before it can shriek with feedback.
"You two sound good," Ahra says. "Really good."
"It's the acoustics," Zhou Mi says. "Anyone would sound good in here."
"He makes more money in a day than my whole paycheck at the pet shop in high school," Kyuhyun interrupts.
Ahra blinks. She looks back and forth between the two of them: Zhou Mi nervous and smiling, Kyuhyun with his arms folded, peeking out from around Zhou Mi's shoulder. "Come on," she says, shaking her head. "Let's go grab some coffee. My treat."
"I think she liked me," Zhou Mi says when they get home.
"She liked you," Kyuhyun agrees.
--
Kyuhyun steals Zhou Mi's phone and sets his ring tone to Reflection. The next day, he calls him in the middle of his shift.
"What did you do to my phone," Zhou Mi hisses when he picks up, five rings later.
Kyuhyun laughs at him and hangs up.
When he gets home, Zhou Mi tells him that his coworkers probably won't let him live it down for months.
"Stop complaining," Kyuhyun says. "I even picked Mulan—she's your favorite Disney princess."
"She is not! Minnie is my favorite. Mulan is your favorite," Zhou Mi sniffs. "Ahra told me."
"...Shut up. And Minnie isn't a princess."
"She's a queen," Zhou Mi snaps. "That's the only reason I like Kingdom Hearts."
"And stop playing my games," Kyuhyun says.
The next time Kyuhyun visits the pub, Sungmin and Shindong sing "Who is that girl I see" and Zhou Mi buries his face in Kyuhyun's shoulder. Kyuhyun accepts Kangin's discreet low-five as they pass.
--
Zhou Mi convinces his pub to let him sing, no payment, just to try him out. Kyuhyun comes, of course.
"Moral support?" Zhou Mi asks.
Kyuhyun shrugs. "Leeteuk gives me half-price beer when Kangin isn't looking." He waits until Zhou Mi begins to pout, then adds, "And maybe I just like to hear you sing."
The crowd doesn't seem to listen at first, but Zhou Mi's used to that from the subways. By the end of his set, Kyuhyun sees a few upturned faces. Kyuhyun brings him glasses of water and chats with him on his breaks, his fingers drumming against the new speaker Zhou Mi bought two weeks ago.
Over samosas the next evening, Zhou Mi tells him the experience was slightly strange—a foreign, well-maintained microphone, his voice competing with clinking glasses instead of shrieking air brakes—but exhilarating.
Leeteuk invites Zhou Mi back the next week, and the next.
--
Zhou Mi helps Kyuhyun dress for an interview for a job that's actually in his field and acts completely unsurprised when he gets it. Kyuhyun stops reading audio books and takes fewer days at his data entry job, which is too lucrative to give up until he's no longer on probation.
Someone notices Zhou Mi in Union Square and offers him a singing gig at a restaurant. Other offers trickle in, and after a few months, he gives up busking entirely. He spends most of his time now expanding his repertoire, working in some original compositions, and teaching himself how to play the piano on the old keyboard Kyuhyun brought from his mother's house. Kyuhyun comes home at night and collapses on the couch, listening as Zhou Mi teases notes free from the monochrome keys.
"Am I bothering you?" Zhou Mi asks.
Kyuhyun tries to wave a dismissive hand but it ends up flopping off the end of the couch. "Sing 'American Pie,'" he says.
"I don't know—"
Kyuhyun begins to sing, and Zhou Mi listens. He joins in for each chorus, but quiets for the verses.
"You're really very good," Zhou Mi says once the song is over.
Kyuhyun closes his eyes and smiles, thin-lipped, at the ceiling. "I know."
--
"No, you're right," he hears Zhou Mi say from the kitchen, "you can't let him talk about her that way." Kyuhyun pops his head in, and Zhou Mi turns with a smile.
"Oh, you're back," he says. "No, it's Kyuhyun. Ahra says hello."
Kyuhyun nods and retreats to his room. When Zhou Mi comes in later and sits on his bed, Kyuhyun says, "Do you two talk a lot?"
"Sometimes," he says. "She's having some trouble with one of her friends, so she's been calling for advice."
Something in Kyuhyun's stomach settles, but he doesn't think about it.
--
Zhou Mi stretches out on Kyuhyun's bed, resting his head on the bit of Kyuhyun's thigh that isn't already taken up by his laptop. He reaches up to pluck an earbud from Kyuhyun's ear and fit it inside his own.
Kyuhyun listens to a lot of techno music when he writes code. This particular song is one that Pandora plays a lot, so it's familiar to both of them and easy to tune out. He continues to type, not even bothering to say hello, and feels Zhou Mi relaxing against him as the music plays on. His feet dangle off the bed, and Zhou Mi's fingers tap against his stomach.
Zhou Mi begins to sing, and Kyuhyun's typing stops. He glances at him, but Zhou Mi's eyes are closed as he continues, oblivious.
His eyes fly open when Kyuhyun rests light fingertips against his throat. He looks up, but Kyuhyun's face only shows a mild curiosity. He makes a small gesture, as if to say keep going.
Zhou Mi hesitates, then begins again. His larynx sends tiny tremors through Kyuhyun's fingers and up his arm, adding a new texture and organic depth to a voice already filled with emotion. "You're half a world away," he sings, voice quieting under Kyuhyun's steady gaze. "But in my mind, I whisper every single word you say."
Then he stops, and his eyes flicker away. After a moment, Kyuhyun lifts his hand, and Zhou Mi rolls to his feet, casts a last glance at Kyuhyun, and walks out. Synthesizers blast in Kyuhyun's right ear, but he's not listening. Instead, he watches Zhou Mi's hunched shoulders disappear down the hall.
--
"When am I going to meet your boyfriend?" Kyuhyun's mother asks gently. Kyuhyun blinks in confusion.
"Zhou Mi," she presses in the silence, and there's a sudden click in his mind usually reserved for hard-won answers to difficult questions.
"I'm not gay," he blurts and hangs up before his mother can say anything. He stares wide-eyed at the phone in his hands, but he can't stop everything from lining up.
He's not sure how things like this are supposed to go, but he's pretty sure his mother isn't supposed to be involved in the process.
--
"I think I'm in love with you," Kyuhyun says the next morning, and Zhou Mi nearly spits out a mouthful of tea.
Kyuhyun moves to get up when he starts coughing, but Zhou Mi waves him back. He swallows hard and blinks back tears. "Sorry," he pants. "What?"
"I think—" Kyuhyun doesn't have the courage to say it again, "but—but it's weird, because I don't like guys. I mean. Besides you, I mean. You're just—you—" He gives up, looking miserable.
When he's sure Kyuhyun's done, he reaches for his mug and takes a bracing gulp.
"Um," Zhou Mi says. "Have you ever heard of the Kinsey scale?"
--
When Google doesn't have all the answers for him like it usually does, he decides to take the long train ride out to Coney Island and relive some childhood nostalgia, maybe regain some of the simplicity that has vanished from his life in the past 48 hours.
He warily eyes the Nathan's hot dog stand and the sad, overpriced rides, watching mothers lead children who, he's sure, look more depressed than he does.
It's early evening when he realizes that he's lost his wallet.
He searches for half an hour, but as expected, the wallet is nowhere to be found; whoever has it now must be long gone. He berates himself for being so distracted, glares at a juvenile seagull chewing on a stolen hot dog bun, and then sighs.
In the end, two things are clear: he has to get home, and he only knows one sure way to get money fast. He steps back onto the boardwalk, lays his coat down before him on the weatherbeaten planks, and begins to sing, hoping that, despite the shaking cold, he can still stay on-key.
After three songs, no one has paid him any attention. He eventually goes through every song he knows, then every song in Zhou Mi's repertoire. He finds himself mimicking Zhou Mi's phrasing and being reminded of how his voice soars every time he has to knock a song down an octave.
The last three years of his life with Zhou Mi have been full of good memories and no real bad ones, which is more than he can say for anyone else, ever. Zhou Mi has become someone he depends on, someone he actually trusts, someone he can't imagine living without. Suddenly, loving him seems less insane and more like an inevitability. The song ends and he sees change strewn across his jacket, with a few stragglers gathered around him.
"You got a CD?" someone asks.
"No," he says, "I'm a programmer." He swallows. "But if you like my voice, you should hear my roommate."
--
The keyboard falls quiet when Kyuhyun gets home, and Zhou Mi races to the door to greet him. His hands flutter uncertainly as Kyuhyun bends over to take off his shoes.
"Are you okay?" Zhou Mi asks. "I didn't know where you—you left your phone here. Your job called, your...your mom called."
"I went to Coney Island," Kyuhyun says. "My mom used to bring me there when I was a kid."
"Oh." Zhou Mi's hands fall to his sides. A smile flashes across his face, because that's his default reaction to anything Kyuhyun says, and years of habit are hard to break. "Um. Okay. That's...good then." He begins to turn away. "I'll just—"
Kyuhyun catches him and pulls him back. "Do you like me?" he asks.
Zhou Mi tries to smile again, but it falters. "What? Of course I—"
"Do you like me," Kyuhyun repeats, slowly.
Zhou Mi's expression clouds. Then, his gaze drops to fixate on Kyuhyun's toppled shoes. "I don't know what you're talking about," he says, hollow.
"How long?"
"Kyuhyun," Zhou Mi says, and the word has so much nuance to it—annoyance, exhaustion, pleading resignation.
Kyuhyun leans in closer. Zhou Mi tilts away but doesn't step back. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Zhou Mi just looks at him as if he is being very, very stupid.
"I lost my wallet," Kyuhyun says. "I had to busk to get the train fare, and it was cold and no one would listen and the reason I—I did it because you have a gig tomorrow and I knew you weren't going to go to sleep until I came home and ate dinner with you and helped you finalize your set list and—why aren't you asleep," Kyuhyun says, willing himself to please, please shut up, "why do I even like you?"
"I don't know?" Zhou Mi says, eyes narrowed slightly. "Do you even like me?"
Kyuhyun just makes a frustrated noise and kisses him, cradling the base of his head with fingers so cold they make him yelp.
--
Kyuhyun's washing the dishes when Zhou Mi says, "A year and a half."
Kyuhyun half-turns, hands dripping with soap water. "What?"
"You wanted to know how long I've liked you."
Zhou Mi sets his bag down on the table and starts to dig through it, waiting, but Kyuhyun doesn't say anything. Eventually, there's a sniffling sound, and Zhou Mi's head snaps up, incredulous.
"I caught a cold yesterday," Kyuhyun mutters, ducking his hands back into the water. He comes up with a plate and blinks when it's taken from his fingers.
Zhou Mi sighs. "Go to bed," he says.
Zhou Mi brings a blanket from his room, but when he tries to drape it across the bed, Kyuhyun grabs his wrists.
"Go out with me," he mumbles.
Zhou Mi looks down at the blanket, smoothing a crease with one trapped hand. "You kissed me yesterday," Zhou Mi says. "I probably have your cold already."
"Is that a yes?"
Zhou Mi sighs and pulls free, then rests a hand against Kyuhyun's head to check his temperature. He makes a small concerned noise and disappears briefly, returning with two Tylenol and a glass of water. "Sit up," he says. "Take these. Did you eat?"
Kyuhyun takes the proffered pills, but stays pointedly silent. When Zhou Mi doesn't say anything, he adds another sniffle for emphasis.
"There are tissues right next to your bed," Zhou Mi says, unimpressed.
Kyuhyun whispers, "Say yes."
Zhou Mi looks down at his bowed head and rounded shoulders. "I don't date people who are sick," he says finally.
"So when I'm better."
Zhou Mi sighs and ruffles his hair. "Maybe," he says. "I'll get you something to eat."
--
When Zhou Mi gets sick, Kyuhyun's repayment is to lie in bed with him and play StarCraft while Zhou Mi curls around him for warmth, sniffling.
After they've both recovered, they take the train out to Flushing, where Kyuhyun grew up. Zhou Mi gives Kyuhyun's parents a bag of oranges, and they end up liking him so much that they try to make them both stay the night.
--
There are better job opportunities in California, Kyuhyun knows. The weather and the people are nicer, and he'll never have to worry about metrocards again.
And maybe someday, when Zhou Mi has landed a record label contract, and maybe when he's high up enough in his company that they'll let him transfer across the country, he'll move. But for now, Kyuhyun has a boyfriend, and tea, and impromptu concerts in the middle of Central Park that make people turn to listen, and a new one-bedroom apartment that feels like home, and there's nowhere else he'd rather be.
—"Going your way" is the MTA's motto.
—I've wanted to write a story set in NYC ever since I read![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
aronnax's Complaint Department. This fic has some (completely unintentional or unavoidable) similarities to that one.
—Peppermint tea helps headaches; Pandora is this; the Kinsey scale is this; the techno (trance) song is this; you probably recognized "Umbrella" by Rihanna.
—Kyuhyun first finds Zhou Mi busking in the 42nd street Times Square station, in the long hallway with the weird depressing poem written across the ceiling rafters. In the Met, they visit Astor Court.
—There is even more meta over here.
// written 1 May-18 Sep 2011, edited 19 Sep-24 Oct 2011
Like what you see? Consider watchingsouthofreality!
Rating: G
Word Count: 4,565
Genre: Romance, Character Study
Fandom: Super Junior
Pairings: Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Warnings: WAFF, Kyuhyun's irl family as characters
Summary: NYC roommate busking AU. After college, Kyuhyun does what most people do: he finds an apartment out of his price range and looks for a roommate.
Author's Note: For
misura, who won my offer on qldfloodauction ages ago. Thank you for being so patient, and I'm sorry if this isn't quite what you wanted. I tried to get this out yesterday, WHEN QMI WERE ACTUALLY IN MY CITY OH GOD, but then I went and saw them instead(!!). So it's up today. Thanks to fonulyn and chiharu for giving me much-needed feedback. Notes/explanations at the end of the fic, and there's a whole meta page over here.Cross-posts: DW and AO3.
Kyuhyun graduates from college with a bachelor's in Computer Science and, like most people, finds himself adrift.
His stellar GPA and lone internship don't count for much; the fact of the matter is that for someone with his major, he's on the wrong side of the country. Still, he likes it here, and he can't imagine leaving his family behind. He'll make it work, he thinks. Somehow.
So he does what most people of his age and social station do. He finds a temporary job in data entry, spends every week saving up money for a nebulous future without any real plans. He hunts for jobs when he's not too exhausted to do anything but flop into bed. He lives at home until he's driven from the nest by a mother who doesn't know how to navigate the waters of adult, but not quite.
He finds an apartment out of his price range in a five-story walkup in Astoria and looks for a roommate.
--
Kyuhyun sees his new roommate organizing a row of skin product bottles on the bathroom counter and is hit with a flash of homesickness. Zhou Mi turns to him, looking friendly and questioning.
"My sister uses that brand," he says, pointing, feeling awkward. Zhou Mi's eyes brighten.
"She has good taste," Zhou Mi replies and rests a hand on his chest as if he's praising himself.
When Kyuhyun tells his sister, she laughs.
--
After two months, Kyuhyun picks up an evening job reading audio books for the blind and stumbles home at one in the morning with pounding temples and the smell of the subway on his hands. One night, he comes home to find Zhou Mi sitting at their small table with a cup of peppermint tea, reading something on his iPad.
"What," Kyuhyun says, leaning against the kitchen wall for support.
"You wake me up when you run into things every night," Zhou Mi says. "It sounded like you could use some help."
Kyuhyun decides to take the path of least resistance. He half-falls into the open chair as Zhou Mi slides the mug towards him. Kyuhyun drinks it slowly, listening to the faint scratching sounds that leak through Zhou Mi's earbuds. His feet keep time as his mouth silently forms the words.
Zhou Mi reaches across the table and taps Kyuhyun's forehead with a finger before his eyes can close. "Your bed's over there," he says, smiling. Kyuhyun blinks stupidly at him and Zhou Mi helps him up with a roll of his eyes, tucks him into bed with a kindness that seems misplaced. They've been roommates for a few months, but their schedules don't overlap and they've barely talked.
"Good morning," Zhou Mi murmurs, before turning the lamp off and tiptoeing out of the room.
--
Zhou Mi gets free tickets to Carnegie Hall once every few months. He asks Kyuhyun once if he'd like to go. Kyuhyun murmurs something noncommittal, and Zhou Mi doesn't mention it again.
When Kyuhyun asks about it again sometime in the middle of September, a smile breaks across Zhou Mi's face.
They take one of Kyuhyun's rare days off and go to a recital, listen to Ravel and Debussy. They end up walking across Central Park at 11PM to get to a restaurant Kyuhyun knows across town, braving crazy hobos and serial killers in the name of expired unlimited metrocards and saved cab fare. Their loud voices dispel the autumn chill and the lurking quiet. "I loved that one piece," Zhou Mi says, "the one where—" his voice soars off into the darkness and the waving trees somewhere above Kyuhyun's head, and Kyuhyun loses a few minutes.
When he opens his eyes again, Zhou Mi is smirking at him. Kyuhyun cuffs him on the shoulder. "Showoff."
Zhou Mi just preens.
Kyuhyun downloads the song, later, but it's not the same in three-part instrumental. He settles for storing the memory of Zhou Mi's voice in the back of his mind, where it can't be lost.
--
On a whim, Kyuhyun decides to take a different route home from work and hears a familiar voice echoing in the distance.
He turns without thinking, strides down the endless hallway that connects the Shuttle, 1, 9 to the A, B, C, D and finds Zhou Mi at the halfway point. He's got a little setup, a scuffed speaker attached to an iPod and a worn-out microphone, and he's leaning into the music, eyes closed. There's money in front of him, although it doesn't look like much.
Kyuhyun steps out of the flow of hurrying traffic, leans against the opposite wall, and watches him for a while, counting the number of people who drop money into his cup. (Four.)
The song ends; there's no applause, just a silence that's broken by ripples of pattering feet and murmuring voices. Zhou Mi opens his eyes and looks surprised to see Kyuhyun across a river of travelers. Kyuhyun lifts a hand and smiles when he sees Zhou Mi's familiar grin.
He wades across the hallway to drop a dollar into the bucket. "Nice voice."
"That's all I get?"
"It's all going towards the rent, anyway."
Zhou Mi laughs.
"Let me try," Kyuhyun says.
"Try what?"
He reaches for the microphone.
"You can sing?"
Kyuhyun frowns at him. "Just listen."
Zhou Mi shrugs and hands him the mic, bending down to pick up the battered set list and hand it to him. "Anything in particular you—"
Kyuhyun pushes the paper away. "I don't need it."
That earns him a raised eyebrow, but Zhou Mi steps back, away from his equipment. He folds his arms and tilts his head towards the passerby; after you, the gesture says.
Kyuhyun takes a deep breath.
He opens his eyes to see two more dollars in the cup and Zhou Mi with an expression somewhere between considering and pleased.
"You're flat," he says, "but we can fix that."
--
In return for the occasional trips to Carnegie Hall, Kyuhyun invites Zhou Mi to the Met and discovers that he knows the place better than Kyuhyun does.
"When I first moved, I came here a few times a week," Zhou Mi explains as they walk through Egyptian Art. "Since it's practically free, I mean, and it was warm. Eventually, the guards let me in without asking."
Kyuhyun laughs, but it fades quickly. "How long did that last?"
"Hmm?" Zhou Mi pauses to glance at the floor plan. "This way. Um, a few months. Then I figured out busking, so."
"Was it hard to get started?"
"Sort of?" Zhou Mi leads them up a staircase. "You have to put the money up front for the license and carve out a place and time to perform. I wasn't shy, but it's weird to perform when no one's listening. I got used to it, though." He gives a self-deprecating laugh, and Kyuhyun shoots him a glance.
"Lots of people listen to you now." Zhou Mi doesn't say anything. "I listen to you," he tries. "Even when you try to sing too high and you sound terrible."
Zhou Mi snorts. "I listened to you when you couldn't hold a note on pitch," he says. "You still can't."
"Yeah, well, that's why I'm a programmer," he says. Zhou Mi looks at him, trying to gauge his mood.
"Sorry."
"No, I mean." Kyuhyun fidgets. "I shouldn't have asked."
"We've been roommates for a while," Zhou Mi says gently. "Don't you think it's strange that we don't really know anything about each other?"
"I know a lot about you," Kyuhyun says. "I know that you like Louis Vuitton and Doraemon and Mario."
"I know that you like to sing," Zhou Mi says. "And that you get home after working two jobs and still find time to play StarCraft."
"I know you like peppermint tea."
"You know lots of programming languages."
"You want a dog but we're not allowed."
"You've never been to Staten Island or the Bronx."
"You want to be famous," Kyuhyun says quietly.
They're in the Asian wing now, where almost no one ever goes, and they stare at each other, silent. Kyuhyun is the first to look away.
"We're almost there," Zhou Mi says, resting a conciliatory hand on his upper arm. Kyuhyun sighs and lets himself be pulled along, gently.
He leads Kyuhyun into a room that seems separate from the rest of the museum. It's a Ming dynasty-style cobblestone courtyard with plants and rock formations, surrounded by a wooden porch. Kyuhyun had no idea this room was here and looks up at the skylight, amazed.
Zhou Mi hangs back and watches him as he explores. "I used to come here and fill out job applications."
"What were you applying for?"
"Anything I could find," he says. "I tried to get an agent, but it was too expensive. I took some jobs as an extra on TV shows and spent a lot of time in holding, studying and listening to music. A few waiter jobs."
Kyuhyun laughs at that; Zhou Mi is currently working at two restaurants.
"How long were you here before you met me?"
"Three years," Zhou Mi says. "But I was doing okay for myself by the end of the second year. After the lease ran out, I stuck around because I liked my roommate, but he moved in with his girlfriend and the apartment was too small, anyway."
Zhou Mi sits down on the steps to the flagstone courtyard. After a brief hesitation, Kyuhyun sits beside him. There aren't any guards in sight to scold them, so it seems safe enough.
"Were you lonely?" Kyuhyun asks.
"No," Zhou Mi says. "It's hard to be lonely in a city full of people."
They sit in companionable silence for a while before Kyuhyun chuckles.
"One day, I'm going to tell people 'I knew Zhou Mi before he was famous,'" he says, "and 'Did you know that he used to hang out in the Met?'"
"Kyuhyun," Zhou Mi says, frowning, "Don't make fun of me."
"I'm not." Kyuhyun's only lying a little. "Is it a secret, that you used to come here?"
"I guess not," Zhou Mi says, not looking at him.
Kyuhyun watches him for a minute. "You're different," he says. "I think that's why I like you."
"You like me because I feed you," Zhou Mi retorts.
It's raining when they leave the museum. Kyuhyun pulls up short underneath the awning, ignoring the people who mutter behind him, and glares at the faint screen of raindrops falling between him and the green-coppered roofs across the street.
He jumps at the sound of an umbrella snapping open next to his ear. Zhou Mi grins and tips the umbrella towards him. "You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella," he sings.
Kyuhyun rolls his eyes. "That's too small for two people."
"No, it's not." Zhou Mi takes a step closer. The umbrella barely covers both of them. "See?"
Kyuhyun's shoulder is wet by the time they reach the subway station.
--
Kyuhyun's commute adjusts over time as he comes to know Zhou Mi's performance schedule. Two days a week, he gets off a stop early to bring Zhou Mi dinner and fiddles with his iPod while he eats. Sometimes he sings, sometimes he doesn't. A few hours later, they ride the R line home.
Zhou Mi is tucked into the corner between Kyuhyun and the wall, his arms wrapped around a shopping bag and deeply asleep. His head rests on Kyuhyun's shoulder. Kyuhyun stares out the window, watching faded awnings and curtained windows pass beneath them. He imagines, as he has since he was young, all the lives passing behind those closed windows, all the possibilities.
How would his life be if he'd chosen to live in the neighborhood they're passing, instead of Astoria? Another borough? Another roommate?
Kyuhyun's hand is resting on Zhou Mi's knee like it belongs there. It should bother him, but it doesn't.
"Zhou Mi," he whispers, nudging him awake. "We're here."
--
"How's the job search going?" Ahra says.
"Oh," Kyuhyun says and shovels another bite of salad into his mouth.
Ahra sighs. "You can't do data entry forever. Why haven't they turned off your heating yet?"
"Singing" pops out of his mouth before he realizes what he's going to say. The fork stops halfway to his mouth, and there's an awkward beat.
"What?" his sister says. Kyuhyun sighs, sets the fork down and tries to explain in a way that doesn't make him sound like he's lost his mind.
"You're busking," she says, "with your roommate."
"Only sometimes," he rushes to add. "Mostly Thursdays."
"You are busking with your roommate."
"I know," Kyuhyun says. "I'll. I'll look for a job."
"I want to meet him," she growls.
--
Instead of meeting the two of them for lunch, as they'd planned, she walks past them at the 51st street station. She double-takes at the same time Kyuhyun does, stumbling over her suitcase as Kyuhyun's voice goes sharp with surprise and Zhou Mi stammers to a confused stop.
Ahra catches herself quickly, then walks over to the two of them and introduces herself, offering her hand as if nothing unusual has happened. "Nice to meet you," Zhou Mi says as she looks him over. Kyuhyun ducks down to turn the speaker off before it can shriek with feedback.
"You two sound good," Ahra says. "Really good."
"It's the acoustics," Zhou Mi says. "Anyone would sound good in here."
"He makes more money in a day than my whole paycheck at the pet shop in high school," Kyuhyun interrupts.
Ahra blinks. She looks back and forth between the two of them: Zhou Mi nervous and smiling, Kyuhyun with his arms folded, peeking out from around Zhou Mi's shoulder. "Come on," she says, shaking her head. "Let's go grab some coffee. My treat."
"I think she liked me," Zhou Mi says when they get home.
"She liked you," Kyuhyun agrees.
--
Kyuhyun steals Zhou Mi's phone and sets his ring tone to Reflection. The next day, he calls him in the middle of his shift.
"What did you do to my phone," Zhou Mi hisses when he picks up, five rings later.
Kyuhyun laughs at him and hangs up.
When he gets home, Zhou Mi tells him that his coworkers probably won't let him live it down for months.
"Stop complaining," Kyuhyun says. "I even picked Mulan—she's your favorite Disney princess."
"She is not! Minnie is my favorite. Mulan is your favorite," Zhou Mi sniffs. "Ahra told me."
"...Shut up. And Minnie isn't a princess."
"She's a queen," Zhou Mi snaps. "That's the only reason I like Kingdom Hearts."
"And stop playing my games," Kyuhyun says.
The next time Kyuhyun visits the pub, Sungmin and Shindong sing "Who is that girl I see" and Zhou Mi buries his face in Kyuhyun's shoulder. Kyuhyun accepts Kangin's discreet low-five as they pass.
--
Zhou Mi convinces his pub to let him sing, no payment, just to try him out. Kyuhyun comes, of course.
"Moral support?" Zhou Mi asks.
Kyuhyun shrugs. "Leeteuk gives me half-price beer when Kangin isn't looking." He waits until Zhou Mi begins to pout, then adds, "And maybe I just like to hear you sing."
The crowd doesn't seem to listen at first, but Zhou Mi's used to that from the subways. By the end of his set, Kyuhyun sees a few upturned faces. Kyuhyun brings him glasses of water and chats with him on his breaks, his fingers drumming against the new speaker Zhou Mi bought two weeks ago.
Over samosas the next evening, Zhou Mi tells him the experience was slightly strange—a foreign, well-maintained microphone, his voice competing with clinking glasses instead of shrieking air brakes—but exhilarating.
Leeteuk invites Zhou Mi back the next week, and the next.
--
Zhou Mi helps Kyuhyun dress for an interview for a job that's actually in his field and acts completely unsurprised when he gets it. Kyuhyun stops reading audio books and takes fewer days at his data entry job, which is too lucrative to give up until he's no longer on probation.
Someone notices Zhou Mi in Union Square and offers him a singing gig at a restaurant. Other offers trickle in, and after a few months, he gives up busking entirely. He spends most of his time now expanding his repertoire, working in some original compositions, and teaching himself how to play the piano on the old keyboard Kyuhyun brought from his mother's house. Kyuhyun comes home at night and collapses on the couch, listening as Zhou Mi teases notes free from the monochrome keys.
"Am I bothering you?" Zhou Mi asks.
Kyuhyun tries to wave a dismissive hand but it ends up flopping off the end of the couch. "Sing 'American Pie,'" he says.
"I don't know—"
Kyuhyun begins to sing, and Zhou Mi listens. He joins in for each chorus, but quiets for the verses.
"You're really very good," Zhou Mi says once the song is over.
Kyuhyun closes his eyes and smiles, thin-lipped, at the ceiling. "I know."
--
"No, you're right," he hears Zhou Mi say from the kitchen, "you can't let him talk about her that way." Kyuhyun pops his head in, and Zhou Mi turns with a smile.
"Oh, you're back," he says. "No, it's Kyuhyun. Ahra says hello."
Kyuhyun nods and retreats to his room. When Zhou Mi comes in later and sits on his bed, Kyuhyun says, "Do you two talk a lot?"
"Sometimes," he says. "She's having some trouble with one of her friends, so she's been calling for advice."
Something in Kyuhyun's stomach settles, but he doesn't think about it.
--
Zhou Mi stretches out on Kyuhyun's bed, resting his head on the bit of Kyuhyun's thigh that isn't already taken up by his laptop. He reaches up to pluck an earbud from Kyuhyun's ear and fit it inside his own.
Kyuhyun listens to a lot of techno music when he writes code. This particular song is one that Pandora plays a lot, so it's familiar to both of them and easy to tune out. He continues to type, not even bothering to say hello, and feels Zhou Mi relaxing against him as the music plays on. His feet dangle off the bed, and Zhou Mi's fingers tap against his stomach.
Zhou Mi begins to sing, and Kyuhyun's typing stops. He glances at him, but Zhou Mi's eyes are closed as he continues, oblivious.
His eyes fly open when Kyuhyun rests light fingertips against his throat. He looks up, but Kyuhyun's face only shows a mild curiosity. He makes a small gesture, as if to say keep going.
Zhou Mi hesitates, then begins again. His larynx sends tiny tremors through Kyuhyun's fingers and up his arm, adding a new texture and organic depth to a voice already filled with emotion. "You're half a world away," he sings, voice quieting under Kyuhyun's steady gaze. "But in my mind, I whisper every single word you say."
Then he stops, and his eyes flicker away. After a moment, Kyuhyun lifts his hand, and Zhou Mi rolls to his feet, casts a last glance at Kyuhyun, and walks out. Synthesizers blast in Kyuhyun's right ear, but he's not listening. Instead, he watches Zhou Mi's hunched shoulders disappear down the hall.
--
"When am I going to meet your boyfriend?" Kyuhyun's mother asks gently. Kyuhyun blinks in confusion.
"Zhou Mi," she presses in the silence, and there's a sudden click in his mind usually reserved for hard-won answers to difficult questions.
"I'm not gay," he blurts and hangs up before his mother can say anything. He stares wide-eyed at the phone in his hands, but he can't stop everything from lining up.
He's not sure how things like this are supposed to go, but he's pretty sure his mother isn't supposed to be involved in the process.
--
"I think I'm in love with you," Kyuhyun says the next morning, and Zhou Mi nearly spits out a mouthful of tea.
Kyuhyun moves to get up when he starts coughing, but Zhou Mi waves him back. He swallows hard and blinks back tears. "Sorry," he pants. "What?"
"I think—" Kyuhyun doesn't have the courage to say it again, "but—but it's weird, because I don't like guys. I mean. Besides you, I mean. You're just—you—" He gives up, looking miserable.
When he's sure Kyuhyun's done, he reaches for his mug and takes a bracing gulp.
"Um," Zhou Mi says. "Have you ever heard of the Kinsey scale?"
--
When Google doesn't have all the answers for him like it usually does, he decides to take the long train ride out to Coney Island and relive some childhood nostalgia, maybe regain some of the simplicity that has vanished from his life in the past 48 hours.
He warily eyes the Nathan's hot dog stand and the sad, overpriced rides, watching mothers lead children who, he's sure, look more depressed than he does.
It's early evening when he realizes that he's lost his wallet.
He searches for half an hour, but as expected, the wallet is nowhere to be found; whoever has it now must be long gone. He berates himself for being so distracted, glares at a juvenile seagull chewing on a stolen hot dog bun, and then sighs.
In the end, two things are clear: he has to get home, and he only knows one sure way to get money fast. He steps back onto the boardwalk, lays his coat down before him on the weatherbeaten planks, and begins to sing, hoping that, despite the shaking cold, he can still stay on-key.
After three songs, no one has paid him any attention. He eventually goes through every song he knows, then every song in Zhou Mi's repertoire. He finds himself mimicking Zhou Mi's phrasing and being reminded of how his voice soars every time he has to knock a song down an octave.
The last three years of his life with Zhou Mi have been full of good memories and no real bad ones, which is more than he can say for anyone else, ever. Zhou Mi has become someone he depends on, someone he actually trusts, someone he can't imagine living without. Suddenly, loving him seems less insane and more like an inevitability. The song ends and he sees change strewn across his jacket, with a few stragglers gathered around him.
"You got a CD?" someone asks.
"No," he says, "I'm a programmer." He swallows. "But if you like my voice, you should hear my roommate."
--
The keyboard falls quiet when Kyuhyun gets home, and Zhou Mi races to the door to greet him. His hands flutter uncertainly as Kyuhyun bends over to take off his shoes.
"Are you okay?" Zhou Mi asks. "I didn't know where you—you left your phone here. Your job called, your...your mom called."
"I went to Coney Island," Kyuhyun says. "My mom used to bring me there when I was a kid."
"Oh." Zhou Mi's hands fall to his sides. A smile flashes across his face, because that's his default reaction to anything Kyuhyun says, and years of habit are hard to break. "Um. Okay. That's...good then." He begins to turn away. "I'll just—"
Kyuhyun catches him and pulls him back. "Do you like me?" he asks.
Zhou Mi tries to smile again, but it falters. "What? Of course I—"
"Do you like me," Kyuhyun repeats, slowly.
Zhou Mi's expression clouds. Then, his gaze drops to fixate on Kyuhyun's toppled shoes. "I don't know what you're talking about," he says, hollow.
"How long?"
"Kyuhyun," Zhou Mi says, and the word has so much nuance to it—annoyance, exhaustion, pleading resignation.
Kyuhyun leans in closer. Zhou Mi tilts away but doesn't step back. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Zhou Mi just looks at him as if he is being very, very stupid.
"I lost my wallet," Kyuhyun says. "I had to busk to get the train fare, and it was cold and no one would listen and the reason I—I did it because you have a gig tomorrow and I knew you weren't going to go to sleep until I came home and ate dinner with you and helped you finalize your set list and—why aren't you asleep," Kyuhyun says, willing himself to please, please shut up, "why do I even like you?"
"I don't know?" Zhou Mi says, eyes narrowed slightly. "Do you even like me?"
Kyuhyun just makes a frustrated noise and kisses him, cradling the base of his head with fingers so cold they make him yelp.
--
Kyuhyun's washing the dishes when Zhou Mi says, "A year and a half."
Kyuhyun half-turns, hands dripping with soap water. "What?"
"You wanted to know how long I've liked you."
Zhou Mi sets his bag down on the table and starts to dig through it, waiting, but Kyuhyun doesn't say anything. Eventually, there's a sniffling sound, and Zhou Mi's head snaps up, incredulous.
"I caught a cold yesterday," Kyuhyun mutters, ducking his hands back into the water. He comes up with a plate and blinks when it's taken from his fingers.
Zhou Mi sighs. "Go to bed," he says.
Zhou Mi brings a blanket from his room, but when he tries to drape it across the bed, Kyuhyun grabs his wrists.
"Go out with me," he mumbles.
Zhou Mi looks down at the blanket, smoothing a crease with one trapped hand. "You kissed me yesterday," Zhou Mi says. "I probably have your cold already."
"Is that a yes?"
Zhou Mi sighs and pulls free, then rests a hand against Kyuhyun's head to check his temperature. He makes a small concerned noise and disappears briefly, returning with two Tylenol and a glass of water. "Sit up," he says. "Take these. Did you eat?"
Kyuhyun takes the proffered pills, but stays pointedly silent. When Zhou Mi doesn't say anything, he adds another sniffle for emphasis.
"There are tissues right next to your bed," Zhou Mi says, unimpressed.
Kyuhyun whispers, "Say yes."
Zhou Mi looks down at his bowed head and rounded shoulders. "I don't date people who are sick," he says finally.
"So when I'm better."
Zhou Mi sighs and ruffles his hair. "Maybe," he says. "I'll get you something to eat."
--
When Zhou Mi gets sick, Kyuhyun's repayment is to lie in bed with him and play StarCraft while Zhou Mi curls around him for warmth, sniffling.
After they've both recovered, they take the train out to Flushing, where Kyuhyun grew up. Zhou Mi gives Kyuhyun's parents a bag of oranges, and they end up liking him so much that they try to make them both stay the night.
--
There are better job opportunities in California, Kyuhyun knows. The weather and the people are nicer, and he'll never have to worry about metrocards again.
And maybe someday, when Zhou Mi has landed a record label contract, and maybe when he's high up enough in his company that they'll let him transfer across the country, he'll move. But for now, Kyuhyun has a boyfriend, and tea, and impromptu concerts in the middle of Central Park that make people turn to listen, and a new one-bedroom apartment that feels like home, and there's nowhere else he'd rather be.
—"Going your way" is the MTA's motto.
—I've wanted to write a story set in NYC ever since I read
aronnax's Complaint Department. This fic has some (completely unintentional or unavoidable) similarities to that one.—Peppermint tea helps headaches; Pandora is this; the Kinsey scale is this; the techno (trance) song is this; you probably recognized "Umbrella" by Rihanna.
—Kyuhyun first finds Zhou Mi busking in the 42nd street Times Square station, in the long hallway with the weird depressing poem written across the ceiling rafters. In the Met, they visit Astor Court.
—There is even more meta over here.
// written 1 May-18 Sep 2011, edited 19 Sep-24 Oct 2011
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Secondly, I feel like your comment made this whole endeavor really worthwhile, because the reaction you had is exactly what I wanted the reader to take away from it ;_;. NYC has such a special place in the hearts of the people who live here, and it's so unique and unlike anywhere else, that I think it's natural for us to want to write about it. I'm so happy that you saw that the city was a character, too, because that's what it felt like when I was writing it. Thank you so much for your lovely comment!