Kyuhyun got home to find Sungmin, his roommate and his best friend for the last 10 years, trying to drill a hole into the TV remote control with her thumb. Or at least that was what it looked like.

"Hey," he said, eyebrows scrunched up together, wondering what it was all about. She didn't as much as glance at him. Her thumb continued hitting the buttons rapidly, almost mechanical.

Kyuhyun tossed the keys on the table and looked back and forth between her and the tv, wondering to himself if an alien had replaced his best friend with some kind of a cyborg, and whether or not his real best friend was now tied to a surgical table up in the alien's mothership somewhere. The TV flicked steadily away between a news program, a variety show, a drama, another news program... "Are you even watching this?" She didn't reply, her eyes didn't even once leave the screen. He wondered if they would suddenly flick red, like Arnold Schwarzenegger's in Terminator. That would be a problem since he wasn't really good at running. "I'm not buying a new remote if that one breaks down."

Finally she stopped, and the TV halted abruptly on a rather disturbing scene of intestines bursting out of some fat guy's stomach and eyes popping out out of some melting brain. Kyuhyun yelped and snatched the remote off her hands. He quickly changed the channel into some music show which was playing a (totally harmless) ballad, and breathed relief.

On the outside Kyuhyun was a lead vocalist of a rock band, but contrasting with the dark image and a fashion sense that includes metal chains and skulls, he hated horror movies. Especially one with disgusting, pointless gore. And she was the kind who would even grab a pillow as soon as the creepy background music started playing, before anything scary had actually happened.

This time, she didn't even flinch. It was as if the previous stomach churning scene had been a mundane weather report.

Odd.

Slightly alarming.

"Kyu, I was watching." She grabbed the remote back from him, looking annoyed.

More like staring into space and beyond. Kyuhyun thought to himself. With additional offense including, but not limiting to, abusing innocent household equipments. "What's wrong with you?"

"Me? Nothing. Why?"

Kyuhyun peered suspiciously at his friend. He had been her roommate for 3 years, known her for much longer than that. He could tell when something was bothering her. The last time she had acted this way was when some idiot had got her heart broken. He had got home to find her in the kitchen in her pink pajamas and pink bunny slippers, eating ice cream and staring blankly at the wall. Like now, more or less. If Kyuhyun hadn't come home earlier, he was convinced she would've chewed that spoon gone. In all, he had never seen their tissue supply for a month gone that fast. Nor their ice cream supply, for that matter.

She was the kind of person who would bottle up her feelings, until it came overflow to the brim. Was Yesung, her boyfriend now, had also hurt her in any way? But he looked like a good guy... Although, you could never know. I'm gonna beat the crap out of that guy if he had, Kyuhyun thought to himself. Yesung would regret it, a lot, if he ever messed with his friend. But then, he respected her that much that if she needed him, she would come to him. If she didn't, he wouldn't pry.

"If you say so." He shrugged and got up to his room. "I'm gonna take a shower."

She was still in front of the TV when he returned. "What are you watching?" He flopped down beside her, towel-drying his wet hair.

It was some drama he didn't know the title of, but he ended up watching it along with her (this time she really was watching–not that he checked). There was a scene when the two main protagonists were having their first kiss, when she asked suddenly, "Why do dramas make such a big deal about first kisses?"

"I don't know. Because it's the first?" Kyuhyun shrugged, "People make a big deal about many firsts. Like, the first day of school, the first date, first guy to ever hit by an apple and went on to write a theory about it instead of just eat it like a normal person..."

"What your first kiss was like?"

My what? He raised his eyebrows.

"It was somewhere behind the school, right?"

He forgot that he ever told her. The question amused him. "The park bench."

"With all those people?" She was referring to the park and the basketball court next to it full of students during the day, just playing or hanging out after school.

"No. It was like, around 7 or 8 at night, after the band practice. There was nobody. You guys were already left."

"And then?"

He let out a laugh, "Why do you want to know so much?" But she persisted, so he continued, "If you remember one of the bench had a street lamp right above that shone on it. It was really quiet, just the two of us. So I thought,..." He added, sheepishly, "I just sort of went for it."

"Aigoo," Sungmin exclaimed, "You sneaky."

"That wasn't..."

"Sneakyu!"

"What–You are NOT giving me another nickname!" But she was snickering and he just rolled his eyes in disbelief. Rocker Kyu, Evil Kyu, Game Kyu, Dancing Kyu (this actually was used to name his bouncing about on stage–to which he strongly objected, those were NOT dancing!―but apparently, it had been used as an irony because rhythm had never been his forte), Hair-Porn Kyu (and this, apparently, for everytime he tried to do some attempts at head-banging, and other times when he unconsciously touched his head while nailing a particular high note), Drakyula (for looking like a vampire everytime he sported the dark outfit and dark eye makeup for the stage, that she said contrasted so much with his pale skin), Fail Kyu (for, well, everytime he attempted anything and failed miserably), and now there was this. Sneaky Kyu. Sneakyu. It didn't even sound plausible, he cringed. It was even worse than Creeper Kyu, the nickname he got because of that one time he had barged into her room to borrow a flashdisk, not knowing she was changing her clothes.

"Why are you asking?" It had suddenly occurred to him the many reasons why she had asked. Could it be that... "Don't tell me you and Yesung haven't kissed yet? You guys have been going out for almost–"

"Of course we have." She cut him, her cheeks slightly tinted pink.

"Hey, you were the one asking such weird question first."

Sungmin ignored his comment and left it at that. And he let it. They continued to watch in silence. He was thinking of how pretty the actress who played the female protagonist was, when she suddenly asked again.

"Did it feel good?"

"What?" He blinked.

"Was it good?" She repeated her question.

"What was good?" He stammered. There was no way Sungmin knew he had been imagining the actress just now...

"Your first kiss."

Oh. That. "Umm..."

"I take that as a no."

"It was." He stated.

"Really?" She eyed him, "I don't believe you."

"Seriously. In fact, it was so good that few seconds after the initial first kiss, I kissed her again... And then again, few days later, at that same place."

"Hmm..." was all that she said before she turned back facing the TV, resting her chin on her knees. A smirk slowly spread on Kyuhyun's lips. See, he was right, there must be something bothering her but she wouldn't spit it out just now. All he needed was a little poke. Just a little...

"It's not that good with you and Yesung?"

*poke*

Kyuhyun leaned back and crossed his arm over his chest, trying to suppress a grin as he watched her eyes grew wide.

Oh, dead on.

"How did you... It wasn't exactly, I mean..." She let out a laugh. Frankly, he was slightly relieved that the problem wasn't anything catastrophic, like Yesung getting another woman pregnant or something. "All that, just because of a kiss? Was it that bad?"

Her face was flushed red. "Well, maybe I don't know anything about kissing... But..." She tried to find a better word, but she couldn't find one and gave up at the first thing that came to her mind, "It feels like being hit by a truck." Kyuhyun burst out laughing.

"Kyu, don't laugh. I'm serious."

"Okay, sorry. Umm, what do you mean by... getting hit by a tru–" He started laughing again.

"Do you want to die?"

"Sorry, go on."

She eyed him for a second. "Well it's just... too much." He frowned. She sighed, "It's like he wants to maul my face."

"See!" He suddenly exclaimed that it startled her, "That's why you shouldn't call him 'Yesung bear'. Bears maul peopl–AOW!"

Kyuhyun rubbed the spot on his arm where Sungmin had smacked him. She might be a girl, but she knew how to deliver a good hit. Kyuhyun seemed to forget the fact that she learned taekwondo. "When did I ever call him THAT? Aish, nevermind. Just forget I ever said anything." She then proceeded to sulk, like a 5 year old.

"I'm kidding!"

"Yeah, just laugh." She was still pouting, "I bet you're lying. I bet all the girls you've kissed felt like they were kissing a rock, or something."

It was actually cute when she was mad, pouting and all that. Kyuhyun couldn't help but smiling a little. "You just can't take it that I'm a much better kisser than your Yesung oppa." He said the last bit in excessive, hair-raising, cuteness. Her reaction was exactly what he expected.

"No you're not."

"You know that I am."

"Yeah right." She rolled her eyes.

"Just ask all those girls I've kissed."

"They would just say you're a horrible kisser."

"You wanna bet?"

She gave him a death glare. I take that as a yes, he smirked then leaned forward right in front of her face. She gasped and jumped a good one meter back, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Kyuhyun laughed. "Chicken."

She glared at him. "You..."

"You're just afraid that I'm right, and that you'll like it."

"This delusional bastard..." She scoffed.

"Only one way to prove it."

"Coming any closer and I'll..."

Suddenly he had her down on the sofa and was leaning over her, "You'll what?"

"What the hell are you doing?" A hint of panic in her voice. He had pinned her arms down on each sides of her head.

"Kyu, I'm warning you..." She struggled and was considering on launching a taekwondo move on her friend and made him regret it, but her threat dispersed quickly, along with her breath. It had seemed as if the air around her had depleted of oxygen, but was filled instead with the scent of his soap, or shampoo, fresh from his shower earlier. It had smelled so good. And the way his eyes were boring into hers...

He ignored her threat. Instead, he was leaning down. She shut her eyes, bracing for the impact, when suddenly the weight was off her and Kyuhyun was laughing hard on the other side of the sofa.

"You should have seen..." he said in between his laughter, "the look on your face..."

"Jerk!" She hit his leg and walked off to her room. Kyuhyun spent the next five minutes limping around, cursing.

Few nights after, she came around. He was practicing with his guitar when she came home from her date with Yesung.

–––

"Kyu, I give up."

He stopped playing. Sungmin had flopped down on the sofa beside him. "I need your advice. You've got to help me. BUT," She put up her hands in a warning, "No funny business this time."

He just shrugged. "Fine." The bruise on his leg still hadn't gone away. It also reminded him of the last three days, where she had deliberately taken super long, record-breaking long showers just when he needed to use the bathroom the most. Kyuhyun also wondered if Sungmin really took taekwondo, or whether it was some secret ninja training, because she was able to move deadly fast and take over the bathroom before he did, no matter how hard he tried to claim it first.

It wasn't even fair; her room was closer to the bathroom. He spent the first day begging her to come out, as he had early class that morning. He ended up late. The second, he decided he would just camp in front of the goddamn door, but he had dozed off for a mere few seconds and... She and her ninja skill! He ended up going to his class without taking a bath. This morning, he gave up and just borrowed the neighbor's bathroom. It was hell trying to explain it to his neighbors, an elderly Chinese couple. 'Umm, I'm sorry, Mr. Wang. Can I borrow the bathroom?' 'What is wrong with your bathroom?' 'Err, the water's dead.' 'But it is fine in ours.' 'Yeah, actually, my roommate is an evil witch.' 'What? Did you hear that, Ling? The kids these days, using that kind of language...''

Morale of the story: Never make your roommate mad. Even those who seemed cute and innocent. Remember, evil killer bunnies also look cute and innocent, until they attack you.

"And promise not to laugh."

"Fine, I won't. I swear on my porn collection."

She blinked. She didn't even know he had a porn collect–Wait, she didn't wanna know. "I'm dead serious, Kyu."

"So am I. I just swore on my porn collection, how much more serious can a guy get?"

Sungmin rolled her eyes. "Okay, whatever."

"Now what is it?"

She took a deep breath, "If it was a truck then... now it's... like being hit by a washing machine..."

Kyuhyun snorted, but then he remembered Mr. Wang, and his porn collection he had solemnly swore on, so he pretended to clear his throat. "Why a washing machine?"

"He had tried to use tongue."

Kyuhyun raised his eyebrows. "Okay..." The image had not been pleasant. "Have you ever talked to him about this?"

"Like what? Hey, your kiss is like a washing machine."

"I'm afraid he'd take it as a compliment..."

She shot him a look.

"No, seriously..." he rapped his fingers on the side of his guitar, thinking. "Maybe... Next time you take the initiative for a change..."

"What?" She stuttered.

"YOU kiss him." Kyuhyun pointed a finger, making her jump. "Don't wait until he kisses you. Hell, don't let him kiss you first. You don't have that ninja skill for nothing. Take charge!"

"Ninja... What?"

Kyuhyun could imagine ice breaking off that 'what' at the end. "Err, nothing. I mean... You know, like in a dance, take the lead. Show him. Make him follow your rhythm, so to speak."

"Rhythm? I don't think it's got anything to do with the pace. I mean, I've tried, I told him to slow down..."

"And?"

"In fact... even when he takes it slowly, I still don't enjoy it." She let out an desperate sigh. "It's like... I don't feel anything. It just feels... unpleasantly wet, weird, and I just want it to be over with." She played with the edge of her pink pajama. "That's why I asked you, I was beginning to wonder if that's all to it."

He frowned at her, "No, it's not." Well, that bit was interesting. He had originally thought it was just a matter of Yesung's bad technique. But maybe there was also something else to that. "Really, nothing? No... butterflies? Warmth? Just a little sense of happiness YAY Yesung oppa kissed me!"

"No." She folded her arms over her chest, "And stop with that toe-curling tone already."

Kyuhyun thought for a moment, rapping his fingers. Then he put down his guitar. "You know, sometimes it's not about the kiss itself..." He paused, trying to decide if he should go on, or if he had better let her figure it out herself. "Do you love him?"

"What?" She blinked, "Of course I do, he's my boyfriend."

"No I mean like... really love him."

"What do you mean by really love him?"

He shifted so his right arm leaned against the back of the chair and he was completely facing her. "Kissing is not... just a physical thing. It's not exactly science, or a choreography, that you can pin down move by move. The technique itself only goes so far. Well, yeah, maybe Yesung needs to improve in that department. But it just struck me as weird that it had left you feeling... nothing. Because it shouldn't. Like I said, it's not the matter of just lips colliding, there has to be something else in there. Call it chemistry, sparks, connection, whatever. You need to do it with the right person. Otherwise it wouldn't feel special. Wouldn't feel... right."

"Right? You mean like fireworks and stuff?"

He chuckled, "Not... exactly. That's just in the movies. If you had really seen fireworks, you probably had knocked your teeth with his accidentally and was seeing stars from the pain–"

"Kyu!"

"Sorry. I mean you'll feel... Don't you get what I mean? I don't know how to explain it."

She shook her head. "And you call yourself a songwriter..."

"Hey, I'm in a rock band. I don't write sappy... lovey-dovey stuff." He cringed at the thought. "But my point is, you just... you're supposed to feel at least SOMETHING."

"I feel uncomfortable, alright."

"Then why do you keep doing this? Do you want to kiss him because you love him, or is this just some kind of... I don't know. Curiosity? Like, nailing down a puzzle or a difficult Math test."

Sungmin opened her mouth to answer, ready to defend her cause, but then she closed them again. Kyuhyun waited. He knew her. She was exactly like that it school, and in everything. If she had found something that she couldn't solve, she would relentlessly keep trying until she did. There was even one time when she got a B in Japanese at school. She signed up for a course, riding her bike to the classes after school and getting up before dawn to study, everyday. All that, because she wanted to master it so badly.

"Or competition? Because you wouldn't take it that I... and other people, have good experience with kissing, and that just bugs you." Because Kyuhyun, being naturally gifted with languages (and just naturally smart all over, he added), had gotten a perfect A in that Japanese class.

"Don't flatter yourself so much," she grimly said. "Maybe I just don't know what the feeling is supposed to feel like."

"No, it can't be. You'll know. Trust me. If you don't, then it's not there."

"But how do you know..."

"Like falling in love, you just know, right? There's no question... Right here," He rested his fingers lightly over her chest where the heart was. "That feeling as if your heart leaped and nudged at you, that person, that's the one you've been waiting for... You know that feeling, right?"

She thought about it for a moment, staring at the spot on her heart that Kyuhyun had pointed. She had just realized something about her best friend. That despite his many evilness, his tendency to be annoying, and his remark about how he would never ever write a love song, he was actually a hopeless romantic.

"Kyu..."

"Hmm?"

"Did you just poke my breast?"

Kyuhyun's eyes sprang wide, "WHAT? I didn't–"

She was snickering, "You should've seen your face, it's like all the blood suddenly drained."

"You–"

But she just stuck out her tongue at him, and flopped down to the kitchen.

–––

"I'm seriously hopeless at leading, let alone controlling the pace."

Sungmin reported back to him the next week when they were at the studio. She had promised to help him because he and his band was entering a competition. He wanted to know what she thought about the song, as she had good ears and often her insights had been helpful. She used to be in a band with him in high school, playing the keyboard, sometimes the guitar. But that was before his genre turned a little too dark and depressive with a little too much head-banging for her taste.

Kyuhyun looked up from his guitar. "Lead? Pace? What are you talking about?"

There were just the two of them in the studio. At first he thought it was the pace of the song, the tempo, because she was pointing out a line in the song that she thought sounded a bit off, and he was scribbling some parts and tried it on his guitar. It took him a few seconds to get what she meant. "Oh, you mean..."

"How do you actually... kiss someone?"

He stopped and raised his eyebrow. Was she seriously asking him that?

"What, you want me to show you?"

Sungmin flushed a bit pink. "No I mean... like you said, be the one in the lead. I tried to make the move, but I just froze, and I don't know... I just need some advice... How do you..." She trailed off, her cheeks was now bright red. It might just as well that she was asking him about how to perform a certain sex position that involved standing on your head.

Kyuhyun propped his arm on his guitar and his lips slowly turned into a smirk.

"Don't laugh." She warned him.

"No, I'm not mocking you. It's just... It just occurred to me how innocent you actually are."

She glared, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He let out a short laugh, "No, I mean, for other things you're smart, independent, very capable girl. Even capable enough to brutally hit an innocent bystander–like me–and almost snap his leg in two. But when it comes to this thing..."

"Did you just say that I brutally hit you?" Kyuhyun was sure she was going to really snap his legs this time. "If you just want to keep on poking fun at my lack of experience..." She moved to leave, wondering why she had confided in him in the first hold her arm to stop her.

"Relax, I was getting there." He slowly put down his guitar and pulled his chair closer facing her.