In the months that Hyukjae had gotten the pleasure of stealing furtive glances of Donghae, he had gotten to know minute things about the man. It was mostly how his eyebrows quirked up in the mornings when he caught up with social media on his phone over breakfast. How he had this small and graceful chuckle whenever he was being shy about something. How every single feature of his face lit up whenever he had walked back into the dorm and greeted Hyukjae on so many an afternoon…

It was too much paying attention of the other man, he figured one day, as his midterm grades had returned and he had seen just how abysmal they had been for his math class. He had always known that he in the subject but it still didn’t help that he was struggling this badly over his lack of concentration. Scrunching up the piece of paper that told him of his grade thus far in class, he sat on the small dining table in their dorm that faced the window looking outside sighing far too loudly one day.

“You okay?” He heard Donghae ask as he had wandered back from basketball practice.

Distressed sounds that Hyukjae had deeply regretted making the moment that Donghae chuckled at his reaction had made sure that he was partly hiding his face which was only pronounced by a thud of the table as he almost slammed it in hopes of hiding it.

“Are your grades not looking good?” Donghae slid a chair next to his roommate and picked up the rumpled piece of paper and made quite an awkward noise himself as he noticed the failing mark. “Have you tried looking into a tutor?”

Hyukjae tried to shake his head against the table and only garnered quite the burning sensation on his forehead before hissing at the offending object and turning to look at Donghae. “Everyone’s beyond booked at this time. I’d have to wait until next semester to try to get someone.”

Donghae pat at his shoulder in solace, “well, my math grades are passable. I could help you out if you’d like.” At the sight of Hyukjae’s enormous eyes, Donghae was soon roaring with laughter and also had found a fist slamming somewhat harshly against his shoulder. “Hey now. I’m just trying to be a helpful friend over here. I don’t deserve any of this violence!”

Hyukjae apologized profusely and got a more vigorous laugh from Donghae as he all but begged Donghae to be his tutor.

“It’s settled! We can probably start this weekend. After the game? Say, have you ever gone to a basketball game?”
 

Does reading about it in Ultimate count? Hyukjae asked himself and chose to shake his head in reply.

“We have a game coming up on Saturday. Would be nice to have a familiar face there? Maybe cheering me on?”

Hyukjae wondered if he could slap away that stupid, beautiful grin off of Donghae’s face.

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The most Hyukjae had indeed known about basketball was what Ultimate had sort of taught him. He did follow Donghae and Mina’s antics as Donghae went through the trials and tribulations of even making it into the team. It had taken Donghae being a ball jockey and pretty much the of all jokes as he had tried his hardest to be recognized in his want to play for the team given his stature. Hyukjae recalled Mina having to cheer Donghae up far too many times by taking him out for his favorite dessert at the nearby ice cream parlor. As he reminisced about Donghae’s adventures with Mina while waiting in line to get inside the gymnasium for the game, he remembered a particular moment when Donghae had a certain stupid incident with ice cream.

Donghae’s stupid puppy dog eyes had  been Mina’s greatest weakness. She had felt this worse when Donghae had been the saddest in his life. On Donghae’s quest to try to become the “world’s greatest basketball star,” as he had so graciously said it himself, Mina had visited the Sweet Sakura Ice Cream store far too often with him. She had returned with her scoops of ice cream on a cup and Donghae’s banana split which he just casually inhaled most of the time. She sat down and placed both desserts in front of them and watched Donghae simply kept poking at his.

“Hae, I didn’t buy you that so that you could shred it to pieces instead of eating it properly,” Mina bemoaned as she took a spoonful of green tea ice cream to her lips.

Donghae sighed and continued to poke away at the ice cream. “But Mina! You know how hard this has been for me! One freaking year of having to put with all their crap and still I can’t even manage to score a shot to try to try out for the team! You know how good I can be!”

Mina nodded and continued to down her ice cream, “have you asked coach Himura enough times?”

“I think it’s because I have asked him so much that he’s simply ignoring my requests now.”

Mina had reached out to hold Donghae’s stationary hand on the table causing him to suddenly be far too startled by the motion and knocking down his dessert all over the floor. “Donghae!” Mina called out as they both floundered to their knees nearly knocking each other’s heads off as they tried to clear the floor underneath.

The laughter that broke out of the two of them as they had both reached out for the beaten up banana on opposite ends and it wound up cut in half because of their action of both trying to pick it up at opposite ends had caused everyone in the establishment to look at them as if they were insane. They had left as they were both kicked out for the ensuing ice cream fight that they had suddenly started on the floor instead of cleaning up the mess they had created in the first place.

Hyukjae settled into his little area of the stands and took in just how full the gymnasium had been been. He shouldn’t have been surprised to see so many people and the cheerleaders that had come out before the teams had wandered out. He admired their choreography and jumps in mid air but as soon as he had caught the familiar shape clad in red and black that he was here for in the first place, all cognitive manners of thought quickly escaped him. His breath hitched as the teams made their way into the court soon enough.

Donghae had of course been one of the shorter members and he could see that some of his teammates were very casually poking fun of him before the game. But he had earned his spot to be there. He had worked so hard in helping out his old team and that one night that coach Himura had spotted him shooting balls and landing pretty much everyone of them into the hoop. Coach Himura had made sure to call Donghae out the next day and asked him to join the team. Donghae’s joy wound up with Mina being flung so harshly in his arms and a boisterous celebration within the group of friends. His hard work had lead him here and he was just as proud of Donghae as Mina had been.

A smile on Hyukjae’s face and his little souvenier of ribbons on a stick that had the school colors had him glued to the game in due time. Basketball wasn’t a hard game to figure out and he was groaning and jeering and cheering with the rest of the fans on the stands. He watched as Donghae had been knocked aside more than a few times. He had been angered to have been so but most of the time had laughed off the occurence only to turn around, steal the ball and swiftly score some great shots for the team. The game had been a rush, or so Hyukjae thought. Their team won and he had felt his voice had become raw after so much cheering with everyone else. He watched as the team hoisted Donghae on their shoulders and he felt that he momentarily had caught Donghae’s gaze in the fray. He had wiggled his hands in no real hopes of having been seen only to have Donghae wave rabidly at him and mouth his name and give off that stupid smile that melted his heart so. He blushed and remained in his spot as he waited for the crowd to trickle out and watched as the team had wandered back to the locker room to continue with their celebrating antics.

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Although Donghae had promised that he would help out Hyukjae with his studies after the game, Hyukjae hadn’t really anticipated him to follow up with his word especially as he expected that the team would be off partying stupidly somewhere. So seeing Donghae enter the dorm so nonchalantly an hour after the game honestly shocked him.

“Oh, why aren’t you out celebrating?” Hyukjae asked curiously as he sat down his drink over the island of the kitchen.

Donghae’s soft laughter filled the room, “no way. I’ve been to far too many celebrations. Besides, had I remained long enough, I would have had to either deal with the drunken ones or become a drunken one myself. Besides, I made plans with you, didn’t I?”

Hyukjae could feel his face heat up at the statement, “but you should be out celebrating that victory! I’ve still got tomorrow to study and we could have done that then.”

Donghae merely smiled and ran a hand through his sweaty hair to get it out of his eyes. “Give me a few minutes to clean up and you can get your stuff together?”

Nodding blankly, Hyukjae had taken to staring at a sweat drop that was casually working its way down Donghae’s neck. “Yeah… Sure.”

Opening the door to his room and carelessly throwing his knapsack in the general direction of his bed, Donghae began to lift his soaked basketball shirt over his stomach and shoulders as he closed the door to the bathroom behind him leaving Hyukjae in awe of his back muscles and yearning to see more of that man’s skin.

Hyukjae shook his head fervently trying to shoo away any and all impure thoughts. Not like he hadn’t been experiencing an increase of them as of late as he had wondered endlessly how Donghae’s lips felt and how it would feel to hold his hand and how it would feel to lie in bed with him and possibly roll around in it and- Well, that was another thought altogether, he faltered as he cleared his throat and ran the cold water from the sink and splashed it on his face before going to fetch his study materials and waited patiently for Donghae to come out of his shower. And he did. Looking ridiculously stunning with that wet hair and the water droplets that teased to fall from his body. He caught himself before Donghae noticed that he was gaping at him as he was drying his hair with the small towel that was draped over his shoulders.

“Okay, let’s see what you’re dealing with,” Donghae said as he had placed down his cup of water on the table and took a seat right next to Hyukjae and made Hyukjae’s senses almost faint at the scent of the newly clean Donghae.

Hyukjae had begun to fiddle with his fingers in hopes to regain some sanity over the close proximity of Donghae and being attacked by far too many impure thoughts and he nearly jumped out of his seat as Donghae turned to look at him and worriedly asked if he was okay to which he nodded a bit too exuberantly and begged forgiveness for his lack of attention.

“Well, I can see where you would be having trouble. Should I guess that math was never your greatest strength?”

Hyukjae exhaled and looked down at the book in front of them. “Yeah, it’s really a wonder that I’ve made it so far with what I want my major to be in the end.”

“And that is?” Donghae turned to look at him and used an arm to lean onto the table to have a proper perch to look at Hyukjae.

“Oh, I plan to be a teacher. For the younger ones? I think I could do that.”

As the night wore on, Hyukjae had been attacked by Donghae’s smile far too many times. And had he blushed a bit too much that evening as well. But they had also shared a lot of laughter and playful hits of each other and ever so casual brushing of their knees from time to time. It was a wonderful night to Hyukjae as he cleared the dishes that they had both used during their study session.

“If you ever need any more help, just make sure to ask for it, alright?”

Hyukjae nodded as Donghae placed his cup into the sink.

“That’s a good studious young man!” Donghae claimed before ever so casually patting at Hyukjae’s causing the other to freeze in his spot. “Oh, gosh. I’m sorry!” He laughed, “it’s a stupid habit to break out of for congratulating others with. Anyways, have a good night, Hyukjae.”

Watching how Donghae’s smile remained glued to his face as he walked into his room, Hyukjae fumbled around with the glass he was holding making sure that he didn’t break it in his shock.

Donghae, having precariously closed his door, found himself sliding down on it as he laughed at how silly his excuse had been to pat at Hyukjae’s . And what a weak excuse? But what’s one excuse after a far better night than being out drunk with friends and just learning more about Hyukjae? He hoped for more and softly scolded himself at his growing want to know everything about his roommate.