The next time I saw Donghae was three days later. I wondered, if I should get used to the man´s disappearing and appearing in my life, as if he was the controller of my destiny or something. Yet I wasn´t once again prepared when Donghae stopped me on my way to the zoo in the cold autumn morning.

“Hey!” He greeted cheerfully. “Great timing, I wanna come with you.”

“Donghae, you see, I shouldn´t bring you to the zoo like that,” I tried to decide the fate by myself a little.

“Who cares, let´s go!” But the brunette knew very well how to completely shut me off when needed.

And so we began walking towards the tall metal gates. I had my hands in the pockets and my face was hiding in the red scarf. It began drizzling too and my nose was runny. I could imagine better morning honestly but I could also imagine worse so I embraced the ugly weather and walked into the park.

“Where are we cleaning today?” Donghae asked looking around curiously. It was calm all around apart from animal sounds and one of my colleagues carrying a box somewhere in the mist.

“I wonder, if you are cleaning anything today,” I rolled my eyes as the latter was obviously here just to piss me off again.

I brought Donghae to the staff room and let him wait by the door while I changed into my green work clothes. I put on the jacket and buttoned it properly to the top. Then I went to check the list of items I was in charge of today. It didn´t look bad and there was even one commentated feeding later this morning. I returned back to Donghae and told him today´s program. He looked quite pleased and I began doubting his reason for coming here.

“This is going to be fun,” Donghae chuckled when we entered the terrarium. His eyes were wide and there was a long smirk on his lips.

“Honestly, I´m not fond of these guys,” I said with a dreadful expression. I pulled the keys from my pocket and began searching for the one I needed first at the moment.

“I wonder, which one is the scariest,” Donghae was swirling in the short hallway and looking through the glass over at various snakes and reptiles.

“The vipers would be probably the most dangerous. These snakes are found commonly in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand but in South Korea too. The vipers are known to be aggressive in nature. Their bite can lead the sufferer to face paralysis, sudden heart failure and brain haemorrhage. Bleeding is another common sign but even after noticing the bleeding, immediate help can´t always help the victims. It´s one of the fastest but also the most dreadful way to die,” I recited one of the things I learnt for the purpose of commentated feeding.

“Wow, great,” Donghae began looking for the snake I told him about. He found the sticker of one of the vipers and plastered himself against the glass. “Can you take it out?”

“Nope, I take care of the least dangerous snakes, the unusual or expensive ones are there for specialists to take care of. I´m only a helper, remember?”

“But you do have the key, right?” Donghae asked hypnotizing the metal objects in my hand. “Give it to me!” He suddenly called and before I knew it, he was already in front of me and pulling the keys from my hands.

“Have you gone mad? Give it back!” I panicked when he managed to win the keys from me.

“Shut up!” Donghae spat and shoved me on the ground. But to my bad luck I hit my head against the metal bucket of water and curled to a ball in pain.

My eyes were tearing but through thin slits I could see Donghae fighting with the lock on the viper´s terrarium. Then the lock clicked and Donghae breathed in in expectation. He opened the glass and watching intently the sleek animal, he stripped himself from his thick jacket. I was watching in daze as he pushed his bare arms into the terrarium.

“Come on, baby, bite me!” He pleaded the snake.

I watched the previously sleeping snake to come to life as it watched carefully the foreign objects in his territory. The animal was very calm compared to those living in the wild but still this was the most dangerous situation I´ve ever encountered while working here. My heartbeat was quick and my stomach was convulsing painfully at the sight. Donghae was pounding against the glass and the snake was starting to become irritated. It felt endangered and the desperation in me was reaching the limits. I couldn´t move, my body was immobilized by the shock from the hit and by enormous fear. I was shaking because I kept fighting with myself. I wanted to stand up and stop Donghae but I couldn´t and the picture became smeared as tears filled my eyes to the brim.

“I hate you!” I spat with the last strength I had in me.

Donghae´s head snapped and he looked at my body on the floor. I was still curled into a ball and crying. The brunette troublemaker then breathed in and slowly pulled his arms out of the terrarium. He turned away from me and properly locked the box with my keys. Then he walked to me and crouched down.

“You´re not even bleeding,” he said to me and I fell into another fit of crying. When I thought about it, the wound didn´t hurt so much, it must have been just the stress that was unknowingly sending the pain through my nerves. Now that I relaxed, I couldn´t calm myself anymore.

“I almost killed you!” I sobbed. Doesn´t he get it? He could have made me a murderer. It was me who brought him here and whose keys he used to open the terrarium. It was also only me, who was in the room and could stop the tragedy from happening. And to save him I had no strength but also no excuse for not doing anything because just like Donghae greatly remarked, I wasn´t injured.

“My, my,” Donghae sighed and tried to make me sit, “didn´t I tell you I hated you acting like a wimp in front of me?” He was as always being insensitive.

“I forgot, sorry,” I answered tiredly. What else was I supposed to say? The feeling of not being able to do anything in the crazy situation was sinking in and although I believed I was sitting, my head was spinning like a cartwheel.

“Stop apologizing and get up already, it´s cold,” Donghae scolded, “the floor is I mean,” he added a little awkwardly and at that moment the dizziness stopped as on magic.

“Uh, yeah,” I told him and even though the ground was truly cold, there was this unnatural warmness rising from somewhere.

It took us a little while to get me back on my feet and even after accomplishing that I wasn´t sure, if I would be able to keep the balance well. I grabbed the mop I brought and used it as a crude. Donghae watched me with amusement written all over his face and I really wanted to slap him. That would, though, disrupt the frail sense of stability I owned right now.

“That´s what happens when you skip breakfast, Hyukjae,” Donghae began putting his coat back on.

“What?” I tried to restart my stuck brain fast.

“You totally lack energy,” he shook his head with a feigned seriousness.

“Jerk,” I mumbled because he obviously just tried to shift the whole blame on me. That he definitely wasn´t the cause of my messed up state. That I almost had a heart attack because I didn´t eat a ing breakfast! I felt like crying again.

“I think I should take you out for something nutritious quickly. What would you like to eat?” Donghae smiled at me gently with sad but honest eyes. I blinked and then my legs gave away again.

Fanservice:

Fan: What do you think is the meaning of the album cover?
Kangin: We want to ask that question to the company too.
Leeteuk: Didn’t you think our album cover lacks integrity? Like no matter what, it´s our 10th anniversary album. When the members first saw it, we thought ‘Ah finally we’re getting sponsorship from Audi’.

Hello! So this is going to be the last chapter before Hyuk´s and probablyeven Hae´s enlistment. For this occasion I´m preparing a short one shot, it should come out tomorrow. It was supposed to snow today over here, it´s super cold. I even wore the thick winter coat. I guess the winter will come son in the story. Thank you for reading and take care! - PandaHero