Mrs. Lee sighed as she watched her son’s retreating back… two solid days has passed and her precious, always giving her a gummy smile, son was acting like a zombie, this worried her deeply.

“We should do something,” She nagged to her husband once again; her heart just couldn’t take the current situation anymore. “He is hardly eating anything and won’t say a word… he hasn’t cracked a single smile for last two days.”

Mr. Lee sighed as well before he placed his half empty tea cup on the surface of the dining table. The small family was seated at the dining room while having their breakfast… Hyukjae barely had any before he had excused himself to head back to his sanctuary, that would be his room, he had himself locked in since the moment he step his foot in this house.

“Considering the amount of food you made for him if he takes even a single bite out of all… I am sure he would be pretty full by now.” Mr. Lee joked while gesturing toward the table filled with porridge, soup, toasts, three sunny side up eggs, scrambled eggs, jam, nutella, bacons, sausages, butter, number of packs of strawberry milkshake (a few they had even seen Hyukjae snuck in his room just now), fresh baked apple pie, apple fritters, a bowl filled with coco pops and what not… but the smile on his face didn’t reached his eyes because the worry for his son resided there.

His wife scowled at him, silently scolding him for making a joke out of her worry before she utter, “I am sure it has something to do with Amber.”

“But Hyukjae said it’s not,” Mr. Lee exhaled an annoyed sigh as he mutter. “You already asked him that question a few times… he keeps saying it’s not Amber, why don’t you believe him?”

“Amber is his wife, so why isn’t she here with him?” His wife demanded. “Why does my Hyuk look like a zombie? If it isn’t because of her then shouldn’t she at least come and check on him?”

Mr. Lee again heaved a sigh because in all honesty he whole heartedly agreed with his wife’s words but…, “Hyukjae never lies and if he say that his miserable state has nothing to do with Amber then what can I do?”

“May be you should call Amber’s dad and-”

“What if it really has nothing to do with Amber? What if I talked to him and made his suspicion rise for nothing? What if Amber is away to play basketball and Hyukjae is sulking about that?”

“You mean to say that Hyukjae and Amber have fallen so much in love in these two weeks that Hyukjae is sulking when she isn’t here?” Mrs. Lee had such an incredulous look in her eyes that even her husband felt ashamed at his lousy excuses.

“Or… or maybe Kyuhyun and Hyukjae are fighting, that is why Hyuk is acting all moody… you did noticed that Kyuhyun hadn’t came for two days now and that is unusual.” Mr. Lee tried some other approach to avoid calling his friend and create unnecessary awkwardness between them.

“Kyu and Hyuk fighting?” The lady of the house snorted. “You do remember how their fights are, right? Even if they are mad at each other it never lasts more than a day… they forgive each other in a heartbeat no matter how much they pretend they are still angry… IF it was a fight between the two I am sure either Hyuk would have gone running after Kyu or Kyu would have been here to kick his at sulking like that.” She had seen the two boys grow up right in front of her eyes and knew they never held grudges for long.

“Maybe you are right but-” Mr. Lee’s words were cut short as a loud ringing of door bell disturbed them, he frowned wondering who could that be? Even if it’s already 10, they weren’t expecting anyone. His frown remain etch on his forehead even after opening the door because of the unexpected guest.

“Hello, Sir Lee.” Donghae greeted with a timid nervous smile on his face as he respectfully bow to the elder when he opened the door for him.

“Donghae?” Mr. Lee was sure surprise to see the younger boy here.

“Yes sir. Is… is Hyuk-… I mean Hyungnim here? I came to meet him.” Donghae’s soft and ever so polite voice made Mr. Lee suspicious but before he could answer the younger his wife came to stand beside him.

“He is here, dear.” She assured their guest.

“Then would it be alright if I wanted to meet him?” Donghae knew he was pushing his luck; he had his fingers crossed behind his back hoping that the elder couple won’t start interrogating him before they allow him to meet Hyukjae.

“I am sorry dear but he had himself locked in his room, I doubt he would talk to you.” Mrs. Lee’s voice was soft but there was a hard edge to her eyes like she was urging Donghae to say something regarding Hyukjae’s strong desire of being locked up like that but no matter how much of innocent look Donghae had plastered on his face he was no fool thus he opted to just breath out a soft ‘Oh!’ at Hyukjae’s mothers words.

“But can I try out my luck? I really need to talk to him.” Donghae tried not showing his desperation but he knew he failed miserably when Mr. Lee pinned him with a hard suspicious gaze but thankfully the lady of the house nodded and let Donghae pass them.

“Go straight up take a left and it’s the room on the left at the end of the hallway.” She muttered when the younger boy passed her eagerly, nodding once he literally ran toward the stairs. Mr. and Mrs. Lee shared a brow raised look after they saw Donghae taking two stairs at once to reach his desire destination.

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Donghae chuckled a little lifelessly as he sank on the floor with his back against the door he had been knocking on for last half an hour… he chuckled at his miserable state because it had been days since he has been knocking on different doors and asking for forgiveness and not gaining any at all, he sure had messed up quite badly.

He sat there for hours muttering ‘I am sorry Hyukjae’ again and again… he had lost count of how many times he might have said those words… could be a million times or two million, heck who cares! Donghae only cared and wished to hear a soft click of the door’s lock and Hyukjae to come out and say he was willing to forgive Donghae… but that never happened.

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Hyukjae sat with his back against his room’s door as he listened to Donghae saying sorry again and again… whenever younger’s soft apology would reach his ear a tear would leak from the corner of his eyes and run along his cheek falling on his shirt… he had lost count of the tears that had been shed but he could feel his soak shirt clinging to his collar bone.

Hyukjae had no idea how long ago Donghae had declared that he won’t leave until Hyukjae comes out and hear what he has to say… he had threatened Hyukjae that he would camp outside the elder’s room… but looking at the dark sky outside his window, Hyukjae knew it had been hours since the younger had been sitting right there in order to keep his promise and that made a couple of more tears to run down.

“Donghae?” A grave voice from outside his room made Hyukjae to jolt up as he sat straight with his senses becoming more alert.

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Donghae quickly got up and dusted his sour before facing Hyukjae’s father… waiting to be asked the crucial questions Donghae knew he had no answer of.

“Yes, sir?” Polite as ever, Donghae planned to play innocent again.

“It’s 10pm, young man.” Mr. Lee’s words made Donghae to glance at his watch and his eyes went round like a saucer.

“Just give me a minute and I would leave, sir.” Donghae said while his expression begged for elder man’s leniency. Mr. Lee sighed but nodded nevertheless before he turned around to leave… Donghae waited to be sure the elder was gone before he sat down again and with his mouth near the joining of door and doorway he whispered. “I have to go now but I promise I would be back tomorrow. Good night and sweet dreams… I love you, Hyukjae.”

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Donghae’s parting words made an electric current to run through Hyukjae’s body and his hand has automatically reached out for the door knob… but he control his urge to throw open the door throw himself in Donghae’s arm… No! He won’t forgive that little guy that easily.

*=-=-=-=-=-=*

As promised, Donghae once again found himself outside Hyukjae’s parents house… he met with wide accusing, confuse and suspicious eyes but thankfully the elder couple didn’t questioned his motives of being there… again!

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Mr. and Mrs. Lee were literally dying to find out what brought Amber’s brother- not Amber herself- to their house yet again, seeing how that boy had stayed for 12 straight hours sitting in front of their sons room yesterday, but they didn’t asked… and the only reason being, they had seen Hyukjae run to kitchen earlier today and devour all of Mrs. Lee’s cooked food before smuggling 10 packs of strawberry milkshake in his room… Mrs. Lee was hoping that this little change was because of the young brunet standing in front of her, thus she let him in once again.

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Hyukjae stood behind the thick curtain of his window as he spied on a brunet making his way toward his house… a teeniest smile made its way on Hyukjae’s face as he quickly went to sit on the floor beside his locked door… waiting…

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Donghae couldn’t believe on his luck as he stuttered toward the already familiar room’s door, a part of him told him that knocking on the door would be useless so he went and planted his beside the door, with his face toward the hallway through which he would be able to see Mr. and Mrs. Lee if they planned on spying on him… and he can’t let that happened because he have plans of saying some ridiculous things today…

“Good Morning, Hyukjae.” Donghae started cheerfully. “See, I am back like I promised… sorry about not camping outside your room yesterday but your father kind of scares me, reminds me of my middle school days… anyways, I wanted to say… I love you, Hyukjae.”

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Hyukjae was smiling at younger’s stupid blabbering but his last words sent a pang to his heart… as a million butterflies burst in his stomach.

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“The first time I saw you, you looked so freaking cute… cute and lost like a puppy, I wanted to pinch your cheeks and take you home,” Donghae chuckled softly before he became serious and leaning toward the door he whispered, “I love you, Hyukjae…. So where was I? Oh yeah, I wanted to take you home but you ended up taking me to your home…” Donghae laughed at that memory. “And… and I love you Hyukjae.”

Yesterday Donghae realized that if Hyukjae had let him see him and talk to him then Donghae had nothing better to say than that he was sorry… he has no explanation to give elder… he had no way of proving that he was not playing with elders feeling, that he sincerely fell for him… thus today Donghae plans to say ‘I love you’ as many times as he said ‘I am sorry’ yesterday.

“Whenever I teased you, you became so pink in face… you looked super cute.” Donghae said with a goofy smile on his face as he recalled all those times he had Hyukjae blushing, especially when he had demanded to buy a lube. “Oh and I almost forgot to say… I love you, Hyukjae.”

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Silent tears made their way down from Hyukjae’s eyes as he sat plastered to the door with his inner self gnawing at him to give up and tell Donghae that he loved him too… but he had no idea how he stopped himself.

“I have no idea how I started falling for you… could be the day when I first kissed you or it could be before that… hmm… Oh I just remember I needed to say…,” Donghae’s nervous voice made Hyukjae more alert as he listened carefully. “I love you, Hyukjae.”

The soft melody made a dry sob mixed with a chuckle to leave Hyukjae’s lips… he put a palm on the surface of the door, hoping to be able to touch the boy he knew was sitting just beside that small barrier.

Hours had passed… Hyukjae had already emptied eight packs of strawberry milkshake and he was in desperate need