8:35pm

Ryeowook clicked his tongue disapprovingly, peering out against the red long curtains. His eyes searched through the sea of crowd and again, his lower lip trembled in disappointment. Ryeowook shook his head, stepping back against the curtains as he watched his friends on the stage performing their final act.

It was the last show. 

Ryeowook had taken on directing and composing the school’s thirtieth anniversary musical. He was so excited and proud for this musical considering that he was the main director and that it was his first successful work. The amount of effort and time he had put in for this musical…. It was beyond anyone’s imagination. This was Ryeowook’s baby and of course all those time and effort put in to prepare for the musical paid off. The tickets for his musical sold out in a few seconds and the school even decided to add in extra dates for the musical due to popular demand as originally it was only supposed to be for three days as it was for the school’s anniversary. His musical had been running for five days smoothly now and this was the last day. It was ending soon in another few minutes and Ryeowook’s eyes shone with tears as he thought of all the blood and sweat he had poured into this project. It was all worth it and if he could he would redo it all over again.  

Yet…. Despite feeling proud and overwhelmed that the musical was coming to an end and that it ran for five days smoothly without any difficulties, something else was bothering him. This was the last day of his musical and yet, Kyuhyun have not showed up even once. Kyuhyun promised Ryeowook that he would give him his support but where was he? Ryeowook huffed in frustrated and shook his head. Whatever. He wasn’t going to let his boyfriend’s empty promises get to him tonight. Tonight was about his friends who had worked just as hard as he had for this musical. He was going to celebrate and think about Kyuhyun later on.

***

“Ryeowookie! Someone’s here to see you!”

Ryeowook spun around to look at Heechul standing by the door, winking at him. They were having an after-party at Heechul’s dorm – Since he had the most secret stash of alcohol drinks, god knows where he got all of them from. Ryeowook got out from his seat and headed for the door where Heechul was grinning at him wickedly. Ryeowook gave him a look before stepping out, curious of who it was.

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

Denim jacket, ripped-jeans, tattoos and blonde hair. Of course, it was Donghae with his usual bad-boy grin. He handed Ryeowook a bouquet of purple flowers, congratulating him for the musical. Ryeowook looked at him in confusion. Had Donghae… Watched his musical? But this was Donghae… Whatever that involved sitting down and keeping his mouth shut for at least ten minutes annoyed the hell out of him.

“You… You watched my musical?” Ryeowook questioned, surprised. “I mean…. I didn’t see you at all in the audiences.”

“Maybe you weren’t searching for me?” Donghae raised his brows playfully and then continued. “I came across a flyer about the musical. I saw your name on it and thought that you were performing in it.”

“I directed it.”

“I figured that out after the whole thing was over.” Donghae answered sheepishly. “I was looking forward to seeing you on stage. Guess now I know what directing means.”

Ryeowook giggled, “You’re hilarious.”

“And you’re a good director.” Donghae winked, “I kind of enjoyed it to be honest. Don’t tell anyone I said that.”

Ryeowook pressed his lips together, forcing himself to stop smiling like an idiot. But he couldn’t help it. Donghae watching his musical was unpredictable and that he actually enjoyed it made Ryeowook emotional. Ryeowook shifted his attention to the flowers and then swallowed a lump in his throat. This was the second time Donghae had gotten him flowers and Ryeowook admitted to loving Donghae’s small kind gestures.

“Kyuhyun told me that you haven’t been in class much.” Ryeowook said, suddenly remembering what Kyuhyun had told Ryeowook about Donghae missing out class more often than he usually did. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Ryeowook searched Donghae’s face not convinced that he was telling the truth but not having any other way of prying for answers. “That’s…. That’s good then.”

Donghae smiled and nodded, “I guess I should get going now. You should get back to the party, you deserve it.”

 “I… I should.” Ryeowook blinked and then called after him as Donghae was about to leave. “Hae,”

Donghae turned around, confused and without realizing, Ryeowook stepped forward and threw his arm around Donghae’s long neck, giving him a hug. He poured all his emotions into the hug and he realized that this was the first time he had given Donghae a hug. Ryeowook thought that it was long overdue and that he owed Donghae a hug for so long now. Donghae deserved it, he had been so kind and sweet to him all this time. Leaning close to Donghae’s ear, Ryeowook whispered with full sincerely,

“Thank you.”

***

Ryeowook didn’t do much partying.

He drank a few drinks but it wasn’t enough to get him drunk. His emotions were all over the place and throughout the party, Ryeowook was trying to reason out why Kyuhyun hadn’t left him a single message or tried to even find him. Kyuhyun should have realized by now that he had forgotten about Ryeowook’s musical. So why wasn’t he trying to find Ryeowook and apologize? Not unless… He didn’t forget about it. Maybe in truth, Kyuhyun didn’t want to attend Ryeowook’s musical. But it couldn’t be. Kyuhyun knew how much it meant to him. Kyuhyun promised that he would give his support to Ryeowook.

It made no sense at all. Even Donghae came to his musical. If Donghae could sit through it and even find time to congratulate Ryeowook, why couldn’t Kyuhyun, his own boyfriend? The more Ryeowook thought about it, the more upset he got and it ruined his mood. He decided to just call it a night and leave early, not wanting his bad mood to affect the others who were partying and having so much fun.

By the time Ryeowook entered the dorm, he was more worried than frustrated over Kyuhyun not making it to his musical. Had something happened to Kyuhyun? Was Kyuhyun not feeling well? Did something came up at the last minute? Ryeowook was prepared for the worst thinking that maybe Kyuhyun had fallen sick.

But it was none of that.

Kyuhyun was not in the dorm. He wasn’t anywhere in sight. Instead, there was something on Ryeowook’s bed. Ryeowook walked to his bed, tilting his head in confusion. It was… It was a huge box with a blue ribbon on it. There was a card on the box with his name written on it. Ryeowook’s