Then Donghae was ten and Hyukjae was eighteen and that was when Donghae learned not to cry. Hyukjae was going away for college and Donghae was getting left behind.

Donghae hated the crowd going at the airport. Why was it such a big deal with Hyukjae going to Japan? He only watched as Hyukjae's family made a mess carting off Hyukjae's luggages.

"Mom!" Hyukjae whined at one time. "Why did you pack these? It's old winter clothes, and it's still just summer. I could just buy those there. In winter."

"Shush honey, you never know when it'll get cold there. For a supposedly winter-adapted clan, you never really fared well with the cold."

Hyukjae wanted to throw a tantrum. He was already lugging in more stuff than he needed for a semester's stay. He could easily just bring more when he came back from break. But this was his mother, so he could only just throw his hands up without her looking.

Hyukjae's Dad sent Donghae an amused look with the exchange between mother and son. Donghae's left ear merely twitched. Then everything got settled and Hyukjae didn't need to leave with half the luggages packed for him. In no time it was a flurry of goodbyes as Hyukjae started to go through check-in procedures with last minute reminders from his Mom.

"Take good care of yourself, squirt," Hyukjae finally got around to Donghae, patting the orange head before squishing the tiger cub ears. Donghae just nodded, not really looking at Hyukjae, so he didn't see Hyukjae waiting for him to say something. But Donghae was still ten, and all he knew was that his Hyukjae is leaving.

Hyukjae's Mom started to sob as Hyukjae finally turned to leave, his Dad consoling her. Donghae stayed quiet but no one would mistake that the parting wasn't hurting Donghae, not with the way his ears and tail went rigid watching Hyukjae's back, nor the claw marks on his palms where he was curling his fists.

Donghae's Mom looked over Donghae worriedly. She had talked to him in the weeks leading to Hyukjae's departure, who would be attending university in another country, Japan to be exact. The gumiho clan finally announced the good news after they found out Hyukjae passed the university's entrance exams. Hyukjae's intervening high school final exams and graduation march came, then he got busy with college plans.

It was the first summer break that left Donghae listless with nothing to do. Not when he was used to having Hyukjae to spend it with. There were days he knocked on Hyukjae's family home only to be reminded that Hyukjae already left.

There were a few days when the families thought Donghae wasn't going to be okay, but he got back into his usual perky self. Summer ended, and Donghae stopped knocking on the gumiho clan's door.

And without Hyukjae's influence, Donghae grew into his nature, of being rough and rowdy, a far cry from his cute countenance. Donghae's Mom despaired at Donghae regularly coming home with cuts and bruises, grinning through her tirade about not picking fights. In time she met his other friends - Ryeowook since from their kindergarten days, who's fully human but whose shaman family worked closely with the clans; of Yunho who's conveniently from another cat family, the lion clan, Donghae's regular sparring partner for their clan abilities; Siwon of the Thoroughbreds, an upper echelon horse clan, and countless many others. Donghae turned out to be a really friendly, and sociable person, and despite his initially prickly attitude, could quickly warm up to genuine people. He had even made friends with the turtle boy Yesung. Now that he wasn't always following Hyukjae around, nor have Hyukjae check his every move, he quickly made a reputation for himself around campus that was something other than cute. If only delinquent wasn't also part of that reputation.

But Hyukjae's leaving must have royally pissed him off, because he never visited Hyukjae's house whenever the latter was on break, and was even conveniently absent whenever it was Hyukjae who came visiting. 

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