Hyukjae found it suspicious that Donghae never once again asked why he couldn’t go home or where he was. Hyukjae had yet to tell Donghae that he’d been accidentally zapped into the future, so that couldn’t be the idea Donghae was going with. It was as if he’d come up with his own answer already and was sticking to that. Hyukjae let him be for the time being because he knew that if Donghae did come to ask, Hyukjae wouldn’t be able to give him a lengthy, in-depth answer right now. 

There was nothing else to do, so when Hyukjae told Donghae to sit on one of the couches as he sat on another, Donghae wouldn’t stop staring at Hyukjae with wide eyes as if sitting in wait for some sort of reaction. Hyukjae had none to give, so instead, he turned to the help of the television.

When he turned it on, he received quite the response.

Donghae shot out of his seat to stand in front of the screen with a look of disbelief. He was hesitant to touch it, but when he did, he seemed even more shocked that his hand couldn’t go through. There were some sputters of magic, but Hyukjae paid them no mind and chose to plant himself down on the couch. He instructed Donghae to come sit beside him, and after trying to explain what exactly a TV was, he gave up and left Donghae to his own imagination.

For those two hours Donghae was wide awake watching late night cartoons, Hyukjae was fighting off sleep. All his nerves from before had calmed, be it because Donghae was actually quite well behaved or because he was exhausted to the point of not caring. Hyukjae was pretty sure it was a bit of both.

Donghae stayed quiet for the most part, although when Hyukjae would peek through tired eyes to make sure he hadn’t snuck off somewhere, he could tell Donghae was itching with curiosity, shifting every so often as if he was sitting on pins and needles. Everything around him was foreign and mysterious, so Hyukjae understood. But he was too tired to entertain any questions so they stayed quiet and let the television do the talking.

Against all efforts, unconsciousness slipped over Hyukjae.

When he woke, it was to a noise of something heavy falling onto the wood floors. For the second time that night, or early morning now, he shot up from the couch in a start. Unfocused sleepy eyes met with wide, apologetic eyes before half asleep limbs scrambled over to the situation.

Hyukjae knew he was scowling in that particular way Heechul said scared off little children, but he couldn’t help it. That TV had been an expensive one he’d been hoping to sell off to one of his neighbors.

Now it was toppled over on the floor, a bold crack splitting right up the front.

Hyukjae badly wanted to start a fight, but he stopped himself. Donghae had been curious and hadn't know what could happen. Plus, it was his own fault for falling asleep.

But an hour later and Hyukjae was still bitter about the TV. 

Donghae, who’d be banished to sit on the couch, apparently caught on. 

Hyukjae had known that the best way to contain a possible fit of rage was for him to bury his mind in something else in an attempt to distract himself. He had chosen to sit at the small dining table made for two and mull over some research papers.

But the sudden pitter-patter of bare feet had him glancing up.

“I sorry I break tel- tele- television,” Donghae said with a bit of a pronunciation struggle. A thick line formed between Hyukjae's eyebrows when Donghae got in front of him and promptly dropped to the ground into what Hyukjae assumed was a bow.

“It not happen again,” Donghae said into the floor, not lifting his head even after he’d finished.

Hyukjae cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Get up.” 

Donghae was standing in an instance. It made Hyukjae uneasy. The kid had done a complete turn around from how he’d acted when he first woke up. It was as if something was going on that he wasn’t aware of. He wanted to ask about it, but had no idea how to approach the topic. It miffed him, but he didn’t have more time to worry over the situation for Donghae’s eyes were now darting outside to where the sun was rising.

Hyukjae wondered if now would be a reasonable time to finally call Heechul?

He decided to give it a try, but not before escaping into the bathroom so that Donghae couldn’t interfere. The last thing he needed right now was to get into a lengthy explanation about how a cellphone worked. 

Heechul was an early riser, but apparently, "six in the morning is an ungodly hour for anyone to be up". Hyukjae ignored Heechul’s miniature rant, and interrupted him to tell him about last night’s events.

“He woke up? So soon?” Heechul was very much awake now.

Hyukjae one again ignored Heechul’s rhetorical questions, and instead asked Heechul what he should do.

After a moment of pondering, Heechul suggested that they meet up at the lab in two hours. This made sense seeing as how Heechul and Hyukjae lived on opposite sides of town with the lab site sitting somewhere in between them. Plus, Hyukjae was hoping that maybe something in the lab would trigger Donghae into remember something. The reality of that was almost impossible, but there was always hope.

Hyukjae paused for a moment at the thought of the word hope. It was a word he didn’t believe in, yet here he was. It almost made him crack a smile, but as he came out of the bathroom, Donghae fidgeting nervously in the living room reminded him there were more important things to think about.

The first of those was getting Donghae changed into something less… tribal.

“Come on, let’s get you covered up,” Hyukjae said, beckoning Donghae to follow him into his bedroom. Donghae, having turned the obedient little solider, followed behind.

Hyukjae pointed at the bed. “Sit.”

Donghae complied, although, was quickly distracted by the concept of a bed. He ran his hands over the white sheets, marveling at how soft the bed felt. When he realized the bed dipped with every movement, he began to squirm around, laughing to himself in amazement. Hyukjae noticed the motions happening behind him, but he was more focused on finding the smallest thing in his closet to lend the boy.

But after a good while, he came to t