Thank you for upvoting yssassysla! High-five! :DDD

Woah. I updated early on a Sunday. Why do I feel that it’s a feat for me? Hahaha! At least today, you guys won’t come at me for making you wide awake on a Sunday evening or worse, midnight. Kekekeke.

“Hae. What’s wrong?”

Donghae raised his head up and looked at Eunhyuk. The restaurant closed and they were the only ones left inside it. “Nothing.” He buried his head on the table again.

Eunhyuk sat across his bestfriend. Ever since that New Year’s party, he had been really quiet. Like he was some scientist trying to come up with a solution on how to stop the zombie apocalypse. “Are you sick?” He asked sounding really worried. “Let’s go home. It’s the resume of classes tomorrow. I’m sure you don’t want to be absent, knowing how nerdy you are.”

No answer.

“Donghae.”

“I’m not sick.” He muttered.

“Then, what is it?” Eunhyuk was getting impatient. “You can tell me. I’m your bestfriend, remember?”

He immediately shut his mouth when he saw Donghae raised his head again and bore him those eyes that seemed to bear all the problems in the world. “What’s wrong?”

“Hyuk.” Donghae straightened his back and stared at the guy, contemplating how to share this big problem of his.

“Yeah?”

“It’s about . . .”

“About?”

“It’s . . .”

“It’s?”

“You know-”

“I know?” Eunhyuk started to frown as their convo went nonsense in every second.

“It’s D-D-D . . .”

“D-D-D?” Is he having an oral difficulty?

“Da . . . well, it’s . . . uhm, Da . . .uhh.” Donghae began to feel some beads of sweat on his forehead.

And Eunhyuk couldn’t take it anymore. “Say it!”

“Dara!”

.           .           .           .           .           .

“Yang Sandara?” Eunhyuk was baffled for a while.

“Yes.” It felt like a huge lump was taken out Donghae’s throat.

“You guys had a fight again?”

“No. No. It’s not that.” He shook his head.

“You want to borrow money from her?” He tried again.

“No!” Donghae shouted at him. “Why would I borrow money from her?!” He glared at his friend.

“Sorry.” He sheepishly smiled but then widened his eyes and gasped. “Don’t tell me you got her pregnant!”

If Donghae’s looks could kill, Eunhyuk would be sliced way brutally than those in Wrong Turn series. “One more ridiculous word and I’ll make you eat all the tables around us.” He said ominously.

Eunhyuk ignored that and raised his feet on the couch. “Well, I wouldn’t be thinking those ridiculous scenarios if you would only tell me reason why you’re looking so troubled about Dar-” Paused.

“What?” Donghae was taken aback with the way Eunhyuk looked like he was skinning him alive. Until he couldn’t stand his bestfriend’s silence anymore. “What?!”

“Don’t tell me you like her.”

Silence.

“Hahahahahaha!” Eunhyuk began slamming the table with his fists as he rocked his head to the back, laughing maniacally. “I’m sorry. That’s so ridiculous too! Aigoo! I’m sorry Dongh-” Eunhyuk stopped when he saw Donghae sitting ever so rigidly there with those big, puppy eyes. “Seriously?”

But instead of replying, Donghae buried his head even more to the table.

“Yah!” Eunhyuk grabbed his friend’s hair and shook him furiously.

“Owww!” Donghae sat back up again and pushed his hands away.

“Are you serious?”

Donghae looked at him a bit longer and honestly replied, “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?!”

“Okay. Fine. Crush. I think she has become my crush.”

Eunhyuk grimaced at that last word. “Wow. Crush. Gr. 3? Really?”

“I’m serious.”

“You can’t be!”

The namja shook his head like it was just a Math problem that was currently puzzling him. “I don’t know!” He said louder. “I think it’s just normal that I find her . . .” Very beautiful. “Different. It’s because I’m always with her. Wait. Not always as in always but she’s the only girl I’m close with . . . nowadays. Like comfortably have a conversation with her. Maybe it’s normal for guys to see those girls who are close with them . . . a bit different than those who are not. But that doesn’t mean they want to enter in a relationship or something? Dara . . . She is a friend, I believe. It’s acceptable to find certain connections with your friends.” He looked at his friend with hesitation. Honestly, he didn’t know if he got any sentence of his made sense. “Right?”

Eunhyuk had his pokerface on. “You remember Seulgi?”

What? Seulgi? “Of course, I do. She’s our bestfriend in Mokpo. What has she-”

“Did you ever find yourself crushing on her?”

“No!” Donghae quickly responded. “That’s , Hyuk. She’s like my younger sister. Our younger sister.”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “She’s close to you?”

“Of course.” What is he pointing at?
 

“What’s the difference between being with Seulgi and Yang Sandara?” He asked with that monotone voice.

Donghae chortled like it was an easy question in Quiz Bee competition. “Seulgi has been there with us since middle school. She’s a family to me. She knows me, us, from head to toe and vice versa while Dara . . .” He paused as his gaze fell on the table at the mention of the name. “Dara makes me see the other side of me.” His voice and gaze softened. “She can draw every emotion in me in just a minute of talking with her.” Donghae chuckled and smiled at the menu on the table, recalling the heiress as the one-day ordertaker of the restaurant. “She could make me frown deeply and laugh heartily as well. Her coldness amuses me but behind that was this unusual warmth that never once failed to capture . . . capture something inside me. There are times when she would just look at me and I find myself somehow lost and just staring back at those big, brown eyes of her. And that . . . that never happened to me, Hyuk. Really.”

Silence ensued when Donghae raised his head again, remembering he had someone he was talking to. “What?” He asked Eunhyuk who looked like eager to say something.

“Cruuuushh?”

“What?”

“And you tell me, she’s just a crush of yours.” Eunhyuk let out a chuckle of amusement towards his bestfriend.

“Huh?”

“Oh, nothing.” He tried to stop himself from grinning at his friend. Aigoo. He’s too innocent to know what falling in love is. “As your bestfriend, I’ll be on your side, watching your love story commenced.” And he laughed again. Actually, Eunhyuk wasn’t surprised on this. He saw Donghae changed little by little whenever the Yang heiress is around. He saw a different Donghae with a different Dara beside.

“What love story? Silly.” Donghae shook his head and began to fix them menus on the table.

“Wae?”

“I just told you what I feel but that doesn’t mean that feeling would grow deeply and make me do things I shouldn’t be doing.” Donghae said a bit seriously and his friend knew that look in him. It’s the familiar look whenever he accepts things go around him easily. Not because he’s someone who just gives up but he knew it wouldn’t take him anywhere.

“Why not?” Eunhyuk asked although he knew already what was going inside his nerdy friend’s head.

Having a crush on Dara would take him nowhere.

Donghae looked back at him like the question should be awarded as the Most Stupid Question of the Year. “Because she’s The Yang Sandara, Hyuk. And I’m just a Lee Donghae.” He stood up, taking the menus on his right arm. “It’s as mushy as it could get but you don’t have to be a grammar genius to understand the difference of those articles.”

Eunhyuk pursed his lips forward as he watched him walked in the kitchen to wash the remaining dishes. “What is an article?” He muttered to himself.

It was the day the students had to go back to the painful reality called school. It wasn’t that negative for Donghae woke up early after studying in advance last night the topics he knew they would discuss for the month of January. He was walking through the pathway to the Jinusean building when he noticed the peculiar attention the YG students were currently giving him.

But hey, it wasn’t like the first time.

What is it this time? He inwardly thought as he glanced at the students who stopped on their tracks, watching him passed by and began to whisper at each other and threw him dagger looks.

Who does he think he is?

How did he do it?

First, Yang Sandara apologized to him in the Wall of Doom. Now, he’s close to her?

Unbelievable.

Even the 2NE1 members helped him. Have you seen the news about that All Rise Silver restaurant?

If it weren’t for Choi Siwon, Park Yoochun, and Kim Heechul, he would still be a loser. Why is he even friends with them?

Why would the queens associate themselves to someone like him?

The question is: Why would someone like him dare associate himself with the elites?

Donghae just continued walking, pretending like he didn’t anything of those. So, it’s about that. He turned right to get to his first class. He has yet to reach to door when he was pushed harshly to the side and his bag fell on the floor. He picked it up and looked at the persons who did it. His classmates, Bobby and Taehyun. They opened the door and were talking to each other like they did nothing wrong.

“2017 and yet trashes are still around this campus.”

He heard Bobby say as they walked inside and he followed behind quietly, ignoring it. Again. Donghae sat on the far right chair and his friends beamed a smile as they turned to him. “Donghae. What’s up?” They gave high-five to the guy.

He glanced secretly to his right side and saw the seat is still vacant. Guess, she’s late.

“Good.” He smiled but it wouldn’t reach his eyes. After hearing those words early in the morning, he finally understood what it felt to get a Monday blues. He started to take out his book and pen when he saw his friends snickering at him. “What?”

“We heard the news.” Heechul smirked.

“What news?” He wasn’t able to watch the evening news last night in the restaurant.

“About you being close with Yang Sandara.” Siwon teasingly said.

He creased his brows. Even my so-called friends. He thought. “You were with us during New Year’s eve.” He said in point of fact.

“Yeah. Yeah.” Heechul put his chin on the backrest of his chair. “But is there something we need to know?”

“What?” Donghae asked and shook his head. “None. You need to know none because there’s really nothing to talk about.” He replied, reading a paragraph about bacteria on the book but not really comprehending it. He was avoiding their scrutinizing stares. Sure he didn’t want to lie to them but . . .

“Really?”

“Really.”

“If you say so.” Yoochun chuckled as they all turned their heads to the front when Professor PSY came in.

“Good morning class!” The always energetic teacher greeted out loud.

“Good morning sir!”

She’s absent. Donghae thought as he passed by the cafeteria. He finished his lunch alone for his friends had some matters to attend to. It’s near 2 p.m. and it’s his next class. Dara didn’t show up on their morning class. He was betting she wouldn’t too in the afternoon. “Aish. Why am I thinking of her attendance? I’m not her teacher.” Donghae frowned to himself.

“Excuse me! Yah! Excuse me!”

He stopped and looked to his left, watching a student approached him. Song Mino. The guy bullied him once with his friends. Donghae straightened his back, looking at the guy smiling and panting so hard in front of him. “Wae?”

“Are you busy, man?”

“Uhm. I have a class to attend to.” He pointed somewhere.

“Really?” Mino said, looking troubled. “But can you spare a minute or two?”

“Huh?”

“Please.”

“But-”

“You see, my friend and I are practicing baseball for like two hours now. There’s this try-out later this afternoon and still, he couldn’t hit the damn ball.” Mino chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. “I think it’s because of me. I got an arm injury yesterday in the gym while lifting. I couldn’t throw the ball properly and it’s affecting my friend’s performance too.” Mino started massaging his right shoulder.

Donghae looked at it and nodded in understanding.

“I mean, I really want to help my friend but I couldn’t do so . . . Well, I told him I’d try to look for someone who could help us and you’re the only one I found in this area.”

Donghae glanced at his back, watching the other YG students passed by them. Only me?

“Please. Jebal.” He clasped his hands together. “This will greatly help us. It’s his dream to get in the baseball varsity.”

Donghae looked at him in the eyes and saw the sincerity in it.

“It’s only 1:43.” Mino smiled hopefully. “Just one throw.”

Well, one throw wouldn’t hurt. “Okay.” Donghae smiled back.

“Yo!” Mino was running to the baseball field. “I found someone who will help you.” He was panting and so as Donghae who was running behind him.

“Solma?” BI brightened up. He looked at Donghae with a smile. “Annyeonghaesayo! I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble. It’s just that-”

“A-aniyo.” Donghae waved his hands. “It’s okay. I’m glad I could help.” He looked at BI and remembered him as the one who bullied him in the cafeteria once. Maybe this year, I should make more friends. He thought. “So, what am I gonna do?”

BI handed him the ball. “You just have to pitch the ball to me so that I could hit it. Mino here has some problems on his right arm so we really couldn’t get it done.” Mino bowed to him.

It sounds easy. “Okay.” He smiled at them and walked where Mino pointed where he should make the pitch.

“Just throw it!” Mino shouted from afar. He looked at BI who was already on his position. He was never the sport type. Donghae exhaled the nervousness for he wanted the guy to succeed and get in the varsity, not ruin it for him.

First throw!

“It’s okay, Donghae!” Mino clapped. “Some more force!”

It didn’t even reach BI. Embarrassment filled him.

“Let’s do it!” BI shouted.

Donghae clasped the next ball on his right hand. Come on, Donghae. He told himself, wanting to get this done right.

Second throw!