:::

"Are you ready now? Kyuhyun said everyone's there and we're missing the fun!!"

Hyoyeon comes out in a jiffy, putting pearl-white earings of ten-year old memories. "You know
for a fact Kyuhyun is a liar, don't you, Hyukjae?"

Hyukjae gives him the quizzical look.

"Come on, he lied about not liking Joohyun and next thing we know he's marrying her."

There is a point and Hyukjae knows arguing with his wife is a bad idea. They've had way too many
arguments before and he's not adding one to their list just because of Kyuhyun. It's true anyway,
that guy seriously lied.

"Okay, I'm ready now. How do I look?" Hyoyeon twirls.

Well, Hyukjae lied about his feelings too. Maybe not lied, just kept it a secret.

"You are so hot, Mrs Lee."



The first time he met Hyoyeon, Hyukjae has never learned yet that the word 'hot' is anything more
than something to describe the boiling kettle. He had only juggled 'pretty' and 'cute' to tell Donghae
how the girl he met at the playground looks like. And a warning that if he sees a pretty and cute girl,
Donghae is not allowed to talk to her. Brother's etiquette, or so Hyukjae says.

It was actually like telling his step-brother to back off her girl and Hyukjae muses what kind of mind
he had when he was eight years old. Then again, this attraction didn't falter one bit, in fact it grew
stronger day by day that this thing in his chest keep pounding fast so much that it hurts, making him
worried if at ten he was having a heart attack. Donghae brushes him off though, tells him he just have
to be a man and talk to her, like how his dad approached his mom and now they're step-brothers.

"S-she might get scared," is what his honest excuse was.

"Of what?"

"Of my smile?"

Donghae would never understand. Not until he had his own love at first sight (which happens in second
year highschool, quite a complicated love affair, if you ask Hyukjae).

 

He comes up to her eventually, mustering up courage he should have collected the whole time he spent
watching her. His pretty and cute girl turns out to be rough, even manlier than him, and she who loves
to dance.

"H-hi! I'm Lee Hyukjae!" he greets with that smile of him showing his gums, try as he might to hide it.

"Hello, Hyukjae! My name is Kim Hyoyeon and we should be friends!"

She is perfect.

The thing about Hyoyeon is that, everything about her (and things that come with her) is perfect. The
moment they shared their dreams and passions, the puzzle fit automatically that Hyukjae is scared if
he try to pull out one piece to try an identical (or nearly identical) one, the balance would be disrupted
and he might loose her. What they were since that day on the swing up to middleschool--friends--
is part of the equilibrium and Hyukjae is terrified to ask her out, to tell her he likes her because it will
destroy what they have. And what they have is awesome. Hyukjae just got to enjoy it and not ask for
more.

"You are a very lonely boy," Shindong, the dance club leader tells him. "Don't let this be another one
of those fail stories where I go telling you had known it was love and now you'll just pass by each other
like it wasn't. Believe me," he says louder when Hyukjae goes up to leave. "I've been in this club for
more than you can imagine. There is always something behind I want to be her dance partner. Always,
Hyuk, always."

Dance is the greatest connection he has with Hyoyeon. Dance is the greatest balance they have and
everything, everything will be lost if he takes that piece from the puzzle. He can't be anything more
than her friend, but he can always be her dance partner--her only dance partner.

So it was kind of sad when Hyoyeon started becoming dance partners with a boy other than him. To
think they won that competition in second year where they had to cancel lunch with Donghae and
Kyuhyun and Joohyun. To think that he was slipping letters in her locker to encourage her more for
practice. To think he got caught by a clueless Joohyun who was just passing by the lockers area.

Third year, Hyukjae thinks Hyoyeon is unfair.

"Hey, Hyo! Want to dance?"

He could see her face drop. "Sorry Hyukjae. I've got dance with--"

"No, no, it's okay! It's fine. Absolutely fine."

But really, it wasn't fine. Not because she doesn't want to dance with him, he's gotten over that
stupid idea anyway. Not because Hyoyeon has been saying the excuse for three months already.
Not because he doesn't know what the hell he had done to make her avoid him (it must be his smile).

Hyoyeon is unfair because she had disrupted their balance all by herself without him knowing and
he has nothing to do but watch them be what he has been scared to see all these years:                .

"You have dance with another guy again or...?" Hyukjae had his first taste of wine in Kyuhyun's birthday
party and the experience wasn't a good one. "Because you know Hyo~yeon, I can make up better 
excuses than that. Want me to make you one?"

Hyoyeon presses her lips, "Hyukjae, you are intoxicated."

"How about... I don't like you Hyukjae. Or, or, this is much more hilarious. No, Hyukjae I won't dance
with you because I HATE YOUR FACE! (Hyuk, what are you saying?!) Or maybe my smile! This, this
pathetic gummy smile of mine! Or maybe because I look like an anchovy not like Donghae who's
Nemo-ish... or something!"

"You know what--fine. Maybe I'm really making excuses. Maybe, maybe--"

"--maybe what Hyoyeon?! For Pete's sake. Maybe what?"

"Maybe I just don't want to dance with you." And there are tears in her eyes that even the alcohol
could not cloud Hyukjae's sight.

They went on like that for the rest of their third year until it was opening of their fourth year and
Hyukjae applies for an Arts College to major in dance and Hyoyeon goes for journalism instead.

"W-what's this about? Why is she not in a dancing school? What happened here?" he asks Donghae
who was checking up possible schools he could enroll in California.

"Hyo isn't allowed to dance after this. Her father wants her to be a columnist."

"That's absurd! Doesn't he know how much she loves dancing?! It's her dream!"

"He won't pay for her education if it's dance."

 

Graduation night, the group meets in Jongwoon's cafe and as a routine, they leave little messages
on the shop's board, only this time Jongwoon's dad promised to frame it along with their young promises.
Hyoyeon writes in bold letters and capitals: I WILL BE A DANCER, while Hyukjae discreetly writes down
a personal message to her in 8's: Fighting!

"What are you doing here?" Hyoyeon laughs, bewildered. "Weren't you going to an arts college?"

"Maybe I don't want to dance anymore. Not unless it's you I am partners with."

"Oh, Hyuk. I only said that because--"

He beams at her, all the white front teeths and gums showing. Hyukjae tells him he knows already.
"Donghae told me." But it was actually Jessica who punched sense into him.

You remind her why she loves dancing and right now, that's the least thing she needs.

Thing is, Hyoyeon is his reminder too. If she quits, so does he. But he wasn't there to begin something
new, he was there to keep the dream for a someday he hopes they would see together.

"Hey you dirty little liar!" Hyukjae greets Kyuhyun with a warm hug. Hyoyeon and Joohyun embraces
and jumps in excitement.

They sit, the newcomers ordering espresso for a cold winter evening.

"You guys, our dance studio is opening up in three weeks. You better come or else." Hyoyeon threatens
and all laughs at the witty dancing queen just like how it was.

Hyukjae sees the framed messages they wrote some ten years ago but only now does he realize a small,
almost unseen handwriting a little below his name:

'Dear Secret Admirer, your gummy smile is hot.'

Of course he smiles after that, now that he knows she likes it. Even if it's after ten years. Or more.

part two: hyohyuk. This shouldn't be thought of as by chapters. It's a oneshot, only I separated each pairings so it's not going to be super long. :)
Thanks for the comments^^ Dedicated to SAPPHiREDREAMs