Italic = flashback

***

Lighthearted, DongHae hummed silently at random notes played on the radio while tapping his fingers against the car door. It had been a while since he went out with his friends like this. Looking at the streetlight of Seoul, DongHae felt magically refreshed already.

The young man realized that he had been burying himself with his work lately, leaving his life out. He shunned himself from the world. He used to be happier and livelier than this. However, since the day he was separate from his love, years ago, world become darker and bleaker by days. The sun doesn’t shine as bright, the birds doesn’t chirps melodious and the foods not as tasty. He became more frustrated with time passing by.

DongHae let his gaze lazily roamed the streets of Seoul. The streets lamps and neon lights of the never-ending premises by the roadside made the city seemed alive. So colorful, so beautiful, he mused.

DongHae’s bright mood went downhill as his mind travelled back 15 years ago. He could clearly remember that it was his call to come to this city years ago. One decision that, DongHae still regrets until now. If only he wasn’t so stubborn back then, he would be happy with HyukJae by his side now.

***

EunHyuk smiled at the bartender as the boy handed him his favorite drink. He picked up the fresh strawberry from the edge of his martini glass and plopped it into his waiting mouth. People often said martini doesn’t goes well with strawberry and he was weird for having it that way but EunHyuk knew better. The mixture of his favorite fruit and drink are heavenly!

He was at the club tonight. Acting as the manager as his two hyungs unable to make it tonight. Heechul hyung with his GI problem, while JaeJoong hyung.. well, JaeJoong going to be ‘busy’.

As expected, the club was a full house. Lonely rich and famous big names of Seoul crowding Diversity as if they didn’t have family back at home.

Lonely, but not as lonely as he is.

Absentmindedly his hand crept towards his chest and touched the ring. At night like this, even surrounded by crowds EunHyuk heart couldn’t help but to feel lonely and empty.

‘Did he miss me too?’

 ***

“Fishy-a.. what are you doing?” a 8 years old boy peeked from his best friend’s shoulder from behind. The raven-haired cutie was curious. His best friend had being acting weird that day. The brunette didn’t join him playing soccer. He refused to have lunch together with the other children and he even left Hyukkie walking alone after their class.

Hyukkie pouted his full lips and puffed his cheeks. He knew, his friend was planning something fishy. After a couple of hours looking around the orphanage, at last he found the boy crunched down by the river. From afar, he could see the boy was mumbling something under his breath. 

Hyukkie pouted more as ‘his’ Hae ignored him and continued concentrating on the small thing in his chubby palm. Minutes passed until his bestfriend turned towards him and gave him a wide goofy smile.

“Monkey, come here, I want to give you something.” Hae eagerly tapped on the grass beside him.

 “I’m not a monkey,” Hyukkie silently protested but complied.

 Hae reached out for his hand and pulled him down to sit beside him. Still suspicious at his friend, Hyukkie kept his mouth shut as DongHae pulled his right hand and slipped an oversized silver ring onto his ring finger.

With a satisfied smile plastered on his cute face, the brunette held Hyukkie’s hand high.

“It is still a little bit too big for you right now, but I bet in 10 years time, it’ll fit your finger best,” Hae warmly smiled to Hyukkie. His browns eyes glittered with happiness and love.

 Dumbfounded, Hyukkie only stared at his friend in awe. Mouth gaped, his eyes big in surprised.  

“But Hae-a, this is your mom’s. This one and only possessions of her with you.”Hyukkie stuttered as his tremors hand the silver ring.

“And now it is yours. I give it to you. You’ll treasures it as I do right? Look what it says here, ‘Love Bounded Me to You Forever’. Just like us, we’ll be together forever right, Hyukkie?” 

Hyukkie bit his lip holding the happy tears from flowing. Hyukkie closed his eyes as Hae leaned towards him and planted a chaste kiss on his innocent lips. He smiled a little as Hae pulled away and nodded as their small fingers entwined perfectly in each other, sealing their promise.  

***

“Hyukkie, I want to go out from here, I need to go to Seoul. I want to search for my father.” 

Hyukkie knew this time would come. It was only the matter of time since Hae discovered the truth about his father. The man is still alive, and he’s in Seoul right now.

“Hae, please reconsider this, how a 10 year old boy going to find a man in a huge city like that? We know nobody there, not to mention, we don’t have a penny with us.” Hyukkie tried to put some sense into his friend’s mind. However, Hyukkie knew how stubborn this boy is. He’s only prolonged a battle that he already defeated.

“I made up my mind Hyukkie, I saved enough. I’ll be going, in this week or two.” DongHae determined eyes, bored to Hyukkie’s eyes ever so seriously. 

“And please Hyukkie, don’t ever mention this to anybody including Teuki-hyung, arasso?” the trembling voice and the look on Hae’s face telling Hyukkie that his words were final. Nothing he can do to change this boy’s decision.

Suddenly, Hyukkie pulled Hae in a tight embrace. 

“Ok, I understand, but we are going to get through this together.  I’m coming with you, and don’t argue me this time” 

Hae stiffen at the words. After a moment of silence, Hyukkie felt Hae started to return the hug and mumbled in his chest. Hae’s tears wet his shirt.

 “Thank you Hyukkie, thank you.”

***

Being two orphans living in the street, penniless was not easy. They went from district to district, slept anywhere that they can put their head for rest. Eating was the biggest problem for them.

As they both were too small to be hire for job, the cruel reality forced them to do illegal acts. There are times they needed to pick pocket for money to buy food. Sometimes, they are lucky, but some other time they were caught.

And that night, was the worst of their luck. They had bothered a wrong person. At first, they thought the drunkard going to be an easy target for them, but wronged they were.

They scheming in dark as they eyed the tall dark man carelessly shoved his wallet into his hind pocket. They carefully tailed their target to a dark alley and executed their plan.

Hyukkie will pretended to collide to the man from front, meanwhile Hae will try to pick on his wallet. They had figured it all out. It supposed to be a clean job, no hassle. However, that night, their entire plan came against them. Everything turned out wrong. It became the worst nightmare for them, which later will changed their lives forever.

As Hae managed to put his hand on the man’s wallet, Hyukkie started to run. However, the man was fast, he caught Hyukkie by his shirt and pulled him closed to his body. He took out a knife from his shirt and aimed it at Hyukkie’s neck. Shaken by the sudden twist of event, both Hyukkie and Hae frozen on their feet.

“Well, well, well.. what do we got here..?   Oh, two dirty rats trying to take my wallet, eh. You just don’t know with who you just  come across with.” A deep nasty voice cut through the night, it sounded like thunders in the boy’s ears.

The man eyed Hyukkie who was still in his embrace, he said, “Hem, this one is not bad, just wash you a bit, put you on a nice dress, I think we can get money out you.” The slurred man his lips in lewed manner. His wicked smile got bigger and bigger.

“Please sir, don’t touch him, I’ll do anything,” Hae pleaded for his friend’s safety.

By God, Hae would kill this man if he could, but he knew his limitation. The man was big, and stronger. Moreover,  he had Hyukkie as hostage. He won’t take any chance if his friend’s life was at stakes.

“You’ll do anything? Hem, what a young boy like you can do for me eh..” the man started to think, “Aha, because of I really in need of money right now, what if I offer you a good bargain. Money for this boy”.

“You got to get me USD 500 before 12 midnight tonight, if not, I’ll sell this cute friend of yours to the brothel house and made him a hooker there.” The man fisted Hyukkie’s shirt and shook the boy several time. The shiny knife scratched dangerously close to Hyukkie’s neck.

Hyukkie’s eyes started to tears, as he felt terrified by the man’s acts and words. “Hae-a.. please save me” said Hyukkie between sobs.

Hae started to cry in frustration and fears. How he going to get the money? It was already 10 pm, he need to act fast, if he failed, his beloved friend will pay the price. “ I will get you the money! Just wait for me!.” Hae shouted his lungs out. 

“Just wait for me here, I’ll bring you the money, but I beg you, don’t hurt my friend!” little Hae clenched his fist in determination. He wiped his tears dry, and made up his mind. He will do anything to get the money for this person.

“Ahah, of course I’ll wait for you boy. Remember, your friend or the money, you pick. 1 minute late, I’ll be gone and you can kiss your friend goodbye.” 

The devilish man smirked evilly that made Hae wanted to puke. His disgusted hands on Hyukkie’s body made him hated and wanted to kill the man more.

“Just wait for me here Hyukkie, I’ll come back and save you! I promise you with my life! I’ll come back for you!” Hae ran as fast as he could to the crowd’s direction.

He turned to his friend’s direction for the last time and saw Hyukkie mouthed ‘I’ll wait for you’ before he took the corner.

***

“Yosh! We are here already.” YunHo excited voice pulled DongHae back to reality.

DongHae wiped his tears. He took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. They head into a big luxury club in front of them. They were welcomed by a cute young man by the door.

Bowing politely to them, the cute boy smiled and said, “Hi, and welcome to Diversity. I’m Nickhun, your assistant manager for tonight. Could I know, if any of you have already booked, gentlemen? Mr..?”

“YunHo, Jung YunHo. I already booked and these two are with me,” YunHo said.

 The boy skimmed through his I-Pad for a moment before said, “Jung-ssi. Oh, yes. You do have an appointment with JaeJoong-ssi.”

Nickhun showed them the way into the club. “By the way sirs, the manager for tonight is EunHyuk-ssi. He will assist you if you ever needed anything. Please gentlemen, enjoy yourself”

Again, DongHae felt his heart started to jump crazily in his ribcage upon hearing the name. On why the mysterious name have huge effect on him, he just had no idea yet, but his heart believed, he is about to find out soon. He silently followed YunHo and KyuHyun into the club.

The main hall was huge. From his keen observation, DongHae could see that Diversity itself divided into several sections. There were rooms at level 2 and 3 as well. As DongHae scanned the club, his eyes caught a glimpsed of a red head.

It was as if DongHae was bounded by a spell, his feet automatically made their ways toward the man. DongHae couldn’t gave any attention on his surrounding anymore. All his senses and energy were channeled towards the slim figures in white suit, who is now facing the bar, drinking a crossed the hall.

Even just a sneak at the man’s cheek, DongHae could see how his red hair enhanced his milky white skin even more. DongHae felt he was pull by a mystical force towards the beautiful and alluring being in front of him.

DongHae mumbled sorry to all those faceless men he bumped on the way to his target. Both YunHo and KyuHyun were long forgotten. For the first time, DongHae couldn’t think. His rational mind was not working and he couldn’t do anything about it. He hurried up his pace as his getting closer to the man.

His heart stopped beating as he reached his goal. He stood an arm length behind the man in full 3 minutes, just trying to breathe again. The crowds seemed to disperse in thin air at this moment. The sounds turned into white noises in the background.

The only thing that he could clearly heard were the sounds of two beating hearts. One heart, which belonged to him, as the other, belonged to the man in front of him.

***

EunHyuk took a sip of his martini and silently indulged the taste. Suddenly, he felt goose bump all over his body and he had the feeling that someone was watching him from behind. He heart beated madly as he turned around to verify his suspicion.

EunHyuk turned around and came face to face with DongHae. His eyes widen in disbelieved and his heart stopped beating all togather.

***

The world suddenly disappeared as DongHae’s brown orbs looked into EunHyuk’s black ones. They both stunned, lost in each other’s eyes.   

Finally, DongHae broke the thick atmosphere as he breathed out, “Hyukkie.”

Tbc***

hello, this your author writing. I'm Umie

first of all, i would like to thank you for dropping by and read/subscribing this. it really means a lot to me and makes me happy.

however, i'm gonna be happier if you all drop a comment or two and share your thought about this fic with me. this is my first fic/multichp ever. i hope it is not confusing and you all enjoy reading it.

so talk to me ne?

previu next chap: some hot HaeHyuk moment!