“Bunny, what are you doing with my phone?”

“Oh, he hung up.” A blonde man sleepily stared at the phone for a couple of seconds before turning to his side and glared at Heechul with a pout. “Your phone rang so damn loudly, hyung!”

“I forgot to put it on silent mode.” Heechul stretched and fixed his blanket; he was about to sleep again when the blonde giggled beside him.

“Who is this ‘Fallen Angel’ person, anyway?”

Heechul’s eyes snapped open and he sat straight up on the mattress.  Still giggling, the man shoved the phone to Heechul’s hand and sat up too. He looked around the room; few young men were still sleeping on another wide mattress across the room. He heard a loud gasp from the person next to him and looked to his side.

“What the hell did you do, bunny?” Heechul cried, his eyes stared in horror at the phone.

“I just picked a call. What’s the matter?”

“Holy ! Don’t tell me you just spoke to Teukie, please.”

“I didn’t. Unless you call him a fallen angel.” The younger answered casually then noticed how the older gaped in surprise. “I just told him that you’re still sleeping, ok. And he just hung up… Oh my God! Is he the one you’ve proposed to, hyung?” his eyes widened as he realized what problem he might have caused by that simple phone call.

“Damn right, bunny!” Heechul quickly snatched his bag and put his notebook and a bunch of paper into it. “I need to see him and explain it before he gets any wrong idea.”

“Wait hyung, why don’t you try calling him first?” the blonde tried to knock some sense to the panicked Heechul. “You have meeting at eight and you’ll definitely miss it if you go home first.”

“Ah, right.” Heechul took his phone and frantically made the call. “He’s not answering. I’ll just go there quickly and—“

“Hyung, listen to me.” He readily grabbed the older’s shoulders and held them firmly to stop him from moving around. “You just finish your work now and go to the meeting. After that I’ll go with you to your place and clear up the misunderstanding, ok?”

“But he might—“

“No buts. From what you’ve told me about him, I‘m positive he will understand.”

“Fine.” Heechul finally mumbled grudgingly.

***

Leeteuk sighed heavily for the umpteenth time in the past twenty minutes. The morning had been chaotic with Donghae’s presence. He didn’t get to talk with Siwon because Donghae was always rambling to the younger about details of their new dance, lyrics for their songs and a plea to have a duet performance with Eunhyuk. And Siwon didn’t seem to plan on talking about it; he quietly apologized and asked Leeteuk to forget whatever stupid things he’d said or done last night when he got the chance.

The golden-haired man sighed again. After his two dongsaengs left the house, he still had few articles to write so he didn’t have time to think of another problem. But now that he had nothing else to do, he couldn’t stop his mind from drifting to certain memory of a phone call from this morning. Leeteuk took out a purple box from one of his drawers and opened it. He stared at the contents for a moment before finally grabbing the ring.

He twirled the ring in his hand and thought of Heechul. He recalled memories of them together; how Heechul and himself were so different by nature and argued a lot, but in the end they always stuck to each other. He always thought that he could be more open and comfortable in front of Heechul because they were friends of the same age. Then he realized that even though the three of them were very close, they never had talked about their love lives. Did Heechul or Siwon have dates or lovers during this past two years? He knew for sure he didn’t himself. He had been so busy with taking photos in different places and going in and out of different companies to even think about finding a lover. And he enjoyed his two housemates’ companion so much that he didn’t feel the need to have one.

There was a soft knock on his room door and he quickly put the ring and the box back into the drawer. Siwon or Heechul must have come home and he really hoped it was the first. Another knock was heard, louder this time. Leeteuk opened the door and flinched a little as he saw Heechul standing in front of him.

“Hi Teukie.” Heechul greeted with an awkward smile and Leeteuk promptly smiled back. Younger noticed that the older pulled the smile too fast and too wide which led to one conclusion: that was a fake smile.

“Oh you’re home, Chullie. What’s the matter?”

“Can you come out? I want you to meet someone.” Heechul moved back a little and through his shoulder Leeteuk could see a mop of yellow blonde hair on the couch’s head rest. ‘Is he taking back his words? Did he already find someone better?’ The questions swirled in Leeteuk’s head and he felt his stomach tightened from unidentified feelings which also made his heart clenched in anticipation.

“Why do you want me to meet this someone?” he maintained his position at the doorway, one hand gripping the knob tightly. Heechul sensed the distance elder was making and groaned involuntarily.

“Look, you got it wrong this morning, Teukie.” He finally spluttered.

“Oh, where did I get it wrong, Chullie? You lied to me, that’s a fact! Not that I really care, though.” Leeteuk stated calmly while looking away, not noticing the pained expression on younger’s face.

“Let’s talk this out properly.” Heechul pried Leeteuk’s hand from the knob and dragged him to the living room. The blond man in pink shirt and white pants stood up and bowed as the two men stood in front of him.

“Annyeonghaseyo. You must be Leeteuk-ssi.”

Leeteuk took up the blonde’s appearance. The man was shorter than him with bright round eyes and heart-shaped lips. He was grinning cutely and gazed adorably at the oldest man there.

“Annyeonghaseyo.” Leeteuk bowed reluctantly.

“I’m Lee Sungmin, the one you talked to this morning.”

“Oh I’m sorry I hung up suddenly. I—uh the battery went dead.”

Sungmin smiled knowingly at that statement. Heechul plopped down on the couch and pulled the older to sit beside him. Then Sungmin sat next to the confused man.

“Let’s get to the point.” The youngest started with a smile. “I’m here to inform you that last night Heechul hyung slept in my place, along with some other guys.” Leeteuk’s eyes widened and Sungmin chuckled before continuing, ”I run a 24-hour café downtown near Heechul hyung’s office so he often comes there and sometimes spend the nights there together with other waiters in a shared room. It happened that last night I slept next to him and when his phone rang loudly this morning I just picked it up to stop the annoying sound. So it’s my mistake and I’m sorry for causing the misunderstanding.” He ended with a cute smile.

“But both of you… your voice was croaked, so…”

“Oh, that was because we tested some new drinks before sleeping. You know, much soda, sugar and ice late at night with few hours of sleep, so that’s what we got when we woke up.”

“Teukie…” Heechul called but at the same time a loud ringtone sounded in the room. Heechul hurriedly pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. It was from his editor.

“Answer it.” Leeteuk said with a smile. Then Heechul stood up and walked to the kitchen for some privacy.

“So you guys…” Leeteuk tried to break the silence.

“He’s my senior in university. Then we met again in my café and, well, we get much closer nowadays.”

“So are you guys… um, dating or something?”

“No!” the blonde showed his right hand, there was a golden band on his ring finger. “I’m already married. And Heechul hyung told me about his situation with you.”

“Oh…”

“You know, I’ve known him for almost nine years; this morning was the first time I saw him so flustered like a lost child.” Leeteuk looked up to the smiling man who was gazing back at him. “He’s so afraid that you’d think bad of him that he almost ditched an important meeting for his upcoming book. And Leeteuk-ssi, you—“

“You didn’t talk bad behind my back, did you, bunny?” Heechul was suddenly back in the living room.

“Of course not, hyung. Well, now that I’ve done my part here, then I’ll take my leave now. The café needs me.” Sungmin stood up then the two older men walked him to the front door.

“Thanks bunny.” Heechul stated sincerely to which the younger nodded and smiled widely.

“Leeteuk-ssi, next time you should visit my café too.”

“Ah, ok.”

“Well then, see you later.”

After Suungmin was gone, Leeteuk looked at Heechul and cleared his throat before declaring.

“You still have things to explain.” He walked back to the living room and sat on the couch; Heechul followed closely behind him.

“You’ve heard it all from the bunny. What more do you want to know?” he inspected his nails to avoid looking at Leeteuk.

“Why did you feel the need to take Sungmin here and explain yourselves?” the older asked.

“I didn’t. He just wanted to tag along.” The younger answered with a shrug.

“Oh, yes. You wanted to explain yourself badly that you almost ditched the meeting to see me this morning.” Leeteuk teased and grinned as he saw the bright blush on younger’s face followed by a curse under his breath. The latter finally sighed before facing him fully.

“Teukie-ah… I’m serious about the proposal. Even though you haven’t given me an answer, I don’t want you to think that I’m playing around with some other guy while waiting for you. I’m not that kind of person and I don’t want you to get hurt in any way.”

Leeteuk’s breath was caught in his throat. The younger was staring at him intensely, conveying so much feeling that he felt butterflies swirling in his stomach and he blushed furiously.

“Then why did you lie to me? You could have said that you’d stay at Sungmin’s place from the beginning.”

Heechul broke the eye contact and chuckled to himself.

“It’s not cool to say that I’ll spend the night at a café’s staff room.”

Leeteuk huffed and pouted upon hearing the answer.

“You and your foolish pride!”

“Ok, I’m sorry.” The younger scooted closer and took Leeteuk’s hand on his. When the older turned his head, younger’s face was so close that he could feel the latter’s breath on his face. Then there was a pair of soft lips kissing his cheek. “I love you.” Heechul whispered against the skin before pulling away.

Leeteuk’s free hand shot up to Heechul’s nape, preventing him from moving farther. Then he leaned forward and closed his eyes as their lips finally met. He felt Heechul tensed for about three seconds before responding to the kiss, slowly parting his lips and nibbling on elder’s upper lip. Heechul’s free hand moved to Leeteuk’s waist, pulling him closer while he let his tongue out asking for entrance. Right at that moment, they heard the front door opened and promptly broke their kiss. They saw Siwon stood frozen on his spot near the door. He blinked once, taking in the compromising position his hyungs were displaying.

***

to be continued…

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long chapter is long! it should be updated weekly but aff was down and so was my mood.

but comments make me happy~ :3