The awkward moment stretched on with only the cheerful electronic music from the video game to fill the silence. I tried to say something to break the uncomfortable atmosphere, but my voice didn’t seem to be working. I wanted to run away but my legs didn’t seem to want to obey me there either.

“So… I’m sorry about walking in on your uh shower before,”  Donghae finally spoke, face flushing, “I mean it’s not like I saw anything, there was a lot of steam.”

To my horror I felt a blush creeping across my own face. There was no way Hae didn’t know what I was doing there, just no way!

“Besides, It’s not like we’ve never seen each other in the shower before, so if you feel awkward there’s really no reason,” he continued.

I tried to control my rapidly spreading blush, “A-arraso,” Either he didn’t realize what I was doing, or he’s choosing to pretend he didn’t. I thought, “You just surprised me,” I opted for his approach of completely bypassing that part of the story, “You should really learn to knock, Donghae,” I gave him a teeny smile.

“So uh…” Donghae spoke haltingly, “Do you have plans for today? You know since we don’t have a schedule?”

I shook my head, “Do you?”

“Kyu and I were going to go to a movie today, but I don’t think he’s gonna want to go with me anymore,” He said, sheepishly.

Oh no, oh NO… was he about to ask me to spend even MORE time with him, didn’t he feel awkward about walking in on me? What is going ON?I started to panic.

“It’s just that I already bought tickets and if I don’t see it now, I’m not going to get a chance to until it’s on DVD and I reaaaaallly want to see it!” He the puppy eyes.

“Then you shouldn’t have beaten Kyu at his favorite video game!” I joked.

Donghae pouted, “But he and Siwon were ganging up on you, I couldn’t let them do that! It’s not my fault I’m awesome at playing Pit.”

I cut short his preening by extending a foot and playfully knocking him over.

“Ya!” He looked up at me from his prone position on the couch and I stared back innocently. He righted himself, grinning.

The couch was a pretty long one, and we had been sitting on opposite sides of Siwon and Kyu before they had left. Now Hae began to close the gap between us, crawling towards me with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He was now sitting on his knees, leaning in so his head was inches from mine. He put his hands on my shoulders and started pouting.

“Hyukkie!! Because I defended you from our evil maknae I lost my movie date!” He put his chin on my shoulder and wrapped his arm around me, “You owe me a movie date now!”

I willed my heartbeat to slow, “Date?”

“Mm!” He blinked up at me, continuing playfully, “I’ll looove you forever!”

My eyes moved from his eyes to his lips which were coming alarmingly closer to me. His lips pushed into a perfect pout as he turned up the aegyo. I sat there semi paralyzed. He sat back on his heals, thankfully causing his face to retreat from my own, and started to shake me by the shoulders which he had not yet released as he whined, “Hyuuuung!”

Donghae charm is hard to resist in the best circumstances, but this close up, in my current state of confusion, it was near impossible. No. It WAS impossible.

His hands slipped down to my torso as he started to tickle me. I squirmed and yelled for him to stop, but he only started to tickle me more. I wish I was one of those guys that just isn’t a ticklish person, but I’ve always been super sensitive. I couldn’t stop laughing as Donghae gleefully moved his hands up and down my sides. Tears forced their way out of my eyes as I struggled to pull his hands away. I slid off the couch, in an attempt to escape. He now had me pinned to the ground, with himself on top, one leg in between my own.

With a burst of strength I flipped us over, “You are totally going to pay for that!” I grinned as I gasped for air.

I went straight for Donghae’s most ticklish point: the lower abdomen, close to the top of his jeans, his kryptonite.

“Noo!” He panicked, trying to free himself. I held his legs down with mine and put one of my arms across his chest to keep him from getting up, which I attacked him mercilessly with the other hand.

He grabbed the arm that was across his chest, and pulled it away, making me lose my balance. I collapsed haphazardly across his upper body, breathing heavily. My head rose and fell with the deep breaths Donghae was taking now.

Suddenly, we heard footsteps, as a member entered the room. Heechul looked at us with a saccharine smile as we quickly jumped apart and stood up, “Oh dear, didn’t realize you two were in here. Sorry to interrupt your Eunhae time. Please. Continue,” and with that he turned and walked back through the door he had entered through before either of us had a chance to answer.

“Aaish!” I cried after him, “Why does he always insist of calling us that?”

I looked over at Donghae, who was staring after Heechul. Due to our tussle, his shirt had been twisted, exposing part of his neck that had previously been hidden. It wasn’t just that his neck was dam y that caught my attention though.

“Donghae-ya!” I yelped, “Is that a LOVE-BITE on your neck!?”

He quickly straighten his shirt, blushing, a nervous look in his eyes.

“Who the hell gave you a hickey?” CosI’ll kill them. I added silently.

“Not a hickey!” Donghae burst out, “I was uh… playing with Sungmin’s nunchucks and I accidently hit myself in the neck!”

I looked at him suspiciously. Why was I feeling so jealous, at the thought of Donghae with a girl? It’s not like I had feelings for him. Maybe if I went to the movies with him, I could tease the hickey culprit’s name out of him. And then I’d hunt her down and tell her never to come near my Donghae again!

“Methinks someone’s a bit too jealous,”the voice in my head mused, “And you’re still clinging to the idea that you just feel platonic feelings towards him?”

I raised my hand to give myself a good forehead smack, when I noticed Donghae staring at me. I changed the movement to a “come on” motion.

“Ka ja, I’ll go to the movie with you.” I gave him a smile.

“Chinchaa?” He bounced around happily, “I’ll drive!”

I shook my head as I followed him out to the garage. Ever since he’d gotten his Samsung he’d been volunteering to drive us all anywhere and everywhere.

After grabbing hats and sunglasses we were on our way. Donghae plugged in his mp3 player and an upbeat retropop song came on that I didn’t recognize.  “What song is this?”

“Oh it’s Kim Bum off the OST from The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry.[1]” Donghae blushed, “I just liked the sound of the song.”

“Oh, you totally watched this whole drama didn’t you?” I laughed, “Donghae, people are going to seriously start thinking your gay if they find out you’re addicted such girly dramas.”

He punched me playfully, “Shut up! They’re really good! Plus it wasn’t my fault I got hooked on this one, I stumbled across Leeteuk watching it when it first came out.”

 I shook my head at him. I had to admit that even though the lyrics were kind of bad, the song was really catchy. Donghae sang along to the chorus and I smiled.

We arrived at the movie theater and managed to get in without anyone recognizing us. Donghae returned with drinks and popcorn and I decided it was time to resume my investigation of The Hickey. After he’d set down his load and flopped into his seat I lurched over the arm rest and pulled down the collar of his shirt to get a better look at the so-called “nunchuck bruise” ha!

“What are you doing Hyukkie!” he batted my hand away, looking around furtively.

“Nothing, I just want to get a better look at this ‘bruise’ of yours,” I went back to examining it, “…Are those teeth marks?”

Donghae tried hard to cover it up again, denying it strongly, but before I could look any closer the lights dimmed and the movie began.

I sighed and settled back into my chair, What was this movie about anyway?If he dragged me to a romcom…

Just then I felt a warmth on my arm, Donghae had put his own on the same armrest. I became hyper aware of the skin on back of my hand, as it tingled in response to the touch of Donghae’s. I wanted to pull away, but really! I was using it first, he should be the one to move his arm.

I nudged it a little, but he ignored me, throwing some popcorn in his mouth. Just then I loud noise from the movie made me look up. I was so distracted by the physical contact with Donghae that I hadn’t been paying any attention to the screen in front of me. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but Donghae seemed to be thoroughly enthralled by the film, and completely unaffected by our closeness. I angrily reached for the popcorn and froze. Donghae had gone to grab some at the same time. Our hands stayed touching as Donghae and I stared resolutely at the screen. I pulled my hand out quickly, and nibbled on the popcorn I’d grabbed.

The film went on, and  felt myself getting sleepy. Suddenly, I felt Donghae’s head fall on to my shoulder. Aish! This guy! He falls asleep when he was the one who wanted to see the movie in the first place?I tried to push his head up, but it fell back stubbornly. Though his hair tickled my neck, the warm weight was oddly comforting. I hesitantly reached for the hand that shared the arm rest with me, and when Donghae didn’t stir, I laced my fingers through his own, admiring his slender digits. He was learning to play guitar, I rubbed the calluses on the tips of his fingers on the left hand. He looked so y when he played, I thought idly, feeling my own head start to droop. I closed my eyes, still holding on to Donghae’s hand.

The lights flickering on in the theater made me squint as I opened my eyes. I lifted my head, and felt Donghae do the same. He looked down at the armrest we shared and suddenly I realized we were still holding hands. I wrenched mine away as he continued to stare down at his hand with an unreadable expression across his face.

“Donghae?” I waved a hand in front of him. He looked up and I continued, “should we leave now?”

“Oh… yeh, lets go,” He stood up slowly, stretching, and gave me a smile.

On the way home we stopped to pick up some dukbokki and hotteok at a street stall². The ride back was oddly quiet. We sat in the kitchen, eating our lunch, when Kyuhyun walked in.

He glared at us, but upon seeing we had food, his face brightened. “Is that hotteok?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes, but none for you,” I sniffed, tearing of a large piece and stuffing it in my mouth.

“Donghae!” he pouted, “You didn’t take me to the movies with you! If you had, then I would be eating that dukbokki right now, so you should give me some!”

Donghae caved easily, passing Kyu his chopsticks, which he grabbed with enthusiasm.

“So how was the movie anyway, should I try and see it?” He asked conversationally.

“It was good,” Donghae said noncommittally.

“What was it about?” Kyu pressed.

We both kind of sat there, not saying anything. He turned to me.

“How can you see a movie and not be able to tell me a single thing about it’s content?” he looked at me closely, “I bet you two just made out the whole time.”

“NO!” we both shouted simultaneously.

Kyuhyun put his hands in the air, backing off, “woah, I was totally joking you guys,” he walked out of the kitchen grinning.