Despite Eunhyuk having worked here for far more years than most of the dancers that had debuted and made their way out into the world, he somehow was never given the chance, at times he did find it strange and the general age of all of the newbies coming and going was slowly becoming far from that of the age of himself.
He did feel at times that he was being used, though unfortunately he knew that feeling all too well from previous moments in his life, but he dared not step out of line, because his boss knew too much of his past, too much of what had happened, he simply did not dare ask when his turn would come, so he continued to wait in silence.

The days sometimes went by fast, sometimes slow, so slow it was unbearable to withstand, he just wanted to let loose for once and not care what happened for once.
He decided to ring up one of his only friends, one of the only people who had stuck with him through all the he had been through and experienced throughout his life, one who he didn’t have to tell his whole story, because he already knew everything there was to know.

“Yah! Kyuhyun-ah, where are you, you were supposed to be here 10 minutes ago?” Despite their dysfunctional relationship, they had been friends since before either of them cared to remember, and when they needed each other they were there to help, but one can’t say they were always nice to each other, but for them the relationship worked best this way.

“Sorry hyung, I got caught up at the recording studio, new singers seriously don’t listen sometimes!”, Eunhyuk could hear in the others voice he was not the only one in need of something else, and he did know that Kyuhyun was a great fan of wine, but Eunhyuk himself didn’t drink nor did he want to start now, he had held his promise for so long, he was not going to give it up for a poor day like this, not in a million years.

“Hey, buy some fireworks on the way, I’ll be waiting out front, now would you hurry up!”, The older knew hurrying him would do no good, but that did not stop him from annoying the younger by doing so over and over again.
Though the younger left no response to the last remark, the older could feel the scowl in his voice as he hung up the phone.

Eunhyuk was sitting on the stairs outside the practice room, as he often did when waiting for Kyuhyun to pick him up, he decided he didn’t need a car himself, since he had his bike, but as unfortunate events would have it, he got hit by a car last week and the bike had been beyond repair and he still hadn’t gotten around to buying a new just yet or maybe it was the fact that Kyuhyun usually came whenever he needed him had something to do with it, also taking the subway was not something completely unfamiliar to him, but the fact was most days he got off way after the lines had stopped driving and then Kyuhyun had been the only answer as of late.
He continued on in thought, when he suddenly realized that Kyuhyun was honking rather loudly at him, and he quickly got to his feet and swung his gym back over his right shoulder and skipped swiftly over to the car and jumped into the passenger seat.

“So, what the hell where you planning with these fireworks?” The younger almost shoved them directly into the elders face, causing the older to blink with his eyes rather vividly.

“Yah, you almost poked my eye out you idiot!” A light chuckled escaped Kyuhyun lips and not long followed by one from Eunhyuk himself, they sat there but for a moment.

Truth was neither of them had many good days as of late, they really only had each other to learn on so, they never took anything the other did too hard, cause they knew they each had to take a lot from work already so, they always agreed to have fun and look past all the bull when they were together, which had been a lot lately.

“Just drive to Hangang for now, I want to scream my lungs out over the water and I thought fireworks were as good an excuse as any to go do so, don’t you think?”, the younger looked at the older, slightly confused at first, but then shrugged and set the car in drive.

“Fair enough, since there’s no drinking with you, then this will have to do.”
Though Eunhyuk didn’t respond to the words, he knew that he hadn’t meant it harshly, Kyuhyun knew his promise, and he was not one to make him break it.

They drove off to the river, mostly in silence, they had heard enough music through the day, they didn’t really need more right now and the silence had been rather soothing.

As the night was turning dark, they were right at the riverfront, yelling out curses at various boss' and random people that had just annoyed them through the years, firing off a firework once in a while, and running around with them, it felt good.

After an hour or so of their various activities they were completely out of energy and fell flat on their backs on a near patch of grass, breathing out heavily.

 “That was just what I needed!” The younger let out in-between heavy breaths.
“Same here my friend, same here.” The older was less out of breath than the younger, but then again he did dance all day long, if it had been the other way around it would only have been strange.

 “Let’s go home, maybe tomorrow will be a better day…” He slight trailed off looking up at the sky, but suddenly felt Kyuhyun chuckled beside him.

 “I highly doubt that tomorrow will be any different hyung…”  There was no optimism in his voice what-so-ever, which Eunhyuk found slightly sad but in the end --

“Kyuhyun-ah, I think you’re right there. But let’s go home huh?”
The younger got up first and moved to pull the older up, which was in fact not a hard task, though he was well built, the older was a light as a feather, and despite the youngers lack of strength from not dancing as much as the older, he was still capable of pulling the older up without problems.

They headed off towards the car and their home, they had been living together for quite a few years now, not really needing each other much in terms of home stuff, they got their own food when they needed it, and their bedrooms were at the furthest ends of the house. They did live in a house, despite their lousy jobs, Kyuhyun did come from a wealthy family, though they had now disowned him, though that’s a story for another day.

As they both entered the house they said their goodnights and went their separate ways, much like they did every night, though the events of the night, this was no different than usual.
They both went to sleep, not really expecting much from the forthcoming day, though Eunhyuk was lying on his back on his bed, thinking to himself, as a small gust of wind passed through his room, he felt, if only for a slight moment, that there was something in the air, though as soon as the thought had occurred, he had swiftly pushed it away again, there would be nothing coming for him to feel anything good about, just another day in hell, he turned to his side and soon slid off into a deep sleep.

_______
 

Eunhyuk awoke to rays of sunlight straying across his face, he was quite sure it was still very early and definitely too early for him to wake up, but as it would seem, the sun had other thoughts in mind and he found himself unable to fall back into the deep sleep he had been in only minutes before.

He decided since the day already had been unkind and woke him up before it was even remotely necessary to get up he might as well just get up,  it was not like he was going to fall back to sleep right now anyways.

He had finally gotten to his feet and somewhat dragged himself towards the bathroom, though there had been much less will power to do so than usual, before entering the somewhat large sized bathroom he had stopped at his dresser and grabbed some new underwear and some socks.

Eunhyuk was a neat person, he hated when things weren’t in order, a lot of things in his life were not in his control and not the way he wanted it, but his things, the things in his room, the things that he owned, they were all his, he controlled them, and at that he needed them in order, at least one thing he could control and that’s what he did.
It’s not like he was a crazy nest freak and couldn’t be around people that made a mess, he really didn’t mind that sort of thing, but this was his little part of the world and he just needed there to be order, at least here.

________
 

He stood in the shower, letting the water run soothingly over his head and shoulder blades, feeling the freshness come over him as all the sweat and dirt disappeared, he loved this feeling, washing it all away, as if it never happened.

Just as he was washing the last tidbits of soap off he traced his hand over his lower back and he suddenly stopped as he reached the scar, he could take all the showers in the world, but that damned thing would never go away, it would never heal, though the years had gone by and the wound might have become smaller, the mental scars and memories that came with it would never be gone, etched in his mind… forever.

He pushed the thoughts away as he sighed and reached his hand out and turned off the water, stepping swiftly out the shower cabin and into the view of the mirror, almost shocking himself by the looks of himself, he looked half dead, despite the refreshing shower.

Though the thought of taking another shower crossed his mind, he didn’t want to use all the hot water, it would make Kyuhyun furious, and well that’s something he didn’t really care for today or any other day for that matter.

He threw a towel over his short dark locks, shielding him from the view of the mirror as he proceeded to get dressed in the underwear and socks he had brought with him into the bathroom, while drying off his hair, styling it a little when it was nearly dry, not that he cared much, but all the young students these days, he somehow didn’t want to fall behind, he wasn’t that old after all.

He went into his room found some loose jeans, a belt and a random band t-shirt he had bought not really knowing what band it actually was, not that it really mattered, it was a  good shirt anyway.
He checked his calendar to see if today was any special day, as he sometimes really didn’t kept up with such things, just to many things on his mind, not that all of them were useful, but that didn’t stop the thoughts from being there.
No special things going on today he thought to himself and he proceeded to throw the usual dance practice clothes into his gym bag and an extra towel, it seemed as this would be another hot summer day and an extra one would come in handy later.

He checked his clock on his table, 6.30, the digital reader read, still a little early, but getting an early start today couldn’t hurt, it was the first of the month and that meant new members in the dance studio and that meant more work for him, so he decided to head out and get an early start.

Tiptoeing out the door not to wake the younger resident of the house, he knew that this was one of his friend’s only days off this month, as the month had only just begun, he didn’t want to disturb his sleep, he did respect him that much.
The subway had started running its lines back and forth just before 6 AM so he could just take that today.

_______

The ride on the subway seemed short, shorter than he had wanted it to, but there was no helping it, he still loved dancing and a job that included that was not something he was going to complain about, not everyone was as lucky as he was, he knew that in his heart.

As he approached the dance studio, he had become a great deal more awake and refreshed and he felt slightly better about the whole new members coming in, it was sometimes great with some new things, though he also at times, had an even harder time because some of the newcomers simple lacked respect when the boss was not around.

Eunhyuk was just a moment away from stepping on the first step on the stairs heading into the studio when he heard someone call out his name;

“Hyukjae-ah, come here for a second.”

Though he had yet to turn around, he would know that voice anywhere, it was that of his boss, Choi Siwon, a rather rich man or more like rich son of a wealthy family, they owned a few dance studios around town.

Eunhyuk bit his lip as he turned, slightly bitter at the older, as he had told him on a number of occasions not to call him by his real name, it was not a name he wanted people to know, it didn’t exactly bring up happy memories for him, but the other party still didn’t seem to understand that fact and continued to use the name over and over again.

Eunhyuk formally greeted his boss and stood in front of him;

“Yes, sir what is the matter?”  Eunhyuk tried to look, as the fact that he was uneasy standing there, didn’t affect him at all, though it might have seemed like a failed attempt.

“Loosen up will you; you look like a scared dog…” The words his boss uttered, were as they usually were, there was always a hint of sarcasm and higher authority but always a slight attempt at sounding as If they were actually friends, which the both knew was not going to happen, they had a straightforward work relationship and that’s how Siwon had always wanted it.

The reason for his sudden friendly attitude was the man standing opposite his boss, an average built man, with a kind smile;

“This is Park Jungsu-ssi, he brought us the new batch of trainees today, he will be doing so in the future as well, so I thought you to should meet.”

The tone of words Siwon used was clear, as in ‘this is just formally meeting, I don’t plan on the 2 of you ever meeting again’ sort of thing.

“Nice to meet you sir, please bring us great trainees in the future.” Eunhyuk bowed an greeted the stranger with no more courtesy then that he gave his boss, since he really didn’t know the man nor was ever going to by the sound of Siwon’s voice.

“I shall try my very best.“ The older man smiled at Eunhyuk, it made him a little uncomfortable, but he pushed the thought away and smiled gently back as he bowed and told the 2 men he would have to be on his way, he then moved to walk up the stairs which he had been taken away from doing only moments before.

As he finally reached the studio, he found it empty, which fit him more than fine, then he could make ready for the new trainees and being alone here was actually some he loved quite a lot.

Not long after he had begun tidying up the place, though he was quite sure he had done so the day before, but somehow it always became messy completely on its own, it was quite a feature really, but as he was standing close to the door to the room doing a bit of sweeping of various things that had been thrown around the floor, the door was suddenly swung open, throwing Eunhyuk back, making a rather large thumb as he fell right on his .

“Bro I am soooo sorry!” A young man approached Eunhyuk reaching out a hand to him, to help him get up.

Eunhyuk looked up at him, he was a quite good looking young man, but honestly had the eyes of a 5 year old and he looked way to happy, no one was generally that happy.

The man, without even really getting the okay from Eunhyuk, grabbed his hand and pulled him up, a task that didn’t prove difficult as Eunhyuk himself swiftly flew up as soon as he was being pulled just a little.

As soon as he was on his feet, he let go of the hand, not wanting the unnecessary contact more than was needed.

“Seriously bro, I am so sorry about that I didn’t-“ He was cut off as another head popped up over the shoulder of the young man.

“Is he okay Hae? I told you not to kick in the door!” As he was speaking he lightly hit the back of the others head, not hard enough for him to really feel it, but more as a friendly gesture.

“Are you okay? Ah- right! I’m Sungmin and this fool here in Donghae, nice to meet you!”