A week after the meeting in the café, everyone was frantically preparing for the trip, and throughout the constant meetings, Eunhyuk was surprised he’d never once been within more than five metres of Donghae. But he knew that couldn’t last, because in less than twenty-four hours, they’d be in America, forced into close proximity. However, that wasn’t what he was focusing on at the moment, as he hurriedly drove to the car park of the multiplex cinema, where his sister was waiting for him.

It hadn’t been long. She could say that with certainty. No; she really hadn’t been waiting that long, but it was the very fact that she was waiting, yet again, that upset her. Could he just never be on time? She glanced at the checkout kiosk from the corner of her eye, checking for what had to be the fifth time that the boy stationed there was not pitying her. She heaved a sigh, and checked her watch. Again, the Hello Kitty dial registered only two minutes since she’d last checked, as it had the time before, and the time before that.

Impatient, she began to tap her foot and sigh every few seconds. She knew this wasn’t going to help anything, but really, she was tired of waiting for people. If it wasn’t her husband, it was her friends, and if it wasn’t her friends, well, like today, it was her brat of a little brother. She was just about to call him and leave a choice few words in a voicemail message (Such as “”, “You”, and “I will kill you…”), when she saw the lanky form of her baby brother appear, his head held down sheepishly.

“I’m sorry for being late, noona.” He said apologetically. She gave a “Hmph” in response. “Really, I am!” He told her indignantly. “I was busy with Sung-”

She cut in before he could say anything else. “I don’t want to know what you were doing with your boyfriend! But really, I don’t know why I put up with you.” She stopped talking to glare at him as he pulled his sunglasses off, giving her an irritating grin, then resumed talking while he walked over to the ticket booth of the cinema. “Why does this happen every single time? Do you have an inability to be anywhere on time?” She sighed, getting into their usual monthly routine of seeing a film together, this month brought forward because her brat of a brother was going off to America for three weeks. “Yah!” She brought her hand up to thwack the back of his head. “Answer me!”

He rubbed his head where she’d hit it, shooting her a glare. “Sora, what was that for! I said I was busy with Sungmin and you told me to shut up.” He gave a sigh of his own and flattened the back of his dark hair where she’d ruffled it.

She grinned and rolled her eyes. “Because you’re an idiot. Anyway, your hair’s looking good. Are you using some sort of new conditioner?”

Eunhyuk could only stare at his sister and wonder how she could always change the subject so quickly. “I…uh, haven’t been using anything different.” He looked at her warily. She smiled back.

“Oh, must just be nice today, then. So what are we going to see?” And so they settled into their usual squabble about what was the best film to see, and he asked about his niece and nephew, and how Sora’s husband was doing, and how work was, and in return, she asked about his work and Sungmin.  And then they’d fight over what kind of popcorn to get, and it would be just like when they were kids, only their mother wasn’t here to referee and, well, another person who’d featured prominently in both of their lives wasn’t there, either. Donghae.

Sora had never quite understood why they’d split up, but then, she knew her brother, and she knew it was best not to ask. But she had never forgotten the lost, broken-hearted look he’d had on his face when he’d appeared at her house that night. Most brothers wouldn’t come to their big sisters when they had their first heartbreak (and if she was honest, it was his very first, because he and Donghae had practically been joined at the hip from the moment they’d met, even if they’d only started to be a couple when they turned 19), but Hyukjae couldn’t think of anyone else who would understand. She’d been there for it all, had started off their friendship, and now it was gone, he’d wanted her to try and explain it to him. She couldn’t of course, but she’d been there to keep an eye on him, to warn their parents about making any sort of mention of Donghae, to make sure he did what he was supposed to do. It had been absolutely horrible, and she had wondered if the Donghae-shaped gap in their lives would ever fill up, but slowly, he brother seemed to have accepted it, and his boyfriend, Sungmin, while she never thought he was…the right one, she did think he was good for Hyukjae. He certainly smiled a lot more around him.

The film was disappointing, and they were just getting ready to have yet another argument about it, when her phone rang. She answered it to hear the receptionist of her eight year old son’s school tell her that he was sick and needed picking up.

“What’s up?” Hyukjae asked curiously, watching as her face fell.

“It’s Taehyun.” She sighed. “He’s ill, apparently. It’s just lucky he got sick on my day off. I’m sorry, Hyuk, I’m gonna have to go pick him up.” She stretched up a bit to hug him goodbye, but he shook his head.

“I’ll come with you. I haven’t seen the munchkin for a while.” He smirked. She rolled her eyes once more.

“So I can’t get rid of you?” She shook her head.

He gasped in mock hurt. “I am wounded, sister dearest, wounded, that you would say such a thing.”

“You just want to steal my food.” She scoffed.

He tilted to his head to one side and rolled his eyes a little before nodding. “Well, that too. But I do want to see him. I’m his uncle after all, and after tomorrow, I won’t see him for three weeks.”

She hid a smile with her hand. “About that… Taehyun has a list of presents you’re supposed to buy him from America. He said that it was of vital importance that Uncle Hyuk bought them or his friends would be mad.”

Hyukjae stared at her blankly. “Sora, why is your son under the impression I am made of money?”

 She pressed her lips together in an attempt to hide her amusement. “It’s his birthday soon. I’ll give you the money for some of it myself.”

He snorted, and muttered that she better before walking into the car park, telling her he’d follow her there. He had an ulterior motive, if he was honest. He really wanted to talk to his big sister, because he was so unsettled by the notion of having to work with Donghae in such close quarters for that amount of time, and he knew he could trust her. He didn’t feel that any of his friends would understand; they knew nothing of Donghae, because he refused to talk about it, and he sure as hell couldn’t talk to Sungmin about it.

Pulling up to the driveway of her house, Sora handed him her keys and told him to get comfortable, while she drove up to the school to retrieve Taehyun.  The house, a pretty, traditional affair, was quiet as he slipped in, flicking the light switch on. Three weeks, starting tomorrow. It wasn’t going to be fun, he thought.

Meanwhile, Donghae, Siwon and Leeteuk were all attempting to pack simultaneously. The two had appeared at Donghae’s house, each dragging a huge case, and told him they needed to pack together. Why this was so, Donghae had no idea, but it really wasn’t going well, clothes strewn all over the place, and various items opened or discarded on the floor.

“Where’s my phone charger?!” Leeteuk muttered. “I need that thing! My life is on that iPhone-oh God, where is it?!”

“Here, hyung.” Siwon said calmly, handing over the mess of wire.

“We need Zhou Mi…” Donghae announced.

The other two turned to stare at him. “Why?” They chorused at the same time.

“Because he’s good at organising this sort of . Ryeowook’s been packed for days because of him.” Leeteuk nodded.

“Right, we need him. Get this guy. Otherwise we’re not going anywhere tomorrow, and that means we’re screwed…” Siwon snorted and Donghae chuckled, nodding as he went to find the phone.

After a short phone call which involved Donghae trying to sound apologetic, and Mimi somehow sounding excited at the prospect of packing for other people, it was set. Donghae sort of felt guilty; he didn’t really want to muscle in on poor Mimi’s day off, but, well, it was kind of a desperate situation now, and Mimi sounded like he wanted to do it…

Zhou Mi arrived after fifteen minutes, in which time, they’d given up actually trying to pack, and had instead moved to the kitchen, where Donghae was attempting to get his knackered microwave to work. That failed, but the bell rang so Donghae had an excuse to ignore it. He opened the door to an exuberant Zhou Mi, who attacked him with a hug, all gangling limbs and excitable hair flips.

“So how can I help?” He asked, smiling, his eyes outlined in kohl, his white t-shirt emblazoned with a Mario Kart graphic.

Siwon spoke up. “We can’t pack, and Donghae says you can, apparently.”

Mimi beamed, and although it was slightly scary, Donghae couldn’t deny the fact that he was good, because he had them organised in two hours, everything put into a recognisable order, and they hadn’t even had to sit on the cases to zip them up. He’d done this all while explaining how to make extra space for everything, and Donghae was pretty sure he probably should have listened, but he’d been too distracted by the speed with which Zhou Mi shoved things in the cases.

Over at Sora’s, Hyukjae was trying to reason with his eight year-old nephew. “Taehyun, seriously, there is no way I can get you all of that.” He said, staring down in disbelief at the list in his hand. He swore the kid got more and more like his sister every day, he really did. Was she teaching him deviousness?

“At least half!” He argued, looking small and defiant.

“You’re supposed to be sick, how are you yelling!” Hyukjae argued back.

The boy immediately looked away, shifty-eyed, giving a cough that was so fake, Eunhyuk just knew that he wasn’t sick at all, really. “I am sick!” He told his uncle.

“Lies, you evil child…” He was grinning, though, amused.

“Uncle Fishy would have believed me…” The child muttered, almost giving Eunhyuk a heart-attack. How the hell did he remember Donghae? It had been three years, and Taehyun had been six at the most when Donghae had left.

Muttering something about how he’d think about it, he left, off to find his sister, and get her to explain how the hell her kid remembered Donghae. He found her in her tiny study, typing something on her laptop. “Mm, what is it?” She said, without turning.

He cleared his throat. “Um…How on earth does Taehyun remember Donghae?” He asked.

She looked up, blinking behind her glasses. “It’s not that unusual that he’d remember Hae. I mean, he was a big part of his life for the first six years of it. I think he remembers quite a lot.” She looked down, deciding not to mention the times when Tae had asked where his Uncle Fishy was, and how she’d had to explain why there were no pictures of him anywhere now. Luckily, Soomin had been a baby, so she didn’t remember, but still…it was sad.

She had thought that they were an adorable couple. Even if she’d nearly killed them for whatever the hell they’d been doing at her wedding (she really didn’t want to know, quite frankly).

Eunhyuk sighed. “Noona…” She looked at him again, gesturing for him to continue as she typed. He bit his lip. “Donghae is part of the team too. I have to spend three weeks working with him.” That got her to stop typing, as she turned in the seat, an eyebrow raised.

“You never mentioned this.”

He shook his head. “I…it’s going to be hard.” He said simply, and honestly.

She breathed out slowly. “I’m sorry, Hyuk. I know you’re still halfway in love with him.” His head shot up, and he gave her an incredulous expression.

“I am not in love with him. I got over him.” He told her woodenly.

She didn’t believe that, but then, maybe it was better to let him think that, at least for the moment. It would be hard enough for him, so she let it go, hugged him goodbye at the door, and told him to enjoy his job, discreetly slipping him the cash to get Taehyun’s birthday gifts. Some days she really wished that Donghae had never broken up with her little brother. He’d never really gotten over him, and she’d liked Donghae, thought of him as another little brother. Well, she hoped it got sorted out. She wanted to see her brother properly happy, for once.

Donghae, however, was being dragged to a bar. The same one he’d been in last week, and immediately, he promised himself no drinking. One, he didn’t want to have a hangover again, two, he really didn’t want to have a hangover while on a plane, and three…yeah, he really just didn’t want a hangover.

He wasn’t quite sure why Zhou Mi and Kyuhyun had ended up coming, or how Ryeowook had just managed to appear, trailing Yesung and Henry in his wake (Donghae judged him for that), or what exactly Kangin was trying to get the waitress to do, but really, he guessed it was nice they were all together. Leeteuk was snuggled up with his girlfriend in one corner, and the owners of the bar, Heechul and Han Geng, appeared to be doing something that was probably illegal in several countries behind the actual bar.

Woah, did Heechul really have to have his hand there in front of everybody? He blinked slowly and turned away, to be assaulted by the sight of yet another happy couple. Well, that was what he assumed they were because Zhou Mi currently had his tongue stuck down Kyuhyun’s throat, and it didn’t look like either one was moving any time soon. This. Was. Awkward.

He didn’t dare look over at Wookie, because he was sure he didn’t want to know what he was doing with Yesung and Henry, and he was tired of seeing people in happy relationships (or flirting, as Kangin was). So instead, he slid into the booth next to Siwon, who sat alone, looking down at his drink as he traced his finger on the table-top.

Donghae had decided to forget about the bathroom incident, and therefore pretend he knew nothing about Siwon’s romantic interests. It was better for everyone that way. “What’s up?” He asked curiously, wondering why his friend looked so downcast.

Siwon looked up, one side of his mouth pulling up in a half smile, the dimple in his cheek showing. “Nothing much.” He went back to tracing patterns on the table.

Donghae looked at him. “Then why are you all…” He gestured to his depressing demeanour.

Siwon shrugged. “I broke up with a girl. Again.” He shrugged once more, and picked up the glass, taking a small sip.

Donghae fought the urge to ask if it was bathroom-girl. “Oh… Sorry. What’s that, the second this month?” He teased. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t known for being tactful…

Siwon took the joke lightly though, and chuckled. “Ahem. Only the first.” Donghae raised an eyebrow.

“There’ll be others. Cheer up!” He elbowed him, and Siwon rolled his eyes.

“Yeah… When are you ever going to get someone, Hae? You can’t tell me that and be a hypocrite. When was the last time you had a date?” He smirked, and Donghae felt a flash of unease. It was true that Siwon had an inordinate amount of girlfriends (and always seemed upset and surprised when they didn’t work out), but it was also true, that in all the time he’d known him, Siwon had never seen him in a relationship.

It sort of soured his mood for the rest of the night, and although he was better behaved than last time, he did get a little inappropriate on the dancefloor, grinding playfully against Siwon, who laughed at him, and Wookie, who typically had gotten all over-bouncy, had joined in, snickering. He wanted to forget the fact he was alone, just for tonight.

Had he stayed any later, he probably would have picked up the guy who’d been eyeing him from the bar, but Leeteuk had said they all had to get an early night’s sleep, so they’d all tumbled home at 11, Wookie hugging him and making him promise to come pick him up so they could go to the airport together tomorrow. It was lucky Siwon suggested car-sharing, because he didn’t think he wanted to do any driving at five in the morning, and Siwon was even more of a morning person than he was.

So it was at the ridiculously early hour of 3 in the morning (the drive to the airport was long), that a strangely perky Siwon picked him up (Donghae suspected him of ingesting illegal narcotics). Case shoved in the boot of the car, Siwon drove merrily to Ryeowook’s apartment block, where the door was opened by a haggard-looking Kyuhyun, who’d obviously not even gone to bed yet.

He yawned and ushered them inside, telling them Wookie’d be out in a minute.  Zhou Mi smiled from the sofa, where he was manically switching through channels. Donghae swore that no one in this apartment slept at regular hours. And yet Wookie and Mimi were always so bouncy. It made no sense.

Wookie came out of his bedroom, yelling “I’m here, don’t go without me!”, dragging a case that looked to be bigger than him behind himself.

Siwon snorted, and took the case, telling them that he’d be back in a second after pushing the case into his car (Donghae was starting to doubt that they and the cases would all fit).  There was an awkward moment of silence before Zhou Mi suggested a ‘manly’ hug goodbye. Suddenly, he was engulfed in a mess of male arms, another pair added when Siwon came back and was absorbed into the hug. It was de-manly-fied, however (not that it had ever really been manly), when Wookie started sobbing about how he was going to miss them.

Donghae felt it was prudent at that moment to remove Wookie from the hug and get him in the car, or they’d never get anywhere. So they left, Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi wishing them a fun trip from the door, as Kyuhyun slid an arm around Zhou Mi and laid his head tiredly on his shoulder, while Zhou Mi waved.

The car ride was uneventful, and soon they were flying through the various checkpoints, passports and boarding passes in hand. Despite the fact they’d set out early, they were still rushed, and his case loaded, Donghae and the rest were soon shepherded, along with their carry-ons, onto the plane. Donghae caught Leeteuk, and smiled at him, nodding at Li-Na as he passed, checking his boarding pass for his seat number.

“E5, E5…” He muttered, looking for the seat. He saw Siwon, winking from D4, and Wookie, snuggled in between Henry and Yesung  in E2. Oh God, how had he managed to get his seat with them…?  And then, across from the little , his seat.

Only Hyukjae was sat in the seat next to him, by the window.  His blood ran cold. Fate couldn’t be so cruel…

He shook his head and shrugged. There wasn’t anywhere else he could go-the plane was packed, and while he was pretty sure someone would have swapped with him had he asked, they were all in place now, and he could feel the stewardess’ gaze urging him to sit down. He slid in, bowing his head in apology to the man on the other side of him, averting his gaze from Hyukjae as he sat down. Leeteuk looked up from where he sat, a row away, some paper work in his lap. His eyes widened as he saw where Donghae sat, and he mouthed “Sorry.”

Donghae could only stare helplessly back. It was a fourteen hour flight, and he was stuck next to his ex for the entire duration. He wanted to scream in frustration, but he couldn’t because the pilot was going through the usual information, and was telling all passengers to put their seatbelts on.  Hyukjae, who had previously been staring out of the window, turned around to secure his seatbelt, and found himself face-to-face with Donghae.

His eyes widened. Donghae looked away, grimacing at Leeteuk once more. Eunhyuk deliberated. This was not really a situation he wanted to be in, but really, what could he do about it? He could be a grown up, and try to have a conversation, but at the moment, he wasn’t quite sure that was what Donghae wanted, because all he could see was the plane of one cheekbone.

“H-hi.” He said, swallowing. Donghae turned around slowly.

“Hi.” He said back shortly.

It was going to be a long flight…