Doubts
Origami
A/N: Kindly read the previous chapter again, if you've read this before. Every chapter has been beta-ed, kind of. Hehe. Thank youuuuuu <3
No matter how simple the notes were; they were always a fresh start to his day. His confusion has been replaced by curiosity. He wanted to meet this person, the one who seemed to know exactly what to say to make his day better.
Donghae smiled as he made his way to the bleachers to watch the practice game against Inha University. Though technically he wasn’t kicked off the team and had the privilege of watching from the team bleachers, he opted to join the rest of the student body. With a more positive result from the doctor, he wanted to enjoy watching soccer like a normal student for once.
While on his way, one of the managers caught sight of him and said, “Hey Hae! How’s the leg?”
Donghae turned and beamed, “Hey Teukkie-hyung! Oh, the doctor said it looks like I don’t have to wait too long for this to heal.”
Lee Teuk sighed in relief. “Good. We've missed you, y'know. I hope you return soon then.” He ruffled Donghae's hair. “Take care of that leg.”
“I’ll do my best!” Donghae chuckled.
“Oh, did anyone tell you, coach has finally allowed Minho-goon to be a starting player. You watching?”
“I’m actually on my way now. That kid will whine at me if I don’t cheer for him.” Donghae replied.
“Why don’t you sit with the team?” Lee Teuk asked.
“It’s okay, I want to experience watching from the other side. Hehe,” Donghae said. He waved cheerfully and continued on his way.
Donghae made his way to the front. Most of the students had no interest in watching today since it was just a practice game. Nevertheless, some of the students were starting to fill up the good seats.
Making his way to the front, Donghae grinned when he spotted a vacant seat. He was just about to collect himself when he noticed how vaguely familiar his seatmate was.
“Oh! Hi Siwon-sshi!” Donghae greeted, slightly poking his seatmate.
The said guy gave a startled gasp, before his face broke into his charming, dimpled smile. “Donghae-sshi! What are you doing here?” Siwon asked.
“Umm, I’ll be watching the game?” Donghae answered, scrunching his face at the question.
“Oh. I mean, aren’t you supposed to be sitting with the soccer team?” Siwon explained, blushing slightly at his stupidity.
“Ah! I just wanted to experience watching the game from this view. Hehe.” Donghae replied.
Siwon just nodded and turned his attention back to the empty field.
“So Siwon-sshi, are you alone? Do you mind if I sit beside you?” Donghae asked.
“Sure, it will be fun to watch with someone who knows and understands soccer better than me.” Siwon replied.
“You’re not a fan?” Donghae asked curiously.
“I know the basics, but one soccer-crazed member is enough for the family.” Siwon chuckled.
“Your brother is part of the team? Really? Who is it?” Donghae asked excitedly.
“I’m actually Minho’s older brother.” Siwon chuckled again. He was this close from pinching Donghae’s cheeks from all the cuteness, and it was taking all of his willpower to stop himself from doing so.
Donghae gave a surprised gasp and squealed, hugging Siwon. Meanwhile, Siwon sat stiffly, his mind blanking at the sudden intimate contact. It’s not as if he and Donghae were super close...
“So you’re the older brother he keeps talking about.” Donghae giggled.
“Oh, no. What did he say?” Siwon groaned.
“Don’t worry, Siwon-sshi, most of the time he really is just proud of you.” Donghae giggled.
“And the other times?” Siwon asked, raising his brow at Donghae.
Their conversation was cut off by a rousing cheer from the crowd. Both teams had begun lining up along the half-way line. Donghae grabbed Siwon's arm in excitement. "Look, the game is starting!" He exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Siwon coughed. Siwon wanted to protest and ask more what his traitor of a brother told Donghae, but he found Donghae's warm grip around his bicep rather distracting. If Donghae paid more attention, he definitely would have noticed that Siwon's ears had turned a bright shade of red.
Donghae, however, was immediately 'in the zone' the moment the referee stepped onto the centre, and beckoned the teams' captains for the coin toss. Minho immediately stepped forward for Myongji. Donghae couldn't help a wistful smile as his fellow midfielder--protege tugged the blue captain's armband up his arm. From his left, Donghae heard a few female admirers titter in delight.
“Your brother's certainly becoming very popular,” Donghae grinned.
Siwon snorted. “Tell me about it. I usually keep a few of his love letters, so I can read them out loud around the house whenever he gets too annoying.”
They chuckle over Siwon's little prank for a few minutes. Ask him about the cranes, Siwon's inner voice insisted. And so, with a nervous breath, Siwon added, “I'm sure you get your fair share too, Donghae-sshi.”
Donghae immediately thought of the jar of paper cranes in his locker. “Oh, of course. Um,” he giggled, and rubbed at his flushed nape sheepishly. “Yeah. I did get some nice ones, especially when I got injured.”
“Well, a guy like you deserves all the support he could get,” Siwon said, and clapped Donghae's shoulder good-naturedly. Internally, however, Siwon was in a tumultuous state, primarily because a) Donghae was blushing adorably, b) Donghae was blushing adorably over his paper cranes. Possibly.
Siwon cursed under his breath. With the thought of Donghae liking his little gesture, and the very man himself grabbing whichever of Siwon's body parts were within reach whenever Myongji managed to break into the box, Siwon knew he will be very distracted from watching the practice game.
Hi Donghae-sshi,
Congratulations for winning the match yesterday.
I’m happy you went to cheer for your team.
Though I did hope you were playing.
Fighting!
Closing his locker, Donghae can't help but hum to himself. He was really in a good mood today, he'll be starting his rehabilitation workout soon and everything is turning back to normal. Maybe he can even meet his secret letter sender.
“Hyung! Donghae-hyung!”
Donghae turned as he heard his name and spotted yesterday’s man of the match, Minho.
“Hey Minho-goon! Nice game yesterday.”
Minho grinned and replied, “Thanks hyung! The pointers you gave me really helped.”
"I can't wait ‘til I get back on the field. It will be exciting to play with you." Donghae remarked.
"Cool, Myongji will be unstoppable." Minho replied, puffing his chest out like a little kid.
Donghae laughed before remembering yesterday's enjoyable companion.
"By the way, Minho-goon, I met your older brother, Siwon-sshi, at yesterday's match."
"Wow, really? Usually, he doesn't bother with soccer." Minho replied, wondering why his brother didn't mention it during dinner last night.
Donghae wanted to ask more about Minho's brother but the sudden ring of the first bell signaled he had another couple of minutes before running late for his composition class.
"Crap. I'll talk to you later, Minho-goon. I'm going to be late for class." He hastily waved at Minho and hobbled as quickly as his crutched legs could. Well, he could always use those as an excuse for running late, but joining so late into the semester, he didn't want to miss too much on this class any longer.
"Are you okay, Donghae-sshi?" Siwon asked as soon as he saw Donghae, who was huffing like he ran a thousand miles to get to class.
"Y-yea. Phew, I made it." Donghae exclaimed.
Siwon gave a small smile as he watched Donghae catch his breath before turning his attention to the professor who just walked in.
"Alright, settle down," Sungmin said.
Everyone then turned their attention to the professor. Lee Sungmin could very much pass as another student—at first glance, he looked too adorable to be teaching rowdy, 'music is our life' kind of students, but everyone knew he turned into someone else when he was holding his guitar. Most of the punks in class learned the hard way. Nobody wanted to experience that again, so now, generally everyone just shuts up when Sungmin says so, or risk facing his wrath.
Siwon cautiously peered at his seatmate, worried that he might do something to tick Sungmin off. So far, so good, Siwon thought with some relief. Donghae was fairly new to this class, and Siwon forgot to warn him about Sungmin. Donghae being Donghae, he probably would have no problem with either the teacher or their classmates, but just to be safe, he noted that he should warn him about the do’s and don’ts to survive Sungmin.
"Today, we won't be discussing word play. I want you to pair up and come up with a new song for next month's foundation day."
Everyone buzzed with excitement, looking around to see who they wanted to work with.
"You have around two weeks to write the lyrics and compose the music. I will be giving you this period to work on what you can. On the third week, you will be presenting your compositions." Sungmin paused, looking at his students, who were both excited and nervous to be finally making music. "I will explain the grading system on our next meeting, but for now, the best five pairs will be presenting on the finale concert for foundation day. This project will compromise 60% of your final grade for my class so take it seriously. I will be here during our regular class, but you may opt to work with your partners in a different setting. But I would like to see your progress before you complete your composition so as to avoid any rework. Any questions?" He looked around at the expecting students, who looked excited to begin the groupings. "Alright, you may do as you please." Sungmin said. He headed towards the teacher's table and set up his stuff to facilitate the class work.
As soon as Sungmin said go, everyone seemed to have gathered around Siwon, asking him to be their partner. Meanwhile, Donghae was at a loss. He was just about to ask Siwon, but there was a huge crowd of women blocking his way. He was sure that by the time he has squirmed through all of them, Siwon might have chosen someone to be his partner. Donghae pouted to himself. He should've asked Siwon the moment Sungmin said pair up. So much for being popular; apparently, Siwon was too. Though with his movie-star good looks, it wasn’t hard to see why.
"Siwon-oppa, please be my partner." A pretty girl asked, going as near as she can towards Siwon.
Siwon internally cringed as everyone tried to catch his attention. It was too late to avoid them, as most of the girls had already invaded his personal space.
"No, I'll be his partner! Right, Siwon-oppa?" Another girl asked, battling her fake eyelashes.
'Okay, this is getting out of hand.' Siwon thought to himself. He didn't want to get caught on a battle concerning himself and his supposed partner.
"Umm..." Siwon tried to interrupt.
"YAH! Sooyoung and Taeyeon, I'm his partner." Another girl interrupted, pushing away the first two girls.
"You see..." Siwon tried to interrupt again.
"What the hell, Hyoyeon? When did he say so?" Another girl commented.
"Right, Siwon-oppa?" The girl named Hyoyeon replied.
"Sorry, but I already have a partner!" Siwon nearly shouted, out of frustration.
There was that brief moment of silence before everyone started asking Siwon who among them was his partner. And in that brief moment of silence, all Siwon heard was, "Hi Donghae-oppa, I'm Seohyun, do you want to be my partner?"
That had Siwon wading through the crowd, who parted quickly at his urgent, almost bullish strides. He placed an arm around Donghae’s shoulder. "Donghae-sshi is my partner." Siwon exclaimed.
Donghae stilled as everyone's attention was suddenly focused on him. Things were happening way too quickly. One moment, he was pouting on not having a partner. Next moment, a girl named Seohyun was asking him to be her partner then out of the blue, Siwon's telling everyone they were already partners. He felt Siwon squeeze his arm, and that jolted him that everyone was waiting for his answer.
"Sorry Seohyun-sshi. As Siwon-sshi said, we're already partners." Donghae said, bowing his head so his hair could cover his eyes.
"It's okay, Donghae-oppa," Seohyun smiled, before turning away and heading back to her seat.
Everyone slowly dispersed, muttering to themselves. In the end, most of the girls paired with themselves, since the rest of the guys didn't bother waiting for them to finish deciding on who they wanted to pair up with. Since the class had a fair share of girls and boys, it ended up with 4 male pairs, 4 female pairs and 2 mixed pairs.
"Sorry about that. Are you okay with working with me?" Siwon asked.
"Yeah, I was just about to ask you but then everyone just went ballistic on you," Donghae replied, chuckling softly.
"Uhh, yeah. Sorry again."
"You really are brothers with Minho-goon." Donghae said.
Siwon raised his brow, as Donghae followed up on that statement saying, "I said Minho-goon is getting popular, but apparently you are too, Siwon-sshi."
Siwon blushed, as Donghae gave him a gentle smile.
As soon as they got over the fiasco of the day, they started working on their project. They listed random words to garner some idea on what they want to write about.
Day by Day
Shirt
You
Hero
Weather
As the class was about to end, they decided they needed to meet outside of class to ensure they finished everything within two weeks.
"Hey Siwon-sshi, can I ask for your number so we can contact each other easily?"
"Sure Donghae-sshi. Also, can we drop the sshi already, since we're about to work together… and we’re friends, right?" Siwon asked.
"O-okay, Siwon. Of course." Donghae tried to hide his ear-splitting smile. He really liked how Siwon casually said they were friends.
Choi Siwon
+82 - 1771 - 8384
Siwon tore the whole piece of paper and handed it to Donghae.
"Here's your copy of the list we've made, and my number." Siwon said, as he started fixing his stuff into his backpack.
"Thanks. I'll give you a text sometime this afternoon so we can meet up soon." Donghae said, folding the paper and clipping it to the front of his notebook.
"Sure, no problem." Siwon replied.
Waving at each other, they parted ways and headed to their next classes.
Feeling quite inspired by his session with Siwon earlier, Donghae decided he should work on some lyrics after dinner.
He dumped the contents of his backpack onto his bed. Upon seeing his origami letter littered with his other stuff, he decided to briefly read it again, before finally placing it into its jar for safekeeping. He had decided to take the jar home, as he didn't want to risk it being seen, particularly by Hyukjae. At least here, in the comfort of his room, no one can barge in easily.
Finally, he unfolded the piece of paper given by Siwon earlier, where their ideas were neatly printed in Siwon's handwriting. Donghae paused. The curve of the letter D and the way the y appears to be written was oddly familiar. It was almost as if the letter he was reading a few minutes ago was written by the same person…
'No way.' Donghae said to himself. 'Could it be…?'
'Hold your horses, Lee Donghae.' A more sensible voice berated. 'Just because Siwon is exactly your type and this letter sender is making you feel something, that doesn't mean they're the same person!'
Donghae shook his head, clearing it of its funny thoughts. He grabbed his phone to message Siwon.
Hey Siwon, Donghae here. Sorry for the late message, here's my number. :)
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