Henry's POV:

After my eventful shift at work I dragged myself back to the apartment, where I found all of my roommates sitting in the living room playing monopoly. They were all centered around the livingroom coffeetable screaming to each other, but Zhoumi wasn't home yet. I was oddly relieved. Now I had sometime to think about the challenge I had agreed to. My first impression must have been priceless.
The bundle of people in the livingroom were quite loud so I just walked into our kitchen and pulled myself a chair and decided to watch them play. Heechul was clearly winning, big suprise, but Hyukjae seemed ready to give up, so when he saw me settling into the kitchen he used it as an excuse to give up the game and join me.

"How was work?" he asked politely and poured some juice for himself.

"Good good, same old" I said nonchalantly and washed my hands before starting to prepare some toast for myself.

"Have you made any new friends?" He asked.

"Yah, you sound just like my mom" I said back to him and gently slapped his shoulder.

He just grinned while drinking his juice.

A silence took place between us, not an awkward one though, a accepting thoughtful silence. My thoughts were all over the place and my logical mind was trying to think of any possible way to find out if Zhoumi was gay. I had already made one huge mistake during my time in the apartment and I wasn't ready to make another one. Suddenly Hyukjae coughed a bit, clearly eager to know what was keeping me quiet. I thought about Hyukjae for a while, he must know something about Zhoumi that I didn't. He has lived with the male much longer that I have, if somebody would know about his preferences, it would be Hyukjae.

"Can I ask you somethin?" I said with determination in my voice.

His first impression was somewhat worried, but after a small silence he said: "Of course"

I took a deep breath and wondered how I should put my question into words, finally I just blurted it out:

"Is Zhoumi gay?" 

Hyukjae bursted out laughing. He placed his left hand against the kitchen counter and bent backwards as the laugher shook his body violently. Tears of laughter were leaking from his eyes. He clearly was insanely amused by my question. After a couple of minutes his laughter finally died down and he turned to look at me, still giggling.

"Oh Henry" He said and placed his right hand on my shoulder, gently squeezing it, "You have no idea what you just asked, do you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, sincerely confused.

"Zhoumi is a mystery to all of us" He began, "I have lived him for a bit over a year and I don't even know what his favourite colour is, if that answers your question"

"You're kidding"

"No, I swear I'm not"

"So, has he ever had a girlfriend?" I asked, feeling a bit hesitant.

"Not that I know of"

"Is he, you know, romantic in any way, with anyone?"

"Never seen do anything of a romantic nature"

"Oh ok"

"So you're into him then?" Hyukjae asked and smiled.

"I don't know" I answered truthfully.

"You'll find out"

"I hope so too, thanks" I said and smiled back to him.

"What about you then?" I asked Hyukjae after a quiet while.

"What do you mean?"

"You and Donghae" I said, "Your smiles and whispers to one another, all of those things"

"We have nothing romantic going on between us"

"You should" I said and gave him a very particular look.

"I don't know what you mean" He said and avoided my gaze.

"You need to love him and he needs to love you" I said and Hyukjae looked terrified.

"You can't force anyone to love you. The feeling of love is so strong that it can start wars and ruin lives, it's not something to play around with" He kept a short break while inhaling deeply,
"If they love you back you cherish it and make the person feel loved in return, if not you move on"

"But Donghae does love you, it's obvious" I said and gave Hyukjae a comforting pat on his shoulder.

"You can't prove that, can you?" He said and sounded so defeated, it made me want to cry.

"Love doesn't need to be obvious sometimes it just happens, when you least expect it" I said and soon continued, "Love doesn't always produce pain"

"For me it's hard and painful, to see him everyday, to talk to him everyday, without being able to actually do and tell him the things I want" Eunhyuk said that and sighed heavily.
He said a small good night and left the kitchen leaving me there, speechless and thoughtful. 

I made my way to the living room where the game was over and only half of the boys where still there. Zhoumi had returned home from the library and was stitting on the floor with Siwon. They were immersed in a conversation about something conserning the universe.

"I want to sleep on the couch tonight" I said to Zhoumi who turned to look at me with a bit of sadness in his eyes, "I have an early morning tomorrow and I don't want to bother you when I wake up and leave" 

"If you really want to" He answered quietly and smiled to me sadly.

He helped me carry all my beddings in the livingroom and stayed up with me while I went to brush my teeth and wash my face, he was so caring. After I was finally done I returned to the livingroom and lied down on the couch. Soon Zhoumi came out of the kitchen with a steaming mug of tea in his hands. 

"I*m going to study for a bit longer" He said, "Good night"

"Don't stay up too late" I said back to him, "Good night"

When the lights were turned off and the last door was closed I opened my eyes and started thinking about all the things that I heard from Eunhyuk. He sounded so sincere and sad when he talked about the pain that love brings. I was actually really worried about him and all I could do was to hope that he and Donghae could sort out their feelings for eachother soon enough and that I could sort mine out about Zhoumi.

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Small chappie :C

But better one on its way I promise ^^~

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