“Ah! This would be suitable!” Hyukjae cheered excitedly as he pointed to a brand new hi fi set in the store. He was jogging towards the item on sale even before Donghae could respond.

They had arrived at the store. Hyukjae literally held Donghae’s hand until they reach their destination. At first Donghae thought it would be weird to be pulled by the wrist like that by a stranger but oddly he did not feel awkward at all. In fact, he felt protected by the warm grasp of Hyukjae’s hand. He may know Hyukjae’s name and what he does for a living but apart from this information, he knows nothing about this red haired guy. Other than, he is a rude guy.

Thus, he concluded that Hyukjae is still a stranger to him.

“Hmm…yes, its pretty similar to the old one except its brand new.” Donghae agreed.

“Of course, you fish. Its perfect. Ok, carry this and make the payment over there at the counter. Hyukjae instructed.

Donghae’s eyes widened, “Are you expecting me to pay for this whole thing?”

“Well, YES, since you are the one who broke it in the first place?”

Donghae thought for a while. He DID agree to pay for it the last time when he was in the studio facing the furious Hyukjae.

“Isn’t this school property and the school should pay for it?” Donghae asked innocently. He did just start working here in Seoul and he was slightly tight with the budget. This is especially when he just made a down payment for his apartment.

“You can check with the school on how they can reimburse you tomorrow. But for now you have to fork out the money. I need this tomorrow. I don’t care.” Hyukjae sounded more demanding now.

Donghae sighed. “Ok, I will pay for this first but on 2 conditions.”

“What the hell? What conditions?”

“Firstly, you need to stop saying mean things to me! I am trying to be very polite here but your words have been nothing but harsh since the first time I met you!”

Hyukjae scoffed. “Are you kidding me? That is because you made me angry the first time I met you and you continued to do things that make me angry on the second time I met you too!”

“Yes but both were accidents. I had no intentions of annoying you.” Donghae defended himself.

“Fine. I will stop saying mean things to you. What is the second one?” Hyukjae asked reluctantly.

“This new set is pretty heavy and I am exhausted from lugging this sack the whole night. You need to help me carry this back to my apartment so that I push this on trolley when I go to school tomorrow. I just moved into my apartment and I have a trolley at home.”

“What?!” Hyukjae shrieked.

“They cannot deliver this by tomorrow. They will take 2 days to deliver so we have to carry these ourselves if you want this by tomorrow. Furthermore the speakers are pretty big and heavy.”

Donghae was enjoying himself seeing Hyukjae’s annoyed reaction. For the first time since they met, the ball is in his court. Donghae rationalized that he is not going to be left alone to carry this home.

“Aiisshh. Its so late damn it. Fine! You are such a baby, how can these be heavy to you?! Let’s get going!” Hyukjae finally agreed unwillingly to Donghae’s requests.

A smile spread across Donghae’s face. This guy is not so heartless after all. He took a shot even though he knows that there is a slight chance that Hyukjae may not agree to this and leave him all alone to carry this home.

“We are taking the cab by the way and you are paying!” Hyukjae yelled before scooting off to the counter.

“Will you hold the box up properly? I am trying to unlock the door?” Donghae instructed. He could see that Hyukjae was still very annoyed and he seems to find pleasure watching him this annoyed.

They have finally arrived at the entrance of Donghae’s apartment. It was 10.30 pm and they were both tired, not just from the night but from the constant bickering and nudging throughout the night.

“Yeah yeah yeah.” Hyukjae said sarcastically. “Hurry up you fish!”

“Nope. Remember, you promised not to say such mean things anymore.” Donghae said in his ‘teacher’ voice.  “What are the magic words that I taught you?”

Hyukjae was in disbelief. This guy made him carry this heavy hi fi set and made him speak polite language? Hyukjae has never felt so controlled in his life.

“Hurry up. PLEASE.” Hyukjae said sarcastically, emphasizing on the word ‘please’ by revealing his gummy smile.

“That’s more like it.” Donghae chuckled.

The door finally opened and both of them came in carrying the big box. Donghae instructed Hyukjae to leave the box near the door so that he can move the box onto the trolley easily the next morning.

After he placed the box down, Hyukjae stood up. The apartment was bare but his eyes spotted a messy stack of dvds on the floor near the tv. He started walking towards it. The dvds were all spread out on the floor, it was messy and Hyukjae could not stand the sight. He started to arrange the dvds and stack them all neatly up.

Upon seeing this, Donghae was yelled from the kitchen. “Yah Hyukjae! Are you going to help me clean my apartment too?”

Hyukjae stood up, feeling embarrassed. He could not stand seeing a mess. He feels obligated to clean it. It’s a fixation that he cannot ignore.

“Yah! You should really clean up. Its so messy here.” Hyukjae was shook his head in disbelief. He hated that Donghae the fish guy saw this vulnerable side of him.

Donghae looked at Hyukjae who was too embarrassed and chose to look down onto the floor. He took out a bottled drink from the fridge, started walking towards Hyukjae who was still in the living room and offered him the drink.

“Here, take this. Thank you for everything.” Donghae smiled. Even though Hyukjae has been obnoxious and whiny the whole journey home, he was still thankful that he agreed to help.

“Thanks. I better get going.” They started to walk towards the door. It was getting late and they start work really early tomorrow.

“Remember your promise please. No mean words, only nice words to me.” Donghae reminded Hyukjae as Hyukjae put on his shoes to leave.

“You are such a baby. Fine. As long as you do not annoy me, I will not say mean things to you. Except…………. I will continue calling you Fish. I think this Fish name suits you well.”

Donghae was too tired to argue back. He decided to just let Hyukjae be. Anyway, he really like the way Hyukjae called him Fish whenever Hyukjae is annoyed with him. To be honest he enjoyed seeing the annoyed Hyukjae submitting to his requests.

Footsteps.

Both of them turned their heads to the direction of the footsteps. It was slightly dark because one of the lights along the corridor has gone off. All the two guys could see was a silhouette walking towards their direction. They were curious. Seeing the two pairs of eyes staring, the silhouette stopped walking. The next 5 seconds was the longest silence all three of them had ever experienced.

“Hyukjae?” voiced the silhouette, identity still unknown to both Hyukjae and Donghae.

Hyukjae squint his eyes to see who just called his name. He started walking slowly towards the unknown silhouette to have a better view.

“Minnie?”

At that instant, both Hyukjae and the unknown person started jogging towards each other and gave each other a big hug, leaving Donghae shocked and confused.