Love is ………………………. acceptance of the other, whatever, whoever he is.

“Heechul hyung!” Donghae called out. He was able to catch the attention of Heechul who was busy stuffing food into his mouth in a hurry.

“Donghae ah…” Heechul answered with his mouth still full. Several grains of rice dropped out of his mouth and onto the table but he was not bothered by it.

Donghae took a seat next to Heechul. “Hyung, I have a problem.”

“My dear dongsaeng, we all do but that’s what we call life.”

“Hyung! I am serious, and I think you are the only who can help me.”

Heechul stop chewing his food and looked into Donghae’s eyes. His stare was intense, as if inspecting Donghae if he was telling the truth.

“What is it?” Heechul asked coldly and continued forcing more food into his mouth.

Donghae hesitated. ‘Can Heechul hyung be trusted?’ he wondered.

“Spill.”

“Hmm…you see….errr…there is this person…..I …………….”

“Yah! Speak properly!!”  Heechul snapped, scaring Donghae and causing him to slightly jumped out of his seat.

“Hyung, I think you are the best person to help me with this but I cannot help being awkward. Promise you will keep this a secret? Just between the two of us?”

“Fine kiddo. I guess it must be personal to you since you are stammering and blushing like a 5 year old girl.”

“You see, since I started working here about a week ago, there is this person whom I have…….you know…..I kinda feel……like…I……..argh!”  Donghae banged the table in frustration, hurting his hand.

“You like Hyukjae?”

Donghae wore a surprised expression, eyes widened by what he just heard. “Hyung! How do you know?!”

“Please, BOTH of you have been wishy washy, I could tell. I know this kind of stuff.”

Donghae covered his face with his palms in embarrassment. “Oh my God, was I too obvious?”

Donghae squinted his eyes, trying to recall incidents that can support his answer to Donghae’s question. “Nope, but I live with Hyukjae and I can read him like a book. He is too obvious! That is why I know.”

“Wait, you mean, he likes me too?”

Heechul hit the back of Donghae’s head hard. “Of course you stupid kid! Why else would he be staying at your place during those nights?! Plus, this is the first time I see him smiling so happily since his dramatic love story nightmare with Ji Eun ended.”

Donghae groaned in pain. Heechul was strong for such a skinny guy. The sudden hit and the pain at the back of his head that comes after it was like a wake-up call for him. He could not understand how Heechul could read the entire situation even though he had only met the guy twice.

“Oh…” Donghae muttered, not really sure what else to say.

“So what is the problem?! You like him, he likes you. Just go for it! Aissh!”

“Go for it?” Donghae was confused. ‘Isn’t being with someone from the same gender a taboo in this country and society?’

“Are you acting blur or simply stupid? Go for it, I mean, make your move!”

“Its ok? I mean, isn’t it like frowned upon since you know….we are ...both ……..guys…”

Heechul let out a heavy sigh, “You know, if you choose to live by the standards that society sets, you will never be happy. To be happy you listen to one thing only.” He pressed his index finger onto Donghae’s chest. “Your heart.”

‘Wow, I did come to the right person for advice.’ Donghae thought. Heechul may be known for his loud personality and unpredictable behavior but his words does make sense. A smile spread across his face.

“Hyung, are you absolutely sure that he likes me? I mean, he says such mean things to me.” Donghae complained.

“Aish! Shall I hit you harder on the head? Hyukjae is shy! That is why he is saying all those mean things to you because he loves to see your reactions.” Heechul reprimanded Donghae. “I mean, read between the lines for goodness sake!”

“Really? Oh….I didn’t know.” As much as he hated to admit, he did find Hyukjae both annoying and sweet at the same time. How is that possible? Each time Hyukjae said something mean, or , he gets all flushed and his cheeks turn hot. He could only respond by arguing back, or hitting him back, which is why their relationship was starting to resemble one like the cartoon Tom and Jerry.

“Are you acting blur or just playing dumb? You two better admit to each other already. You two are driving me nuts with all these ‘Does he like me?’ questions.” Heechul said before gulping down his soya milk drink.

“Wait….what do you mean? He came to you about this same thingl?” Donghae exclaimed.

Heechul’s eyes widened, he stopped chewing and froze. “Opss…busted.” He started scratching his head for answers. “Yah! Are you done interrogating me? I have class!” He hurriedly got up from his seat and ran off leaving Donghae un-answered.

Donghae sat back and crossed his arms, his mind still cluttered with the bits of pieces of information from Heechul and all the incidents from last week. This whole thing was like a giant puzzle, waiting to be put together.

‘He likes me too? He DOES like me too.’ He grinned.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

One knock. Two knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

“Mr Park….I am here.” Donghae announced as he entered Mr Park’s office. He had received Mr Park’s message that he was needed for a short meeting during lunch time. Already sitting in the office was Jihyo and a tall young man. He looked sleepy but when he smiled Donghae could see his face light up.

“Donghae! Finally! Let me introduce you to our new trainee teacher who will be with us for two weeks. He will be shadowing Jihyo around and occasionally you too. This is Kyuhyun!”

The stranger stood up, bowed to Donghae and extended his hand for a handshake. Donghae bowed back and reciprocated his handshake.

“I am Donghae, the kids call me Mr Lee.” Donghae smiled warmly to the new addition to the school.

“You may call me Kyu for short, the kids call me Mr Cho.”

“Ok please take a seat everyone.” Mr Park instructed. The three teachers were sitting side by side facing Mr Park who was sitting at the other end of the table. Mr Park’s office seemed small now that there the four of them are all in it.

“Kyuhyun here will teach science. He is new, but very smart.” Mr Park Jungsoo turned to Kyuhyun. “Kyu, please learn from these two, they are the best at what they do.”

Kyuhyun nodded. “I will Sir, thanks.”

“I will bring him over to my classroom today, perhaps I can do a timetable for him, so that he can shadow both Donghae and myself at different times.’ Jihyo added.

“That will be great. Thanks Jihyo! The day is almost over so Kyu, you can take it easy today.” Mr Park said.

Kyuhyun nodded.

“No problem Mr Park, we will make our move now.” Jihyo said while standing up. Donghae and Kyuhyun followed suit. The three of them bowed and left the office.

“How old are you?” Donghae asked curiously while placing his hand on Kyu’s shoulders. He was way taller than Donghae thus Donghae had to slightly tiptoe to be able to rest his hands on his shoulders.

“29. I know. I am old. I switched my career halfway and decided that I wanted to go into teaching that’s why I am not the typical fresh graduate.” Kyu answered.

“29 is not old! I am 32 this year so you need to call me hyung.” Donghae instructed, he was somewhat happy that his trainee was younger than him.

“Hyung.” Kyuhyun said with a smile.

“Can we stop sharing about our age please?” Jihyo suddenly interupted.

“Sorry Noona, you know you always look 25 to me.” Donghae flashed his perfectly white teeth and his sweetest smile to the irritated Jihyo. His apologetic smile melted Jihyo’s irritation away.

Jihyo smiled. “Kyu ah, this is a boys’ school so the boys can be pretty rowdy. Do not be alarmed if we get a little rough and tough with the boys, because they really can step onto your head if we are not strict with them.”

“Arasseo.” Kyu nodded, while trying his best to record all the instructions permanently into his head.

As the three of them entered Jihyo’s classroom, they were surprised to see Luhan sitting in his seat quietly reading a book. He was alone.

“Luhan? Why are you here? Have you had your lunch?” Jihyo asked her sleepy looking student who was sitting at the back of the classroom.

Luhan looked up from his book, not expecting to be there alone with three teachers. “Yes Miss Song, I did.”

Donghae smiled at little Luhan. He was always the one who was left out in the group because he was just too clumsy. The other boys often did want him in their team during ball games which was why he always ends up reading silently alone during his lunch break. He was, however, a great dancer and that is probably why the rest of the boys kept him around in their circle of friends.

As Jihyo approach her table, she was surprised to see a beautiful bouquet of fresh red roses lying on the table. She picked up the bouquet, shot Donghae a questioning look. Donghae had no idea about the whereabouts of the bouquet so he simply shrugged his shoulders.

“Noona has a secret admirer!” Kyuhyun said cheekily.

“Err…I don’t think so. Who could it be? There is no name from sender, no note whatsoever.” Jihyo was still searching the insides of the bouquet hoping to find some clues on who was the sender of the bouquet of roses.

Suddenly, Jihyo turned around and shot Donghae a displeased look, “Yah! Is this a prank from you and Hukjae?!”

“What? No! I am no prankster!” Donghae defended himself.

Kyuhyun laughed his two seniors’ antics. “Look, has he been here all the time?” Kyuhyun suddenly asked while pointing to Luhan. “Perhaps, he saw who left it here.”

Jihyo and Donghae looked at Kyuhyun and thought, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’.

Jihyo walked over to the back of her classroom, where Luhan was sitting, holding the bouquet in her hands. “Luhan, did you see who left this here?” she asked.

Luhan looked at his teacher nervously, turned to Donghae with the ‘help me’ expression. “Errr….I don’t know.”

Jihyo sensed something wrong. ‘Why was he nervous?’ she wondered. She bent and moved her face closer to Luhan, “REALLY?”

“Just tell her who you saw Luhan, I promise you will not get into any trouble.” Donghae reassured his student.

Luhan frowned in fear and scanned the expression of all the teachers present before his eyes.

“It was Mr Lee! He left it there a few minutes ago.”

“Mr Lee?” Jihyo wanted to clarify.

“Yes…. our dance …..coach……… Mr Lee.” Luhan stammered.

“What?! Lee Hyukjae?!” Donghae shrieked.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

To my wonderful readers, thank you and congrats for reaching chapter 30 of this story! When I started it, I had no idea it will last this long but I must say that your love via your comments kept me going and even gave me inspiration. Sorry for the cliff hanger again....well not really. HAHAHA. Till next update, muacks.