The Newbie
Walk Next To Me
Love is ……………………………. cleaning up your mess after you.
“Another teacher?” Kyuhyun asked.
“Why would he do that?” Jihyo voiced, trying to understand the actions of her dongsaeng.
“Lee Hyukjae is so dead.” Donghae fumed.
“Sorry, may I be excused?” Luhan whispered, looking fearfully at the 3 different reactions from the adults in the room.
“Go.” Jihyo answered coldly.
Donghae walked over to the Jihyo who was holding the bouquet. He grabbed the bouquet of roses from her and inspected it. “It can’t be.” He said to himself, wanting to believe his own words.
“I know! It can’t be. I have always known him as a dongsaeng, why would anything change now?”
“Woah. What an interesting place to work in.” Kyuhyun cracked. His laughter was immediately put to a halt when Jihyo and Donghae shot him a death look. With the bouquet of roses still in his hands, Donghae stormed out of the classroom, leaving Kyuhyun and Jihyo.
Donghae entered the crowded hallway. He was not sure what to do, but he felt obligated to ask Hyukjae personally. He marched straight to the dance studio. The bouquet in his hands attracted a lot of attention from students, some were whispering and laughing. Others were smiling at him, as though cheering for him.
‘Lee Hyukjae, how could you! I thought you liked me.’ His raging thoughts were making him more upset and he felt his blood gushing to his head. His cheeks were starting to feel hot and his footsteps sped up.
As soon as he entered the dance studio, he spotted Hyukjae and another man sitting cross legged on the floor chatting happily. The studio was empty, probably because its lunch time and everyone was in the cafeteria.
“Yah! Lee Hyukjae!” Donghae’s angry voice echoed in the empty studio.
Hyukjae and his friend both turned their heads and attention at the furious looking Donghae. They were both startled by the sudden loud voice and they quickly got up to their feet.
“Fish?”
Donghae marched straight to Hyukjae, starring at his face with bloodshot eyes. He was not even sure he felt so angry at Hyukjae, a part of him was disappointed with the fact that Hyukjae may possibly be interested in Jihyo.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Donghae erupted while dangling the bouquet in front of Hyukjae.
“What?!”
“Did you leave this at Noona Jihyo’s table?”
“Well, yes…..”
“You liked her?”
“No…Donghae ah….”
“I thought you treated her like your own noona!”
“Yes! I do! You see…..”
“Don’t tell me, I don’t want to hear it. I thought…”
Peck.
Donghae froze. ‘What just happened? Did Hyukjae just kiss me on my cheek?’
“Aish!! You silly fish! Can you please listen for just 1 minute?” Hyukjae requested.
Donghae was too stunned. It was only then he realized that they were not alone in the dance studio. The unknown man, Hyukjae’s friend has been standing there looking at him pour his rage onto Hyukjae.
“This is Gary. I don’t think you have met.”
“Annyeong-haseyo. Donghae right? I heard a lot about you.”
Donghae looked at Hyukjae and Gary in confusion. “You heard about me?”
“Yes, Hyukkie here talks a lot about you. I teach music here.” Gary answered.
“Hi, nice to meet you..” Donghae greeted, bowing slightly.
“Now can I talk?” Hyukjae flared. “The bouquet was from Gary to Noona, I was only the messenger. Yah Fish! Why would you think I am interested in Noona. Gosh.”
“The flowers are not from you?” Donghae muttered.
“No, it was from me, I was too chickened to pass to her myself, so I asked Hyukkie to help me. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to write a note.” Gary explained.
“Oh…” Donghae muttered again.
“Yup, I hope she finally ‘see’ me. I have been in love with her for years but too chickened out to do anything about it. Hyukjae here finally convinced me to do this.” Gary smiled. “Anyway, I shall leave the two of you, you two seemed like you could use a moment.” Gary thanked Hyukjae and exited the dance studio.
“Yah Fish! Do you feel stupid now? Why are you so mad anyway?”
Donghae remained silent. He did feel embarrassed by his silly mistake. What is he going to tell Hyukjae now? Should he just tell him the truth?
“Wait, were you jealous?” Hyukjae suddenly asked.
“Did you kiss me without my permission? In front of a stranger?!” Donghae countered.
“You were talking non stop and wouldn’t let me talk! Plus Gary is not a stranger!”
“You should have tapped me on my shoulders or something. Gary IS a stranger! To me!”
Hyukjae chuckled. “Come on Fish, don’t tell me you didn’t like it. You liked me remember?”
“Urgh!! Stop using that against me! I don’t like you! You always make me so mad! “ Donghae yelled.
“Madly in loveee…” Hyukjae laughed hysterically.
In an instant, Donghae found himself hitting Hyukjae’s head with the bouquet of flowers. Not wanting to be hit, Hyukjae ran away from him and the two of them continued to chase each other in circular motion in the empty studio.
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“Now, you explain to Noona everything.” Donghae instructed Hyukjae. It was the end of the school day and they were sitting in Mouse Rabbit café waiting for Jihyo to arrive. Jihyo was delayed since it was Kyuhyun’s first day as a trainee and she needed to do a brief induction for him. The café was barely filled as it was only 5 pm. The crowd will usually start coming in only after 6 pm.
Actually they were early on purpose. They felt bad for making a mess with the love note for Jihyo.
“Aish! You should have told me that you passed the note to Jongjin on purpose! I thought you were stupid.” Donghae exclaimed in frustration.
“What should I do? It was your idea and Noona was right in front of us, I did not know what to say! I wanted to help you, but at the same time, I knew Gary has been in love with Noona for years! I had to act stupid.” Hyukjae explained.
Donghae sighed. “Now what do we do with Jongjin? He likes Noona too…..and I do not want to hurt his heart.”
The two of them sighed and remained silent, thinking of ways to rectify this messy situation. How did it get so messy? This was Donghae’s second week in Seoul but with all the happenings with the all the different people around him, he felt like he has been here for years.
“Maybe, we can tell Jongjin honestly?” Donghae suggested.
“I still think it would be better for Noona to tell him instead of us, the nosy parkers.”
“Hey!”
Noona had arrived. She just entered Mouse Rabbit with a serious expression on her face. She was not alone; next to her was Kyuhyun, who looked excited to be there.
“Hey guys, have you been waiting long?” Jihyo asked the two guys as she sat down on the chair.
“Nope. You brought this kid?” Donghae asked.
“He wanted to come along when he heard I was meeting you guys.” She explained.
“Yup, I had nothing on. You must be Hyukjae. I am Kyuhyun but you can call me Kyu.” Kyu introduced himself while extending a handshake to Hyukjae who simply nodded.
“You want anything kid? I will go order now while you three guys can chit chat for a while.”
“They have beer?” Kyuhyun asked, earning the disapproved frown from Donghae and Hyukjae.
“Yah! This is a café not a bar!” Donghae smacked the Kyuhyun’s back.
Kyuhyun smiled, “I will have ice mocha. Thanks Noona.”
Jihyo stood up and walked towards the counter to join the queue to order.
“What is that you both sharing?” Kyuhyun asked while looking at the delicious looking dessert on the table.
“Its strawberry bingsoo with ice cream.”Hyukjae said before stuffing a whole spoonful of ice cream and strawberries into his mouth.
Donghae chuckled looking Hyukjae eating greedily. ‘He is so cute.’ Donghae thought. “Eat slowly! Look you stained your mouth with ice cream. Stay still.”
Donghae lifted his hands to Hyukjae’s face and wipe the ice cream off the side of Hyukjae’s mouth with his thumb gently. Hyukjae was surprised by that act but nevertheless, remained still.
“Woah, how romantic.” Kyuhyun commented.
Hyukjae and Donghae both turned to face Kyuhyun. For a moment, they almost forgot that the newbie was present.
“Are you two….together or something?” he asked curiously.
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