Waking up was weird. Donghae almost got a heart attack - completely forgetting where he was when he didn't recognize the walls or the bed. Even the smell was different. “Good morning.” he suddenly heard someone say which made him jump in surprise again. 

“Morning.” he responded as a reflex, without thinking. His vision was still blurred and when he got a clear picture of his friend he widened his eyes. Siwon, being in progress of getting dressed, was only wearing his uniform pants. Donghae hadn’t thought about how well-trained Siwon actually was. He knew he was much stronger then Donghae himself, but he didn’t know he had that kind of body. “I’m gay, you know.” he said, still in a sleepy voice.

Siwon laughed, taking Donghae’s comment as a compliment, and continued getting dressed, completely undisturbed.

They walked together to the kitchen everyone living on this floor shared and saw that there were already seven students there. “Morning.” everyone except two or three persons said, which made Donghae surprised since he didn’t expect them to talk to him. He thought that they probably were speaking to Siwon and not to him, but when both he and Siwon answered no one looked at him in a strange way.

Siwon showed Donghae where everything was, the refrigerator, the freezer, the dishwasher and so on while he told him about yet more rules according to the kitchen. He also told him that since Donghae hadn’t had time to buy food he could eat whatever Siwon had. Donghae – who was nodding and nodding while Siwon was talking – didn’t really pay much attention, since he was constantly looking around; searching for a certain someone. He got relieved when he didn’t see him, but that disappeared only after some seconds.

“Morning.” everyone suddenly said again and this time louder. Donghae turned to look who they were talking too and saw Eunhyuk, who dragged his feet, his hair being all tousled and his eyelids constantly falling down. He passed Donghae, probably being too tired to care, and sat down on an empty chair at a table with four other people sitting. Donghae glanced at him.

“Where’s Sungmin?” someone asked. 

“He’s not feeling well.” Eunhyuk responded and yawned. 

No wonder. 

Siwon made his sandwiches, took his cereals out if Donghae wanted some and told Donghae that he would go and get a seat. Donghae nodded again, still not really listening, and suddenly felt so unprotected when Siwon walked away. He felt like everyone was watching him. He carefully opened the refrigerator when hearing yet another person dragging his feet towards their kitchen. It was Sungmin, looking like he was a living dead. He had dark circles under his eyes and couldn’t walk straight on.

“Go back to sleep.” Eunhyuk said. 

“Thirsty.” He simply answered in a hoarse voice “Water, Hyukie.”

Eunhyuk raised himself from his seat and walked over to where Donghae was standing, since he was standing beside the kitchen sink. Donghae tried to ignore him, with the motivation that Eunhyuk would probably be too tired to mind him. He opened the fridge to take out the milk that was standing on a shelf marked with Siwon’s name. But tiredness didn’t stop Eunhyuk, when he saw the perfect opportunity for a comment while standing beside Donghae. “So it’s true.” he suddenly said and Donghae didn’t know who he was talking to. “You really don’t have money to buy your own food”.

Donghae froze, since he realized that Eunhyuk was talking to him. Then he tried to keep ignoring the guy. “Siwon,” Eunhyuk called and got Siwon’s attention. “if you continue like this, you’ll end up like him.

”People started to giggle and Donghae turned to look at Siwon’s reaction. Siwon tried to ignore Eunhyuk as well. Donghae sighed in his mind before taking a bowl out and grabbed the cereals Siwon had left out, when he suddenly felt a smell of alcohol. He looked up to see if Sungmin was standing near him, but Sungmin had walked over to sit on the chair Eunhyuk was previously sitting on. He glanced over at Eunhyuk and realized that the smell came from him.

Donghae opened the refrigerator again to return the milk and the exact moment he was about to take his bowl Eunhyuk let his hand carelessly knock Donghae’s bowl down. The bowl broke, spilling out the cereals and milk all over the floor. Donghae was slow and couldn’t do other then stare. “Oh God, sorry.” Eunhyuk said, not really sounding that apologetic before walking over to Sungmin and his other friends, with a glass of water in his hand.

Everyone, mostly Eunhyuk’s friends, burst out in laughter; except for Siwon who immediately wanted to help his friend. But someone stopped him – the guy that earlier had asked for Sungmin – by putting his hand on Siwon’s shoulder and force him back to his seat. Eunhyuk grinned and Siwon realized that there were more than six people on Eunhyuk’s side in this room. Donghae had to clean up the mess by himself.

Siwon waited till everyone left before he could go and help Donghae, who still hadn’t cleaned up the milk, cereals and the broken bowl. “You’ll get late for class.” Donghae said when he saw Siwon grabbing some kitchen roll paper. 

“It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry.”

Donghae smiled gently, even though he wasn’t at his happiest mood right now. “Don’t be silly” he said. “It wasn’t your fault”.

When opening the door to their classroom they realized their math teacher was taking the register. The old, skinny man, turned to look at them – his glasses resting on his long nose. He didn’t look nice. “You’re late.” he just said. Donghae looked at the clock hanging on the wall, behind their teacher. They were four minutes late.

“We apologize, seonsaengnim.” Siwon said and bowed. Donghae did the same, before they walked over to sit on their seats.

“Is this a good way to start a new lesson,” the man said and looked down at his paper. “Lee Donghae ssi?”

“I’m sorry.”

Some people giggled and Donghae sighed soundlessly.

“Lee Hyukjae.” Their teacher continued making sure all students were there, after giving Donghae one last glare. 

“Yes.”

The teacher looked at the empty seat beside Eunhyuk. “Where’s Lee Sungmin shi?” he asked.

“He’s sick.”

The man snorted before continuing taking the register.

No one bothered Donghae during math class (except for the teacher who didn’t seem to like him at all), since the teacher was there. Donghae thought that he could gladly start this day pretty normally, almost forgetting about today’s morning. After math the class spit up; to singing classes, acting classes and dance classes. On Donghae's schedule was 'singing class' written. Eunhyuk didn’t take singing classes and Donghae couldn’t be happier. Besides, their teacher was nice and he had Siwon there with him. Singing officially became Donghae’s favorite subject. 

They day went pretty smoothly and Donghae could sigh out in relief. He finally felt like a normal student, except from the hard pushes he received from unknown persons he hadn’t paid any attention to before, when Donghae passed. Donghae could easily guess that they probably were Eunhyuk and Sungmin’s friends and he tried his best to ignore them. During lunch he met up with Kibum and Ryeowook and after that he continued his lessons.

~~~

The next day was pretty much the same, except that he got a better morning since he decided to wake up earlier than the rest to do his breakfast, so he could eat it in his room. Siwon, not wanting Donghae to eat by himself, did the same thing and they had a peacefully morning together. And about the dance practices, Eunhyuk and Donghae agreed that they would split the hour. Donghae would practice from 9p.m to 9.30p.m and Eunhyuk had made himself very clear when telling him that he did not want to see Donghae there a second after 9.30.

That was how the days passed – with pleasant and unpleasant teachers/classes, students (mostly Eunhyuk and Sungmin) saying something mean every now and then and Donghae being pushed whenever he walked passed someone that didn’t like him. But Donghae could live with it.

Then the weekend came and Donghae had for the first time, since arriving here, two wonderful days. He didn’t see any of the mean guys even once – Siwon told him that they rarely were there during the weekends. So in other words; no one bullied him. During those two days, Donghae studied peacefully with the help of his three friends. Siwon and Ryeowook helped him with his singing practice and Kibum helped him with math and English. They also gave him a properly tour around the school and Donghae couldn’t be grateful enough, since thanks to them he didn’t have to walk around with a map all the time. When Sunday passed he couldn’t help but feel a little sad.

~~~

Monday passed like all the other days. Tuesday was different though since he was going to practice with the school dance for the first time, after school. Donghae was nervous all day since he had no idea what to expect. Being there with Eunhyuk and his friends for two hours and with Eunhyuk in charge... He was so going to die.

Eunhyuk didn’t treat him any different today though. When having a break, after their English class, Eunhyuk made sure to walk extremely close to him – closer then he should since the corridor was not narrow – only to push him hard when passing by him. Donghae hit a locker and dropped the books he was holding. Eunhyuk and his two unknown friends laughed. Siwon, who was in the toilet, was needed since they all became braver when Donghae was alone.

The dance practice was... well, Donghae should have expected it. Everyone except Eunhyuk was already there and to his surprise no one treated him any different. He sat down on the floor watching everybody else. Some of them were sitting down too, chatting with each other and others were practicing without music. When the door opened Donghae was the only one who froze. Eunhyuk, carrying a bag, walked over to the other side of the room – where the CD-player was standing. He actually looked like a normal student – laughing with the others and talking to them without seeming to be superior. But Donghae still felt uncomfortable.

When starting everyone, except from Eunhyuk and Donghae, took their positions. Donghae was still sitting down against the wall behind the students and Eunhyuk sat down beside the CD-player – against the huge mirror that covered one entire wall, in front of the students. He turned the music on and everyone stared to dance. Donghae didn’t know what to do. Should he try to imitate them or should he just watch? He felt both confused and forgotten since he was pretty sure that he couldn’t count on Eunhyuk. He looked over at Eunhyuk anyway who, of course, completely ignored him and just looked at the people dancing. After watching the student’s for forty minutes Donghae decided that he had to do something. Or else there was no point in being here.

He raised himself and walked over to Eunhyuk, without disturbing the dancing students and sat down beside him – but not too close so it would be uncomfortable. “What am I supposed to do?” he asked. 

Eunhyuk glared at him, snorted and ignored him.

I suppose I’ll just keep watching. Donghae sighed. 

That’s what he did for two whole hours – he watched. It was probably one of the most boring things he had done in a long time. After they had practiced for an hour Eunhyuk gave them a break. During that break almost every girl that was there took the chance to act cute in front of Eunhyuk. Their high pitch voices asking ‘Oppa, did I do fine?’ or ‘How was I, oppa?’ made Donghae feel like he wanted to vomit. He glared at them but then felt sick by just watching them and turned to face something else – the wall. 

When the break was over they all returned to their practice and Donghae returned to his watching. Eunhyuk kept ignoring him and it wouldn’t surprise Donghae if Eunhyuk actually forgot that Donghae was there in the first place. But Eunhyuk wasn’t totally heartless. Since he knew that Donghae would practice today at 9p.m he left the disk inside the CD-player, so Donghae could use it when he was going to practice.

~~~

Donghae had the music on so loud that the floor was vibrating. He tried to remember the choreography but only managed to remember parts of it. But it didn't matter – he had already decided that he would try anyway. He danced; his legs and arms moving to the fast music. He watched himself in the mirror as he tried to imitate what the others had done. His movements were hard and fast and his heart started to beat faster while his breath became heavier and heavier. Suddenly, he stopped. He realized that he was doing something wrong.

He repeated the song and danced again but once again stopped after a while. That's okay, he thought. He just needed some minutes to remember the choreography properly. 

He tried again, but no. 

And again. Still wrong.

He knew he did it wrong but he couldn’t put the finger on what he was doing wrong. He just knew that when he danced it didn’t look like it should. But he wouldn’t give up and tried again. Wrong again.

He started to feel frustrated, both because he didn’t remember and for thinking about Eunhyuk that didn’t want to cooperate at all. He dried the sweat drops on his forehead with the back of his palm. His arms and legs started to feel heavy and he sat down to give himself a rest. He had only one word in his mind: Wrong, wrong, wrong. He wanted to scream – how the heck was he supposed to catch up with the others like this?!

The door suddenly opened and Donghae realized that he had been here for more than half an hour. Oops. Eunhyuk did not look happy.

“We had an agreement – get out.”

“I wouldn’t be here if you had helped me earlier today.” Donghae responded back. 

“Oh, that .” Eunhyuk entered the room and put his bag down, the big bag he had with him earlier. He took his jacket off and threw it over the bag. “Get out.”

“No, because you’ll help me.” 

The tone Donghae was using when speaking to him was disturbingly rude. Eunhyuk glared at him. How dared he? “I won’t help you with anything. You’re wasting my time.” Eunhyuk pointed at the door. “Get. The. . Out.” 

Donghae raised himself from the floor and turned to look Eunhyuk in the eyes. Eunhyuk was surprised that Donghae didn’t obey him, but he was good in hiding it. “Stop acting like a kid. You’re in charge of this, right? So it’s yourresponsibility to teach me. Or else you better give your position to someone more mature.”

Neither Donghae nor Eunhyuk knew where Donghae got his confident from – probably since he was so ing tired of all this, and they both got quite surprised. Eunhyuk didn’t respond back to that since he wasn’t stupid – Donghae had a huge point there. Instead, he gave him his well-known glare before walking over to the CD-player.

“If you talk to me like that again I swear you’ll regret it.” he said, instead of saying ‘Yes, I will help you’.  Donghae smiled a little, enjoying his victory and Eunhyuk didn’t fail to notice. “And don’t misunderstand anything.” he said. “I’ll still treat you like the piece of you are.” 

“Yes, yes.” Donghae sighed.

Eunhyuk turned the music on and started to move to its rhythm. His movements were untidy and completely weak, only to show how completely unmotivated he was to learn Donghae the dance. He didn’t even try to do it good and Donghae thought that that this must be a joke. Was a guy like that in charge of the school dance? 

But suddenly something happened and Eunhyuk became more and more serious in what he was doing till he lost himself. He danced like there was no effort in what he was doing, even so he danced beautifully – sliding over the floor with such smoothness and moving his arms in legs in perfect synchronization. Donghae widened his eyes, being hypnotized in his movements. He felt jealous. Eunhyuk made it look like dancing was the easiest thing a person could do – till you try it yourself, of course. Donghae had a hard time believing that he was dancing the same dance Donghae had tried to do just a moment ago. Donghae didn’t wake up from his admiration till Eunhyuk stopped dancing.

“How long have you been dancing?” he asked, his eyes still being huge. 

“Some years.” 

“I changed my mind.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to dance with you. You’ll only make me look bad.” 

Eunhyuk chuckled and to Donghae’s surprise it didn’t sound mean or like he was making fun of him. “Probably” he answered and it actually sounded like he was joking a little with him. “Your turn.”

Donghae knew Eunhyuk’s (kind of) niceness would disappear now – Donghae hadn't remember the steps since he was too busy looking at Eunhyuk like he was a God. He laughed awkwardly. “I didn’t really... Just show me one more time.”

Donghae had even prepared himself for the comment and/or the nasty look. But instead, Eunhyuk just walked over to the CD-player to replay the song. He pointed and told Donghae where to stand before he pressed “play”. Donghae felt a little embarrassed and not as confident as before when standing beside Eunhyuk now – after seeing how he danced. But Eunhyuk didn’t look at him when dancing but just at himself and that made Donghae more comfortable. When the song stopped Eunhyuk walked over to sit in front of Donghae.

“Your turn.” he said again and waited. 

“Are you going to watch?” Donghae asked, a little nervous. 

The question was so stupid that Eunhyuk, being Eunhyuk, couldn’t resist. “No, stupid, I just find it very amusing spending my time with you.” he answered and started to talk with his usual rudeness. 

Donghae cleared his throat. “You don’t have to stay. Thank you for your help.”

“Don’t be such a . I already wasted too much time on you and I want to see that it at least was worth it.”

“What if it wasn’t?”

Eunhyuk smirked. “Then I’ll be extremely happy since I’ll kick you out.”

The younger widened his eyes. “You can’t do that.”

“Try me.” 

Donghae had no idea if Eunhyuk was being serious or not. If Eunhyuk really could kick him out then why would he wait till now? But then again, Donghae couldn’t forget the fact that Eunhyuk was Eunhyuk. He looked over at the clock – 9.58 p.m. “It’s already 10.”

“I’m starting to lose my patience.” Eunhyuk just answered back. Donghae sighed. Then he decided to just get it over with and nodded to Eunhyuk – allowing him to turn the music on.  

Donghae managed to do a pretty good job when trying to ignore the fact that Eunhyuk was watching him. But then he just had to ignore it since he had to use his entire mind to remember the steps. He thought about what Eunhyuk had said about kicking him out and forced himself to do his best. He danced like he remembered – for a moment completely forgetting that Eunhyuk was there. But when he for a second glanced over at Eunhyuk, instead of looking at himself, he saw that Eunhyuk was staring at him. He was supposed to watch him, not stare at him like that. It remembered him about the first day when he arrived and Eunhyuk had been staring at him just like he was doing now, with intense eyes. It became too uncomfortable and Donghae couldn’t concentrate anymore. He stopped. “Wh-what?”  he asked

“What what?”
 

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I’m not staring.”

There was an extremely awkwardness in the air – except for this time Donghae saw that Eunhyuk, for the first time, felt awkward too. “Well, how did I do?” he asked, and thought about the girls that had asked the same thing. Except that Donghae’s voice wasn’t as high as theirs and Eunhyuk’s respond wasn’t as gentle as when he was talking to them.

“Yeah.” he just muttered before raising himself, grabbed his bag and left. Was that even an answer? 

Posted on: 23rd July, 2011. Saturday.