The 10p.m-rule didn’t count today and Donghae was incredible bored. When he returned from Eunhyuk and Sungmin's room he saw that Siwon was studying. He knew he should do it too but he wasn’t in the mood for it and didn’t have any plans of doing it either. He thought about asking Siwon do to something with him but he knew that Siwon had way too much discipline for that. Instead he thought about another person, someone he had a little more influence on, and stretched his arm over to his bedside table where his cell phone was lying.

“Yeoboseyo.” Kibum said in the phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” 

“Do you want to go for a walk?” 

“Now?

“Yes. I’m bored. Are you busy?” 

Kibum was silent for a moment. “Uh...” he said and Donghae could hear that he was doing something. He was probably studying too. “No.” he finally said, but didn’t sound very honest. “Uh, no.” He went silent again before repeating himself. “No, I’m not.” he said again and this time sounded more honest. “I’ll just... change clothes. I’ll be over in a minute.” 

Donghae knew Kibum well and he knew that he had interrupted him in something. “It’s okay if you’re busy. We can do it some other time.” 

"No, no.” Kibum said and Donghae could hear that he was opening his wardrobe. “I’ll be there in a minute.” 

Donghae smiled. “I’ll be waiting.” 

And as promised, only after just some minutes Kibum knocked the door. Donghae told Siwon goodbye before putting his jacket and shoes on and opened the door. “Were you studying?” Donghae asked suspiciously when getting out of his dorm. 

“No.” Kibum answered but Donghae could tell he was lying.

He sighed over dramatically, only to show Kibum how hopeless he was. Kibum chuckled. Before they left Donghae got a feeling that someone was watching them, exactly the same feeling he had the first day he arrived here. He turned around and saw that Eunhyuk and Sungmin’s bedroom door was opened, only enough for someone to peek at them. He saw Sungmin smirking before closing the door. Kibum looked at Donghae with a questioning look while Donghae just shrug his shoulders.

As soon as they got out from the school area Donghae got a feeling of freedom that he couldn’t describe. He felt both happy and relaxed. He grabbed Kibum by the arm and Kibum immediately froze while getting his cheeks a little redder.“Why are you being so shy?” Donghae asked when seeing Kibum’s reaction. 

"I’m not shy.”

“Yes you are.”

“No, I’m just tired.”

Donghae laughed. “Tired and blushing?” 

Kibum didn’t reply and Donghae hadn’t expected him to do so either. They walked in silence.  It was rarely they experienced an uncomfortable silence together, even though they were so different. Donghae loved talking while Kibum wasn’t really good at it. But they knew how to compromise, without ever making it awkward. They knew how to talk with their eyes and body. Words were rarely needed. 

“I was really sad when you left.” Donghae suddenly said. Kibum didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at his hyung. The only thing he did was to blush. Again. “See!” Donghae laughed. “You’re blushing!”

“No, I’m not. Stop it.”

Donghae laughed again, finding Kibum’s shyness extremely cute. 

“How are your parents?” Kibum asked to change the subject. “And your hyung?”

“Hyung is fine. He’s still working. And my mom’s fine too. She still asks about you, you know, every now and then. Like, ‘how’s Kibumie? Have you talked to Kibumie?’.” Donghae tried to talk as high-pitched as possible and somehow tried to sound like his mother. But he just ended up sounding like he was in pain which made Kibum laugh. 

Kibum’s laugh was rare; he wasn’t an angry person but just a person that was always very serious. Making Kibum laugh made Donghae’s heart warm. It always had. But then Kibum stopped laughing when he noticed that Donghae hadn’t mentioned his father. He didn’t know whether he should bring it up or not. But he did it anyway, with the thought that if something really had happened then Donghae would probably feel better if he talked about it.

“And your dad?” he asked and tried to smoothly say it while trying to hide the fact that he actually was worried about the answer. “Is he still sick?”

The shining aura Donghae always had immediately disappeared. He swallowed and cleared his throat, as if trying to get a hold of his voice, before answering. “He got worse.”

Kibum didn’t have to ask more to understand. “I’m sorry.” was the only thing he could think of to say.

Donghae smiled, a way of trying to tell Kibum that he was fine. But Kibum saw right through him. “It’s alright.” he said. “Thanks.” 

They both went silent again and Kibum tried to quickly come up with something more to say. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Donghae shook his head. “It’s okay.”

“I know I’m not that good with words. But I’m a good listener.” 

The older one smiled again, only this time a little happier. “I know.” He stopped walking which made Kibum stop as well. “You can hug me instead”. This time Kibum didn’t blush. Instead he just stared at Donghae, as if trying to figure out if Donghae was messing with him or not. Donghae laughed. “You’re so slow.” he said before hugging the younger by his waist. 

Yes, Kibum was slow; because it took some seconds for him to realize that Donghae was not messing with, and respond the hug. 

“You’ve grown.” Donghae said when Kibum hugged him back. 

Kibum chuckled soundlessly, but Donghae could feel it since he was being so close; his head on Kibum’s shoulder. “I’ve always been taller.” 

“Stop bragging.”

They both laughed a little and then stayed liked that in silence. Until Kibum broke it. “Hyung?” he said and Donghae could hear that he was hesitating. 

“What?” 

“I need to tell you something.”

Donghae pulled away from the hug to show that he was listening, since Kibum suddenly was sounding like he had something really important to say. But Kibum never got to finish what he wanted to say, because a group of guys interrupted them. 

“What have we here?” a voice behind Donghae and Kibum said. They both turned around and almost lost their breath. Ten guys were standing there, all covering their faces with something. The one speaking had a scarf that covered all his face except from his eyes. The ones that didn’t have a scarf had pulled down their cap to cover their eyes while others used their hood. 

This could impossibly be a good sign. Donghae and Kibum looked at each other, asking with the eyes if the man was talking to them (even if it was obvious), before turning to look at the one speaking. 

“What are two turtle doves like you doing out here at this hour?” another one, standing beside the one how previously spoke, asked. They both had unknown voices but when Donghae looked at Kibum again he got a feeling that Kibum knew who they were. The guys standing behind them were chuckling and probably grinning too. The one speaking now was taller and stronger then both Kibum and Donghae together, compared to the first one who was tall but skinny. Donghae moved some steps closer to Kibum, not knowing if they should respond or not. 

“We’re on our way home.” Kibum answered and Donghae could hear the effort he made in trying to sound calm. While responding Kibum took a small step forward to stand in front of Donghae. Donghae grabbed his hand,without the guys noticing, even though they were standing dangerously close to the two boys. Where they drunk? Donghae hoped so since you could easily run away from clumsy drunk guys.  But reality was cruel; hey didn’t seem drunk at all but just very dangerous. 

“Oh, you’re on your way home.” the skinny one said and nodded, as if he just had learned something very useful and important. “Then I guess we shouldn’t bother you.” he said and looked at Donghae, whose body was shaking and face was pale. He smirked – Donghae could see it in the taller one’s eyes.

Kibum didn’t reply that, but instead grabbed Donghae’s hand harder – getting a very bad feeling. Donghae could almost hear Kibum’s heartbeat. Or was it his own? 

“Well, I guess we’ll be leaving.” the skinny one said. He was about to turn around, or at least it looked like it, when he instead suddenly pushed Donghae so hard that he fell to the ground, on his knees and hands, with a squeal. 

Then everything started. Three guys made sure to grab Kibum hard by his arms, to prevent him from interfering when the other guys took turns to kick the kneeling Donghae. Donghae didn’t see how many of them were hitting him, since he was desperately trying to cover his face with his arms – receiving kicks on his back and stomach. He could hear Kibum screaming his name, with a broken voice and he could hear laughs and insults coming from the group of guys. He didn’t even know if they were using their feet or hands to hit him. All he knew was that he was scared – scared for his own sake and for Kibum’s and he was crying. He could feel the warm blood running down from his nose and he lost his breath. The asphalt started to rip up his chin and cheeks when he desperately tried to prevent the punches and kicks. 

He screamed, cried and called for help but no one came to his rescue. He thought about Kibum – what where they doing to him? He was about to die – he could swear it. That was the only thing he had in mind. Death, death, death and Kibum. He was going to die and so was Kibum. Soon he couldn’t even breathe with his nose and had to take deep breath with his mouth. Every time he breathed it felt like he was going to vomit – and he started to spit blood. He was starting to feel numb and heard Kibum cry out his name again before he passed out. 

“Hyung, stop it.” a voice said which made Donghae wake up. The voice was different from the others – it wasn’t happy or proud. The one speaking sounded bothered and, if possible, a little worried. Donghae knew that the voice was familiar, but he couldn’t think of a face that matched the voice. His mind was too blurred, just like his vision. He felt a kick on his leg. It hurt, but he couldn’t even scream or cry out in pain. He couldn’t even move. How long had they been there?

“I-It’s enough. Stop it.” the same voice said again. 

Donghae tried to look up and see who the person was – not recalling the voice bothered him. But when he looked up he didn’t see anything but just some blurred faces and the dark heaven. Then his hearing seemed to disappear and he thought he saw someone crouching down beside him. Was it Kibum? He tried to search for Kibum, but then suddenly felt very dizzy. He made an attempt to call for him and opened his mouth. He didn’t know if he succeeded in saying something. Then everything went black again. 

~~~

Donghae slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was a white ceiling. His lips were dry and when he swallowed he tasted blood. His whole body was hurting, his arms and legs, ribs, his back, his head – everything. He wondered for how long he had been unconscious. He realized that he was lying in a bed and could, to 99.9% tell that he was safe and should not worry – even though the bed was unfamiliar. He turned his head and saw somebody sitting there, beside his bed. He couldn’t tell who the person was at first, since he wasn’t looking at Donghae but at his cell phone, typing something. He had a white cap on, without a bill, that almost covered his eyes and because of that Donghae couldn’t recognize him. Beside, his vision was still blurred, from having his eyes closed for so long, and that didn’t make things easier. He tried to speak but his throat was too dry. Instead, he tried to chuckle. It was weak and it hurt, but it was enough to get the sitting person’s attention. The person looked up and Donghae thought that he was dreaming. He must be.

“Stop looking at me like that.” Eunhyuk said, since Donghae’s opened mouth and widened eyes bothered him.

Donghae tried to speak again. “Wh-where...” was as far as he got. 

“In the school nurse’s room.” Eunhyuk responded. “How are you?”

The question was nice, the tone wasn’t though. Donghae didn’t even try to answer that. Responding ‘good’ would just be ridiculous. The question was obvious and the least thing Donghae needed right now was to verbally remind himself of how ty he was feeling. Instead he just wondered why the heck Eunhyuk was there. Then he wondered why he himself was there, when he for a second forgot what had happened. He remembered some masked boys. Where they robbing him? He didn’t remember. But then, his heart almost stopped beating when he did remember that he hadn’t been alone. 

“Kibum...” he said in a whisper, being totally shocked. 

“What?”

“Kibum.” Donghae repeated in panic. He flew of the bed, ignoring his hurting body and ignoring the feeling of wanting to vomit. But his body was too weak and it hurt too much so he just fell. He didn’t fall to the floor though, since Eunhyuk was fast enough, and strong enough, to grab him and prevent him from falling down. He pressed Donghae back to a sitting position on the bed and placed his hands on Donghae’s shoulders to stop him from leaving. Donghae knew Eunhyuk was saying something, but he had too many terrible fantasizes rushing though his mind to listen. “Kibum was there!” he screamed, his voice shaking and cracking. “Where is he? He was there!” 

He tried to push Eunhyuk away but failed, since in this state he wasn’t even half as strong as Eunhyuk was. The room was spinning and he could swear that he would faint at any second. “Where’s Kibum?” he screamed again when realizing that it was useless trying to push Eunhyuk away. “He was there with me! Where is he?!” 

“Calm down!” Eunhyuk screamed, loud enough to finally make Donghae to shut up. 

Donghae’s body was shaking, his eyes all red and his face having a frightened expression. His eyelids were heavy and he had to focus to not let them close. “He was there with me...” he said in a whisper, looking at Eunhyuk as if he just waited for Eunhyuk to say something horrible. 

“I know he was.” Eunhyuk said, his hands still holding Donghae’s shoulders to keep him in his sitting position, and also to help him sit straight up – since Donghae didn’t have good balance right now. “He’s fine, so calm down. He’s not even here, they sent him back to his own room after examining him. He’s fine.” 

Donghae still looked terrified, his hands shaking. He had heard what Eunhyuk had said but his head wasn’t clear enough for him to understand the meaning of it. He realized that he was holding his breath and dared to slowly exhale. “He’s fine...” he repeated over and over again. “He’s fine...”

“Yes, he’s fine, so calm down.” Eunhyuk answered and slowly let go of Donghae’s shoulders. Donghae nodded fast, not even knowing what he was agreeing to. He was slowly starting to realize what was happening – Kibum was fine. That was the only thing he cared about right now. When finally realizing this, for real, all emotions came. The frighten, the relief, the sadness, the happiness – everything. He didn’t know if he wanted to cry or laugh. His eyes started to water even more and the lump in his throat got even heavier. He looked Eunhyuk in the eyes and Eunhyuk saw the desperation of comfort the younger one needed.

Donghae slowly raised his shaken arms. He hesitated for a second, searching for anger or hate in the other’s eyes – like he usually saw when Eunhyuk was looking at him. But no, Eunhyuk just looked confused and a little awkward when realizing what Donghae wanted to do. Donghae carefully warped his arms around Eunhyuk’s neck, hugging him weakly. Eunhyuk didn’t move and he didn’t say anything either. But Donghae wasn’t consciously enough to care or to wonder what Eunhyuk was thinking. His mind was blank, he was sweating and shaking and felt like he was on his edge of collapsing. He needed comfort; not caring from where and he dared to hug Eunhyuk a little tighter as the tears started to fall. Eunhyuk didn’t hug him back, but instead just let Donghae receive that comfort and protection he so desperately needed right now.

In other words, he just stayed still and let Donghae hug him as long as he wanted.

AN: Another update! So many readers :3

Posted on: 6th August, 2011. Sunday.