“Hae!!”

Donghae’s eyes widened and turned around. His eyes brightened up at the realization that it was two of his favourite people in the world; aside from his dad and his boyfriend, that is.

“Wookie!! Sungie!! What are you guys doing here?” He couldn’t help grinning at the sight of his two best friends nearly falling over each other as they closed up the distance between them. Yesung was panting rather hard already, seeing that his stamina was probably the worst between the three of them, and the brothers had had quite a distance to run after their neighbour.

“Hyung, are you okay?” Ryeowook asked, concerned.

“Yah, next time don’t run so fast, Hae-ah,” the elder panted brokenly, mildly protesting and his younger sibling thumped him on the back hard. “Yah yah yah, that’s enough. Do you want to thump the stuffing outta me?”

“What stuffing?”

“You mean breakfast?” Donghae chirped, laughing at their silly squabble. Yesung was actually glaring at Ryeowook, who was doing the same back at him. “Yah, you guys haven’t answered my question yet. What are you guys doing here?”

Ryeowook was the first to break away from the staring contest. “I’m coming with you to work, of course!!”

“What about Sungie?”

“He’s coming along too!! Wait, he didn’t tell you anything?”

“Tell me about what?”

“HYUNG!! HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL HAE HYUNG THAT YOU’RE ALSO COMING TO WORK WITH US??”

Yesung gave his brother a sheepish smile. “Uhh, I forgot?”

Donghae felt a little ecstatic upon hearing the news. “Really? Sungie, you’re coming to work with us? That’s awesome!!” He did a mental cheer; at least now he would have friends other than Kyuhyun at the salon, and it seemed to him that it was now less likely that Eunhyuk would pick on him solely again. Besides, if he had his two best friends working just by his side, he had no doubt that the time would just fly by real quick and his job wouldn’t be much of a chore anymore – not that it really was troublesome in the first place.

“Well, sorry if I was happily telling Ddangkoma and Ddangkoming, and –”

“Hyung seriously, you even told your tortoises about it but not me?” Donghae feigned hurt and pouted, wanting to play around with the elder a little. “Gee, I’m so honoured to think that I rank beneath your tortoises.”

“It—It’s not like that, Hae, I was just – so happy that… AARGHHH I’m so sorry Hae; please can you stop pouting? You’re making me feel immensely bad…”

Hearing that, Donghae pouted even more and blew out his cheeks, barely holding in his laughter. He happily skipped towards the salon with Ryeowook, while Yesung followed meekly behind.

A thought suddenly flashed across his mind, and Donghae stopped in horror. “Wait, Sungie… You’re going to work at the M too?”

Yesung scratched his head. “Um, yeah? I though Wookie made it quite clear just now…”

“But… Eunhyuk is my boss…”

“So?”

“What if he recognizes you?”

“Oh, about that… Um, we’ll see how it goes, and I’ll apologize if I need to. Don’t worry about me, Hae.”

“You sure?” Donghae asked, concerned. “What if he hates you for last time?”

“I don’t think he will,” Yesung answered, rubbing his neck. He always did that when he was nervous or unsure about something. “Because you’ve already explained to him last time that it was all a prank, right? Besides, that was quite some time ago; I don’t think he’d recognize me.”

“Okay…”

Ryeowook noticed the worried look in his neighbour’s eyes and hugged him from the side. “Don’t worry about hyung, he’ll be fine!! Let’s go!! I don’t want to be late on my second day of work!!”

* * *

“So, how did it go?” Donghae asked, when Yesung found them in the lockers after he met Eunhyuk in his office. “Did he remember anything at all?”

“Nope,” the elder said, with a silly grin on his face. “He did mention that I resembled someone but he brushed it off.” Yesung laughed heartily to himself before continuing. “Say, how about we go out for dinner tonight, hmm? Just the three of us, to celebrate!! It’s been so long since we had a little get-together of our own!! What do you say, Hae?”

“Isn’t it enough that we get to see each other at home most of the time?” Donghae asked, a small smile tugging at his lips. “I’m afraid I can’t go though, if it’s tonight.”

“Oh, why not?” Ryeowook asked, closing his locker door and locking it. He turned around and looked at Donghae with a cheeky expression, raising his eyebrow teasingly. “Got plans with lover boy for tonight?”

Yesung’s face dimmed just a little at the mention of Donghae’s potential plans with his apparent boyfriend. He still wasn’t completely over the younger, and the thought of someone else dating his darling Hae hadn’t settled in his brains yet.

Donghae blushed and nodded his head, making Ryeowook squeal happily. “Omo, he’s got a date tonight!! Are you going to his place, or will he be at yours? Oh my gosh, Hae hyung don’t forget to use protection, okay?”

Donghae spluttered when he heard the last comment. His face turned impossibly redder than before and he quickly clamped a hand over Ryeowook’s mouth. “Dammit Wookie, we are NOT doing anything of the sort!!” he hissed, feeling embarrassed beyond control. “He’s just taking me out to dinner and then he’ll send me home. Nothing else is gonna happen!!!”

“Oooglblmffffftt!!”

“Huh?”

Ryeowook pried away Donghae’s hand from his mouth and took in a deep breath. “I was just kidding!! Hae hyung I know you wouldn’t do anything of the sort… yet.”

Before Donghae could correct the younger, however, Kangin walked into the locker room and the three immediately shut up. Kangin could be real scary at times; he was easily angered and his temper was unpredictable. It somehow got even worse especially after his public break-up with Sungmin the last time.

“What are you three doing here?” he growled, certainly not pleased to see the new employees jabbering away like there weren’t a hoard of customers to tend to outside.

“N-Nothing, Kangin-sshi. We’re going out now,” Donghae managed to stammer before they all fled the scene.

“Pfft,” the stylist huffed, walking straight to his locker. “Kids these days.”

* * *

“Company retreat?” Donghae repeated, a little bewildered. “You guys actually have company retreats?”

“Yup, we do,” Kyuhyun chuckled, ruffling the younger’s hair although he knew Donghae didn’t like it.

“What about me and Sungie and Wookie? We’ve only been working here for a while,” Donghae asked, biting his bottom lip anxiously. He’d gotten so used to being with Kyuhyun nearly all the time, he just didn’t know if he could go for a few days without seeing him. Yeah, he was the very clingy type.

Kyuhyun smiled at the evident worry and patted on his shoulder with much assurance. “Everyone gets to go, even if you’ve only been here for months, weeks or days. As long as you’re an employee at the M.”

“Really? For real?? Omo I think I’d better start packing right now…” Donghae exclaimed, shoving his few belongings excitedly into his bag and then looking at Kyuhyun with bright eyes. “Where are we going? When are we leaving? How much do I have to bring? Do we get to stay in a hotel? Or, or, or, do we get to leave Korea? Omo, I wanna go to Japan!! Pretty please??”

“Whoa there, little fishy,” Kyuhyun laughed, grabbing a hold of the younger before he sprinted off. “I know you’re really excited and all but unfortunately we’re not going to Japan. We’re just going to one of Hyuk’s family cabins, not some fancy-schmancy hotel like you thought.”

“Family cabin?” Donghae echoed, his eyes widening like saucer plates. “What kind of family cabin is big enough to accommodate all of us?”

“You forget, Hyuk is one of the richest guys in Korea. Well, technically his parents are, but you get the point. It’s actually something like a mansion on the top of a mountain. We could all fit in comfortably.”

“Oh,” the younger answered, stupefied at the mere thought of such a huge house. “And we’re going there tomorrow?”

“Got that right,” the elder replied, poking Donghae in the cheek. “On a separate note, aren’t you feeling hun