~*~

  “Rise and shine, little brother!”

  The shrill drawl from his obnoxious older sister startled Eunhyuk awake, and in the worst way possible too, as in the process he managed to bang his head against the headboard (and that only felt good when Donghae was in the picture) and knock over an old lamp on his nightstand which surprisingly stayed intact as it hit the floor. Sora, his sister who now had a wicked grin on her face, approached his bed with a tray of breakfast which Eunhyuk sincerely hoped she didn’t make herself, because if there was anything about his sister, it was that she couldn’t cook to save her own life. She probably made Kyuhyun look like a gourmet chef with her lethal cooking.

  “Mom and dad already left for work, so I took the liberty of making breakfast for my baby brother on his first day of school.” She crooned proudly, presenting the very cranky teenager a bowl of cereal and a tall glass of strawberry milk. “Eat up, dear brother. You have a big day ahead of you.”

  Eunhyuk mentally gave a sigh of relief that his sister hadn’t attempted anything that involved turning on the stove and burning the whole house down. Just as he was about to take a sip from his milk, it suddenly dawned on him that something was very wrong about this whole situation. Sora never did anything nice for him…unless she wanted something, that is.

  Putting the pieces together, Eunhyuk rolled his eyes and demanded, “Okay, what do you want?”

  Sora put a hand to her chest and feigned a loud, offended gasp, “Why, Hyukjae. I’m hurt. Can’t your lovable older sister do something nice fo—”

  “No,” he answered curtly. “If you want money, then you’ve come at a bad time. I’m kinda saving up to buy Donghae a birthday present…”

  “I don’t want your stinking money.” Sora finally gave up trying to be polite (it obviously wasn’t working anyway) and just spilled the beans. “Mom and dad are gonna be out late tonight, so I thought I’d have a little party with some college friends—”

  “Haven’t you been in college for like, two months?” he snorted. “And you’ve already the whole place up? Wow, I owe Sungmin some money.”

  Sora glared at him, “Unless you want mom and dad to know about the dirty little position I caught you and your boyfriend doing in their bedroom last week, then I suggest you shut your mouth.”

  At this, Eunhyuk positively paled, “Please continue.”

  Eunhyuk had come out to his parents a few weeks after coming back from camp. He had to thank Donghae for giving him the push he needed, as the latter was beginning to grow tired of pretending to be Eunhyuk’s ‘good friend’ in front of his parents, when really all Donghae wanted to do was wrap his arms around his neck and ravish those delicious, pink lips. Of course, Sora, being the insufferable sister she was, had recorded his coming out on her video camera for his whole family to watch during their get-togethers on holidays. The only good thing that Eunhyuk got from the whole debacle was the fact that his parents were surprisingly okay with it. However, now that it came to their knowledge that their son was as straight as a rainbow, every time his father entered the room with Eunhyuk and Donghae with it, he would shield his eyes and loudly announce his presence to avoid seeing anything that would probably scar him for life. His mother, on the other hand, had taken to bringing him along to her spa days and shopping trips—which Eunhyuk didn’t really mind at first, until his mother suggested he buy some training bras. Eunhyuk couldn’t fight his mother’s persuasion and soon, he found himself in an A-Cup bra for everyone in the store to see, as his mother had unwittingly opened the door to the fitting room before he could put his shirt on.

  Eunhyuk has always thought that his mother would resent him behind his back if she knew he was gay, especially considering the weird looks she gave Sungmin whenever he walked into their house wearing a dress. It turns out to be quite the opposite though, as ever since Sora got into college, she hadn’t been spending that much time with their mother and she apparently missed having someone to do ‘girl stuff’ with. Now Eunhyuk could only wish that his mother resented him, so he wouldn’t have to deal with any of his smothering.

  “I need you out of the house.” Sora continued, “I don’t want you or any of your fruity little friends ruining my party.”

  Gee, thanks for the love, noona. Eunhyuk narrowed his eyes at her. “Where am I supposed to go then? It’s a school night!”

  “How the hell should I know?” she shrugged. “Just be anywhere but here. Go sleep on the streets, for all I care. Now, do we have a deal?”

  “What’s in it for me?” he asked, crossing his arms.

  “I’m going to take mom and dad out to my college for the weekend; they’ve been bugging me to show them around the campus, to make sure I’m in a safe environment or something.” She started, causing her younger brother to suspiciously lift one eyebrow at her proposition. “Since it’s a painfully long drive back and forth, they’re going to stay at a nearby motel until Sunday night; so that means you and Donghae can have the whole house to yourselves the whole weekend.”

  Eunhyuk’s eyes twinkled at the exciting prospects of having Donghae over at an empty nest for two whole days—maybe they could finally fulfill Donghae’s weird fantasy of doing it on the balcony.

  “Okay, fine,” Eunhyuk could feel himself getting hard down there at the image of Donghae and his delightfully plump doubled over on the railing. “Deal.”

  After he and Sora shook hands to make their agreement official, she skipped out of his bedroom while humming an annoying commercial jingle. Eunhyuk chugged down the strawberry milk on the table next to his bed and thanked the heavens that Sora wasn’t going to be there to make his last year of high school as miserable as she made the past three years.

~*~

  Since Eunhyuk’s mom had left for work early today, that meant Eunhyuk had to take the bus to school today, which he absolutely dreaded only because it was always too crowded inside and he sometimes got very nauseous in it, especially when they hit too many speed bumps.

  Sungmin’s house was on the way to the bus stop, so Eunhyuk had already texted him beforehand that he we was going to stop by so they could go to school together. If Eunhyuk had to suffer inside a bus, then at least he wouldn’t have to suffer alone.

  “G’morning, Minnie,” he stifled a yawn as he stepped into his best friend’s kitchen, where he was daintily eating a cup of fat-free mango yogurt as he flipped through the pages of this month’s issue of Vogue. “Are you ready for scho—mother of God, what are you wearing?”

  “Do you like it?” Sungmin stood up and twirled to give Eunhyuk a full-view of the girls’ uniform he was sporting, along with knee-high socks and a pair of high-heel leather shoes. “I convinced my mom to get me one from the school so I could show off my shapely thighs. My diet has been working really well, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, Sungmin, you look fabulous,” Eunhyuk nodded along. “But you’re not actually going to wear this on the first day of school, are you? I mean, it’s cute and all, but…but…”

  “But what?”

  “It’s the first day of school.” He sighed, knowing Sungmin was probably going to hate him for what he was about to say. “I just want to get through the day with as little humiliation as possible. And that means when we walk in, I don’t want anyone staring, pointing or whispering stupid stuff about us. I…I…are you mad?”

  “I cannot believe that after everything we’ve been through at camp, you’re still so narrow-minded, not to mention a total wuss.” Sungmin tossed him a dirty look as he took off his blazer and went upstairs, presumably to go change into his normal uniform. “Donghae would be ashamed of you.”

  “Donghae…” Eunhyuk’s eyes widened as a frightening thought occurred to him. “Wait a minute, you didn’t tell Donghae to wear a girls’ uniform too, did you? Oh no, my poor baby’s gonna get teased! I better call him before he goes to school!”

  As Eunhyuk whipped out his phone and searched for ‘Baby Hae ♥’ in his contacts, Sungmin’s voice boomed from his bedroom, assuring him that Donghae had no intention of crossdressing today. “He wanted to at first, but then he realized you were going to freak out again if he did. Tsk, seriously, Hyukjae. How could you be such a hindrance to your loved ones?”

  “I just don’t want you guys to get hurt.” He gave a sigh of relief that Donghae would be dressing normally today. Ever since they got out of camp, Donghae and Sungmin had gone on countless shopping trips together; before he knew it, Donghae’s closet was filled with mini-skirts and corsets and fake fur…and Eunhyuk could’ve sworn he even spotted a bikini somewhere.

  Donghae’s coming out to his parents definitely went more smoothly than Eunhyuk’s. It turns out Donghae’s parents suspected him the whole time, especially since he once had a pet hamster named Won Bin and the fact that he used to keep a poster of Daniel Henney in his room and kissed it every night before he went to bed.

  When Donghae introduced his boyfriend to his family, Eunhyuk was surprised to receive such a warm welcome. They treated him as if they were their own son, except for the fact that Donghae’s mom was kinda flirting with him a little.

  “Mom, he’s gay. For me.” Donghae had reminded her once his mother had attached herself to Eunhyuk’s arm. “And you’re way too old for him.”

  As Donghae and his mother got into a petty argument about how she was ‘not that old’ and that people apparently often mistake her to be ‘twenty’, Donghae’s father stayed out of it and continued to read his newspaper without a care, surprisingly indifferent towards his wife’s tendency to flirt with teenage boys—it must have happened a lot. Donghae’s older brother, Donghwa, on the other hand, pulled Eunhyuk aside and gave him the ‘big brother’ talk, where he vowed to do some very serious damage to Eunhyuk’s internal organs if he ever did anything to hurt Donghae. Of course, Eunhyuk would never even dream of hurting Donghae, but considering Donghwa was a prominent figure in their school for being a boxing champion, Eunhyuk couldn’t help but hyperventilate a little as Donghwa stared him down.

  “Are you happy now?” Sungmin descended the stairs, now dressed in his normal school uniform with a big frown on his face.

  Eunhyuk smiled, fixed Sungmin’s tie and linked his arm with his. “Yes. Shall we go now?”

  “We might as well,” he sulked, still peeved that he couldn’t show off his gorgeous legs to the whole school today. “Is your mom waiting in the car?”

  “Um, not exactly…” Eunhyuk gulped. “She kinda had to go to work early today, so we have to take the bus to—”

  “ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!”

~*~

  As the pair stepped out of the bus and into school grounds, Eunhyuk was tackled to the ground by a very warm and cuddly force—otherwise known as Lee Donghae.

  Sungmin rolled his eyes as the two’s limbs got tangled as they wrestled on the concrete floor, struggling to get up. Muttering something about ‘damn lovebirds’, he huffed loudly and left them behind as he went inside the school alone.

  “Hyukkie!” Once they finally managed to get themselves together and stand upright on their feet (all the while trying to ignore the strange looks they got from the rest of the students), Donghae quickly took his boyfriend into another embrace, causing Eunhyuk to blush as the onlookers stared at them with wide eyes. Seeing one of the greatest football players in school squeezing the life out of some guy whom they virtually knew nothing about except for the fact that he was gay was quite a sight for sore eyes. “You look so handsome in your uniform!”

  Eunhyuk cleared his throat and decided to pretend that all eyes weren’t on them right now. He took Donghae’s hand, mustered out all the pride he had and walked inside the school building with his boyfriend by his side and a big, confident grin across his face. “Hae, it’s not like this is the first time you’ve seen me in my school uniform. We’ve been classmates since middle school.”

  “I know, but I’ve just always wanted to say that.” He shrugged, holding on to Eunhyuk’s arm for what seemed like dear life. If Eunhyuk had to pick just one word to describe Donghae, it would probably be ‘clingy’…not that he really minded though. “Gosh, Hyukkie, you have no idea how good it feels to be able to walk these halls with you as my boyfriend. Suddenly, the whole place feels a lot brighter.”

  “I know what you mean.” He agreed, pressing a light kiss to Donghae’s temple. “I don’t know how you do it, Hae, but when I’m with you, I just feel so much more confident. Like nothing can ever break me. Like nothing else matters anymore—just you.”

  Donghae smiled as he sweetly corrected him, “Just us.”

  As the two made their way down the hall, most likely to go find Sungmin and annoy him with their excessive display of affection, they failed to notice the football team gathered by the water fountain looking at them with disgust as they threw nasty insults behind their back. And in the midst of all of this, Kyuhyun and Siwon stood aside and kept their mouths shut as they exchanged nervous looks.

~*~

  Sungmin was mad. He was mad that Eunhyuk showed up at his house and spoiled his good mood by telling him to go change into his ‘boy’ uniform. He was mad that he had to take the public bus to school. He was mad that the first thing he had to see when he arrived at school was yet another sickening show of affection from Eunhyuk and Donghae. But most of all, he was mad because his own boyfriend has been avoiding him all day.

  Sungmin had been sending him texts all morning, but he only got replies to one or two of them, and even then, they were merely one-word messages, which Sungmin absolutely detested. When he tried calling him instead, he didn’t answer; Sungmin didn’t need a detective to tell him that something was terribly wrong.

  By a of luck, Sungmin happened to run into Kyuhyun in the halls as he ditched Eunhyuk and Donghae outside. Only, it wasn’t just Kyuhyun—it was the entire football team. Sungmin hadn’t noticed they were even there until they chastised him when he called Kyuhyun’s name. As they made their way past him (purposely bumping his shoulder several times in the process), Kyuhyun could only look back with guilty eyes as he mouthed ‘I’m sorry’.

  Sungmin most certainly did not want to have a breakdown on his first day of senior year. But if he didn’t find a decent outlet for his anger soon, he might have to resort to just that. And that’s when it dawned on him.

  Heechul.

  Heechul hadn’t really kept in contact with them after camp. They’ve eaten out together once or twice, and one time, they even spent the whole day together at the salon (even Kyuhyun, though he spent most of the time reading magazines and complaining that they were taking too long, until Sungmin convinced him to get a mani-pedi, which he ended up enjoying a little too much), but that was it. Sungmin called him often though, but it was unclear how much Heechul actually enjoyed their phone calls as all Sungmin pretty much did was rave about his amazing life. Sungmin was pretty sure that Heechul had his earphones on while he talked (especially since he once caught him humming to the tune of Bubble Pop while he bragged about the new position he and Kyuhyun had just tried), but he really didn’t care, because all Sungmin wanted was to talk. Sungmin preferred his phone conversations with Heechul than with Eunhyuk anyway, because whenever he and Eunhyuk would talk, they’d somehow always end up competing about who had the hotter boyfriend and/or who had the better life. (Sungmin always won, ahem.) If there was anyone he could talk to about his problems, Heechul would definitely be the best choice. Fortunately, Art was his first period for today.

  “Heechul, thank God you’re here.” He sighed dramatically (what else would you expect from the resident diva) as he made himself comfortable on Heechul’s desk. “You won’t believe the morning I’ve had—”

  “Good morning, Mr. Lee.” Heechul stared at him with emotionless eyes. Sungmin noticed that he had recently gotten his hair cut and dyed back to black; the fresh new look suited him, but Sungmin was too confused at Heechul’s peculiar demeanor to comment on it. “Please take your seat.”

  “What?” he blinked. “Heechul, I’m trying to tell you something here.”

  “It’s Mr. Kim to you.” He scolded as he used a ruler to swat Sungmin’s (which he had so mindlessly placed on his desk) away. “Now, please, take your seat.”

  Sungmin couldn’t believe his ears. “Oh my God, you’re being all teacher-like on me.”

  “It’s my job.” He stated in a very un-Heechul-like manner. “Now, for the last time, sit down.”

  Sungmin let out a very loud, disgruntled grunt as he stomped his way towards an empty seat in the front. Now in an even fouler mood than ever, he folded his arms, crossed his legs and sulked.

  Not long after, the class started to fill up, including Eunhyuk and Donghae who staggered inside while whispering sweet nothings in each other’s ears, Kyuhyun who wanted to take the seat next to Sungmin but couldn’t because a fellow member of the football team told him to sit with the rest of them in the back, and Siwon who managed to make it all the way to the back of the room without meeting Heechul’s eyes.

  After the first bell rang and introductions were made, Heechul made the mistake of telling the class that he was willing to entertain any questions from them, and he realized this as soon as he saw the roguish sparkle in Sungmin’s eyes.

  Seeing as no one else had their hand up, Heechul had no choice but to call on Sungmin, who did have his hand raised as he grinned mischievously. “Yes, Mr. Lee?”

  “So, Mr. Kim,” his mischievous grin turned into a smug smirk. “How’s the life?”

  Heechul’s cheeks burned with a bright glaze of pink as the class howled like a pack of wolves at his incredibly inappropriate question. “Um, Mr. Lee, that’s not exactly—”

  “Have you been enjoying those gay movies I gave you?”

  “That’s enough, Mr. Lee—”

  “Oh, that reminds me, I went to that gay stripper joint you told me about. I had no idea you were a regular there, Mr. Kim. Practically every dancer there knew you by name…and by reputation, I might add.”

  Heechul gritted his teeth, forcing himself to keep his composure as a teacher. “Mr. Lee, do stay behind after class. I would like to have a little talk with you.”

  “About what? Oh, did you have another wet dream about—”

  “Sungmin, for the love of God, shut up!” Heechul snapped without even realizing it. Once he took in all of the wide eyes staring back at him, he cleared his throat, fixed his tie and said, “I meant…that’s quite enough, Mr. Lee. We’ll continue this discussion later.”

  “I’ll be waiting.” Sungmin crooned, and because of this, Heechul wanted more than anything to just sock him square in the face.

~*~

  As soon as every student had left for their next class, Heechul closed the door, turned to the annoying beaming boy sitting on his desk and sputtered out, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

  “Ah, there’s the Heechul I know.” Sungmin almost applauded himself for bringing out the worst best in people. “Good to have you back, hon.”

  “Sungmin, are you ing out of your mind? You cannot behave like this in school, especially not in class.” He flicked the student’s forehead, which was fortunate for Sungmin because half an hour ago he would’ve -slapped the hell out of him. “I’m the teacher, you’re the student. Are we clear on that?”

  Sungmin rolled his eyes, “I don’t get what the big deal is.”

  “The big deal is that we are not in camp anymore.” He said, almost solemnly. “Sungmin, don’t you remember? We had a whole talk about this.”

  “Oh, you mean that time you pushed me in the water and I almost drowned?” he glared at him, still spiteful of that very wet memory.

  “Stop overreacting. I pulled you out before you could sink.” He pointed out defensively. “Anyway, my point is, we’re back in the real world now. We can’t do the stuff we used to do back in camp anymore. But if it makes you feel any better, we can still hang out after school or during weekends and stuff…”

  Sungmin didn’t want to hear any of it, so he stood up and crossly trudged out into the hall. So far, today has been the worst day ever. He couldn’t bring himself to believe it, but Sungmin was actually starting to miss camp.

~*~

  “Minnie?” Donghae nudged him softly, his brows knitted together in concern. “Aren’t you gonna eat anything?”

  “I don’t feel like eating.” It was strange to see Sungmin in such a miserable state. Usually, Sungmin was very loud and vibrant, and even when he was sad, he would still tire out his vocal chords by endlessly complaining about how crappy his life was.

  “Sungmin, sweetie, are you alright?” Eunhyuk asked, exchanging a look of worry with Donghae.

  “No, I am not alright!” Sungmin finally reached his boiling point. “Heechul’s not Heechul anymore, my boyfriend won’t talk to me and I’m stuck here with you two, which wouldn’t be so bad if you two could only learn how to keep your damn hands off each other for one freaking minute.”

  The two didn’t really know how to respond, as by no means did they really have the right to defend themselves. The only window of opportunity Donghae found that could make Sungmin feel even remotely better was to offer him a roll of kimbap, and at this, Sungmin could only bang his head repeatedly on the lunch table.

~*~

  “Kyuhyun, are you okay?” Siwon asked, noticing the glum expression on his friend’s face. “You haven’t touched your food.”

  Kyuhyun gave the people at the table a onceover to make sure that no one was listening in on their conversation. “Look at him. Just look at him. It breaks my heart to see him like that.”

  “Who?”

  “Sungmin,” he said in a half-whisper as he subtly gestured towards the table his boyfriend was desolately sitting at. “He looks so sad. Do you think it’s because of me?”

  “Well, you’ve been ignoring him for most of the day, so I think that’s a given.” Siwon shrugged as he slurped his noodles. “Plus, the little outburst with Heechul earlier couldn’t have helped.”

  Kyuhyun scoffed, “Don’t you mean ‘Mr. Kim’?”

  “Uh, yeah, that.” Siwon hadn’t even realized that he used Heechul’s first name out of habit. “Listen, Kyuhyun, if you feel that badly about it, there’s lots of time to make it up to him to after school.”

  “I can’t wait that long.” Kyuhyun stood up, picked up his lunch tray and walked towards a certain other table.

  Siwon’s eyes widened, “Kyuhyun! Where are you going?!”

  The entire table of football players watched as one of their own made his way towards the table full of gays. Kyuhyun, however, could care less what they thought of him, which was a very foreign feeling to him, but the strangeness of the whole thing soon went away as he sat next to Sungmin, kissed him on the lips and proceeded to eat his lunch as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. All eyes were on them right now, because apparently a football player kissing his boyfriend out of the blue was enough to cause quite a debacle.

  “Great. We already lost Donghae and now we’re losing Kyuhyun too.” One of the jocks complained. “Can you actually believe this, Siwon?”

  “Yes,” Siwon sighed to himself as he stared at his friends, most of whom he had barely talked to since camp ended. “Yes, I can.”

  Sungmin looked around with wide eyes. He always enjoyed being the center of attention, but he wasn’t used to being in it like this. In fact, he was just as confused as everyone else in the cafeteria. “Kyuhyun…what are you doing?”

  “What I should have been doing the whole time.” He smiled and handfed Sungmin a roll of kimbap from his plate. “I’m really sorry about today, bunny. For a moment there, I forgot everything you’ve taught me at camp. But luckily, I’ve come to my senses.”

  “Well, I’m glad,” Sungmin pressed his cheek against Kyuhyun’s shoulder, feeling all of the frustration from this morning float away on a little cloud. He turned to the couple across them, who both had stupid grins plastered on their faces as they watched their good friends enjoy each other’s company. “I don’t know about you guys, but this is the best day ever.”

~*~

OH MY GOD GUYS THE AMOUNT OF SUBS FOR THIS GAAAH I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH