~Donghae~

I had a good night’s rest. The next morning, I avoided the thoughts of my parents and focused on school. I needed to stay concentrated on acting and not let my inconvenient family problems get in the way. Kibum recently received a chance to possibly become a trainee, but only if he passed the auditions, which I believe he can. However, as a brother and a rival, I needed to step my game up or else I’ll fall behind. We both dreamed of working in the same company, developing our skills together and working on the same projects. But they remained only dreams that may or may not come true if I don’t work hard enough. So my main priority now – Like how it had always been is to join a talent agency as soon as possible.

Kibum told me that I could come with him and we could audition together on next Saturday. Of course I was going to audition with him, but my greatest fear was if one of us wouldn’t make it. There was always next year if either of us failed, but neither of us were willing to wait 365 days. One year seemed so long and life’s short. If I just keep waiting, that meant leaving a window of opportunity for many other starving talents to steal the chance before I seize it.

I dream big, but a big dream won’t set me apart from anyone else unless I could prove otherwise I wasn’t just talk. Although, as hard as I try to persevere there are special people in my life – My parents – who constantly remind me that I can’t do anything and dreams are only for when you sleep. Despite all that, their disapproval just added fire to my flames. I longed to prove them how wrong they are and how much they’ll regret ever doubting me.

I walked casually to school accompanied by Kibum. A few yawns from here and there since he was too excited about the auditions, but that very same reason was probably how he’ll even make it through the rest of the week awake. His eyelids were half open and he took in a deep breath and let it all out in one long exhale.

“Jessica.” He said.

“What?” I said.

“Jessica, she’s running right at you.”

I redirected my eyes towards my girlfriend who was charging right at me. Quickly, I held my arms out for her to jump in them. She did and I spun her around.

“Good morning!” I said.

“Where is he?!” She uttered eagerly.

“Where is who?” I asked.

“Hyukjae! Where’s Hyukjae! I heard that he’d be back today!” Jessica was looking intently for the blonde, skinny boy. She whipped me in the face with her hair as she turned her head from side to side, scanning the campus.

We let go of each other and somehow, she got me and Kibum to join her little search. Not long after we were searching, a crowd was starting to form at the front of the school. Majority of them were girls, but there were a few guys like Siwon and Sungmin who huddled around. As I looked carefully, I finally found who I was looking for, someone who had short, blonde hair and sharp facial characteristics.

He had a big smile plastered on his face and stood right in the middle of the crowd. We made eye contact just as Jessica fiercely shouted his name. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t hear her in this clamorous commotion. Either way, our sights were locked on each other and it was enough to communicate a message. ‘Come here’ my eyes said.

He attempted to break free from the crowd, which proved futile and backfired by pulling his body further in the sea of people.

“Hae-yaaaaaaah, I want to welcome Hyukjae back, but all these people are in the way. Can you please go get him?” Jessica whined. She looked at me and I just looked at her back, thinking she was crazy.

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease,” She begged. “I really want to welcome him back. Kibum does too right?”

Kibum looked at her, prying his eyes from where ever he had been staring at. “Huh? What about Kibum?” He spoke, confused.

Jessica shot a deadly glare at him, followed with a sweet smile, too sweet. It kinda looked like it was saying ‘You better speak wisely, or I’ll murder you.’ Kibum, got chills.

“Y-Yeah, what Jessica s-said.”

I sighed in defeat. “Fine,” I handed Kibum my backpack. “Hold this for me. Oh yeah, and be sure to hand in my book report to Mr. Dong if I don’t make it back.”

Kibum saluted me and I rolled up sleeve up about to go to battle. Unwillingly, I tried to push my way through the mob of students, but it was no use. I tried again from another side, but to no avail of reaching Hyukjae. Was it just me, or was this crowd getting bigger? Since when did Hyukjae get this popular?

Suddenly, I felt a hand grab my tie. I was forcefully being pulled in, swallowed by the large mass of people. I panicked for a second, but when I realized whose hand it was, my mind then eased. My leg kept moving until I bumped into someone. The same someone I was supposed to be pulling out of this situation instead of being pulled in along with him.

“Glad to see you’re back at school.” I greeted him loud enough for him to hear.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “Kinda crazy, I wasn’t really expecting such a greeting from everyone.”

“Me neither. But you did have everyone worried, Hyukjae.”

“What?”

“I said! You had everyone worried!” I yelled, raising my voice to even louder limits.

“Huh?”

“Never mind!”

Hyukjae just awkwardly laughed. I grimaced as people pushed us together. I felt our chests touch. I tried to push some space in between us, but obviously it failed. Being this close to him felt weird. His eyes were looking everywhere else but at me. I breathed in.

I smell strawberries…

Out of nowhere, I felt someone’s hand on my . I jumped.

“Gah! Someone’s touching my !” I screamed. Only Hyukjae heard it.

“Oh god, sorry!” Hyukjae cried. My face turned instantly red. It was hot and I couldn’t tell if it was from everyone’s body heat or if it was just me. Did he just touch me ? I really hoped it was an accident. Judging from him blushing, it did look like it was.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to! There’s really not that much space!”

“I’ve noticed!”

People continued to push their way to get to Hyukjae. It was annoying. Add flashing cameras and you’d get the paparazzi which was equally as vexing. Out of the entire school day to welcome him back, everyone was fighting to talk to him now. It seemed so unnecessary and inconsiderate to group around him like this. I felt like punching some of the faces that were breathing down my neck. The sudden thought jumped out of my head as I felt a hand my again.

“Hyukjae! Stop touching my !” I ordered.

“I’m not touching anybody’s ! My hands are right here!”

I looked at both his hands that were raised up – definitely not touching my . I turned and looked down. A random hand I didn’t recognized was feeling all around my . I knew it was a male’s hand, but I didn’t think that it knew that it was touching another male’s behind. It probably thought it had scored and gotten a female’s in its grasp, since there were like dozens of girls surrounding us.

I furiously slapped the hand away. If I could, I would’ve pulled that guy in just so I could punch him for violating me.

I finally had enough. I grabbed Hyukjae’s hand.  “Come on! Let’s go before I hurt somebody for ual harassment!” I yelled.

With a firm grip on his hand, I began to pull him out with me. I small gap from the crowd began to open up and we both squeezed our way out. Few seconds later, we had successfully escaped and teachers that had arrived late began to break the group of students apart.

I dragged Hyukjae towards Jessica and Kibum.

“Here,” I panted as I threw his hand down. “I got him out.”

Jessica flung her arms around his waist. “Hyukjae!! Welcome back to school! Everyone kept talking about you and how you looked so weak when you collapsed. You scared everyone, right Kibum?”

“Uh – Yeah. Welcome back.” Kibum said with a slanted smile. He held out a hand and Hyukjae shook it.

“We’re so glad you’re doing better!” Jessica continued. I noted her overly affectionate gestures and long stares.

We all chatted and laughed a bit until school began. It was all normal again. Well, at school at least. Everyone was here. There was no longer that empty seat that was left for Hyukjae to fill. Things were going smoothly all the way until drama class where Hyukjae had dropped the question again.

“So, kiss or no kiss?”

“Must we have to kiss?” I complained, but it wasn’t as rejecting as the one yesterday. It was more of uncertainty. I was 50/50 somehow on the idea.

“I think our characters should, it would be romantic. Come on, Donghae. One small kiss is fine, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, but short and simple. That’s the only type of kiss I’m allowing, and we’re not gonna rehearse it with people around. Got it?”

He smiled and nodded like a little kid.

Hyukjae and I finally finished the script after working for a productive 30 minutes. We only had a few minutes left in class, so we decided to practice together while we still could. The bell rang and school was dismissed.

Before I was about to leave, Hyukjae gave me a folded piece of paper. I opened it up curiously seeing numbers.

“What is this?”

“It’s my phone number.”

“Why?”

“So you can call or text me over the weekend to practice. I have to head straight home today to rest – Heechul’s orders. But I’m free the entire weekend, so you can just contact me and maybe you can come to my place or I can come to yours and we can just work and stuff.”

I stared at the piece of paper and then I looked at him with an optimistic grin. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

See, I told you that there would be more Eunhae Cx They're slowly getting closer to each other. Monday is the big day for them, it's coming soooooon :) Thank you~