~Hyukjae~

I drank a cup of regular milk in the morning – because Heechul wouldn’t let me have any strawberry milk as punishment for the passing out thing – and picked up my copy of the script Donghae and I had just recently completed. We didn’t have very much time to memorize the entire thing until it was Monday, so I was trying my best to get everything down by memory as fast as I could. We still hadn’t had a full, proper rehearsal either, which made me very anxious if we could pull it off.

Heechul walk into the kitchen with his silk robe on and slightly wet hair. A towel hung around his neck, catching the little water drops that fell.

“Morning.” I said.

“Morning, Hyukjae. Practicing your script?”

“Yeah, we finally finished.”

“That’s good.” Heechul began to brew a batch of coffee and fix a few strands of hair as he waited.

“Hey, Hyung?” I called.

“What is it?”

“How did I get into SM? I heard people had to audition; kinda late on asking this, but just wonderin’.”

“You did audition.”

I was taken aback by his reply. I tiled my head and furrowed my brows. “Since when?”

“Obviously you didn’t audition directly at the school. I just sent a recording of your recent choreography and they liked it – just like that. Your background and talents are already well-known so it really didn’t take much to get you in.”

Disappointed, I crossed my arms. “That’s hardly fair. I didn’t even get to show off.”

“Oh ho, your recording provided plenty of flashy moves already. Your parents and I decided to play it safe and not bring you to the auditions.”

“Safe? What could I have possibly done to cause any harm.”

“Hyukjae – I know you. You would’ve stripped down to your briefs and the floor if you felt such need to do so.”

“I would’ve done a splendid job too if you’d just let me.”

He threw his hands up. “See what I mean?”

Before I could retort, my phone started to vibrate.

I checked the screen. The number wasn’t from my contacts. But I had a good guess on who if might’ve been.

“Hello?” I answered

Heechul poured some coffee into his favorite mug and took a few sips, raw and bitter. He listened as I talked on the phone.

“No, I’m not doing anything… Now?... Where?... My place?... Sure, no problem… See you soon.”

I hung up the phone and my uncle raised both his eye brows. “Can you drive to SM to pick Donghae up and bring him back here?”

Heechul scoffed. “What do I look like to you? A chauffer? No.”

“Well, then can I use your car and drive?”

Heechul opened a drawer and tossed me his car keys. “You have 30 minutes, if I don’t see that car parked in the garage by the time I need to leave for work, your anchovy tail is mine, got it?”

I felt chills go down my spine. “Got it.”

“Oh thank god we’re still alive!” Donghae gasped as he wobbled through the front door of my mini mansion. His face was pale and his hand was squeezing his heart like he was going to have a post heart attack any second.

“Who cares, 25 minutes! I’m safe!” I cheered as I tossed the keys on the coffee table. Donghae plopped himself on my couch and hugged a pillow tightly to his chest. His eyes were opened wide, still in the process of trying to recover from the terrifying drive I put him through. Heechul entered the living room with his business suit and hair all gelled up.

“Good job, and with 5 minutes to spare.” His expression changed when he saw Donghae. “Is he alright?”

“Oh, he’s fine. He just got scared because I drove a little bit faster than the limit.”

Donghae sat up. “A little bit?!? I swear the car was flying because it didn’t seem like it we were even on the ground!!”

“Okay, I drove pretty fast.” I admitted “But there were barely any cars out. The car is still in one piece and safely parked in the garage like how you wanted it.”

“That’s nice, but I don’t think you brought Donghae here in one piece.”

I looked at my acting partner again and he was back to being curled up in a ball with the pillow still tightly in his arms. I poked his thigh to see if he was responsive. He didn’t respond.

“I’m going to leave for work now, you two behave. If there’s any trouble, call me.” After grabbing his car keys and checking his tie, Heechul was out the front door. It was now just me and Donghae. I grabbed ahold of one of the couch pillows and playfully hit Donghae with it. It brought him back to reality.

He let out a relieved sigh. “I don’t ever want to be in a car when you’re driving ever again.”

“Hey,” I said. “I was on a strict time limit. I don’t drive like that all the time.”

Donghae shook his head. “Still, that was horrifying.”

I patted his head. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. But I did warn you to buckle your seatbelt and hold on tight.”

He glared at me and swatted my hand away from his head. Putting the pillow back in its original place, Donghae got up and fixed himself. “We should begin practicing as soon as possible.”

“Let’s go up to my room and practice then.” I suggested.

Donghae followed me and I remembered to grab my copy of the script. We reached my room and settled ourselves on my bed. “Where’s your script?” I asked.

“I memorized everything already.” He told me, nonchalant.

“Already? But this thing is like 4 pages long!”

“I’ve memorized scripts 10 pages long, but that’s beside the point. Are you ready?”

I gaped at him. If he memorized all his lines and possibly all mine too, then that meant he was serious about this. That also mean I had to be just as serious. If I mess up during the performance, he was sure to notice. I gulped. I couldn’t even recite six of my lines by memory yet and I’ve been practicing for an hour this morning. I wonder how long he had to practice.

“I guess not, but let’s just start. Come on, stand up.” Donghae said.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I stood up and I started at the door with the script in my hand. Donghae stood near my dresser which was directly opposite to the door. I assumed the skit had begun because he started walking slowly with sad eyes, already in character. I chased after him. Yes, my room was pretty big, I could run in it. Convenient for when I wanted to dance and break out in spontaneous freestyle.  

“Donghae!” I called desperately. I grabbed his wrist to stop him, but he yanked his hand away with anger. “Donghae look at me.” I implored. I made my voice sound full of regret. He didn’t move, nor did he say anything. “Please… Donghae, I’m sorry…”

He turned around sharply. “Sorry?” His eyes blazed with fury and his voice spoke with pain. He looked so hurt, so lost… He looked like he was close to shedding tears. I couldn’t differentiate whether if it was from anger or his sadness or both. He face said a lot of emotions. How did he manage to do that in a few seconds? I was speechless. So speechless, I forgot my next line. He broke out of character – only because I accidentally broke out of mine first.

“Hyukjae? Hey, say your next line.”

I analyzed his face again, his eyes had softened and he looked at me confusedly. All the emotion was gone. All in one moment.

“Sorry, I forgot my next line.” I looked at the script to quickly find out what it was. For a second, I was mesmerized by Donghae’s acting. Is that how he was when he was serious? Pressure began to build up in my stomach. I might stand out to the audience and in a bad way if I couldn’t accommodate him on the stage.

“Wanna start over?” Donghae said.

“Yeah, sorry.”

Donghae grinned. “It’s okay. I mess up all the time. Just take a deep breath if you’re nervous.”

“Thanks…” I inhaled and then exhaled. I walked back to the door.

“Ready?”

I gave Donghae a thumbs up. We began once again. We made it further in the script this time, but I accidentally mess up a line again. Every time I screwed up, Donghae gave me more chances. We repeated the same actions and same scenes over and over again to get the flow down and the feeling. I was really impressed by his amazing acting skills and tolerance. He gave me some advice and helped me with my emotions. I could probably say that my acting skills had improved more with Donghae in a short 2 hours than it has with Mrs. Young for the past three weeks.

After a long, determined hour, we finally got to the end of the script with no mistakes.

“Alright, good job.” Donghae congratulated me.

“Whoa, what about the kiss?” I brought up. Donghae froze.

“We could just wing it, I mean, it’s just a kiss. Don’t really have to practice that.” Donghae was back to his reluctant state.

“What do you mean we don’t have to practice the kiss? It’s part of the script. We need to know how to kiss like we’re in love.”

“Fine, come closer.” He ordered. I did.

Slowly and unsurely, Donghae leaned in and shyly kissed the corner of my mouth.

“What was that?” I said.

“A kiss.”

“That was not a kiss.”

“Well I’m sorry. You can’t really expect a straight guy to kiss another guy on the lips with burning passion like it’s normal.”

“Can you at least act like it’s normal?”

“I’m already acting like a couple with you, isn’t that enough?”

“No, now pucker up.”

“Wha–?”

I leaned in, very carefully tilting my head with my hands holding Donghae’s jaws. My lips quickly felt the soft, heated lips of the other. I made it short because I knew Donghae was going to push me away. And he did, when we separated, Donghae had the most shocked expression I had ever seen. He covered his mouth and his face was blushing red.

“What the heck, you just kissed me!”

“Yeah, and that’s how it should be at the end of the skit – except with you kissing back.”

“Okay, I get it! But you didn’t have to force yourself on me!”

“It’s not like you were going to do it, so I did it.”

Donghae grimaced and used his sleeve to wipe his lips. “This is just weird. Kissing a male.”

“Get over it, I bet you’ve kissed Kibum tons of times before.”

“We were just kids! It didn’t matter if we kissed! But I’m 16 and he’s 16. It’s weird if we do it now.”

“So? It’s not like kissing a guy makes you gay.”

“Then are you gay, Hyukjae? – ‘Cause you always seem to be really eager to kiss me. It’s really suspicious.”

“Did I say I was gay?”

“Then are you Bi?”

“Did I say I was Bi?”

“Are you straight?”

“Did I say I wa–”  

“Why can't you just answer my damn question!? - Fine, don’t tell me!” Donghae was getting angry all of a sudden and somewhat irrational. But I was getting a little angry myself.

“No need to get so angry. It’s not like my uality concerns you. And you being straight shouldn’t affect our acting. If you’re gonna be like this just from a simple kiss, then you should never audition for a romantic-love drama because apparently you can’t handle kisses.”

“I can kiss girls just fine, you idiot! But kissing guys are strange to me!”

“Regardless, of , you should be able to perform a kiss. If you wanna be an actor, you’re gonna have to put up with plenty of outrageous or ridiculous acts to please the audience. If you can’t even handle a small kiss with a male, then how does that show a director that you’re willing to step out of your comfort zone to achieve your dream? So it up!”

That really did it. Donghae looked as upset and furious as his character did in the script and I was pretty sure this was real. His eyes stabbed me harder than when he was just acting. They made me feel guiltier than his character. I was about to apologize for my rude outburst, but he spoke first, in a low, dangerous tone.

“I can make it as an actor, even if I have flaws. I know I’m not the best or the most talented, but I love acting – So what if I don’t act according to how you want me to when you kiss me? That doesn’t mean I can’t overcome that. Now if you’ll excuse me, my ride is here.”

What?

I never realized it, but the doorbell was in fact ringing. Donghae walked pass me and out of my room and marched down the stairs. I followed him quickly and caught him just in time before he left. I saw Kibum who glared at me. Donghae turned around and gave me the same look as Kibum, but it wasn’t as intense.

“Practice the script. Be ready by Monday.” And he shut the door without saying goodbye.

That was Eunhae's first fight >.< Well, I guess they've had little disputes a few times before, but I'm pretty sure this is their first fight... Thank you~