~Donghae~

“Key, you’re at SM!!” I joyfully cheered as I saw a teenage boy with red streaks in his hair wander the nearly empty hallway. His head spun around, startled. But he instantly recognized me afterwards.

“Donghae-shi!” He shouted charging towards me. He leaped, flinging himself onto me. The impact caused me to stumble back a few steps, but I was fine regardless. I gave him a friendly hug, forgetting about Hyukjae for a moment. Ruffling his smooth hair, there was this sense of a proud feeling inside of me, like a proud parent. He actually made it. Looks like he did have the potential SM was looking for after all.

“It’s great to see you, I’m glad you got in!” I said.

“I honestly didn’t think I would. But I did! Thank you so much, Donghae!”

I laughed modestly, rubbing the nape of my neck. His face nuzzled into my chest, not looking to stop anytime soon.

“Who’s this?” Hyukjae asked, referring to Key.

“Oh, he was a guest over at my house. I suggested him to come to SM and things worked out pretty well.”

Obviously it didn’t work out for me in the end, but they didn’t need to know that. Telling people my problems made me feel like I was self-pitying and overly dependent. They would feel troubled, as if they bore some sort of responsibility for the price of knowing. It wasn’t like anyone asked to know, and if they did I preferred keeping people in the shadows since I’d never consider letting them know either.

Key bowed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is Kim Kibum. But please call me Key.”

Hyukjae returned the gesture and greeting.

As soon as Key heard his name, he suddenly freaked out. “Whoa! The heir of Sapphire Entertainment really does go to this school! This is so cool!” He was fanboying in front of Hyukjae, praising him for his achievements and a side comment on his good looks. Hyukjae took everything in a humble manner, hiding his haughty nature. Key then kindly excused himself to get to his class. “I like that kid.” He said.

“Let’s sign our names quick,” I reminded. “We’ve got a few minutes. It’s time to put our memorization skills to the test.”

Last period – Drama class. Mrs. Young began by collecting our scripts, both rough drafts and final. We all quickly sat in our seats like angels and waited for the next instructions. Everyone was anticipating to finally be performing their skits, but there was no less fear than there was eagerness. It was one of the most nerve wrecking things about being an actor, acting in front of people. To be watched by an audience and critiqued, it isn’t as easy as some people may think it may be.

Mrs. Young pulled a hat from under her desk. Like how we picked the scenarios, there were pieces of folded papers in the hat, except with numbers this time. This was how the order was gonna be determined, as explained by the teacher. The only one who wasn’t going to be performing was Hyoyeon since she was a new student. Fortunately for Hyukjae, the seating arrangements were alphabetical order. There was some distance between the two, so they wouldn’t make so much of a fuss during class.

“Please send one person from each pair to pick a random piece of paper from this hat.” Mrs. Young instructed.

“Donghae, you go up this time.” Hyukjae whispers to me. “I picked the scenario for us, it’s your turn.”

I gulped.

Please be last… I begged in my mind.

Hesitantly, I got up and made my way to the line. I wanted faith to decide when we should go, so I traveled all the way to the end of the line being the last person. People quickly got their pick and went. When I got to the front, only one lone folded paper remained. I grabbed it out from the hat and returned to my desk, where my partner had been nervously waiting.

Just as I was about to reveal our number, Mrs. Young called for attention and told us to start heading to the auditorium. We decided to wait until everyone got settled in the room to find out our order.

“Pair one! Please raise your hands, Pair one!” Mrs. Young exclaimed loud enough for it to echo.

I waited for pair one to raise their hand. As my eyes scanned each pair, a sick feeling grew in my stomach. No one was raising their hands. People started to whisper in search for pair one.

“Pair one!” The teacher repeated.

I looked at the paper, carefully unfolding it. One…

Before even showing my partner our number, his hand was already raised. He grabbed my wrist and raised it too. Mrs. Young saw us and she smiled. She must have been expecting a lot from us because she would never had such a delighted expression unless she had high hopes of something spectacular. That only added to my nervousness.

“Please go on the stage and get ready. You have two minutes to set up any props or change into any outfits.”

Was it getting hard to breathe or is it just me?

Hyukjae nudged me to move. Slightly trembling, I got up and made my way behind the red velvet curtains.

“May I please have a volunteer to be in charge of the curtains?” I heard Mrs. Young’s voice boom from the audience.

“Oh, I will!” I recognized the voice to be Hyoyeon’s. Footsteps tapped on the hard wood floor and I saw her enter to backstage. She grabbed ahold of the rope that opened and closed the curtain. “You guys ready?” She asked. Knowing how rude Hyukjae was to her, she didn’t seem upset at all. I had a hunch this wasn’t the first time Hyukjae has fled from her.  

I took a deep breathe to calm my nerves. Hyukjae noticed my worried face and placed a hand on my shoulder. In a calm, smooth voice he said, “Loosen up, Donghae. You did wonderful when we rehearsed today. I know you can do it again. I’ll be right with you on stage. We’ll get through this together.” His hand then slid down to my lower back, rubbing it to make me feel better. It did somewhat sooth my anxiety. How was he so calm about this?

I closed my eyes for a second to forget all about everyone watching us. It’s just me and Hyukjae, me and Hyukjae. Opening my eyes, I took the first step onto the stage, followed by more steps with the curtains pulling apart. I walked at a slow pace, taking my time, biting my lip to stop the tears.

I heard someone coming from behind, running. That someone grabbed my hand. “Donghae!” He called with urgency. I pulled my hand away from his grasp. But I didn’t make any effort to run. Perhaps it was because of that little string of faith I had that this was all a big mistake. That my eyes had been deceiving me this whole time and what I saw never happened. “Donghae look at me.” He begged. “Please… Donghae, I’m sorry…”

I spun my head around, looking at him with fiery eyes of provoked anger. “Sorry?”

Hyukjae was shocked for a second, but then snapped out of it. “Really, really, really, sorry. Super sorry. Beyond sorry.” His voice was slightly shaking. He rambled on the same words like a broken record.

“Sorry for what? Kissing her? Lying to me? Cheating on me?” It all hurt as I said it. My mind recalled those painful memories that happened not too long ago. The discovery that I wished I never discovered – His lips, caressing another girl’s skin – His hand, holding her hand. My burning hot pain as I witnessed. All I could do was silently watch, mortified.

“I… Donghae– ”

“What?”

“I…”

“You what?” My heart grew impatient.

“I didn’t want you to find out this way…”

I crossed my arms and bit down on my teeth. My eyes narrowed, looking down upon his shameful state. I could feel the string snapping under the weight of in-fidelity.

“Then what way would you much rather prefer? If you wanted to break up, then you could’ve been a man and talked it out with me.”

His eyes shot wide open. “No it’s just – I didn’t – I can’t – I…” He was having trouble forming a proper explanation. It only added to my bitter mood. Here I was, being the mature one and holding my temper down as much as I could to hear his side of the story, but instead he was wasting my time away with his childish stuttering.

I puffed out air from my nose as he still tried to find the right words. I shook up head slowly cutting him off, “I don’t want to hear it anymore. I’m done with you. I don’t want to hear you say my name. I don’t want to be near you. I don’t want to see you ever again.” I turned around to leave, but he grabbed onto my wrist, not giving up. I didn’t yank it away this time. “Let. Go.” I said in the low, threatening tone.

Not listening, he used his strength to pull me towards him. His arms opened and I fell into them. The familiarity of his warmth was the only thing that kept me from pushing him away. He was aware of my weakness for his touch and used it to his advantage. My hands dug into his triceps, resisting his underhanded charms.  

“I said,” I spoke into his ear through clenched teeth, making sure it was loud enough for the audience to hear too. “Let. Go.” My voice wavered as the pain was getting to me.

His arms tightened around me, obviously saying he wasn’t nor did he want to let go.

I tried to struggle and break free. However, his hold on me was firm and strong. “P-Please, just hear me out. It’s more complicated than you think.”

I still struggled in his arms. I squirmed and pushed until I was finally free. “I said I didn’t want to hear it!” I yelled. My tone had hurt him and I felt it too. I never had such pleasures in hurting the ones I loved. No matter how angry I might’ve been, I still couldn’t truly hate someone I once loved. But I couldn’t let such naivety be revealed. I couldn’t let him feel like it was alright to make these mistakes. Not when it did so much damage to my trust.

He let out an exasperated sigh, frustrated with his own self. He grabbed a hand full of his hair like he was going crazy. Suddenly, Hyukjae dropped to his knees and held my hand. I could feel his remorse and guilt. My hands shook violently as his finger tightened over his grasp. He touched his forehead and the back of my hand, incoherently muttering words of apology. Before I knew it, I reached out to grab his shirt and pulled him up off the ground. It was embarrassing to see him so pitiful under my gaze.

“Stop kneeling you idiot.” I barked. He looked at him straight in the eyes, like he finally pulled himself together.

“Donghae, you’re misunderstanding all of th–”

“What? Are you saying that you didn’t kiss her? That your hand just so happened to fall around her waist? Was everything I saw just fake?”

“Yes, it was.” Hyukjae grabbed both my sides like I had just spoken the words right out of his mouth.

I didn’t get what he meant by it, even if he did say it was fake, it still wasn’t reassuring in any way. My jaws fell open in disbelief. “It’s one thing to cheat, but to fake cheating right before my eyes, and for what purpose? Was this all just to make me jealous? Did you honestly want to break up that bad?”

He was suddenly speechless. “No. Oh no, no, no, no. Donghae, it’s not like that.”

“Then was it to get me to break up with you so you wouldn’t have to?” If he said yes to that reason, I think I wouldn’t be able to hold back a punch.

“No! Donghae look - yes, I did kiss her, bring her on dates, pretended to love her, but no, I had no intentions on hurting you like this. I only did this to make her happy.”

“Happy?! You wanted to make some girl happy, while I cried alone? I don’t know what hurts more; the fact that you cheated on me to make a girl happy or that fact that your excuse to me was visiting a sick friend? And I took pity on your sick friend because you told me she was dear to you. You even cancelled our dates to be with her.” I bitterly laughed. I could feel the tears coming again. My heart ached horribly. I know my love was strong for him, but so much hate was building up inside of me, overwhelming me senses. This felt worse than betrayal. It was like being stabbed in the heart. I felt better off dead. “Well, I hope she’s happy. Go ahead. Be with her if you want – I don’t care.” I quickly turned around. I couldn’t take it anymore. The more I looked at him, the more it made me want to cry. I felt the tears already forming. I used my sleeve to wipe them.

I didn’t get very far when Hyukjae began to talk again. It didn’t sound like regret anymore, but depressed and sad.

“I was visiting a sick friend. I always had been visiting that same sick friend. All I wanted was her to be happy. Happy before she was going to die. Donghae… She’s dead now - she only wanted to feel loved by a man one last time... I never lied to you. I really honestly didn’t mean to make you cry either,” I heard sniffles. I saw tears when I turned around. “I’m sorry, I truly am.” He didn’t wipe them away. More just kept coming like a waterfall. Hyukjae’s head dropped in shame. My face softened.

“And you waited how long to tell me that now? I would’ve understood.” I wasn’t hurt anymore by the cheating. It hurt more now that he kept it a secret from me, his own boyfriend.

“I don’t know. It just didn’t seem like it was necessary. She had only a few weeks left. I wanted her to have her privacy, so I didn’t tell you.” His face looked like a crying baby. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I love you. I really do and I always had. I’m sorry Donghae.” He kept crying more and more. He was crying his heart out. Out so that it could reach me.

My heart was ached for him. I didn’t like seeing him cry like this. Slowly, I walked to him. He needed comfort. As his boyfriend, I wanted to comfort him. I wrap my arms around his trembling body and closed the gap between us. His arms wrap around my waist as he cried into my shoulder. I let him stay like that for a few seconds, but I then pull back. I look at him, centimeters away from his face. “I’m sorry, Hyukjae. I love you too.” We stare into each other’s eyes, but then I lean in, kissing his soft, plump lips. Tears stream down my flushed cheeks. I heard people whistling in the audience and say ‘Awww~’ as we kissed and embraced each other. We both part our lips and our foreheads touched. While looking into his eyes, I smiled. The corners of Hyukjae’s lips rose up too. We release each other and look towards the audience while holding hands. Finally, we took our bow. We received a standing ovation.  

We did it.

Yay! FINALLY I FINISHED THE SKIT! I kinda had a hard time thinking of what to write and how to make it work and stuff, so it may not be super amazing, but I did my best ^^ I hope you all enjoy the Eunhae! Thank you~