♦

"Hyukjae-ssi!"
Hyukjae lets out a sigh as he hears the all too familiar voice.

"I ran out of salt!"
Hyukjae rolls his eyes as he opens the door, only to start closing it, preparing to slam it into the man's face.

"H-Hey Hyukjae-ssi!" Hyukjae looks down, only to find the man's leg wedged in the gap between the door and the wall. Hyukjae shoves the boy, not hard, but hard enough to make him lose his footing and his leg to slip out of the hole.

"Hyukjae-ssi, wait! Don't close the-"
"Door..." Donghae mutters as he rubs his nose that had slightly grazed against the door, pouting.
 
It all started a few months back.
 
Hyukjae whines to himself about how many things there are and how the things inside his suitcase has gotten messed up thanks to a certain brown-haired man who had crashed into him on the way up. He hadn't managed to see what the man looked like.

The rest of the unpacking could wait. Hyukjae decides, as he throws an arm over his tired eyes and climbs onto the bed.
He barely manages to nod off before there are loud, furious knocks on the door.

"Aish..." Hyukjae mutters, deciding to ignore the knocking. But the knocking doesn't stop and Hyukjae silently curses as he gets up and kicks away the heaps of clothing on the floor, making his way to the door.

"What do you want?" has barely managed to get out of his mouth and he groans as he feels his nose throbbing painfully, the door having slammed against it.

"Hey!" Hyukjae shouts but is cut off by the person - the one who has slammed the door in Hyukjae's nose.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Oh god I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I just-I just heard that someone new had moved in and I was so excited and-"
Hyukjae sends the man a look that has him stop blabbering immediately.

"What are you doing here?"

"Like I said!" The man says, much too bright and chirpy for Hyukjae's liking. Hyukjae finds something really familiar about the man.

"Oh by the way, I'm out of salt. Can you give me some?" Hyukjae uses all the mental power he can to prevent himself from slamming the door in the man's face - after all it was his first day here.

"Hey, are you listening? I said I'm Donghae. You know like East Sea? So what's your name?"
 
♦

As Hyukjae stares at the door and hears Donghae whining on the other side, he wonders how he has gotten himself into this situation.
 

Hyukjae had always been a negative person. It had been since his father had walked out on his mother and him when he was thirteen. Hyukjae had always stared at the door, hoping for a miracle, that the door would open and his father would walk in. But a miracle never happened.
Hyukjae had stopped believing in miracles from then.
 

On the other hand, Donghae was a positive ball of energy which gave Hyukjae a headache.

"Hyukjae-ssi! Hyukjae-ssi!" The persistent knocking continued. Hyukjae sighs - the man obviously did not know the meaning of giving up.

"Hyukjae-ssi, I need salt! Hyukjae-ssi!" Hyukjae groans as he covers his ears and climbs onto the bed, burrowing under the covers as he tries to tune out the man knocking on the door. 

♦

"Hyukjae-ssi!" Hyukjae groans as he tries to close the door but the persistent man has pushed his foot in between the gap of the door and the wall yet again.

"Hyukjae-ssi!"

"What?" Hyukjae snaps, furiously rubbing at his temples to ease the headache away.

"Hyukjae-ssi, I need salt!" Donghae tries again, putting on the best puppy eyes he has.

Hyukjae swears he is going mad because he almost falters at that.

"Why don't you have your own salt?" Donghae shrugs, looking expectantly at Hyukjae.

"Hyukjae-ssi!" Hyukjae has given up on pushing the door close and he folds his arms, staring at Donghae.

"Did you know that there are a hundred thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone? Imagine how many millions upon millions of stars there are in the other galaxies as well!" Donghae gushes, a dreamy expression on his face.

And Hyukjae slams the door shut, because he is certain that with the blabbering, he will be the one seeing stars.
 
Hyukjae used to be a dreamer. He used to dream of miracles and his father and dreams within dreams. And Hyukjae had stopped dreaming ever since his father stepped out of the house and the door closed.
But that night, Hyukjae dreamt of the stars.
 
The next time Hyukjae sees Donghae is in the lift. He has just come back from work, at the dance studio opposite his apartment when he spots Donghae lugging a few bags towards the lift. He hurriedly presses the close button but sighs as he sees Donghae slipping in.

"Oh, Hyukjae-ssi!" Hyukjae nods at Donghae and that is enough for a smile to spread across Donghae's face and Hyukjae is certain that Donghae would have hugged him if not for the bags he is holding.  Hyukjae looks down and his eyes widen curiously as he sees the tubs of ice cream in the bags - there are at least ten of them.
Donghae seems to have noticed that and he smiles at Hyukjae.

"Oh, chocolate ice cream! I like them because they make me happy and besides, being positive is good for my condition..." Donghae trails off and Hyukjae would have asked Donghae what he is talking about, but he is way too concerned over why he is suddenly feeling so hot and why his cheeks are so warm. As he looks at the smile on Donghae's face, he feels his cheeks become warmer.

"Oh, I see..." Hyukjae mutters absentmindedly and before he knows it, they are at the thirteenth floor.

"Goodnight Hyukjae-ssi! See you around!" Hyukjae doesn't reply and Donghae has expected that, so he smiles to himself and enters his apartment.

"Goodnight, Donghae-ssi." are the words that are softly mumbled and are the words that Donghae doesn't hear.
 
Weeks pass and Hyukjae goes to work, dances and goes home, but not a day passes without the knocks on his door and the calls of the man on the other side.

"Hyukjae-ssi, I need salt! Hyukjae-ssi!" Hyukjae does notice that the knocks on his door come later on Wednesdays though.
 
And every time Hyukjae opens the door, every time Hyukjae gets slammed in the nose by the door, every time Hyukjae pushes Donghae away, Donghae never gives up.
 
♦

"Hyukjae-ssi! Where are you going?" Hyukjae puts on the best stoic face he can as he glances at Donghae.

"Nowhere in particular, why?" Hyukjae says, gulping down a mouthful of water.

"Because I'm going to follow you!" Hyukjae nearly spits out the water right on Donghae's face.

"W-What? Why?" Hyukjae splutters, confused at the excited look on Donghae's face.

"Oh Hyukjae-ssi! What's that?" Donghae points to the shoe bag in Hyukjae's hands. Hyukjae's eyebrows furrow, a second ago Donghae was pestering him about following him and now he is asking him about his shoe bag.

"My dance shoes," Hyukjae says curtly, trying to move the bag out of Donghae's reach. "Now can you let me go?"

"Hyukjae-ssi! I want to watch you dance!" Hyukjae feels a headache oncoming. 

"No, I'm teaching today."

"I always wanted to learn how to dance, but..." Donghae mutters, almost sadly. Hyukjae doesn't miss the look in Donghae's eyes.

And Hyukjae doesn't know what makes him to open his mouth again, maybe it is the sad look in Donghae's eyes, maybe it is how sad Donghae looks that makes his heart clench, almost painfully. And maybe that is what makes him say, "Hey, maybe another time, okay?"

And Hyukjae swears it is the brightest he has ever seen Donghae smile.
 

♦

On one Wednesday night, on most Wednesday nights actually, Hyukjae will find Donghae sitting outside his apartment, head buried into his knees, hand clutched tightly onto the material of his jeans. Hyukjae will always go over and Donghae will lightly brush against his eyes, as if to wipe away tears but he will insist to Hyukjae that it is just something that got into his eyes. And Hyukjae finds it hard not to care, and finds it hard not ask Donghae what was wrong. But Donghae will always look at Hyukjae with the brightest smile and say, "Hyukjae-ssi, I need salt." And Hyukjae swears that the brightness radiating off Donghae's face is brighter, much brighter than the stars in the sky.
 
Hyukjae is quite certain that he is going insane, really. Insane because everytime he opens the door to go out and expects to be greeted by an empty hallway, the man by the name of Donghae will appear in front of him, asking for salt. Insane because he sometimes dreams of a certain man with a certain voice going "Hyukjae-ssi! I need salt! Hyukjae-ssi!" Insane because a tiny part of him thinks that the man is cute. Insane because slowly, slowly Hyukjae finds himself getting used to the loud knocks on his door accompanied by the loud voice. In fact, he finds that the cheerful man often brightens up his mood after a long and stressful day at work but of course he refused to admit that.
 
Hyukjae slowly finds himself waiting for the knocks on his door every night.
 

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A/n: I'm sorry if this was boring T_T Still, thank you to all who have subscribed and commented so far! :)