They talk till late night, conversing frankly about how they both had their own insecurities when it came to attachments. While Donghae advised Hyukjae to simply be careful about how his flirting would mislead other he told him to be careful in considering people, because someone out there would have a genuine enough heart to deserve Hyukjae’s love and so Hyukjae didn’t need to be scared. Donghae then went on to express how he had become so used to keeping himself closed off of people that it was very difficult for him to trust someone with his heart

“My parents are not anything like yours Hyuk, you’re very lucky, I mean you still have your nanny with you! And…I really do envy you in a way and really happy too, you have something I’ve always wanted..” he trailed off, not realizing the heavy sadness that lingered in his voice.

“Hey…” Hyukjae called out softly as he wrapped a comforting hand over Donghae’s, who tried to smile, to mask how terribly dead he felt on the inside. “Hae, I can already see it, you will make a superb father.”

Donghae snorted and shook his head as he stared forlornly into his lap “I’m not even sure whether I want to make such a big commitment,  I mean my parents never showed an ounce of affection for each other, always bickering, always busy, yes I know money is very important, but is it more important than emotions and affection?”

Hyukjae squeezed his hand, he could see Donghae was tearing up, this was obviously a very sensitive topic. Donghae sniffled and let out a humorless chuckle “Dad would always warn me, you know, to stay practical always, love was either only hormones or fairytales, it didn’t happen in real life to real people. Real people only took what they wanted from you and went off, never to be seen again.”

“…So you thought that not even trying to find love or give love a chance would be the best way to stay practical? “

“It’s infuriating and frustrating really, I mean who does not want to be loved?! Everyone wants to be loved…all I’ve ever done is see love happen to a few people, like Jungsu-hyung, and obviously your parents…but it never happened to me, mostly because I’m scared to come out of this barrier I’ve put myself into…oh God, I’m sorry Hyuk, I just got us all depressed…”

Hyukjae swallowed, realizing there was this strange, constricting lump in his throat as he peered intently at Donghae’s face, that broken-hearted look on his face bothered Hyukjae very much.

“Donghae you already call my dad ‘Appa’, so what are yo talking about hm?” Hyukjae’s tone was soothing and hushed, so relaxing to donghae that he felt his worries evaporate. Glancing up he genuinely smiled at those genuine expressions of sincerity on Hyukjae’s face. “Don’t you worry, you have me now. My entire family, you basically charmed them out of their heads, even Kyuhyun has this major soft spot for you.” Hyukjae playfully grumbled, jutting his lower lip out exaggeratedly and Donghae laughed for real this time, happily sighing as he shook his head “Well, I guess I’m a natural charmer.”

Hyukjae shot him a foxy grin “ You sure are, you’ve got me charmed enough too.”

“Oh get off, you flirt” Donghae snapped playfully, abruptly shrugging off Hyukjae’s hand who laughed.

Donghae smiled, feeling entirely at ease by now “Well I should probably head to bed” he yawned, making Hyukjae yawn too. They grinned and got up, dusting off their clothes “Don’t leave without meeting me” Hyukjae instructed

“But I thought you didn’t like goodbyes?”

“I only said about meeting me, not me saying goodbye, which I’m for sure not saying.”

“Kay~” Donghae shrugged as the two entered the hallway, Hyukjae’s room and the room donghae was staying in were in the opposite directions. They lingered for a while, muttering goodnight, on a whim donghae stepped up to embrace hyukjae, who instantly wrapped his arms around him.

They parted with grand smiles on their faces. Yet there was something in their eyes, that dampened the smiles.

When Donghae snuggled into his bed and got ready to sleep he thought of setting an alarm for the morning, unlocking his screen he came face to face with the add new contacts page, snorting he shook his head at the name a certain number was added with

Your love Lee Hyukjae <3

Smiling he pressed save, not even bothering to edit the name.

--

The next morning was rather sentimental, Donghae was not expecting to bid farewell to faces that were tearing up, even Kyuhyun looked bummed out. Donghae repeatedly welcomed them to visit him, speaking of how his own parents were always away on business trips and that he had a house of his own that his parents had brought for him.

Annie had wailed brokenly into the crook of his neck, she was inconsolable and Donghae felt a lump forming in his own throat, he hugged Hyukjae’s parents and Nanny. Hyukjae himself had not shown up, then again Donghae had decided to leave rather early in the morning and only these few people had woken up for him. Feeling a little disappointed he had just stepped out the front door when loud shouting had him stopping and turning

“YAH! I told you not to leave without meeting me!”

“Didn’t want to disturb your beauty sleep, gorgeous” Donghae retorted sarcastically and Hyukjae gushed, impressed “ You’re learning! Good good, about time! Don’t you worry, I’ll teach you lots more, though those pick-up lines were not bad, but they don’t always work so, careful!” he patted Donghae’s shoulder as he smiled and nodded.

“So yeah, goodbye then Hyukjae.”

Hyukjae nibbled on his lower lip, shifting his weight from one foot to another as if some anxiety was eating him up from within, he scowled and shook his head. Kyuhyun joined them and scoffed about hyukjae looking near to tears. Donghae was about to play along but at that moment Hyukjae decided to squeeze Donghae in a tight hug, which lasted for a long while.

“Get a room” Kyuhyun mocked and Hyukjae threw him a dirty glare as they pulled away.

Donghae gazed at Hyukjae through smiling eyes, Hyukjae stared back resolutely “ I told you I’m not saying that word, the you-know-what, the one I was wondering about, what moron came up with that one, so yeah I’m sticking to my word”

“What word?” Kyuhyun glanced at Donghae “Goodbye” Donghae responded amused and Hyukjae hissed at him, causing the other two to smirk at him.

“I’ll be seeing you” Hyukjae suddenly said, a smug grin in place and Donghae could only shake his head at him “Lee Hyukjae, you sure are one of a kind.”

“You know it, babe!” he grinned cockily and winked, rolling his eyes Donghae began to walk away and wave before he entered his car and drove off.

Hyukjae had not stopped waving till Donghae was out of sight and only then he dropped his hand, along with his smile. Kyuhyun had to offer ice-cream to help make his hyung feel better.

Meanwhile as Donghae drove away, he could not help but feel that lingering feeling of incompleteness in his heart. Still he tried to shrug it off as he recalled the pleasant memories, a smile never leaving his lips.

--

A week had gone by already.

Donghae had returned to his silent apartment, no kids playing and laughing outside, no Nanny to sit and gossip with, no Kyuhyun creeping up on him.

No Hyukjae.

It was clear to him he was missing him, them, all of them. He was so glad to have met such great people, he was already craving to hold sweet little Annie in his arms and swing her around; he smiled as her tinkling laughter echoed in his mind. He realized what a loving family truly felt like.

And how badly he wanted one.

Hyukjae and he had surely remained in touch, a few texts now and then, with Donghae having to cut short their nonsense chatter over texts due to work. The past week had been so hectic but enjoyable at the same time. The job interview he had returned for had gone smoothly and his boss was actually very happy to have him. The working hours were long and Donghae would return entirely worn out and seeking nothing but a warm shower and bed.

Weeks turned into months.

Donghae had a feeling he had understood Hyukjae’s personality somewhat, he kept his mind open though, knowing that there were always new things to learn everyday about a person, heck he was learning new things about himself. Hyukjae apparently was very free, the guy would send image messages with his face twisted in the funniest expressions accompanied by possibly the world’s most ridiculous pick-up lines and that would have Donghae smiling and laughing throughout the days. Donghae understood Hyukjae was just goofing around with him, Donghae would play along, and it was all in good fun. They had fallen in a sort of routine in which Hyukjae had taken up for himself the responsibility to waking Donghae up every weekday morning at 7 am, he reasoned that it was a perfect way to keep in touch and besides, waking up to Hyukjae’s voice was an honor that only a few were bestowed with, Donghae would simply guffaw breathlessly into the phone.

So one morning, Donghae’s eyes opened sleepily to the insistent vibrations of his phone, a smile automatically appearing on his face as he eagerly accepted the call, this could be only one person

“Morning hot stuff”

“Morning, Prince charming, now get lost I’m sleepy.”

“Aw, honey, I love you too and missed your voice greatly as well!”

“We talked last night, moron”

“That does not count, today is a new day, and hence last night does not count”

“Oh God, ok ok, you win.”

The victorious laughter from the other end was simply precious. Donghae’s eyes casually travelled to his digital clock on the side table and he shot up in bed as he raged “I hate you lee hyukjae it’s Saturday why the did you ring me up at 7:am on a Saturday!!!”

Hyukjae was too busy dying of laughter to respond to that.

It was pretty obvious Hyukjae was missing him too.

A few darned questions in his mind, however, kept bothering him. Was Hyukjae a friend? Did Hyukjae see Donghae as a friend?

Since Donghae was certain that the two of them had gotten rather friendly and got along pretty well, their bad history not entirely forgotten but put aside, they were exploring each other and their own selves. Sure they were friendly, but friends? Donghae had his doubts about that.

One Friday night when Donghae returns home, thanking the heavens and earth that the next two days were off, he got a call from Jungsu.

“Hey there dongsaeng~ Yah I’m the one who got married, where the hell did you disappear too?”

Donghae cooed an apology “Hyung I thought I was giving you some time settling in the new life, besides it’s my work, super hectic but super fun, you know how I always wanted to compose songs and actually hear them being performed, it’s like seeing my babies grow.”

Jungsu laughed “There are other ways to have babies you know, real one, dude just get married, get a life and stop working too hard, you know how too much hard work is hazardous, I don’t want my little Donghae turning into an anti-social workaholic.”

“Oh that won’t happen hyung, on weekends I make sure I’ve got lots of places to go to.”

“Like where? With whom? Are you even seeing anyone? In fact hey the other day I heard you and Hyukjae are getting along pretty well lately. That’s one hell of a twist, you guys friends now?”

He at his smiling lips, highly enjoying this conversation “No I’m not dating anyone and hyung…that’s the thing you see, I’m not sure whether we can be called friends…”

“Oh? Talk to me boy, what’s really going on?”

--

Hyukjae rolled around in  Kyuhyun’s bed, restless and flailing, a sad and over-exaggerated pout fixed upon his face as he let out a groan now and then. Kyuhyun could not possibly concentrate on the slides he was making so he snapped his head in his hyung’s direction and hissed.

Hyukjae paused his rolling and raised his hand to paw at Kyuhyun’s face like a sad little puppy “ Kyu~~ I miss him~!” Hyukjae let out a little whimper to stress his point and Kyuhyun groaned “Hyung, you’re texting with him”- he paused and pointedly raised a brow as Hyukjae’s phone vibrated once again- “so how can you possibly be missing him while you text him back and forth with that idiotic grin on your face! Seriously hyung you’re so into him, just look at your face right now oh my goodness I can’t take this anymore!”

Kyuhyun looked like he was going to storm off but Hyukjae hurriedly pressed send, obviously replying to Donghae, and caught hold of Kyuhyun, dropping the grin to replace it with a pout as he snuggled with his younger cousin “But Kyu~~ texting is not the same as being together as in face-to-face, I can’t be with him, you feel me?”

Kyuhyun inhaled slowly “ I do feel you, literally, kindly do not try rolling over onto me like last time I don’t want to get my laptop’s screen snapped.”

Hyukjae actually put up a cute act by giggling, the sad acting soon returned “But kyu~ I don’t think I have a thing for him! I-we-hmm…”

Kyuhyun watched him carefully; hyukjae’s playful act dispersed and a thoughtful expression took over “Hyung, did you seriously think about how you actually feel for the guy, I mean what are you guys? What’s this relationship? Friendship? Because just the other day uncle was talking about how he won’t be surprised at all if he gets to hear you two are dating!”

Hyukjae smiled a bit as his eyes flicked up “ No, definitely not friendship because well, we do flirt now and then but not like the bad kind of flirting”-

-“Oh there are kinds of flirting?”

“Shut up don’t interrupt me, so yeah I mean he seems to actually enjoy it you know and he actually hits back too so um”-

“…so you guys are..hitting on each other?” Kyuhyun’s eyes widened with words and the laptop was pushed off to a safe distance “Hyung! For crying out loud, he likes you back, can’t you see!?”

“But like, in a friendly way, as in, we keep it to an extent, somehow neither one of us crosses a line and then we just talk of different things and, it’s pretty much as if we are friends yet not friends, more than friends but not really like the ‘frinds with benefits kind’, you know? How can you say that with such surety Kyu!”

Kyuhyun contemplated, an amused smile on his face “ I see so...it’s a flirty friendship…flirt-friend…friendtation… and because you guys are starting to get just too damn obvious by now”

Hyukjae abruptly straightened up, eyes wide and sparkling as he snapped his fingers “Flirtationship!!”