The next day Hyukjae’s alarm beeped, signaling he had to wake up and give Donghae his daily wake up call. He rolled onto his back, tousled brown hair pointing in every direction as he stretched and yawned, unlocking his screen to call Donghae. Pressing his cheek against the phone and cradling it against his shoulder he lazily sat up and rested against the headboard.

His line connected and almost instantly he heard a phone’s ringtone from outside his room. That was followed by a sniggering laughter and hushed sounds of ‘sssh!’

Narrowing his sleepy eyes and wondering who was standing there and not attending the call, probably Kyu that lazyass, he ran a hand through his hair as he waddled over, and why isn’t that sleepyhead picking my call, idiot’s going to be late for work. That was his last thought as he pulled his bedroom door open, eyes first focusing on a brightly smiling Kyyuhyun “what ar-“ he abruptly shut up when his eyes looked over Kyuhyun’s shoulder  and then he did a double take,  and gasped incredulously

“Donghae!?”

Donghae rolled his eyes, mischievous grin plastered on his face, and stuffed his hands into his red leather jacket “Nope, you’re dreaming, or perhaps you’re hallucinating, pick which ever.”

Hyukjae proceeded to just stare as his jaw fell open and then he darted forth, almost sohving Kyuhyun aside. Donghae yelped as he tackled him down in a tight hug, his body curling over Donghae’s as he spueezed Donghae’s neck in his arms

“Hyuk-can’t-bre” Donghae made an act of gasping for his last breath and then his head lolled to the side, eyes fluttering shut.

Hyukjae laughed heartily as he quickly cupped Donghae’s face “I’ll wake sleeping beauty up with a kiss of true love” he mocked, inching dangerously close and while Kyuhyun was having fun laughing at them, Donghae gasped and scrambled away, the look on his face causing Hyukjae to cackle crazily.

“I can’t believe you’re really here” Hyukjae smiled in awe and Donghae grinned, spreading his arm as he sat up “Surprise~”

Donghae went down with an oof, air being knocked out of him once Hyukjae barreled into those open arms.

And Donghae loved it.

 “You planning on getting off of me?”

“No, you’re comfy and cosy” as if to stress on his point Hyukjae proceeded to snuggle his head under Donghae’s chin, cuddling up and donghae sighed helplessly, a wide smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around Hyukjae “Missed you too.”

Kyuhyun raised his hands to the heavens and cheered about Hyukjae and Donghae finally getting it on. That had Hyukjae and Donghae scrambling up to chase Kyuhyun all the way down, the youngest squealed as the two hyungs gained up on him. Kyuhyun ran down the stairs and skidded into the kitchen to hide behind Mrs.Lee who laughed and light-heartedly scolded the two pursuers to not run around in the kitchen.

--

“Donghae, let’s go!”

Donghae shifted on the couch to glance up and stared curiously at Hyukjae who had excused himself to dress up and had left to go back to his room. Donghae didn’t know ‘dressing up’ for Hyukjae meant dressing to kill because wow did he look dashing or what wearing that leather vest over the black shirt.

“Where to?” Donghae asked, getting up nevertheless

“You gonna take up my offer of getting a ride in that hot ride of mine or not?” Hyukjae grinned wickedly and laughed when donghae shouted ‘Hell yes!‘ before dashing out the main door.

“” Donghae whispered in awe as he ran his fingertips lightly over the smooth surface of the black Porsche, the same car he had ogled at so hungrily, the memory made him snort and he marveled at how different things were now. He looked up to find Hyukjae watching him with an expression he could not exactly read, but it sure did make him stutter a bit. Hyukjae laughed at that and motioned for him to just enter the car.

“Whoa” Donghae breathed out, hearing Hukjae’s deep-throated chuckle from beside him as he ran a hand over the smooth surface of the dashboard. They were already on the road, driving out of town and onto the highway but Donghae was bit too preoccupied checking out the interior he could have only imagine.

“Like what you see hm?”

“Definetly, Hyukjae, buy me one of these.”

“Sure I will, my love~ then we can have ‘couple cars’ too.” Hyukjae sniggered and slipped on his shades, causing Donghae to stall and gaze at him before he managed to speak “Even your grandmother teased me about how we should start getting ‘coupl-y’ things. She told me to call her Nanny too, since I already call your dad Appa.”

Hyukjae cast him a glance, a smile lingering but not really there on his lips “Do you want to, get all couple-like?”

Donghae gestured for him to keep his eyes on the road, Hyukjae scoffed but obeyed nevertheless as Donghae responded, his tone hinting to the nervousness he felt “Ah, about that…”

“It’s okay, Hae, I remember you telling me someone had caught your eye and hey I started all this Flirtationship bull and it’s all just for fun anyway.” Hyukjae hoped none of his agitation slipped through his tone as he stole a glance at Donghae who was simply staring out the windshield, Hyukjae just could not read the expression on his face at the moment.

“Hyukjae…don’t call it ‘bull’ and don’t--look can we do the ‘let’s suppose’ thingy again?

Hyukjae nodded, Donghae’s gaze lingered at his face, and the uncharacteristically serious look on hyukjae face was new to Donghae.

“Let’s suppose, I didn’t say anything about anyone catching my eye. Let’s suppose I actually like this—“

“Donghae wait.”

Donghae abruptly pursed his lips together as Hyukjae turned the car around a bend and they rode in silence for a minute till Hyukjae muttered a “We’re here.”

Donghae’s eyes widened, shock evident on his face “Uh Hyuk, isn’t this..?”

“Yeah, where the Secrataries of Romeo and Juliet reside, I wrote a letter for the ‘Secretaries of Roemo and Juliet’… so I’m going to go ahead and stick it up on the wall, come along.”

Donghae’s heart beat slowed down “Oh…so I guess someone caught your eye too...huh.”

“And my heart…and my mind…as crazy as that sounds.” Hyukjae turned his face entirely to watch him, taking his time with it and only then did he nod, proceeding to flash him a bright grin before slipping out.

“ It does not sound crazy at all…just very unexpected.” Donghae quickly followed, feeling dread fill him up. As he followed Hyukjae in through the open gate and into the very familiar four-wall and open roof structure he looked around nervously.

He had actually stopped here on his way to Hyukjae’s place to stick up his own letter that he had tucked into a pale blue envelope, so when the two arrived at the wall and Hyukjae, unknowingly, stuck his own white envelope right next to Donghae’s, Donghae gulped and tried to look as calm as possible.

“There” Hyukjae patted his envelope fondly and grinned, that serious expression he had a while ago, completely gone “Now we can go date- hey, what’s wrong?”

“Thing is Hyuk, I wrote a letter too.”

Hyukjae’s eyes widened and then they roamed the wall as he frantically whispered “Which one is it.”

Donghae casually gestured to the one right next to Hyukjae’s and Hyukjae stared at it as if he was trying to read its contents through the envelope.

“Who..”

“I’m not telling till I get my reply, you?”

“Yep, same, not telling.”

Donghae snorted as he turned around, Hyukjae quickly followed and fell into step with him, both thinking how their letters were pretty much pointless. Dejected thoughts filled their minds as they made their way to Hyukjae’s car. Donghae felt as if new walls had been constructed between them, now that they had managed to click and get close like this, their situation was way more complicated.

--

“It’s Tiffany-ssi isn’t it?”

Donghae paused in sipping the divine and warm soup he was slurping keenly and gazed up, confused. “Hm?”

Hyukjae made a show of shrugging casually “The one you wrote the letter about, Tiffany-ssi, Jungsu-hyung’s cousin, the girl you looked all close and comfy with-“

“Oh her!! No, no” Donghae waved dismissively and flashed Hyukjae a mischievous smile it’s you, you fool, “Can’t tell…besides I’m not sure whether I’ll get the reply, even if it’s a “go ahead, sounds good!” I don’t think there much point, that person probably already has someone..”

“Those are my fears too” Hyukjae muttered, a wanting, helpless look on his face “Can you at least hint me whether I know this person?”

Donghae shook his head, smiling softly and dropped his gaze.

Hyukjae snorted, trying to look like he did not care in the least “Fine, don’t tell, but I’m not breaking up with you even then.” He grinned with determination in his eyes.

Donghae narrowed his eyes “Break up? But we are not even together?..”

Hyukjae rolled his eyes-painfully slow- which made Donghae growl. Chuckling Hyukjae took a sip of his own soup “ We are, in our  very own Flirtationship, why do I always have to be the one who remember this?!”

Donghae tried to laugh, his tone however was seriouss “This Flirtationship of ours is destined to fade away, it’s nothing serious… and wait why are you talking like no one caught your eye and as you put it ‘caught my heart and mind’ “he mimiced an exaggerated serious expression and deep voice that had Hyukjae spluttering, quickly swallowing his food to prevent it from being sprayed out.

“Yeah…well, if it does not work out, then at least I’ll have you.” Hyukjae smiled, peering straight into Donghae’s eyes who felt those eyes were trying to say something to him.

So Donghae smiled, for the sake of it, because as much as it had begun to hurt him,  the reality was Hyukjae liked someone, finally truly liked someone and that was not going to change. Perhaps Donghae never really had a chance. Moreover this ‘Flirtationship’ was growing to become a pain in the heart because Donghae wanted to be so much more, something serious, if only Hyukjae knew.

But how could he know? Hyukjae was no mind-reader, neither was Donghae. At times like this Donghae wished they could read minds, all the complicated angsty bull could be avoided like that, but no, what the other really thought or felt, it was all covered up and hidden.

Why? Why do we need to hide? Why do we need to feel so scared, he thought in despair and only then had he realized they had fallen silent. The only sounds around them were the light tinkling of crockery as they sipped on soup, sitting in the dimly lit Chinese restaurant. This could have been romantic, they could have come here as lovers, yet that was not the case.

They could have been more, so much more.

---