(Italics = flaskbacks)

Chapter 8

Weeks passed and things were changing. Just a week ago, Hyukjae had talked to Donghae in quitting the ‘newspaper boy’ job. The suggestion was pushed aside at first and Donghae disagreed immediately, but when Hyukjae told him he wanted to quit so he could spend more time for Donghae, the other relented quickly. Hyukjae had fun trying to control his laughter while he watched Donghae pretending as if he was not fully happy with his Hyukkie dropping the job. The other was so transparent that Hyukjae noticed how excited and content he was.

Something else that had changed was Hyukjae was no longer forced to drink hot chocolate; he was free to choose whatever he liked. Donghae was suspicious when he ordered a black coffee on the first time he tried to make his own decision. But, Hyukjae already knew that might occur and so, without stuttering, he told Donghae he would like a change in his life; he would like to try something new. To someone who didn’t like changes, Donghae was curious on why he want to change suddenly and he voiced it out.

“Changes are needed sometimes,” Hyukjae said to him with a smile, “You can’t live a whole life with no changes at all. Because if you do, it’s like you’re just running in circle and never moving forward.”

“Then, what about love? Does our love need to change then? That’s stupid, Hyukkie,” Donghae frowned and crossed his arms on his chest.

“Well, this doesn’t apply to love, or maybe it does. Love and feeling for someone will not remain constant all the time. Love and feeling either grow or decrease. It’s not fixed, it’s never fixed. Am I right?”

Donghae rubbed his hands on his pants and stared at it while he shrugged his shoulders, “So, does your love for me grow?” he bit his lip after he said that, feeling embarrassed slightly.

Hyukjae chuckled before he said, “Of course. My love for you is growing rapidly.” Saying affection to Donghae was no longer a matter of embarrassment for Hyukjae. He was accustomed to it by now and had been saying it at every given moments; he didn’t wait for Donghae to say or ask it sometimes. Those soothing words he used to give, the sweet nothing, those lies he told, they were no longer lies.  Every time he repeats those words he said, they now held meanings.

It wasn’t just words though, actions too. Kisses, hugs, cuddles, clasping hands, those were shared every now and then. Kisses were given every time they had a smile on their faces, hugs were passed after not being closed for a few moments, cuddles were necessary when they got on the bed, hands were clasped every time they had a chance.

Maybe Hyukjae won’t admit it fully to himself yet, maybe he will just take this as a sign of caring and pity, maybe he won’t accept this fact; the fact that he was in love with another man.

That was his choice, whether to accept it or not.

Yesterday, Donghae and Hyukjae went to watch a movie. Since they had so much time to spend these days, they always went out. While Hyukjae went to bought popcorns and drinks for them, he suddenly bumped into someone, and what a luck. That someone just happened to be his own employee.

“Oh, I’m really sorry. It’s my fault. I am very clumsy. I’m – Mr Hyukjae?” Ryeowook stared weirdly at him when he finally looked up after bowing multiples times.

“Hey, Ryeowook,” Hyukjae wasn’t really sure whether meeting one of his worker here was a good thing or bad. He looked at where Donghae was lining up to buy the tickets and felt relieved he was not looking towards him.

“Mr Hyukjae, why didn’t you come to work? It has been more than a month.”

Hyukjae turned his attention back to Ryeowook, “Why? Nothing is wrong, right? I’ve been sending the paper works through email. The office received them, didn’t they?”

Ryeowook smiled, “Yes, nothing is wrong, sir. I was just wondering why you are on a leave. Though you are sending the papers needed, they are some files piling on your table. Those are some orders you have to check and sign. Besides, some buyers were looking for you since they felt a lot more comfortable doing business with you. To them, you are trustworthy.”

“Well, thank you, Ryeowook. I’m not exactly on a leave. Something came up, something inevitable.”

“What’s that, sir?”

“I promised to help someone and in order to keep that promise, I can’t go to work for now. So, take care of the cars, okay? I’ll try coming to the office soon.”

“Sure, Mr – “

Someone cleared his throat and Ryeowook was interrupted. The sound came from behind Hyukjae, and when he turned around, he saw Donghae, with a quirked brow and arms crossed. Hyukjae didn’t like this.

“Who is this, Hyukkie?” Donghae asked, eyeing Ryeowook who was smiling at him.

“Hey. I’m Ryeowook, Mr –“ For the second time in less than a minute, Ryeowook was cut off, this time by Hyukjae.

“Hae, this is my friend, and he is leaving now. Right, Ryeowook?”

Hyukjae was hoping Ryeowook caught the message and lucky for him, he did, “Y-yeah. Nice meeting you, Hyuk – “

“Yes, okay, bye, Ryeowook,” he shook his employee’s hand quickly before he wrapped an arm around Donghae’s shoulders and lead the other towards the theatre.

Donghae still had a brow raised and stared at Hyukjae all the time they were walking until they were seating, “Friend?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing more?”

“Nothing more. You trust me, right?”

“Of course I do,” Donghae quickly took Hyukjae’s arm and wrapped it with his, placing his head on the other’s shoulder. When the movie started, they were both not daring enough to watch the horror flick Donghae had chosen and were trying to hide their faces on each other’s shoulders. They were both kicked out half-way through the movie for screaming too loud and they agreed to not watch a horror movie at the cinema again for the time being,

Today, after he smothered his Hyukkie with kisses to wake him up, Donghae suggested they clean the house, noticing the house was slighlty dusty. After eating an English breakfast, cooked by Hyukjae, they got to work with their pyjamas on. They started with the kitchen and dining room. Hyukjae arranged the things in the fridge while Donghae do the same thing for the cabinet. While Donghae was sorting the bottles, cans, and packets, he found a half-empty packet of flour that seemed to be expired.

Feeling mischievous, he threw some flour on Hyukjae, who wasn’t expecting it as he was focused solely on organizing the fridge.

“Hae!”

“What?”

“Give me that,” Hyukjae came closer to the other, hand reaching out for the flour.

“Never,” Donghae threw some flour again, this time directly on Hyukjae’s face, and he laughed at his own masterpiece.

Hyukjae’s eyes were closed, not wanting any of the powder to enter his eyes. When he opened his eyelids, he glared with a smirk on his face, “You’re going to regret that.”

“No, I won’t.”

Hyukjae started chasing Donghae around the kitchen and the dining room. Flour was flying everywhere as the one being chased recklessly kept on throwing them at the chaser. When Hyukjae finally trapped the other, Donghae hugged the packet of flour and tried to block him from grabbing it. Hyukjae was about to encircle Donghae with his arms but the other slipped under them and ran away. He didn’t get far though.

Because of all the flour on the floor, Donghae slipped and the packet flew out of his hands. Hyukjae was quick on catching Donghae before he could drop on the floor. He got an arm under Donghae’s waist and another behind his neck. Donghae wrapped his arms around his Hyukkie’s neck and smiled before he kissed his boyfriend. What made the scene more beautiful was the flour was raining all over them, as if those were snow.

“Aren’t we supposed to clean the kitchen, not dirtying it even more?” Hyukjae asked after they broke the kiss and Donghae was back on his own feet.

“Oh well. We can clean this up in no time. Besides, we have all day, all week, all year to get this done,” Donghae wiped the flour of Hyukjae’s face.

Hyukjae ruffled Donghae’s hair, trying to get some of the powder off, “Yeah, we have all the time for just the two of us.”

They continued cleaning the kitchen, this time really cleaning it, after they had gotten some of the flour off them. When they were done with the dining room as well, they decided to split the work. No matter how much time they had, they wanted to get the house clean by the end of the day. Hyukjae would clean the living room and Donghae’s task was to clean their room.

Hyukjae was whistling as he wiped the table and television when suddenly, someone knocked on the door. When he opened the door, he smiled when he saw, “Heechul, what are you doing here?”

“We need to talk, Hyukjae.”

By the look on his face, Hyukjae could guess that whatever it was Heechul wanted to talk about, it was not good. He followed Heechul out to the lawn and they stopped at the middle of it. Heechul had his back facing him and Hyukjae was not having a good feeling at all about this.

“What is that you want to talk about, Heechul?” he dared himself to ask.

“Remember when I said Eunhyuk’s death had nothing to do with helping Donghae?”

“Yes.”

“I was wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hyukjae, your brother’s name is Kyuhyun, right?”

“Yes. Answer me, Heechul. What do you mean?”

Heechul still ignored his question and gave him his instead, “Your brother was lost when he went to South Korea. Why did he go to South Korea?”

“I’m not answering you until you answer my question.”

Heechul finally turned and faced him and Hyukjae noticed how stressful he looked with his sullen face and his hair that was not in its usual, combed state, “You must answer me first, Hyukjae. Answer me, and you’ll get the answer. I assure you that. Why did Kyuhyun go to South Korea? You two had nothing left there, right?”

“He… he went there because he wanted to follow a friend of his.”

“But he checked in at the hotel by himself, not with his friend. So, tell me. Was he following a friend or was he following – “

“So what if he checked in to the hotel by himself. Can’t he do that?”

“You don’t understand this Hyukjae. Please answer me truthfully. Was he following Donghae?”

“What?” and then they were silence and the two men could only stare at each other.

Donghae was cleaning the room. He used a feather duster to wipe off the dust. When he was tip-toeing to brush off the dust on top of the tall cupboard in the room, he felt he hit something with the duster. Wondering what it was, he took a stool from the next room and climbed on top of it. He grabbed the bag he saw up there and brought it down. He ped the bag and took out what was inside, a framed picture.

Donghae stared at the picture of a man, smiling brilliantly. He closed his eyes and thought of where he had seen the man in the picture before.

Then the frame dropped and its glass cracked.

“I love you, Donghae. I’ve loved you for so long, since I first saw you in London few years back. If I can’t have you, what makes you think I’ll let others have you?”

Donghae shut his eyes as tight as possible and he covered his ears with his hands.

He lifted Eunhyuk’s head and placed on his lap. “Hyukkie? Hyukkie, wake up. Eunhyuk?” Donghae was about to use his hand to touch Eunhyuk’s face when suddenly he noticed his hand was covered with blood.

“Hyukkie!” Donghae ran down the stairs as fast as he could, calling his Hyukkie. Hot tears were cascading down his face and he panicked when he couldn’t find his Hyukkie in the house.

“Hae?”

Donghae stopped on his track when he saw Hyukjae by the door, but then he ran and tightly wrapped the other with his arms, “You’re fine, you’re with me. You’re always with me. You won’t leave me.”

Hyukjae stood there, and he hugged Donghae just as tight as Donghae was hugging him.

Oh wow. That just poured out of me. :)