Hyukjae wants to leave as soon as he gets Donghae home. He wants to run away like he did that first time and never speak of it again. But this time he can’t. This time he’s attached. Now, Donghae’s his dance partner, and even his friend. He owes it to Donghae for getting him into the festival with his help.

“I’m going to go now,” Sungmin says quietly, peeking his head into Donghae’s room where Siwon and Hyukjae put him earlier. Siwon led the way the whole time, seeing as he is the only one who knows where Donghae lives. Hyukjae just nods, and after a moment of waiting, Sungmin realizes Hyukjae isn’t going to follow and he leaves without another word.

Later, Siwon walks into the room, handing Hyukjae a water bottle as he does. Hyukjae takes it with a murmured thanks. Donghae’s mother – frantic and worried crazy upon seeing her son – put the bandages on Donghae while Hyukjae and Siwon watched helplessly. Hyukjae offered to take him to the hospital, but Mrs. Lee assured him that it was fine, and if anything came up, she’d take him herself.

“Does he always get picked on?” Hyukjae asks quietly.

Siwon shakes his head. “Not when I’m around, really. I was actually wondering if you knew.”

Hyukjae sighs. “I’m barely with him. How would I know?”

Siwon looks up, genuinely surprised. “What do you mean you’re barely with him?” he asks. “You’re always with him these days. He’s hanging out with you during lunch, isn’t he? And after school for practices.”

Looking up at Siwon finally, all Hyukjae can do is blink. He never noticed that.

Siwon smiles, amused. “You haven’t noticed, have you?” Hyukjae just shakes his head. “It’s weird,” Siwon continues, taking a sip of the tea Mrs. Lee had given both of them earlier. “Donghae is very open with his feelings. If he likes you, he’ll say it outright. When he’s with me, he’s always very lively and easy with skinship. It’s another thing that keeps us… connected, I guess. He isn’t overwhelmed by my love of skinship due to his own love.”

Hyukjae is pretty sure Donghae has never done anything like that with him before, not that he’d want that.

“And he seems to really like you,” Siwon says. “I was almost scared I’d lose my best friend when you came along and stole him,” he jokes, grinning. Hyukjae just laughs awkwardly, somewhat speechless. “Donghae’s a good kid, though,” Siwon finally says. “Not as naïve as so many think, but he can be at times. He has the mind of a child.” 

Hyukjae finally smiles a genuine smile, for Siwon put the words right into his mouth.

“Yeah,” he says softly. “Maybe I should go now, though.”

Siwon shakes his head, urging him to stay. “I’m sure he’d like it if both of us were here when he wakes up.” Hyukjae doesn’t understand the sad undertone in Siwon’s words, but he stays anyway. The two talk a little, before resorting to watching TV to fill the awkward silence that fills the air. Hyukjae has to go outside to call his mother before she throws a search party for him, and when he comes back in, Donghae is awake, talking to Siwon as he leans against the counter tiredly.

“You’re still here,” Donghae says quietly, smiling a bit upon seeing Hyukjae. “I thought you would have left with Sungmin earlier,” he admits.

Hyukjae, a bit uncomfortable with the situation, just shrugs. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Donghae smiles, but flinches when the scar on his face is stretched from his muscle movement. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Siwon asks, concerned, touching Donghae’s face gingerly. Donghae just smiles weakly this time and nods.

“A few cuts aren’t enough to knock me down,” he says confidently.

“What about bruises?” Siwon asks, frowning, examining Donghae anxiously. “I still think we should take you to the doctor’s, or get you some medicine. Would you like me to make a run to the store?” he offers, standing up already.

Donghae just shakes his head. “It’s fine, really, Siwon. Don’t you have to be at the hospital?” he asks.

Siwon sighs. “I’ll go after this,” he replies quietly. “If you don’t need anything, I guess I’ll go,” he says, grabbing his jacket off of the couch. “Feel better, Donghae,” he says, lightly patting Donghae’s back as to not hurt him before saying goodbye to Mrs. Lee and Hyukjae and leaving.

And that leaves Donghae with a very awkward looking Hyukjae.

“You can go, too,” Donghae finally says, although it sounds like he doesn’t mean it. He turns to take a sip of the tea, but clumsily burns his already split lip when he does. He drops the cup with a hiss, his hand flying to his face. Hyukjae rushes over to him, ignoring the drink, and immediately grabs Donghae’s hand away.

“Don’t touch it,” he snaps, more harsh than he means to be, but immediately lowers his voice afterwards. “You’re going to make it worse,” he mutters, stepping back a little. “I’ll… go get your mom. Then I’ll clean up this.” He leaves to find Mrs. Lee, scorning himself for doing that. What could he do to help anyway?

Mrs. Lee dabs her son’s lips with alcohol, making him yelp, and then gives him a cold cup of milk to drink. She offers some to Hyukjae, but before he can answer, Donghae replies, “He likes strawberry milk, Mom.” His mom just nods, preparing some for the guest and handing it to him before leaving the room.

Hyukjae sits at the counter, not knowing what to do, or when to leave. He sips at his strawberry milk quietly. He glances at Donghae, who is still playing with his bottom lip with his finger.

Hyukjae sighs and stands up, walking over to Donghae to grab his hand away again. Donghae looks at Hyukjae in surprise, jutting his bottom lip out. Hyukjae can’t help but draw his attention to Donghae’s full lips, bleeding, but beautiful.

And before Donghae could ask what was wrong, Hyukjae leaves without another word.

-------

A/N: I am vaguely concerned at how long this story will turn out to be. We've barely started unraveling things, and we're at chapter seventeen. This is somewhat worrisome. -.-" I'm not sure if I'll update tomorrow, but I'll try my best to. And does anyone have any good Eunhae/Haehyuk, Jongkey, or Kyumin stories to recommend? Good plot, good grammar/spelling...? I'm very interested to find some more on here. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!