Donghae feels a wave of relief when he sees Hyukjae practicing during lunch the following day. After arriving at lunch and noticing that Sungmin is there, but still no Hyukjae, he quickly excused himself to check on the practice rooms. And a small, goofy smile fell over his features when he saw Hyukjae dancing alone without the music.

He quietly opens the door and steps in, setting his bag down onto the floor softly and taking out the CD. With light footsteps, he makes his way over to the stereo and pops the disk in before taking his place beside Hyukjae, readying himself. When the music starts, he immediately follows along, ignoring the small aches at various parts of his body.

Hyukjae just watches, stopping immediately. He frowns upon seeing Donghae bite back a small wince, and sighs as he walks over to turn off the music. He really doesn’t understand this kid, and sometimes he wonders if he should even make the effort to.

“Go home,” he says tiredly, staring at Donghae with empty eyes. Donghae keeps dancing as if the music was never turned off, staring at his reflection with determination. Hyukjae, now frustrated, walks over to him and grabs his arm firmly but not too tightly, making Donghae stop moving.

Frowning, Donghae asks, “What? I’m trying to practice so I don’t mess up our performance, so if you don’t mind.” He tries yanking his arm away, but as he does, he hits a bruise accidentally, causing him to yelp in pain. Hyukjae immediately lets go, surprised and worried. Upon realizing what Donghae did, he sighs.

“You’re an idiot,” he mutters, lightly grabbing Donghae’s wrist again. “You’re lucky it was a bruise and not a cut, or else you’d be bleeding.”

“You should cut your nails,” Donghae mumbles in reply. “You can let go,” he says, staring at Hyukjae who is still holding onto him. Hyukjae immediately drops his wrist without another thought and takes an immediate step back. Donghae’s frown deepens. “I’m sorry,” he says quickly, causing Hyukjae to stare at him questioningly. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but I’m sorry. Can we stop acting so weird?”

Hyukjae blinks. “I –“

“Because I hate it, I really do,” Donghae goes on, not realizing he had so much to say until the moment came. “I like it when we can just dance and not say anything but totally understand everything. I like stealing your strawberry milk when you’re not looking, and watching you dance when I leave the room – but I don’t really leave, I just watch from outside of the door. It’s not creepy; it’s caring, right? I mean, I just like the way you dance. And now we’re acting all weird, as if we aren’t friends. We’re friend, though, right? I’m sorry if you’re mad at me. Is it because you had to rescue me? Because you didn’t have to – you could’ve walked off. I wouldn’t have minded.” The last line is a lie, but Donghae won’t admit to it.

Hyukjae is suddenly packing up, and Donghae stares at him with wide eyes. “Where are you going?” he asks incredulously. Could he really be that mad at him?

“If we hadn’t stepped in, you wouldn’t be here,” Hyukjae says, his voice deeper than usual, as if he is trying to suppress his anger and not full-out yell at Donghae. “In fact, you’d be in the hospital, resting, like you should be. If you’re saying I shouldn’t have rescued you, then I’ll be leaving and we can just not perform in the festival, because that’s what would’ve happened had I not.”

He turns to look at Donghae, and Donghae is surprised at how dark his eyes had become. He swears he’s never seen Hyukjae look so mad before, even after he helped Donghae escape the bullies.

“I – I don’t mean it like that,” Donghae stammers.

Hyukjae, upon seeing the worry and – is that fear? – on Donghae’s face, immediately sighs, trying to cool himself down. “I know.”

Donghae stares at Hyukjae expectantly. “Can we be friends again?”

“That depends… are you going to keep stealing my strawberry milk when I’m not looking?”

“Yes.”

Hyukjae smiles nonetheless. “I don’t think I have a choice, anyway.”

-

“So Junsu tells me that you were awfully concerned about Donghae after school yesterday,” Sungmin says, grinning as he leans against his best friend.

Hyukjae pushes him away and says, “He was being stupid, asking Donghae to play soccer in his condition.” He pauses and looks around, noticing that Kyuhyun isn’t there this time. “Where’s Kyuhyun?”

Sungmin shrugs, taking out an apple and biting into it. “I’m not sure.” He turns to Ryeowook and asks, “Do you know where Kyuhyun is?”

Ryeowook answers, “Practicing for the festival.”

Sungmin curiously asks, “He knows what song he’s singing now?”

Ryeowook nods. “Apparently. He says the music teacher recommended it for him, and that he even made it himself. It’s an honor for Kyuhyun, I’m sure.”

“Have you chosen your song yet?” Sungmin asks, remembering he was supposed to help but never got the chance to.

“Yep,” he replies, smiling. “It’s a song I heard a while back, when someone was singing it… I called him and he handed over the song happily.”

“Is it an original piece?”

Ryeowook admits, “I don’t know. He said that someone had written it for him – a composer – but he felt as if his voice didn’t fit appropriately for it, but he still had the song.”

Sungmin smiles. “I can’t wait to hear it.”

“I can’t wait to sing it,” Ryeowook admits. “The person who I heard it from first… he reminds me a lot of the song, let’s just say.” Sungmin notices the distant look in the younger boy’s eyes and understands.

-

Hyukjae is fidgeting with his jacket nervously, and Donghae is biting his lower lip worriedly. The two avoid each other’s eyes, knowing that if they were to meet, they’d become even more worried. They listen as the music from the stage plays, and although they can’t see anything from behind the curtains, they know that the dancer must be amazing.

At least, Hyukjae does; it’s Junsu, after all.

And they’re right after him.

When the music slows down and fades away, Hyukjae can hear his own heart beating erratically in his chest. Finally, he looks to Donghae, who slowly meets Hyukjae’s eyes.

“Are you ready?” he asks, his breathing short and fast.

Donghae smiles nervously. “As ready as I’ll ever be. Good luck.”

“Good luck.”

And the curtain is pushed to the side as Junsu exits, and Hyukjae and Donghae enter the stage.

----------

A/N: I just realized this became more Donghae-orientated in the past chapter -.-“ So I changed it back (hopefully smoothly) or else I’d be messing up my own story. We’re supposed to know more about Eunhyuk than Donghae, and there’s a reason for that.

So I was looking up solos that both Ryeowook and Kyuhyun sang before, and I narrowed it down to two for Kyuhyun: 'Hope is a Dream that Doesn’t Sleep' and 'Love Again'. Both seemed appropriate… so which would you guys prefer? In all honesty, the song isn’t that big of a deal to the story; it’s just the meaning might have some value towards the overall feel of the story and Kyuhyun. 'Love Again' reminds me of the accident that Kyuhyun deals with in this story (and in reality), while 'Hope is a Dream that Doesn’t Sleep' reminds me of Kyumin. I guess the latter sounds better, to help Kyumin along, but yeah. I don’t know. And I’ve chosen Ryeowook’s song, too, although his was less of a hassle since he isn’t a main character so it doesn’t matter as much.

This chapter starts out the festival (at the very, very beginning) and the next chapter will be fully devoted to the festival and what happens there. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! [I'll try to update the next chapter tonight, as well, because I might not be on tomorrow.]