Hyukjae finds himself staring at a half-drunken cup of apple juice an hour later, alone and bored. Donghae is dancing with his mother, and everyone else seems to be paired up. Even the little kids, who are all swaying sloppily to the music, goofy grins on their faces.

Not knowing what else to do, he texts Sungmin: Whatcha doing?

Soon after, Sungmin replies: Practicing my guitar. How was the wedding?

Hyukjae replies: Good. But now it’s the reception and I’m bored right now. He waits for a reply, but one never comes. Instead, he sees Donghae approach him and offer him a hand, smiling brightly.

"What?" Hyukjae asks, frowning.

"Dance with me," Donghae says as if it's obvious - which it is.

Before Hyukjae can answer, he feels a vibration in his pocket and pulls out his cellphone. You're welcome, read Sungmin's text. Hyukjae honestly has no idea how Sungmin did that - he's starting to become scared of his best friend's abilities - and stores the phone away back into his pocket, deciding to deal with it later. He stands up, purposely ignoring Donghae's hand.

"I'll dance..." he says slowly. "But not with you." Donghae's hand falls to his side, and his smiles is very strained now, but he tries his best to seem unaffected. Hyukjae, noticing this, immediately apologizes, flushing. "No! I don't mean it like that! I just don't want everyone to get the wrong idea, you know? You wouldn't want your family thinking you're gay." Or me, he adds mentally.

Donghae nods, shrugging. "They already know," he admits, shocking Hyukjae. Upon seeing Hyukjae's obviously surprised expression, he just laughs. "No one told you?" Hyukjae shakes his head vigorously. "I guess it's because I never really announced it," he thinks out loud. "Oh well. It doesn't really matter."

"Y-Yeah," Hyukjae stammers, looking away. Honestly, he has no idea why he is so uncomfortable all of a sudden. He hangs out with gay men all of the time - his best friend is one! - and yet hearing Donghae is one just made him incredibly awkward. "Let's go, uh, dance then..." he mutters, walking towards the dancefloor.

The music isn't exactly a club beat or anything Hyukjae thinks he can full-out dance to, so he just does some simple moves, moving to the rythym. Donghae is nearby, although not too close, dancing as well.

It's practically impossible to explain the sheer awkwardness that follows when a slow song starts playing.

Hyukjae freezes, his eyes widening. Donghae slowly comes to a stop, then stands there, wondering what he should do now. Hyukjae tells himself to go back and sit down, but his body just waits there. The two avoid each other's eyes for a while, until Donghae finally makes a move. He walks up to Hyukjae and extends his hand.

"This is silly," he says, smiling softly. "It's just a dance."

"A slow dance!" Hyukjae argues, frowning. He glances around at the couples dancing slowly, swaying close to each other. He feels uncomfortably out of place.

"I used to slow dance with my parents all of the time," Donghae says offhandedly. "I even danced with Siwon once!"

This didn't comfort Hyukjae at all. Reluctantly, he takes Donghae's hand. It's just a dance, he tells himself. You do these all of the time. You're a dancer, after all! Be professional!

Donghae smiles at this and tugs Hyukjae a little closer, which catches the older boy off-guard and he stumbles into Donghae clumsily. He flushes and immediately tries to pull back and run away, but Donghae just keeps his hold. "You're acting very strange, Monkey," Donghae tells him as they dance.

"I didn't notice," Hyukjae mutters back, his ears turning red.

The two dance quietly, increasingly aware of the others' presence. Just as soon as Hyukjae is sure that he's about to die from an explosion of awkwardness, the song ends. Hyukjae almost falls backwards trying to create space between the two.

Donghae feels a bit cold - and it isn't because of the air conditioning - when Hyukjae pulls away, but he ignores it. He offers to bring Hyukjae a drink, but Hyukjae declines it.

"I think I'll go home now," he says softly, not meeting Donghae's eyes. If he had, he would've seen the obvious disappointment in the younger boy's eyes.

It's never this awkward when I dance with Siwon, he thinks, confused. He just nods and watches at Hyukjae says goodbye to Donghwa, the bride, and Mrs. Lee.

-

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Sungmin's loud laugh comes from the other side of the phone.

Hyukjae frowns. "Why do I even bother telling you anything?" he mutters, leaning back in his bed. After taking a long, warm shower and changing into more comfortable clothes, he collapsed onto his bed and called Sungmin to tell him what happened. Despite Sungmin's endless teasing, he's one of the only persons Hyukjae can really trust.

"Because you love me," Sungmin deadpans.

"How did you even get Donghae to come over?" Hyukjae asks, throwing an arm over his eyes tiredly.

"I told Kyuhyun," he says. "Who happens to know Donghae's number and texted him to check up on you."

Hyukjae sighs. "I should've just sat there instead of texting you."

"I did you a favor," Sungmin says. "Honestly, why is it so weird? You two danced together at the festival."

"That was different! It was a choreographed dance!" Hyukjae argues.

"You're ridiculous," Sungmin mutters. "Hmm... so, Kyuhyun isn't my tutor anyway," he suddenly says, changing the subject completely.

"Why?" Hyukjae asks, curious, but thankful for the distraction from his own problems. "You two are getting along great."

"He has the same problem as you do," is all Sungmin says before hanging up.

--------

A/N: Took a while, since I was BAWLING MY EYES OUT! HEECHUL! <3 I love this guy. He doesn't even ask for us to wait - the boy who's always full of himself (in a good, confident way) is telling us to forget him. But we can never do that. We'll wait for them all to return, won't we?

Sorry that this chapter was shorter, but I feel like it covered some important things. KYUMIN'S BREWING UP A STORM! More shall be explained in the future ;) Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!