“That ride next!” Donghae exclaims, dragging the two guys along with him as he hurriedly walks over to their fourth rollercoaster so far.

“I’m going to throw up if we go on one more loop,” Hyukjae warns, narrowing his eyes at the younger boy.

“We should rest,” Siwon says queasily. “Then we can go on more rides. How about that?”

Donghae sighs and nods reluctantly, letting go of his friends so that they may walk over to a bench and rest for a little while. Donghae wanders off to buy some sodas while Hyukjae and Siwon sit in the shade.

“How is he not sick to the stomach?” Hyukjae asks incredulously, clutching his lower abdomen painfully.

“He didn’t eat,” Siwon replies with a sigh. “He was too excited and skipped out on breakfast.”

Hyukjae groans, leaning his head backwards and shutting his eyes closed. Then he hears his name being called by a familiar feminine voice. He slowly opens one eye and is faced with a face he has not seen in some time.

“Hannah,” he breathes, staring at the dark-haired girl in front of him. She smiles softly and waves. He sits up immediately, ignoring the queasy feeling still lingering in his stomach. “I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

She laughs quietly and nods. “It’s been over a year now,” she notes with a smile. “How have you been?”

“Good,” he says, still not showing any emotion. After all, how are you supposed to act when you see your ex-girlfriend? Excited? Devastated? Annoyed? He has no idea because it’s been so long. “And you?”

“Good,” she replies. “I hear you go to another school now for dancers and singers. That’s really good.”

Hyukjae nods. “Yeah... Sungmin and I got accepted this year.”

“Sungmin, how is he?” Hannah asks curiously, tilting her head to the side.

“He’s doing fine,” he replies, although he’s not exactly sure how true that statement is anymore. His best friend has seemed kind of moody lately.

“Are you here with your friends?” she asks.

“Yeah. It’s one of my friend’s birthday,” he answers.

Hannah smiles. “That’s great,” she says. “Well, tell him I said ‘happy birthday’.” Hyukjae nods, although he isn’t really going to tell Donghae – what does Donghae care?

“And are you here with your friends?”

Hannah nods. “And my boyfriend,” she says. Hyukjae finally smiles. It isn’t until now that the awkwardness is broken, it seems, and Hyukjae is relieved that he can finally converse with the girl normally.

He nods and says, “You should go back to your friends now. Donghae is probably coming back soon.” He looks to his side and realizes startlingly that Siwon isn’t there anymore. “Um… actually, I have no idea where my friends are now.”

Hannah laughs and says, “Still old Hyukjae, aren’t you?” She smiles and says, “It was nice talking to you, Hyukjae. Have fun with your friends.”

“You too,” Hyukjae replies, standing up. He waves her off as she returns to her friends, then looks around some more. He can’t see Donghae now either, who was earlier waiting in line. He pulls out his phone and calls Donghae, but there isn’t an answer. With a sigh, he stuffs his phone back into his pocket and walks towards the ride Donghae was dragging him to earlier.

He waits for a while by the exit – the line is quite long – and when he finally sees Donghae and Siwon walking off the ride, Siwon’s steps a bit clumsy while Donghae is surprisingly sober-looking, he waves at them. Siwon walks over to him immediately, grabbing onto Hyukjae’s shoulder for support, but Donghae completely ignores him and walks away.

“What’s his problem?” Hyukjae mumbles, watching as Donghae walks over to the restrooms.

“He probably just needs to go to the bathroom,” Siwon murmurs back, leaning against Hyukjae. He pauses then glances at Hyukjae curiously. “Who was that girl you were talking to, by the way?”

“My ex,” Hyukjae replies with a shrug. “I haven’t seen her for a long time, so it was a surprise.”

“A good one?” Siwon asks.

Hyukjae blinks and thinks about it. “I guess,” he finally replies. “We didn’t have a bad break-up, so it wasn’t that terrible seeing her again. She has a boyfriend now.”

“Are you jealous?” Hyukjae is starting to wonder what Siwon is trying to get at, but he just shakes his head in response.

“Of course not,” he says. “I’m happy for her, even.”

Siwon nods and stops asking questions, and the two wait for Donghae to return, Siwon holding onto Hyukjae for support the entire time. Finally, when Donghae returns from the bathroom, his hair a bit wet at the top, Hyukjae asks, “What were you doing?”

“Washing my face,” he replies with a shrug. Hyukjae notices that Donghae is trying to act nonchalant – very uncharacteristic of him – and frowns.

“Why?” he asks.

“It’s hot,” is his reply. “And I felt groggy.”

Hyukjae snorts, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, right. You were all full of energy less than half-an-hour ago.”

“I didn’t sleep much,” he replies with a frown. Hyukjae continues to look at Donghae, trying to figure out what is wrong, but Donghae just turns away. “Let’s go,” he says, waving for them to walk with him.

The two boys follow as Donghae leads them from ride to ride. As they wait in line for their eleventh ride, Siwon takes a restroom break, leaving Donghae and Hyukjae alone to wait.

“So why did you guys leave me earlier?” he finally asks, frowning.

Donghae turns his head away, not looking at Hyukjae. “You were busy and we didn’t want to bother you,” he replies quietly. “Sorry.” But he doesn’t sound very sorry.

“You could’ve at least told me,” he murmurs, tilting his head down.

Donghae sighs and glances at Hyukjae, feeling guilty now. “Sorry,” he repeats.

“Besides, maybe you could’ve saved me from an awkward talk with my ex,” Hyukjae says, trying to lighten the mood a bit when he realizes how bad Donghae might feel now. But Donghae just smiles a bit and nods, turning away as the line moves a bit.

Hyukjae doesn’t understand why suddenly he feels guilty instead.

-

“You’re stupid, do you know that?”

Hyukjae sighs. “Thanks Sungmin… means a lot, really.” He rolls his eyes, throwing himself onto his bed.

“He’s obviously jealous!” Sungmin snaps. “Honestly, you’re an idiot when it comes to things like this,” he mumbles.

Hyukjae runs a hand through his hair tiredly. He doesn’t know what to do or think, and he doesn’t know how to reply to Sungmin without angering the older boy. He looks around the room for something to do and stumbles upon the big plush toy with a bow on top that he forgot to give to the birthday boy.

“I have to go,” he says.

“Stop ignoring this,” Sungmin warns.

“I’m not,” Hyukjae says, rolling his eyes. He’s not exactly sure what he’s ignoring admittedly, though. “I just forgot to do something. I’ll call you back later.” He hangs up and walks over to grab the monkey.

“He better like this,” he mutters to himself as he leaves his house, the huge toy under his arm.

-------

A/N: Meh, I'm tired. The next chapter will make you sympathize with Donghae, and push Hyukjae into a wall because he's just so damn ignorant. But that's the next chapter. Kyumin might be in the next chapter, too. (I don't know yet.) Ah, I have so much work tomorrow 3 I don't know when I'll update again, but I'll try to get in two chapters tonight. I'm sorry D: School is so troubling.... Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!