“What are you doing here?” an exhausted Donghae asks when he answers the door to see Hyukjae standing there, sweaty, holding a stuffed monkey that reaches up to his waist.

“Thanks for the welcoming,” Hyukjae replies sarcastically. Donghae moves to the side to let Hyukjae in, and Hyukjae walks into the house and turns around to look at Donghae. “I forgot to give you your birthday gift.”

Donghae stares at Hyukjae for a moment, emotionless. Hyukjae wonders if he’s still mad, but when Donghae finally looks at the gift, a bright smile enters his features. “It’s so cute!” he exclaims, grabbing it immediately and hugging it tight, taking in the smell of Hyukjae’s cologne as he does. He looks up at Hyukjae, his eyes sparkling making Hyukjae’s heart clench. “Thank you!”

Hyukjae smiles softly and nods. “You’re welcome,” he murmurs, watching as Donghae holds onto the stuffed animal tightly.

“Now you’re always going to be here,” Donghae laughs, staring at his stuffed animal lovingly. He walks over to his room and puts the toy away, then walks back out to Hyukjae. “Are you going to go now?” he asks curiously, tilting his head to the side.

“Yeah…” Hyukjae replies slowly. “But I want to ask you something first.”

Donghae stares at Hyukjae, waiting for the question.

“Why were you, um, so mad at the amusement park?” he asks slowly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I mean, did I do something bad?”

Donghae blinks, not expecting that. “Um…” he starts, thinking of an answer. “I guess it was because you were talking to that girl,” he admits, frowning.

“She’s just an ex,” Hyukjae tries explaining, although he doesn’t know why he’s so flustered with this. “We were just talking. She has a boyfriend now.” He has no idea why he even added that last part.

Donghae smiled shyly. “Yeah,” is all he says, all he can think of saying.

There’s an awkward pause before Hyukjae continues, “But why were you mad because of that?”

Donghae looks at his feet, swinging the stuffed animals in his arms slowly as he tried to think of a reason to tell Hyukjae. He knows why he was mad – he was jealous! He doesn’t know why Hyukjae even has to ask. But he doesn’t want to tell Hyukjae why he was jealous, because he knows that it’d only scare him away. A bit sadly, he replies, “Because she took your attention away from me on my birthday.” He tries to act nonchalant and joking about it, and it seems like Hyukjae buys it.

If anything, he even looks relieved as he laughs softly. “Don’t be silly,” he says, grinning at Donghae, who can only smile weakly back. “Today was all about you.”

“Thanks,” Donghae murmurs.

“I’ll see you Monday,” Hyukjae says as he starts to leave.

“Bye,” Donghae replies as he shuts the door behind him. He sank to the floor, clinging to the monkey in his hands. “You’re an idiot, you know?” he said, looking at the toy seriously.  He sighed and hugged the stuffed animal even closer. “It’s even sadder because Iknow that, and I still like you.”

-

“Ryeowook’s your tutor now?” Hyukjae asks skeptically as Sungmin and he walked towards their lunch area.

Sungmin nodded. “Yeah. I think he’ll be a better tutor anyway. Our voices are more similar in tone, and he can help me make mine stronger.”

Hyukjae just nods, knowing there is no use in saying anything about Kyuhyun. Sungmin seems very adamant on avoiding anything about the younger boy actually.

“But he won’t be able to start tutoring me until February,” Sungmin says.

“Why?”

“Because he’s going off to China for some foreign trip. Apparently he and a couple of other students were chosen to train over there.”

“Really?” Hyukjae asks curiously. “That’s cool.” As they approach their group, Hyukjae asks Ryeowook about the whole program, which Ryeowook eagerly explains.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a lot fun,” he says, smiling brightly. “An old friend of ours who’s  graduated is going to be there, helping us. His name’s Hankyung.”

“I think you told us about him,” Hyukjae says, nodding at remembering Ryeowook say something about Hankyung’s dancing.

“Yeah. And Kyuhyun’s going to be going, too,” Ryeowook says, not noticing Sungmin’s head drop a little bit. “Who else…” he thinks aloud, trying to remember. “Oh, Siwon and Donghae are going to be a part of it as well!”

Hyukjae almost chokes on his strawberry milk. “What?” he asks, his eyes widening. Donghae hadn’t mentioned this before! “When was this decided again?”

“This past summer,” Ryeowook answers. “That was when we organized this.”

Hyukjae’s throat feels dry all of a sudden. So Donghae knew all this time and didn’t say anything about it? “W-When are you guys leaving?” he asks a bit weakly. He doesn’t know why he’s so affected – he hasn’t even been close to Donghae for a while now – and yet he feels like if Donghae were to leave, he’d be very bored – maybe even lonely – without him.

“The end of this month,” Ryeowook replies. “Then we’ll be gone until February. We’re spending most of the winter over there.”

Hyukjae wants to laugh a bit because it just doesn’t make sense. Donghae’s left before – the end of fifth grade, remember? – but Hyukjae didn’t care then. Now that he knows Donghae, though, he feels a lot more affected. It’ll only be three months, much shorter compared to the five years they spent separated before, and yet he knows he’s going to have a hard time coping. He’s gotten so used to practicing with Donghae, listening as he talks about the possibility – no, the absolute fact – of aliens being out there, watching as he skipped down the hallway beside him.

Things were going to be different, and Hyukjae has no idea how he’s going to handle it.

Meanwhile, Sungmin’s just sitting there, nibbling at his food, no longer hungry. He too wants to laugh bitterly. He’s happy that Kyuhyun’s going to be gone – not really, but he wants to be happy about it – and he hopes that this is the closure he needs to get over the younger boy. Still, he knows it’s going to be weird not hearing talk about Starcraft every day, even if it’s just him listening in on Kyuhyun’s conversations with other people, or listening to Kyuhyun sing during class.

And Ryeowook is just talking about the whole program, excited and totally oblivious to his friends’ distress.

--------