“Donghae?” Jungsu called out as he walked into the café where his younger friend and cook was already busy with preparing the tools for that morning.

The rather young male looked up and smiled a bit as he saw his friend. “Oh, hi.” He turned back to his work on the counter.

“Well? How was it?” Jungsu asked as he put his coat on the coat stand. He raised his eyebrows at his cook in the hope that it would convince the younger to talk but Donghae kept his lips sealed.

“Oh, come on, Donghae! Tell me how the date was!” He pleaded with Donghae.

Donghae kept looking at the counter and said nothing. Jungsu obviously took that as a bad sign. “Don’t tell me that it was horrible?!” Jungsu already gritted his teeth. He would not let this go, he had to protect his friend, especially because the younger wasn’t completely able to himself. He would take care of this Hyukjae and kick him out of the café together with his friends and he would-

“That’s just it…” Donghae softly said.

Jungsu stopped the rant in his head. “What’s just it?”

Donghae bit his lip and mumbled. “I really liked the date.”

Jungsu’s eyes began to shine. This was it! Finally, someone whom loved Donghae dearly and especially someone who Donghae really loved, could save Donghae. His heart began to warm at the thought, but a cold wind blew over his hope when he thought about the fact that Hyukjae didn’t know anything about Donghae and his past. But he shoved those depressive thoughts out of the way and curiously pressed on for more information: “Come on, tell me everything.”

Donghae stopped his work and he looked Jungsu in the eyes. Jungsu saw anxiousness in them but also, to his relieve, happiness in those eyes. “We went to a dance night!”

Jungsu chuckled when he saw that Donghae was already back in his thoughts, back in those lovely memories he had. “Is that all you’re going to tell me?”

Donghae smiled lightly and began to talk about the whole story, making sure not to leave a single detail out of it. Not a sentence, movement, fragrance or feeling was forgotten. He told Jungsu about all the awkward moments, the fairytale dances and the most important thing of all, the kiss.

“I didn’t even know where I got the courage from to kiss him but something in my mind just said: ‘press your lips on his mouth. You know you want it!’”

Jungsu walked over and hugged his best friend. “This is great, Hae!”

He felt Donghae’s figure stiffen and slowly, he let go and looked at his best friend. “Yeah, but I wish that it hadn’t been.”

Jungsu saw that Donghae’s eyes began to water and he wanted to prevent that from happening, he couldn’t let his friend do stupid things. “Listen to me, Lee Donghae,” he said with a stern voice and the cook looked up with those watery eyes of his, “You deserve happiness too. Don’t go punish yourself for it and grab that chance for happiness!”

“But what if-” Donghae began but Jungsu cut him off. “No, Donghae, don’t think about that. Don’t think about what could happen, what he could think. Taking a risk is necessary in order to love and to receive love but you’ve constantly tried to run away from people who tried to take that risk with you and I won’t let you do it now. You can wish all you want, Donghae, but it really happened and you should go for it! You deserve it!”

Jungsu tried to convey his enthusiasm and his support and he saw a light hesitation in his friends eyes. He knew that he needed to hold on to that. For the past few times that Donghae had gone out on a date, Donghae had always made an excuse for him not to go further with the relationship but apparently he had difficulties with finding an excuse not to date Hyukjae. He still tried though: “But we’re too different from each other! Hyukjae is a student of one of the best universities in the country with a great future in front of him while I’m a cook in a small café who has difficulties to pay his rent and above that I-”

“You need to stop thinking that way, Donghae!” Jungsu cut him off again, if he would let Donghae think this way, nothing would change. “It could be a great chance for you! And that Hyukjae is able to go to one of the best universities of the country means that he’s smart enough to understand what happened if you tell him.”

Jungsu knew that that last part was a mistake as Donghae’s eyes began to panic at the thought of telling Hyukjae. “No I can’t tell him! He would leave me! Who would want to be with someone like me?!” He cried and screamed at the same time.

Jungsu immediately wanted to correct his mistake, to say sorry but something told him that he needed to keep going if he wanted Donghae to start something with Hyukjae. “Plenty of people would want to be with someone as sweet as you, Donghae. That’s why Hyukjae asked you out in the first place, because he wanted to be with you. Nobody would’ve stayed so long after being rejected but he stayed, Donghae. You never gave him a chance but he still stayed. It’s obvious that Hyukjae is unique and you should give him a chance!”

The hesitation in Donghae’s eyes grew bigger and like a small, frightened child, he asked: “But he will still leave me after he knows, won’t he?”

Jungsu sighed. “I