Jungsu put the spare key in the Donghae’s front door. His heart bounced loudly in his ribcage. It wasn’t that he was scared to get inside, no, he was more scared for Donghae. Not too long ago, Jungsu had gotten an incoherent and crying call from Donghae, asking him to come to his house. He was sure that something had gone wrong and as soon as he knew what exactly was wrong, Jungsu would kick Hyukjae’s because he was more than likely the cause of Donghae’s call.

Jungsu heard a faint click coming from the door. And with trembling fingers, he pushed the handle down and pushed against the door to open it.

He walked into the dark but familiar living room. His eyes had trouble to adjust to the darkness for a second because the hallway had been well lightened. Jungsu’s eyes scanned the room, searching for a sign of life. Fear had taken a firm hold on his heart when the whole room was eerie silent.

He tried to calm himself down and he slowly breathed out to get some courage before calling out: “Donghae, where are you?”

He heard a bark coming from the bedroom and Jungsu let out a sigh of relief. He walked towards the door but when he tried to open it to go inside the bedroom, he found it locked.

“Donghae, please open the door for me…” He softly asked, hoping to coax the other into opening the door but he didn’t hear anything except for a few whimpers of the little dog that Donghae had locked inside the bedroom with him.

“Please, Donghae.” He asked desperately but the younger one didn’t seem to budge and Jungsu didn’t know what else to do. He wasn’t exactly gifted in the muscle department so kicking the door in wasn’t a good idea. So instead, he choose to sit down next to the door to wait patiently for Donghae to open to door.

After twenty minutes, he heard some movements and he sat up a bit straighter but the door didn’t open, instead he heard Donghae’s muffled voice through the door: “Jungsu?”

With a small smile that a parent would make, Jungsu answered: “Yes, Donghae?”

“Do you think that I’m stupid?” It sounded so weak and childlike that Jungsu felt himself tear up a bit.

“Oh, Hae, why are you asking me that all of the sudden?” If it was Hyukjae who gave Donghae that idea all of the sudden. Then Jungsu would go to find immediately so that he could slam his head into the nearest wall.

“Just because. Well, do you think that I’m stupid?” Donghae pressed on but Jungsu heard his voice waver and he knew that Donghae was desperately trying to keep himself from crying.

He sighed, he knew that Donghae would not answer to another question before he answered this one: “No, I don’t think that you’re stupid.” He confidently answered.

But Donghae wasn’t satisfied. “But I can’t read. I can barely understand a word that they are saying on the news. I can’t take care of my own bills, you have to do that for me… I stopped going to school… So that means I’m stupid, r-right?” He began crying loudly after he pronounced that last word.

“What happened, Donghae, tell me.” Jungsu ordered while he tried to sound stern. He intentionally ignored what Donghae said before.

Suddenly he heard a click above his head. Jungsu looked up and saw the door handle moving down and the door opened. A little white blur, rocketed out of the door with a loud bark of happiness before the door opened wider and revealed Donghae.

Jungsu immediately sprung up and hugged the younger. Donghae sniffed in the crook of his shoulder. They stood in that same stance for a few minutes before Jungsu softly led Donghae to the couch and helped him sit down.

He pushed a bit against Donghae’s shoulder, making the younger one face him. He wiped some tears away and offered Donghae a handkerchief.

Donghae cleaned himself up a bit while Jungsu grabbed a glass of water for him. And as soon as Donghae looked presentable again, Jungsu asked hesitatingly: “What happened, Donghae. Why are you so upset?”

Donghae looked at his lap. “Hyukjae knows that I can’t read.”

Jungsu gritted his teeth, he knew it. That student had something to do with it! Still, he forced himself to stay calm until he knew the entire story.

“He came back with the groceries from the store and ordered me to read the note that he left.” Donghae began to snivel again and Jungsu grabbed his hand for support.

“I said that I didn’t know what stood on that note and then Hyukjae asked me why I didn’t know. And that was when I told him that I can’t read.” Donghae bit his lip hard, to keep the tears inside. “He asked me why I wasn’t learning…”

Jungsu took a sharp breath. He had tried for years to learn Donghae how to read but the younger didn’t want to. “I told him because everyone would find out if I did and then they would t-think that I-I’m s-stupid a-and that I already t-tried b-but that it d-didn’t work and that I d-didn’t really need to l-learn because I c-could live without it. And that was when Hyukjae yelled at me saying that I was stupid.” Donghae was sobbing loudly.

“And then?” Jungsu pressed on, knowing that this couldn’t be the full story.

“He calmed down a bit and coldly said that I could come back to him when I learned how to read and if I didn’t I shouldn’t come back at all.”

~:*:~

“I think that you’re the stupidest person on the whole planet.” Kyuhyun hissed at Hyukjae as soon as he and Siwon had heard the whole story. “How could you say that to Donghae after he confessed that he can’t read at all?!” Kyuhyun was yelling in frustration at that point and Hyukjae cringed slightly.

“Kyu…” Siwon tried to calm Kyuhyun down but instead Kyuhyun took his anger out on him.

“What? Don’t tell me that you agree with what Hyukjae has done?!”

Siwon sighed before he looked at Hyukjae, his handsome face frowning in thought. “Why did you react this way? It isn’t like you found out right on that moment, no, you had at least ten minutes to think about what you would say. Then why did you say it like this? Because I know that this isn’t how you would react normally.” Siwon deducted and he tried to meet Hyukjae’s eyes to find out what Hyukjae’s thoughts were exactly.

Hyukjae sighed. “You’re right-”

“WHAT?!” Kyuhyun intervened, completely surprised by the fact that Hyukjae had thought a