Hyukjae motioned for him to sit and Donghae obeyed. The elder wanted to sit up but the inspector refused to even let him prop himself up, so Hyukjae had to settle with looking up at him instead.

“Well, for starters you did know that my parents – my appa especially – never really liked the idea of us being together,” Hyukjae started. Before he could continue though, Donghae had already interrupted him.

“Pfft, I know. He always looked like he was about to devour me every time he saw us together at first. But I thought he grew used to the idea after that? Heck, he never even said anything when I moved in with you. Don’t use your appa as a freaking excuse.”

“I wasn’t. Let me finish,” the elder retorted, shifting to face Donghae better. “He never said anything because he thought I’d get over you eventually. And you know I didn’t. So he hatched a plan. He knew he was dying of disease soon and I’d get all the freedom I want, but I guess he never really wanted a… different son till the end. I… I didn’t have a choice.”

Hyukjae’s voice had gotten softer and softer towards the end until Donghae had to strain his ears to listen to him. “Why… what did he do?”

The elder lifted his eyes and the inspector could see a hint of regret reflecting in his dark orbs. “He threatened to disown me if I didn’t break up with you and find a girl to settle down with.”

Donghae’s anger flared up instantly. “WHAT?? How could he do that to you?? I never knew your appa was like that. Why couldn’t he just have accepted you for the way you were??”

“Calm down, Hae. I understand how you feel; I was like you at first as well. I was already all prepared to defy him, in fact.”

“So… why did you still leave in the end?” the younger asked, confused. “You didn’t even tell me anything about it last time. A warning or something would have been much appreciated, you know?”

“It wasn’t that easy,” Hyukjae sighed, twiddling with the hem of his blankets. His eyes darted everywhere except at Donghae. “He… he also threatened to disown my noona if I refused to play by his rules.”

“WHAT???”

“I couldn’t let my noona suffer for something that was apparently my fault, so I agreed to his terms. I’m sorry for not even telling you in the first place,” the elder said quietly. “But I didn’t know how you were going to react to that and I was afraid your appearance would further complicate things… I’m sorry, Hae.”

Donghae’s eyebrows were knitted together in a frown as he tried digesting everything Hyukjae was telling him. There were still so many questions on his mind, but at least he was slowly getting answers now. “How long did you know about it before you left me one fine day?”

“About a week before.”

“A week,” the inspector deadpanned, anger rising in his eyes again. “And you had the decency of keeping it all to yourself without telling a single soul. Not even your boyfriend. Geez, I feel so honoured.”

“It’s not what you think, Hae. I—I guess I was just so afraid for my noona that I thought it would be best if that conversation stayed between him and I…”

“But it was a whole friggin week!! And you didn’t even break it off officially or anything – you just suddenly disappeared into thin air like that!! I nearly lodged multiple police reports thinking you were kidnapped or something but… but your appa stopped me… oh my gosh, I’ve been such an idiot!!!” Donghae exclaimed, slamming his fist onto his knees. “I should have known something was fishy back then… I’m so sorry, Hyukkie…”

Hyukjae froze. “W-What did you just call me?”

Donghae realised his slip and grew as red as a tomato. He gulped. “Uhm, H-Hyukkie?”

The elder smiled his gummy smile, making Donghae’s heart flutter just like long ago. “I thought I’d never hear you call me that again. Say it again, please?”

“Yahh stop that, it’s embarrassing,” he whined, biting on his bottom lip. “I didn’t mean to call you that. That was just a slip of the tongue. It… It doesn’t mean anything.”

Hyukjae clucked his tongue and pouted, something he hasn’t done for ages. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Donghae blushing a little deeper and he couldn’t help chuckling to himself.

“It’s not funny,” Donghae whined, trying to regain his composure. “You still haven’t told me why you proposed to me suddenly out of the blue. And if you knew earlier about your appa’s conspiracy… why did you even propose to me at all?? Did you know you actually made me think that you disappeared on purpose because I didn’t say ‘yes’?? I never forgave myself for that.”

“About that…” Hyukjae blew out his cheeks and looked absolutely guilt-ridden. “I’m sorry.”

“I asked for an explanation. Not an apology.”

Hyukjae hesitated before continuing, looking straight into the younger’s eyes. “Hae, you do know that you’re my first ever and only love, right?”

Donghae stuttered. “Y-Yah, Lee Hyukjae… I—I… W-what… Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden??” His face had begun to blush and it was no use fighting it anymore. He was already redder than a beetroot.

The elder chuckled. “Yeah, so you see, ever since we started dating, I made a vow to myself that the first ever person I would propose to would be you. Uhm, so when my appa intervened with his schemes and wanted me to marry a girl… I just wanted to keep that promise. That’s all.”

The inspector was speechless. “So… you proposed to me knowing that you would leave me the very next day anyhow??”

“As weird as that sounds, yeah. I was kind of hoping you would say yes, then I’d have ditched the plan and found some other way to convince my appa not to drag my noona into this… although the thought of going against him was actually really scary…”

“Then was it a huge relief for you when I turned you down?” Donghae asked quietly, voice hinting slight remorse.

“Perhaps just a little. It was too random of me to pop the question and honestly I didn’t know what answer to expect from you. I won’t deny I was actually quite disappointed when you said ‘no’, thinking you didn’t love me as much as I loved you… but after some time your reason began to make sense…”

“… that we were too young and playful to even think about tying the knot…” Donghae muttered under his breath. Suddenly something hit him. “Wait… how come you’re single now? Didn’t you marry after all?”

“Nahh, it was just for show. She was a friend helping me out until my appa passed away about two years later. But I just went on with the proposals and engagement rings stuff in case he suspected something, because he wanted to ma