“Hyukjae—“

He doesn’t listen. He keeps marching between his bedroom and the hallway, every single time wearing a different shirt or pants. Hyukjae doesn’t hear him, nor does he show any evidence of calming down.

Donghae’s getting desperate.

“Hyukjae,” he groans, but the young red head keeps ignoring him. Donghae isn’t sure if he’s actually ignoring him, or just being so utterly nervous that his friend doesn’t even spare a look for him.

It’s not that Hyukjae really needs to be so nervous. Everyone loves Hyukjae.

He’s…Perfect. In every way Donghae could think of. He has the looks, he’s got the charm, he knows when to be polite and when to use some silly jokes to ease the tension. He knows when to hold the door and not just rush in first. He’s the one who can eat in a fancy restaurant without needing to worry that he’ll stumble on his own legs and throw his drink straight onto someone’s lap. He doesn’t need to think about his weight when he eats; he could eat a whole buffet and he wouldn’t gain a gram. He knows how to entertain people and keep up their curiosity; he does’t bore them to death. He’s smart, with less effort, and he can study for hours and still remain his focus.

Hyukjae’s everything Donghae is not.

Donghae—sitting on the living room’s couch and trying to find a way to distract his foolish friend—can’t find a single flaw from his best friend and dorm mate. Though, of course there’s some little imperfections in everyone. But Donghae has already gotten used to them.

“For the sake of holy macarons—,” the brunet exhales, suddenly hollering: “Hyukjae, goddammit!”

The red head halts on his steps, freezing to stare at the younger male who’s looking at him expectantly, dressed in a yellow Pikachu-kigurumi.

“What?”

The Pokémon gapes at Hyukjae, and the older takes an uncertain look of himself. “What? Do I look bad?”

Donghae gulps and stands up from the couch, walking to Hyukjae. “You have a white collared shirt and black skinny jeans and—oh god, eyeliner—and you’re asking me if it looks bad?” He quirks and eyebrow at the one who seems even nervous now, which is definitely not the Hyukjae whom he’s seen with his dates.

“And?” Hyukjae stares at him, eyes full of self-doubt, his right palm curled around his left hand and pressing his nails deeper into the whiteness of his shirt.

The sight is plain adorable, and Donghae wonders if any of the girls he’s brought on date has ever seen this side of him.

“You look good, idiot.”

“But you always say so,” Hyukjae pouts.

Donghae bites his tongue.

“Because it’s true! You always look good, why do you even ask anymore?”

“But—“

“But ,” the younger beams with a teasing grin, yet his chest aches, again. “Eighteen thirty.”

“Huh?” Hyukjae tilts his head, but after a long meaningful stare and blank blinks later he realizes. “Eighteen thirty! Oh, ing hell, why didn’t you tell me?! Eighteen—damn—thirty!”

The yellow boy chuckles, turning back towards the living room and his paused Okami game. “I tried.”

#

The date has been nothing but wonderful, but Hyukjae finds himself more excited about the fact that it’s finally over.

She asked if they could go on for another date. Hyukjae said that he would call her, yet he finds himself deleting the number as he steps on the bus that will bring him home.

He sighs against the cold window, and wonders if Donghae has already gotten through the level he had been working on with before he left few hours ago. The red head chuckles silently when he thinks about the boy whose brunet locks are usually put on a messy ponytail, his black and big glasses falling down half-way on his nose as he’s too occupied on thinking about anything else whilst gaming in his silly kigurumi.

Hyukjae bites his lips as he pulls his phone out of his jean’s pocket, and finds his friends number first from the call log.

It takes ten seconds before the lines connect. He’s not very surprised to hear Donghae’s howl of defeat.

“I died because of a goddamn Arachnid,” the few months younger boy whines.

Hyukjae can imagine how the other might be lying on his back on the floor, limbs outstretched to all directions in frsutration.

“How many times it’s been now?”

Donghae growls deep from his throat, and the older hears some shuffling from the background.

“Three? Four?” the red head teases, his focus utterly on Donghae – all thoughts about the girl long gone and forgotten.

“You don’t hit someone who’s already been beaten to the ground,” Donghae grumbles. Hyukjae’s pretty sure there’s a pout on the Pikachu’s lips now. He huffs softly, and a short silence fills the air. But it isn’t awkward, or uncomfortable. There’s no awkward silences in their dictionary.

Donghae sighs before he seems to remember another thing. Yet from those words, Hyukjae senses something that hasn’t always been there. He’s just not sure what it actually means.

“So, how was your date?”

It’s like a bubble is being pricked with a needle. Oh. His date. He wonders what he wants to say. “Nothing special,” he answers lastly. “She was nice and all, but…that’s about it?”

“Okay,” Donghae mumbles.

What’s that supposed to mean?

He suddenly wants to forget the whole thing. “I can try to beat the Arachnid,” Hyukjae says, a small mischievous grin on his plumper lips. “If you want.”

“You’re not gonna make it,” Donghae snickers, “You wanna bet?”

“Sure,” his grin widens, and when he looks at himself from the window of the bus, it seems like his eyes are sparkling again, “If I beat it, you’re having the cleaning duty for a week.”

The Pikachu snorts.

“If I beat it, we’ll eat tacos for the whole next week!”

Hyukjae groans, but eventually decides to face the challenge. “Deal.”

“Deal.”

#

Hyukjae couldn’t care less about the fact he can’t find that spark from any of his dates. At least he has Donghae to go home to.

“Just few more stops and I’ll get off the bus. Is there any ice cream left in the freezer?”

“Nah. Ate it.”

“I bought it just yesterday?!”

“Well, you didn’t say ‘Donghae, don’t eat my ice cream’.”

“Motherer.”

“nugget.”

“Dip.”

“Turd.”

Hyukjae sighs.

#

“So, chocolate or strawberry?”

“Chocolate.”

“You just ate one!” Hyukjae groans. His wallet isn’t in very good relations with Donghae’s abysmal stomach.

“You asked.”

He knows himself too well. He could just go and buy the strawberry flavored one – yet he can’t. He just can’t go buy his favorite when Donghae wants chocolate.

“I hate you.”

“Ditto.”

#

When he enters the grocery store five minutes later and greets the owner—who already knows him and Donghae by names—the old man beams at him and nods. Hyukjae’s not sure why the man seems to be shaking his head and laughing by his own.

He goes to the right aisle, picking up Donghae’s favorite and goes to pay without a single curse.

“Ice cream day, duh?” the man asks as he’s still trying to sort his chuckles.

The red head in his white collared shirt, black skinny jeans and eyes framed in thin black raises an eyebrow, thinking if the man might have forgotten his meds that day.

“You seem to like chocolate.”

“It’s not my favorite,” he mutters, paying for the half litre container.

“Oh, I see. It’s Pikachu’s, ain’t it?” the man laughs, but Hyukjae doesn’t hear the last part as he seems something yellow moving in his peripheral vision.

When Donghae hears the front door open, he the spoon he has between his fingers and digs another scoop of the sweet coldness into his mouth.

Hyukjae takes off his shoes, strolling to the doorway of their small living room with a little transparent plastic bag on his hand. He looks at Donghae, and sees him eating ice cream on the couch. Directly from the container.

The container that evidently says Strawberry. He gapes at his friend, biting his lip when Donghae finally shares him a glance.

“Hi,” Donghae says, staring at the red head nonchalantly and then tilting his head. “Are you okay?” he continues.

Hyukjae sees how the Pikachu’s lips are quirking upwards as he tries to hols down the obvious grin.

He narrows his eyes.

“You little .”

The younger can’t hold the grin any longer.

“I only tasted it!” the brunet yelps. “I just bought it! For you! But—but I only took a spoonful. Just—just to be sure it hasn’t been poisoned!” His eyes sparkling, Donghae tries to convince his dorm mate, yet he knows his friend’s not buying it a bit. Biting his lip, he looks at the older with his mischievous puppy eyes.

Hyukjae rolls his eyes at him, but a sudden thought crosses his mind. Donghae just said he went and bought it – even when Hyukjae said he was going to, yet the younger went anyway and took Hyukjae’s favorite.

Donghae can’t be sure what the red head was thinking at the moment. His unreadable expression was a little hypnotizing, and the younger silently cursed his mind for being stupid again. But with his red hair a little misheveled and his dark eyes now even more piercing, with his favorite ice cream bought by him, it was impossible to deny that he was utterly and totally head over heels for Hyukjae.

Eventually, the older sighs and walks to the kitchen, grabs a spoon for himself too and walks back to the living room, dropping his on the couch next to Donghae. Hyukjae throws the chocolate on to the brunet’s lap, and steals the pink container for himself.

“I hope you get stomach bugs.”

“But I went and bought it for you! And that’s freaking pricy stuff if you haven’t noticed. The old man laughed me when he realized it was actually me having a kigurumi.”

“Who goes shopping looking like a fat Pikachu?”

“I’m not fat! And shut up, I forgot I was even wearing it.” Donghae’s scowling, and because he’s obviously a bit embarrassed, he opens the cover of his ice cream and scoops out a little ball with eyebrows furrowed and his nose crunching adorably.

Hyukjae has to admit that Donghae is quite cute for a 21-year old guy dressed as a Pokémon.

And he wouldn’t exchange that.

Few weeks later, they went to a party that was held at Heechul’s, one of their friends and also a senior in college, apartment.

One could say that no one was left thirsty.

As he is sitting at the kitchen table with Kyuhyun, his eyes roam through the room as he spots Donghae sitting next to Heechul and Tiffany. Hyukjae doesn’t know why he is watching from afar as some of the others are playing spin the bottle. Wasn’t it such a game for kids in junior high? 

He’s not even surprised.

Someone spins the bottle, and Hyukjae turns his look away from the game, whilst holding a bottle of soju of his own and receiving a bored glance from Kyuhyun sitting opposite to him. He takes a sip from the bitter drink, already feeling a bit light-headed. The red head thinks Donghae might be somewhere around the same state as he us – only that the alcohol tends to make Hyukjae feel sleepy, as opposed to Donghae who gets even more vibrant than he already is.

His mother once called them as Chip ‘n Dale, referring to the two silly chipmunks from Disney movies.

Donghae is obviously the one with the red nose and long wires.

They have only known each other since the first semester of college, yet it sometimes feels like they have been friends forever.

Hyukjae notices that he’s been thinking the brunet again. It’s not anything new, but for some reason, it has started to bother him to a point these days. To be honest, he thinks about him a lot more than is probably thought as normal. After his last date, he’s already turned down few girls that had asked his number. He usually gives it without much of thought, yet lately, he hasn’t done so.

There is even more to his suspicious behavior.

He’s actually caught himself stealing glances of the brunet’s every time (he is able to) as Donghae returns from a jog and takes off his hoodie whilst he comes to tell Hyukjae how did it go before he goes to shower. It’s not that he hasn’t seen him without clothes before – it’s just…that he hasn’t really looked until not so long ago (as in, few months). It took a while to grow comfortable about living together before the stranghers finally turned to friends, and since then, Donghae’s pretty much already shown Hyukjae most of himself.

But only now he’s really looked how the sweat glimmers and runs down his surprisingly toned and tanned body. He doesn’t really understand how that’s possible when for the most of his time, Donghae could live for video games. The brunet’s not even the typical handsome guy who brings all the girls to the yard. Well, maybe some girls love him because he’s just cute and squishy, but for a guy with big glasses and a brown messy hair usually tied to a ponytail, clothing style somewhat lacking the style with his cargo pants and hoodies (because they’re comfy and Donghae loves comfy stuff) and the damn black cap, Hyukjae’s anyway, sort of having a crush on him.

And now he might have said it out loud in his head. He’s actually admitted it.

He takes a look on Donghae, who’s surprisingly wearing a black collared shirt (because Heechul might have insisted), with its sleeves rolled up, looking somewhat dazzling tonight. Hyukjae still sees the Pokémon and video game-loving boy underneath, the one who always eats his ice creams, and keeps him awake at night when he’s doing his assignments at 2am because the deadline is 8am the same morning, and despite all those little Donghae-things, he might be even a little bit in love.

Well, damn.

And, speaking of the devil, the bottle ends up pointing at the brunet. He only hears one word.

“Dare.”

#

Heechul’s whispered words echoes in his mind when his drunken mind tries to decide if he should listen to his wildly beating heart, or his head that is still trying to pull him back to reality and prevent him from doing stupid things he’d probably regret later.

He closes his eyes for a brief second, before he’s on his wobbly feet, making his way towards the small table that’s been filled with snacks, different alcohols and soft drinks.

He knows exactly who is sitting there, probably bored and sleepy and most likely ready to go home.

Donghae’s hazy eyes lock with the red head’s, as he walks to him, taking in a deep breath.

Here goes nothing.

(Except maybe his friendship and a room mate.)