A few droplets fell onto the windows of the classroom and a quiet sound of thunder echoed only to make the current situation even more dramatic. It wasn´t necessary because even without the storm I was stressed to the max. My tall classmate was standing in the door with a few of his equally angry friends behind. I´ve been in a situation when people wanted to hit me for no reason many times so this wasn´t the biggest problem. The issue was my new gained blonde friend who was just a second ago peacefully eating next to me. Now the skinny blonde was standing too and I feared his unpredictability because I didn´t want him to get hurt for my sake. What do I do?

“Bye, Donghae!” Hyukjae suddenly announced and took his strawberry milk from my table. What? So the blonde didn´t plan on defending me but running away! Although I felt slightly betrayed I felt more relieved that Hyukjae would keep himself off of the danger.

The tall guy smirked and other kids made way for Hyukjae to go out of the room. But it wouldn´t be Lee Hyukjae if everything went as planned. The blonde somehow tripped over his own shoes and with a loud thud fell on the ground. But during his fall he couldn´t handle the pink box in his hand and all the leftover pink substance ended on the tall guy. To put it bluntly, he was completely drenched by the strawberry milk. What a sight. My little friend was completely shocked and rapidly started apologising, that he didn´t mean it and that he is always so clumsy.

“!” The tall guy turned to Hyukjae and I was worried that he would really hit him. I prepared myself to jump and fight but at that exact moment Hyukjae´s luck proved once more.

“Oh my God!” Heechul appeared in the classroom and Hyukjae hurried to his side with a poor face. Puppy eyes, pouting lips and all that cute . “I just came for you, Hyukjae. What happened?” Heechul naturally started patting Hyukjae´s head and playing with his white hair.

“I´m sorry, I just fell and spilled all the milk on my friend,” Hyukjae´s jutted lower lip was almost touching his chin by now. Nevertheless it worked perfectly because Heechul frowned and turned to the tall guy who flinched all his confusion gone.

“I-I said it was alright. It was an accident, right Hyukjae?” The tall guy stuttered and I was sure that by now nobody knows I am in the room.

“That´s good, I wouldn´t want my pretty dongsaeng to get hurt,” Heechul smiled and everyone shivered, Hyukjae included. Then the ginka put his arm around Hyukjae´s shoulders and they walked out of the classroom. After them the tall guy and his friends who tried to clean his shirt from the milk. I was left alone on my seat as always dumbfounded.

Hyukjae definitely saved me again but as always I wasn´t sure if he did it wittingly or if it was a coincidence. Did he fall on purpose and most importantly what was he going to do if Heechul didn´t come? I don´t want to believe that he knew the redhead would come but Heechul said something like that. It sounded as if they planned to meet up during the brake. I´m over thinking this, right?

___________________

For the next few weeks I fell into a strange stereotype. Well nothing´s the same when you have Lee Hyukjae in your life of course but still there was some routine in it. Hyukjae and I kept meeting either during the lunch break or at the café. I would watch the boy during his shift and when it wasn´t too busy, we would chat or play games. Once in a while Leeteuk would come to visit and shamelessly flirt with Hyukjae. He never crossed the line so I let it go, at least openly. Another dangerous friend of Hyukjae was Kim Heechul who would steal him away even from our private eating session. I couldn´t say a word against that of course if I didn´t want to be hanged by my underwear out of the window. But I had a suspicion that Hyukjae told something to Heechul because the guy stopped attacking me, if you don´t count occasional swearing or bumping into me on the hallway. So my life was somehow getting brighter day by day with the presence of the blonde. I would never admit that to him of course.

It was Saturday afternoon and Hyukjae just finished his morning shift in the café. For a change we decided to meet up somewhere else apart from school and his workplace and go for a lunch. Strangely the weather was pretty hot that day and I was already getting crazy from all those weather changes. I sat on a bench that was hidden in a shade and waited for the blonde to show up.

“Donghae!” I turned around and my jaw almost dropped. I pretended to be okay thought.

Hyukjae was walking to me in black leather baggy shorts and huge white loose shirt tugged in front into his pants. Everything looked too huge on him even his white boots but surprisingly he looked pretty good, almost as if he just walked out of a fashion magazine. Silver necklace was dangling on his chest reflecting successfully the sunlight straight into my eyes. I was glad I was wearing sunglasses so I didn´t get blinded by it and also Hyukjae didn´t catch me checking him out. Since when did I start checking out guys anyway?!

“Sorry, I´m late. Leeteuk stopped by to buy a cake and I felt like it would be rude to just leave without saying hello,” Hyukjae apologised but the reason for his delay being Leeteuk, didn´t amuse me much.

“No problem, let´s go,” I brushed my little annoyance away and stood up. Hyukjae naturally joined me by my side and we started walking towards the food cart.

We were slowly walking and I was busking in the warmth. On the other hand Hyukjae didn´t look very comfortable under the scorching sun and kept leaving my side to walk in the shade. It was funny because kept changing sides according to the roofs and for a moment I felt pity for him. His skin was impossibly white and I could guess that it wasn´t ideal in this weather. Not like his skinny body was better in the cold of course. I´ll take a parasol next time.

We were almost at the place when we heard a loud honking coming from the road. We turned around just to see a guy on his scooter coming our way. It seemed like the pizza delivery guy wasn´t very skilled driver or the motorcycle wasn´t in a good shape because it was unstoppable. Before he could run us over I pulled Hyukjae by his large shirt and we both ended up lying on the ground. The scooter crashed only a meter away from us and the pizza guy fell on us bringing the pizzazz on top, pun intended.

“Ugh,” was the only thing I managed to say because after all I was the one who ended up in the bottom. Hearing me Hyukjae´s sharp bones started picking up themselves after not so gently kicking off the poor delivery boy. Some people came running to us and started helping us, especially one guy seemed very eager.

“Oh my goodness! Here, try to stand up,” he picked up Hyukjae and while holding him by his elbow he reached with his other arm for me. My body hurt on a few places but I was more concerned about Hyukjae who was covered in the red sauce from the pizza thus I couldn´t see his injuries.

“Why don´t you come up to my place. You can wash up and I´ll treat your wounds,” the boy offered and I was ready to decline. How could we go into a stranger´s house! That was absolutely unacceptable.

“W-What´s your favourite colour, sir?” Hyukjae unexpectedly asked scanning the man in front of us. I frowned but when I noticed Hyukjae slightly shaking, I got worried.

“I don´t see what it has to do with any of this but it´s definitely pink,” the guy answered and Hyukjae sighed in relief.

“Then would you mind sparing a bit of your time for us? I don´t know about Donghae but I would welcome a little help,” Hyukjae said and hissed. Now I was really nervous and obviously let the pink loving dude take us up to his flat which wasn´t further than fifty meters away from the accident.

The guy´s name was Sungmin and just like Hyukjae has probably already analysed, he was a nice person. He helped us to his apartment which was mostly decorated in pink and other bright colours. For the first time I thought that being colour-blind might have some advantages. He sat us in the kitchen while he ran off to the bathroom for the first aid and towels. Finally I had a bit of time for us.

“Are you hurt, Hyukjae?” I turned to the blonde worried. He was clutching his left elbow and his whole body was dirty from the red sauce. He was biting his lip and I was sure he might start crying at the spot.

“Mhm,” came his answer that made me panic all of a sudden. “It hurts! I can´t anymore!” He suddenly yelled and ran after Sungmin. At that moment my heart began beating impossibly fast and my legs weakened so much that the moment I stood up to go after Hyukjae, I fell down my knees hitting the kitchen tiles hardly.

It was silent for a while and after a few more excruciating minutes Sungmin arrived to the kitchen with Hyukjae by his side. The blonde looked much better and had a huge smile on his lips but when he saw me he was startled.

“Donghae! Why are you crying?” I didn´t even know I was crying. I brought my hand to my cheek and indeed it was wet from the tears. “Where does it hurt?” It was Hyukjae panicking this time and I chuckled.

“You ran off screaming like that and I was worried, you idiot,” I scolded him and went back to sit on the chair. Hyukjae blinked twice and then started laughing.

“I´m so sorry, Donghae. I really needed to pee and when we got into the accident the delivery guy fell right onto my bladder. I tried really hard to hold it in but I didn´t want to piss myself so I dashed like that,” he couldn´t stop laughing and I couldn´t believe my ears. It was so absurd that I couldn´t even scold him.

In the meantime Sungmin treated Hyukjae´s scratch on his elbow and left knee and sent him to clean himself in the bathroom. Then he went to attend my injuries which consisted of bruise on my belly from Hyukjae´s sharp pelvic bone and a big scratch on my back. I won´t be able to wear a backpack for a few days.

“Thank you a lot, I was really worried about Hyukjae, you know,” I needed to thank Sungmin.

“Don´t worry about that. When I saw the two of you I was scared that something even more serious happened. I´m glad you are both alright,” Sungmin grinned with his perfect white teeth.

“Um,” we both turned around to see Hyukjae standing there only in his black leather shorts which were already cleaned. I got almost a heart attack seeing him standing there like that. “I´m very sorry to ask this of you but my shirt got completely ruined and we still planned to go for a lunch,” Hyukjae blushed and bit his lip. This was the final blow for me.

Hyukjae´s washed hair were sticking to his forehead and a few forgotten droplets left the white strands to race their way down his torso. His white skin was glowing in the bright room and the sunrays kept hitting the silver necklace around his neck. Hyukjae´s body was indeed skinny but not as much as I initially thought. He got ´the meat´ at the right places and his protruding hipbones were desperately trying to get a hold of the waistband of his black boxers. I don´t need to clarify why those hip-hop like pants didn´t manage to cover his underwear, right?

“Ah, you are right! Wait a minute, I´ll bring you something to wear,” Sungmin wasn´t as affected as me by my stunning friend and on his way to the bedroom he sent me to wash the small bits of sauce from my face that managed to hit me even with Hyukjae involuntarily shielding me.

I went to the bathroom to wash my face and to repair my blood circulation. For some strange reason instead to my brain the blood started rushing south. When I managed this issue I went back to the kitchen but no one was there. I heard voices from the room across from the living room and went after them. When I opened the door to the bedroom I found Hyukjae sitting on Sungmin´s bed with a pleading look.

“Please, it can be even pyjamas, I don´t care but it needs to be white,” Hyukjae was on the verge of tears. To tell the truth, I also noticed Hyukjae wearing either black or white. I could tell the reason but still I was sure that any colour would suit him since he´s so handsome. But for now I needed to be on his side.

“I´m scared that this guy will go out wearing nothing, if you don´t allow him to wear white shirt,” I chuckled to lighten the mood. Sungmin sighed and pulled out a plain white shirt. Hyukjae gave me thankful look and I winked. Why am I being so cheesy! Lee Donghae, man up!

“Anyway,” Sungmin´s tone brightened, “you said you were going for lunch but I actually haven´t eaten yet. Would you want to stay for lunch?”

“We can´t! You helped us so much and this little even robbed you off of your shirt,” I declined and pointed at Hyukjae who just put his head through the hole. Sungmin sighed again, probably from relief that we wouldn´t bother him anymore. But that stupid blonde had to speak up again.

“Don´t mind him, Sungmin-ssi. He´s a bit asocial,” Hyukjae chuckled, “we would really like to stay for lunch. I can help you with anything, I´m not a great cook but I´m good at chopping and stirring.”

Hyukjae completely ignored my warning look and with his arm around Sungmin´s shoulders passed right through me and into the kitchen. How much impolite can Hyukjae get? But it turned out that I was the one in wrong. Sungmin was a bit lonely coming to Seoul for work with his friend and family far away in his hometown. He didn´t have any new friends here yet and although we were only high schoolers he was very delighted to host us his home. I really need to start trusting Hyukjae´s sixth sense.

Surprisingly from the three people in the room I turned out to be most skilled when it came to cooking so the kitchen was for the rest of the afternoon under my command. Although Sungmin couldn´t cook that well he still had lots of various foods in the fridge so it was no problem to make a quick lunch. But as you can already imagine despite the fact that I was the cook and it was Sungmin´s house, it was Hyukjae who established the pace of the encounter. He was asking questions but answering vaguely on those given to him; he kept pushing me to talk and in the end even convinced Sungmin to open the ice-cream. Before we left we exchanged numbers and promised to visit again. Our day turned out pretty nice and I fell asleep in a good mood that night.

___________________

On Monday it was still as hot as on the weekend and the sun was shining brightly. I was still feeling well after the weekend and even the harsh hit I received this morning didn´t bring my mood down. After all the morning classes were finished, I happily opened my lunch box and waited for Hyukjae to join me. But ten minutes passed and he still didn´t come. I shrugged and started eating by myself. He must have stayed in the cafeteria; he sometimes joins his friends or Heechul during lunch. I don´t mind because he always says that he likes to eat with me the most. It´s my personal ego boost.

About five minutes later I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I brought it up just to get instantly nervous because Lee Hyukjae was the caller. Why would he call me when we saw each other just a few minutes ago during the PE? I answered the phone.

“Hyukjae?” I gulped hearing muffled sobs on the line.

“Donghae, I-I need your help. It´s urgent, c-can you come?” Hyukjae´s voice wavered and I was sad that my bad inkling was right.

“Of course, Hyuk. Where are you?” I tried to sound calm and assuring.

“G-Gym,” Hyukjae stuttered and with a simple ´Wait for me´, I cancelled the call and sprinted as fast as I could towards the gym.

My mind was filled with various bad scenarios of what might have happened to the small blonde. Did someone found out about his monochromacy? Maybe he became a victim of bullying because he talks to me so much. It´s Hyukjae, he might have slipped and hurt himself! My stomach started churning and that was the moment when I decided to stop thinking and keep running.

I slammed the doors to the gym and called for Hyukjae. A quiet answer came from the back of the room. When I hurried into that direction I could already hear Hyukjae´s faint sobs. My heart froze when I saw that little person crouched on the ground and covering his eyes. I was scared to find out.

Pink is loving, kind, generous and sensitive to the needs of others.The color pink puts people in touch with the nurturing side of themselves, through either the need to receive or the need to be nurtured. Pink is friendly and approachable with a warmth and softness others are drawn to. It´s refined, reserved, calm and non-violent colour which may give the impression of shyness. Pink has a youthful appearance, even into old age, looking younger than really is.

Thank you so much for reading. I was thinking of finishing this soon since it doesn´t seem to be ve ry interesting. :D Anyway, don´t you think that the pink colour really fits Sungmin? To me he was always very manly. Thank you for your support - PandaHero