"Hi! I'm Lee Donghae."

After a few seconds of silence, Hyukjae heard a quiet "oh my god" float through the air, but Donghae hadn't moved his lips. Had it been him?

Donghae's smile faltered for only a second before it came back full force, extracting his hand and moving to sit beside Hyukjae on the steps. "Your name's Lee Hyukjae, isn't it?" 

Hyukjae nodded furiously, eyes wide and fingers fidgeting. "How do you know who I am?" 

Donghae shot him a shy smile. "Well..." he sheepishly ran a hand through his hair, like he'd got caught sharing a secret he wasn't supposed to. "I see you around with Hyoyeon a lot, so it's kind of hard not to notice you. And actually, I saw some of your artwork." He paused as if he expected Hyukjae to say something, but when he didn't he inhaled and continued. "Your stuff is really good you know. And you seem like a nice person, so... I just thought we could be friends or something."

Hyukjae blinked once. Twice.

"With me? Really?" he gaped.

Donghae's laugh rang through the air. "Of course you. Why not?"

Hyukjae bit his lip and looked at him cautiously. Donghae only smiled at him, taking his silence as acceptance to his proposal. He grabbed Hyukjae's hand and shook it.

"It's really nice to meet you, Lee Hyukjae! It's getting pretty late, so I'll see you tomorrow." With those words, he bounced off the steps, giving a short wave before turning and briskly walking back down the road. 

Hyukjae couldn't believe his luck. The Lee Donghae, the one he'd been admiring for years, had wanted to be friends with him. Lee Donghae had approached him first. It was a short meeting, but it was a meeting nonetheless. With a dopey smile tugging at his lips and his mind running a mile a minute, he dragged himself upstairs and threw himself on the bed, having no trouble drifting off to sleep.

Donghae showed up at his house the next morning, and Hyukjae had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't still dreaming. But the heavy weight of Donghae's arm being flung around his shoulder, the loud, bellowing laugh that erupted from his mouth after finding one of his own jokes especially amusing, and the padded sound of his sneakers on the pavement sounded just too real, so Hyukjae just smiled in disbelief and let Donghae lead the way. 

After spending some time with him, Hyukjae had learned very, very quickly that despite Donghae's normal exterior, he actually had quite a bit of oddities. Since he was now enabled closer observation, Hyukjae soon noticed the way Donghae's lip curled so slightly it was hardly noticeable whenever he was put in a situation that particularly annoyed him. He noticed how he would start shaking when he was confronted (this was something he found particulary interesting and paid extra attention to, purely because he had the same habit). Hyukjae also learned quite fast that he was also equipped with an extremely big ego, yet most of the time he still didn't come off as cocky or conceited. Rather than this putting him off, Hyukjae found it a bit endearing. He didn't think he'd ever met anyone like Donghae, and as time went on he didn't think he ever would in the future either.

In a matter of days, Hyukjae found himself spending every waking moment with Donghae and his friends, all of whom he was able to befriend quite quickly himself. He grew quite fond of his new friends-- all of them were incredibly caring and attentive. They smothered Hyukjae in so many hugs and kisses daily he wondered how he hadn't suffocated yet from all the love he was recieving. He particularly loved the way Cho Kyuhyun's knuckles would rub playfully against his head every so often,  the suffocating squeezes Kim Jongwoon would give him whenever they parted ways, or how Kim Jaejoong would hiss and punch his arm whenever he called him bug-eyed.  Even more quickly, Donghae and Hyukjae had become inseparable, two staying out until late at night together or talking to each other on the phone till the early hours of the morning. They ate together, they drew together, they did practically everything together. Hyukjae was on cloud nine; every time he had visualized and daydreamed about these moments, they hadn't even been close to how amazing and fulfilling they actually were. 

Hyukjae really thought that he and Donghae fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. Even after spending such a s