Of Dogs, Kennels, Summer and Love

Dreaming — Smallpools

Damn. Hyukjae doesn’t know where he should go, and what he should do now. He threads his slender fingers through his new recently dyed black locks, fingers gliding swiftly across the roots. Crumpling the piece of light weight newspaper, he tosses the scrunched ball at his bin, but the object hits the edge of the curve; and bounces off with mockery to which Hyukjae just groans.

“Cheer up, old geezer.” Sungmin, his best friend since childhood, says as he stuffs his face with Hyukjae's crisps. Tiny specks of potato chips explode into the air as Sungmin talks with his mouth open, revealing the mashed contents inside and successfully disgusting Hyukjae. Despite Sungmin’s personality (and iness), his looks absolutely contradict his morals. The guy has a very decent face, straight nose, pink lips, and proportional big eyes making him all in all a male doll. But at the same time, this person lying on his bed could potentially crack all of his bones in a matter of minutes, so it is best not to anger him.

Deciding to ignore the nickname, Hyukjae grunts drastically as he complains, “I don’t even know how you manage to get yourself a boyfriend. You, my dear friend, are completely disgusting with hardly any human characteristics.”

Instead of letting those words get to him, Sungmin snorts as he tilts the sharing package of crisps upwards, the crushed ones at the bottom tumbling into his wide-open mouth.

“You're just jealous, admit it, my Wookie darling is simply perfect.”

“Yes, the only problem he has is his eyesight. Why would he choose you out of the seven billion people on this planet? He must be at least half blind.”

The brunette wipes his greasy fingers on his skinny jeans and then rolls over to the other side where Hyukjae sits, and bangs him on his head.

“Hey!” The raven head boy yells, hands flying to his head and immediately rubbing the spot, wincing at the soreness.

“No bashing my boyfriend.” Hyukjae only pulls a silly face before turning to the next stack of newspaper, taking out the top one and opening the sheets.

“Hey Hyuk?”

“What?” Hyukjae hisses, but not looking up from the pages. Sungmin frowns as he asks,

“Why are you so eager reading your dad’s newspaper from a thousand years ago? I know you don’t have a life, but you can at least pretend to have one, for my sake.” Then the brunette shrugs like the actor he is, lips puckering as he lifts his eyebrows.

“Well, I'm sorry that I'm not like you, Mr. Congeniality, we’re going to be in university this time next year after this summer and I need to do some volunteering work if I want to increase my chance of getting in one.” He snaps, his mood not that great as it is probably the third stack he’s going through, yet there are not much information on volunteering places and the ones that are put on, are all either too far away or no available space. The raven-head honestly does not understand why universities these days not only look at your grades, but also extra curriculum activities outside of school. Sure, Hyukjae is not the top student but with his brainpower he could and would slide smoothly into Kyunghee University, that is, if he also attends clubs outside of school grounds or volunteers. It’s going to be his last year in high school before he goes to university, and unlike Sungmin who is involved in so many clubs and whatnots he should prepare now.

(Just remembering his father’s threat along the lines of breaking his legs and cutting all ties with him if he doesn’t get into a good university sends millions of ants crawling in his spine, chewing on his nerves.)

“So…you need a place to volunteer at?”

“Yes. Now stop bothering me, I'm busy.” Hyukjae dismisses his friend with a wave of his hand, as he turns to the next page of the paper. He groans inwardly when he sees everything advertised and written about on there except what he's looking for. The pads of his thumb is dyed a silvery tone; and the strong smell of lead invades his senses when he brings his thumb to his nose and sniffs.

“But I know a place that are always welcoming people to help.” Now this perks up Hyukjae's interest, the wrinkly paper in his hand forgotten as he shuffles next to his friend who rolls his eyes as he sees Hyukjae’s tail wagging.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier! Oh god, this is great. Wait- it’s not one of your martial arts club is it?”

“Of course not! You won't survive a minute if you were inside. No, Wookie started working there a few months ago and I heard they always welcome new people throughout the year.” Sungmin smirks behind his hand.

“Where! Where is this lovely place?” Excitement radiates off Hyukjae as he prances around his room, doing a silly dance and kissing his plushies.

“I’ll show you when I go there to see Wookie.”

*

Today is the day. Now, sitting at the back of the bus, Hyukjae could only fidget in his seat, twiddling his thumbs as he listens to Sungmin’s love confession for his boyfriend.

“Min, will you stay with me today? I mean, of course you can go to your boyfriend and stuff but can you like, stay in that place so I know I'm not alone?” Hyukjae speaks up suddenly, interrupting Sungmin.

“Why of course! But I assure you the other volunteers are great! Oh, and you’ll come to love Donghae. He is such a nice kid. Awfully easy to get along with.” Sungmin states, remembering the first time he met Donghae when he went there to visit Ryeowook. He heard a lot from Ryeowook about this Donghae, but on seeing him for the first time he knew that this Donghae kid is everything as Ryeowook described: diligent easygoing, funny, kind, cute and innocent. And he also heard that Donghae has been going there for several years now, his love for the abandoned dogs so overpowering that it is more heartfelt than a Romeo and Juliet’s play.

“I only hope so.” Hyukjae mutters under his breath.

*

The place is a lot different than what Hyukjae had pictured in his mind. Instead of a dashing house, or even a busy looking street, he is standing in front of a clean but simple building; that being the main entrance to the shop as several other blocks are located around, somehow still joining to the main block.

He sees a small path; probably the back entrance to the place, and Sungmin starts walking down that stone trail. Hyukjae hears Sungmin yell his name, and decides that he should follow. His short friend disappears inside a barn-like block, only smaller, and on catching up to Sungmin Hyukjae sees Ryeowook emerge from behind one of the many cages and greet his boyfriend.

Realising that this is probably the place, judging by the smell and sight of lots and lots of ferocious dogs, Hyukjae can pretty much guess that his job is somehow related to those animals. Then, out of the corner of his eyes Hyukjae sees a young boy, probably around his age, come out from nowhere and walking up to Sungmin. He watches the three people in front of him huddle like penguins, before laughing out loud and clapping their hands like seals in happiness. Then, as if Sungmin finally remembered Hyukjae's presence, he introduces the two.

“Hyukjae, this is the Donghae I've been telling you about. And Donghae, this is my monkey friend, Hyukjae. Now shake hands.” Sungmin demands, as he back hugs his boyfriend whilst blowing raspberries against Ryeowook’s neck, making the latter squirm in