XXIX

Heechul heaved a heavy sigh as he stopped at a red light. He leaned back on his seat, glared at the blending traffic light for a moment before dropping his gaze to the dark and empty streets again. His eyes followed the wipers of his car until he almost became dizzy, then he looked back up to the red light and down again a second later.

"The hell… Who the drives around at three in the morning except for overworked idols like me? No ing car in sight, especially no people walking around… What a waste of energy."

He sighed again and made a face, his fingers drumming on the steering wheel. There was no car behind him or passing by and he most likely would've been able to just drive even though the light was still red without anybody noticing it. Yet he pulled himself together and didn’t do it; he almost hit the horn with his forehead as the light finally turned green.

Muttering some curses to himself he started driving and cursed some more because there was no manager to drive him home from his schedules. Heechul was tired and doubted that the few hours of sleep he would get that night would be enough to count as beauty rest. That fact alone made him scowl so much that he was afraid to get wrinkles – something he didn’t need on top of it all.

He was just thinking about the best way to fake being sick the next morning to catch up on some sleep when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. Heechul hit the breaks out of reflex, just in time to see someone crossing the street and literally freezing to the spot right in front of him. That someone had come out of the bushes at the side of the road and had been more tumbling than actually walking; Heechul was more than glad that his car came to a stand about a meter away from whoever that was.

"ing !"

Being too shocked from almost hitting a person, Heechul felt like he was frozen. Then he wanted to kick that person's for being that stupid and he in fact was just about to push the door open when he saw who was standing there. The person's face was illuminated by the headlights of his car and if Heechul had been shocked before, he was it even more now.

"Donghae?"

The door literally flew open and Heechul rushed out of the car and into the pouring rain. It was raining so heavily that he could barely see the younger's face, but after grabbing him by his shoulders and shaking him madly, there was no doubt left: the person he almost hit with his car was Donghae – and he looked like a mess.          
His skin was as pale as paper and his wide eyes darting unfocusedly around. The clothes he was wearing were way too thin for the temperatures of that night and also soaked wet; Heechul felt the need to wring them out as soon as he laid his hand on them. A short-sleeved shirt, sweat pants and shoes – nothing else. Even if it was almost freezing.

"Yah, Donghae! Did I hurt you?! Lee Donghae, talk to me!"

Heechul shook him again, but the only response Donghae gave him was almost collapsing into his arms. The other cursed loudly and wanted to drag him to his car, but Donghae refused. He weakly tried to push him off and wanted to continue walking without knowing where to. It was only when Heechul heard a loud sob that he noticed that Donghae was crying and his anger immediately disappeared. He didn’t have the chance to say something however; the brunet broke loose from his hold and walked away, his legs too unsteady to let him come far.

Still shocked but at least knowing better what to do, Heechul rushed back to the car and grabbed an umbrella from the backseat. He didn’t care enough to turn the motor off as he already flew back to Donghae's side and grabbed his arm to pull him down to sit on a bench. Donghae was sobbing loudly as Heechul put up the flaming pink umbrella to at least try to stop him from getting even wetter. He linked arms with him and huddled up against him because he felt the need to somehow warm him up. Donghae was shaking from head to toe and his wet skin so cold that it made a shiver run down Heechul's spine.

"What happened?" he asked and tried to make eye contact with him. "Donghae, what's wrong?"

There was no answer. The brunet continued crying loudly, his body shaking with his heavy sobs. Heechul started caressing his arm a bit and felt like a fool because this situation was so unexpected that he was at a loss for words. Donghae looked like he was close to collapsing, like the most awful thing in the world had happened to him – and not knowing if such a thing had really happened made Heechul so uneasy that he had to ask him again.

"Talk to me. Please, Donghae. Tell me what happened."

Donghae tried to brush off his tears, his gaze on the wet streets. He mumbled something, but it was too low to make Heechul understand it so he tried it again. "S-Soo…jin", was everything he managed to say. Heechul scowled.

"Did she do this to you?" he asked and his tone was sharp. Donghae slightly nodded his head and Heechul got so angry that he had to watch out what he said. "That … What did she do? Did she call you?" He saw him shaking his head with another loud sob and remembered that she most likely didn’t have his number. "Did she show up at the dorms?"

The younger's body tensed up slightly and Heechul knew that he was right. Donghae's mind was thrown back to what had happened a few hours ago and even thinking about it made him want to throw up.

Soojin smiled cutely at him as she entered the dorm, but her gaze was as cold as ice. Donghae asked her to come to the kitchen with him and she obeyed, followed him and sat down at the table.

"Do you want to drink something?" he asked because he thought that he had to be nice to her to not make this any worse. She tucked her long hair behind her ear and sent him another smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

"Water, please. I have to watch out nowadays."

He nodded and decided that he wouldn’t think about that answer any further. With a glass and a bottle of water in his hands he sat down across from her and later on shoved the filled glass over to her. She didn’t thank him as she wrapped her fingers around it and the smile on her lips made him duck his head slightly. There was a weird silence surrounding them soon and Donghae didn’t dare to end it.

"So… Can you tell me how Hyukjae-oppa has been doing the last couple of weeks? I haven't heard from him all this time", she asked after some time. Donghae bit the inside of his cheek because he hated the way Eunhyuk's name sounded when she spoke it out.

"He's doing fine", he mumbled, gaze still on the table. "I think… I think he's really happy at the moment."

She hummed silently. "Good to know that he's doing fine while I cried my eyes out for weeks…" Donghae wasn’t sure if he had been meant to hear this, only softly nodded his head. He really had no idea what she wanted to tell him. "Oh… Isn't that his shirt you're wearing?"

He looked down and was reminded that he still hadn't changed his clothes. Yes, he was still wearing Eunhyuk's shirt, but he surely wouldn’t tell her this. "It's not. It's my own."

"Are you sure about that? I remember him wearing it a couple of times." She laughed. "The last time I pulled it over his head so fast that my lipstick got smeared all over the hem… He didn’t mind, though. I mean, he was in such a hurry to rip the clothes off my body that he barely registered anything." Soojin laughed again and made Donghae duck his head a bit more. He curled his fingers to tight fists and wished that she would just disappear and leave him alone.

"What exactly did you want to tell me?" he asked and hoped that this way he could shorten this whole thing. Donghae even looked up to her even though he could barely take the sight of her grinning like this.

"Well… Oppa told me that there's someone else he fell in love with as he dumped me. Do you know if he's still together with… that person?"

There was a weird tone in her voice as she spoke out the last two words of her sentence and it made Donghae tense up. Eunhyuk hadn't told her that he was together with him now, right? And he surely hadn't told her that he had left her for a man. No, he hadn't done this, not when it had been so hard for him to admit. So there was no need to be scared right now, right? Soojin didn’t know about them and she didn’t expect him to be the one on Eunhyuk's side. All he had to do was to stay calm until she would leave again. Everything would be alright.

"Yes, they're still together", he answered and tried to let it sound as casual as he could. He didn’t dare to look at her however.

"Ah, how bad…" Soojin sighed dramatically and leaned back on her chair. Now his eyes found to her and he frowned slightly out of confusion.

"Why do you say so?"

She smirked and played a bit with the glass in her hands, turned it round and round. "Because there's something really important that I have to tell him and… Well, I don't know if it's that good for his relationship."

Donghae's stomach dropped and there was no chance that he could hide how shocked he was to hear her talk like this. What could she have to say that it would endanger their relationship? Was there even something that could make Eunhyuk doubt again or even worse: make him go back to her?

"What do you want to tell him?" Those words slipped past his lips before he had the chance to hold them back. Soojin sighed again and already reached out for her purse