“Hyung.”

Donghae’s head was resting on his arm. He was sitting at the kitchen counter in his own apartment. It was 4 a.m. Too early to be awake.
Lately he’s been having bad nightmares and been either waking up from it or Henry had to shake him awake. Sometimes he could wake up to escape and other times it was impossible. So even though he felt bad Henry was waking up from him screaming, he was very grateful.

“Hyung, isn’t it close to that one-year mark?” Henry asked. He too was resting his head on his arm as he sat across from Donghae.
Donghae nodded.

“Have you been avoiding sleeping over Hyukjae hyung’s because of your nightmares?”

“Yeah…”

“You can’t not tell him about it. It only gets bad around this time.”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” Donghae asked his younger friend. He was slightly amused.

“Besides being worried about you? Yes. I need sleep too… how long do they last?” Henry asked sheepishly. He was new to this. He only remembered what Donghae explained to him. And the only reason Donghae felt obligated to tell him was because they were roommates.

“I don’t know how long it’ll last. It took me months before I could finally sleep through the night in the beginning.”

That much was true. Not even the comfort of Haewon (the last person he was with), was able to comfort him. She didn’t even know what really happened to him. She just thought he had a nervous breakdown who couldn’t recover.
Donghae sighed. The most frustrating part are during his nightmares: he’s trying to find something. But he doesn’t know what. And he tries to ask people around him for help but he can’t see their faces, recognize their voices or even understand what they were trying to tell him. It’s always frustrating. Just when Donghae thinks he knows what he’s looking for, he feels this hot and weird sensation that surges through his body. The more he walks in the direction of where he’s supposed to go, a burning increases and he can’t fight it. Donghae has the same nightmare over and over again. And every time he gets closer to uncovering what he’s supposed to find, somebody jumps him. This always happens towards the end of the nightmare. And every time this happens, he wakes up in a cold sweat.

“Well can you try to sleep over hyung’s house? I need to sleep and I have a big interview this coming week,” whined Henry. He put his face flat on the table.

“I’ll try. Hyuk’s been trying to get me to sleepover.”

“Well it has been two weeks since the last time you slept over. You can’t give him any more excuses,” Henry finally said as he got up from the table and headed back to his room. Donghae sighed and stood up to go to his room too. The nightmare usually happened once in a night, so he was going to attempt to try to get some sleep.

Yawn.

“What’s up? You keep yawning,” Hyukjae pointed out to Henry.

They were both at the apartment. Donghae was working and Hyukjae agreed to come over to help Henry interview prep.

“Ask your boyfriend. He’s been waking me up,” Henry said without thinking.

“Why?” Hyukjae inquired. Donghae didn’t mention any of this to him.

Henry’s mouth formed a ‘O’ as he realized he shouldn’t have said anything.

“Th-that’s because he misses you. So he comes to bug me to sleep with him.”

“I keep telling him to just sleep over. He can always study at my place too,” Hyukjae exclaimed.

Henry was relieved Hyukjae didn’t catch on.

“Please do, hyung. I need to prep for this interview and be on my A game tomorrow.”

Hyukjae agreed and started giving Henry some pointers. He had an interview with this company before and knew what they were looking for when hiring. It was a music and dance-based company.
Hyukjae and Henry ended up working for another hour before they decided to take a quick break.

“My brain hurts,” Henry complained. He was lying on the living room floor while Hyukjae sat at the coffee table beside him.

“You’ll get over it,” Hyukjae said as he quickly skimmed through his notes, making sure he got all the points before giving it back to Henry.

“Here,” Hyukjae said as he passed his completed notes to Henry, “study them and you should be fine.”

“Thanks hyung.”

As Hyukjae started putting his notes and pens back in his backpack, the front door unlocked and his favorite person entered.

“Oh, Hyuk? You’re here already?” Donghae asked. He put his car keys down on the kitchen table and set his backpack on the chair.

“Yeah I was helping Henry interview prep.”

Hyukjae noticed how bundled up Donghae was. He quickly got up to give him a quick kiss. But as soon as Hyukjae lips left Donghae’s he could tell something was up.

“What’s wrong baby?” Hyukjae asked as soon as they made eye contact.

He could hear Henry gag in the background, but he was too concerned to roll his eyes at him.

“I haven’t been sleeping. It should go away soon,” Donghae said cautiously. But his body stiffened when he mentioned that ‘it should go away’.

“Hyung, I know this is your apartment, but I’m kicking you out tonight,” Henry announced, cutting Hyukjae off from asking Donghae what he meant.

“H-huh?” Donghae asked confused.

“I got that interview tomorrow. I can’t afford to lose sleep. I’ll lose sleep after,” promised Henry.

Donghae did feel bad he kept waking Henry up, so he just agreed to the plan. He went to his room to go pack while Hyukjae stayed in the living room with Henry to tell him some last-minute prepping inputs he thought of.  
He was only grabbing a few things since he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay an extra night.
Once Donghae gathered what he needed, he came out of his room and told his boyfriend they could leave.
Hyukjae tried to hide his excitement as they left. He didn’t like being apart from his boyfriend, especially at night.

Before they went back to Hyukjae’s apartment, they grabbed dinner. Recently they both really liked eating Italian food, so they decided to go to Ciuri Ciuri and grab their usual. French bread and spaghetti for Hyukjae while Donghae preferred the chicken parmigiana with angel hair noodles.
Once they got back home, they unpacked everything and ate together.
Donghae had been avoiding Hyukjae for so long he was glad he got forced out of his apartment. He really missed him. They usually liked to sit on the couch and eat their meals. And Donghae liked it just because they were always close to each other.
So overall, it was an enjoyable evening dinner. Baths were finally finished and soon they’d be going to bed. That was the one thing Donghae dreaded. It was a little frightening for him to close his eyes and get that recurring nightmare. He didn’t want to relive it or scare Hyukjae. That would just lead him to having to explain himself. But it also wasn’t like he could put off sleeping any longer. They both had a busy day. Hyukjae had classes then work; Donghae had his job.
The boys were dating long enough for a semester of school to finally pass. Donghae decided to take a semester off so he could focus on working. He needed enough money to save up so he could continue going to school.
Once Hyukjae and Donghae finally decided to go relax in bed, they were making small talk.

“I was thinking,” Donghae began.

Hyukjae the lamp closest to him before joining his boyfriend in bed. He made eye contact to tell Donghae to go on.

“It’s been 4 months since we’ve been going out. It makes me suspicious that none of our friends have caught on.”

Hyukjae laughed before responding, “It would be jokes on us if they all knew but weren’t saying anything.” He paused before continuing, “But I was wond