The sky was black, with shades of dark red bleeding the horizon. It was still quite early, the sun had yet to show up and lighten the fabric of the sky with its glorious golden color. The birds had yet to rise and there was calmness that swept the land. It will a while before the city will come to life.

Even though Seoul was dubbed as the city that never sleeps, it is highly doubtful it suffers from insomnia. A good rest is necessary to start a day refreshed and the inhabitants understood the importance of the tradition.
Though the city was yet to wake up and come into full force, there was a person who was twisting and turning desperately in his bed.

It was the seventh consecutive night, when donghae had woken up well before dawn and no amount of counting sheep worked anymore. His tired brain was turning cranky with the limited rest it received. What was infuriating to donghae was that today was supposed to be an off day. For the past week, since he had early schedules, he did not mind being up early because he had to be at the job. An hour and half less of sleep did not affect him greatly but just enough for him to take notice of the fact.

After tossing and turning for the umpteen time, he gave up on his desire to sleep in and got up with a frown. Rubbing his tired eyes, he took hold of the clock and saw that it was quarter to five.

Pushing his unwilling body off the bed, donghae decided to use the early start to finally finish off the errands he had been pushing back the whole week or so.

Exiting the room with as little noise as possible, he made his way to the bathroom to start with his morning chores. Seeing that the living room in addition to other rooms was still dark, he deduced that all the members too had decided to use the off day to sleep in. What lucky dogs! He thought for a moment cursing his own sleeping problems.

After his morning rituals were done he headed to the kitchen. The rumbling noise his stomach had made while he was taking a bath, conveyed to him that breakfast could not be pushed back until everyone were up. Even though he was technically not allowed to cook anything, he decided that desperate times call for desperate measures. And hence, today he was going to make himself toast and some chocolate milk.

How hard could be pushing two slices into the toaster and opening a carton would be, he mused. He started rummaging the cabinets for bread but saw to his surprise that most of them were empty or filled with herbs and other stuff that cannot be eaten instantly. His search for milk also provided similar results.

Sitting in front of the empty fridge, he felt pity over the way their kitchen had turned barren. No one would expect the kitchen of world stars like Super Junior, resembling that of a church mouse but it couldn't be helped. They were busy with their album promotions and had little to no time to cook, let alone stock their pantry. It was a haze of take outs and restaurant dinners until their final goodbye party yesterday where they officially ended their album promotions.

Though he understood the reason for the barren cupboards his growling stomach refused the excuses. He checked his watch once again, it was half past five. Would it be bad of him to wake wookie up so that he could have breakfast? Realizing how selfish that act would be, donghae decided to go out and buy himself some breakfast.

He had his sights set on a little quaint bakery three blocks from the dorms. On numerous occasions when he returned home from a very late schedule he had seen the bakery open by 4:30. He had always wanted to try their different breads and cakes, but had never gotten around to it. Though shindong had once bought a whole a la carte basket, containing sample pieces of different delicacies the shop produced, all donghae had received was a small bite of lemon meringue pie he had to admit it was delicious.

So after putting a hoodie on his vest and track pants along with his trainers, he left the house making sure that no one was disturbed by his actions.

The sky had lighten a little bit but was still a little dark. There were more people now on the street. Joggers and dog walkers comprised the majority but it was not deserted as it would have been an hour ago. Embolden by the sight of people, donghae marched on to his destination. Even though it was a fact that he was a 28 year old man, being alone or taking solidarity walks was not up his alley. He loved being surrounded by people and enjoyed basking in the warmth they exuded. So it was obvious that he wished to end his little excursion soon and head back home.

It was when he had walked a block that a booming noise was heard, and for a split second the sky lighted up a silver haze. Scared at the sound thinking it was a thunder, donghae stared up to see other signs of a storm, but was only greeted with the silver sky and nothing else. Since everything had settled down and no signs of a thunder storm was visible, even though it would have been the wrong time of the year to have those, donghae walked forward. His hungry stomach had overridden his panic inducing brain and so he walked on, on what was going to be a very memorable sojourn.

The quite that followed the booming noise had continued and now donghae had started feeling uneasy. A quick look over his surroundings saw that there was no one on the street. It had been mere minutes before he had encountered various people on the road, forcing him to push down his hoodie in an effort to hide his face. But now, there was no one to be seen and it was scaring the hell out of him.

Tapping into his fast depleting courage reserves, he marched on. Suddenly he could here shuffling noise behind him. It sounded as if someone was following him. But the irregular footsteps pointed to 'something' and not someone.

Since he had the unofficial tittle of the scaredy cat in Super Junior, it did not take much to set him off. Donghae started to increase his pace to outrun whoever that he felt was following him. Since he had no courage to actually look back for the cause of the noise, the only way for him was forward.

He turned the corner and found himself slipping over something and falling flat on his bum. The footsteps that were allegedly following him came to a standstill very close to him. In the shock of finding himself on the ground and the fear of his attacker next to him, donghae closed his eyes tight hoping to escape from this terror.

After what felt like an eternity, but was really only few seconds, donghae waited agonizingly for his attacker to do something and show his presence. To his shocking surprise he felt something wet and ruff gliding all over his body from his face to his hands and legs. Every inch of his exposed body was being !!!

He opened eyes with a scream on his mouth that died halfway when he saw what was in front of him. The fear and his inflated heartbeat had curtailed his hearing for a few moments and hence he was shocked by what he saw.

 
The tongues, he was right about being , thankfully belonged to dogs and not some deranged attacker. Donghae saw that variety of dogs surrounding him, along with cats and other domestic animals like rabbits, turtles and guinea pigs etc. There were a variety of birds, butterflies and other flying creatures normally found in city, hovering above him.

Donghae was glad to see that it was only animals that were following him and not some deranged human.

After having enough with the slobbering kisses, he pushed off the dogs and cats off him and got up. It was sure cute to have animals love you but a hungry stomach does not care much for affection. He started walking again to discover that the animals were now following him.

Any sane person by this time will have warning bells ringing inside his head. It was not often you find such a large contingent of domestic animals all in one place. Believe it, the animals following donghae were easily in top end of hundred. A dog or cat show could explain the turnout but not the behavior exhibited by the animals.

It was strange that mortal enemies like dogs and cats were together without being at each other's neck. There were even some snakes in the batch that had yet to go for the rabbits or guinea pigs; same for the eagles and other predators. It was as if in the collective awe of donghae, these animals had repressed their natural instincts.

This kind of attention he had been receiving, was a cause of concern. But donghae did not find anything strange with the scene. In fact, the way the animals were following him, he thought of himself as being part of a Disney movie. For, singing Disney princesses attract all kinds of animals that then wait on the said princesses. And donghae was now feeling like royalty with the animal kingdom at his feet. He did not for once stop to ponder about the strange phenomena.

That was the beauty of donghae, he never overthinks stuff. He very rarely thinks at all. So a lot can be pushed under the radar when it came to him. As it is said, ignorance is bliss and donghae was as ignorant and dim witted as they came. But he was a very adorable dimwit at that.

Seeing how the animals were following him donghae thought of breaking into a song, mainly because he felt that it would do justice to the scene. And who knows there might be a director roaming the streets, and impressed with his vocal abilities and his magnetism for attracting animals, he could bag a Disney movie. But thankfully he decided against it at the last moment, as he was missing his fishy friends and he did not want to betray them by having a great time with other pets.

He did not mind the animals following him to the bakery but it was what happened next that was to become an added bother for him. When he was just half a block away from the bakery he realized that not only did the crowd of animals had gotten bigger but he also saw a lot of people rushing towards him, more like charging towards him.

Scared at seeing the crowd charging at him, donghae panicked and started running to lose the crowd. In his quest to escape from the crowd, he spied the bakery he was supposed to come in the first place and soon took refuge inside it.

The bell attached near the door dinged to announce the arrival of a new customer. Donghae was welcomed with a sweet smell of freshly baked bread and cookies. Oh! There were his favorite chocolate chip ones too neatly laid out on pans inside a glass cabinet. The interior of the shop was so warm and welcoming and the aroma of freshly baked breads, cookies and cakes made his heart soar. In the midst of basking in the baked goodies, donghae forgot all his worries and started ordering a lot of sweet and savory treats for himself and the members.

A sharp tap on the door of the bakery pulled donghae's attention away from the treats. He saw a hoard of people standing outside the bakery with some of them plastering themselves on the glass display windows of the shop.

Afraid of what the crowd might do once they enter the shop, donghae requested the person behind the counter to him to another exit. With a little help from the baker, donghae soon found himself in the back alley of the bakery with not a single soul around him. He thanked his stars for the lucky escape, while he waited to catch his breath.

While donghae was away on his adventure, the sky had significantly lightened and the members were now awake and about, around the dorms. Since donghae very rarely got up early on an off day, nobody missed his presence in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, back in the alley donghae who had thought that he had escaped his sasaeng fans by using the back door of the bakery, was in for a cruel surprise when he saw that an old man probably in his 70's gave away his location to the mob.

It was an ambush, the mob soon surrounded him before he even got a chance to run off from the alley. But thankfully due to his athletic genes he managed to crawl from under the mob and break free.

Getting mobbed was not a new experience. After 8 years in the entertainment industry, if he didn’t get mobbed than, he had not made a mark. But the strangest thing of the mob that was following him was that they were not your average mob. Running behind an idol, one would expect hysterical preteen through post teen fan-girls along with the ever increasing fan-boys and a sprinkle of ajumma fans. But the mob that was following, more like chasing, him did not follow this criteria.

The mob had people from all walks of life spanning decades. He saw an elementary school boy running holding his grandma's hand. A man dressed in sharp suit was running holding a baby in his hands. Donghae was tempted to stop and scold the people who were endangering the very young and old in his pursuit, but thought the better of it when he realized how his life would be endangered from that pit stop.

He had ran all the way to the dorms and before he realized it he was standing in front of it. The three block run had done little to dither the mob. They were still gleefully pursuing him. The animals, that had taken a back seat when their more civilized counterparts joined their mob, had too made their come back. He could see some eagles and other birds circling over him like vultures. Ironically, the vultures were thankfully missing.

While he was busy admiring the majestic eagles, he shuddered when they stopped their aerial maneuver and were now diving towards him. Afraid that he might be stabbed by their sharp beak, donghae rushed into the dorm and promptly closed the door. The slam of the door was coupled with a crashing sound. On further inspection through the window he saw the birds comically lying flat on the door and windows due to the impact. 

It was a very long shot, i decided to cut it into two, the other part will be up tomorrow.

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