Things just hadn’t been the same since Heechul left for the military. Donghae realized that when he saw how his precious Leeteukie was acting… Nothing was ever clean enough.

“I wish you wouldn’t be so messy, Donghae-sshi.” Said the Leader as he was fretting about their shared bedroom with a dust pan in hand, “You get food everywhere! There’s crumbs of cookies all over in my bed—my white sheets! Chocolate stains those you know?”

“I know…” Donghae muttered from his spot at the door as he watched Leeteuk clean the room like a maniac. Not even Hyukkie acted like this towards him when the child-at-heart Donghae did that. “You… never cared before…” He muttered, looking down to his feet.

“Well I care now!” Leeteuk snapped back, only changing his tone with a sigh as he watched how Donghae flinched from his words. “Donghae-sshi…” He said softly, taking a step towards the younger man.

But Donghae took a step back, “I’m sorry hyung…” He muttered, sniffling hard before turning and running.

It was took much to take. Since the death of his father, Leeteuk had always been the one who was taking care of him, who was the nicest to him… Was the one who held him at night when he could do nothing but cry himself to sleep; that’s why even now they were still sharing a bedroom. Everyone thought it was EunHae, but really it was TeukHae.
 

Donghae ran to Hyukjae’s room and threw himself on his best friend’s bed, clinging to the pillow and crying. Hyukkie had been expecting this, so when he came back from his schedule he wasn’t at all surprised.

“Did Teukie-hyung yell at you?” Hyukjae asked his friend, gently rubbing a hand down his arm and Donghae just nodded; he’d long since stopped crying, but not they were there anew.

“He-.. he…” Donghae hiccupped then sniffled, wiping off his face with the help of Hyukkie, “He said I’m too messy and he doesn’t want me to stain his white sheeeeetttttsssss…..” The last word was said with a cry as Donghae sat up and clung to his friend.
 

That night Donghae didn’t return to his shared room and instead stayed with Hyukjae. Leeteuk tried to convince himself the first night that maybe this was for the best; that clingy child needed to move on. Maybe they shouldn’t have been together. He agreed to take care of Donghae, but not to become this…

However Leeteuk found he couldn’t sleep without him and was tossing and turning all night. Still, he would not admit to anyone that he was having issues.

It became obvious quickly though. Leeteuk had taken on so many schedules, something people assumed was because of the loss of his best friend Heechul, but really it was just to keep himself busy and away from watching Donghae and Hyukjae practice for their solo at Super Show. It was too much for the leader to bear. He knew those two were friends, but did it have to be like that?

The people on the 11th floor of the dorms were realizing that something was wrong too. While it was common for Donghae to eat breakfast with them, because he came downstairs to wake up his best friend, usually he was full of energy! That wasn’t the case for the past few weeks. He seemed to be dragging… and everyone was curious as to what was going on with the ‘true’ couple of Super Junior.

But both were being a bit stubborn and refused to talk to one another about what was going on. That tiny little fight had hit a nerve with them both and they could hardly stand the site of each other. It was hard for Donghae because he had nothing to do except practice for their Super Show. Leeteuk at least had his billions of schedules.

It wasn’t until Leeteuk finally crashed from doing too much that they were finally able to talk. The message was passed on to Donghae through their managers that their leader had wound up in the hospital due to exhaustion.

Donghae got into his car and sped over there immediately, running inside the hospital towards Leeteuk’s room without caution.

Once he reached the room he threw himself on his friend, crying as if the older man was dying.

“LEETEUKKIIEEEE-HYUNNNGGGG~!” Donghae cried, clinging to the front of his shirt, “I’m so sorrryyyy!!! I won’t eat cookies in your bed ever again, please don’t die!!!”  The words all blurred into one and were muffled by Leeteuk’s shirt, but he got the gist of it anyway.

“Oh Donghae…” Leeteuk said as he sat up in the bed, petting his dongsaeng’s hair. “I’m not going to die…”

“But you’re in the hospital…” He replied with a pout, wiping off his nose with the back of his hand.

“I know… I’m sorry. I promised I wouldn’t ever get sick, didn’t I?” Donghae nodded when Leeteuk said that, who followed it up with a sigh. “I….. I’m sorry I got angry at you Donghae-sshi…”

“It’s okay! I shouldn’t eat cookies in your bed anyway—they’re bad for me and they can stain your beautiful white sheets! I’ll eat them in the kitchen from now on, okay?”

“But then I’d miss you.” Leeteuk said, pulling Donghae up into a real hug, kissing him on the temple. “Stop sleeping in Eunhyuk’s room…” he muttered then, “I’m jealous and I can’t sleep well without you…”

Donghae just giggled then with a nod, “Okay…” And leaned in for a real kiss, “I can’t sleep without you either.”