Wedding bells

"A future"

It was one of those lazy nights, spent sleeping and dozing off in the silence of the dorm. Hyukjae didn’t like silence that much, not in the dorms at at least. It was something new to him. For years, the dorms had been filled with members’ voices, laughters, screams. For years the dorms had been a place to come back in the happy and sad times, but lately everything had changed. The members had houses of their own, and they just crashed at their shared flats when it was really necessary. Only him and some few others still lived there.

“What are you doing on Christmas?”

Leeteuk was laying on the white sofa, his head resting on Hyukjae’s thighs as they watched a new rookie group smiling and bowing, as they took home another award.  

“I don’t know”, he muttered. “I think I’ll go home. My mother asked me to go to the shop and then to have lunch with them. Seems like my sister finally found a poor soul to date and she won’t be at home. And I kind of miss Choco, too.”

Leeteuk chuckled, rolling his eyes. “You big mama boy. Well, at least you got something to do. You won’t spend Christmas working your off in a gym”.

Hyukjae looked at him, a surprised look on his face. “I thought you and Sora-ssi…”

“She’s busy. Or she’s tired. I don’t know, lately it’s impossible to talk to her and her manager hates me. She thinks I’m bad influence for her and her career”.

“Well, she’s right. You do are bad influence”, he joked with a little smirk. “She’s been very popular lately, hasn’t she?”

Leeteuk smiled and stretched his arms upwards. “Yes, she has. She doesn’t like when I say it, though. She feels bad, I think. Because I kind of lost my popularity, so she tries to avoid the topic. Not that it really matters. I’m slowly coming back”.

“Well, you brag enough for the two of you”, Hyukjae replied, agreeing. “But she’s fine, I suppose. Just, don’t get married. It’s soon, I don’t have enough money for your present too”.

“I’m not going to get married any time soon, don’t worry”, he answered, sitting up. “You, on the other hand. Isn’t about time to…you know, found yourself someone? I mean, Choco isn’t a suitable future wife, and lately she’s been the only live being I saw you around with.”

Hyukjae stiffened a bit, listening to those words. Leeteuk wasn’t the first one to point that out. His mother had already been asking when he would give her a nephew for a while now, and his cousin getting married hadn’t helped  his cause a lot.

“I’m around Donghae too”, he joked, and Leeteuk glared at him.

“You know what I’m talking about”.

Eunhyuk sighed and lowered his head a bit. The thing was that he really needed to talk about his situation to someone, and even if Leeteuk had changed in those two years spent in the army, Hyukjae somehow knew he was going to understand. That he could be trusted.

“This is why I’m telling you”, he said slowly, watching how confusion first and understanding later settled on Leeteuk’s face.

“Are you crazy?”, the other exclaimed. “What..? How long!”

Hyukjae didn’t look at him when he answered. “A little bit after you enlisted…”.

Leeteuk looked at him with wide eyes lips slightly parted. Then he sighed and shook his head. “Hyukjae, this is bad.”, he stated. But when he saw the broken look on the younger’s eyes, he rushed to say, “…I mean, I have no problems with the two of you dating, but this is not just about you and me. There’s the group, your families, the fans…”

“Yeah, thank you. I know all of that”, the other replied, a little bit annoyed. “But there’s nothing much I can do. And it’s not like anyone noticed. We want to stay together and we’re not breaking up because of people. At least, this is what I hope”.

“People won’t take it well”, Leeteuk sighed after a bit. “Even some of the members won’t agree, you know. And your family…”

“Hyung. Really, I know all of this. I told you because I needed to let it out with someone, but I’m not planning to say anything to anyone else. No one suspected one thing in these two years, and I don’t see why they should start now. Neither me or Donghae plan to have a shocking outing.”

“Maybe not now, but when you’ll be forty and your mother will start asking you for nephews, what will you say?”

“That I want to get old with Choco”, he mumbled, almost sulking. He was sick and tired of having to give reasons for his life choices.

Why are you so thin, Lee Hyukjae. Why don’t you have a girlfriend, Lee Hyukjae. Why don’t you do this, why don’t you do that. And at that rate, even his apparently infinite patience was going to run out.

***

It was late when he went back to the dorms. It had been strangely a hectic and period, jumping between the recording of new songs and shooting new programs. As Hyukjae the lights of his room, he almost let out a scream.

“What are you doing here?”, he asked, a hand on his heart, as a cheerful Lee Donghae looked back at him from his own bed.

“I was bored at home”, the other replied with a grin.

“And you thought that giving me a heart attack was going to be fun?”, Hyukjae glared at him as he neatly put his jacket on a chair.

“I just thought that I wanted to see my beloved boyfriend who ditched me on Christmas night”.

“I didn’t ditch you, you were with halbae”, Hyukjae stated, unimpressed.

“Yeah, whatever. This is not why I am here”, Donghae sighed and Hyukjae turned his head from his closet to look at him with a slight smirk.

“So, you do have a reason to be here”, he exclaimed, as he grabbed the green pajamas his