:7 Formalities

Donghae sat waiting at his desk for Hyukjae to finally come. The never ending battle in his mind was on-going still. He had gone through all the possible scenarios that could occur within his apartment when the time came for his appointment to arrive.

He had tidied up what little needed tidying and made certain that the house was presentable so as not to appear a slob in front of Hyukjae and even went so far as to buy ingredients so as to be able to prepare a decent meal for them come time for them to break for lunch. It had been awhile since last he had hosted a guest. In fact, he didn’t recall ever having had the pleasure of inviting anyone over since his parents had left him. He was certainly out of practice, at least that’s what he thought.
  It was nearing the prescribed time when Donghae heard a knock on his door. Hyukjae had at last arrived.

“Come in” Donghae shouted in hopes that his voice would reach the door. The fact that the knob turned and the door was pushed ajar to reveal a patch of bleached blonde hair proved testament enough to that. Donghae stood up as soon as he was faced with Hyukjae’s new appearance. It was an unexpected twist to all he had imagined in his mind up until that moment.

  “What have you done?” Donghae’s tone was demanding. The annoyance laced within it startled Hyukjae as he turned to face the man he had come to meet from closing the door. He kept silent, unsure as to what would be an appropriate response to such an abrupt question. Hyukjae had yet to discover what he had done himself, other than walk through the door.
  “Was I late?” he eventually asked for lack of a better idea as to what the problem was. Donghae had to bite back the unexpected rage building up inside him as he replied: “Your hair was natural when we met last week. Why did you change it without consulting me?”
  The question took Hyukjae aback. He had not been aware that he was to tell Donghae about everything he planned to change about his appearance. He would never have guessed that his hair would be a problem even before any greetings were exchanged.

“I didn’t know that I had to tell you I was planning to change my hair colour. We never discussed that when we talked.” Hyukjae replied defensively.

Donghae bristled before stepping forward to examine Hyukjae’s hair. It was dreadful, at a loss for beauty and uninspiring. Donghae couldn’t even think straight just looking at it. This wasn’t the same man he had imagined so many times and dreamed of several times more. The man he had been fussing over was void of artificiality and pure in his beauty save the eyeliner which, to him, served to represent the unavoidable mark life had surely left on him as he grew up. Donghae didn’t even know that this would be a problem for him but for some reason he hated the idea of Hyukjae being tainted by the world’s worth of falseness. He had viewed him as a work of art that night they had walked past each other for many reasons including how that entire look made had him seem. Now that illusion was shattered and he was faced with reality. How harsh it was to drag him back to that cold place in which he'd been hiding for so long now. His heart clenched in dissatisfaction with the current situation. No matter what he may have felt at that moment, he had no choice but to continue with the formalities. Hyukjae was right there, in front of him, and right then was his only chance to explore what he'd been fearing for so long; his heart. If he didn't want to return to the way he had been living for the past year then he had only one option that would lead him out of himself and into living again. Hyukjae was standing right in front of him, facing him, unlike in his dreams. Donghae knew that if he rejected him now for the simple matter of his appearance, he would only be opening himself up for another fore seen heartbreak. He wouldn't let that happen to him again. Not if his life depended on it. So he had no choice but to swallow his surprised anger and lower his expectations.

  "I'm sorry" he uttered out lowly. His voice had dropped and his tone improved considerably. He had to cool himself down enough to convince that defensive look off of Hyukjae’s face. Luckily enough, his apologetic expression worked and Hyukjae visibly released the tension that had built up in his shoulders. Donghae breathed a sigh of relief

"It doesn’t matter. What do you want me to do today?” Hyukjae brushed past the topic. He was quite annoyed at the apparent rudeness of the man he had signed up to work with, but what startled him most was how he seemed to think that he had the right to demand any form of explanation from him. Hyukjae was not particularly keen on having to work with yet another of his type. It seemed his first impression of the man had been incorrect.
He had initially thought him quiet, non-troublesome, and had hoped him kind. He hadn’t thought there would be need for worries as he had expected for them to work well together.  But it seemed his assessment had been inaccurate from the start. Lee Donghae may actually turn out to be more of a bother to him than anticipated if he didn’t watch out.
  Hyukjae watched as Donghae indicated for him to follow. He did as was indicated and followed him into what appeared to be a dining area. Donghae pointed to the table in the centre of the room.
  “Have a seat.” He said and Hyukjae did as told.

“I have some things I want to clear up with you before we can even thin to work together,” Donghae began in a serious tone, “Maybe I wasn’t clear when we first met, but seeing as how the entire purpose of you being here is to be model for me, I expect that you should inform me as to every action you wish to take which will influence your appearance. I may not own you, but for the period during which you will be working for me that is exactly how it will feel. If I tell you to do something, I expect it to be done, and if you take any drastic action, such as dying your hair yellow, I will be well within my rights to dismiss you.” Donghae finished. He looked at Hyukjae to see if all he had said had sunk in and was glad to the other nod. 
‘Dismiss?” Hyukjae thought. This man was far too serious for his liking, but it seemed like he’d have to endure him if he had any hopes of getting out of his current financial situation.

Donghae was satisfied with the response he received from Hyukjae, silent though it may have been, he expected that such an incident as that which occurred today would be unlikely to happen in the future. Donghae stood up.
  “I think what I need to do today is just explain what I’ll be needing from you.” He began to but couldn’t think what to say next so he left the room to find the wood stool he usually used to sit on while painting outdoors.
  “How flexible are you?” He asked upon his return. Hyukjae gave him a quizzical look before responding.
“Well… Average, I guess. I mean I’m not completely stiff.” He said, not really knowing where their conversation was heading. Donghae also had no real clue as to why he’d asked the question but it seemed his mind was leading him towards his theme for this latest collection without him even realising what it would be. All he knew was that he wanted to capture stillness and movement within one frame. How he planned to do that, he had yet to find out.
  “Can you show me what you can do with this chair? Show me some poses using only the chair.” Donghae said and Hyukjae was at a loss as to what exactly he was meant to do. He stood from where he had been seated and made his way to the chair, which Donghae had placed just in front of him at the doorway which led to another room. Looking at the chair before him, he wondered what he could possibly do with it other than to sit on it. He stared at it for a second before moving a bit closer to it. His mind seemed far too preoccupied with finding an action to take towards the chair thsat would satisfy Donghae, he didn’t even notice that Donghae had reached over to a small coffee table and seized a small digital camera while he’d been looking down. Hyukjae set his foot on one of the beams which held and balanced its three legs before looking up at Donghae.

Click!
Click!
Click!

It seemed that the man liked what he was doing and so it was without further communication that Hyukjae continued his exploration of the chair before him. He pressed down with his foot so that the stool lifted on one end, his back was slightly hunched as he looked down at it and his arms remained still at his side. He wondered what Donghae was thinking while he took pictures of him. Was what he was doing really what Donghae had meant for him to do? Perhaps it wasn’t,  but Hyukjae had yet to hear the other complain.
  “Alright, now slowly sit down and relax your body.”  Donghae said and was glad to see Hyukjae do as told. When Hyukjae made to sit down, he began by looking up from the chair and directly into the lens of the camera held up at Donghae's face. Donghae noted his mysterious expression and snapped it right before Hyukjae looked down again and that expression was lost to the lens. He watched as Hyukjae pulled the stool closer to him before turning slightly and looking up again. Whilst all of this was happening, Donghae made certain to capture every second of his movement.    

He found that the way in which Hyukjae moved was somehow fascinating in that it capture his attention and interest. Hyukjae probably didn’t know what do to, which meant that each of his movements had a layer of questioning surrounding them, a certain uncertainty. That is what Donghae wished to arrest as he snapped away on his camera. This continued for near half an hour before Donghae finally stood up straight and beckoned for Hyukjae to come have a look at what he’d managed to capture.
  “Do you see it?” He asked when Hyukjae was by his side, “That’s the movement I want to portray in my paintings for this collection. Now do you understand what I want you to do?” Donghae asked in a voice which sounded far more excited than he’d anticipated so early in his creation process. Hyukjae seemed to have his desired disposition for the works that he hoped he’d be able to create for his new collection. He was still, yet so taking that even in his stillness he could tell a story.  Donghae thought back to that first night he had laid eyes on him. He had seemed so still even in motion and that had pulled him in. Perhaps he was wrong to have snapped at him for changing his hair because if he looked at the bigger picture, he could always tweak his mental image of him into that which he wished to portray. What mattered most was the energy that Hyukjae gave off with his mere presence. That feeling of self-awareness and confidence that he let loose filled the air and brought his persona to life even when his outwardly appearance told a contradicting story of meekness. This combination of poise and modesty is what Donghae realised had drawn him in to begin with. The realisation in itself made him see just how superficial he had been for putting so much weight on Hyukjae’s change in outwardly appearance.

  He watched as Hyukjae sifted through the images he’d taken of him earlier on. The man seemed intrigued by what he saw and how Donghae had managed to make him look in each shot.
  “I look completely different to how I really am in these.” He said in awe. But Donghae had a feeling that the images showed the exactness of who he was to a flaw. As confident and assured of himself as Hyukjae may have thought he was, Donghae had a feeling that his truest nature was what he’d managed to capture in those images.
  He didn’t know how, but somehow he would unravel the façade that masked the man before him.

“So this is what you want me to do for you every weekend?” Hyukjae asked, not really sure of what Donghae’s true intentions were for him. All he knew was that the man he was working for seemed quite different to how he had imagined him. He seemed odd in a way. Hyukjae had walked in to find a demanding man but as time passed and they worked bit by bit towards creating his inspiration, he began to realise that the man had a detailed and intricate side to him as well. He didn’t know quite yet if that was a good or bad thing, but he wasn’t completely turned off by the prospect of working with him.

Truth-be-told, Hyukjae had thought that the term ‘model’ in the advertisement had been a guise for something far more provocative in nature. It seems he’d gotten too used to being used in other ways related to being a muse. He’d expected no different with this job but it seemed that this was actually a job and nothing more. He was more than happy to accept that reality for now.

“We’ll just go with the atmosphere of each day. No day is likely to be exactly the same so I can’t guarantee that this is all but it’s more or less what I need from you.” Donghae answered Hyukjae’s question in a curt tone. Both men stood straight and glanced at each other for a moment. Donghae examined the blond strands that stuck up from the slightly darker roots on his head. He reached out to straighten up a few strands which had fallen from their upward positing.
  “I guess this hair isn’t so bad after all.” He admitted in a slightly ponderous tone.
Hyukjae chose to keep his comments to himself rather than tell him that his earlier fuss had been a complete over exaggeration. The one thing that caused Hyukjae to wonder though, was the fact that Donghae showed no fear or restraint towards touching him. Their earlier close proximity hadn’t fazed him in the least. Perhaps it was only something that would bother him in the future, but Hyukjae couldn’t help but take note of each physical touch the other directed at him. He hadn’t said anything to him about it yet, but he was quite sensitive to such things.
  The life he’d lead up until then had made sure that he’d never live to accept the touch of just anyone.

***

Hello to you all my dear readers. ^^

It’s been a lot longer than anticipated but I’m finally here with another update.  I hope you all enjoyed your new year’s celebrations and made it into 2016 with great health and safely.

I debated with myself about where I wanted to take this story and have yet to decide where it’s going so for now I’m going to let it lead me instead of taking the reins. But so far I think I’m not doing too badly in developing my characters and the plot. I just hope that you guys are still enjoying this fic of mine. I know I have issues with giving regular updates but I hope you can overlook that and support this fic nonetheless.

Just a huge thank you to you all for the continuous support, comments, and up votes. I am truly grateful to you all for sticking by me.
  Please don’t forget to let me know what you think about this chapt in the comments. I’ll be sure to take any advice and feedback you give me with an open heart.

Well, I hope you all stay happy and well.

‘til next time <33 ^^

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