“So, I guess we’ve all been H-ed.”

Donghae summarized after Sungmin approached Ryeowook and him at Heechul’s old-Eunhyuk’s current house. Sungmin invited them to his place and brought them up to his room, closing the door behind them so that they could speak in private. Ryeowook was the first to admit that he received a text from H but looked reluctant to say what it was about. Donghae admitted too though the first time was not a text, it was from a box Eunhyuk had found. Donghae refused to tell them what it was about, only telling them that it was something personal. Sungmin then told them that he had received a text too and thought that Heechul was alive and back in the town since the text mentioned something only Heechul and Sungmin knew.

“Who is he?” Ryeowook questioned curiously. “At first I thought it was Heechul too… But now...”

“Is it even a he?” Sungmin raised his brows, shaking his head. “It could be a she for all we know.”

“H stands for a he or a him.” Donghae offered thoughtfully and then frowned, realizing something. “Right… H stand for Her too.”

“H stands for Heechul too.” Ryeowook added, “But it can’t … Be… Him. Right?”

Donghae who was leaning against a wall shook his head, walking towards Sungmin’s room window and looking outside of it. He rubbed his neck, the events of the day finally taking a toll on his exhausted body. He held his breath thinking of the body bag being pushed from behind Eunhyuk’s house and how… Under that bag was Heechul’s dead body.

“Who would do such a thing?” Donghae asked, voice breaking. “Why would someone do such a thing?”

When Sungmin and Ryeowook never answered, both of them not having any answer to Donghae’s question, Donghae spun around, tears gathered in his eyes. “Why Heechul?”

“You know what hurts the most?” Sungmin chuckled bitterly, shaking his head. “It’s that we were all there with him the night he disappeared. If we were just one step faster, if we just one step ahead, this wouldn’t have happened.”

The room fell silent as the three boys stared emptily, still grief-stricken over what just happened. How was one supposed to feel exactly knowing that their missing friend was dead all this time? For Donghae, when Eunhyuk said that they found Heechul, Donghae knew that Heechul would be back and he almost jumped in glee. But his hope was completely shattered into a million pieces finding out that it was Heechul’s body and that Heechul was dead.

“When will we get to know more about what happened to him?” Ryeowook asked.

“They’re bringing his body in for autopsy and the Kim’s family are coming back next week to have a proper funeral for Heechul.” Donghae told the both of them, repeating exactly what he had overheard the police telling his mother.

A phone beep suddenly startling all of them and both Sungmin and Donghae spun to look at Ryeowook since the sound probably came from his phone. They watched as Ryeowook pulled out his phone and waited while holding their breath for Ryeowook to read it and check to see if it was from the person who they had in mind but Ryeowook shook his head.

“It’s from my dad,” Ryeowook told them, relieved. “I should get going, it’s getting late.”

Sungmin nodded in understanding. “It’s good to see you again, Ryeowook.”

Ryeowook smiled kindly and picked up his jacket, putting it on while Donghae did the same. “So… About this H person…. What are we going to do about him? Or her? Or … it?”

“We just ignore it.” Sungmin confidently stated. “I mean… I guess there’s nothing we can do about it. Maybe this H person just wants to mess with us and will leave us alone if we don’t bother about it.”

“So you’re just saying that we just live our normal lives and pretend there’s no one sending us y messages and scaring the hell out of us?” Donghae summarized, forehead furrowing. “Is that a good idea?”

“It’s the only idea we have right now,” Ryeowook offered quietly. “Sungmin’s right I guess, we should probably ignore whoever this person is.”

Donghae reluctantly nodded, still having loads to talk about regarding the mysterious H but it was getting late and they had to leave. Maybe, they could get together some other time and discuss it further. But it looked like… It seemed awkward now that the three of them were back together. It was like every one of them had their own lives and from how it looked like, it seemed Sungmin couldn’t be bothered with H and Ryeowook just wanted to let it go. Donghae sighed.

Donghae and Ryeowook left Sungmin’s house and Ryeowook bided Donghae goodbye and walked the other way back to his house. Donghae rubbed his hands together and shoved them in his pocket, shivering slightly from the cold night air. He began walking down the streets back to his place, his mind filled with questions and guesses over who H could be. He was mentally listing out every possible person with the initial letter H out until his eyes spotted someone sitting on his house porch as he got closer.

“Eunhyuk?”

Eunhyuk was cuddled under a blanket but the poor guy was shivering and his lips were turning pale. He grinned goofily when he spotted Donghae and Donghae swallowed. He didn’t know why but… There was something about that goofy smile that felt like it could light up his whole world. Donghae shook his head thinking that the only reason he was thinking this way was because of what happened earlier and that he needed a genuine smile like that to get through this dark time.

“What are you doing out here?” Donghae questioned, approaching closer to Eunhyuk. “It’s cold out here!”

“I was waiting for you, your mum said that you were out.” Eunhyuk explained and then gestured to the blanket. “I didn’t want to bother her and so I told her that I’d just wait out here. She gave me this, afraid that I’d freeze myself to death. She’s so nice.”

“Ah, you should have called me.”

“But I don’t have your number.”

Donghae’s eyes twinkled, “I guess we’ll have to change that.”

Donghae took out his phone handing it out to Eunhyuk for his number and he studied the boy as his cheeks turned slightly pink. That’s weird… Donghae felt like his own cheeks were flushing too and he quickly told himself that it was only the cold weather and exhaustion getting to his body. Once Eunhyuk was done, Donghae gave him a quick call and when Eunhyuk’s phone rang and his number appeared on the I.D caller, Donghae ended the call, lips lifted in a lopsided grin. There was just something about knowing that his new neighbour now had his numb