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Eunhyuk sighed and rolled onto his other side.

Right after returning home from the shop he had fallen into his bed, exhausted and ready for two months of vacation. Donghae had left his apartment nearly three weeks ago and even though they had met a couple of times in the meantime: his home felt incredibly empty without Donghae's giggling echoing from the walls. The brunet hadn't even spent 24 hours there, but the short amount of time had made Eunhyuk realize one thing: being alone was awful when there was someone you wanted to spend your time with. And Donghae was that someone; the first someone he felt like grieving without.

He took a deep breath and was amazed by the fact that the shirt he had given Donghae to wear back then still smelled like him. Maybe it didn’t, at least not anymore, but he thought it did. And this made him feel closer to him than he had been throughout the last couple of weeks.

They usually saw each other at the shop; Eunhyuk didn’t visit the club anymore because Donghae was afraid that someone could notice that he wasn’t just a normal customer. Dates were difficult as well because of the same reason. Donghae didn’t say anything about it, but Eunhyuk could feel how the younger tensed up when they were surrounded by too many people and so he hadn't asked him out again. Now all that was left for him was to wait until Donghae showed up at his shop again. They had thirty minutes at a max then, only a bit of time before things got too suspicious. Eunhyuk knew that it most likely wouldn’t end nice for Donghae if someone found out that he was somewhat close to dating and that's why he accepted all those difficulties. Yet it wasn’t a nice feeling to hide whenever they were together and to have him constantly look over his shoulder, afraid to touch him.

It had been completely different in this apartment. They had been alone, no one was there to watch them. He had been able to be close to Donghae, there hadn't been the tiniest bit of fear. After calculating Eunhyuk had come to the conclusion that he could afford taking Donghae home once a month and he hoped that it wouldn’t catch too much unwanted attention this way. The month was almost over so he was looking forward to inviting him over soon.

The sudden ringing of the doorbell made Eunhyuk scowl. He was in no mood to talk to anyone, let alone see anyone. And so he didn’t move, in hopes that whoever this was would give up and leave. Sadly, it wasn’t like this. The occasional ringing quickly changed into an almost constant sound that blared through his apartment and made his head throb with annoyance. He groaned and swung his legs out of bed, stomped over to the door and yanked it open, ready to rip anyone into shreds who dared to be such a malicious pain in the neck.

"Dear lord, what took you so long?" were the words he was greeted with before a well-known figure pushed past him, high heels clicking on the wooden floor.

Eunhyuk needed a moment to register who had entered his apartment just like that and he couldn’t help staring dumbly into the now empty hallway in front of his door before he slowly turned around. With his he pushed the door shut and blinked his eyes a few times until he recognized the person in front of him. It obviously was a woman in noble clothes, but only as she took off her fluffy scarf he actually was certain.

"Noona?"

His sister grinned from one ear to the other, threw her scarf over the wardrobe next to her and spread her arms. "Come here, baby boy!"

Eunhyuk kept staring like his soul had left his body and so Sora walked up to him and pulled him into her arms, pressed herself against him like she wanted to crash him. "N-Noona", he gasped.

"Aww, you have grown so much! Look how tall you are!" She brought a bit of distance between them and grinned even more. "You're so handsome! My little brother is so handsome!" she exclaimed and hugged him even harder.

"Can't b-breathe! H-Help!"

She let go and held him close with her hands on his arms. "Ah, seriously. Do I have watch out now so that you won't steal my husband?" she asked and winked at him.

"…Do you really think that I'm so appealing that he changes his mind about men?"

"It wouldn’t be the first time that you do that, right?" she asked and laughed loudly, hitting his shoulder.

Eunhyuk hissed in pain and rubbed said spot. "What are you doing here?"

"Yah, what was that? We haven't seen each other for years and this is the way you greet me?!" Sora acted like she was shocked, but the smile on her lips told him otherwise. He couldn’t help but to chuckle.

"Okay, maybe I'm a bit surprised. I had no idea that we're in the same country."

"I know! That's the important thing about surprises!" she sang and took off her coat to also throw it over the wardrobe. Next followed her expensive shoes that she threw behind her without caring one bit to slip into a pair of way too huge slippers. She even took off her earrings and dropped them on the small table in the hallway, loosened her hair clips and let her hair fall over her shoulders. Eunhyuk knew that she would most likely also take off her make-up if he had something decent in his house to do exactly this.

"I see you visited our parents just now?" he asked and lifted an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes.

"Is it that obvious? Dear God… If I had to wear this stuff all day long I'd die…"

Without her high heels she was shorter than Eunhyuk and she took advantage of this fact in quickly wrapping her arms around him again and resting her cheek on his chest. "I missed you so much", she said happily as she hugged him so much gentler than before.

Eunhyuk slowly wrapped his arms around her as well and laughed because he had almost forgotten what kind of whirlwind his sister was. "I missed you too, noona."

They kept standing like this for a while before Eunhyuk felt something wet on his shin, followed by a low growl. He looked down and saw a little fluffy dog standing next to him, not big enough to be intimidating but still trying hard. The growling continued and Eunhyuk raised one eyebrow.

"Choco still doesn’t like me, I see…"

Sora snickered and picked up the little ball of fluff, not caring that her fur ruined her black dress. "She just doesn’t know you enough, don’t worry."

Choco snarled, but it sounded like a normal dog on helium so Eunhyuk couldn’t take her seriously. Sora put her back onto the floor and grabbed Eunhyuk's hands instead to pull him along. They stopped in the living room and was open in awe. "Wow, this apartment is really pretty!"

"Mom pays it."

The wonder fell from her face. "Well. Still beautiful."

She pulled him down to sit next to her on the sofa and grinned broadly. "Come on, tell me what happened in your life during the last three years! You never call me so I don't know anything!"

He chuckled just to sigh afterwards. "When I call you, you don’t stop talking for hours, noona."

"Yes, because I have many things to tell you! But you start first, so go on!"

"Um… So…" He unsurely looked at her and tried to remember all the things she didn’t know about yet. "I opened a small grocery shop not that long ago and… Until now everything goes very well. Ryeowook is my only employee but so far he didn’t set anything on fire so it's okay."

"Oh, this sounds nice! And Ryeowookie is your employee?" She laughed. "I should visit him too now that I'm here. Nobody cuts my hair better than he does… But I'm proud that everything seems to go well for you!" Sora kissed his cheek and made him blush.

"Noona…"

"There is still one important question that you have to answer though!" She scooted closer and wiggled with her eyebrows. "Do you have a boyfriend, hm?"

Eunhyuk blushed even more and tried to hide this with slightly turning away from her. "Not boyfriend, but… Um…"

"You're turning red! So there is someone?!" she wanted to know and nudged his side with her elbow multiple times.

He laughed awkwardly and shook his head before nodding. A nervous hand ran over the side of his neck. "Y-Yeah, kinda? I don't know how to call it yet…"

"Oho! What's his name?"

"W-Well… It's Donghae…"

"How does he look like?"

"He's really handsome and… a bit shorter than me. And… He has a really pretty smile…" Eunhyuk's voice got lower with every word he spoke.

"How did you meet?"

"He just walked into my store one day…" he nearly whispered.

Sora squealed and hugged him once again. "Aww, you're so cute! I definitely want to see him before I have to leave again!"

Those words brought Eunhyuk back to the real world and he turned back to face her. "But you just arrived, why do you want to leave again?"

His sister sighed and let go of him. "I don’t have much time… You know that I run my own business in New Zealand and I have to go back soon. I still have some days left, but my real reason to be here is our mother's birthday next week."

It was amazing how quickly Eunhyuk could build up walls around him. "I won't come."

"She turns fifty."

"So what?"

"Hyukjae, there will be a big celebration and we both know