IX

"What does this line say?"

"Um…"

Donghae straightened his back before he slightly leaned forward, over the textbook that still lay in front of him. They both couldn’t remember when they had started with their exercises but it felt like it had been hours ago. Eunhyuk already started feeling tired and he noticed that Donghae wasn’t doing any better. The younger rubbed his eyes and then narrowed them slightly, like he couldn’t see the letters well.

"Is everything alright?" Eunhyuk asked carefully, just to make sure.

He looked up, his lips stretching a tiny bit. "Hm… Yes. It's just… My head hurts a bit."

"Do you have trouble seeing what's written in the books? The letters, I mean?"

Donghae nodded hesitantly. "It's funny because… I can't see them clearly when they're too far away…"

A sheepish smile found to Eunhyuk's lips. "Looks like you need glasses. Shall we go to the optician later on?"

Surprise was painted all over Donghae's face. "Glasses? M-Me?"

Eunhyuk nodded and laughed right afterwards. "Don't make such a face. It doesn't hurt – and I think glasses will really suit you."

He saw a soft hue of pink flashing over Donghae's cheeks. "Do you think so…?"

A low hum rumbled in Eunhyuk's throat. "I'm sure you'll look adorable with glasses."

The pink hue turned darker and Donghae bowed his head slightly, making Eunhyuk chuckle. "Thank you…"

Without having the might to do anything against it, Eunhyuk watched the younger for a while; how his cheeks stayed reddish because of his words and how he still tried to hide it. For a moment he wondered if the countless compliments that Donghae had surely heard in his life had ever left an impression on the brunet. Eunhyuk liked to think that this was the first time that Donghae reacted like this… It was a nice thing to imagine.

"If your head's aching we should make a break", he offered and leaned back on his chair, his eyes never leaving the other. "You can take a shower if you want, we could go out and walk around… The weather is nice. It would be a shame if we spent the whole day inside, don’t you think?"

Donghae his lips and unsurely looked from the books to Eunhyuk and back. "But… the books?"

"We can continue some other time. You can't learn everything on just one day, Donghae."

It took him a short while but then a grin found to the brunet's lips. "Okay, Hyukkie!"

While Eunhyuk was still kind of overwhelmed that Donghae had used his pet name once again, the younger already pushed his chair back and disappeared in the hallway, as the bouncing ball of sunshine that he was.        
As the low clicking of the bathroom door echoed through the now silent apartment, Eunhyuk lowered his gaze onto the papers that covered every centimeter of his kitchen table. He pulled some of them close and chuckled at the sight of Donghae's childish handwriting, yet was filled with pride because the other was doing so well. Eunhyuk was convinced that someday Donghae would be able to read and write without any problems if he kept up the good work. He wasn’t worried about this, not at all.

He got up and closed the books, piled up all the loose papers to put them away. Eunhyuk wanted to store them somewhere together with the books so that they could pull them out for their next teaching session. Without searching for it, the paper with the strange letters caught his attention and made him still in his movements just again. He couldn’t help it; those lines looked way too skilled for just being fictional. Maybe he just didn’t know enough languages, he had never cared that much after all. And maybe he should do some research later on, just to make sure that he wasn’t imaging stuff. Donghae's past still kept him thinking at night and he wondered about so many things when it came to the brunet. What if he suffered from some kind of memory loss? He just wanted to help.

Eunhyuk was still holding the single page in his hand and stared at the few letters that were written at the bottom of it. He slightly turned at the sound of running water from the bathroom and thanks to this movement the sunlight falling through the windows also fell on the piece of paper. It got nearly transparent and Eunhyuk's eyes widened as he noticed something. Quickly he turned it around and it was hard for him to keep his heartbeat at bay.

The whole page was covered with the symbols.  
Donghae had written a whole story on the backside, neatly and small enough to give the page twice as many lines as originally intended. Eunhyuk couldn’t tell if it was shock that made his hands shake suddenly; he hoped it was just surprise. He hadn't expected this. At all. It was impossible to write this much without knowing what it meant, right? Donghae had to know what all of this meant and he really felt like going to him and ask him about it.

Another thought crossed his mind: what if Donghae was lying to him? What if he knew exactly where he was coming from and what made those letters so bizarre? What if he had known how to write and read all the way and just pretended to not know anything for whatever reason? He knew how to play the piano without ever touching one, he knew this weird language… The mystery about him – was it just one big lie?

"Hyukkie…?"

Eunhyuk flinched so hard that he painfully hit his knee against the table. "Y-Yes?"

"Can you… come here for a second?"

He didn’t know why, but he felt incredibly bad for assuming something like this. Donghae was too innocent and sincere to lie to him. Eunhyuk was still determined to find out more about him, but in that moment he just wanted to get to him as fast as possible because Donghae sounded like he needed help. And so he pushed the door of the bathroom open, was welcomed by wet air, heat – and the sight of a completely Donghae.

Eunhyuk shrieked and brought both of his hands up to his face, hid his eyes and clamped them shut on top of it, desperately trying to erase the memory that had just burned itself into his brain. It was a helpless attempt, he already knew that.

"… Hyukkie?"

"Could you p-please t-t-take a t-towel t-to um… So y-you c-can-"

"You didn’t give me one."

Well, .

"The c-cupboard o-over there", Eunhyuk stuttered and blindly pointed into the direction he assumed said cupboard to be. He heard a few steps, rustling and giggling.

"Why are you covering your eyes, Hyukkie? Haven't you seen a man before?"

This certainly was not the right moment to admit that Eunhyuk indeed didn’t have much experience with people whatsoever.

"I j-just… wasn't prepared. Could you p-please wrap it around your waist when you're done toweling yourself down?"

He heard a hum and some more rustling. "Done!"

Carefully, Eunhyuk opened his eyes and peeked between the fingers of his right hand that was still pressed against his face. He saw a white towel that was messily wrapped around Donghae's hips; it hid the important parts however so letting his hand down appeared safe.

"Thank you", he said and heaved a sigh. "So um… Why did you call me?"

The cheerful expression fell from Donghae's face and he looked rather shy all of a sudden. "Well, I…" He looked over his shoulder and into the shower. "The bottle of shampoo fell out of my hands and it… Most of it ran out of the bottle and… It's gone now." He turned back around to face him and closed his eyes, looking all tense. "I'm really sorry, Hyukkie. Please don’t be mad at me!"

Eunhyuk blinked his eyes in confusion. "Eh? But that's nothing. Why should I be mad?"

"Because the bottle is empty and I wasn’t allowed to do that!" Donghae exclaimed, his eyes still tightly shut.

"Donghae, why should I care about this bottle of shampoo? Everything's alright, you don't have to apologize. And please stop worrying that I could be mad at you because I'm not."

The other hesitantly looked at him. "You're not mad?" he asked carefully.

Eunhyuk shook his head. "I'm not mad at you", he said and sent him a smile to prove his point. Donghae looked highly confused.

"Is there… anything else that you want me to do to make it up?"

"No", Eunhyuk chuckled. "Trust me, it's totally fine."

"But you let me sleep at your place and… taught me stuff all day long… You are very nice to me and I never gave you something back."

"So what? Seeing you smile makes me happy enough. You don't have to do anything."

Donghae didn’t look convinced, dropped his gaze to the floor. "But… This doesn’t feel right…"

His eyes kept travelling over the floor until he found the courage to look back up again. Eunhyuk could literally see that there was something going on in his head and as the younger walked up to him, he was in no way capable to stop him from what he was about to do. Donghae's hands landed on Eunhyuk's hips and before he had the chance to get to know what was going on, he already felt the brunet's lips brushing over the side of his neck.

He was so shocked that he couldn’t move and parts of his body turned numb as the first kiss landed on his skin. Donghae pushed him back slightly until his backside collided with the sink behind him, kept kissing and his neck. Eunhyuk opened his mouth to say something, but in that moment the other's hand landed on his crotch. And it didn’t just rest there, no it started massaging him through his jeans in such a skilled way that it was hard for Eunhyuk to find back to his senses. He did, however, as Donghae's fingertips disappeared behind the hem of his underwear.

"Stop that!"

Eunhyuk shoved him away, panting slightly from his sudden outburst. With trembling fingers he pulled his pants back up and checked if they were still zipped. Only then he looked up to Donghae, just to see that his face was covered with incomprehension.

"W-What…?" the brunet asked under his breath and seriously looked like he was about to cry. "Did I… do something wrong? I just wanted to thank you-"

"I already t-told you that you shouldn’t do this", Eunhyuk said and it was hard to keep himself from stuttering. "Please don't touch me like this… It's… not what I want."

Now Donghae looked like his whole world was falling apart. "But… normally people like it. They pay me to do it. I thought that if I do it for free… you'd know how thankful I am."

Eunhyuk bit his tongue. He knew that this was most likely the only way to say 'thank you' that Donghae knew. He didn’t know it any other way because he had been raised in a wrong world. Eunhyuk knew this and he also knew that he shouldn’t be mad at him because Donghae had tried to do him a favor. He actually wasn't even mad; he was just shocked and needed a moment to calm down.

Taking a deep breath, he ran a hand through his hair and kept his eyes shut to collect his thoughts. "Listen", he started and looked at him, trying hard not feel even more guilty as he saw the confused and hurt expression on the other's face. "If you want to thank me, then just say 'thank you', okay? Or… Or give me a hug. People normally thank each other like this. There is no need for you to kiss me or undress me… People only do this when they… well, when they get intimate with each other. And usually they don't do this just because they're thankful."

There was a moment of silence until Donghae's face lightened up. "You want me to hug you?"

And once again Eunhyuk was flustered. "I um, I… I didn’t say that you have to hug me. It was just an idea s-so you know how you can thank me without… making me feel uncomfortable? If you don’t want to hug me then that's alright, really. Just say that you're thankful and I know what's going on… Or- Or don’t say anything at all, I'm sure I can see it in your eyes-"

His flood of words suddenly found to an end as Donghae wrapped his arms around him and pressed their bodies together. The younger rested his head on his shoulder and Eunhyuk could hear him giggle; a sound that immediately made his heart melt. He carefully wrapped his arms around him as well, felt his wet skin under his fingertips and had to remind himself to forget that Donghae wasn’t wearing anything except for a towel around his waist. And this was hard enough.

"I really like you, Hyukkie", Donghae said and made the other's heart race so much that Eunhyuk was sure he could hear it. "Thank you for being so nice to me."

"Y-You're welcome…"

They kept standing like that for a while and well, Eunhyuk couldn’t deny that he liked the other's presence. He even shut his eyes after some time and appreciated the way Donghae's damp hair tickled his chin now and then. The other's thumbs brushed over his sides and Eunhyuk wasn’t even aware of the fact that he pressed a tender peck against the brunet's t