4.DH Dog

Just when I thought he couldn´t smile anymore. When I pulled my hand back, I could still feel the softness of Eunhyuk´s raven hair. I completely forgot about the sensation. We used to be much closer three years ago, sleeping while embracing, holding hands, I even kissed his temple. That memory made me blush a little, until now I don´t know why I did that. But it felt right, it was a thanks. A very intimate thanks.

“Ew, you guys are still acting like a freaking couple, I thought you would grow out of that,” Kyuhyun interrupted the calm moment with the remark and a roll of his eyes. With that the noisiness of the market came barging into the muted sounds of my heartbeat. Eunhyuk thankfully didn´t react to the hunter anyhow, I had him tamed again.

“Let´s go,” Eunhyuk then said and turned around.

Kyuhyun and I walked behind him as he guided us through the tiniest and narrowest streets of the rich capital. The sun was setting and in the dark passageways wasn´t a single ray of daylight. Eunhyuk walked gracefully, as if it was bright and only wide grass under his feet. But suddenly he abruptly stopped. I looked around, was this the place? I noticed an old wooden sign above our heads, it read ´Shindong´s piglets´. I suddenly understood.

“Is this another Yesung´s franchise?” I asked Eunhyuk, who was already holding the heavy doorknob. He wasn´t hesitating this time.

“Yeah,” he smiled at me and opened the door.

“Eunhyukkie!” The familiar nickname from unfamiliar lips.

The owner of the shop that came running was a friendly looking guy. Plump and smiling from ear to ear, his eyes disappearing in wrinkles. He was honestly happy to see Eunhyuk and he enveloped him in a very tight hug. All Eunhyuk´s friends were very affectionate towards him, easily breaking that cold demeanour of his. It made me automatically smile.

“Alright, let me guess, I´ve heard some rumours,” Shindong let go of the poor morpheles and turned his attention to us. “You must be the snarky hunter,” he shook hands with Kyuhyun. “And you are surely Donghae, although you don´t seem as little as Eunhyuk said.”

“What I said you are supposed to keep for yourself,” Eunhyuk grumbled and refused to look me in the eye. “Anyway, are you going to let us upstairs or not?”

“Why so defensive?” Shindong wiggled his eyebrows at Hyuk. “But sure, let´s go, you must be tired.”

Shindong led us upstairs to something that certainly wasn´t just a room. It seemed like a suit room in those hotels I´ve heard about from travellers. The best wood, colourful carpets, potted plants. I remembered Leeteuk´s house, the mayor had a northern luxurious living. This place was a little different, warmer but not any less luxurious. As I and Kyuhyun were standing by the door impressed, Eunhyuk waltzed in and threw his leather coat over the couch.

“Give them the second bedroom, I can sleep here on the carpet,” Eunhyuk told Shindong.

“The guestroom is ready,” the smiley owner then turned to us and pulled us with him. “You can have a rest, I will call you for dinner.” It was usually hard to make me and the hunter silent, but right now neither of us knew what to say.

The room was amazing. Wide windows were letting through the last red sunrays, painting the beautiful room in orange hues. Furniture was from oak wood, wallpapers had pictures of herbs on them and there were two lamps on the two nightstands next to the bed. The bed was large, we could all comfortably sleep there in the light blue bedding. Kyuhyun took off his load and jumped into the bed, it was soft and it seemed like he would fall asleep. We had time, maybe I could give it twenty minutes too, but then I heard a hearty laugh. Hyuk´s laugh.

“It must have been embarrassing,” I heard him say, when I out of curiosity went to inspect the living room. “Be sure I will forward this story South.”

“Don´t you dare, you canine!” Shindong laughed and playfully kicked Eunhyuk´s thigh. The latter stopped laughing, squinting his nose, his eyes fell on me. He sniffed me out, that dog.

“I wondered what is so funny here,” I smiled and walked into the room.

“Funny is,” Shindong offered me a glass of juice before continuing, “how you can make this guy tense, our ice princess Eunhyukkie.”

“Shut up,” Hyuk barked and dipped his nose into his own glass. Tense? Is he uncomfortable with me? I thought I was the only one, he was acting cold toward me, after all.

“If there was Sungmin with us, you would really see him tense,” I teased. Remembering how long it took Eunhyuk to get over Sungmin´s smell.

“Ah, that´s right,” Eunhyuk put his glass down and turned to his friend. “Do you know about somebody that could join us? I would rather travel in a slightly bigger group.”

“Hm, let me see,” while Shindong was thinking, I looked at the guide. Eunhyuk didn´t mention to me that he wanted a four men group again. He didn´t share anything with me!

“Aren´t I the leader of the expedition?” I´ve had enough of this awkwardness. Eunhyuk was surprised. “You are supposed to talk these things with me, Hyuk. I´m not the beginner I used to be, now I understand and you have to tell me about all the plans you make and all the people you are planning to visit. Did you understand?”

“I understand” Eunhyuk easily answered. I didn´t expect him to react this way, he was sincere and serious. It was neither a joke nor lie, he gave in quickly, acting all professional.

“Good, thanks,” I smiled. I felt accomplished, three years ago it wasn´t this easy to take the initiative. I was the leader only by the name but this time I was going to lead the group for real! Eunhyuk didn´t have to bear the whole load of responsibility by himself anymore.

Not long after the conversation, we had a dinner. It turned out that the food was brought up from a tavern next to ´Shindong´s piglets´. It was very delicious, lots of meat, especially pork and everything fresh. Maybe the last real meal, we all dug into it hungrily. Eunhyuk didn´t even bother tasting anything else but the meat with the exception of the blueberry pie. I was in the best mood, now it felt like the beginning of the adventure.

After the dinner, I was still feeling blissful. Kyuhyun went to our shared room and the silver wolf was already asleep on the carpet in the living room. I went to wash myself in the bathroom and afterwards ended up looking out of the window into the warm summer night. Somebody knocked on the door, I went to open.

“Have you finished?” Shindong asked. I didn´t want to occupy the bathroom, I was apologising. “No, I just wanted to have a word with you.”

“Sure,” I gestured him to go somewhere else.

“Let´s stay here, Eunhyukkie could pick up if we talked anywhere closer to him,” he spoke in a quiet voice.

“Is something wrong?” My eyes widened, was there something I didn´t know?

“I believe this is all a misunderstanding, or else I wouldn´t have said anything. But you have to understand that I cherish that wolf a lot and I don´t tolerate when he´s not treated accordingly,” Shindong frowned and I understood that I was being scolded. “He never takes his clients into our houses, I mean his friends´ houses, for two reasons.”

“What reasons? Kangin said he doesn´t want bad people to come to his friends´ places,” I remembered what I´ve heard from this one guest house owner.

“That´s one reason but the other is something you probably don´t know about. Eunhyuk is a guide and he guides mostly merchants who treat him literally like a dog. He will do as told, he will bow and he will do his job perfectly but he will never feel happy. He comes here only as a person because he doesn´t want us to see him any other way than that, he doesn´t like us to see him treated like a dog.” Shindong told me and grabbed my shoulders.

“But Donghae, today you made him a dog.”

Hello from Taipei! I´m finally updating. The wifi isn´t really good here, though. Anyway, Donghae caused some troubles, let´s see if he can fix it. Thank you for reading and commenting and have a niceday! - PandaHero