double update incoming!

A wedding invitation came to his apartment after that.

It’s a week after his talk with Siwon, which they ended up spending the night together with a late dinner and the older man told him that their underclassman, Ryeowook, is going to get married soon. Donghae doesn’t believe it at first, since from all he remembered, Ryeowook isn’t a type who’s going to marry any soon unlike Sungmin, who’s already a husband by heart and all.

But now he can’t help to believe it by the proof already in his hand, right after he returns home after work.

Time sure flies, huh. Donghae thought as he quickly reads the invitation while he found himself sitting on the couch as he re-read it several times, making sure it’s real and not a scam.

It really is a wedding invitation.

Sighing, he reflexively unties his tie while he takes off his suit, feels stuffed all of sudden, before throwing it to the nearest area and fishing his phone out of his pocket, calling Hyukjae since he must be receiving one too and he must be still in his studio that he hasn’t reacted to it.

“Hello?”

By the tone of his voice, Hyukjae sounds like he still doesn’t know yet like he’s predicted. “Hey, Hyukjae, have you heard?” Hyukjae mouths what is in return. “Ryeowook’s getting married.”

It was a pure silence for a few second before Hyukjae reacts with a loud “HUH???”, which Donghae reflexively puts his phone away for the sake of his healthy ears. “He is??? How come I don’t know that???”

“Well, check your mailbox when you’re home, probably there’s one for you too.” Amused, Donghae lightly smiles as he asks, “Wanna go together?”

“Sure—wait, wait, when’s the wedding anyway?”

“It’s—” Donghae flips the pages of the invitation, looking for the exact date of the wedding. Ah, there is it. “It’s on the next Friday. Do you have schedule on that day?”

“Hm… let me see my schedule first.” It went silent for a while, by Donghae sometimes heard some screen-tapping in their call, seems like Hyukjae saving his schedule in his phone. “Is the wedding in the morning?” Donghae replies it is in return. “I do have one, but I’ll try to negotiate with Boss later.”

Donghae beams, “Then tell me when you got the permission so I can pick you up, okay?”

“Sure! I’ll tell you when it comes.” But soon Hyukjae stops, sounds hesitant for a few seconds before he asks, “Hey, are you busy tomorrow?”

“Not really, probably only working like usual, why?”

“Did you remember the group I talk about?” Donghae hums in reply. “They’re practicing right now. Wanna come?”

Hmm.

Should he?

He looks up to the nearest clock on the wall, checking the time. It’s almost nine at night. He needs to get up in seven in order to go to work at nine. The studio Hyukjae working at is actually only takes ten minutes from his place, while it usually takes twenty five minutes for Donghae to go to the older man’s house.

And it’s rare for Hyukjae to ask him to go to his workplace, so…

“Did you have dinner yet?” Donghae asks as he gets up the sofa and walks to his closet, looking for more comfy clothes as he puts the call to speaker, so he can change. He heard Hyukjae mouthed a weak no in return. “Do you want me to bring you some foods on the way?”

“God, I love you so much.” It was the sincerest he has ever heard from Hyukjae—Donghae couldn’t help but feels his cheeks become warmer. “Can you bring chickens for the kids, too?”

Donghae clears his throat, lightly fanning his heated body as he finally finished changes to more comfortable clothes. “Sure. The usual?” Hyukjae replies with yes please do and Donghae can imagine how happy he must be right now. “I’ll be there around thirty minutes, then.”

Hyukjae beams in reply, “Yeah, see you later!”

Hyukjae send the studio number he’s using at the moment after Donghae is done buying the dinner for him.

It only takes five minutes for Donghae to reach the studio while he spent almost twenty minutes for the chicken. He’s actually contemplating to buy the beers, but soon realizes that he shouldn’t buy alcohol for the sake of the new boy group so he ended up only buying colas and ciders.

(Too bad he can’t, though.)

After he’s arriving the studio, he immediately enters the studio, only to be greeted by Seulgi who’s on duty today. Although their meetings are able to be counted by fingers, Seulgi seems immediately knew who Donghae’s coming for as she reflexively asks, “Did Hyukjae-sunbaenim told you the number of the studio?”

“He did, but—”

Seulgi cuts him off with a smile as she beams, “Tell me the number and I’ll show you the way, then.”

So Donghae did and Seulgi shown him the way as she promised.

It doesn’t take long to reach Hyukjae’s studio as Seulgi excuses herself, leaving Donghae alone in the front of the door. Donghae sighs before he slightly peeks behind the glass door, trying to sneak a peek on how Hyukjae’s attitude at work since the only time he’s ever been in this studio are when he picked the older man to have dinner or to send him home because he’s too tired to drive—Hyukjae mostly ended up crashing at Donghae’s place since it’s closer, though.

Only to be covered by a pair of single-lidded eyes he knew by heart, staring him rather incredulous.

“You startled me!” Donghae backs away in surprise while Hyukjae opens the door, sighing in disbelief as he’s eyeing the younger man from the top to the bottom. “What’s with you?!”

“You…” Sighing, Hyukjae stretches his hands to reach the plastic bags of chicken as he responds, “I can see you from the inside, you know.”

Donghae frowns, slightly offended by being told of something he already knew. “I know. It’s a glass door.”

“Then why don’t you just get in instead of standing like an idiot?” Hyukjae grumbles before he snatches the plastic bags away from Donghae and turns back to enters the studio. “Seriously…”

Donghae lightly pouts but his feet follow Hyukjae in. “Well, I just wanna see how you work so…”

“You don’t have to do that to see me working, you know.” Laughing, Hyukjae slightly turn his back to pats Donghae’s head before he smiles, “I’ll show you later.”

Donghae’s still pouts but he nods anyway.

“Guys, let’s take a break first!” Sounds of clapping echoes the studio comes from Hyukjae which stops everything the kids doing at the moment. “I got chickens for us!”

The room suddenly went noisy by them surrounding Hyukjae like chicks meeting their mom, chirping god, teacher you’re a life saver! while helping him to unpack the chicken on the floor, not noticing Donghae’s presence in the studio. Hyukjae soon notices however, as he silently waves his hand, asking Donghae to join them.

But being asked to jumped into crowds full of boys—Donghae counted them before by eyes and it was nine members—is a bit…

Before Donghae even have time to react, Hyukjae suddenly says, “It’s sudden, but I brought my friend here. Let me introduce him to you guys before you eat.” while he waves his hand to Donghae for one more time, firmly asks him to join them again. “Come here.” So Donghae did, although he steps closer in hesitation. “His name is Lee Donghae, and he used to be in the same dance club as I am when I was in college. He’s—or was he? He was a pretty good dancer back then.”

“Hey!” Donghae is a little bit offended.

“But anyway!” Hyukjae ignores him. “He’s only gonna observes you guys tonight so don’t be nervous and just practicing as usual, okay?” The members nod in understanding in return. “Oh, right, he’s the one who bought the chickens so thank him properly, okay?” As soon as Hyukjae said so, the boys bow in rhymes while loudly thanking Donghae in return. Donghae’s heart skimped a little bit while Hyukjae only laughs as he adds, “But don’t scare him either.”

The kids follow Hyukjae’s laugh after.

It went noisy after that, by the kids literally stuffing themselves by the chickens Donghae bought—he’s relieved that he bought enough for them—while Hyukjae slightly pulls himself from the crowds, leaning on the mirror in the practice room while sits beside Donghae, quietly eats his late dinner as his eyes still lingers on the kids.

His stare is really gentle.

Donghae doesn’t say anything as he observes all over the room, lightly smile as he suddenly reminisces about his college past, when Hyukjae and he often runs to the club as soon as their class finished, letting out their stress by their bodies.

At first Hyukjae was the one who insisted him to join with him, being a shy freshman and Donghae was the only one present at that time—Siwon already fled to join another club, probably volunteer-related like usual. Donghae was about to join the soccer club back then, only to be begged by Hyukjae’s desperate pleas (please join this with me, I know you like to dance too, Donghae you don’t wanna be on the same club as I am?, it’ll be a good workout too!, please please pretty please Donghae?) for a week straight, which he ended up surrendered because he got enough of it.

It’s not like he doesn’t like dance either, so why not?

Hyukjae was really not one of the reasons why he joined, that’s what Donghae is sure of.

(He was.)

“It reminds me of our college days.” Hyukjae suddenly speaks up, mouth full of chicken indistinguishable parts which makes him sounds muffled. “When we taught our freshmen as we became seniors.” Donghae almost chocked in response. “Why, why? What’s wrong?”

“No—” Hyukjae offers him a drink but carbonated drinks aren’t an option when someone is chocked like he is right now. “Wait, wait—” Donghae tries to control his breathing, calming himself down while Hyukjae worriedly patting his back. It takes a few minutes before Donghae finally cough, rather in embarrassment as he says, “Sorry.”

Hyukjae clearly still looks worried. “You okay?”

“Yeah—yeah, yeah, yeah, I am.” God, that was really embarrassing. “I was kinda surprised because we thought of the same thing.” Hyukjae hums but his mouth doesn’t stop chewing, hands still patting Donghae’s back. “God, I’m sorry, I’m so embarrassing.”

Hyukjae shows a swallow motion, emptying the cave of his mouth and soon chuckling, now patting Donghae’s head instead while shows his gummy smile before says, “Yeah, you are.” Donghae grumbles in return. “That was funny, though.”

Donghae sighs, “I hate you.”

“Yeah, I love you too.” Hyukjae’s hand stop patting Donghae, finding his chopsticks and back to eat his remaining chickens. “But anyway,” He turns his head to Donghae as he asks, “About Ryeowook… I asked Boss and he said I can take a day off at that day.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll pick you up early then.” The wedding reception take place is on the same way as the way to Hyukjae’s house after all. “Do you still have the suit?”

Hyukjae blinks, suddenly looks like it flits on his mind and it takes a few moments for him to pause and pondering before he answers, “I… don’t know. Where did I put it again?” Soon he frowns, trying to remembers where the last time was he put his suit in his own house. “Huh? Wait… where is it again?”

“Or is it on your parents’ house?” Donghae tries to help him remember the place. The closest wedding they had attended was Hyukjae’s sister’s which is almost a year ago. “You know, your sister’s wedding?”

“Ah! That’s possible too!” Hyukjae’s eyes enlighten, which is very bright in Donghae’s eyes and he can’t help but got him swooned all over again. “I’ll ask my parents later, then.” He sighs, however, as he asks, rather hesitant, “Do you… have any plan on the days after that?”

Donghae can’t help but wondering anything but innocent thoughts as he asks, “No… why?”

“I actually have a shoot around Dongdaemun on Sunday for a collaboration with two of the kids here for their debut teaser, wanna come?”

Sometimes Donghae wants to punch himself for stupidly making his own assumptions over unrelated things. “Is an outsider even allowed to come?” which Hyukjae seems too innocent to do things he thought he would be by only nodding and murmurs it’s okay it’s okay. Alright, he really wants to punch himself out of his embarrassment now. “What time the shoot will starts, though?”

Hyukjae tiling his head, pondering for a while before he replies, “The schedule says around noon, I think.” Before he leans closer and adds, rather quiet, “… will you come?”

“… and do you have any schedule after that?” Hyukjae gently shakes his head. “Let’s have dinner after that, then?”

Which soon it makes Hyukjae’s orbs sparkling in delight and rapidly nods, “Sure, sure! Let’s!”

“Alright, alright.” Donghae chuckles in reply while patting the older man’s head. “I’ll let you know when I’m on the way.”

“Have I ever told you I love you so much?”

“Well, yes, plenty, actually,” but soon he looks around, making sure everyone minding their own business, before he asks quietly, “Can I kiss you?”

Hyukjae answers him with a quick peck on Donghae’s lips in return.

Ten minutes later, Hyukjae calls out the boys to continue the practice after cleaning up. Donghae soon follows while he sits on the nearest chair, observing them especially Hyukjae.

Which soon he remembers that it’s been a long time since he saw Hyukjae dance, by the latter demonstrates the moves with the music, the gazes he had suddenly changed rather solemn while occasionally correcting the kids when they got the moves wrong.

Yeah.

Hyukjae is really shines his brightest when he dances.