v.

“Look,” Donghae grits through his teeth, “we can’t just add that many analyses into the paper. It’ll look like we couldn’t make our minds up and just pick one. And anyway we don’t have enough time for that.”

His argument is met with a stubborn scowl. “If we would just—”

“Hyukjae.” Donghae frowns sternly at him, earning an unhappy huff in return. He finds it mildly amusing—and rather exasperating, too—that Hyukjae still wouldn’t shut up about this, even though they already had so many similar arguments and he lost every single one of them. Hyukjae never seems to give up on anything—and to be perfectly honest, Donghae can’t help but secretly approve. He’s always found it attractive when people showed that they knew what they wanted.

Not that he thinks Hyukjae is attractive or anything. Obviously.

“I’m serious, we can’t,” Donghae insists firmly. Hyukjae might be stubborn, but he is, too. “Alright? I know you want to do your best and everything, but that’s just not possible. The deadline is coming up; we should focus on what we already have and move on.”

Petulantly, Hyukjae slumps down in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. “Well, I think that we’d be able to make it, if only we tried a little harder. It’s not that much more work, you know?”

Donghae rolls his eyes. “It is that much more work if you want to analyze every region in Korea.” He shifts a little in his armchair to get more comfortable. They decided to meet up in the patio again, and despite the many protests that Hyukjae makes every time, he suspects that he’s started to enjoy this place as well. “That’s just impossible with our resources and the little time that we have left, and you know it.”

Hyukjae continues to sulk, muttering under his breath about ‘lazy’ and ‘ugh’ and ‘you’re so annoying’. Donghae heartily shares that last sentiment. He rolls his eyes again, but this time it’s more out of habit rather than actual irritation.

Ever since he promised himself that he’d behave, Donghae has made considerable efforts to stop resenting Hyukjae so much for his odd antics and for basically every little thing that they somehow manage to disagree about on a daily basis. And trust him, there’s a lot. He doesn’t think that he’s ever bickered that much with a single individual in his life, and he’s best friends with Heechul.

So, yeah. Hyukjae means a lot of work in general.

Donghae still thinks that he must be worth the trouble, and so he tries his best. It took him a few tries, between his genuine hope to become friends and his urge to strangle him on a daily basis, but he’s finally started to learn and appreciate Hyukjae for who he is. That must be worth at least something. Not acting like an anymore also means that their study sessions are a lot more bearable. In fact, it’s almost fun to verbally spar with Hyukjae—well, at least when he remembers to make his jibes only mildly insulting. Donghae does wish that they wouldn’t argue so much all the time, but he figures that it’s only wishful thinking when it comes to someone as opinionated and perfectionist as Hyukjae.

At least it never gets boring.  

“Ugh,” Hyukjae continues to complain dramatically. “Of course I had to be partnered up with a lazy scobberlotcher like him.”

Donghae only snorts in his response. Hyukjae’s insults can be pretty entertaining, that’s for sure. He glances up from his laptop and finds Hyukjae glaring darkly at his shoes, as if expecting them to somehow sympathize with his chagrin. An amused smile tugs at the corners of his mouth, and Donghae hastily hides it by looking down at his screen.

him, but he might actually be enjoying Hyukjae’s company. It really does pay to stop acting like an all the time, he reflects sheepishly. Hyukjae is still difficult and prickly and a challenge—and a thousand other things as well, he suspects—, but now that Donghae knows that he doesn’t act this way just to spite him, he doesn’t mind quite so much. In fact, he finds it rather fun—sometimes almost endearing.

And isn’t that a strange thought?

Donghae frowns down at his laptop, wondering where that came from exactly. Shaking his head bemusedly, he tries to focus and writes a few more sentences to his analysis. In front of him, Hyukjae is still sulking, although he’s opened his laptop as well and seems to be checking through his sections of the thesis.

As Donghae finishes another paragraph, someone pats him on the shoulder. He looks up and sees Kyuhyun dropping down in the empty seat next to him.

“Argh,” Kyuhyun groans.

“Hello to you too,” Donghae laughs at him. “Long day?”

Kyuhyun shakes his head wearily. “Horrible day. Every year I tell myself I’ll be fine for exams, and every year I prove myself wrong.” He sighs. Then he seems to notice Hyukjae sitting in front of them; he nods at him and smiles easily, “hi.”

“Hmm, hello,” Hyukjae replies distractedly. He barely looks up from his laptop.

Kyuhyun snorts and ducks his head down to hide an amused smile—quite a lot like Donghae did just a few minutes earlier.

For some reason, the similarity in their reactions to Hyukjae’s prickliness makes Donghae feel irrationally annoyed. He scowls. Inside his belly, the irate beast wakes up once again, growling and snarling and pacing around in agitation. It rumbles warningly at the way that Kyuhyun looks at Hyukjae with amused eyes.

But that’s stupid, Donghae thinks panickedly. Kyuhyun is his best friend.

It doesn’t make any sense.

The beast gnaws its sharp teeth along Donghae’s insides, and for a short moment, he worries that he’s going to be sick. He briefly rests a hand over his stomach. Maybe he ate something for lunch that he shouldn’t have, he thinks without much conviction.

Later, Donghae will take the time to try and understand exactly what this turmoil of hostility towards his own best friend means. For now, though, he can only settle on glaring suspiciously at Kyuhyun and Hyukjae.

Apparently unaware of Donghae’s urge for violence, Kyuhyun leans over his shoulder to peer at his laptop screen. “Mini-thesis?” he guesses knowingly. Quickly skimming through Donghae’s notes, he grimaces in sympathy. “Good luck with that, guys. Changmin and I are also working on it and it’s driving us literally crazy.”

“It’s, uh, fine.” Trying to convince himself that it wouldn’t do to harm his best friend, Donghae shrugs awkwardly. “We’re still disagreeing on a couple of things, but it’s going alright.”

In front of them, Hyukjae releases a disbelieving scoff.

Donghae grins at him wryly. “Got something to say?” he challenges with a playful voice; Hyukjae shoots him a dark look but doesn’t say anything. “I thought so,” he says, although not unkindly.

It’s not often that Donghae gets to win not only one, but two arguments against Hyukjae, and in the same day no less. He can’t help but feel a bit smug about it.

That is, until Kyuhyun throws him a bewildered, questioning look. Confused, Donghae stiffens instinctively.

“Uh, what?” he mumbles uncomfortably. When Kyuhyun doesn’t immediately answer and continues to stare at him inquisitively, he fidgets awkwardly in his seat.

“Nothing,” Kyuhyun says finally after a while. His voice is low and prudent, as if Donghae was a dangerous, jittery beast that he didn’t want to tick off. He glances between Donghae and Hyukjae with raised eyebrows and a familiar air of ‘I know something that you don’t, but I won’t say because I’m incredibly annoying and I like to see you suffer’.

“Right,” Kyuhyun clears his throat, frowning pensively. “That’s, um.” For a second he looks at loss of words, as though he forgot what they were talking about in the first place. Donghae would relate, if he wasn’t suddenly feeling inexplicably nervous. “That’s great.”

This is a clear attempt at dismissing the topic altogether; Donghae won’t have any of it.

“What is it?” he demands to know. At the forceful sound of his voice, Hyukjae looks up from his laptop and watches them in interest, the nosy bastard. “Tell me.”

“It’s nothing,” his friend insists. Swatting Donghae’s hand away when he tries to reach out and pinch his ear, Kyuhyun sends another cautious glance towards Hyukjae. Donghae feels his bizarre nervousness climb up a few additional notches while the beast inside him grunts unhappily.

“Really,” Kyuhyun says. “I’ll tell you later, alright?” 

That’s a lie, and they both know it.

Donghae narrows his eyes suspiciously at Kyuhyun, trying to force him into talking with the sole power of his glare. When he’s only met with stubborn silence and a carefully blank expression, he reluctantly decides to drop it. Kyuhyun can be pretty pigheaded as well when he wants to, and Donghae would rather not bicker with him in front of an audience.

“Fine,” he grumbles. Childishly, he folds his arms over his chest—that is, until his laptop almost falls off his lap. “,” he curses under his breath just as he scrambles to catch it.

The corner of Kyuhyun’s mouth twitches slightly, as if he was trying to hold back a snicker. Donghae wants to hit him. Hyukjae, on the other hand, looks rather disappointed at the lack of action—was he expecting them to throw punches or something?—and reluctantly goes back to working.

“Anyway,” Kyuhyun says with a too-bright voice, clearly changing topics, “it’s Christmas break soon, you know.”

“Is it?” Donghae retorts dryly. And then, “wait, is it?”

Above his laptop, Hyukjae sends him a flat, unimpressed look.

Apparently sharing the same sentiment, Kyuhyun rolls his eyes. “Yeah, it is, idiot. In a couple of weeks, in fact.” Propping his elbow on his armrest, he rests his chin in his palm. “I think Sooyoung is having a party at her house; are you going?”

“Eh,” Donghae frowns, shrugging. “I don’t know yet; it depends when it is. I might have dinner with my mom and my brother on the 24th.”

Kyuhyun snorts as he slumps down into his seat, closing his eyes. Lazily, he comments, “I still think it’s funny that you pushed a Christmas tradition on your family when it’s actually a western thing. Most people just use that as an excuse to go party, you know.”

“Yeah, well, no one asked for your opinion,” Donghae retorts. So what, he’s always liked Christmas—is that a ing crime, now? “So you can kindly shut up.”

“Touchy.” Snickering, Kyuhyun opens one eye and turns towards Hyukjae. “What about you, Hyukjae?” he asks. “Anything planned for the vacations?”

Hyukjae blinks at them, then frowns. He tilts his head in thought, looking confused, as if not quite understanding why they could care. “Not really,” he replies slowly. Donghae feels his chest tighten just a bit at the uncertain look in his eyes, itching to reach out and reassure him that, yes, he does care. “I will probably stay at home and study a bit. I don’t really care much for Christmas.”

“Wait,” Donghae frowns, appalled. “Studying? For Christmas? That’s just—…” He stops himself before he can say out loud what he really thinks it is, which is ‘pathetic’. “I mean, uh. Surely you could take a break, no? Do something else?”

Not even bothering to look up from his laptop, Hyukjae dryly replies, “I believe we already had that conversation.”

Ah, right. Donghae winces in mortification. . Studying isn’t that much of a chore for Hyukjae; he’s made that pretty clear last time. “Uh, right.” He clears his throat awkwardly. “Then, I mean, uh. Maybe you could go to a party?”

Hyukjae releases a long, pained sigh. “Yes, of course, Donghae,” he says, with such a sweet tone that Donghae just knows that he’s somehow screwed up again, “and which party shall I go to, exactly? The one that I have yet to be invited to, or the imaginary one that Santa Claus will hold in the North Pole?”

He closes his laptop with a sharp move that startles Donghae, then reaches for a book in his backpack. “Now stop asking me these stupid questions; I am studying.”

Kyuhyun and Donghae share an uncomfortable look.

“Well, that’s awkward,” Kyuhyun mumbles under his breath, softly enough that Hyukjae doesn’t hear him.

Donghae only grimaces in response. Once again, he’s struck with his ability to put his foot in his mouth.

And yet, if he has to be perfectly honest, Donghae isn’t quite surprised with Hyukjae’s sarcastic words. Based on that same conversation that Hyukjae mentioned, he has a hunch that he doesn’t have that many friends. If he’s as lonely as Donghae suspects, then it probably explains why he enjoys people talking to him so much. That thought makes him fidget uncomfortably.

“Right,” Donghae clears his throat.

He tries hard to remember if he’s ever seen Hyukjae at one of the many university parties that he often attends, or if at least Hyukjae has already been invited to one. His mind comes up blank.

“Right.”

*

Donghae blinks in bemusement as his best friends stand in a stern half-circle in front of him. Kyuhyun and Siwon are staring at him with a serious, ‘we need to talk’ expression that’s mildly intimidating. Heechul, on the other hand, mostly looks uncomfortable and fidgety, which hints that feelings are probably going to be