viii.

Donghae grunts irritably when Siwon tries once again to peek at his phone over his shoulder. Shrugging him off, he throws his friend a dark glare that’s only met with laughter.

“You’re so annoying,” he complains. Siwon pokes him in the ribs and he squirms away with a yelp. “Leave me alone, for ’s sake. What’s your damn problem anyway?”

“I’m just curious,” Siwon insists as he holds his hands up innocently.

Until he abruptly lunges forward and tries to snatch his phone. Donghae dodges by rolling onto his side, swearing loudly and kicking hard at his friend in retaliation. Behind them, Heechul and Kyuhyun just laugh and yell at Donghae to ‘give it up already or we’ll make you.’

“Oh, come on!” Siwon wheezes when Donghae painfully digs his foot into his stomach. “We’re your friends!”

“It’s none of your ing business,” Donghae retorts. He holds his phone against his chest protectively and glares at his friends in suspicion. “It’s personal, alright?”

“Why? Something to hide, eh?” Kyuhyun wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

Flustered, Donghae splutters indignantly. “No, I just—”

His phone then rings and vibrates, distracting him for only a brief second. It’s still plenty of time for Kyuhyun to lurch forward and grab it. Donghae shouts and tries to take his phone back, but Siwon is faster and holds him back by his leg.

“I’m just looking for something to watch but I can’t seem to find anything,” Kyuhyun reads as he holds the phone high above his head. “Ugh, how boring.”

Heechul snickers, “send him nudes—now that’ll give him something good to watch.”

“And then tell him something like ‘I love you so much, please send me pics’,” Kyuhyun laughs along.

“You guys can all off,” Donghae snaps as he kicks Siwon off him and then tackles Kyuhyun with another shout. After a hard-won scuffle, he finally retrieves his phone.

It’s only been a couple of days since Donghae saved up Hyukjae’s phone number, but he’s already made a habit of checking his notifications for new texts. He can’t help but smile excitedly every time that he sees Hyukjae’s name appear on his screen. , he thinks dazedly, but he’s a bit pathetic, isn’t he?

Their first conversation began when he sent a ‘hey how are u!’ that took years off from his life, to which Hyukjae replied ‘I am good, thank you. What about you?’ It all started from there, and now they talk almost all of the time. Donghae sent a text before going to sleep last night and woke up this morning with a new one from Hyukjae—‘it’s not very healthy to sleep so late, you know’—, and he nearly flung himself off his bed from excitement. Mostly they’ve been bickering and teasing each other. It’s almost as if Hyukjae was right here, scolding him for ‘going to sleep at some ungodly hours in the morning’ and for ‘distracting me with your silly texts and nonsensical jokes’

Donghae thinks it’s a bit cute that Hyukjae always writes his texts with capital letters all in the right places and proper punctuation. He pointed it out, once, to which Hyukjae retorted that ‘not everyone wants to look like an uneducated, boorish swine, thank you very much.’ And that’s so very him, isn’t it?

Grinning, Donghae unlocks his phone screen and opens Hyukjae’s text. His heart fluttering inside his chest, he sends back, ‘what kind of movie do u wanna watch?’

A few minutes later, Hyukjae replies, ‘I don’t really mind as long as it’s good.’

“Are you really sending him nudes?” Heechul asks. Next to him, Kyuhyun scowls as he carefully pokes his arm where Donghae bit him viciously a few minutes earlier, mumbling under his breath about ‘ing ’ and ‘does he think he’s a ing dog or something?’ “Because that’d be hilarious.”

“No,” Donghae huffs. “We’re just chatting, alright? I’m asking what kind of movie he likes—that’s it. Nothing about lewd pics or declarations of love, thanks very much.”

Kyuhyun rolls his eyes at him as he sprawls across Donghae’s bed. “Ugh, you’re so boring when you flirt.”

“Why, I think it’s cute,” Siwon shrugs and smiles encouragingly at Donghae.

“Yeah but you’re at flirting too, so your opinion doesn’t count,” Heechul retorts with a laugh. He shares a high-five with Kyuhyun while Siwon protests indignantly. The three of them then start bickering, swearing loudly at each other and throwing pillows across the room.

Donghae groans then puts his face into his hands. Rolled-up pajamas hit the back of his head and he yelps, twisting around to glare at his friends. “Can you guys stop,” he begs. “You know what, I have an even better idea—please leave.”

“Don’t be such a sourpuss,” Heechul snickers. He kicks Kyuhyun off the bed, who wheezes and tumbles on top of Siwon. “You’re just mad because you still didn’t ask Hyukjae out to Sooyoung’s party.”

“Shut up,” Donghae snaps. And then, “argh, I know.” He’s not too keen on admitting it but he still hasn’t brought up the topic again with Hyukjae, too worried that he’ll be rejected if he tries. Just thinking about it prompts tight knots to form inside his stomach.

“What do I do?” he groans. “What if he says no?”

Kyuhyun raises an eyebrow at him, looking very unimpressed. He sighs resignedly, “no offense but you’re so pathetic.”

Stung, Donghae glares at him but can’t bring himself to deny. He’s usually much better at this whole flirting thing, really he is, but something about Hyukjae always seems to fluster him. It’s frustrating and terribly embarrassing, and he’d greatly appreciate it if it could stop.

“You’re not helping,” he half-grumbles, half-whines.

“Just go on and ask him; there’s no reason why he’d say no,” Siwon encourages him with a reassuring smile—and really, he’s always been Donghae’s favorite. “Tell yourself it could be worse.”

“How much worse?” Donghae asks gloomily. He unlocks his phone then rereads Hyukjae’s last texts.

“Well, we could force you to really send those nudes, for one thing.”

Donghae shivers in horror. Ugh, he doesn’t even want to think about it. “You do make a valid point,” he concedes reluctantly, prompting Kyuhyun and Heechul to snicker mischievously. “You’re the worst friends.”

Taking in a deep breath, he finally starts to write, ‘i don’t really know about movies but i know some good tv series if u want?’ Then he adds in a second message, ‘so did u think about the christmas party?

‘I would really appreciate it, thank you,’ Hyukjae replies. ‘I don’t really know if it’d be a wise idea for me to go to that party, to be honest.’

“Argh, ,” Donghae curses under his breath. Ignoring his friends’ questions, he straightens up and types quickly, ‘why?? it’ll be fun !’

‘It’s just that I don’t really feel comfortable in that kind of situation. Plus I won’t know anyone, it’ll be awkward.’

‘kyuhyun and siwon and heechul are going, and yunho too!!’

Although to be honest, Donghae doesn’t particularly like the idea of Hyukjae spending the night with anyone but himself. He frowns, conflicted.

In the end he decides to send another message: ‘and i’ll be here too! i’ll stay with u the whole night if u want and u can leave whenever u like.’

Hyukjae doesn’t reply immediately, and Donghae feels his nervousness intensify with each second of tortuous silence going by. Next to him, Kyuhyun and Heechul keep bugging him to know exactly what’s happening. Siwon just pats his shoulder comfortingly.

Finally Donghae’s phone vibrates. The screen lights up and displays Hyukjae’s name in his notifications with a loud ‘ding!’ that nearly startles him out of his skin. He opens the message so fast that his phone almost slips out of his hands.

‘Okay, fine, I’ll go,’ Hyukjae’s text says, and Donghae feels like he’s just been struck by lightning, ‘but I won’t stay too late, alright?’

Donghae releases an incoherent noise of excitement, startling his friends. “Oh yes!”

“What?” Kyuhyun wants to know; Donghae ignores him and pushes him off when he tries to steal his phone again. “What, what, what?!”

‘yes perfect !!!’ Donghae types his reply so fast that he has to rewrite it several times before it’s even readable. ‘i’ll send u the address and everything when i know more, ok??’

Whooping, he nearly flings his phone across the room out of excitement, as he flails around and throws himself at his friends. They try to push him off, protesting loudly; he only laughs and hugs them harder.

yes, Donghae finds himself thinking over and over again. He’s going to a party with Hyukjae, and it’s going to be awesome.

*

Maybe Donghae shouldn’t have started drinking so early in the party before he even met up with Hyukjae. But here he is, halfway through his first beer on a mostly empty stomach. It’s not enough to actually make him drunk, and he could probably go for one more bottle, but he’d rather stay on the safe side. He’s already feeling tipsy enough that he can’t quite distinguish his nervousness from excitement anymore.

Hyukjae warned him that he’d be late because of a disruption on his subway line, apologizing four times for ‘my own schedule management incompetency.’ When Donghae pointed out that it technically wasn’t his fault, he retorted that he ‘should have anticipated it! Of course there would be some kind of problem on the one day that I especially want to be on time!’ And really, what can he say to that? It’s a little cute, a little reassuring, isn’t it, to know that Hyukjae feels as nervous as Donghae does about tonight.

Laughing at one of Yunho’s dumb jokes, Donghae checks his phone for new notifications but finds nothing. It’s been twenty minutes since Hyukjae’s last text and he can’t help but feel a bit impatient. He glances over the crowd, half-hoping that Hyukjae might appear out of nowhere and sweep him off his feet. That’s never going to happen, of course, but, well—it’s always a nice thought to have.

Sighing, Donghae looks around him in mild interest. The Christmas party kicked off some time ago. There’s good music and lots of people, many of which he knows more or less from university. He thinks that he even saw some alumni students at some point. Somewhere across the living-room, where the core of the party seems to have settled, Siwon is busy flirting with Boa again. Donghae thinks it’s a bit funny—and quite potentially awkward, too—that he didn’t even realize that she was here until Siwon had patted his shoulder and told him to wish him luck.

“I didn’t know that Siwon was on Boa,” Donghae comments vaguely to no one in particular.

Next to him, Kyuhyun rolls his eyes as he takes another gulp of his beer. It’s already his fourth and yet he doesn’t seem to be drunk in the slightest. “You wouldn’t know anything even if it punched you in the face, Donghae.”

“Hey—that’s rude,” Donghae protests. “I had other things on my mind, in case you didn’t realize.”

“Oh, trust me, I did realize,” Kyuhyun snickers and nudges his shoulder playfully. Donghae throws him a halfhearted glare. “It was pretty entertaining actually.”

“I hate you,” Donghae declares. “Really, I do. I think it’s time we stop being friends because all I get from you is abuse.”

Taking another generous swig of his drink, Kyuhyun smirks mischievously. “Sure about that? You might regret saying that after you hear what I’m about to tell you.”

“What is it?” Donghae narrows his eyes at his not-friend in clear suspicion. “If it’s something stupid I’m leaving.”

Kyuhyun throws an arm around his shoulders and, leaning over conspiratorially, whispers, “I just saw someone who looks awfully like Hyukjae waiting by the door—and I think I’ve got a pretty good idea who he’s looking for.”

Immediately Donghae’s gaze snaps to the entrance. Sure enough, Hyukjae is standing there. His eyes dart warily around him as he wrings his h