First impression may be wrong.

Donghae knew it well. For some reason remained unknown for him people always got a wrong idea about him.

And it was making him really sad.

You see, Donghae had a secret he never shared with anyone – okay, only with his closest friend, but no one else, really! – because he knew people would laugh at him if he told them. Or they wouldn’t believe him. Whatever, he just couldn’t tell them about it. And his secret was…

He loved cute stuff more than anything in this world. Unmanly? Pathetic? Hilarious for a guy at the age of 19 to love it? That’s what he expected to hear, but he for sure didn’t want to change a thing about it (you can’t just stop loving what you love in one second), so he just never shared. He came to his room full of plushies he hid in the wardrobe and talked to them every evening, apologizing and promising they will have a nice place in his home when he’ll be able to move from parents and live on his own. He loved thinking about how he would buy shelves for the smallest and prettiest of them and put them all around his room, how he will allow the biggest among them to spend time on his bed, how he won’t hide them from anyone who entered the room…

Those were nice thoughts to think about every evening.

He also thought about how he will buy a puppy. Or two. Or better three and two kitties! He never believed cats and dogs couldn’t get along, there were so many proofs they could, and he knew his pets will adore each other just as much as he adores them. And he will cuddle them every day and feed them the most delicious food he cooked by himself because yes, he adored cooking.

Side dishes, main dishes, desserts. There was not a course he didn’t try, and he loved them all, but his main passion was baking cakes. Big cakes for celebrations, small pancakes, biscuits. Baking them was fun, but decorating them! Oh, how he loved it! He could use any – literally any – color, doesn’t matter if it was pink, baby blue, yellow or orange. He loved all the colors, even dark ones. Bright cakes looked very festive. Black cakes looked so expensive, and if you add some ‘gold’… just wow. He could go on, and on, and on about how nice it would look.

Donghae didn’t like romantic movies. He loved comedies. No more cliché for you. But he actually loved cartoons.

But even with what he has got it was enough for others to mock him, he knew it. He saw people revealing what they loved or who they loved, and they were bullied for it. Call him a coward, but he hasn’t had the guts to admit it. And well, he hasn’t had a chance to.

He really didn’t know how it all started, but people thought he was… scary. They said he looks intimidating with his brows being furrowed most of the time and him looking so distant. If they only knew Donghae has trained a lot, and now once he was seeing a cute or nice thing instead of squealing uncontrollably (he used to do it in past; he will never allow anyone to see it) he kept furrowing his brows. And, well, he considered the biggest part of this world cute (how could you not coo at little birds chirping because they wanted to get some bread?!), so you could tell he did it… a lot. A frown has always found its place on Donghae’s face, and apparently that’s why he appeared intimidating.

He was also known as a rebellious kid because he dyed his hair orange – despite it was forbidden at school and even teachers in the university weren’t so fond of it! – but he simply wanted to add some colors to his life? Was it that bad?

He also had piercings. Just because he found them beautiful. But of course people saw it only as another sign of rebellion.

Donghae liked sports. Football, for example. He also liked going to gym, so you could tell he was fit. Someone even said he was even too fit.

People thought it was because he was constantly fighting with someone.

In reality he never raised a hand on someone. Come on, he had just one friend because of all the prejudice people had over him, and that only friend now studied in another city! He barely interacted with anyone else since then and hasn’t had a chance to play football with his buddy, so he chose gym. At least no one looked at him in a weird way when he went there alone.

The guy never considered himself a miserable person. He had a good healthy body, a happy family, he studied in a nice university and had a friend, even though he was his only friend. He was a grateful boy, and always was grateful for all the things he had.

But it just wasn’t right for him. The fact that people liked to label others so much. He was labeled as a troublemaker just because of his looks, and no one wanted to approach him and to actually learn how different he was from what he looked like. They didn’t care about the fact that he never got a detention, he was a pretty decent student and never said a bad word to others. He was a troublemaker. Why? Just because. Because others thought so.

And about him loving cute things… wasn’t it just another label? ‘A guy can’t love cute things and act cute’, ‘you look manly, so you’re not allowed to be cute’, ‘you can’t call a man ‘baby’, it’s forbidden’, ‘you can’t love cooking, it’s for women’, and so on, and on, and on… he was sick and tired of it. Why couldn’t people just mind their own damn business and let others be? Not anyone should fit all your standards and fantasies. People are different. He is an individual. He’s not only a tough muscled guy. He’s not only a softie who can’t watch horror movies alone because they’re scary. He is Donghae. Lee Donghae. And that should be the only label he will carry through his life.

But all those were nothing, but his thoughts he never voiced out, and honestly never thought he will. He actually tried to make friends (how do you think he got one?), but the friendship never lasted long, and he was kind of okay… the quality mattered, not quantity. He kind of grew used to the thought that no one will approach him and even more – no one will bother to learn what kind of a person he is, and he was okay with it. Upset, but okay. And if he had to hide his obsession with cute soft things, he would do it.

But he never expected anyone to storm into his life, revealing all the secrets at once.

***

It was a nice day. Just because it was a Sunday – his day off – and Sundays always are nice. His parents were away that day, and Donghae was enjoying himself. He wore his favorite orange t-shirt with cute penguins on it (they were smiley and wished you a good day) and started baking cookies. There was a receipt he wanted to try for a long time already, but his mom has always been at home, so he couldn’t really do that. But his parents went to their friend’s birthday party, and their son could have some fun home alone. At least he thought so.

Almost everything was ready, and Donghae put the cookies into the oven, and was waiting for them to bake. He couldn’t stop smiling and humming a soft melody because everything was just so perfect; he just chatted with his friend and now was baking cookies, that day literally was one of the best he could wish for, but…

The doorbell rang. And the guy didn’t expect it.

At first Donghae just ignored it. Well, he didn’t expect anyone to come, so who in the world could that be? Apparently not someone important because once again, Donghae didn’t expect anyone.

But that person was persistent. They kept pressing the doorbell, and it almost made the orange-haired guy angry.

“If no one’s answering, they’re either not home or don’t want to see you,” he mumbled to himself, but still went to the corridor. The peephole was broken, so he couldn’t see a person clearly and just asked, “Who is it?”

“Hello! I thought no one’s at home, almost went back to my home!” that person – a black-haired guy, to be precise – chuckled, and Donghae pouted. He had to wait a bit longer, and he’d go home.

“Who are you?” the orange-haired guy asked politely, chewing on his bottom lip. It didn’t feel good to stay away from his almost baked cookies for so long.

“Hyukjae, my name is Hyukjae! You’re apparently Donghae, right?” the guy frowned when his name was called. “I’m your mother’s student. Assistant, if you want. I am supposed to help her with lectures tomorrow, but due to her busy schedule she couldn’t just give me all the papers I need for tomorrow, and some of them are books without an electronic copy… So yeah, I came to bring them!”

“She didn’t tell me someone will come.”

“Oh, maybe she forgot? You can call and ask her. I swear I’m not a suspicious guy and won’t steal you!” he chuckled once again, and Donghae shivered. That guy talked to him… as if he was a child.

He called his mother to ask, and turned out that yes, she forgot to tell him Hyukjae will come to their house today. Donghae was not so pleased because it meant he had to open the door… while wearing this… without a chance to change…

He shook his head, and tried to think about it in another way. So what if he had cute penguins on his t-shirt? That guy will leave now, and they’ll never see each other again! He had to just take it as a man. So he opened the door… and furrowed his brows immediately.

C-cute.

Really cute.

The guy in front of him was really cute.

Not that kind of cute when that someone pouts unintentionally, not that kind of cute when they’re wearing cute stuff, just… He smiled widely, and Donghae could see his gums, and, God, that smile was so beautiful and the guy looked utterly adorable while smiling that way… And those wrinkles around his eyes, and the way the said eyes seemed to shine brightly when Hyukjae smiled. He was cute, just so cute.

So cute and so handsome. That broad shoulders, that perfect body shape – not too bulk, yet fit – those big palms, bigger than Donghae’s (he hid his hands behind his back after seeing Hyukjae’s; why did he even feel shy about it?), his… everything.

He was so cute and so handsome. He was both. And it was hard to not stare at him.

Was Donghae checking him out?

Yes, he was shamelessly checking him out.

“I see someone’s happy to see me,” Hyukjae said with a chuckle, and then looked at Donghae, who had a frown on his face, from head to toe. “You’re older than I expected.”

The orange-haired guy blinked a few times.

“How old did you think I am?”

“From what your mother told me… I though you’re about ten?”

Donghae blinked a few times again.

“Didn’t you get an idea that something may be wrong when you heard my voice?”

“I thought you could be 13. Just an early flower, you know?”

“My voice doesn’t sound like I’m 13!”

“Yes, you’re right. I’d say 14. Such a huge difference, big boy.”

Donghae pouted. It was weird. The way Hyukjae talked to him was weird. They talked as if they knew each other for a while. Donghae could be a person who can get offended by those jokes, but no, he didn’t, and it seemed like that guy knew he won’t get mad. That was a bit scary. And intriguing.

But, you know, there was a huge possibility he was just overthinking, since Hyukjae was basically the only person apart from his family and friend who was talking to him just fine. But Donghae was already imagining things and adding him to his friends list. Yup.

“Love your t-shirt,” Hyukjae said all of a sudden. “Suits you well.”

“Just because it’s orange?”

The black-haired guy chuckled.

“Because it’s cute just like you. But what about the papers?”

Because it’s cute just li