Welcome to the long-awaited chapter where silly boys in love finally go out on an actual date! At the beach! Because it's summer!

Chapter 6, or, a day with a lot of flirting, a bit of comrade-talk, and then even more flirting. Spoiler alert: they even kiss. [pretends to be shocked]

Enjoy! This is the longest chapter yet hehe.

This goes on for another 2 weeks.

They spend time together every day aside from the weekends, because Donghae has to meet his Gym Instructor from Hell every Saturday and Sunday and for half a day each time, and it’s not like he has the energy to dress up and act pretty and flirt with Hyukjae when he can barely walk straight when he’s leaving the gym. And Hyukjae doesn’t work weekends either, so he’s probably off spending his weekend the way perfect, golden boys do. (Donghae has no idea what it is that they do.) 

But they text sporadically on those days too, so if you ask Donghae, it’s kind of like Hyukjae’s becoming a permanent fixture in his life. Yes, it’s only been 2 weeks, but Donghae is a bit of a long-term planner you see.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. It’s not like the lunch dates aren’t nice… 

Eating at the bleachers is surprisingly kinda romantic — something Donghae would never have envisioned from the years he’s spent on the field — though he suspects it might have to do more with the company than the location. 

They talk about their day and their lives and about anything under the sun during that hour, and Donghae likes that Hyukjae is comfortable enough to share his life with him. They talk about music and movies — Hyukjae mentioned that he thought Captain America was ‘really cool’ and Donghae agreed, but deep down he’s like ‘hello, you can just say he’s hot and go’ — and books, and when Hyukjae brought up Angela Davis and Audre Lorde as two of the authors he’s enjoyed reading Donghae has to force himself to stay seated lest he does something crazy and out of hand like immediately get down on his knees and propose.

The point is, they’re hitting it off really well. And Donghae hasn’t done this before, yes, but it feels like at this rate he’s going to be learning about Hyukjae’s childhood pet’s name before they even spend a proper day on a date off-campus and do things that couples do… like kissing, for starters. He’s sure couples do that.

Unfortunately, the ‘next time’ they talked about during their first lunch at the bleachers has yet to happen. Every time Donghae thinks he’s ready his stomach does a weird flip and he goes from ‘I want to kiss him’ to ‘I want to throw up’ in about 5 seconds. He is still working on it. 

(For the record, he actually does know Hyukjae’s childhood pet’s name. It’s Choco. And yet they haven’t even kissed once.)

So he’s not saying the lunch dates aren’t fun and well. He’s just saying they’re not enough. But they’re both busy — Donghae with his mountain load of work and Hyukjae with being a y, drop-dead gorgeous and flawless barista — and it’s not like Donghae can cancel his gym days since they are practically with Satan himself, and you simply do not cancel on Satan.

But then god shines down on them one day when Hyukjae announces he’s finally earned his first vacation day that Friday during a shift break. 

Donghae’s all like ‘oh my god, and you want to spend it with me?’, his work be damned — he will just pull an all-nighter one of these nights, probably. 

And then Hyukjae’s hitting him with that blinding smile and saying ‘yeah of course, who else will I spend it with?’ and the truth is Donghae can think up a list of people that are in Hyukjae’s life (like he said, they’ve gotten to know each other quite well) that he can spend some time with, but obviously he says nothing because when Hyukjae — Hyuk-freaking-jae — asks if you want to hang, you should be grateful he even thought of you. 

Anyway, that’s just Donghae’s brain strolling along non sequitur lane. In reality he merely blushed and ducked his head and was like ‘okay, sure, I’m free on that day.’ Even though he very much was not. But nothing stands in the way of Donghae’s quest for love.

—

So that explains why Donghae’s having a breakdown in his room at 11pm on a Thursday night. 

He’s churned out two essays that afternoon, then went to the gym, and is now sitting in front of his closet, head in his hands. 

What the hell is he going to wear? 

Hyukjae has very sweetly suggested they go to the beach after Donghae hinted at his adoration of open waters — he can’t help it, it’s literally in his name — and it is summer after all, which would make a beach day a very commonsensical decision. But Donghae can’t, for the life of him, remember how people dress nicely for a beach. The past few times he’s been to the beach, he was there to play football with his teammates in nothing but a pair of beach shorts. Sure he’s a bit smug about his own physique, but he’s not sure he’s ready for Hyukjae to see him shirtless. Plus it’s going to make the trip down his hostel block very awkward — people might think he’s an exhibitionist. 

But a lot of his nicer shirts are button-downs or dress shirts — he’s been trying to dress up like an adult more, okay — and it just doesn’t make sense for him to dress that way to the beach. 

He contemplates posting onto his Instagram story and enlisting the help of his considerably large fanbase, but that is slightly embarrassing since Hyukjae also follows him. (Donghae’s been so conscientious of this fact that he makes it a point to post gym selfies more often, and then delete them from his story once it shows that Hyukjae has already seen them. At this rate, he might as well just DM Hyukjae the picture.) But he knows Hyukjae’s practically a fashionista, and he doesn’t want to have to come out as a fashion disaster the night before their second first date. Which means he’s not going to do an Instagram poll, no matter how enticing that may be.

So he settles for the next best thing. He picks up his phone, and dials one of his teammates’ number. 

It rings for a while, and Donghae is about to hang up and cry himself to sleep when he finally hears Siwon’s familiar voice.

“What’s up, Donghae?” Siwon’s voice comes on on the other side of the line, and it’s soothing, really, because Siwon is the one who talks him through his pre-game nerves and post-exam breakdowns. Something about him sounding like a pastor, probably. 

But Donghae is calling him for serious business, so he gets down to it immediately. “I need your help,” he says, voice serious.

There’s a bit of muffled sounds coming from the other end for a while, and he hears Siwon mumble a soft ‘excuse me’, presumably to the people he’s with in person. In hindsight, Donghae realises he could have interrupted something important (since Siwon comes from a Very Important family), but like, his emergency is kind of pressing too, so whatever. He stands by his decision to call him.

“Right, with what?” Siwon asks, the concern evident in his tone. 

Well, since he asked about it straightforwardly, Donghae decides he shall spare him the excruciating details of his relationship with Hyukjae and how it came to be. About how they’d met, what Hyukjae was wearing, what kind of thoughts ran through Donghae’s head etcetera etcetera. He shall save this exciting story for another time, and keep this conversation short. After all, as much as he’d like to share about everything about Hyukjae, he needs to have his beauty sleep soon. He has a big day coming up.

“What should I wear to the beach?” 

There’s a pause for a long time, and Donghae is beginning to think Siwon may have been disconnected from the call when he hears an audible sigh.

“This is what you called me for? I’m at-”

“It’s very important! I need to dress well because he always looks good every time I see him, and tomorrow’s the first time we’re leaving the campus for a date. Like a real date!” Donghae interrupts to whine petulantly. Would he have been so selfish to call Siwon at a time when he might have been busy, if he had other options?!

“Wait, ‘he’? Since when did you have a boyfriend? What’s he like? Who is he? How could you not have told me?” Siwon’s voice perks up. 

Unfortunately, Donghae doesn’t have the luxury of time to share about his beautiful love story with god’s favourite human being. He could probably go on for days. “Focus on the topic at hand! What should I be wearing?”

“Well I don’t know… maybe something that shows off your arms, if you’ve been following that workout routine we were supposed to this summer,” Siwon responds.

Donghae’s instantaneously reminded of the many wifebeaters he has in his closet (because he used to aspire to be a little bit of a hoe) and a few tank tops. But the wifebeaters are probably going to be skin-tight and it’ll be uncomfortable, and also why the hell are they named that? He can probably find a nice and loose tank top somewhere. Hopefully one that cuts kind of low at the sides so you know, he's got a bit of skin game going.

Okay, that’s settled then.

“Thanks, love you!” Donghae chirps into the phone and hangs up on Siwon. 

He’ll properly thank Siwon another day. The same day he tells him all about Hyukjae. Oh, maybe he can buy Siwon coffee! At the Starbucks Hyukjae works at, of course. Wow, look at him, he’s got it all planned out.

Donghae pulls open the messaging app on his phone to send Hyukjae a good night text, and that’s when he realises Hyukjae has already sent him one. He smiles at his phone for a good ten seconds before replying with a text laced with emojis. 

His heart is still fluttering even as he lays in bed.

—

The next morning Hyukjae pulls up at his hostel block in a convertible. In a freaking convertible! What the hell? Also, Hyukjae’s in a very y black shirt with a sinfully low cut and a pair of sunglasses hanging in it and Donghae’s just very, very glad he did do those arm workouts. But despite how good Hyukjae looks (and for the record, it’s frankly off the charts), Donghae is still unable to process the fact that he showed up in a CONVERTIBLE.

Donghae’s guessing his mouth is still gaping when Hyukjae leans over the passenger seat to open the door for him, and probably even as he slides into the seat. But he literally cannot force himself to pretend this is not a big deal, because what the hell?!?!

He turns to look at Hyukjae for an explanation, and Hyukjae shrugs and rubs his neck awkwardly. “I uh, borrowed my sister’s car for the day,” he says, a little shy. 

“I hope you don’t mind?” Hyukjae probes when he doesn’t get a response.

“Are you kidding?” Donghae asks, gesturing at the iest car he’s ever been in, his voice slightly raised. “Of course I don’t! This is so cool!” 

At that, Hyukjae breaks into a smile, and Donghae’s just about forgotten all about the car he’s in when Hyukjae says ‘that’s good, good morning then’ and leans in to leave a quick peck on his cheek. 

He stammers through a very soft ‘morning’ back, his cheeks flaming, and Hyukjae’s chuckles ring through his ears as they pull away into the busy streets.

Donghae reaches out to hold his hand halfway into the ride, and Hyukjae indulges him with a soft grin and keeps his other hand on the steering wheel.

No wonder people make such a big deal about being in love during summer.

—

The beach was already rather occupied by the time they got there. There are families building sandcastles, friends and lovers picnicking, and for some reason, also an ongoing beach volleyball competition, which, to no one’s surprise, has drawn quite a huge crowd. Couldn’t the players have picked another date?!

They find a secluded spot under a tree, and Hyukjae excuses himself while Donghae settles into the area. 

He is squirming his toes in the sand when Hyukjae returns, though not empty-handed. He’s holding a stick of cotton candy. “Look what I got!” He exclaims, a childish glee on his face.

The first emotion Donghae experiences is, for some strange reason, rage.

“You got one for yourself?!” He finds himself yelling. 

Hyukjae’s eyes widen in surprise. “I, um, was thinking we could share.”

A beat of silence passes, and Donghae is suddenly overwhelmed by embarrassment. Oh my god. Of course he would misunderstand a romantic gesture as Hyukjae being incredibly selfish and inconsiderate. Why did he even speak.

He regrets instantaneously his immediate reaction and stares at the sand beneath him bashfully. How the hell can he recover from this? And the wo