Chapter 8, or, the happy ever after.

Everything is going well. Summer vacation may have ended but this time Donghae goes back to school with a boyfriend in tow and it’s like, what’s there even to complain about?

But another school semester starting would mean modules after modules and football practice after practice, and Donghae feels bad about all the time he can’t spend with Hyukjae, even though Hyukjae is equally busy. 

Luckily for him, Hyukjae makes good on a promise Donghae wasn’t even aware he’d made by showing up to support him at his football games. 

The first time it happens it’s the second week of the new term, and everyone who wasn’t nose-deep in their books—which was, honestly speaking, most of the student population—showed up. 

Hyukjae came about half an hour early and still didn’t manage to get a seat, and he ends up, embarrassingly, having to be perched on the goddamn fence just to even catch a glimpse of the game. He didn’t inform Donghae beforehand that he was going to be there, and he didn’t tell him about it after either, not when he wasn’t even seated or got to see the entire game. 

But that night he kisses a bruise newly-formed on Donghae’s shoulder anyway, because even though he may not have seen the goals, he did see Donghae take a particularly nasty fall halfway into the game, and despite everything, he feels sorry. 

“You did good today,” he says, caressing the black and blue with his thumb.

Donghae chuckles lightly. “You weren’t even there,” he says, though there’s no real heat in his tone.

Hyukjae startles and wonders if he should come clean, but decides it’s way too embarrassing so he merely shrugs. “I don’t have to be there to know how great you were.” Silently he promises himself he’s going to be there properly the next time round.

Donghae breaks into a soft grin, and Hyukjae can’t help it when he blurts out, “I wanna be there for your next game.” 

“Really?” Donghae asks, his eyes shining. 

Hyukjae wonders if there’ll ever come a time in his life where these eyes fail to get what they want from him. Even if that ever happens, that time is not right now. He nods, and Donghae’s answering smile is just as blinding as the rest of him is. 

“That’ll be nice,” he says, and Hyukjae thinks if he could go back in time he would have told Donghae that this morning just so he didn’t have to be sitting on a literal fence and pretend that he had no idea how his boyfriend’s shoulder bruise came about. And also for that smile. He’d do anything for that smile.

—

So the next time a game is due to happen Hyukjae makes sure to buy tickets in advance and is seated a good full hour before the game even begins with a hotdog in his hand. He keeps the signboard he has made tucked safely in his bag, half because he doesn’t want it to be ruined and half because he’s a little shy about it.

But then the spectators start pouring in after a while and some are carrying the most glitter-filled banners he has ever seen while the rest have jersey numbers painted on their cheeks. Hyukjae decides to take out his plainly decorated ‘GO DONGHAE’ sign without shame.

He contemplates doing something crazy like run onto the field to where the players are gathered around doing their warmup routine to give him a good luck kiss or something, and has to remind himself he’s not in a coming-of-age teenage romcom or a football version of High School Musical.

He whips out his phone anyway to send him a quick text. All the very best! I’m rooting for you :)

He watches as Donghae heads over to his bottle and phone after his warmup, and finds himself mirroring Donghae’s grin as he reads the texts and scans the crowd to look for Hyukjae. 

Something settles in his heart right and loud when their eyes meet and Donghae’s smile somehow manages to get even brighter.

When the game eventually begins Hyukjae finds himself worrying—because what if his presence disrupts Donghae’s peace or whatever and he fails to perfo