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It’s been a long day. Eunhyuk just wants to lie down somewhere — anywhere — and fall dead asleep for hours.

How long has it been since he last slept? He doesn’t remember. All he can think about is the warm comfort of his bed at the dorms and the sensation of the soft mattress against his skin. The mere thought of it makes him yearn for it so much that he barely restrains a whine from escaping his mouth.

“Aren’t you going home?” Yesung asks as he eyes his dongsaeng in amusement, lifting his gaze from the screen of his phone. “Haven’t you already done your photoshoot for today?”

“Later,” Eunhyuk groans, covering his eyes with his arm as he tries to make himself comfortable on the couch in the waiting room. “I’m so... exhausted...”

“But Kyuhyun is almost finished already,” Yesung points out, but all he receives is silence. When he turns his whole body towards Eunhyuk’s direction, he sees that the younger is already fast asleep, mouth hanging open and legs splaying over the edges of the sofa.

“Hm...” Yesung hums to himself thoughtfully, a small frown playing on his lips.

About ten minutes later, Kyuhyun appears in the doorway, looking relaxed and excited. “Good work, everyone,” he calls out as he strides over to his things that are laid on the coffee table. “Time for another drinking night!”

The staff laughs, and Yesung can’t conceal the amusement on his face. “Kkuru, slow down,” he says with a smile.

“I can’t. We’re hanging out with Heechul-hyung and the others today.” Kyuhyun suddenly spins around to see a dozing Eunhyuk on the couch. “...Make that one less person, I guess?”

“He’s tired. Let him be,” Yesung says as his stylist begins giving the finishing touches on his makeup.

“But the two of us are supposed to go straight to the restaurant now though?” Kyuhyun scratches his head, seeming to be in a dilemma. “It’s a bit far away from the dorms... We won’t be able to take the van, too…” His voice trails off, expression stumped.

Yesung laughs. “Then? Are you saying you’ll just leave him here? While our managers are still busy somewhere?”

Kyuhyun is quiet for a moment, brows furrowed as his mind begins working a mile a minute.

Then, after a long moment, his features suddenly relax into a smile and he grins freely, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Hyukjae is already old enough to get home by himself, so I’ll leave him to you, hyung,” he says as he turns towards the exit.

Yesung almost chokes on his saliva. “Wait, what?! You’re really just gonna leave him here??”

“Just wake him up before you go!” Kyuhyun calls out as his hand twists the doorknob. “Tell him I won’t be home tonight since we’re supposed to sleep over later at Heechul-hyung’s new house!”

“Wait, Kyuhyun-ah—”

“Bye, hyung! Thanks!” Kyuhyun says cheekily before escaping out the doorway.

Yesung gapes at the empty space where Kyuhyun previously stood and shakes his head.

“Aish, that brat...” He can’t help but let out an incredulous laugh to which the staff members in the room begin to giggle in unison.

“I guess I’ll have to take care of that troublesome kid tonight,” Yesung mutters fondly as he gazes at the peacefully-sleeping Eunhyuk.

 

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When Eunhyuk begins to stir from his sleep, he feels the soft mattress curling under his body, pressing against his skin in such a comfortable way that he can’t help but let out a contented sigh. Shifting his position, he rolls his body over until he lies completely on his back, hand coming over his waist to scratch at the itch his shirt is giving him. When his nails graze over what seems to be a gemstone, his eyes fly open at the realization that he has most likely fallen asleep with his casual clothes still on.

Blinking rapidly, his eyes strain to adjust to the brightness of the room. He then hears something shift beside him, feeling a low dip on the mattress that his fogged brain barely registers before his eyes open completely—

—and then a familiar face suddenly greets his vision in an instant.

“BOO!!”

“GAAAHHHH!!!”

Out of reflex, Eunhyuk springs up from the bed and consequently bumps his forehead against the intruder’s, causing both of them to howl out loud in pain.

Eunhyuk whimpers as he rubs the sore spot on his head, trying to soothe the pain. “What the ?!” he cries, lifting his gaze to find the person who shocked the ever living daylights out of him.

“Ah, ahh...” Yesung whines, also pitifully rubbing his temple where he got hit. “You got such a hard head there, damn...”

“It’s your fault for surprising me like that in the first place!” Eunhyuk complains.

“I just wanted to play a prank on you!” Yesung retorts.

“Who said you could play a prank like that?! I thought I saw a ghost and I almost had a heart attack!”

“It’s fine, I know how to do CPR!”

Eunhyuk sputters out, “That’s not the point! I— wait a minute, what?! Hyung, why are you here??” For the first time since he woke up, Eunhyuk begins to fully register his surroundings. Gone are the familiar white walls of the waiting room, replaced by the homey wallpaper colors of the dorms. “In my room???!”

“...You sure complain a lot for someone who slept like a log the whole time I carried you back here on a piggyback ride,” Yesung grunts, rubbing his temple once more. “Hyukjae-ya, you know that hyung is already getting old... My muscles aren’t what they used to be, so... Would you mind lessening your food intake and sparing me the trouble of a bad back next ti—”

“Oh shut up, hyung!” Eunhyuk cries out, slapping Yesung’s face lightly with a pillow. “I’m not even that heavy! You’re just too thin!”

“One thing’s for sure though, I know I’m stronger than you,” Yesung says with a laugh.

“As if — hey! Don’t change the topic!” Eunhyuk glances down and sees that he is still wearing the same clothes as earlier and groans. “You couldn’t have just changed my clothes or something?”

Yesung scowls. “What am I, your mommy? You’re a big boy now, you can change into your pajamas by yourself.”

Eunhyuk sticks out his tongue at his hyung to which Yesung responds by pulling down the lower lid of his eye childishly. Eunhyuk pouts and gets out of the bed, planning to change his clothes and go back to sleep.

“Did you really bring me here, hyung? Alone?” Eunhyuk asks as he faces his dresser and begins to his shirt.

“Yeah,” Yesung answers as he pulls out his phone and starts browsing through SNS. “Kyuhyun left you with me since you were dead asleep earlier.”

Eunhyuk suddenly spins around to face Yesung, shirt halfway open and ed, eyes and mouth gaping in shock. “That’s right! Kyuhyun! We were supposed to be drinking tonight with Heechul-hyung! I totally forgot!”

Yesung lifts his gaze from his phone, amusement dancing in his eyes. “This is just my own opinion, but Kyuhyun didn’t seem to exert much effort into waking you up and just left… really cheerfully.” He snorts at that while Eunhyuk groans a second time.

“I was looking forward to it, though,” Eunhyuk pouts, turning back to the dresser and fishing out his pajamas. “Oh well… maybe next time.”

“I’m sure Heechul-hyung will free up his schedule for you again soon,” Yesung reassures lightly as he goes back to SNS.

There is silence after that. Eunhyuk has managed to take off his shirt and proceeds to unbuckle his belt. Even though Yesung is in the same room, there is no thought of modesty in his head. He has seen all of s in various states of undress before, and they’ve been around each other multiple times, so there’s no embarrassment or awkwardness in the air.

“Ah, by the way, Hyukjae-ya,” Yesung calls out to which Eunhyuk responds with a questioning hum. “Do you have some spare clothes for me?”

Eunhyuk stops in the middle of removing his belt and turns to face Yesung with an incredulous expression. “What, you’re gonna stay the night here?” he exclaims.

Yesung fixes him with a look. “Isn’t it obvious, idiot? Do you even know what time it is right now?”

Eunhyuk doesn’t say anything, only staring at Yesung dumbly, mind rapidly trying to process the current situation.

“It’s one in the morning already,” Yesung deadpans. “After all that effort to take you home on my back and put you to bed, you expect me to go home by myself?”

“B—But,” Eunhyuk sputters out, suddenly realizing that Yesung is also wearing the same clothes before their photoshoot session. “Th—Then you’re just gonna sleep here?? In my bed?? But why didn’t you just leave earlier after taking me here?” he rambles on, clearly flustered.

“I would’ve left quietly earlier, but a certain someone dragged me with him in his bed and would not let go of my arm no matter what,” Yesung deadpans once more, folding his arms across his chest. “I kept prying your hand away and telling you that I needed to leave, but you were whining in your sleep and begging me — ah, excuse me… begging your pillow — not to leave your side or else you’d cry.”

Eunhyuk listens to everything, completely mortified and frozen in place.

“So I stayed,” Yesung continues on, gazing at Eunhyuk with an unreadable expression on his face. “Although… you did say something else that finalized my decision of staying here for the night…” he adds with a smirk.

Eunhyuk suddenly does not like the look on Yesung’s face. For some reason, his palms feel clammy and cold, and he also feels a heating sensation spreading from his chest down to other parts of his body.

Yesung studies him for a moment and smiles. “Well? Aren’t you curious about what you said to me?” he says lightly, almost teasingly, with a quirk of his eyebrow.

Eunhyuk swallows and turns back to his dresser, forcing himself to sound calm. “I’m not interested,” he says automatically, and he almost slaps himself physically. The normal Eunhyuk would’ve said something along the lines of, ‘Why? What did I say?’ with an innocent yet embarrassed look on his face.

He’s being too obvious, and he knows that Yesung is thinking the same thing as well.

“Anyway,” Eunhyuk says, quickly changing the topic, “are you fine with just a shirt and shorts? I don’t think my pajamas will fit you.”

There’s a beat of silence for a moment before Yesung gets up from the bed and walks towards him.

As he approaches, Eunhyuk begins rummaging the drawers for a shirt, trying not to pay attention to the way his heart is suddenly racing.

“They really won’t fit me?” Yesung says, hand reaching towards one of the drawers. “Let me try them on first.”

Because Eunhyuk isn’t looking at all, he jumps back with a start when Yesung suddenly opens a drawer from above him, so in turn he loses his balance as he stumbles backwards.

“Whoa!” Yesung cries out, arm shooting out in an instant and wrapping around the younger’s waist, preventing the latter from falling.

Eunhyuk grabs at Yesung’s shoulders to keep his balance and makes the mistake of looking up.

Yesung’s face hovers over his own, a few strands of his hair falling across his eyes. Their stares connect, and a slow smile begins to spread on Yesung’s lips.

Eunhyuk’s heart pounds incessantly in his chest when he realizes that Yesung’s face is moving closer.

And closer.

And closer.

When they’re only a few centimeters apart from each other, Yesung tilts his head slightly, that odd smile still playing on his lips.

Eunhyuk just stares at him, tongue frozen and eyes wide.

Yesung leans down.

“...Boo,” he whispers.

And that effectively snaps Eunhyuk out of his trance.

“What the heck are you doing?!” he exclaims, shoving a laughing Yesung away. Suddenly, Eunhyuk realizes that he is still shirtless and his ears and neck are flushed red.

So embarrassing! he thinks to himself, crying internally.

Yesung, on the other hand, can’t seem to stop laughing as he clutches his stomach desperately. Eunhyuk shoots him a venomous look as he hastily rummages through his drawer and begins to put on a shirt. After that, he takes off his pants and replaces them with his pajamas.

“Very funny, hyung,” Eunhyuk seethes.

Yesung glances at him and snorts. He just can’t take his dongsaeng seriously when the younger’s face currently looks like a tomato.

“...Okay, I’m sorry,” Yesung apologizes lightly, trying to stifle the rest of his giggles. “You just looked so shocked, I had to tease you! I couldn’t help it.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, just find some clothes here that fit your taste,” Eunhyuk says, trying to escape from the awkward situation by grabbing his old clothes and going towards the direction of the laundry basket.

After locking himself in the bathroom and deciding to just take a quick hot shower and brush his teeth, Eunhyuk comes back to the room feeling fresher than before and sees Yesung already making himself comfortable on the bed.

Trying to ignore the way his heart skips a beat at the sight, Eunhyuk slips under the covers and focuses on his returning drowsiness, fighting back a yawn from escaping his mouth. The hot shower really relaxed him and made him feel ready for bed.

But wait… something doesn’t seem right…

Eunhyuk whips his head towards Yesung in an instant. “You’re gonna sleep here?? In my room??” he exclaims, bewildered. “In my bed?”

He feels like he has already pointed this out earlier, but Yesung... is just really good at evading questions tonight.

Meanwhile, Yesung nods nonchalantly, still busy browsing through his SNS. “Of course. Where else will I sleep?”

“Oh, I don’t know, in the other rooms, maybe??” Eunhyuk cries out. He doesn’t mean for it to sound a bit sarcastic, but he’s just feeling a bit too awkward with this kind of unexpected situation.

Plus, it’s been years since he and Yesung last shared a bed like this together...

Yesung puts down his phone on the bedside table and turns to him. “But you know that I always get lonely at night,” he says, staring at Eunhyuk with pitiful, pleading eyes. “I’ll feel better if I sleep with someone beside me.”

“Are you kidding me?” Eunhyuk says incredulously, the absurdity of the situation making him laugh. “You’ve been sleeping just fine on your own in your house and whenever we stay at hotels during schedules!”

“But this is different,” Yesung insists.

“What makes this situation any different from the others??”

Yesung is about to respond to that but pauses instead, seemingly thinking it over in his head. Then he leans back against the headboard, folding his arms across his chest.

“Hey… do you remember back when we were all living together in the dorms?” he suddenly says in a light, conversational tone.

Changing the subject so suddenly? Eunhyuk’s mind is starting to spin, but he’s honestly just too tired to argue even further, so he lets it go this time. “Yeah…?” he responds unsurely.

“I used to visit each member’s room late at night whenever I couldn’t sleep,” Yesung elaborates with a nostalgic smile on his face.

Recognition flashes in Eunhyuk’s eyes and he nods, relaxing slightly. “Right… you used to scare the heck out of us whenever we got woken up by you touching our philtrums like a weirdo,” he recalls jokingly. “Sometimes I even woke up in the early forsaken hours of the morning just to be greeted by your face inches from mine, staring at me. Hyung, really… you scared the wits out of me the first time that happened!” he adds, complaining.

“Ah, yes…” Yesung nods, recalling the memory in his head. “You were so shocked that you instantly kicked me off your bed. Do you know how much my nose hurt at that time? Geez, I thought I was surely gonna get a nosebleed before our performance!”

“That’s because you scared me!” Eunhyuk defends. “I even thought you were a stalker who somehow sneaked into my room or something! Sheesh…”

Yesung laughs, leaning over to pinch Eunhyuk’s cheek. “Aigoo… it’s fine. I already forgave you for that a long time ago.”

“Not that I needed your forgiveness or anything…” Eunhyuk mutters under his breath while swatting Yesung’s hand away from his face. Yesung retaliates by reaching out with his other hand to pinch both sides of Eunhyuk’s cheeks, earning him a frustrated groan from the latter.

“Brat, just go to sleep already. I know I’ve been taking too much of your time,” Yesung says, grabbing the blanket and pulling it over the younger’s chest, tucking him in gently.

“Already tired of me?” Eunhyuk retorts, but can’t restrain the yawn that escapes his lips.

Yesung smiles, leaning towards him and hovering over Eunhyuk’s face, causing the latter’s eyes to grow wide in surprise. He gazes at the younger’s face for a few moments with a soft expression as though studying every inch of his features.

“Never,” Yesung says, his smile getting wider as he moves closer. Eunhyuk in a breath and reflexively shuts his eyes.

Yesung presses his lips against Eunhyuk’s forehead and whispers a good night before getting out of bed to switch off the lights in the room.

And as he takes a few strides, he once again remembers the words Eunhyuk said to him earlier.

 

 

“Hey, let go,” Yesung whined when Eunhyuk still wouldn’t loosen his grip on the older’s arm. “I need to go home… Hyukjae? Are you listening to me?”

“No,” Eunhyuk mumbled sleepily, hugging his hyung’s arm to his chest stubbornly. “No… no… don’t walk away… my pillow…”

Yesung’s left eye twitched in annoyance. “For the last time, I am not your pillow. I am Yesung. Your fellow member, Yesung. Your hyung, Kim Jongwoon. Now can you let me go—”

“...Mmmsung?” Eunhyuk mumbled, looking like he was still very much stuck in dreamland. “...sung-hyung…?”

“Yes, it’s me,” Yesung said patiently. “It’s Yesung-hyung.”

There was a beat of silence before sleepy Eunhyuk spoke again. “Yesung… hyung…? Mmm… is this Yesung-hyung…”

At that point, Yesung gave up trying to convince Eunhyuk and just plopped back on the bed, taking out his phone with his free hand. “Since you’re not letting me go, I should just text my brother that I’ll be spending the night here…”

“...no… don’t go…” Eunhyuk muttered.

Yesung chuckled in spite of himself, trying his best to compose a message quickly with only one hand. “Yes, yes, I’m not going. I’m staying, okay?”

There was a pause before Eunhyuk spoke again.

“...good,” he mumbled contentedly, sounding oddly happy.

Yesung turned to him, puzzled. “What did you say?”

Eunhyuk was shifting his position again, trying to make himself more comfortable by stretching out an arm and wrapping it around Yesung’s waist, pulling the latter close to him. Yesung almost dropped his phone in surprise.

“...missed… hyung…”

Yesung froze.

“...missed hyung…” Eunhyuk continued on sleepily. “...sleeping… in the same bed… Don’t go…”

“...” Yesung didn’t know what to say or how to react.

“Sleep with… me…” Eunhyuk said, his voice trailing off as he began returning to his deep sleep. “...again…”

 

 

“Hyung…” Eunhyuk says suddenly when Yesung comes back to the bed, shifting into a comfortable position.

“Yeah?” Yesung says, making a quick alarm on his phone for later.

“...What did I say to you earlier… to make you stay here…?” Eunhyuk asks, unable to hide the nervousness and curiosity in his voice, especially now that the room is plunged in darkness with only the screen of Yesung’s phone serving as a source of illumination.

There’s a small pause from Yesung’s end before his warm voice eventually fills the room as the light from his phone suddenly turns off.

“You just asked me to stay here with you,” Yesung says softly. “So I stayed.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes.”

“Ah…”

Silence envelops them, and Eunhyuk is beginning to feel really sleepy.

As though sensing this, Yesung’s voice fills the room once more.

“Good night, Hyukjae-ya.”

“Good night, hyung...” Before Eunhyuk goes into his deep slumber, he adds sleepily, “Don’t do that ‘boo!’ thing to me again when I wake up later, okay…?”

The sound of Yesung’s surprised laughter makes Eunhyuk smile before he finally goes to sleep.

However, he doesn’t get to hear Yesung’s eventual response after his chuckles die down.

“...I missed sleeping with you too.”

 

 

fin