Three more condoms and one very late brunch later, Donghae brought a platter of strawberries from the kitchen and handed it over to Hyukjae, who was sitting on the sofa watching a random drama he found on TV. Hyukjae’s eyes lit up when he caught sight of the fruits. He immediately patted on the space next to him, inviting Donghae to sit, while he took a huge bite of his first strawberry.

“Mmh…”

“Tastes good?” 

“Mm-hm. Sit down, Prof. You shouldn’t be moving around so much.”

“And whose fault is it?”

Hyukjae blushed and grinned shyly at Donghae. “I told you we should stop after the second round…”

“So it’s my fault now?” Donghae said with a playful growl. He plopped onto the sofa and accepted the fruit Hyukjae fed to his lips. “You made me half an invalid, so you gotta take responsibility.”

“Um yeah, of course,” Hyukjae joked as he petted Donghae’s tummy. “I’ll make sure our little baby grows up to be big and strong like you.”

“You idiot.”

They laughed and joked around, feeding strawberries and stealing kisses from each other as the drama played on in the background.

For a moment there, Hyukjae thought that they really felt like a legit couple fooling around after a passionate night (and morning) of love-making. His fingers glided gently along Donghae’s cheek and finally rested on his lips, thumb rubbing softly before he closed the distance between them and planted a kiss on his mouth.

Donghae’s mouth turned upward in a shy, dazzling smile and his eyes turned into half-moon crescents again. “What was that for?”

“N-Nothing, I just felt like kissing you,” Hyukjae answered honestly. He Donghae’s cheek again and smiled, pinching the bit of cheek fat on the handsome face he had fallen in love with. “Do you have any plans for today?”

“Not really. I do have some reading to catch up on, but it’ll just take an hour or two, max,” Donghae replied, pouting as Hyukjae pinched his other cheek. “And no, I’m not letting you do me again until we’ve bought more condoms. We just used up the last box.”

“We’ve spent about half the day in bed already anyway,” Hyukjae laughed, releasing Donghae’s cheeks and patting them instead. “And I’m not such a beast that I’d keep you in bed all day long.”

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind,” the professor said with a grin. “Also, did you know that you can buy condoms in bulk? Do you think we can finish a hundred, or maybe two?”

“W-Wait, wait, even if you don’t mind getting ed multiple times a day, don’t you still need to worry about whether or not I can actually keep giving it to you?” the student said with a shiver, eyes widening in shock. “My hips hurt just thinking of it.”

“Well then, it’s the perfect excuse for you to start working out and build up those waist muscles of yours, my dear Hyukjae,” Donghae laughed. “You should practise more hip s in dance class.”

Hyukjae blushed and stuffed the last strawberry into Donghae’s mouth. “You’re gonna be the death of me someday.”

Donghae just chewed happily on the strawberry and winked at the student.

“By the way,” Hyukjae said softly, “I was just, um, thinking if you’d like to go catch a movie… or hang out somewhere later?”

“Like on a date?” Donghae pulled his legs up and sat cross-legged on the sofa, propping his head up on his hand. “Even though we’re not a couple?”

“I-I never said as a date,” Hyukjae quickly said, afraid the professor might think he was trying to push their relationship too much. “Just like, a normal hangout, between friends. Strictly just as friends.”

“Just as friends, you say?” Donghae repeated with a light chuckle. “Sure, why not. We can catch a movie just as friends. I’ll buy the tickets, you buy the popcorn.”

“Deal!” Hyukjae pumped his fist into the air and pecked Donghae’s lips again. “I’ll go get changed. We can grab dinner after the movie as well.”

“More seasoned fried chicken again?” the professor teased and laughed when Hyukjae made a face. He held out his arm towards the student and grinned. “Help me up, then we can leave in about 15 minutes.”

~

“Which movie did you want to watch, Hyukjae?”

Hyukjae snapped out of his reverie and blinked at Donghae, looking a little lost. “What did you say?”

“I asked, which movie were you thinking of watching with me?” Donghae asked again, nodding at the row of movie posters tacked up on the walls of the cinema. “Pick a movie, I’m fine with any kind of genre.”

“Even the horror ones?” Hyukjae asked, raising an eyebrow as he grinned. “If you’re scared, I can always protect you from the evil zombies and ghosts and vampires.”

“Did you really think I’d be afraid of zombies and stuff after spending nearly half of my life working with bodies?” the professor asked with a laugh, reaching out to ruffle Hyukjae’s carefully-styled hair and grinning when he ducked. “Just pick whichever movie you want to watch the most, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“Well, there is this one movie Sungminnie wanted me to watch with him but we haven’t had the chance to watch it yet,” Hyukjae mused, scanning the rows of posters looking for the movie. “It’s like an action movie but with two male leads instead of the traditional hetero couple. He’s been bugging me for a while.”

“We’ll watch it then,” Donghae said, “Just ask the employees here if they know the title of the movie.”

“Min’s so gonna kill me when he finds out I watched it with you instead of with him,” Hyukjae answered with a chuckle as he followed Donghae to the booth. 

He stared longingly at Donghae’s hands by his side, wishing he had the courage, and on top of it all, the permission, to hold Donghae’s hand in public. But what right did he have? He wasn’t his boyfriend or his lover, with their current situation now, they were just -buddies at best. And -buddies didn’t hold hands with each other in public, especially not so when they still had a student-lecturer relationship in the other students’ eyes. Even if he didn’t want to care what other people would say, he knew that it would still affect both their reputations at the university. After all, he only had one semester left before graduation, and Donghae was still fairly new to his position. Neither one of them could afford to get into trouble now.

At least, that was what he repeated to himself since exiting the car after getting down from Donghae’s car at the parking lot, when the professor made no move to get close to him and just kept a respectable distance between them all the way to the ticket booths. 

Hyukjae knew that one of the biggest reasons why Donghae avoided him, for now, was because the cinema was often crowded with students from their university on weekends, so rumours would spread fast if they got caught being clingy with each other. But then again, he thought, if Donghae was with Siwon instead of with him, there was no doubt that both the professors would be openly holding hands and maybe kissing or cuddling somewhere around a dark corner. Two professors dating each other would probably be much less of a scandal than a professor dating a student… probably. Maybe. 

At least, he kinda hoped so, for the sake of his heart. Then he could properly justify the professor’s behaviour.

“Got our tickets!”

Hyukjae jumped when Donghae suddenly two movie tickets in his face. “O-Oh, alright then, when does the movie start?” he asked, taking the tickets from him. 

“It starts in half an hour, so we’ve got plenty of time to get our popcorn and drinks,” Donghae replied, walking towards the concession stand. “So, are you buying the popcorn or would you like me to treat you instead?”

“No, don’t treat me, you paid for the tickets so I’ll pay for the popcorn. Do you prefer butter or caramel?”

Donghae just grinned and got in line with the student. “Let’s get the combo mix. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the cinema and I’ve forgotten what they both taste like.”

“How could you forget the taste of caramel popcorn?” Hyukjae half-shrieked. “It’s the most heavenly-tasting cinema snack in the world!”

“Really? I always thought the nachos tasted better, though their cheese sauce could use some improvement.”

“You like salty things in general, and I have a sweet tooth, so sue me,” Hyukjae joked, stepping up as the queue moved ahead. 

“Mm-hm, you’re absolutely right, that’s why…” Donghae moved closer to Hyukjae who backed away cautiously. The professor then whispered in his ear, “... I like to swallow.”

Hyukjae spluttered and choked on his own spit, his face turning an impeccable shade of red and his ears burning in embarrassment. The popcorn guy looked at Hyukjae in alarm and asked if he was fine. Donghae just laughed and thumped Hyukjae’s chest a few times to get the student to stop choking and calm down, waving off the employee’s offer to call for help. The employee didn’t look quite convinced that Hyukjae would be alright and just decided to keep an eye on them.

After the choking fit finally subsided, Hyukjae groaned and hid his face in his hands. “Yah, Lee Donghae, stop talking nonsense in public!”

“Oh, now you finally call me by my name,” Donghae said with a huge grin on his face. “It’s not purely nonsense, by the way, I really do like swa—”

“Please, just no, Professor, please.”

“Aaaaand I’m back to ‘Professor’ again.”

Hyukjae peeked at Donghae through his fingers and squinted. “No popcorn for you.”

“You’ll still feed me if I ask anyway,” the professor replied with a wink. 

It was Hyukjae’s turn to order next. Stealing a glance at the still-grinning professor, Hyukjae gave in and ordered the combo mix, along with a side of nachos and two fizzy drinks. He pushed the popcorn and nachos into the p