“Babe.”

Donghae lifted his head from the beanbag when he heard the voice. “Hey, Wonnie.”

Siwon sighed as he entered the office with a stack of files in his hands. “You’ve been like that for the past few days. I don’t think that’s healthy.”

The professor rolled off the beanbag and pouted deeply at Siwon. His eyes were a little red and still slightly swollen but he still managed a soft, broken smile at the dean. “I-I think I lost him for good. He’s been ignoring my messages for days and he’s never at the studio when I go there to look for him.”

“Have you tried going over to his dorm?”

Donghae shrugged. “I don’t know which dorm room he’s in. I’ve only dropped him off at the main building before.” He pulled a cushion into his arms and buried his face into it. “Anyway, wouldn’t you think it was weird if a professor suddenly turned up at a student’s dorm to apologise? I wouldn’t just be a ert then, I’d also be labelled a e and a stalker and a creep.”

Siwon frowned as he sat at his desk, watching Donghae punch the innocent beanbag rather angrily. His lips drew into a thin line as he tried suppressing the urge to just pull Donghae into his arms and kiss him until he felt better.

It had been rather heartbreaking for Siwon to see Donghae moping in his office for the past few days. Ever since he got blocked by the student, Donghae just hadn’t been himself. He’d been antsy at first, panicking and wondering what he’d said wrongly in his texts to get him blacklisted by Hyukjae, but as the days went by, the younger professor just got more and more dejected. Thankfully, he hadn’t let it affect his performance at work, but whenever he had a chunk of time here and there, he’d always walk over next door to Siwon’s office to mope.

When Siwon asked why, Donghae had just shrugged and said that he wanted better company than Kyuhyun. Apparently, Kyuhyun was also suffering from Donghae’s and Hyukjae’s fight because Sungmin still wasn’t talking to him much. The assistant didn’t get hostile or angry at Donghae for that matter and kept their working relationship amicable, however, a brooding Kyuhyun just wasn’t the best companion for the professor when he was also feeling down. It was best for him to avoid Kyuhyun’s sharp tongue at the moment until things resolved themselves for now.

That was, if Hyukjae or Sungmin even allowed it in the first place.

“I don’t know if this is gonna cheer you up, but Hyukjae just replied ‘yes’ to Phase 2 of the experiment,” Siwon brought up in a light manner. “You might be able to catch him there if his friend doesn’t tag along.”

Donghae looked incredibly surprised. “Really? He accepted it?”

Siwon nodded and showed Donghae the list of participant names on his iPad, which the latter had to squint really hard to read the tiny words on it. “He was amongst the first to accept, according to Joy.”

“That’s weird. I thought he was avoiding me at all costs.”

“From the looks of it, it seems more like it’s his friend who’s getting in the way,” Siwon said with a slight roll of his eyes. “Isn’t Kyu interested in him? Get him to kidnap the friend or something then you’ll get your chance to confess.”

Donghae chuckled softly and flopped back onto the beanbag with a quiet sigh. “If only it were that easy. Kyu’s been rather touchy and I’d rather stay on his good side for a longer time instead of suggesting something ridiculous like that.”

Siwon narrowed his eyes playfully at Donghae. “So you’re telling me you hadn’t liked it when I fake-kidnapped you to Hawaii for your birthday last time? I mean, since you called it a ridiculous idea.”

“Wonnie…”

“Sorry. Go on.”

“There’s nothing to ‘go on’ with,” Donghae said with a bitter smile. They were over. He could feel the tears threatening to spill from his eyes again as he thought of it so he turned around, not wanting Siwon to witness him crying. But of course, Siwon knew him better than the back of his hand and just hurried over to gather Donghae in his arms. 

Donghae blinked away his tears when he felt Siwon hugging him. “Maybe you just need to go out for a breath of fresh air,” Siwon said, mumbling quietly and soothingly into the younger’s hair. “Go out for a drink or something. It’ll help get your mind off things.”

“I don’t want to have .”

“Babe.” Siwon pulled away and looked sternly at Donghae. “Drinking does not equal .”

“It leads to ,” Donghae said adamantly. “Always.”

“Not always,” the dean said with a sigh. “Not always.”

“Okay.”

Siwon could tell that Donghae wasn’t convinced at all. He could kick himself for even contributing to Donghae’s conditional thinking like that because of what they’d done in the past. “Maybe you need a drink, but not with me,” Siwon said carefully. “Friends whom you know wouldn’t ever take advantage of you.”

Donghae just hummed non-committedly and shrugged. “I’d rather just go home and sleep.”

~

Unfortunately, Siwon had a last-minute conference with the university board just as Donghae was getting ready to go home. He sighed as he stepped into his empty office to grab his work bag. Kyuhyun had already left about half an hour earlier. The only person left was the girl at the reception table who was also leaving soon. Donghae nodded a greeting at her before stepping out of the building.

Home.

He didn’t really feel like going home to an empty apartment without Siwon by his side. Call him spoiled, but he didn’t feel emotionally strong enough to face the void all by himself today.

It had almost been 72 hours since he last managed to contact Hyukjae.

Donghae looked up into the greying skies when he felt a drop of rain landing on his head. Another drop fell with a plop just on his cheek and trickled slowly down his face. He sighed again and wiped the moisture away. Maybe, just maybe, as Siwon had said, a drink would help him forget everything.

It was a Friday evening after all. He should be able to find a drinking buddy or two.

“Is that my favourite little dongsaeng? Donghae?”

Donghae spun around in surprise when he heard his name. His eyes landed on the loud and flamboyant outfit Heechul was wearing before it travelled north to his face. “Oh, Heechul hyung.”

“Going home?”

Heechul grinned widely and slung an arm over Donghae’s shoulders as he fondly ruffled up his hair. Donghae whined softly but still let himself be felt up by the fashion professor, albeit jumping a little when he felt a pinch on his . “Hyung!”

“Just checking to see if my favourite little dongsaeng has been naughty,” Heechul replied with a laugh. “Are you feeling alright, though? You looked like you were just about to cry. Your eyes look kinda red. Who bullied you? Let me know and I’ll stick a whole box of pins into their butts.”

Donghae chuckled feebly and rubbed at his eyes consciously. “I’m fine, hyung. I was just going home.”

“You haven’t eaten anything yet, have you? I’m starving. Let’s go get dinner and have some drinks later.” Heechul wasn’t even asking Donghae out for dinner anymore with how he was talking to him. It was a statement, an order of some sorts, but Donghae wasn’t mad. He’d just been thinking about finding himself a drinking buddy anyway so he might as well went. Besides, he needed a ride home since he’d come in to work by Siwon’s car today.

“Sure. Where to?”

Heechul made a show of thinking hard before tugging Donghae towards his car. “Let’s get some barbeque nearby and then head on to my favourite bar. I’m sure you haven’t been there before. You look too docile and innocent to be out at night, so let me teach you a thing or two,” he added with a wink.

“Hyung, I’m not that innocent,” Donghae said with a roll of his eyes, but Heechul just laughed. 

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll teach you everything you need to know to navigate the night scene with me.”

~

After their huge dinner, Heechul drove them straight over to his favourite gay bar. Donghae had still been rather hesitant about it, citing that he wasn’t looking for a that night, but Heechul had insisted that they were just there for a bit of fun and he wouldn’t let anyone really do anything to Donghae. 

It took a phone call from Siwon informing him that he was staying back at the lab that night to fix some data for Donghae to finally say yes and accept Heechul’s invitation to the bar. He certainly didn’t want to go home that early, especially since Siwon wouldn’t be coming back till the next day. A fun night out at a gay bar suddenly didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all, as long as he kept his hands to himself. It should be fine to let loose once in a while, shouldn’t it?

Heechul guided Donghae through the strobe-y, stinky, noisy part of the bar and finally reached the bar counter tucked away in the corner. Donghae was amazed at the difference between the dance floor and the counter in the bar. The dance floor was full of youngsters swaying and dancing flirtily with each other, occasionally kissing and groping here and there, whilst the tables and seats nearer to the counter were composed of slightly older, mature-looking, and generally quieter men around their age. Sure, there were still some s and kisses exchanged, but they were being a lot more subtle about it. Donghae kind of preferred the quieter area because of that.

“Chullie, back so soon?”

Donghae turned and just caught Heechul leaning over the counter to place a peck on the handsome bartender’s cheek. Heechul smiled and winked at Donghae, gesturing towards a few empty seats in front of them. Donghae took a seat and started scanning the menu for familiar drinks he knew wouldn’t conk him out within the first hour. Another reason why he avoided alcohol was simply that he couldn’t handle his alcohol well, so he’d memorised a few drinks he knew he could hold in his hand and pretend to sip on for the whole night without getting blackout drunk by the time he was done.

However, before he could place his order, Heechul had already set down a blue-coloured drink in front of Donghae. “Try their special Blue Moon drink. I think you’ll like it.”

“What’s in this?” Donghae asked, carefully swirling the drink in his hand. It smelled a little fruity and sweet, but he knew that sometimes the sweetest, fruitiest drinks had the highest alcohol content in them. 

“It’s our version of the Blue Lagoon, with lemonade and vodka. But we use real cherries instead of maraschino cherries so it’s a little more tart than usual.”

Donghae smiled at the pleasant-looking bartender explaining his drink. He noticed that the bartender had spoken in a rather heavily-accented voice. Also, Heechul’s eyes were practically glued onto him as the fashion professor stared on in adoration.

“This is Hankyung, I call him Kyungie,” Heechul said with a grin. “And he’s the most handsome bartender in all of Korea.”

The bartender took a small bow. “I’m Hankyung. You can just address me comfortably however you want.”

“Thanks, Hankyung… hyung,” Donghae said with a smile and took a small sip of the drink. He winced when he tasted the vodka burning down his throat and the tartness that followed after. “I’m gonn