Hyukjae hurried into the bar to look for both the professors. The dance floor was just getting all worked up again, and the music seemed to be getting louder and rowdier as he zigzagged his way through the sweaty, dancing bodies in search of Donghae (and company).

After escaping a or two, he finally reached the slightly calmer area where he caught sight of the bartender beckoning him over.

“Are you the kid picking up Donghae-ssi?”

“Yes, where did he go?” Hyukjae kept glancing at the older patrons in their seats, mostly smooching amongst themselves, and wondered why Donghae even bothered coming to such a place when he supposedly still had Siwon by his side. Oh well, he’d just have to ask him later. Right now, his first priority was getting Donghae out of here and back home safe and sound.

Hankyung beckoned towards the back of the building where the restrooms were at. “Chullie brought him back there because he said he felt like throwing up.”

Hyukjae sprinted towards the back and nearly bumped into Heechul, who was just helping Donghae out of the restroom. “O-Oh, Professor Kim!”

Heechul’s eyes lit up at once when he saw the student. He nudged Donghae by his side. “Hey, look, it’s your favourite person,” he said, forcing Donghae to look up at Hyukjae.

A wide smile spread across Donghae’s red face at once. “Ooh, hyung, it’s Hyukkie… it’s my little Hyukkie…” Donghae started laughing and hiccuping at the same time just then, nearly tripping and falling over his feet as he stumbled towards Hyukjae. “My— hic! My Hyukkie is here!”

Hyukjae quickly caught hold of the professor before he fell and kissed the ground. “Y-Yes, Prof, it’s me, Hyukjae,” he said, wincing when he felt Donghae’s alcoholic breath fanning in his face. “How much did you drink?”

“Just two!” Donghae said proudly, holding up five fingers to Hyukjae. “B-Blue Moon was good, it— hic! It made me think of you… and Red— hic! Red Hyukkie, Red Hyukkie was gooder…”

Heechul shook his head and helped Donghae back to his seat at the table as he couldn’t bear to see Hyukjae struggling alone with the huge, muscular professor anymore. “He’s actually only had three drinks, and the last one had about just one drop of vodka in it,” Heechul told Hyukjae with a roll of his eyes. “I didn’t think that he was this bad with alcohol. Good thing he’s just a giggly drunk and not a screamy drunk.”

As soon as Donghae was seated, he immediately grabbed at the red drink on the table and downed everything in one go. Hyukjae didn’t manage to stop him in time and he glanced at Heechul in horror, only to see that Heechul didn’t look as worried as he thought he should be.

“Don’t worry, it’s all just blue lemonade and cranberry juice here. Nothing alcoholic.”

Hyukjae nodded warily as Donghae started giggling after finishing the drink. How was he supposed to carry this man back home all by himself? Why didn’t Heechul call someone else, like Siwon, for instance, to bring the professor home?

“P-Prof Kim…”

Donghae suddenly choked on his own spit just then, and, to Hyukjae’s shock, he started rubbing his face on the student’s shoulders. “Professor!”

“He was like that the whole night, going all ‘Hyukjae this’ and ‘Hyukjae that’. Let him indulge in you for a little while longer,” Heechul said with a rather tired smile as he sipped on a purple drink that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “I thought my ears were going to bleed with how often he kept mentioning your name to me.”

“H-He was talking about me the whole time?” Hyukjae asked, trying to keep still as Donghae kept trying to burrow into his neck. It was rather distracting, but he didn’t know what to do with the professor. Maybe it was time to drag him home before he made a fool of himself.

“Tch, he seemed pretty heartbroken about losing you, but since you called and came over anyway, it should mean that you still care for him, don’t you?”

Hyukjae bit his lips and nodded cautiously, wondering how far along with their story Donghae had told Heechul. Besides, he didn’t know if he could trust Professor Kim just yet. Just because Donghae was fine with telling Heechul everything while drunk, it didn’t mean that Hyukjae liked the idea of someone he barely knew learning all the juicy details about his and Donghae’s relationship.

Not that he really had the right to say anything after all, because to the best of his knowledge, they still didn’t have a ‘thing’ going on between them just yet.

“I… do.” Hyukjae looked away when Heechul suddenly came close and peered into his eyes. “What?”

“Just to wanted to see for myself what Donghae sees in you,” Heechul said as he narrowed his eyes. “I honestly can’t tell yet.”

The student frowned and felt defensive at once. “W-What do you mean—”

Heechul shrugged and lifted his arms slightly in surrender. “I’m not judging you. I was judging Hae. He really ought to refine his tastes a little.”

There was a slight pause as Hyukjae’s brain scrambled to find an appropriate reaction to Heechul’s words. They stung, and maybe there was some truth to them, but Hyukjae didn’t think that he wanted to stay and find out exactly what Prof Kim thought of him because even he didn’t have a high opinion of himself anymore.

He gave up in the end and tried changing the topic instead. “Why didn’t you call his other friends to pick him up?”

The fashion professor let out a soft laugh and took another sip of his purple drink. “His stupid iPhone was password protected and for some reason, he didn’t activate thumbprints or face recognition on it. And he wouldn’t talk about anything else other than you, so I couldn’t even ask him for his password.”

“Oh.” Hyukjae suddenly thought Donghae was being too quiet and looked down to see him fast asleep against his chest. The professor’s hands were wrapped tightly around Hyukjae’s waist as if preventing Hyukjae from ever running away again.

The student ran his fingers through Donghae’s hair and gently scratched at the base of his scalp, eliciting a soft, satisfied hum from the man’s lips. Well, he guessed there was really nothing else he could do now. Donghae looked like a tired, worn-out, yet contented little kitty happily snoozing on his chest, and Hyukjae didn’t hate it.

“What a little baby,” Heechul commented, a soft smirk hanging from his lips. “Do you know how to take care of a drunk person, Hyukjae-ssi?”

Hyukjae nodded softly. “I know how to make hangover soup.”

“Ah, good. Good,” the elder professor remarked. “Well, I’ll leave him to you now. If you’ll excuse me, I want to continue my date with a very, very handsome bartender tonight…”

Heechul winked and blew Hyukjae a flying kiss before marching towards the counter, pulling Hankyung closer by his collar and planting a firm kiss on his lips. Hyukjae shuddered and quickly averted his eyes. With Donghae was still sleeping peacefully against his body, how on earth was he supposed to bring him back home again?

~

“Need some help there, buddy?” the taxi driver asked, seeing Hyukjae struggling to get Donghae out of his seat once they’d reached the professor’s apartment building.

Donghae had slept like a log throughout the entire ride home, with no signs of throwing up or waking up for the twenty-minute ride or so. It was a good thing since Hyukjae knew just how troublesome some people got when they were drunk — whether the flirty kind, the screaming kind, the wailing kind, or the throwing up kind. 

Compared to his past experiences, Donghae was an angel. Except for the fact that Donghae, being such a dead drunk sleeper, made it extremely hard for Hyukjae to drag both the professor and his own travel bags into the building. Hyukjae graciously accepted the driver’s help to bring his bags in while he managed to half-carry, half-drag Donghae into the lobby.

Thank god for luxury apartments like Donghae’s having guards and a concierge on duty in the lobby. They recognised Donghae at once and helped Hyukjae bring his things into the lift, even pressing the 15th floor for him before stepping out.

Hyukjae heaved a sigh of relief when the lift doors finally closed. The professor was kind of wobbly on his feet as the lift ascended, so Hyukjae just held him by the waist all the way up. 

It seemed like Donghae was finally regaining his senses because he was starting to mumble in his sleep. Hyukjae thought that maybe he heard his name being mentioned a few times, but he wasn’t entirely sure. As long as Donghae didn’t suddenly wake up and start crying in the middle of the night for Siwon, Hyukjae was ready to put up with whatever the professor threw at him tonight.

After all, it was partially his fault that the professor had fallen this low.

He should have realised something was wrong after Donghae stopped contacting him out of the blue, three days ago, instead of blaming everything on him. He had to make it up to him somehow or other.

“Mmh, H-Hyukkie…”

Hyukjae pressed a soft kiss on Donghae’s cheek, smiling slightly when the professor scrunched up his nose in reflex. “I’m here, Prof, I’m bringing you home.”

“Home…” Donghae sighed, happily nuzzling against Hyukjae. “Let me… home…”

“We’re almost there, Prof.”

“Hyukkie… home.”

“Mmh, home.”

The lift doors dinged and opened a brief twenty seconds later. Hyukjae managed to lead Donghae along to his unit and unlock the door with his thumbprint without too much of a hassle.

He was so, so glad that the professor was quiet and docile. Nothing like his ex, who loved trashing up the place and projectile-vomiting over everything before passing out on the floor. 

Ugh, why did I even think about that er? Grosssss!!

Hyukjae kicked his bags into the apartment before the door shut them outside. He had thought of just bringing Donghae home and maybe tucking him into bed before going back to his dorm, but Donghae kept clinging so tightly onto him that he decided that he should perhaps stay for the night.

After all, even if he lived by himself, Donghae probably wouldn’t like waking up alone and hungover the next day without anyone there to take care of him. The professor had been good all the way home in the taxi just now. Hyukjae could just do this one extra thing for him.

Of course, it was also because he missed Donghae so much and he didn’t want Donghae feeling sad tomorrow, either. He’d been sad for a whole week now. He deserved to be happy again. 

He led Donghae to the sofa and set him down carefully. The professor finally let go of Hyukjae with some gentle coaxing and another kiss to the forehead. Hyukjae heaved a sigh of relief. He went on a quick hunt for a washcloth, wetted it with warm water, and came back to clean the dirt, grime, and sweat from his sticky body.