“You sure you don’t want to stay another night?” Donghae asked with a soft pout on his face. He used his most pitiful, watery eyes on Hyukjae, and the poor boy felt like he was kicking a helpless little puppy when he shook his head regrettably.

“I’m sorry, Prof, but I’ve still got a bit of homework to catch up on before Monday,” Hyukjae said, cupping Donghae’s cheeks and pecking his nose gently. “I hadn’t expected to be spending the full day here yesterday, and I’m really behind in my work.”

“But… don’t you like spending time with me?” the professor asked, still trying to guilt-trip Hyukjae into staying. “Don’t you… like me?”

Hyukjae blushed softly and nodded. “I like you, and that’s also why I can’t stay with you.”

“Why not?”

“Because then we’ll end up ing for the whole day again.”

Donghae giggled when Hyukjae’s cheeks blushed a deep pink. “There’s nothing wrong with ing for the whole day. In fact, I’m thinking we could do this more often, maybe each weekend, or I could take time off—”

“P-Prof!” Hyukjae’s face turned redder than a beetroot as he rolled over and buried his face in a pillow. “How are you not tired?”

“Well, I wasn’t the one doing the huffing and the puffing, I was just in charge of the and the screaming,” Donghae said with a giggle. He flopped over in bed and pulled the pillow away. “Stay with me?”

“Homework,” Hyukjae protested faintly. “And… and laundry.”

“Laundry?” 

“I just came back from dance camp.”

“Dance camp?”

Hyukjae nodded and turned to smile softly at him. “I told you Miss Hyo said a company director was eyeing me for the trainee spot. Our dance faculty sends a handful of students to their elite dance and choreography class each year, and I was one of the few who went. That’s where I’ve been for the past three days.”

“Past three… oh. No wonder I couldn’t find you anywhere,” the professor mumbled softly. “Are you sure you weren’t avoiding me?”

“I swear, I wasn’t,” the student quickly replied with a solemn expression on his face. “But it was true that I never really planned on telling you about it because I hadn’t thought you’d be interested. Also, um, things happened.”

“Lots of things,” Donghae said with a faint smile. He then took a deep breath and pulled Hyukjae back into his arms, nuzzling him softly. “But also, I promise that I’ll always be interested in anything that you want to tell me. Even if you’re just describing paint dry.”

“I’m not bored enough to watch paint dry yet, so maybe next time,” Hyukjae answered with a soft giggle when Donghae started feeling him up. “Professor!”

“Don’t leave me.”

“P-Prof!” Hyukjae exclaimed when Donghae’s hands started wandering down south again. “Stop it, I-I can’t move my lower half anymore!”

“All the more reason for you to stay in bed with me today, no?” Donghae asked with an innocent, lazy grin as he rubbed his fingers against Hyukjae’s hip bone. “If you really need to finish your work, I can lend you my laptop. Your files should all be online, right?”

Hyukjae was very tempted to stay, but he knew that if he did, he wouldn’t be able to get a single word out for his 3-page essay because he’d be too busy getting distracted just watching Donghae breathe. Especially since the professor’s skin was all covered in varying degrees of bruises from his hickeys last night, making him want to keep running his fingers over them while admiring his work of art.

“I really want to, Prof, but my textbooks and journals are back at my dorm,” Hyukjae said, gently removing Donghae’s hand and preventing it from crawling to his . “Stop. Touching. Me.”

Donghae responded with a deep pout. “Fine. I’ll send you back to your dorm if you insist. Just give me half an hour.”

“I can take a taxi back, it’s fine,” Hyukjae said, rolling over to lay beside Donghae on the bed. “You need to rest. You know how to order delivery, don’t you?”

“Do I look like a five-year-old to you?” Donghae deadpanned. “I know how to order food. I’m like, ten years older than you.”

Hyukjae shrugged and grinned slyly. “Was kinda worried that you were too old to understand how technology works,” he said, giggling when the professor threw a pillow at him. “Now just stay put and don’t go anywhere.”

“Why don’t you stay since you’re so worried about me?”

Hyukjae hesitated and let out a sigh. “You know what, I’m just going to go and pick up my books before coming back here. What if you tripped and fell in the bathroom with nobody to help you up and stayed there in pain for days?”

Donghae narrowed his eyes as he propped himself up on his elbows. “Do I really look that helpless to you?”

Hyukjae bit his lip. “Well… I-I was kind of, um, very rough with you yesterday. I know you’re still h-hurting but you say it isn’t because you just don’t want me to worry.”

A soft smile spread across Donghae’s face. “Thank you for worrying about me.”

The smile on the professor’s face made Hyukjae blush softly. “I-I’ll make you some breakfast in bed, then I’ll go back to my dorms to pack before coming back here. It’ll probably take just about an hour or so. Is that alright with you?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Donghae said and stretched lazily, hissing when his spine protested with a sting. “Are we going out for dinner?”

“We could, what do you want to eat later? I’ll look up a good restaurant nearby.”

“Hmm, it depends, do any of them have you on the menu?” Donghae asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He chuckled when Hyukjae widened his eyes at him and let out an embarrassed squawk. “You asked me what I wanted, but all I want is you.”

“Cheesy,” Hyukjae muttered, slapping his own cheeks to try to disperse the blush. He then hopped out of bed and tucked Donghae back in. “Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you up when breakfast is ready.”

“Is it more ramen again?”

“Um, would kimchi pancakes do again?” Hyukjae asked, remembering the ingredients that were left in the fridge. “Or we could have some of the leftovers from last night’s dinner. I’ll go heat it up.”

“Anything works, Hyukkie. Don’t lose your hair over this,” Donghae said with a laugh. “I’m not very picky when it comes to food.”

“Alrighty then, kimchi pancakes it is.”

“Don’t forget to add just a teeny tiny bit more salt to it.”

“Mmh, okay. I know.”

~

After a simple breakfast, Hyukjae helped Donghae into his study to get on with some work and fussed over him, making sure that the professor was feeling absolutely fine before calling up a taxi to go back to the dorms. 

He packed a few sets of clothing in his overnight bag and slipped his textbooks into his laptop bag. Hyukjae was just about to leave when he suddenly heard a knock on his door. He went to answer it, not knowing who to expect since his roommate was almost never back on the weekends. Maybe someone from his group project?

Of all people, Hyukjae never expected to see Sungmin standing at the door with a guilty look on his face. The look of surprise on Hyukjae’s face quickly turned into indifference and he stepped back to shut the door, but Sungmin was quick enough to stop the door from slamming in his face.

“Hyukjae. We, uh, we need to talk.”

Hyukjae drew his lips in a firm line and narrowed his eyes at the older student. He didn’t invite Sungmin into the room but just stood at the door with a grim look on his face. “You have three minutes.”

Sungmin gulped and lowered his head. “I-I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

Hyukjae didn’t want to believe that his best friend had indeed been meddling with his phone and going through his messages like a nosy ex, even though he had good intentions, but with Sungmin suddenly appearing to apologise like this, maybe he was just trying to deny the obvious. 

This was Sungmin, whom he’d been best friends with since they were ugly little kids, and who always did his best to protect Hyukjae from being bullied or taken advantage of by other people. He might have taken it a bit too far this time, though.

“For… for going through your contacts and blacklisting Professor Lee’s number without informing you,” Sungmin whispered with his head low as he twiddled nervously with his fingers. He then looked at Hyukjae rather indignantly. “But I was just trying to look out for you!”

Hyukjae sighed. It was true then. It had been Sungmin all along. Sungmin was the reason why he almost lost Donghae before they even starte