“Your place or mine?”

Hyukjae stared at Donghae with a confused look on his face. “Yours…?”

“Wise choice.”

“We’re literally fifteen minutes away from your apartment and more than half an hour from my dorm,” Hyukjae said, swinging their hands gently between them both as they strolled along the curb outside the restaurant. 

He felt a strange sense of deja vu. 

The last time they walked down this path together, their relationship was a mess and he’d just determined that he would be content just using and being used by Donghae. And then they’d gone back and had a bunch of and then broke each other’s hearts right afterwards.

But he wasn’t going to let it happen again. Not anymore. 

Hyukjae stared at Donghae’s rosy cheeks as the cold night air congregated at his mouth and turned into light mists with every breath he let out. As Donghae’s lips curled up into a wide smile when he noticed the student staring at him, Hyukjae couldn’t resist leaning forward and placing a gentle peck on the professor’s mouth.

Donghae closed his eyes and kissed back slowly, softly, letting his fingers intertwine with Hyukjae’s. He let out a satisfied hum and smiled into the kiss. “What was that for?” he asked rather breathlessly.

“For being the most beautiful person in the world,” Hyukjae replied as he chuckled, “And for dinner.”

“Isn’t this too cheap to pay for dinner?” Donghae asked, an evil twinkle in his eyes. “Didn’t I tell you it’s a whole night of uninterrupted ? We’re just getting started, baby…”

Hyukjae blushed and groaned, pulling away from Donghae in embarrassment but Donghae wouldn’t let go of his fingers and instead tugged him even closer. Donghae then pressed his hand against the small of Hyukjae’s back and brought him back in for another deep kiss, his tongue lapping gently at Hyukjae’s lips, asking for permission, and cautiously slipping in when the student let out a soft gasp.

“P-Prof… Mmh…”

They’d just stopped in front of a closed bakery with glass windows. Donghae carefully pushed Hyukjae back against the cool surface and delved a little deeper into the student’s mouth with his tongue, not caring at all about the handful of passers-by hurrying past them. Trapping Hyukjae’s body against the glass, Donghae lightly pressed himself against him as he continued kissing Hyukjae. Hyukjae’s lips were warm and sweet and still tasted like the chocolate lava cake he’d ordered for dessert. Tempting, addicting, and simply irresistible. 

Donghae could feel the grip on his sanity starting to loosen. But he’d promised Hyukjae to take it slow, so he wouldn’t initiate any more tonight, no matter how he got. Anyway, they’d already ed enough in the past 48 hours to last them… probably three days, max. He wondered which one between the two of them would cave first. Probably himself, since just the mere sight of Hyukjae made him perpetually .

He was glad that Hyukjae wasn’t in any of his classes, or else he’d be so distracted that he wouldn’t be able to do any teaching at all.

A sudden whine from Hyukjae snapped Donghae out of his reverie. The student’s face was so red that he might have been cooked lobster. The professor stopped ing his tongue down Hyukjae’s throat and backed away rather sheepishly as Hyukjae gasped quietly for air. 

However, Donghae found that Hyukjae’s fingers were still very tightly interlaced with his. Donghae bit back another wide grin and just nuzzled Hyukjae’s neck, letting out a soft sigh.

“Sorry, I got carried away.”

Once he’d managed to catch his breath, Hyukjae chuckled weakly and said, “Prof, no matter what you do, I’m still not going to you tonight.”

“Way to ruin the mood,” Donghae replied, pretending to sulk. He tugged at their interlaced hands, but Hyukjae just would not let go. 

“Y-You still need to teach, and I’ve got practice tomorrow,” Hyukjae said shyly, as his eyes trailed downwards. “Do you… do you want to come and watch? It’s for our showcase. I just finished choreographing my solo performance. You can come to watch me in the afternoon if you want.”

“You have a solo performance?” Donghae asked, his eyes widening into saucers. “That’s great! Does everyone get a solo performance too?”

“No, only the few best students in class,” the student said bashfully, finally letting go of Donghae’s hand to scratch at his head. Donghae immediately enveloped Hyukjae into a hug and pressed another firm kiss on his lips. He felt like a proud mother hen.

“That’s very modest of you, Hyukkie. What kind of performance is it? You’re dancing, right? Hip hop? B-boy? Ballet? Jazz?”

“Wow, someone’s been doing his homework,” Hyukjae said with a laugh.

“y?” Donghae added as a knowing grin crept onto his lips. “Is my cute little Hyukkie gonna strip as he seduces the rest of the audience? Or are you gonna show ‘em how you can do the mighty hip s like the way you ed me into—”

“Professor! I can’t strip on the stage, there are talent scouts in the audience!” Hyukjae screeched, quickly covering Donghae’s mouth with his hands before the professor could spew any more nonsense. “I’m doing contemporary. I got a few juniors to help me out as my background dancers and we’re finally putting the whole piece together on Monday. It’s nothing ual at all!”

“Contemporary?” Donghae pulled Hyukjae’s hand away and kissed each fingertip instead, still in a playful, teasing mood. “Does that mean you’re gonna be in a skin-coloured, body-hugging, skimpy little leotard as you dangle your balls in front of the audience?”

Hyukjae narrowed his eyes at the professor, and for a brief moment, Donghae internally panicked. His smile froze on his face for a brief second. 

. Did he take it too far again? 

Just as he was about to back off and apologise, however, Hyukjae suddenly burst into loud giggles. Donghae was stunned. He hadn’t expected Hyukjae to react like that, so he didn’t know how to respond either.

“Hyukjae, I—”

“Dangle? My balls? In front of the audience?” Hyukjae laughed, wiping tears from his eyes and falling into Donghae’s arms. “Prof, what kind of weird have you been watching online?”

Donghae bit his lips and let out a dry chuckle as he held Hyukjae close. “Nothing more obscene than the things I want to do to you but I won’t because I don’t wanna scare you off,” he said sheepishly. “So… no balls?”

“No balls,” Hyukjae said, collapsing into another fit of laughter. He tried his best to look sternly at the professor, failed, and shook his head in amusement at himself. “But you’re kind of right about the skin-coloured part. I’m wearing a soft pink, flowy, see-through top, with tons of sequins in the front, and matching pants and shoes. From afar, it does kinda look like my skin colour.”

Donghae’s eyes had brightened up when Hyukjae mentioned ‘see-through’. “I’d love to see you wear it maybe once before the performance,” the professor said, bringing his hand up to the dancer’s cheek. He stared at the plump lips that were slightly red and swollen from the kiss earlier and gulped softly when they stretched into a slight grin. 

“S-Sure, but you’re not allowed to do naughty things with it,” Hyukjae warned, making Donghae smirk playfully. 

“What naughty things are you thinking?”

Hyukjae blushed and refused to say anything more about the subject. “I’ll let you know when I’ve got it,” he said in a barely audible voice before pulling Donghae along to walk back to his place. Donghae just grinned and trailed after Hyukjae like a pleased little puppy with its tail wagging nineteen to the dozen.

“I’ve been… thinking.”

Donghae’s head immediately snapped up when he heard Hyukjae say that. “W-What is it?” 

For some reason, he found himself still rather fearful that Hyukjae would regret everything and leave him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to trust the student, but it was even harder to trust himself not to overthink things and end up ruining relationships anyway. 

Hyukjae was not Siwon. Hyukjae had not even started to see the worst part of him, so there was no guarantee that Hyukjae would stick around like Siwon did.

He didn’t want to think that he was a pessimist. Just an avid overthinker of what was the worst thing that could happen if he continued overthinking like this.

So… a pessimist.

“Why are you so pale?” Hyukjae asked in surprise. He hurried over to the sofa where Donghae was seated and lightly pressed the back of his hand against the professor’s forehead. “Are you sick?”

Donghae tried to brush it off with a chuckle and tugged on Hyukjae’s hand instead, pulling him into his lap. “No, but I promise I’ll get better after a kiss or two,” he said. He then slid his hands under Hyukjae’s shirt and caressed the dancer’s body that was starting to squirm from the ticklish feeling.

“You opportunist,” Hyukjae said with a roll of his eyes as he tried to push Donghae’s wandering hands away. “I said, I’ve been thinking, and it’s about our… relationship.”

“Mmh?” Donghae fell silent and nuzzled Hyukjae’s neck, trying to hide the insecurity in his eyes. “What about our relationship?” Please don’t leave me please don’t leave me please don’t— 

“... Would you mind if I told my friends about you?”

Friends? 

That was the last thing on Donghae’s mind. He never thought that he had the right to dictate what Hyukjae told his friends, especially since they were only just starting out, so why was Hyukjae asking this? 

“Your friends? Do I know them?”

“You met a handful of them,” Hyukjae replied as he properly straddled the professor and leaned into his embrace. “You’ve met Sungmin and Shindong, then there’s Yeye and Junsu and the rest of the dance team on campus—”

“You want to make an official announcement about our relationship to all of them?” Donghae was rather taken aback. “I mean, I don’t want to hide our relationship too much, but maybe we