After a late breakfast the next day, the professor said that he really needed to catch up on some work, so Hyukjae offered to do some basic chores around the house “like boyfriends do”.

He’d been kind of curious about the various electronic stuff he’d seen in Donghae’s storeroom anyway, especially whether they still all worked or not (spoiler alert, they all worked!), and Donghae had given him his full blessings to mess around the place.

But he quickly ran out of things to put away and tidy up since Donghae usually kept the apartment neat and spotless. Also, he learnt that Donghae’s smart devices would apparently turn on by themselves at certain times of the day to do their regular scheduled cleaning.

In the end, he just spent most of his time huddled on the sofa watching the little robot vacuum scooting across the white marble floors as it hummed along happily. 

So, Hyukjae just raided the fridge and snacked on everything strawberry he could find. 

“Are you gonna stay in here all day?” Hyukjae asked, a few hours later, as he popped his head into Donghae’s study. He was snacking on the last strawberry pudding in the fridge. “Can we go out somewhere together?”

Donghae leaned back in his chair and smiled lovingly at the boy. The professor was wearing a black oversized T-shirt with a streetwear brand name splashed across his chest and some matching shorts, which Hyukjae thought made him look more like a university student instead of a professor, especially with those crew socks on.

But what made Hyukjae instantly weak in his knees was the pair of black-rimmed glasses that was resting perfectly on the bridge of the professor’s nose. 

He beckoned him to enter, so Hyukjae did, on the spoon as he pattered into the study. 

“Out, like on a date?” Donghae asked with a laugh as he pulled the boy into his lap like it was the most natural thing to do. Hyukjae straddled the professor and offered him a bite of pudding, but Donghae shook his head. “Are you bored already? I think I’ve got a few games on my PlayStation you might like. And if you can find my Switch somewhere…”

“I’ve already decorated a whole town for you in Animal Crossing. And I beat your high score in Mario Kart. Twice,” Hyukjae said nonchalantly, taking another bite of his pudding. He turned and glanced at Donghae’s messy study table that was littered with stationery and thick open books. “I’m just bored. What’s with all these, anyway? Why are you working on a weekend? Shouldn’t you be spending more time with your boyfriend instead, in case he runs away from boredom?”

“I certainly should be,” Donghae answered with a laugh. “But I’m still working on my research. Lit review. Hoping to get it published early next year.” Donghae then pushed his glasses to the top of his head before leaning in to kiss Hyukjae’s cheek. “Gotta earn some more big bucks if I wanna keep my little boyfriend happy at home.”

Hyukjae rolled his eyes and pushed the glasses back down on Donghae’s nose bridge where it belonged. “I’d be happier if you brought me out on a date with these glasses on.”

Donghae chuckled. “They’re reading glasses, baby. I can’t drive with them on.”

“Then go get another pair without power in the lens. I really like seeing you in glasses.”

“Mmh, okay. Anything for my baby. We’ll go glasses shopping later,” the professor said, leaning forward to press a kiss against Hyukjae’s lips again. “You taste like strawberries.”

“Oh, that reminds me, we gotta stock up on more strawberry stuff too. I finished everything in the fridge,” Hyukjae said with a soft giggle. “I especially liked the strawberry popsicles.”

“God, how are you so adorable?” Donghae sighed, nuzzling against the student’s neck and peppering him with kisses. “I should write another paper, but on you. I’ll title it… A study on the effect Lee Hyukjae has on Lee Donghae.”

“Idiot,” Hyukjae breathed, panting softly as Donghae kissed him all the way down to his collarbones. He suddenly felt the professor’s hands near his and quickly swatted them away. “Yah, you ert. Watch where your hands are grabbing!”

“I can’t see where they’re grabbing, what are they doing?” Donghae asked with a wicked grin on his face as he continued teasing the dancer’s . “My squishy little sea squirt~”

“Are we going out or not?” Hyukjae asked again, not wanting the whole pet name argument to happen again. He firmly grabbed a hold of Donghae’s naughty hands and narrowed his eyes at the professor. “If not then I’m just going to play Animal Crossing for the rest of the day.”

“I…” Donghae glanced at the pile of work on his desk and shrugged. “I guess work can always wait. So, where are we going for dinner?”

“Dinner? Isn’t it just, like, three?”

“I know, but I’m hungry for you again,” Donghae said with a laugh when Hyukjae smacked his chest. “Okay, okay. Where do you want to go on our date? The mall?”

“I was just thinking of going for a walk somewhere. Nowhere too fancy, because you know I can’t afford much,” Hyukjae said with a pout. “Sorry, but the boyfriend you picked is broke as and has to leech off of you until he graduates and finds a job.”

“I believe I picked my boyfriend based on his charm, personality, and bedroom skills, not his bank account,” the professor said jokingly as he poked Hyukjae’s cheek to get rid of the pout. “He can leech off of me for however long he wants to. I’m willing to be his sugar daddy.”

“Yah, p-ert, I don’t need you to be my sugar daddy,” Hyukjae groaned. He got up and headed towards the door, empty pudding cup in hand. “Meet you outside in half an hour.”

“So where are we going?”

“The park, maybe? A little bit of sun will do you some good, since you’re always holed up at the lab. And then we can get pizza if we’re hungry afterwards.”

“Oh, but I’ll just happily eat you up if I am.”

“Yah ert!”

~

Hyukjae had just stepped out of the master bedroom shower when he realised that Donghae was sitting on the bed, watching him with a grin on his face. He immediately clutched the towel tighter around his waist. “I-I just wanted to use the body wash you have in here, it’s different from the one in my bedroom—”

Donghae grinned even wider and got up, pulling the boy closer by his towel. “It’s okay, baby, you don’t have to explain,” he said, reaching behind Hyukjae and squeezing his buttcheeks through the towel. “I appreciate the view very much, thank you.”

“P-ert,” Hyukjae said with a gasp, hurriedly swatting the hand away. “Don’t get any weird ideas, I’m not an exhibitionist like you.”

“Of course you aren’t. What do you take me for?” Donghae asked with a pout. “I just really, really, really like you, a lot.”

Hyukjae blushed. “I like you too, silly,” he replied shyly. “But I really need to get dressed if we’re still going out for our date.”

“Who needs dates when we could just roll in the sheets all day?”

“Lee Donghae,” Hyukjae warned with his eyes narrowed. “Don’t.”

Donghae immediately shut up and nodded meekly. “Won’t.”

Hyukjae briefly pecked Donghae’s lips and hurriedly pulled away in embarrassment. “Is it okay if I borrowed some of your— Professor!”

The professor had tugged Hyukjae back firmly for a proper kiss, except that he’d underestimated his strength and accidentally made them both fall back onto the bed, catching Hyukjae mid-sentence. “Oops,” Donghae said with a giggle. He quickly leaned up and caught Hyukjae’s lips with his own. “Didn’t mean to do that.”

“I don’t believe you,” Hyukjae said with a huff, hurriedly scrambling back up on his feet and trying his best to catch his towel before it fell to the ground. Donghae just lay on the bed with a very satisfied grin on his face. Hyukjae was blushing from the tips of his ears all the way down to his chest. “What are you staring at, you , hurry up and get ready!”

“Me? I’m staring at my beautiful little baby, of course.” The professor rolled onto his side and propped up his head on his arm, admiring the view from his position. “Go ahead and pick whatever you wanna wear from my wardrobe. There’s some new underwear in there too, if you wanna feel even closer to me—”

A damp towel flew across the room and landed squarely on Donghae’s face, accompanied by Hyukjae’s embarrassed scream. “Yah, Lee Donghaeeee!!”

By the time they were both dressed and ready to go out, it was actually much closer to dinnertime than they thought, so they decided to skip the walk altogether and have an early dinner. And since Hyukjae was so insistent about having pepperoni pizza for dinner, Donghae decided to bring him to one of his favourite Italian restaurants in the next town over.

He couldn’t believe it. This was a date, their first ‘date’ as official boyfriends, and Donghae was actually feeling a little nervous about it. It had been so long since his last official ‘date’ with his ex when they were still together. 

Of course, he’d eaten out with Hyukjae maybe a handful of times in the past, but this was different. And when he turned his head around to look at Hyukjae while waiting at a stoplight, he just couldn’t stop a fond smile from creeping onto his lips.

Mine.

Hyukjae’s face was tinted a deep shade of pink, almost red, from the beautiful sunset outside the car windows. Though, for a moment, Donghae couldn’t really tell if the pink on the boy’s cheeks was from the red of the sky or from him being nervous and shy. Whichever it was didn’t matter. Hyukjae was glowing.

He leaned forward and pecked Hyukjae’s rosy cheek, unable to resist. And when the pink deepened into fuschia, Donghae knew for sure that it wasn’t the sunset reflecting off on Hyukjae’s face that made him look adorably red like this.

“What are you thinking about, pretty boy?” Donghae asked with a soft laugh as he stared at Hyukjae. “You’re blushing so hard.”

“I-I’m not blushing,” Hyukjae said with a pout, giving his cheeks a quick pat before hiding his face in his hands. “Not thinking about anything.”

Donghae cooed. “Aww, somebody’s getting shy,” he giggled. “Already imagining how you want me for dessert tonight? Which position, baby?”

Hyukjae laughed and slapped Donghae’s lap, prompting an ‘Ow!’ from the professor. “Yah, you ert, get your mind out of the gutter and pay attention to the road!”

“Don’t have to be shy, you know,” Donghae said with a grin, revving up the engine as the light turned green. “We’ve already seen all there is to see on each other’s bodies. You already know that my most favourite part of your body is your d—.”

“I’m just going to see what kind of pizzas they have on their online menu,” Hyukjae said, quickly changing the topic before things got more embarrassing. He fished out his phone, did a Naver search of the restaurant’s name, and found the menu easily. “W-What do you recommend? They’ve got a three thumbs up for their signature pepperoni pizza.”

“Well, you said you wanted pepperoni,” Donghae said as he made a turn. “So I’m bringing you to the best one I know of.”

“I could eat them all day for a year,” Hyukae said happily. “Nothing like those disgusting things they call olives on pizzas. I think olives don’t belong on anything. They’re even worse than pineapple on pizza.”

“But olives are nice,” the professor said with a chuckle. “It’s one of my favourite pizza toppings.”

Hyukjae scrunched up his face and hummed softly as he scanned the rest of the menu. Donghae could almost hear the cogs turning in his head. “Fine. We can order the half and half, I’ll take half pepperoni and you take half olives.”

“Actually, their other pizza flavours are not bad. We could also order pizza by the slice if you want to try more.”

“It’s okay, I can roll with anything as long as it’s not olives,” Hyukjae answered, tapping on the images to read more about the ingredients. His eyes bulged out when he caught sight of the price, however. “Fifty thousand won for an 8-inch pizza? What? This is daylight robbery!”

The professor chuckled aloud. “Well, I’ve got something for you that’s also 8 inches but free—”

Hyukjae narrowed his eyes. “I’m gonna smack you if you say the ‘d’ word again.”

Donghae laughed sheepishly and just left it hanging. “Babe, it’s not like we’re eating out extravagantly every single day,” he said reassuringly. “Fifty thousand won is nothing. Besides, tonight is our official ‘first d