"Why are you suddenly doing variety again, really?"

Hyukjae asks this one night when they're all cuddled up in Hyukjae's bed, Donghae held tight in his arms.

"Just feeling like it?"

"Ei." Hyukjae taps Donghae's head lightly. "Nonsense."

Donghae buries his head deeper into Hyukjae's chest. "If you take one step," his voice is low and tender, lips grazing right where Hyukjae's heart is on his chest, "then I follow you and take one too. Didn't you say it before?"

Hyukjae can feel his hair standing and toes curling from the intimate act. Donghae can also feel the other's quickening heartbeat through his lips, and they tug up to a smile.

"Is it really because of that?" Hyukjae asks, and he doesn't know why he feels a little nervous doing so. Donghae is stubborn as a rock, and he has been stubborn about not doing variety for the past more than ten years at this point. Suddenly he's doing it unasked just because of one sentence Hyukjae said and the fact that Hyukjae is busying himself more with variety these days?

The puzzling man looks up at him and grins—Hyukjae catches the glint of mischief in his eyes. "Romantic, right?"

A light smack to Donghae's back. "You're insufferable," Hyukjae says, knowing he'll probably never know Donghae's motives just like always. But that's okay, too. Anything's okay if Hyukjae gets to hear Donghae's laugh just like this.