Hyukjae sighs softly as he kneels in front of Donghae, who is staring at him in a very confused way. The compression bandage is wrapped tightly around Donghae's knee and Hyukjae adjusts the brace over the bandage as carefully as he can. Hyukjae looks up only when he feel Donghae's hand caress his cheek. 

Raising his eyebrows questioningly, he places both hands on the arm of Donghae's chair as he stands up, staying bent over Donghae's body. 

"Thankyou," Donghae whispers, glancing sideways towards the door of the waiting room in an attempt to see if it is locked or not. 

When Hyukjae shakes his head, Donghae understands. There is no lock on the door.

Just then someone knocks on the door, and Hyukjae immediately straightens up, while Donghae gets on his feet, buttoning up his coat as he does so. 

One of the assisstants opens the door and looks inside, "Donghae-shii, Eunhyuk-shii, the live will begin in about 10 minutes, so we need you outside to get your mics adjusted."

Donghae nods politely as Hyukjae tells her that they will be out within a few seconds. 

Exchanging an understanding look, both the men exit the room lead by Hyukjae. 

*

So far the live has been exciting and fun, and the PD-nim cant help but notice the stark difference between this live and the previous ones he did with Donghae and Eunhyuk as solo artists for California Love and Be respectively. Compared to those two lives, this one contains much more laughter, the mood is lighter, the staff members are much more at ease, but the best thing is how the two artists are carrying out the live so smoothly between themselves, as if it comes to them like the most natural thing in the world. No doubt everyone who ends up working with them is always full of praise for these men.

Yet what the PD-nim doesn't know is that there is nothing that makes the two men sitting in front of the cameras happier than being with eachother, no matter where they are in the world or what they are doing.

As the PD-nim announces their cumulative points from the questions that they answered earlier, Hyukjae cant help but laugh when he sees he ended up scoring one more point than Donghae did. 

Donghae, being himself, isn't a sore loser and he sits patiently waiting for his penalty. As Hyukjae grabs the fake beard lying on the table and approaches Donghae, he is already laughing at the thought of how funny he would look like with the ginger coloured beard attached to his chin. 

What Hyukjae doesnt expect is Donghae asking him to stcik the beard on his face instead of doing it himself. Donghae is so immersed in telling him the story about how he was once mistaken as Zion.T, that he fails to see the effect he's having on Hyukjae.

As Hyukjae splays his fingers on either sides of Donghae's face and presses the tape onto his chin, Donghae's eyes flutter shut. That's when Hyukjae's head is clouded with an array of emotions. Of how malleable Donghae looks in his grip. Of how perfectly Donghae's face fits in his large hands. Of how compliant Donghae feels, of how readily Donghae trusts him from the smallest of things like this penalty to the much more important high stakes decisions of their lives.  

Merely seconds later, it's the movement behind Donghae's lids that snaps Hyukjae back into reality, and he pastes the beard ever so carefully on his cheeks after doing the same on his chin, and steps back. Hyukjae shakes his head as he reminds himself that he needs to keep his emotions in check, for he's supposed to be the one carrying the show, what with Donghae being absolutely carefree in the moment. And Hyukjae really cant take away that joy from him right now, not when he wasn't there at the time of California Love promotions when he should have been. 

When Donghae places the beard on Hyukjae's face he doesnt even flinch, instead he continues talking like nothing is happening. But when his fake beard falls off and Donghae sticks the beard that was previously on HIS own face onto Hyukjae's, that's when Hyukjae's heart flutters. He has no idea why all of this is happening, he never has such mushy feelings when he is in front o the camera, he is pro at keeping all these emotions at bay, but maybe it's the environment or the fact that Donghae isnt really feeling well that's making him feel so soft. 

However, it is when Donghae starts putting the tiny heart shaped stickers all over his face amidst fits of laughter that Hyukjae feels his heart rate shoot through the roof. It's barely a touch, like gentle whispers on his skin every time Donghae bends over him and sticks a heart on his face but Hyukjae lets him. There is pure joy on Donghae's face as he sticks the last one on Hyukjae's nose and when he leans back in his chair, throwing his head back with a loud chuckle, Hyukjae is physically unable to stop himself from staring at the man in the grey coat, and smiling like an idiot in love. 

Hyukjae doesnt lose the opportunity of decorating Donghae's face either. Two small yellow hearts on his ear lobes are all it takes for Donghae to get slightly flustered and Hyukjae only sticks one more tiny heart on his face before retracting.

The live soon comes to an end with the both of them still giggling like an idiots and even though they'd have liked to talk more, both of them are silently relieved that it's finally over and they might now have some time to themselves. 

*

Once the staff are done eating the cake that Donghae very endearingly cut into pieces for them, they finally start to disperse to pack upt their stuff. Within a matter of minutes, Donghae finds himself being dragged into a different makeup room than the previous one by Hyukjae, with the cake held tightly in his other hand.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Donghae sounds extremely confused as Hyukjae sets the box of cake on a table next to the door and locks the door carefully before turning back to Donghae, "Arent we supposed to go back home?"

Hyukjae inhales deeply and leans against the door, before giving Donghae the brightest smile yet, "I just wanted to congratulate you on the release of our first ever full album on our 10th anniversary as a subunit."

Donghae's body relaxes imme