i planned it as a one-shot and wrote a two-shot that turned into a three-shot while i'm proofreading :"D hope you'll like it still~♥

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Instead of sipping his drink, Donghae happened to be chewing the straw while he was reading the comments to the news about him and Hyukjae being chosen as male leads for an upcoming BL drama.

As he expected, the public was giving many reactions to that – not all were positive, yet he mastered the art of ignoring the hate after all these years – making their names to the top of searches. The article triggered such reaction itself because there was one thing that made everyone curious.

The article talked about the author of the book that was getting a live adaptation and the fact that she was mesmerized by the actors’ acting and the chemistry they shared, feeling like the characters she wrote were based on these two.

Would’ve been weird if such words didn’t make people talk, especially those who knew Hyukjae’s and Donghae’s acting styles well.

There were not so pretty comments like, ‘Mesmerized by Lee Hyukjae’s acting? Was the author mesmerized by how he’s unable to act at all? Haha’

Or, ‘Chemistry? With someone like Lee Donghae? The rumors must be right then – Lee Hyukjae really could act with a rock as his partner and still portray a believable love story, so even him acting with Donghae looked okay.’

And even, ‘I totally can’t see these two acting as those characters… Yet another good story is going to be ruined by an awful live adaptation TT so sad’

Donghae couldn’t help but found himself smiling at those comments. He used to be really hurt by seeing such things back then, however, he felt competitive nowadays. Instead of getting all worked up because of it, he really wanted to prove them wrong. And those who will hate on them once the drama is out… means they are just blinded by their hate and can’t be objective. The guy was sure he and Hyukjae will do their job well.

Just like so many other people.

So many people were excited to know there’s going to be a ‘big’ BL drama, moreover, with famous actors like the two were. They already started talking about their excitement and a few even created a ship, although the guys didn’t get to act together yet.

Donghae chuckled when he saw one of the comments saying, ‘Don’t you think it’s fate? Two rivals who kept fighting for the roles… will meet together in a BL drama!! Wah wah, I’m so excited TT And the chemistry part… what if it’s real? Hehe I mean!! The two definitely have something going on between them… have you seen Donghae blushing in front of Hyukjae on ‘Weak Heart’?♥ Excited to see how their kiss will look like…’

“Hey, they said I was blushing on ‘Weak Heart’!” the actor laughed when saying that to his manager who, as he thought, was beside him. He ignored the kiss part on purpose… because, if he had to be completely honest, Donghae himself couldn’t imagine that, and he was thankful they were still far from filming such scenes.

It was only the first day of shooting and they came to the place where they were rehearsing for quite a while to start with filming the first scenes of this story. He had to dye his hair blonde just to fit in the character’s style – and kind of hated the fact Hyukjae could leave his hair black because, among the two, Donghae was the one who didn’t quite like the hair experiments – and kept touching it because he felt a bit unusual. That really felt like the beginning of something he thought he’d never get to do.

Him acting in a romance drama. After all this time. He couldn’t believe.

“Weren’t you?” he heard the voice and didn’t realize it didn’t belong to his manager as he was a bit preoccupied with other thoughts. “There were so many screenshots of that moment on SNS.”

Donghae frowned, “Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”

“I am. You looked really cute if you wonder.”

That’s when the blonde – he couldn’t believe his hair still – realized he wasn’t talking to his manager and turned around… only to see Hyukjae standing beside him and smirking.

Donghae frowned, “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“To whom, then?”

The younger looked around to point at his manager… only to realize he was alone here. Well, a few people from staff were running around to make the set – the dance practice room where their characters had to meet for the first time – look exactly like they wanted, but his manager was nowhere to be seen.

Well, awkward.

Donghae pouted and said, “To myself, apparently.”

That made Hyukjae chuckle, “Are you sulking because your manager left you alone here?”

“I’m not sulking.”

“Tell that to your reflection in the mirror.”

Mirrors were almost everywhere, and that was the problem because it wasn’t too easy to film here and not expose there were the lights and cameras everywhere, but everyone was doing what they could. There were so many mirrors, even behind Donghae who was sitting on the floor, legs pressed against his chest, with one hand holding the phone and another one tightening the grip around his drink. He looked at himself and almost cursed.

He was pouting and looked like he was sulking, yes.

Also, he was as red as tomato.

No blushing, huh, Lee Donghae?

The blonde looked back at his phone and chewed on the straw, indicating he didn’t really wish to continue that conversation anymore. It was a bit embarrassing, you know. That’s when he saw something being carefully placed on his knees, recognizing it as a chocolate bar. He looked up to meet Hyukjae’s warm – warm! – gaze when the man spoke, “I bet it’s far more edible than the straw you’ve been chewing on for a while already.”

Donghae blinked a few times as if he needed a moment to realize everything the older just said.

Maybe it was just a habit he’s got from work, maybe he was an overthinker, but, while analyzing this phrase that seemed to be so simple, Donghae suddenly saw it had more layers than one would expect.

Hyukjae used the phrase ‘for a while’. Nothing special – the guy did spend good twenty minutes on just sitting with this drink in his hand and chewing onto the straw; that silly habit of his he couldn’t get rid of. But it wasn’t the thing that was unusual.

The fact that Hyukjae noticed Donghae doing that was though. Maybe he wasn’t, like, looking at him only, but the fact that the man noticed that… meant he did spend some time observing the blonde doing that? Also… there was no another chocolate bar in his hands or anything. The man didn’t even look like he was going to eat. He wouldn’t do that now, not in the midst of filming. Donghae remembered that Hyukjae hated having little snacks while working; he was like that since the very first day on the shooting set back when they were younger. It didn’t change with time. They had long breaks that’d allow to have full meals and the raven head used them only, meanwhile the other guy tried to eat during every free second he was getting. They were different in this. Hence, the man didn’t plan to eat.

So, did Hyukjae… bring that bar for Donghae? Like, on purpose? But… why?

Apparently, he was thinking for too long as the raven head gave him the last encouraging smile and turned around to leave and approach his own manager.

The blonde blinked and found himself saying before he even realized what he was about to say, “Thank you, Hyukjae.”

The man stopped and looked at him again. He smiled. Again.

“You like milk chocolate the most, right?” he asked, and that was so random.

“Yeah. Can’t stand the dark and white ones.”

Hyukjae’s smile grew wider, “I remember.”

“You do?”

“You told me about that when we were filming for our first drama.”

Donghae opened his mouth, yet didn’t find the words to say anything, so he closed it again. He didn’t remember sharing that, but wasn’t surprised he did. He was quite talkative, actually, don’t mind him being this stiff with Hyukjae. It wasn’t like that all the time, but they did become awkward after all those events. It wasn’t like that at the very beginning though, so it was believable Donghae could share so many random things about himself as he thought that could help them to get closer.

What was unbelievable happened to be the fact Hyukjae actually remembered about it. Just like the blonde remembered little things about him. It was so weird. The fact the two behaved as if they were strangers when they actually knew so many things about each other. Donghae knew Hyukjae won’t eat seafood when it was served for them. Just like Hyukjae knew Donghae won’t stand the spicy sauce he was offered. They knew things about each other people around them seemed to not know. Yet… they seemed more like the strangers with each other than with people around them. And the blonde couldn’t help but… thought it was genuinely upsetting.

Again, it took Donghae a little too long to reply, so the man turned around and left. This time, no one stopped him.

The blonde looked at the chocolate bar on his knees, feeling how his ears heated up. That was the thing that didn’t change.

He tried to deny it, but it’s always been like that.

He always ended up blushing when Hyukjae was around.

***

Unlike the popular belief, there was not too much time the actors could spend together as something people called ‘free time’ was mostly used for rehearsals or rest between the scenes you were acting in. As Hyukjae and Donghae were the leads, they were really busy. Joint scenes, individual scenes – they had the most of screen time as the story was strongly focused on the main characters with rare inclusions of the scenes with support ones. The only person who had almost as many scenes as Donghae and Hyukjae happened to be the young guy who was playing the partner of Hyukjae’s character.

Not a romantic one, a real partner. The story was about an idol who had to be protected by the agents from special organization as the celebrities from his agency were getting killed, and the two basically were Donghae’s (well, his character’s) bodyguards. The guy’s character was helping the two to get along better as Hyukjae’s one was quite stiff when it came to feelings whereas Donghae was more on a playful side.

It was funny how it was totally opposite in real life. Donghae wasn’t stiff when it came to feelings, but he definitely was stiff whenever the man was around, and he couldn’t get the nature of that. Still. He didn’t know how to behave; Hyukjae seemed to not mind that gap of years that separated them, but Donghae… what had he do? Maybe he was just too sensitive over it and had to pretend nothing happened just like the other among the two did? He didn’t know.

He only knew he almost fainted when Hyukjae during the photoshoot.

They were taking pics for a poster. It was nothing special as all they needed to do was standing close in standard poses while the photographer was taking pictures of them. Donghae’s heart wasn’t okay already as he didn’t expect they’ll have to be this close. Well, that’s what you expect from BLs, but really, the photographer wanted them to move closer and closer… to the point their cheeks almost were touching one another by the end of the photoshoot.

“We’re done, thank you!” the photographer said, and Donghae’s posture relaxed immediately as he needed to keep his back extremely straight for beautiful shots.

He didn’t even manage to think about what to do next when his peripheral vision allowed him to see Hyukjae turned his face to the guy all of a sudden and the next second he…

Blew at Donghae’s cheek.

Yeah, just like that.

He blew at his cheek, his breath tickling the tender skin and causing shivers, and chuckled when Donghae flinched and took a step back to look at the man with wide eyes only to hear, “Good job.”

The guy kept eyeing him while covering his cheek with a palm absentmindedly. Hyukjae used to do it in the past as well, he was quite playful off-screen. When he was in a good mood, of course. Well, he seemed to always be in a good mood whenever Donghae was around because such teasing never stopped.

The blonde only managed to say, “You too. I mean, not that you’re good, but your job is good… I mean… you’re good as well, but…”

Damn, why was he like that all the time whenever Hyukjae was around? It’s been so long since the two were rookies, so long since Donghae was nervous around the man and wanted nothing but for him to notice him… Why was he like this still?

Why were his praises so important? Why every act of kindness was leaving him speechless, even when it was something as simple as getting chocolate?

Why did Donghae’s heart start beating so fast the moment Hyukjae smiled and said, “I didn’t get to compliment you before, but actually, blonde suits you a lot. Whoever said you’re stunning was right.”

Why, just why Donghae couldn’t help but blushed at those words? He wished he knew. Or more like…

He wished he had the courage to admit the answer that was coming to his mind was right.

***

Life is not always eventful, even when you’re an actor. Sure, it must be different from the life of non-celebrities, but it consists of a bit too much of routine as well.

Wake up early. Get ready. Go to the shooting set. Get dressed and let others put some makeup on your face. Go and act. Get a break. Eat. Go and act. Try to fight the exhaustion. Go and act. Last until very late. Go and give the clothes back. Remove your makeup. Go home and take your precious 4 or, if you’re lucky, 5-6 hours of sleep. Repeat.

That was about it. Now the life of an actor seemed less fun when it was summarized like this, huh? But really, it was like that in general. And only small things made it different. Only little details that were adding preciousness to this work.

Donghae adored those little details.

He adored how everyone was becoming a family. Not always, since sometimes there were not too nice people on the set too, but this drama was one of those where the cast felt like they could trust each other with their lives. Donghae adored them having meals together (or almost together, since Hyukjae preferred to eat alone as he kept repeating the lines in his head or something, and the blonde just couldn’t stop eyeing him during those moments), he simply loved the countless pictures they were taking (again, mostly without Hyukjae as he actually was quite introverted and, if one dared to say so, aloof), cherished all the conversations they shared and even little acts of care towards each other.

He cherished some even more than others.

Not because of that weird relationship that was between them