Donghae rushed to the coffee shop that Saturday, full of excitement and nerves. He was excited to hang out with Hyukjae again, beyond the setting of the coffee shop. In the time that had elapsed since their initial meeting, Donghae had visited Hyukjae at work almost every day. He would take some schoolwork with him and occasionally Hyuk would pop by and they would chat a little. Hyukjae was always really curious about what Donghae was studying and Hae found that he enjoyed telling Hyuk about it.

As Donghae approached the shop, he spotted Hyukjae out front, absently looking around with his hands stuffed in similar pants that Hae was wearing. It made him feel more at ease; a strange feeling since clothes had never been much of a hang-up for him before.

Hyukjae spotted Donghae approaching and his face lit up with a bright smile. Hae was getting so used to that smile that he automatically smiled back and lifted a hand to wave casually.

“Perfect timing!” Hyukjae exclaimed. “We’ll get there in plenty of time if we leave now.” Hyuk then turned and bent over to pick up a sporty-looking duffle bag. Donghae wondered what was in it and suddenly felt self-conscious again. Was there other stuff he should have brought?

“Let’s go!” Hyukjae said happily and turned to walk away.

Donghae tried to tame the butterflies going crazy inside his stomach as he followed his new friend down the street.

When they arrived, Donghae was surprised to see that the studio was simply a refurbished space above someone’s apartment. They walked up three flights of old stairs to get to the top level. Hyukjae seemed extra enthusiastic, his movements fast and big as he seemed to leap up the steps.

At the top, there was a door propped open and Donghae could see some people inside already, stretching on the floor and talking.

The nerves returned and he suddenly felt awkward about other experienced dangers seeing him attempt bust a move. Perhaps Hyukjae sensed this because suddenly there was a comforting hand on his shoulder and he turned his head to see Hyuk smiling reassuringly at him.

“Don’t worry. Everyone else brought a friend today, too.” Hyukjae squeezed. “We’ll have fun.”

Donghae nodded and allowed himself to be steered to one unoccupied corner of the room to stretch.

As Hae sat on the floor to stretch out his muscles, he let his eyes discretely wonder around the room. In the middle of the space, a couple girls were talking actively, smiling, laughing and helping each other stretch their legs. Other people were doing the same here and there, but what really caught his eye were two young men in the opposite corner. They were busily talking and twisting themselves around to prepare for the practice, but that wasn’t the strange part.

Maybe it was the way they were looking at each other, or maybe it was how they effortlessly touched one another on the back, leg or shoulder… but something struck him as different.

“Ok, my dancers!” a loud voice filled the room. Donghae looked over at the door and saw a man sweep through the room. He appeared to be in his 40’s and also seemed to be the teacher of the class. “Line up! Did everyone get stretched? Yes? Ok, we’ll get started.”

Donghae thought he would faint. This was much more intimidating than what he initially anticipated. He looked over at Hyukjae who lead him to a spot on the floor that was in the line with the sixteen other people in the class. Hyuk saw Hae looking and smiled encouragingly, flashing him the “OK” sign with his hand. It actually did very little to calm the university student.

“Wow, we barely fit today,” the instructor said, standing with his back to the mirror that covered the entire rear wall of the room. “Let’s begin by introducing our friends that we brought today. Sohrah, why don’t you start?”

Donghae watched as, one by one, the regular attenders, bright and happy, introduced the special friend that they brought along. Just before it would be Hyukjae’s turn to introduce Hae, the two young men that Hae had been watching before were up to speak.

The shorter of the two began speaking and Donghae was surprised to hear how soft his voice was. “Good morning, friends! I’m Sungmin and today I’ve brought my…” the young man faltered for just a millisecond, but Hae still caught it. “… my really good friend, Kyuhyun.” Kyuhyun gave a shy bow, mumbling his greeting, smiling bashfully and nudging Sungmin’s shoulder with his own when he was finished.

“Hello everyone, my name is Hyukjae and this is my friend, Donghae!” Hae almost missed the intro from thinking about Sungmin and Kyuhyun. Hae felt himself turn red and gave a quick bow in greeting. He’d always been on the shy side when it came to meeting new people, and especially if all the attention fell on him.

A few other pairs went and then the class really began. They started out with some really basic pop-and-lock techniques that Hae assumed had already been learned by the regulars. He snuck glances over at Hyukjae, who seemed to do everything with ease, in order to gauge himself on how well he was doing.

The more they danced, the more comfortable Donghae felt. When they began adding music to the moves, he felt everything coming more naturally. And although he wasn’t quite up to the level of Hyukjae, he felt that he could make Hyuk feel proud of his amateur partner.

After about an hour, the instructor called for a water break. Donghae was grateful. Studying took up basically all his time, which left little room for working out, so he couldn’t say he was in the most excellent shape.

Hae sat down on the floor by the duffle that Hyukjae brought, his heart still thumping quickly from the exercise. Hyukjae ped the bag and dug out two bottles of water, passing one to the very happy Donghae.

“Are you doing OK?” Hyuk asked.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine. This is really fun,” Donghae commented, untwisting the cap from the bottle and taking a gulp.

Hyukjae lit up like a Christmas tree. “You really like it?? Good! That makes me happy!”

Then Donghae looked at Hyukjae; really looked. His new friend was sweaty enough to make his face glisten and his cheeks look flushed. One drop of liquid was in the process of rolling down his temple and the collar of his shirt was a bit damp. Donghae continued to stare and became acutely aware that Hyukjae was staring right back, water bottle halfway to his lips. Hae wasn’t sure why he wasn’t looking away. He also wasn’t sure where this intense desire to wipe away the sweat on Hyukjae’s temple came from…

Social convention told him not to… But something was speaking to him that was a little louder than that.

Just when Donghae’s shoulder flinched to perhaps fulfill this burning desire, a hand holding a rag came out and rubbed against Hyukjae’s face.

“Ya! Hyukjae! Looking a bit wet, there.”

Both men broke away their gaze to look at a smiling—Sungmin, was it?”—followed closely by that Kyuhyun fellow.

Hyukjae took the rag, smiling again and rubbed his face and neck. “Thanks, Sungmin. Do you want some water?”

Sungmin plopped down on the floor by the other boys with a “yes please” and lifted a hand to tug on Kyuhyun’s pants so he would do the same.

As Donghae watched Hyuk offer Sungmin his water bottle, Hae suddenly realized what was so different about the other two; they seemed affectionate with each other beyond what was normal for skinship…

Donghae had never known anyone who was gay before (if that was, in fact, what was going on). He took a few more sips from his water bottle as he first watched Hyukjae chat lively with Sungmin and then he turned his eyes to watch Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun’s eyes were downcast and Donghae saw him fiddling with the hem of Sungmin’s shorts. He was probably really shy, it occurred to Hae.

“So Kyuhyun, do you like it here?” Hyukjae said suddenly.

Kyuhyun lifted his head and smiled bashfully, “Yeah, it’s ok.”

Sungmin smiled, looking at the younger man happily and placing a hand on his thigh right above Kyu’s knee. “He actually doesn’t like dancing very much. He just agreed to come because I guilted him into it.”

Kyuhyun flushed a bit and straightened his back. “I’m just not good at it, that’s all.”

Sungmin nodded, not looking away from Kyuhyun for a second. “He would much rather go out to karaoke. But this weekend was my turn to choose.”

Donghae glanced at Hyukjae, wondering how he was handling the other two men’s blatant display of affection towards one another. Hyuk just sat smiling and nodding as if nothing were out of the ordinary for him.

“So Hyukjae, where did you meet this guy? He’s catching on really fast.”

Hyuk nodded, turning his smiling face to Donghae. “I know. I’m really impressed. He came into the café this past week and I bribed him with some free coffee.”

Sungmin giggled at that and took a swig from his water bottle before passing it to Kyuhyun. Hyuk went on. “He’s a student at the university.”

At this, Kyuhyun perked up and asked, “What are you studying?”

“Engineering,” Donghae responded, feeling like he may really like the odd couple sitting in front of him. They were very friendly and responsive which actually made him comfortable.

“All right, people!” The instructor boomed aloud the room, “That’s enough chit-chat! Time to choreograph some music.”

Sungmin and Kyuhyun both stood and walked back to the center of the room, their arms draped comfortably over each other. Donghae closed his water and before he could push himself up, he saw a hand appear before his face. Up the length of the arm, Hyuk was kindly waiting.

Hae took the hand and allowed himself to be pulled up. The two men smiled at each other and without a word, walked to the middle of the dance floor to resume class.