Hyukjae gets home to a quiet apartment. Odd, he thinks. When he left for work in the morning, Donghae had been so hyped up from downing his second can of Red Bull to stay awake and functional for his 24-hour stream. 

To celebrate reaching 250k followers on Twitch, his boyfriend decided to tick another box from his viewers’ wishlist: do a 24-hour stream. As exciting as Donghae made it sound when he told Hyukjae what he was planning to do, the latter was a little apprehensive. 

Despite being a full-time streamer, his boyfriend still adheres to a strict routine. Donghae starts his stream at exactly 7 pm and ends at 11 pm on the dot. One of the many attributes that Hyukjae really admires about his boyfriend is his dedication to keeping a healthy mind and body. Donghae works out every other day without fail and chooses to maintain a healthy diet, while occasionally enjoying junk food with Hyukjae. Also adhering to a strict streaming schedule ensures Donghae still has downtime to himself.

From a viewer’s standpoint, streamers are living the dream; especially very successful ones. Yet behind the sponsorships, high-tech streaming equipment, and flashy background lights, the pressure to keep up appearances and expectations can take a deadly toll on streamers. And as much as it pains Hyukjae to think about those moments where he was a witness to Donghae’s lowest moments, he is immensely proud of the person Donghae has grown into. 

So when Donghae proposed doing the 24-hour stream, Hyukjae was vocal about his reluctance. Donghae has never done anything beyond four hours of streaming and pushing the boundaries at 24 hours is simply overkill.

However, his boyfriend was very adamant that everything will be fine, and though Hyukjae was hesitant, he too is a weak man to Donghae’s charms. “Fine, you can do the 24-hour stream—ack! Wait!” The moment Hyukjae gave his boyfriend the go signal, Donghae pounced on him and started placing multiple sweet kisses all over his face like an overexcited puppy who was welcoming his master home.

It’s safe to say that Hyukjae forgot about his worries the rest of the night and instead focused on more pressing matters. 

Yet now that their apartment is devoid of the excited noises from that morning, Hyukjae’s worries have once again resurfaced. Though as much as Hyukjae wants to check on Donghae, he needed to put away his groceries, or else his trip to the store would be futile.

Once Hyukjae was done folding the last of the eco bags he used in his grocery trip, he washes and cuts up an apple for Donghae together with his boyfriend’s favorite sandwich from the baked goods section at the grocery store and a cold glass of OJ.

Carefully, Hyukjae brings the tray of food to Donghae’s streaming room. Thankfully, the door isn’t fully closed so Hyukjae doesn’t have to precariously balance the tray just to knock on the door. Though Hyukjae already had an inkling of what his boyfriend could be up to, the scene before him is better than what he could have imagined.

A fond smile takes a permanent place on Hyukjae’s face, his gaze is soft and loving toward the lump hunched over the computer desk. The moment he enters the camera’s view, Donghae’s twitch chat goes crazy and starts flooding with ecstatic messages about Hyukjae’s arrival.

“Hello guys, good almost evening,” Hyukjae says in a hushed tone, loud enough for the mic to pick up but not so loud as to wake his sleeping boyfriend. He has already placed the tray of food on a part of the desk out of the camera’s view and at a safe distance so that Donghae wouldn’t accidentally knock it off the desk when he does arouse from his slumber. 

weeesnaaaw: OMG HYUKKIIEEEEE haexWIGGLES haexWIGGLES haexWIGGLES

tag_if_Easthae_whiffs: hello hello your bf slept on us :<

eastjaesupremacy: please join the stream!!!

hayanHeehee: take over hyuk, you get more viewers anyway KEKW

xBluePenguinx: ^^^

Months of tuning in and even taking part in his boyfriend’s stream have properly trained Hyukjae’s eyes to keep up with the comments racing past the chat box whenever he appears and makes his presence known, both on cam and on chat. 

“He did sleep on you guys, I apologize on his behalf. His old age is catching up to him.” almost immediately Hyukjae lets out an ugly snort from his last comment. It’s a good thing that Donghae is a heavy sleeper or he wouldn’t hear the end of his boyfriend’s whining for his comment. 

“How is the stream so far? How long has Hae been live anyway?” Hyukjae doesn’t wait for the chat to answer him, choosing to just check Donghae’s second monitor to see that the stream has been up for 18 hours 27 minutes, and 30 seconds already. Impressive, Hyukjae didn’t think his boyfriend would last that long. “Have you all been here since the start of the stream?”

Kethryveris: yes gigachad

naty_kkaebsong: yessir wouldn’t miss it

Soft4heechul: YES YES

ReadRealize: about halfway only KEKL

rainbow-peach: no cap was watching while working haexPOG

“You guys are so sweet, Hae is so lucky.” Hyukjae giggles at the immediate influx of heart emojis and haexLOVE’s on chat. 

Donghae really is lucky to have such a kind and loving fanbase. Despite not being part of an organization, Donghae is able to do well on his own. And Hyukjae could proudly say that his boyfriend deserves all the recognition he’s getting from the streaming and gaming community.

Hyukjae continues to chat with Donghae’s viewers for a few more minutes before the latter starts to arouse from his nap. The latter doesn’t even think twice, immediately wrapping his arms around Hyukjae’s waist and burying his face into the soft fabric of his sweater. 

“C’mon Hae, you still have more than five hours left.” despite the urgency of the message, Hyukjae’s voice is soft as if he’s trying to buy Donghae more down time. He also doesn’t need to glance at chat to know that they’re spamming it with heart emojis and some messages of genuine amusement for the couple.

Donghae takes another minute or two in that position before his brain starts functioning again and he’s reminded that he has a stream to finish. 

As if that soft scene didn’t just happen, Donghae goes about his usual business of dragging Hyukjae to join the rest of his stream. The couple spend the next fifteen minutes eating the snacks Hyukjae prepared for Donghae, answering questions and interacting with the chat before ultimately deciding that they played Apex Legends to pass the time. 

Hyukjae was recently roped into playing the game about a month ago by Kyuhyun and it’s safe to say that he’s been hooked ever since. So for the next hour, the couple venture into conquering battle royale.

"It looks clear...? At least I don't see anything, should we go?" Donghae asks, his eyes focused on the screen scanning for enemies that might be lurking inside the buildings.

When he finds none, he presses the Q key to get his legend (Crypto) to get off his drone and back to his legend’s pov.

Unfortunately, what he sees is going to send him into cardiac arrest.

“Let me just—WHAT THE ?!” Donghae shoots out of his seat, out of the camera's view, and is now pathetically sitting on the floor by his gaming chair. The whole video feed shakes from Donghae’s explosive movement. All the while Hyukjae is having the time of his life laughing his off at the reaction he got from his boyfriend.

The last time Donghae checked Apex Legends wasn't a horror game. But due to Hyukjae's antics, it might as well be.

He can’t even find it in himself to enjoy Hyukjae’s unhinged laughter, instead choosing to send his boyfriend a look of utter betrayal. Never in a million years did he think Hyukjae would pull something like this off.

“Oh my god, chat—oh god, that was too good.”

xBluePenguinx: i taught him that haexSMUG haex5HEAD

simjang: LMFAOOOOOO

seven_oh_seven: PLEASE tell me someone clipped it

hayanHeehee: ^^^^^

    Replying to @seven_oh_seven: PLEASE tell… 

weeesnaaaw: (link) you’re welcome :>

eastjaesupremacy: @weeesnaaaw doing gods work yet again

Leviheichou: thank you @weeesnaaaw 

eastjaesupremacy: everybody say thank you @weeesnaaaw  

fullofwish: thank you kind sir @weeesnaaaw 

Hyukkie_chin: thank you @weeesnaaaw 

DarcieMouse: thank you @weeesnaaaw :3

hayanHeehee: thank you dear haexTEARS @weeesnaaaw

weeesnaaaw: you welcome :>

    Replying to @fullofwish: thank you ki…

weeesnaaaw: im a ma’am

“Har har, go on and laugh it up, everyone. Let’s see how you guys react when you’re hopped up on caffeine and have been up for almost twenty hours already.”

“Don’t listen to him chat, he’s just embarrassed we got him.” his and Hyukjae’s legends are already dead and out of the match. Their legends (Loba and Crypto) were left standing in the open when Donghae’s soul left his body.

Hyukjae has always wanted to do it but he didn’t think he’d be doing it on stream.

You see each legend in Apex is categorized into four: recon, offense, defense, and support. Donghae’s legend, Crypto, is a recon legend that has a surveillance drone that can be very useful when scouting and checking out buildings if they are empty or not. Unfortunately, the downside of using that ability is it leaves your legend’s body unmoving and vulnerable to the enemy’s attacks. Not only that but activating and going on Crypto’s drone changes your pov to the drone’s so you wouldn’t have any idea what’s happening around your legend.

It’s a downside that Hyukjae is aware of and has used to his advantage.

The moment Donghae chose Crypto, Hyukjae was already determined to put this idea at the back of his mind into action. 

What made the end result even more satisfying was that Hyukjae waited for Donghae to get comfortable with using the legend. No matter how much his fingers itched to just do it, he controlled himself and looked for the perfect timing.

It finally came once he sees Donghae hunched toward the computer screen, his eyes completely focused on the terrain of King’s Canyon; an indication that Easthae was in the zone. And when his boyfriend was in the zone, he no longer spares a glance at his second monitor to see what his chat is saying. 

Once Hyukjae hears one of Crypto’s voice lines when using the drone, he waits a few seconds for the drone to be far enough that it doesn’t catch Hyukjae’s legend approaching Donghae’s. Hyukjae motions for chat to be quiet, or at least be subtle just in case Donghae sneaks a glance at them. It’s hard enough holding his laughter but seeing chat get excited with him wasn’t helping at all.

When he sees the drone far enough, Hyukjae’s legend approaches the unsuspecting Crypto scouting the area with his drone. His legend gets close enough that Crypto’s face almost takes up Hyukjae’s entire screen. That image is hilarious enough as it is; it’s undeniably amazing how Hyukjae could even keep himself from cracking up.

The moment Hyukjae and all of Easthae’s viewers have been waiting for finally comes and the wait and anticipation for it was all worth it. From the corner of his eye he sees his boyfriend’s body shoot out of his seat and down to the floor he goes whilst he exclaims at the top of his lungs. 

It’s even funnier the second time around when Hyukjae watches the clip of Donghae’s reaction. 

When Hyukjae finally calms down and his face doesn’t ache as much from laughing, he approaches his sulking and visibly embarrassed boyfriend. Donghae’s face and neck are flushed red and he’s back to being hunched over his own computer screen yet this time he isn’t checking chat nor is he giving Hyukjae an ounce of attention.

“My baby is upset chat,” Hyukjae singsongs, his arms are locked around Donghae, and he isn’t planning on letting go. They’re so close together, his chest is glued to Donghae’s back, and the former’s chin is resting on the crook of the latter’s neck. It’s an intimate sight but nothing Donghae’s viewers haven’t seen before.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Donghae finally speaks after so long, his voice so soft that Hyukjae almost misses what he says and a small pout is still present on his lips. Hyukjae rubs comforting circles on his sulking baby’s abdomen, even planting a soft kiss on his neck to slowly placate his baby. Must be the sudden change to his usual routine that is contributing to Donghae’s mood, not that Hyukjae is complaining. 

They stay like that for a little while. It was Donghae that breaks the silence between them, quietly asking Hyukjae if they could eat dinner since he was hungry again. 

And who was Hyukjae to deny him?

They’ve both exited the game and are now browsing their go-to delivery app for something to eat. Donghae is in a much better mood now and has visibly forgiven Hyukjae for earlier. Hyukjae is quick to retaliate, reassuring his tired boyfriend that it wasn’t that big of a deal, even roping in his chat to reassure Donghae that he’s got nothing to worry about. 

Once their food arrives, Donghae and Hyukjae have a small mukbang stream while occasionally answering questions sent in chat. 

“I don’t think I’ll be doing a 24-hour stream again if I ever hit another milestone,” Donghae answers earnestly as he puts away his takeout container and places it back inside the paper bag. “It was fun, can’t deny that but I don’t think my body could it a second time around. Kudos to those streams who could do it though, they’re a whole different breed.”

pogchamplakia: all good hae, this was fun still

qtiehaehae: can we get another cooking stream then?

Hebikoto: it’s fine, health should be a priority

SingMelodyyy: this was fun hae, honestly would have been fine with any kind of celebration but i really enjoyed this 24hr stream

autiacora: congrats again on the 100k followers on twitch hae, you deserve nothing but the best pogCHAMP haexLOVE

“They’re asking for another cooking stream, will you be down for that?”

“I’d like to stay away from cooking streams for now,” Hyukjae giggles at the flood of pleas for another cooking stream immediately after he finished his sentence. There’s no denying that doing cooking streams are fun, it’s just that Hyukjae feels more like a babysitter than a chef whenever he participates in that kind of stream.

“I’ll think about it, okay? There’s a lot of planning behind cooking streams, Donghae will let you know when we’ve decided on a date.” Hyukjae settles with this instead. He does want to do another cooking stream but he’s contemplating whether to practice the dish they would be cooking beforehand just so he wouldn’t spend half of the stream looking out for Donghae and actually focus on the cooking part.

Donghae stepped away shortly for a quick bathroom break. While the other is gone, Hyukjae quickly opens YouTube to load a video. Hyukjae was so swift with his movements that everyone in chat wasn’t able to even read the title of the video. When everyone has flooded the chat with enough questions as to what it is, Hyukjae instead just smiles at the camera when Donghae enters the room right at that moment. 

“Oh, what’s this?” Donghae asks while he reaches over for the mouse but is quickly denied of the device when Hyukjae moves it further away. 

“Just watch it, okay? You’re going to love this, I promise.” Hyukjae presses play despite his boyfriend looking at him weirdly before turning his attention toward the screen.

The video opens with a compilation of easthae’s sickest plays on Valorant, coupled with some old CSGO clips from when he first started streaming. One particular clip pulls out a reaction from Donghae and everyone on chat.

“What the heck? No way you got this clip!” Donghae is completely wide-eyed, his jaw practically on the desk as a clip of his first-ever stream plays on video.

The easthae a lot of viewers know is a stark contrast to the easthae on the video. Gone were the bright LED lights on the background, and so did the Marvel and DC heroes and villains that decorated the shelves behind him. 

Back then Donghae streamed inside his smaller bedroom at his parent's home wearing a dark hoodie and nothing but a desk lamp providing some illumination to his face and a small part of his room. He was still using a gaming headset and mic back then so his audio is a little scuffed, which made Donghae a little insecure when he was starting out. So as much as possible, easthae rarely talked to himself unless someone in chat asked him a question. 

The next clip then shows easthae playing his usual grind of Valorant. The game was just released and it was slowly making its way known among gamers. Yet, even so, not a lot of gamers have been religiously playing it on stream. 

Donghae was in the middle of a crucial round, his eyes trained on the screen as he awaits for the enemy to peak and appear right into his crosshair when a notification and a banner appears across his stream’s screen. 

hayanHeehee is raiding with a party of 28, 395!

Once Donghae’s team has won the round, his confusion is evident as to why his chat is going wild. When his chat has already spammed enough messages for Donghae to finally get a gist of what just happened, his eyes go wide like a deer caught in headlights. His chat may find his disbelief amusing yet Donghae can’t share the same sentiments when he’s already so close to tears. 

“Oh my god…” Donghae still hasn’t moved from his spot, still very much in shock at what has taken place, “I don’t—I’m such a huge fan, oh my god. Thank you so much for the raid, god, I’m-I’m speechless.” he falls back into his chair, hands gripping at the tresses of his hair and his mouth agape, out of shock still or halfway into laughing in disbelief, Donghae isn’t sure.

hayanHeehee: all good, you deserve it!

hayanHeehee

Subscribed at Tier 3 with four months in advance!

hayanHeehee: ive seen your lol and valo clips, lets play with kyu some time?

As a spark lights up a fire, hayanHeehee’s, aka Kim Heechul, raid was the push that s  Donghae’s streaming career uphill.

Most of Heechul’s viewers stayed and even subscribed to Donghae’s channel out of curiosity yet resubscribed for the amazing content and gaming skills the latter had. There’s no denying that Donghae was great in FPS games but what really pulled people in was his personality. Ever since he accepted Heechul’s invitation to play with him and his fellow streamer and friend, xBluePenguinx aka Cho Kyuhyun, a lot of viewers fell in love with Donghae’s child-like innocence and enthusiasm. Heechul and Kyuhyun really helped Donghae out of his shell to become more comfortable and easy-going on stream. 

As Donghae’s streaming career is experiencing a steady rise, so does the slow but steadily blooming romance between him and Hyukjae also began to show progress.

From their very first date, Donghae had been honest with Hyukjae about everything. Since he was still starting out as a streamer, most of his savings went to buying equipment that was decent enough for him to use. So, right up front, Donghae sheepishly told Hyukjae that though he really wanted to take the latter out on dates, money was going to be tight for a while.

It crushed the romantic in him knowing he wouldn’t be able to bring the guy he had been pining for so long to those amazing date spots and restaurants he’s seen on social media. 

Which made Hyukjae’s response an utter surprise to Donghae, he even got teary-eyed. 

“That’s okay, I don’t mind. You go do what you have to to get where you want to be; I like honest, hardworking men more anyway.”

When Donghae heard those words without even a slight hint of insincerity or aversion to them, he made a promise to himself. He promises to bring Hyukjae flowers as frequently as he can like he had wanted to since found out how much the latter admired them. He promises to take Hyukjae to those places he could only longingly stare at on his phone. Donghae knows that Hyukjae values quality time more than materialistic possessions and he could only hope that the latter would allow Donghae to indulge in giving him gifts once he is able.

So when his streams started to rake in more money, enough for it to cover most of his daily expenses and monthly bills, Donghae showed up at Hyukjae’s work with the most beautiful bouquet that had all of the latter’s favorite flowers in hand. And the rest is history.

The entirety of the video is a rollercoaster of emotions for both the couple and every single viewer watching. At the end of the video commemorating the special day, Donghae has tears in his eyes both from the overwhelming flood of emotions and laughing hysterically from the scattered montages of him and Hyukjae on stream inserted here and there. 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you included that eastjae. This was supposed to be a montage of Donghae’s streaming career!” this day has definitely been an emotional rollercoaster for Donghae, one moment he was sleepy, and the next he’s sniffing like crazy from bawling his eyes out, and now he’s laughing like a madman. 

“Why shouldn’t they include that though? You’re as much a part of this channel as I am.” Donghae says as he pulls Hyukjae’s chair closer to allow him to wrap his arms around his embarrassed boyfriend. “Were you the one who asked eastjae to make that amazing video?”

“I only supplied the clips, eastjae gets all the credit on this one. They did the recap of your streaming career justice.”

“Aww, you guys, I’d give you all a hug right now if it was possible to do it through the screen” Donghae makes a show of wrapping his arms around his main monitor, as if he really is sending a virtual hug to his viewers, “Seriously though, I’ve said this so many times before and I won’t ever get tired of saying it again; easthae wouldn’t be what it is now without you guys. I can’t believe how lucky I got to have people like you guys supporting me still now that I’m approaching my third year as a streamer.”

weeesnaaaw: WE LOVE YOU HAEEEE haexLOVE haexLOVE haexLOVE

tag_if_Easthae_whiffs: haexLOVE haexLOVE haexLOVE haexHUGS haexHUGS haexHUGS

eastjaesupremacy: haexLOVE haexHUGS

seven_oh_seven: youre the best haexLOVE haexCHEER haexPOG

qtiehaehae: here’s to three years and more with you haexHUGS

Hebikoto: all the love and support you have is well deserved haexLOVE haexLOVE 

DarcieMouse: haexLOVE haexLOVE haexLOVE haexHUGS haexHUGS haexHUGS

rainbow-peach: haexLOVE haexLOVE haexLOVE haexHUGS haexHUGS haexHUGS

Kethryveris: can you do a fanmeet soon PLEASE haexHUGS

“Of course, above all else, I’d first like to thank my parents and older brother for supporting me and encouraging me to move forward and start streaming. My eternal thanks to Heechul hyung for giving me the raid that helped boost my viewership. Not only has he and Kyu been good mentors but they have also become really good friends in real life.”

“To my mods, weeesnaaaw, tag_if_Easthae_whiffs, and eastjae, you guys are the real heroes of this channel. Thank you so much for your continued effort of helping keep everyone chill during every stream without fail.”

“And lastly, to my muse,” “Oh god”

“Words aren’t enough to express my gratitude for your patience and support. You already know how much you mean to me so I’m going to stop myself now before I start crying again. Just thank you for everything, I love you so much.” Donghae gives in and pulls Hyukjae in for a quick peck on his lips. 

Hyukjae responds with a soft I love you too. It’s not that visible on the screen but his eyes shine from the unshed tears. As someone who has seen firsthand Donghae’s progress from the start up until the present, Hyukjae is undeniably proud of his boyfriend. 

“We’re nearing the 24-hour mark everyone so let’s end with a bang and watch a 3-minute ad—OW! I was kidding!” Hyukjae lands a solid smack on Donghae’s thick arm, the impact sounded so loud the viewers didn’t need to see Donghae’s reaction to know that it was painful.

“They’ve stayed to watch whatever shenanigans you did the whole day, the least you could do is keep the stream ad-free.”

“I was only kidding besides, I think now is the perfect time for me to pay it forward.” Donghae pulls his chair in close and begins using his mouse and keyboard to key in the username he already has in mind. 

After every stream, easthae makes it a habit to raid streamers that have just started out. As part of the streaming community, they had to support and look out for one another. So as much as possible, he wanted to help out those that were once in his shoes; like how Heechul did when he was just starting.

“We’re now officially at the 24-hour mark thus signaling the end of this stream. Thank you so much to everyone that tuned in, I love you all so so much. We’ll be raiding a very talented gamer, please check it out and give him lots of love. Thank you all and good night wherever you are.”

“Good night everyone! Thank you for tuning in!” 

The stream closes with the couple waving at the camera. Albeit visibly tired, the smiles on their faces remain genuine. 

The stream then loads and moves to another streamer, someone younger and definitely new to the community. His setup closely resembles Donghae’s when he was still starting. Despite the notification of the raid ringing loudly, the streamer remains focused on the match he’s playing; kind of like deja vu.

Once the match closes, the streamer turns to look at his second monitor only to see that his chat is moving so much faster than it usually does. “..what’s happening?” his eyes are moving frantically trying to get a gist of what he missed while he was in the middle of a match only to widen once he finally finds the answer to his question.

easthae is raiding 23jn00 with a party of 31, 890!

--------------------------------------

Twitch terminologies and emojis/emoticons

haex-- - are emojis or emoticons included when you subscribe to easthae, i.e., haexWIGGLES is a chibi version of easthae swinging his head from left to right continuously, haexLOVE is chibi version of easthae making a heart sign with his hands

Pog - is a twitch slang that means awesome or amazing

Pogchamp - is a variation of pog; it expresses extreme excitement or joy

KEKL - is a twitch emote that shows a person laughing hysterically, it’s like the twitch version of LMFAO

5HEAD - as a twitch slang it means a very smart play or move, something that other players haven’t used or done before; as a twitch emoji, haex5HEAD is a chibi version of easthae but his head is larger than normal which represents his big head for the intelligent play

Twitch raids - a twitch raid is when a streamer sends all the viewers at the end of his stream to another streamer who is currently live i.e., when hayanHeehee raided easthae with 28, 395, heechul sent all 28k+ of his viewers to donghae’s stream thus dramatically increasing his viewership that day and enhancing his chances of getting known in the twitch community

Mods - mods or moderators make sure that everything seen on the chatbox meets the rules and standards the streamer has set; they are the ones responsible for removing offensive content or texts and repetitive messages that would distract the streamer and viewers. Mods are usually long-time subscribers of the streamer and are distinguished by a green sword icon before their username