Chapter 9 Love. The most mesmerizing feeling someone can experience. The most mysterious feeling someone can feel. It can strike you at any moment; sometimes it takes years to finally realize you love someone; sometimes it takes you just a second to find out.     ✭✭✭✭✭     Kyuhyun and Jongwoon were now officially together. Well, officially... Not official enough for Kyuhyun to tell Donghae about it. Sure, Kyuhyun was happy that Jongwoon felt the same way about him as he felt about Jongwoon, but Kyuhyun doubted that Donghae would be happy about it.   Not after they had found out about Jongwoon’s illness.   Donghae always wanted what was best for Kyuhyun, and dating someone seriously ill might not be the smartest idea. This was the first thing in his life that Kyuhyun kept secret from Donghae. But he didn’t plan to keep this secret for long, just a few more days, so Kyuhyun could convince himself of the idea that dating someone seriously ill was nothing dumb after all.   Jongwoon did notice Kyuhyun’s doubt. But when he asked if something was wrong, Kyuhyun just shrugged and answered that everything was fine. A few days earlier (about 3 days after they “officially got together”), they had decided to just try to forget about the whole illness thing. Jongwoon was convinced that he was going to get better in no time, so talking about it all the time would just be a waste of time. He also said that he did not want this illness to be like a huge storm cloud waiting to pour all the rain out over their newly started relationship.   Even though Kyuhyun initially had agreed to it, he soon started to change his mind. He still had a million questions left to ask about the illness. He actually didn’t know much about it. But Jongwoon basically begged him to forget about him being ill, so Kyuhyun didn’t dare to start talking about it again.   Two weeks passed. Kyuhyun and Jongwoon grew closer to each other every day. Donghae was still oblivious about the whole thing, even though Hyukjae had heard about it from Jongwoon already. Maybe Hyukjae respected their privacy, maybe he understood why Kyuhyun hadn’t told Donghae yet, or maybe he just didn’t want to meddle. Whichever it was, he did not tell Donghae. He hadn't really talked with Kyuhyun about it yet either, but that was probably because Donghae hung around him every time. Well, almost every time.     ✭✭✭✭✭     Kyuhyun opened the front door and walked inside. Even though he'd only had 2 hours of school today and it was still morning, he was feeling tired already. He was considering taking a nap until Donghae came home later, but got surprised when he saw Hyukjae half sitting, half lying on the couch in the living room. He was reading some giant book (it looked remarkably similar to the book Jongwoon always reads whenever he visits the cafe to drink some coffee) and did not notice Kyuhyun come in.   “Hyukjae-ah.”   Hyukjae got startled by the sudden sound and sat straight immediately as if Kyuhyun hadn't just seen him lying on the couch. Kyuhyun smirked, scaring people was really fun.   “Kyuhyun-ah, you are home early!”   “Hmm... Do you want something to drink?”   “Some juice would be nice,” Hyukjae answered and Kyuhyun made his way to the kitchen to get some juice for the both of them. When he got back with 2 cups of orange juice, Hyukjae had already put away his book and smiled to Kyuhyun as the latter put 1 cup with juice on the table and brought the other one to his own lips.   “You are probably wondering what I am doing here,” Hyukjae started, facing Kyuhyun directly, making Kyuhyun unable to drink; he really couldn’t drink with people staring at him.   “Not really,” Kyuhyun answered, and he put his cup down on the table. He really wasn’t wondering what Hyukjae was doing here. It had already happened a lot of times before that Hyukjae would just hang out in Kyuhyun and Donghae’s house when no one was at home. He said it bored him to be at the same place all the time, so therefore he would regularly come to KyuHae’s house. Change of the environment, he called it.   “Well, I was actually waiting for you.”   “For me?”   That was rare, normally Hyukjae would wait for Donghae, or leave when Kyuhyun came home. And yes, they were friends. It went fine if either Jongwoon or Donghae was around, but the 2 of them, in one room, alone? That just somehow always led to awkwardness.   “Yes. Jongwoon told me a week ago that the 2 of you are together, I was looking for a moment to talk to you about that in private.”   Kyuhyun’s facial expression didn’t change, so Hyukjae took it as a sign that he could continue.   “I just wanted to say that I’m happy it’s you, Kyuhyun. I know that he is safe with you.”   Kyuhyun’s mouth unwillingly changed into a smile. Even though it was only Hyukjae giving them ‘approval’, it felt like the whole world accepted it. For Kyuhyun, this meant a lot.   “He's looking so much happier for the last two weeks. At first, I told him to not get involved with anyone, because he’s sick. But I might have been wrong, I think love is doing him well,” Hyukjae said, and he looked at the wall while smiling to himself, ‘maybe our relationship is good for him too’, Kyuhyun thought to himself.   “Just don’t dare to kiss him when you are sick!” Hyukjae emphasized, and he tried to make an angry face towards Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun solemnly raised his hand and promised Hyukjae that he would never kiss Jongwoon when he was not feeling well. Not even if he had a slight headache, or possible pain in his finger. They both laughed about this for a little.   “Well, with that solved, you are free tomorrow, right?” Hyukjae turned his serious face on again.   “Yes,” Kyuhyun answered, wondering why Hyukjae asked this. He himself had to work, so it was not like they could do anything together or something.   “Good, I couldn’t get a day off of work anymore, because I used all of my free days the week Jongwoon was in the hospital,” Hyukjae scolded his work almost inaudible, before continuing. “Anyway, Jongwoon has an appointment at the hospital tomorrow, can you take him there? He said he was fine with going alone, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”   “Oh! Sure. What time? What for?”   “10.30 in the morning, chemo.”   “Oh... Yeah, I can do that, anything I should know beforehand?”   Actually, Kyuhyun didn’t want to do it. He tried really hard to forget about the whole illness thing. Taking Jongwoon to the hospital would make Kyuhyun think about it again. But Jongwoon really couldn’t go alone. So Kyuhyun basically had no other choice.   “Hmm, not really. Normally he takes it alright. Just expect him to not talk afterward. He gets really tired from it... And nauseous.” Hyukjae answered, nodding slowly while thinking about if there was anything else Kyuhyun should know, but couldn’t think of anything. As he turned his gaze back to Kyuhyun, he could see that Kyuhyun was not looking forward to this hospital trip. “You’ll be fine Kyuhyun, don’t worry.”   They talked a bit more about all kinds of stuff before Hyukjae had to go; he had to do grocery shopping. Kyuhyun waved Hyukjae goodbye and went upstairs to his room, finally able to take