"Donghae, I love you."
"I love you too."

~*~*~

   Bright and warm streams of light woke Hyukjae up from the most beautiful and most disappointing dream he had ever had. Why the most beautiful? Well, that was obvious. To hear Donghae respond for his confession was... Overwhelming. Life-sustaining. Unforgettable. And impossible. The last thought brought tears to his still closed eyes. He wanted to drift off to sleep again, to continue dreaming this lovely dream, but then he felt a movement near his left arm. He opened his eyes only to realise that he was still in Donghae's room and that the younger was just waking up as well.

   Hyukjae got up too quickly and his vision became dark and blurry. He felt dizzy. So he sat on the bed again, but in the same time Donghae decided to stretch his legs and Hyukjae ended up crushing them with his weight unwillingly. Donghae gasped, taken-aback, Hyukjae stood up again and felt his head spinning one more time, fell and after a second found himself lying on top of Donghae, his eyes meeting the other's left collarbone.

   "Oh, hello, Donghae" Hyukjae said in a hoarse voice. He lifted himself up to look Donghae in the eyes. "I'm sorry for... this, but I lost balance a moment ago and-" he paused for a moment and touched Donghae's forehead awkwardly "are you feeling better? It seems your fever is gone."

   The younger nodded.
"That's great news!" he cheered "Wait here, you must be extremely hungry! I'll go and prepare something" Hyukjae offered. In response to his words, Hyukae heard loud rumbling in Donghae's stomach. He chuckled lightly. "Mr Tummy seems to agree, doesn' he?" He got up and run downstairs to reach the kitchen. He poured some soup he had cooked the day before into the bowl and reheated it in microwave oven.

    As he came back to Donghae's beedroom, the boy had already changed and was sitting in his bed, wearing red checked pyjamas. This made Hyukjae realise that he was still in his yesterday's clothes. He eyed himself and noticed extremely creased shirt and one leg of his pants rolled up, showing his skinny calf. "Great" Hyukjae muttered, trying to cover it with his foot. The bowl wobbled dangerously on a tray he was holding. Hyukjae grinned apologetically.

   "Here you go, Donghae. You can try my cooking, by the way" Hyukjae said, sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling warmly "It's a soup I prepared yesterday for our... Anyways, I think it will be good for your health." Donghae took the bowl and a spoon from the older one and hissed as the hot vessel burned his fingers.
 

   "Oh, is everything okay?" Hyukjae snatched the bowl from Donghae's hands and put it back on the tray. He grabbed Donghae’s wrist and blew some cold air, bringing some relief to Donghae’s fingers.
"Give me the spoon", Hyukjae demanded "I'll feed you."
Donghae blushed hard, but obeyed. Soon, he was eating spoonfuls of the soup brought to his mouth by beaming Hyukjae, who felt like he'd found his heaven on the Earth.

   After the finished breakfast, Donghae looked straight into Hyukjae's eyes.
'What were you doing here yesterday?' he asked, signing.
Hyukjae vaguely understood his gestures, but seemed to sense Donghae's intentions, so he put the tray aside and clasped his hands, trying to gain confdence. And he decided to trust his words this time, so he let his tongue form whatever came to his mind.
 

"I was preparing some kind of an... event. For you. As you probably saw, there were lots of candles, I cooked a meal for us and brought some flowers to the living room. I made Siwon take you out, and oh, by the way, I regret I couldn't be there, at the pool, you must look perfect in swimming tru- Aish!” Hyukjae shook his head to chase wrong thoughts away. “Sorry, I mean- I prepared everything and waited for you to come back. But then you went in, and you sneezed, and sneezed again, and I heard a hint of your voice, and you know what happened next. Then, when you fell asleep, I cleaned up a little and came back to check on you, laid back here and fell asleep unwillingly, so that's why I am still here" Hyukjae paused and took a deep breath. "I imagined it thousand different ways and this wasn't one of them, but the point is, Donghae, that yesterday I wanted to tell you something. You know that you are still very attractive to me, but I don't like you anymore."

   Hearing those words, Donghae's expression darkened, he looked down and his whole body seemed to have shrunk. Seeing this, Hyukjae felt sudden horror take over him.

"But hey, Donghae! Hey, listen, what I meant to say is that I don't only like you, but you're much, much more to me." Hyukjae felt his heart beating faster and faster "I didn't want to do say it like this, when you’re in your bed, in your pyjamas, but I can't wait any longer."

   Donghae was now staring at Hyukjae, completely confused.
'What?' he signed.

   Hyukjae let out a breath, totally nervous "The mood may not be right in this moment, you are probably still weak after yesterday's fever, but for God's sake, I have to tell you, because I feel like I'm going to explode in a second, and I'm not exaggerating."

There were a few seconds of complete silence before Hyukjae spoke again.

 

"Donghae, I love you."

A/n: Finally. Writing this chapter was... I enjoyed it so much! So I really, really hope that you like it as well ^^
Many of you were surprised with this confession delay, but here it is, with another cliffhanger :) Sorry for making you wait a little longer!
But as always, I thank you for your comments and love! <3