Method acting. Donghae practices this with Yesung in preparation for his role in the Taiwanese live-adaption of "Skip Beat!". At first, Yesung is reluctant (Donghae guesses it's because Yesung's still pretty allergic/vomit-ready when it comes to homouals), but his curiosity and desire to later be in a drama like Siwon and Donghae overrides his repulsion of Donghae.

"I'm going to be the Joker this time," Donghae says. He tries to flits his tongue out like the Joker and do the whole creepy laugh. "Kill you? Why would I ever kill you? I love you!" 

Yesung widens his eyes and tries to give an evil laugh, too. It sounds a bit like Ddangkoma choking on a carrot. Yesung frowns. "Wait--do I have to be Batman, or can this be a villain versus villain thing?"

"Whatever you want," Donghae continues in the Joker's voice. 

***

Money, money. Or the literal translation of Don't Don. Although Super Junior's members sang about that and later agreed that it was a rather stupid concept and theme, money plays an important role in their everyday lives and interactions. Well, actually not money. More specifically, the division of money in the group. Some companies like JYP split almost everything equally, which meant that even though Nichkhun was involved in the most CFs and variety showsout out of 2PM, those earnings were still split up equally among him and his fellow members. 

On the other hand...

"I wish I had a nice house like Siwon," Sungmin grumbles. 

Ryeowook mourns, "And his looks."

Yesung continues, "And his girls." He sadly looks at Ddangkoma for support, and Ddangkoma responds by choking on another carrot he's feeding her. 

"Are you sure she eats carrots?" Heechul asks. 

Yesung nods. "I understand everything she needs."

"You should just marry her." Heechul blanches at the food they're eating. "God, tell Eunhyuk never to cook again."

"If Siwon was here, he would tell you not to say God's name in vain," Kyuhyun says.

"Kyuhyunshutup," everyone else says. 

Money sometimes causes the worst fights they ever had among them. Siwon, the top-earning member, earned so much more money than Hankyung did when he was still with them, that Hankyung was sometimes called 'China's poorest star' by the media who somehow seized this information. SM's management didn't do anything to alleviate this problem, as every CF or music video Hangeng was asked to participate in, some manager that apparently hated Hangeng insisted on another Super Junior member accompanying him or just replacing Hangeng completely. 

They're forbidden from communicating about salaries now, but that doesn't mean they don't. They're just not dumb enough to text or talk about it any other ways that SM's internal snoops can find out about. 

"Do you think they put hidden cameras in our dorms?" Leeteuk asks. Everyone, including the most calm and collected ones, at the table momentarily freezes. 

"That would be pretty disgusting," Kyuhyun says. "If they do, I'm sure we could sue them for that."

Heechul laughs darkly. "If that's the case, SM's going to have even more lawsuits than Hyundai had in the day."

***

It's so frustrating living with multiple other men sometimes. Hyukjae tries to get rid of his frustration by working out more. He invites Donghae to join him, because hey, exercise gives you happy chemicals, endorphins. Donghae politely says he needs to work on his -character for Skip Beat with Yesung. So, Hyukjae shrugs and hits the gym with Siwon instead.

Something about Siwon doesn't sit quite right with Hyukjae. Although he took a vehement stance against gays when questioned publicly once, something about the way Siwon touches some of the members, publicly and off-stage, makes Hyukjae's eyes narrow. He kind of wants to test his theory out for curiosity's sake, but Donghae was one jealous idiot.

He couldn't stand whenever Junsu took Hyukjae alway from him when they were trainees, so Hyukjae kind of dreaded what Donghae would do if he found out about his attempts to figure out--in the physical approach--if Siwon was gay or not.

***

"You've been looking real good lately," Siwon tells Hyukjae after one work out.

"Thanks man." Hyukjae throws his and Siwon's towels in the appropriate bin. Although it was a bin, it was a pretty posh bin, and that made Hyukjae want to almost cry at the extravagance this gym had.

It was a gym Siwon had signed up for. He was allowed to bring one guest with him during staff hours, so Hyukjae didn't have to pay anything, but still. Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung were some of the lowest-paid members of their group, despite their vocal talent. And Yesung hardly used any of the money for himself. He helped his parents open up a business and worked there during most of his free time. The huge difference made Hyukjae hate Siwon a little.

Siwon smiles. A perfect, charming smile, that paired with his money, helped him win many online polls that asked which idol parents would most want as their son-in-law. "Do I look good?" He asks a little cockily.

"You always do, bro."

"Kiss for the handsome younger bro, then?" Siwon turns his head to the side expectantly. 

Hyukjae wipes off his face slowly with his towel. He's not watching. I'm really not sure what he is. "You do remember I'm gay, right? And...I'm with Donghae."

Siwon looks at him, annoyed. "I wanted it in the brotherly way, Eunhyuk." His eyes linger on the other's exposed torso for a bit longer than necessary. "And homouality's a sin."

"That's up to interpretation," says Hyukjae. Don't punch him, don't punch him, don't punch him. "I think the Bible passage that said that also mentioned stoning children or wives if they misbehaved."

"I'm guessing you still pray?"

"Yes."

Siwon blinks. "Did you tell your family about you and Donghae?"

"Yes."

"How did they react?"

Hyukjae tells him it's none of his business. 

At first, his dad shouted, his mom cried, and his sister ogled. Then, the three told him to stay home while they went out a bit to discuss this new development. When they returned, his appa told him grudgingly and somewhat painfully it was okay. But Sora and his parents still introduced to him a lot more girls than necessary that weekend home. Later it got better, but Sora still observed her brother and Donghae's interactions like they were science experiments, and Appa and Umma Lee flinched whenever Donghae or Hyukjae lightly touched each others hands.

"Can you two cut it out with the public skinship?" Umma asks Donghae and Hyukjae one day. "People might start suspecting something."

*** 

"Heechul told me he asked your permission to kiss you before he did onstage," Hyukjae says as Siwon's driving him to the dorms. 

SIwon says tersely, "I'm different onstage than offstage."

Hyukjae knows that's right. He still remembers the time when Donghae asked for a sip of cola, and Siwon....Hyukjae smiles to himself in satisfaction. At least it was all over Youtube and some other popular video sites, so some people definitely knew Siwon wasn't really the perfect gentleman.

***

Siwon was a gentleman, though. Just not a perfect one. He was more of the type of gentleman whose face everyone thought about. Girls swooned over it, and Kyuhyun imagined it whenever he was approaching another thing he had to explode in Starcraft. 

***

Hyukjae and Junsu revisits the grill they used to go to in their trainee days.

"You're getting even skinnier these days." Junsu pokes Hyukjae with a chopstick. "I can feel your bone. And muscle." He gawks. "Your face has more muscle than my ! Please tell me your singing hasn't surpassed my melodic peeing yet, too."

Hyukjae stops drinking his lemonade. "Dude. Eating."

Junsu apologizes and tells him that it's okay if Hyukjae's singing has improved. "I noticed that Donghae's gotten a lot worse lately," Junsu muses. "Not just at singing, but also at dancing, performance, and just...hey, you can just change the subject to hot cars or something if you don't want to talk about it, but are you two fighting or something?"

Something flashes in Hyukjae's eyes. "Leeteuk says Donghae's getting messed up ever since he's been involved with me."

"That's idiotic. Donghae's probably more upset from all this pressure Leeteuk and those other idiots are placing on him. I know Yunho and Jaejoong..."

Hyukjae spits out the galbi he was emotionlessly choking. "What did you say?"

Junsu looks like a deer caught in headlights. "Erm. Well. Um. I mean, Yunho and his former girlfriend...."

"I'm pretty sure Jaejoong's not a girl," Hyukjae said.

Junsu hurriedly looks around the grill to see if anyone's listening. No one isn't, and Junsu makes a note that they should sprinkle red-toned foundation over themselves next time they go out, too, because then they look more like normal, pimpled teenagers instead of almost-pimped-out-if-you-consider-the-strictest-definition-of-the-word-and-the-sasaengs-idols-have, flawless men in their twenties. 

"Don't tell anyone this."

"Why did they break up?"

"Yunho wanted to stick with the company and Jaejoong wanted more artistic freedom."

I doubt the real reasons sounded that pretty. "Jaejoong wasn't sick at all of SM's money divisions?"

"...I feel like it's something I shouldn't talk about. And don't. tell anyone about this, including Donghae. Somehow it would get out. And Jaejoong would probably do something nasty to me. But not in the nasty way he treats Yunho, if you know what I mean." 

***

Hyukjae tells Donghae. 

"But don't tell anyone," he says. "Jaejoong's going to make Junsu's life miserable if you do."

Donghae gazes at him sleepily. Although he's weaned off the antidepressants, he's still been acting pretty tired lately. Hyukjae guiltily wonders whether if it was him who caused Donghae to change that much. He brought it up with Donghae before, but whenever he did, Donghae would swat Hyukjae annoyedly and start kissing him in the Donghae-copyright way he knew how. 

***

"She's looking at you." Donghae glares at Tiffany.

Hyukjae looks at himself in the mirror. He's proud that he's been looking pretty good these days, but pretty good for him...was still a lot of levels lower than Donghae with bags under his eyes and stress wrinkles. At least in Hyukjae's opinion. 

"She's coming this way." Donghae grabs Hyukjae's arm and turns him the other way. "Let's go. You said you were going to practice with Taemin, right? I wanna come." He scowls. "I think she's following us."

"Hey, wait!" Tiffany shouts, her high heels clacking on the old, seriously-need-an-update floors of SM.

Donghae grimaces, but stops dragging Hyukjae as it would be rude and kind of unpressional to ignore a coworker. 

Tiffany smiles and approaches them briskly. "I wanted to talk to you two for a while now, but it's been kind of hard. Full schedules, you know?" She opens and laughs charmingly. Donghae grimaces again.

Eunhyuk, the charismatic professional, emerges. He gives a gummy grin. "Wow, I feel kind of honored. What did you want to talk to us about?"

"Well..." Tiffany begins, and her eyes briefly flick to Donghae's foot, which was lightly and impatiently tapping Hyukjae's. Donghae doesn't notice because he's looking at the ground sullenly, but Hyukjae does, and quickly squeezes Donghae's hand as a warning. To his dismay, Tiffany's eyes catch that, too. 

Donghae finally grasps the situation as he looks up and sees Hyukjae's awkward smile, or as some trainees called it, Eunhyuk's devilish smile. Donghae nervously laughs. "Yeah? You were saying?" 

Tiffany smiles a sweet, charming smile that makes Donghae want to just leave her and escape with Hyukjae right now. Screw SM politics. "Well, I always admired the bond you and Eunhyuk had. The girls and I talk about it sometimes when we're mentioning relationships we want to have. We just really want to be involved with a man the way you two are involved with each other."

Ah, . Although Soo-Man and the members definitely knew he and Hyukjae were lovers, the rest of SM later just dismissed the whole thing as a rumor. Though all of his co-members denied it when he asked them if they told anyone, Hyukjae agreed with him it definitely came out of one of their mouths. "That's good, though," Hyukjae told him. "If they believe our relationship is just rumors, there's less chance of us getting fired or kicked out of SM, right?"

Hyukjae continued his rant for the longest time ever then, but right now, he's remarkably close-lipped. Tiffany giggles once more. "Oops, I hope I didn't accidentally offend either of you. Excuse me. There were so many Californians that accepted gays when I last visited, that I forgot they practically didn't exist in Korea."

"Actually, they do," Eunhyuk finally speaks. "Do you know Seok-Cheon?"

Tiffany looks amused. "Yes. Jessica's actually friends with him." 

Ugh. I wonder if she's actually innocent of all the things she's implying or if she's just... Donghae says, "I never heard Jessica talk about him before. Or I never saw her when I went to his restaurant."

"Me neither," Eunhyuk quickly adds. 

Oh? Do they go together? Tiffany thought. "Well, you haven't been on speaking terms with Jessica for a while now, Donghae. People change a lot." She smiles at Eunhyuk fliratiously. "Like you, 'Jewel Boy.' I like your looks more than Siwon's right now." 

Okay, that's it, Donghae thinks furiously.

Eunhyuk blinks in genuine astonishment. "Wow. Thanks. I really never heard that one before." 

Donghae takes out his phone and lets out the best frustrated sound he could. It's not that hard to do based on his current feelings. "Damn! Sorry, but we gotta go. We promised Taemin we would start practice with him ten minutes ago."

Tiffany cheerfully waves at them. "Well, bye!"

***

"You look like a girl," Donghae bluntly tells Taemin. 

Hyukjae adds, "You look better than Heechul."

Donghae scowls. Tiffany. Now Taemin?

Taemin chortles. "Thanks for the compliments? And sorry for making you two wait."

"It's no problem. We arrived early anyway," Hyukjae says truthfully. 

Donghae crosses his arms and huffily sits down. Hyukjae glares at him for a second, which further raises Donghae's anger. "You can pick the warm-up music," Hyukjae tells Taemin. Taemin smiles and gracefully glides to the portable speaker he brought. Show-off, Donghae sourly thinks. He doesn't realize Hyukjae's approaching him until Hyukjae's almost just a hands-length away. 

But instead of the hug or reassuring squeeze Donghae secretly wanted from Hyukjae, Hyukjae lowered his voice to a warning whisper. "Can you stop acting like a spoiled baby all the time? You're not a cute, fresh-faced idol anymore. Grow up, Donghae!" Hyukjae gives Donghae one more look of annoyance before he joins Taemin's popping.

***

This day couldn't get worse, Donghae thinks as he watches Taemin gush over Eunhyuk's dancing and completely ignore him.

As if the fates decided to spite him, the door slams open and in walks Jessica and Tiffany. With the rest of Shinee and Amber, but Donghae was so annoyed at the entrance of the first two girls that he completely did not notice the rest.

"Hey, can we join you three?" Tiffany asks, smiling. "Taemin and Eunhyuk are SM's best dancers, after all."

And Yunho. Ho. Donghae wonders if he should seriously just leave without a word now, since even Taemin's water bottle was receiving more love (Hyukjae's thirsty mouth) and attention (Key moving it away) than him. Donghae blinks. When did Key and the rest of them come in?

"Bro!" Minho interrupts and envelopes Donghae in a bear hug.

"Argh," Donghae responds less than enthusiastically, but warmly hugs back the taller boy. He smirks when he sees Eunhyuk watching them with slightly pursed lips, and tightens the embrace. 

"Um," Amber, Jessica, and Tiffany say. 

"I WANT A HUG, TOO!" Jonghyun screams and joins in. This makes Donghae a little happier since now he doesn't look like such a midget next to Jonghyun. Even though Jonghyun's still taller than Donghae. 

"Aww," Key coos. 

Onew states forlornly, "I want chicken. Fried chicken."

But anyway. The other boys in the room, plus Amber and Taemin, decide that they would rather bro- and hug instead of practice for next week's heavy schedules. So, they join in and pretty much everyone's swaying and grinning with glazed eyes.  

"Caaaann you feeel the luhhhhve tooooniiight," Key sings loudly.  

Jessica and Tiffany look at each other awkwardly before joining the less fun, outside part of the hug circle. 

A/N: Wanted to write something fluffy after the angst in the last chapter. Me ruv fluff.