It took him awhile but after hanging out with Changmin for three nights a week for the past month, Eunhyuk felt assured enough to call the quiet man a friend and part of his social circle. He thought it would take him awhile longer to get used to a whiteboard (or in recent days, an iPad) responding to his questions, but when Hyoyeon sat him down to explain everything that had gone on during the weeks he was away in America—about Yoona and her weird arrangement with Changmin—he found that he actually liked this form of communication a lot more than he expected.

In fact, he found Changmin so amusing a friend that he’d actually arranged to meet him for a guy’s night after his date with Hyoyeon during one of their many recent double dates. Their girlfriends were going to be in another deadly shift at the hospital and while Yoona teased Changmin mercilessly about keeping her father company while she was working, he hadn’t particularly been keen on being alone President Im again, even though he and the President seemed to like each other enough.

So when Eunhyuk invited him to join in on a testosterone filled night-out, he’d agreed immediately and that was that.

The only snag in the plan was that Eunhyuk had completely forgotten about Donghae until the morning after his invitation. It was troublesome, really, knowing the bigger problem with forgetting to invite Donghae too was that his best friend didn’t seem to like Changmin very much. Eunhyuk never wanted to be in any situation where he had to choose between people he cared about. And he especially did not want to come between whatever unspoken rivalry Donghae and Changmin had going, considering how the latter was now ‘dating’ the former’s ex-girlfriend.

Eunhyuk had to chuckle to himself at the thought, just as he wedged himself into a filled elevator going up to his office floor. After hearing the whole story from Hyoyeon, he would have never thought Yoona would go through so much trouble to keep a charade up for her father who probably wouldn’t care if she were really dating a man at the moment or now. He’d been working for the PR firm under President Im’s multi-million company for five years and he’d always regarded Yoona’s father as one of the most open-minded of business men in the world. He was sure that it wouldn’t have been a life-or-death situation if Yoona didn’t end up marrying by the end of the year but the Eunhyuk thought Yoona probably didn’t see things the same way. Already very well through her Medical residency, Yoona was intelligent, stubborn and more than a bit high-strung. She was always so logical, leading her life with her brain rather than her heart. He figured that she must have thought there was an emergency somewhere or she wouldn’t have come up with such an insane charade of a plan.

Being in a relationship was hard enough but pretending to be in one takes the cake. And Eunhyuk wondered if either Yoona or Changmin knew how deep they were already into the pretense. They certainly looked and felt authentic enough to fool the guests at President Im’s party and Donghae. Hell, oftentimes when he got to hang out with the two of them, he was almost fooled into believing it too.

The elevator doors opened to his floor just as he snapped out of his reverie. He was thankful that most of the passengers had gotten out while he was lost in his thoughts—giving him free reign to loosen his muscles before stepping out of the elevator. He was greeted almost immediately by Donghae sitting on his swivel chair, his feet propped up on the desk as though he owned it. Eunhyuk gave him an indignant look before kicking his friend out of his seat and moving to drop his bag underneath his desk.

“What’s up, Lee? What can I do for on this fine day?” Eunhyuk asked brightly, assuming Donghae’s previous position on his chair with a grin. He watched as his friend rolled his eyes at him as he took a seat on the chair near the desk, fiddling with his suit jacket while trying to look relaxed and nonchalant.

Eunhyuk could practically hear the gears running in Donghae’s head as he struggled to articulate the words he wanted to say. Figures he’d come by sooner or later to ask how I knew Changmin before he did, he thought, smirking to himself as his friend opened his mouth and then closed it several times.

Donghae could be dense sometimes. But then his friend was always a little slow when it came to the women in his life. It was just Donghae’s way.

“Anytime during the millennium, dude.” He prodded, a smug grin stretching over his lips as Donghae flushed and flipped him the bird. “Just say what you want to say and let me get to work so that I can actually leave in time to see Hyoyeon for dinner before she goes on her 36-hour shift tonight.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything!” Donghae argued, deflecting any awkwardness and failing miserably as Eunhyuk only gave him a hard and pointed look of disbelief. He swore to himself before finally caving, slumping back against his seat. “I… just wanted to know if you had anything planned after dinner with Hyo. We haven’t hung out in awhile since we got back from New York and I started seeing Sooyeon again.”

“That’s not my fault. We’ve been real busy, closing the deal with DeMarco from New York, and you know… our girls.” Eunhyuk countered, already dreading where this conversation was leading them.

It was just his luck that his best friend would ask to hang out when he’d already made plans with someone else. He felt a little bit like a cheating girlfriend in a sense but he brushed that thought aside, only because it was ridiculous to think of things in that way. He had enough grief from Hyoyeon when she teased about his close friendship with Donghae. He didn’t need to give her anymore insane validation.

Chuckling, Donghae held up his hands in mock surrender. He knew very well that things had gotten out of hand these past few weeks and aimed for a more balanced social life. Sooyeon had encouraged it most of all, especially since she herself was busy with personal matters that he wasn’t very privy to.

Hoping to appease his friend, he grinned and said, “Yeah, well, I’m freeing up my schedule for you now so what do you say? Beer and pool at CS Bar?”

Dongha