Plaid shirt that was very out of fashion? Check.

          Glasses that had tape on them (even though they were not even broken). Double check.

          Pants rolled up in a way that revealed mismatching socks. Triple awesome smashing check.

          Donghae grinned vindictively on his walk to school. Perfect. He had the image of a very nerdy loser. Awesome. He was so going to be ignored and ridiculed on the first day of this new school.

          His new image of geek nobody was on its way to polished perfection.

          See, Donghae had just moved to a new place, due to his mom getting a new job. He and his dad had to pretend to look very happy for her, because this was a huge promotion on her part. Donghae, at first, was sad to leave his circle of close friends. But then he realized that he didn’t really even like most of them in the first place. Okay, he had somewhat of a soft spot for Heechul and his boytoy admittedly, but other than that, most of his “close friends” were kind of jerks. Yeah, that was what the popular people he knew were like. Jerks.

          Donghae was the adored, incredibly popular, idol of his old school (due to his good looks and fashion sense). And naturally, that gathered the popularity crowd around him. But he didn’t really like them that much (again, except for Heechul and Hankyung), and so he realized that this move would be a good thing. The only thing he was going to miss was the pretty architecture of the school and the cute fish from the ponds nearby, not to mention the few real friends he did make there.

          So, he figured, why not become the opposite of what he was in his old school? He wanted to know people who liked him for what he was on the inside, and not care about what he looked like on the surface. That way, he might have a chance at actually enjoying school instead of pretending at laugh at something the head cheerleader was saying (while also blatantly flirting with him).

          And that was how he had arrived upon this point. His dad had flashed him a very weirded out and strange look when Donghae exited the house in his new attire this morning (Mom was already out to work. That hard-worker. She pushed herself too far), but Donghae just beamed and said good morning to him before rushing out the door.

          Their new house was very nice. It even had perfectly white picket fences, although Donghae suspected they would be painted red in less than a week. His dad had some kind of weird for that color.

          The school was conveniently close to their new house, and also very nice looking. Although maybe it was a little too yellow and gothic for his tastes, Donghae thought while heading inside to attend the mandatory auditorium orientation on the first day of school. A few people stared a little longer than necessary at him, before turning to each other and whispering about the new kid. Donghae tried to hide his smirk. Yes. His geeky image of awesomeness was working.

          The orientation was head-off-the-pants boring. Like, seriously, Donghae tried not to doze off. He was jerked awake when the student president went on stage to speak seriously into the microphone. The reason Donghae was now wide awake was because the president was not wearing a shirt.

          Seriously.

          No shirt on. ing awesome abs though, Donghae thought mournfully, lamenting and mentally comparing his less six-pack-ish abs with this strange student president.

          “That’s Choi Siwon. He’s got some kind of complex with ab muscles and he constantly flashes them at the whole school population,” someone next to him informed him very nicely. Well, actually, this guy sounded utterly dead bored. He was currently jabbing at a DS, cursing softly when the boss of the video game attacked him. He seemed just like the kind that popular people would flip out of their ways to avoid. Donghae inwardly cheered. His new friend!

          “Hi,” Donghae held his hand out for a handshake enthusiastically. “My name is Lee Donghae.”

          The student next to him flashed him a I-think-you-are-weird-look and didn’t shake his hand. Probably because he was still playing his game. “Cho Kyuhyun.”

          “Nice to meet you!” Okay, Donghae should tone the enthusiasm down a little. More of it, and he’d look like a total creeper. Kyuhyun just nodded distractedly before clutching his game system even tighter in anxiety. Apparently the boss had just been reborn.

          “, come on, I just killed him,” Kyuhyun said. And that was the end of their happy conversation.

ooo

          …Actually, no, that wasn’t really the end. When Donghae had arrived in his new homeroom, he glanced casually around and spotted a familiar mop of hair hanging over a DS.

          “Oh, it’s you again,” Kyuhyun said quite unpolitely. Donghae just grinned.

          A big cacophony of sounds from outside the classroom made Donghae turns his head in curiosity at the windows that showed the inside of the hallways. A bunch of people were squished together, straining as if trying to see some kind of pop idol celebrity. The girls inside the classroom tried to push their ways out the door in excitement.

          “What… What’s with that?” Donghae turned back to Kyuhyun in confusion. Kyuhyun didn’t look up from his game but replied anyway in a monotonous manner.

          “The prince of this school has apparently arrived. Hooray.”

          The ‘hooray’ was so unenthused that Donghae cracked a smile at that. The prince, huh? He guessed there was a school idol no matter which school he went to.

          The scary crowd of people parted like the red sea as someone walked through the middle into the classroom.

          “Oh. Great. He’s in our class. We’re never going to have peace from the screaming fangirls,” Kyuhyun said.

          The school’s Mr. Popularity was certainly charismatic. As soon as he walked in the room, Donghae felt that all the attention landed on him. The guy had dark hair that landed right above his eyebrows, a fashionable leather jacket, and full lips.

          Not to mention a nice .

          Donghae mentally slapped himself for thinking that, but really, once the thought had been released, there was no way to take it back.

          “Eunhyuk,” one of the girls sighed, fanning herself before almost passing out in the arms of her friend.

          This was going to be interesting, Donghae thought.

          As fate (or a quite bored and malicious writer) would have it, Donghae ended up being seated right next to Eunhyuk. At least Kyuhyun was seated behind him, so he could cry out for help whenever he had the urge to jump his new seatmate’s bones.

          Yeah.

          He was already totally hot for this popular Mr. Cool.

          Urf. Maybe he shouldn’t have dressed up in this ridiculous nerdy manner, because Eunhyuk had only said a small hi before ignoring him completely in favor for talking and joking with another friend (who had a quite high-pitched dolphin laugh) sitting near them. But Donghae actually felt quite comfortable in the highly unfashionable plaid shirt. Hell, he was even getting slightly attached to his glasses. He did have a small vision problem, after all.

          So if he had to get to (forcefully) get to know Eunhyuk, it was going to have to be him looking kind of geeky trying to seduce this high school celebrity. Donghae was a romantic; he would only want the one he fell in love with to love him who he really was. He tended to act dorky most of the times anyway. It was honestly rather tiring to pretend that he was ‘cool’ in his old school when he just wanted to throw his arms in the air, do a weird jiggle, and sing a line from ‘Bonamana’ in front of the cafeteria vending machine.

          Which he attempted to do in this new school during lunch break. He ended up, in an undignified manner, slipping on the just-mopped floor and landing kind of painfully on his . A few football jockeys laughed raucously at him, but Donghae just pretended not to hear.

          Yup. He was living up his new high school life. A small smile spread across his face. Donghae approached the table that Kyuhyun had immediately plopped himself on to continue playing his game. No one else was sitting with them, and Donghae thought that maybe this was good. It was kind of peaceful.

          Donghae spotted a tightly packed table with Eunhyuk in the middle. He was jostling and grinning with his friends. One of them suddenly broke away from the table, striding over to where Donghae was sitting. He felt his eyebrows rise past his hairline. Wait, did someone already discover that he was popular back at his old school or something?

          The person approaching them, however, immediately bee-lined to Kyuhyun and draped his arms around him. Donghae felt himself freeze with shock. The new intruder pouted with m-shaped lips.

          “Kyuuuuuuuuuuuuu, are you ignoring me again ‘cuz you’re trying to finish that new game you bought yesterday?”

          “I’m almost done, Minnie.” Kyuhyun pecked the lips of the clinging person on top of him.

          “Aish. I swear, you finish these games as fast as Changmin eats his food.” Then he seemed to notice a clueless (and currently kind of shocked to the core – because a popular guy was apparently in a relationship with Kyuhyun) Donghae sitting across from them. “Oh, who are you? Ah, you’re new here aren’t you? My name is Lee Sungmin nicetomeetyou~”

          Sungmin said that in such a fast and peppy tone that Donghae had to blink several times to absorb all that.

          “Lee Donghae,” Donghae awkwardly introduced himself.

          “He has a huge gay crush on Eunhyuk,” Kyuhyun cut in. Donghae gaped.

          “What? How did you know that? Ah. No. Wait. I mean, I do not have a huge gay crush on him,” Donghae blubbered. Sungmin just smiled widely and a scary glint seemed to enter his eyes. Oh, .

          “Our dear Eunhyukkie, hm? You have excellent taste, my man. The unfortunate news is that most of the school is half in love with him as well,” Sungmin said.

          “I noticed,” Donghae said dryly.

          Sungmin nodded. “I like this one, Kyu.”

          “I thought you would,” Kyuhyun said, eyebrows still scrunched at his DS screen. Sungmin made a small humming sound and made himself comfortable next to Kyuhyun.

          “Well, he’s single right now, and I’m pretty sure he’s bi, so I could introduce you to him if you want,” Sungmin offered.

          “Ah, no, it’s okay,” Donghae declined. “Besides, we sit next to each other in class anyway.”

          “Oh really~” Sungmin slightly smirked. Donghae just slightly blushed.

          “But why are you dressed like that?” Sungmin’s question caught him off guard.

          “Whuh?”

          “It’s obvious that you’re not used to it,” Kyuhyun said. “I saw you almost trip over your rolled up pants, if that was even possible.”

          Wow. Donghae was kind of amazed at their keen observation skills. Or maybe he was just being too obvious. He fidgeted at his sweatpants, picking at them with his fingers.

          “I don’t really like being popular,” he confessed. Something that ranged between a snort and an amused cough emerged from Kyuhyun’s mouth. Sungmin just looked thoughtful.

          “Makes sense. It’s rather troublesome to have screechy girls after your all the time,” Sungmin said. Donghae was thinking that even though Sungmin was sitting at the popularity table, he wasn’t that bad. Maybe Eunhyuk would be nice as well.

          Donghae almost immediately shook his head inwardly. No way. With that kind of body and features? Almost impossible to find a perfect human being like that. No use getting his hopes up.

ooo

          “. Oh my ing – .” Donghae was talking softly to himself, almost unable to believe his eyes. To add to his many assets, Eunhyuk had mind-blowing talent for dancing as well. It was the school talent show, and the auditorium was shaking under the cheers the crowd was screaming out as Eunhyuk rippled with the music.

          As if he could be anymore ing amazing for Donghae to fall for. Watching Eunhyuk dance was like something out of the world. It was so beautiful, and he could see the passion Eunhyuk had for dancing on his face. Donghae liked to dance as well, but his level was nowhere near Eunhyuk’s, probably (was he putting himself down because he was currently so love-struck? It was ridiculous, because they never even talked to each other beyond the occasional good mornings)

          Watching as Eunhyuk finished the show with a jaw-dropping hip roll, Donghae resolved himself to actually get to know his seatmate.

ooo

          “Hi, I like your pencil,” Donghae said. He felt like immediately slamming his head right into the table after that and preferably burying himself into a hole. He heard Kyuhyun huffing behind him, obviously trying to suppress laughter.

          “Oh. Thanks,” Eunhyuk flashed him a little thin smile.

          “No, really, Naruto is one of my favorite anime.” He was desperately trying to keep the conversation going. You know, keep the ball rolling and all that. “And Gaara is my favorite character, too.”

          “Erm.” Eunhyuk glanced at his pencil. “Actually, my friend gave me that for my birthday. I don’t watch Naruto.”

          Awkward turtles.

          Eunhyuk probably thought he was an idiot and total loser. Donghae felt like one right now.

          “Oh.” Donghae nodded and shrunk into his seat in shame and embarrassment.

          Of course he wouldn’t be an avid anime watcher. Donghae felt kind of shallow right now, actually. He was falling for Eunhyuk just based on his looks, which he had inwardly criticized others for doing back at his old school. How ironically hypocritical was that?

ooo

          “I like Gaara too.”

          “Hmraadh?” Donghae made an obscurely out-of-the-world noise in response to Eunhyuk’s sudden icebreaker. They hadn’t spoken in a week since Donghae’s last embarrassing attempt at conversation, and he was caught momentarily off-guard with Eunhyuk’s remark.

          “I was forced to watch a few episodes of Naruto by Yoona,” Eunhyuk explained further.

          “Oh,” Donghae said, feeling his heart plummeting down to his stomach. Eunhyuk looked a little confused at why Donghae was suddenly sporting a sullen expression but didn’t continue their (second) failed conversation.

          “I thought you said he was single!” Donghae half-wailed half-hissed at Sungmin when he pranced over to their lunch table as usual. Kyuhyun actually paused his game to look up.

          “Last time I checked, he was single.” Sungmin tilted his head to the side in contemplation.

          “He said he was forced to watch Naruto by Yoona,” Donghae said.

          “Oh,” Sungmin paused, and then said again: “Oh.” He promptly started laughing, leaning his head on Kyuhyun’s shoulder (which Kyuhyun immediately sneakily took advantage of by wrapping his arm around Sungmin’s waist).

          “Oh my god, you’re pretty head over heels for him, aren’t you?” Sungmin asked, wiping away his nonexistent tears. Donghae flushed red.

          “Whu- nnnnnghhhh – agh,” Donghae managed to get out, before bowing his head down. “Maybe just a little.”

          “Yoona is his sister,” Sungmin emphasized the ‘sister’ part. Donghae felt his blush enter his hair roots in his mortification. No wonder Sungmin was laughing at him.

          “I’ll go and bury my head in an obscure pond now, thank you very much,” Donghae deadpanned, making Sungmin chuckle even more.

          “You sure you don’t need our help getting you two together?” Sungmin asked. Donghae adamantly shook his head. He wanted to do his fail seducing his own way.

ooo

          Maybe he should start out by showing that he was interested first. In Eunhyuk, that is. Donghae chewed the end of his pencil, pretending to pay attention in class but was really trying to formulate his master Evil Plan to get Eunhyuk to fall for him.

          Dress up in a maid uniform. Kyuhyun’s snarky voice popped into his head. He almost bit the eraser part of the pencil off at the recollection. Sungmin had looked a little too euphoric and maybe a little even nostalgic (Donghae would rather not know) when Kyuhyun had suggested that.

          Um, no, he’d really, really, rather not. As if he didn’t make enough of a fool out of himself just by acting like his awkward self.

          He suddenly remembered a paper heart plastered on the bulletin board from this morning.

          That’s it.

          Valentine’s Day. Donghae almost jumped up in excitement at his genius idea, but instead just bounced a little in his seat because he was still in class. Eunhyuk furrowed his eyebrows (cutely) in confusion before turning his attention back to the teacher. Kyuhyun kicked his chair.

          That bastard.

ooo

          Donghae bit his lips nervously while clutching at his mismatched box of chocolates. He felt like a ing bashful schoolgirl like this. He slowly walked up to where Sungmin told him Eunhyuk’s locker was. And was promptly blocked by a huge group of squealing girls.

          Oh yeah.

          He forgot about how the girls went kind of bat- insane on this holiday. He was never going to get to Eunhyuk’s locker in one piece (hah, One Piece. Get it? No? Moving on).

          That meant that he had to hand it to Eunhyuk personally. Shisus, he was going to get a heart attack before that would ever happen.

          “Um, excuse me,” a familiar voice behind him said. Donghae felt his back prickling and stomach do a spectacular flip (which always happened when Eunhyuk was near), and flat out panicked. He flung his chocolates at Eunhyuk before sprinting down the hall. Anything to escape the mortifying rejection that would probably happen seconds after.

          It took him a couple of minutes of quiet hyperventilation in a stuffy janitor’s closet for him to realize that, oh damn, he just threw his box of chocolates at Eunhyuk. He might’ve even poked his eye out with the corner of the box or something. Eunhyuk was going to hate him forever for this.

          …Okay, he might’ve been a little overdramatic, but it was perfectly warranted. Donghae hung his head low as he snuck out of the dusty closet. This crush was honestly bringing him to new lows. But the high of admiring Eunhyuk’s gummy smile was worth it in the end, Donghae decided as he reluctantly walked back to class.

          Hyukjae was not having a good day. He took many battle injuries trying to open his locker (which was, of course, full of chocolates) as girls clutched in an excited fashion at him.

          “Oppa, please go with me!”

          This was shouted along with many dramatic confessions of everlasting love. Hyukjae gritted his teeth and tried to pull his books out from the mountain of chocolates.

          “I’m honestly very flattered, but could you guys please let me breathe?” Hyukjae’s voice almost entered a new pitch as the girls squealed at him even more.

          Let me live through this, Hyukjae quickly prayed, and then pushed his way out of the crowd. He was instantly followed and stalked back to class. Valentine’s Day was always his bane of existence (although the few rare strawberry flavored chocolates he got kind of made up for it). A slouched figure greeted his eyes as he entered the classroom.

          Hyukjae blinked, remembering how Donghae, who always wore his taped-up glasses and plaid shirt, practically chucked a box of chocolates at him today. He wasn’t really sure if it was in revenge for something (his cheek still kind of stung from that blow) or if it was a confession. If it was a confession, it sure hurt more than any of the confessions he had ever gotten before.

          Examining Donghae a little closer with out of the corner of his eyes (Donghae was deliberately trying not to make eye contact with him), Hyukjae decided that he was actually kind of cute. More than that, he found Donghae’s dorky attempts at conversation and random clumsiness kind of endearing. His crooked teeth that was revealed when he smiled was really adorable as well. Hyukjae suppressed a small giggle at that thought. That giggle would’ve totally ruined his cool image.

          “The aquarium,” he blurted out. Donghae finally made eye contact with him. He looked so confused.

          “Pardon?”

          “On Saturday. Erm, ah, aquarium.” Dear shisus, he at this.

          “…I don’t really understand.” Donghae looked all sorts of huggable as he furrowed his eyebrows.

          “I’m asking you out on a date!” Hyukjae lost his patience. All eyes in the classroom, including the teacher’s, turned to them. Donghae’s face looked like a strawberry in its coloring.

          “You can ask him out after class, Mr. Lee,” the teacher said in an amused tone.

          “Sorry,” Hyukjae mumbled. Donghae kind of looked like he was on Cloud Nine and struck by lightning at the same time.

ooo

          The story of Hyukjae asking out Donghae in the middle of the class spread like wildfire throughout the school. Everyone reacted in different ways (from rolling their eyes to fainting from shock to clapping excitedly in Sungmin’s case), but Hyukjae didn’t really give a damn.

          He stood at the entrance of the aquarium, actually feeling first date nerves starting to get to him. And he had never had first date nerves strike him before. It was always the other person trying to desperately attempt to impress him. Donghae was different somehow. Special in some way. He just hadn’t figured out how.

          “Hi Eunhyuk.” Hyukjae turned and found Donghae walking toward him. He was wearing around the same things he wore in school, except maybe the pants weren’t rolled up anymore (privately Hyukjae thought back to the many times Donghae had tripped over them somehow) and the plaid shirt was in a red color.

          Nice.

          Hyukjae smiled back. “Call me Hyukjae.”

          Donghae gave him a cute little tilt of his head. “Hyukjae?”

          “That’s my real name. I only allow people close to me to call me that,” Hyukjae said. As expected, a tiny blush went up from Donghae’s neck to his cheeks.

          “Okay.”

          As soon as they entered the aquarium (Hyukjae insisted on paying for both of them), Donghae plastered his face on one of the glass displays.

          “So many fish!” Donghae practically had a little fish-fangasm right there in the aquarium. Hyukjae mentally patted his own back, congratulating himself on choosing the right place for their date. Donghae was bouncing on his toes, tugging on Hyukjae’s sleeve.

          “I think there are sharks over there,” Donghae said with wide eyes, pointing towards a sign.

          “Let’s go, then,” Hyukjae said. He reached out and intertwined their hands together, which apparently made Donghae lose his speech for a good minute or two.

          After three hours, Hyukjae plopped down on a bench, catching his breath. Donghae was cooing at a Nemo fish, acting like 5-year old in his excitement. Hyukjae was dead tired (wow, Donghae had a lot of stamina), but Donghae’s happiness was really contagious.

          “Hyukjae?”

          “Hmm?” Hyukjae still couldn’t even formulate a real sentence. That was how tired he felt. Donghae sat down next to him.

          “I’ve been meaning to ask… Why did you ask me out on a date?” Donghae fiddled with his sleeves, still staring at the tropical fish in front of him. Hyukjae glanced at him surprise. What a question.

          “Because I like you. Shouldn’t that be the normal reason someone asks someone else out on a date?”

          “Really?” Donghae seemed really surprised. “But you… You are the school idol.”

          Hyukjae felt amused. Was that what Donghae called him? He was just popular, although some days he got really tired of all the people looking up him in admiration.

          “So?” Hyukjae lied back on the bench with his head tilted up to see Donghae. “I think how you act is kind of cute.”

          “You like me for what I am, not what I look,” Donghae stated in a question-like manner, sounding surprised.

          “I guess.”

          That brought out a full-on bright grin on Donghae’s face. Wow. It was really dazzling to look at. Hyukjae sat back up to gape more.

          “Does that mean I can kiss you now?” Donghae asked. Before Hyukjae could even react, Donghae leaned in.

          …

          ……

          ………

          When Donghae pulled away, Hyukjae felt like his brain had just spontaneously combusted. His heart was thumping a mile a second. He thought that maybe, Donghae suddenly looked a lot more beautiful than he had been when they had first met.

          “How was it?” Donghae looked worried.

          “,” was all Hyukjae said before he pulled Donghae back to him in order to fully devour his lips more.

ooo

          First date, Hyukjae could smugly claim, was a complete success. Second date, not so much. No, don’t get him wrong, just being with Donghae felt like absolute perfection (he should be worried over how fast he was falling for him, but really, he was too distracted by the rainbows and fluffy clouds that seem to come into his vision when Donghae appeared). However, both of them managed to somehow trip and fall into a nearby fountain (while busy making out), cutting the date quite short as they had to go back to their respective home to change into dry clothes. The later dates got infinitely better though.

          “Hyukkie, I have to tell you something,” Donghae’s voice traveled from the cell phone Hyukjae was holding. Hyukjae lay on his back on the bed, suddenly nervous, because that sentence didn’t sound so good. Donghae sounded like he was breaking bad news to him.

          “What is it, Hae?” So yeah, they had gotten pretty close in the five weeks, three days, and six hours they had been together (Hyukjae was not counting. Of course not). They started blatantly flirting with each other during class, which made the teacher change Donghae’s and Kyuhyun’s seats. The couple sulked a little, but still managed to pass notes during class. Sungmin took one look at them during lunch (Hyukjae moved to Donghae’s table, and somehow his crowd of friends moved with him), and pretended to gag at their cheesiness.

          “They’re even worse than us,” Sungmin had said to Kyuhyun.

          For the most part, the school accepted them, although at first most students had thought it was just a short relationship. They were incredulous that it had lasted that long so far (in high school relationships, five weeks were akin to a century), partly due to Donghae’s continued geeky appearance.

          Right. Back to the phone conversation.

          “So, um, you know, back at my old school? Which was a lot prettier than our school right now, by the way. I have no idea if our school is supposed to be a mix between gothic and modern or something, but it looks pretty gag-worthy,” Donghae said.

          “Get to the point, Hae.”

          “Sorry, just a little nervous.”

          Hyukjae sat up.

          “What is it?”

          “I was… Emmm, sorry for not telling you earlier, but I was kind of popular when I was back in my old school.”

          “…”

          “Hyukjae?”

          Hyukjae lied back down on his soft bed.

          “Huh,” he said.

          “Fooorgiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive me for not saying it earlieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer, Hyukkie!”

          “If you keep yelling like that, Hae, you’re going to wake up your neighbors.”

          “…So?”

          “Hm?”

          “Are you okay with it?” Donghae sounded anxious.

          “Why wouldn’t I not be okay with it? Actually, now that I think about it, I’m actually not that surprised.”  

          “Re-ally.”

          “Yup.” Hyukjae smirked. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you tripping over your rolled-up pants when we first met.”

          “Why does everyone bring that up?!”

          “And your eyes.”

          “What?”

          “Your eyes,” Hyukjae continued. “When you take your glasses off, they’re amazingly gorgeous. I doubt anyone could resist them.”

          He heard Donghae mumble in embarrassment on the other end of the phone and smiled.

          “Well, you have smelly feet,” Donghae said.

          “Hey! I thought we were complimenting each other here!”

          “Let me get to the complimenting, impatient bastard,” Donghae said the insult lovingly. “See, when I first saw you, I thought you were, like, some kind of perfect human being. Which I didn’t think existed. But then when we started dating, and I found out that you have flaws, too. And that made you even more perfect.”

          Only Donghae could make Hyukjae blush. “Are you saying that smelly feet make me perfect?”

          “If you think about it that way, yup,” Donghae cheerfully chirped.

          After the phone call ended, Hyukjae stared at his cell. He thought: I love him. He had already thought that many times, the first thought appearing when they were in the middle of ice-skating – which led to him tripping over his own feet and falling painfully on the ice. Maybe one day he would be brave enough to say it out loud to Donghae.

ooo

          Donghae told him he had a surprise for him today. Hyukjae stood in the bookstore, flipping through a manga that Donghae would probably gush about to him later.

          Someone coming in through the entrance caught his eyes. An errant thought passed through his head that damn, that guy was hot before he pushed it away and turned back to his manga. Even thinking that made him feel guilty, like he was cheating on his Hae, though it was the first time he found someone that good-looking after starting to date Donghae.

          And he paused. No, wait, it couldn’t be. He slowly turned back to see that the ‘hot’ guy was standing in front of him, smiling that smile he loved.

          “Hae?” Hyukjae’s throat went dry.

          “Hi Hyukkie,” Donghae said. He was wearing fingerless black gloves, with a jacket thrown on over his stylish white T-shirt. The overdyed jeans complemented the rest of his outfit perfectly. He was wearing eyeliner, which was barely noticeable, but it gave him a sultry look. The glasses were gone; he was probably wearing contacts.

          Hyukjae couldn’t get a word out. It felt like there was a stupid frog was stuck in his windpipe. Donghae slowly smirked at the reaction of his boyfriend.

          “Would the employees mind if I ravish you right here and now?” Hyukjae finally said. Donghae considered it seriously.

          “Probably,” he said. Hyukjae immediately dragged him outside to find a place where he could kiss the bejesus out of his boyfriend who had suddenly transformed from just cute to ing hot.

ooo

          “Breathe, baby, you’re going to be amazing.” Hyukjae offered Donghae a water bottle but Donghae refused it.

          “I haven’t performed in front of an audience in so long,” Donghae fretted. Hyukjae pulled him close and tried to calm him through body contact. Donghae had started gradually transitioning to more normal clothing (still not like that gorgeous attire he put together for Hyukjae that time), but he kept his glasses (although the tape came off, thank goodness). He was still wary of getting any popularity, even though some of Hyukjae’s fans had started fangirling over him as well.

          “Remember, I’ll be there with you,” Hyukjae said. Donghae smiled at him.

          “Guys, showtime!” The student organizer of the spring talent show yelled at them.

          “One last kiss?” Donghae begged with his eyes. Hyukjae pressed their lips together in a deep kiss.

          “Time to show the world I have a hot boyfriend who could dance like a god,” Hyukjae said. Donghae grinned.