Henry is in his own world when he gets mauled by a ferocious wild animal.

            To others, it would just look like the innocent Donghae is tackling cute Henry into a friendly hug.

            Henry, personally, sees his life flashing before his eyes right before the wind is knocked out of his lungs.

            “Henry!” Donghae says with a maliciously pure (how is that possible?) smile that sends cold, paralyzing chills down Henry’s spine.

            “How… How can I help you today, Donghae?” Henry asks weakly (oh what he just said rhymes!), because Donghae’s arms are still around him and are squeezing the life-breath away from him. Donghae’s eyes turns into squinty half-moons as he replies.

            “I just need you to do a tiny, tiiiiny favor for me.”

            Wary, Henry asks, “What kind of favor?”

            “I’ll give you candy.”

            “Ye – Wait, are you’re bribing me.”

            “All I want you to do is enter the talent show.” Donghae flashes Henry his best charming smile, teeth and all. It honestly scares Henry to death.

            “Uhmm – “

            “And win.”

            “Ahhh, well,” Henry says. There is a pause, then: “Okay, why not?”

            “Well, you see, I will reward you gratuitously. There are other benefits, too, like – What?” Donghae stops in his already rehearsed speech and gapes at Henry. “You said yes?”

            Henry shrugs, albeit kind of uncomfortably because Donghae’s arms are still squashing his whole body. “I was actually thinking about doing it this morning, when Amber – eheheh – said that she wanted to see me on stage.”

            “Oh GOOD.” Donghae sighs in relief. “I don’t have to threaten you with blackmail photos and scorpions now.”

            Henry blinks in horror. “What blackmail? And scorpions?”

            He doesn’t get his answer though, because Donghae is already swinging him around in a celebratory dance (that looks oddly like a monkey mating ritual).

            “Hae, ey, that’s where you were. It’s time to go hooo… ome…” Hyukjae suddenly feels another out-of-body experience as he stares at one of the strangest scenes he has ever been graced with in his life. In the dance practice room, Donghae is tugging one of Henry’s legs over Henry’s arms. Henry, the poor mochi, is all tied up in a pretzel-like position. His face looks constipated.

            Really, Hyukjae should be used to these weird things happening now.

            But he really isn’t.

            He throws his hands up in a surrender position. “I’m not even going to ask, but are you sure Henry’s going to be alive by the end of this?”

            “You should have more faith in me.” Donghae pouts, a frankly adorable expression that makes Hyukjae wants to shake puppies back and forth.

            “I’m fine.” Henry tries to smile brightly, but it comes out strained, like there is an elephant sitting on him. “This is all very good training, really.”

            “We’re just trying to find his talent,” Donghae says. Hyukjae snorts; well of course, he should’ve expected Donghae to have somehow convinced Henry to join the talent show.

            But as long as Henry is talentless (wow, that sounds so heartless of him), Hyukjae is safe.

            “I’ll just sit down and watch, then,” Hyukjae says. “I should’ve brought some popcorn with me, because this is sure to be entertaining.”

            Donghae sticks his tongue at his best friend childishly. Hyukjae blows a raspberry back.

            Henry rolls his eyes.

            “Okay, obviously yoga isn’t your strong point,” Donghae says, helping Henry to unknot his body.

            “That was yoga?”

            “Shut up, Hyukjae, you’re disruptive. I’m going to throw you out if you keep making noise.” Donghae adopts an authoritative tone.

            “Ooh.” Hyukjae moves his eyebrows up and down. “Is teacher going to punish me?”

            Donghae smirks. “If you keep interrupting class, yes.”

            Henry coughs into his hands: “Hrmphhkgghh-youguysaresuchshamelessflirts-kkhhllhmphhh.”

            “What was that, Henry?” Donghae turns to Henry with his arms crossed. Henry smiles back angelically.

            “Nothing at all, teacher,” he sing-songs.

            “I’m sure it was something,” Hyukjae mutters, but everyone ignores him (as always – sobsob – oh stop being a drama queen Hyukjae).

            “If you can’t stand on your head while twirling plates, hold your breathe underwater for 3 minutes, do yoga pretzel positions, what can you do?” Donghae is listing these ‘talents’ off his fingers as he says them one by one.

            Henry sits up with his back straight, giving Donghae momentary hope that he actually has a talent (Donghae is actually feeling very doubtful of that, actually), but then Henry slouches again with a dejected expression on his face.

            “I don’t know, actually,” he says with such a sad tone that Donghae immediately squishes him into a comforting hug. Hyukjae is staring daggers into Henry as Donghae rocks him back and forth.

            “It’s okay,” Donghae coos. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

            “I wanted to impress Amber too,” Henry mumbles.

            Hyukjae suddenly perks up, his inner-gossip-girl going on alert. “Ah, does someone have a crush?” A Cheshire cat smile crosses his face.

            “Hush, Hyukjae, no time for gathering gossip right now. I’m trying to comfort Henry here.” Donghae narrows his eyes into a laser-beam stare at Hyukjae.

            “Fine.” Hyukjae crosses his arms and proceeds to sulk like the worst 5-year old that ever existed. He doesn’t like how Donghae is patting Henry’s head.

            Henry suddenly wriggles out of Donghae’s suffocating grasp and looks at his watch. “Oh man,” he moans. “I’m going to be late for my lessons.”

            Puzzlement hangs in the air. Hyukjae just has to ask: “What lessons?”

            Henry walks to the corner of the room, where a small instrument case is carefully lying on its side. “My violin lessons,” he says as he picks up his violin case.

            …

            This is it.

            Hyukjae is doomed for life.

            Donghae, on the totally opposite side of the emotion spectrum, looks like he’s just about to projectile-vomit out rainbows. “You can play the violin?”

            Henry looks a little confused that the other two occupants of the room look so affected by that little piece of news. “Uh, yeah?”

            Donghae looks half-indignant and half-ecstatic. “Why didn’t you tell me that before then?!”

            “Playing the violin counts as a talent?” Henry looks like someone has just told him that Santa exists.

            Donghae bursts into the noises of a frenzied cat. “Of course it does!”

            Hyukjae is curled up into fetal position. He slides surreptitiously into the other corner of the room so that his emo corner is complete.

            “Oh.” Henry starts to smile happily. “But I thought the talent had to be something really weird, like twirling plates while being upside down.”

            Donghae doesn’t want to say that he made Henry do these things because he didn’t believe that Henry had a talent.

            “Well, nevermind!” Donghae pats Henry’s back forcefully. Henry almost chokes on air. “I have a good feeling about this show.”

            A groan of utter despondency comes from Hyukjae’s emo corner.

Ohmy. I feel so bad for Henry after writing this. LOLOLOL.

<3 Thank you to all those who read, subscribe, and/or comment on this story. It's very good moral support ahaha. I do my best to respond to all the comments~