Kyuhyun left a perplexed looking Donghae alone in the hallway and set out to put his plan into action.

Phase one: make Eunhyuk jealous. Very jealous.

Eunhyuk was still fuming over Hae’s obvious preference for Leeteuk over himself. Why had his friend been ignoring him so much lately? Well, ignoring was probably he wrong term, he just wasn’t…well let’s put it this way, he was used to having to the other boy hanging off him every ten seconds, and lately he’d being finding himself rather…Donghae-free. At first he was confused, but a bit pleased by the change, but now…now he wasn’t sure what he was feeling, but it definitely wasn’t pleased.

Kyuhyun bumped into him as he walked by, jolting him from his thoughts.

“Oh sorry hyung, I was distracted…” Kyu apologized innocently.

Eunhyuk saw the pink phone in his hand and looked at the maknae through slitted eyes, “What are you doing with Minnie’s phone, Kyu?”

“Oh nothing, I just found something interesting in it,” He tried to hide the phone behind his back, out of Eunhyuk’s reach.

“Yah!” Eunhyuk looked at him with consternation, “Don’t look at other people’s phones! Invasion of privacy much? Give it here!”

Kyuhyun held the phone above his head, tauntingly, “You just wanna know what I was looking at! It’s really not that big a deal,” He added casually.

“Ugh… What is it then?” Eunhyuk gave a sigh of exasperation.

Kyuhyun shrugged, “Don’t tell Minnie I showed you, and you can see for yourself.”

Eunhyuk agreed impatiently and grabbed the phone, flipping it open. The evil maknae looked on over his shoulder, grinning, “Looks like those two are closer roommates that we thought.”

Eunhyuk was reeling. Even Sungmin had a picture of Donghae on his phone? This picture was obviously not one of Donghae’s self-ca pics, he must have posed for Sungmin… but why was THIS the background of his phone. He choked on his own spit when he read the banner: “My fishy love! <333”

Kyuhyun took in Eunhyuk’s shell-shocked state. Eyes bulged like dinner plates, lips parted in surprise, and the color in his skin was draining alarmingly quickly. He poked the older boy experimentally. Eunhyuk swayed for a moment, but other than that, the jab elicited no response. He tried to remove the phone from Eunhyuk’s grasp, but the other boy’s hand was locked tightly around it.

“HYUK!” He shouted, trying to bring his attention off of the smiling image of Donghae.

“Wha-whaaa?” He shook his head like a waterlogged cat, as if he was trying to dislodge an uncomfortable feeling.

“Phone?” Kyu smiled sweetly up at his hyung, feeling he’d done his duty well so far.

Eunhuk blinked a few times, and straightened, clearing his throat, “Oh, yeah. Here,” he shoved it towards Kyu unceremoniously. He added in an attempt to downplay his embarrassing reaction, “I don’t see what you were so excited about, it’s just Donghae.”

“Yeah,” Kyuhyun nodded skeptically, as he turned to go he added one last taunting remark, “But Sungmin usually refuses to put people on his phone background because he wants to avoid scandals.”

He skipped away merrily, leaving behind a queasy looking Eunhyuk.

That night, after the show, the group went out to dinner. Eunhyuk had been eying Donghae all day to gauge the way he acted around Leeteuk and Sungmin, but could notice no real difference.

They probably had gotten closer since they’d become roommates. Yeah… Maybe the fishy love thing was an inside joke or something. Something was still bothering Eunhyuk, however.

Despite the unsettling feelings he got every time he caught a glimpse of Donghae’s flashing smile, or heard his infectious laugh, dinner was quite good. It was toasty in the Japanese steak house, though he could see heavy snow falling outside. He drank his sake slowly, savoring the warmth as it trickled down into his chest. Some of the members were planning to take a trip to Hakone during the day, as it was only a little over an hour away by train.

Donghae’s ears perked up at this. He loved hot springs and he had heard the onsen at Hakone were world famous. It would be nice to go somewhere relaxing for a change. He liked living in Seoul and traveling to new an exciting cities all the time, but sometimes he missed his sleepy port hometown.

“Hyukkie-ya!” Kyu’s cheerful voice carried down the table, “You’re coming tomorrow right?”

And there was one more reason to go,Donghae grinned and then raised his voice, “Count me in Kyu!”

The maknae shot him the thumbs up to show he’d heard and gave a little wink for good measure.

They got up to go back to the hotel late that night, all feeling exhausted and more than a little buzzed from the sake bombs Kyuhyun and Wookie had insisted on drinking, and were putting on their jackets when something bright red caught Eunhyuk’s eye. Donghae was busily wrapping a scarf around he neck. A strangely familiar scarf.

Eunhyuk felt his stomach to a funny flip that he refused to analyze further. And then Donghae caught his stare directly. They blushed furiously, both quickly looking away.

He’s wearing my scarf,Eunhyuk thought widely, why is wearing my scarf?

He was left to follow after the group as they all walked out to the parking lot where their vans were waiting.

Donghae pulled the cozy red scarf higher over his face as they stepped into the snowy outdoors, partly as protection from the cold and embarrassment and partly to inhale the sweet, lingering scent that was uniquely Eunhyuk’s. He had been holding on to it ever since the day he had gone to lunch with hyukkie as sort of consolation every time he had to resist bothering his friend.  He knew hyukkie found him annoying at times, but he just couldn’t help it! The boy just did things that made Donghae want to jump him! But he knew that was never a possibility, so he was trying to control himself. Every time he got to missing being close to Eunhyuk too much, he’d wrap that scarf around him and breath in the comforting scent of his Hyukjae. But today was accident, he was in a rush when they were packing for Japan and of course he’d not packed nearly enough winter clothes. Apparently, this scarf was the only one he’d grabbed, just his luck. He’d thought, just maybe the other boy wouldn’t notice, but no such luck.

They had been squished awkwardly next to each other in one of their vans, cheeks flushed from a combination of cold, alcohol, and embarrassment.

“Er…” Donghae started, “Do you want your scarf back, Hyukkie?”

Eunhyuk’s looked out the window to keep his blush hidden, “It’s ok, I um, I like that you’re wearing it.”

“What?” Donghae asked. That was definitely not the response he had been prepared for.

Eunhyuk still spoke to the fogged up window, “I mean, I’m glad you’re taking care of yourself, and keeping warm. It’s not good for singers to let their throats get cold. You can give it back when we go home.”

Donghae perked up, forgetting his plan to back off his friend momentarily, “really? Thanks Hyukkie! I really like it, it’s so soft! And warm! Where’d you get it? I’ve been wearing it all the – ”

He stopped short, realizing he was talking far too much for his own good. Kyuhun was looking at them both bemusedly.

“…Thanks, um I don’t remember where I got it,” Hyuk said out loud, but silently he wondered, “He’s been wearing it all the time?”

The car ride passed quickly after that as Kyuhyun began to further map out his ingenius plan.

The managers greeted the boys in the lobby shifting guiltily as they approached.

“So there was a little problem with the rooms…someone’s Japanese is apparently verysub par. We tried to get more rooms once we realized the mistake, but there’s a big wedding tonight and no more rooms. We’re going to share a room, but that leaves at least 4 of you that will have to share rooms,” said Manager Kim, all the while glaring at Manager Choi.

The other man cleared his throat awkwardly, “well someone who actually speaks Japanese was too lazy to make the call himself, so I really don’t think that–”

The boys rolled their eyes, the two were always fighting like married couple. Leeteuk silenced him with a reassuring smile, “It’s alright, we’re used to living together. We just need two people to share rooms with others?”

Manager Choi nodded, determinately not looking at his colleague, who was staring daggers into his left side.

Sungmin shrugged, “I live with Donghae normally anyway, I don’t mind sharing with him.”

“No!”

Everyone looked at Eunhyuk who shouted out without fully realizing what he was doing.

“Uh… I mean, I…”

Kyuhyun cut in smoothly, “I told Eunhyuk that I wanted to share a room with Sungmin just a second ago,” he gave a wink in eunhyuk’s direction, “That’s okay with you, right Minnie?” He blinked innocently, turning up the aeygo, “I miss you hyung!”

“Aw…but you totally snore!” Sungmin complained. He was smiling though.

“Hyukkie-ya!” Kyuhyun looked over at the still blushing Eunhyuk, “Why don’t you share a room with Hae then?”

Kyu mentally rubbed his hands together, things could not be going more smoothly than if I’d planned them myself.

“It-It’s fine with me,” Donghae stuttered shyly, who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth anyway?

Eunhyuk just nodded.