On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Eight Maids-a-Milking

Seven Swans-a-Swimming

Six Geese-a-Laying

Five Golden Rings

Four Calling Birds

Three French Hens

Two Turtle Doves

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

The sand beneath Hyukjae's fingers kept sticking as he molded the wet rock into a lumpy mound. The laugh coming from inside the sand structure had scared him at first but now it just made him laugh. As he scooped up another handful of ocean-soaked sand to fortify the left wing of the castle, he noticed a small door, intricately carved into the wall that he hadn’t put there. He poked the door with his finger it creaked open.

Suddenly, Hyukjae was small enough that he could walk right into the mound through that little door. So he did. The inside was immense and lathered in gold. Just one gigantic room. Incredibly bright. 

His eyelashes pulled apart with some reluctance and Hyukjae kept his eyelids squinted to filter some of the sunlight from the large windows. He yawned, rubbed his hands over his face and threw his arms up with a groan. Whipping his head from side to side, he saw that he was alone in the middle of a gigantic bed. The white digital numbers on the alarm clock indicated he had slept away the morning. It also informed him that the power was back on. Sighing, Hyukjae closed his eyes again. 

Last night, he fell asleep in Donghae's arms. It had take him a while which was probably why he was waking up so late. How could he sleep through a moment like that though? How he wished he could have turned around and seen what Donghae looked like from that angle. He almost stayed up the whole night in hopes that he would be able to watch the other man wake up. The rhythmic expansion and contraction of Donghae's chest against his back eventually lulled Hyukjae to sleep. 

"Bleghhh," Hyukjae sat up and stretched. He hadn't wanted to move from this spot. He wanted to live in Donghae's bed and sleep only when the other man was absent. They could hire someone to bring them food and they would just ignore the whole idea of showering. They could talk and laugh and snuggle and… Well yeah, they could just live in this bed. But that was insane. As wonderful as last night had been, Hyukjae had come to the conclusion the previous night, as he lay awake listening to Donghae’s snores, that it wasn't healthy for him to keep fantasizing about a romance with the actor. The almost-kiss, had Hyukjae's head in the clouds, but when he thought about it, this kiss along with most of the other non-platonic moments between the two were in moments wrought with low inhibitions: alcohol and power outages.

"Good morning, sleepy head." Donghae sat at the small table in the kitchen but quickly got up to head over to the counter where had a carton of Eight Maids-a-Milking, Hyukjae's favorite strawberry milk, and poured the contents over a bowl of chocolate Cheerios. 

"I thought you didn't like sweets." Hyukjae blinked when Donghae handed him the bowl along with a spoon and ushered the still half-asleep dancer over to the seat across from his at the table. 

"I don’t, really." Donghae sat down and went back to picking at his toast. "I just know that you do. The roads are pretty well cleared already and I got bored waiting for you to wake up."

"Sorry about that. You should have just woken me up." Hyukjae shoveled a spoon-full of deliciousness into his mouth.

"You looked way too cute sleeping like that." The grin Donghae wore made Hyukjae's embarrassment defeating. "You really are a rough sleeper though, aren’t you?”

"Eh?" The spoon stopped halfway to his mouth and Hyukjae's eyes bulged as his brows soared. "What did I do?"

"Well you kept fidgeting and mumbling and stuff." A shrug was all Donghae gave as he bit into the crispy bread. "Don't worry. You didn't mumble anything too embarrassing. You only confessed that you had been in love with me since the first night we met."

A coughing fit and a spray of strawberry-chocolate milk-cereal mush was all Hyukjae could offer as reply.

"Bahahhaha. I'm only joking, Hyukjae." Donghae laughed louder than ever as Hyukjae wiped the mess from his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt which he then realized was Donghae's and felt another wave of mortification wash over him. "With that kind of reaction though, it makes me suspicious that you might actually confess that soon." Donghae continued chuckling.

"Are you psychotic?" Hyukjae put on his best grumpy voice. All he really wanted to do was crawl under a rock and die from the amount of humiliation he felt at the moment. It was bad enough that Donghae had been messing with Hyukjae's feelings without any intention over the past few days. Now, with Donghae purposefully embarrassing Hyukjae, the redhead really felt as though he would cry. 

"Aww," Donghae whined, "Don't be a meanie. I'm really just playing. Actually,  you slept really peacefully. Like I said. It was cute." 

The redhead simply stirred the brown o's in his bowl of pink sea. 

"Hyukkie," Donghae reached across the table to take Hyukjae's left hand, "Is that where you cut yourself the other day?" He had lifted Hyukjae's hand to expose a pinkish gash about three centimeters long on the right pointer finger. His eyes were full of concern and his brows creased as he continued to inspect the wound. 

"Oh, yeah." Hyukjae was way too distracted by the fact that Donghae was once again holding his hand, and so carefully at that, to give a more eloquent reply.

"Did you put Neosporin on it?" Donghae sounded so serious that Hyukjae was taken off guard. 

"Mm? Um, well, no. It's just a scratch." Hyukjae instinctively pulled his hand back but Donghae held it fast. 

"That's not just a scratch, Hyukjae." He finally released the injured hand and got up from his seat in search of something in the kitchen drawers. After the third drawer, Donghae pulled out a small tube of ointment and returned to the table, crouching down beside Hyukjae. "You have to take care of yourself." The man then proceeded to twist off the lid and squeeze a glob onto his finger. "If you don't treat things like this, then you will get sick." He glanced up at Hyukjae before ever-so-delicately applying the little yellow goo to the cut on Hyukjae's fingers.

Now Hyukjae was concerned as to whether or not he was still sleeping. The little castle seemed more real than the breakfast and now Dr. Donghae. Why did the man have to suddenly take such pains in Hyukjae’s health? "Mm. I'll be more careful."

"Good. So, what are you doing today?" Donghae twisted the cap back onto the tube and moved to sit down opposite of Hyukjae again. 

"Tootballs!" Hyukjae jumped up from his chair. "What time is it? I'm supposed to be at a meeting about tomorrow's rehearsal." He frantically bee-lined for the bathroom that he had left his clothes in yesterday as if he was going to wear those spoiled things while walking through the 31 inches of snow that covered Seoul. 

"W-what happened to my clothes?" He emerged from the hallway to see Donghae holding the clothes from the day before but in a different state than they had last been seen. 

"I washed and dryed them this morning." Donghae was beaming. "Oh, and the none of the buses are running. Get dressed and I'll take you by Jungsoo's so you can get whatever you need to before going to that meeting."

"Thank you," Hyukjae bowed and took the clothes, "I really can walk though. It's fine."

The glare Donghae was giving had Hyukjae skittering off to the powder room with an a mumble of, "Alright, fine."

"We're not taking the Jag." Donghae grabbed Hyukjae by the elbow when the redhead turned toward the royal blue sports car.

"What?” Hyukjae's forehead crinkled with question. 

"The streets are too icy still for that." A chirp sounded straight ahead and Hyukjae saw the tail lights of an H3 flashing. 

He threw his bag in the trunk before joining Donghae in the front. The interior wasn't as luxurious as the Jaguar, but it was much larger and still better than anything Hyukjae could ever own. 

Donghae had been right. The roads were still too icy. The traction of the Hummer’s tires only failed a couple times, but Hyukjae was still worried every time the car slid forward or sideways. He hated that Donghae had to get out in this weather just for him. If only he had thought to use his phone yesterday, then Sungmin could have come and picked him as soon as his car died. Of course, then he wouldn't have been with Donghae last night. As self-defeating as it was, Hyukjae couldn't have wished away the previous night. Even just that small amount of time with the man currently beside him was enough to make Hyukjae too thankful. Too thankful to not be appreciative. 

"I'll be fast." Hyukjae announced as he unfastened the belt buckle before hopping out of the car. 

He hopped right out onto a patch of ice though and ended up slipping, disappearing in an instant. Donghae jumped out and rushed around the car, half laughing, half worried. Hyukjae was looking up with a scowl as he struggled to his feet. "Don't laugh."

"For a second there I thought you were so fast that I didn't even see you walk to the house." Donghae continued laughing anyways and extended his hand to help Hyukjae the rest of the way up. Hyukjae clasped onto the warm hand and held it a little longer than necessary before pulling away and, much slower this time, walking to the back of the vehicle for his gym bag. 

When Hyukjae came down the stairs in starched suit pants and a crisp white shirt with his best blazer, Donghae looked up from his fingernails he had been examining.

"Eh? Why are you inside?"

The man against the wall just stared for a long minute before answering, "You took too long."

"Huh? I'm so sorry!" Hyukjae bowed in apology and opened the front door in a rush. "We can leave now though. I am so sorry!" 

Any effort that Hyukjae had just spent on styling his hair was all for nothing as Donghae roughly ruffled the ruby locks with a soft chuckle. "I'm only kidding, Hyukkie. You still aren't comfortable enough for me to joke like that, are you?” Donghae's smile turned into a small frown. "I'm sorry about that. I'll try not to tease you too much until you can be more comfortable with me.”

Planted to the foyer floor, Hyukjae's mind revisited when Donghae had asked last night about why Hyukjae was afraid. Luckily, Donghae had turned to head out the door and back to the car before Hyukjae's blush appeared.

As they pulled out of the drive again, Donghae was quieter than usual. Hyukjae was afraid that his reaction earlier might have hurt Donghae's feelings. "I-it's not that I'm scared of you," he stumbled over the thought as his fingers knotted nervously in the lap, his eyes set straight ahead. 

"What are you doing tomorrow night around eight?" Donghae didn't acknowledge the little confession Hyukjae had made but instead spoke this new question of his own with a soft expression.

Hyukjae turned his head to see that the corners of Donghae's mouth were wrapped back in a smile and his eyes reflecting sunshine that bounced off the snow and into the car through the windshield. "Um, the dance rehearsal for the showcase is at seven and probably won't finish until nine." 

"Mm. I see."

A deep inhale and rapid exhale, Hyukjae his lips. "Why? What's up?"

The driver turned his head to look at Hyukjae for a second with those big brown eyes. "I just wanted to hang out with you again."

"Do you want to come to the rehearsal?" It was out before he could stop it. Often referred to as word-vomit, Hyukjae had this terrible disease that caused him to spout nonsense whenever he felt awkward or nervous in a social situation, which was pretty much all the time. It's a plague that causes the afflicted to say ridiculous things in nerve-wracking situations. How could Hyukjae's nerves not be wracked by what Donghae just said? Truthfully, he had wanted to invite Donghae to the rehearsal the night before, but it just never came up. Now that it was out there though, he wanted to take it back.

"And watch you dance?" The eyes sparked.  

"I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Lee." A young woman with long blonde hair bowed as Hyukjae exited the building. 

"Ah, yes, Hyoyeon. Take care." Hyukjae gave a small bow to the woman and then broke out into a grin when he spotted Sungmin waiting at the curb. 

“Sungminnie-hyung!" Hyukjae hadn't been able to see his hyung much the past couple days and was glad that the visitor had borrowed Jungsoo's Benz to come give Hyukjae a ride from CSW. "Ah I missed you last night," he confessed as he climbed in the passenger's seat.

Sungmin didn't respond and did not return the smile. Instead, he stared straight past Hyukjae and out the window at Hyoyeon. "Lee Hyukjae, how is it that you know Hyoyeon? More importantly," his tone became childish and whiny, "Why haven't you introduced her to me yet?"

Hyukjae's gums shone as he laughed, pulling the seat belt over his shoulder and lightly smacking Sungmin’s shoulder to keep his hyung from scaring the poor woman. "You're a fan? She's in a couple of the dance routines I choreographed. She's super talented."

"Not only is she super talented, Hyukjae, she's one of the most famous dancers in Asia. She's known for being the beauty with good feet." Sungmin sighed, half-turned in his seat as he gushed over the female dancer.

Hyukjae just shook his head and chuckled. 

"You know," Sungmin turned back straight and cranked the engine, slowly starting to pull away from the CSW headquarters, "This will technically be the first time she has danced since her divorce. I think you will get lots of attention as the man who set Kim Hyoyeon on her toes again."

"Eh? Hyoyeon was married?" Hyukjae raised one brow as he white-knuckled the sides of his seat with every slick turn Sungmin sped around. The female dancer was even younger than Hyukjae and didn’t really seem like the type to have married and divorced so young. “I had no idea."

"What do you mean, Hyukjae? That's Lee Donghae's ex-wife." Everything grew silent in Hyukjae's head as Sungmin spoke. "How could you not know that with as much as you've been hanging out with him? You really must not pay attention to the news at all."

His shower that night was a good hour long as Hyukjae fought through all that was in his head. He had known that Donghae was once married and figured she must have been beautiful to have ended up with Donghae in the first place. When he had looked up all that information about Donghae on the internet, he stringently avoided anything pertaining to the marriage. Hyukjae had always assumed the woman wasn't in Seoul anymore. Never could he have imagined it was Kim Hyoyeon, the very person he had been training for the past four months. 

As he rinsed the shampoo from his hair and could smell the scent of strawberries filling the bathroom, Hyukjae thought of the way Donghae's apartment smelt. He thought of the mixture of cologne and redwood. "Stop doing this to yourself, Hyukjae. You just keep making it worse."

He shut the spray of water off and pulled the towel from the hook on the wall, fixing it around his waist and walking over to the mirror. With his palm, he smoothed away some of the fog created by the shower's steam. Smiling at his own reflection, he decided right then to be perfectly happy with himself from now on. If someone couldn't love him, then he would just have to endure until his heart healed, right?

The little ding from the bedroom had him curious and Hyukjae walked in to find his phone lying lit up on the bed. 

1 New Message

Lee Donghae

12.12.21 23:08

Should I bring flowers tomorrow or is that only on opening nights? :P

Hyukjae's heart raced but he refused to acknowledge it as he replied with:  Don't be a weirdo, Donghae ^^;

12.12.21 23:36

I was born this way, baby. Sleep tight, Hyukkie. <3