After Hyukjae returned home from his visit to Donghae’s house, he was greeted by Sora at the front door. His sister glared at him angrily. Her hair was tied into an extremely messy bun and she was sporting eye bags as big as their mom’s new Gucci purse. Hyukjae eyed her weirdly.

“Did… Did I do something wrong, or are you on PMS again?”

Sora went from standing on the foyer to dragging his younger brother by the ear to her bedroom in approximately 3.4 seconds. Hyukjae yowled in pain as his sister kept a tight grip on his ear and led him all the way upstairs, forcing him to bend his neck at an awkward angle. “Jesus christ— SORA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“What am I doing?!” Sora released her grip on Hyukjae’s ear when they finally reached the threshold of her bedroom. “Look at what your dog did! CHOCO PEED ON MY BED, AGAIN!” She screamed while pointing at her double bed, the culprit sitting on the floor at the centre of the room. Choco innocently lolled her tongue out as Sora kept nagging at it’s owner.

The siblings continued fighting over who should be responsible for washing the bedsheets until their parents came home a few minutes later. They quickly checked out the commotion as soon as they stepped into the house. After Sora explained the situation to their mother and used the “I-can’t-study-for-finals-in-these-conditions” card, Hyukjae was forced to do the laundry.

It took him nearly an hour to strip the spoiled sheets off of Sora’s bed, shove it into the washing machine and then (with much struggle), lug it all the way to the wash line. When he was done with that, his mother then decided that since he was already doing the laundry, he might as well do the rest of them too. At half-past eight, Hyukjae was finally allowed to go up to his room for the night. When he passed his sister’s bedroom, he gave a loud kick to the locked door before sprinting away, which earned him a very colourful curse from the stressed senior.

Hyukjae entered his room and locked the door behind him before jumping onto the messy bed. He fished his phone out from his pocket and scrolled through his contacts for Kyuhyun’s number. He was frustrated and needed someone to rant out his feelings too, aka his good friend Cho Kyuhyun. Hyukjae pressed the call button, and brought the phone to his ear as the line started beeping.

“Ya, what the do you want,” Kyuhyun greeted him, as polite as he can ever be. The frantic sounds of keyboard clicks could be heard in the background, confirming what Hyukjae originally thought: the younger boy was in the midst of a heated Maplestory boss battle.

“Good evening to you too, Cho,” Hyukjae replied sarcastically. “How’s the fight going?”

“Just fine until you called,” Kyuhyun replied snidely. “Now, tell me what you want before I hack into your account and sell all your armour.”

“You wouldn’t.”

Hyukjae could literally hear the smirk in Kyuhyun’s reply, “Watch me.”

“Okay, fine! I just wanted some advice,” The elder sighed in exasperation. He thought he could ease his way into the conversation, but plans never turn out well when Kyuhyun was involved. It took a minute for the sounds of clicking to finally cease, stopping at the same Kyuhyun whooped in victory at another successful quest. Hyukjae waited patiently for Kyuhyun to pay his full attention to the call. “Alright, what’s up?”

The older gathered up his nerves and let out a sigh. He then spent the next few minutes retelling the events surrounding the mysterious Mercedes and Donghae’s involvement. He told him about the Science project, the dog, the Mercedes who was also one of the Top 5 players of Maplestory globally. The last one brought a shout of surprise by the younger. Kyuhyun was obsessed with trying to get into the Top 5 , so he was always eager to hear anything that involved them. Hyukjae also might’ve let the fact that he thought Donghae looked adorable in the photo of him with the dog out by accident, which sparked an interest in Kyuhyun.

“Hmm… Don’t take this the wrong way, but…,” the younger quipped after a while. “Do you, by any chance, like the kid?”

Hyukjae choked in surprise. “What? Like him?! What are you even—“

“So you do like him!”

“I do not! How did you even get to that conclusion after what I just said?” Hyukjae ran a hand through his hair. “There’s a chance that Donghae might be the Mercedes that I’ve been searching for this whole time! You know, the one that stole my freaking kill?!”

Kyuhyun scoffed on the other line. “Doesn’t change the fact that you like him.”

“I’m going nowhere with you. I’m hanging up—“

“NO, WAIT, I’M SORRY.” 

Hyukjae sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Kyuhyun was actually a very bright student, with straight As and an impressing GPA. The only thing Kyuhyun lacked was social skills (amongst other things, such as sports), which made him a horrible friend to go to for any type of problems not academic-related. 

“I’m just saying, you admitted that he’s cute… You do admit that he’s cute, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Hyukjae confessed, rather hesitantly. He couldn’t lie, Donghae was attractive. Hyukjae sometimes wondered why the boy wasn’t constantly surrounded with fangirls like the populars guys in their school. Maybe he’s gay, and has been rejecting all the girls that confessed to him? Hyukjae thought. Or maybe he’s already taken? That would be pretty weird, since there’s no traces of a girlfriend in his locker or at his house. “But that doesn’t mean anything. You think he’s cute too, Kyuhyun.”

The younger made a noise of disagreement. “Platonically, yes. To be honest, I think he likes you.”

Hyukjae laughed without any humour in it. “Now you’re just ing with me, man.”

“I’m serious! You’re always too busy with your laptop that you never notice the way he looks at you during lunch!” 

Hyukjae sighed as he sat on his bed, contemplating how Kyuhyun and him got around to being friends. The guy was a literally 98% of the time, the other 2% actually supportive and helpful. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those times. Donghae liking him? How could that even be possible? Hyukjae was a geek through and through. He plays Maplestory during lunchtime, wears the same outfit every week and sometimes wore his thin wire-framed glasses at classes that made him look nerdier than normal. A guy like Donghae shouldn’t have any reasons to even speak to him, let alone invite him over to his house, but had to due to the fact that they’re Science partners now.

But Hyukjae did notice the way Donghae sometimes looked at him during Science class. The glazed, faraway look he sends at the older when he thought Hyukjae wasn’t looking. The blush that made his face and ears bright red when Hyukjae held his hand to prevent them from getting separated in the crowded hallway. The way Donghae stuttered whenever Hyukjae greeted him. Now that he thought about it, it did look like Donghae fancied him. Maybe

“Alright, so even if he does like me, then what?” Hyukjae said. “What do you expect me to do? Because last time I checked, I liked girls.”

Kyuhyun snorted at that. “Straight, right. You fanboy-ed at me over SHINee just today during lunchtime. It was terrifying.”

“THAT WAS ONE TIME,” Hyukjae screeched at him, face red as he gripped the phone harder than necessary. “It’s not my fault Taemin looked extra badass in the comeback,” he added as an afterthought quietly.

“Right. So we agree that you’re not a hundred percent in the straight department?” 

Hyukjae sighed. There was only one person who could take his uality lightly, and that was Kyuhyun. “I’ll get back to you on that later. I have a feeling you’ve got a plan ready for me.”

The younger cackled on the other line. “You know me too well. Alright, listen up: we’re not really sure if this Donghae kid likes you for certain, so you gotta step up your game. Be a lil’ more touchy-feely, push his buttons. invade his personal space. If he doesn’t complain, that means he likes you. If he calls the police on you, then we can assume he’s not into you.”

“Right,” Hyukjae stated as he laid down on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling to find some strength to keep up the conversation with his hopeless friend. “And you think that’s gonna work?”

He heard the younger huff. “Not if we don’t give you a makeover.”

“…. Makeover?”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday right? Cancel all your plans, we’re going to the mall. See you!”

And with that, Kyuhyun hanged up. Hyukjae stared as his phone in bewilderment, regretting for ever thinking Kyuhyun was worth befriending back in fourth grade. He threw his phone onto his bedside table and burrowed himself into his warm comforter. Hyukjae needed plenty of sleep, if he was going to deal with his demon-of-a-friend all day tomorrow.

After sending Hyukjae off at the front door, Donghae bid goodnight to Donghwa and skipped back to his room gleefully. Hyukjae had just spent a whole afternoon in his house, and Donghae didn’t make a fool of himself as often as he thought he would. The younger flew up the staircase and crash landed onto his bed. He grabbed the pillow and squealed into it in delight. 

The sheets still smelled like Hyukjae a bit.

Donghae will never wash the sheets ever again.

With shaking hands, he grabbed his phone and typed a message to Jungsoo.

when is our date with heechul? ive got BIG news!!!! - Hae

i texted him already, he said we can do it tomorrow. meet up at the new itaewon mall at 10am? can’t wait for the news! - Teukie

its real important. get your fangirling ready, hyung, cause we’re gonna do a lot of it tomorrow!!! - Hae

He finished typing up the reply then grabbed his duvet, bringing it over his head so he could muffle his squeals of excitement. Donghae knew that he needed to get closer to Hyukjae, but he needed some tips and tricks first. What better person to ask them from other than Kim Heechul himself? With a lovestruck grin, Donghae laid his head onto his pillow adnd drifted off to slumber, with memories of Hyukjae’s face and voice to lull him to sleep.

hey! thanks for reading the next installment of this story :) do give some feedback down in the comments below, subscribe and upvote this story if you liked it. your support means the world to me <3

and yes, our two precious boys are now in the army. oh how time flies by so fast :( but, chin up ELFs. we have to show them that we're strong, and we can handle this bump in the road as well as we did for the other things that has happened in the past 10 years. i believe we can go through this as a family, so please don't be sad anymore ^^

thank you for reading once again, and take care!