“Did he tell you anything?”

Sungmin winced a little when a quiet voice cut through the kitchen's silence and he turned his head to look briefly into Jungsoo's eyes.
Their leader seemed tired and his hair was still wet from the pouring rain, he was standing in the doorway and concern was rushing constantly over his pretty face.

Slowly, Sungmin shrugged his shoulders and placed the empty beer bottles in the crate. “He just told me about Ji-Eun and their relationship”, he mumbled silently and kicked the crate with his feet back under the kitchenette. “He said they'd meet for five months now and that he's serious with his decision...” With few words, Sungmin repeated Hyukjae's former story while he heated up some water for tea.

“It was very... surprising.”

Jungsoo pushed himself off the door frame and made his way to the large table in the room's middle, where he sat down on his usual chair and placed his feet on the one next to him. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned his head against the chair's backrest.

A silent laughter escaped Jungsoo's throat.
“You know... I always thought Hyukjae is...”

“...gay?”

Sungmin raised his glance from the cups he was currently filling with steaming water. “You better don't tell him this. I thought the same and when I asked him about it – especially about Donghae – he burst out without any warnings... He said he's not a “”.”
Sungmin spit out the last word with disgust and anger. He hated this word – it was completely insulting.

A silent clangor flowed through the room when Sungmin placed both cups on the kitchen table, before he pushed Jungsoo's feet from the second chair and sat down. He slowly started to play with the tea bag and blew some cold air on the tea's surface. A thin cloud of dust escaped towards the ceiling.

Jungsoo straightened up on his chair and looked at Sungmin. “Do you think, this is all just bec - “

“He wouldn't to anything that unfair”, Sungmin interrupted Jungsoo before he could finish the sentence, that circled through his mind the whole evening, too. Hyukjae wouldn't use Ji-Eun for hiding his homouality – this was too selfish.

Though he wasn't convinced by Sungmin's words, Jungsoo nodded slightly and grabbed the cup in front of him. He got on his feet and ruffled softly though Sungmin's dark hair, before he smiled at his friend and pointed at the hall. “I'll take a shower and go to bed then. Thanks for the tea.”

Sungmin nodded slightly and dipped his tea bag into his cup again. “Have a good night...”, he said silently and watched his friend leaving the room, while he kept sitting in the empty kitchen with his head full of worries and concerns.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hyukjae regretted his four and a half bottles of beer in the same moment his brain decided to wake up. With a silent moan – he definitely wasn't used to drinking alcohol – he squinted his eyes against the bright light from the window and pulled his blanket over his head. A sick taste filled up his mouth and hollow waves of pain were rushing through his head.

He has had a multiplicity of short, weird dreams during the whole night – he and Donghae on a foreign bridge, holding hands while some unknown power was pulling them apart; Ji-Eun and Donghae looking at him, with emotionless faces and dead eyes; he, alone in a bright room with his own heart in front of his feet, his shirt covered with blood and a deep hole in his chest; Ji-Eun who shields him from the other SuJu-members; Donghae at a funeral, jumping into the open grave.

Hyukjae's shirt and pillow were soaked in cold sweat, but though he wished to never leave his bed again. He was afraid of what happened today – what his friends might say to him, if Sungmin was still mad and if Donghae will refuse to talk to him, when he came home from -

Suddenly, Hyukjae remembered where Donghae spent the night and a mixture of nausea and jealousy was crawling up his throat.
Donghae was at Siwon's...

The sudden movement with that Hyukjae sat up on his bed and threw his blankets at the bed's bottom end put his stomach over the edge. Hyukjae was hardly able to jump out of his bed – or rather: fall out of his bed – and reach the trash can next to his desk, where he emptied his clenching stomach. Over his panting and coughing, he didn't hear how someone opened his bedroom's door and knelt down next to him.

“See? That's what you get now”, Heechul mumbled silently and carefully over Hyukjae's back, before he shove his cool hand into his friend's neck and waited patiently for him to calm down again. Hyukjae coughed again and took a deep breath. “Shut up, Heechul”, he panted silently and ran the back of his hand over his mouth, before he got on his feet with wobbling knees and hurting throat.

“Just saying...”, Heechul said casually and looked into Hyukjae's pale face, eying the dark circles underneath his eyes and the stringy hair that was stuck on his sweaty forehead.

Heechul tried to give his friend a soft smile. “Come on, take a shower... I'll clean this up”, Heechul said quietly and pushed Hyukjae carefully towards the bordering bathroom, grabbing Hyuk's jogging pants and a random shirt from his office chair.
Hyukjae didn't refuse to take the comfortable clothes and with a mumbled “Thank you” towards Heechul, he shut the door and left Heechul behind in his – unusual – messy room.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

It wouldn't be true, if someone said that Hyukjae looked much better after leaving the bathroom again. His skin was still pale and mat, a grimly expression was pulling down the corners of his mouth, but at least he smelled of shampoo and his hair wasn't that messy anymore.

Heechul had cleaned the trash can and let some fresh air into the room, before he had put clean sheets on the bed and even grabbed Hyuk's laundry from the floor. He raised his glance when the bathroom's door swung open and Hyukjae went towards his large wardrobe, only in his briefs, to grab a fresh jeans and a shirt from the shelf.

“No jogging pants?”, Heechul tried to break the silence between them and placed the clean blanket back on Hyukjae's bed.

“I need to go out”, Hyukjae answered huskily and put on his clothes, but his fingers moved faster than he was currently able to coordinate. He buttoned his shirt wrong, opened it again, gave it a second try and due to his hurried movements, he ripped of a button in the middle of the button tab.
“”, he yelled angered and took off the shirt again, throwing it carelessly onto the floor.

“Could you tell me why you NEED to go out right now?!”

A deep frown appeared on Heechul's face while he observed the furious Hyukjae, who grabbed another shirt from the shelf now and tried to put it on as quickly as the first one. Hyukjae succeeded in buttoning it up – even if he crumpled the white fabric completely –, but when he tried to leave the room, Heechul grabbed his arm and held him back. “Lee Hyukjae, you ING calm down now, got it?!”, he yelled at his friend when he reached the end of his patience. Heechul clenched his long fingers around Hyukjae's wrist and stared into his brown eyes for some seconds, before he took a deep breath and let go of Hyukjae's arm.

“You're not going to Donghae now.”

Heechul was pretty sure that Hyukjae wanted to go to Siwon's apartment, but he knew that this wasn't a good idea as well. Hyukjae only gave him an angered look.
“Do you think I'll give Siwon the chance to seduce Donghae in his current state?!”, Hyukjae bursted out and pointed unfocussed towards the door. “I bet he just waited for a chance to ---”

“Are you still drunk?!”

The two men didn't care about the other members in the dorm right now, that were probably still laying in their beds and tried to get some sleep. Hyuk's and Heechul's loud voices sounded merciless through the hall.
“Siwon isn't interested in Donghae! He's your friend, remember?!”

Hyukjae laughed joylessly and shook his head. “Have you never noticed Siwon's glances?! He nearly stripped Donghae with his eyes and ---”

“Siwon – is not – interested – in – Donghae!”

Heechul grabbed Hyukjae's shoulders and squeezed them a little too hard, while he stared into his friend's face full of anger. Hyukjae's current behavior was completely ridiculous. “Besides...”, Heechul continued a little more quiet and raised his chin challenging. “Why should you care about it if Siwon is interested in Donghae? You're engaged.”

Typically for Heechul, these words left his mouth before he had the chance to think about them. For the fraction of a second, Heechul was pretty sure that Hyukjae would simply break down in front of him when a desperate expression was rushing over his pale face after hearing these words.

But, though, Hyukjae suddenly pushed Heechul away and anger was rising in his stomach again.
“ off, Heechul!”, Hyukjae spit out towards his friend and turned around, directly followed by the loud banging of the front door.

Heechul stumbled a little and tried to gain some hold on the door frame, swearing silently and kicking his feet against the door of Hyukjae's room.
“I'm too old for this...”, he muttered annoyed and grabbed his jacket from the hall's wardrobe, quickly following Hyukjae outside the dorm.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Oh, oh... better be careful, Hyuk... 
I'll proof my spelling and grammar in the evening - so please don't mind some possible mistakes!:)