Dad.

It was a quiet dinner. Usually, Donghae would be the one making up most of the chatter, and Hyukjae would have to nag at him for the billionth time not to talk with his mouth full, it was rude. But not today; Donghae was picking at his mashed potatoes with the appetite of an ant, and suddenly Hyukjae wished the old Donghae was back, piling greens onto his plate because he claimed he didn’t like them.

Finally, Hyukjae couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

“Are you free tomorrow?”

Donghae looked up, surprise written on his face.

“Mm yeah, I think so. Why?”

“Do you wanna go out with me?”

“WHAT??” Donghae nearly spilled the contents of his drink all over the table.

“Aish, not in that way, pabo,” Hyukjae deadpanned, fighting the urge to knock the blushing younger’s forehead. “I’m simply taking you out for a breather. You’ve never gone out since I came and I think some sunshine will do you good. You need to cheer up.”

“I’m fine, old man hyung. You don’t have to feel obliged to do anything just because you heard my sob story. I hate pity.”

“I don’t do pity,” Hyukjae answered, narrowing his eyes at the younger. “And you refused to tell me anything anyway. But since you don’t want to, then fine, I won’t force you to come with me tomorrow. I just wanted to go clothes shopping tomorrow since I have the day off.”

“Did you want me to pay for your clothes? You should have just said that earlier,” Donghae mumbled, digging in his pocket for his cards. He thumbed through the cards and handed a platinum one to Hyukjae. “Here.”

“You know what? Forget it. For someone who doesn’t want to be seen based on how much money you’ve got, I thought you would have had better judgement than this,” Hyukjae spat, throwing back the card at him angrily. “I thought I would be able to cheer you up by bringing you shopping but I see that I’m completely wrong. I’ll just go by myself. Don’t bother about the credit cards; keep them to yourself. I don’t want to have anything to do with them.”

Hyukjae stood up to leave, his meal unfinished. He’d already lost his appetite anyway. Donghae was still sitting at the table in shock. He didn’t even know what prompted him to say what he said just now and he angrily slapped himself on the head, frustrated.

* * *

Hyukjae did go to the mall the next day, but he wasn’t there to shop. He simply didn’t want to stay at home so he figured he could probably just hang out for the day. Lee Teuk had been considerate enough to pay him half his agreed salary at the start of the month so he could take care of his bills and rent, and he still had some left after paying for everything.

He sat down on a bench with a strawberry smoothie in his hands, observing the people who passed by. Fifteen minutes later, his plastic cup was empty. He was just about debating whether or not he should get himself another cup or just continue strolling when he heard an all-too-familiar voice coming from a shop nearby.

“I want to buy everything in this shop!!”

Hyukjae rolled his eyes and stood before the glass windows, watching the frenzied shop assistants scurrying about, packing all the merchandise into a couple of huge boxes. He found himself walking into the shop about half a minute later, putting out a hand to stop Donghae from getting his cards.

Donghae turned around haughtily, but his bratty attitude immediately vanished when he saw the disapproving frown on Hyukjae’s face.

“Stop this nonsense, Donghae. I thought you were done with your crazy shopping habits. What’s gotten into you again?”

Donghae wrenched his hand away from the elder with a similar frown on his face. “Why bother with me anyway? I thought you didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore.”

“I said I didn’t want to have anything to do with your cards, not you.”

“Doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m buying all of these and you can’t stop me.”

“Lee Donghae, put your card away and come along with me now. You’re not buying all of those.”

“I’m not your dog, so I don’t have to listen to everything you say.”

“Well your father put me in charge of you, so yes, you do have to listen to me when I say so.”

Donghae and Hyukjae were so caught up in their heated argument that they never even realized that the shop assistants were all staring at them. The girl at the counter let out an embarrassed cough, not sure if she should continue scanning the items or not.

“You’re coming with me,” Hyukjae said, muttering a quick apology to the staff before grabbing Donghae’s wrist and pulling the younger out of the expensive shop. Donghae struggled the whole time but Hyukjae’s grip didn’t even loosen one bit.

“Let go of me; you’re hurting me!!”

“If I let go of you, you might just run off again.”

“So what if I did??”

“I’m not having you buy up the entire mall if I can help it.”

“Why not? I don’t have anything to do anyway!! What I do with my money is none of your concern!!”

“You just told me yourself that you hated money yesterday.”

“What’s your point??”

“I’m getting to the bottom of this.”

“W-Where are you taking me?”

They were getting weird stares from people for being so distracting with all their quarrelling. Also, many noticed Hyukjae’s death grip on Donghae and began whispering between themselves. Donghae began to notice their stares and squirmed in discomfort.

“Y-You’re really hurting me.”

“I’m not letting you go.”

“But I promise I’m not going anywhere.”

“We’re going home.”

“I don’t want to go home.”

“Fine, then we’re going to my home.”

Donghae looked away with a pout on his face, still tugging stubbornly at his wrist, which was already starting to feel numb.

“I’ll have my dad sue you for kidnapping.”

Hyukjae rolled his eyes and snorted. “Right, and I’m so scared I’m shaking in my knees.”

Reluctantly at first, Donghae trotted after the elder, muttering to himself how he should take revenge by splattering paint all over his walls or something like that, making sure Hyukjae couldn’t hear just in case he freaked out. Eventually the frown on his face was replaced with a little pout, and Hyukjae couldn’t help noticing it. His own lips curled up slightly as he watched Donghae mumbling to himself, ignorant of his surroundings. They were already out of the mall and walking towards the basement car park, which was surprisingly rather deserted at that time of the day. Hyukjae loosened the grip he had on the younger, gently rubbing the wrist with his thumb to soothe the pain wh