sixteen;

When Mrs. Lee goes out of the living-room that afternoon, she is surprised to find her son rushing down the stairs. His hair are a bit disheveled and an excited glint is shining behind his single-lidded eyes, as he reaches the ground floor and quickly steps aside to avoid bumping into her.

“Hi, Mom!” he exclaims with a bright, yet slightly nervous grin. “What’s up?”

Before she can reply, he already walks past her and goes to the entrance.

“Hyukjae?” the elder woman calls curiously, as he hastily puts his shoes on. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

The teenager glances up at his mother, before he curses quietly when his foot doesn’t want to go in his sneakers and that he starts to stumble around. “Out,” he replies distractedly as he supports himself with a hand propped against the wall. “A friend feels a bit down and I wanted to cheer him up.”

Humming thoughtfully, she silently watches her son fumbling around the cupboard to find a suitable jacket and distractedly notes the way his voice slightly quivers at the mention of his friend. Then, as he glances at his reflection in the mirror to make sure he looks okay, she raises an amused eyebrow and leans a shoulder against the nearby wall. His movements are tainted with an odd mixture of eagerness and nervousness, causing her to wonder, as he thoughtfully frowns and runs an agitated hand through his messy hair. An air of incertitude still lingers around him as he huffs a bit explosively and looks away from the mirror, prompting Mrs. Lee to chuckle softly.

“You’re not going to meet Kyuhyun, are you?” she asks a bit bemusedly. “I never saw you fretting so much about your appearance just because you’re about to hang out with him. Even when potential love interests are involved.”

Hyukjae scrunches his nose up a little and pouts in his mother’s direction. “Love interests, Mom? Really?” he snorts a little, though not unkindly. “And no, definitely not Kyuhyun,” he adds with a laugh and pulls his jacket on.

Chuckling a little, Mrs. Lee nods approvingly when he pecks her cheek and says he will be back for dinner.

“See you later,” she tells him lightly. “Be careful, and remember not to impregnate anybody, understood?”

His hand already curled around the doorknob, Hyukjae whips around with horrified eyes. An embarrassed blush quickly creeps its way on his face, as he hisses in mortification.

“What the freaking fudge – no, Mom!”

=

“I heard that Hyukjae went out?” Mr. Lee absentmindedly asks her when she comes back in the living-room. “Is he hanging out with a friend? Kyuhyun?”

Not immediately replying, she pensively gazes at her husband and remembers the very first time they went on a date together, many years ago. She recalls the excitation, the nervousness, the panic, and all the overwhelming feelings that had followed them throughout the whole night.

And with a warm tug of the heart that she will never get used to, she realizes once again how much Hyukjae looks exactly like his father.

“That’s what he thinks,” she chirps with a knowing smirk. “But I think that most people would agree that it’s actually a date. Except our son is a bit too oblivious to realize this kind of things, I guess.”

“…What.” Mr. Lee raises a surprised eyebrow at her, then snorts in equal amusement. “That’s about ing time that kid finds someone he actually likes.”

=

Half an hour after their last text, Donghae stands in front of the Starbucks coffee shop Hyukjae and he agreed to meet up at. A dark frown plastered on his face, he sulkily crosses his arms over his chest and glares at nothing in particular, cursing himself for showing up fifteen minutes early.

As much as he finds the situation rather thrilling and a bit needed on his part, since he really needs to rant at someone, it still doesn’t mean that he has to look totally desperate. His lips unconsciously pursued into a petulant pout, he narrows his eyes at the coffee shop and wonders if it’s okay if he goes in right now.

To be honest, Donghae doesn’t really know what to do anymore. His mind has become a horrible mess of confused feelings ever since he sent that first text to Hyukjae an hour ago. Anxious thrill and brutal anger are still crashing over him in strong waves every time he tries to rationalize his current situation.

A part of him is clearly pissed off because of what Hara did to him – and certainly still does as they speak, now that he thinks of it. His jaw tightly clenches in irritation when the memory of his girlfriend kissing another guy keeps replaying in his head.

But still, as much as he wants to be mad at her and vent his anger until he feels somewhat satisfied, he can’t help but feel a confusing excitation crawling under his skin every time he remembers that Hyukjae and he are going to meet up in less than ten minutes, now. It isn’t the first time that they see each other, of course – but sharing a civilized conversation is a whole other story.

Truthfully, he doesn’t even know whether they are going to end up punching the daylights out of each other by the next hour (which is kind of highly probable, if he has to be honest) or not. It freaks him out a little, because he really doesn’t have a clue about what he is supposed to do when Hyukjae finally arrives. They’ve never really bothered having an actual talk that doesn’t involve insults and mocking, so he can’t predict how the situation will turn out.

And the only fact that he is currently asking himself this bunch of supposedly useless questions flusters him to no end, because it makes him feel like one of these hormonal teenagers in the dramas.

What the hell your life has become, Lee Donghae, he scolds himself. Get your head out the gutter, for ’s sake.

Hissing out in frustration, he mentally slaps himself from being so dramatic and finally decides to stomp inside the Starbucks, immediately going to order. Now that he feels an enormous headache creeping its way to his temples, he’d rather not think at all and focus on something else. Looking around the coffee shop, he notes that it’s not too crowded and that there’s plenty of empty tables, which effectively cheers him up a little knowing that he won’t have to worry about finding a place to sit.

Then, when the waitress finally hands him the beverages he ordered, he decides he doesn’t care about anything anymore, and that Hyukjae’d better come quickly if he doesn’t want him to gulp down his drink.

Because he got him a Strawberry Frappuccino.

And no, he really doesn’t want to know why he paid him the drink flavored with his favorite fruit, thank-you-ing-very-much.

=

Maybe that wasn’t a good idea, Hyukjae flatly thinks and wonders if dying of embarrassment is possible.

Because sitting in front of Donghae and not being able to say a damn thing is so awkward he’s almost cringing all over. It’s already been fifteen minutes since he showed at the coffee shop and sat down in front of him, and he seriously has to wonder if things can actually get any worse.

If he thought that realizing his penpal actually was Donghae could be considered as bad, then this situation has to be qualified of horrible.

Distractedly fiddling with the straw of the Strawberry Frappuccino the other paid him (he still has a hard time stopping the inward screaming that still goes on in his head), he discreetly glances up at the brunette and notes that he looks almost as uncomfortable as he is. Although he came with good intentions of comforting him, Hyukjae has to admit that it is something way easier said than done. No matter how much he wants to act mature and forget about their old rivalries (what the are you saying you just scribbled all over his math book three days ago), he doesn’t have a single clue what he is supposed to tell him at this point.

Hello?

We hate each other since freshman year but that’s fine let’s raise unicorns together?

No holy ing way.

And as much as he wants to say he’s sorry about Hara-the-minger cheating on him (he always knew this girl was a ), talking sounds like the worst alternative possible compared to staying quiet. Even if the awkwardness is seriously killing him.

Like I’m-about-to-tear-my-hair-off-and-hit-my-head-against-the-nearest-wall-until-I-faint kind of serious.

The situation is kind of totally horrible, he thinks with a whine, because they don’t even dare looking at each other and they might as well be complete strangers at this point.

But they ing aren’t, because Hyukjae usually doesn’t talk about personal matters with people he doesn’t know (well, he didn’t know his penpal at first, but that’s a completely different case), and that means that they’re only acting like two dumb teenagers.

…which actually doesn’t change from usual, he has to concede.

Stop acting like a ing wimp and act like a man, Lee freaking Hyukjae.

“Okay, you know what?” he finally snaps when he feels like exploding because of the discomfort that is so heavily lingering around them it’s almost suffocating. In front of him, Donghae startles a little and stiffens warily. “There’s no ing use acting awkward like that. I mean, come on. I wrote you a whole speech about how to work a up your , and you got a ing thanks to that. I think we can safely affirm that we’re past the phase of being strangers, yeah?”

Satisfied, Hyukjae crosses his arms over his chest and huffs explosively, before he defiantly leans back in his chair and bravely looks up at the brunette student.

Donghae raises surprised eyebrows at him, blinking almost cutely (really cutely ahem) – and lasts a whole of five seconds, before he suddenly bursts out laughing.

=

Donghae doesn’t really know what is the funniest – the old couple next to them who gasps and sends outraged looks in their direction, or the fact that Hyukjae has a bit of Frappuccino and whipped cream smeared at the corner of his mouth although he is trying to look all smug and arrogant.

But in the end, he realizes that he doesn’t really care because the redhead soon joins him, until they’re both doubled up in laughter and breathless, with tears appearing at the corner of their eyes.

Now he finally remembers the reason why they got along so well in the letters.

And it’s kind of good to find his penpal back.

=

“I think that old guy over there just killed you three times in his head,” he laughs loudly, and earns curious looks from the other customers.

Hyukjae snickers and slumps down in his chair, obviously more relaxed than earlier. “He’s just jealous that we get to have some.”

And without any legit reasons, they burst out laughing again.

=

“I’m sorry,” Hyukaje finally utters a while later. “For Hara cheating on you, I mean.”

Donghae grimaces and puts his drink down on the table, before sighing loudly. “It’s fine, I guess,” he mumbles. “I mean, now that I’m a bit less angry, I don't think I can completely blame her either. I was never a good boyfriend with her anyway.”

Because I was too busy stalking you, but that’s definitely not something you need to know.

“She should have talked to me instead of cheating, though,” he hisses venomously. “That ing .”

At that, Hyukjae looks even cheerier than he already was, a satisfied grin stretching his lips over pink gums and white teeth that has Donghae a little dazed. “Yeah,” he chirps with a small nod. “She’s a real alright.”

=

Hyukjae sends a hard glare in Donghae’s direction, who can only snicker louder.

“You stole my ing strawberry milk,” he snaps at him. “You’re the one who started it.”

“Please,” Donghae retorts with a scoff. “As far as I know, Korea is a free country and buying strawberry milk is still legal.”

“You ing – you just wait until I ing legal you and you’ll see if it’s okay to take my strawberry milk, you little piece of –”

=

A foot brushing against Donghae’s ankle has him looking up in surprise, only to find Hyukjae idly sipping from his second Strawberry Frappuccino. Tilting his head to the side, he smirks a little and shamelessly slides his other leg between the redhead’s, who glances at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What do you think you’re doing, hmm?” he snorts with a haughty look, but a playful glint is shining behind his single-lidded orbs.

“What do you think?” Donghae retorts tauntingly.

Not bothering to speak up, Hyukjae only entangles their legs together under the table, an equally daring expression plastered on his sharp and manly features.

Donghae smiles.

“By the way, Hyuk?”

“Hmm?”

“There’s a bit of strawberry Frappuccino at the corner of your mouth since a good fifteen minutes,” he shrugs with snicker. “Thought it was about time I told you.”

A crumpled napkin is immediately thrown at his face this time, as Hyukjae curses under his breath you’re an .

Right, keep saying that to yourself.

=

“Well in the end, I bought you a strawberry Frappuccino, right?” Donghae shrugs. “So we’re even.”

“Imagine I took your taco or whatever, and then three years later I come back and buy you a tortilla. What do you say?”

“…Blasphemy.”

“That’s what I thought,” Hyukjae smugly snorts.

=

The weight of Donghae's legs against his feels good, he idly thinks. Really good.

=

When Donghae finally goes back home that night, way later than he originally expected, he feels way better than he did a few hours earlier. A half-smiled is still neatly stretched over his lips as he walks in his bedroom, distractedly recalling the afternoon he spent with Hyukjae – his penpal, and new friend. Thinking about the two of them as the same person is now surprisingly easy, but he is pleased to realize that it doesn’t freak him out anymore (and to be honest, he kind of likes it).

Even the fact that his girlfriend cheated on him doesn’t bring his mood down like it usually would. Of course, it was infuriating when he first realized, but now that he is calmer and has thought the situation through, he realizes that he doesn’t care all that much. Just as he said to Hyukjae, it’s true that he has never been a really good boyfriend to Hara, no matter as much as he doesn’t want to admit it. The only thing that he wants and can reproach her is that instead of talking to him, or even breaking up with him, she decided to go to some other guy.

The thought makes him frown slightly as he remembers the scene he witnessed this afternoon, but he hurriedly brushes it off his mind. He feels good and happy, all thanks to Hyukjae, and he really hopes it won’t change any time soon. It’s been a very long time since the last time he spent such a great moment with someone that isn’t Sungmin, or a member of his family.

And he won’t lie – he likes it.

Lightly humming under his breath, he shrugs his jacket off and flops down on his bed. His lips pursued into a small pout, he suddenly remembers about the letter that he hid under his bed a day ago, because he had been too much of a coward to open it. Blinking tiredly, he reaches for it and opens it, before letting out a surprised sound when he only finds a crumpled note at the bottom of the envelope.

Perplexed, he picks it up, unfolds it and reads the messy handwriting that definitely isn’t Hyukjae’s.

Merong~

LMFAO FOOLED YOU .

You two are both stupid, I hope you realize that.

- Sungmin & Kyuhyun, who are tired to see you acting like idiots. (though I really found it funny, too – Kyu)

Donghae blinks in bemusement, before letting out a small snort. An earnest grin spreads on his thin lips as he shakes his head in disbelief.

What a pair of bastards.

lol that came out way fluffier than i thought it would. i think it's because i wrot this right after i finished that Two Pieces chapter -.-

uhh sorry i guess?? i hope you still liked it! OTL

thank your for reading, and for all the comments/subscribers/upvotes ;-;

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