“This is so depressing.”

Eric mumbled this sentence to himself for like the thousandth time that evening. No wonder, he was still in the studio long after the others had left, putting on the last touches on a song. He did not want to leave it for the next day, because there wasn’t much to do about it so he thought he might as well finish it and deal with other things the next day.

At least one thing less they had to take care of.

However, working on Christmas Eve was really depressing, especially staying late. Well, what could he do, he did not have a girlfriend he could spend the day with and it’s not like Hyesung had magically fell in love with him so the two of them could celebrate it together as a couple.

No. Eric did not have any of these options so he just stayed in the studio and buried himself into work instead of lying on his sofa watching the usual Christmas movies being shown in the TV during this time of the year, thinking about how pitiful he felt.

At least he did something useful – he thought – and like this it’s not Hyesung he thought about every second minute.

He was so focused on his work he did not hear anything from the world around him, he was only caring about producing the perfect music they could present to their fans – he did not even hear how the door opened with it’s annoying creaking sound and how the person who entered the studio had been standing behind him for about five minutes now.

Still, the leader did not notice anything only until that certain someone had tapped his shoulder, making the leader spin around in his chair letting out a shriek, touching his chest as if he wanted to stop his heart jumping out of his chest.

“For God’s sake Jung Pilgyo, do you want to kill me?!” He snapped as he saw the singer standing in front of him with a scary, devilish grin on his face. Eric honestly wanted to hit him.

“Serves you right.” He said. “You were defenceless.”

“You have sick jokes. You could have killed me.”

“You are one to talk…” Hyesung replied displeased and only with his expression he reminded Eric of his countless pranks he played on him and almost caused a heart attach to the singer.

Both of them fell silent, they ran out of things they could talk about. It’s usually been like this, it was so much easier for them to talk when the members were around them. This kind of saddened Eric, after all he preferred to be alone with Hyesung, he wanted to feel closer to him, still, at the same time being alone in the studio this way made him uncomfortable, he was kind of embarrassed and as he looked at Hyesung looking everywhere but him he knew the singer was just the same.

He wondered if this would ever change between them…

“Anyway” Hyesung talked first, he pulled out a chair which was occupied by Minwoo a few hours ago and sat down next to Eric, though he made sure to maintain that certain distance that always been there between them. A very troubling distance – Eric added in his mind. “Here.” Hyesung handed over a medium sized box to Eric. “What did you do by the way? Minwoo would be sad if he knew you stayed behind until this late and finished the work alone.”

“Why, what’s the time?” Eric asked not even looking at Hyesung, but being focused on opening the box. “I just finished making the last touches…”

“Jeez, and we say Minwoo is the workaholic one.” Hyesung grumbled putting his elbow on the mixer table – making sure not to push any buttons - where they had been sitting and leant his head on his hand showing a rather tired expression. “It’s going to be midnight soon.”

“Time sure flies by quickly.” Eric mumbled under his nose, then let out a surprised ‘oh’ when he finally opened the box. “Cake? What for?”

It was a slice of cake, typically the one people eat during Christmas and Eric was pleasantly surprised. Why would Shin Hyesung take the trouble and bring this to him so late at night…

No – Eric scolded himself in his head. – Do not think too much of this, there must be something more to it. Hyesung is not the kind of person who would just do this because he felt like that.

“It’s Christmas.” Hyesung said being completely engrossed with touching the buttons on the mixing board. “We are all poor single guys, at least we should do something Christmas-y during this time of the year.” Eric still looked at Hyesung with a suspicious expression making the singer snap. “What now?! I’ve already treated the others, if I left you out I would listen to your whining till eternity. I’ve thought I’ll just lessen the trouble and bring it to you.”

See – Eric noted to himself – I’ve told you not to think too much into it. Sigh.

“Did you poison it?” Eric asked examining the cake which was not actually the prettiest slice he had ever seen. It looked quite… well it looked like it’s been through a lot. “It looks horrible.”

“Oh? You surely don’t need to eat it then, give it back.” Hyesung said annoyed and he looked fairly offended reaching towards him to take the box and this made Eric grin. In the end making Hyesung angry was a nice thing to do.

“No.” Eric shook his head, pulling away so Hyesung could not take the cake from him. “I eat it, you already gave it to me, it’s mine.”

“Then stop complaining and eat it.” Hyesung rolled his eyes and went back to his previous body position.

“I’ll eat Hyesungie’s cake well~” Eric said happily then he stopped all his movements and looked confused at the singer. “There is no fork.”

Hyesung pulled up his eyebrows the same confused, rolled to Eric with his chair and over his shoulder he looked into the box. “What? There should be one though…”

“But there isn’t…” Eric turned his head to look at Hyesung, however his whole body suddenly tensed and he felt the electric sensation running through his body as the tip of his and Hyesung’s noses brushed each other.

For the hundredth of a second they both gasped, they only looked into each others’ eyes both surprised and shocked, then Hyesung leaned back putting up the usual distance again and hit Eric’ shoulder. “Then eat with your hands, stop being a kid.” He said on a displeased tone, turned his back to him and rolled back to his original place.

“Sure…” Eric said still staring at Hyesung shocked and was wondering if this really happened… If they were really that close, if they really touched each other, if there really was a weird tension between them, if there really was a weird power pulling them towards each other… if Hyesung really blushed.

He was not sure. This all seemed like a weird dream and secretly he pinched his arm to see if he was not sleeping. But no, he was wide awake and like this everything seemed to be even weirder.

Both of them fell silent again. Hyesung was just looking around not leaving alone the buttons on the mixer table, Eric was just munching on his cake doing his best not to eat on himself, but as he thought, eating cake with his hands was quite uncomfortable – not exactly the eating process itself, but more like he was worried food will be dropped on the table and if that happens they are doomed.

“Ah, so depressing…” Suddenly Hyesung let out a loud sigh.

“What?” Eric asked still stuffing his mouth with cake.

“Spending Christmas Eve with you this way…” He mumbled under his nose and for the sake of the impact he leant his head onto the table. “…so depressing.”

“Well sorry, I did not ask you to come.” Eric replied annoyed. “Feel free to go home.” It’s not like this situation doesn’t make me depressed – he added in his head.

“Jerk.” He hissed. “Really, why wasting my good-will on you… such an ungrateful…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay I was just joking.” Eric interrupted him waving. “You know I’m grateful, thank you for the cake, it’s delicious.”

Hyesung looked satisfied – at least he smiled for the first time he arrived to the studio – then sighed again. “It would be nice to date someone. And spend Christmas romantically. Together.”

Eric scoffed. “Well then you’ll need to set lower your preferences, because I’m not sure you’ll find anyone who have a lot of aegyo and knit and they are feminine and pretty… what’s with the knitting anyway…” Here I’m for example. I don’t knit and I’m everything but feminine, still, we would manage if you set lower your damned preferences.

“Yeah, yeah… it’s not like you are any different.”

“Yes I am… I don’t really take into account any of the things I’ve said long time ago about my ideal type.” How could I? I’m in love with you, a band member who is a man… so far from my ideal type… what ideal type even… You turned me into a masochist, Shin Hyesung.

“You are so cool, be proud.” He said rolling his eyes. “For your information, my preferences are quite low these days…”

“That’s great then.” Eric replied not looking up to Hyesung, he was way too absorbed in his cake, he honestly did not have the knowledge of what he was saying. “Then go and date. Ask Dongwan for a blind date.”

For a few moments silence had taken over the room again, then Eric heard the sound of the chair moving and when he looked up he saw Hyesung standing looking at him with a scornful expression. “What?!”

“You are so bad.” Hyesung replied, his voice sounded quite offended and this worried Eric after all he had no idea what was going on.

“Why now? What did I do this time?!”

“You are such a bad bastard.”

“Shin Hyesung, I have no idea what’s your problem now…”

“That’s it, that’s my problem!” He stamped with his foot annoyed. “You are so hateful, I don’t even understand why anyone likes you!”

“Yah, Jung Pilgyo…” Eric was taken aback and could only look at him with widened eyes. “What’s with you…”

“I’m going home.” He stated angry, turned his back to Eric and walked to the door, however even if he opened the door he could not leave, because Eric followed him and grabbed his arm to stop him so he could figure out what he did wrong this time.

However, he completely forgot his hands were creamy from the cake and like this he managed to successfully smudge his clothes only to receive an outraged hit on his shoulder… again.

“You are so insensitive!” He hissed between his teeth. “You are a waste of my time and emotions. I’m leaving.”

And he really did left, leaving Eric behind with his confusion.

He really did not understand anything.

That night he suffered from the worst diarrhea ever and he bet the cause was the cake Hyesung bought for him. However, when he called the others the next day to ask them if they had any problems they all said no, only to leave him dumbfounded why he got sick.

In the end he called Hyesung, too, who only said “you deserve it” then hung up and so Eric knew he really did piss off the singer and he was still angry at him.

However, the problem was Eric had no idea what he did wrong, after all he was just enjoying Hyesung’s cake…

A/N:

Hey~ How are you? I hope fine. 
And I hope you like the new chapter. It's not much of a big thing, but there is that one certain scene that could be titled as a milestone in Eric's and Hyesung's relationship in this story? Maybe? An intimate moment that's not fantasy...
(And I hope it's not actually egoistic if I say it made me squeal. I had a hard time writing that scene because I could not write not even a letter from my feels. OTL THis was like the first time my own writing made me like this. OTL)

Also, it's amazing how people don't get hints if it's about them. I've experienced it a lot when I was hinting things and the other person did not get it at all, and my mom told me a lot of stories like that. If it's about others they get it, but for some reason if it's about them they don't notice hinting.
Weird.

I hope you'll enjoy the next chapter too~
Have fun and thank you for reading.

P.S.: I was not sure how you call that thing you make music with even after long long research, so I called it 'mixer table'. Anyway, let me know if that's wrong so I'll know one thing more about this world. xD