“I´m sorry,” Hyukjae said with a pleading gaze.

“Hyukjae, you are the biggest idiot this world has ever produced.  But it´s okay because I´m no better than you. Oh God, what I´ve done!” I cried and pulled on my hair. You see, I just did the most impossible thing you can imagine and I´m embarrassed it almost hurts.

After Hyuna´s confession I immediately headed for the police station where Hyukjae was being held. He was accused of ual harassment but the case would be investigated only tomorrow. The idiotic white haired teacher would have to stay the night at the station while the girls would sleep in their warm beds. I couldn´t allow anything like that and Hyukjae didn´t apparently want to pull the girls in anyway. I already figured that my sole purpose here was to get him out of the cuffs without involving Hyuna or anyone else in this. But how am I supposed to do that?

“Mr. Lee Donghae, a sociologist at the university. You came to retrieve Mr. Lee Hyukjae, do I understand it right?” The officer asked me from his seat behind his messy desk.

“Yes, I think there is a huge misunderstanding going on and it wouldn´t be fair for him to be accused of a crime he didn´t commit,” I slowly explained.

“And what kind of a misunderstanding it is according to you, Mr. Lee?” The officer imitated my teaching tone and it angered me slightly. Gulping my irritation down I started explaining.

“Hyuna got only confused by Hyukjae´s joke. His sense of humour is quite exquisite, I´m sure you must have noticed yourself,” at that the officer sighed and I chuckled. I guess my friend already did something strange in that short time. “So she got a bit startled and maybe panicked. You see, ninety percent of women said their bodies made them feel down and they think about it everyday. And girls are sensitive at this age. But it´s impossible for Hyukjae to mean his action in any different way than as a joke,” I hoped it would be enough. But it wasn´t.

“Why?” One of the eyebrows of my interrogator rose up. “Why couldn´t he flirt with that girl?” He asked me in a challenging tone. The question caught me off guard and because of that I blurted something I´ll regret for the rest of my life.

“Because he doesn´t like girls!” I lied. “He likes guys, actually he´s my boyfriend!” I word-vomited and then inhaled sharply afterwards. Oh !

The officer was taken aback by my spontaneous cry. His eyes were wide but turned gentle quickly. He told me to calm down and something about his son being gay too. He patted my back and assured me, he would clean everything perfectly. Misunderstandings happen as he said. All the while he spoke I was beat red and holding back my nervous breakdown. But I almost burst out when he opened one of the doors and called: “Lee Hyukjae, you are free. Your boyfriend came for you!” Holy mother of all ing statistics! Hyukjae should have never known!

“Calm down, Donghae,” the white haired man, sitting awkwardly on a bench in a park close to my house, next to me shushed, “I´m not gonna tell anyone and I know you did it only to save my . I´m very thankful too.”

“You better be because I´m not saving your skinny bump ever again!” I retorted irritated.

“Thanks again,” Hyukjae said quietly and gave me a friendly pat before disappearing into the night.

The next day was surprising for everyone except me. No one expected Hyukjae to appear at school as if nothing had happened. He wore his now almost silver hair up and was clothed into a light pink suit yet again with impossibly short slacks. Nothing out of normal, if we talk about Hyukjae´s standards of course. In the afternoon Hyuna and a few other girls visited our office with a proper apology and a promise of never acting this way towards anybody. Hyukjae´s case was good enough threat for every student and I felt like it could have helped to stop the dangerous gossiping going around at the university. The students weren´t happy with Hyukjae behind the bars, they liked the guy.

“Did you say something to him?” Siwon whispered and pointed at the silver haired teacher boiling water for his favourite plum tea.

“No, why?” I asked him discreetly back so Hyukjae wouldn´t hear.

“He seems all nice and stuff towards the students, even those little witches but when he´s not talking with anyone, he has that sad face on,” Siwon commented surprising me quite a bit. Choi Siwon was a nice guy but definitely not attentive to say the least. How could he have noticed something I couldn´t? Unfortunately he was right. I was watching Hyukjae pour the water into his cup with those cold and glassy eyes again. With that porcelain white skin and unnatural hair colour he looked almost like a doll. Why didn´t I notice earlier? It can´t have anything to do with me, can it?

“Hyukjae,” I called and the latter turned around with a small smile suddenly punched into that doll-like face, “can I have a cup with you?” I asked him gesturing to the tea.

“Sure,” Hyukjae´s smile widened, “I have a cake too.”

The steam coming from our cups was creating white sensual clouds in Hyukjae´s cold office. The white head was digging into something that was a chocolate cake just a minute ago and I was playing with my cravat. Both of us were silent. I felt that Hyukjae wanted to tell me something but was holding back in order to maintain the peace. But on the contrary this torturing behaviour of his was driving me crazy. Someone needs to break this painful silence.

“Twenty-five percent of teachers were threatened by a pupil in the past year and of this forty-one percent were actually assaulted. Thirteen percent of teachers were also threatened by their parents,” I recited monotonously. Hyukjae´s spoon stopped in the middle of the way between the plate and his mouth. Why do I suddenly feel like I chose the wrong statistics?

“So people don´t like teachers you say?” Hyukjae´s voice was unusually deep and because he spun on his chair and was now slightly back-facing me, I couldn´t really tell his mood. I thought of my answer instead.

“No, that´s not true, seventy-five percent of adults feel teachers should be held in higher public respect and ninety believe teaching is a highly skilled job,” I spilled all the data I had. Hyukjae´s arm bent over so he could put the empty plate on his table. He stayed turned away from me unfortunately.

“Are you happy, Donghae?” He suddenly asked me. His tone was serious so I didn´t dare to joke.

“As a teacher?” I wanted him to specify because I couldn´t catch the goal of this conversation.

“As a teacher, man, human, son, brother, whatever. As Donghae simply. Are you happy?” He rephrased throwing me completely out of pace. What am I supposed to answer?

“I´ve never complained,” I said after a while. To be honest I´ve never thought about it. “And you?” I couldn´t but ask him back. Hyukjae was the strangest and the most complicated person in the world. He talks in puzzles and does wonders. He floats somewhere between geniality and madness but is he happy so far away in the space?

“I´m still waiting,” he answered, “I´m waiting for a rope that I won´t be able to cut off.”

“I don´t understand,” I whined. I hate it when he speaks this way! “If you keep speaking in metaphors, I´ll just take it literally since I don´t know what you are talking about! I´ll take the thickest rope and tie you up!” I punched the table.

It was dead quiet for a while before Hyukjae turned in his chair to face me. He was frozen like a statue with his eyes wide and lips slightly parted in surprise. And from one tip of his ear to the other a dark red blush was spread. Did I say something wrong?

As I promised! Double update for you! :) Be patient with me later, the next chap might come late. Hyukjae and Heechul sleeping next to each other (Heechul´s SNS) are the cutest ever. This is maybe my first fiction without this big star. But who knows, Heechul always makes his way into out writings, even if we don´t want to. Be carefull on your ways - Singer PandaHero