Hyukjae parked his beautiful Audi and we both stepped out of the car. I looked around and although I could hear a quiet booming of the music, I couldn´t see any bar around. But my companion apparently knew because I suddenly felt his hand on my back gently pushing me towards one direction. I stupidly let myself be led because I was still stunned by the handsome and obviously rich man next to me. Was Hyukjae always this gentle and charming? And since when am I fancying him anyway? Wake up, Donghae, this charmer has at least two lovers and more importantly, he´s a man and you as well. While I was in the stupid conflict with myself, we arrived to an ordinary looking block of flats. Instead of going inside we went around and there were stairs leading down to a hidden entrance.  ´Ace in the Hole´ was written in shining letters above the doors and I entered with hesitation after Hyukjae.

“We´re here cubs!” The white headed teacher hollered. The dimly lit room with small bar and even smaller dance floor looked cosy, especially filled with only familiar faces. Everyone turned around to greet Hyukjae happily. “Look who´s here!” The bastard shifted the attention on me but to my surprise I was greeted as warmly as Hyukjae. Female students complimenting my attire, calling me handsome and y, something I definitely wasn´t used to. I blushed but to not be rude gave them each a warm smile before I was pulled by my sleeve away.

“I told you they would be already here,” Hyukjae announced once he spotted the teachers´ table with my colleagues already present. Only Seohyun was missing. Compliments about my new image kept spilling even from my co-workers and I really didn´t feel comfortable with the check-out I was given by Minho. I quickly sat down and Hyukjae went to order a light beer for me and a juice for himself.

“You know, 100% ´real´ orange juice is 100% artificially flavored,” I stopped the man before he left for the bar.

“Really?” Hyukjae chuckled at me, “Should I order strawberry milk then?”

“Dairy may cause acne,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

But fortunately the slim man only laughed again and asked: “So what should I order for drinks?”

I thought for a while since answering water would sound plain stupid since we´re on a party so I opted for a witty answer and hoped it would work as a joke at least. I was already embarrassed. “One of the most hydrating foods to eat is the cucumber, which is ninety-six percent of water.”

“Ha ha ha! But what if I want fruits? Like apples, that would do?” Hyukjae started playing along with me which felt nice.

“I´m sorry to disappoint you, apples float in water, because twenty-five percent of their volume is made of air so you wouldn´t really get much water out of them. But there are 7,500 variettes of apples grown throughout the world so I believe at least one of them might not float,” I said faking a serious face that evoked another fit of laughter from Hyukjae.

“So there´s no chance for me to have a drink tonight, huh?” He squeezed the root of his nose and pretended to be mourning.

“True if you tried a new variety of the apples each day, it would take you, um about years to try them all. But I think it´s okay to order a strawberry juice, Hyukjae,” I finished softly and Hyukjae smiled at me with that charming smile before finally leaving the table.

“I didn´t know you were this funny, Mr. Lee,” one of the boys from the table next to us turned around. “You make statistics sound actually interesting,” another one added and with that one remark my heart swelled with pride and achievement.

“Should I add some of these statistics to the lessons?” I asked them back.

“Yeah, that would be fun,” the students agreed.

“And if you don´t listen properly to Donghae, you could miss them and that would be a pity,” Hyukjae appeared again handing me my small beer, “but be careful, I almost couldn´t order my favorite drink,” he added with the glass with the red liquid and everyone laughed.

The party was really fun. I didn´t expect that in the slightest, my mood was pretty down before Hyukaje appeared in front of me. Drinks kept coming but I noticed Hyukjae keeping an eye on me, probably checking my alcohol level. I myself was being careful to not end up like the last time when I made not so nice remark about the new teacher. Thankfully Mr. Choi then bought pizza for the teachers´ table and the food helped a lot on my slowly creeping dizziness. But I noticed Hyukjae not eating.

“Aren´t you hungry?” I asked him gesturing to the pizza.

“To be honest I´m a picky eater, I can´t handle spicy food,” he answered and I realised that indeed, the ordered pizza was either with garlic, wasabi or chilli.

“The reason why peppers taste hot is because of a chemical compound called capsaicin, which bonds to your sensory nerves and tricks them into thinking your mouth is actually being burnt,” I explained very well aware that this information won´t feed him.

“Hm, it makes sense. I hate pain the most so maybe that´s why I can´t eat spicy food,” Hyukjae said with strangely upset expression. At first I thought he was disappointed that I didn´t offer him something better to eat but then his sentence sank into my mind. Pain?

“Would you tell me if you were hurting, Hyukjae?” I tried. Hyukjae got startled by my sudden question and probably by the fact that I hit the bull´s eye. He must be already used to me being ignorant to his feelings but I´m not proud of being this way.

“And what would you do if I told you?” He asked me back and my heart clenched. Does it mean he´s really in pain? Something must be bothering this alien like person a lot but I´m not sure whether he would be willing to tell me.

“Maybe something, maybe nothing,” I said after thinking for a while and Hyukjae gave me a deep stare indicating he was looking through me. It was something only Lee Hyukjae could do and which was scaring me a lot. Right now I let him, though, and finished my sentence: “But telling me could lift the burden that pains you for a little bit and maybe we could even carry it together.” I was surprised by my deep thought and also by offering my trust to someone like Hyukjae. Only a few hours ago I wanted to abandon the skinny teacher and now I told him to hold onto me. Is it okay to offer something so serious with such conflicting emotions? My friend interrupted our eye-contact, he had his answer.

“I think it´s time for me to leave, Donghae,” Hyukjae spoke up again.

“It´s okay, I´ll take a taxi,” I answered dumbly and the white head shook his head with a small smile on his lips. Only then I understood that he wanted to continue with the topic. “Uh sorry, please continue,” I added fast ashamed. I´m really not good at this stuff.

“I will give you some tips before I disappear, you are an awesome teacher so I´m not worried at all,” that charming smile again, “the school won´t need my help anymore soon anyway,” he glanced around at the students and other teachers separated from us with satisfaction.

“But you will be around, right?” I asked hastily remembering something he told me some time ago about cutting all the ties.

“I won´t, Donghae,” he said seriously but gently. My heart clenched again and I was tipsy enough to be honest with myself. I would miss this person like hell.

Feeling sorry for not updating enough and having enough fantasy to continue, I´m presenting you another chappie this soon! Double update. So Donghae finally got it! I know you all think Hyukjae loves Donghae but it might not be like that. I always write happy endings so don´t worry but don´t expect everything go that smoothly. There are two troublemakers in this story one starts with H and one with D! By the way, I stole the name of the bar from "Mamacita" - the name of Heechul´s saloon if some of you haven´t noticed. :) I really hope SJ will win Daesang this year, they deserve it so much! And Hyukjae looks so elegant for this comeback. - Confused PandaHero