I

Courage
Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

I

2 0 0 9

It was the sound of soft knocking against his door that made Eunhyuk furrow his brows in disinclination. Clamping his eyes shut, he let out a silent groan which was immediately answered as if it had been heard.

"Hyukjae, it's time to get up."

Leeteuk's voice was gentle like it always was in the morning – but it wouldn’t stay like that for a long time. Eunhyuk knew that from that moment on, he had five to ten minutes to give his hyung a sign that he was alive before his tone would change into a rougher one. And so he stirred a bit and carefully opened his eyes; repeatedly blinking, he recognized the wall of his room right in front of his face. That he was lying – or better was pushed – so far against it, could only mean one thing and that conclusion made him sigh.

"Donghae."

He heard nothing in response and moved a bit more until he became aware of the arm that was wrapped around him from behind and that tried to pull him closer. Eunhyuk grabbed it with lazy movements and pushed it off his body which instantly elicited a silent whine from behind him.

"We have to get up", he silently said and this time he heard a negative hum. Sighing again and just in time to prevent the other's arm from sneaking around his waist once again, Eunhyuk forced himself into a sitting position. He sat in his bed yawning and eventually stretched himself with another unwilling groan before his tired eyes landed on the body lying next to him.

Donghae was curled up, his brown hair all messy and his face snuggled down into Eunhyuk's pillow. It wasn’t unusual to find the younger right next to him in the morning even though they hadn't gone to bed together; Donghae liked to visit him early in the morning before the other members were up. And Eunhyuk was very well aware of the fact that the door to his room had been opened maybe an hour ago; the sudden warmth on his back must have lulled him back to sleep before he had been able to register too much.

Those were Donghae's infamous waking-up-attempts he did at least three times a week and every time it was also Donghae who needed to be woken up afterwards. Actually, those weren’t really attempts. Because wrapping his arms around Eunhyuk from behind and snuggling up to him without saying a single word or even making a sound wasn’t that much of a good strategy to wake anyone up. It was no wonder that he fell asleep every single time and that Eunhyuk didn’t notice that he was there to begin with.

"Donghae", Eunhyuk said and placed a hand on the other's side to pat it a bit. "Get up."

The brunet frowned and hid his face even more in the pillow as he let out a whine. "Two minutes…" he mumbled drowsily. Eunhyuk sighed.

"Fine… But don’t tell me I didn’t try to warn you."

He tried to scoot a bit down to somehow get out of the bed without disturbing the other's nap as an arm was thrown around his waist all of a sudden.

"Stay…" the pile of blankets mumbled silently. Eunhyuk shook his head slightly, already trying to lose the grip of the fingers that were his shirt.

"No, Donghae. We have to-"

The arm moved up to his chest and suddenly pushed him back down to the mattress. Eunhyuk let out a yelp, but Donghae seemed to be completely unimpressed, only pillowed his head on top of the other's chest and let out a contented sigh. Eunhyuk mutely accepted his fate as their limbs got tangled up and Donghae clung to him like he was a koala or something. He only inwardly asked himself one question: how was it possible to have that much strength in the early morning? And that was also the question he silently voiced out after a few seconds the younger had used to make him completely unable to move.

"I'm just very target-orientated", Donghae mumbled just above a whisper and with his eyes still shut.

"Is that so?" Eunhyuk asked and patted the other's back a bit – that was the only movement he could do in their current position. "And what is your target?"

It took some time before he heard the younger's answer and he almost thought Donghae had fallen asleep again as the other's silent voice sounded once more.

"Sleeping."

"And you can't do that on your own?" A negative hum. "Why not?"

"It feels cold…"

"It's spring, Donghae. Besides that you could have gone to Jungsoo-hyung; he sleeps in the same room as you."

"…Hyung doesn’t want me."

'Who would have guessed?', Eunhyuk thought, feeling his limbs slowly becoming numb. "So you come all the way down from the other dorm in your sleeping clothes, sneak into my room and sleep here just because you feel cold, huh? And why do you even do that when it's summer?"

Donghae rubbed his cheek against the other's shoulder. "I don’t want to feel lonely."

"How can you feel lonely with two dorms full of people? And why is it always me?"

"Sometimes it's Siwon."

Eunhyuk scoffed. "Yeah, once a month maybe?"

"You're my best friend."

"So what? Does that mean-"

"Yes."

Eunhyuk let out a sigh, but kept himself from saying another word. True, it was a bit weird to have another man pressed against his body in the morning and it was also weird that this little game with Donghae coming to him in the early morning had been playing for a few years now. But somehow it felt nice to wake up with somebody by his side, somebody that wanted to be with him no matter how many times he had already tried to kick him out of his bed. And he wasn’t against cuddling either – as long as it was Donghae.    
Why? Because he was his best friend.

Slowly and with just a bit of force, he brought his hand up to the younger's head and started caressing the back of it with tender movements. Right from the start, right after seeing Donghae for the very first time, the other and him had immediately got along. They could goof around about the same things, most of the time they liked the same things and they were even able to communicate only by looking at each other. Of course they were also close with the other members, but the both of them always clung together. They were affectionate with each other because of the deep bond they had and so it was no wonder that their fans had started shipping them as a couple years ago. But those girls did that with the other members too and they did fan service because they knew that the fans would like it. The others often complained about how weird it felt and sometimes got so embarrassed that they couldn’t stand looking at each other anymore. Eunhyuk and Donghae didn’t have that problem, not at all. And the reason for that once again was their deep bond, what else?               
It knocked again.

"Yah, Hyukjae. I told you to get up, didn’t I? The plane won't wait for us!"

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
hyukflavor
#1
Wow, it's trilogy! Gonna suscribe it firstttt
haeinmyheart
#2
ive been talking anout this fic on my twitter and it brings back memories huhu so might as well reread it hehehehe
wayforrokkugo
#3
Chapter 37: what
wayforrokkugo
#4
Chapter 34: aww heechul :(((
wayforrokkugo
#5
Chapter 33: omg since hyukja couldn't hit her can i do it instead like a slap on the face or smth 😭 but i love hyukjae just ruthlessly defending donghae, himself, and his choces 💙💙
wayforrokkugo
#6
Chapter 30: god i kinda wanna burn this woman alive but okay
wayforrokkugo
#7
Chapter 29: i hate her i really do
wayforrokkugo
#8
Chapter 24: oh thank god she's somehow gone,,,, i hope she doesnt come back
wayforrokkugo
#9
Chapter 23: lord i hate this soojin girl so bad
Kethryveris
#10
Chapter 37: J'ai adoré cette histoire, malheureusement j'avais commencé par Euphoria que j'ai trouvé vraiment dure et que je n'ai pas réussi à lire en entier (j'ai dû lire beaucoup de passage en diagonale, je pleurais trop). Par contre celle-ci m'a vraiment touché tout le travail de Hyukjae sur lui même, tout l'amour que Donghae lui offre et qui l'aide et le soutient. Bref c'est une fic magnifique... Sauf l'épilogue qui m'a de nouveau projeté dans Euphoria mais je comprends que ce sois nécessaire.... Je vais de ce pas lire Joy. Merci Authornim