XIX

"We have to slow down our life."

Eunhyuk took a sip from his drink and looked up from the papers lying on the counter he was resting his crossed arms on. He quirked an eyebrow as he saw the other's dead serious expression. "And you think this because…?"

Yesung sighed dramatically. "Just look at our schedules! Concert in Malaysia in three days, all those interviews and photo shootings in between, variety shows, practice, in a month we're off to the Philippines and don’t forget the promotion for our new album that's up next! I feel like we're rushing through our life instead of enjoying it…"

The younger hummed and put down his drink. "We don’t have time for anything, right?"

"Yeah. Most of all we don’t have time to just sit down and to realize the things that are happening to us right now, the good things and moments we can't repeat. Maybe someday we look back at this time and think that we missed too much of it actually."

Eunhyuk looked up to him, but Yesung's eyes were fixed on the papers. "So you think we'll regret a lot of things later on?"

"I hope we don’t. But life is short; we should enjoy it and don’t waste our time on things or people we don’t like. Always live it to the fullest and try to find some time in between to come down."

The other hummed again, his gaze dropping back to the papers as well as Yesung continued talking about their schedules for the next days. He felt his phone vibrating in the pocket of his jeans, but with Yesung's words in his ears he ignored it; he knew all too well who called him for the nth time that day anyway.

Eunhyuk heard the main door falling shut a bit later and didn’t pay much attention to it because there were so many people walking in and out of this dorm that he had lost count. He tried following Yesung's words so he would have an idea of what was waiting for them the next day when the sound of shuffling made him wonder. The raven head was just about to turn around when he heard something sliding over the floor behind him, but before he could make a move there was a pair of arms wrapped around him with just a bit too much force. He let out a yelp and was pushed against the counter; thankfully his arms could keep him from hitting it too badly.

A head landed on his shoulder from behind, silent laughter sounded through the air and the arms wrapped around him made it hard for him to breathe. He had no chance to see who was hugging him like this, but he knew it either way. It couldn’t be somebody else.

"Hyukkie!"

He sighed and tried his best to fight the stupid grin that wanted to creep up his lips. It was pointless; only a second later he grinned dumbly and couldn’t even tell why. One of his hands found the way to the arms around his waist and actually wanted to loosen the hold of them a bit. He ended up curling his fingers around the other's wrist however and the tender of his thumb over smooth skin went completely unnoticed by his brain.

"You're already home?" he asked and turned his head to look at Leeteuk who entered the dorm with a tired expression on his face.

"Yeah… Seems like we have to continue the shooting tomorrow. Too many different locations for one day." The leader sighed, gaze travelling to Donghae who still clung to Eunhyuk like he couldn’t take a single breath without him. "And what did you do to him? He's totally hyper today."

Eunhyuk opened his mouth, but the right words didn’t come out. 
What he had done to Donghae? Well, the same things the younger had done to him the previous night – and like hell he would tell Leeteuk about that. He had his trouble with keeping himself from blushing like a little girl thinking about her crush as his thoughts travelled back to the night before. What was he supposed to say now?

"He didn’t do anything", Donghae said before Eunhyuk even had the chance to utter a word and while rubbing his cheek against the elder's shoulder. "I just missed him…"

"Oh, that's something completely new. You missing someone…" With another sigh Leeteuk rubbed over his nape before looking at his wrist watch. "I'll go and meet Siwon at the gym now. Be ready when I come to pick you up in two hours, Hyukjae."

"Sure, hyung."

Leeteuk let out a silent and tired groan before slowly leaving the dorm. Yesung took the papers and left with them to head for his room; Donghae's arms stayed wrapped around Eunhyuk's waist until the door fell shut, then he hugged him so tight that it made him gasp for air.

"Donghae-"

"I missed you so much!" the younger exclaimed. "I wish I could hug you like this forever…"

"You know, it would be nice if I would at least be allowed to see you so I can-"

The younger swiftly turned him around and Eunhyuk's back hit the counter before he even had the chance to understand what was happening. Donghae grinned broadly, his body just a bit too close to his to make this look like two friends fooling around. Eunhyuk's gaze flitted to the side, just to make sure that Yesung had really left and that they were alone.

"So you can do what?" Donghae asked and his voice was so low that it sent a pleasant shiver down the other's spine. Yet they had to be careful, they had to watch out so that they weren’t seen by anyone. Eunhyuk brought his hands to the younger's sides, tried to push him away a bit so that this didn’t look as intimate as it was. Donghae however stayed rooted to the spot and didn’t move an inch.

"Donghae", Eunhyuk whispered, his voice filled with uneasiness. "Somebody could see us-"

The brunet giggled and was just about to lean in to kiss him, decided against it however and rested his head on the other's shoulder instead. He did it right in time because the moment Eunhyuk wrapped his arms around him, one of the doors swung open. Eunhyuk's body stiffened; it was thanks to the soothing brushing of Donghae's fingertips over his back that he didn’t push him away immediately.

Silent steps approached them and as he turned his head slightly, he could see Yesung walking over to them. The oldest among them didn’t even bat an eyelash as he pulled the fridge open, grabbed something out of it and pushed the door shut with his . Slightly patting Donghae's side he made them scoot to the side a bit so he could open one of the drawers; with a spoon in his hand he then kept standing beside them like he didn’t know what to do. Long seconds passed by before he found his voice again.

"Can I hug you too?" he asked bluntly and the tenseness left Eunhyuk's body as it dawned on him that this was Yesung and not somebody who wanted to rip their heads off their bodies because they were too close to each other.

"Why?" he asked and became aware of just how nice Donghae smelled. He closed his eyes for a second and nestled up to the brunet, their hyung's presence almost erased from his brain.

"Because I'm happy."

"That's fine. Now go and hug somebody else instead", Eunhyuk said, his mind too filled with Donghae to think properly.

"But it's seeing you two that makes me happy", Yesung explained.

"You see us every day."

"Not like this."

"What's different right now?" Eunhyuk wanted to know and slowly started thinking. He understood what position they were in, but just before the uneasiness crept back up inside of him, Donghae wrapped one arm around Yesung and pulled him into their hug.

The doubts fell silent in this short moment of affection that proved to him that he was obviously worrying too much and that it was hard to imagine that Yesung or any other member would abandon them if they found out. There was a deep bond between them all – and the only thing he doubted in that moment was that this bond could be cut that easily. And with what Yesung said next, he made Eunhyuk wonder if all his books of esotericism had made hi