Hello Everyone it has been ages I know and I am sooo sorry about it!! But as always, life is going crazy and there are a lot of changes going on for me lately so my inspiration for writing had been gone for months now. Luckily it is back now but time is a great issue. Anyway I hope you will enjoy the beginning of the promised date and I will make sure to finish it as soon as possible. Thank you all for staying with me so long!!
 

Take care!

Yours

Slade

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Donghae's P.O.V.

As they walked out of the church, Donghae let out a deep sigh.

"What's the matter with you Hae? You seemed to be distracted ever since the concert has ended" Sungmin said with a concerned look on his face.

"It's nothing Min, don't worry about it. I guess I'm just exhausted that's all" the brunet replied with a more or less faked smile.

"Aish he's in even deeper than I thought" Sungmin mumbled to himself, but Donghae had heard the others words clearly.

It was indeed true, that after the concert had ended, he wasn't really behaving like himself even though he had tried to hide it. He didn't know what was possibly wrong with himself, but whenever he saw Hyukjae he became strange. His feelings did actually. He had been in love once, but the girl had turned him down in a bad manner and so he tried to stay away from that feeling, tried to keep his distance to not get hurt too much. It wasn't a reason for the brunet to not love, but it was a different kind of love. One he knew was getting returned until he was ready for a relationship again.
And then there was this blonde guy with his gummy smile, turning his world upside down within a day.
Another sigh escaped Donghae's mouth and he shook his head. He was tired and probably overrating his own thoughts.

"Let's just go home Min. I need to see my bed as soon as possible."

They walked in silence, what Hae was grteful for. His friend must have sensed the mood and decided to shut up, while they were guiding the children back to the orphanage. Lissy and Charly had got a ride from their brother Charles, who really loved his older sisters and didn't want them to get sick from being out in the cold. Donghae and Sungmin understood that and agreed to supervise the kids so the women could go ahead and preper everything to get the youngsters into bed as soon as they arrived.

"By the way, have you thought of how to celebrate new years eve this year?" Sungmin asked after a while, maybe to overcome the awkward silence.

"I don't know yet. I guess the same as every year. Staying at the orphanage, paying a visit to church and just have a drink after midnight. Feel free to join me if you want to" Donghae answered.

"I will be there. I doubt my parents would call to wish me a Happy New Year anyway" the blonde replied with a half-hearted smile. But it was true, ever since the elder had left home his parents didn't contact him at all. Not even the letters he sent them for their birthdays or any other special occassions got replied at all.

"Well never mind. Let's have fun later on but for now let's go home. I am starting to feel tired too and I have to work tomorrow so every hour of sleep will be appreciated" the blonde said and yawned.

It didn't take long for them to reach the old house where the children lived in and the Smith twins were already waiting for them.

And because mostly everyone was half asleep already there weren't any complaints about brushing teeths or changing clothes this time. They were all too desperate for their beds to actually waste time on arguing around, so they did what they had to do and half an hour later the orphanage was silent and only a few snores came from some of the rooms.

Closing the last door, after kissing Jaemin and Jinwook good night, Donghae rubbed his sore neck with his right hand and walked downstairs to say good bye and walk Sungmin home.

Downstairs, said persons were already waiting for him with a smile.

"You're not going to stay tonight dear?" Lissy asked with a disappointed but still friendly smile, as she cuped his cheeks with her hand and gave him a kiss on his forehead to say good bye.

"I am sorry Lissy but not today. I have a lot of things to do tomorrow and I think my aunt would be happy to see me for breakfast once in a while as well. She is always sending me messages saying she misses me."

"I understand that. Take care sunshine."

"You too Lissy, see you later" the brunet replied and gave Charly a hug, who just was as tired as he was so she didn't say much. Before he walked out of the dorr followed by Sungmin, he turned around once more to wave them good bye.

Out in the cold, you could see breaths of the two boys turning into a white fog and snowflakes were falling down once again.

They looked at each other and exchanged a small smile before they started walking to their homes. The snow was crunching under their shoes and a few starts could be seen through the coulds above.

When they had to part, Hae pulled his friend into a hug and told him to take care.

"You too HaeHae. Have a safe way home. I will see you later."

*****

At home, Donghae threw his coat into a dark corner of the small entrace hall and walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. After he went to stand in front of the window and watched the snow falling outside.

"Well let's call it a day..." he muttered to himself and walked to the sink to put his glass away. Surprisingly, or not his brother came walking in too. They seemed to always meet at the most weirdest times of the day only that it were the usual places.

"You're back? I thought you would stay over at the orphanage again?" Donghwa asked.

"Not today Hyung. I will be busy tomorrow so I thought of coming back home. And besides I missed Aunties breakfast" the younger replied.

"Her breakfast or her in general. She always kept complaining that you wouldn't come home. But the concert was great, as to be expected of my little baby brother" the elder said and ruffled the brunets hair.

"Yah Hyung stop it, my hair will be a mess."

"As if it looks much beeter after you wake up in the morning. Haha stop pouting Hae. We both know it is the truth. Anyway if you would excuse me... I just came downstairs to get a little snack. My latest project is stealing all of my time. Good night."

"Good night Hyung" Donghae said and went up to his room. He didn't bother to turn on the lights as usual and just took a quick shower, before he jump on his bed and fell asleep.

****

The next morning, the smell of fresh coffee and the knocking on his door woke him up.

"Donghae sweetie wake up. Breakfast is ready" his aunt said, ignoring the mocking 'Donghae sweetie' Donghwa pereated like a parrot while he passed the corridor to get down to the kitchen.

The brunet just muffled some incoherent words and crawled back under his covers.

But his aunt just sat down on the bed and removed the pillow under his head, making him open his eyes once again.

"Mhmmm what time is it auntie? Let me sleep for some more I am tired."

"It's already 10am Donghae so you had plenty of sleep. Now get up and put on some clothes. I want you downstairs in five minutes. It had been ages since we all ate together. So don't try to argue around young man or I will send your brother to wake you up."

Hearing that the brunet was out of bed within the blink of an eye, and went to his wardrobe to get out some clothes. The last time his brother had come to wake him up ended with him being soaked wet with ice cold water and his matress had needed a week to dry properly.
So he rather lived with being tired than his brother coming upstairs to toture him. Even tho Donghwa was the older one he was just as childish sometimes.

Especially when it came to getting some payback for all the pranks the younger had pulled on his Hyung.

The elder woman left with a satisfied smile and only short after Donghae walked into the kitchen, where everyone was already waiting for him.

"A Donghae son, come have a seat. How are you doing? The concert was great last night" his uncle said and smiles gently.

"Thank you. I am glad you liked it."

"Well of course we did. Yours and Sungmins performances are always stunning, just like the kids. It is a pity we can't do more to support you guys though."

"Don't worry uncle, you're doing more than enough already and money isn't everything that matters. It's love and care" the brunet replied and started eating his breakfast, because he was pretty hungry.

"You really are like your father young man. He talked just like you when he was your age and he never stopped, right?" the elder asked and suddenly the atmosphere changed. Not much because most of the people in the room were okay with the past. There was only one who wasn't.

Donghae...

As much as he had managed to move on, the memory of his beloved parents still hurt inside his heart, because he knew they would never be there again to tell him how proud they were that he was growing up to be a fine, young man like his father had always wished for him to be.

"Honey" their aunt said in a warning manner but the brunet just gave her a small smile, when he saw her concerned glance towards him.

"Don't worry it's fine. If you would excuse me I am not too hungry today so I would like to clean up my room a little" he lied and nearly ran upstairs to hide under his covers once more. His room was as neat as ever when he went to stay at the orphanage, because he didn't like to leave everything in a mess. Today wasn't his day and luckily no one of his family got the idea to come into his room again.

Donghae didn't know how much time had passed as he was just lying there staring at the ceiling, but at some point of the day the doorbell rang interrupting the silence.

"I will go" Donghwa shouted and soon enough you heard how the door was opened and a muffled voice came from outside. The only one the brunet was able to understand was his brother because the other person was speaking too low.

"Ah I see. And who might you be?" the elder asked again and another muffled answer could be heard.

"Alright I will see what I can do for you. Just wait a second." With that the door was closed and you could hear footsteps coming up the stair case.

"Donghae it's for you" his brother said and walked into the room.

"I am not available at the moment" the younger muttered and turned around to face the wall.

"Well he said it was kinda urgent so just go and see who it is, because I have never seen this guy before. Or do you want me to use another technique of mine to get you out of bed my little Dongsaeng?" Donghwa said in a mocking manner, making the brunet get up once again.

"Just forget it Hyung I will go, I will go."

Putting on a jacket, Donghae walked downstairs and opened the door with a rather dark face but was surprised when he saw who was standing there.

"Hyukjae? What are you doing here?" he asked totally forgetting about his good manners.

"Hello Donghae. Well I went to the orphanage because I hoped to find you there but Lissy said you weren't there so I asked her to give me your address and now I am here."
 

"Yeah I can see that. What do you want?"

"Erm... you see I was wondering... would you like to go shopping with me? I don't know anyone around here and Kyu is too captured in his own world of video games to show me around the city, so I was hoping that maybe you could help me out? Please? And besides I was hoping we could talk a bit more. So what do you say?" the blonde asked.

Hae just looked at him and tried to understand what was actually going on. His headache was getting worse by the minute, but he did his best to hide it.

But his brother, who had been listening to their conversation came and jumped on his back, knowing he was annoying him and gave him a hug from behind.

"Yeah Hae why don't you go and enjoy yourself a little? Has been a while since you had a date."

Seeing the surprised look on Hyuk's face, the brunet felt like disappearing on the spot and slapping himself in the face at the same time. Instea he just closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his nose with his rright hand, trying to stay calm.

"Hyung please, it's not like my love life does concern you at all. And Hyukjae is just a friend so if you would excuse me" he said and removed the leders arms around his shoulders a little more forcefully than he would have needed to do. Fter he looked back to the boy, who was still standing in front the door.

"Come on in and wait here. I will get dressed and be back in a few minutes."

With that he went back to his room and put on some clothes in a hurry, but he still looked good.

He didn't care much about the amused face his brother had been wearing or his teasing comments after he had closed the door behind his back. He wasn't in the mood to get upset for nothing and so Donghae didn't. Checking his appearance in the mirror once more, he grabbed his bag and walked back down into the entrace hall where Hyukjae was still waiting for him. You could see that he was feeling slightly uncomfortable, because he didn't know what to do, so the brunet decided to save them both in the fastest way he knew he would succeed.

He grabbed the others arm and dragged him out of the house and walked a few meters before he stopped to put on his coat and scarf.

“Well that was some kind of a visit I would say” Hyuk commented with a small laugh, waiting for Hae to get ready.

“Yeah I am sorry about that my brother can be a hand full. He has been picking on me the whole morning already.”

“Never mind I have an older sister too so I know how you're feeling. But honestly speaking you don't look like life itself indeed” the blonde said with a concerned look on his face.

“Oh thank you very much now I am feeling much better” Donghae deadpanned with a stern face and the other burst out in laughter.

“Hahaha you know now you sound like your cousin. What was his name again? Heechul? I never knew you could be so... so...”

“Sarcastic? Annoying? Straight foreward?” the brunet asked nonchalant.

“I would rather say refreshing. You always looked so composed and mature the last two days, that I would have never thought you can get out of yourself like this” Hyuk said, still smiling.

“Refreshing? Seems like you have never seen Chullie when someone makes him miss the special fashion sales after the summer season. But anyway, just because I am taking responsibility doesn't mean I can't act my age. I just usually don't do it often that's all. Ane I am not in the mood for it either. I am tired and when I am tired I get grumpy easily. ”

“I realized that, good thing I came around to give you a changefor once.”

“Wait didn't you say you wanted to go shopping?”

“Who cares about shopping? Let's have some fun and forget about all the depressing things. Just focus on yourself for once and just be yourself. No need to think about anyone else okay?

Give yourself a break Donghae, it looks like you need it. And I need some company and someone to show me around, so what do you say?” Hyukaje asked and gave the brunet one of his gumy smiles.

Hesitating for a moment, the brunet thought of what the elder had just offered. It sounded good, but on the other hand side he wasn't in the mood for fun. But then again he didn't have anything to lose and besides that, he really needed a change for once. And if he got some alone time with the man he couldn't get out of his mind all day long, what could it possibly hurt? So with that he decided to forget about all the worries he had the other night and just accept what he could get for now and a smile spread across his face.

“Sure why not? I am having a day off anyway and nothing else to do.”

“Great then. Let's go” Hyukjae said and took Hae's hand to drag him along. And the brunet couldn't help but smile at their connected hands. Maybe this day wouldn't be as bad after all.

To be continued...