Chapter 14 The dinner invite

The two neighbors lazed in the living room during the rest of the afternoon. The only time they left the sofa was when either of them had to use the toilet or they felt that they deserved something sweet (Donghae claimed that that was the best way to cure a fever- basically any illness there is). They watched movies and shows, jumping between channels and Netflix.

As the afternoon left, making way for the evening their stomachs growled and they deemed it time to eat again. This time- dinner. Neither of them felt like cooking (not that the younger ever did it in the first place) so the two settled on ordering in.

Donghae called the closest pizzeria coming up extra toppings during the time he waited for the worker to take their order. Moments later the pizza was ordered and were to arrive within half an hour. The younger thanked the other person on the line before hanging up the call.

The shorter then raised his arms over his head, stretching his limbs. Hyukjae let his eyes run over the younger´s body, a light pink blush spreading across the cheeks of the older. To try and not acknowledge the reaction his body felt was the right time and place to blush in the resident shook his head and coughed lightly.

In that moment Hyukjae´s phone shone and vibrated while making louder and louder noises. In a hurry he reached over to where the device laid, accepting the incoming call without checking who it may be.

A girl with hair as black as Hyukjae´s replaced the lock-screen, she had a mischievous smile on her face and laughed when she saw the phone owner´s expression.

“Oh my, why do you look so shocked monkeyboy?! Please stop looking uglier than usually. I heard that you´ve been going on dates lately. And they have failed like always.”

Hyukjae scrunched up his nose. Why didn’t he look who it was that was calling him before he answered?!

Before he had the chance to answer Donghae pressed up against the teacher´s arm, trying to catch a glimpse of who it was making the older so upset. One of his eyebrows rose for a split second until it became a frown. One similar to the one the other man was sprouting.

“Who is she, Hyukkie?” The brunet turned his gaze to the black-haired male. Something was different in his tone of voice. Something the older hadn’t heard before. From anyone. Without waiting for a reply, the younger focused back to the female on the screen. “And why are you so mean to him, huh? It´s their loss if they ditch him for some other loser. He deserves so much better than all those people. If you can´t see how amazing he is then you don’t deserve him. Especially you!”

Both of the people who had heard the brunet´s angry rant where in shock. How come sweet little Donghae had such strong feelings regarding the way people treat Hyukjae.

“Excuse me. Exactly who do you think you are?” The female directed her vision to the raven and gave him a smug look, one corner of her lip lifted, one well styled eyebrow raised. “Is there something you forgot to mention when you were talking to mom yesterday? Even though his attitude isn’t the best toward people who surprisingly aren’t you Hyuk, I must say that his looks makes up for it. If you ever get tired of ugly monkeyboy just give me a call. Hyukjae can give you my number.”

“Don’t even try Sora-noona. First of all, you already have a boyfriend who surprisingly likes you. Second of all, Donghae has better taste than settling for you. Right, Hae?”

Hyukjae looked over to the younger guy next to him. The other man in question had moved even closer to him- he hadn’t thought it was possible, seemed like he was proven wrong- clinging on the raven´s arm.

I really need to find out if Donghae´s a really touchy-feely person or if I´m an exception. It´s probably the first one.

The brunet´s eyes didn’t waver from the phone screen. To get his attention the kindergarten teacher ran his hand along the thigh of the younger. Right before he reached the other´s kneecap he squeezed the leg. Finally, the doctor intern diverted his eyes from the screen, focusing instead on the man in the room.

“You´re much better than anyone Hyukkie. I think you should break up with her for good. You´re even dating other people at the same time so isn’t it time?”

Hyukjae laughed out loud at Donghae´s comment. He should really clarify that Sora was his older sister and not in any way a love interest. Ewww, that would be . For being a doctor student, the brunet could surly be kind of slow and dumb sometimes. The older couldn’t help himself from adoring the younger at times like those. Well, more than usually.

When the laughter had subsided the raven-head took a hold of one of Donghae´s hands with his free hand. Their fingers interlaced as smoothly as every time they did so. Which was more and more often if Hyukjae thought of it. Not that either of them seemed to mind.

“Donghae, this is my older sister Lee Sora. Noona this is my neighbor and friend Lee Donghae. I would never date my sister, so, you don’t have to worry. Okay Hae? And noona please inform mom that she doesn’t have to tell everyone- even preferably no one- about the gang’s stupid idea of setting me up on blind dates. They all so far and I´m sure they won´t get any better. I´ll just have to make them realize that and we can all go back to how it was before.”

His sister shifted her vision between the two males currently sitting in her little brother´s apartment. Sitting unusually close to each other. Was it common for people their age to be that close to said friend or was there something going on between the two neighbors?

The doorbell rang in the background and before the older had the time to stand up and make his way over to the entrance the younger was already on his way. For being ill he sure had a lot of energy to do stuff. It seemed like the fever had gone down during the day.

“I can´t believe that you have a thing going on with your neighbor. Sure he´s hot and it looks as if he´s into you, which is something new. Why don’t you just tell that to the others and they will surely back off? No one would dare to fight that Donghae guy over you. He might be able to kill anyone who makes fun of you monkeyboy. Tell mom, she will be so happy about it.”

“You´re way off noona. I think he only likes the closeness and is very fond of his friends. Donghae doesn’t like to be alone, so. Please don´t tell mom about this, okay? I think she´s already suspecting something. She will make this out to be something that it´s not and everything will go bad between us two. Any hope that I may have will get crushed if she meddles with it.”

“Okay, I know how mom works. She would scare the poor boy away before you do. But if he ever takes your kindness for granted or hurts you in any other way, you must tell me Hyuk. I will crush his handsome face without a second thought.”

Sora could truly be there for him whenever something went south in his life. No matter what, family always comes first for them. He was really grateful to have her as his sister. Hyukjae thanked her for being willing to crush people who hurt him and told her that he would inform her if it ever happened.

The siblings continued talking to each other about life in general. His sister told him about how her new position at work was going now that she had had time to adjust to it. Sora also expressed her fondness over her boyfriend, stating that he might be ´the one´.

Even though she had momentarily forgotten about him after seeing Donghae for the first time.

The brother was happy for his sister and her boyfriend. Everyone deserved to find their special someone. Even though the cosmos seemed to think differently when it came to him.

When Donghae got back to the living room he was carrying a big box containing the family-sized pizza that they would be sharing according to the younger, as well as a plastic bag with a large bottle of Coca-Cola. He put the things on the coffee table before going into the kitchen to fetch napkins and glasses to drink from.

After grabbing the stuff he deemed necessary for the dinner the brunet took his seat in the sofa, close to where the older sat.

Hyukjae said his goodbyes to his older sister, telling her to say hi from him to her boyfriend when they had hung up. When the conversation was done he locked his phone and put it where it had previously been on the table.

The brunet kept sending the older looks from the corner of his eyes. Not knowing what the matter with the other man was, Hyukjae decided to just ask him.

At the sudden question the younger´s cheeks grew a shade darker and he averted his eyes in a stiff motion. Even the raven-head noticed how unnatural it was.

“N-nothing. I just don’t see why you´re so kind to your sister when she says such mean things about you. Your heart is too big, and it´ll just make you sad in the end when other´s doesn’t care for you the same way, Hyuk? I believe that you deserve so much more and better than all of those people can comprehend.”

“She means well, beneath it all. It´s just her way of showing affection. When we were younger and other kids were mean towards me she would yell at them and a few times noona ended up hitting people. And a lot of my friends calls me ´monkeyboy´.”

A serious expression was visible all over the younger man´s face. A moment later he crocked his head to the side and brought a hand up to push back some of his hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. “Well… Okay, she is forgiven! But if she wouldn’t have punished those kids back then you´d have to give me their names. So, I could look up their addresses and kick their asses instead of Sora-sshi. Though I can see the reason behind comparing your looks with a monkey, they are almost as adorable as you. A lot of people would probably think of it as a cruel nickname.”

Hyukjae couldn’t help but to smile at what Donghae had just said. He would punch some individuals he´d never even met. Just because they had been bullying him when they were growing up. And he thought Hyukjae was adorable, even monkeys being below him in ranking. The younger was indeed one of a kind. In the best way possible.

The smile grew into a grin the more he thought about it. Feeling brave after hearing all the sweet things the brunet had said to him the teacher praised the younger back; “You´re very precious Hae. In the best way possible.”

Donghae´s eyes shone brighter and smiled with such glee that Hyukjae felt his breath disappear for some seconds.

To hide the growing blush on their cheeks, both of them decided to indulge in the food before them, that had been beginning to cool down while they were busy adoring each other, instead. The smiles were still present on their lips throughout the unusually silent dinner.

The older turned the volume on the television back on ten minutes into dinner. Anything to fill the otherwise quiet apartment. All the while the two men stole glances of one another when they thought the other wasn’t looking.

When all the food had been consumed Hyukjae and his ´guest´ (he didn’t really know if Donghae counted as a guest since the younger spent so much time at the apartment) agreed on spending the rest of the evening watching movies. Donghae was looking through the elder´s Netflix account in search of something to delve into. While the younger sat in the living room, Hyukjae sneaked of to get the brunet medicine for his fever.

When he got back to the couch the younger seemed to have picked out something for the two to watch. The resident placed the pills on the tabletop together with a glass of water to help the medicine to go down sm