Chapter 15 The family

For the rest of the evening Donghae asked thousands of questions about Hyukjae´s family (even throwing in some regarding Sora´s boyfriend), claiming he wanted to be well prepared for the monthly family dinner he´d been invited to. Being the good friend he was, the raven-head answered as many and as well as he could.

As the night arrived the younger had gotten better and the fever wasn’t present anymore. Even though Donghae would most likely be able to take care of himself now, the brunet didn’t go back to his own apartment.

When it was time to call it a day, the former patient walked into the bathroom and cleaned his face and brushed his teeth. When he was done the latter exited the room, made his way to the bedroom and crawled between the sheets. Spending the whole day in his pajama shortened his time in getting ready.

Not knowing what to do or say the older only followed the other as he walked around in the now very familiar apartment. Shrugging his shoulders to himself, Hyukjae decided to just except what happen. Instead fixing everything he needed to do before heading to bed as well.

If he said that he minded Donghae staying in the apartment, he´d be lying. This way was so much better than what he thought would happen when the younger got better.

Being the touchy-feely person Hyukjae by now guess he was, Donghae wiggled closer to the black-haired male as soon as they both were under the covers.

After setting an alarm (of course checking if the younger had a specific time he needed to be up by) the kindergarten teacher turned off the bedside lamp, let the brunet place his arm over the man´s chest and said ´good night´.

As he closed his eyes and felt his body melt and become one with the mattress, a low and faltering ´night´ reached his ears.

The following morning the two neighboring friends woke up at eight-thirty am, since the younger didn’t begin his shift until eleven the earliest. Since it was Saturday by now the teacher didn’t have any work. Hyukjae tripled checked the temperature of the younger after they finished breakfast. After having a good night´s sleep and a morning shower the brunet was back to normal (as normal as he originally was…). Hyukjae agreed that the other could go back to work, but only if he promised to text the teacher if he felt the littlest bit ill again.

When it was time to head out to work the two males walked out together. When the resident had locked his front door, he turned around and was met by a grinning Donghae.

Hyukjae realized that it was time to refill the fridge and pantry with food. Since it had been some time since last, the two men hadn’t prioritized stocking up with food. So, he took the free day as a perfect opportunity to do all the necessary shopping, the younger wouldn’t be back from the hospital for hours. And the older hadn´t made any other plans.

They agreed on walking together to the brunet´s workplace. A rather large supermarket was close by, walking there seemed like a good choice.

A half-hour walk later and the two neighbors reached the hospital where the doctor to-be made his internship. The men reluctantly said their goodbyes and went their ways.

Hyukjae made it to the department store a couple of blocks away. When he reached the building, he entered through the sliding doors. Well inside he grabbed a shopping cart and brought out his phone on which he (and Donghae) had made a list during breakfast. After being in the building a lot of times before, the raven head didn’t have any troubles finding his way around the wide aisles. Thankfully it was early in the morning still, so it wasn’t all too crowded.

Most people decided to stay home the first half of their weekday. And since summer had come in full bloom most citizens had left the town to spend their days of rest away from the boiling city center.

Hyukjae would love to begin his vacation and travel to the coast or maybe even to Jeju. Thankfully he would be off work the whole of July, since the kindergarten would be closed.

He followed the aisles around the store and placed the things on the list into the cart. There was chicken and red meat, a box of cereals as well as cookies and vegetables. Next on the list was milk- both strawberry for him and regular for the younger man- and cheese.

While the kindergarten teacher stood before the dairy section a loud voice called out his name (or more correctly, yelled the name). Startled by the sudden noise the man in question turned around and was greeted by an all too familiar figure.

The taller man before him had dark short cut hair, a big build- mostly due to all of the latter´s time spent at the gym- and thick dark eyebrows. Even though his looks made others wary the thinner one knew that the man before him had a heart of gold.

“Hyuk, how are you doing? Long time no seen! I haven’t seen you since all of us had dinner. Man, we really need to meet up more often.”

Hyukjae smiled at the other and nodded his head in agreement. “Hey, Youngwoon-hyung. I´m good. No work today so I thought it was a good time to do some shopping. What are you doing here this time on a weekend? Shouldn’t you be at home or at the gym?”

Youngwoon let out a booming laughter and slapped his large right hand on the younger man´s shoulder, making the man under the hand grimace in slight pain. “Nice! My girlfriend´s parents are coming over tonight and she has been making dinner for hours now. She asked me to get a few things she had forgotten to buy before. And to be honest I don’t mind getting away from the apartment for a while.”

The kindergarten teacher hummed in understanding and said that his Hyung should be happy that his girlfriend´s parents likes him as much as they do. None of the previous ones had done it. The comment got him another hard smack on the shoulder.

They stood there and chatted about life (mostly about Hyukjae´s other blind dates that had followed the first fiasco set up by the muscular male). When the younger told him once again that all the people in their group of friends had extremely bad sense and taste in partners for the teacher he only got a snort back.

“Before I have to go, if I remember correctly Victoria and Minho texted and said that we all should have dinner together on Monday evening. They booked some tables at a popular Barbeque restaurant. No one´s allowed to say no. Well, I got to go, see you later, Hyuk!”

Before the younger friend had the time get out anything else that a goodbye, the taller male had made his way further into the supermarket.

Shaking his head slowly Hyukjae let out a quiet sigh. He loved all of his friends, but they should really learn to inform and plan get-togethers with a bigger timespan.

Knowing that there was nothing he could do about it now the man noted it in his calendar while he still had it fresh in his memory. A lot could take up his mind in two days. When it was done the raven-head took the milk out of the cooler, grabbed a package of butter and cheese.

Before moving on to the next section of the mart he checked the items off of the list.

On the way over to the register Hyukjae passed by the clothe section, deciding to browse through the men´s part he saw underwear packages. He took a three-pack of black ones and another one with blue and grey boxers. Thinking about it his new live-in guest didn’t have any underwear and the older wasn’t all that comfortable to share his. Doubting that Donghae would go over to his own apartment and bring some of his over, Hyukjae decided to buy the younger his own pairs to use when at Hyukjae´s flat.

After double checking that he had everything he needed from the list, and a bit more stuff as well, the teacher took a place in the queue for check-out.

Back in the apartment Hyukjae packed out the grocery bags. When everything was in their right place and the dishes from that same morning had been washed and dried, the resident walked into the bathroom to take on the hamper filled with dirty laundry.

Hours later the black-haired male stood in his kitchen making dinner. It was close to seven in the evening and after getting a text earlier that day from his brunet neighbor telling him that the latter´s shift would be done by seven and he would come over right away, Hyukjae had promised to make dinner by the time the other would be back. True to his words the man cooked dinner for the two.

Fifteen minutes later the front door un-locked and shuffling could be heard from the hallway. Just as the resident put the pot down on the kitchen table footsteps entered the room.

“I´m home Hyuk! Thank god you have an Aircon here or I would turn into a puddle. It´s so hot outside that all I can see is the sweat drops falling from my face and over my eyes. It´s not even the peak-heat-time and the warmth is unbearable. Everyone should stay inside with their AC´s on and go out during the night. I´m guessing it would be cool enough to be outside then. Ohhh, it smells so good! What have you made? Wait let me guess. Ehhhh… Rice and… something in that pot?”

The words left the younger´s mouth as he walked over to the chair where he usually sat now. The flow of his speech made the older relieved that the brunet was back to his usual way.

“Welcome back, how was work? I heard that it was the warmest day so far this year today, so enjoy the AC as much as you want. To answer your question, we´re having chicken stew tonight. Fight heat with heat. I hope that´ll be okay.”

Donghae nodded in eagerness at the promise of food as well as the cool flat. The older took his seat at the table and gestured the other to start serving himself food. Since it was only the two of them they didn’t have to think all that much about curtsies and table manners. Neither of them would judge the other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday evening brought Hyukjae to the scheduled barbeque restaurant in the central part of the city. Most of the group had showed up by the time they had been given. All except for Junsu and Hyoyeon was present. It was common that at least one came late so no one really worried about their absence, not even the kindergarten teacher.

As Youngwoon and Soonkyu sat on the two chairs on Hyukjae´s left side discussing what they should order outside of the meat, the shorter black-haired man felt a vibration in his jeans pocket.

He pulled up his cellphone, seeing the message icon on his locked screen. The name of the contact that had texted him brought a faint smile to his lips. Quickly and as stealthily as he could he opened the device and directed himself to the new message.

It´s sooooo boring here. Should I wish for people (children) to get hurt so I´ll have something to do?? No. Hyukkie save me TT^TT

What are you up 2??

Keep me company in these boring times

But good times as well. No one should get hurt!! >.<

New texts came as soon as the receiver was about to reply. A small chuckle slipped past his plum lips. In a panic he looked around, making sure that none of his friends had seen or heard him. Thankfully they were all in the middle of their own conversations. Leaving him alone.

So, he decided that he was all good to answer the younger man.

It´s for the best if everyone stays healthy (you included!!)

I´m eating dinner with my friends… They are deciding on what to order so I find it best to stay out of it all. Surprisingly it can get quite heated.

Second after pressing send, a text came back. Damn was Donghae fast at texting.

Yeaaaaaaah!! You told me last night before bed. How could I forget that?!

How long are you staying?

What have they decided on having? Send pics of the food

That is an order! (please, please, pretty please)

A kid came just in. He had pushed a bead up his nose. Yunho´s helping him now

How far up do you think you can push a bead up the nose…??

Hyukjae shook his head as he read what the other had to say. Just like his way of talking his train of thoughts went miles an hour and changed extremely fast. He often found himself strangely proud that he was able to keep up with his neighbor´s thoughts.

I have no clue. Depends on how long I feel like staying most of the times

I´ll have to see what we´re having when it all arrives. And I promise to send you pictures of it. So that you can be jealous at work. Hehehe ;)

NO

Donghae!! YOU CAN NOT TRY IT OUT!!

YOU`RE A DOCTOR YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT IT WON`T END WELL

Worried that the younger would let his curiosity get the best of him and trying it out, the older kept sending messages begging the other to not do it. Beads should be around your neck or wrists- even ankles- never inside of your nose (or any other part of the body). Fortunately, Donghae seemed to abandon his curiosity in favor of another subject.

Until the food arrived Hyukjae kept chatting with Donghae. Talking about anything and everything. He didn’t even notice when the last two of their posse arrived nor when the food was placed on their tables. It wasn’t until Kyuhyun threw a bundled-up napkin in his face that he looked up from the phone screen.

He quickly apologized and greeted the newcomers to the table. As smoothly as he could he took a photo of the dinner in front of the friends and sent it to the doctor to-be. Telling him that it was time for him to eat.

Donghae responded seconds later with heart-eye emojis and a lot of different food emojis.

The group of close friends told each other what was going on in their lives. Sometimes- most of the times- giving away a bit too much information about their lives. There were things to be left in the dark even between close people.

But they had always been an over-sharing type of gang, so it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Two hours in the food was almost all gone. No one wanted to have the last pieces of meat and salad leaves and other vegetables they had had. Being a person who never wanted to waste food and throw it to the trash Hyukjae asked one of the workers if he could get the remaining things on their table in a box to go. He knew someone who would gladly eat it all.

The nice lady that worked at the restaurant said that she would fix it for him. Grateful to her the man smile back and thanked her wholeheartedly.

They chatted more about their life as it got darker and darker outside. And the guests got more and more drunk as the night came. Kyuhyun had informed everyone that they could not eat meat without alcohol. Being the easily persuaded and drinking loving people they were all of them agreed with the tall man. All but Hyukjae. He stuck to his soda, which he was happy about.

A buzz spread up his thigh, making him reach down in his pocket for the thin device. He was grateful that the other´s where so in their own world that he didn’t have to sneak too much.

He opened the phone and read the awaiting message.

Hyukkie~~~ I´m done with work!!

On my way to change :3

If you´re still out and done with dinner…

Do you wanna go home together?? >///<

Without a second thought the older man agreed to meet up with Donghae outside the hospital, so they could accompany each other back to their apartment complex. Hyukjae stood up and managing to hit his knee on the tabletop. Without responding to his friends’ question about how it went with his knee, the man in question put down a bale of bills to pay for his share. He said his goodbye and just as he walked out the door the kind lady called out for him. Handing him a bag with the doggy-bag.

When he reached the main entrance to the huge hospital Hyukjae found himself slightly out of breath. A bubbly laughter brought him out of his heavy breathing- staring at the ground mode- and got him to look up to where the sound came from. Before him stood a smiling brunet with two taller brunets behind him. Neither of the taller males seemed all that amused.

It was the shortest of the four that broke the silent and uncomfortable mood. “Hey Hyukkie! Wow, you were really fast. Where you close by or did you maybe run all the way? Here, you can have my chocolate-milk if you want to.”

Smiling back to the younger Hyukjae took the carton and drank the sweet liquid, as he drank the milk a tiny gasp was heard from behind the two neighbors.

The kindergarten teacher looked over to where the other two men stood a meter or so behind, both sported disbelieving looks, their eyes wide and lips slightly a gap. The one a bit shorter than the other opened and closed his mouth as if trying to make words past his lips. The other one that was familiar to Hyukjae by now had one of his full eyebrows raised.

“Yunho-sshi, nice to meet you again. How are you doing?”

The tall raven-head spoken to seemed to get out of his dazed state and walked over to the shorter duo. He cleared his throat before greeting the black-haired man back. “I´m doing well, thank you for asking. And how are you doing Hyukjae-sshi? I heard from Donghae that you took great care of him while he had his fever.”

Feeling a blush make its way up his neck to his cheeks Hyukjae told the older male that he was doing fine and that it was no problem taking care of the shorter. Donghae had been an easy patient to look after, after all. If not a bit clingy.

The three continued talking for a while, with Donghae stepping closer and closer to the raven-head as time went by. Suddenly a new figure came up to the trio and they all turned towards the person. It so happened to be the tall man Hyukjae had never seen before.

“Oh, yeah. I totally forgot that you stood there Siwon. Hyukkie, this is Siwon. He´s al