Chapter 19 The drunkard

A marathon, taxi-ride and a trip in to the closest convenient store later, Hyukjae made his way inside the big sliding doors of the white painted hospital. If he had the time he would marvel over how huge and grand the building was. But at the moment he didn’t have the energy nor the time. He was short of breath, drops of sweat sliding down his forehead and back as he walked over the clean white floor.

Hyukjae clutched the bag handles tightly whilst searching the lobby for a place to start looking or better yet, ask where he could find a certain special brunet. A now upset brunet to top it off.

A couple of meters to the left side of the building, at the back part of the huge space he saw an information sign hanging over a large desk. The young girl behind the counter wore her hair in a ponytail and a purple hospital shirt. She smiled towards the man and women before her, the couple probably asking for help regarding something.

It would be easier to ask her for assistance than looking all over the building in hope of finding the latter. Hyukjae doubted that he would get very far on his own as well. With his mind made up, the black-haired male walked over to the information desk where the woman sat.

“Good evening sir. How can I help you?” She asked as he reached her.

Hyukjae gave the girl a small smile back grateful towards her kind greeting. “Good evening. I was wondering if you could help me out with something.” The other nodded, making the raven-head continuing. “I´m looking for Jung Yunho. He´s an intern here, working at the pediatrician department. If you could tell him that Lee Hyukjae is here I would appreciate it. He should understand who you´re talking about. Please?”

The receptionist seemed hesitant at first but after taking a glance at the man before her, his rumble up appearance and stressed out expression she agreed to call for the man in question.

Asking for the taller man would make the odds higher than if he would have called after Donghae himself seeing as the younger didn’t want to see or talk to him at the moment. Yunho had promised to keep an eye on the shorter and make sure he was close by until Hyukjae would arrive at their workplace.

Moments later the girl hung up her phone and directed her sight to the frizzled black-haired man. “He will be here shortly. You can take a seat while you wait for him or stay here. It won´t take too much time for him to get to the lobby.”

The kindergarten teacher thanked her and decided to take a seat on a nearby stool.

Seven minutes later a tall shadow loomed over him. Not expecting it, the teacher snapped his head up quickly to look at the person hovering over him. He came face to face with a frowning Yunho. The latter´s stare was piercing, making the shorter more anxious than before. Like he needed more of that.

He stood up in a hurry, barely managing to avoid bumping heads with the older male. Instead Hyukjae decided to look over the man´s shoulder to let his eyes fall on the shorter brunet standing behind them.

Donghae had wide-open eyes and an unreadable facial expression. The younger man shook his head and averted his vision to look at anything but the raven-head.

Yunho stepped to the side when he realized that neither of the duo would make a move if nothing happened in the next few seconds.

With a clear space between the two neighbors and friends, Hyukjae walked over to where the other man stood frozen. “Hey Hae. I haven´t heard anything from you all day. It´s not like you so I got worried. Are you feeling alright?”

The brunet intern raised his head, locking eyes with Hyukjae.

A sliver of a smile grazed his lips and his hand reached forward. Before the younger´s hand made contact with the taller man´s it stopped, twitching slightly. Sensing that the other was acting out of character with his hesitance with skin-ship the older decided to take initiative.

Hyukjae took Donghae´s hand in his, intertwining their fingers like so many times before. The shorter male´s grip tightened, and he stepped closer to the older.

“It´s nothing. I just overreacted regarding something that I don’t even have a say in. I´m so sorry for making you worry. But thank you for coming here just for this.”

“Of course. It´s most defiantly not ´nothing´, but if you don’t want to talk to me about it it´s fine. If you want to talk about it, remember that I´m always right here besides you. I worry about you all the time Hae, if you´re not yourself it worries me to no end. Don’t make it sound like it is a discomfort for me to come to you.” Hyukjae pushed some loose strands from Donghae´s forehead and eyes.

Their stare got deeper, more intense. “If I ever do something that hurts you, please tell me. I don’t want to see you like this. I like your usual happy and talkative self, Donghae.”

For the first time in almost twenty-four hours Donghae grinned brightly, eyes sparkling. In the next second he had pulled the older into a bone-crushing embrace. Whispering words of gratitude for Hyukjae´s ears only.

“Thank you Hyukkie. You are the greatest person in the world. The whole universe! You didn’t do anything wrong. It´s just me and my selfish mind. But thank you for coming all the way here for my sake. I know I can talk to you about anything, and one day I might tell you all about these silly reasons as well.”

When they pulled away from each other both friends were grinning like fools, still keeping their close proximity. Donghae laid his free hand against the taller man´s cheek in an affectionate gesture.

They stayed like that for another couple of minutes before Hyukjae remembered the plastic bag he had left on the seat next to where he´d sat and waited a while ago.

He pulled the younger with him on his way over to the place where Yunho had now taken a seat, watching the duo´s interaction.

The teacher grabbed the forgotten bag and opened it. From it he brought out a carton of chocolate milk that he knew the other liked and a few packages of snack they shared a lot of times. He handed over the drink to the brunet, still holding the sweets in his free hand.

“I bought this for you. When you´re upset it always helps to have something sweet.”

“You didn’t have to but thank you Hyukkie~~~ Do you want to eat them with me? I have some time until I have to get back to working.”

Hyukjae nodded eagerly, relieved and happy that Donghae was back to normal.

The pair took the empty seats next to the forgotten Yunho. To be able to eat all of the sweets, they agreed to release each other´s hand for the time being. After a while Hyukjae kindly offered some of the snacks to the oldest of the trio (finally remembering him). The latter shook his head. The black-haired nodded in understanding- totally missing the pointed glare Donghae was giving the other doctor to-be from over his shoulder.

A quarter of an hour later the two interns had to head back to their job. Yunho gave Hyukjae a pat on the shorter male´s shoulder and a small smile before beginning to walk away. The teacher turned towards the shorter brunet taking the latter´s hand in his once again.

“I hope you´re feeling better now. If there´s ever something bothering you, please talk to me, okay?! Go and save lives now and I´ll see you when you get back. Right…?”

“Much better. I can´t thank you enough times, Hyukkie. I will save people and you should head to bed. I´ll come home when I´m done. Goodnight!”

“Sure, will do. Stay safe during the night. And I´ll be waiting for you in bed. That doesn’t sound right. I meant it more innocently than it sounded.”

Donghae laughed in glee and hugged the older quickly. “I´ll try to avoid madmen and other crazy people that roam the hospital at night. Wait, is the place haunted by all the ones that have died here before? Urg, now how am I supposed to be able to concentrate knowing that anyone I see could just as well be a ghost? Maybe it would be better if I just go home with you instead. Too bad my bosses won´t take that as a good enough reason to go home earlier. Oh well… Don’t forget to text me went you get back to the apartment.”

The older man shook his head, a fond smile on his lips, small wrinkles forming in the corners of his single-lidded eyes. “I´m sure that the ghosts won´t do you any harm Hae. I´ll send you a message as soon as I´m inside the flat. Bye!”

The shorter waved at him while saying his goodbyes and goodnights.

When he walked through the entrance to the apartment Hyukjae found himself at peace again. Donghae was talking to him as usually and would come back to the apartment when he was done with his shift.

Feeling calm and with all thoughts back in order he was looking forward to a good night’s sleep. All thoughts of creepy apartments and blind dates where at the back of his mind. All he could think about was the feeling of Donghae´s hand in his- fingers laced and tightly gripped. How soft the brown locks had been against his fingertips, the latter´s laughter and familiar bubbly monolog. But most of all he thought about the beautiful smile that had been directed to only him. As if they were the only two people in the world.

And that was probably the case. Because, in the world they had created throughout all these weeks and months there were only two residents. Donghae and Hyukjae.

He had really fallen hard for the younger. Trying to deny it was useless. As was going on meaningless dates with other people. It wasn’t fair to them nor to himself. There was only one human he wanted to be with, in any way he could. And the someone was Lee Donghae.

The resident fell asleep with thoughts of the younger on his mind.

Hours later, in the early morning, Hyukjae stirred from his sleep at the feeling of another warm body embracing his. The smell of a by now acquainted cologne surrounded all his senses, making him pull the other closer to himself.

A hairy leg slipped in between his, a dry hand rested over his bellybutton and a warm breath ran across Hyukjae´s neck and ear. He placed his hand over the one laying on him. He couldn’t imagine how it would feel to fall asleep in any other way than this.

His heart and mind where at peace. He felt warmth all over his tired body. And the addictive smell of Donghae was something he didn’t want to live without.

How blessed he would be if this all would be in the name of love and not friendly affection.

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When Friday came Donghae was ecstatic for the fact that he just had one day of work left until he got to have a whole weekend off. As a ´thank you´ for taking on a double shift the previous Saturday, the brunet´s bosses had let him have both Saturday and Sunday off this week. Something Donghae looked forward to.

He headed off to the hospital around lunch, leaving Hyukjae all alone in the apartment.

Sadly, neither of them would be able to see each other until night time. Donghae had told him that he´d promised to meet up with his friends after he finished work in the evening. The raven-head had plans with his own group of friends that same evening.

During lunch-time the younger called Hyukjae. They talked like usually for half an hour, before Donghae had to hang up and get back to his tasks at hand. It took them another five minutes to drag out their goodbyes and stall for more time together on the phone.

When they had managed to let each other go for the time being, the resident sat silently in his quiet apartment. He sat on the sofa, while he gazed out the big windows to the clear sunny weather and all the people below milling about.

As soon as Hyukjae stepped inside the dimly lit room he could smell the foul sent of old beer and spilled vodka. The odor was utterly disgusting and was one of the main reasons why he never wanted to- or did- join his group of friends during their evenings turning nights at their go-to bar.

(On the other hand, he did join them when there was dancing involved. He had a tendency of turning the dancefloor in to his personal heaven, letting everyone else at the club behold his smooth moves. It was one of those few moments in his life where people did actually drool over him.)

The other reason being the fact that the other members of the crew became teenagers all over again whenever they got some alcohol in their blood systems. Playing drinking games, making bets and most recently (and most devastatingly for the man in question) coming up with plans to make Hyukjae find his ´one-true love´. Aka sending him on horrible blind dates. With the most unlikely to blend with him or the oddest people.

The facts that he didn’t even drink alcohol in any way, form, or occasion had been added, and probably at the top of the list of reason why not to be there at this moment.

It all started as a promise between a much younger version of himself and his childhood and best friend, Junsu. The two then boys agreed to never drink or smoke in their lives.

Hyukjae had held his part of the promise, but that could not be said about the other.

As soon as the two got invited to their first ever high school party the latter seemed to totally forget the promise. He ended up drinking anything he could find in the hosts (a pair of twins from the class next over) house and drank till he threw it all up again. Along with the younger´s dinner.

This all just added to reasons why the raven head stayed as far away from booze in any form.

Though he still needed to get better at avoiding getting dragged with to these outings.

It was a little after nine in the evening and after having dinner together his friends had decided to head over to their usual bar not that far from the kindergarten teacher´s home. Thankfully it was a short distance if he wanted to sneak back to his own place.

They all walked over to the bar, ready to order drinks for each one of them. Being quick in not wanting anything with liquor in his