Two things woke Hye Sung up—the glare of the morning sun, and the steady sound of rattling against metal—although, if he had to choose one, it was the relentless buzzing that did the job, on top of giving him a splitting headache. 

The rest of his body didn’t feel any better, as he tried to shift to a more comfortable position, only to find that there wasn’t a part of his body that was not sore.  Finally, he  gave up trying to find comfort and simply propped himself up against the wall, one hand shielding his eyes while they were trying to adjust to the light.

He gave his eyes a final rub in before opening them up to the scene around him and, once again, he was amazed at the view that greeted him.  The fog had almost cleared up, and the sun was nearly over their heads, warming up everything its rays have touched.  A marriage of green and blue covered the ocean surface, disturbed only by the tides that are characterized by the white sea foam it carries, and as a flock of gulls passed overhead, a thought came into Hye Sung.  While the night sky offered him the peace and serenity he needed then, this morning view spelled something else that he needed.

Hope.

The corner of Hye Sung’s lips curled up into a smile at the thought.  Yesterday, he had been full of despair, until Eric came and turned the mood around.  Eric showed him that his worst fear of being rejected by the people he loved was unfounded, as it was clear that most of the members were understanding of his situation.  He might have more trouble with his dad though, but he was confident that he could turn him—and anyone else who might have trouble with accepting who he really is—around.  After all, Eric didn’t look too good when he first heard about it, but he soon came around and even made an effort to help Hye Sung out of his rough spot.

That does not mean he’d confess to Eric soon though.  It’s one thing to accept that your best friend is gay, it’s another to know that he has amorous feelings towards you, and Hye Sung—despite his newfound confidence—is still Hye Sung.  He has always been shy and careful with his feelings, and he doubts that anything can change that fact about him.  Still, maybe one day, he can find enough courage to face rejection.  When that day comes, he’ll come up to confess his feelings, if only for his own peace of mind.

The idea sent butterflies in his stomach—which didn’t feel too good because it was empty—and he mechanically shifted his gaze to the man beside him, who seemed to be unperturbed in his sleep.  Both had spent the night gazing at the stars from the top of the lighthouse, while talking about random stuff—movies, songs, Shinhwa—stuff they’d normally not talk about, until Eric had fallen asleep beside him.  He thought of waking Eric up and asking him to stay at a nearby inn for the night, as it was far too tiring to take another 4-hour drive back to Seoul, but he was feeling too shy about it, and ended up falling asleep himself on the textured metal floor.

Burrrrr

The buzzing sound that woke up Hye Sung turned out to be from Eric’s vibrating phone.  However, Eric seemed to have not noticed despite the phone being so close to him—even vibrating against his right arm—and Hye Sung found himself feeling jealous at the leader’s mastery of the art of sleep, while here he was—cold, hungry, and hurting all over.  Hye Sung took another long glance at Eric’s sleeping face, before giving him a couple of nudges with his foot.

Eric finally came to after his fifth nudge. “Ya Sunggie, why would you kick a sleeping man?!”

“Will you quit it! I barely touched you.”  Hye Sung said as he rolled his eyes at Eric’s exaggerated remark, while Eric continued to toss and turn in feigned pain. Hye Sung gave him another soft tap with his foot, before nodding to his phone.  “Your phone’s been ringing nonstop.”

“You don’t know your own strength, Sunggie.” Whined Eric as he reached out for his phone and murmured an answer.  After a moment he turned to Hye Sung and mimed “It’s Minwoo.”

“Yeah, He’s with me right now.  Why?”  Eric replied to Minwoo over the phone as he shifted to his side, obviously too lazy to do anything more.  However, something Minwoo said over the phone seemed to have gotten his attention, and he started to get up, giving Hye Sung another glance before walking over to the other side of the tower.

Something didn’t feel right to Hye Sung, but he didn’t want to give in to his negativity again.  They were obviously talking about something serious, but being co-CEOs of their company, that shouldn’t be a cause for worry.  Besides, didn’t Eric say that Minwoo was somehow able to pacify the PD yesterday and gotten the agreement to keep the incident a secret?  Hye Sung thought, in an attempt to rid himself of his worries.  However,  the longer Eric’s conversation ran, the more nervous he became.  It didn’t help that all he could get was a few grunts from Eric’s side.

“Okay, see you.”  Eric said before he finally put down the phone and turned to face Hye Sung.  “Shall we head back?”

Hye Sung followed Eric back to his car in silence.  He wanted to ask Eric about his conversation with Minwoo, but didn’t want to appear like he was overthinking matters again, especially after he had vowed to be more proactively about the issue. Besides, Eric's brooding mood didn't give him much of an opening for a conversation.  

“Coming here was a good idea, wasn’t it?  Your mood already seemed brighter than yesterday.”  Eric said with such a proud look on his face when he caught Hye Sung looking at him, which relieved Hye Sung.  If Eric was in the mood to start a conversation, there must be no cause for worry. He decided to push his thoughts back and credit it to his overthinking nature.

“Yeah…I guess. But how did you find that place again?”

A small smile escaped Eric’s lips before he said anything.  “It was during one of my fishing trips.  There used to be quite a busy port in the area, but when the market was relocated closer to the new port, this place lost its convenience, and naturally was neglected.   They were going to tear it down, but I asked them not to and even filed some request for it in the town council.” 

The way Eric talked so animatedly about his lighthouse—yes, Hye Sung has already thought of it as Eric’s—made him realize just how much the place meant to him.  All this time, he thought that Eric was merely exaggerating things when he referred to it as his secret place, but it seemed that it was not the case.  Eric really did share with Hye Sung a part of himself that he did not share with others, and somehow, the idea of sharing this secret with him made Hye Sung’s heart skip a beat.  Hye Sung took a deep breath to calm his heart, because Lord knows, there was no way Eric actually knew how his small act of kindness is affecting him.

Hye Sung was too lost in his own thoughts that he only realized that they were not on the road back to Seoul.  “Hey, where are we?  Did you take a wrong turn somewhere?”

“ What? Are you seriously nagging at me right now?”  Eric scoffed as he gave Hye Sung a quick glance of disbelief.  However, his mood immediately shifted to a more serious one.  “We’re not going back to Seoul yet.  I have a cabin at Daegu, about an hour’s drive from here.  We can stay there for a bit.”

 Hye Sung couldn’t understand Eric's seemingly loose approach to the incident, when he is usually very strict when it comes to group management.  Even if Minwoo has somehow talked the PD out of filing a legal case against him, shouldn’t Hye Sung still go over and personally ask for an apology?  “But why?  Shouldn’t we be going back?  I mean, don’t I have to do something to pacify what happened yesterday?”   

“It’s okay. I told you, that matter has been settled.  Besides, everyone is coming over as well.  Let’s just treat this as a rest day.” Eric said, once again in a nonchalant manner.  However, his tensed jaw didn’t pass by Hye Sung unnoticed, and those worrying thoughts that Hye Sung had pushed back earlier started to creep their way back up to him. Was he right all along? Did Eric's mood have something to do with his phone conversation with Minwoo? 

“Eric, is something wrong?” Hye Sung said as he shifted his position to face him directly.

“I told you, it’s nothing. I’m just too tired to drive all the way back to Seoul.”

“Then, let me drive.”

“No!”

Hye Sung jumped back as Eric tried to regain control of the wheel, which had swerved at his outburst.   Now, Hye Sung knew that there was something wrong, but that Eric would never tell him about it. 

Well, if he’s not telling me.  I can just find out for myself.

With that, Hye Sung picked up his phone from the car’s charging dock.  He was about to turn it on when the car came to a sudden stop.

“What the—“ Hye Sung exclaimed as Eric pried to phone away from his hand and threw it into the backseat.

Confused and angry, he turned to Eric and said in a demanding tone.  “ What the hell, Eric?  What are you hiding?”

Eric was silent for a moment, simply returning his glare with a look of dismay and panic, which angered Hye Sung even more.  Something was up, it involved him and yet, Eric did not want to tell him about it.  Was he so unreliable that Eric felt he needed to protect him?  Or was it something that he can only tell him with the group around? Was that why everyone is going to Daegu?  Were they meeting to discuss his fate in the group?

“ Whatever it is, I need to know Eric.  I will still know about it anyway, so I’d rather hear it from you.”  It took all of him to say this in a calm manner, especially when his insides were raging in that moment.  All the optimism he felt earlier was gone, leaving him with despair and anger.  Anger at himself more than anyone else, for being the cause of Eric’s pain and worry right now—anger at being so inadequate.

Finally, Eric mumbled something that was barely inaudible, as he broke off their eye contact.

“What?”

“There’s a video…”  Eric started hesitantly, before taking a deep breath and continuing on a much clearer tone, while looking up to meet Hye Sung's gaze once more. “…of yesterday’s incident.  It has leaked to the internet.”

Eric continued to watch him intently as the rest of the world crumbled around him.

A/N:

Sorry guys, I promised you a chapter with the rest of the Shinhwa members, but I had too much fun writing the first part, I ended up messing up my chapter count AGAIN!lol

And I did say it would take me longer to write this next chapter, but somehow, this chapter wrote itself!lol

I didn't even bother editing this, so please forgive me for any mistakes. 

Anyway, enjoy the double release this week!