#the only reason I bought instant noodles | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

radiorenjun · 3 years ago

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if all the donghyucks disappeared from the world || ldh

¤ pairings: lee donghyuck x reader

¤ synopsis: long story short, the devil has informed you that you were going to die soon. what better to do than start checking off the things written in your bucket list! unfortunately for you, the first thing that was written the god damn thing was 'get a boyfriend'. but luckily for you, lee donghyuck was a stranger you met at starbucks who wasn't one to say no to being asked out.

this was the story that made you wish all the lee donghyucks disappeared from the world.

¤ genre: fluff, comedy, angst, highschool au! college au! strangers to lovers au! runaway au! hyuck is a year older than the reader au!

¤ warnings: slight angst. swearing. financial issues. hyucks parents are assholes. abandonment issues. arguments. crying. mentions of death. sexual innuendos, everything was quite rushed lmao, parental neglection, mentions of alcohol, mentions of overworking, hyuck gets mentally tired at one point. jokes about cocaine. the reader is a long, brown haired hyuck supremacist. all of this is just one big metaphorical bs lmao if u didnt like the fic me neither. happy late valentines!

¤ wordcount for teaser: 26.9k!

¤ a/n: inspired by if cats disappeared from the world by Genki Kawamura and ‘Oh La La’ the manhua!

i. happy pre-death day i guess

It was just your ordinary Saturday.

That sounded quite dramatic but it wasn’t any special day. Since you were in your second year of high school, you couldn’t help but bask in your lazy Saturdays by making two packs of instant ramen (while also ignoring your parents’ concerned expression considering it was probably your 6th packet of the week). Ah yes, what better than to spend your holidays by eating two big packs of instant ramen with two perfectly poached eggs (topped by some doritos on the side) while sitting on your bed with Money Heist playing on the screen of your laptop.

“I can’t believe I’m still on the first season,” you muttered to yourself as you crossed your legs on the bed, placing your bowl on the nightstand beside the mattress. Leaning over to drag the laptop from the edge of your bed closer towards you, you then grabbed the bowl and placed it in between your legs, using your chopsticks to mix up the noodles with the broth. “More Professor moments for me, I guess,” you hummed merrily, taking a good bundle of noodles with your chopstick, feeling the steam hit your face as you blew.

Taking a good mouthful of ramen, you hissed at how the broth absorbed into it burned your tongue before you placed the spacebar on your laptop to play the video. Leaning back against the stack of pillows behind you, you sighed heavily as you fully indulge into the storyline of the Spanish show.

“Dude, that’s the 6th ramen packet you had this week, no wonder I was sent here,” a voice commented with utter disappointment lacing their tone. You paused in the middle of slurping your noodles, groaning in annoyance as you cocked your head to the person sitting on the mattress beside you. “Remind me who you are again? You keep coming in here and you won’t even explain why you’re here,” you ate through a mouthful of food, using the chopsticks to shove the noodles hanging out of your mouth.

On the mattress, sitting beside you as you watched your new favorite tv show was you. Well, it wasn’t you but the person definitely looked exactly like you. However, this person was wearing what foreign tourists would wear in Hawaii ; baggy, rubber shorts for swimming, a button up short sleeved shirt decorated with really lousy prints of coconut trees with a mash of sunset colors. You swore you only see people wearing these only in Disney Holiday movies.

“Come on, you bought that book for a reason, right? Might as well use the knowledge you got from that god forsaken book for something,” the person beside you shrugged simply, pointing their index finger at the white book on your desk. It was a book you had purchased earlier from your local bookstore because of the cute black cat on the cover, ‘If Cats Disappeared From The World’ was written in big bold letters right above the image of the cat. It was quite a sob story.

The story follows a young Japanese postman who had been informed by the actual Devil, who was posing as his doppleganger, that he had one day left to live. And the devil offers to erase things from the world in exchange for another day to live. It was a book unlike those cheesy, sad romcoms the girls in your school gushed about (though, you were quite interested in Colleen Hoover’s books. Your female classmates informed you that her books were the real tearjerker). The book simply ends on a cliffhanger or rather, an open ending as you would like to call it. Leaving the aftermath of what happened after the last page completely up to the reader’s imagination.

Humming, you scratched the back of your own head. “So, you’re like my doppelganger?” you asked with a slight tilt of your head. “Close, I am you.” the person replied with another casual shrug, as if it were some everyday event as you furrowed your brows and nodded in uncertainty. “This isn’t a Stray Kids’ song, you can’t be me,” you retorted with a joking snort, earning an annoyed eye roll and a heavy sigh from the individual sitting beside you with their arms crossed against their chest.

“You’re literally about to die, Einstein.”

“What?”

“Ever heard the saying ‘once your doppelganger appears, it’s a sign that you’re going to die soon’?” they asked, making circular motions with their hand to emphasize on their explanation. You pressed your lips into a thin line, glancing back at the white book on your desk as you leaned over to press the spacebar on your laptop. “So, therefore. If this was anything like the Cat book, you’re the devil and I’m going to die?” you concluded, pointing an index finger to your chest with a suspicious raise of your brow.

The individual beside you shrugged innocently as if you had just asked them if they hadn’t just told you that your death day was merely a few steps away. “Pretty much,” they shrugged, tugging on the end of their red shirt, scrunching their face at the thin fabric. “Why am I dying?” you asked, putting a hand on your chest in an offended way, you were quite surprised by how calm you were to this sudden news. “Beats me, so says page seven of the If Cats Disappeared From The World book. Anyway, I'll be popping up here and there until you die, whenever that is,” it let out a small laugh, leaning back against one of your pillows as if they owned the place.

You gave them a deadpan expression, sighing heavily as you scratched the back of your head in slight confusion and distress. “I guess I’ll die now,” you joked, looking back at the screen to see Berlin’s smug face zoomed in against the frame (causing you to scrunch in disgust at the sight of the egotistical, narcissistic character). A chuckle was elicited from your doppelganger, shaking their head as they laid their hands behind their head. “Please do, then I can get return to wherever the fuck I was,” the jabbed their thumb in the air before tossing their arm over their eyes.

Clicking your tongue, you groaned in annoyance as you rubbed the back of your neck. “What now? Are you just gonna pop in and out until I die for no absolute reason? It isn’t something tragic like cancer right?” you asked, scratching your neck as you leaned back against the pillows stacked up behind you before grabbing a mouthful of noodles, using your other hand to press the spacebar to continue with your show. You heard your doppelganger let out a small ‘pshhh’, waving their hand without a care in the world.

“Death comes in different ways. As the devil, I can’t exactly tell you how you’re going to die. But I will somehow inform you that it’s in this very house,” they exclaimed, pointing at the ceiling with a cheshire grin, as if they had just suggested to commit arson with them. “Ew, side character moment,” you commented with a slurp of your noodles, rolling your eyes as your eyes scanned the scene to the subtitles written below the screen to comprehend what the characters were saying.

“I love how you’re not even worried or phased,” they giggled, looking up at you with a wiggle of their eyebrows. “I’m delulu enough to put Money Heist over my death at the moment, what do you want me to do?” you shrugged, grabbing a piece of poached egg and plopping it into your mouth, licking your lips right after. The devil beside you let out a small hum, looking around the room before spotting a piece of paper crumpled in between your old textbooks.

“What about that bucket list of yours?”

“My what now?”

You turned your head up to see them pointing at the crumpled piece of paper you had scribbled on during middle school when calculus was getting too much for you. “Oh, that? Dude, all that’s written there are the things I want to do if I get a boyfriend,” you exclaimed with a shake of your head, earning an exhausted sigh from the person beside you as they rubbed their face against their hands.

“Listen, you don’t have much time. And since you’re so occupied with Money Heist to make an actual bucket list, starting with that one can count as a pre-bucket list to finish before you die in a non Main character way.”

There was silence between you two as you glanced back and forth from them to the show playing on your laptop, a scene of Nairobi talking with Mr Torres about printing more money in the Royal Mint could be seen vividly from the corner of your eyes as you glanced back at the crumpled paper squeezed in between your middle school textbooks in the corner of your room. Pressing your lips to a thin line, you shrugged before darting your eyes back to the show.

“I guess getting a boyfriend won’t be so bad.”

ii. if dating was this easy, i wouldn’t be single right now

“Hey, I kinda wanna date someone,” you said bluntly, a casual expression stretched across your face as you idly stretched out the rubber hair ties in between your fingers, your tongue sticking out in the corner of your lips as you attempted to make a rocket with your friend’s hair ties.

Yeji didn’t spare a glance from her phone as she continued to take spontaneous selfies for her instagram, clicking her tongue whenever a shot didn’t turn out the way she expected, furrowing her brows in frustration. Looking away from the hair ties tangled up in your fingers, you cocked your head to the side to look at your best friend who didn’t even use a second of her time to even hum in response. Glaring your eyes at her with a deadpan expression stretched across your features, you cleared your throat.

“Hey, I said, I kinda wanna date someone,” you repeated again with the same blunt tone you used a few minutes prior.

Once again, your best friend did not even bother to pay attention to whatever nonsense you were spewing out as she proceeded to smile at her phone camera. Pressing your lips together into a thin line, you glared daggers into your best friend’s head as you both walked into the nearest Starbucks in the mall you two were at, immediately lining up to order your drinks. “Do you think this one’s good for my new profile picture?” Yeji asked, shoving her phone in your face, waving it slightly.

Your eyes scanned the selfie on her phone, the beauty filter exaggerating her features dramatically while also adding some cute transparent, bubble hearts. “I want to date someone,” you deadpanned, looking back up at your best friend as you took a step closer to the cashier. Yeji pressed her lips together to make a bread smile, nodding in agreement as she took her phone back. “Maybe the filter was a bit too much,” she hummed, drafting the picture before searching for other filters.

“Yeji, I’m serious. I want to date someone” you said as you finally got to the cashier counter, looking up at the chalkboard menu hung up on the wall. “With who, though?” she asked, mirroring your actions by looking up at the menu before humming softly in ponderation. Glancing back at the cashier worker waiting patiently in front of the two of you behind the counter, she gave a polite smile. “I’ll have a venti cotton candy frappuccino please,” she ordered, letting out a small ‘oh!’ before adding the detail of adding extra whipped cream.

“I’ll get a salted caramel cold brew, please,” you told the staff, who nodded and informed you of the price. “Anyways, I’m not sure how I’m going to find someone to date but-,” you shrugged one of the saddles of your backpack off of your shoulder to reach over the zipper so you can fish out your wallet. The moment you opened your wallet to pull out some cash, your instincts somehow made you take a quick glance at your surroundings. Eyes scanning the whole place until they laid on a certain boy with sun-kissed skin and light brown hair.

He was wearing a black, unzipped jacket, baggy sleeves making his sweater paws look awfully adorable as he held his phone in his hands, a grey oversized shirt layered right under it that somehow gave him a casual yet swaggy look. He appeared to be a college student with how the exhaustion weighed down the dark bags under his eyes. His messy, disheveled hair looked as fluffy as the fur of an adult samoyed, except this boy had brown hair not white fur.

You slapped a few slips of cash on the counter without even looking, patting Yeji’s shoulder to silently inform her to get your drink once it’s ready. Yeji let out an affirming hum, assuming you were probably going to the bathroom, too cooped up with texting her girlfriend to notice how you were walking towards the pretty boy you had spotted merely seconds ago. You shamelessly trotted over to the table the pretty boy with messy brown hair and slightly dark eyebags who was talking about some random bullcrap with his friend (whose back was facing you).

‘Just for me’ by pink pantheress blaring through the speakers of the cafe encouraging you to continue with marching forward similar to the sea creatures serenading Ariel and Prince Eric during the ‘Kiss The GIrl’ sequence on their little boat trip. However, this feels less dramatic considering you didn’t have Yeji or her girlfriend, Gwen, to hype you up like Flounder the fish or whatever the name that seagull from the little mermaid was from The Little Mermaid movie.

Beggars can’t be choosers, you suppose.

“Dude, you really need to stop skipping classes, I know you don’t even like anything to do with science but even the professor is worried,” the boy’s friend exclaimed, fidgeting with the frames of his glasses as the sun-kissed boy leaned back against his chair. “Mark, the other day I found out that the nearest pet store is selling hedgehogs at a discount. Hear me out, a pet hedgehog. An investment into my happiness,” the boy took a deep breath, putting his hands together in a pleading motion in a futile attempt to convince his friend.

“Dude, no,” the black haired boy responded with a shake of his head.

“Shut up Mr. Music Major. I think singing to hedgehogs in the pet store would be good to add to my portfolio, wouldn’t it?”

“Haechan, no.”

“Your lack of reaction injures my soul.”

“Hey you, the guy with brown hair!” you called out, placing your palms on the table enthusiastically, completely ignoring the black haired boy who flinched at your sudden presence interrupting their conversation. “That is I, the boy with brown hair speaking. What do you need, girl who just came up to my table out of nowhere?” he nodded in slight confusion, going along with your nonsense by using the same enthusiastic tone you did. “Can you be my boyfriend?” you asked bluntly without an ounce of hesitation.

The black haired guy beside you dropped his jaw to the floor at your words, clearly baffled, flabbergasted, astounded, amazed, confused. Everything all at once. However, those emotions multiplied tenfold the moment he cocked his head to look back at his friend’s reaction, to his surprise, the sun-kissed boy visibly beamed like a ray of sunshine as he nodded eagerly as if his parents had just offered to buy him a lifetime supply of milk bingsu. “Yeah sure! Can I have your number?” he exclaimed, unlocking his phone to open his contacts.

“My name’s Donghyuck, by the way.”

The sound of Yeji’s confusion can be heard from a mile away as she approaches you with both of your drinks in her hands. “Y/n, do you know these people? I didn’t know you had friends who aren’t me or Gwen,” she snickered jokingly, waving at the two boys in a friendly manner. “Well, I don’t know who this guy is,” you cocked your head towards the speechless black haired boy whose face was glossed over with pure, utter confusion. “But here’s my new boyfriend! I’m going to ditch you to hang out with him now,” you grinned, jabbing your thumb at Donghyuck, who was tossing his things carelessly into his bag.

“Wait, you’re seriously going with this? Dude, she didn’t even say anything about going out, why are you packing your things? Why am I even asking you about packing your things I- Why are you even agreeing to this?” Mark, the black haired friend with glasses, rambled with an incredulous tone. He was practically tripping over his own words as he watched Donghyuck zipped up his bag and tossed one of the saddles over his shoulder. His friend gave him a dumbfounded expression, as if Mark had just asked him what 1 + 1 equals to

Donghyuck furrowed his brows as he stood up from his chair. “Who the hell would say no to a good date? Well, we are dating now. Make sense that we go on a date to get to know each other better,” he shrugged nonchalantly, using a hand to grip the saddle wrapped around his shoulder as his free one snuck into the comforts of his pockets before turning his head towards you. “Right, girl who just came up to my table and asked me out of nowhere?” he grinned teasingly, wiggling his eyebrows.

Oh no doubt, you’re going to have lots and lots of fun with this guy. Not in a dirty minded way.

“It’s Y/n,” you nodded with a smile of agreement.

“Wait, you don’t know these people? Dude, did you seriously ask a stranger out? In starbucks? In front of my Cotton Candy Frappuccino?” Yeji deadpanned with a hushed tone, leaning over to grip your arm as if it would somehow transmit her brain cells into your skin. “Literally, yes. I don’t see why you’re so worried about the frappuccino, though. Come on, he doesn’t look like some sort of serial killer,” you shrugged, sparing a glance at Donghyuck, who was having his own fun with teasing his friend as he stuck his tongue out childishly.

Yeji furrowed her brows at the boy, clearly not trusting him as she handed you your drink with a small disappointed sigh. “Well, if someone is dumb enough to go along with your delulu shit, I guess I have nothing to worry about other than the two of you accidentally driving off of a cliff,” she shrugged, concern and confusion still stretched across her face as Donghyuck let out a loud clap. “Hey dude, let’s go. I really want to visit this ice cream shop down the street,” the boy patted your shoulder, giving you an encouraging smile.

“I’ll see you at school,” you gave her a grinning salute before walking away with Donghyuck and out of the cafe.

“Why did you make me order this again?” you scrunch your face in disgust, looking at the ice cream in your hand, earning a delighted hum from the bastard you just met. “Come on, doesn’t it sound tasty and sexy? Vanilla sweet spot,” he snickered, a wide grin spread across his face as he let out small, childish giggles to himself as he grabbed a spoonful of his own tangerine coloured ice cream which happened to be pizza flavored.

“You’re a literal child,” you couldn’t help but join in on his little fit of laughter, finding the name a bit more funnier than it should be.

“You’re literally younger than me.”

When you and Donghyuck decided to ditch your friends for ice cream, you both somehow ended up making a deal to get the ice cream you both would recommend just from the visual presentation (Donghyuck said if you both happened to pick the ones with good flavors based off of experience, such as Cookies n Cream, it wouldn’t be that fun of an experience). Of course, you just had to get Donghyuck the shittiest looking ice cream flavor you had ever seen in your life. Hence, the pizza flavored ice cream, topped with pineapples.

However, it was as if your brain cells clicked together like a bluetooth speaker.

Donghyuck did exactly the same.

“Dude, you might be feeding me someone else’s cum,” you laughed lightly, not even having the courage to take a small bite of the suspiciously whitish grey ice cream in your hands. The boy didn’t even ask you for any toppings! The audacity! “Might be someone else’s jizz, indeed, Y/n. Don’t be shy, try it,” he wiggled his eyebrows, picking up the spoon stabbed like those old blades knights in shining armor would pull out in medieval movies. You couldn’t help but giggle at the sound of his contagious laughter, shaking your head as the taller boy in front of you pursed his lips like the mouth of a duck.

“Here comes the airplane,” he cooed, holding back his snickers in between words as his own spoon hung from in between his lips, shaking his head from side to side. “Have you watched fairly odd parents?” you asked, leaning your head to the side as you hesitantly let the boy feed you the disgusting looking ice cream, grimacing at the taste of vanilla overwhelming your taste buds. It was too sweet for your liking, but it definitely did not taste like it came out of someone. Donghyuck hummed, pulling the spoon out from his mouth before nodding, fishing out his phone to open his instagram.

The sun-kissed boy ran a hand through his hair to push them away from his face before giving you a dumbfounded expression. “Who hasn’t? Cosmo is literally an icon,” he shrugged as he stabbed the pineapple hanging over the edge of the cup, scrunching his face in disgust when he realised that there was a small blob of pizza flavored ice cream sticking to the side, showing his clear dislike for the ice cream you had chosen for him. “I can see why,” you shook your head at him as you grabbed his hand before letting out a fake, emotional sniffle. “A very fitting character for you.”

Before Donghyuck could utter another word out in retaliation, you both paused when you heard a girl calling for her significant other as she walked past you. “Babe! Babe!” she exclaimed loudly, waving her hand shamelessly as she used the oh-so-cute pet name in public causing shivers to spiral down your spine in the wrong kind of way. How she wasn’t even a tad bit embarrassed You could feel the second hand embarrassment creeping up from the back of your neck as Donghyuck watched the girl walk out of his vision before breaking character and started making gagging noises.

“Ew.”

“That was embarrassing as hell.”

“Why would she say that out loud? Doesn’t she know that she’s in public?”

“Think of the singles in this area.”

“Think of the children. The children.”

“The audacity, calling her s/o ‘babe, babe, babe’. What is this? A Justin Bieber song?”

“I actually like Justin Bieber but I totally agree. Fuck all the cou-”

“Wait a fucking minute.”

The both of you paused at your little scowling rant as something hit you. You turned your head away from the corner the girl had disappeared from to look at Donghyuck, blinking once before glancing down at your hands, tapping your index finger against his first knuckle. Donghyuck looked back at you at the same time, a baffled expression spread across his face as he blinked twice, his mouth curling to form into an ‘o’ shape as you both glanced down at your hands holding in between you (you were holding your ice creams in your free hands).

Oh. Right.

You completely forgot.

It was like those romantic Disney scenes from the late 1900s. Birds chirping a bright, melodious tone. It was as if the sun was only shining light upon the two of you as you both glanced back up into each other’s sparkling eyes. The only thing you needed to add the finishing touch was ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’ from the first Lion King playing in the background. That was it. That was the realization that hadn’t hit you both until the moment you glanced down at your hand engulfed into his warm one.

You were dating.

Dating each other to be more specific.

You pressed your lips together into a thin line before giving him a cheeky grin, squeezing your hand as you continued walking forward. “Let’s pick nicknames for each other,” you suggested with a raise of your eyebrows, grinning widely at the sight of that same disgusted scowl stretching across his face. “I like my name as it is. I know I look like a cute baby but I don’t want a beautiful name like Donghyuck to be reduced to ‘babe’ or ‘baby’ or even worse ‘honey’. Like, I’m not an actual baby and I’m not food. Plus, that’s also lowkey boring,” he pursed his lips into a small pout, putting on the hood of his jacket on his head despite it being indoors.

“Come on, it’ll be funny. Just pick literally anything,” you nudge your shoulder against his, pointing your pinky to the stalls surrounding you. “Pick anything, you can even call me ‘Hotteok’ and I won’t get mad, I promise.” you crossed your heart and raised your pinky, wiggling it in front of his face with a teasing grin, which seemed to get him interested. Humming in ponderation, Donghyuck scanned the stalls around you, tapping the edge of his cup against his lips (before grimacing at the peculiar smell of the pizza flavored ice cream). With a smile, you joined in as you both proceeded to take a few more steps to get more ideas for nicknames.

“I wonder what cute nickname I should give you,” he teased with a sing-song voice, giving you a toothy grin before shaking his head from side to side merrily. “I swear, you’re the type of person to name their significant others based off of some random food,” you laughed, shaking your head in unison along with him enthusiastically. “As much as I prefer to call you by your actual name, I’ll name you Sun,” he cooed, earning a soft snort from you as you squeezed his hand in yours. “Why? Is it because I light up your whole world? Is it because I shine as bright as the sun? Is it because I illuminate your vision?” you scoffed, snorting at the cheesiness of your own words.

“Kind of cheesy, don’t you think?” you asked, furrowing your brows by how ominously innocent the nickname sounded. You genuinely thought he was going to name you Jajjangmyeon or something.

Donghyuck let out a cocky scoff, rolling his eyes before he tapped his pinky against your forehead as the ice cream cup in his hand was keeping him from flicking it instead. “Don’t be so full of yourself. I literally named you that because looking at you for too long hurts my eyes,” he squinted his eyes at you before shooting his head away as if you were the actual sun blinding his eyesight. Staring at him in awe, you couldn’t help the grin that spread so mindlessly across your lips as you let out a staggering laugh.

This. This boy was all you needed as a boyfriend and you didn’t regret asking him out two hours prior to this exact moment. Not at all.

“Call me whatever name you want, you know very well it’s cheesy. I’ll be original and call you Duckie!” you exclaimed, pointing at the ducks chilling on the fountain right outside of the entrance of the mall. Eliciting a loud ‘hah’ from the brown haired boy, he glanced back at you with a perplexed expression, if this was anything from those manhwas you’ve been reading, he would have question marks floating around his head. “D from Donghyuck. ‘Uck’ from Hyuck! It suits you so much!” you exclaimed, giving him enthusiastic jazz hands.

Donghyuck, now Duckie, pursed his lips as he pouted. “Are you saying that I, your boyfriend of two hours, looks like a duck?” he asked in a fake-offended tone before putting a hand (that was holding his half filled ice cream cup) to his chest. “If you keep making that face, the nickname seems very fitting,” you grinned, sticking your tongue out childishly as Donghyuck let out a sigh of defeat.

“You’re this close to making my nickname ‘dick’.”

“Well, would you prefer I take the Hyuck out of Donghyuck and call you Dingdong instead?”

“My mom did not carry me in her womb for nine months straight just so my girlfriend can call me the organ that partially created me.”

“First the ice cream, now the nickname? Dirty minded, much?”

“Suck it, you’re the one who asked me out. You’re going to have to deal with this for a while.”

“That’s what she said.”

“And you called me the dirty minded one?”

iii. mr universe the cat likes watching ballet performances

“Remind me why we’re watching a ballet performance on your smart TV when you specifically told me that we were going to be binge watching Money Heist together?” Donghyuck pursed his lips, running his fingers against the fur of your seal point himalayan cat, Mr Universe. You patted his head sympathetically with a soft chuckle. “Sorry Duckie, Mr Universe really wanted to re-watch this two hour long video of Swan Lake,” you scratched Mr Universe’s chin as you sat on the couch right beside your boyfriend.

“Mr Universe is just a cat, I don’t think he’s going to mind if you change it,” the boy rolled his eyes, looking down at the himalayan cat laying down beside him which was clearly immersed in watching the grand performance on the flat screen tv. Letting out a loud, dramatic, incredulous gasp, you placed a hand on your chest in mock offense as you lifted the fat cat into your arms and cuddled it to your chest. “Mr Universe isn’t an ordinary cat, he’s a gentleman with high intellectual standards and sophistication!” you exclaimed, turning to Mr Universe, who didn’t spare a glance at you to look away from the TV.

“You make it sound like he’s Garfield or something.”

“Garfield but with sophisticated tastes.”

“Are you calling lasagna an unsophisticated dish?”

“The right word is uncouth, Mister Political Science Major.”

“I’m not a Vocabulary Major, sweetheart.”

“I don’t think that’s an actual major, Duckie.”

Donghyuck pursed his lips into a duck pout as he watched you lay Mr Universe back on the couch, where he then crawled into the brown haired boy’s lap. “You shouldn’t spoil cats like this or else they’ll get bratty and disobedient, you know,” he scrunched his nose, scratching the animal’s ears despite his words. “Dude, Mr Universe is literally you except he has sophisticated, fancy tastes in entertainment,” you shrugged, leaning back against the cushions of the couch with a cheeky grin.

“Justin Bieber is equally as sophisticated as this two hour Swan Lake performance, excuse you,” he retorted with a soft snort, crossing his arms against his chest as he spared a small glance at the TV where the Little Swans were doing their little dance. “I don’t know about you but I don’t think there’s anything sophisticated of singing songs about being hung up on your ex or saying ‘baby’ 100 thousand times,” you joked, leaning over to run your fingers over his hair, scrunching your nose at the feeling of the soft strands brushing against your skin.

“You should really hear ‘Ghost Of You’ by Justin Bieber, it’ll do you good if you stopped making fun of the man from his Baby days,” he snorted as he leaned more towards your touch. “I’m good, Duckie. His prepubscent ‘baby’ famous era was enough for me to completely walk away from that side of the music industry,” you replied with a sarcastic smile and a bittersweet tone, leaning your head to the side as you stared at him with a knowing expression. “The stage is a place where you’re supposed to feel alive! To feel as if you had disappeared from the world! That’s why he’s still famous to this day, Y/n,” his words slurred softly as you began to massage his scalp softly, nails gently grazing against the skin.

The boy closed his eyes at the soothing feeling, similar to the way Mr Universe would whenever you scratched the right spot behind his ears. (If Donghyuck could purr, you were sure he would just be Mr Universe 2.0) “How do you keep your hair so soft? Didn’t you say you dyed it like 4 times in the past two months? Your hair looks healthier than mine,” you commented, massaging his scalp as you pushed his hair back away from his face, causing Donghyuck’s head to droop down slightly.

“Try using hair conditioner. Or try washing your hair once every two to three days,” he joked, opening his eyes to gingerly pinch your cheeks. “I do wash it, I think my mom bought me the wrong shampoo again. Woman’s change this family’s shampoo bottles like changing underwear, I swear to god,” you grumbled under your breath with a purse of your lips, scratching the back of your neck in slight frustration, earning small coos from your boyfriend of three days.

Honestly, you had done so many nonsensical quote unquote “bull crap” in your life (from eating two or three big packs of ramen every two or three days, chasing and bullying your cat with your old baby alive doll to somehow getting yourself a free ps4 at the shopping mall just from playing those crane games that were mostly just scams) that your parents weren’t at all phased when you brought a boy (a college student) home without any warning. But imagine the look on their faces that you got yourself a smart boyfriend, even though Donghyuck may not act like it, the man probably has a higher IQ than you and there was no denying it.

‘Our daughter? With a political science major? This boy’s standards must be low as hell’ was the only thing on their minds the moment your dad asked Hyuck about his major.

However, they didn’t pay you any mind afterwards considering they had work, thus leaving you and Donghyuck alone at home (plus your dad reminding you to not do anything silly, Mr Universe is in charge of the house and watching you two at all times).

“Even if your mom bought you the wrong shampoo, I like the smell of this one,” he shrugged, leaning over to sniff your hair without hesitation before leaning back against the couch and sighed heavily, patting his stomach. “Smells exactly like the strawberry parfait I had last weekend,” he shook his head, swallowing the lump gathering in his throat as he was practically salivating at the memory of devouring Mark’s last strawberry parfait. “I’m heavily offended that you didn’t get to share said strawberry parfait,” you frowned, getting up from the coach to look through the cupboards for that large blue box.

Donghyuck laughed, shrugging softly as he tucked the chain around his neck with one hand and snuck the other into the pocket of his sweater. “We haven’t even met when I ate it, you should’ve asked me out like two weeks earlier, I would’ve totally donated 15% of it,” he pressed his lips like the beak of a duck, kicking his feet against the air as if he could miraculously change the ballet performance on the screen to the action packed series that is Money Heist with a swing of his foot.

“I’ve known you long enough to know you would deep throat that thing if I asked for a bite,” you joked, shaking your head as you turned around to see Donghyuck fiddling with his chain necklace with the tip of his index finger as you took out your CD cases. “I don’t think Mr Universe is gonna let us change the show anytime soon, so I think we better get to my room,” you cocked your head to the direction of your room, gathering the CD cases and getting up to your feet, adjusting your hold on all the plastic cases.

Your boyfriend’s eyes lit up at the cases in between your arms as he stood up to his feet, tugging the ends of his baggy shirt down and following you to your room. “Whatchu got there, my lovely girlfriend?” he asked, trying to lean over your shoulder to take a peek of the CDs gathered in your hands, however the translucent cases kept him from seeing the images on the shiny disk clearly.

Walking towards your PS4 console, you pressed the button to turn it on with your thumb before putting your CD cases down on the carpet floor, causing Donghyuck to let out a dramatic gasp as he eagerly sat down on the floor next to you. “Is that a ps4?” he exclaimed in awe, grabbing one of the CD’s and opening the case as you searched through your closet for the controllers (you always hid them whenever you had cousins or relatives come over ever since your 3 year old cousin threw your controller against the floor in the middle of a tantrum: never again).

“I won them for free when I was shopping with my mom a couple months ago,” you shrugged, clicking your tongue the moment you spot your controllers hiding in between the fabric of your neatly stacked shirts. “You fucking won this? For free? Dude, what kind of luck do you have?” Hyuck exclaimed, leaning his back against the mattress of your bed, putting his elbow on the mattress as he turned his body to look at you. You let out a small laugh, shrugging proudly as you tossed a controller to the bed right in front of him. “My luck applies to anything other than multiple choice questions during exams,” you joked.

“Literally, marry me. Right now,” Donghyuck exclaimed in awe as he looked through your collection, spotting the Danganronpa series and the Resident of Evil series stacked up in between the cases. After looking through the rest of the cases, Donghyuck inevitably picked one of the classics: Mario Kart.

Snorting as you plopped yourself right beside your boyfriend, you shook your head.

“We’ve been dating for literally a week, you’re only saying that because I have a ps4 and your broke ass does not.”

“You don’t know the struggles of being a college student.”

“You don’t know the struggles of being someone who could’ve had strawberry parfait this week.”

“That’s not the only thing you’d be struggling with once I start kicking your ass in Mario Kart.”

“.... You’re on.”

iii. y/n? boyfriend? mr universe? more like end of the universe

“Excuse me, Y/n has a WHAT?” Gwen’s tone of disbelief could be heard from the other side of the school building as she placed a hand on her own chest, as if she was going to pass out from shock. Gwen turned to Yeji, her girlfriend, eyes asking her for confirmation before turning back to look at you as if to see if there was any glint or sparkle in your eyes to inform her that Yeji was lying. Damn, did she really think you’d stay the only single pringle in your friend group forever?

“Since when? Who? What? I need answers and proof that I’m not being delulu right now,” she pressed her fingers against her temples to process the new information, eyes staring off into the distance you thought she was seeing the million multiverses like Doctor Strange from the Marvel Franchise. “I am heavily offended that you didn’t have faith in me,” you placed a hand on your chest, pursing your lips into a small, mocking frown as you received deadpanned expressions from your two best friends.

“You expected us to have faith in you?” Gwen raised her brow jokingly, patting your shoulder comfortingly to show that she was truly kidding around as she let out a soft giggle.

“Understandable, yeah, I didn’t have faith in myself either. Have a nice day,” you nodded your head in defeat, sucking your lips in as you shrugged nonchalantly, eliciting a joyous laugh from both of your friends. “Wait, okay, but rewind a bit. You’re telling me, while I was out with my Mandarin tuitions, you two were out getting Starbucks. And Y/n just? Saw a random boy? Pulled a Disney Princess and fell in love at first sight and decided to ask the boy out on the spot without even introducing herself?” Gwen put a hand up to stop any of you from cutting her off, rubbing the space in her brows.

Yeji could only smile sarcastically, whipping her head around to spare you a glance before nodding with a loud affirming hum. “Damn, okay, calm down Light Fury from How To Train Your Dragon. Don’t give me that look, he’s actually a pretty nice guy,” you waved your hands around to emphasize on your words before leaning back against your chair, reaching over to your mechanical pencil to tap the end against the surface of your desk. “Plus he’s like in his first year of college, the two year age gap isn’t that much,” you shrugged.

There was a spluttering noise that was elicited from Gwen’s throat as she stared incredulously into your soul. “You don’t even know this dude, he’s a stranger you met at Starbucks! Out of all places, Starbucks! The one cafe that purposely mispelled your name. I mean my name is literally G-W-E-N, how the hell did they get ‘Kwen’?” she grumbled the last part under her breath, leaning her cheek against her palm before Yeji reached out to grasp her free hand, squeezing it gingerly in an attempt to make her feel better.

Snorting, you rolled your eyes at them as you pulled out your phone from the pockets of your school jacket, unlocking it to see if you had missed any texts from Donghyuck. “What’s his name though? Come on, you guys have been seeing each other for like more than a week, right? Does he have any red flags? Any suspicious activities? Any details that could deem him as someone we should report to the police?” Gwen asked, scratching the back of her head, a mixture of defeat and confusion spread across her face as Yeji patted her back.

“Duckie. He’s a college student, a political science major. Whatever that is,” you shrugged, not tearing your gaze away from the unread messages you sent to Donghyuck last night before you went to bed. You haven’t received a text from Donghyuck in days, you were starting to get slightly concerned but you had half a mind to consider the fact that he was probably busy drowning in studying and doing his assignments. It’s not like you both text every day, but you do send each other texts every few days to see what the other had been up to. It wasn’t like Donghyuck to not respond to your texts for a week straight.

Minus the fact that you’ve known him for less than two weeks.

“Excuse me what? What was his name?” Gwen furrowed her brows, exchanging glances with her girlfriend. “No, no, that’s not what his name was. It started with Dong- something. Dongwook?” Yeji shook her head, putting a finger on her chin to recall your boyfriend’s name, squinting her eyes as if it were to get the gears in her brain to turn. Clicking your tongue, you tapped the profile picture on Donghyuck’s contacts which was a silly selfie of the two of you with Mr Universe, the camera was angled downwards to reveal both of your double chins (plus Mr Universe and his majestic self).

“We just made nicknames for each other, his real name is Donghyuck. I call him Duckie because he reminds me of a duck. Don’t worry, he’s not any less suspicious than any of you. My parents loves him, too,” you shrugged, earning another disgruntled noise from your best friends. Gwen leaned over towards you to take a better look at the image on your phone, letting Yeji wrap her arms affectionately around her shoulders to peek over them. “You introduced him to your parents already? Dude, I haven’t even met Yeji’s parents yet and we’ve been dating for five months,” your friend exclaimed, zooming in on Duckie’s double chinned smile to see if she could spot any hint of evil in the pixelated image.

Pressing your lips together into a firm, thin line, retracting your phone to see Donghyuck’s face zoomed in abnormally across the screen. “Honestly, he seems like he’s part of whatever breed of human you are, Y/n,” Gwen shrugged, leaning into her girlfriend’s touch as you glared daggers into your own phone as if you were to stare long enough at it, your boyfriend would magically send you a text. “Does he have any noticeable red flags though?” she asked, lifting her brow at you as you chewed against your bottom lip.

“Uh,” you glanced up at the ceiling, pulling your bottom lip in between your index finger and thumb before glancing back at them with a small shrug. “Well, he sent me a picture of himself brushing his teeth and drawing a heart on the bathroom mirror with toothpaste after our first date-Oh my god, no! He does have a red flag,” you exclaimed, sitting up straight to release an enthusiastic clap as your mouth curled into a ‘o’ shape, eyes as wide as they could be.

“Should we be concerned?” Yeji asked, furrowing her brows as she glanced concerned expressions with Gwen, who nodded in response.

“Dude, this is so suspicious of him. He has all of his characters properly built in Genshin! Okay, maybe not all of his characters but he had like 30+ characters properly built enough to do Spiral Abyss,” you sucked your bottom lip, leaning back against your chair once again before putting a hand on your chin in ponderation. “He’s also a big Justin Bieber fan, oh my god-” you shut your eyes tight, pressing the off button on the side of your phone as you turned your head to the side dramatically, rubbing the bridge of your nose before letting out a fake sob. “I have a Belieber for a boyfriend, can you guys believe that?” you sniffled.

“Literally the saddest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“Hey, yall?”

“What?”

“If I was your boyfriend, I'd never let you go.”

“Oh my God, you and that Dong guy are literally perfect for each other, don’t you fucking start.”

iv. long haired hyuck supremacy

“I’m telling you, this B+ is way better than any other form of validation that I’ve received from my parents,” Yeji sobbed, wiping the invisible tears away from her face as she stared into her paper. “Yeji, sweetie, I’m proud of you,” Gwen patted her back with a dramatic sob escaping her throat, stuffing her pop quiz paper in her own bag as you slung the saddle of yours around your shoulders and folded your own paper into a small square. “Did you get another B?” Yeji asked, leaning her head towards you as you calmly slipped the folded paper into the front pockets of your shirt uniform.

Turning your head to look at them, you shook your head with a tight-lipped innocent smile. “I got a D, I’m debating on walking to the nearest landfill and burning the evidence so my parents would never get a glimpse at this paper. If I don’t come to school tomorrow, that means my parents are burying me alive,” you chuckled nervously with eyes wide filled with terror, gripping tightly against the saddles of your backpack as you heard the distant gasps elicited from your two best friends.

“Wait, what? A ‘D’? Dude, how? That’s like- what? 60 points? You get 35 points for writing your own name,” Yeji’s jaw dropped as you began to vibrate from how much internally nervous laughter you were choking out of your throat. “I stayed up all night farming talents and artifacts in Genshin,” you rubbed your eyes, yawning as the three of you walked out of the classroom to head to the entrance gates to head home. “I felt that on a personal level but I do them on weekends,” Gwen chuckled, nudging your shoulder as you stretched your arms above your head.

“Shut up, it’s not my fault I like Xiao more than studying Linear equation-”

“Y/n! Sun! Idiot!”

Cocking your head to the direction of the voice calling out your name, your eyes met with the crowd of students and random adults gathering around the gate, making it difficult for you to decipher who the hell was calling out your name. “Y/n! Hey! Dumbass, I’m right here! Why are you looking at the guy with the corn do- Over here!” the voice called out, you’ve never heard someone call out your name this eagerly before. Not even when your mother found out that you had hidden all of your test papers in your closet without showing her.

“Hey, Y/n, I think someone’s calling for you,” Gwen poked your shoulder, nodding her head towards the crowd of students you were staring at. “Is that your new boyfriend?” Yeji furrowed her brows as the three of you paused in your steps, leaning her head closer to the side to have a better view of the 174 cm boy with messy (now slightly long) brown hair who was waving his arm aggressively in the air with a wide smile stretched across his bright face. He had the energy of a true main character with how bright the sun was specifically shining on him, especially with how he stood out from the crowd as he ran up towards you.

If there was one thing you had learned about Donghyuck at that moment, it was that the man had the soul of a 5 year old child in the body of a hot college student. Your eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets as you realised how long it’s been since you saw your own boyfriend. His hair was longer than it was when you last saw him, brown hair now reaching down his neck and curling under the lobe of his ear but still attaining that cute, messy look he had on the first day you had met. It was less wavy than the last time you saw him.

He was wearing some black ripped jeans with a casual baggy sweater as he jogged up towards you, squeezing in between the crowd of students and their drivers as his charming smile effortlessly shot daggers into your heart (in a good way). His hair was bouncing slightly with each step he took as he raised his hand in the air to greet you, fingers peeking out from the hem of his sleeve; making really cute sweater paws

Did you forget to mention that his hair was long and luscious?

“Duckie?” you blinked once in disbelief, slowly raising your hand up to give him a high five. “It’s been a while, huh?” he grinned, putting his hands on his hips proudly, adjusting to the saddle of the bag slung across his shoulder. “How-What- Your hair is so long,” you gaped, never tearing your eyes away from his face (or more specifically, his brown hair). Donghyuck’s eyes widened slightly at your blunt words, leaning his head to the side as he sheepishly smiled, reaching a hand over to ruffle the back of his hair to comb his fingers through it.

“I’ve been way too lazy to cut it, so I grew it out. Sexy, isn’t it?” he grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at you with a proud smile stretched across his face.

You leaned over to bow 90 degrees, letting the tie wrapped around the collar of your uniform to fall forward vertically in the air. “You look too good, I do not deserve to be in your presence, good sir,” you said in a dramatically posh voice, earning a soft smack to your back by one of your two friends. “Jesus Christ. Get up, Y/n. You shouldn’t be bowing like thi-”

“Yes, peasant, bow before me,” Donghyuck exclaimed proudly, crossing his arms against his chest as he tapped his foot against the concrete floor, earning deadpanned expressions from the two women standing beside you. “You should not be encouraging this behavior, you shouldn’t be allowing your girlfriend to bow before you like this in public,” Yeji leaned over to slap Donghyuck’s back similar to how she did to yours but the boy jumped back to dodge her hand before she could come in contact with any limb attached to his body.

Standing up straight and brushing the dust away from your uniform, you took a step forward towards your boyfriend, fishing out your phone from your school jacket and tapping your index finger against the phone screen. “Duckie, you haven’t responded to my text in three days, I sent you a picture of me with that Optimus Prime filter on instagram and you didn’t even read it,” you huffed, raising your brow suspiciously at the boy, who’s bright smile slowly faltered into a small pout.

Now, it was his turn to bow.

Optimus Prime wasn’t a joke. Therefore, Donghyuck got on his knees and hung his head, putting his two hands together.

“Forgive me, madam. I swear I didn’t mean to ghost your Optimus Prime selfie,” he closed his eyes shut, nodding his head once before opening one eye to see if you were still glaring daggers into his soul. “I swear, I was gonna come over to your house to hang out but your mom said you were still at school so she told me where your school was and I’m now your ride home, don’t kill me, Optimus Prime,” he rambled all at once, tripping over his words as he spoke, rubbing his two hands together as you placed your hands on your hips.

“You two are literally so embarrassing,” Yeji deadpanned, reaching over for her girlfriend’s hand. “We’re going to go home now, I physically can’t watch this any longer, see you on Monday, bestie,” she said with a small wave before moving her legs, waving at you without even sparing a glance.

You waved back mindlessly as you glared at your boyfriend, whose eyes were now opened and looking up at you like a little puppy, slightly weakening your strict facade. Optimus Prime, being the God he is, was no joke. But Hyuck’s puppy dog eyes were also no joke. Cupid made you weak the moment he struck you with his arrow at Starbucks, you swore you were going to get back at him once you walked up to the gates of the afterlife.

SIghing heavily, you grabbed his hands and pulled him up to his feet.

“What did you have in mind, Duckie?”

“Can you stop sniffing my hair like it’s cocaine? You’re going to accidentally inhale my dandruff,” Donghyuck whined, attempting to lean away from your touch but you only kept leaning forward to take a strong whiff of the scent of his hair. “I haven’t seen you in weeks, shut up and let me have my moment,” you smacked his arm before scooting closer towards him to run your fingers all over his hair, hearing the staff lady come in through the door with a measuring tape hung around her neck like jewellery.

She brought in a few long fabrics in her arms, laying them on the table beside her as she grabbed her clipboard. “Right, before we start the measuring process for your suits, what colour do you both prefer? Persian blue? Royal blue? Beige?” she asked, raising her brow as she spared a glance at the two of you sitting on the guest couch.

Donghyuck had this fantastic idea of getting suits together all because he saw his colleague (by the name of Long John or something?) making promise rings for his girlfriend of two years. You and Donghyuck, being the intellectuals you both were, decided to go to the nearest tailor to get your suits ready. You weren’t sure where or when you were going to even use these suits considering both of your high school and college graduation ceremonies are still a couple years away but it wouldn’t hurt to get matching clothes, right?

“What colour do you like? I think I’m going to go for vermillion,” Donghyuck asked, turning his head towards yours as he tossed his arm to the back of his couch, leaning back against the cushions as you observed the colours of the fabric the tailor was holding in her hands before humming softly. “I think I like beige, it could go with both black and white dress shirts, right?” you asked, turning to the boy beside you as you fiddled with the chain necklace around his collarbone with your index finger.

Shrugging softly, Hyuck nodded. “I think we’d look hot in whatever colour suits we wear. Come on, it’s us. We’d rock any sexy coloured suits,” he grinned, raising his eyebrows before pursing his lips into a duck face. Laughing lightly, you gave the tailor a big thumbs up.

Watching the girl walk back into her office to grab whatever essentials she needed to measure your sizes, you turned back to your boyfriend inhaling the fresh scent of his hair. Ironically, you couldn’t even explain what kind of serotonin boost the scent of his hair gave you. The only way you could put into words without sounding too cheesy was that he smelled like the sun itself. You didn’t know what kind of drugs the man had mixed into his shampoo but the second you take a quick wiff of his hair, it was as if the itch in your brain had been scratched at the right amount.

It was similar to collapsing in a meadow surrounded by pretty flowers under the blue sky layered with clouds that are as white as snow.

“Now, are you two ready for the fitting?” The woman came back, carrying a clipboard in her hands and a measuring tape hanging in between her fingers, glasses now placed on the bridge of her nose. “Do you wanna go first?” Donghyuck asked, turning his head around to face you, equally as unfazed as you were when you realised that his face was merely inches away from yours considering you were sniffing the scent of his scalp as if it was cocaine. “Oh, yeah sure,” you nodded, pushing yourself up to your feet, stretching your arms above your shoulder before heading into the tailor’s office to get your suit measured.

“Don’t miss me too much!” you exclaimed before the tailor shut the door close, calling her assistant over to lead you towards three mirrors, informing you to stretch your arms out into a ‘t’ pose.

Time proceeded to pass by as you stood awkwardly in a ‘t’ pose so that the staff could measure your whole figure for your new suit (along with their weak attempts to make small talk so that the atmosphere wasn’t too suffocating-ly awkward), they finally kicked you out of the dressing room and told you to get your boyfriend for measuring. Upon entering the waiting room, your eyes laid upon the focused Donghyuck who was staring oh-so intently into the screen of his phone, fingers gripping it tight you swore he was going to bend the small device in half.

There was a dark expression spread across his face as his eyes bore holes through the screen of his device, sparking some curiosity within you. In your few weeks of knowing him, you had never seen the happy boy appear so upset, it was almost terrifying and concerning. His eyes were half lidded, warm eyes that used to glimmer with excitement and joy now clouded with a gloss of annoyance and slight anger. Tongue poking the inside of his cheek as he typed mindlessly with one hand and ran the other through his disheveled brown hair.

Gulping silently, you slowly walked towards your boyfriend, hands hidden in the pocket of your school jacket as you cleared your throat in front of him. “Duckie?” you called out softly, standing a meter away from him as you tapped your foot against the tiled floor. “The lady said it’s your turn to do the fitting thing,” you let out a nervous chuckle, leaning your head over to see if he would pause on whatever he was doing on his phone to spare a glimpse at you.

Nothing. His glare hardened as his phone vibrated, signalling that he had received another text message that seemed to annoy him even more than he already was. During the time that you’ve known each other, you weren’t close enough to be familiar with each other's bad sides but something about the boy being this upset and silent was rubbing you off the wrong way and you couldn’t figure out why.

You had never seen Donghyuck look this upset and focused before.

That’s not saying much considering you’ve barely known him for a month, but it was concerning to say the least.

“Duckie,” you called out again, hesitantly leaning over to poke his chubby cheek. But before your finger could make contact with the soft skin, his hand shot up to grab yours tightly as if to prevent you from aggravating him even more. You jumped at his reflexes as his head finally shot up from his phone, eyes glaring daggers into your own as you widened yours eyes. The brown haired boy had never appeared so different, it was as if you were back to being strangers again. For a brief moment, you couldn’t recognize your own boyfriend.

“Shit, sorry. You scared me, oh my god.”

It was as if the switch had been flipped upside down. The stranger that was glaring daggers at you was no longer there, now replaced with the loving, comedic boy who willingly allowed you to sniff his hair like cocaine. Gently releasing his grip on your hand, he pressed his lips together into a small pout, using his other hand to press the off button on his phone and tuck it back into his pocket. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. You were ghosting me, the tailor told me that it’s your turn to get your suit measured,” you smiled sheepishly, shrugging as you clasped your hands behind your back.

Donghyuck’s eyes laid on yours for a brief moment before his head turned to the direction of the changing room, where he was supposed to get measured for his own suit. A smile cracked through his lips as he shook his head, putting a hand on his forehead. “Sorry, something came up. I know I was the one who brought you here but can you get someone to pick you up? I got something urgent to do,” Donghyuck reached over to grab his bag, standing up right in front of you with an innocent smile stretched across his face.

Furrowing your brows, you nodded slightly, fishing out your phone from your jacket to slide open your contacts so you could call your mom to pick you up. “Sure but are you okay? You looked a bit tense a minute ago,” you asked, voice laced with concern as you leaned your head closer to the boy as if his eyes were the key to giving you the answer as to why he was so upset a few seconds prior.

“I’m fine, things just got busy and I really gotta go. I’ll get my suit measured next time and we can wear them together,” he nodded, avoiding your gaze as his hand reached back to the front of his bag, grabbing his car keys and tossing them in the air before catching them with one hand.

“I’ll see you around?” he asked, raising his hand to give you a high five.

The smile on his face gave it away that he wasn’t telling you the truth, but you weren’t sure if Donghyuck was comfortable enough to explain why so therefore you didn’t pry into it.

“Alright. Call me or text me when you’re done with whatever you’re supposed to do, okay?” you asked, pressing your lips together into a thin line before reciprocating his high five with an unsure expression stretched across your face. “Of course,” he nodded with a small chuckle, ruffling the top of your head lovingly before turning to inform his tailor about the change of plans.

That was the last interaction you had with Donghyuck for the next couple of weeks.

v. canadian motif shirts

“Why do you always pop up at the most inconvenient of times?” you asked, putting your hands on your hips as you furrowed your brows at the doppleganger sitting on your bed, staring adoringly at Mr Universe (who was casually vibing to the music you were blaring through your new speakers). “Dude, seriously. I’m about to go to Donghyuck’s dorm for the first time, you’re not supposed to pop up right when I’m literally 15 minutes away from leaving, it makes me feel bad,” you sighed, pulling out an oversized shirt and laying it on your chest to see if the colour clashes with the colour of your pants.

“You’re making it sound as if I want to be here,” your doppleganger chuckled, shrugging innocently before laying their chin on their palm, tapping their index finger against the bottom of their lip. “Why are you wearing a shirt with the Canadian flag? We’re not even in Canada,” you raised your brow, looking at your living being of an omen through their reflection on the mirror. “I like this shirt, okay. Leave me alone,” they spat back at you, leaning back to collapse on your bed.

Clicking your tongue, you turned back to them with two shirts hanging off of a clothing wire. “Which one do you think screams ‘I shall sneak past the dormitory security guard just to see where you live’ vibes?” you asked, turning your head around to gaze back at your reflection, humming loudly in ponderation.

Earning a soft snort from your doppleganger, they leaned back against the mattress with a small shrug. “The right one definitely vibes with the pants in my opinion. But you’re being awfully calm for someone who’s about to die. You do realise that me popping up from time to time isn’t a good sign, right?” they asked in a rather sardonic tone, a sinister smile stretched across their lips as they chuckled mischievously. Pressing your lips to a thin line, you furrowed your brows before laying the shirts on your bed right beside your doppleganger, hopping over to your drawers to get out some necklaces.

“Gold or Stainless steel?” you asked, rummaging through your small jewellery box.

“Oh, definitely gold.”

“You’re right,” you snapped your fingers, pulling out a gold necklace before walking back to the mirror to clasp the clip behind your neck. “You know, it’s kind of bizarre how you immediately got a boyfriend right after I showed you that small bucket list,” the doppleganger spoke up once again, leaning over to poke your cat but retracted their hand when Mr Universe immediately turned to look at them, glaring daggers into their figure as if to say ‘touch me and I’ll bite you’.

Shrugging, you adjusted the necklace that was now hanging below your collarbone, leaning over to your desk to check on your phone for any notifications from your boyfriend. Clicking the button on the side of the phone to light up your screen, you weren’t surprised in the slightest when you didn’t see any notifications from Donghyuck. After all, you were going to arrive at his dorm without him knowing (since you got his address from Mark, the black haired boy who couldn’t stop opening and closing his own mouth when you first met Donghyuck at Starbucks).

If there was anything you had noticed about your boyfriend of almost more than 36 days, it was that he loved to disappear.

You didn’t know what was the reason for his constant disappearing endeavors, but at the same time, you understood why he was probably addicted to it. You noticed he would space out for a few minutes, a blank and empty expression settling upon his features when he got lost in his thoughts, it was the expression of someone who had little to no hope in their life. But the moment you call him out to snap him out of his thoughts, his face would immediately be masked with a bright smile that highlighted the whole quiet atmosphere.

And whenever they happen, that exact same day, he would disappear instantaneously as if he was never there to begin with. You asked Mark where he would’ve disappeared to, but even his best friend was completely clueless. He informed you that Donghyuck had these habits since the start of highschool. He would skip class frequently, hours would turn to days, and days could lead up to a week or two. It was as if he were a mere ghost, coming and going as he pleased. Mark stopped looking around for him when they started college.

‘Though, Haechan completely did a 180 during his senior year’

‘Speaking of senior years. Mark, do you have any cheat sheets? I’m starting mine in a couple of months.’

‘Dude, literally, no.’

He told you that he would search the cafe he was working at, his usual favorite hang out spots, his own private dorm. Hell, even his professor had consulted Mark to see what was up with the boy. Lee Donghyuck may act like an idiot at times but he had the brain that rivalled the smartest students in his whole campus. He obviously knew what he was doing whenever he disappeared, maybe he just didn’t care enough. You weren’t close enough to ask him about these things.

But the amazing part about him was that he would always come back as if nothing had ever happened, as if he hadn’t left for a few days without telling anyone about his whereabouts. Whenever you asked him where he had gone during those times, he would instantly avert the conversation to a different topic like the excellent communicator he was.

‘Secretive bastard,’ you thought with an endearing chuckle.

However, there was a mutual understanding that he wasn’t comfortable enough to tell you. There was an understanding that it was more of a personal problem for Donghyuck and it shouldn’t be brought up unless he was ready to talk about it. You had all the time in the world to wait until that day arrived.

“Yeah, I met him at Starbucks. He looked cute so I asked him out on the spot,” you nodded, glancing back at your phone, eyes lying on the cute profile picture Donghyuck had set up on your contacts. The picture was the both of you doing that iconic Lin Manuel Miranda lip bite meme with a facial hair filter laying over your faces.

“God damn, you asked him out on day one?” You could see their jaw dropping dramatically in the corner of your eyes, blinking once before blinking twice. They closed their mouth to look down on the hands on their lap before letting out a small, almost inaudible groan. “I wish dating was that easy,” they grumbled under their breath, tracing shapes on the silky covers of your bed, pressing their lips together in a thin line.

Chuckling softly, you shoved your phone into your bag, slinging the saddle over your shoulder before putting your hands on your hips. “I didn’t know dopplegangers could have a dating life,” you exclaimed with an impressed expression spread across your face, taking a few steps closer towards the being that looked exactly like you. “We don’t. I mean, unless you and your partner are dying together, I guess that also counts?” your doppleganger furrowed their brows, scratching the back of their head in confusion.

“Fuck I completely forgot I was going to die, when is that going to happen again?” you asked, pinching the bridge of your nose before tossing your hands to your sides in defeat. “I don’t know, I’ll literally just tell you when it happens,” they said with a nonchalant shrug, collapsing to the pillows stacked up against the headboard behind them before letting out a small ‘oof’ at the impact.

“Very helpful, I see. How the hell are you even supposed to tell me I’m dying at the exact moment I’m going to die? That doesn’t make sense. It’s not like you even leave my room 90% of the time since we met,” you asked, moving forward to sit on the edge of the mattress, glancing over to your himalayan cat who wasn’t tearing his gaze away from your speakers. Scratching the bridge of your nose, you heard your doppleganger let out a brief chuckle.

Glancing over to the figure laying on your bed, you furrowed your brows in confusion. “What?” you asked, leaning your head to the side curiously.

“You don’t get it, do you?” they asked with a raise of their eyebrow, sitting up straight with their hands supporting them behind their back. For once, the expression on their face did not indicate any signs of ignorance, it was now clouded with a mixture of amusement and sobriety as they leaned their head to the side similar to how a dog would when they were observing something they haven’t seen before.

Sighing heavily, you fought the urge to roll your eyes. “What am I supposed to get if you’re not telling me shit, my dear friend?” you spoke sarcastically in a bittersweet tone, clapping your hands together similar to how a kindergarten teacher would when facing a small child. “I can’t leave your room, you dumbass.”

“Why not?”

“That’s because this is where it is. Where it always has been.”

“You’re literally me 2.0, you know very well that I don’t speak riddlish. Who do you take me for? Madeline Hatter from Ever After High?”

“For fucks sakes, can’t I say something ominous without you ruining the mood just once?”

vi. bambi bambi

“Duckie, I need you to answer this question for me and you have to answer it honestly,” you reached over the scratched and scribbled dining table in the middle of Donghyuck’s dorm to grab his hands, squeezing them tightly as you gazed into his eyes.

Your boyfriend smiled sweetly, leaning his head to the side, his brown hair following his movements. “Yes, my sun?” he responded in a bittersweet tone, cooing softly as his voice turned even more high pitched than usual. Gripping his hands tighter, you moved to intertwine your fingers together, leaning forward with an innocent grin. “Donghyuck,” you called out firmly, earning a loud, exasperated gasp from the boy sitting across from you.

He pulled one of his hands away to cup his mouth to emphasize how dramatic his gasp was, eyes wandering to the two cups of noodles sitting innocently in between your arms on the table before looking back up at you. “Not the government, how scandalous!” he exclaimed, putting his hand down to let his hand be engulfed in your free one once again. “This must be a rather serious question,” he pursed his lips into a pout, scrunching his nose for a brief moment before nodding to silently say ‘shoot’.

“You must choose, Hyuck.”

“Huh?”

“Me or Byun Baekhyun,”

You swear to God this boy is going to drive you crazy. Not in a good way this time.

To cut the story short, the damn security guard (damn you, mister Dowong- Dolong? No, it was definitely Dohong. Wait no, Doyoung.) that was watching over his dormitory didn’t allow you to come in and visit him since you weren’t from the campus fraternity and due to the fact that you were a high school student who might not have any real business with the students here. Which ultimately lead you to finding your way back to the building behind the campus where a row of endless balconies were.

Thankfully for you, Donghyuck lived on the fourth floor, so all you had to do was spam his phone with aggressive, non-stop calls until he responded and poked his figure out of the door of his balcony. Since there weren't any trees you could climb up to and reach your boyfriend like in those cheesy rom-coms, all you could do was say ‘Romeo, Romeo, let down your hair!’ aloud with your arms spread wide open like the idiot you were.

Unfortunately for you, Donghyuck’s long luscious hair wasn’t as long enough for you to use as a rope. So therefore, your boyfriend had spent the next five minutes tying up the sleeves of all of his hoodies and jackets together to create a firm make-shift rope before tossing them over the edge of his balcony and urged you to quickly climb up before the security guard came over to do his round of check ups to see if any college students were vandalizing the side of the building. So he had you climbing up to his balcony super-spy style while he sang the international superspy song from backyardigans as moral support.

Some time while you were climbing, you had this stunning realization that Donghyuck could’ve just walked down to the lobby and hung out with you outside like a normal human being.

After reenacting the more dramatic parody of Tangled with Donghyuck being a very unhelpful Rapunzel, the first thing the brown haired boy did was invite you into the kitchen to make some scrumptious cup noodles and blast Baekhyun’s newest comeback on very loud volumes while he dances around, waiting for the water to boil.

Classic Donghyuck.

The man prioritized streaming his favorite idol’s song over the life of his own partner, this is so Donghyuck of him you can’t help but feel upset that he didn’t have some sort of large tree for you to climb like in those romance movies.

At least it wasn’t Justin Bieber.

“Bambi bambi,” he responded melodiously with a mischievous grin, pulling his hands away from yours to grab some chopsticks. ”God damn you, Byun Baekhyun,” you grumbled under your breath, laying your chin on the wooden table as Donghyuck pushed one of the cup of noodles towards you, laying some chopsticks right on top of the lid as he giddily sat across the table from you to dig in. “What brings my girlfriend to la casa lee?” he asked with a small hum, slurping the noodles into his mouth to fill his chubby cheeks with food.

“I think it’s more of la dorm instead of a casita,” you joked, looking around the kitchen to see that it was heavily decorated with taco themed streamers and ribbons. Hell, there was even a big banner that read ‘Taco Tuesday’ when you entered the kitchen.

Letting out a small snort, you glanced back at your boyfriend. “Seemed like you’ve been busy with the quote unquote ‘casita’, what’s with all the Taco Tuesday celebrations? It’s a Saturday, Duckie,” you leaned back against the chair behind you, as you observed the poorly printed taco emoji on the banner with a small scrunch of your nose. “Since when are you fluent in Spanish?” he mused, raising his eyebrows at you before slurping up his noodles and looking up at the banners with a small hum.

“I think one of Jeno’s friends planned a birthday party for him at some point. Jaemin told me they ran out of birthday banners so they just found what they thought was duable at the party store,” Donghyuck clicked his tongue, swallowing the remnants of his food before shrugging nonchalantly and going back to whatever’s left in his cup of noodles. Letting out a noise of confusion, you furrowed your brows as you waved your arms around at the banner before rubbing your face in defeat.

“Wait. Jeno?”

“He’s my roommate.”

“You have roommates?”

“Unfortunately.”

“What do you mean ‘unfortunately’? I wish I could room with someone, that sounds like fun.”

“What did you say you were here for again?”

There was a sigh at the end of his question as he glared back at you, wordlessly telling you to drop the topic as a deadpanned, exhaustion expression settled across his face with expressionless, half-lidded eyes gazing back at you. Taken aback by his sudden reaction, you swallowed your nerves as you shifted in your seat, clearing your throat as you looked down at the cup of noodles sitting innocently on the table in front of you.

You sat up straight, opening the lid to take a bite of the noodles yourself as you shrugged. “I kind of missed you,” you said nonchalantly, biting back the embarrassment seeping through you as you looked down on your noodles. The sour expression immediately dissipated from his face as Donghyuck let out a soft chuckle, a smile breaking across his lips as he stirred the noodles in his cup with his chopsticks. “My girlfriend missed me? That’s so cute,” he cooed, his eyes crinkling with joy as he turned to you with an shit eating grin, leaning his chin on his hand with his elbow propped up on the table.

Inhaling deeply, you purse your lips as you blow some air against the noodles, shoving it in your mouth as if swallowing noodles would, too, swallow the embarrassment of admitting how much you’ve been missing the older boy. “You literally climbed up to my balcony Spiderman style, of course, you missed me,” he let out a laugh of disbelief, leaning back against his chair before pinching the bridge of his nose, scrunching his face in amusement before shaking his head. “Damn, y/n. I didn’t know you were straight up in love with me,” he giggled, putting his fist to his lips to muffle his soft giggles.

“Gee, I thought it was obvious enough that I liked my boyfriend,” you said in a sarcastic tone, huffing out a puff of breath as you rolled your eyes at him, internally proud that you were able to lift the mood up again with such a small, simple yet truthful sentence.

“Damn, I didn’t know you could flirt,” he giggled, wiggling his eyebrows as he let out a staggering laugh. “It’s definitely a hidden talent of mine,” you nodded with a small snort, taking a big mouthful of your noodles as Donghyuck grinned widely at you. “You’re way too young to be this flirty,” he leaned over the dining table to ruffle the hair on your head gingerly, using his high pitched voice to coo over how cute you were being at that moment, hand reaching down to pinch your cheeks as if you were a newborn baby.

“I’m literally two years younger than you, Duckie,” you laughed, removing his hand from your face by smacking it away with your own. He pursed his lips together to make a pout, putting his hands on his hips as he grabbed his empty cup and reached for the trashcan under the sink. “Still, you’re too young to be making my heart go all boom boom for you,” he mumbled under his breath, putting a hand on his chest right above where his heart was, rubbing it slightly before moving to sit on the empty chair beside you.

Huffing slightly, you grabbed a chopstick full of your own ramen and leaned over to feed him. “By the way, have you measured your thing for the suits?” you asked, watching him take a giddy bite out of your ramen. You had already eaten before you came over so it couldn’t hurt to shove whatever’s left of your noodles down your boyfriend’s stomach, right? Pressing his thumb against his lips to wipe the excess broth that smeared all over his pink lips, he hummed with a nod, giving you an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“The tailor said it should be ready in two weeks or so,” he spoke through a mouthful of food, standing back up again and pulling out a can of coke from the fridge, grabbing another one with his freehand and shaking it slightly in his hold at you as if to say ‘you want one?’ Shaking your head at him, he placed one of the cans back in the fridge before closing it with a sway of his hip. “I’m surprised you know where I live. And I’m even more surprised that you know that I’m actually home for once,” he chuckled, sliding back to the empty chair beside you as he took a small sip of his coke.

Blinking, you realised you didn’t know how to word your sentences properly without coming off as a total stalker considering you had asked Mark for his dorm address and if he was home. But then again, this was the same boy who said yes to being your boyfriend the moment you met him. So, was there really anything to be worried about? It’s not like you’ve done anything borderline creepy or along the lines of being a sasaeng, you asked his friend for his address, that’s all. Therefore, it shouldn’t come off as creepy.

“I asked Mark for your address, the man said you weren’t home often so I asked him when you would be some so I could Flynn Rider my way through your dorm,” you snapped your fingers together, stirring the chopsticks around in the cup, watching the broth swish around with the noodles as you shrugged nonchalantly. Donghyuck let out a small hum, rubbing his chin with his two fingers before furrowing his brows. “I guess that’s far, I mean, I know your address. It would be reasonable for you to know mine,” he clicked his tongue together before opening his mouth and letting out a small ‘ah!’ pointing an index finger to his gaping mouth.

Pressing your lips together into a thin line, you fed him another spoonful with a small chuckle. “Well, I’m surely glad you think that way. I honestly thought you’d consider me as some sort of stalker,” you joked, looking down at what’s left of your noodles before shoving the remnants into your own mouth. “I can’t say I’m upset considering I’ve been thinking about going to your place earlier. I missed you too, you know. I don’t think it’s creepy, I kinda think it’s sweet of you to want to find me whenever I’m gone,” he chuckled, scratching the side of his face with his index finger before leaning over to wipe the broth away from your lips with the pad of his thumb.

A surprised expression settled on your face, you clearly weren’t expecting an answer like that from him. But the slight increase in the beating of your heart told you that you weren’t opposed to Donghyuck breaking his whole ‘idiotic clownery’ character to express his emotions like that.

But before you could say anything in response, there was a loud click from the entrance door, signalling that Donghyuck’s roommate had come home. You turned your face to the entrance, watching as a boy walked into the living room, dragging a bike along beside him, causing you to miss the way Donghyuck’s lips had turned into an abrupt frown. “Lee Haechan, are you home for once?” a deep voice called out from the living room, loud noises coming from the living room before footsteps began to approach the kitchen.

Donghyuck took a small sip from his can, tapping his index finger against the surface of his desk as he swallowed bitterly, fighting the urge to roll his eyes as you watched a built boy, not much older than you, walk into the kitchen with a towel pressed against his neck. “Dude, you really need to stop doing this. The professor came up to me for the fourth time this week to tell me that you’ve been skipping most of your classes again,” the boy said in a bitter, annoyed tone, completely ignoring your presence by walking over to the table and grabbing a glass of water for himself.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” the brown haired boy muttered without a care in the world, half lidded eyes staring off into the distance, his voice growing cold and emotionless compared to the bright and bubbly one he used merely seconds ago. You turned your head down towards your boyfriend in surprise, never having seen him in this light before. It was as if he was a completely different person.

“Haechan, I’m being serious here.”

Haechan?

Why is he calling your boyfriend ‘Haechan’?

“Sure,” Donghyuck nodded, taking another sip from his coke as he clenched his free hand into a tight fist. “If you keep skipping class like this, you know very well that they’ll remove your scholarship. Or worse, they won’t let you graduate. What’s Mom and Dad going to say if that happens?” the man continued to ramble on, completely laying personal problems on the table as if you weren’t there to begin with.

You felt like you weren’t supposed to be here but at the same time you didn’t know if you were allowed to move with how much tension that gathered in the air. The atmosphere felt suffocating as you watched Donghyuck take a deep exhale, poking his tongue against the inner walls of his cheek as hardened eyes wandering towards your concerned ones. You smiled softly at eye contact, shrugging to show that you didn’t feel bothered or uncomfortable to be witnessing this. Although his hardened glare did not waver a single bit, there was a glint in his eye that told you that he completely forgot that you were here to begin with.

“Can you not talk about this here? Right now? You wear fucking glasses, don’t you, Jeno? Can’t you see I have my girlfriend over?” Donghyuck leaned back against his chair, whipping his head around to look at who you assume was his roommate.

Jeno turned to look at you, the person sitting right beside Donghyuck while awkwardly listening in on the conversation. You waved at him politely, giving an uneasy smile before earning a soft scoff from the boy. “You’re literally never around anymore, like it or not, I have to bring this up at some point,” he crossed his arms against his chest, leaning his hip back against the kitchen counter with a pointed look stretched across his face. “But do you really have to do it now? Right here? In front of her?” Donghyuck snapped, half-lidded eyes glaring back against his roommate.

“Like I said, this needs to be brought up eventually. I can’t do it if I see you literally once in a billion years considering all you’ve done so far is running away from your goddamn problems,” Jeno snapped back with a tone similar to Donghyuck’s, earning a small scoff from the said boy. “Maybe your endless bullshit is the primary reason why I fucking ‘run away from my problems’,” Donghyuck responded with a roll of his eyes, using his fingers as quotation marks before abruptly standing up to his feet, the feet of the chair grinding against the tile floor as he reached over to gently grab your hand in his.

“Let’s go, Y/n. I’m taking you home, you can come over whenever this asshole isn’t home,” he pulled you up to your feet, not paying any mind to the frustrated biker boy standing in the middle of the messy kitchen. “You can’t keep doing this, Donghyuck,” the boy spoke in a stern tone, causing the said boy to pause in his step at the sound of his name escaping his throat. Donghyuck turned his head around, squeezing your hand as he took a step forward towards his roommate, glaring daggers into his skull.

Letting out a soft chuckle of disbelief. “You, out of people, don’t deserve to address me with that name,” he spat, his voice laced with venom as you stood awkwardly in the middle of the two like a meek rabbit in the middle of a battle between the tiger and a lion. You knew deep down that you were supposed to pull Donghyuck out of this before things got worse, to drag him outside so that he could cool off like a good girlfriend. But for one, you were too scared to do anything for fear of making things worse. And two, you were way too curious to see how this whole conflict would end.

“I’m your older brother. If anything, I have a right to call you by that name.”

Okay, you know what? Never mind. This was getting too much, even for you.

“Duckie, let’s leave,” you tugged on his hand that was holding yours so tight you swore it was going to pop off. “Older brother? Fuck off, all you’ve done is show off in front of our parents. It was your fault I’m like this in the first place,” he hissed back, completely ignoring your small attempts to tug him away from making the atmosphere thicken with tension. Sighing, you patted his back aggressively, gathering both of their attention as you shoved your thumb behind you, jabbing it towards the direction of the door.

“I saw a pet shop downtown selling hedgehogs,” you said, nodding your head towards the door before giving him a tight-lipped smile. “Let’s go, Donghyuck,” you reached down to grab his hand as if he wasn’t in the middle of an argument with his roommate, the use of his full name pulling him away from the conversation quite literally. “Let me grab my keys,” his voice had softened even though there was a tint of frustration evident behind it as he let out a sigh, looking back to glare at his roommate as if looks could kill before storming off to his room to get some things.

Nodding, you pressed your lips into a thin line, wrapping your arms around yourself awkwardly as you tapped your foot against the tile to wait for Donghyuck. Looking back at Jeno, who was rubbing his temples with the balls of his palms in distress, you blinked as you let out a small, awkward cough. “I’m Y/n, by the way. Donghyuck’s girlfriend, nice to meet you,” you introduced, reaching a hand out for him to shake as you grinned to ease the tension in the atmosphere.

Jeno had only spared a glance at you before Donghyuck had stumbled back in, pulling the sleeves of his sweatshirt through his arms as his car keys jingled in between his fingers. “Let’s go, y/n,” he called out, heading straight towards the door without wasting a single second to take a small look at his roommate. “Coming,” you exclaimed, leaning over to the dining table to snatch your bag, quickly slinging it across your shoulder before trailing along your boyfriend without saying goodbye to the man standing in the kitchen.

The moment you caught up to him in his car, Donghyuck slumped forward and pressed his forehead against the steering wheel, taking deep breaths to calm himself down as he gripped the leather material tightly with his fists. Sliding into the front seat, you clicked your tongue as you smacked your hands on your lap, turning your head to your frustrated boyfriend before leaning back against your seat. “Well that was anticlimactic,” you chuckled, watching Donghyuck turn his head around to look at you, an unreadable expression settling right across his face.

“I’m gonna take you home now, Y/n,” he sighed, pulling away from the steering wheel to stick his keys in to start the car.

“Aw man, I actually wanted to come take a look at those hedgehogs. I know how much you love them,” you grabbed the seatbelt, pulling it to click the buckle in place. “I think you’ve already seen way too much of me for one day,” Donghyuck mused with a chuckle, a small smile stretching across his face at how at ease you were despite the fact that you had witnessed a big conflict not even three hours into visiting your boyfriend’s dorm for the first time.

Smiling, you twirled your finger around in the air with a small shrug. “I didn’t mind, at least I got to see your place for once and even though the whole experience only consisted of us joking around while eating cup noodles,” you joked, fishing out your phone from your bag to see what time it was. Donghyuck bit his lip nervously, sighing heavily as the car slowed to a stop at the sight of a red light. “I’m really sorry about that, Y/n. I mean, if Jeno hadn’t come home, we would’ve hung out longer or maybe finished Money Heist without Mr Universe meowing aggressively at us,” he gave you a brief smile before frowning abruptly.

“Duckie, I’m serious, you shouldn’t be apologizing. I can come over the next time you’re free. I’m just glad I was able to spend some time with you, life was getting pretty boring without you around to do weird shit with me,” you shrugged nonchalantly, leaning over to pinch his cheeks gingerly. A genuine smile broke out across Donghyuck’s lips as he gazed back at you with an expression filled with adoration, leaning over to pat your head, caressing his thumb against your hair before leaning forward and nuzzling his head against yours.

“Thanks for pulling me out of there, I would’ve probably gotten my ass beaten to a pulp if you didn’t step in. Jeno does boxing, you know,” he huffed, pulling away to continue driving once the red light turned green.

You let out a laugh. “You’re telling me that if I hadn’t stepped in, your boxer roommate would beat you up? Well, you should be glad that I had decided to climb up to your dorm,” you snickered, nudging his side with your elbow teasingly, earning a soft fit of chuckles from your now bubbly boyfriend. “Shut up, I was always the weaker one in the family. Not my fault he’s a golden child,” he pursed his lips into a small pout, shaking his head at the thought. There was some sort of bitterness that stuck against his words, indicating that his words held some truth.

“That sounds like you had a fun childhood,” you leaned your elbow against the window, pressing your fist against your cheek. “You have no idea,” he said, the emotion in his voice dying down as he focused on the road in front of him, letting the silence seep into the atmosphere between you two as Donghyuck finally parked right in front of your house. “Are you not coming in?” you asked, turning your head towards the brown haired boy, who ruffled his hair in distress as he shook his head in response.

“I think I’m going to wander around a bit,” he answered, tone void of emotion. You stared at him, watching as an unreadable expression settled upon his features. He was going to disappear again. You couldn’t blame him for wanting to disappear after everything that’s happened in the past couple of hours but you knew he couldnt keep doing this. “Hey, Duckie,” you called out as the car halted in place, the sound of Donghyuck relaxing back against his seat, the only thing breaking the quietness between you.

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t you tired from running away all the time?”

There was the sound of Donghyuck clicking his tongue, tapping his index finger against the steering wheel as he looked out of the window, tongue pressed against the inner wall of his cheek. “Why’d you ask? Are you that curious about my life?” he asked, watching you from your reflection on the window. Taking a deep breath, you tapped your foot anxiously before shrugging softly. “I mean, it’s totally cool if you don’t want to tell me. I just want you to know that whatever shit you’re going through, I’ll be here to listen,” you grabbed your bag and reached your hand to the door handle.

“If you ever get into a fight like that again, instead of disappearing for days, you’re always welcome to come over to my house to hang out. My parents don’t mind either. I know we’ve been dating for only a few months but,” you closed your eyes and took a deep breath before glancing down at your lap. “Mi casa is su casa,” you joked lightly in an attempt to lighten up the mood. But alas, Donghyuck’s expressionless form didn’t falter.

Frowning at the lack of response, you pulled the door handle and pushed the car door open with a small “I’ll see you around, Duckie.” escaping your lips.

“Y/n.”

“Yeah?”

“I missed you too.”

“What did you just say?”

“I didn’t get to say it earlier, did I? I missed you too.”

vii. happy birthday to dingdong!

Ah yes, Saturdays. The one day senior high school students like you can wake up despite the unbelievable amount of schoolwork and exams piling up your back like a burden you can’t avoid or get rid of.

Well, that’s for your future self to worry about. For now, you’re as content as Oogway from the Kung Fu Panda series considering both of your parents are out on a business trip for the next week or two. Leaving you (and Mr Universe) all alone for the time being, therefore, here you are, lounging horizontally on your couch in a poorly printed anime shirt and some cotton shorts while watching whatever was on TV considering Mr Universe was sleeping on his little bed without disturbing you.

Mr Universe may not be disturbing your relaxing day, but whoever was knocking aggressively on the door while spamming the doorbell button definitely was.

Groaning, you dragged yourself off the couch, rubbing your eyes with one hand as you limped over to the door, reaching your hand over to the door handle to turn the key and twist the handle, revealing none other than your boyfriend, Lee Donghyuck, who had ominous coloured his cheeks a rosy pink, a rainbow afro wig covering his luscious brown locks, sporting a white button up with bright red suspenders. In his hands was a bright matcha cake with two candles lit up.

Clearing his throat with a fist to his hand, he gave you a bright smile.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!”

“Wait, but it’s not my birthday?”

“I spent two minutes knocking on your door and spamming the doorbell button with a cake in hand, the most you can do for your beloved boyfriend right now is let him sing.”

“Duckie, it’s not my birthday.”

“I didn’t say it was YOUR birthday. It’s MY birthday, you dumbass.”

“Oh.”

Staring at the adorable pout that had been placed on his lips, you blinked to get your thoughts straight. “You wanna get in?” you asked, taking a step back to push the door wider, nodding your head towards the living room. Nodding eagerly, Donghyuck strutted into your house with his cake in hand which was the moment when you realised that the boy had tied two balloons into the loop of his pants, causing your eyebrows to raise up when you saw two red balloons bump against the upper door frame.

“I didn’t know you like… matcha,” you mused as you observed his whole clown costume (a very fitting cosplay, you gotta admit), shutting the door behind you as you followed him into the kitchen, where Donghyuck made himself feel at home as he grabbed two forks for you two to dig in. “Oh, this? I’m not that fond of matcha if I’m being honest, I just bought it because it had a 50% discount and look! It has macarons stuck to it, who doesn’t like macarons?” he took a deep sniff of the cake, sighing softly as he reached over to grab a mouthful of his own cake.

“Hey Duckie, do you mind if I buy you a gift next time?” you asked, walking up towards him as you opened your bank account on your phone, your mind getting flashbacks to all those times you spent online shopping at 3 AM at the mere sight of how empty your account was. The popping sound of the fork being shoved out of his lips caused your gaze to turn back to lay on his facial features, an easy smile stretched across his face as he shook his head. “I don’t care about gifts or all that shit, I don’t mind if you don’t get me anything. I just want you to do this one simple thing for me,” his smile was thin and mischievous but you didn’t think much of it.

Now, another thing you had learned about Donghyuck during your whole relationship was that if he saw an open opportunity, he would take it without a second thought. Therefore, of course he would be abusing his birthday powers.

Hence why you were standing in the middle of the kitchen in a clown suit identical to his (minus the rainbow afro wig because Donghyuck said his part time jobs weren’t paying him enough to buy another one), it was as if you had walked straight out of that old disney short series, Jojo The Clown. Scratch that, you ARE Jojo the Clown. “Oh my god, couple goals!” Donghyuck squealed, racing over to cup your cheeks to mush them together, causing your lips to pucker up like a duck’s beak.

“It’s giving Ronald McDonalds,” you deadpanned, waddling over to the mirror in your room to get a good look of your face.

“Wait, get back here! I haven’t finished the triangles under your eyes”

“So, where are we going?” you asked, holding onto your suspenders as you and Donghyuck walked hand in hand down the busy streets and through the crowded food stalls.

“I wanted to go to my favorite soup place. Working part time in a barbeque place makes me crave something watery,” he said with a giddy smile, eyes lit like the sun burning down against your exposed skin. Ah, right. Donghyuck worked part time as a bartender and as a staff at a barbeque restaurant. No wonder your parents adored this boy so much, not only was he secretly smart (hence his major in Political Science), he was also tackling two jobs at once to pay his half of the rent (despite the fact that his existence was barely present in his dorm).

Furrowing your brows, you turned your head towards him in curiosity.

“What about your friends though?”

“Oh, they don’t know my birthday.”

“I’m honored that you decided to spend it with me. But we won’t be gone for long, right?”

“Why’d you ask?” Donghuck paused in his step, a small pout forming on his pink lips as he looked down at you with a concerned expression on your face. “Don’t you wanna hang out with me? I just wanted to do a few things with you today but it’s totally cool if you want to go back home and relax,” he squeezed your hand lovingly to show that he was serious with his words but his saddened expression made him resemble that of a kicked puppy. He was being way too cute for a boy with a rainbow afro wig and clown makeup.

Shaking your head vigorously, you grabbed his other hand and squeezed them both gingerly. “Nope, I’m not going home until we do everything you want. Today’s a special day for Lee Donghyuck and we’re going to make it a memorable one! I’m just a tad bit concerned that Mr Universe might knock over the TV since our wifi has been pretty laggy, you know how he gets when his favorite ballet performances are interrupted,” you laughed lightly, a genuine expression stretching across your face as you watched Donghyuck’s eyes lit up once again at your words. Oh, how you would cry, scream, bleed, backflip and die for this boy.

“Great, now shut up and move. If you say anything else in retaliation, I’ll kiss you. We’ve got a whole fucking list to finish!” he exclaimed with a high pitched tone, raising a fist up to the air in victory as he pulled you down the streets hand in hand towards his favorite soup restaurant.

Well, if you could make a list of the admirable factors that makes Lee Donghyuck the person that he was. The first thing you would include was his luscious long brown hair that tickled the nape of his neck (obviously, who wouldn’t? Have you seen the cute boy pouting with his hair falling over his eyes? Ugh, a complete heartthrob). The second thing you would list was the fact that he had an exquisite taste in food.

“I love you,” he sighed heavily, leaning his chin on his palm as his pupils practically morphed into hearts.

“Duckie, stop staring at the soup like that, it’s going to get cold,” you snickered, waving your gloved hand in front of his face to snap him out of his trance. Humming merrily, he shoved the spoon filled with broth into his mouth, moaning dramatically at the nostalgic taste. “This is the shit, I tell you. I used to eat this all the time back when I was still in high school, plus this place is well hidden. Only the real special ones get to come to this place, you’re lucky to know me, babe,” he mused, a smug expression spread across his face as he took another delighted slurp of his soup.

Smiling mindlessly at the blissful expression spread across his face, you cocked your head to the side with a smug expression of your own. “Babe, huh?”

“We’re literally dating, is it wrong of me to call you ‘babe’?” he pursed his lips, rolling his eyes at you with a soft chuckle, indicating that the pet name just rolled off of his tongue without a thought. “No, no,” you shook your head with a wave of your hand, taking your chopsticks to take a bite of one of the free side dishes set on your table. “It just reminded me of the day we met. You hated those types of nicknames since they were so cheesy,” you grinned, eyes widening at the burst of flavors that tickle your taste buds.

“You’re one to talk, you hated them too,” he stuck his tongue out playfully as he leaned over to grab some of the side dish for himself. “Shut up, I’m just realising now that the nicknames we chose were equally as cheesy,” you raised your shoulders with an innocent shrug, leaning over to taste his soup, earning a small ‘hey!’ in retaliation from the sun-kissed boy. “I mean, I think ‘sun’ was kind of cheesy which is why I don’t use it that often, but ‘Duckie’ is unique!” he exclaimed enthusiastically.

Chuckling, you shook your head. “So you’re admitting that in comparison to my nickname for you, yours suck ass?” you joked, leaning your head to the side, earning an abrupt frown from the older boy, who leaned over to pinch your nose like a horn. “Okay, woah there! I never said that,” he laughed, his hand moving up from your nose to flick your forehead softly. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, I’m just saying that Duckie is a less cringier nickname than Sun,” he huffed, puffing up his cheeks before shaking his head profusely.

“I don’t know about you, Duckie. But that sounds like a confession,” you placed your elbows on the table, leaning your face on your palms as your eyes gazed into his. “You’re making this sound way more romantic than it is,” he snickered, leaning his cheek against his own as he mirrored your actions and bore his eyes into yours. Chuckling, the smile on your lips curled even wider at the soft eye contact, embracing the soft moment.

I’m sorry, eye contact?

No, scratch that. it was a three minute eye contest.

“Well, I’m beat.” He groaned, raising his hands above his head as you both walked up to your house with bags filled with random prizes you won at the arcade’s crane games an hour prior. “I could really use some good alcohol tonight to celebrate our momentous victory,” he stated, pulling off his rainbow afro wig to plop it on the coffee table before ruffling his messy, brown hair as you turned the door handle open with a small, exhausted chuckle. “Alcohol, huh? Didn’t think you were much of a drinker, Duckie,” you walked over to the living room, putting the heavy white paper bags on the coffee table as you watched your boyfriend collapse onto the couch, sighing heavily in content.

He laid an arm under his head before shrugging, eyes gazing up at the ceiling. “Well, I don’t drink much but as an adult and a college student, I do drink on occasion. Plus, I’m literally a bartender, come on,” he waved his hand off nonchalantly as you shrugged the white gloves off of your hands and slapped them on the coffee table before laying down on the couch beside him. “Do you always spend your birthdays robbing the whole crane game section of the arcade or is this just a one time thing?” you asked, overlapping your hands on your stomach as you turned your head to look at him.

“I don’t usually spend my birthday,” he shrugged, not tearing his gaze away from the grey ceiling. His words weighed so much sadness yet he said it as if it was an everyday occurrence, your heart couldn’t help but weigh down in your chest. “Why not?” you asked, closing your eyes for a brief moment, taking a deep inhale as silence settled in between you. When you opened your eyes, your head turned to gaze at the kitchen doorway, waiting for Donghyuck to make a decision to either change the topic just like how he always did whenever you asked something that required him opening up or to actually open up.

Standing in your kitchen doorway was Mr Universe and your doppleganger.

Your doppleganger had their arms crossed against their chest, an unreadable expression stretched across their face. Sighing inaudibly, you turned back to look at your boyfriend, who was still gazing up at the ceiling with a cloudy expression across his pretty features. You watched him close his eyes, taking a deep breath before smacking his lips together, as if he was buying himself some time to think about what to say next.

“My parents were those typical strict Asian parents. They had really fat wallets and a billion credit cards, though they never had enough of it. They had high expectations and they had enough money to send their kids to the most prestigious schools,” he started with a click of his tongue, opening his eyes as his soft, melodious voice pierced the quiet atmosphere. “Jeno and I were only a few months apart, me being the younger. They were pretty happy when Jeno said he wanted to pursue medicine in the medical department or whatever,” he shrugged, lowering his arm to place both of his hands on his stomach as he took another inhale.

Your eyes widened at the sight of the boy being so calm and collected, to see the sun-kissed boy who was usually so secretive, who used to change topics whenever you brought something too personal up, who avoids talking about his personal life like the plague. To see him spill out a vulnerable part of himself as he gathered the courage to open up even more.

“Sorry, I’ve never really told anyone about this without changing the topic, I didn’t know venting could be this complicated,” he let out a soft, bitter laugh, rubbing his face with his hand to his forehead. Your facial features softened at the sight of him looking so vulnerable, you couldn’t help but stretch your hand out to lay your hand on his, patting it comfortingly, causing him to turn his face back to stare into yours. He looked so unbelievably exhausted. His eyebags looked even more protruded, evident of how many sleepless nights he spent.

Taking a hand in yours, you squeezed it gingerly. “Take your time, I’m all ears.”

He smiled briefly at the affectionate action, turning his head back to gaze at the ceiling. “Jeno was the kind of kid every parent dreamed of. Athletic, smart, studies as if his life depended on it, responsible as fuck. And my parents took pride in that. ‘Lee Jeno, the golden child,’ everyone in the family bragged about him as if he had won the fucking Nobel peace prize,” he squeezed your hand to let out some internalized frustration as he closed his eyes tight. “And then there was me;

Lee Donghyuck. That darn kid.”

He let out a bitter laugh, the way his tone was filled with such spite when he said his own name made your heart squeeze. “I was the complete opposite of Jeno. School wasn’t really my thing. I procrastinated on my assignments alot, I liked making a complete fool of myself to make others laugh. I hated studying but my parents made me do it anyway. I’m not a dumb kid but they definitely treat me like one,” he ran a hand through his hair in distress, taking a deep breath as you moved to intertwine your fingers with his, silently urging him to go on. “I wanted to perform. I guess cracking jokes in front of everyone in class got me into that sort of thing.”

“Performing on stage made me feel as if I could disappear from the world; disappear from reality.”

“My parents never liked the idea of me enrolling in a music school, they told me that I’ll just land myself in the streets since no one would ever want to hear me sing,” Donghyuck clicked his tongue, poking it against the inside of his cheek as his half lidded eyes rolled in frustration. “They thought I’d be better off doing something quote unquote ‘useful’ with my life. So I spent a majority of my high school years trying to convince them that I really wanted to pursue music. I joined singing competitions, I joined clubs at school, I got part time jobs to pay for my own music lessons. Yet all they’ve ever done was knock over the trophies I won from all those competitions and cuss at me,” his tone grew quieter with each and every word that spilled from his mouth.

“It went on for so long. They stopped talking to me altogether unless I changed my mind. It’s not like they cared though, this just gave them a chance to ignore their dumb son, Donghyuck, and focus more on their beloved Jeno.”

Your heart ached with every word that escaped his lips as you rubbed his knuckles with your thumb in a weak attempt to give him all the comfort he needed, you had never known this side of Donghyuck. You’ve been dating for more than half a year and this is the first you’ve seen of him truly letting all of his frustrations out and you never expected things to be this bad for him. You couldn’t imagine how much pain he must’ve gone through during those years, the years he should’ve used to spend more time with his family and his friends.

“I didn’t know what the fuck went through my head. Maybe it was out of pure desperation. Maybe it was because I felt so alone. Or maybe because I didn’t know what else to do. So eventually, I thought of a plan. In my senior year of high school, I won’t be Donghyuck anymore. Kind of silly since my birthname is literally Donghyuck,” he let out a small laugh at his own joke, his hand going through his hair before gripping it tightly in frustration. “I was going to rebrand myself, change completely. I’d study like my whole life depended on it, just like Jeno does. I’d get into the same prestigious college Jeno was applying to, I’d pursue Political Science because that would be a major that my parents could be proud of.”

“I settled for the name Lee Haechan. In comparison to Lee Donghyuck, he was the son my parents expected me to be. He studied hard, he got into a prestigious college, he didn’t walk around singing Justin Bieber songs to entertain people. He was someone my parents could be proud of. And Lee Haechan did all that which landed me to where I am right now,” his voice was getting slightly shaky, making you realise that he was holding back literal tears as your eyes glanced over to his face.

HIs eyes were watery with exhaustion and distress but he darted his pupils upwards to keep the tears from dropping as he sniffled. “Fuck, I hated it. I hated it so fucking much. Political Science wasn’t my thing, I just did it to make my parents proud of me. In the end, I just snapped completely. I stopped coming to classes, I stopped coming back to the dorms but still paid my end of the rent, I stopped coming in contact with my parents, Jeno, everyone,” he tossed his arm over his eyes as his bottom lip quivered. “I couldn’t take going to school everyday, coming back to the dorms to study, going out to work for hours to pay rent and returning home to study again, just to repeat it all over again the next day. I fucking hated every single minute of it.”

HIs voice broke when saying that last sentence. The sympathy and concern weighed down your heart as you stared wordlessly at him, heart aching for the sun-kissed boy who shone like the sun itself. Not daring to cut him off in the middle of his breakdown, you could tell that he needed to let it all out after holding it for seemingly God knows how long. In the midst of it, you tried to find the right words to comfort him. To reassure him that he didn’t have to succumb to that sort of lifestyle. To reassure him that he wasn’t alone. But you merely couldn’t even put it into words. After all, at times like this, what exactly could you say to someone who had suffered for that long?

“Where do you go when you disappear, Donghyuck?”

There was a soft sob that escaped his throat. “Fuck, I don’t know,” his voice cracked at the end of it, as he rubbed his tears away furiously. “I just drive for days and days, maybe stay in a motel, go over to a friend’s house. I just need to feel like I have some sort of control in my life. I've been working everyday to apply to this school in Canada, sometimes it gets too much and I just need to disappear. Just for a brief moment,” he took a deep breath to collect himself as he rubbed his face in frustration before finally looking at you, his nose was red and his eyes were bloodshot as he pressed his cheek against the cushion of the sofa.

“I’m so fucking tired, Y/n,” he laughed, shaking his head as you leaned closer to lay your head on top of his, letting him lean his cheek against your shoulder as the boy finally allowed his pent up emotions to streak down his face.

“Wait, Y/n. Why aren’t you crying with me? You’re supposed to cry too when seeing your boyfriend cry.”

“Fuck, you’re right. Give my underdeveloped tear ducts a second to work.”

Your free hand went up to caress his hair as you took a deep breath, collecting yourself as Mr Universe found his way up towards the couch and crawled onto Donghyuck’s lap. “Do you know what I always do whenever I feel like disappearing too?” you asked quietly, earning a small pondering hum from the distraught boy, feeling his thumb run over the skin of the back of your palm affectionately. “What?” he asked, turning his head slightly to look back at you.

“Close your eyes, Duckie.”

“What? Why?”

“Just do it.”

With a sigh, his eyes fluttered shut, nuzzling his cheek against your shoulder as he squeezed your hand. “Now what?” he deadpanned, a hint of amusement still staining his tone. “Now repeat after me. ‘Twinkle twinkle hoy!’” you exclaimed with a dramatic tone. Letting out a noise of confusion, Donghyuck opened his eyes to glance back at you skeptically, a small smile spreading across his lips as he sniffled, wiping the dried tears on his cheeks with the back of his hand. “What the fuck?” he exclaimed, earning urgent shushes from you as you placed a finger on his lip, moving it in opposite directions.

“Duckie!”

“Okay, okay! I’m closing them! What do you want me to say again?”

“Repeat after me, twinkle twinkle hoy!”

There was a genuine smile that hung off of his lips, minus the fact that there are dried tear stains decorating his squishy cheek as you grabbed both of his hands and squeezed them gingerly. “Twinkle twinkle hoy!” He exclaimed with his eyes closed, sniffling as he smiled softly at the silly phrase. “See, you’re smiling! It worked,” you pulled your hand from his grip, poking at one of the pretty moles on his face victoriously. “What does that even mean?” he asked, furrowing his brows in slight confusion as he chuckled in amusement.

You shrugged. “Beats me. My uncle said if I ever feel shitty, I should close my eyes and say ‘twinkle twinkle hoy’ as if some kind of God will pop up and magically make me happy. Somehow it actually works everytime,” you reached over to pet Mr Universe, who was lying peacefully on Donghyuck’s lap, fingers running through the soft white fur as Donghyuck couldn’t take his eyes off of you. “Twinkle, twinkle hoy, huh? Sounds like something you’d tell to kids,” he mused, looking down at the cat sitting peacefully on his legs before glancing back up at you.

“Shut up, I was like 7 when he told me this,” you smacked his arm teasingly, watching him toss it to the back of the couch, using his free hand to lean the side of his head to his fist, elbow propped up on the cushions.

“You should really stop making weird but cute phrases during really serious moments, it’s not healthy for my heart.”

viii. la seine and i

“Hey dude, isn’t that Y/n?” Mark tapped Donghyuck’s arm with the back of his hand, pointing at your figure petting a stray cat right in front of the lobby of his college campus. Squinting his eyes, the brown haired boy furrowed his brows to see if it was truly you before he could do anything stupid (he won’t ever tell you this, but there was this one time where he thought he saw you walking down the halls of his dormitory and he started calling out your name like a lunatic, only for the person to turn around and reveal that it was just one of his senior’s significant other).

Widening his eyes with a loud gasp, he confirmed it was you when you jumped back and fell on your ass when the cat started hissing violently at you (inevitably causing the other innocent bystanders to flinch and jump away). “Yikes, that’s gotta hurt. Why don’t you invite her out to have some ramen with us, Hae-”

“Y/N!”

Before Mark could finish his sentence, the bright, brown haired boy was already sprinting eagerly towards you with his arms wide open, leaving his best friend behind without a second thought. Bros before hoes, my good friends. You glanced up at the familiar, yet whiny, call of your name, putting your hands on your knees as you sat on the concrete ground, spotting a wild Donghyuck running towards you with his arms wide open. “Did you miss me that much, Duckie?” you teased as the boy got on his knees right in front of you and pulled you towards his body into a tight, warm hug.

“Duckie?” you called out, reaching a hand up to his back when you realised that he hadn’t said anything for at least five minutes. Feeling the heat creep up in your chest at the intimate silence that had settled in between you, the butterflies in your stomach quickly scattered the instant you heard a loud, deep snore pierce your eardrums, making you realise that the bastard had run up towards you only so that he could use you as a human pillow to sleep on the concrete floor. Taking a deep inhale, you smacked his back aggressively in an attempt to wake him up.

“You asshole, wake up! My body isn’t mentally stable enough to handle your heavy ass,” you exclaimed, waving your hand over to call over Mark, who was just watching the both of you from a great distance, pretending as if he didn’t know either of you as he refused to look up from the upside down textbook in his hands whenever you screeched his name aloud for him to help you get his friend up to his feet. Sighing, you refrained from damaging his back even further by patting his head, taking a small sniff of his sun-scented hair before reaching over to grab the plastic bag on the floor beside you.

“I brought snacks,” you stated, shaking the bag filled with food, which inevitably resurrected Donghyuck’s soul from the dream realm. “Snacks?” he gaped, putting his hands on your shoulders to pull away from the embrace, eyes sparkling with love and adoration (for snacks, not you).

“You really didn’t have to buy me snacks, though,” Donghyuck said with a mouthful of chocolate mochi as he stared at the flat screen TV in front of you, letting you make miniscule pony tails on his head with tiny colourful rubber bands.

“I would be lying if I told you that you were the first thing on my mind when I saw these at the minimarket,” you snorted truthfully, reaching over to grab a jelly bean from the open package right beside your knee as you successfully made another ponytail with his hair. “Fair enough,” he shrugged nonchalantly as he finally settled on a movie for you two to watch for the day. Looking up from the screen, you saw ‘A Monster In Paris’ written in big bold letters on the screen, the summary written right at the corner of the screen.

You squint your eyes as you scanned the description of the movie before turning to your boyfriend with your lips pursed in confusion. “Are we seriously going to watch the flea version of The Bee Movie? Duckie, I knew you liked jazz but I didn’t think you’d be into this,” you joked, putting a hand on your forehead dramatically as you reached over to the front pocket of your bag to fish out another mini hairband, running your free hand through his front bangs to gather them into a small bundle.

“Shut up, A monster in Paris is literally on a god-tier level in comparison to Bee Movie. Trust me, you’d simp on Francour the flea more than you would simp on Barry the fucking Bee. Plus, La Seine and I is a literal masterpiece of a song, you’re about to experience greatness here!” Donghyuck exclaimed with a whine, shoving food in his face as he pressed the play button, continuing on with his little tangent on how degrading and offensive it was for you to call A Monster In Paris ‘the flea version’ of the Bee Movie.

“Do you guys seriously have to do this couple-y stuff at my place?” Mark’s unfortunate figure stood in the doorway of his own flat, putting on his sneakers. Donghyuck turned around, laying his arms over the back of the couch with big thumbs up as he bid his friend a large goodbye. “You’re the only person I know who thinks A Monster In Paris is a great movie, of course we had to do this here!” Donghyuck exclaimed enthusiastically with a high pitched voice, causing Mark to let out an amused laugh, waving goodbye to the both of you before leaving for his afternoon classes.

Not even twenty minutes later, Donghyuck (in his 13 tiny ponytail glory) had you rolled up into some sort of sushi with Mark’s cheetah printed carpet out of pure boredom. ‘I’ve watched this movie a gabillion times, I’m waiting for the La Seine and I musical number!’ was what he said when he carried you bridal style and placed you down horizontally on the carpet only to roll the carpet into you as if you were some kind of log.

He sat on the floor, with his head leaning back against the cushions of the couch, eyes staring at the flat screen TV as the scene where Lucille was dressing up Francouer for the show as she had needed more musicians for her opening act and since Francouer, being the musically talented flea that he is, was the only candidate she had. “You know I wish I was francouer,” Donghyuck mumbled, his voice interrupting whatever the characters were saying on the screen as he pouted mindlessly.

“Why so?” you asked, mindlessly chewing on the jelly beans as you sat on the floor while looking like a cheap, inedible sushi. “No one in this city is like Lucille. It’s not like I can sing in the streets and someone’s going to go ‘hey, do you want to sing for my restaurant?’,” he exclaimed, using random hand motions to express his frustrations as you let out a laugh. “Please don’t sing in the streets, people will assume you’re some kind of beggar or something,” you joked, trying to wiggle out of your little burrito prison as Donghyuck’s long awaited musical number finally started.

“Plus, I’ve heard you sing before, you deserve way more than to sing at some measly restaurant, Duckie,” you grunted as you tried to sit up but the layers of carpet surrounding you were holding you back from doing so. “I guess so. I mean I am kind of singing part time at the bar I’m working at, so that sort of counts, doesn't it?” he hummed, rubbing his chin with his fingers as he stared into the screen, enjoying the soft vocals that serenade his senses. He really has been working hard to achieve his dreams of being a musician, huh? You even heard he was applying for a student exchange music program in Canada.

‘I feel alive when I’m beside La Seine, La Seine, La Seine,’ sang Francoer.

La Seine, referring to ‘the river’ in French but also a play on words with another French word that meant the stage. Representing Donghyuck’s longing to be on the stage.

Sucking in your cheeks into your mouth, you glanced over to the window, spotting the pouring rain that was hitting the surface of the glass. Humming softly, you unroll yourself across the floor to free yourself from your cheetah-printed prison, raising your arms as a silent victory to celebrate your freedom before grabbing a green coloured jelly bean and popping it in between your lips. “Hey, Lee Donghyuck,” you called out softly, crawling towards him before kneeling right beside his sitting figure so you were at the same eye level.

“Yeah?” he hummed, turning away from the TV.

Grabbing his cheeks gently in your palms, you leaned closer to his face. His eyes widened slightly in surprise at the sudden action but softened when they meet your own soft gaze, watching you press your lips to his without an ounce of hesitation in your movement as you passed the neon green jelly bean from in between your lips to his. A small pop sound could be heard as you pulled away from the makeshift kiss, Donghyuck’s unreadable (yet slightly surprised) expression peering through your gaze as he chewed nonchalantly on the jelly bean as if you hadn’t just experienced your first kiss together a few seconds ago.

“I hate lime flavored jelly beans,” you stated casually, reaching over to your backpack and pulling out two plastic bags filled with fabric, tossing one of them onto the brown boy’s lap.

“Suit up, we’re going to have our own mini La Seine musical number.”

And here you both were, standing in the rain with suits right in front of an empty Mc Donald’s parking lot.

Donghyuck was wearing a vermillion themed suit with his hands tucked into his pockets as while as you were wearing a beige themed suit, phones hidden in the front seats of his car as his radio blasted Looking Out For You by Joy Again on full volume to set the mood. “We look incredibly attractive in our suits,” you exclaimed with hands on your hips as Donghyuck examined himself on the blurry reflection of his windows. “I didn’t know our suits were ready, thank god I already paid for them beforehand,” he commented, tugging on the cuffs of his dress shirt before pushing back his soaking wet brown hair.

“Told you this is a way better idea than crashing at Mark’s place watching a flea movie while I get imprisoned in a carpet sushi. Now come on!” you exclaimed proudly, reaching over to grab both of his hands and tugged him in the middle of the empty parking lot, letting the raindrops hit the surface of your skin, wetting both of your hair and clothing as you felt the suit stick to your skin uncomfortably, but you knew that neither of you cared. So then, with the volume of the song raised up, you began to dance around, dilly dallying around the empty parking lot

‘The stage makes you feel as if you both had disappeared from the world.’

Well, you both may not be dancing on a stage in front of an audience. But you felt as if you had completely disappeared from the world, not in the depressing context that Donghyuck often used. You both disappeared from the world in a sense as if you had travelled into another realm together, a realm that was specifically just for the two of you. A world that was purely made for you to have fun, to dance around with hands intertwined tightly against each others with never ending music serenading you for hours and hours on end.

“Donghyuck, stop stepping on my foot!”

“Why are you the one complaining? You’re stepping on mine too, dumbass!”

At that moment, with bright smiles spread across your faces as you twirled around in the rain, intertwined your hands and swayed to the rhythm of the fun playlist you had made just for the occasion during the drive here, arms occasionally locked as you both danced in a circle with both of your laughter muffling the sound of pouring rain and the car speakers. Donghyuck let out a loud laugh, throwing his head back when he watched you slip and stumble over your own feet due to the slippery ground.

“Fuck!” he cursed out.

You watched as he took a step back to compose himself but ended up slipping over a puddle of water, laughing even harder as you joined in on his contagious fit of laughter. Smiling till your cheeks hurt at the sight of the boy tossing his head back in joy as he laid back down on the concrete floor, not caring about how the water soaked his suit even more, his chest shaking as laughter continued to erupt out of his chest, placing both of his hands on his stomach. You waddled over towards him, sitting right beside his laying finger as you pushed the front bangs of his wet hair back with a giggle.

“I swear, I saw sparks when you laughed like that,” he awed, looking up at you with pure adoration, laughing slightly as he grabbed your hand, intertwining it with his tightly. “Sparks, huh?” you wiggled your brows suggestively, putting your free hand on your chest. “I didn’t know Lee Donghyuck was such a romantic charmer.” That sentence alone caused the grin on Donghyuck’s lips to stretch even wider. “I’d trip like that a billion more times to feel the way I did when I saw you laugh like that,” he sat up, putting his hands behind him to support him as you crossed your legs.

“Yeah?”

“I think I like you way too much, Y/n,” he chuckled in embarrassment, squeezing your hand as he leaned his head up to feel the rain pour down on his angelic face. “I really think I like you way too much,” he shook his head profusely at you, smiling as if it was his last as you leaned forward and cupped his cheeks, squeezing on them affectionately. “I’m glad the feeling’s mutual. If you really didn’t like me after all these months of dating, I would honestly start bawling my eyes out like a baby on the spot,” you joked, shaking his head in your palms, cradling it as if he was a baby.

Huffing, he let out a scoff. “You’re shitting me. I like you so much right now I’d book a plane ticket to Canada right this moment and put you in my suitcase to take you with me.”

“Is that something I should be concerned about, Lee Donghyuck?”

“Let me be romantic for once, woman.”

Donghyuck watched as you leaned forward towards his face, pushing the hair away from his face as your faces grew closer to eachothers, his half lidded eyes stared into your chapped lips, causing him to lick his own. Feeling your heated breath make contact with his skin, the older boy slowly fluttered his eyelids to a close, awaiting the soft impact of your lips on his as he placed his hands on your hips, holding you close to him to get more body heat in the middle of this cold weather.

Alas, he shot his eyes open when he realised that you weren’t going to kiss him.

You were sniffing his hair again.

“You just had to ruin the moment, huh?” he grabbed your chin with his thumb and index finger, angling your head down so that you were facing Donghyuck’s slightly pissed off expression. “What did I do now?” you asked in genuine concern, raising your brows in surprise. “Just a moment ago, you were saying how much you like me and now you’re upset because I sniffed your hair?” you asked with a deadpan expression, putting your lips together into a thin line, moving your hands from his face to his shoulders when you realised that you were now kneeling in between his legs.

“I really thought we were about to make out for a second there,” Donghyuck’s sulky pout was enough for you to let out a soft chuckle of adoration. “You’re lucky you’re cute. And because you’re cute, I’ll indulge you in your k-drama fantasies, Duckie.”

“I’ve come to the conclusion that I like kissing you, okay. Also, Duckie sounds way more better than Donghyuck coming from you,” he leaned his head up, grazing his lips against yours teasingly, smiling against it before letting out a soft chuckle as the scent of his cologne assaulted your senses. “Now shut up and let us kiss properly for once,” he said before pressing his lips to yours in a meaningful, passionate kiss, a hand coming up to the back of your head so that you weren’t able to play any tricks on him and move away, both of your eyes shutting close as you smiled into each others lips.

xiv. you were my favorite crime

“Why did I hear snoring when we were on call?” Donghyuck asked, slipping his hands into his jacket as he handed you one of the chocolate bars he bought earlier after class. Tearing the wrapped away, you took a generous bite of the snack before leaning your hand up to offer him a bite (which he gladly accepted, of course). “Oh, I was in my parents room. My mom was behind me sleeping while I was using my Dad’s laptop to play,” you shrugged, taking his hand to walk down the street.

There was a loud cough that came out of Donghyuck’s throat as he choked on his food, eyes widening in embarrassment as he used his free hand to massage his throat. “I was making kissy noises in front of your mom?!” he exclaimed with a loud gasp, scrunching his face in embarrassment before tugging his hand out of your hold to cover his eyes in shame. “There goes my reputation as the mature, responsible boyfriend,” he whined under his breath, letting out a shameless scream into his palms as he squatted down to his knees in the middle of the streets.

Chuckling, you took a casual bite of your chocolate bar. “Responsible? And mature? You? Keep dreaming, Duckie. Now get up before I join you in your spiral of depression,” you lightly kicked his shoes with a small laugh before extending your hand down for him to grab, wiggling your fingers teasingly at him. “Leave me alone and let me wallow in my own shame,” Donghyuck hung his head as he covered his face with one hand and waved at you with the other. Looking down at him for a brief moment, you blinked before letting out a small shrug, turning around without hesitation.

“Alright, I’ll see you later then, Duckie!” you began walking away, raising your hand in the air.

“You’re supposed to encourage me and hype me up!” Donghyuck stumbled to his feet, running up to you before wrapping his arms around your shoulder, pulling your side against his chest tightly as he pouted into your hair, walking in sync with you as you avoided the stares you were earning from random strangers. “Sorry, Duckie, I don’t think that was in the contract when we started dating,” you smiled with a bittersweet tone, nuzzling your head against his before fishing out your phone to head.

He grumbled, raising his hand up to pinch your cheek as you raised up your chocolate bar to his lips, letting him take the last bite as you crumpled the wrapper into a small ball and stuffed it in your pocket, making a mental note to throw it out whenever you spot a trash can. “I guess I should start looking out for you, like I always do,” you sighed heavily, patting his arm to indicate that he was pinching your cheeks for way too long that it was starting to feel way too sore. “I prefer the term ‘giving you exciting adventures’, haven’t you heard of ' Favorite Crime' by Olivia Rodrigo?” he rolled his eyes, pulling his arms away to tuck them back in the pockets of his jacket.

“What does that gotta do with anything?” you exclaimed with a laugh, linking your arm with his enthusiastically. “You say as if I’m a big man baby,” he huffed, putting his lips together similar to a duck’s beak, rolling his eyes. “So, you’re saying I should start calling you an actual big baby?” you teased, knowing for the fact that this conversation is probably going nowhere. “Yes, HOWEVER!” he raised a hand up, putting his index finger on your lips and moving it in opposite motions to indicate that he does not want you to interrupt him midsentence until he was finished.

“You gotta admit. Dancing around in the rain wearing suits, climbing up to the balcony of my dorm like Rapunzel and Romeo, watching A Monster In Paris at Mark’s place- I repeat, it’s a fantastic movie and it’s not the French Flea version of the Bee Movie! Oh! And getting you rolled up into a cheetah-printed carpet sushi, walking around the street in clown costumes, crying in clown costumes on your couch-”

“I think that last part was just you.”

“Aha! So you were fake crying when it happened, I knew it! What kind of girlfriend are you, you should’ve been crying with me.”

“Duckie.”

“Sorry, anyways-” he cleared his throat, patting his chest softly before turning to you. “What I meant was, I’m giving you adventures here! All the things we did during those times which eventually lead us into who we are now!” He smiled brightly, throwing his arm up in the air for dramatics as he stared back at you in awe. Humming at the thought, you moved your lips around in ponderation. “So you’re saying that, we’re like two accomplices in an adventure or something? I’m using Olivia Rodrigo references, please laugh.”

Letting out a soft chuckle, he nodded in defeat. “Something like that,” he shrugged, spotting your house from a few meters away from the corner of his eye. “You’re my willing accomplice, honey,” he cooed in a melodious sing-song voice, wiggling his eyebrows before placing a hand on his chest. “All the things I did! Just so I can call you mine!” he sang aloud, not caring about the random, innocent bystanders and their dogs listening in on his purposely false tone. You smacked him on the chest in retort.

“Shut up! I was the one who asked you out in the first place, if anything, that’s my line!”

Donghyuck gasped in mock offense, scrunching his nose as he took a step back from you, not letting go of your linked arms. “I see how it is,” he nodded, wiping an invisible tear from his face before putting a hand on his chest to continue his little musical number. “You used me as an alibi, I crossed my heart as you crossed the line. I defended you to all my friends,” he sang, using different pitches for each individual sentence to dramatize the emotions laced behind those words by tenfold.

Rolling your eyes, you grabbed his face and mushed his cheeks together, making his lips form into an ‘o’ shape as you took a quick wiff of his sun-scented brown hair. “You're lucky your long, brown hair smells nice or else I’m taking you back to starbucks and un-dating you,” you smiled, shaking his head in your palms as if he were a small puppy, earning another loud gasp. Before he could start breaking out into another musical number, you pressed your lips against his to cut him off for a brief moment.

“I literally skipped my group project assignment to hang out with you in the internet cafe and walked you home and all you’ve done is mercilessly bullied me and sniffed my hair as if it’s cocaine. I should be the one to take you back to Starbucks and un-dating you,” he murmured against squished cheeks, gazing up at you with a loving expression as you let out a small giggle. “We all know that my boyfriend is a runaway boy,” you cooed before letting him go, making a disgruntled look before crossing your arms.

“My house is right there, anything you want to say to me before I get dramatically bombarded and crushed under the weight of my upcoming test papers?” you asked, pointing at your house only a few steps away as you glanced back at Donghyuck. Humming softly, the boy placed a hand on his chin, furrowing his brows before morphing his face into a serious expression, turning his head so that he was at the same eye level as you were.

“Tell me you like me and I’ll let you make it out of here alive.”

“This sounds like a threat more than a request,” you chuckled, crossing your arms around your chest as you took a deep breath, reaching over to grab both of his hands and noticeably forcing the widest grin you could muster to stretch across your lips.

“Lee Donghyuck.”

He let out a soft ‘pfft’ under his breath at how serious you sounded, causing you to let out a laugh of your own. “You sound very insincere, y/n,” he snorted, unable to contain his contagious laughter as he pulled his hands away to tug at his earlobes, silently telling you that his ears were wide open, waiting to hear the words fall out of your mouth. “Beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose. My ears are wide open, I’m ready when you are!” he grinned, leaning his right ear closer to you before cupping the back of it.

“I like you a lot too, Lee Donghyuck,” you said with a roll of your eyes, unable to contain the smile spread across your face as Donghyuck wrapped his arms around you in a tight hug, swaying the both of you side to side as you felt his heartbeat increasing against his chest. “You’re honestly too cute. Ah, I’m so happy to hear that. I like you alot too,” he cooed, nuzzling his head against yours as if you were his own personal teddy bear, causing you to chuckle and pat his hair softly.

“It’s getting late, Duckie. You should go home now,” you rubbed his shoulders affectionately as you pulled away from the hug. “I see you’re shooing me now,” he joked, putting a hand over his supposedly aching heart. “But you’re lucky I like you so much so I’m willing to walk away and go home now,” he pouted, looking down at his shoes before raising his head up, placing the back of his hand against his forehead dramatically. “If you love them, let them go, I suppose!” he cried out, scrunching his face as if he were about to cry.

Nudging him by his shoulder, you rolled your eyes at him as you walked backwards towards your house. “I’ll see you later, right?” you exclaimed, raising your hand up to the air to wave at him as if he was merely a hundred meters away. “You better text me when you get home, asshole. Next time we hang out, we should watch the last few episodes of Money Heist together and look at some hedgehogs in the pet store,” you let out a yelp when you realised you had almost tripped over a crack in the concrete floor, earning a small laugh from the boy who was standing a few meters away.

“Get inside, your parents are probably concerned why you’re out so late!”

“Is that a yes to the hedgehog date?”

“Maybe next time!”

“Hey Mark!”

“Woah, Y/n, it’s been so long. What’s up?”

“Just wanted to see what you’ve been up to, you know.”

“... Alright what the hell do you want, dude?”

“It’s offensive of you to assume that I’m calling you just to ask you for a favor.”

“No, because, that’s literally what you always do!”

“Lies!”

“Get to the point, Y/n.”

“What point?”

“Y/n.”

“Fine. I just wanted to ask you something.”

“Shoot.”

“Have you seen Donghyuck anywhere? The bastard hasn’t been here in a whole month and my texts keep getting on undelivered.”

“Wait, you didn’t know?”

“Didn’t know what?”

“Donghyuck left for Canada weeks ago.”

xv. when will you start looking out for me too instead of leaving me staring at my shoes?

“So he did it, huh?”

“Did what?”

“Disappear from the world.”

Here you were, sitting on the floor right beside your dopplerganger at 3:46 AM in the morning, backs leaning against the mattress of your bed as you stared up at the ceiling, an empty expression stretched across your face as you overlapped your hands on your stomach. You were supposed to be getting some good nights rest, your high school graduation was in less than seven hours yet you still couldn’t wrap your head around whatever happened with Donghyuck, you couldn’t stop thinking about Donghyuck.

“Y/n, it’s almost been two months since he left,” they lectured, not sparing you a glance as you turned your head to look at the beige suit hanging from your opened closet. “You didn’t seem all that bothered when Mark told you, why are you talking about him now?” they asked, tugging on their hideous button up shirt, putting their arms on their knees as they tucked them to their chest. “You’re the devil, aren’t you? You know why,” you clicked your tongue, sighing heavily as you closed your eyes, furrowing your brows before fluttering them open again. The bastard had somehow glued a brief image of himself to the back of your eyelids, you couldn’t help but see him whenever you close your eyes.

But your eyes can’t help but dart back to the beige clothing hanging off in your closet, the only memory you have left of Donghyuck. The only piece you have left of Donghyuck.

After all, he had changed his number, so you weren’t able to contact him at all. He deactivated all of his social media accounts. You even mustered up the courage to storm through his dormitory after school (and somehow managed to get past that bunny-looking security guard without getting kicked out) and knocked aggressively on his door, only to be greeted with Jeno, who was still studying at the time. Apparently even he, himself, didn’t know that Donghyuck had gotten on a flight to Canada, he just assumed that he was going on his usual runaway gimmicks.

He didn’t seem to care as much about his own little brother which made you realise that there was no hope in getting anything out of him.

“That asshole waltz into my life, shared his whole sad backstory, made me like him alot and packed his bag before leaving me behind. I have the right to be upset, don’t I?” you laughed sarcastically, feeling your heart clench at the harsh realisation. “Technically, you waltz into his life considering you’re the one who walked up and asked him out at Starbucks,” they shrugged nonchalantly with an amused chuckle, shaking their head at you as you groaned in frustration. “Gee, thanks for the reminder,” you hissed, turning back to the individual with the most menacing glare you could muster.

“Shouldn’t you be happy for him? I still don’t get why you’re so upset. It’s not like it’s the first time he disappeared,” your doppleganger shrugged nonchalantly, picking off the dirt off of their nails. You took a deep inhale, shrugging nonchalantly as you stood up to your feet, heading over to the closet to take the suit out by holding onto the clothing hanger. “At least back then I knew that there was some kind of chance that he was going to come back. I knew that he was going to come back, even though he’s going to act like an idiot and pretend as if he hadn’t disappeared for a week straight, I knew he was going to come back.”

You sat back down beside your doppleganger, hugging the suit to your chest as you leaned your forehead against your knees. “He isn’t coming back,” you muttered against the suit, embracing the fabric tightly as if you hugged it tight enough, Donghyuck would miraculously knock on your door and ask you to dance around in the rain with suits on again. It was your idea last time. He should at least repay you by doing some dramatic gesture after two months of completely disappearing.

“Where do you go when you disappear, Lee Donghyuck?” you muttered once again.

Your doppleganger stared at you for a brief moment, watching your pathetic form cradling the suit as if it was the boy you had been longing to meet, the boy who had left you without saying goodbye right after stealing your heart. They let out a disgruntled groan, standing up to their feet before walking towards your study desk, fishing out a familiar white book from in between your old textbooks before tossing it to the grown right in front of you, squatting down with an amused expression etched across the features of their-or rather, ‘your ’face.

“This is the last you’ll ever see of me now, Y/n,” they stated with a monotonous voice, their amused expression never once faltering as you stared back at them with an empty look, feeling your heart weigh down as you remembered that exact unreadable, yet amused, expression they had plastered over their face as they watched you comfort the brown boy you adored so much. “You know what that means don’t you?” they asked with a raised brow, pointing down at the book with their index finger.

Glancing down at the book they had tossed with tired, somber eyes, you realised that it was that book that started this all. ‘If All The Cats In The World Disappeared’ written by Genki Kawamura. Once your doppleganger-or should you say, The Devil, bids you goodbye for good, it would mean only one thing ; you were going to die today. “Ever wonder, what would’ve happened if I could remove one thing from the world in exchange for one more day for you to live just like in the book? I would be nice and offer you to make all the Donghyucks disappear from the world,” they stared back at you, snapping their fingers as if they actually had the ability to make things disappear similar to the doppleganger in the book.

“Ever wonder if all the Donghyucks disappeared from the world, what would happen?” they hummed, leaning their head to the side before letting out a chuckle.

“You won’t have to wonder. He already disappeared from your world.”

- taglist: @neowritingsnet @neoturtles @nct-writers @ankathi-a @songchan @tyongishs @nuoyi-city @haesexual @fullsunic @frickyratz @elysianahhh @hello-yav @skuezk @ryu-naa @aehyei @cookiebutterisbomb @daegalfangirl @saeyeoniee @nshitae @thesunsfullmoon @shwizhies @skye-is-here @lebrookestore @daegall @junglewoos @carelessshootanonymous

a/n: well this certainly has been a journey, definitely not one of my best fics lmao but oh well this was basically my writers block fic i couldn’t stop ditching it every 1k words lmaoaoo anyways hope you enjoyed it!

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papergirllife · 3 years ago

Text

First Love

Lucas Wong / Yukhei

"They say first love is a special experience that one would always hold a special place in your heart. Wong Yukhei was your first love in high school, but along the way, you had to say goodbye to him in order for him to achieve his dream of becoming a star in Korea. Yet fate and destiny plays its role in paving the two of you an intersection once more, will the two of you and up together at the very end?"

Warnings : smut, unprotected sex, mild angst, a child (pregnancy not described), tooth rotting fluff (all in that order, kinda)

A/N : this is one of my most heavily devoted works I've ever written, so please, of you're comfortable, drop a feedback to tell me if you guys like this writing style, thank you!

Lucas Wong of NCT and most importantly his own fixed unit, Wayv, the man who garners attention and love wherever he goes, that dazzling smile is sure to be captured by numerous cameras of awaiting fans.

But to you, Lucas was never Lucas, to you he was Yukhei, and more significantly, your ex from high school. Yukhei was your first love, you remember when the two of you had first met in Year 9, Yukhei was known for being a class clown and more of a klutz, girls would always have a soft spot for him even if they didn't like him in that way.

Yukhei was your desk mate for Year 10, the thing got you on your nerves about him was that he never took group assignments seriously, and was never at school on time, his uniform was wrinkly from rushing out of his house to catch the bus and always had a stationary missing, which means he had to borrow yours.

You never hated him, hate is a strong word, things were very neutral with him, most times, he unintentionally annoys you, but he'd always make up to you by bringing you a small bottle of apple juice the next day. The only time the two of you really fought was when he had not spoken up when his friends snatched your book away from yours to copy you off, brushing it off as a small matter.

You were quite an immature person back then, and no one can blame you, you were just a teenager, and being said that, you had refused to lend Yukhei a ruler when the math teacher did a pop quiz, so he had to use the dust pan as no one, other than you that is, brings an extra ruler.

It's not your fault, you thought back then, he shouldn't have depended on you to bring his share of stationaries. The next day, you walked into class to see his group of friends waiting at your desk to apologize to you, and as for Yukhei, he had yet again brought you a bottle of apple juice, with the addition of your favourite bar of Cadbury.

It was only in Year 11 when Yukhei had confessed to you, saying that all those annoying things he did to you were just to catch your attention, of all the girls he could've liked, he chose the one who was the most unattainable, go figure.

The next year, when the two of you were looking to apply to the same college, Yukhei broke the news to you that he'd be packing his bags for Korea, that the audition he had joined just for fun accepted him as a trainee in a large entertainment company in Korea that everyone in Hong Kong knows, SM.

At first you didn't approve of his decision, that his education was important as well, that he had a life here, with you. But Yukhei had given very valid reasons to you, that he wouldn't have passed the college entrance exams if it weren't for your tuitions until late at night in the public library, that he didn't really have an interest in studying. His most valid reason was that he didn't want to take a toll on you when you’re in college, he can't have you sacrifice your sleep and attention for him just to have him attain passing grades.

So you let him go, saying your last farewell to him at the airport as his girlfriend and ex girlfriend.

That was the last time you saw him, choosing to not stay in contact with him as you poured your soul into university life, studying like your life depends on it, you had a few boyfriends here and there, nothing serious, nothing that made you felt like your first love. Maybe you had trouble moving on, or maybe it was just stress, you thought back then, shrugging the thought off casually before diverting your attention else where, this cycle carried on until you came out to work.

Fast forwarding to March of 2019, you had unintentionally came across of a news online that Yukhei had finally been placed in his own fixed unit that would be promoting and performing in Chinese, which isn’t surprising, even the Thai member, Ten, was of Chinese heritage. What made your eyes widen was the fact that they were coming to Hong Kong.

At the day of the fan meet, you had took the day off from your boring low paying job at the law firm, so much for studying your ass off for bar exams, you’re just filing on a daily basis.

Before the day of the fan meet, you had lived off of instant cup noodles for a few weeks just to buy the album and their light stick. When you first listened to the album, you were proud of Yukhei’s rapping skills, you still recall the days when he’d struggle with his mandarin oral tests, the teachers there must be much better than you for him to improve so much, smiling fondly at the old memories.

You waved the light stick and sang along just like the other fans beside you, mesmerised by the performance that the boys are putting up, but your eyes were mostly on Yukhei, you would’ve never thought the once clumsy giant like him would dance as fluidly, executing the moves just as well as the other smaller sized members.

You watch as Yukhei introduces himself and his non Cantonese members in his mother tongue, a feeling of familiarity settling into your mind.

You are quite a confident person, but queuing up to the long table where Yukhei sat at the corner was nerve wrecking to you, what would he say to you? Would he recognise you? It hasn't been that long, but the two of you had done some changes to your looks.

The other members had greeted you with a friendly smile and a few casual questions like have you eaten, but they seem a bit taken aback by the lack of fan girl attitude that most of the fans in front of you had.

When you had got to Yukhei, he had dropped his marker on the floor, his head ducked out of sight to retrieve it, but when he came up to apologise, the words were stuck in his throat, as his eyes opened as wide as saucers. He coughed to mask the surprise on his face.

“Hi, how are you?” He asked as he took your album into his hands, scribbling something down.

“Good, how have you been?” although his hair is coloured, his eyes had contacts, and he wasn't in his messy uniform, the smile on his face never changed.

“Great, it's nice to see you,” to other fans and the staff beside him, they might think it's just one of the standard answers, but you knew Yukhei like the back of your hand, registering the twinkle in his eyes.

Soon, he had placed the album back into your hands, your fingers grazing gently as tiny sparks flew up your tips, eyes never breaking contact until the staff tells you to leave.

When you had sat down at a nearby cafe to get a cup of coffee, you took out your album and flipped to the page where Lucas had written something.

‘Hilton hotel, 9pm,' and his number under it.

At nine sharp, you waited by the hotel’s sitting area, not many people at that time as usually stores in Hong Kong open rather late, patiently you waited for Yukhei. Just as you were scrolling through posts on Instagram, a tall figure approached you.

A call of your name rolled off his tongue naturally, a wave of nostalgia hitting the both of you.

“I bought you a little something before I got here,” you said as you stood up, letting him guide you to the elevators.

“What is it?” Yukhei lets out a flustered laugh, scratching the back of his nape when he realised he didn't get you anything in return.

“Roast goose and Cha Siew, are they still your favourite?” you asked, hoping his taste hasn’t changed over the years.

“Yeah, man, I remember how we'd always get quarter of both after school at Uncle Chan’s,” Yukhei said, remembering how the boss of the restaurant had hung a photo of two of you on the wall, deeming the two of you his most loyal lovebirds.

“This is from Uncle Chan’s,” you told him as you followed him into his room, looking around, expecting him to be rooming with someone.

“Don't worry, I told Yang Yang to sleep with Ten for the night,” Yukhei said when he saw you looking for someone.

“Oh, that's really nice of him,” you said as you set out the food, the smell of Hong Kong's famous delicacies wafting in the air.

“Man, I really missed this,” Yukhei said as he pulls the arm chair that was a few feet away close to the desk, directing you into it and situating himself in the not so comfortable wooden chair.

“I missed this too,” you said mindlessly, eyes avoiding his before you ate a piece of meat.

“I missed you too,” Lucas confessed, yes there are many pretty girls in his industry, and Korea itself, but no one would be able to replace you, you were his rock all his life, other than his family of course, it's hard to build a connection with someone just as strong when things between the two of you never really ended, in a way.

Leaving on too good terms and without much closure for both of you kept one another thinking of each other. The two of you know, that after tonight, things would go back to normal, Yukhei would be Wayv’s Lucas, and you’d remain as his past, there would never be an outcome from whatever happens tonight.

So when the two of you were recalling memories and troubles the two of you got in school on the oh so comfortable bed, you couldn't help it, hooking a leg over Yukhei’s waist, just like how it started at the night of the graduation party, the night where the two of you lost your virginities to each other.

“I’d be gone tomorrow, we shouldn’t, I shouldn't do this to you,” Yukhei said, a firm believer that it's always the girl that is on the losing side, like he's taking an advantage of you, ever the gentleman.

“I want this for myself, Yukhei, it's not like it's our first time,” you said, trying to convince him.

“I still feel guilty about our first time, I left a few months later after that night, and tomorrow would be the same, I'll be leaving you once more,” Yukhei said as his big hands caressed your cheeks, eyes wide like a puppy, pupils reflecting an image of you, a perfect representation of his universe, you.

“I don't care, I’ve moved on from you as your girlfriend all those years ago, moving on from you after tonight won't be a challenge for me,” you said in a firm tone, one that Yukhei knows all too well, he knows you won't give up when you sound like this.

He could possibly break two hearts if he chooses to act on his impulses, but he missed this, he missed you, and so he threw all caution out of the window when he smashed his lips desperately against yours, chewing on your bottom lip with little force, it was something that would easily get you worked up back then, and to his delight, it still worked, letting him dominate the kiss easily, he let his tongue slid in your mouth, tasting the beer the two of you had just now with a mixture of strawberry lip gloss, you were still using the Nivea one you used all those years ago, this only fuelled his desire for you, his hands leaving your cheeks to locate your waist, pulling you closer to him.

When you were out of air, you broke off the kiss, reaching the hem of your shirt to pull it off, then waiting a few seconds for Yukhei to admire the red lace on your skin before unclasping your bra, letting your blossoms free, all the while as Yukhei looks on, like he was in a trance.

“I missed these,” he commented before taking a mound into his mouth, sucking on your nipple diligently while his other hand comes up to roll it in between the pads of his fingers, the pleasure from the action making you throw your head back, a slip of his name in between your whimpers.

You let Yukhei push you back, letting you fall onto his bed, you felt his hands wander up your skirt, his huge hands around your thighs, squeezing the flesh in his palms, feeling you, but stopped when he reached the hem of your panties, detaching himself from your chest, looking at you for confirmation.

You nodded at him, putting your hand over his to guide him higher, stopping at the curve of your cheek, pushing his hand beneath the clothe, dangerously close to your core, heck he could even feel your arousal already, eyes rolling back at the thought of getting you so worked up.

“Take it off, but you can leave the skirt, for old time’s sake,” you said.

Yukhei looked at you, confused at what you’re trying to say, until he realised you were wearing a pleated checkered skirt, just like the ones you wore back in high school, memories of the two of you sneaking around, having a quickie with your skirt flipped up immediately made blood rush southwards at the thought.

“Fuck, you expected this to happen?” Yukhei asked, shaking his head in disbelief, he was always the troublemaker at school, but oh how the tables have turned now.

“Didn't you?” you asked before getting up to put yourself in a doggy position, shaking your butt, taunting him.

Yukhei chuckled to himself before doing as you say, taking off your panties to reveal your slick covered pussy, dripping wet for him on display.

Yukhei spreads you open by pulling your cheeks apart to lick a stripe up your slit, making you shudder at the warm muscle that was intruding but very much welcomed.

Yukhei allowed himself to fully stuff his face there, inserting his tongue into your core, thrusting the wet muscle at a moderate pace before adding a finger to the mix, then two, stretching you open to let his tongue delve deeper inside, he then adds a third finger, the fullness finally hitting you, soon he did a come hither movement once he had located your sweet spot, his tongue and fingers rubbing against the roof of your walls deliciously, you would’ve lost your balance if it weren't for his hand supporting you by your left hip.

The constant pleasure that Yukhei so willingly inflicted upon you would've soon come to an euphoric end if he hadn’t halted all movement, pulling out his tongue and his fingers, which made you whine his name pathetically, something you wouldn't have done if it weren't for the fact that your mind was reduced to a ball full of cotton.

“Chill, I worked you up so I wouldn't hurt you with my dick,” Yukhei said as he positions himself at your entrance, his hand coming up to your face to tilt your head to his direction, zeroing on your lust filled eyes and the plump of your lips, swollen because of him.

“Are you sure you want this?” Yukhei asks you one last time.

“Yes, please,” you said, pushing yourself back to lightly grind on his length, a little bit of your arousal getting onto his cock, his dick getting so hard it's starting to hurt.

“Ever so eager, aren't you?” Lucas said before biting his lip at the sight.

“Just put it in!” you whined, tired of his teasing.

“Okay, okay,” Yukhei said before bracing himself for your tight walls, he's never nervous when it comes to others, but you? You always held a special place in his heart.

Yukhei spreads your cheeks once more before aligning himself to slip in an inch, eyebrows furrowing at how tight you were, he could tell you were clenching up, just like you did the first time when you were nervous.

So he bends down to your back, placing gentle kisses along your right shoulder blade.

“Don’t tense up, there’s nothing to be nervous about, we did this before remember?” Yukhei said in his most gentle tone ever, you nodded your head at his words, adjusting yourself to let yourself lose in the comfort of his touch, reminding yourself that although it's been a long time since you had someone as big as him, you’ll be fine in his hands.

Once Yukhei felt yourself unclench, he pushes in furthermore, you felt yourself arching your back to allow him to fit himself easier, before he comes to a halt, you felt so full, you haven't felt this way in such a long time, it was somewhat overwhelming, but it's the most complete feeling ever, a feeling you've never felt with any other.

The initial stretch was slightly painful of course, but the pain soon turned into pleasure, and being the gentleman Yukhei is, waited for you despite the huge urge to move, waiting for your green light.

When you told him he could move, he felt like the gates of heaven just opened, pulling out slightly to give you a shallow thrust, just to test the waters.

Even with that experimental thrust, you felt like you had a taste of heaven, eager to drown yourself in this new found pleasure that you were once so familiar with.

Yukhei grasped his large hands onto your hips, setting a moderate pace, still restraining himself from snapping his hips, but from how much slick you were dripping, soon you'd be begging for more.

Once you felt yourself familiarise with his big cock, the pace that Yukhei had set wasn’t enough, you wanted him to let loose, you wanted him to rail you, be damned if you can’t walk tomorrow.

So in the midst of all the pleasure, you let out two desperate words breathlessly, “ruin me”.

Yukhei had to do a double take, pausing his movements entirely just to check if that was his mind messing with him or it was really you, but one look at your desperate face, revealed to him that was in fact your words.

Yukhei allowed the animalistic side of him to take over, holding onto your hips that would sure leave bruises the next day, but you didn’t mind, not when you felt a sudden surge of pleasure coursing through your body. He angled your body higher, arching your back for easier access, thrusting harder and faster.

You could only submit yourself to him as your toes curled and your fingers dig into the linen sheets, you’re sure if his members were next door, they'd be able to hear every single sound you make, the sound of your ass cheeks clapping against Yukhei’s hips and your high pitched moans were flowing freely, but you didn't care, not when this could be the last time you'd ever be with Yukhei.

Soon, you could feel yourself getting closer to the edge, your legs were trying their best not to fail you, and you could tell your arms were getting sore from propping yourself up as the cord in your abdomen threatened to snap, you panted out the word ‘close’, and Yukhei immediately understood, fucking into you at an inhuman pace, you could feel yourself losing your mind as spit drips from your mouth, sanity slowly slipping away from you as you felt your impending orgasm, it started from the tip of your toes, your body convulsing as you screamed his name, succumbing into the pleasure, your core bursting, the strongest orgasm you've ever felt, making your whole body sag in defeat as you let Yukhei help you ride out your orgasm.

Just when you thought it was all over, Yukhei gently flipped you over, and that’s when you realised he hasn’t cum, so you lifted your legs higher to let him enter you once again, he was using you like his personal doll, and you love it a little bit too much to be considered normal, you struggled to keep your eyes open as you fought through the slight pain from the overstimulation, hearing Yukhei’s mumble of appreciation and endearments.

“Can you give me one more, babe? Just one more,” Yukhei said before circling his fingers around your clit, making your eyes snap open when you realise he wants you to cum once more, your hands coming up to push his hand away, but his other hand grasped onto yours.

“Just one more, please,” Yukhei begged with those puppy eyes of his, and how could you say no?

So you stopped struggling, nodding your head at his request before he quickens the pace of his hips and the ministrations on your clit.

Soon, you could feel Yukhei’s cock swelling inside you before he let out a groan of your name, thrusting in one last hard thrust before he painted your walls white, his lips capturing yours to silent you as you came once more, your nails digging into his shoulders, your eyes fluttering shut as you felt Yukhei ride out both your highs.

Once he was done, Yukhei crashed onto the bed beside you, his arms wrapping around yours, kissing your lips to distract you as he pulled out, hopping into the attached bathroom to bring out two towels, taking off your skirt before he gently cleans you up, when he was done he wiped the juices you left on him, your eyes growing big when you knew it was from when you squirted on him.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise I squirted,” you mumbled behind the hands that you had covering your embarrassed face.

Yukhei laughed at the cute sight, throwing the towel aside before climbing into bed again, removing your hands away from your face, kissing you deeply before looking at you in the eye.

“I loved it,” he said before pulling you closer, and almost instantly, you were lulled to sleep by the beating of his heart.

When you woke up, Yukhei was still snoring beside you, sleeping like a baby, you gently removed his hand from your waist, stepping out of the bed before gathering your clothes, putting them on, smoothing out the creases of your skirt.

Walking to the door, you glanced around once more at the sight of him, your heavy heart begging you to stay, to talk, and so you walked over to the night stand, ripping a piece of paper of the note pad and grabbing the pen next to it.

‘Goodbye and thank you for everything.’

You placed the piece of paper beside him on his pillow before kissing his forehead as a parting gift, closing the door as softly as you could when you left.

You knew this was the right thing to do, you made this decision once when he left for Korea the first time, you can't be in his way this time around, not when he's this far into his career, you can’t be selfish, he belongs on this path, he deserves it and you’re not going to take it away from him, you've stood on the side-lines all this time, he shed the limelight on you for one night, and that's all you should have, he's better off without you.

Yukhei felt himself grow cold when he couldn't feel the warmth of your body, jerking up to check if you were in the bathroom, only to find the door wide open, the room empty.

That's when he had spotted the piece of paper with your goodbye message, his heart clenching in pain, crashing onto the bed once more.

He didn't know what to expect, you had sent him off once, and now you left him without saying goodbye. He thought he could at least say goodbye.

Pushing his thoughts away, he gathered his things, packing up to leave for Korea.

His members could tell something was terribly off, they thought he was just in it for a casual hook up, but his expression tells otherwise.

The usual cheerful Yukhei was nowhere to be found, which meant Yang Yang and Hendery had to keep the mood light throughout the journey home, everyone knew to not say anything, only speaking when crucial.

It took Yukhei quite a while for him to get back to his goofy self, but even then, Kun, being the most observant one, saw a tightness in his smile, a faraway look in his eyes, whoever he had seen that night must've meant a lot to him, but he dare not to press, he knows Yukhei would open up when he's ready.

It was a normal Tuesday night when he had received a request to face time from you, without thinking much of it, excited to hear from you, he accepted, your beautiful face coming into view as he got comfortable on his bed.

“Hey, this is unexpected,” Yukhei said, not knowing what else to say.

“Yukhei, there’s something I need to tell you,” you said, eyes avoiding his.

“Yeah, what's up?” he asked, rubbing his nape, a habit he does whenever he's nervous.

“I'm um, I’m pregnant,” you said, choosing to not beat around the bush.

You could see Yukhei's face pale when he processed your words. Is it his? It's definitely his, it's almost a month since the two of you slept together, unless you slept with someone else?

“It's mine?” a dumb question, but he needs to know for sure.

“Yeah,” you said before the two of you come to a piercing silence.

“You could get an abortion, maybe?” Yukhei suggested after contemplating in his head, there’s no way he could be in the child’s life, and that's the best option for your sake, raising a child in Hong Kong is the most expensive thing to do, equivalent to buying a house there.

“I decided to keep it, Yukhei,” you said, glancing up to see the disbelief on his face.

“You can’t, you know I can't be there for you and you’re still so new in your job, you can't risk your life for this!” Yukhei said, not comprehending on why you'd do this to yourself.

“I already decided, Yukhei, and I don't expect you to take responsibility, this is my choice,” you said as tears threatened to flow.

“That isn't fair, it's not fair for the child! A child needs its father! You don't know what you're doing! Being a single mum is next to impossible in Hong Kong! You're putting the child in a horrible situation just for your selfishness!” Yukhei said before pushing his hair back, the feeling of an impending headache forming.

“How dare you say that?! I’ll raise this child perfectly on my own, I was just calling you to inform you of it, but since you don't want anything to do with it or me, I guess this is goodbye and don't call me anymore, I won't change my mind,” you said before your face disappeared from his phone screen.

Yukhei tried calling you immediately after, a day later, several weeks later, but you never picked up. Then he started stressing about his career, what would happen if someone were to find out? But he knows you as a person, and being a tell-tale is not one of your characteristics, yeah, he can just act like nothing happened, like he had never received this call.

He knows he's running away from his problems, but what other choice does he have?

Fast forwarding to July of 2021, Yukhei is home after his filming of the popular Chinese reality show in China, Keep Running, he feels at ease when he sees his family, finally reuniting with them, but only for a short two weeks time, before he has to leave for Korea once more.

It was a Friday night when his friends from home took him out for a drink, he was not so familiar with the clubbing scene in Hong Kong, but with the knowledge he has of this area, he knows many rich and young people often here, just like the girl kissing up his neck now, her soft hands running up the expanse of his thigh, getting dangerously close to where he wants her to be.

Yet Yukhei doesn’t remember her name, was it Candy? Apple? Some sort of name that had to do with food, he just remembered that she told him that she was an up and coming model, or trying to be anyways.

Just as she suggested to go to some hotel, Yukhei suggested for a quickie in the bathroom first, and so here he is now, being pushed to the door of a stall, her hands trying to unbuckle his belt.

Yukhei reached the back of his pocket for his wallet, opening it, looking for the condom he had placed there, but cursed when he realised he must've dropped it when he paid for drinks.

He told her to go back out and wait for him to get some, leaving the club and the musky smoke filled place behind him, the summer breeze blowing his hair all over, he brings the hood of his jacket up as he scans for a nearby convenience store, locating one at the street across.

When he got in, the scent of curry immediately greeted him, it was your favourite food, everyday after school, no doubt you'll drag him into one of these shops, just to share a bowl of curry fish balls, one of the most famous snacks here in Hong Kong.

He pushed the thought away, trudging to the aisle that was on the most right, where the condoms were at, hidden away from children. He took a box and made his way to the counter, opening his wallet to take out a few notes.

The cashier turned her back from stocking the cigarette shelf, scanning the box wordlessly.

“That would be 30,” she said when she looked up, but her hand immediately dropped the box when she saw who it was, and that's when Yukhei truly opened his eyes to see who it was, at first he was just miffed not knowing why the cashier froze, then he sees you, in the worn out 7 Eleven uniform, was you, the last person he’d be expecting.

“Why are you here? What happened to your job at the law firm? Why...” Yukhei didn't know how to ask, he didn't know if he deserved the right to ask, yet there's so many questions he had swarming in his head. Where is his child? Did you abort it in the end? Did you give it up for adoption? Were you fired from your job because of it?

“It's my shift right now, and you seem to be getting lucky tonight,” you said stiffly, holding up the box for him to see, sliding it across the counter

“It's for my friend actually,” Yukhei said, eyes avoiding yours, but immediately looking at you straight in the eyes, remembering how you use to be able to see right through him whenever he didn't do the revision work you've given him.

“Right,” you said, resisting to roll your eyes.

“You haven't answered me, why are you working here instead of the law firm?” Yukhei pressed.

You sigh at his persistence, not knowing what to say to humour him, so you didn't say anything, getting back to rearranging the shelves.

Yukhei bit his lip, not knowing what to say to you, but a million questions in his head, desperate for answers.

“Please leave if you're done with your purchases,” you said, you had a long day, and the thought of entertaining him was not something you want to add on your plate.

Yukhei looked around the store once more, grabbing a bowl of instant noodles from the shelf before making his way once more to the cashier.

“I’d like to have this here,” Yukhei said before pulling out some spare change from just now.

“Yukhei, what are you trying to do?” you asked in an exasperated tone, there's no point making small talk when there's no way the two of you would ever cross in each other’s lives ever again.

“I'm hungry, I want to eat noodles,” which wasn’t really a lie, all the alcohol he drank before gave him an appetite.

You sighed, turning your back to him, soundlessly waited for the water to boil before pouring it into the cup, sealing the top for it to cook. As you worked, Yukhei was having déjà vu, this was an all too familiar sight, nights at the convenience store studying till late at night in groups, you'd always share noodles with him as you taught him some dumb math formula that no one uses in their life after school.

He takes his bowl of noodles, opting to sit at the place closest to the counter, just looking at you, eating as slow as humanly possible.

When it was around three, you received a call.

“Hello?”

“...”

“You think you have a stomach ache? Celine jia is asleep? Okay, mama’s coming home okay?” you said frantically before shutting off the stove of the food at the counter, running to the back for a pack of meds, depositing some money into the register. You looked at Yukhei, frozen at his seat, cursing at yourself for not going into the back room before picking up the call.

“You need to go, I have something to deal with,” you said as you grabbed your bag, turning off all the switches in one go, making the place pitch black other than the lights from the lamp posts outside.

“Is that my child?” Yukhei asked, he can't allow himself to act like it never happened before, he ran away once, it's time to man up and shoulder on his responsibilities.

“No I fucked another guy before you and it's his child,” you deadpanned.

You walked down the street to flag for a taxi that is always parked there to get their club goer customers, Yukhei hot on your heels, you turned back to look at him questioningly.

“This is none of your concern, don’t follow me,” you said in a rather seething tone, you didn't mean to sound like that, but if he's going to be in the way of your child, then he’s not a friend.

“That's my child too, I want to know how they are, I have a right to do so, you studied law, you should know,” Yukhei retorted in the most friendly way possible, he knows he's in the wrong, but he wants to ensure his child’s safety.

“For fuck’s sake,” you cursed aloud before stepping into the taxi, leaving the door open for him.

You told the driver your address, sitting back to think of what's the problem, the kindergarten shouldn't be the culprit, it's a school with a good reputation, which also burns a hole in your wallet, but you don't mind, and it's not like you have much of a choice, education is deadly expensive here.

About 20 minutes later, you've reached home.

“That'll be 150, miss,” the driver said.

“What?!”

“Fares are different after midnight, miss,” the driver reminded you.

Before you could check if you had enough money on you, Yukhei paid for it wordlessly.

You got out of the car, rushing into the building and running up the stairs as quick as you can, unlocking the door, jabbing the keys into the rusty lock.

Taking off your shoes before you made your way to your room, spotting your son crouched in the corner of your bed, hands around his stomach.

“Hey, mama's home, I'll get you a glass of water to take your medicine okay?” you said before hurrying out, Yukhei passing you a glass of water at the kitchen.

“Thanks,” you mumbled before making your way back inside.

You open the package and passed you son a tablet, but looking at the size, you knew he’d panic to swallow something this big, so you broke it in half, telling him to drink a big gulp of water to wash it down and it'll be fine.

All the while, Yukhei was watching with wonder leaning by the door frame, even in the dim lights and the fact that he's still quite young, he could still identify his eyes on his son, the strong genes in his family, his father and brother all had those eyes, this boy is most definitely his.

The boy diligently does as you told him, taking a big gulp of water, so obedient, and from the way the two of you communicate, very mature for his age, nothing like the usual three year old.

When he was done, he noticed Yukhei’s presence, tugging your sleeve to whisper into your ear, eyes trained on him.

“That's a friend of mine, love, be polite, say hi to Yukhei gogo,” you urged.

Yukhei took this as a sign to get closer to his son, squatting down to meet his eye.

“You’re a handsome boy, what's your name? I’m Yukhei and I’m 22 this year, how about you?” Yukhei asked as he reached out his hand for the little boy to shake.

“I’m Wenghei, 3 years old. Why have I never seen you before gogo?” the child asks, looking at him with curious eyes, he's met some of your friends, but he's definitely haven't met him before, most people aren't as tall here, or not in his mother's circle anyways.

“Get some rest, love,” you said, tucking him into bed.

“Okay,” he said, a yawn coming out from his mouth.

You closed the door behind you, directing Yukhei to the small living room area, serving him a glass of water.

You walked to the trash bin, opening the lid to check its contents, a scowl on your face when you saw the root of your son’s stomach ache when you spot the plastic container that contained the two day old pizza from the freezer. Your roommate, Celine, must’ve gave him some as dinner, usually you'd leave some money for Celine to buy him dinner, but she must've been tight on money again, trying to find ways to squeeze in some spare change, you've warned her of her spending habits, always splurging on albums of her favourite stars, which reminds you.

“You have to go, I’m living with a roommate and I'm sure she's going to recognise you,” you said, a hand gesturing at the door.

“Wait, did you find out why he had a stomach ache?” Yukhei asked.

“Yeah, he ate something he shouldn't have for dinner, you have to go, I need some rest for tomorrow,” you said, struggling to keep your eyes open.

“Do you have anything on tomorrow? Can I see you, perhaps?” Yukhei asked, he didn't know what he wanted to talk about, but he just had to see you again.

“I’m tutoring a student at a coffee shop tomorrow, you can come right after,” you said, thinking that he just wants to know more about his son.

“Okay, goodnight then,” Yukhei said awkwardly as he walks towards the door.

“Goodnight,” you said, feeling a weight on your chest, dreading tomorrow’s meeting.

When Yukhei arrived at the café, he could see you sitting at the way back, a teenage girl sitting in front of you, back facing him, he sipped on his latte, observing you silently.

Your hair is much longer than it had been in high school, the bag hung by your chair very much worn out, and your eye bags were heavier than on days where Yukhei would stay up to prepare for promotions.

Soon, the student was packing up, leaving the table, Yukhei took this as a sign to move to your table. You had stood up to greet him, and that's when he saw, you had lost lots of weight, and he's not meaning it in a fitness way, he recognised the jeans you are wearing, you had these even back then, they used to be a perfect fit for you, that's why they were your favourite, but now, you were wearing a belt to hold it together, and still he could see how loose it was.

“Hey, you didn't order anything?” Yukhei asked, noting that the cup of coffee he saw just now belonged to your student.

“I got a coffee in my flask, cheaper that way,” you said as you packed up your stationaries.

“What did you have for breakfast? How about I order you a piece of cake?” Yukhei suggested, looking back to see what they have today.

“It's alright, I'm not hungry, why don't we get straight to the point? What is it you want to ask about Wenghei?” you asked, noting the time on your watch, you have to leave around noon to fetch your son from pre school.

“I, how about you? Why did you leave the firm? And how’s your parents?” Yukhei started off.

“Well, they said I would’ve been an embarrassment to the firm, you know, pregnant and unmarried, so they told me to leave, it's not like filing could be done with a big weight in my stomach, so I did as they said. Now I tutor kids English and work the night shift at the convenience store, and as for my parents, they kicked me out,” you said, laying down the cards, no point avoiding his questions, especially not when you're in a hurry.

Yukhei nodded at your words, registering the fact that he had a fault in ruining your hot shot lawyer dreams and completely destroyed your sensitive relationship with your parents, how is he ever going to forgive himself?

“I’m sorry,” Yukhei said, he didn't know what else to say, how could he make it up to you and your son? Will you let him even if he could?

“Don't be, this is on the both of us, are you going to ask about the share custody stuff? If so, I don't think we should continue this conversation, Wenghei doesn’t know who you are, and maybe that's the best case scenario, what point would be made if he knew you were his father but you're not in our lives? It'll break his heart. You've seen him now, maybe you can reconnect with him when he's older, I think you should just say goodbye before you go, if you want,” you said, saying these harsh words aloud wasn’t easy, you’re not entirely a cold hearted bitch, but it's for the best that your son didn’t know about his father, no one wants to know the fact that their father abandoned them twice, some truths are better to be untold.

“Can I see him one last time, maybe tonight? For dinner? I'm leaving in two days,” Yukhei said in a defeated tone.

“Yeah, sure, I'll take the shift off tonight,” you said, eyes avoiding his, you could just tell he’d have those sad puppy eyes on his face right now, you don't need anymore guilt in your heart.

“Hey man, where were you?” Jackson asked Yukhei, who was waiting for him at the harbour, they were going to Macau for a day trip today, his friend isn't late for the boat, but they did schedule to meet 15 minutes earlier.

“Something came up, and I need to head back around 7, there’s some people I need to see,” Yukhei said as they boarded the boat.

“So that leaves us 5 hours, should be enough,” Jackson said, checking his watch.

“I’m sorry about this, man, it just came up suddenly,” Yukhei said as they took their seats, apologetic because they have been talking about this trip for a long time now.

“It's okay, dude, but what's up? You look really stressed,” Jackson asked, taking in Yukhei's clenched jaw and furrowed brows, a stark contrast from his usually carefree expression.

“It's a long story,” Yukhei said as he mindlessly watches the sea from the little window of his seat.

“Well, if you don't mind, this is a 45 minutes journey, maybe we'll be able to find a solution together, what are friends for am I right?” Jackson offered, he wouldn't press his friend if he didn't want to tell him about it, but the two of them have been close ever since going on knowing brothers, coming from the same home country and everything.

And so Yukhei, for the first time, told his friend his long love story.

“You know, I think I have a solution for you, but let me ask you one thing first, do you still love her?” Jackson asked as he ate his pork chop bun, Macau’s famous local snack.

Yukhei pondered over his friend’s question, yes the two of you agreed to break up, but all the girls he dated after you, all had similar features or personality traits to you, he had dismissed it as just a type, but now that he had seen you again, he realised that the hole in his heart was always emptied for you, you were the missing puzzle piece all along.

“You don't even have to answer me, your face tells all man,” Jackson said, an oily finger wagging at the direction of his face.

“Yeah, I think I do,” Yukhei said with a sigh, “but even if I still love her, that doesn’t mean she loves me back, and what if we do love each other? We're living oceans apart,” Yukhei said in a defeated tone.

“Now here comes my solution, so you said she got fired from her law firm and is now tutoring kids and doing the night shift at 7 E, and got kicked out by her shitty parents, so she really doesn't have anything else here for her other than her son, why don't you suggest get to move with you? To Korea? It'll be way easier for the two of you to raise your son, even if the two of you don't get back together, I mean, at least you'll be able to financially support them, that is what you're willing to do right?” Jackson asked, hoping that his friend would uptake his part of the child support.

“Yeah, of course I want that, I just don't know what she'll say, or if she'd be willing, she doesn't speak the language and it's an entirely different environment,” Yukhei said, thinking back the days where he had a tough time adjusting.

“From what you told me, she sounds like a tough nut, but of course, this is all up to you, but just so you know, I would really like to be his godfather, and as for your doubts of her love towards you, she did name him after you, isn't it the same Hei?” Jackson said with a hearty chuckle, he could just imagine the fun they'll have together, he was always fond of children.

“Yeah, I’ll persuade her on this,” Yukhei said, he could already feel himself getting nervous for tonight’s dinner, it can’t be that much of a coincidence that his son’s last name resembled his right? Or is he and Jackson just being delusional?

“Now that's my buddy, now come on, finish your food so that we’ll make it in time for the next batch of Portuguese egg tarts, I remember they have a fresh batch around 4,” Jackson said, mouth salivating at the thought of more food.

When you arrived at the restaurant, it was fancier than what you had expected, feeling underdressed among the rich elite of Hong Kong in your old dress that you wear for every special occasion.

You asked if there was a reservation under your name, since Yukhei said he had it booked under you, and almost immediately, since not that many people can afford places like these, the waiter led you in.

“Mama, what is this place? We've never ate here before,” your son asked you.

“It's a French cuisine restaurant, we’re meeting gogo here, remember him? Or were you too sick that day?” you said as you placed him on the baby chair you had requested for.

“Yeah, I remember,” your son said as he looks around in awe, registering the pretty chandeliers that look so sparkly.

When the waiter handed you a menu, someone had joined your table, his hoodie pulled up so no one would recognise him, pulling it down when he saw that there wasn't any other customers around.

“Sorry, am I late?” Yukhei asked with a sheepish smile, a hand lifting up to check the time.

“No, we’re just early, say hi to Yukhei gogo, love,” you directed the last part to your son, patting his little hand to get his attention, smiling immediately when he lands on the tall figure.

“Gogo, you're here,” your son said excitedly, making grabby hands at him, letting his father carry him with a large smile on his face.

“Hey, buddy, don't you look excited to see me?” Yukhei said before blowing raspberry at his neck, making the young boy giggle.

What you didn't expect was to see someone coming up behind Yukhei, a little bit shorter and smaller in built, but when he pulled his hoodie down, you instantly recognised who it was.

“Jackson Wang?” you asked, blinking your eyes a few times to see if you were hallucinating.

“Hey, it’s nice to finally meet you, you look lovely tonight, and you must be little Wenghei, aren't you adorable, how about Jackson gogo take you out to buy toys, huh? I saw a big toy store just across the street, but only if your ma says yes of course,” Jackson said, giving you a side eye to Yukhei.

“Yeah, sure,” you said, it's not like the Jackson Wang is going to kidnap your son right?

“Don’t worry, I’ll watch him with my life,” Jackson said as Yukhei passes his son over to him, leaving the restaurant with his hood up once more.

“Is there something you'd like to say?” you asked Yukhei after he had taken the seat across you his hands were shaking slightly as he holds up the menu.

“I... I still love you. And I know I must sound like a jerk to you, hell I’d go back in time just to hit myself for running away, I'm really sorry for that. What I did was inexcusable, my career just stabilised at that time, and I was under immense stress from SM, you have every right to be mad at me, but I want to be apart of your life again, apart of Wenghei’s life as well, if you could let me have this second chance, I'll do anything to make the both of you happy,” Yukhei said in one breath, reciting what he had practised over and over again with Jackson in the car.

“Yukhei, I,” you were lost for words, you thought you were saying goodbye once more, that Yukhei and you would always end up in goodbyes, but now here he is, saying he loves you.

“Yukhei, you can't just say you love me for the sake of our son, and neither would you need to take responsibility for him, I chose to have him, and as for love, we can never be together, you’re an international super star now, and you're living in Korea, I don't think I have the energy to be in a long distance relationship with you, that would take a toll on Wenghei too, how am I going to explain to him that his father is in another country? He’ll always question your love for him and I don't want that,” you said, trying to hold in the tears that had built up in your eyes, your throat closing up, the cold facade you built for yourself crumbling down before his eyes.

“You can move to Korea, both of you, we can be a family,” Yukhei pleaded, his hands reaching forward to hold yours, his eyes searching yours.

“We can’t, what if we break up? What if your so called love for me, is just something you feel as a result of our child? You can't uproot the two of us when there's so many uncertainties, especially our emotions,” you said, you don't want either of you to be stuck in a relationship for the sake of raising a child, no one would be happy in the end.

“Love, you don't understand, I've never had a serious relationship after you, I tried, I really did, but I’d always think of you instead, how badly I wanted you instead of someone who reminds me of you, the thing is, I’ve always loved you, and I think you still love me too, or you wouldn't have named our son after me, am I right?” Yukhei hoped, why else would you come up with that name right?

Damn it, you thought to yourself, he saw right through you, maybe you shouldn't have named your son after him.

You looked at him and looked away, darn those puppy eyes, you’re sure you’re crying now, and Yukhei reaching over to wipe away your tears just confirmed it.

“I love you, it's always been you, only you,” Yukhei confessed.

“I, I love you too, Yukhei, and I was never mad at you for running away from us, I know how tough that industry is, but what if your fans find out about us?” you asked, slightly worried that he might lose it like last time.

“Then so be it, true fans would stay,” he said in an affirmative tone, reassuring you.

“You promise?” you asked, holding out your pinky, it would’ve been a funny sight to see if anyone saw the two of you now, crying and smiling at the same time.

“I promise,” Yukhei said before hooking his own pinky to connect with yours.

“If you leave us, Wong Yukhei, I’ll murder you in your sleep,” you said as threatening as you could sound.

“I plan to see our son grow up, so I'll value my life,” Yukhei said in utmost sincerity before grabbing a napkin to wipe away all your tears, you’re glad that you didn't wear any mascara today.

Just when Yukhei wiped away the tears in his eyes, Jackson was back with your bubbly child, his arm had bags digging into his flesh.

“Oh my god, that's too much, Wenghei why did you get so many, this is Jackson gogo’s hard earned money,” you said, lecturing your son.

“It's okay, he's an angel, this was all on me, and I guess things went well?” Jackson asked, eyes darting to your connected hands.

“Yeah,” you said, the biggest smile you had on your face.

“That's great to hear, I always wanted to be an uncle, now if you’ll excuse me, I don't think I should crash this family reunion any longer,” Jackson said giving his best friend a hug before leaving.

“So... What do you like to eat Wenghei? How about we get crème brulé,” Yukhei asked, pointing at the menu with childlike eyes, reminding you of the days where he’d get ice cream with you, splitting it on half for you to share.

“Sounds delicious.”

You let Yukhei order everything, sharing between the three of you while the three of you talked, Yukhei mostly directed the questions at his child, asking about his interests, his favourites of everything, ranging from colour to ice cream, eager to make up for loss time.

“How about we talk about where you'll be staying?” Yukhei asked after ordering dessert.

“Oh, I don't know what I'll be able to afford, I'll probably get another convenience store job again, so the rent can't be too high,” you said, dreading the thought of needing to learn a new language quickly for a job.

“Hey, you don't need to work anymore, nor pay rent, I already looked it up, there's an empty unit in our condo, the soundproofing might be a bit lacking, but that wouldn't be a problem if you don't sing in the shower like Dejun, we had a few noise complaints because of him,” Yukhei said, laughing at the fond times he had at the dorms.

“Yukhei, I know housing is really expensive there, are you sure you want to do this?” you asked once more, you don't want him to resent the financial burden the two of you would add onto him.

“What did I say to you just now? I said what I meant, I want the two of you to be in my life, forever. And don't worry about money, I saved up plenty and there’s many more jobs coming up for me, and moving out of the dorms would be the next step of adulthood to me, and we’ll get to spend so much more time together, right Wenghei?” Yukhei asked, pinching your son’s chubby cheeks teasingly.

“We’ll be living together, Yukhei gogo?” your son asked, a confused expression on his face, he had his attention trained on some pink fong video, something about dinosaurs.

“Yeah, Wenghei, we’ll be moving out of our little room, are you excited? We're going to a new country. Remember the dramas I watched with you? Korea has that big outdoor theme park you said you always wanted to go, and snow, you'll get to make snowmen during the winter,” you persuaded, hoping he won’t fuss too much about the move.

“Really? There’s snow in Korea?” your son asked, excited about the winter scene he’ll get finally see in real life.

“Yeah, real snow, not the bubbles in Disney land, are you excited?”

“Yeah, is Jackson gogo going to stay with us too?” your son asked, eyes darting to his new goodies before looking at you expectantly.

“Well, Jackson gogo has his own house and we have ours, but we can always visit him,” Yukhei explained.

“Hehe, okay,” your son said before getting distracted by the crème brulé set in front of him, digging in immediately.

“When do you want us to make the move?” you asked, thinking of all the things you have to pack, which isn't a lot, but you might have to courier some of your clothes over first.

“Whenever you want, I'll get our home ready as soon as possible, is there anything you need in the house? Other than the basics of course,” Yukhei asked, uncertain of any needs you have as a woman or maybe for your son.

“Can we have a study room for Wenghei? With a desk and shelves? We love to read, and he'll need a proper desk when he's older,” you asked, hoping it wasn't too much.

“Yeah, sure, I'll be sure to get it done,” Yukhei said, noting it down into his phone.

“But it's no rush on the study room part, he's just three after all, before I go, I have to apply visas for both of us,” you said, dreading the thought of filling up paperwork, you haven't done much of that ever since you left the law firm.

“Call me if you need any help on that, I'm sure my manager knows how to,” Yukhei said.

“You’re going to tell your company about us?” you asked, knowing how strict Korean entertainment companies are.

“They can't let me go just because of having my own family, they didn't let Jongdae, my senior, go, so we’ll be fine, I promise,” Yukhei said, reaching a hand over to hold yours reassuringly, his eyes looking into yours, filled with love and adoration.

“Okay, now how about we walk around the complex until 10? Wenghei doesn't have school tomorrow,” you suggested.

“Yeah, sure, we could even stay out later if you want,” Yukhei said enthusiastically, getting up slightly to call for the bill.

“You have a flight to catch tomorrow,” you reminded him in your motherly voice, which you regretted almost instantly, cursing yourself, reminding yourself to act more like an actual 22 year old, but Yukhei didn't say anything about it, hiding his smile by nodding deeply, almost like a bow.

“Okay, I just wanted to spend more time with the two of you,” Yukhei said, stopping when he saw the waiter coming back with the credit card machine, paying with just a glance at the bill.

The three of you spent your remaining time shopping and at the arcade, playing games with your son, Yukhei had insisted on getting you a new pair of sneakers, but you shot him down when he wanted to buy more stuff, especially toys for Wenghei.

“You can buy him toys when we’re there, it'll cost even more to ship more stuff over, and there's a risk of damaging the toys as well,” you said.

But of course your son threw a fit at the shop, all for some legos.

“Hey, buddy, I'll buy you lots the next time I see you, okay? I'll buy you one that's even bigger than this,” Yukhei said, squatting down next to his son, and even then he wasn't eye level with him, sometimes you forget how tall Yukhei actually is until you see a scene like this, or when you stand really close to him.

When it was 10pm, painful goodbyes were exchanged with a promise of face timing everyday, your son cried, and held onto his father dearly, and you haven't even told him Yukhei was his dad, but their bond is evident.

Yukhei held onto you and your son until his taxi came, and you waved until you couldn't see the taillights.

It's been a month since that fateful reunion, and Yukhei has squeezed in face times, calls, and texts in between schedules, giving you and your son time despite his busy career.

His company wasn’t too happy about it of course, but was somewhat glad that you weren't one to babble your business to gossip outlets.

You're now packing your things, one last time, you've been to the post office multiple times before to courier out your stuff to Korea, and every time a box reached his address, Yukhei would take a photo of it, telling you the stuff arrived safely.

Progress on your new home was quick, since it was already a fully furnished unit, Yukhei only needed to buy some furniture and things that cater to your son’s needs, he even picked out a pre school that teaches mandarin, perfect for your son’s adjustment in such a foreign country.

Tomorrow you'd be flying to Korea, a new country, a new start, but there was something clouding your mind, something you've been dreading, but today is the day you’ll tell him.

“Wenghei, can you come to mama for a second?” you asked, soon hearing your son’s tiny footsteps nearing you.

“Yes, mama?” your son asked, a hand around his precious teddy.

“There's something I need to tell you,” you said holding him close to you, letting him sit onto your lap.

“Remember how you asked me why you didn't have a baba while all your other classmates did?” you asked, trying to word it as nicely as possible.

“You said my baba had a really big responsibility, that he couldn't see us because of it, that he'll come back when he's free,” your son answered you, struggling to remember more details.

“Yes, good job, Wenghei, your memorising skills are getting better. Well, your baba is actually Yukhei gogo, he’s back now, and we can finally be a family again,” you said before holding in a breath, not knowing how he’ll react.

“Baba is Yukhei gogo? That's why we’re going to Korea?” your son asked, confusion written on his face.

“Yeah, do you like that he's your baba?” you asked, this could be the most important question ever.

“Yeah, mama, do you love baba? Does baba love you as much as I do?” your son asked, which very much surprised you, but expecting this sort of maturity from him.

“Yes, we love each other, and both of us love you as much too,” you said with a pinch of his chubby cheeks.

“Do we ever have to be separated from baba again?” your son asked, scared of losing his newfound father.

“No, never again, and can you do me one favour, Wenghei? I think the next time when you see your baba, you should run up to him and say hi baba, he’ll be very happy to hear you call him that,” you suggested, imagining the look on Yukhei’s face.

Your son giggled at the thought of making his father happy, agreeing immediately.

“Okay, now go to sleep, it's going to be your first time flying tomorrow,” you said, ushering him onto the bed.

“Okay, goodnight, mama,” your son said to you, just like he did every other night, he seemed to have accepted it very easily, maybe it was due to his age, but some day he might ask his father about his departure personally when he understands more, but that’s a hardship that’s reserved for another day.

The flight was relatively short, though it was rather hard for Wenghei at the start because of the pressure he had experienced in his ears, the crying and whining got you plenty of dirty looks from passengers around you, but you paid no mind to it, you’ve been through worst so this is nothing that can faze you.

When you got there, you saw a lady holding up a plaque with your name on it, her phone in her hand, checking all the moms who came out of the same lane as you.

She had a friendly smile on her face when she saw you, introducing herself in mandarin, being one of Wayv’s staff, a trusted one, according to Yukhei.

She talked to you about Yukhei in general, even giving your son a bar of mini KitKat, praising him for being brave on the flight after she had asked you how was your flight.

Around half an hour later, you've reached your new home, a nice looking condominium that looked about a few years old.

Unloading took quite some time, even with the help of the staff, but what surprised you was the person who was waiting for you inside the lobby.

“You're here!” you said surprised at the sight of the giant.

“Yeah, I am, wanted to give you a surprise, sorry I couldn't be outside, some crazy fans camp outside, can’t let them bring you and Wenghei any harm,” Yukhei said as he carried Wenghei, spinning in a small circle, looking at him with full of love.

“I understand, don't worry, I'm not a teenager girl anymore,” you said as you checked out the place, the sitting area had a couch set and free WiFi, this is a 180 from the living conditions in Hong Kong.

“Baba, did you miss me?” your son asked when he had stopped giggling from his father’s spins, which instantly ceased to a halt, eyes growing as wide as saucers.

“What did you call me? Say it again,” Yukhei said with the biggest smile on his face, all of his teeth were showing.

“Mama said you were my Baba,” Wenghei said like it was as simple as two plus two.

“Yeah... I am your baba, and you're my son,” Yukhei said before holding his son even closer, you could even see the tears at the corner of his eyes.

“Why don't we go see our new home Wenghei?” you suggested, seeing that some people have came out from the lifts, typical going to work hours.

You walked a feet away from Yukhei, not wanting to draw attention, holding onto the lift for Yukhei to bring all your luggage in.

Once you were at your level, you started loosening up, noticing that no one was around.

“This is my members’ unit,” Yukhei said pointing at a door, “And this is ours,” Yukhei said before opening the door for you, welcoming you into a warmly decorated home, every piece of furniture was placed and chose to accommodate your child, all the corners were covered with this e rubber safety stickers.

He showed you into Wenghei's room where the bed had all his favourite characters in the form of a plushie, his bed was soft when you sat down on it, and the blanket he had picked out was a soft fleece material, perfect for the cold weather.

Your son was going around every corner, awing at everything his father had gotten him, especially the Lego sets that were on his desk.

“Thank you, it's beautiful, his room,” you said when Yukhei wrapped an arm around your waist, bringing you closer to him, god how much you've missed his warmth.

“Go take a look at your room,” Yukhei said before pulling your hand into the direction of the master bedroom, welcoming you into a room with a king size bed and silk linen sheets, an aesthetic looking vanity that you've always wanted as a teenager, now as well of course, and a little reading corner just for you by the window.

“It's all I've ever wanted,” you said in disbelief, not knowing how could Yukhei pull this off in such a short time.

“You like it? I got some help from my members, especially Kun for the kitchen, you should check it out afterwards, you always wanted a big kitchen area,” Yukhei said as you laid on the bed, giving your stiff body a rest from the journey.

“Lay down with me for a while, I’m a bit tired from the flight,” you said, making grabby hands at him.

“Nah, I shouldn’t, this is your bed,” Yukhei said, looking flustered.

“Wong Yukhei, I’ve had your child and now you're acting all innocent?” you asked in an accusing tone, playing with him, which made him lay down next to you immediately, he didn't like getting you angry, thinking back all those days when you had lectured him just like that when he forgot to do his homework.

“You want me to sleep here?” Yukhei asked carefully, observing your expressions.

“This is our bedroom, where else do you want to sleep?” you asked, but was promptly cut off by Yukhei's lips on yours, smiling as he kissed you, gentle but expressing all his love for you, a hand lingering on your back, guiding you closer than him.

Many mistakes that had to be made had guided you here, but you've never regretted, for if it wasn't for the hardships and the crossroads, you wouldn't have found a home with the man you'll cross oceans for.

The end.

#lucas smut #lucas fluff #lucas wong #wong yukhei #wayv smut #wayv fluff #nct #nct smut #nct fluff #wayv #this is rather cliche sorry

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