No Matter What (Chapter Nine c)

Nov 23, 2010 18:50

TITLE: No Matter What
SUMMARY: What if you've found the person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with? And then your love, your soul mate suddenly turns tail and runs?


----

Lee Donghae blinked in surprise as his phone rang as he was preparing to go to sleep.

"Hello?"

"Donghae-yah."

"Sungmin? What made you call?"

He heard the other man take a deep breath. "Donghae, please go to Paris as soon as possible. Most preferably right now."

Donghae's eyes widened at Sungmin's surprising request. Was he asking him to abandon the search for Hyukjae? With a frown, he replied with a forceful, "No."

"Donghae-yah, please just pack up your bags and leave---"

"I'm not leaving Nice, Sungmin-ah."

There was a sigh on the other end of the line. "Donghae-yah---"

"Look, I know I was a jerk okay?" Donghae breathed in deeply. "I was a jerk and I'm really sorry for acting that way. But I've changed. I know you won't believe me until you see it for yourself but please just give me a chance to prove it. I love Hyukjae more than anything in this world. I was blind and stupid and all other insults you can think of but please, please, please don't ask me to give up searching for your brother because I won't. No matter what."

There was a long pause and Donghae bit his lip. Was Sungmin really going to try to stop him now that he finally decided to look for Hyukjae and now that he was in the right place?

"Donghae-yah," Sungmin's voice had become softer. "I wasn't asking you to stop looking for Hyuk."

"Then why do you want me to leave for Paris? We both know for a fact that Hyukjae isn't fond of Par---"

"Donghae, right at this moment, Hyukjae is in Paris."

It takes a few seconds for this to sink in before Donghae managed to whisper a strangled, "W-What?"

"He's in Paris right now. I don't know exactly where but I'm sure you'll figure something out."

---

Park Jisub gazed at the forlorn young man in front of him. He was sure something has happened for Hyukjae to look so glum but he knew better than to ask.

Instead, he went to stand in front of the young man. "Come on, Hyukjae-yah, I'll take you somewhere."

Hyukjae looked up before staring away once again. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm not really in the mood to go sight-seeing right now."

But it turned out that the old man didn't take no for an answer so in the end, Hyukjae was still forced to follow him towards a place he would have never guessed: a chic-looking hair salon.

He was instructed to sit down and relax as the old man conversed in rapid French that he was unable to follow. After a few minutes of talking, the hairdresser turned to him and smiled.

"Please lean back and close your eyes, monsieur."

Hyukjae couldn't really refuse a request made so politely so he did as he was told. The woman started to shampoo his hair and massage his head. Because he had spent most of the night thinking and hadn't really gotten any sleep, he fell asleep just as she was rinsing his hair.

He was woken up about an hour later because of the sound of a hair blower.

He blinked before realizing that he was the one being subjected to the warm air of the hair blower. He gazed around to see that Park Jisub was appraising him critically. Soon, the old man smiled approvingly as the hair dresser grinned.

"It's looks quite good on you, son. You look dashing."

Hyukjae raised an eyebrow. As far as he was concerned he was just getting his hair washed. "Um, what looks good on me?"

"You hair, monsieur. You pull the color off very nicely."

With a start, he swiveled his chair to look at the mirror before freezing in shock.

-
-
-

His hair was red.

His hair was red and curly.

His hair was red and curly and he actually looked good.

---

Despite Hyukjae's initial disinterest in the Eiffel Tower, he found himself being drawn to it again and again. Maybe it was because he never ran out of subjects when he was there.

Today, he was taking pictures of the pigeons scattered across the tower's grounds but soon he was sidetracked by a little boy seemingly playing catch-me-if you-can with the birds. The child would run towards where the pigeons had gathered causing the birds to fly away only to gather again once more and the boy would run towards them again.

With a smile, Hyukjae started to snap picture after picture and soon he had attracted the boy's curious gaze. As soon as the boy understood that the young man was taking pictures of him, he smiled widely, showing a gap where two of his front teeth should be. Laughing softly, Hyukjae snapped the picture and gestured for the small boy to come and look at it.

The boy immediately ran toward him and excitedly peered at the screen of Hyukjae's camera. He giggled as he saw his own pictures, laughing now and then and pointing at the birds.

Hyukjae smiled indulgently as he allowed the small child to play with his camera.

The child's smile reminded him of someone he desperately wanted to see.

---

Lee Donghae pulled his sweater tighter against himself and let out a short sneeze. Rubbing his nose and apologizing to the woman beside him, he walked faster. He felt as if he was coming down with a cold which could have been brought about by him not staying in a place longer than a night.

He smiled slightly and thought back to all the places in Paris where he'd visited in the past week. He was coming up with a blank as he thought of other places where Hyukjae could be. Without him realizing it, his feet had directed him towards the Eiffel Tower.

He let his eyes travel quickly around the area, glancing at the multitude of tourists briefly. He stopped as he saw a familiar figure sitting on a bench, with a child on his lap, both of them happily looking at a camera.

Eyes straining and hope blossoming widely inside his heart, Donghae started to walk forward until he was close enough to see the man's features but far enough so that the man would not notice him.

There could be no mistaking it.

It was him.

-
-
-

Aside from a drastic change of hair color, Lee Hyukjae had seemingly remained the same.

Donghae had to stop himself from running towards the person he had been looking for, instead he all but drank the sight in front of him.

The red hair was a surprise of course, but it was a very welcome one. The dark color was being emphasized by, and was emphasizing in return, Hyukjae's pale skin.

He immediately looked around and smiled in relief as he saw the shop he was looking for. He ran towards the shop as fast as he could.

When he returned, the child was already in the process of saying his goodbyes. Donghae watched as the child waved at the photographer as soon as a young woman, probably the child's mother, gestured for the child to come over.

He watched as Hyukjae smiled and waved in return.

He waited until the child was gone and Hyukjae had gone back to viewing the pictures he had taken before he approached quietly.

---

"Bonjour." A soft male voice sounds off from in front of him and Hyukjae stops his action of browsing through his pictures before he looks up.

And he meets the brown eyes of one Lee Donghae.

His mouth drops open in shock and he stands up briskly, almost dropping his prized camera in the haste. A bunch of roses are thrust towards him. He glances at them quickly and realizes that there are exactly ten.

He tries to speak but nothing comes out and before he can formulate any anything suitable to say, he is enveloped in a warm embrace.

"I finally found you."

-

-

-

(Three days later, Donghae would be shaking the hand of Hyukjae's father.

The older man would take one look at him before nodding. "So, you're the idiot my son was talking about.")

PART 1  ][   PART 2  ][  PART 3

A/N: Yey! [throws confetti in the air]. After how many months, it's finally done! To all my readers: silent or otherwise, those who've been there since the start, those who've joined me in the middle, and those who've only read this now, and those who've stuck with me until the very end, thank you thank you thank you!

This is, so far, the longest story I've ever written so I'm kind of proud of it. :P

As always, comments, suggestions and violent reactions (gulp, i hope there aren't that many) are welcomed. Tell me what you think.

And this is dedicated to the birthday girl, RYERRA (you know who you are). Saengil Chukha Hamnida, yeobo. Saranghaeyo!
Just so you know, Sungmin's already wrapped up and is waiting under your bed. :P

THANK YOU!!!!

pairing: haehyuk, f: nmw

Previous post Next post
Up