Keeping It Simple
Title: Keeping It Simple.
Author: omona_shi
Pair: Eunhyuk/Donghae
Genre: !fluff, minor !angst.
Rating: G
Warnings: FAIL PLOT. ABSOLUTELY UN-UNDERSTANDABLE- to me. Minor sadness, but general fluff. Oh, and Hyukjae discreetly watching porn.
Summary: There were rules to their relationship, rather ridiculous ones, some people may think, but it made all the difference in the world to them. But Donghae knows that it'll either break or make when Hyukjae chooses to cross over the line. They are boys, after all.
A/N: owsOh gosh, I'm so tired after writing this- I still haven't finished my History Essay on how and why Hitler became Chancellor in 1933... *cries*
I may read it again in a few days and edit large chunks due to absolutely uncomprehensible plot line.
Keeping It Simple
An Eunhae Oneshot
“Hyukjae...”
“Hm…?”
“Don’t you think the sky is beautiful?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“It’s so blue and it gives off the sense that life is so perfect and doesn’t it make you feel like you could just float up there and get lost in the clouds?”
“Yeah…”
“Hyukjae! Stop watching porn and talk to me! You’re the one who’s paying for this phone call!”
“W-whatwhosaidIwaswatchingporn?!”
“…ffftttt… Hyukkie, you’re always the same, I’ll always know what you’re doing.”
“H-hey!”
“And I know that you just closed the movie down. Am I right, Hyukkie?”
“…Don’t you think that the sky is beautiful, Hae?”
“I KNOW, RIGHT?”
- - - - -
Lee Hyukjae was a boy. A very ordinary 14 year old boy to be exact, who just so happened to be rather talented at dancing, slightly enthusiastic about porn, and had a neighbour whom he often chatted to.
Lee Donghae was a boy. A not-so-ordinary 14 year old boy who believed in aliens, and lived in the nearby dancing studio for most of his life. He had a neighbour who he often chatted to- although sometimes, just sometimes, he’d dream of doing something a little more than that.
The two led completely different lives. Both of them would set off for school together each morning because they lived opposite each other on the same street, but when they reached the end, Hyukjae would turn left, and Donghae would turn right. When school ended and the both of them walked back, they would meet at the same point they had parted in the morning and go back down the quiet drive together, their voices mingling together in the peaceful silence, excited and desperate to tell each other what had happened that day.
However, one thing stayed the same: the only things they knew about each other’s lives was only what either of them chose to reveal.
It was an unspoken rule, a silent agreement that they would stick to their own business in real life and keep this exclusive relationship, exclusive.
They had maintained this for as long as they had both known each other- for years and years, each day they talked for two road trips and they began to learn to know and love each other through these short but sweet meetings each morning and afternoon.
But somewhere deep down, both of them knew this couldn’t go on forever. Things at school or just life in general would sometimes either get too monotonous, or too out of hand for them to share.
There were a few times when Hyukjae came back from school and met up with Donghae at that promised driveway, he had found himself silent whilst Donghae babbled on about some kind of football tournament that would be going on in his school but he wasn’t good enough and the coach was really mean and the girls didn’t watch football anyway so what was the point of going in the first place. Guilt and unexpected regret had swamped over him during those ten minutes when he thought about all the things he could have said- realizing that they were the exact same things that he had said the day before, and the day before that. All he could do then was nod and smile meekly when Donghae demanded a response.
There were also a few times when Donghae came back from school and met up with Hyukjae at that promised driveway, he had found himself silent whilst Hyukjae talked animatedly about the new renovations in the gym next to his school and how he’d most probably go there every day once they had finished. Donghae’s mind wandered back to a few hours before at school when his best friend- or someone who he’d thought was his best friend- had been expelled for bringing cocaine to school, and how hard Donghae had cried by himself in the locker room when he had heard his best friend’s last words: “You little dance freak, how dare you tell the teachers?! Think you’re so good, huh? I’m telling you to go fuck yourself- you’re just one little pathetic asshole who can’t even kick a football.” Donghae knew that it’d all go wrong if he told Hyukjae. He’d want to know who his ‘best friend’ was, and why it happened and whether Donghae had been in this all along and everything both of them had put into this friendship would just fall into pieces right before his eyes. All he could do then was to push that all behind and slip in an occasional comment into Hyukjae’s monologue, putting up a smile to keep anything from spilling out unintentionally.
The most painful thing was, somewhere down this journey with its fair share of ups and downs, both of them realized that they had suddenly developed into something much more.
It was at 4.13pm on the 15th of October that it happened. It was on that day that everything changed.
“…And our headmistress was just so angry- I mean, you should have seen her face!”
“Donghae-ah.”
“Huh?”
“”Happy Birthday.”
“AH, thank- wait. What…?”
Donghae’s happy grin vanished in a blink of an eye and instead stared at Hyukjae incredulously. This was against the rules- their rules- that they had built for this little world of theirs. It was that they wouldn’t contact any outside sources; they had promised not to speak to anyone or anything to do with the other’s life, including their family members, their friends or whatever.
But Hyukjae knew his birthday. And Donghae had never told him that it was on the 15th of October.
“I’m sorry,” Hyukjae quickly pulled out a messily wrapped package from his bag and stuffed it rashly into Donghae’s hands, “I’m really sorry.”
Donghae could only stand there, paralyzed by shock as he watched Hyukjae scrub his eyes roughly on a dishevelled sleeve and then run the last few steps back to his own house, not looking back for even one moment.
That night, Donghae decided to call Hyukjae. He had lain there on the bed with his hand threaded through his highlighted dark-brown hair for hours. He hadn’t reacted when his mum went up to call him for dinner; he hadn’t reacted when his brother came up and he didn’t even react when his dad came up. Each time he had just called back breezily, “I’m not hungry- don’t wait for me” and returned to his contemplation.
This really shouldn’t have been such a big deal as it was just some stupid little game- but it was, to the two of them. Should he be happy that Hyukjae, finally, was willing to cross over that invisible line that had always been there?
It was too late, however, when the series of multiple- and seemingly endless- electricity-clogged ‘rring’s were cut off and were replaced by a rather stuffy voice.
“Yoboseyo?”
“Hyukjae, it’s Donghae.”
“…Yes?”
“Well… I’m surprised you weren’t at dinner, you know, it’s already 7 and I thought that you normally eat around that time like others do “
“-I finished. I started at 6.30 and I eat fast.”
“I see.”
There was an incredibly uncomfortable silence between the both of them and for a moment, Donghae thought that Hyukjae had most probably hung up on him so he took a deep breath, and spoke up into the receiver.
“I want to see you.”
“…What?”
“Can you come over? I want to see you.”
“Okay.”
Approximately one minute later, Hyukjae appeared by the door frame, panting because he had set off for the other’s house at a full sprint the instant Donghae had asked him to come over. Could he have, perhaps, forgiven him? He had, after all, broken the rules.
“Donghae…”
The boy rose up from his slumped position on the bed and smiled at Hyukjae.
“What did my mum say?”
“Oh, she just went ‘It’s nice to see the young man who always leaves the house and comes back to the house with Donghae every day’ and ruffled my hair. Look, I’m sorry to probe into your life, Hae, you know I am. It just always felt that there was some kind of barrier between us and that there was this side of you that I’d never know if you never told me. I-” Hyukjae broke off, a familiar bruising pain rising in his throat and his voice started to thicken a little at the new feeling, “-I just wanted to know you, Donghae, after all those years of just talking to you each day for twenty minutes and those rare phone calls- it just came to me that I didn’t even know when your birthday was.”
“I know..” Donghae had reached Hyukjae with that same calm smile on his face and had reached out his arms to pull Hyukjae away from the door and onto the bed with him, “I feel that too.”
Both bodies impacting the bed made the springs protest silently, but the two were too immersed in their universe.
“I feel really guilty too, because I just sometimes wish we meant something more to each other- you just make me feel so different from all the others. I don’t ever have to hide what I truly think from you, but at the same time, there’s so much I keep to myself- I don’t know! I don’t understand!” The hot tears began to roll down Hyukjae’s pale face and it broke Donghae’s heart to watch him fall apart like this because of him, or them.
Then, much to Hyukjae’s surprise, Donghae kissed him.
“I’m sorry, Hyukkie, I promise from now on I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I’ll show you all the places I love to go to and we’ll go to my favourite ice-cream shop on Saturdays and I’ll listen to everything you want to say too and I’ll follow you wherever you go.”
Despite the fact that Hyukjae was crying his eyes out, slowly, he smiled into the other boy’s lips and wrapped his own thin arms against the younger, swearing that no matter what, he’d never let go, not when he’d finally found what had been beside him all along.
- - - - -
“Hyukjae...”
“Hm…?”
“Don’t you think the sky is beautiful?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“It’s so blue and it gives off the sense that life is so perfect and doesn’t it make you feel like you could just float up there and get lost in the clouds?”
“Yeah…”
“I love you, Hyukkie, you know that, right? To me, you’re just like the sky, so beautiful and you make me feel like I could reach up to you and get lost.”
“So, I make you get lost?”
“I didn’t mean it like that- it’s like going to a planet you really like and you’re so happy that you don’t care if you can’t find your way back to your spaceship anymore and you don’t really want to leave anyway.”
“Thank you, Hae, but you really need to work on your analogies.”
“But do you love me, Hyukkie? Do you?”
“I love you, Lee Donghae, and I’ll always say that to you, every day until the sky fades away- and I promise that I’ll still carry on.”
Thanks for reading and commenting! ^^