009. Coffee, Eunhyuk/Donghae
Title : Of Love and Coffee
Theme: #009
Pairing Eunhyuk/Donghae
Rating G
Summary There were two things that Donghae disliked more than anything else in the world, things that tasted bitter and things that burned, so why does he find himself always feeling both? ONESHOT AU
Disclaimer If I owned Suju, I wouldn´t be writing fanfiction....
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Of Love and Coffee
There were two things that Donghae disliked more than anything else in the world, things that tasted bitter and things that burned. Yet here he was sitting in cute litte table ordering the very thing that united those two things in one little cup: coffee.
He looked down at the cup that was brought to him, and thought about how low he had gone to actually order the very thing that disliked the most. He sighed at how far he fell just to be able to see the smiling face that brought the cup to him.
Donghae smiled at the young man who served him the cup, the gummy smile, the innocent eyes they were all there, and in the past he would have eagerly placed his lips to taste that smile, to surprise that innocence, but it was impossible now.
Donghae knew he looked younger than his years, about 40 years younger than his 100 years of living, but stil he was old now, too old to try to relive that happiness of his youth with one who was still in the very flower of his youth at 24 years of living. Eunhyuk would never be his to hold as he once did long ago. And so for the first and last time he sipped his coffee till it was gone, and paid for the cup. As he was about to leave he indulged in one last extravagance: he kissed his past lover's cheek and patted it affectionately before turning away.
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Almost 80 years ago, Eunhyuk and Donghae had met. Eunhyuk the aspiring dancer with hope for the future and Donghae the practical medical student who had given up his dream to dance in favour of the medical career hoping that he'd be able to help his father in his illness.
They had crossed paths many times before they actually met by crashing into each other in front of the local coffee shop. They were in love before they had said a word to each other, their eyes having danced a lifetime together in one single blink of an eye.
That first day they went into the coffee shop and talked for hours, Eunhyuk drinking away coffee like it were water, Donghae barely even touching his first. They came out at night when the moon was already high and the stars twinkled in peaceful happiness, they looked at each other and laughed about how time did go by so fast.
Soon after, Donghae's father left the world and left him without a family to go home to. Eunhyuk embraced him and they agreed to live together, to share their joys and their sadness together until they both should die in each other's arms.
One day, three years to the day they had met, a carreening car hit a bystander in front of a local coffee shop. Donghae was running late to meet his beloved, and for a split second he felt his heart jump out of his chest. As he arrived in front of their annual meeting place, he heard the wails of the people standing around the scene of the accident. How young! some said. How beautiful and how sad! said others. Donghae searched in the crowd for his Eunhyuk, and he did not dare look at the spot where the paramedics were carting the victims to the ambulance. Eunhyuk must be running late, thought Donghae, he will call to apologize, and so he waited inside the coffee shop for that call.
Instead he received a message from an emergency hospital telling him: Lee Hyuk Jae had suffered a horrible accident and had fallen into a coma.
Donghae heard it and did not want to believe that the Lee Hyuk Jae that was in a coma was his Eunhyuk, there were many Hyuk Jaes in the world after all. But he knew deep down that they were one and the same, and he went to the hospital and faced the horrible truth. His Eunhyuk would not be coming home soon, if ever.
Months and years passed and Donghae refused ignoring the entreaties by Eunhyuk's family to pull the plug and let Eunhyuk rest. Donghae was sure that one day he would wake up and be healthy. At last he realized the miracle may not happen in his lifetime and so he decided to freeze his love in his youthful form. After that he devoted his life to research joining team after team of intelligent, forward-thinking researchers searching for a way to bring back a person from the brink of death.
2 years before his 100th birthday, Donghae's team had managed to do that, and as a gift they revived his lover. They warned him that he could not remind his lover of who he was, or what had happened to him, because the mind was too fragile and the years that passed could become so overwhelming that he'd lose his mind. And so Donghae only watched and would visit the coffee shop Eunhyuk had decided to work at. Perhaps he felt attached to the smell for some reason he could not remember? Donghae hoped that Eunhyuk would never remember and have to test the strength of his mind. He swore that on his 100th birthday he'd visit that coffee shop one last time and let go and leave this world, it was time, his bones, and his heart were weary.
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Eunhyuk pressed his hand to the spot on his cheek where the old man's lips had been placed, and for some odd reason a beautiful tearful face seemed to flash before his eyes and then disappear.
Eunhyuk hurried out the door to see if he could catch up with that odd quiet man, who'd come sit and not drink a drop of his coffee everyday for the past two years. As he stood at the door and looked everywhere, he could not see where the man went among the moving throng of weekday traffic. Surely he would come again tomorrow as he had everyday, but for some reason Eunhyuk felt that the man had said goodbye with that gentle press of lips. Tears began to fall from Eunhyuk's eyes without stopping as he stood there looking out into the crowd.
Donghae stood behind a building, trying to stop his tears from falling so that he could see his way forward. Donghae disliked two things in this life: a bitter taste, and things that burned. Loving Eunhyuk encompassed both, yet Donghae could honestly say that he hadn't disliked that love.
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