no matter where you go [1/3]
Pairing: HenHae, HenMin
Rating: PG-13
Genre: romance, drama, college!au
Words: 3,433
Summary: Henry was just trying to get through his first year of college without failing anything. He didn't expect to suddenly meet Donghae, a strange man who know one else seems to have heard of. Who was he?
A/N: This was actually supposed to be for my friend Leah, who asked for HenHae, but I'm not sure this is what she was expecting. HenMin is totally for Beckie, whatever the hell her username is these days.
Also, for my younger readers, your first week of college won't necessarily be like Henry's. Results may vary.
[1, 2, 3]
***
His first class of his first day of college was at nine o’clock on Monday morning.
He woke up at exactly 8:51.
“FUCK,” Henry bellowed, immediately sitting up in his bed and flinging the covers off.
“Whathehellareyoumakingnoisefor,” his roommate, Hyukjae, mumbled grumpily into his pillow.
“Sorry!” Henry apologized, grabbing some jeans out of a drawer and violently stuffing his legs in. “I just slept through my alarm. Go back to sleep, I’ll see you this afternoon.” He shoved a baseball cap over his disheveled hair, put on his shoes, grabbed his backpack and keys, and made for the door.
Hyukjae lifted his face out of his pillow, “Good luck in class,” he croaked with one eye open before plopping his head back down.
Henry grinned; glad he was lucky enough to be put with a roommate he got along with. “Thanks Hyukkie!” He called, shutting the door behind him.
Forgoing the elevator, he simultaneously ran down the stairs and looked at the hastily scribbled schedule he had written the night before. His first class was… Group Instruction in Piano. At nine in the morning. Fantastic. Well, at least he could already play piano. It shouldn’t be too hard.
Leaving his dorm building, he crossed the street without looking, almost getting run over by a car in the process. The car honked at him, and he waved sheepishly. “Sorry!” He called. Seemed like he was going to be apologizing a lot today.
He finally made it to his class after jogging across the middle of the quad. He opened the door to find about twenty people at leopards staring at him. The teacher turned around and looked him up and down with a critical eye. “Henry Lau, I presume?” She said.
“Yeah… Sorry,” he muttered for the third time so far that day. “I accidentally slept in.”
“I can see that,” the teacher replied, but smiled kindly. “Have a seat, please.”
Henry walked to the other side of the room, sitting down in front of the last available leopard. As predicted, the teacher told them to introduce themselves to the person sitting next to them. Henry sighed. Great. He forgot how much he hated the beginnings of school years. He thought college would spare him the annoyance of doing ice breaker activities, but he was quite wrong. Reluctantly, he turned to the person next to him, but the guy beat him to it.
“Hey, I’m Sungmin,” the dark-haired, round-faced man said, and smiled.
“I’m Henry.” He grinned back.
“Are you a music major?” Sungmin asked politely.
“Yeah, isn’t everyone in here?” Henry responded, clueless.
“No, this is for majors and minors. I’m a major, though, too. I’m guessing you’re a freshman?”
“Yeah… how could you tell?”
Sungmin smiled again. “I haven’t seen you around before.”
“…Oh. Yeah, I’m specializing in violin. Are you not a freshman?” Henry knew his wording was probably awkward, but he was just mentally patting himself on the back for actually having a decent conversation this early in the morning.
“Nope, sophomore,” Sungmin responded. “I’m in voice, so your fellow instrumentalists are probably going to tell you to make fun of me, but be warned, I’m a black belt in several martial arts.”
Henry’s eyes widened, slightly intimidated. “Noted. Thanks for the warning,” he said, laughing and secretly hoping he would never have to find out if that fact was true. “Oh, my roommate is a sophomore, too,” Henry remembered.
“Oh, really?” Sungmin’s face lit up in curiosity. “What’s his name?”
“Um, Lee Hyukjae. He’s a dance major?”
“Oh, you’re Hyukkie’s new roommate? We went to high school together.”
“No way, really? Man, this campus is smaller than I expected.”
Sungmin laughed. “It’s just that everyone in the art department gets to know each other pretty well. We have a lot of parties.”
Parties? Henry grinned. “Sounds like a lot of fun, I’ll be looking forward to getting invited to some,” he said. Subtlety was never his strong suit.
A smile spread across Sungmin’s face as he reached into his pocket. “Give me your phone number; I’ll let you know when we’re getting together.” He held out his phone, and Henry took it, punching in his number before handing it back.
“Thanks.” It looked like making friends was going to be easier than Henry thought. His first class and already he had someone who was going to hook him up with some parties. College was awesome.
Henry and Sungmin didn’t really have a chance to exchange any more words, since their professor was beginning to talk again. When the class ended, the two men exchanged farewells before going their separate ways.
Henry had three other classes that day, and they were all pretty much the same. He sat dozing off as his professors went through the syllabi and told the students about the class. Hyukjae was actually in his last class of the day at noon, and so after that the two grabbed a bite to eat for lunch.
The rest of the week went on in a similar fashion. When he wasn’t in class, he was usually just in his room, since he didn’t really have any other friends yet. He didn’t have any homework, either, since it was only the first week.
By Friday, Henry was going insane from boredom. He really hoped he would find something to do this weekend.
As if on cue, his phone buzzed - a new text message. He picked it up curiously, seeing as it was from an unknown number, and opened the text.
Hey, this is Sungmin from your piano class! It said. One of the seniors is having a huge party tonight, do you want to come?
Henry paused to praise the heavens. Apparently someone up there had been listening to his complaints of boredom and had gotten tired of them. He hastily typed out a reply. Sure, where is it?
Sungmin’s reply was almost immediate. He gave Henry the address, and added, I invited Hyukkie, too, so he can show you where it is! ^^
Thanks, see you there! Henry texted back, and realized he forgot to ask what time the party was. He was about to text Sungmin to ask when Hyukjae entered the door. The universe was working in Henry’s favor today, it seemed.
He practically pounced on his poor roommate as soon as he put his phone down. “Hey, Hyukjae, are you going to the party tonight?” He asked, not beating around the bush.
Hyukjae took a moment to collect himself, surprised by Henry’s sudden outburst. “Uhh,” he stammered, “you mean Heechul’s? Wait, how did you know about that?”
Henry didn’t know who Heechul was, but he figured it was the senior who was having the party. “Sungmin invited me,” he explained.
“Oh yeah, I forgot you guys had a class together,” Hyukjae said, and thought for a moment. “Uh, yeah I guess I’m going to the party tonight. Heechul will get mad at me again if I miss another one.” The second sentence was said mostly to himself, so Henry decided to disregard it.
“Sweet! Do you know what time we should go over there?”
“Nine, I think.”
Henry groaned, plopping himself down on his bed dramatically. “But that’s five hours! I’m so bored.”
Hyukjae glared at him, unimpressed. “I swear, if I have to hear you complain about being bored one more time I will slap you across the head.”
“Jeez, sorry.” Henry decided to turn on the TV in an attempt to distract himself for a little while. It worked, a little too well in fact. He ended up passing out for a couple hours, and Hyukjae had to wake him up for dinner.
When nine o’clock finally came around, Henry couldn’t have been happier. He practically dragged Hyukjae out of their dorm until he realized he didn’t know the way to the apartment. His roommate just laughed at him, taking the lead.
Soon, Henry found himself at his first college party. He had to pay five dollars to get in, and immediately after that a cute girl put a beer in his hands. He thanked her, but she sauntered off before he could get her name.
The apartment wasn’t huge, but it was pretty decent sized. It was actually two floors, although the second floor consisted only of four bedrooms and a bathroom. It was extremely crowded, though, with barely enough room for Henry to maneuver around. Loud music blared from somewhere nearby. Henry had immediately lost Hyukjae the moment he entered the apartment, so instead he decided to try and look for Sungmin.
He found him in the kitchen, which was significantly less crowded than the living room he had just left. Sungmin was playing beer pong with a few other guys, and several other people were hanging out in there, too. He watched Sungmin take a shot and miss completely, cursing as the ball bounced off the rim of a cup. He caught sight of Henry and his eyes immediately lit up.
“Hey, Henry, glad you could make it!” Sungmin exclaimed, temporarily forgetting the game as he went over to greet Henry. He grabbed the younger man by the arm and led him over to the table. “Guys, this is Henry.” He pointed to his beer pong partner and the two they were facing, introducing them in turn. “This is Shindong, Hankyung, and Heechul. This is Heechul’s apartment. His roommates are somewhere in the living room I think.”
“Hey, nice to meet you guys,” Henry said kind of shyly, and the others all greeted him in return.
Out of nowhere, Heechul yawned. “I’m kind of bored of this game. I think me and Hannie are gonna go do something else.” He grabbed the man’s wrist, dragging him upstairs.
“Hey, wait a minute! We didn’t even finish the game!” Hankyung protested.
“Shut up.”
Henry watched them disappear. He turned to Sungmin, a confused look on his face. The other just laughed and shrugged.
“They do that sometimes. Heechul’s a little strange; he’s an acting major.”
“Ohhh,” Henry said in understanding. That explained a lot. “Hankyung’s his boyfriend?”
Sungmin laughed. “Yeah, they’re pretty obvious, huh?”
Shindong sighed, resetting the cups. “Well, now we need someone else to play with.”
“I’ll play if you find me a partner,” Henry told him.
“I got it!” Sungmin yelled, dashing back into the crowded living room. He came back less than a minute later, dragging a girl with short hair who was dressed in baggy clothes. “I found someone who wants to play!” He brought the girl up to Henry. She looked thoroughly amused.
“Hi,” she said, waving a little, “I’m Amber.”
“I’m Henry,” he replied.
They started their game of beer pong, Amber and Henry vs. Shindong and Sungmin. Amber was a little quiet at first, but as they started drinking more, Henry had her laughing at his ridiculous antics. They got drunk pretty fast, since even though the cups were filled with water, they always had a drink in hand.
By the time they finished a few games of beer pong (Henry and Amber won every game, despite Henry’s utter lack of skill), Henry was slurring his words, insisting that he was only tipsy. Sungmin, Amber, and Shindong were just laughing at him, and Sungmin for some reason couldn’t stop giggling. They played a few more drinking games, and Henry was able to meet a lot more people, though he probably wouldn’t remember their names in an hour.
Around midnight, Heechul and Hankyung came down again. Heechul held up a bottle of tequila, declaring it was time for shots. Some people had left by then, thinning the crowd, but there were still a good amount there.
After Henry’s first shot, he was pretty positive he was completely drunk. He stumbled up to either Amber or Sungmin (he couldn’t recall which), threw his arms around their shoulders, and mumbled, “You’re cute,” before snuggling his face in their neck. The person he was snuggling up to just laughed, telling him he was an adorable drunk.
After his second shot, he began to feel kind of sick. He ran to the bathroom and threw up, feeling infinitely better. A head he was pretty sure belonged to a girl he met an hour ago poked through the doorway. “You okay?” She asked, concerned.
“I’m fantastic!” Henry shouted, standing up. For some reason he decided it would be a good idea to try and kiss her, but she just pushed him away with a slightly disgusted look on her face. Well, he had just thrown up.
After his third shot, Henry couldn’t remember a thing.
***
Henry awoke the next morning with his head pounding. He tried to move and felt a wave of nausea come over him. Deciding it was best not to move, he lied in bed with his eyes closed for a few minutes. Wait, bed?
He opened his eyes, groaning at the blinding light coming through the curtains on the window across the room. He surveyed as much of the room as he could without moving his head. It was a pretty empty room, with bare white walls. Where in the world was he?
Feeling less nauseous, he decided to sit up. He stretched, yawning, and noticed a black tuft of hair sticking out from underneath the blankets on the bed next to him. Startled, Henry let out a noise of surprise. Then, he realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and screamed internally. And maybe a little externally.
The tuft of hair in question stirred, and the blanket moved to reveal a sleepy faced man. Henry noted that the said man was in fact wearing a shirt, and relaxed a little. Also, he belatedly realized that he himself was wearing pants, along with the strange man in bed with him. He breathed a sigh of relief. It’s not like Henry was averse to being with a man, he just didn’t like having sex with random people he didn’t know. So he was glad the crisis was averted.
The stranger squinted at him, clearly hung over as well. Henry didn’t remember him from the party last night, but he figured he must have been there. He still didn’t know where he was currently, though. Was he still at Heechul’s?
“Oh. I’m wearing clothes.” Henry was interrupted from his thoughts at the sound from the man next to him.
“Uhh,” Henry said intelligently.
“I guess we didn’t have sex, then,” the stranger mused, looking relieved. Henry just blinked. “Not that I wouldn’t, you’re pretty cute!” The man added quickly, as if he had offended Henry. Henry blanched, and had no idea what to say to that. Instead, he found his shirt by the side of the bed and put it on. He looked back at the stranger, analyzing him for a minute. He was actually kind of attractive, despite being extremely disheveled at the moment.
“Um,” Henry started, attempting to form a complete sentence. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Donghae. Lee Donghae.” The man held out his hand.
“Henry Lau,” he greeted, taking the hand and shaking it briefly. He could see Donghae looking him up and down, and suddenly Henry felt very uncomfortable. “I think I’m gonna go get a drink of water,” he said abruptly, and rushed out of the room.
Upon leaving the room, he discovered that he was not still at Heechul’s. He was in a small apartment that definitely only had one floor. He easily found his way to the kitchen and was startled to find Sungmin in there, drinking straight from a liter bottle of milk.
“Morning!” Sungmin chirped, face immediately brightening. Henry just looked at him in amazement. Henry knew Sungmin had drunk almost as much as he had. How could someone be so cheerful when hung over?
“Uh, morning,” Henry muttered. Sungmin knowingly reached into a cabinet and grabbed him a glass. He took it, filling it up with water from the sink. “Is this your place?” Henry asked after taking a few gulps.
“Yeah. Hyukjae left kind of early last night, and you didn’t seem sober enough to be able to walk home by yourself, so I just took you back here. I hope that’s okay.” Sungmin told him.
“It’s fine, thank you,” Henry said, a little embarrassed. “Sorry if I was obnoxious or anything last night, I don’t remember a lot of it.”
Sungmin chuckled. “You were fine. A little clingy, but fine.” He grinned, and Henry felt himself blush a little.
He decided it would be best to change the subject. “So did you bring Donghae back from the party too, or is he your roommate?”
The shorter man stared at him, clearly confused. “Donghae? Who’s that?”
Henry’s face scrunched in thought. “Um. The guy who was sleeping next to me in the bed?”
“Henry, I live alone and you were the only person I brought back from the party.” Sungmin was talking slowly, making sure Henry understood.
Henry could feel himself beginning to panic. “Then who was that in the bed with me when I woke up?” He asked, voice calm but eyes wide.
He could see the alarm in Sungmin’s eyes, too. “A-are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”
Henry nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.” He noticed his hands were shaking a little.
Sungmin turned around, grabbing a large knife from a drawer, and slowly made his way to the bedroom, where Henry had slept. Henry trailed behind, back up against the wall as Sungmin opened the door and crept in.
Several seconds passed in which Henry could hear his own heart pounding in his chest as he waited by himself in the hallway.
“Henry,” Sungmin called, and Henry let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “There’s no one in here.”
“What?” He peered his head in. Sungmin was standing in the middle of the room, knife by his side, looking a little ridiculous. But other than him, he saw no one. Sungmin raised his hands in a half shrug before exiting the room and putting the knife back in its place.
“You must’ve been dreaming, Henry,” Sungmin assured him.
He scratched his head, thoroughly confused at this point. “I guess so,” he responded. Henry was pretty sure he hadn’t been dreaming, though. Or was he?
***
Over the next several days, Henry managed to convince himself that Lee Donghae was just a dream. There was a voice in the back of his head that still doubted, but he ignored it. Instead, he immersed himself in the school work he was beginning to get from his teachers. Between that and hanging out with Sungmin and occasionally that Amber girl he had met at Heechul’s party, he avoided all thoughts of his weird dream.
He had almost completely forgotten about it, actually, until one day when he was studying at the library. He saw a slim, dark-haired man roaming through the stacks, and recognized him immediately. Donghae.
Henry’s eyes widened. He quickly shoved his laptop in his bag and tried to inconspicuously follow the man as he wandered the library. After a few minutes, Donghae turned in his direction. Henry grabbed the first book he laid his eyes on and pretended to be reading it.
“Is there a reason you’re following me around?” Donghae questioned, voice slightly muffled by the carpet and shelves of books.
Henry looked up from the book he was pretending to read. “What? I’m not following you around.”
Donghae raised his eyebrows, gesturing at Henry’s book. “Your book is upside-down.”
Heat rose to Henry’s face as he placed the book back on the shelf. He smiled at Donghae sheepishly. “Sorry. It’s just… you seem really familiar.” He said, knowing he had been caught. “Have we met?”
Donghae just laughed. “Of course we have. We met in Sungmin’s apartment last week.”
Henry froze. “…What? But wait. There was no one in that room when we went in there! And how come Sungmin doesn’t know who you are?”
The man just laughed again, a little too loud for a library. “Oh, he knows me. He just doesn’t realize it.” He smiled one last time at Henry, then walked away, turning into a different aisle.
“Wait a minute!” Henry called, rushing after him. He turned into the aisle he saw Donghae walk in, but no one was there. Confused, he continued to search through the library for quite a while, but Donghae was nowhere to be found.
Henry was seriously beginning to doubt his sanity.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: romance, drama, college!au
Words: 3,433
Summary: Henry was just trying to get through his first year of college without failing anything. He didn't expect to suddenly meet Donghae, a strange man who know one else seems to have heard of. Who was he?
A/N: This was actually supposed to be for my friend Leah, who asked for HenHae, but I'm not sure this is what she was expecting. HenMin is totally for Beckie, whatever the hell her username is these days.
Also, for my younger readers, your first week of college won't necessarily be like Henry's. Results may vary.
[1, 2, 3]
***
His first class of his first day of college was at nine o’clock on Monday morning.
He woke up at exactly 8:51.
“FUCK,” Henry bellowed, immediately sitting up in his bed and flinging the covers off.
“Whathehellareyoumakingnoisefor,” his roommate, Hyukjae, mumbled grumpily into his pillow.
“Sorry!” Henry apologized, grabbing some jeans out of a drawer and violently stuffing his legs in. “I just slept through my alarm. Go back to sleep, I’ll see you this afternoon.” He shoved a baseball cap over his disheveled hair, put on his shoes, grabbed his backpack and keys, and made for the door.
Hyukjae lifted his face out of his pillow, “Good luck in class,” he croaked with one eye open before plopping his head back down.
Henry grinned; glad he was lucky enough to be put with a roommate he got along with. “Thanks Hyukkie!” He called, shutting the door behind him.
Forgoing the elevator, he simultaneously ran down the stairs and looked at the hastily scribbled schedule he had written the night before. His first class was… Group Instruction in Piano. At nine in the morning. Fantastic. Well, at least he could already play piano. It shouldn’t be too hard.
Leaving his dorm building, he crossed the street without looking, almost getting run over by a car in the process. The car honked at him, and he waved sheepishly. “Sorry!” He called. Seemed like he was going to be apologizing a lot today.
He finally made it to his class after jogging across the middle of the quad. He opened the door to find about twenty people at leopards staring at him. The teacher turned around and looked him up and down with a critical eye. “Henry Lau, I presume?” She said.
“Yeah… Sorry,” he muttered for the third time so far that day. “I accidentally slept in.”
“I can see that,” the teacher replied, but smiled kindly. “Have a seat, please.”
Henry walked to the other side of the room, sitting down in front of the last available leopard. As predicted, the teacher told them to introduce themselves to the person sitting next to them. Henry sighed. Great. He forgot how much he hated the beginnings of school years. He thought college would spare him the annoyance of doing ice breaker activities, but he was quite wrong. Reluctantly, he turned to the person next to him, but the guy beat him to it.
“Hey, I’m Sungmin,” the dark-haired, round-faced man said, and smiled.
“I’m Henry.” He grinned back.
“Are you a music major?” Sungmin asked politely.
“Yeah, isn’t everyone in here?” Henry responded, clueless.
“No, this is for majors and minors. I’m a major, though, too. I’m guessing you’re a freshman?”
“Yeah… how could you tell?”
Sungmin smiled again. “I haven’t seen you around before.”
“…Oh. Yeah, I’m specializing in violin. Are you not a freshman?” Henry knew his wording was probably awkward, but he was just mentally patting himself on the back for actually having a decent conversation this early in the morning.
“Nope, sophomore,” Sungmin responded. “I’m in voice, so your fellow instrumentalists are probably going to tell you to make fun of me, but be warned, I’m a black belt in several martial arts.”
Henry’s eyes widened, slightly intimidated. “Noted. Thanks for the warning,” he said, laughing and secretly hoping he would never have to find out if that fact was true. “Oh, my roommate is a sophomore, too,” Henry remembered.
“Oh, really?” Sungmin’s face lit up in curiosity. “What’s his name?”
“Um, Lee Hyukjae. He’s a dance major?”
“Oh, you’re Hyukkie’s new roommate? We went to high school together.”
“No way, really? Man, this campus is smaller than I expected.”
Sungmin laughed. “It’s just that everyone in the art department gets to know each other pretty well. We have a lot of parties.”
Parties? Henry grinned. “Sounds like a lot of fun, I’ll be looking forward to getting invited to some,” he said. Subtlety was never his strong suit.
A smile spread across Sungmin’s face as he reached into his pocket. “Give me your phone number; I’ll let you know when we’re getting together.” He held out his phone, and Henry took it, punching in his number before handing it back.
“Thanks.” It looked like making friends was going to be easier than Henry thought. His first class and already he had someone who was going to hook him up with some parties. College was awesome.
Henry and Sungmin didn’t really have a chance to exchange any more words, since their professor was beginning to talk again. When the class ended, the two men exchanged farewells before going their separate ways.
Henry had three other classes that day, and they were all pretty much the same. He sat dozing off as his professors went through the syllabi and told the students about the class. Hyukjae was actually in his last class of the day at noon, and so after that the two grabbed a bite to eat for lunch.
The rest of the week went on in a similar fashion. When he wasn’t in class, he was usually just in his room, since he didn’t really have any other friends yet. He didn’t have any homework, either, since it was only the first week.
By Friday, Henry was going insane from boredom. He really hoped he would find something to do this weekend.
As if on cue, his phone buzzed - a new text message. He picked it up curiously, seeing as it was from an unknown number, and opened the text.
Hey, this is Sungmin from your piano class! It said. One of the seniors is having a huge party tonight, do you want to come?
Henry paused to praise the heavens. Apparently someone up there had been listening to his complaints of boredom and had gotten tired of them. He hastily typed out a reply. Sure, where is it?
Sungmin’s reply was almost immediate. He gave Henry the address, and added, I invited Hyukkie, too, so he can show you where it is! ^^
Thanks, see you there! Henry texted back, and realized he forgot to ask what time the party was. He was about to text Sungmin to ask when Hyukjae entered the door. The universe was working in Henry’s favor today, it seemed.
He practically pounced on his poor roommate as soon as he put his phone down. “Hey, Hyukjae, are you going to the party tonight?” He asked, not beating around the bush.
Hyukjae took a moment to collect himself, surprised by Henry’s sudden outburst. “Uhh,” he stammered, “you mean Heechul’s? Wait, how did you know about that?”
Henry didn’t know who Heechul was, but he figured it was the senior who was having the party. “Sungmin invited me,” he explained.
“Oh yeah, I forgot you guys had a class together,” Hyukjae said, and thought for a moment. “Uh, yeah I guess I’m going to the party tonight. Heechul will get mad at me again if I miss another one.” The second sentence was said mostly to himself, so Henry decided to disregard it.
“Sweet! Do you know what time we should go over there?”
“Nine, I think.”
Henry groaned, plopping himself down on his bed dramatically. “But that’s five hours! I’m so bored.”
Hyukjae glared at him, unimpressed. “I swear, if I have to hear you complain about being bored one more time I will slap you across the head.”
“Jeez, sorry.” Henry decided to turn on the TV in an attempt to distract himself for a little while. It worked, a little too well in fact. He ended up passing out for a couple hours, and Hyukjae had to wake him up for dinner.
When nine o’clock finally came around, Henry couldn’t have been happier. He practically dragged Hyukjae out of their dorm until he realized he didn’t know the way to the apartment. His roommate just laughed at him, taking the lead.
Soon, Henry found himself at his first college party. He had to pay five dollars to get in, and immediately after that a cute girl put a beer in his hands. He thanked her, but she sauntered off before he could get her name.
The apartment wasn’t huge, but it was pretty decent sized. It was actually two floors, although the second floor consisted only of four bedrooms and a bathroom. It was extremely crowded, though, with barely enough room for Henry to maneuver around. Loud music blared from somewhere nearby. Henry had immediately lost Hyukjae the moment he entered the apartment, so instead he decided to try and look for Sungmin.
He found him in the kitchen, which was significantly less crowded than the living room he had just left. Sungmin was playing beer pong with a few other guys, and several other people were hanging out in there, too. He watched Sungmin take a shot and miss completely, cursing as the ball bounced off the rim of a cup. He caught sight of Henry and his eyes immediately lit up.
“Hey, Henry, glad you could make it!” Sungmin exclaimed, temporarily forgetting the game as he went over to greet Henry. He grabbed the younger man by the arm and led him over to the table. “Guys, this is Henry.” He pointed to his beer pong partner and the two they were facing, introducing them in turn. “This is Shindong, Hankyung, and Heechul. This is Heechul’s apartment. His roommates are somewhere in the living room I think.”
“Hey, nice to meet you guys,” Henry said kind of shyly, and the others all greeted him in return.
Out of nowhere, Heechul yawned. “I’m kind of bored of this game. I think me and Hannie are gonna go do something else.” He grabbed the man’s wrist, dragging him upstairs.
“Hey, wait a minute! We didn’t even finish the game!” Hankyung protested.
“Shut up.”
Henry watched them disappear. He turned to Sungmin, a confused look on his face. The other just laughed and shrugged.
“They do that sometimes. Heechul’s a little strange; he’s an acting major.”
“Ohhh,” Henry said in understanding. That explained a lot. “Hankyung’s his boyfriend?”
Sungmin laughed. “Yeah, they’re pretty obvious, huh?”
Shindong sighed, resetting the cups. “Well, now we need someone else to play with.”
“I’ll play if you find me a partner,” Henry told him.
“I got it!” Sungmin yelled, dashing back into the crowded living room. He came back less than a minute later, dragging a girl with short hair who was dressed in baggy clothes. “I found someone who wants to play!” He brought the girl up to Henry. She looked thoroughly amused.
“Hi,” she said, waving a little, “I’m Amber.”
“I’m Henry,” he replied.
They started their game of beer pong, Amber and Henry vs. Shindong and Sungmin. Amber was a little quiet at first, but as they started drinking more, Henry had her laughing at his ridiculous antics. They got drunk pretty fast, since even though the cups were filled with water, they always had a drink in hand.
By the time they finished a few games of beer pong (Henry and Amber won every game, despite Henry’s utter lack of skill), Henry was slurring his words, insisting that he was only tipsy. Sungmin, Amber, and Shindong were just laughing at him, and Sungmin for some reason couldn’t stop giggling. They played a few more drinking games, and Henry was able to meet a lot more people, though he probably wouldn’t remember their names in an hour.
Around midnight, Heechul and Hankyung came down again. Heechul held up a bottle of tequila, declaring it was time for shots. Some people had left by then, thinning the crowd, but there were still a good amount there.
After Henry’s first shot, he was pretty positive he was completely drunk. He stumbled up to either Amber or Sungmin (he couldn’t recall which), threw his arms around their shoulders, and mumbled, “You’re cute,” before snuggling his face in their neck. The person he was snuggling up to just laughed, telling him he was an adorable drunk.
After his second shot, he began to feel kind of sick. He ran to the bathroom and threw up, feeling infinitely better. A head he was pretty sure belonged to a girl he met an hour ago poked through the doorway. “You okay?” She asked, concerned.
“I’m fantastic!” Henry shouted, standing up. For some reason he decided it would be a good idea to try and kiss her, but she just pushed him away with a slightly disgusted look on her face. Well, he had just thrown up.
After his third shot, Henry couldn’t remember a thing.
***
Henry awoke the next morning with his head pounding. He tried to move and felt a wave of nausea come over him. Deciding it was best not to move, he lied in bed with his eyes closed for a few minutes. Wait, bed?
He opened his eyes, groaning at the blinding light coming through the curtains on the window across the room. He surveyed as much of the room as he could without moving his head. It was a pretty empty room, with bare white walls. Where in the world was he?
Feeling less nauseous, he decided to sit up. He stretched, yawning, and noticed a black tuft of hair sticking out from underneath the blankets on the bed next to him. Startled, Henry let out a noise of surprise. Then, he realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and screamed internally. And maybe a little externally.
The tuft of hair in question stirred, and the blanket moved to reveal a sleepy faced man. Henry noted that the said man was in fact wearing a shirt, and relaxed a little. Also, he belatedly realized that he himself was wearing pants, along with the strange man in bed with him. He breathed a sigh of relief. It’s not like Henry was averse to being with a man, he just didn’t like having sex with random people he didn’t know. So he was glad the crisis was averted.
The stranger squinted at him, clearly hung over as well. Henry didn’t remember him from the party last night, but he figured he must have been there. He still didn’t know where he was currently, though. Was he still at Heechul’s?
“Oh. I’m wearing clothes.” Henry was interrupted from his thoughts at the sound from the man next to him.
“Uhh,” Henry said intelligently.
“I guess we didn’t have sex, then,” the stranger mused, looking relieved. Henry just blinked. “Not that I wouldn’t, you’re pretty cute!” The man added quickly, as if he had offended Henry. Henry blanched, and had no idea what to say to that. Instead, he found his shirt by the side of the bed and put it on. He looked back at the stranger, analyzing him for a minute. He was actually kind of attractive, despite being extremely disheveled at the moment.
“Um,” Henry started, attempting to form a complete sentence. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Donghae. Lee Donghae.” The man held out his hand.
“Henry Lau,” he greeted, taking the hand and shaking it briefly. He could see Donghae looking him up and down, and suddenly Henry felt very uncomfortable. “I think I’m gonna go get a drink of water,” he said abruptly, and rushed out of the room.
Upon leaving the room, he discovered that he was not still at Heechul’s. He was in a small apartment that definitely only had one floor. He easily found his way to the kitchen and was startled to find Sungmin in there, drinking straight from a liter bottle of milk.
“Morning!” Sungmin chirped, face immediately brightening. Henry just looked at him in amazement. Henry knew Sungmin had drunk almost as much as he had. How could someone be so cheerful when hung over?
“Uh, morning,” Henry muttered. Sungmin knowingly reached into a cabinet and grabbed him a glass. He took it, filling it up with water from the sink. “Is this your place?” Henry asked after taking a few gulps.
“Yeah. Hyukjae left kind of early last night, and you didn’t seem sober enough to be able to walk home by yourself, so I just took you back here. I hope that’s okay.” Sungmin told him.
“It’s fine, thank you,” Henry said, a little embarrassed. “Sorry if I was obnoxious or anything last night, I don’t remember a lot of it.”
Sungmin chuckled. “You were fine. A little clingy, but fine.” He grinned, and Henry felt himself blush a little.
He decided it would be best to change the subject. “So did you bring Donghae back from the party too, or is he your roommate?”
The shorter man stared at him, clearly confused. “Donghae? Who’s that?”
Henry’s face scrunched in thought. “Um. The guy who was sleeping next to me in the bed?”
“Henry, I live alone and you were the only person I brought back from the party.” Sungmin was talking slowly, making sure Henry understood.
Henry could feel himself beginning to panic. “Then who was that in the bed with me when I woke up?” He asked, voice calm but eyes wide.
He could see the alarm in Sungmin’s eyes, too. “A-are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”
Henry nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.” He noticed his hands were shaking a little.
Sungmin turned around, grabbing a large knife from a drawer, and slowly made his way to the bedroom, where Henry had slept. Henry trailed behind, back up against the wall as Sungmin opened the door and crept in.
Several seconds passed in which Henry could hear his own heart pounding in his chest as he waited by himself in the hallway.
“Henry,” Sungmin called, and Henry let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “There’s no one in here.”
“What?” He peered his head in. Sungmin was standing in the middle of the room, knife by his side, looking a little ridiculous. But other than him, he saw no one. Sungmin raised his hands in a half shrug before exiting the room and putting the knife back in its place.
“You must’ve been dreaming, Henry,” Sungmin assured him.
He scratched his head, thoroughly confused at this point. “I guess so,” he responded. Henry was pretty sure he hadn’t been dreaming, though. Or was he?
***
Over the next several days, Henry managed to convince himself that Lee Donghae was just a dream. There was a voice in the back of his head that still doubted, but he ignored it. Instead, he immersed himself in the school work he was beginning to get from his teachers. Between that and hanging out with Sungmin and occasionally that Amber girl he had met at Heechul’s party, he avoided all thoughts of his weird dream.
He had almost completely forgotten about it, actually, until one day when he was studying at the library. He saw a slim, dark-haired man roaming through the stacks, and recognized him immediately. Donghae.
Henry’s eyes widened. He quickly shoved his laptop in his bag and tried to inconspicuously follow the man as he wandered the library. After a few minutes, Donghae turned in his direction. Henry grabbed the first book he laid his eyes on and pretended to be reading it.
“Is there a reason you’re following me around?” Donghae questioned, voice slightly muffled by the carpet and shelves of books.
Henry looked up from the book he was pretending to read. “What? I’m not following you around.”
Donghae raised his eyebrows, gesturing at Henry’s book. “Your book is upside-down.”
Heat rose to Henry’s face as he placed the book back on the shelf. He smiled at Donghae sheepishly. “Sorry. It’s just… you seem really familiar.” He said, knowing he had been caught. “Have we met?”
Donghae just laughed. “Of course we have. We met in Sungmin’s apartment last week.”
Henry froze. “…What? But wait. There was no one in that room when we went in there! And how come Sungmin doesn’t know who you are?”
The man just laughed again, a little too loud for a library. “Oh, he knows me. He just doesn’t realize it.” He smiled one last time at Henry, then walked away, turning into a different aisle.
“Wait a minute!” Henry called, rushing after him. He turned into the aisle he saw Donghae walk in, but no one was there. Confused, he continued to search through the library for quite a while, but Donghae was nowhere to be found.
Henry was seriously beginning to doubt his sanity.