What Really Matters - 11/?
[Title] What Really Matters
[Pairing] Haehyuk, others to come
[Genre] Romance/Fluff/Drama
[Rating] PG-PG 13
[Summary] Donghae is the new kid in school and he immediately befriends shy and quiet Hyukjae. As Donghae’s popularity grows, his finds himself having to choose between Hyukjae and his popular friends, who don’t think he should hang out with the school ‘nerd’.
[Disclaimer] I only own the ideas in this fic.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Donghae sat at his desk, face planted firmly on the cool surface as he struggled to keep his eyes open. His eyelids felt like lead and all he wanted to do was go and curl up on his bed and never leave. He could barely remember much of his weekend that didn’t involve nursing a serious hangover and groaning pitifully in his pillows. He tried to remember how and why he had even drank so much in the first place, but that night was such a blur he didn’t even remember how he got home.
A small vibration called his attention to his cell phone and he pulled it out, seeing yet another text from Jessica. She had been texting him nonstop for the past two days and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. He just decided to ignore it for now, switching to check his inbox for any other messages.
He had sent Hyukjae a few over the weekend, but the other never responded to any of them, and he hadn’t seen him since before he went to the party. He wasn’t even sure if the other had made it there or not.
And he still hadn’t walked into the classroom yet, and Hyukjae was never late. Donghae quickly flashed back to the only other day Hyukjae had missed school and that was when the other had passed out at school because of a fever.
Donghae’s eyes flashed from Hyukjae’s desk to the door a few times, a very unsettling feeling washing over him and he got more and more awake with every second the other didn’t walk through the door.
But before Donghae could get any more anxious the door opened and in walked a very tired looking Hyukjae. Donghae frowned at the other’s appearance and waited anxiously for the other to cross the room to his seat beside him so that he could question the other about his state. Hyukjae made his way over and quietly took his seat, without so much as a glance in Donghae’s general direction and the latter was slightly perturbed by that, but dismissed it as the other having other things on his mind.
“Hey,” he called for the other’s attention. Hyukjae just turned to look at him, his expression disinterested, but his eyes seemed cold and guarded. Donghae flinched back in surprise, never having seen a look like that on his face, let alone directed towards himself.
“Um… are you, ok?” Donghae asked tentatively.
“I’m fine,” was Hyukjae’s short reply and he turned back to look away from Donghae before the words even completely left his mouth.
Donghae’s brows furrowed in confusion, the tiredness that plagued him long forgotten as he stared at Hyukjae’s closed off form.
“Hyukjae, what happened? What’s the matter?” Hyukjae sighed, long and hard, looking as if he suddenly had the weight of the world on his frail shoulders.
“I’m tired. I’m just really… tired,” he finally said in a soft whisper, eyes meeting Donghae’s once more in a look so desolate Donghae felt his heart dropping into the seemingly endless dark void of Hyukjae’s gaze.
Before Donghae could even get his bearings back from that, their teacher started class, subtlety calling for everyone’s attention. Donghae couldn’t even pretend to be interested in what he was talking about though, not when Hyukjae had successfully claimed any and every space in his mind.
He wanted to know just what was plaguing Hyukjae’s mind, but by the vague answers he gave and how he avoided even looking at him, Donghae could only assume that Hyukjae didn’t want to talk about it. At least not with him.
He took a glance over at Ryeowook, and he seemed just as somber as Hyukjae. Maybe he could get something about Hyukjae’s behavior from him. He spent the remainder glancing back and forth between the clock and Hyukjae’s figure, wanting one of them to do something about the unsettling feeling he had acquired ever since Hyukjae walked in.
He exhaled in relief when the bell rang and dismissed them from class, but the feeling was short-lived when he looked over at Hyukjae and saw that the other had risen from his seat and was on his way out the door before Donghae could even blink. He looked at Ryeowook who was staring at Hyukjae with sad eyes before he resumed packing his own things. Donghae took that as his chance and got up to make his way over to the other.
“Ryeowook,” he called, when he was close enough. Ryeowook just looked up and gave him an unreadable glance before finishing gathering his things.
“Hi, Donghae,” he said.
“Um, do you, by any chance, know what’s wrong with Hyukjae? I haven’t heard from him all weekend and when he came in this morning he looked really… out of it. Did something happen?”
“Hyuk just… needs a little space right now,” Ryeowook said gently. “He won’t tell me what exactly happened, but I do have a clue.” Ryeowook gave Donghae a pointed look that the latter didn’t quite understand.
“But, what-“
“He just needs time.” Ryeowook gave the confused Donghae an uneasy smile, slightly pleading and slightly sympathetic and Donghae found himself nodding a bit in agreement.
“If… you say so,” he said slowly. Ryeowook turned to leave the room, but not before he saw who had come to fetch Donghae for lunch.
He frowned in distaste as Jessica latched herself to an unfocused Donghae and dragged him out the room. Ryeowook left the room shortly after to go and find where Hyukjae had hidden himself away.
“Hae oppa, I haven’t heard from you all weekend. What have you been up to?” she asked Donghae sweetly as she led him down the hall.
“At home, with a pretty bad headache,” he said, watching the blonde frown up at him.
“Then you should’ve answered my calls. I would’ve come to take care of you if I had known oppa,” Jessica pouted, pulling Donghae through the line and taking the liberty to fill his tray up with food.
“That’s ok, Jessica. I’m fine now, but I probably won’t be attending any more parties for a while,” he said with a less than convincing chuckle, but Jessica took no notice.
“But oppa, you seemed like you were having so much fun. I had a really good time,” Jessica said, smiling up at him with a soft blush on her cheeks. Donghae just looked at her oddly, silently wondering what had gotten into her before speaking up.
“Well… I’m glad you at least enjoyed yourself.” Jessica let out a small embarrassed giggle that Donghae didn’t quite get, but decided to brush it off as they made their way over to the usual table.
Donghae smiled and nodded at the greetings he received and gave a general one to everyone as he took a seat next to Kibum, Jessica taking the seat him and Yoona immediately, but she chose to gossip to Yuri and Tiffany instead of focusing her attention on Donghae for the moment.
Donghae tuned them out as soon as their eyes left him, in favor of looking at Hankyung who was attempting to tell a story with Heechul interrupting with his input every five seconds. After a few minutes of that Hankyung relinquished and just let Heechul tell it.
Donghae was more focused on the empty table that was across the room. He hadn’t expected to see Hyukjae there but Yesung and Ryeowook were missing too. He frowned unconsciously, guessing that they were with Hyukjae and a bit hurt at being excluded.
“Hey, Fishy, why aren’t you listening? I was just getting to the good part,” Heechul asked in slight annoyance.
“Huh? Oh, sorry hyung.”
“Just what are you looking at anyway?” Heechul asked as he turned his head and his gaze landed on the empty table Donghae had just been staring at. “What, missing your ‘friends’?” Heechul scoffed. “Why do you even hang out with them?”
“They’ve been my friends ever since I transferred here,” Donghae said.
“Well, you have us now, so you don’t have to hang out with them anymore. You don’t have to feel like you owe them anything, you know.”
“It’s not like that,” Donghae said, knowing that he had never once hung out with them out of obligation.
“You’re such a nice guy, oppa,” Jessica said. “It’s really sweet.”
“But, I don’t know how you can stand to be around them like you do,” Yuri added.
“That Yesung kid freaks me out. Did you know he carried a turtle around with him for like two months in freshman year?” Siwon said.
The table all let out laughs of disbelief as Donghae shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Yeah, Yesung was a bit weird, but it never seemed to be a bad thing when he was hanging out with them. And Ryeowook was really nice, too. And Hyukjae. Hyukjae was…
“I’m glad we pulled you out when we did, Donghae. Who knows what you would be like if we left you with them for too long.”
“They not that bad. They’re really nice and Yesung’s not… that weird,” Donghae said.
“Sure, sure. Whatever you say, Hae.” But it was said more or so to placate Donghae and not agreeing with him.
Donghae just sighed, sensing that he wouldn’t really make them change their mind by his words alone. Maybe if he figured out a way to get them to hang out together, they would see what Donghae did, but the idea seemed pretty unattainable at the moment.
“Speaking of Donghae, did you have fun at the party oppa?” Yoona asked, a teasing smirk in place as everyone at the table let out chuckles and smirks at the look of confusion on his face.
“I don’t really remember that much, honestly. Why? What happened?” Donghae asked warily.
Donghae was immediately pulled into a recap of the party. Donghae listened with feigned interest until the topic of his inebriated escapades came into play. They found obvious amusement in describing in detail just how drunk Donghae had gotten and Donghae looked away in embarrassment at how they remembered every little thing he had done from dancing a perfect imitation of the song Roly Poly and puking in Siwon’s fish tank, to passing out in the backyard and making out with Jessica in front of the whole party.
“I did what?!” Donghae asked with wide eyes, more than shocked as that little detail came out.
“You didn’t think we would leave that out, did you Fishy?” Heechul burst out laughing.
“You guys were right in the middle of the room. Have you no shame?” Siwon asked, a scandalized look on his face, before he joined Heechul in his raucous laughter.
Donghae looked at Jessica to confirm what the others were saying, but and she was blushing even harder than before, looking back and forth between Donghae and the others with a small frown of embarrassment on her face.
“Yah, cut it out! Like there weren’t a million other people doing the same thing!” she huffed, but it did nothing to impede the others delight in watching how flustered Donghae was getting.
“Jessica- I. I didn’t mean… I don’t even know how I-” he babbled on, trying to get out something that resembled an apology, mistaking the frown on her face as being upset that he had taken advantage of her, while in his drunken stupor.
“Ugh, look what you’ve done oppa!” she whined at Heechul. “Now he’s all embarrassed about it!”
“He didn’t look all that embarrassed a few nights ago. He looked pretty eager to me,” Heechul smirked and Donghae slid down in his chair, wishing a hole would magically appear and swallow him up.
“I didn’t want to have this conversation here,” Jessica whined further, lips jutting out in a pout as she threw a glance at Donghae before getting up from the table in a huff and leaving, Tiffany and Taeyeon following close behind her.
“I can’t believe I did that,” Donghae muttered in his hands once she was out of hearing distance.
“I surprised she didn’t beat you to it,” Kibum said, and Donghae looked at him in surprise. “What? Oh, come on. How could you not notice? She couldn’t be more obvious if she straddled you with your name tattooed across her forehead,” Kibum said incredulously.
“I- I didn’t-“
“Just how dense can you be?” Heechul asked and Donghae could only shake his head in awe.
Sure he was flattered, but him and Jessica? She was nice and all, but honestly not really his type. Though lately, who and what he would normally say he was attracted to was getting a bit inaccurate, as the image of a gummy smile and shining crinkling eyes came into his mind.
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A/N: Oh, look who decided to finally make some progress on this. Sorry for the long wait, but I finally got a bit of my muse back and wanted to update this before I got too swamped with school. But now I feel really bad for making Heechul the bad guy, esp now that he’s gone to the army, so I probably toned down the whole ‘they’re nerds, stay away from them’ thing more than I should of. And it's not my best update, but I had to get the ball rolling a bit. Anyway, I hope you all still enjoy it nonetheless ^^
[Pairing] Haehyuk, others to come
[Genre] Romance/Fluff/Drama
[Rating] PG-PG 13
[Summary] Donghae is the new kid in school and he immediately befriends shy and quiet Hyukjae. As Donghae’s popularity grows, his finds himself having to choose between Hyukjae and his popular friends, who don’t think he should hang out with the school ‘nerd’.
[Disclaimer] I only own the ideas in this fic.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Donghae sat at his desk, face planted firmly on the cool surface as he struggled to keep his eyes open. His eyelids felt like lead and all he wanted to do was go and curl up on his bed and never leave. He could barely remember much of his weekend that didn’t involve nursing a serious hangover and groaning pitifully in his pillows. He tried to remember how and why he had even drank so much in the first place, but that night was such a blur he didn’t even remember how he got home.
A small vibration called his attention to his cell phone and he pulled it out, seeing yet another text from Jessica. She had been texting him nonstop for the past two days and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. He just decided to ignore it for now, switching to check his inbox for any other messages.
He had sent Hyukjae a few over the weekend, but the other never responded to any of them, and he hadn’t seen him since before he went to the party. He wasn’t even sure if the other had made it there or not.
And he still hadn’t walked into the classroom yet, and Hyukjae was never late. Donghae quickly flashed back to the only other day Hyukjae had missed school and that was when the other had passed out at school because of a fever.
Donghae’s eyes flashed from Hyukjae’s desk to the door a few times, a very unsettling feeling washing over him and he got more and more awake with every second the other didn’t walk through the door.
But before Donghae could get any more anxious the door opened and in walked a very tired looking Hyukjae. Donghae frowned at the other’s appearance and waited anxiously for the other to cross the room to his seat beside him so that he could question the other about his state. Hyukjae made his way over and quietly took his seat, without so much as a glance in Donghae’s general direction and the latter was slightly perturbed by that, but dismissed it as the other having other things on his mind.
“Hey,” he called for the other’s attention. Hyukjae just turned to look at him, his expression disinterested, but his eyes seemed cold and guarded. Donghae flinched back in surprise, never having seen a look like that on his face, let alone directed towards himself.
“Um… are you, ok?” Donghae asked tentatively.
“I’m fine,” was Hyukjae’s short reply and he turned back to look away from Donghae before the words even completely left his mouth.
Donghae’s brows furrowed in confusion, the tiredness that plagued him long forgotten as he stared at Hyukjae’s closed off form.
“Hyukjae, what happened? What’s the matter?” Hyukjae sighed, long and hard, looking as if he suddenly had the weight of the world on his frail shoulders.
“I’m tired. I’m just really… tired,” he finally said in a soft whisper, eyes meeting Donghae’s once more in a look so desolate Donghae felt his heart dropping into the seemingly endless dark void of Hyukjae’s gaze.
Before Donghae could even get his bearings back from that, their teacher started class, subtlety calling for everyone’s attention. Donghae couldn’t even pretend to be interested in what he was talking about though, not when Hyukjae had successfully claimed any and every space in his mind.
He wanted to know just what was plaguing Hyukjae’s mind, but by the vague answers he gave and how he avoided even looking at him, Donghae could only assume that Hyukjae didn’t want to talk about it. At least not with him.
He took a glance over at Ryeowook, and he seemed just as somber as Hyukjae. Maybe he could get something about Hyukjae’s behavior from him. He spent the remainder glancing back and forth between the clock and Hyukjae’s figure, wanting one of them to do something about the unsettling feeling he had acquired ever since Hyukjae walked in.
He exhaled in relief when the bell rang and dismissed them from class, but the feeling was short-lived when he looked over at Hyukjae and saw that the other had risen from his seat and was on his way out the door before Donghae could even blink. He looked at Ryeowook who was staring at Hyukjae with sad eyes before he resumed packing his own things. Donghae took that as his chance and got up to make his way over to the other.
“Ryeowook,” he called, when he was close enough. Ryeowook just looked up and gave him an unreadable glance before finishing gathering his things.
“Hi, Donghae,” he said.
“Um, do you, by any chance, know what’s wrong with Hyukjae? I haven’t heard from him all weekend and when he came in this morning he looked really… out of it. Did something happen?”
“Hyuk just… needs a little space right now,” Ryeowook said gently. “He won’t tell me what exactly happened, but I do have a clue.” Ryeowook gave Donghae a pointed look that the latter didn’t quite understand.
“But, what-“
“He just needs time.” Ryeowook gave the confused Donghae an uneasy smile, slightly pleading and slightly sympathetic and Donghae found himself nodding a bit in agreement.
“If… you say so,” he said slowly. Ryeowook turned to leave the room, but not before he saw who had come to fetch Donghae for lunch.
He frowned in distaste as Jessica latched herself to an unfocused Donghae and dragged him out the room. Ryeowook left the room shortly after to go and find where Hyukjae had hidden himself away.
“Hae oppa, I haven’t heard from you all weekend. What have you been up to?” she asked Donghae sweetly as she led him down the hall.
“At home, with a pretty bad headache,” he said, watching the blonde frown up at him.
“Then you should’ve answered my calls. I would’ve come to take care of you if I had known oppa,” Jessica pouted, pulling Donghae through the line and taking the liberty to fill his tray up with food.
“That’s ok, Jessica. I’m fine now, but I probably won’t be attending any more parties for a while,” he said with a less than convincing chuckle, but Jessica took no notice.
“But oppa, you seemed like you were having so much fun. I had a really good time,” Jessica said, smiling up at him with a soft blush on her cheeks. Donghae just looked at her oddly, silently wondering what had gotten into her before speaking up.
“Well… I’m glad you at least enjoyed yourself.” Jessica let out a small embarrassed giggle that Donghae didn’t quite get, but decided to brush it off as they made their way over to the usual table.
Donghae smiled and nodded at the greetings he received and gave a general one to everyone as he took a seat next to Kibum, Jessica taking the seat him and Yoona immediately, but she chose to gossip to Yuri and Tiffany instead of focusing her attention on Donghae for the moment.
Donghae tuned them out as soon as their eyes left him, in favor of looking at Hankyung who was attempting to tell a story with Heechul interrupting with his input every five seconds. After a few minutes of that Hankyung relinquished and just let Heechul tell it.
Donghae was more focused on the empty table that was across the room. He hadn’t expected to see Hyukjae there but Yesung and Ryeowook were missing too. He frowned unconsciously, guessing that they were with Hyukjae and a bit hurt at being excluded.
“Hey, Fishy, why aren’t you listening? I was just getting to the good part,” Heechul asked in slight annoyance.
“Huh? Oh, sorry hyung.”
“Just what are you looking at anyway?” Heechul asked as he turned his head and his gaze landed on the empty table Donghae had just been staring at. “What, missing your ‘friends’?” Heechul scoffed. “Why do you even hang out with them?”
“They’ve been my friends ever since I transferred here,” Donghae said.
“Well, you have us now, so you don’t have to hang out with them anymore. You don’t have to feel like you owe them anything, you know.”
“It’s not like that,” Donghae said, knowing that he had never once hung out with them out of obligation.
“You’re such a nice guy, oppa,” Jessica said. “It’s really sweet.”
“But, I don’t know how you can stand to be around them like you do,” Yuri added.
“That Yesung kid freaks me out. Did you know he carried a turtle around with him for like two months in freshman year?” Siwon said.
The table all let out laughs of disbelief as Donghae shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Yeah, Yesung was a bit weird, but it never seemed to be a bad thing when he was hanging out with them. And Ryeowook was really nice, too. And Hyukjae. Hyukjae was…
“I’m glad we pulled you out when we did, Donghae. Who knows what you would be like if we left you with them for too long.”
“They not that bad. They’re really nice and Yesung’s not… that weird,” Donghae said.
“Sure, sure. Whatever you say, Hae.” But it was said more or so to placate Donghae and not agreeing with him.
Donghae just sighed, sensing that he wouldn’t really make them change their mind by his words alone. Maybe if he figured out a way to get them to hang out together, they would see what Donghae did, but the idea seemed pretty unattainable at the moment.
“Speaking of Donghae, did you have fun at the party oppa?” Yoona asked, a teasing smirk in place as everyone at the table let out chuckles and smirks at the look of confusion on his face.
“I don’t really remember that much, honestly. Why? What happened?” Donghae asked warily.
Donghae was immediately pulled into a recap of the party. Donghae listened with feigned interest until the topic of his inebriated escapades came into play. They found obvious amusement in describing in detail just how drunk Donghae had gotten and Donghae looked away in embarrassment at how they remembered every little thing he had done from dancing a perfect imitation of the song Roly Poly and puking in Siwon’s fish tank, to passing out in the backyard and making out with Jessica in front of the whole party.
“I did what?!” Donghae asked with wide eyes, more than shocked as that little detail came out.
“You didn’t think we would leave that out, did you Fishy?” Heechul burst out laughing.
“You guys were right in the middle of the room. Have you no shame?” Siwon asked, a scandalized look on his face, before he joined Heechul in his raucous laughter.
Donghae looked at Jessica to confirm what the others were saying, but and she was blushing even harder than before, looking back and forth between Donghae and the others with a small frown of embarrassment on her face.
“Yah, cut it out! Like there weren’t a million other people doing the same thing!” she huffed, but it did nothing to impede the others delight in watching how flustered Donghae was getting.
“Jessica- I. I didn’t mean… I don’t even know how I-” he babbled on, trying to get out something that resembled an apology, mistaking the frown on her face as being upset that he had taken advantage of her, while in his drunken stupor.
“Ugh, look what you’ve done oppa!” she whined at Heechul. “Now he’s all embarrassed about it!”
“He didn’t look all that embarrassed a few nights ago. He looked pretty eager to me,” Heechul smirked and Donghae slid down in his chair, wishing a hole would magically appear and swallow him up.
“I didn’t want to have this conversation here,” Jessica whined further, lips jutting out in a pout as she threw a glance at Donghae before getting up from the table in a huff and leaving, Tiffany and Taeyeon following close behind her.
“I can’t believe I did that,” Donghae muttered in his hands once she was out of hearing distance.
“I surprised she didn’t beat you to it,” Kibum said, and Donghae looked at him in surprise. “What? Oh, come on. How could you not notice? She couldn’t be more obvious if she straddled you with your name tattooed across her forehead,” Kibum said incredulously.
“I- I didn’t-“
“Just how dense can you be?” Heechul asked and Donghae could only shake his head in awe.
Sure he was flattered, but him and Jessica? She was nice and all, but honestly not really his type. Though lately, who and what he would normally say he was attracted to was getting a bit inaccurate, as the image of a gummy smile and shining crinkling eyes came into his mind.
Previous .:|:. Next
A/N: Oh, look who decided to finally make some progress on this. Sorry for the long wait, but I finally got a bit of my muse back and wanted to update this before I got too swamped with school. But now I feel really bad for making Heechul the bad guy, esp now that he’s gone to the army, so I probably toned down the whole ‘they’re nerds, stay away from them’ thing more than I should of. And it's not my best update, but I had to get the ball rolling a bit. Anyway, I hope you all still enjoy it nonetheless ^^