I Love You More Than Traveling Around The World a.k.a. I'd Rather Stay At Home With You
Theme: 8. Basement 10settings
Pairing: Zhoumi/Donghae
Dedicated to: shadowtailmon happy birthday!!!
Title: I Love You More Than Traveling Around The World a.k.a. I’d Rather Stay At Home With You
For 7 years, Donghae worked as a journalist. He really loved writing and gathering information about the place, about the culture and tradition, about different people and their experiences and ways of living, about the latest trends and issues, about the latest news locally or globally and maybe a few rumors, gossips and scandals every now and then. But most of all, what he really loved about his job was traveling to different places.
For the past 7 years, Donghae had moved from one country to another, stayed in different houses, hotels or apartments, ate in different restaurants, food stalls, street vendors and tried exotic foods, attended in festivals, parties and other occasions, met a lot of people. Sometimes becoming close and good friends, sometimes even more than friends, sometimes falling in love or in lust. But no matter how much the other person would bed for Donghae to stay, he would always leave. He loved his job and loved to travel too much. Sometimes there is a heartbreak but then, Donghae had been involved in a lot of relationships and experienced a lot of heartbreaks that its beginning to hurt less ad much easier to recover each time and the next time around.
For the past 7 years, Donghae had never returned home. He doesn’t have anyone to return home anyway. His family died in an accident a long time ago. He had always been living alone in that lonely house so he always preferred to be out of the house to travel, to be surrounded by people because that way, he won’t feel the emptiness he would feel inside the house.
The company Donghae worked for experienced some crisis. They wouldn’t be able to pay off Donghae’s traveling fees for a while so Donghae had no choice but to go back home and work within Korea once again. That’s how he found himself standing in front of his house. “I haven’t taken care of you for the last 7 years. I haven’t visited you even once. Are you angry at me?” He asked his house. “Please forgive me. I promise I’ll take care of you while I stay.” He inserted his key but then found out that the door was open.
Could it be a robber? It would make sense if his house had been robbed once or twice. After all, nobody lived in here for the past 7 years. The question would be… has the robber decided to rob today or was it yesterday, last week or even a few years before? If it’s today, then Donghae might be in danger so he took his tear gas at hand as he surveyed the house.
The house was different from what he had expected. There were changes and it was clean. It looked like it was really taken good care of. He also found a lot of things that he remembered not owning. The refrigerator was full of food. There was water and electricity as well. Now, he was completely sure that there was someone else living in his own. He hadn’t seen anyone though but there’s still one more place he didn’t check. The basement.
Donghae slowly crept his way to the basement, which looked completely different. The basement looked exactly like a bedroom. There was a closet, a bedside table, a full length mirror, a few posters pinned up on the walls and of course, a bed with a person sleeping on it. Donghae was sure that none of the furniture in the basement belonged to him so it probably belonged to this person. He should be mad that this person suddenly decided to live in his house without permission but the more the looked at the sleeping figure, the less anger he felt.
The alarm clock goes off. The unknown person tried to cover his head with a pillow. It took a while for his hand to try to reach out for the alarm clock but Donghae reached it first and turned it off. The unknown person took the pillow off his face and looked at the alarm clock with sleepy eyes. Then he looked at Donghae and suddenly, he was wide awake. “Who are you?”
“I should be the one to ask you that. After all, you’re living in my house.” Donghae replied.
If possible, the stranger’s eyes widened even more as he sat up on the bed. “I…I…” The stranger tried to explain but his sleepy brain can’t fully comprehend what’s happening yet.
“I may not look at it but I’m angry. After all, a stranger is suddenly living in my house as if it was his own without even asking my permission.” Donghae said with a smile. “Maybe I should call the police. Send you to jail for a while so that you’ll learn your lesson.”
“Please don’t do that!!!” The stranger begged and clasped his hands together. “I’ll move out right away and I’ll even pay you some money as a rental fee!!!”
Donghae laughed at the way the stranger panicked. “It’s okay. I was only joking about sending you to jail but I really am the owner of the house and I really was angry at you. You’ve got a lot of explaining to do and you better give me a good one if you don’t want to be kicked out of this house and if I find out that you’re lying about whatever excuse you have, I’ll literally kick you out of the house. Got that?” The stranger nodded. “Good. For now, I need to unpack so you better make yourself presentable before we see each other again. After all that, you should cook us some breakfast. You do know how to cook right?” The stranger nodded again.
When Donghae left the basement, the stranger sighed in relief again. “It’s a good thing that the owner isn’t such a bad person. Now, I just have to hope that he won’t kick me out of the house. Hmm… what to wear…”
After making breakfast, the stranger wondered why the owner haven’t showed up yet so he decided to look around. He eventually found the owner sleeping in the bedroom and it looked like he hadn’t finished unpacking. “He must be really tired.” The stranger said to himself as he decided to finish unpacking.
“You just really love to trespass, do you?” Donghae said when he saw that the stranger was in his room as soon as he woke up.
“Sorry.” The stranger smiled sheepishly. “But I finished unpacking for you and breakfast had been ready for quite some time so I think the food probably went cold already. I should reheat it up. Do you want breakfast in bed?”
“It’s okay. I’ll go downstairs in a while.” Donghae watched as the stranger left his room. Just because of the stranger’s presence, he doesn’t feel that the house was as empty or lonely as before. He found it strange that he liked the stranger’s presence or perhaps, he just didn’t want to be alone in this house.
After a while, they were having breakfast together. “This is good. You didn’t put poison in it, did you?” Donghae tried to sound suspicious but he was still happily eating.
“I already committed trespassing. I don’t want to commit murder.” The stranger replied. Although he was happy that the owner seem to be in a good mood, he was still anxious whether he would be kicked out of the house later or not.
Then the stranger started to introduce himself as Zhoumi, who worked as a teacher in a public school and gives off a low salary. Three years ago, his mother got very ill. The hospital bills just kept on increasing while his mother was getting weaker until she eventually died. They weren’t rich to begin with so Zhoumi sold off their small house and lot to pay off the bills and for the funeral.
The money was instantly gone with all the things he had to pay. He got an apartment for a while until he was no longer able to pay because his salary isn’t exactly enough for the rental fee and there are still phone, electricity and water bills and his daily necessities so the he was kicked out of his apartment. After that, he tried living in school for a while.
Then he heard from his students a talk about a hunted house which turned out to be Donghae’s house which seem to be isolated as it was only surrounded by trees. Zhoumi decided to check it out. There doesn’t seem to be any ghosts and there doesn’t seem to be anybody living there either. Although Zhoumi had thought at first that maybe the owner was on a vacation but after a week, Zhoumi decided to give it a try and live there anyway. He thought his life was too fucked up already so he didn’t care if the owner would just suddenly show up and send him off to jail but he reacted the opposite way when he met Donghae. He had been living in Donghae’s house for two years.
“With such a pitiful story, I think I still want to kick you out of the house.” The truth is Donghae had already made up his mind for Zhoumi to stay in the house but he wanted to see Zhoumi’s anxious and nervous state.
“Well… that’s up to you.” Zhoumi’s body was very tense. There was a trail of sweat drop running down at the side of his face. His hands were clasped together tightly on top of the table. “I’m just grateful enough that you didn’t send me to the police and if you want me to pay, I don’t think I can pay much as what you’ve heard of my poor life but I’ll try to do what I can.”
“I’ll let you stay with 2 conditions.” Donghae said as he held up two fingers. “First, take care of this house. That should be easy on your part as it is what you’ve been doing for the past 2 years. Second, take care of me while I’m staying here.”
Zhoumi found the second condition quite weird but it should be pretty easy. He can‘t help but ask. “Does that mean you’ll be leaving again?”
Donghae explained his situation. “I work as a traveling journalist after all. I’ll just have to wait and see if the company resolves its crisis so I’m taking off a long break since I haven’t been be able to take any breaks for the past 7 years. When my long vacation is over and the company still haven’t found any solution, then I’ll be transferring to another company.”
“Ah, it must be nice to be able to travel to such places. I’ve noticed you had a lot of nice souvenirs when I was unpacking your stuff.” Zhoumi wondered why he didn’t take up that kind of occupation instead. Then he was reminded of his dead mother, who also used to be a teacher, and how a lot of her past students attended during her funeral. She was a great teacher after all and Zhoumi really looked up to her.
“I’m not going to get any privacy with you around, would I?”
“I’ll remind myself of personal space and territory next time.”
Although Zhoumi was suppose to be taking care of Donghae, he couldn’t exactly do that as he was busy working and spending most of his time with his job at school. He could only make breakfast and dinner for them then he would proceed to check the test papers and prepare whatever he have to do for tomorrow’s class.
Donghae felt weird because he was very used to moving from one place to another. He was always used to being busy and doing a lot of stuff but now that he’s on vacation, he has nothing to do and felt completely bored. Whenever he saw Zhoumi being busy, he would always decide to help the guy. Not because he was helpful but more because of boredom.
Donghae had an impression of public school teacher aren’t being that smart or good enough as the private school teachers but Zhoumi had proved to him differently. Zhoumi was surprised when he saw Donghae suddenly sitting in front of him pretending to be a student in school which wouldn’t be such a hard thing to do considering they don’t have any school uniform and it was easy to make a fake ID for Donghae who have some connections.
“What do you think you’re doing?!?!” Zhoumi asked when the classroom became empty except for him and Donghae.
“I was bored so I decided to go to school.” Donghae flashed him with a smile. “The way you teach is really in a different level. Why choose to teach in a public school? You could be teaching in prestigious private schools or be a personal tutor to some rich spoiled brat. You wouldn’t be suffering from the lack of money if you just did that.”
“Just because these students are poor doesn’t mean they should also have a poor education. I want to help them, boost up their knowledge and be successful in their future careers.” Zhoumi said as he started to pack up his teaching materials.
“You’re being a martyr.”
“And you’re my savior.” Both of them knew exactly what that meant because ever since Donghae came home, he was letting Zhoumi stay for free and he was also the one paying the bills and the food. Heck, Zhoumi even no longer had to pay for transportation fees because Donghae had been driving and fetching him to school.
Then they started to spend more time outside the house. Zhoumi always had his materials in a bag anyway so they could always work whenever they want whether inside the car or a café or after they have some fun like going to the arcades, watching latest movies, a walk at the park or at the beach.
The more Donghae think about it, the more they seem like a newly wed couple except they don’t share kisses or make love. There had been a lot of times that Donghae was tempted to kiss Zhoumi. They spent a lot of time together so he can’t avoid being attracted to the Chinese and falling for him. After all, Donghae always fell in love so easily.
Donghae would stop himself because Zhoumi was different from the others. With the others, Donghae could just easily leave them and fly off to another country and never see the other ever again. But with Zhoumi, who lives with him in this house, even if Donghae would fly off to another country, at some point, even if it would take another 7 years, he would have to come back to this house and that would mean seeing Zhoumi again.
Also, Zhoumi seem to be having a hard time with his life already. It’s only until recently that he had been having fun and enjoying his life because Donghae was there with money and willing to pay so when Donghae leaves, he’ll be alone again and fending off for himself. If Donghae decides to get into a relationship with him and leaves him with a heartbreak, then Zhoumi would have a harder time and that’s something Donghae doesn’t want Zhoumi to experience. Because unlike in his previous relationships, Zhoumi doesn’t have any family or anyone to turn to. He was just alone.
“What are you thinking?” Zhoumi asked when he noticed that Donghae had stopped checking the test papers and was simply staring blankly unto it. Donghae was snapped back to reality as he heard Zhoumi’s question. He was about to say it was nothing when Zhoumi whispered “I love you.” to his ear. His head turned to look at Zhoumi but he was greeted with a kiss instead.
“Do you really want this?” Donghae asked when they broke apart from their kiss. “Because I’m not that type of guy who would promise to be with you forever. I like to travel around the world and in different countries, I meet a lot of people. At some point, I would fall for someone else.”
“I know but I want this and I’m not going to be some love sick fool who would remain loyal and wait for you to come back even if it would take another 7 years. Just for now, while we still have time to be together, I want this.” Zhoumi kissed Donghae again, arms moving around Donghae’s body to pull him closer.
Zhoumi wished he had the courage to be able to confess earlier because the next day after his confession, Donghae’s company had called Donghae, telling him that the crisis had been solved and that Donghae was allowed to continue his job and travel again. Zhoumi released a frustrated sigh. Their relationship hadn’t even started yet. “If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have bothered to confess to you.” Zhoumi grumbled as he folded Donghae’s clothes neatly and placed them in the large suitcase.
“I thought you love me so why don’t you stop me from leaving?” Donghae asked, interrupting Zhoumi’s self-complaints.
“They all asked you not to leave, didn’t they?” Zhoumi asked back. He was referring to Donghae’s previous relationships. “But you still left anyway. What difference would it make if I asked you to stay? Besides, we’re not exactly in a relationship and you never said you loved me.” The last part had a bitter tone to it.
Donghae wanted to confess that he did fall in love with Zhoumi but perhaps his confession would make things complicated. “You’re just trying to act cool. I bet you’ll cry once I step out of this house.”
“That’s exactly my plan. I don’t want you to see my ugly crying face.” Zhoumi closed the suitcase and placed a lock on it. “So I guess that’s about it. You’re ready to go.”
Donghae hugged Zhoumi. “Thanks. I’ll miss you.”
“I know. Now, get out of here before I start crying.” Zhoumi felt cold when Donghae stopped hugging him. He watched at Donghae picked up his suitcase and duffle bag and stepped out of the house. He watched from the window as Donghae went inside the taxi. He stared at the yellow cab until it was out of sight. He thought it was raining but it turned out that it was his own teardrops on the window.
After the first month of not hearing anything from Donghae, Zhoumi stopped expecting to see a mail or receive a phone call from Donghae. He fell back to the routine he used to have before Donghae came. But there are times when he would feel really lonely and during those times, he would sleep at Donghae’s bed and hug Donghae’s pillow. He was lying when he said that he was not going to act like a love sick fool.
The alarm clock rang noisily but before Zhoumi’s hand could reach the stop button, it stopped ringing. That’s why Zhoumi forced himself to open his eyes to see what caused the alarm clock to stop. Then it turned out Donghae, who was standing at his bedside much like how they first met. Out of surprise, Zhoumi yelped and fell on the floor with the blankets tangled with his long limbs.
“Are you okay?” Donghae took the blanket away and placed it back on the bed before helping Zhoumi stand on his feet.
“What are you doing here?” Zhoumi asked. He wanted to attack Donghae with hugs and kisses but he controlled himself.
“You don’t seem too happy to see me so maybe I’ll just be on my way…” Donghae tried to walk away but Zhoumi lost control of his urges as he slammed Donghae’s body against the wall and smothered him with kisses. “That’s more like it.” Donghae said in between kisses.
“So what are you doing here?” Zhoumi asked again when they have both calmed down and were breathing evenly. “Isn’t it too soon for you to be back?”
“Ever since my parents died, this house never felt like home but then you came along and made this house feel like home once again so when I left, never have I felt like missing home and wanting to go home so badly.” Donghae had thought about it for a month and come to realize that there’s actually something that he loved more than traveling. “I want to stay home. I want to stay with you. You’re my home, Zhoumi.”
Zhoumi can‘t believe what he was hearing. It was too good to be true. “What about traveling? What about your job? You never loved someone enough to give them up.”
“I love you more than enough to give those things up.” Donghae said seriously. “And I’ve always loved you but back then, I thought I would leave and not come back for a long time. That’s why I didn’t confess.”
The house became a home the moment Zhoumi and Donghae first met. Zhoumi left the basement and moved in to Donghae’s room so they are now sharing one room. There was an empty space which Donghae decided to decorate the wall with the photos he took from the different countries. The photos were composed of the different beautiful sights from different countries.
There are times Donghae would simply stare at the photos. During those times, Zhoumi would be worried that perhaps Donghae missed traveling, perhaps Donghae would want to be a traveling journalist again or worst perhaps he regrets staying at home with Zhoumi.
“I don’t like that worried expression on your face.” Donghae said and kissed Zhoumi’s insecurities and worrisome thoughts away. “I love you more than traveling so don’t ever be worried that I might leave you someday.”
“Sorry. I can’t help but have these kinds of thoughts when I see you staring at those photos for too long.” Zhoumi apologized sheepishly.
“When I look at those pictures, I actually think of you.”
“Really?” Zhoumi was surprised. He had always just assumed that Donghae probably missed traveling. This was the first time that Donghae had actually shared his thoughts.
“I just thought that it would be nice if we could travel together. I want to let you see what I’ve seen. When I look at these photos, it would motivate me to save up money so when the time comes, both of us could have our vacation together in different countries.” Donghae wrapped an arm around Zhoumi’s waist and pulled him closer. His tongue licked the curve part of Zhoumi’s ear. “Then we could have the best honeymoon.”
Zhoumi actually felt touched at Donghae’s words but the last part made him blush. “Pervert. I bet you’re thinking of fucking me at one of those tourist spots.”
Donghae raised an eyebrow. “I never said anything.”
“You don’t have to say anything. I know what you’re thinking.” Zhoumi looked at his lover suspiciously.
Donghae simply smirked. “We’ll see when we get there years from now.” And for now, they’ll just have to do it at home.
THE END
A/N: I had this idea a long time ago and wrote half of this story a long time ago but I only got to finish it recently. I have come to love my unfinished stories lately XD; They're always easy to finish in the future. Lolz~ Comments please? ^_^
Pairing: Zhoumi/Donghae
Dedicated to: shadowtailmon happy birthday!!!
Title: I Love You More Than Traveling Around The World a.k.a. I’d Rather Stay At Home With You
For 7 years, Donghae worked as a journalist. He really loved writing and gathering information about the place, about the culture and tradition, about different people and their experiences and ways of living, about the latest trends and issues, about the latest news locally or globally and maybe a few rumors, gossips and scandals every now and then. But most of all, what he really loved about his job was traveling to different places.
For the past 7 years, Donghae had moved from one country to another, stayed in different houses, hotels or apartments, ate in different restaurants, food stalls, street vendors and tried exotic foods, attended in festivals, parties and other occasions, met a lot of people. Sometimes becoming close and good friends, sometimes even more than friends, sometimes falling in love or in lust. But no matter how much the other person would bed for Donghae to stay, he would always leave. He loved his job and loved to travel too much. Sometimes there is a heartbreak but then, Donghae had been involved in a lot of relationships and experienced a lot of heartbreaks that its beginning to hurt less ad much easier to recover each time and the next time around.
For the past 7 years, Donghae had never returned home. He doesn’t have anyone to return home anyway. His family died in an accident a long time ago. He had always been living alone in that lonely house so he always preferred to be out of the house to travel, to be surrounded by people because that way, he won’t feel the emptiness he would feel inside the house.
The company Donghae worked for experienced some crisis. They wouldn’t be able to pay off Donghae’s traveling fees for a while so Donghae had no choice but to go back home and work within Korea once again. That’s how he found himself standing in front of his house. “I haven’t taken care of you for the last 7 years. I haven’t visited you even once. Are you angry at me?” He asked his house. “Please forgive me. I promise I’ll take care of you while I stay.” He inserted his key but then found out that the door was open.
Could it be a robber? It would make sense if his house had been robbed once or twice. After all, nobody lived in here for the past 7 years. The question would be… has the robber decided to rob today or was it yesterday, last week or even a few years before? If it’s today, then Donghae might be in danger so he took his tear gas at hand as he surveyed the house.
The house was different from what he had expected. There were changes and it was clean. It looked like it was really taken good care of. He also found a lot of things that he remembered not owning. The refrigerator was full of food. There was water and electricity as well. Now, he was completely sure that there was someone else living in his own. He hadn’t seen anyone though but there’s still one more place he didn’t check. The basement.
Donghae slowly crept his way to the basement, which looked completely different. The basement looked exactly like a bedroom. There was a closet, a bedside table, a full length mirror, a few posters pinned up on the walls and of course, a bed with a person sleeping on it. Donghae was sure that none of the furniture in the basement belonged to him so it probably belonged to this person. He should be mad that this person suddenly decided to live in his house without permission but the more the looked at the sleeping figure, the less anger he felt.
The alarm clock goes off. The unknown person tried to cover his head with a pillow. It took a while for his hand to try to reach out for the alarm clock but Donghae reached it first and turned it off. The unknown person took the pillow off his face and looked at the alarm clock with sleepy eyes. Then he looked at Donghae and suddenly, he was wide awake. “Who are you?”
“I should be the one to ask you that. After all, you’re living in my house.” Donghae replied.
If possible, the stranger’s eyes widened even more as he sat up on the bed. “I…I…” The stranger tried to explain but his sleepy brain can’t fully comprehend what’s happening yet.
“I may not look at it but I’m angry. After all, a stranger is suddenly living in my house as if it was his own without even asking my permission.” Donghae said with a smile. “Maybe I should call the police. Send you to jail for a while so that you’ll learn your lesson.”
“Please don’t do that!!!” The stranger begged and clasped his hands together. “I’ll move out right away and I’ll even pay you some money as a rental fee!!!”
Donghae laughed at the way the stranger panicked. “It’s okay. I was only joking about sending you to jail but I really am the owner of the house and I really was angry at you. You’ve got a lot of explaining to do and you better give me a good one if you don’t want to be kicked out of this house and if I find out that you’re lying about whatever excuse you have, I’ll literally kick you out of the house. Got that?” The stranger nodded. “Good. For now, I need to unpack so you better make yourself presentable before we see each other again. After all that, you should cook us some breakfast. You do know how to cook right?” The stranger nodded again.
When Donghae left the basement, the stranger sighed in relief again. “It’s a good thing that the owner isn’t such a bad person. Now, I just have to hope that he won’t kick me out of the house. Hmm… what to wear…”
After making breakfast, the stranger wondered why the owner haven’t showed up yet so he decided to look around. He eventually found the owner sleeping in the bedroom and it looked like he hadn’t finished unpacking. “He must be really tired.” The stranger said to himself as he decided to finish unpacking.
“You just really love to trespass, do you?” Donghae said when he saw that the stranger was in his room as soon as he woke up.
“Sorry.” The stranger smiled sheepishly. “But I finished unpacking for you and breakfast had been ready for quite some time so I think the food probably went cold already. I should reheat it up. Do you want breakfast in bed?”
“It’s okay. I’ll go downstairs in a while.” Donghae watched as the stranger left his room. Just because of the stranger’s presence, he doesn’t feel that the house was as empty or lonely as before. He found it strange that he liked the stranger’s presence or perhaps, he just didn’t want to be alone in this house.
After a while, they were having breakfast together. “This is good. You didn’t put poison in it, did you?” Donghae tried to sound suspicious but he was still happily eating.
“I already committed trespassing. I don’t want to commit murder.” The stranger replied. Although he was happy that the owner seem to be in a good mood, he was still anxious whether he would be kicked out of the house later or not.
Then the stranger started to introduce himself as Zhoumi, who worked as a teacher in a public school and gives off a low salary. Three years ago, his mother got very ill. The hospital bills just kept on increasing while his mother was getting weaker until she eventually died. They weren’t rich to begin with so Zhoumi sold off their small house and lot to pay off the bills and for the funeral.
The money was instantly gone with all the things he had to pay. He got an apartment for a while until he was no longer able to pay because his salary isn’t exactly enough for the rental fee and there are still phone, electricity and water bills and his daily necessities so the he was kicked out of his apartment. After that, he tried living in school for a while.
Then he heard from his students a talk about a hunted house which turned out to be Donghae’s house which seem to be isolated as it was only surrounded by trees. Zhoumi decided to check it out. There doesn’t seem to be any ghosts and there doesn’t seem to be anybody living there either. Although Zhoumi had thought at first that maybe the owner was on a vacation but after a week, Zhoumi decided to give it a try and live there anyway. He thought his life was too fucked up already so he didn’t care if the owner would just suddenly show up and send him off to jail but he reacted the opposite way when he met Donghae. He had been living in Donghae’s house for two years.
“With such a pitiful story, I think I still want to kick you out of the house.” The truth is Donghae had already made up his mind for Zhoumi to stay in the house but he wanted to see Zhoumi’s anxious and nervous state.
“Well… that’s up to you.” Zhoumi’s body was very tense. There was a trail of sweat drop running down at the side of his face. His hands were clasped together tightly on top of the table. “I’m just grateful enough that you didn’t send me to the police and if you want me to pay, I don’t think I can pay much as what you’ve heard of my poor life but I’ll try to do what I can.”
“I’ll let you stay with 2 conditions.” Donghae said as he held up two fingers. “First, take care of this house. That should be easy on your part as it is what you’ve been doing for the past 2 years. Second, take care of me while I’m staying here.”
Zhoumi found the second condition quite weird but it should be pretty easy. He can‘t help but ask. “Does that mean you’ll be leaving again?”
Donghae explained his situation. “I work as a traveling journalist after all. I’ll just have to wait and see if the company resolves its crisis so I’m taking off a long break since I haven’t been be able to take any breaks for the past 7 years. When my long vacation is over and the company still haven’t found any solution, then I’ll be transferring to another company.”
“Ah, it must be nice to be able to travel to such places. I’ve noticed you had a lot of nice souvenirs when I was unpacking your stuff.” Zhoumi wondered why he didn’t take up that kind of occupation instead. Then he was reminded of his dead mother, who also used to be a teacher, and how a lot of her past students attended during her funeral. She was a great teacher after all and Zhoumi really looked up to her.
“I’m not going to get any privacy with you around, would I?”
“I’ll remind myself of personal space and territory next time.”
Although Zhoumi was suppose to be taking care of Donghae, he couldn’t exactly do that as he was busy working and spending most of his time with his job at school. He could only make breakfast and dinner for them then he would proceed to check the test papers and prepare whatever he have to do for tomorrow’s class.
Donghae felt weird because he was very used to moving from one place to another. He was always used to being busy and doing a lot of stuff but now that he’s on vacation, he has nothing to do and felt completely bored. Whenever he saw Zhoumi being busy, he would always decide to help the guy. Not because he was helpful but more because of boredom.
Donghae had an impression of public school teacher aren’t being that smart or good enough as the private school teachers but Zhoumi had proved to him differently. Zhoumi was surprised when he saw Donghae suddenly sitting in front of him pretending to be a student in school which wouldn’t be such a hard thing to do considering they don’t have any school uniform and it was easy to make a fake ID for Donghae who have some connections.
“What do you think you’re doing?!?!” Zhoumi asked when the classroom became empty except for him and Donghae.
“I was bored so I decided to go to school.” Donghae flashed him with a smile. “The way you teach is really in a different level. Why choose to teach in a public school? You could be teaching in prestigious private schools or be a personal tutor to some rich spoiled brat. You wouldn’t be suffering from the lack of money if you just did that.”
“Just because these students are poor doesn’t mean they should also have a poor education. I want to help them, boost up their knowledge and be successful in their future careers.” Zhoumi said as he started to pack up his teaching materials.
“You’re being a martyr.”
“And you’re my savior.” Both of them knew exactly what that meant because ever since Donghae came home, he was letting Zhoumi stay for free and he was also the one paying the bills and the food. Heck, Zhoumi even no longer had to pay for transportation fees because Donghae had been driving and fetching him to school.
Then they started to spend more time outside the house. Zhoumi always had his materials in a bag anyway so they could always work whenever they want whether inside the car or a café or after they have some fun like going to the arcades, watching latest movies, a walk at the park or at the beach.
The more Donghae think about it, the more they seem like a newly wed couple except they don’t share kisses or make love. There had been a lot of times that Donghae was tempted to kiss Zhoumi. They spent a lot of time together so he can’t avoid being attracted to the Chinese and falling for him. After all, Donghae always fell in love so easily.
Donghae would stop himself because Zhoumi was different from the others. With the others, Donghae could just easily leave them and fly off to another country and never see the other ever again. But with Zhoumi, who lives with him in this house, even if Donghae would fly off to another country, at some point, even if it would take another 7 years, he would have to come back to this house and that would mean seeing Zhoumi again.
Also, Zhoumi seem to be having a hard time with his life already. It’s only until recently that he had been having fun and enjoying his life because Donghae was there with money and willing to pay so when Donghae leaves, he’ll be alone again and fending off for himself. If Donghae decides to get into a relationship with him and leaves him with a heartbreak, then Zhoumi would have a harder time and that’s something Donghae doesn’t want Zhoumi to experience. Because unlike in his previous relationships, Zhoumi doesn’t have any family or anyone to turn to. He was just alone.
“What are you thinking?” Zhoumi asked when he noticed that Donghae had stopped checking the test papers and was simply staring blankly unto it. Donghae was snapped back to reality as he heard Zhoumi’s question. He was about to say it was nothing when Zhoumi whispered “I love you.” to his ear. His head turned to look at Zhoumi but he was greeted with a kiss instead.
“Do you really want this?” Donghae asked when they broke apart from their kiss. “Because I’m not that type of guy who would promise to be with you forever. I like to travel around the world and in different countries, I meet a lot of people. At some point, I would fall for someone else.”
“I know but I want this and I’m not going to be some love sick fool who would remain loyal and wait for you to come back even if it would take another 7 years. Just for now, while we still have time to be together, I want this.” Zhoumi kissed Donghae again, arms moving around Donghae’s body to pull him closer.
Zhoumi wished he had the courage to be able to confess earlier because the next day after his confession, Donghae’s company had called Donghae, telling him that the crisis had been solved and that Donghae was allowed to continue his job and travel again. Zhoumi released a frustrated sigh. Their relationship hadn’t even started yet. “If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have bothered to confess to you.” Zhoumi grumbled as he folded Donghae’s clothes neatly and placed them in the large suitcase.
“I thought you love me so why don’t you stop me from leaving?” Donghae asked, interrupting Zhoumi’s self-complaints.
“They all asked you not to leave, didn’t they?” Zhoumi asked back. He was referring to Donghae’s previous relationships. “But you still left anyway. What difference would it make if I asked you to stay? Besides, we’re not exactly in a relationship and you never said you loved me.” The last part had a bitter tone to it.
Donghae wanted to confess that he did fall in love with Zhoumi but perhaps his confession would make things complicated. “You’re just trying to act cool. I bet you’ll cry once I step out of this house.”
“That’s exactly my plan. I don’t want you to see my ugly crying face.” Zhoumi closed the suitcase and placed a lock on it. “So I guess that’s about it. You’re ready to go.”
Donghae hugged Zhoumi. “Thanks. I’ll miss you.”
“I know. Now, get out of here before I start crying.” Zhoumi felt cold when Donghae stopped hugging him. He watched at Donghae picked up his suitcase and duffle bag and stepped out of the house. He watched from the window as Donghae went inside the taxi. He stared at the yellow cab until it was out of sight. He thought it was raining but it turned out that it was his own teardrops on the window.
After the first month of not hearing anything from Donghae, Zhoumi stopped expecting to see a mail or receive a phone call from Donghae. He fell back to the routine he used to have before Donghae came. But there are times when he would feel really lonely and during those times, he would sleep at Donghae’s bed and hug Donghae’s pillow. He was lying when he said that he was not going to act like a love sick fool.
The alarm clock rang noisily but before Zhoumi’s hand could reach the stop button, it stopped ringing. That’s why Zhoumi forced himself to open his eyes to see what caused the alarm clock to stop. Then it turned out Donghae, who was standing at his bedside much like how they first met. Out of surprise, Zhoumi yelped and fell on the floor with the blankets tangled with his long limbs.
“Are you okay?” Donghae took the blanket away and placed it back on the bed before helping Zhoumi stand on his feet.
“What are you doing here?” Zhoumi asked. He wanted to attack Donghae with hugs and kisses but he controlled himself.
“You don’t seem too happy to see me so maybe I’ll just be on my way…” Donghae tried to walk away but Zhoumi lost control of his urges as he slammed Donghae’s body against the wall and smothered him with kisses. “That’s more like it.” Donghae said in between kisses.
“So what are you doing here?” Zhoumi asked again when they have both calmed down and were breathing evenly. “Isn’t it too soon for you to be back?”
“Ever since my parents died, this house never felt like home but then you came along and made this house feel like home once again so when I left, never have I felt like missing home and wanting to go home so badly.” Donghae had thought about it for a month and come to realize that there’s actually something that he loved more than traveling. “I want to stay home. I want to stay with you. You’re my home, Zhoumi.”
Zhoumi can‘t believe what he was hearing. It was too good to be true. “What about traveling? What about your job? You never loved someone enough to give them up.”
“I love you more than enough to give those things up.” Donghae said seriously. “And I’ve always loved you but back then, I thought I would leave and not come back for a long time. That’s why I didn’t confess.”
The house became a home the moment Zhoumi and Donghae first met. Zhoumi left the basement and moved in to Donghae’s room so they are now sharing one room. There was an empty space which Donghae decided to decorate the wall with the photos he took from the different countries. The photos were composed of the different beautiful sights from different countries.
There are times Donghae would simply stare at the photos. During those times, Zhoumi would be worried that perhaps Donghae missed traveling, perhaps Donghae would want to be a traveling journalist again or worst perhaps he regrets staying at home with Zhoumi.
“I don’t like that worried expression on your face.” Donghae said and kissed Zhoumi’s insecurities and worrisome thoughts away. “I love you more than traveling so don’t ever be worried that I might leave you someday.”
“Sorry. I can’t help but have these kinds of thoughts when I see you staring at those photos for too long.” Zhoumi apologized sheepishly.
“When I look at those pictures, I actually think of you.”
“Really?” Zhoumi was surprised. He had always just assumed that Donghae probably missed traveling. This was the first time that Donghae had actually shared his thoughts.
“I just thought that it would be nice if we could travel together. I want to let you see what I’ve seen. When I look at these photos, it would motivate me to save up money so when the time comes, both of us could have our vacation together in different countries.” Donghae wrapped an arm around Zhoumi’s waist and pulled him closer. His tongue licked the curve part of Zhoumi’s ear. “Then we could have the best honeymoon.”
Zhoumi actually felt touched at Donghae’s words but the last part made him blush. “Pervert. I bet you’re thinking of fucking me at one of those tourist spots.”
Donghae raised an eyebrow. “I never said anything.”
“You don’t have to say anything. I know what you’re thinking.” Zhoumi looked at his lover suspiciously.
Donghae simply smirked. “We’ll see when we get there years from now.” And for now, they’ll just have to do it at home.
THE END
A/N: I had this idea a long time ago and wrote half of this story a long time ago but I only got to finish it recently. I have come to love my unfinished stories lately XD; They're always easy to finish in the future. Lolz~ Comments please? ^_^