Nectarine Sunset 1/14
Title: Nectarine Sunset
Pairing: Eunhae
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Fluff, Romance.
Summary: Hyukjae has never had an easy life. He has been sheltered, living the only way he knows how. A simple meeting with a cheerful young man named Donghae will change every feeling Hyukjae has ever had.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Epilogue |
-
A sunset. The sun slowly drifting from the sky, hiding behind a mass of trees and buildings. The light blue sky tinted with an orange and yellow glow. The orange slowly becomes pink as the sun sinks further over the horizon and it meets with the blue of the sky and it makes the tiniest spot of purple.
Hyukjae frowns.
It is a beautiful moment. And beautiful moments, just like any other, never last. They fade away, they are forgotten, or they are looked back on with fondness. Sometimes they grow into a memory that one can only wish could be forgotten.
This moment is the kind that will fade, more quickly than the colors themselves had. It will not turn into a memory that he will cherish for years or look back on with disgust, it is only a brief few minutes between Hyukjae and the sky.
It is just a sunset. Representing the ending of a day. It is no more special than him brushing the shoulder of a stranger on the street or adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose.
Hyukjae looks at the moon, hanging in the still bright sky even though it had still been daylight only an hour before. He wonders why that happens. Why does the moon always seem to find its way into the sky during the day? He momentarily thinks of it being like a teenager having a disorderly schedule in the summertime. Or perhaps the moon is just a silly creature, peeking its head in to see what daytime is like.
Maybe he should learn why the moon does this. Then if anyone were ever to ask him, he could impress them with his knowledge.
Yeah. That would go over well. He would be sure to impress someone so much that they would want to marry him.
It is pointless. Why is he even thinking of it at all?
The sky is dark now. No more pink or orange, just the soft glow of the moon. He closes his eyes for a moment as a breeze passes by. He thinks he smells a wood fire nearby. A campfire, perhaps.
Ah, camping. That brings back fond memories. Memories of childhood are always so carefree, so happy. Of course there are many childhood memories that Hyukjae wants to block out but he does not think of those. He thinks of the times he spent sitting around a campfire, sleeping in a tent, catching fish in a nearby stream. He still fished, sometimes. It had been a fun hobby when he was little and it was something he still had fun doing. It was nice to get away from the city and spend the day with nature rather than with people. Even if he was catching part of that nature with intentions of eating it.
When Hyukjae opens his eyes it is even darker and the moon has moved. He frowns and closes the window partially, leaving it open to let the cool night air in and he makes his way to bed.
He wonders how his mind had strayed that far as he curls himself against the sheets of his bed. He will sleep and there isn't a doubt in his mind that tomorrow will be the same as every other day.
-
Hyukjae wakes to a thick fog covering the city. He ruffles his dark hair and blinks sleepily out his window. He thinks it's rather pretty at first, hiding the world from his vision, a few street lights sticking out just barely through the fog. Hyukjae shivers a little when he sees the fog closing in closer around him and he hears a bird caw in the distance. He closes his window completely before heading to make a breakfast to warm his stomach.
He eats slowly, waiting for the fog to dissipate. It is a Saturday morning and Hyukjae would normally be out, exercising in the early air. Today, however, the fog scares him, keeps him inside, and so he waits.
Just as the fog is beginning to disappear, Hyukjae steps outside, clad in his black jersey and matching shorts, a soccer ball tucked under his arm and cleats on his feet.
He pushes the buds of his bright green headphones into his ears and picks a song as he starts to walk. It's a perfect song for the morning, uplifting but not too bright or poppy. He jogs his way to the soccer field, glancing around and making sure he was still early enough to miss kids that might want to use the field to practice. It was still very early, the sun just barely risen, peeking through clouds and the fog that still lingered, which meant that no children would be around. Still too early for a child to be out of bed during the summer.
He takes a deep breath before dropping the soccer ball onto the grass, hearing the dull thud through the music playing in his ears. He stretches a little, warming up, giving the ball a few test kicks before heading down the field, slowly at first before picking up speed, launching the ball into a goal.
He pants slightly, retrieving the ball, thinking only for a second that he must be pathetic for playing soccer on his own.
He runs up and down the field, making goals, never missing since there is no one to stop him. He pushes himself until he's sweating and panting and dying for a shower. He flops back onto the grass, flipping through a few songs as he catches his breath.
During the silence in between changing songs, Hyukjae hears the familiar thud of a soccer ball on grass and whirls around, pulling his headphones out. A young man with short brown hair, dressed similarly to Hyukjae in a red jersey and black shorts, is standing on the field, staring at him curiously.
“I- oh! You had headphones on, no wonder you couldn't hear me!” The man says with a laugh and Hyukjae stares at him.
“I called out to you but you didn't respond, I thought that maybe you could be deaf but I should have seen those headphones, they're so bright!” The man exclaims, a smile still on his face.
Hyukjae frowns at the statement. He isn't deaf, just...
“Wanna practice with me? It can't be all that fun on your own, and you looked really good!”
The man is talkative, considering Hyukjae isn't saying anything back. Hyukjae watches the man pick up his soccer ball and bounce it between his two hands and shrugs a little before nodding and standing. He pulls his headphones out and tucks them safely into the pocket of his shorts.
The man smiles and drops the ball in front of Hyukjae before running to the nearest goal. “I'll play goalie for a while, and then you, if that's okay?”
Hyukjae nods and warms up his feet a little. He hesitates before he makes his way towards the goal, running and kicking where he thinks the man won't be able to block it.
But he does block it.
Hyukjae blinks a few times. He was sure he was going to make it but he hadn't. The man tosses the ball back to Hyukjae and he kicks it a few more times, learning that the man is a little weaker at blocking on his left than on his right.
He makes some goals and misses some before they switch positions. The man is even better at making goals than he is at blocking them. Hyukjae manages to block some and he decides that the two of them are pretty evenly matched in their soccer skills. They must have wasted over an hour before they stop because the sun is much brighter and Hyukjae is sweating harder than he had been before.
“Hey, you're better than I thought,” the man says, panting a little after running over to Hyukjae, “my name is Donghae, by the way.”
Hyukjae freezes and chews on his lip a little. He's not sure what to do. He pretends to glance at his watch and realize that he's late for something. He waves to the man and runs off, grabbing a soccer ball, ignoring the protests that the man, Donghae, is making at his back. He runs all of the way to his home, panting harder then than he had all morning.
It's only once he's safely inside of his house that he realizes that the soccer ball he had run off with is not his own and that his headphones, along with his iPod, are no longer in his pocket.
-
Donghae stares at the back of the man as he runs away. He tries to stop him and tell him that he had run off with the wrong soccer ball and that his bright green headphones and matching iPod had fallen from his pocket but the man is too fast for him to catch up to.
He sighs. Maybe the man would be there tomorrow? He could only hope.
He makes his way home to shower off the sweat and tosses his grass-stained clothes into a laundry basket, ditching them in favor of a comfortable pair of jeans and a simple, orange t-shirt.
It's only noon and Donghae hadn't really made plans for the day, besides playing soccer in the morning. He picks up the iPod, wondering if looking through the songs on it would be too much of an invasion of privacy. He turns it over a few times before finally turning it on, deciding the man would never know anyway.
After replacing the green headphones with his own, he sits on the floor by his bed and flips through a few songs. Some he has heard before, they are fairly popular and most people would have heard them. However there are so many that Donghae has never heard before and he can't help but listen to each one of them, writing down the name of some so that he could download them later.
When the iPod suddenly runs out of battery, Donghae jumps up, alarmed. The man would definitely know he had listened to his music if he returned it like this. Panicked, he runs to find his own charger and hooks it up to his computer. He sighs, wondering how much he should charge it. His mind starts to wander and his brain must have gone on vacation for a split second because... had he just pressed the button that would sync all of his songs to the man's iPod.
Donghae lets out a shriek of horror before he groans. It's too late. All of his music is now on the iPod of a man who he has only known for a total of about one hour.
He starts to hit his head against his computer desk before he perks up and downloads the few songs that he had written down along with a few that he had remembered. He puts only those onto the man's iPod, deleting all of his own music. Then he proceeds to hit his head on his desk a few times.
He could lie to the man, tell him he hadn't seen him drop the iPod. But Donghae wasn't a liar. Lying was a terrible thing to. Especially to a man who had almost seemed like a child afraid of talking to a stranger.
Donghae assumes that's why he had run away, the fear of a stranger suddenly talking to him. He hopes that tomorrow he can find the man and straighten things out, maybe get to know him a little. He didn't know many people who were that good at soccer. It would be so much more fun to play with someone who really knew what they were doing.
Plus, the man seemed interesting. He was a little taller than Donghae, his hair short and dark brown, a lanky but muscular body with very defined facial features.
His eyes are what really made Donghae stop and think about him. They were so... interesting. He couldn't think of another way to put it. It had been as if he could see every emotion inside of the man just through his eyes within only a few seconds. Yet he was so guarded, trying not to give away too much.
It was confusing, intriguing, and it was all Donghae could think about for the rest of the day. He went out alone for coffee and food, walked around the city, played around on his computer, anything to pass the time more quickly. Days like this made him realize that his life was pretty boring. He had just wasted an entire day simply because he could not wait to get to the next.
Well, it isn't something that Donghae has never done before but it has certainly been a while. He actually lays in bed until the sun goes down and tells himself that it's much later than it actually is so that he can fall asleep. And it works.
-
Donghae is waiting at the soccer field the next morning, an hour earlier than he had arrived the day before. He isn't sure what time the other man will show up and he doesn't want to miss him so he waits, soccer ball at his feet, bright green iPod in his pocket.
He's not dressed to play soccer today, wearing a pair of simple jeans and a light jacket over his t-shirt to block out the slight morning chill. He doesn't have to sit for long until he hears a noise and turns to see a man, the same man from yesterday, walking briskly towards him. His feet pad against the soft grass and it makes a tiny sound against the stillness of the quiet morning.
“Hey!” Donghae calls out to the man with a smile but the man doesn't respond.
The man is carrying Donghae's soccer ball as he approaches him and stops. He points to a bench on the edge of the soccer field and makes his way over to it with Donghae following closely behind. They sit, and Donghae notices now that the man also carried something else with him, a small bag slung over his shoulder. Donghae watches as the man pulls out a laptop and turns it on. He is patient, quiet, watching first the man's eyes, still and calm and full of everything he had seen before, and then the man's fingers, gliding across the keys.
He blinks when the man turns the laptop towards him and he reads the message written on the screen.
“My name is Hyukjae. I... cannot speak.”
Donghae stares at the words before glancing at the man. “You can't talk? At all?” He asks.
Hyukjae shakes his head before typing again.
“I was born with damaged vocal cords. They don't work properly, so I can't speak at all.” He writes.
Donghae frowns, unsure what to say. “That... wow. I've never met someone who couldn't speak before... but it's nice to meet you, Hyukjae.” He extends his hand and this time Hyukjae doesn't run away. He smiles and shakes Donghae's hand before writing again.
“I'm sorry about yesterday. I had no way of telling you so I ran. I didn't mean to steal your soccer ball so I was hoping I could return it today. Oh, did you happen to see a green iPod? I dropped mine when I left.”
“Oh!” Donghae exclaims, pulling the iPod with the headphones neatly wrapped around it from his pocket, handing it to a very eager Hyukjae. “I um... tested it, to see if it worked...” Donghae half lied, “I'm really sorry, I listened to it. A lot of it. And I ran the battery down so I plugged it in to charge it and I accidentally deleted all of your songs... but I put some back on! The ones that I remembered... I'm sorry!”
Hyukjae blinks a few times at the story but he smiles. “It's okay, I can put the songs back on, you didn't have to put them back yourself... but thank you,” he writes.
Donghae smiles. “I'm glad I didn't ruin anything permanently, I wouldn't have been able to come here to face you. I'd have left it on the ground and hoped you'd come to find it.”
“I'm really glad you came here yourself,” Hyukjae writes quickly, his eyes blinking in a way that lets Donghae know he means it.
“So,” Donghae starts, clearing his throat and taking his eyes off of Hyukjae, “do you play soccer often? I mean, you must, you're really good...” he trails off.
Hyukjae smiles as he types. “I come out here whenever I can. Early, before anyone else might come to practice.” He stops for a moment and bites his lip before continuing. “Yesterday, I was very... indecent. I don't normally run into anyone so I didn't shower and I'm horribly sorry if I smelled!”
Donghae laughs hard. “No! No, I didn't shower either so if anything smelled it was probably me!”
Hyukjae looks like he wants to laugh with Donghae but he only smiles. They communicate for a while like that, Donghae speaking and Hyukjae typing. They discuss soccer, mostly, a few bits of random information being thrown in here and there, until they come to a silence, and Donghae wonders.
“Do you use sign language?” He asks, hoping his question isn't offensive in some way.
Hyukjae shakes his head.
“So the only way you can talk to people is by typing to them?”
Hyukjae frowns and nods. “I know a couple of important phrases in sign language but since I could always read and hear perfectly well, I was taught the same as everyone else...”
Donghae nods, frowning in return. “So it must be hard for you to make friends, since you can't even introduce yourself to anyone without a laptop.”
Hyukjae purses his lips, concentrating on his screen. “I don't... have friends.”
Donghae almost wants to hit something at the sight of that sentence. “No friends? Everyone needs friends! Do you at least have a few people to go to if you're in need? Or are people mean to you? I'll beat them up!” He exclaims rather childishly, making Hyukjae smile.
“Thank you, Donghae, but no, I don't have anyone nearby. My family lives rather far and there aren't many emergencies that I can't handle on my own. Plus my neighbors are nice, since they don't have to worry about noise.” Hyukjae retypes his next line several times before getting it to sound right. “I have been treated unfairly before but I've managed to survive.”
Donghae frowns. He's a naturally affectionate person and he wants to hug Hyukjae but he resists. “I'm sorry... that shouldn't happen to you. People just don't understand, I guess.”
Hyukjae nods. Then he blinks a few times and frowns. He points to something on his screen, indicating that his battery power is nearly gone. Donghae frowns too.
“I like talking to you,” he says kind of quietly before speaking up, “can we meet again? Maybe sometime this week if you're not busy? I'm sorry if I'm annoying you with questions but I'm interested in you... I mean, well, getting to know you, because you seem really nice!” Nice save, Donghae, he sarcastically praises himself.
Hyukjae smiles and nods. “I'd like that. And you're not annoying, Donghae, it's refreshing to find someone who is... interested, rather than freaked out by me.”
Donghae notices the ellipses before the word “interested” and he pouts a little, thinking it was Hyukjae's way of teasing him. “Can we meet again for soccer on Saturday?” He asks, wanting to see Hyukjae sooner but afraid he'll scare him off.
Hyukjae seems to think before nodding. “I'll see you then.”
They stand and finally exchange soccer balls, making sure that they don't accidentally swap them again.
“So... I'll see you in a week? Same time as today?” Donghae asks.
Hyukjae nods and gives him a smiles that says “definitely.”
-
And it's the longest week of Hyukjae's life. Hyukjae has never hated his job, until this week. Sure, it's a way to pass the time, but he thinks that he could be sleeping away that time to make it go by faster.
He works at an architecture firm. It's small but busy and it generally keeps him occupied. Of course this week had to be a slow week. He's already finished his work on the firm's current projects so he finds himself making paper airplanes and swans. He even manages to make a replica of a building with scraps of paper but smashes it in his boredom.
He is glad that the firm had accepted him, given him a job that didn't require much communication. He sends emails to coworkers, usually. Never anything friendly, just business. No one really wants to go through the hassle of making friends with the mute guy in the office.
Donghae wants to be his friend, though. And even perhaps let it slip that he is interested in him. Or maybe Hyukjae is reading too much into it. It could have just been a slip of the tongue but even so, Hyukjae is excited to have someone to converse with, someone who is patient enough to survive a conversation with him. Hyukjae is incredibly scared that he might drive Donghae away with his awkwardness. He isn't used to having anyone to talk with casually. Not since he was a child and a few children stuck around because they thought it was fun to have a friend that couldn't speak.
Hyukjae had most definitely been lonely his entire life. Unable to speak from the day he was born, parents and teachers being frustrated with his inability to express himself to them. No one had ever understood him, no one had ever cared. He expected Donghae to run away immediately, in fact he had dreamed about it the night after meeting him, Donghae running into the fog, never showing himself again. But he hadn't ran, he'd stayed, talking with Hyukjae under the warm morning sun, asking him questions without a single trace of annoyance as he waited for him to answer.
Hyukjae looks at the calendar. Saturday is only a few days away, he thinks. Only a few more days before he can meet Donghae again.
-
Those few days pass and Hyukjae is at the field early, shuffling a soccer ball between his feet. He had paid a little more attention to his looks today. He had even taken a shower.
Donghae apparently had the same idea as Hyukjae because he arrives only a few minutes after Hyukjae, both of them looking much better than the first day they had met.
“Hi,” Donghae says with a smile and Hyukjae waves as a greeting.
“I've been waiting for this all week,” is what Hyukjae wants to tell Donghae and for once he's glad that he can't speak so that he can't possibly embarrass himself with such words. He really must be crazy to have been looking forward to this for an entire week. If Donghae knew he would probably never speak to Hyukjae again.
“I've been looking forward to today. I mean, I had such a boring week,” Donghae says, waiting for Hyukjae's reaction.
Hyukjae grins and nods, wishing he could tell Donghae the same thing.
Donghae returns the smile before stealing the soccer ball Hyukjae had been kicking around and racing towards a goal. Hyukjae wants to yell and laugh and tell Donghae he's cheating but he settles for running after him instead.
Hyukjae is faster than Donghae, his legs a little longer. He catches up easily. Donghae, however, has excellent footwork, managing to keep the ball from Hyukjae's reach. They practically dance around each other, Donghae laughing and Hyukjae grinning. Hyukjae watches Donghae closely, learning the way he plays soccer, the techniques and tricks he uses, and he can tell that Donghae is doing the same.
They're both panting and tired and over an hour has passed without them noticing.
Hyukjae wants to lean on Donghae for support as he tries to catch his breath but he reminds himself that he can't scare Donghae off. He makes his way over to the bench instead and beckons Donghae over as well, handing him a water bottle he had stored there before they started playing.
“Thanks,” Donghae says, taking a large drink from the bottle and taking a seat.
Hyukjae wants to laugh at how fast Donghae drinks the water as he drinks his own. He takes his laptop out and notices Donghae watching him, waiting for him.
Hyukjae blinks several times, first at his screen, then at Donghae, then back again. Donghae watches him curiously and Hyukjae is glad that the heat from the sun would cover up any blush on his face.
“I don't have anything to say.” He writes.
Donghae laughs. “Sorry, I must have made you feel awkward...”
Hyukjae shakes his head and smiles, taking his hands away from the keys to let Donghae know that he can speak without waiting for Hyukjae.
“Actually... I wanted to ask you... if maybe... you wanted to do something? Besides playing soccer, I mean. I thought maybe we could get cleaned up and meet somewhere? For coffee? Or, if you don't like coffee we could get some food?” Donghae rambles and Hyukjae really, really wishes he could laugh.
“I like coffee. And food.” He writes “and you” but deletes it immediately before continuing. “We could meet up at a coffee shop or something?”
Donghae's smile grows as he reads. He nods. And then he frowns. “Forgive me if this is rude but... do you go out a lot? To eat, I mean... how do you... order food?”
Hyukjae blinks a few times and gives Donghae a sad smile, thinking. He suddenly wonders how he's having these conversations with Donghae? Could he even trust him? Would Donghae somehow take advantage of him? Hurt him? Hyukjae wonders if he's really so desperate for a friend that he's willing to trust this complete stranger. Hyukjae had been shown too many times in the past that trusting people wasn't a good idea. Trust leads to hurt.
“I'm sorry! I shouldn't have asked! I'm really sorry!” Donghae says suddenly, startling Hyukjae who shakes his head quickly. He looks at the concerned face in front of him and realizes that yes, he is desperate enough that he will trust Donghae, even if it brings him pain in the end.
“No! Don't apologize, I've just never been asked this before. I don't go out often. I...” Hyukjae glances at Donghae before continuing, “sometimes I feel like I should wear a tag that says 'I'm a mute' so that people will know. So that all of those moments won't happen where someone asks me a question and I have to run away. I have to write notes to cashiers who ask me questions and I usually keep a pen and some paper with me in case of an emergency. Sometimes I use my phone and type out a message. It's just... very awkward. It's embarrassing. But if I wear something telling people of my disability, I'll surely be taken advantage of.” Hyukjae considers deleting the message but turns it to Donghae before he can.
He turns away while Donghae reads and when he finally turns to look, Donghae is looking back at him, sympathy, and maybe a bit of anger evident in his face. “I'm sorry that it's like this for you... when we go out, tell me what you'd like and I'll order it for you. You won't have to tell anyone. Just stick with me and no one will bother you.”
Hyukjae's heart does some sort of Olympic flip and he has to take in a deep breath before he can nod. He's unsure what to say back so he stares at Donghae without blinking.
Donghae scratches his head and looks away for a moment before speaking. “You know that little coffee shop nearby in between the video game shop and that... eye place?” He asks, chewing on his lip.
Hyukjae nods, holding back a smile.
“Meet me there in an hour?” Donghae asks hopefully.
Hyukjae nods again. Donghae smiles.
They part ways quickly and Hyukjae runs as fast as he can back to his house. He leaves his laptop to charge while he showers at lightning speed but still makes sure to clean himself thoroughly. He dries his hair and styles it a little, trying not to spend too much time on it, knowing he'll need more time for other things.
Hyukjae approaches his closet. He normally shops online to avoid hassle in stores. He is also normally very bored and buys more than necessary. He searches through an insane amount of shirts, trying to find one he knows looks decent on him. He settles on a black wife beater with a loose and slightly see-through white t-shirt over it. He throws on a pair of loose-fitting jeans and checks himself in the mirror. His black shirt is barely visible through his white one and it definitely shows off his arms.
He's about to declare himself ready before he blinks a few times and realizes something. Glasses. He needs his glasses. Trying to type to Donghae without them so far had been fairly agonizing, there was no way he could go without them any longer. He opens a drawer and picks out a simple, black-rimmed pair and slips them on. He sighs, hoping they don't make him look too bad. He checks his watch and notes that he has fifteen minutes left.
Checking his hair one last time in the mirror, he packs his laptop up and slings it over his shoulder. He writes a small note before slipping it, along with his wallet, into his pocket and walking out the door.
-
A/N: My first chaptered fic! I've been working on this for a while and I'm really excited about it! And for once I'm a little nervous because I'm really hoping everyone will like this. ;~; Since it will be rather long and I've never written a chaptered fic before, any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Also, special thanks to Tee for reading all of this and yelling at me to write more and blowing up my phone until I gave her spoilers. ilu ♥
Pairing: Eunhae
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Fluff, Romance.
Summary: Hyukjae has never had an easy life. He has been sheltered, living the only way he knows how. A simple meeting with a cheerful young man named Donghae will change every feeling Hyukjae has ever had.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Epilogue |
-
A sunset. The sun slowly drifting from the sky, hiding behind a mass of trees and buildings. The light blue sky tinted with an orange and yellow glow. The orange slowly becomes pink as the sun sinks further over the horizon and it meets with the blue of the sky and it makes the tiniest spot of purple.
Hyukjae frowns.
It is a beautiful moment. And beautiful moments, just like any other, never last. They fade away, they are forgotten, or they are looked back on with fondness. Sometimes they grow into a memory that one can only wish could be forgotten.
This moment is the kind that will fade, more quickly than the colors themselves had. It will not turn into a memory that he will cherish for years or look back on with disgust, it is only a brief few minutes between Hyukjae and the sky.
It is just a sunset. Representing the ending of a day. It is no more special than him brushing the shoulder of a stranger on the street or adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose.
Hyukjae looks at the moon, hanging in the still bright sky even though it had still been daylight only an hour before. He wonders why that happens. Why does the moon always seem to find its way into the sky during the day? He momentarily thinks of it being like a teenager having a disorderly schedule in the summertime. Or perhaps the moon is just a silly creature, peeking its head in to see what daytime is like.
Maybe he should learn why the moon does this. Then if anyone were ever to ask him, he could impress them with his knowledge.
Yeah. That would go over well. He would be sure to impress someone so much that they would want to marry him.
It is pointless. Why is he even thinking of it at all?
The sky is dark now. No more pink or orange, just the soft glow of the moon. He closes his eyes for a moment as a breeze passes by. He thinks he smells a wood fire nearby. A campfire, perhaps.
Ah, camping. That brings back fond memories. Memories of childhood are always so carefree, so happy. Of course there are many childhood memories that Hyukjae wants to block out but he does not think of those. He thinks of the times he spent sitting around a campfire, sleeping in a tent, catching fish in a nearby stream. He still fished, sometimes. It had been a fun hobby when he was little and it was something he still had fun doing. It was nice to get away from the city and spend the day with nature rather than with people. Even if he was catching part of that nature with intentions of eating it.
When Hyukjae opens his eyes it is even darker and the moon has moved. He frowns and closes the window partially, leaving it open to let the cool night air in and he makes his way to bed.
He wonders how his mind had strayed that far as he curls himself against the sheets of his bed. He will sleep and there isn't a doubt in his mind that tomorrow will be the same as every other day.
-
Hyukjae wakes to a thick fog covering the city. He ruffles his dark hair and blinks sleepily out his window. He thinks it's rather pretty at first, hiding the world from his vision, a few street lights sticking out just barely through the fog. Hyukjae shivers a little when he sees the fog closing in closer around him and he hears a bird caw in the distance. He closes his window completely before heading to make a breakfast to warm his stomach.
He eats slowly, waiting for the fog to dissipate. It is a Saturday morning and Hyukjae would normally be out, exercising in the early air. Today, however, the fog scares him, keeps him inside, and so he waits.
Just as the fog is beginning to disappear, Hyukjae steps outside, clad in his black jersey and matching shorts, a soccer ball tucked under his arm and cleats on his feet.
He pushes the buds of his bright green headphones into his ears and picks a song as he starts to walk. It's a perfect song for the morning, uplifting but not too bright or poppy. He jogs his way to the soccer field, glancing around and making sure he was still early enough to miss kids that might want to use the field to practice. It was still very early, the sun just barely risen, peeking through clouds and the fog that still lingered, which meant that no children would be around. Still too early for a child to be out of bed during the summer.
He takes a deep breath before dropping the soccer ball onto the grass, hearing the dull thud through the music playing in his ears. He stretches a little, warming up, giving the ball a few test kicks before heading down the field, slowly at first before picking up speed, launching the ball into a goal.
He pants slightly, retrieving the ball, thinking only for a second that he must be pathetic for playing soccer on his own.
He runs up and down the field, making goals, never missing since there is no one to stop him. He pushes himself until he's sweating and panting and dying for a shower. He flops back onto the grass, flipping through a few songs as he catches his breath.
During the silence in between changing songs, Hyukjae hears the familiar thud of a soccer ball on grass and whirls around, pulling his headphones out. A young man with short brown hair, dressed similarly to Hyukjae in a red jersey and black shorts, is standing on the field, staring at him curiously.
“I- oh! You had headphones on, no wonder you couldn't hear me!” The man says with a laugh and Hyukjae stares at him.
“I called out to you but you didn't respond, I thought that maybe you could be deaf but I should have seen those headphones, they're so bright!” The man exclaims, a smile still on his face.
Hyukjae frowns at the statement. He isn't deaf, just...
“Wanna practice with me? It can't be all that fun on your own, and you looked really good!”
The man is talkative, considering Hyukjae isn't saying anything back. Hyukjae watches the man pick up his soccer ball and bounce it between his two hands and shrugs a little before nodding and standing. He pulls his headphones out and tucks them safely into the pocket of his shorts.
The man smiles and drops the ball in front of Hyukjae before running to the nearest goal. “I'll play goalie for a while, and then you, if that's okay?”
Hyukjae nods and warms up his feet a little. He hesitates before he makes his way towards the goal, running and kicking where he thinks the man won't be able to block it.
But he does block it.
Hyukjae blinks a few times. He was sure he was going to make it but he hadn't. The man tosses the ball back to Hyukjae and he kicks it a few more times, learning that the man is a little weaker at blocking on his left than on his right.
He makes some goals and misses some before they switch positions. The man is even better at making goals than he is at blocking them. Hyukjae manages to block some and he decides that the two of them are pretty evenly matched in their soccer skills. They must have wasted over an hour before they stop because the sun is much brighter and Hyukjae is sweating harder than he had been before.
“Hey, you're better than I thought,” the man says, panting a little after running over to Hyukjae, “my name is Donghae, by the way.”
Hyukjae freezes and chews on his lip a little. He's not sure what to do. He pretends to glance at his watch and realize that he's late for something. He waves to the man and runs off, grabbing a soccer ball, ignoring the protests that the man, Donghae, is making at his back. He runs all of the way to his home, panting harder then than he had all morning.
It's only once he's safely inside of his house that he realizes that the soccer ball he had run off with is not his own and that his headphones, along with his iPod, are no longer in his pocket.
-
Donghae stares at the back of the man as he runs away. He tries to stop him and tell him that he had run off with the wrong soccer ball and that his bright green headphones and matching iPod had fallen from his pocket but the man is too fast for him to catch up to.
He sighs. Maybe the man would be there tomorrow? He could only hope.
He makes his way home to shower off the sweat and tosses his grass-stained clothes into a laundry basket, ditching them in favor of a comfortable pair of jeans and a simple, orange t-shirt.
It's only noon and Donghae hadn't really made plans for the day, besides playing soccer in the morning. He picks up the iPod, wondering if looking through the songs on it would be too much of an invasion of privacy. He turns it over a few times before finally turning it on, deciding the man would never know anyway.
After replacing the green headphones with his own, he sits on the floor by his bed and flips through a few songs. Some he has heard before, they are fairly popular and most people would have heard them. However there are so many that Donghae has never heard before and he can't help but listen to each one of them, writing down the name of some so that he could download them later.
When the iPod suddenly runs out of battery, Donghae jumps up, alarmed. The man would definitely know he had listened to his music if he returned it like this. Panicked, he runs to find his own charger and hooks it up to his computer. He sighs, wondering how much he should charge it. His mind starts to wander and his brain must have gone on vacation for a split second because... had he just pressed the button that would sync all of his songs to the man's iPod.
Donghae lets out a shriek of horror before he groans. It's too late. All of his music is now on the iPod of a man who he has only known for a total of about one hour.
He starts to hit his head against his computer desk before he perks up and downloads the few songs that he had written down along with a few that he had remembered. He puts only those onto the man's iPod, deleting all of his own music. Then he proceeds to hit his head on his desk a few times.
He could lie to the man, tell him he hadn't seen him drop the iPod. But Donghae wasn't a liar. Lying was a terrible thing to. Especially to a man who had almost seemed like a child afraid of talking to a stranger.
Donghae assumes that's why he had run away, the fear of a stranger suddenly talking to him. He hopes that tomorrow he can find the man and straighten things out, maybe get to know him a little. He didn't know many people who were that good at soccer. It would be so much more fun to play with someone who really knew what they were doing.
Plus, the man seemed interesting. He was a little taller than Donghae, his hair short and dark brown, a lanky but muscular body with very defined facial features.
His eyes are what really made Donghae stop and think about him. They were so... interesting. He couldn't think of another way to put it. It had been as if he could see every emotion inside of the man just through his eyes within only a few seconds. Yet he was so guarded, trying not to give away too much.
It was confusing, intriguing, and it was all Donghae could think about for the rest of the day. He went out alone for coffee and food, walked around the city, played around on his computer, anything to pass the time more quickly. Days like this made him realize that his life was pretty boring. He had just wasted an entire day simply because he could not wait to get to the next.
Well, it isn't something that Donghae has never done before but it has certainly been a while. He actually lays in bed until the sun goes down and tells himself that it's much later than it actually is so that he can fall asleep. And it works.
-
Donghae is waiting at the soccer field the next morning, an hour earlier than he had arrived the day before. He isn't sure what time the other man will show up and he doesn't want to miss him so he waits, soccer ball at his feet, bright green iPod in his pocket.
He's not dressed to play soccer today, wearing a pair of simple jeans and a light jacket over his t-shirt to block out the slight morning chill. He doesn't have to sit for long until he hears a noise and turns to see a man, the same man from yesterday, walking briskly towards him. His feet pad against the soft grass and it makes a tiny sound against the stillness of the quiet morning.
“Hey!” Donghae calls out to the man with a smile but the man doesn't respond.
The man is carrying Donghae's soccer ball as he approaches him and stops. He points to a bench on the edge of the soccer field and makes his way over to it with Donghae following closely behind. They sit, and Donghae notices now that the man also carried something else with him, a small bag slung over his shoulder. Donghae watches as the man pulls out a laptop and turns it on. He is patient, quiet, watching first the man's eyes, still and calm and full of everything he had seen before, and then the man's fingers, gliding across the keys.
He blinks when the man turns the laptop towards him and he reads the message written on the screen.
“My name is Hyukjae. I... cannot speak.”
Donghae stares at the words before glancing at the man. “You can't talk? At all?” He asks.
Hyukjae shakes his head before typing again.
“I was born with damaged vocal cords. They don't work properly, so I can't speak at all.” He writes.
Donghae frowns, unsure what to say. “That... wow. I've never met someone who couldn't speak before... but it's nice to meet you, Hyukjae.” He extends his hand and this time Hyukjae doesn't run away. He smiles and shakes Donghae's hand before writing again.
“I'm sorry about yesterday. I had no way of telling you so I ran. I didn't mean to steal your soccer ball so I was hoping I could return it today. Oh, did you happen to see a green iPod? I dropped mine when I left.”
“Oh!” Donghae exclaims, pulling the iPod with the headphones neatly wrapped around it from his pocket, handing it to a very eager Hyukjae. “I um... tested it, to see if it worked...” Donghae half lied, “I'm really sorry, I listened to it. A lot of it. And I ran the battery down so I plugged it in to charge it and I accidentally deleted all of your songs... but I put some back on! The ones that I remembered... I'm sorry!”
Hyukjae blinks a few times at the story but he smiles. “It's okay, I can put the songs back on, you didn't have to put them back yourself... but thank you,” he writes.
Donghae smiles. “I'm glad I didn't ruin anything permanently, I wouldn't have been able to come here to face you. I'd have left it on the ground and hoped you'd come to find it.”
“I'm really glad you came here yourself,” Hyukjae writes quickly, his eyes blinking in a way that lets Donghae know he means it.
“So,” Donghae starts, clearing his throat and taking his eyes off of Hyukjae, “do you play soccer often? I mean, you must, you're really good...” he trails off.
Hyukjae smiles as he types. “I come out here whenever I can. Early, before anyone else might come to practice.” He stops for a moment and bites his lip before continuing. “Yesterday, I was very... indecent. I don't normally run into anyone so I didn't shower and I'm horribly sorry if I smelled!”
Donghae laughs hard. “No! No, I didn't shower either so if anything smelled it was probably me!”
Hyukjae looks like he wants to laugh with Donghae but he only smiles. They communicate for a while like that, Donghae speaking and Hyukjae typing. They discuss soccer, mostly, a few bits of random information being thrown in here and there, until they come to a silence, and Donghae wonders.
“Do you use sign language?” He asks, hoping his question isn't offensive in some way.
Hyukjae shakes his head.
“So the only way you can talk to people is by typing to them?”
Hyukjae frowns and nods. “I know a couple of important phrases in sign language but since I could always read and hear perfectly well, I was taught the same as everyone else...”
Donghae nods, frowning in return. “So it must be hard for you to make friends, since you can't even introduce yourself to anyone without a laptop.”
Hyukjae purses his lips, concentrating on his screen. “I don't... have friends.”
Donghae almost wants to hit something at the sight of that sentence. “No friends? Everyone needs friends! Do you at least have a few people to go to if you're in need? Or are people mean to you? I'll beat them up!” He exclaims rather childishly, making Hyukjae smile.
“Thank you, Donghae, but no, I don't have anyone nearby. My family lives rather far and there aren't many emergencies that I can't handle on my own. Plus my neighbors are nice, since they don't have to worry about noise.” Hyukjae retypes his next line several times before getting it to sound right. “I have been treated unfairly before but I've managed to survive.”
Donghae frowns. He's a naturally affectionate person and he wants to hug Hyukjae but he resists. “I'm sorry... that shouldn't happen to you. People just don't understand, I guess.”
Hyukjae nods. Then he blinks a few times and frowns. He points to something on his screen, indicating that his battery power is nearly gone. Donghae frowns too.
“I like talking to you,” he says kind of quietly before speaking up, “can we meet again? Maybe sometime this week if you're not busy? I'm sorry if I'm annoying you with questions but I'm interested in you... I mean, well, getting to know you, because you seem really nice!” Nice save, Donghae, he sarcastically praises himself.
Hyukjae smiles and nods. “I'd like that. And you're not annoying, Donghae, it's refreshing to find someone who is... interested, rather than freaked out by me.”
Donghae notices the ellipses before the word “interested” and he pouts a little, thinking it was Hyukjae's way of teasing him. “Can we meet again for soccer on Saturday?” He asks, wanting to see Hyukjae sooner but afraid he'll scare him off.
Hyukjae seems to think before nodding. “I'll see you then.”
They stand and finally exchange soccer balls, making sure that they don't accidentally swap them again.
“So... I'll see you in a week? Same time as today?” Donghae asks.
Hyukjae nods and gives him a smiles that says “definitely.”
-
And it's the longest week of Hyukjae's life. Hyukjae has never hated his job, until this week. Sure, it's a way to pass the time, but he thinks that he could be sleeping away that time to make it go by faster.
He works at an architecture firm. It's small but busy and it generally keeps him occupied. Of course this week had to be a slow week. He's already finished his work on the firm's current projects so he finds himself making paper airplanes and swans. He even manages to make a replica of a building with scraps of paper but smashes it in his boredom.
He is glad that the firm had accepted him, given him a job that didn't require much communication. He sends emails to coworkers, usually. Never anything friendly, just business. No one really wants to go through the hassle of making friends with the mute guy in the office.
Donghae wants to be his friend, though. And even perhaps let it slip that he is interested in him. Or maybe Hyukjae is reading too much into it. It could have just been a slip of the tongue but even so, Hyukjae is excited to have someone to converse with, someone who is patient enough to survive a conversation with him. Hyukjae is incredibly scared that he might drive Donghae away with his awkwardness. He isn't used to having anyone to talk with casually. Not since he was a child and a few children stuck around because they thought it was fun to have a friend that couldn't speak.
Hyukjae had most definitely been lonely his entire life. Unable to speak from the day he was born, parents and teachers being frustrated with his inability to express himself to them. No one had ever understood him, no one had ever cared. He expected Donghae to run away immediately, in fact he had dreamed about it the night after meeting him, Donghae running into the fog, never showing himself again. But he hadn't ran, he'd stayed, talking with Hyukjae under the warm morning sun, asking him questions without a single trace of annoyance as he waited for him to answer.
Hyukjae looks at the calendar. Saturday is only a few days away, he thinks. Only a few more days before he can meet Donghae again.
-
Those few days pass and Hyukjae is at the field early, shuffling a soccer ball between his feet. He had paid a little more attention to his looks today. He had even taken a shower.
Donghae apparently had the same idea as Hyukjae because he arrives only a few minutes after Hyukjae, both of them looking much better than the first day they had met.
“Hi,” Donghae says with a smile and Hyukjae waves as a greeting.
“I've been waiting for this all week,” is what Hyukjae wants to tell Donghae and for once he's glad that he can't speak so that he can't possibly embarrass himself with such words. He really must be crazy to have been looking forward to this for an entire week. If Donghae knew he would probably never speak to Hyukjae again.
“I've been looking forward to today. I mean, I had such a boring week,” Donghae says, waiting for Hyukjae's reaction.
Hyukjae grins and nods, wishing he could tell Donghae the same thing.
Donghae returns the smile before stealing the soccer ball Hyukjae had been kicking around and racing towards a goal. Hyukjae wants to yell and laugh and tell Donghae he's cheating but he settles for running after him instead.
Hyukjae is faster than Donghae, his legs a little longer. He catches up easily. Donghae, however, has excellent footwork, managing to keep the ball from Hyukjae's reach. They practically dance around each other, Donghae laughing and Hyukjae grinning. Hyukjae watches Donghae closely, learning the way he plays soccer, the techniques and tricks he uses, and he can tell that Donghae is doing the same.
They're both panting and tired and over an hour has passed without them noticing.
Hyukjae wants to lean on Donghae for support as he tries to catch his breath but he reminds himself that he can't scare Donghae off. He makes his way over to the bench instead and beckons Donghae over as well, handing him a water bottle he had stored there before they started playing.
“Thanks,” Donghae says, taking a large drink from the bottle and taking a seat.
Hyukjae wants to laugh at how fast Donghae drinks the water as he drinks his own. He takes his laptop out and notices Donghae watching him, waiting for him.
Hyukjae blinks several times, first at his screen, then at Donghae, then back again. Donghae watches him curiously and Hyukjae is glad that the heat from the sun would cover up any blush on his face.
“I don't have anything to say.” He writes.
Donghae laughs. “Sorry, I must have made you feel awkward...”
Hyukjae shakes his head and smiles, taking his hands away from the keys to let Donghae know that he can speak without waiting for Hyukjae.
“Actually... I wanted to ask you... if maybe... you wanted to do something? Besides playing soccer, I mean. I thought maybe we could get cleaned up and meet somewhere? For coffee? Or, if you don't like coffee we could get some food?” Donghae rambles and Hyukjae really, really wishes he could laugh.
“I like coffee. And food.” He writes “and you” but deletes it immediately before continuing. “We could meet up at a coffee shop or something?”
Donghae's smile grows as he reads. He nods. And then he frowns. “Forgive me if this is rude but... do you go out a lot? To eat, I mean... how do you... order food?”
Hyukjae blinks a few times and gives Donghae a sad smile, thinking. He suddenly wonders how he's having these conversations with Donghae? Could he even trust him? Would Donghae somehow take advantage of him? Hurt him? Hyukjae wonders if he's really so desperate for a friend that he's willing to trust this complete stranger. Hyukjae had been shown too many times in the past that trusting people wasn't a good idea. Trust leads to hurt.
“I'm sorry! I shouldn't have asked! I'm really sorry!” Donghae says suddenly, startling Hyukjae who shakes his head quickly. He looks at the concerned face in front of him and realizes that yes, he is desperate enough that he will trust Donghae, even if it brings him pain in the end.
“No! Don't apologize, I've just never been asked this before. I don't go out often. I...” Hyukjae glances at Donghae before continuing, “sometimes I feel like I should wear a tag that says 'I'm a mute' so that people will know. So that all of those moments won't happen where someone asks me a question and I have to run away. I have to write notes to cashiers who ask me questions and I usually keep a pen and some paper with me in case of an emergency. Sometimes I use my phone and type out a message. It's just... very awkward. It's embarrassing. But if I wear something telling people of my disability, I'll surely be taken advantage of.” Hyukjae considers deleting the message but turns it to Donghae before he can.
He turns away while Donghae reads and when he finally turns to look, Donghae is looking back at him, sympathy, and maybe a bit of anger evident in his face. “I'm sorry that it's like this for you... when we go out, tell me what you'd like and I'll order it for you. You won't have to tell anyone. Just stick with me and no one will bother you.”
Hyukjae's heart does some sort of Olympic flip and he has to take in a deep breath before he can nod. He's unsure what to say back so he stares at Donghae without blinking.
Donghae scratches his head and looks away for a moment before speaking. “You know that little coffee shop nearby in between the video game shop and that... eye place?” He asks, chewing on his lip.
Hyukjae nods, holding back a smile.
“Meet me there in an hour?” Donghae asks hopefully.
Hyukjae nods again. Donghae smiles.
They part ways quickly and Hyukjae runs as fast as he can back to his house. He leaves his laptop to charge while he showers at lightning speed but still makes sure to clean himself thoroughly. He dries his hair and styles it a little, trying not to spend too much time on it, knowing he'll need more time for other things.
Hyukjae approaches his closet. He normally shops online to avoid hassle in stores. He is also normally very bored and buys more than necessary. He searches through an insane amount of shirts, trying to find one he knows looks decent on him. He settles on a black wife beater with a loose and slightly see-through white t-shirt over it. He throws on a pair of loose-fitting jeans and checks himself in the mirror. His black shirt is barely visible through his white one and it definitely shows off his arms.
He's about to declare himself ready before he blinks a few times and realizes something. Glasses. He needs his glasses. Trying to type to Donghae without them so far had been fairly agonizing, there was no way he could go without them any longer. He opens a drawer and picks out a simple, black-rimmed pair and slips them on. He sighs, hoping they don't make him look too bad. He checks his watch and notes that he has fifteen minutes left.
Checking his hair one last time in the mirror, he packs his laptop up and slings it over his shoulder. He writes a small note before slipping it, along with his wallet, into his pocket and walking out the door.
-
A/N: My first chaptered fic! I've been working on this for a while and I'm really excited about it! And for once I'm a little nervous because I'm really hoping everyone will like this. ;~; Since it will be rather long and I've never written a chaptered fic before, any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Also, special thanks to Tee for reading all of this and yelling at me to write more and blowing up my phone until I gave her spoilers. ilu ♥