Chapter Fourteen

His winter break went by slowly, dragging on and on and on until he was so bored sometimes it was too hard to even watch TV. He went to play basketball with Eunhyuk and made a few new friends. He even had a little entourage that cheered for him from the stands some days when Jessica and her friends came to watch them play. Donghae was beginning to think maybe Jessica had an actual crush on him and wasn’t just a whore. She had given him her number, but he hadn’t texted her at all.

His mom had actually bought him a treadmill for Christmas, though she’d let him have it three days early. He had bought her a present – the perfume his dad used to buy for her to wear because he had liked it – and wrapped it nicely to sit on their dining room table because they couldn’t be bothered to put up a tree.

He was jogging on the treadmill, his iPod playing music through his television as his background noise, when the front doorbell rang. He stepped off the treadmill, breathing hard and turning it off before moving to the front door.

At his feet was a package addressed to him. He picked it up and looked around, only seeing the mailman pulling off down the street. He brought it inside and set it on the countertop in the kitchen as he found a knife to cut the tape from it. From the inside he pulled out a bag of ice and then a small, light blue box adorned with a neat red ribbon that held a small note card.

He pulled the tiny card out and opened it in hopes of finding out why he had been gifted with this little mystery box. The inside of the card had a logo of some sort in one corner and then a typed message.

You can take this as compensation.

And even though there was no signature on the note, he knew who it was from by just the words. He untied the ribbon and opened the lid to the box and felt his mouth water as he gazed down at the six gourmet strawberries perched in two perfect rows. He set the lid to the box down and grasped the leaves of one of the mini chocolate chip-covered berries and bit into it.

It was perfectly sweet, perfectly ripe. The chocolate didn’t break and bust everywhere, but melted in his mouth to mix with the juice of the fruit. He took another bite and then realized that if his mom found him, she’d have a bunch of questions about the box.

Greedily, he finished off the first strawberry and took the blue box to his room, leaving the first cardboard box in the kitchen to be thrown away. He sat down on the edge of his bed and grinned involuntarily as he picked up another berry and thoroughly enjoyed it as much as the first one.

Suddenly, his phone started ringing and he jumped as if he’d been caught doing something dirty. He picked it up from his nightstand and saw that it was Kyuhyun who was calling.

If I call, you answer.

He answered and held the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Get anything nice today?”

Donghae smiled, feeling a bit broken-hearted even though Kyuhyun’s voice seemed to warm him from the inside out. “I did, actually. I guess a secret admirer sent me something.”

“Oh, really? What was it?” Kyuhyun asked, sounding just as pleased with himself as ever.

“Just half a dozen chocolate-covered strawberries,” Donghae replied casually, as if things like this happened every day.

Kyuhyun chuckled and Donghae sighed silently at the nice sound. “Are they good?”

“Yeah,” Donghae breathed, “they’re really good.”

“I bet they were expensive. Probably cost extra to have them delivered on Christmas Eve, too,” Kyuhyun said. “You’ll have to find out who sent them and thank them.”

Donghae laughed and set the box aside, leaning back onto the bed and staring at the ceiling. “What have you been up to?” he asked.

“You know, the usual. Babysitting, making deserts, cleaning the kitchen, folding clothes.”

“Sounds like you’ve become a good housewife,” Donghae said.

“I’ll admit my grandparents and my aunt may have domesticated me a bit,” Kyuhyun said. “Still six more days of this shit. I’ve had kids up my ass since we got here. My grandma has been nagging me about staying on my laptop this whole time. My grandpa wants me to help him in the shop. My mom thinks I need cooking lessons. My dad threatened to take my laptop battery away.”

Donghae had rolled over onto his stomach as he listened and picked up another strawberry to start eating. “It could be worse,” Donghae said with a mouthful.

“Oh, that’s right. You could be here, too.”

“Asshole,” Donghae grumbled.

“Kidding.”

“No you aren’t,” Donghae stated and finished off his third strawberry with a lick of his finger.

“You already know I wanted you to come,” Kyuhyun said. “I don’t see why you don’t believe me.”

“I don’t believe anything you say anymore,” Donghae said and licked his lips to get the chocolate off.

“Oh, that’s deep. You think you’ll still have the balls to say that when I get back?”

“Nope,” Donghae answered honestly. “That’s why I’m saying it now.”

“You’re on Santa’s naughty list for saying things like that. You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why!” Kyuhyun sang, chuckling a bit before suddenly going quiet. “Did you ask Santa for anything this year?”

“Already got it.”

“And what’s that?”

Not you.

“A treadmill.”

Kyuhyun snorted, as if he’d been expecting a better answer. “Great, now you can run all day instead of hanging out with me.”

“Jealous?” Donghae asked.

Kyuhyun tsked. “Hardly.”

There was silence for a while, though Donghae could vaguely hear children yelling through the line in the distance.

“Miss me yet?” Kyuhyun asked.

Yes. “No.”

“Liar. Why else would you pick up the phone?”

Donghae dampened his lips and chewed on the flesh of the inside of his cheek, trying to formulate a response that wouldn’t come back and bite him. “You told me to,” was his reply.

The conversation ended, though Kyuhyun didn’t ask to hang up. A few moments later, he heard Kyuhyun sigh with a bit of exasperation. “Tell me what you’re thinking about,” he finally said.

“You.”

“I love how you’re not shy at all on the phone,” Kyuhyun said. “It would take me an hour to get you to admit that in person. What are you thinking about regarding me?”

Donghae exhaled and rolled onto his back again without answering. He couldn’t really put into words everything that he was thinking about Kyuhyun. It would take a novel to explain the first few things. “Mostly about last Thursday,” he said, deciding to stick with what Kyuhyun most likely wanted to hear.

 “I figured as much,” Kyuhyun said and hummed thoughtfully. “You know, I think I might have actually felt a little guilty about that.”

“Now look who’s lying,” Donghae mumbled.

“Oh, so you admit that you were lying and that you do miss me.” Kyuhyun laughed, incredibly contented that Donghae had, in a way, admitted to it finally.

“Whatever,” Donghae said hoarsely and rubbed a hand over his eyes, holding it there to block out the light.

“Alright, I didn’t feel guilty,” Kyuhyun said. “But now that I’m here,” he said, his voice drifting off slightly. “I’m beginning to think I might have been wrong.”

“We’re friends, after all,” Donghae murmured. He didn’t care anymore, just decided to go with whatever it was that Kyuhyun said. He couldn’t let himself fall victim to Kyuhyun anymore. Absorbing these lies, ones sugar-coated and meant to make him think Kyuhyun liked him back, would only make matters worse.

“Tell me a secret, Donghae.”

“What kind of secret?” Donghae questioned.

“Something you haven’t told anyone else.”

“Why?”

“Because I said to,” Kyuhyun stated, point blank. “Something good, too. That you wouldn’t want anyone to know.”

“If I didn’t want anyone to know, why would I tell you?” Donghae asked, smiling slightly. He had no idea where this was going. He couldn’t read Kyuhyun’s thoughts, couldn’t even imagine trying to. There was so much in that boy’s mind, so much running rampant and lurking around in there, that there was nothing in this world that could begin to understand it.

“Friends tell secrets to friends.”

Donghae sighed and agreed. He needed to think of something, though it was kind of putting him on the spot and his brain didn’t process well under pressure. He knew Kyuhyun would only be satisfied with something extremely personal, preferably something relating to him because he was a narcissistic bastard. “I sleep with that Strawberry Shortcake doll every night.”

He didn’t know how he’d managed to say it out loud. It was something he couldn’t admit to himself even as he squished it under his elbow under the blanket at night and dozed off. In the mornings, he’d set it somewhere else and pretend nothing had happened.

Kyuhyun laughed, and Donghae could sense the mockery coming from a mile away. “Oh, you’re never living that one down.”

“Happy now?”

“Elated.”

“Now it’s your turn,” Donghae said, though he wasn’t getting his hopes up.

“Fair enough,” Kyuhyun stated. “Hm… give me a minute. Going to have to think this over.”

He probably had too many to sort through, Donghae thought to himself and laughed silently to himself. “Take your time,” he said sincerely. His mom was at work for the day even though it was Christmas Eve, so it wasn’t like he’d need to go entertain his family any time soon. He had spoken to his grandparents on both sides of his family already and wished them a merry Christmas.

“Alright,” Kyuhyun said finally, “I think it’s cute when you bite your lips.”

He felt his face burn as he tried to force the smile off of his face. “That’s not a secret,” he finally managed to say.

“It’s not something I’d ever tell anyone else. As far as you knew, it was just something else about you that annoyed me.” Kyuhyun’s argument was valid, indeed.

But it didn’t help Donghae’s face from heating up more, rendering him speechless. He didn’t even attempt to speak, knowing it would only come out as incoherent sputtering.

Kyuhyun chuckled. “This is more embarrassing for you than it is for me, and it’s my secret,” he said teasingly, and Donghae could just imagine the smirk on his face. “And that’s not even the worst one I have.” His voice had dropped slightly, deep and serious. Implications poured from the statement.

“I don’t want to know,” Donghae said, but it was a lie if there ever was one. He wanted Kyuhyun to spill everything to him, tell him everything he’d ever thought about Donghae.

“This is the most entertaining thing I’ve done all week. Let’s keep this up,” Kyuhyun said with amusement. “Tell me something else.”

“You’re going to use this stuff against me one day,” Donghae muttered. He thought for a while, digging into things of his everyday life. “I need a… hint or something.”

“Like a prompt?” Kyuhyun asked. “Hm… Well, since I’m about two-hundred percent sure you like me, at the least anyways, what do you like about me?”

The corner of Donghae’s mouth lifted in an uncontrolled grin and he flushed a bit. “Something secret… about what I like about you.”

“That seems to be the general idea, yeah.”

“I guess…” Donghae mumbled, unsure of himself. “I guess your eyes. When I first met you, I noticed you because you were staring at me. And I guess now when I think of you, I think of your eyes. When you look at me… it’s just not normal.”

“Not normal?”

“Yeah,” Donghae continued. He exhaled and rolled onto his side, burying the side of his face in his blanket. “They’re just kind of… suffocating.”

He heard Kyuhyun chuckle and move around a bit. “And that’s a good thing?”

“Yeah.” Donghae breathed a sigh of relief that Kyuhyun hadn’t reacted badly. “I think it’s your turn now.”

“Since you brought up the first time we met,” Kyuhyun began, “I think I’ll go with that. I don’t really know exactly why, but for some reason the way you didn’t notice me right away kind of pissed me off. I was sitting there in the library, right in the middle of your line of sight, and you didn’t once look at me until I made it blatantly obvious that I was there.”

“I’ve always wondered about that,” Donghae said. “But doesn’t that make you kind of conceited?”

“I suppose I’m just used to being noticed, and you’re not the observational type.”

“I guess you’re right about that,” Donghae admitted. Since it was his turn to reveal something, he decided to just get it over with. “My turn… I like you. Probably more than I should.”

Kyuhyun laughed softly, his voice low and breathy. “Tell me something I don’t already know, Donghae.”

He didn’t know how Kyuhyun managed to somehow seduce him from miles away over a phone. Somehow, though, he could imagine Kyuhyun there with him, his lips against his ear as he spoke in a low, husky tone. “You probably know everything already.”

“Or at least I pretend I do.” Kyuhyun was silent in thought for a few minutes, leaving Donghae to his imagination. “Why did you leave my house that day? Right after you met Ara, we went back to my room and then… You wanted to stop all of a sudden.”

“Next question.”

“You know the rules. No skips allowed.” Kyuhyun’s voice was smug, knowing he’d hit the jackpot with this question. “Let’s hear it.”

“Things were getting inappropriate,” Donghae said, and it was true.

“No shit,” Kyuhyun said loudly and Donghae wondered if he had to worry about anyone over hearing at all. “What were you thinking? I know you were lying about your mom needing you home. Don’t get shy now.”

“I don’t remember,” Donghae lied, swallowing at the thought.

Kyuhyun clicked his tongue, as if he already knew it had to be bad if Donghae was being this protective of his secret. “Tell me.”

“I can’t,” Donghae whispered, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. It was embarrassing to even think about, and there was no possible way Kyuhyun wouldn’t make fun of him or take it the wrong way.

“I’m just going to assume the worst if you don’t tell me,” Kyuhyun chimed, seeming completely and totally overjoyed at Donghae’s expense.

“I was just… just thinking of us…” He couldn’t say it. The words wouldn’t form in his mouth, much less project through the phone.

“Thinking of us made you jump up and ditch me?” Kyuhyun inquired knowingly.

 “Us…” He coughed to clear his throat. “Doing… things.”

“Things? Maybe you should elaborate,” Kyuhyun said, but it didn’t sound teasing. It sounded more like Kyuhyun wanted to hear Donghae say it out loud, as per usual, but also like he was eager to hear it.

“I think you could just assume the worst in this case,” Donghae muttered.

Kyuhyun went quiet, intimidating Donghae with his lack of response. It wasn’t like it was much of a surprise. “You want to know another secret?” he asked, startling Donghae out of his negative thoughts.

“Um,” Donghae stuttered, “yeah.”

“I find you irresistibly sexy in the worst way,” Kyuhyun said in a low voice.

Donghae’s world came to a halt, his jaw going slack. “You’re joking,” he said in a breathy voice, his fist tightening around a fold of his blanket. He closed his eyes and just listened for Kyuhyun’s answer.

“Something like that is too serious to joke about,” was Kyuhyun’s reply.

“I guess that explains a few things,” Donghae said as he licked his lips. He wished Kyuhyun was there, wished he could have seen Kyuhyun’s face when he said that.

“I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”

Donghae suddenly couldn’t hear Kyuhyun’s voice without thinking of him in the room, their bodies intertwined in one way or another, their mouths engaged in this way or that way. It was completely true – Kyuhyun, probably more so than anyone – was irresistibly sexy in the worst possible way. Despite all of these things running around in his mind, he only had a single-syllable reply. “Yeah.”

“It’s your turn.”

Biting his lip gently, Donghae closed his eyes at the deep bass of Kyuhyun’s voice, imagined the way his mouth moved around the vowels, and slowly his hand drifted southward to soothe a dull throb without the motion really registering in his mind. “I don’t know. I can’t think of anything.”

“You seem distracted.”

As much as he’d like to admit that that was an understatement, Donghae didn’t. “I’m just… um, tired,” he lied.

“I’m tired, too. I miss my bed.”

Donghae missed Kyuhyun’s bed, too. And Kyuhyun in it. With him. He swallowed and dampened the inside of his mouth because it had gone dry, still subconsciously massaging the growing bulge over his jeans. He turned onto his back and switched the phone to his other ear, bending his knees and running his free hand under his shirt over his stomach lightly.

“I think I might miss your bed, too,” Kyuhyun said, and though it sounded innocent enough, Donghae couldn’t find it in himself to interpret it in any way but a bad one. “Even though it’s not my turn, I have another secret. Most of the time I move closer to you on purpose when we sleep in the same bed.”

He could imagine Kyuhyun slipping under the covers, pressing their bodies together and wrapping his arms around Donghae. It made him remember waking some mornings with Kyuhyun’s face against his neck, or an arm around his waist, or a leg across his. And then his imagination was taking over and he could see Kyuhyun moving on top of him, the length of their bodies pressed together as he ground their hips and pressed his mouth against his neck. He inhaled deeply and felt his toes curl of their own accord, his hand moving just a bit more firmly, just a bit quicker.

“What happened to ‘I don’t quite care enough to miss you’?” Donghae asked quietly. He didn’t know how relevant it was, because when Kyuhyun spoke he only heard his voice, not the words. But he wanted to know, even though he was a little afraid of what Kyuhyun’s answer might be.

“Would it satisfy you if I said I miss you?” Kyuhyun asked frankly.

“No,” Donghae rasped. He didn’t think he’d get any satisfaction from it at the moment – maybe later when he thought back and realized he’d been right the whole time – but not then. “It would just make me miss you more.”

“Maybe I miss you,” Kyuhyun said. “Maybe I want to be there right now.”

His hands unbuttoned his jeans because, damn, they were getting in the way. He cradled the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he unzipped his pants and then took the phone in one hand once again.

“Or maybe I just want to be anywhere but here.”

As his fingers brushed over his hardening erection, his lips parted and quivered slightly. He didn’t think this was a good idea, but he somehow needed it. He hadn’t counted the days because he didn’t want to know, but somewhere inside of him knew that it had been too long since he’d seen Kyuhyun. “I really don’t know why I like you,” Donghae mumbled, having kept the thought in for so long.

He heard Kyuhyun chuckle and it made his dick throb harder, the sound so close to his ear but so far away. “Well for one I’m hot. But I’m also pretty certain you’re slightly masochistic,” Kyuhyun reasoned.

“You might be right.” Donghae’s own voice didn’t make any sense in his head anymore because everything was Kyuhyun now. He closed his eyes and could see Kyuhyun, he stroked himself and could feel him.

“You seem busy.”

“No, I’m just tired.”

Kyuhyun was silent for a while before he spoke. “What are you doing?”

Donghae tried his best to control his breathing. He knew he sounded hot and bothered, all raspy and aroused, but he wondered if Kyuhyun could read into his words so much as to know Donghae might, just might, be masturbating on the other end of the phone call. “Nothing,” Donghae replied in the simplest way possible.

“Right,” Kyuhyun said dryly, “and what, exactly, does ‘nothing’ entail?”

“Just… Nothing. Laying in bed,” Donghae said. He forced himself to slow down with the hopes that maybe if he gradually tried to forget about it, it would go away.

“It doesn’t sound like nothing.”

“Why can’t you believe me?” Donghae asked pleadingly.

“Because I know when you’re lying.” He could sense the demand in Kyuhyun’s voice and knew he wasn’t going to get away with this one easily, if at all. “If you can’t convince yourself that your lie is true, there’s no way you’re going to convince me. So what’s the problem, hm?”

He wondered if what he was doing was considered a problem. It felt nice. He could feel his sexual frustration draining, his body taking over and mind curling around all that was Kyuhyun and pleasure. “I don’t have a problem,” Donghae finally replied.

“What are you thinking about?” Kyuhyun inquired.

Donghae was rather surprised Kyuhyun was so oblivious. He was so accustomed to Kyuhyun knowing everything, even being able to possibly read his thoughts. “You. Just you.”

“What about me?”

“Everything.”

Kyuhyun laughed and it seemed like maybe he was catching on. For some reason, Donghae’s brain told him no Kyuhyun could never know, but his body and everything else wanted Kyuhyun to figure it out.

His fingers tightened around his dick and he pushed his hips into his hand without much thought. In a way he wanted to catch his body by surprise, maybe somehow convince himself that Kyuhyun was really there.

“Tell me specifically,” Kyuhyun said, a soft but undeniable request.

“Everything. Your eyes. Your face. Your voice,” Donghae listed, his vocal chords completely unreliable. “Your lips.”

Kyuhyun cleared his throat. “You’re just thinking about me… or something else?” he asked, hinting at something, suggesting something. When Donghae didn’t reply, Kyuhyun did. “I think maybe you’re using your imagination.”

“Maybe,” Donghae exhaled.

“And in this imaginary setting, I’m there with you,” Kyuhyun continued, but his voice had dropped drastically. “Am I right?”

“You’re right,” Donghae replied. His thigh muscles tensed, his stomach tightened. The friction he created for himself, thorough in its stroke from tip to base, forceful in its deep pressure, was only getting better with each word from Kyuhyun’s mouth that poured from the phone into his ear, shot down his spine, and stopped to swell at his erection.

“While I’m there, you’re thinking about me on top of you. We’re kissing, and you’re making those little sounds you make when you’re turned on,” Kyuhyun explained, his voice sounding completely level, but still sensual, each syllable filled to the brim with sin.

Donghae could feel the pressure building, his senses heightening. He wondered if Kyuhyun really knew what he was doing, if he knew the extent of what his words did to him. “Yeah, something like that,” Donghae said.

“Kind of like the sounds you’re making now,” Kyuhyun said.

“I’m not making any sounds,” Donghae argued.

Kyuhyun laughed quietly. “Maybe I’m just hearing things.”

“That’s it.”

“So what are you doing?” Kyuhyun asked devilishly. “Besides daydreaming.”

Donghae shuddered and grasped the waistband of his pants with his other hand. “Not much,” he replied.

Suddenly he heard the front door open downstairs. He didn’t know how he’d let his mom’s car pulling into the driveway escape his notice, but he began to panic because it was Christmas Eve and she might want to go somewhere to eat and there he was, jacking off to another male person’s voice on the phone. She wasn’t supposed to be home so soon. He was supposed to have time to talk to Kyuhyun.

“I – I, shit I have to go,” Donghae stuttered.

“Why?” Kyuhyun asked, sounding completely reluctant to end the call in the middle of their conversation. “You can’t hang up now.”

Donghae zipped up his pants, knowing his dick was straining against the denim, fully erect. “I have to. My mom just got home. I forgot she was taking off early today.”

“Tell her you’re talking to me,” Kyuhyun said. “She can wait.”

“No, I can’t. I have to go. Please, just try to understand. It’s Christmas Eve and she wants to go out to eat,” Donghae pleaded as he rolled off the bed and stood to gather his things for a shower.

“If you hang up,” Kyuhyun said slowly, his voice menacing, “I’m going to be pissed.”

Donghae paused for a moment and stared at the wall, knowing the voice as soon as he heard it. He didn’t need to be doing this type of thing in his mother’s home. Something, somehow, made it seem wrong in his mind. “I’m sorry,” he finally breathed, rubbing his forehead.

“I’m sure you will be if you hang up.”

“I’m sorry,” Donghae repeated for what it was worth. “I’ll talk to you tonight. I promise. I have to go. Bye.”

Kyuhyun said nothing, but Donghae knew he was refraining. As he inhaled deeply, he pressed the end call button and then threw the phone on the bed as if it had burned him.

.-.-.

Next

A/N: So that’s that. Uuuh yeah… Tell me what you think XD I think you can expect an update on March 13^th or 14^th … Don’t take my word for it, because sometimes I get impatient. Definitely no later than the 14^th. Saranghaaae ♥