Dance With Me

•04•

"Hyung" A smile was plastered on his face. Donghae walked in with his laptop bag on the right hand, holding a lunch bag on the left.

"Oh, you're quite early" The man behind the counter, as known as Donghae's older brother, Donghwa.

"Wait, what's up with those.. Eyes?" Donghwa looked up from his coffee to only find Donghae, looking wrecked as if he hasn't slept all week. Dark circles were forming under his doe eyes, not to mention his pale skin that's getting, well, paler. His thin lips were almost colorless, as if a really really hungry vampire sucked all of his blood out of him.

"Huh? What?" Donghae quickly find a mirror in the cafe, scanning his own appearance. Shit, he looked fucked up.. BADLY.

"Have you been sleeping? Is Heechul bothering you? You know you can kick him out anytime." Donghwa always start to rant if he's concerned about his brother, same with Heechul. I guess it runs in the family, whenever Donghae is being a clumsy little boy, there are about 4 people to rant a whole novel to him.

"Hyung, slow down. This isn't that bad. I'll wear my eye mask later." He's lying. It's definitely bad, he looks like a walking corpse for fck's sake, or worse. And now is the time that all of Donghae's regret about not sleeping early kicks in. Yes, he hasn't been sleeping well these 3 days, that's enough to make him look like a corpse— a handsome one, of course.

"The fck? You're not even concerned about yourself? I mean— look at you." Donghwa grabbed both of his shoulder and spun him around, making him face Donghwa.

"You.. I don't even know how to describe how bad your condition is right now. It's a good thing you're still alive."

"Hyung, not sleeping well for 3 straight days won't give me a sudden death." Donghae rolled his eyes. His brother can go a bit over the top sometimes.

"Well, you'd be dead if mom and dad find out. I'll take that as a sudden death."

Donghae sighed. He's right, he'd be dead by now if both of their parents found out. Let alone his parents, even his cousin a.k.a the Kim Heechul, will kill him in that exact moment. Luckily, Heechul was out this morning and he didn't know that Donghae was actually just scrolling through his phone in his room.

"You're free today, go home."

Donghae's head jolted up, did he hear right just now? He looked at his brother, observing the look on his face, trying to look for lies. But none was found.

"I.. What? Go home?"

"Yes, seeing you like this, I wouldn't force you to come to work. Get a rest, Hae. Trust me, you wouldn't even focus on a thing on this state." Donghwa put his napkin and the glass of coffee down, guiding his brother out of the counter.

"R-really? But won't you—"

"It's fine, I have Jongjin anyways, he's going to help me today."

Donghae hesitated a bit, he felt guilty about leaving his work to Donghwa, all because he couldn't take care of himself. The guilt was too much, he thought he couldn't sleep again tonight if he wasn't given any job to do.

"You can finish your paperwork, I know you still have those. Now go, I still need to serve these customers."

"Okay, then.. Bye hyung, I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be. Bye, have a nice rest" Donghwa flashed a quick grin to him, waving a little goodbye.

Donghae is on the streets right now. He didn't take his car to work because, well, he loves the fall breeze. This is the only thing he didn't regret about today, walking alone with the breeze accompanying him is just perfect. Could've been better if someone is here though, a special someone. Yeojong. It has been 3 days of her not texting Donghae whenever he misses her. Heck, she's not even reading his messages sometimes. It took her almost a full 24 hours to read a single "good morning" Text last time. At this point, Donghae started to doubt her.