Secrets
More hooker!fic. Because yes.

Secrets
pairings: Donghae/Hyukjae, Sungmin/Kibum

Hyukjae is earnest and sweet and perfect enough that sometimes Donghae sneaks him in despite the risk, holds his hand tight enough to turn their knuckles white as they tiptoe through the dimly lit halls, collapses breathlessly against the inside of the door of his room and grins when Hyukjae kisses him once and then runs to jump on the king-size bed like a five-year-old. There is something strangely liberating about having Hyukjae inside the club with him, because Hyukjae blurs the lines between reality and fiction. When he shows up one day with an extra helmet and says they're going to the beach, the hour and a half-long ride on the motorbike with the delivery box poking into his lower back doesn't seem so long, and when he winks and says, "Sugar daddy's got it," as he puts down the 3000 won for Donghae's meal at Lotte Burger, it actually feels like a treat, and so when he's inside Donghae's room and tells him that they can just leave together, it suddenly seems so simple.

It's a lie, of course, but Donghae believes it anyway. When they're together, he believes all the lies Hyukjae tells him, because Hyukjae believes them too. He believes the lies Hyukjae whispers into his throat between kisses: Nothing can keep us apart and I'll have enough money saved soon. He believes the lies Hyukjae tells him without speaking: the you are special with every kiss, the I'll protect you in his arms when he pulls Donghae to him. He even believes it when Hyukjae says, "Just five more minutes," for the third time when they lie curled up in each other under the satin sheets, but eventually the nervous part in the back of his mind makes him sneak Hyukjae out again, even though he knows what will happen when he leaves. When he gets back to his room, he lies on his bed and shakes, because the promises Hyukjae has made are flowing through his blood like fire and ice, but also because it is so hard to believe when he is alone.

***

There is another lie Donghae believes when he is with Hyukjae, one that he tells himself: that he is careful enough to keep anyone (except for Hangeng, who never told) from realizing that he is breaking the club rules. He is shocked, then, when the new one, who is pretty enough to earn Rella's immediate hatred, sits down next to him in the lounge one days and says casually, "Your boyfriend's cute."

Donghae's eyes immediately scan the room for other people—they are alone—and his left hand unconsciously begins fingering the silver chain around his right wrist. The new one—Sungmin, he remembers—doesn't miss the movement of his eyes or his hands, smiles a little. Donghae decides he doesn't like this Sungmin, not at all.

"What are you talking about?" he asks, voice flinty.

Sungmin leans in conspiratorially and says in a lower voice, "I saw you sneaking him in and out last night. He's really cute."

"What do you want?" Donghae snaps. He is angry at Sungmin, angrier at himself, unwilling to be played with.

Sungmin's eyes go wide. "Want?" he echoes, sounding wounded. "I don't want anything. I'm just happy to be reminded that people like us can fall in love, that's all."

Donghae opens his mouth, then shuts it. Sungmin's face is the picture of innocence and he can feel the flush of embarrassment coming to his cheeks. He is about to apologize when,

"Still...I suppose if I'm keeping your secret you wouldn't mind doing me a bit of a favor, would you?"

Donghae's eyes narrow and before he realizes it he spits out, "He's off-limits."

Sungmin laughs, a pretty, cold laugh. "I'm not talking about your cute little boyfriend. I'm not looking for sex." And of course he isn't; Donghae knows that the things whores ask of each other are always more difficult and painful than sex.

He is surprised again, then, when Sungmin says, face and voice suddenly brimming with barely-controlled hunger, "I want you to tell me everything you know about Kibum-ssi."

Donghae doesn't ask why; he simply tells him. Kibum has been managing the club for years, since before Donghae started working. He was a schoolmate of Siwon's, had extremely good marks and a position ensured at one of the elder Choi's more respectable companies once he graduated, but dropped out for some unknown reason during his final year and ended up at Pantheon.

"And," Donghae finishes, "once a year, on the same day every year, Eeteuk-mama sends me to his office and I blow him. He always closes his eyes and never says anything. It's weird."

"That's it?" Sungmin asks, looking hungrier still.

"Yeah," Donghae says.

"Thanks; you're sweet. And your secret's safe with me." As Sungmin prowls off around the corner, Donghae wonders how long that will be true.

***

What Donghae doesn't tell Sungmin, because he doesn't know it yet, is that every year on the day Eeteuk sends him to Kibum, Kibum opens the double-locked drawer in his office desk, pulls out a picture and stares at it for hours until he hears Donghae coming. Donghae learns this year—which is coincidentally two days after his conversation with Sungmin—because Kibum is still looking at the picture when he enters the office.

Kibum is neat, organized, scheduled, and Donghae is so shocked to see him deviate from his pattern of prior years that he asks without thinking, "Who's the picture of?"

When Kibum looks up his eyes are wild, on fire, and Donghae suddenly realizes why he keeps them closed every year. The manager looks as though he is about to tell Donghae to shut up and suck him off, but after a moment he wordlessly turns the picture around so Donghae can see it.

It is a photograph of Kibum and another boy; Donghae assumes from their uniforms that it was taken in high school. Kibum's smile is open and carefree and entirely unimaginable on the Kibum of today, and his arm is slung easily over the other boy's shoulder. The other boy's smile is smaller, more secretive, and he is all the more stunning for it.

"Who is that?" Donghae asks, taken by the boy's stark black hair, sleepy eyes and that smile, like the Mona Lisa...

"He called himself Yesung, but I don't think that was his real name," Kibum said, voice slightly too casual.

Donghae notices the tense, starts to ask, "Is he...?"

"Dead?" Kibum lets out a bark of a laugh, entirely devoid of humor. "He is to me."

Donghae is about to ask, Then why do you still have his picture?, but Kibum saves him from that rudeness with his sudden movement. He slides the photo carefully back into its drawer, locks it, then leans back in his chair and says, "I'm done talking now, Donghae."

He closes his eyes, and Donghae moves forward to unzip his pants.