marks | mark lee

#68

- ɳσ αҽƈԋα'ʂ ρσʋ.
long chapter

Mark and I enter a café, there was a barista talking to customers while making an order then a bunch of people making commotion and noises.

"You see them anywhere?" I asked Mark, holding onto his arm. "Hey, dude, are you.. Markle?" The barista calls us over, "Not Markle but Mark Lee." the barista smacks his head. "Right, sorry about that. Anyways, there's some guys waiting for you.. over there!" He points his finger to the other side of the shop.

"Oh, cool! Thanks." He said.
"No problem."

Mark and I walk excitedly to the table. He welcomed himself over, "Hey! You're the Canadian, right?" some tall guy with an accent spoke to him. "Yeah! That's me, I'm assuming you're Johnny?" Mark sits down and I sit next to him. "That's me! This is Ten, Jeno, Jaemin, Renjun, Jisung and Jungwoo!"

"Gosh, there's so much of you." I whispered. "We're not too bad!" Jeno shouts from the other table they were sitting at. "Did I mention Renjun just flew from China? He's new to Korean but he understands." Johnny explains in English, "Makes sense." Mark replied in the same language.

My eyes opened, "Your girlfriend seems flustered." Ten notices. "Oh? You speak English too? Nice!" Mark gives him some sort of bro-shake. They seemed to enjoy it, "Yah! We can't understand you." Jaemin speaks for the full Koreans in the back. "I agree," I said to them.

"Aecha, you should go hang out with Jaemin, Jisung, Jeno and Renjun." Mark suggested, "Ooh, good idea. I cant even understand a word, not even 'speak'." I said to them and get out of the booth. Johnny and Ten laughed at my humour but Jungwoo stays silent for all he knew was Korean as well.

I sat down next to Jisung, he was shocked at me sudden appearance. "How old are you guys?" I asked, "Ah.. I'm 19, Jaemin's 18, Renjun's 19 like me. Jisung's younger but he already turned 18 as well." Jeno says to me. I nodded slowly in understanding, "Jisung's the youngest, hm? He doesn't look like it! He's a tall one." I compliment his height.

"Noona, I think you're just short." Jaemin tells me, I hushed him up. "Shh, we don't talk about that." They all seemed to really like my jokes, we got each other's phone numbers and couldn't help but laugh at anything we did. "Noona, what school do you go to?" Renjun asks me.

After I tell them the location of my school through photos and my own information, they tell me they're moving to that school soon and plan to study there for the last year of school. I was so excited for them, Huijun, Minjae and Seungmin have new friends to hang out with. The only problem with that is they'll leave as well.

"Wait, so how many members are in the group you're in?" I questioned them, "I don't know either. I'm assuming plenty though." Renjun replied to me. I nodded, "There's 23 of us." we all look at Jungwoo who was behind me. He wasn't included in Mark's, Ten's and Johnny's conversation because he didn't speak English so he was sorta alone.

"Twenty-three? That's a lot!" Jeno exclaims, "Woah~! I wonder where the others are coming from." Jaemin covered his mouth at the moment from being shook. "I heard one's from Japan." Jungwoo tells us, "Which unit is he in?" Renjun's eyebrows furrowed at the hyung of his.

"I think 127!" He replied with what he thought, "What about Mark?" I asked him out of curiosity. They all ooh and grin at me, "What?" I ask. Everybody shakes then head and giggled, "Mark's in all NCT 127, NCT Dream and NCT U." Jungwoo gave me the answer I was looking for. "Your boyfriend has a lot of potential." He added.

"Renjun, do you have your phone?" Jeno asked him. He nodded and handed it over, Jeno goes through Renjun's phone looking for videos. "Here's Mark's audition from a couple months ago." He passes the phone to her, "Mark's a really good performer."

Everybody glanced at Jisung who hasn't said a thing all day. We just smile nervously at him, I looked back at the phone. Mark was seriously focused but showed facial expressions, movements and talked as if he was hyping up a crowd of people. He was doing great.

"Oh, I know that part." Jisung hears the rapping, "Yeah, yeah, I think there's a moment where he raps fast." Jaemin pointed at the phone I held. My eyes opened when the fast rapping the two were coming up was on. "He's really good, I never knew he could rap that well." I give the phone back.

"I've only heard him actually sing once, but never rap." I chuckled. I nodded again and again, sighing then admitting that I was really proud of Mark for getting here. "You think he looked hot, right?" Jungwoo asked me. I nod enthusiastically again with widen eyes still. Everyone at the table breaks down in laughter, "We thought- We thought you got upset!" Jisung said.

I cover my face, I felt embarrassed. "It's okay, Aecha. I think he looked hot too." Jungwoo teases, I started to laugh with them as well. Jaemin tried to drink his coffee but ended up choking, after that we all chose to head home. I had a good time with the, I think I'll make new and good friends!

"So, what do you think of them?" Mark asks me on the drive home, "They're really funny and nice. Jisung's so young too!" I exclaimed, laughing. "I agree," Mark replies simply. "What were you guys laughing about over at the other table?" He asked me a new question that seemed too personal but shouldn't feel that way.

"Oh, just some stuff. It's hard to explain." I chuckle and look at the window. People passed by, we stopped at stoplights, there were plenty shops to see and a lot to focus on. "Really? Mind explaining?" Mark said, he sounded like he had anger in him so I turn my head to see. "But I don't want to." I told him. He sighed and started driving faster.

"Are you really mad about me not answering your question?" I asked him, "Yeah! It's a simple question." he replies. I scold him, "Mark, slow down. You're driving too fast." he slowed down and released the force of squeeze on the steering wheel.

"Well, we just talked about your group.. the members and school." I told him.

"That's it?" He asked me, I nodded back in reply, "School doesn't seem to be something you'd laugh about." Mark says while gritting his teeth slightly, "What answer do you want from me, Mark?" I turn my whole body to him and lean on the door a bit.

"Call them and ask what we were talking about. It's nothing serious when I'm laughing with other people-" He cuts me off, "That you just met!"

"You think we took that quick to actually be friends?" He compares our friendship to mine with the others, "Yeah, well some people just instantly click when humour comes in." I explained. "You were an annoying person back then!"

"Oh, so I'm annoying now?" He asked, "Back then, yes." I told him.

He shook his head, I don't know what he was thinking now but he sure was mad. I just don't understand why, I told him what we were talking about but he won't leave me alone. Is he jealous?

note: thoughts on this chapter?

published: 08/02/21