never not ✧ mark lee

26

"What do you think of her?"

Nope, I don't like this one bit.

"She seems cool," Dasom shrugged. "Didn't spend too long with her."

"Ah, okay."

Although she really didn't want to hear anything more about Lily, Mark looked like he wanted to talk. She remembered how he had said she was one person he felt like he could talk to about anything, just like she felt with him, so she sucked up her bitter feeling and decided to be a good friend.

"Why do you ask?"

"Okay, nobody here knows about this," he started, and Dasom already regretted her decision a little, understanding what he was about to say before he could. "Seriously, like nobody even knows I'm that close to her."

"Just say what you wanna bro," she prodded, feigning enthusiasm, ignoring her heart that was screaming NO.

The exact words Dasom hadn't wanted to hear, but knew she was going to, left his mouth.

"I think I like her."

Normally, if Dasom really thought of Mark as absolutely nothing more than a friend, she would have been more than happy to let Mark know that Lily felt the same way, but the part of her that had an inkling of feelings for Mark - though they weren't very strong yet - stopped her.

Fake it till you make it Dasom, she told herself.

"Oh my god, what?!" she exclaimed with false excitement. "Why didn't you mention her before bro, I'm hurt."

"Dude, you have no idea how much I wanted to talk about it," he said, getting excited himself. "I just felt weird about it because I've never liked anyone that much before and middle school crushes don't really count"

Ouch.

"Are you gonna tell her?"

"Not anytime soon," Mark sighed. "I can't tell what she thinks yet."

A small wave of guilt washed over Dasom, but she didn't give into it.

"That's smart, you don't wanna get rejected," she chuckled awkwardly.

"Exactly," Mark nodded. "Hey actually, what if you just tried to find out for me? Girls talk to each other about this stuff, right?"

Okay, now the guilt was real.

"We do," Dasom confirmed. "But like, I'm not close enough to her for her to tell me about that stuff."

Total lie, she had already told her.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense."

Dasom now felt too awkward and guilt stricken to hang around Mark, so she raised her head off his shoulder and stood up.

"I'm gonna go get another drink," she declared.

"Yo, are you sure you can handle it?" he asked, looking doubtful.

"I know my limits Marker," she scoffed, running off, not wanting to stick around any longer.

"At least she's having a good time," Mark said to himself with a smile before getting up to go back to join Donghyuck, Renjun, and Jeno.

The party was going even stronger now that the hype was sky-high, so there was a consistent row of shots being filled up at the bar. With no hesitation, Dasom grabbed two and took them both immediately.

Then, she grabbed a beer can off the counter, not really considering that mixing alcohol wasn't the best idea. She didn't care though, she just wanted her guilty feelings to dissipate.