HUE | mark lee

thirty-eight

mark doesn't mind the way you grip his hand tighter as yuxi watches. you're protective, shielding him away from the other girl. he knows why you're like this and even though he hasn't told you the whole story between him an yuxi, you can pretty much tell.

"you guys look good together," she says and if there wasn't already an awkward silence that's already filled the air, the three of you feel its presence. you find your voice leaving you, "i know."

"anyway, so the problem is that yuxi and i got our tattoos back and she... well," he begins but yuxi finishes, "i can see my color now. that's the difference from now and then."

you want to believe her but the way she's been smiling at you tells you she's not telling the truth, "how do we know you're not lying?"

"i'm not lying," she says but there's an attitude through her statement. you ignore it and lean against mark, "the bigger problem is that mark and i both lost our tattoos."

mark sees that as a problem but he also believes that yuxi's problem was also really big, too. he was conflicted with two difficult problems that he's got to figure out. obviously, he wants to know why and how your tattoos disappeared more than he wants to care about his other tattoo returning.

"they're both big problems, let's not try to make it seem like one is more important than the other," mark comments, trying to be the bigger person. it offends you a little, to be honest, because how could mark really just say that losing you as a soulmate is on the same level as gaining his old lover's code back.