the trip to the beach was actually quite nice.
donghyuck got to hang out with his three favorite people. it was very relaxing to sit in a towel with jennie while drinking virgin piña coladas while beomgyu was in the water with minhyuck, holding him, obviously.
this was something donghyuck needed. especially after yesterday.
"is it just me or is beomgyu acting a bit weird?" jennie suddenly spoke up, completely changing the conversation. from laundry to beomgyu.
donghyuck furrowed his brows and looked at her weirdly. "what do you mean?" the girl took a sip of her drink before continuing.
"well.. not that i'm saying anything bad like i love beomgyu it's just ever since yesterday that he found out about you and you know who, he's been avoiding you." jennie shrugged.
"i don't think so? he seems normal to me." the brunette stated, still confused on what jennie was talking about.
"i think i moght be going crazy then." she stated with an awkward chuckle. donghyuck hummed. it went quiet again but the two didn't find it weird.
it was very calming. watching the afternoon sun and minhyuck having fun.
unfortunately, the peace was disrupted when a bunch of screams were heard. "what the heck?" the two friends turned their heads to the left but couldn't see much.
"i think something's happening over there.."
"want to go check it out?" jennie suddenly stood up and lifted her hand, making donghyuck place his on hers. she lifted the brunette up and they started waving at beomgyu to come over.
"what?" beomgyu questioned when he arrived. donghyuck walked over to take minhyuck. "we're going to go over there. there's a lot of people screaming so we want to see what's up." the brunette explained.
jennie noticed how beomgyu's expression changed. "do you know what's happening?" she asked, skeptically staring at him. "uh no.. why would i?" he answered with a small smile.
"okay then, let's go!" donghyuck bent down and grabbed minhyuck's diaper bag before lifting himself and walking towards the direction of the noise.
for some reason, donghyuck thought he would see beyonce. which is dumb. she wouldn't go to a beach in the middle of the day.
"who is it?"
the closer they got to the noise, the more they noticed the huge crowd that couldn't be seen from their original spot.
beomgyu seemed to have gotten and ran, completely leaving his two other friends behind.
"what the.." jennie scoffed.
donghyuck decided to go up to the crowd, pushing his way through people, which earned a lot of completely understandable looks.
"who is it?" he mumbled to himself.
it was only when he had made it right to the front that he realized who it was.
donghyuck hadn't spotted mark. but he knew exactly who it was when he saw jisung. his eyes widened and was getting ready to turn back around but couldn't leave.
he said excuse me but the people behind him didn't want to move. probably thinking that someone else behind them would try and sneak their way in front like donghyuck did.
"excuse me, i need to get through." the brunette gritted through his teeth, getting annoyed by all these ignorant people. "no. you wanted to cut in line to see our boys so badly, now you can see them." she retorted, giving donghyuck a judging look.
suddenly donghyuck felt insecure. that same judgy gaze was the same one people gave him when he started showing his belly. the students talked about how he was stupid and then there were the teachers who visibly and audibly showed their disgust towards him.
sure it was weird for donghyuck to get all sad, especially at a time like this. but he just couldn't help it. that same look took him back to a year ago.
the time he needed mark the most.
"oh my god!" the girl suddenly screamed which made donghyuck come back into his senses. his mother mode had turned on and immediately placed his arms around minhyuck's ears, protecting them from all these screams.
the ran male then made the dumb decision to turn around and see what she was yelling at.
at that moment, donghyuck made eye contact with the man he so badly wanted to avoid, yet needed to see.
at first, mark's look was skeptical. he was looking at donghyuck as if trying to see if that actually was him. when he had realized it was, his eyes slightly widened and.. brightened up?
"fuck." donghyuck muttered to himself. "he's coming this way!" the annoying girl announced, now jumping to show her excitement.
"please let me go through, you'll be closer to him if you let me pass." donghyuck bargained with her. the reason some how wasn't good enough as she shook her head.
the papa had his back turned to the group but knew mark must've been close to the fans as all of them from that area started cherring so loud that even minhyuck had started crying.
"shh baby, it's okay." he whispered by the child's ear. donghyuck started cradling him in his arms, slightly jumping.
how was he going to make it out of the crowd? all these dumbass nctzens wouldn't let him through. especially the rude bitch in front of him.
minhyuck's cries had only turned louder so donghyuck gulped everything down and turned around. as expected, mark was there.
they started into each others eyes but donghyuck was the first to look away. "mark, can you please ask them to move?" he timidly asked, begging mark through his eyes.
the idol's eyes shifted from donghyuck's pretty face to his crying son. although he wasn't close with minhyuck, he couldn't help but feel his heart breaking at the sight.
mark nodded his head and walked even closer. lifting his hand that had a microphone, mark spoke. "could you guys please make way for him?"
as if they were robots being controlled, they parted and left a huge space in the middle. donghyuck felt like he was moana in that one scene.
"thank you, mark."
with that, donghyuck walked back to where jennie was standing. when he made it, before the nctzens could form their crowd again, donghyuck bowed at mark and mouthed a formal thank you.
although it was done in a respectful way, it broke mark's heart. donghyuck wasn't supposed to thank him so formally..
he hadn't received a bow from donghyuck ever. this was the first time. it reminded mark how they were strangers now.
they weren't dating. they weren't friends. they especially weren't a family. hell, they weren't even on speaking terms.
they were just.. strangers with a past.
