𝙃𝙊𝙐𝙎𝙀𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙏𝙔

part one

mark's eyes followed the teacher trying to give off the impression that he was paying attention and genuinely interested in the nonsense she spewed. she was a young lady, barely in her thirties, and shared a great passion for her job. however, as much as mark respected her, he really couldn't care less about the upcoming exam.

december had just started meaning that the semester was coming to an end. this was the time every highschool student knew as finals month—the real nightmare before christmas. thankfully, the bell rang and she stopped mid sentence. ms. do dismissed the class of sophomores with a soft smile but half of them had already exited in a rush to get to lunch.

mark was in nowhere near of a rush. after lunch he had his favorite class of the day, his art class. by no means did the black haired boy ever consider himself an artistic person, but there was something about the feeling of wet clay and spreading paint onto a canvas with his bare hands. mark smiled knowing his day was practically over. he'd have a relaxing lunch and then release any remaining stress through a fingerpainting session. after that the black haired boy would be completely free to enjoy his final weekend before a long week of exams.

mark stuffed his remaining items into his backpack and zipped it up. as he went to swing it over his shoulder he looked up and made eye contact with the only other student in the classroom. the two held the silent conversation with their eyes for a few seconds and mark took this as a chance to inspect the brunet.

he had a small head topped with fluffed, honey hair and soft features. his eyes were dewy and he wore an oversized sweater covering his sun kissed skin, only adding to the cute aura he had radiating off of him. the boy broke their eye contact by giving a bright smile. the smile didn't seem to reach his eyes but mark shrugged it off. he quickly nodded his head politely in response but the boy had already turned away. mark took this as a sign to walk out. he gave boy one last glance before lightly bowing to the teacher on his way out.

he made his way through the hallway crowded with teenagers. freshman were seated on the ground or on the stairs eating their lunches as there was no room in the actual cafeteria. their school had nearly three thousand students but a cafeteria that could only seat a few hundred leaving no choice but for students to resort to the hard hallway floors.

after a few minutes of walking, mark reached his destination; the library. on most days the library would be empty and mark would have the entire place to himself but of course with finals being the next week, the library was filled with students hoping to get in some last minute studying. mark, however, didn't mind. as long as he had a small, quiet area to himself he was satisfied. mark found an unoccupied couch near a window and plopped onto it. he dropped his backpack onto the ground, pulled out a few snacks and began eating with a book placed in his lap.

❧

mark wiped the excess paint onto his pants carelessly as he admired his painting with pride. he created another work of art with his fingertips once again, meaning once again he had undeniably made a mess. but it didn't matter because the facilitator didn't mind as long as he cleaned up after himself. he'd sometimes receive weird stares from his classmates as they poured buckets of dedication and talent into creating an actual work of art while he simply splashed paint onto the canvas like a reckless kindergartener. but the black haired boy honestly couldn't care less. color theory, realism, shading, none of it mattered to mark he just thought they were making art to be more complicating than it really was.

the bell rang indicating the end of the day and students rushed out their classes, desperate to leave the hellhole known as school. mark hummed to a tune, taking his sweet time to clean up the catastrophic mess.

once the table was wiped down and he placed his canvas to dry, he walked out filled with content. mark was normally a very nonchalant person and a wave of serenity enveloped those around him, but with all of his teachers counting down the days they had left to get their shit together and students rushing around panicking, the stress creeping up his back was inevitable. so, naturally, letting it out in the last class of his day helped him find solace.

the hallways were still crowded as students bid farewell to the their friends and rushed to their respected transportation vehicles where it was by bus or car. the black haired boy sighed and urged towards his locker pushing past a group of babbling cheerleaders.
as mark opened his locker and carelessly stuffed his arms into his jacket while throwing some redundant items he'd been carrying in his pockets into the back of his locker.

it was a normal routine for mark, disregarding miscellaneous objects into his locker. the teen had a habit of unconsciously picking up items that lingered around him. if an abandoned object remained in his peripheral vision for more than a few minutes he'd begin to toy with it without a second thought. so although his locker was barely used and only ever in handy to store heavy textbooks or his jackets during the cold season, it was always crowded and basically a mess.

mark sighed again and told himself that he'd clean it after he finished his finals.

as he went to close his locker, a booming laugh echoed in the hallways. mark turned slightly and his eyes came in contact with a mop of dyed, ugly green hair and a honey haired boy. mark really didn't think the green hair was ugly, in fact, he thought green looked stunning on the younger boy. however, there was something about him that made mark loathe anything and everything he did.

but right now, chenle was the thing furthest from his mind. mark's eyes followed the honey haired boy. he watched the face scrunch into a laugh, loud, but not deafening. he watched the dewy eyes twinkle like stars while a huge smile was plastered over the boy's features. mark wondered how he had never payed attention to such an luminous boy.

mark closed his locker and began buttoning up his cashmere jacket as he stepped out of the building. all thoughts of the brilliant boy left mark's mind as the cold air came in contact with his face. mark subconsciously smiled, there was no weather he enjoyed more than the brisk, frosty season.

stuffing his hands in his pockets, mark continued down the sidewalk, forgetting about the hellish building not too far behind him. the black haired boy loved the feeling of being in the cold weather, but contradictorily hated the feeling of actually being cold. that was why he had worn an additional cardigan over a thick sweater underneath his cashmere jacket meanwhile other students walked around casually in sweaters.

most of the color had been drained from mark's face by the cold but the tips of his nose and ears remained a radiant pink.

much too quickly for the boy's liking, mark's home came into view. reluctantly, he shuffled around with the key in the lock and pushed the door open. kicking off his shoes, he headed upstairs to his room and dropped his backpack onto the floor. most days, the black haired boy would wait until five or six in the evening to sleep but something inside him was making him feel exhausted. without even bothering to change his clothes mark flopped onto his bed falling asleep nearly instantaneously.

—sorry this is super boring. this was basically a prologue. i just wanted to give a view of mark's daily life before introducing anything else.