Boys & Flowers | Nomin

15

"Summer break might be close but that doesn't mean you guys can slack off." The teacher told no one in particular as he watched the students pack away their things. "Your reports are due next Friday and I will not except any late submissions."

"Yes, sir." Mark smiled, waving goodbye to the teacher before he exited the classroom.

"Hey, man. Wait up!" Mark heard Lucas call for him down the hall. He turned around just in time to avoid a whack on the shoulder. "How you been, man?" The taller asked, goofy grin on display.

"Besides that shit that went down on Saturday, I'm alright." Mark replied, pulling his backpack higher onto his shoulders.

Lucas' eyes widened, "Oh, yeah man, I heard about that! The whole Kyungjae and Vanessa thing at Johnny hyung's hotpot place."

Mark nodded, "Yup, that's the one."

"Shit, man." Lucas sighed, "Poor Haechan. If I see Kyungjae, I'm gonna make sure his-"

"Don't worry about it." Mark refrained Lucas, stopping as he stood in front of his locker. He opened the metal door and turned to the taller before asking, "How have you been anyways?"

"Oh..." Lucas giggled, mouth boarding into a toothy grin and cheeks reddening at their roses. "I met Jungwoo's parents on the weekend."

"Man, that's great! How'd it go?" Mark smiled widely with raised brows.

Lucas nodded as he lowered his head slightly with shyness, "Yeah, it went pretty good."

Mark slapped the taller's arms with excitement, "That's great, man! You guys will be married with two kids in no time."

"You reckon?" Lucas genuinely asked.

Mark laughed as he gathered his things from his locker. Turning around, he petted Lucas' firm shoulder with a suppressing grin, "Maybe focus on school first."

Lucas shook his head with a cough, "Y-Yeah, yeah, of course."

Mark was about to walk down the corridor and leave when he remembered he wanted to ask the taller something, "Oh, you coming to the lake house with us during summer break?"

It was a yearly thing that they all did. After weeks of hard school work they'd go to the Lee's family lake house and just have fun. No doubt they'd probably have extra guests this time, and no doubt Mark was left to deal with the sleeping arrangements and food.

"Probably not, man." Lucas frowned apologetically, "It'll be my first time not going in years, but Jungwoo has always said he wants to go to Japan, so I'm taking him as a surprise."

"Nah, it's fine. That seems like a pretty valid excuse." Mark smiled warmly. "I was just asking because there'll probably be more people coming this year. Johnny hyung will no doubt invite Ten hyung."

"What about you?" Lucas raised his eyebrows almost comically, "You taking a plus one or?"

"I don't know." Mark frowned. "I'd like to but I don't know."

"Ask them then." Lucas shrugged, walking off down the corridor and out of sight.

He wishes he could, but he didn't want to look weird. What if Haechan rejected him? What if he wasn't interested or thought Mark was coming on too strong. Haechan is still trying to get over Kyungjae after all. Maybe he could rely on Jaemin on inviting him. Speaking of Jaemin, he better go see if he's okay. The younger wasn't at school because he caught a flu. He told Mark that his nose was going to be on the map soon because it's overflowing more than Niagara Falls.

Mark met his father in the teacher's staff room to tell him he was going to visit Jaemin before going home. He's father was completely fine with it and told him to be back at a reasonable hour. Jaemin didn't live that far away from the school so he'd just walk through the park to get there, then he'd call Johnny to pick him up afterwards.