GLOW-UP

41 | knight in rusty armour

mark lee was a jack of all trades, but the master of none.

he'd always been good at picking up new things, but had never excelled in any of them. since moving from canada, he'd gotten pretty much fluent in korean, but still slipped up on some vocabulary. he was a bright student in all of his classes, but wasn't one of the best. he was good at hockey too, but only good enough to make the bench.

so when he got the news that he was on the official college ice hockey team, mark let out a scream so high-pitched it resembled a hyperventilating fangirl.

he was made.

all his life, every minute and every second, had all been working up to this very moment. it felt like he could do anything in the word - climb mount everest, be a superhero, cycle in the tour de france. the only thing he couldn't do, it seemed, was locate his favourite hyung later that day after coming down from the high. the art department was difficult to navigate, and a lot bigger than mark had anticipated.

it felt like he was searching for a needle in a haystack, or a single pixel in one of ten's project photographs.

eventually, he worked up the courage to peek through the crack in an open door, and catch the attention of the girl inside. "um... e-excuse me?" he asked politely, clearing his throat to get rid of the stammer in his voice.

the girl in question glanced up from a canvas she was working on with an entire rainbow of coloured oil paints. "can i help you?"

"i'm looking for my... um, friend," mark told her, after a moment of hesitation, "he's an art major and... um, i thought i might find him- oh, hi-"

he cut himself off at the appearance of his most hated rival in the doorway, though mark would never say that to taeyong's face. the older boy had emerged from the corridor with a tray of charcoal sticks, hands and face smudged with grey. irritatingly enough, the messiness of his look didn't detract from his attractiveness at all.

"hey," taeyong said, and for some reason he seemed nervous, "uh, seulgi, do you mind if i work in here? jeonghan kicked me out of the other studio for being too loud." he shook the tray of charcoal to support his point, and they gave a loud rattle. "apparently the sound of charcoal on paper is too much to bear."

seulgi laughed and beckoned him inside. "sure, i don't mind," she told him warmly. then she looked back at mark, not having forgotten about his earlier request. "oh, and what did you say your friend was called?"

mark gulped, trying his best not to stare daggers into taeyong's back. "ten."

"oh, you must be mark!" taeyong suddenly exclaimed, glancing at mark over his shoulder before turning around fully, "the freshman, right?"

"...right," mark answered, confused, "um, yeah, that's me."

"i think he's in the darkroom," seulgi supplied helpfully, "it's at the end of the corridor."

mark nodded slowly and started backing out of the room. "...um, thanks, guys." he bowed respectfully, and then legged it down the corridor.

why did they both seem to know who he was once he mentioned ten? and why did he suddenly not want to kill taeyong quite so badly anymore? did ten really talk about him that much to his classmates? and why did that make him feel strangely happy?