nico teen love - nct, markhyuck

- 16 -

donghyuck opened his eyes slowly, disturbed by the noise.

the room he was in was dark, the only light coming from the sun rays passing through the closed blinds, he recognized it was mark's room when he noticed the full ashtray lying on the messy desk. he smiled thinking about the fact that the stone-cold blondie had offered him to sleep with him for the night, and chuckled silently.

he turned around, in order to face mark. the boy was lying on the side, his face squished in the pillow and an arm dangling over donghyuck's waist, on his bandaged wound.

the boy seemed so innocent and vulnerable right now. who would think this actual softie was a cold-hearted gang member? well, no one would if they looked at mark's face right now.

however, donghyuck's eyes drifted to mark's chest. he had no shirt on, making donghyuck blush slightly. but what was really tormenting him was the reddish scars that he had all over his torso. there was enough light to allow him distinguishing them, but not enough to inspect them closely.

donghyuck stretched out his arm to brush his fingers above the old wounds, retracing their contour slowly. mark's body was marked for life, those horrible scars were like tattoos on his canvas, except they weren't voluntary. or were they?

donghyuck couldn't think about it further, mark's eyes fluttered and finally opened, looking directly in donghyuck's ones. the younger pulled his hand back flustered.

"g-good m-morning." he stuttered shyly.

"morning." mark said in a raspy voice.

the two boys looked at each other, not breaking the eye contact for dozens of seconds, but donhyuck eventually drifted his attention on mark's torso. he slipped his hands onto mark's scars again, caressing them the softest possible.

"you have so many of them..." donghyuck whispered.

mark coughed and straightened up. "i-i'll go to the bathroom." he said, passing over donghyuck to get out of the bed, grabbing his t-shirt that lied on the chair and putting it on. he approached the door and stopped his actions before opening it.

"there's no need to ask the other about them." he said, looking blankly at the door. "they don't know anything."

and with those words, he left donghyuck alone in his bed.

XXXXXXXXXX

"so, hum... do you feel better donghyuck?" taeyong hesitated.

they were in the middle of their lunch, and taeyong had somehow broken the warm ambiance that lingered in the room to replace it by a way duller one.

once those words said, mark, who hadn't said anything since the beginning of the meal, raised his head and looked at donghyuck who was sitting facing him. the younger met his eyes for a brief second before answering.

"hum... yeah, kind of."

"is your waist still hurting?" jaehyun asked pointing at the reddish bandage which was wrapping the boy's waist.

the injured boy shook his head.

"you shouldn't apply too much pressure on your wound. it won't cicatrize well, and it's going to bleed even more." he continued. "pass at the infirmary after lunch, i'll clean it and make new bandages."