—
"You ready?"
"You brought me to a night festival?" Dawn's eyes sparkled as she looked up at Mark.
"Yeah, do you not like them?" Mark felt his heart stopping at her question.
'Does she not like night festivals? Fuck I should've listened to Jaemin when he said to bring her to the beach.'
"No, I love it oh my god. I've always wanted to go to one but I've been too busy with school."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Dawn began to walk forward as she did a 360 of her surroundings but stopped when she realized Mark wasn't next to her. She looked back to where they parked the car and noticed he wasn't there anymore and turned around to begin looking around for him. Dawn began to walk towards the car in hopes of finding a better view of him. All around her were people pushing and talking loudly, it reminded her of her walk to her morning classes.
Oh shit don't tell me he just got kidnapped.
All of a sudden, Dawn felt a hand grab at her's.
She snapped her head around only to come face to face with Mark.
Flowers in hand.
"Why'd you walk off?" Mark questioned her.
"Why did I walk off? You just disappeared out of nowhere, I thought you got kidnapped!" Dawn slapped his shoulder out of habit but failed to realize what she did. She continued to ramble on about how "something could've happened to him" as the boy stared at her with a smile growing on his face.
"You could've gotten hur– why are you smiling? I'm serious!" Dawn's cheeks puffed out as she breathed out in frustration.
"You look cute."
"What?" Dawn's face flushed a soft pink.
"You look cute when you're worried about me, maybe I'll disappear more often." Mark said humorously.
"I hate you." Dawn rolled her eyes at him and walked off towards the booths lined up, not wanting to be teased even more.
"Dawnnn come back!" Mark laughed hard as he jogged after her
As he caught up to her, he put his hand around her shoulder, bringing her a bit closer than she already was while passing her the small bouquet with his other hand.
Dawn looked up at him as he stared ahead.
"C'mon let's get this date started."
—
"So what's your favorite color?"
"Blue." Mark's answer came out muffled as his mouth was full of food.
He continued to shovel pieces of rice into his mouth but abruptly dropped his chopsticks as he began to cough. Mark covered his mouth with a tissue as he choked on his rice. Dawn panicked as she poured him a glass of water. She stood up from her seat to his side to pat and rub his back softly. Soon the coughing subsided and he took the glass of water Dawn was holding out to him.
"Eat slowly, the food isn't going anywhere" Dawn slightly laughed at him.
"Sorry I haven't eaten today." Mark cleared his throat as Dawn began to sit down again.
"What? It's 5:46 pm, why haven't you eaten?"
"We had practice this morning before the game this weekend and I don't like eating before practices." Mark shrugged as if it was normal.
"Yeah but you have to take care of yourself. You have to eat to gain energy." Dawn reasoned as she began to slide pieces of meat into his plate from the grill.
A smile began to spread on Mark's lips as he watched her. He picked up his chopsticks again and began to eat again, a bit slower this time.
"So what's your favorite artist?"
"That's a random question." Dawn looked up to meet his eyes.
"I'm a music major, what do you expect?"
"True... hmm I like Cigarettes After Sex. Yeah them. You?"
"I like Justin Bieber."
Dawn snorted at his answer and coughed to cover up her laugh.
"What? He's a literal musical genius!" Mark defended
"Whatever you say." Dawn held her hands up in defense.
Mark rolled his eyes and let out a small laugh, "So any siblings?"
Dawn froze, she wasn't sure what to say.
She hadn't talked about him in a while.
Can we even call each other siblings?
"Uhmm yeah sorta.." Dawn trailed off unsurely
"Sorry I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable!" Mark apologized, his posture sinking slightly.
"No uh, we just aren't really close at all." The girl reassured him as she dismissed his apology.
"I have a brother."
"You guys close?" Dawn took a sip from her cup.
"Yeah, he's like my best friend." Mark let out a laugh at the thought of his family.
"That's nice." Dawn didn't mean to feel like this, but as she listened to Mark ramble on about his family, she felt a small tinge in her heart.
As they both finished their food with small talk here and there, Mark took out his wallet at the same time as Dawn pulled her's out from her bag.
"What are you doing?" Mark's eyes switched between her eyes and her wallet.
"Paying for myself?" Dawn answered him as if it was obvious.
"No, you aren't. I asked you out so I'm paying."
"Let's just split half and half."
"No, put your wallet away." Mark took out his card and placed it on the bill at the same time as Dawn placed hers.
"I'm not going to let you pay for me." she tried to convince the boy in front of her
"Dawn. You can pay next time, yeah?" Mark softly smiled at her
She rolled her eyes and grabbed her card, shoving it back into the side pocket of her wallet as she closed it, placing it back into her small backpack. Once the bill had been paid, Dawn grabbed the flowers that had been laying on the table next to her and followed Mark out of the small food shop.
Once they stepped out of the tent, she realized how chilly it had gotten. In the tent, they had heaters placed around, between the tables. They also had the heat from the grill, but now it was just Dawn and her long sleeves against the world.
"You cold?" Mark looked over at her slightly shivering frame.
"No, I'm fine." Dawn reassured him and she tried her best to stop her obvious chattering.
"Here." Mark began to slide his varsity jacket off his shoulders. Panicking, Dawn tried to stop him as he was just in a plain tee but before she could say anything, the boy had already grabbed her backpack and bouquet while slipping his varsity jacket over her shoulders.
Mark being roughly 6 inches taller than her, and a lot more muscular, his jacket was extremely oversized on her frame. As she slid the sleeves onto her arms, it was as if his jacket was swallowing her whole in warmth. The jacket came down to her mid-thigh.
"Thank you." Dawn smiled at him softly and grabbed her stuff from his hands as she began to walk forward. Mark stared at her from behind as he was left in awe of her looks. Something about the girl in his clothes made him feel a certain type of way and he wasn't sure if it was good or not.
As Mark caught up with her, he pointed out a small pop-up shop that had multiple miniature versions of the Sanrio characters hanging.
—
Mark and Dawn's date continued like this. Walking up to random shops, getting snacks from street vendors, and getting to know each other. Dawn would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy spending time with Mark. There was one issue though.
They had yet to talk about the fake relationship.
Dawn was anxious, she wasn't sure whether she should wait for Mark to bring it up, or make the first move. Dawn rubbed her hands together and she finally mustered up the courage to ask him.
"Mark."
"Yeah?" His eyes flickered from his surroundings down to her face.
"Can we talk about the fake relationship thing?" Dawn's question came out slightly strained as she wasn't sure how to word it.
"Oh my god, I totally forgot we needed to talk about it. Thanks for bringing it up." Mark's eyes widened at her words. He looked around and noticed a set of tables. He motioned for Dawn to follow him and sat down at the table nearest to the standing heater.
"Okay how do we do this?" Mark awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at Dawn, hoping she had some sort of clue what to do. "Well first, I think we need to make some rules. What to do and what not to, you know?"
"Yeah, let me get out my phone." Mark grabbed his phone from his pocket and opened up the notes application. He created a new folder labeled "Dawn" and opened up a new note, labeling it "Rules".
"Okay rule one, when do you want to end this?" Dawn questioned.
"The end of the semester?" Mark answered unsurely.
"End of the semester? That's like 6 months from now. Are you sure you're going to want to still do this by then?"
"Well by then, my ex will probably get over me and Hyunsik will graduate so we won't have to worry about anything so let's just say roughly."
"Alright. Rule two, we're not an open relationship. If you start liking someone else, we'll let the other know and figure something out. It'll be really difficult if people find out you're cheating." Dawn didn't hesitate as she voiced out what had been on her mind.
"Got it. Uhm rule three, you need to come to all my games and parties as my date." Mark wrote it down and looked up at Dawn again to notice her jaw gaped.
"What?" he questioned
"I'm not stepping a foot in that stupid smelly rink or that damn frat of your's." Dawn refused, she would never be seen at either or.
"No one's going to believe us if we don't do any regular coupley thing." Mark reasoned out. Dawn groaned and agreed as Mark rolled his eyes.
"Rule four, all skinship is okay."
"What?! First your games and parties and now skinship too? You're killing me Mark!" Dawn dropped her head onto the table.
"Dawn no one's going to believe us if we do what you want." Mark didn't want to do anything that made her uncomfortable but he still needed to make sure their relationship looked real.
"Fine. Rule five, no snitching." The girl thought she stated the obvious but when she noticed his face, she knew something was up.
"Oh my god Mark, what did you do?"
"I might have accidentally told my friends.." Mark trailed off
"Well, it's whatever now. Just make sure they don't say anything. Add it onto number five that whoever knows already is fine." Mark listened to Dawn as he typed the rest of her words.
"Rule six, whenever the other person needs help, the other has to help." Dawn hummed in agreement to Mark's words.
"Rule seven, no lying. Don't keep the other in the dark about anything that might affect the relationship."
"Rule eight, we should occasionally post each other on our own socials." Mark looked at Dawn for reassurance.
"Yeah good enough. Rule nine, the relationship is only infront of other people."
"Okay good and rule ten, try not to fall in love with me?" Mark winked at her as Dawn rolled her eyes at him. "I think that's good enough for now, if we need more later, we can add them." Dawn brought her hand up to her face and rested her chin on her palm.
Mark glanced between the girl in front of him and the watch that rested on his wrist, "It's almost 7:42 pm, do you want to start heading back?" Dawn nodded at Mark and stood up from her seat. As they began to walk through the still crowded streets, the boy carefully guided her from behind with his hand placed carefully on her lowerback.
—
By the time the time Dawn and Mark had reached Dawn's dorm, a hour had passed. The car ride consisted of Mark cracking jokes to make her feel more comfortable and Dawn trying her best to loosen up with someone who wasn't her best friend. She had still been wearing the boy's varsity jacket, and as they reached the front of the building, she had made a move to remove it but stopped when she noticed that Mark was planning on dropping her off at her door.
The two continued to make small talk as they got into the elevator until Mark gasped and looked at Dawn, "It totally slipped my mind before, but I have a game this Friday. Can you make it?"
Dawn thought for a moment about rejecting him right then and there but remember the rules they had set not even 2 hours ago, she couldn't say no. It would be a little tight on her schedule since today was Wednesday night, and that would mean that she would only have one more day to complete all her work that was due Friday night. "Uhmm yeah sure, just text me the information later. Can I bring my friends?" If she had to sit in the rink for 2 hours and suffer, so did Seyeon and Rena.
"Yeah of course, the more the merrier. I'll text you the details later tonight then."
As Mark finished his statement, they finally arrived at Dawn's door. She first began to take off the jacket and pass it back to the boy as she muttered a small "thank you" to him before she took her keys out. Mark grabbed his jacket from her hands and watched as she unlocked her door.
Dawn looked back at him with a small smile on her lips as she said, "Thank you for tonight, I had fun getting to know you."
Mark let out a small laugh before responding, "The pleasure's all mine. Hopefully, I can take you out again sometime soon if you're okay with that?" Mark rubbed the back of his neck, hoping he wasn't coming off too strong.
"Yeah, I'd like that." Dawn walked into her room, but before she closed the door she looked back at Mark.
"Goodnight Mark."
"Goodnight Dawn."
—
—
Is this moving too fast or do we like the pace?