a/n: i wanted to post this closer to valentine's day (i didn't finish this chapter on time oops) but here's a random quick drawing i made of mark & dasom!!
a/n: if you steal my art you're a loser btw!! anywayz enjoy this chapter <3
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"How would you like to help produce a song for NCT 127?"
That was a seriously crazy offer. Being able to officially work with a world-renowned band sounded so incredibly surreal to Dasom.
"Um, can I really...? I don't know if I can— like, that's very..." Dasom was completely at a loss for words, unable to articulate full sentences like she was possessed by the spirit of a very flustered Mark Lee.
"Just say yes babe," she heard Mark whisper behind her.
"Yes?" Dasom asked, to make sure she was hearing things right.
But Mr. Kang didn't hear the questioning tone in her voice.
"Great," he finalized without Dasom knowing what was happening since she was still very much dazed. "We'll get your contact information from Mark and Jaehyun so we can be in touch."
"You, wha—" Dasom started but she caught herself and reminded herself that she needed to act with professionalism even if she had only accidentally accepted the offer. "Thank you so much for the opportunity! I'll look forward to it."
Once Mr. Kang had left, Dasom finally turned at met Mark and Jaehyun's excited smiles with a shocked one of her own.
"I can't believe you guys did this for me!" she exclaimed, immediately pouncing on both of them at the same time, pulling them into a tight group hug. "But you fucking tricked me!"
Dasom felt both Jaehyun and Mark's arms wrap around her, making her feel even more warm on the inside.
"We didn't want you to get nervous knowing there was an A&R personnel watching you," Mark explained, his hand automatically patting the back of her head.
"And it all worked out," Jaehyun added once they had all let go of each other. "You're officially gonna be a producer Desi!"
"That's crazy you guys," Dasom commented, her eyes sparkling in the dim light. "Seriously, thank you so much."
To celebrate, Mark and Jaehyun wanted to go back inside and have a drink, and while Dasom agreed and followed them inside, she insisted on paying for all of them. That included Kou, Juhee, and Donghyuck too. Clearly Donghyuck already knew why Dasom was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement, so she let Mark explain everything to her friends.
Everyone was so happy for Dasom, and as she hopped over the bar counter so she could make them all drinks herself, she couldn't stop smiling at all of them gratefully. She really was so lucky to have so many good people around her.
"To think this all happened because of your step-sister being irresponsible with money," Kou said to Dasom once she'd passed everyone a drink and come back to the other side to join them with a drink of her own.
"Actually, it wouldn't have happened," Dasom shook her head, and Kou gave her a puzzled stare. "The only reason I got on that video call with Ten was because you told me it would be funny."
"Oh shit, so I'm your whole origin story," Kou joked, giving her a hug. "I'm glad everything is slowly starting to fall into place for you Soms."
"Thanks Kou," Dasom said, hugging her friend back tightly.
Then, Mark walked up to her and turned her around by placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Did you really save all of those last songs for me?" he asked her.
"Dude, obviously," Dasom grinned. "I played one Mac Miller song and I was like 'Hmmm, what's the point if Marker isn't here yet?'."
"Man, I fucking love you," Mark replied, raising his glass, so Dasom did the same and clinked hers against his.
"I fucking love you too," Dasom replied. "What did you think of the set though? Forget the A&R guy, I need your validation."
"Uh, wait..." Mark said, closing his eyes for moment before he spoke. "Te— t'etais incroyable ma cherie."
"Oh putain merde," Dasom reacted, clutching the edge of the bar counter like she needed to stabilize herself.
Behind her, Kou gave Mark a nod of approval and a thumbs up, a smile on his face, and Mark was relieved.
"I'm gonna need a minute to recover from that," Dasom chuckled, giving Mark a fast hug. If they weren't wearing masks and if they weren't in public, she would have probably pounced on him right then and there.
"Take all the time you need babe," Mark smiled, looking satisfied by her reaction, and Dasom excused herself to find Juhee so she could scream about what just happened.
After another hour or so, Mark seemed really out of it, his steps wobbly and his words slurring. When Dasom saw how much he was giggling over things that weren't even that funny, she figured it was probably time to head home.
"I think I gotta get Mark out of here," Dasom said to Jaehyun and Donghyuck as all three of them watched him attempting to slow dance with an equally drunk Juhee. Every few seconds, they could hear 'ow!'s from Juhee's mouth from Mark unintentionally stepping on her toes.
"Yooo, I didn't mean to do that!" Mark exclaimed when he did it again and Juhee finally let go of his hands. "Again. Oops."
"You're hopeless Mark," Juhee folded her arms and feigned disappointment. "Your first dance with Dasom at your wedding is gonna be tragic at this rate."
When she said that, Dasom immediately shifted her eyes to the left so she could catch Jaehyun's reaction. To her relief, he and Donghyuck were both laughing at the crestfallen expression on Mark's face. Things were truly normal between her, Jaehyun, and Mark now.
Dasom had expected Mark to get embarrassed or defensive by the mention of a wedding, but she'd forgotten that drunk Mark was almost a totally different person.
"Hell nah, no way I'm letting that happen," Mark declared, and Dasom instantly fanned her face so she wouldn't start blushing. Confidently, Mark took hold of Juhee's hand and waist again, though she looked like she was done with him. "Show me again, I'm gonna get it right."
As cute as it was watching her best friend attempting to teach her boyfriend slow dance, Dasom really wanted to go home.
She felt the need to talk to Mark about the opportunity he and Jaehyun had basically just handed to her. She might have accepted it, but there was still a lot of uncertainty on her mind.
So, she walked up to the two who were still struggling to dance and put her hand on Mark's shoulder.
"Mind if I cut in?" she asked Juhee.
"Jealous?" Juhee winked at her.
"Extremely," Dasom joked back. "I might start foaming at the mouth if you don't let him go."
"He's all yours," Juhee replied. Then she looked over at Kou, Jaehyun, and Donghyuck. "Are any of you confident that you're better than Mark?"
After rock, paper, scissors between those three, Juhee ended up replacing Mark with Donghyuck, so Dasom took Mark a little distance away and kept her arms on his shoulders while he held her waist with both hands.
"I really need to talk to you," she told him.
"Am I in trouble?" Mark asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Of course not," Dasom chuckled. "I just have a lot on my mind about working with you guys."
"What's wrong?" Mark inquired, now looking at her with concern written on his face.
"Can we go home and talk?" she requested, and Mark agreed with no hesitation.
Once home, Mark wanted to waste no time before letting Dasom explain what was on her mind, but she insisted on them freshening up first and having some food. She didn't want to talk about anything serious when Mark was too drunk to think much.
With a pot of ramen between them, Dasom and Mark shared the food together and once Mark stopped giggling every few seconds, she figured he had sobered up to an extent, so she changed up the conversation.
"Obviously I'm so incredibly grateful for what you and Jaehyun did for me," she began, and Mark reached across the table, squeezing her hand comfortingly. "But I never wanted to use your connections to get opportunities like this. If I didn't know you, I wouldn't have this chance. I really don't want to take advantage of my relationship with you."
"Yo, just the fact that you have that thought is more than enough," Mark reassured her. "Anyway, though I might be giving myself too much credit, you probably wouldn't have even got back into music as much as you did if you hadn't met me. I'm honestly happy to give you these opportunities."
Dasom smiled, but Mark could see through her smile and could tell she still felt very unsure.
"Jaehyun and I had this plan in place for the day you and I went to the movies and beach," Mark revealed to her, and her eyes widened. "So it's not about you being my girlfriend, we wanted to do this for you as your friends."
"Is this why you were so insistent on me making it to work that night?" Dasom recalled.
"Pretty much, yeah," Mark smiled. "But again, I'm a little glad it didn't happen because I've got you now."
"I'm glad too," Dasom agreed, finally giving him a genuine smile.
"Besides," Mark continued. "You are my girlfriend, and that's not changing anytime soon. I have no problem with you using me however you want."
"If your tone was slightly different," Dasom replied. "That statement would've been so hot."
"I'll work on the flirting skills," Mark laughed. "Oh, but lemme tell you one thing before I forget."
"What is it?" she asked.
"I was thinking, you should make your instagram public and use it to promote yourself," he told her. "You could get hired to work other parties and stuff if people see you, and once you work with us, other labels or artists could contact you as well."
Dasom considered this for a while and realized Mark had made a good point. How has she not thought of doing that herself before?
"I probably can't be going around calling myself daddydasom though," she quipped, and Mark agreed with her. "It's kind of iconic though, how sad."
"You could make a new private instagram and use the username for that," Mark suggested. "Then you could follow all of our private accounts too."
"I knew you guys have secret Twitter accounts," Dasom commented. "Instagram too?"
"Yeah, some of us do just so it's kind of just only with our friends," Mark explained. "I don't really use mine to post anything, but I like seeing what everyone else is up to."
Since she was intrigued, Dasom got Mark's help to come up with a new username that included Desi in it since that's what her name was listed as in the DJ lineup at the bar. Then, she made a new account with her former username, and Mark became her only follower and following (for now).
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liked by hyemizen, miya_kou, and 895 others
prodbydesi revamp
comments
lishiyun UR SO PERFECT
huangyubi STEP ON MEEEE
haruch0i maybe i'm not straight idk anymore
↳ prodbydesi yes join the lgbts
nevaehjeon my best friend is a vv hot dj everyone pls give her employment
hyunsikkk lowkey miss u weirdo
↳ prodbydesi come to paris with us then
↳ hyunsikkk i wish but i can't just dip out of this internship
↳ prodbydesi u suck jk i'm proud of u
h***** omg are u that dj from the bar in itaewon ↳ prodbydesi yepp 🫶
* * *
liked by ifyouknowyuno, liyoungten, and 34 others
watermelmh 🤠🤡🤍
comments
katyk1m WHAT THE FUCK?!??!?!
lty0ng cute 🥰
ilovemarklee MARRRRKKKK
thats_hot since when do you have a gf omg
jisungslegalguardian SO CUTE 🥹💖🥺💗💓😁🥰🥰💞🥺🥺😁💞🥺
minaaaaaaaa GIRLFRIEND REVEAL RN
jeagonisante WHOA YOU ACTUALLY GET BITCHES???
↳ watermelmh yunjin ur literally bitchless shh
fullsunuslluf idk how he managed to bag someone like her but good for him
↳ jiiihooonparkkk who is it WHO IS IT
↳ fullsunuslluf that's for me to know and you to find out ofc
sheepsheepx2 that's my swag european neighbour isn't it
↳ watermelmh possibly
↳ sheepsheepx2 DAMN NO WONDER U WERE BEING SUCH A WEIRDO ON JENO'S BDAY
↳ watermelmh shut up pls i'm trying to forget that memory
↳ daddydasom jealousy is a disease
katyk1m WAIT ARE YOU THE GIRLFRIEND?? @daddydasom
↳ watermelmh why are you stalking my comments kim yerim
↳ katyk1m because you're never gonna respond to my dms of course
* * *
Sunday finally rolled around and it was bittersweet.
"Can you believe it's the last day of our long ass sleepover?" Mark asked Dasom while they were eating a very late breakfast.
"It's been a long ass ride," Dasom joked, quoting Mark's debut lyrics.
"It actually felt so short to me," Mark replied. "Like damn, how did ten days go by that quickly?"
"No, you're right," Dasom sighed. "You're gonna get busy with work now, aren't you?"
"Yeah, but so are you from tomorrow," Mark smiled. "We'll get to work together too!"
"God, I can't wait," Dasom said excitedly. "I hope your company lets me be in the studio so it's not like I just give them the beat and disappear."
"You should express that at the meeting tomorrow," Mark told her, and she nodded. "But anyway, I was thinking we should go out today."
"Like on a date?" Dasom hoped
"Like on a date, yes," Mark confirmed. "What do you wanna do?"
"I'll leave it up to you," Dasom answered. "You know better where you won't really be caught by people or paparazzi."
So, that afternoon, Mark and Dasom got in a cab and went on their way to a karaoke spot that Mark knew after booking a room there for two hours.
Of course, there was no way Dasom wasn't going to try completely outdoing Mark by picking an NCT 127 song as her first one. She immediately found the song she was searching for and hit play.
"What song did you pl—"
"YEAHHHHH SU—PER—HU—MAN!" Dasom yelled into the mic, and her timing was a little off so the music started a beat after she shouted.
Mark doubled over with laughter when Dasom gave him a sheepish smile as the music continued.
"Need help?" he offered, holding up the other mic.
"Hell no," Dasom said, turning back to face the screen. "I got this."
With Mark randomly being a hype man from the back, Dasom actually made it through the whole song by herself.
"If you wanna feel it say YEAH!" Dasom finished it up, and Mark joined her for the last 'YEAH' adlib right after.
The score on the screen once the song ended rose all the way up to 97, and Dasom turned around to face Mark, having a mic drop moment—dropping it into his lap, not the floor—looking extremely proud of herself.
"Told you I got this," she grinned.
"Fuck yeah, you ate that shit up babe," Mark nodded approvingly. "You got hella pipes, you should straight up start writing music for us too."
"I don't know shit about songwriting," Dasom said, pulling Mark up off the couch. "You gotta teach me your ways mon amour."
Mark's stomach did backflips when he heard her call him 'mon amour'. She'd done it just once a couple of days ago, and he had nearly collapsed on the spot. He didn't know what it was about Dasom speaking in French, but it actually drove him crazy.
In fact, she'd spoken French so much around him just for fun that he'd actually managed to pick up a few words here and there. She claimed it was to train him before the Paris trip—assuming he, Jaehyun, Johnny, and Ten would be able to go.
"Okay, I'll teach you someday," Mark promised, dropping a quick kiss on her head before going to the console to choose a song for himself. "Right now I gotta absolutely crush you at karaoke."
When the music started, Mark turned to face Dasom instead of the screen with the lyrics since he knew this song like the back of his hand. He watched as she recognized the song immediately and yelled "STOP! NO, DON'T DO IT!"
"누난 너무 예뻐서 남자들이 가만 안 둬," Mark started singing while pointing at Dasom and she sank low into the couch with her face in her hands, laughing uncontrollably.
Honestly, Mark had no idea how he was able to sing Replay to Dasom so easily without feeling even the slightest bit of embarrassment. He was so extra with it that he made sure to point at her every time the word noona came up and he even did some of the choreography for it.
It just spoke to how unapologetically comfortable he was around her.
"Dude," Dasom started whining when Mark struck his final pose. "I'm literally only a year older than you."
"A year and a half," Mark specified, walking over to her and ruffling her hair. "You're old."
"Bitch, if I'm old what are your other group members?" Dasom laughed. "Seriously though, never call me that."
"Don't call you what noona?" Mark teased her, feigning innocence.
"Marker I swear to god," Dasom complained, but she was still smiling. "You called me that for one whole song already and that was enough to last a whole lifetime."
"Dang noona, you're hurting my feelings," Mark continued to joke around. "Why don't you want me to—"
Yeah, by now Dasom knew there was no better way to get Mark to shut up than to just kiss him.
Once they'd elapsed their time at the karaoke room, Dasom assumed that was it and they were heading back home in a taxi. However, without her knowing, Mark booked it elsewhere instead.
"This isn't the way back to my place," she eventually noticed, looking out of the window.
"Yeah, I'm taking you to the mall first," he told her.
"What? Why?" she asked.
Mark lifted his hand to Dasom's face and then tapped on the same spot under her left jawline. "I still owe you that Dior makeup."
"Wait, I was just kidding," Dasom insisted, shaking her head. "I literally only need concealer."
"Okay, so we'll just get you concealer then," Mark shrugged.
"You're not gonna take no for an answer, are you?" Dasom asked him.
"Of course not," Mark nodded, wrapping his arm around Dasom's shoulder and pulling her closer, holding her for the rest of the car ride to the mall.
Once they arrived at the mall, Dasom realized it was one of those more high-end luxury shopping centres, and she honestly felt a little bit out of place there.
But Mark insisted on treating her for this. He took her to Charlotte Tilbury, and though she said she just needed concealer, he had the staff there give her a full face of makeup and then purchased all the products she said she liked even when she adamant that she didn't want him to do that.
"Lemme splurge on you Desi," he said, handing his card over. "It's fun."
"Fine, at least this is all gonna last a long time," Dasom gave in. "But was the makeover really necessary?"
"Don't you have work tonight?" Mark reminded her. "That's why I thought it would be nice. You're already the cutest bartender there, now you'll be even cuter and people will buy more drinks."
"You want other people to think I'm cute?" Dasom teased him as they walked out of the store.
"If it makes them tip you more then why not?" Mark laughed. "Besides, I'm coming with you."
"What?" Dasom was pleasantly surprised. "I thought you were gonna go back to your dorm."
"Your shift ends at one in the morning right?" he asked and she confirmed it with a nod. "I don't mind sticking around until then."
"You're the best," Dasom smiled. "Okay let's go home then, I gotta get changed."
That night at the bar was probably the most fun Dasom had being a bartender. Mark took up one seat on her side of the counter the whole time, ordering two cocktails and then a bunch of non-alcoholic drinks from her once he started feeling buzzed.
There were quite a few foreigners who showed up that night, so Mark even chatted people up with Dasom joining the conversations whenever she was free.
At one point, Mark was watching Dasom a little distance away serving two guys, one with bleached hair and one with brown hair. When they didn't leave after getting their drinks, he frowned and got up from his seat to go check out what was going on.
"Oh come on, there's no harm in giving me your number," Mark heard the blond one saying to Dasom as he approached them.
"Like I said thrice now, I can't," Dasom said, and she hadn't noticed Mark standing close by yet.
"Why not?" the other guy prodded her.
"I have a boyfriend," Dasom replied, taking a step back from the counter. She looked visibly uncomfortable now, and Mark was getting ready to step in for her.
"What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?" the blond one said with a smirk. "He would never have to know anything."
Now Mark was a little heated. He stepped forward and grabbed the blond guy's shoulder. At the same time, Dasom heaved a sigh of relief seeing Mark there.
"Actually, I know everything," Mark said when the two guys turned around. They were both taller than Mark but he stood his ground. "Saying no once should've been enough for you to leave her the fuck alone."
"Oh, are you the boyfriend?" the blond one laughed and then turned back to Dasom. "He's not much."
Mark could feel his fists balling up at the sides of his legs, and noticing that somehow made Dasom get madder than him.
"You'll obviously have a better time with me," the blond one added.
"Hey man—" Mark started to speak but he was interrupted by Dasom herself.
"Okay, lemme put it like this so maybe your pea brains will finally understand," Dasom said angrily. "I would literally rather stick forks in my eyes and get stranded in the middle of a desert with no water than do anything with you."
Both guys took a step back when they heard the outburst from Dasom, and Mark smiled, but still he kept an eye on the two guys just in case they reacted badly.
"Don't fucking speak on my boyfriend," Dasom continued. "And get the fuck out of my face right now or I'll have you kicked out and banned from ever coming here again."
That really did the trick, and the two guys awkwardly slinked away from the bar counter with their drinks.
"AHH, men suck!" Dasom nearly shouted, running her hands through her hair. "Not you though Marker."
"Are you okay?" Mark asked, holding out his hand over the counter.
"Yeah, it's all good," Dasom assured him, taking his hand. He gave it a comforting squeeze and then let her get back to work.
Once Mark calmed down with a third cocktail, he went back to being in a good mood and was sitting at a new spot in front of the bar. He was feeling so generous since this whole past week had been one of the best times of his life, and so, he went so far as to even randomly buy a round of shoes different groups that came to the bar.
The smile hadn't left Dasom's face over the next hour as she watched Mark having fun. When there were only fifteen minutes left of her shift, even more people were pouring in because it still wasn't too late in the night yet.
However, to her shock, horror, and dismay, she spotted one all to familiar face in the crowd making his way towards the bar.
"Hey Desi, did you know—"
Mark was about to ask her a question, but when he looked up at his girlfriend standing diagonally to him, he cut himself off seeing her face go completely ashen.
Looking over his shoulder in the direction Dasom was looking, Mark saw a man who looked a couple of years older than her approaching the counter.
He looked back at Dasom, and he could see her slowly backing up from the counter.
"Han Dasom?" the man recognized her when he was a a few feet away from them. "I didn't know you worked here."
Dasom looked back at Mark with fear in her eyes.
"C'est lui," she told him, and he realized she was talking in French.
It's him, Mark translated in his head, standing up as he recollected all the times she'd talked to him in the foreign language.
"Celui dont je t'ai parlé ai café," she added once the man had reached the counter.
Mark didn't understand all the words, but he did understand the verb to talk and the word cafe.
Someone she talked to me about at a cafe? Mark figured. Then it dawned on him.
This was that man, the horrible ex-boyfriend who had traumatized Dasom.
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we only stan mark & jaehyun when it comes to desi frfr 🤬🤬🤬
ALSO WHO'S GOING TO TDS2??? i don't have money but i'm still gonna try to at least get a nosebleed ticket 😭
anywayz i hope everyone is having a great day!! leave a vote if u feel like it and i'll see u on saturday (drip hanadulssik)
btw i saw all your suggestions for mark's idol friends and i'm gonna try to incorporate as much of them as i can later!!
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