"Stop pouting, you big baby."
Donghyuck scowled at Jaemin from his spot across the room, half heartedly chucking a pillow from his bed in his direction. Jaemin caught it with ease, preventing it from flying into Donghyuck's bookshelf and knocking everything over.
"It's not working," Donghyuck whined, burying his face into the mattress beneath him, "Mark was supposed to get mad at you, he was supposed to stake his claim over me or something. But that idiot said he's happy for us."
"Donghyuck, we literally just revealed our fake relationship yesterday. We still have the rest of the week, Mark is the kind of person who needs time to sort out his feelings. He probably still doesn't even know how he truly feels about us dating."
"Stupid Mark," Donghyuck grumbled, in stark contrast to the way he was gently cradling Minnie the teddy bear in his arms and tracing over his embroidered face with a loving finger. Jaemin just scoffed at him.
"Okay fine, if throwing a tantrum about it makes you feel better, than by all means, be my guest," Jaemin sighed, throwing his hands up in defeat. Donghyuck looked up at him and pouted, motioning for him to come closer. Jaemin complied, sitting next to Donghyuck on the bed.
"What do we do for the rest of the week, then? We just flirt and act all lovey dovey and hope that Mark reacts?" Donghyuck said quietly, and the taller boy just shrugged.
"That's the plan for now. If you ever wanna up the ante, I could always leave a hickey on your neck," Jaemin wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "Mark's head might explode if he sees something like that."
"Gross, that would just make things weird," Donghyuck scowled, shoving at Jaemin's shoulders.
"It's only weird if you make it weird," Jaemin scoffed back, flopping down onto the bed next to Donghyuck. "We both know there's no real feelings between us, but we gotta make it convincing, right? The acting part of it is the most fun."
"You're sick in the head," the smaller boy giggled, looking up at his friend curiously, "I really don't understand how this whole thing isn't super awkward for you. I almost gagged yesterday at lunch when you pinched my cheek and tried to kiss me goodbye."
"I just don't think into it too deeply, obviously," Jaemin said nonchalantly, as if it really was that obvious. "If I go into it thinking 'this is my friend that I have no feelings for', then of course it'll feel awkward. So I don't, I go into it thinking like we're just playing a fun little game, nothing serious attached."
"You're so interesting, your brain works in such mysterious ways," Donghyuck murmured, looking up at Jaemin with his eyes narrowed. Jaemin gave him a sleazy grin and shrugged.
Before either of them could open their mouths to continue the conversation, Donghyuck's phone buzzed. Curious, the brunette sat up and reached for it on his night stand, opening it and looking at the notification.
"Shit, it's Mark," Donghyuck hissed, looking down at Jaemin. The taller boy sat up and peered over Donghyuck's shoulder, looking down at his phone screen.
"Help me! What do I say?" Donghyuck whisper shouted, as if Mark were mysteriously in the room with them and could hear what they were saying. Jaemin just gave him an unimpressed, bored look.
"Say you're busy with me, blow him off. You gotta act like you're too caught up with me and don't have time for him anymore." He said easily, and Donghyuck couldn't help but pout a little.
"But I do wanna go over," he sulked, and Jaemin lightly hit him on the back of his head as a reprimand.
"No, Hyuck, you gotta stay strong. He's never going to get jealous over you unless you actually give him the chance to miss you."
Deep down, he knew Jaemin was right, so he let out a heavy sigh before typing out his response.
Donghyuck furrowed his eyebrows in confusion when he read Mark's response, the reply coming in almost immediately after he had sent his own text.
Jaemin watched the whole exchange over Donghyuck's shoulder, his grin widening with every new text Mark sent. Donghyuck was staring down at his phone screen in bewilderment—what the hell was wrong with Mark? Why was he acting so weird about the whole thing?
Jaemin laughed out loud after reading Mark's final text. Donghyuck re-read the message over and over again, trying to figure out what the hell had suddenly gotten into his best friend. Mark was the biggest emoji user he knew, he never failed to send some sort of iteration of a smiley face or a heart whenever he messaged Donghyuck, but the brunette had never seen Mark use the dry, typed out ":)" smiley face emoji in his entire time of knowing him.
"What the fuck is his deal?" He muttered, clicking off his phone and tossing it to the side. Jaemin was still laughing, bent over the mattress while clutching his stomach.
"Donghyuck," he wheezed after he had finally calmed down, wiping tears from his eyes, "I think we might have just witnessed Mark Lee getting jealous for the very first time."
Donghyuck's eyes widened, thinking back over the brief conversation and gasping loudly.
Maybe it was stupid, maybe it was just nothing, but he couldn't help the hope that inflated in his chest once again at the possibility.
┈ ୨ 🧸 ୧ ┈
The next day, Donghyuck and Jaemin were hanging out in Donghyuck's bedroom once again, just chatting and joking around casually. Right about now, Donghyuck would probably be heading over to Mark's house to do homework with him, but he had ditched on him twice in a row in order to keep up the "boyfriends" façade between him and Jaemin—something that he wasn't pleased about in the slightest.
"I don't like hanging out with you all that much either," Jaemin huffed, sticking his tongue out at Donghyuck childishly. Jaemin was sitting at the edge of the bed while Donghyuck was laying on his back, staring up at the ceiling.
"Oh please," Donghyuck smirked, propping himself up on his elbows as he tilted his head towards Jaemin, "I happen to know that I am amazing company, and you should consider yourself lucky that you are allowed to even be in my presence. Everybody just falls at my feet, that's how awesome I am."
The taller boy scoffed, raising his eyebrows at Donghyuck in a challenge. "Oh yeah, Mr Casanova? Have you forgotten to mention the fact that the only person that has yet to fall at your feet is the one person you've been pining after since you were eight years old?"
Donghyuck's face flushed, and his tongue poked the inside of his cheek in annoyance. He tried not the let the off handed comment get to him, instead trying to scramble for a response to fire back at Jaemin so he could win. An idea crossed his mind the more he replayed Jaemin's words in his head, and he turned back to his friend with a triumphant, cheeky grin spreading across his face.
"So you admit that you too have fallen at my feet? Damn, if you want me that bad then just say so."
Jaemin smiled—an easy, nonchalant, somehow still very alarming smile, and Donghyuck felt his heart drop to his stomach.
How naive of him, to think that he could ever win against Na Jaemin. Nobody, in the history of the world has ever been able to out-flirt the Na Jaemin, and he definitely should have known better.
"Oh? You say I want you, huh?" Jaemin purred, crawling on top of Donghyuck slowly like a predator stalking over its prey. The brunette squirmed, trying to wiggle out from under Jaemin, but the taller boy was quick in grabbing both of his wrists and pinning them above his head.
"Say that again, baby. Try it again with the same confidence you had earlier," Jaemin chuckled, tilting his head to the side. His freshly dyed white blonde hair was hanging in his eyes, with the necklace he was wearing dangling precariously over Donghyuck's face, and the small boy couldn't help the way he blushed and turned away.
"Cut it out, Jaem. Now you're really just making it weird," Donghyuck whined, struggling against the grip holding his wrists down, but Jaemin didn't budge.
"But it just got fun," Jaemin laughed, his shit eating grin spreading even wider. Donghyuck was suddenly overcome with the urge to sock him in the face. "What, the game is only fun for you when you're the one winning? That's not very fair, now is it?"
"Shut up man, you're so—"
Before Donghyuck could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the sound of the door to his bedroom swinging open, and both boys froze as their heads turned simultaneously towards the doorway.
Behind the now open door stood Mark Lee, his eyes wide with shock, and the books he had been holding slipped out of his hands and dropped to the ground loudly.
The sound of the books hitting the carpet was enough to break Jaemin out of his stupor, immediately letting go and sitting up, scooting away from Donghyuck with his face bright red. Donghyuck could only lay frozen, staring back at Mark, unable to move or even breathe.
"Woah— I, um- oh fuck, I'm sorry, I thought..." Mark stammered, blinking himself out of his daze and leaning down to pick up his books. Donghyuck finally sat up, shielding his burning face with his sleeve and refusing to look Mark in the eyes.
"I just... uh, your mom let me in, I thought we could study together," Mark squeaked, clearly just as embarrassed as Jaemin and Donghyuck were, if not more. Donghyuck didn't really think Mark had to be embarrassed—it was all his and Jaemin's fault for messing around, after all.
"Um... I didn't know you had Jaemin over again though. Am I... interrupting something?"
"No!" Donghyuck blurted out quickly, scrambling to cover their asses. Jaemin sat silently, uselessly staring at his own hands in his lap. Help me, you fool! Donghyuck wanted to scream at him. "No, no, we weren't doing anything... haha, we were just wrestling, you know, like bros do."
Despite it all, Jaemin snorted. Donghyuck gritted his teeth, glaring over at his blonde friend with daggers in his eyes. He was so going to kill Jaemin as soon as they were alone again.
"Like bros?" Mark laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck shyly, "Donghyuck, I already know you aren't 'just bros' anymore... it's okay, I'll just leave, it was my fault for not knocking or anything."
"No, it's really okay!" Donghyuck reassured him, trying to not let his voice come out sounding as desperate as he felt, "we can still study! Jaemin was just about to leave anyways."
"Hyuckie, it's really fine. I'm going," Mark said with a wry little smile, one that made Donghyuck's heart clench guiltily in his chest, "um... feel free to carry on... or whatever, I guess. Bye, see you at school tomorrow."
And with that, Mark was turning on his heel and bolting out of the room, despite Donghyuck trying to call after him again. The room was drowned in awkward silence, with the brunette burying his face in his hands as his whole body burned hot with humiliation.
"Hyuckie, it's okay, just let him keep thinking that we were really doing something," Jaemin said quietly, breaking the silence, and Donghyuck whipped around to look at him.
"What the hell? Why?" He hissed, and Jaemin gave him a little shrug, trying to come off cool and collected even though Donghyuck could tell he felt at least a little embarrassed too.
"That's the whole point of what we're doing, Hyuck. We want him to believe that we're dating, that we're intimate like that. After he goes home and sits with it and processes what he just saw, maybe this will be what finally kicks his ass into high gear."
Donghyuck groaned, leaning forward and burying his face into his comforter beneath him.
Lord, just kill me now.