"Look at me when I'm fucking talking to you!"
Mark stayed impassive and rolled his eyes as Jeno let out a weary sigh, both covered in bruises and bleeding wounds. Taeyong looked at them in turn with a sigh of tiredness, and closed the file in front of him before leaning over his desk, to have his face leveled with his two younger brothers.
"This is the last time you'll do such a thing to me. How old are you to fight against each other? On the school ground too! You're fucking unbelievable, that's not possible. Y'all are seniors, it's your senior year of high school and I get the feeling you don't mind fighting and ending up in my office, my fucking office guys!" Taeyong yelled angrily. "You are brothers, you have the same last name! And you have the nerve to fight over a boy?" He spat harshly.
"We're not brothers." Jeno said scathingly. "He's not my brother."
"Do you even hear yourself talking Jeno? Damn, you can't, can you? When did my little brothers turned into this? When did my little brothers decide to be strangers the one other?" Taeyong asked in dismay.
"When that traitor decided to stab me in the back, dating the boy I've loved since middle school." Mark spat bitterly in response to Taeyong's question.
"You know what? If you want to continue this way, go ahead, but don't do this in my school, okay?" Taeyong ordered in a firm voice as he sat back down, but his brothers didn't even react. "Did I make it clear to you?" he asked again more aggressively than he would've liked, practically yelling at them in the process again.
"Yeah."
"Get out of here now, we'll talk about this at home with mom and dad."
Mark didn't waste a second and got up to leave his brother's office, followed by his younger brother. In the hallway his eyes met Donghyuck's, who was waiting not far from the door looking worried but he knew it wasn't for him so he turned away, facing the opposite direction where his friends were standing before he received a hit on the shoulder.
His best friend slapped him again with his book in the back of his head, as he tried somehow to protect himself from the pink haired boy's attack. To no avail, sadly.
"Fuck Jaemin, easy will ya!" he hissed aggressively.
"Easy what, you fool! Why would you fight with him again? Are you sick, or what?" his best friend hissed back at him.
"Jaemin let him breath for thirty seconds, okay," Sungchan interjected, pulling Jaemin away from Mark. "He's probably already been yelled at by Taeyong hyung, so leave him alone." he sighed while still holding their pink haired friend at a reasonable distance away from Mark.
"Thanks Chan-ah, I appreciate..." Mark muttered, as he ran a hand through his raven black hair, brushing them out of his face.
Jaemin sighed loudly as he shrugged Sungchan off him and grabbed Mark's face to inspect his still bleeding wounds. He turned his face towards each side every three seconds, staring at his open bruises and sores on his left brow bone and his split lip. Fighting with Jeno? It wasn't actually the first time that it happened especially in the school grounds but today, they went a little too far for their older brother's the taste. Mark hated the retaliation Taeyong gave him, knowing fully well that it wasn't his fault they're in such bad situations.
If Jeno had made an effort not to mess things up between them, maybe they wouldn't have been fighting over Donghyuck also known as the boy they both fell in love with, but who chose Jeno.
"Come on, let's go to the infirmary to disinfect all this, otherwise you'll get infection and you'll get sick." Jaemin said while letting go of his jaw.
"No need Jaem'. I just want to go home and rest."
"Don't argue with me Mark you know you can't win, let's go." Jaemin ordered in a firm tone, letting no room for him to disagree with him.
Mark then sighed in defeat and followed Jaemin who dragged him, Sungchan and Jisung towards the infirmary. He passed in front of Jeno who was being quickly examined by Donghyuck, and he would've liked to not see them there being all lovely dovey, he would've liked to be in Jeno's place but he said nothing and continued on his way as always, ignoring the way how Donghyuck took care of his brother.
After seconds of walking he finished along the corridor and was led into another one, which led to the infirmary—these paths and turns he knew them by heart, but he didn't care too much anymore and let himself be led by his best friend who walked with a determined step, towards his brother's office. The corridors were empty at this hour, as everyone had to be in class so they arrived quickly at their destination.
And he was so focused on an invisible point that he didn't notice the boy with two-tone hair, who came out of the infirmary accompanied by an orange haired boy and three other adults. Jaemin pushed open the office door and he barely had time to say a word, when the nurse sighed heavily when he saw them all—the canadian wanted to crack a faint smile, but he refrained from doing so knowing his best friend's brother's behavior.
"What happened to you Mark?" Doyoung asked mechanically, as he paced around his desk with his med kit in hands.
Mark didn't answer right away, waiting for Doyoung to begin his work to speak. They've always worked that way, and the nurse wasn't even surprised to see him in his office with Jaemin, Sungchan and Jisung. Doyoung applied antiseptic to a sterilized gauze, then he carefully dabbed the canadian's open brow bone who barely reacted to the tingling produced by the antiseptic.
"He fought with Jeno. Again..." Jisung confessed weakly in his corner, emphasizing ont the again in his sentence.
Doyoung applied more pressure to the wound, and Mark hissed in displeasure. Of course, Doyoung had always preferred Jeno to Mark, that wasn't new to him and he could actually defend himself since he didn't start the fight, but what was the point of talking if he was doing it in the void—all that concerned Jeno was important for Doyoung, it was the perks of being Na Jaemin's best friend since the cradle.
"Mark was just defending himself on that one hyung. Jeno's the one who came to provoke him, and who hit him first just because Mark had a talk with his little boyfriend—who by the way walked up to Mark without being asked too..."Jaemin intervened, not liking the treatment Mark was receiving from his brother. "Jeno isn't the angel you think he is, far from it." he mumbled softly as he took a seat on one of the beds strewn across the room with Sungchan, as Jisung stood by the door.
Doyoung sighed softly as he applied a bandage to Mark's now disinfected brow bone, who had decided not to speak and the nurse then started to work on the Canadian's split lip.
Mark had tried to remain numb to the relationship everyone had with Jeno, but it hurt him more than anything. Everyone around him favored his brother, he may be ten times more talented than Jeno, smarter than Jeno, more than anything, Jeno was always the one who people would see first, proof Donghyuck chose Jeno as his boyfriend and Doyoung preferred to punish Mark for fighting with Jeno, not knowing who picked up the fight first and who only defended himself.
He brought his hand to Doyoung's, and removed it from his face before standing up. He was always the bad guy, he was always the one who came last—he knew that Jaemin preferred being with Jeno, they've been best friends since birth, they've grown up together from cradle till now. Mark was just a parasite, who lost both parents in an accident and was adopted at the age of eight by Taeyong and Jeno's parents, nothing more.
"You know what hyung, I'm gonna leave. I'm tired and Jeno and Haechan will be here soon anyway." Mark said flatly with a blank stare.
"Did I tell you I was done with you?" his eldest asked while raising a brow at him. "Sit your ass back Minhyung." he said calmly.
Mark didn't obey and headed for the door grabbing his bag that Jisung was still holding, he waved to his friends as well as his eldest before leaving the office. He walked past Jeno and Donghyuck who were walking towards the room he just left, and his gaze lingered a bit too long on Jeno's hand holding Donghyuck's hand, as they entered the infirmary—instinctively, Mark lowered his head to his worn out converse and headed for the school exit.
*ੈ✧‧₊˚
"Do you like the decor?" his mother asked, as she walked behind him.
Renjun nodded softly, slowly, staring at the white walls of his new room. Boxes were piled up in a corner, and he was in a hurry to unpack them all—to hang his paintings on the empty walls of his room, and above his bed.
"We'll have to go honey, we're taking off soon. But Chenle will be coming home in a few hours." his mother said, running a hand through his two-toned hair. "Ms. Shin has already made and scheduled all your appointments at the hospital, with the doctor until the next school break. She will send the timetable to your school nurse and will update it, but I want you to be as independent as you were back in London—never forget to take your medication and always keep your watch batteries charged." she insisted on the last two points.
Keeping the batteries of his watches full, taking his medication morning, noon and night. Renjun was used to it by now in seventeen years of life, he did it automatically and he didn't complain about it anymore—he had learned to live with his heart problem, which required him to consult a doctor twice to thrice time a month, to have a charged watch permanently on his wrist to monitor the constants of his heart and warn his best friend, or the hospital when he faint after an excessive shock, which his heart cannot bear.
Renjun cracked a bright smile at his mother, then he turned to his father who smiled at him as well. "Don't worry, I always stick to the schedules given by Dr. Smith—I always adjust to jet lag you know it." he informed both his parents.
His father nodded and Renjun smiled again. He could've hated his life, he could've hated his faith but he preferred to embrace it and cherish it because he had a family who loved him more than anything, even if his parents were constantly on business trips, he had a best friend who loved and cared for him—so even though the doctors weren't sure how long he would have to live, that they gave new estimations every year, that he took medicine every day, he kept on always smiling, because what's the point of being sad and upset every day when his life was just a thin line, threatening to give away every day.
His mother approached him, putted a hand on his head, and she came to kiss him on the forehead. "Be careful Jun," she told him between two kisses.
A smile, then a humming like a promise he didn't need to voice out. "You too."
His father smiled weakly in turn and took him quickly in his arms for a tight hug, then he walked them to the door, watched them get into the car parked in front of the gate of his house, and watched them leave. Renjun stood by the door, his arms crossed against his chest as all around there are only large houses, surrounded by railings and composed of a gravel driveway just like his own.
After a moment he went back into the house, closing the door behind him, and went to his room which seemed empty of life, having only a king size bed with a memory foam mattress, a desk to work on, a bathroom equipped with toilets, a dressing room, shelves hung on the walls and he moved immediately, rummaging in his travel bag to pull out a speaker, which he connected to his phone to play his special storage playlist.
Once done, Renjun rolled up his Ralph Laurent sweater's sleeves to the elbows and hastened to open the first box in front of him, where was written in cursive letters « Sheets and curtains ». He pulled out an anti-bugs sheet, which he placed on his bed before placing a cover and a green blanket, then he went on this path. The chinese tidied up his room with music, making his bed, putting away the textbooks he went to get the same morning with his parents and Chenle in school on the shelf above his desk, he putted away his toiletries and his medications in the bathroom dresser compartments.
And he stored his reading books on the shelves, that were placed a little further from his desk before finally arriving at his photos and his paintings box. He opened the box and grabbed a picture from a year ago, a picture of him and Chenle in London before he moved there alone and Chenle moved alone to South Korea.
"I thought you were supposed to wait until I got home so we could start cleaning up."
Renjun smiled even more as he turned to the front door of his room where Chenle was standing, still in uniform but stripped of his school bag. He waved at his best friend to come in, as he finished putting the picture away.
"I didn't think it took so long to tidy up," Renjun admitted with a laugh. "I thought I could start tidying up while waiting for you, as I didn't want to give you more work than anything—you just got home from school." he shook his head with a beaming smile.
Chenle sighed almost dramatically as he at up on his bed. "It would've saved me from doing my homework." he joked, as Renjun gave him a disapproving look. "Just kidding, just kidding!"
The two-tone haired boy rolled his eyes, smiling, as he grabbed another photo. This time a photo of his family, and Chenle's during an event organized for Renjun's 15th birthday in France, in a castle.
Nothing has been easy in Renjun's life since he was born, but as long as he had Chenle and the rest of his family with him—he didn't worry anymore.
🖼️
Coming back here after almost a year and a half of being inactive seems a bit illegal I'll not lie, but I kinda feel nostalgic about staying up at night to write stories—so here I am coming back in here with Markren because they're my confort ship, and I hope I'll stay consistent in writing this because I already have a few chapters written down!
©yaeshua