"Wow, the first major senior party of the year, and we of all people received an invite!" Renjun chirped, grinning at himself in the mirror as he applied a layer of tinted lip oil.
All five of them were gathered in Renjun's bedroom—because he had the most space, and also the largest collection of clothes and makeup—to discuss the party that would be taking place the next day and plan their outfits, as well as work out details like transportation and a possible buddy system for safety measures.
"Are we gonna be, like, the only juniors there?" Jeno chimed in nervously, holding up a leather jacket against his frame as he looked at his reflection in Renjun's floor length mirror. Judging by the way his nose wrinkled in distaste, it was safe to assume that the leather jacket would not be making its debut at the party.
"I don't know, to be honest. I don't know if anybody else asked about it," Mark admitted candidly, scratching at the side of his neck. He was sat on the edge of Renjun's bed, watching quietly as his other four friends scrambled around the room in search of appropriate party outfits.
"It's just like any other party, right? I don't think we have much to worry about," Donghyuck hummed, pulling the leather jacket out of Jeno's hands and holding it up to himself instead. A wide smirk spread across his face as he examined himself, clearly feeling it. Renjun threw Donghyuck an approving thumbs up over his shoulder. Mark didn't really know why, but imagining Donghyuck in that leather jacket made him feel a little weak in the knees.
"Hyuckie!" Jaemin cooed, bouncing forward and wrapping his arms around Donghyuck's torso. It was like ice cold water had been dumped down Mark's back, giving him clarity almost immediately. He shook his thoughts out of his head and tried not to stare at Donghyuck and Jaemin—it oddly just made him want to punch Jaemin in the face the more he looked at them together.
"We should match outfits! Wouldn't that be cute?" Jaemin hummed, resting his head on Donghyuck's shoulder. Donghyuck furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at his blonde friend.
"Huh? Why?" He said dumbly. Renjun and Jeno both stopped what they were doing, both turning to shoot Donghyuck a significant look, almost like a warning. Mark watched them all in confusion.
"Uh... 'cause he's your boyfriend? He wants to do a couple's outfit, Hyuck," Mark said. Donghyuck's eyes went wide, his face turning red.
"Oh yeah! Duh, of course," he laughed awkwardly, slinging an arm over Jaemin's shoulders, "yeah, we can match outfits. That's a great idea, babe."
Mark flinched at the use of the pet name. He tried to be subtle about it, but judging by the look on Jeno's face, he knew he had failed.
"Anyways!" Mark said quickly, clapping loudly to regain attention. All eyes in the room turned back to him. "It may just seem like just another party to you all, but the senior parties are known to be kind of intense. They'll have alcohol there too, but please, for the love of god, don't drink any of it. I don't want to have to be responsible for a bunch of drunk eighteen year olds."
"Aye aye, captain," Jaemin joked, giving Mark a mock salute through the reflection of the mirror with the hand that was not resting on Donghyuck's hip. Mark rolled his eyes at him, trying not to let his gaze linger on the fingers splayed across his best friend's waist.
"We should probably make use of the buddy system, just in case," Renjun hummed, opening a recently purchased bottle of liquid blush and testing it on the back of his hand. Apparently the results were quite pleasing, based off of the approving hum he let out. "How should we partner up? There's gonna have to be one trio."
"Jaemin and Donghyuck are an obvious pair," Jeno snorted, looking pointedly at their two friends. Jaemin was still clinging tightly to Donghyuck, even as the brunette scowled playfully and tried to squirm out of his grip. "I guess you, me, and Mark could be the trio?"
"Fine by me," Mark lied, biting down on his bottom lip. Usually when they grouped off, him and Donghyuck were a pair while Jeno, Renjun, and Jaemin made up the trio. Mark wasn't sure how he felt about Donghyuck being with a partner that wasn't him... or how he felt having two partners without either of them being Donghyuck.
"Great. That solves that, then," Renjun grinned, turning to face Mark. "Hyung, would you mind driving us all? You're the only one with a car."
"I don't mind at all," Mark nodded easily, shooting Renjun an awkward finger gun. Renjun raised an eyebrow at him, an amused grin tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Will everyone fit okay in Mark's car?" Jeno chimed in, looking around and obviously counting in his head.
"If needed, Hyuckie can always sit on my lap," Jaemin purred, nuzzling his face into Donghyuck's neck. Donghyuck blushed, ducking his head and biting the inside of his cheek in obvious embarrassment.
"No need for that," Mark cut in quickly—a little too quickly, actually, if the way everyone turned to look at him quizzically was any indication. Mark flushed, stumbling over his words as he continued. "Uh... I mean, there's five seats in my car. And five of us. So. Yeah, no worries, all good, no lap sitting required."
"Oh-kay..." Renjun drawled, looking over his shoulder at Jeno. The two of them exchanged a look, their eyes glinting with something Mark couldn't quite put his finger on, and it made him shrink into himself self consciously.
"Well, let's all meet back here at about four tomorrow and get ready, and then we can all leave together in Mark's car. Sound good?"
Everyone else in the room let out various noises of agreement. Mark tapped his foot against Renjun's super nice fluffy carpet and tried to push down the anxious feeling that lingered in the back of his mind.
┈ ୨ 🧸 ୧ ┈
They arrived at the party at around 7pm the next day. To their surprise, there were already quite a few people there, but the party still had yet to fill out and really kick into full swing. Mark parked his car along the sidewalk and they all walked up together, knocking and standing on the porch with their hands in their pockets to protect them from the cool breeze.
Mark had shown up looking fairly normal as far as party outfits go—a tight grey tshirt that showed his arms as well as showcased the lean muscles he had worked on building recently, accompanied by black ripped jeans and black boots to match. He hadn't worn any makeup, because he frankly didn't think it looked that good on him, but he had gelled his hair back a little, just enough to look presentable and keep it out of his face.
Renjun had gone for the cutesy look, unsurprisingly, with cute pink eyeshadow, strawberry pink lip gloss and glitter blush, paired with a cute pink cardigan and some casual jeans. He looked soft and adorable, just the way Mark knew Renjun liked himself the best.
Jeno had gone pretty casual too, with a black tee similar to Mark's and distressed navy jeans. Jeno somehow looked ten times hotter in it, though, in Mark's opinion—Mark chalked it up to the fact that he had much more muscle than he did, and was able to fill out the clothes a lot easier.
Jaemin and Donghyuck had ended up not really matching, but their outfits definitely still complimented each other. Jaemin was wearing a denim jacket with leather pants, while Donghyuck was wearing the leather jacket he found at Renjun's house, as well as some ripped denim jeans. Donghyuck had his hair styled in a way that accentuated his natural brown curls and was sporting sparkly lip gloss and smoky eye liner that made his eyes look way more sensual—the "fuck me eyes", as Jaemin had crudely put it. It made Mark unable to look at Donghyuck's face for very long before his mouth suddenly went all dry and his ears burned hot.
The door to the house finally opened, and one of the seniors from the group Mark had talked to the other day appeared in the doorframe. He scanned them all for a moment before his eyes lit up excitedly, reaching out to pull Mark into a surprise bro hug.
"Mark! Glad you made it, man," he chirped. Mark suddenly felt kind of bad for not remembering his name—was it Hyunjin? Hyunshik?
"This must be the junior gang," the boy—Hyunwoo maybe?—remarked teasingly. The four other boys waved politely in response, looking sheepish. The senior's eyes finally landed on Donghyuck, and they shined with mirth. "Hi Donghyuck, good to see you again."
"Hey. Hyunwoo, right?" Donghyuck hummed, and the boy nodded cheerfully in response. Ah ha! It was Hyunwoo!
"Come on in, boys," Hyunwoo said, scurrying off to probably help someone else set stuff up. The five of them walked in and shut the door behind them, and Mark shot Donghyuck a questioning look.
"How do you know him?" He asked, coming off a bit more interrogative than he meant to. Donghyuck's eyes widened a little bit at his tone, but he thankfully didn't comment on it.
"I'm a year ahead of our grade in math, so I ended up in a junior math class last year when I was just a sophomore," Donghyuck explained casually, "he was one of the boys that sat at my table with me. There were others too, all his friends I think, so we'll probably see them all here."
Mark's stomach twisted a little. Was that why all of the seniors planning the party seemed to know and remember Donghyuck? "Are you in a senior math class this year too, then?"
"Nah, I decided to go for a freshman level financial math class. I don't actually like math, so I wanted to take it easy this year since I'm already ahead," Donghyuck mumbled absentmindedly as he scanned the room. Mark was able to breathe a little bit easier knowing Donghyuck was no longer in a class with seniors that seemed to have some sort of weird obsession with him—but he still felt the need to keep him close while they were at the party, just in case. Unfortunately for him, though, his group of friends seemed to have different ideas.
"Should we go walk around for a bit? We could split into our groups," Renjun suggested casually. Mark frowned at him, ready to protest in favor of being able to stay closer to Donghyuck, but Jaemin cut in before he got the chance to voice his opinion.
"Fuck yeah! I wanna look around and mingle," he crooned, bouncing excitedly on his toes, "come on Hyuckie, let's explore."
"Yeah sure," Donghyuck said easily, giving the rest of the friend group a curt little wave before Jaemin dragged him into the next room. Mark felt the color drain from his face, his stomach dropping as he watched his beloved best friend disappear into a crowd of potentially dangerous strangers.
"Come on Hyung," Jeno hummed, poking the older boy's side to urge him to move. Jeno held his arm out for Mark, his other hand already linked with Renjun's.
Mark sighed and looped his arm inside Jeno's, allowing himself to be pulled even further away from the direction Jaemin and Donghyuck had run off in.
He just prayed that Jaemin would be able to protect Donghyuck just as well as he himself was able to—and also hoped that nobody actually tried to hurt his best friend, because he really didn't feel like having to fight another senior.
But he would, for Donghyuck. Anything for Donghyuck.