after spending the rest of his night packing and basically stressing over what to bring for a week's vacation—making sure he didn't miss or forget anything—he finally finished.
even though he gained something by staying up all night, like finishing a little bit of his school work that he didn't want to stress about over the break and packing the things he needed for the vacation, he did miss sleep, like a lot.
now here he is, standing in front of jeno's van, together with four other sleepy heads—jeno not being included in that count as he was too excited to even feel sleep inside him—contemplating whether this vacation is even worth it or if he has to back out and stay in his bed for a week.
when they all loaded their bags at the back of the vehicle, and as they settled themselves in that's where he realized that jeno got a personal driver for this trip. how rich is this man? donghyuck thought to himself.
with donghyuck not being close to everyone, he kind of distanced himself from them and stayed beside jaemin the whole time. he even asked the younger to sit next to him.
he's surprised that he somewhat managed jeno to approve of this. i mean, jeno and jaemin are basically glued every single time he sees them. they may not say it but donghyuck's well aware that something is going on between them two.
although he still thinks that the older was just doing him a favor because even though he let him sit next to jaemin for the rest of the trip, he can a feel a gaze on him every so often. it's like someone is watching his every move just because he was sitting next to him but it's obviously just because jeno wanted to sit next to jaemin.
when he finally felt like jeno averted his gaze away from him, he nudged the sleepy male beside him. "jaemin." he whispered, yet loud enough to stir the younger from his sleep. "hey, jaemin."
"what do you want?" with his eyes still closed, jaemin responded.
"i think jeno's mad at me." he said as his eyes remained at jeno from afar, "he's been looking at me this whole time, and i know it's because he wanted to sit next to you."
"you're crazy." was the only thing the younger said before drifting back to his sleep.
and just as donghyuck predicted it, jeno once again turned his head around to look at him. he took this as a queue to look away and pretended like he was looking outside the window.
he sighed and looked around for unoccupied seats. he knows that renjun and yangyang are sitting behind them, so he looks to the other side of the vehicle and sees an empty seat next to hendery.
just as he was about to leave his seat, jeno appeared in front of him, "you can sit here if you want." he said. he didn't even wait for what the male was about to say as he already knew what he had come here for.
"a-are you sure?" jeno rubbed his nape awkwardly as he looked away. was i too obvious? he thought to himself.
"yup!" donghyuck only shoots him a nervous smile before grabbing his things and went over to an empty seat he was looking at earlier.
and immediately after he left his seat, jeno already took his spot. this only made him release a breathy laugh. he knew jeno too well and they're not even that close.
"um... hi?" donghyuck started as he went over to hendery's, "do you mind if i sit here?"
the latter's eyes widened, but he tried to keep his cool, "sure!" hendery responded, looking away as soon as possible as he felt like his face was getting hot. he also realized that this meant donghyuck would be sitting next to him for the whole ride. that thought is not helping him, as his face is probably so red right now.
turns out, donghyuck was right. all he needed was to switch seats with jeno and he'll be comfortable throughout the whole ride, as he doesn't feel like someone is watching him every minute. not only that but hendery beside him didn't say a word to him. which is understandable considering that this is their second time meeting each other.
and for yangyang and renjun—they're in their own world. donghyuck would always catch the two being touchy with each other, he guessed that there was something going on between the two, and that's probably why yangyang suggested inviting the male on the trip.
maybe jeno's friend isn't as bad as i thought. he thought to himself.
the ride didn't take that long, as after an hour and a half, they finally got to their destination. they all hopped out of the vehicle to take a good look at their surroundings and the beach house in front of them.
everyone was so excited to look at the house that they forgot about their bags at the back of their vehicle, leaving donghyuck and jeno outside. he noticed that the male opened the back to get their bags out, so he figured he could offer him help. maybe this can be a start to getting on their good side, knowing that he's going to be spending a week with them.
"let me help you." donghyuck said as he started grabbing a few bags.
"oh what? you should've followed jaemin inside and explore the house!"
"yeah, i can do that later, i just want to help with this." he breathes out a laugh.
"alright, i'm going to bring this inside," jeno said as his hands started to get full, "i'll call for help inside, too."
"sure!"
donghyuck was glad he didn't back out last minute because this vacation is just something he need. he hasn't even seen the inside of the beach house, but just by looking at the surroundings, he knows it'll be stunning. far away from stress, from school, and stress from that guy.
"um... jeno said you need help?"
the younger heard a voice that made him avert his head away from observing his surroundings. "yep! just the bags—" he froze as a frown made its way onto his face, "mark?!"
"oh hey!" mark greeted with a huge grin on his face.
"what're you doing here—don't tell me you're here because of our project?!" he panics. but the older on the other side only started picking up the rest of the bags that the younger couldn't carry, "oh come on, we're on a break. are you really—"
"cute." the older smirks, acting like he doesn't hear what the latter is blabbing about.
"what now?"
"let's go inside, hurry." mark said as he closed the back of the vehicle.
with a bewildered look on donghyuck's face he still followed the older nonetheless. thinking that maybe someone inside can explain why he's here.
and maybe he did got the explanation he needed because the moment jeno saw the two, especially mark, was just casually telling him to drop the bags on the living room. do they know each other? he thought to himself.
"yo mark! your place looks so good!" yangyang shouted from the second floor.
"guys, can i claim a room already?" hendery shouted as well; even though you couldn't see him, his voice echoed in the whole house.
"just go ahead, hendery." mark responded, laughing as he started walking towards the kitchen.
now donghyuck is really confused. he started following the older, "hold on, you own this house?" and why does it look like everyone already knows you?
"it's actually my grandpa's, but he placed it under my name." he sat at one of the bar stools in the kitchen, and there they met jeno and jaemin.
"oh? you guys know each other?" jeno asked, seeing the sit next to each other, "i was just about to introduce mark to you but i guess it's not needed anymore."
"yeah, we got partnered up for a project." mark shrugs.
"oh! so is he the one you told me about?" jaemin asked donghyuck.
donghyuck's eyes widened; the younger's question sounded like he would talk about him in their conversation, which was completely not the case. he averted his eyes towards mark, and there he saw him with a familiar smirk on his face. this just means that he's likely thinking the same thing.
"that's not what he meant." he clarified, almost shouting, which confused both jaemin and jeno in front of them.
mark only chuckles, "do you guys want to look around outside?" he asks, changing the topic.
the ideas seemed exciting for jeno and jaemin as they both quickly dropped whatever they were talking about and agreed to it. they didn't even wait for the two and rushed outside to check the seashore which was only a few steps away from the house.
mark was about to do the same, not until he heard donghyuck chasing him, "hey! you know that doesn't mean i'm talking about you to jaemin, right?" he didn't know why he was still caught on this, but it's just had something to do with the way mark smirked earlier.
"sure," mark smirked, yet again, "i will pretend not to know that you already told your best friend about me."
"i just said that's not what jaemin meant!"
———
the afternoon passed quickly, and the sun was already setting. everyone had their early dinner, took a good look around at the house, including the first and second floor, the outside of the house, and now they're at the seashore.
four of them had just finished seeing the sunset, they all decided to take a day off to relax and settle down. they also wanted to go swimming on the beach tomorrow—it was a clear agreement. both jaemin and jeno then started heading back to the house, donghyuck saw this and started doing the same.
not until he felt something wet on his back. confused, he turned around and saw the older with a teasing smile on his face after he purposely splashed donghyuck with water.
"what's your problem?!" the younger exclaims.
the older didn't budge though, instead, he continued to splash donghyuck once again. "my bad, i slipped."
donghyuck looked back to jaemin and jeno, looking for some sort of help but the two were already a few feet away from him. "that's it." he then bent down to reach for the water and started doing the same to mark.
after the older saw this, it just made him splash even harder towards the younger.
they were so focused on getting each other back that they never noticed how wet their clothes are.
after seeing jaemin and jeno back, hendery furrows as he starts looking around. "where's donghyuck and mark?"
confused, jeno and jaemin looked at each other and behind them. they thought the two were just right behind them. "i swear they were just following us." jeno said. he then looked back at their trail and at shore, and exactly they saw mark and donghyuck walking back to the house, with their clothes soaking wet, from the distance.
"what's with donghyuck's face?" jaemin squints his eyes, as he tries to read his best friend from the distance.
as the two slowly started to get close, it became clear to them that mark is the only one laughing while donghyuck, on the other hand, is the only one with an irritated look.
"what happened to you—"
"where are my clothes?!" donghyuck yells as he started looking around. "and where can i change?!"
"mark, what did you do now?" jeno sighs as he looks the older, it seems like he's the only one having fun right now while everyone is confused.
"oh donghyuck, your bag's right here." yangyang said, pointing at the bag next to him on the couch.
quickly, the male made his way towards his things and started making his way upstairs. "every room upstairs is occupied, just so you know." renjun said, halting donghyuck's movements.
"all of them?" he looked at them confused.
"yup! we all started claiming ours the moment we got here!" renjun told as he looked at the younger with a cheesy smile. "there's only two rooms upstairs. hendery is sharing a room with us, and jeno and jaemin is sharing one, i guess."
"then where's my room?"
"there's one room here, it's along that hallway." hendery said, talking about the unoccupied room he saw on the first floor.
"thanks." donghyuck replied, deadpan. with that, he disappeared.
"alright, good night everyone." yangyang yawns as he stood up from his seat.
"i guess we should sleep early since we have a lot do for tommorow," jaemin said, "good night."
jeno gave mark a pat on his shoulders, "good night." he yawns while scratching his hair.
finally drying himself off, donghyck took a small towel from his bag to dry his hair.
a sigh fell on his lips, "so childish." donghyuck voiced out his thoughts as he remembered what the older did to him earlier. he could only roll his eyes and scoff every time he thought about it.
"who is?"
a voice appeared from behind the younger, startling him. he turned around and saw mark standing by the door. "w-what are you doing here?!" surprised, his hand unconsciously made its way on his shorts, feeling like it was too short for the older to see. he wouldn't be wearing this if he knew someone would just barged in in his room.
the older shrugs as he welcomed himself in, locking the door behind him. he makes his way to the bed making a space for him to lie down. "i should be asking the same thing."
"what do you mean? they said this is the only unoccupied room." donghyuck told, still confused. did he not see him make his way to this room?
"well, the unoccupied room you guys are talking about is my room." he told.
donghyuck's face just went from confused to surprised as he started looking around. the room was decorated well. it has a dresser—he hasn't checked if there are clothes belonging to someone because why does he need to do that—a few posters on the wall, and a computer set up.
now that he has taken a good look at it, it has occurred to him that it does look like someone's room. he thought it was just furnished this way.
"why didn't say anything when you saw me walking up here, then?" donghyuck released a frustrated sigh as he started walking towards the door, "whatever. i'm going to jaemin's room."
"i'm pretty sure you don't want to hear whatever they're going to do tonight." mark said in order to stop donghyuck from his tracks.
"then... i-i'm going to yangyang's room!"
"bed's not big enough for four people there." the older argues once again.
donghyuck stammers as he starts to look around. why does mark argument have to be so right. "i'm sleeping on the couch." he didn't wait for what the older was about to say and continued to unlock the door.
"you're going to make me look like a bad host." mark quickly got up from the bed and held the younger by his wrist, "i never said you couldn't sleep here. my bed's big enough for two people."