EPISODE TWELVE → MARK
SYNOPSIS
A drunken mistake lands Mark
in a difficult situation.
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The first thing Mark notices when he wakes up is how bad his head hurts. As soon as he cracks an eye open, a steady pounding starts in his head that makes him groan. How much had he drank last night? The second thing that Mark notices is that he's very much naked. And the third? He wasn't alone.
There's a body on top of his and dark hair tickling his face. The last thing Mark remembered was having a drinking contest with Minhyuk. How had he ended up in bed with someone? But most importantly, who was this girl? He doesn't want to wake her up, so he tries to move as slowly as possible from beneath her.
"Holy shit."
Mark's gaze darts towards the doorway then to find Minhyuk standing there in his boxers. The word "cunt" is written across his forehead in bright red lipstick and he's missing one of his socks. Seriously, just how wasted did they get last night?
"Where's your other sock?" Mark asks with an amused grin, "Actually, where the fuck is the rest of your clothes?"
But Minhyuk doesn't look amused in the slightest. In fact, the frightened look on his face makes Mark frown.
"Mark" Minhyuk starts, pointing at the girl, "Don't you know who that is? That's-"
In that same exact moment the girl groans and rolls over in her sleep. Her hair is removed from her face from the briefest second but that's all it takes for Mark's eyes to widen.
"Man, you're screwed." Minhyuk tells him, rubbing at the lipstick on his forehead.
And Mark can't help but agree, because of all the people he's woken up to in his life, he really wasn't expecting to be able to add Emira Sanchez to the list.
Mark really was screwed.
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"And that is why you shouldn't jerk off continuously in a twenty four hour period or you will sprain your wrist and end up like the unfortunate case of Jeon Jungkook." Che Hyungwon concludes his PowerPoint report, looking over at their teacher, Mr.Sims for his response.
"Thank you Hyungwon for that very informative report." Mr. Sims says after a small pause, "But your project was supposed to be on the functions of the Immune System."
"Are you sure?" Hyungwon asks making Mr. Sims give a forced smile.
"Positive, I even wrote it on the rubric for you." The teacher tells him, frustration evident as he holds up the paper as proof.
"Oh" Hyungwon murmurs, rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly, "So I just failed."
"Not quite, I'll give you a C minus because it was actually very informative." Mr. Sims says making the boy cheer loudly. The teacher rolls his eyes at this before calling out, "Ms. Luong, you're up next."
Hyungwon makes his way back to his desk in the back of the classroom then, only to scream loudly when Lisa Luong passes him on the way to the front.
"Mr. Che, is something wrong?" Mr. Sims asks worriedly as he looks back at the student.
"Yes, a fucking roach just walked past me." Hyungwon gasps, placing his hand on his chest dramatically. Luckily it's so early in the morning that Lisa is just barely awake. She simply flips him off tiredly in response before starting her report. Hyungwon slips into his seat then, accepting the five dollars from Changkyun from the bet they'd made earlier that morning that his last minute report wouldn't get a passing grade.
In the midst of Lisa's report, Emira Sanchez arrives to class. And since she is Mr. Sim's favorite, he doesn't question why she's shown up mere minutes before class is supposed to be over or why she's wearing shades inside.
"So we're just not gonna say anything?" Hyungwon says, staring at Emira who pushes her shades up and ignores him then back to Changkyun who shrugs, "Fine, I guess not."
The bell rings shortly after that and everyone starts to leave the classroom except for Lisa who's still waiting for her grade.
"I don't know, Ms. Luong. You forgot to provide examples and well, your points were all over the place-" Mr. Sims starts, only to swallow nervously when he looks up and Lisa's eyes are narrowed at him. The teacher quickly backtracks then, "What I meant to say was, wonderful work Ms. Luong. A plus for all your hard work!"
"Thanks Simon." Lisa says giving the teacher a small smile before leaving with her classmates.
"Two more years until retirement, Simon." Mr. Sims reminds himself, "Just two more years. You can do it. You can - Oh fuck it."
And with that Simon Sims hurries to his desk in search of his stash of emergency whiskey.
"Em, what the hell are you doing girl?" Lisa asks, an amused look on her face when she walks out of the classroom to find Emira leaning against a nearby wall, staring off into space with her shades on.
"Notice anything different about me?" Emira asks making Lisa scrunch her nose when the other girl starts doing a series of weird facial expressions.
"Besides the fact that you're acting like a complete fucking weirdo, no. Why?" Lisa says, cocking her head to the side when Emira starts to walk weirdly as well. The Vietnamese girl places a hand in front of her friend, stopping her in her tracks to ask, "Did you accidentally do coke again?"
"No" Emira tells her, smiling dreamily as she adds, "I wish."
"Okay, then why are you acting like Hyungwon after his first blow job?" Lisa responds with a grin that quickly disappears when Emira hesitates, "Oh no, Em tell me you didn't-"
But of course, when Lisa chances a glance at Emira's finger, there's no purity ring in sight. In her shock, Lisa grabs her best fiend by her hand and pulls her all the way to the girl's bathroom where she pushes her friend inside.
"Bitch-" Lisa starts, seemingly struggling for words as she motions to her friend and finally manages an, "Explain."
"Let's just say I did more than attend Mark Tuan's party last night." Emira informs her, wiggling her eyebrows. When Lisa simply stares at her in shock, the Sanchez girl starts to do a series of dancing that grow more embarrassing with time.
"Okay, first of all, stop embarrassing us in here." Lisa tells her when she notices the other girl's are staring at them. Emira giggles at this making Lisa shake her head as she continues, "Second of all, I can't believe you hooked up with Mark Tuan. That's not fair. Bitch you get all the cute guys. Mark, Wonho-"
"Wonho?" Emira repeats with a confused look, but Lisa just shakes her head.
"Oh Em-" She says as she guides the other girl out of the bathroom, "I'm going to pray for you, honey, because you've got a big storm coming your way."
✖✖✖
"Would you cut it out?" Mark complains to Minhyuk when the other boy glances around them with a paranoid expression for the fifth time that day.
"At any moment Kim Taehyung could show up with his signature bat to come bash that little pretty boy face of yours in and you're just going to sit there and eat fucking French Fries?" Is Minhyuk's paranoid response that makes Mark roll his eyes.
"Pretty much." He says with a shrug.
"Wow Mark, you're more stupid than I thought." Minhyuk tells him, "I'm clearly the brain in this friendship. And the beauty as well. What are you even contributing again?"
"French Fries." Mark replies dryly, tossing one at his best friend, "Here, have one and chill the fuck out."
"I'm honestly shocked at how easy you've accepted death. Because once Kim Taehyung and his friends find out that you did that with Emira, they're going to kill you. Please tell me you realize that, Mark."
"I doubt it." Mark says with nonchalance, "It was a drunken mistake."
"Okay" Minhyuk says simply and Mark finallly thinks the younger is calming down until he adds, "Make sure you tell that to Taehyung when he shows up with his bat."
"It was a mistake." Mark repeats much more firmly, but Minhyuk simply stares at him blandly as he stabs at his salad.
"Is that what you're going to tell Shin Hoseok when he-"
"Minhyuk" Mark warns finally, sighing as he adds, "You're not helping."
"Okay" Minhyuk says simply as he plucks at his salad, "I'm going to be quiet and try to help you get your last meal in. Because once Taehyung beats your teeth out you're going to have a hard time eating, Mark-"
Luckily before Mark can reach across the table and strange his best friend, someone slips onto the bench beside him.
"Hey" Emira says with a small smile that Mark can't help but return. It was hard not to feel slightly nervous in her presence. Emira was pretty and Mark hadn't really noticed just how much until now. But unfortunately, whatever moment they're having is ruined my Minhyuk who hurries over to their side of the table and squeezes his way in between them.
"Some of us aren't ready to die yet." He claims dramatically, trying to create as much space between the two as possible. Mark rolls his eyes at this. Seriously, why was he best friends with someone like Minhyuk?
"What is he talking about?" Emira asks with an amused smile. But before Mark can reply, Minhyuk beats him to it.
"Hello sweetheart, I'm Minhyuk. We have Graphic Design together." He says, holding out his hand to the girl as he adds, "You know the same class that Wonho gives your heart eyes in-"
"Oh no, don't tell me you believe in that stupid rumor going around that he likes me." Emira says, rolling her adds before she clarifies, "Wonho is my best friend."
And of course, Minhyuk doesn't buy it.
"Oh wow, best friends forever, huh? Is that what you're going to tell him before or after he asks you to explain why you did a 360 on Mark's dick last night-" He says making Emira's eyes widen and Mark turn to him with a look of disbelief.
"Excuse me" Emira looks genuinely surprised by Minhyuk's words and Mark feels slightly bad. Minhyuk could be too much for anyone who wasn't him.
"Minhyuk-" Mark starts threateningly, "Fuck off"
And his best friend seems to pick up on his tone because he stands up, grabbing his container of salad.
"I'm going to sing at your funeral." Minhyuk claims dramatically before leaving.
"Sorry, he's..." Mark trails off because there are no words to describe Minhyuk really.
"He reminds me of one of my friends." Emira tells him with a giggle before she seems to remember something and calms herself down enough to ask, "Hey, I was wondering if you might want to hang out with my friends and I? Think of it as my personal way to move past what happened last night. So, what do you say?"
"Uh-" And Mark hesitates because he wants to say no. He really does. But how can he when Emira Sanchez is giving him such a pretty smile? It makes him shrug and smile as well, but most importantly it makes him give in with a simple, "Sure."
And that's how Mark Tuan finds himself being pulled across the courtyard by a very tight grip Emira Sanchez has on his hand. They pass Minhyuk on the way to their destination and Mark has to resist the urge to roll his eyes when the boy calls out, "It's your funeral, Mark!"
When they arrive to Emira's friend's usual table, none of them are actually seated. Mark swallows nervously when he spots Kim Taehyung with his signature bat, though he was simply pretending to play golf with Changkyun with it. Wonho and Hyungwon are standing off to the side, but when Wonho spots them he smiles brightly in Emira's direction. Mark also can't help but note just how fast Emira drops his hand when this happens.
"You caught us right on time, Em. We were just about to leave." Wonho greets her with a smile.
"An adventure?" Emira says with a bright grin as she hops on his back, "Where are we going?"
"You're not going." Hyungwon informs her as he watches Wonho spin her around on his back, "Tae is about to beat some guy's face in-"
Mark really wished he didn't feel as nervous as he did hearing those words. Luckily, his anxiousness was relived when Hyungwon continued.
"He's a jock asshole which means he's going to have back up. And he goes to that school across town, so you can't really tag along this time Em."
Emira pouts at this.
"That sucks. But what'd he do to make Tae bring out the bat?"
"He was giving Lisa a hard time at that party the other night." Wonho informs her with a frown, "Apparently the guy has a hard time with the word no."
"I'm sure he'll be very familiar with it by the time Tae is finished with him. Poor guy doesn't know what kind of shit storm is headed his way." Hyungwon says before his eyes land on Mark and they widen significantly, "Holy shit you're Mark Tuan."
"Yeah" Mark mumbles awkwardly because now that they finally noticed him he felt slightly out of place.
"Your uncle is like a real life scarface or some shit. I've always looked up to him since I was little. I've always wanted to be a really crazy drug dealer ever since I was like seven." Hyungwon says before turning to Emira with a confused look, "Wait, how do you two know each other?"
Mark watches the way Emira cringes at the question, clearly not expecting it.
"He's my friend." She answers finally, "And he wanted to hang out with us today because his friend was being a dick."
"Well you're more than welcome to tag along." Wonho tells Mark with a warm smile as he lets Emira down from his back.
It's the first time anyone has accepted him this quickly and Mark is briefly blindsided by that fact. People were usually either too eager to befriend him because of his uncle's reputation or too afraid. Mark had a hard time avoiding being used because of this. Minhyuk had been his friend long before his uncle had taken their city's drug world by storm. And while he was thankful for his sole friend, Mark had always wished for more. Minhyuk couldn't be with him all the time and Mark hated how lonely he got when the other wasn't around.
And here Emira was, trying to get him accepted into her group of friend's. He didn't want to seem ungrateful. So Mark decided he'd give Kim Taehyung and his group a chance. Besides, as long as he stayed quiet about his drunken mistake with Emira, what could go wrong?
"What's this? Mark, you're coming too?" Taehyung asks, grinning when Mark nods. Thought the two weren't close by any means, once Taehyung stopped doing deals through Foster, he and Mark started running into each other a lot more often in terms of drug deals. Mark's uncle was one of Foster's biggest rivals. But surprisingly, even when he was still working for Foster, Mark and Taehyung had always gotten along well. And Mark was hoping that for that very same reason that just in case his little secret with Emira did slip out, that the liking Taehyung seemed to have taken with him might save him a little bit. He could always hope, right?
"Well let's not keep that jock asshole waiting then." Taehyung announces, almost hitting Changkyun in the face when he swings his bat over his shoulder with a grin, "I am so going to enjoy knocking that bastard's skull in."
"We'll catch you later then?" Wonho says to Emira who waves them off.
"Try not to kill anyone!" She calls after them with a sweet smile making Hyungwon grin as he slings his arm around Mark's shoulder.
"Welcome to a day in the life of a Teenage Dirtbag, Mark Tuan." He says, pretending to hold a microphone in his free hand while Changkyun pulls out his phone to record, "I'll be your tour guide, Che Hyungwon. And over the course of the next few hours you'll learn everything there is to know about being a complete fuck up in life. And hopefully by the end of this you'll know everything there is to know about being a Teenage Dirtbag. Here we go."
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
ahxhxjdjddb - pls don't kill me 🙃🙃🙃 lol
ik the MarkXEm seems rlly random but when i planned this story that's who she was supposed to end up with this whole time 😩 but now i love WonhoXEmira and im a conflicted author lol
let's just see how this unfolds 😬😬😬