There were many things in life that brought Donghyuck a great amount of frustration. One was the strange habit that Jaemin had developed over the years where he would bombard his phone with hundreds of pictures of just his feet. It was weird, Donghyuck didn't like it (but he still had an album full of them on his phone so that the day he got the green-light from their manager he could post them online just to scare their fans). Another thing he hated with a strong passion was when he would be left on seen, and not just over text, but instead in real life, for example, the way Mark would nod at his words - his questions - and then start up a conversation with someone else. He was clearly not paying attention to him or even just simply listening.
Now, Donghyuck would've been fine if he just told him that he was busy or in the middle of something and so wasn't listening to him, but whenever Donghyuck would ask him what was up the older boy would spout out an incredibly obvious excuse before hurrying away.
In other words, he was ignoring Donghyuck.
And so, with a frown on his face, Donghyuck took heavy and loud steps to the dance studio, ready to speak about feelings and feel awkward with Mark again. It was needed, unfortunately.
"Hyung," he said the moment he opened the door, not even checking around the room to see who he would be talking over or interrupting. Suddenly, all the heads in the room snapped over to look at him and he felt heat creep up his neck. "I meant Mark Hyung."
The boy mentioned turned to him with a startled look on his face (it looked pretty cute, but Donghyuck wasn't exactly in the mood to say something like that out loud just to fluster Mark). The others lost interest and Mark slowly walked through the small crowd around the room and finally reached Donghyuck by the door.
He glanced around himself and then raised an eyebrow. "What's up?"
"Let's go to the cafeteria together." Donghyuck made a move to grab his wrist, but then Mark flinched before he even touched him and swiftly hid his arm behind him.
"Could we talk here?" Those that weren't interested began to take second looks at them, wondering why they were whispering in the corner of the room, exactly why Donghyuck wanted to go speak somewhere else.
Donghyuck didn't understand why Mark was being so cautious of him. It was obvious that he was still shaken up by the incident that took place not long ago, but he didn't have to act so awkwardly. It was difficult for Donghyuck to handle as well, it wasn't as if he was the only one who experienced the feeling of attraction towards a friend.
Ignoring the faint hostility in Mark's voice, Donghyuck took a step back and leaned against the door. "You look tired, wanna nap for a little while?"
Mark shook his head and smiled at him. "I'm not tired. Plus, the others were thinking about watching a movie later on. If I take a nap then when I wake up I'll be too exhausted to watch it."
Donghyuck nodded at his logic before giving up on acting civil. He leaned forwards and grabbed Mark's arm, forcing it back to his front even when he tried escaping his reach. "Hyung," he whispered into his ear, a little tired of playing this small game of pretending. "Did I do something wrong?"
Mark hurriedly pushed him away, his hand coming up to cover the lower part of his face. "No, you didn't. But I will get angry if you do that again."
Before Donghyuck has the chance to say anything else, Mark spun on his heels and rushed over to the closest person, already starting a conversation about something random.
Donghyuck felt embarrassed when Jungwoo shot him a look of concern from across the room. Huffing to himself, Donghyuck left the room, angrily making his way to the cafeteria on his own. Mark was definitely avoiding him and the reason was getting more obvious the more they spoke and honestly, it was getting a bit annoying. Was this how the others felt when Donghyuck did the same to them?
-
The drive back to the dorms was filled with small whispers between them, all of them conserving energy to watch a movie after such a hectic day. Something happened with one of their recordings so they were called back to redo them and from then on more things kept coming up. To say the least, Donghyuck was tired and wasn't looking forward to the movie.
By the time they had reached a few of them had already fallen asleep, their heads banging against the window every time the van stopped. Donghyuck's original plan to stop Mark in the hallway so that he could speak to him gets destroyed as Mark gets dragged out of the car by Jungwoo before Donghyuck could even step out. Letting a sigh slip out, Donghyuck began to make his way there slowly when Johnny wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close.
"Yo," he spoke softly, being mindful of those around him. "What's wrong? Why do you look so down?"
Donghyuck looked at him from the corner of his eye and sighed again, tilting his head to lean against Johnny's arm. "I'm just a little tired, Hyung. Don't worry. And anyway, I plan to resolve the thing bothering me tonight."
Johnny looked at him with this proud smile and it ticked Donghyuck off. He elbowed the other playfully before getting his hair ruffled a little too roughly. "Good luck. Donghyuck acted as though he didn't need his words of luck, but honestly, he felt like they were the only things helping him go through with his second plan.
"Want something to eat?" Donghyuck asked Mark when they were all getting ready to watch the movie. The popcorn and other snacks were already getting passed around, but from the way Mark's stomach had grumbled Donghyuck knew he wanted something more filling.
"You don't have to," Mark chuckled before nodding when Donghyuck's own growling stomach decided to reply and pulled a seat into the kitchen. He placed his chin in his palm before leaning onto the counter. "This reminds me of all our other midnight snacks."
Donghyuck took a look at the clock and burst into laughter. "It's not even nearly 7 pm, what do you even mean, 'our other midnight snacks'."
"Well," Mark's slightly red face turned to be buried in his hands and he mumbled the rest of his sentence. "It feels like it's night. It's dark outside, I'm pretty tired and we're having food that we'd normally have past twelve.".
Donghyuck hummed back mindlessly and Mark began to ramble about things he wasn't the most interested in. But he continued to act as though he was, it felt nice to be spoken to by Mark after so long (it was only a few days, but after being surrounded by him all the time, even if it was only for a short period of time, it still felt like a daily routine).
"Thanks," Mark said once he finished eating. He placed the bowl to the side and the two sat together in silence, the sound of the movie they were supposed to be watching playing in the background and the focus of the others was there. This is it, Donghyuck thought, taking a deep breath before turning to Mark.
"Hey, Hyung?" He spoke quietly, hoping that the others wouldn't be able to hear him. Mark froze in his seat but nodded nonetheless when Donghyuck repeated himself. "About what happened the other day, are you acting like this because of that?"
At first, Mark sat still. He looked as though he was in deep thought, so Donghyuck remained silent. Then Mark began to shake his leg, and with his leg came his fingers tapping the seat. With all of that Mark's face heated up and he shut his eyes tightly. "Look, Donghyuck, I don't want you to think I'm doing this because I was disgusted or anything."
"That never crossed my mind," Donghyuck smiled and curled his finger around Mark's pinky. "I know you aren't like that."
"Yeah, thanks," Mark's voice faltered and he chewed down on his lips. "You see, it's all just a bit-"
"Confusing?" Donghyuck provided with a raise of an eyebrow.
He nodded. "A little confusing, a little quick. I mean, we just got back to being friends."
Donghyuck hummed in agreement before leaning his head on Mark's shoulder. "You know," he paused and fiddled with his fingers, only now realising that he should've thought about what to say if Mark actually listened to him. Now that they were here all sensible ideas left his mind. "We don't have to think too hard about this right now. I'm going off to do promotions with Dream soon, they asked me if I could stay over with them for a few days. You've got your own plans to go along with," he raised his head and looked up at Mark. "You get what I'm trying to say right?"
"Take some time and collect our thoughts?" Mark offered, chuckling when Donghyuck gave him a short round of applause. "Even if we are, you know, going to think things through, can I still?"
Donghyuck's brain took a while to process that, trying to understand what his question was suggesting before he finally got it. With wide eyes, Donghyuck took a deep breath and brought it to Mark's cheek, caressing it softly. "I'll only let this slide once." He knew that wasn't true and so did Mark, and yet the two still took their time cutting the space between them.
"Alright," Mark whispered back, his breath fanning over Donghyuck's cheeks, a fond expression plastered on his face. "Only once."
As he spoke he pressed his lips against Donghyuck's, the feeling unusual and new. Mark felt Donghyuck slip his hand around his head and pull him closer. It was clear they were trying to make the most of the one chance they had restricted themselves to, but then a snore from behind them snapped them out of their fantasy. Mark was the first to lean back, amazed by the expression on Donghyuck's face, and turned away with a smile.
"I'm gonna head to bed early." Mark rushed out of the room and went straight for his room. Donghyuck watched his back as he disappeared down the corridor. He glanced over to the others in the room and caught Johnny's eyes. The older boy tilted his head to the door and nodded, mouthing something along the lines of 'go'.
"I'll also," Donghyuck cleared his throat as he stood up from the seat, only barely managing to save himself from a great fall as he made his way to the door. "I'll also go now, night guys."
The door shut behind him and they all slumped in their seats. "Thank you Jungwoo," Taeil said from where he was hiding his face. "If they kissed for any longer in front of us I probably would've cried."
Taeyong laughed from behind him and shook his head. "Let kids be kids."