Work Text:
Donghyuck swears he’s about to have a heart attack. His palms are sweaty, head spinning, and damn, he’s kinda half hard for some stupid reason, but that’s not important. He shifts in his seat to properly hide his phone under is desk as his math teacher Mr. Kim begins to drone on about cos and tan, and sin, and all that great math stuff.
Wh(yuck)ore
na Jaemin im going to kill myselffff
huge frucking sos rn like sos sososososos
naNA
JAemIN LOSTENT i stg if you don’t answer meeeee
auntie nana
w
what
hoe its gym w renjun u cant pull me away from this
Wh(yuck)ore
no no no nana
malrk leeeeee
sos
auntie nana
fvck
omw now to the science toilettes
Donghyuck’s hands shoots into the air at the speed of light. Mr. Kim makes eye contact with him and continues to speak without so much as a pause. Of course, Donghyuck isn’t too surprised and waves his arm around for a little bit, even making a little dance with his fingers making the girl behind him giggle.
Mr. Kim sighs. He looks down at his slacks in dismay then says, “Yes, Mr. Lee?”
“Can I please go to the washroom?” Donghyuck gives him a fake look of longing.
“Go ahead and remember 10 minutes tops.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kim!” Donghyuck jumps out of his chair and busts out of the door. He speed walks down the hall, smiling at the office lady as to not draw attention to his haste. Finally he kicks open the science hall washroom door and shouts, “Na Jaemin, you better be here!”
“Stop yelling!” Jaemin shouts back at him angrily and pushes him self away from the tiled wall he was leaning on. He was in his gym strip and for some stupid reason Donghyuck couldn’t figure out, he’d pulled some red socks up to his knees and thrown his fluffy hair into a apple bun. No wonder his crush, Renjun, thought he was a little weird and eccentric.
“No, I’m having a crisis!”
“Hyuck, you’re always having a crisis,” Jaemin states, “you called me last night crying because you’re dad finished the chocolate milk without telling you.”
“I’ll never be able to look at my dad the same again,” Donghyuck sways grabbing at his chest dramatically.
Jaemin sighs. “I swear to fucking god this better be good, Renjun is in a tank top today and I’d like to ogle him as long as possible thanks.”
“Of course it’s good!” Donghyuck scoffs, “It’s Mark Lee. There’s nothing better.”
Jaemin shakes his head. “I can think of many things better then that noodle head senior.”
“That was last year, oh my god let it go, Nana, the look lasted like a month before he went to that gorgeous light pink that accentuated his jaw so perfectly and made his eyes look so soft and hazel, god that was one hell of a look on him.”
“Woah,” Jaemin mutters. “Let’s not get side tracked by old news, come on, Yuckie.”
“Right, right, so of course, I go to English early siked to see Mark’s cute little bunny nose, and then I realise that Mark isn’t there yet and so I was like, ‘that’s it, I’m ready to die,’ then he walks in and get this,” Donghyuck pauses staring at him expectantly.
“What, what?” Jaemin chants.
“There was only 3 other people in the room and we were all spread out, and Mark, this fucking, piece of fucking amazing peer tutor, walks to the seat next to me and sits down.” Donghyuck’s words turns into a squeal at which Jaemin begins to excitedly yowl along.
“I know!” Donghyuck squeals and practically vibrates with excitement.
“Listen dude, that’s like a huge fucking step oh my god,” Jaemin held up his little hands to him and they held onto each other as they bounced around in a circle, squeaking all the while.
“And then and then,” Donghyuck stops them abruptly, “He proceeds to make sarcastic comments about the teacher the whole class, he’s so dorky and funny, I’m in love, with this man, Jaemin, he owns my ass, I can’t even.”
There’s a squeak of a shoe on the washroom tile and the flush of a toilette. Donghyuck freezes, hands still in Jaemin’s and they both turn towards to sound. The click of the lock from the third stall to the left, the one with the drawing of cockrocket done with different coloured Sharpies, seems to echo through the room and in that moment Donghyuck knew he had fucked up.
Mark emerges from the stall and keeps his eyes down, he walks right past the two half embracing teenagers and turns on the tap. He squirts some soap into his hands and lathers them up. He rinses, then grabs a paper towel and dries his hands as he walks out the washroom, without saying a single word.
The two boys don’t move for almost a whole minute, even after the washroom door slams shut. Then Donghyuck makes eye contact with Jaemin and bursts into tears.
***
Mark sprints to the other side of the school once the washroom door slams shut. He fumbles with his phone and he clumsily races to his car parked just down the street. He throws his bag back into the passenger side while jumping into his little green Honda and immediately calls Taeyong.
Mark swears he’s about to have a heart attack. He needs to breath, but instead groans angrily and puts his phone on speaker, thinking of every swear word he could to vocalize his anger and disappointment that Taeyong hasn’t freaking answered him yet.
Mark glances at the clock again and swears for real this time, realising that his little moment lost him another precious minute he needs to get to work on time. Mark shoves his key into ignition and pulls out of his parking space and onto the road. The coffee shop he works at is only a five minute drive, but with the traffic he knows its going to be a tight ride.
“Hello?” Taeyong’s voice sounds over the speaker.
“Hyung, oh my god, finally, it’s Mark.” He manages to catch the first stop light and swears silently. “I’m going to kill myself, Taeyong hyung.”
“Woah wait what!” Yuta voice suddenly shouts. There is some rustling on the other end and Mark know he chose the wrong time to call.
“I think the fuck not, Mark what the hell are you thinking, and are you driving right now?” Doyoung frets as well over the phone. “Taeyong, he’s fucking driving, we have to go find him. It’s not good to drive while in a state of high emotion!”
“The only one with high emotion right now is you,” Yuta snaps.
“Guy’s are you-” Taeyong starts, but Ten cuts him off.
“If you’re going to kill yourself make it look like an accident. Maybe like drive off a cliff or something,” Ten higher pitch voice finally adds and in the background Mark is positive he heard every one else in the room sigh. Mark hit his head on the steering wheel gently, he definitely chose the wrong time.
“What the fuck you guys?” Mark shouts, it had to be the one time they were studying together. Taeyong and Yuta were some seniors he’d met when he was still a freshman in the school’s drama program, they’d stayed friends since then, even now, with them in the second year of university. Doyoung and Ten, who were grade elevens at the time, also became his friends and somewhere along the line, if they were friends with Taeyong and Yuta, they met Mark sooner or later, resulting in the never ending amount of hyungs Mark had to keep up with. “I called Taeyong, not you three!”
The light turns green and he starts forwards again, keeping his eyes peeled.
“We’re a package deal, Mark,” Yuta sneers, “You should know this by now.”
“Sadly he’s right,” Taeyong laments.
“Why are you going to kill yourself, if you don’t mind us asking?” Ten asks and suddenly there’s a swallow sound of a smack in the background and a yelp.
“He called us to tell us, stupid!” Dogyoung said.
“He called me actually,” Taeyong interrupted.
“It’s Haechan again,” Mark sighed as he made a left turn. Due to the fact that it was a small world and he knew for a fact that Ten worked with Renjun, Mark’s close friend, at Donghyuck’s best friend’s (Na Jaemin) favourite ice cream shop, which sounded complicated, but meant that if didn’t have a code name for his crush, his hyungs would have found out who is was and ruined it a long time ago. Ten wasn’t the best at keeping secrets either.
“You’re nickname for him is so cheesy,” Yuta teases. “My full sun, blah.”
“Yeah go on,” Taeyong said.
“Okay so I had to change into my work clothes today right, because I took an extra shift during my spare block so in can get off a little earlier today right,” Mark starts off fast.
“Why would you go in earlier gosh, I don’t understand you, you idiot,” Doyoung snips.
“I don’t know, maybe because i wanted to sleep early, because god knows I haven’t gone to bed at 9 since I was like seven years old.”
“That’s a mood,” Yuta interrupted.
“Right, so I go and I change, but during this someone comes in and I just kinda ignore it, and thinking maybe I can wait till they leave,” Mark said. “Anyways big fucking mistake because next thing you know there this earth stuttering bang, and Haechan’s voice yelling to his friend that he better be in here! At the top of his lungs! My ears almost started bleeding.”
Ten is laughing loudly in the background as Taeyong fails to quiet him. “Yeah, yeah continue.”
“I think Haechan must have like kicked the door open, because like that shit was loud. I mean he’s thick enough to do it, and I don’t know, but now that I think about it he is definitely a door kicker. “ Mark wondered out loud.
“That’s an off topic question, no off topic questions,” Yuta quotes.
“Fucking, did he kick it open like that one big bird vine?” Doyoung asks.
“Irrelevant, but yes, probably,” Mark said.
“Amazing, he really is the perfect guy,” Ten said.
“Then Haechan starts yelling about the fact that he’s giving a crisis, but seriously, I was stuck in the washroom with my crush and,” a car cuts in front of Mark’s abruptly, “Oh yeah thanks, cut me off a little slower next time your dick, anyway, I had work in 20 minutes, I was the one having a crisis.”
“What was his crisis?” Taeyong asks.
“Me!” Mark finally exclaims.
The phone explodes in noise, there’s some yelling and mark distantly thinks maybe Ten gurgling. He didn’t know what he expected from a bunch of dramatic theatre kids.
“Listen!” Mark yells, “I’m not done yet! He said I had nice jaw and shit! Like his friend was like woah, and like he agreed! Hyungs he likes me back! Oh and he was like talking about how he came to class early to see me and my bunny nose, so I don’t know what he’s talking about, but, but the best part is, well.” Mark can feel his cheeks turning red while he thought of Haechan’s words.
“I’m so proud of you!” Doyoung yells.
There’s anger amount of shushing.
“Whats the best part, Mark?” Yuta asks.
“Well, he kinda like said, that he was in love with me and that I owned his ass?” Mark said it like a question, but the screams he got were much too excited. He realised that one or two of them were fake crying as well.
“My boy’s growing up!” Doyoung sobs.
“What did you say, oh my god,” Yuta yelled into the phone, “Are you guys dating!”
“Uh well the thing is,” Mark starts.
“You fucking didn’t” Ten said very slowly.
Mark sighed. “I kinda did.”
“Okay well did you say something bad, maybe you can explain it better?” Taeyong asked being sensible for the whole group.
“The thing is,” Mark turned around corner, “I kinda didn’t say anything.”
There’s absolute silence over the phone. Mark considers if he dropped a pin in his car they would probably hear it.
“Like nothing?” Doyoung asks.
“Yeah.”
“So you just like walked out the fucking washroom, in front of them, after Haechan legit ranted about how much he loves you, and knows that you heard every word?” Ten asks.
“Yeah.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you.”
Mark gasped. “I was going to be late for work!”
Yelling ensues. From what Mark can get, they sure as heck aren’t impressed with him, but man, he just parked his car and he needs to get to work now.
“Okay I’m calling you back later, Taeyong,” Mark yelled into the phone only to be met with more yelling. “ByeBye!”
He hangs up and immediately puts his phone on do not disturb, so he wont have to put up with their missed calls and messages till after work. Rushing into work, he realises he has one minute to spare. Thankfully the place is empty and he makes eye contact with Jungwoo, his favourite coworker, who purses their bright red lips in distaste at him.
“Shut up,” Mark growls at them and storms past to throw his things into the back room.
Jungwoo’s lips are still curled in distaste when Mark comes up front with his apron hanging around his neck. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Didn’t have too,” Mark says and turns around. “Do me up.”
“Yes, sir,” Jungwoo sniffed at him and tied Mark’s apron in a bow tie behind him. Jungwoo steps away from him and leans on the counter, looking at him expectantly.
Mark eyes them down and stared at their red lips. “Did you get a new lipstick?”
“Urban Decay,” Jungwoo said, eyes narrowed.
Mark gives a single nod.
Jungwoo tilts their head to the left and clicks their tongue.
“Fine!” Mark shouts, throwing his hands in the air, while Jungwoo remains unfazed. “I fucked up everything with Hyuck today! And I’m gonna drink my mom’s shitty scotch and cry tonight while I do bio homework because of it!”
Jungwoo snorts at him.
“I’m fucking serious Jungwoo!”
“Mark, sweetie.” Jungwoo sighed. “Did you even have a chance?”
Mark turned and pretended to slam his head onto the counter.
“Okay, explain hun, can’t be that bad.” Jungwoo was a year older then Mark and currently going to school to become a make up artist, which they happened to be extremely talented at. Mark loved talking to them about Hyuck, because he knew Jungwoo was reliable and not a fucking snake like his other friends, and Jungwoo loved hearing about his drama so it was a win-win.
Mark explained in full detail, even spilling tea on Renjun’s crush on Jaemin, and the fact that Jaemin probably knows Renjun likes him back, but is too pussy to make a move. Jungwoo comments that gays are useless, Mark agrees. He then explained the phone call with his hyungs, showed Jungwoo his phone for good measure, which was blown up with messages. After he finished Jungwoo simply nodded their head.
“Yeah you fucked up,” Jungwoo said.
“Thanks woo.” Mark sighed
Interrupted by customers, their conversation is soon cut short, but as the shop grew steady, it didn’t stop them both from whispering more about it as the day progressed. The busier it got the less Mark paid attention to the time, he was striding back to the cash register to take the next order when he realises who’s standing there.
“Hello, how can,” Mark looks up at him and his words die slowly, “How can I help you?”
Jaemin, eyes narrowed, hands on the counter, leaned forward, glared at him. Mark swallowed. This was it, he’s fucking dead, about to get beat up in his work place.
“Large Americano on ice with 4 extra espresso shots, no water, and a medium strawberry Frappuccino with chocolate sprinkles,” Jaemin spat out the usual order for him and Donghyuck, who came in almost everyday after school for drinks.
Mark frantically eyes the whole store for Donghyuck, but he’s no where to be found. “He didn’t want to come in today. I wonder why, isn’t that right Mark?” Jaemin sneers.
Mark gulps. “Is that all for you today, sir?”
“Oh,” Jaemin puts a finger to his lips, “and maybe a crush for my best friend who isn’t a fucking fool.”
“8.27 please,” Mark said, flushed bright red in embarrassment.
Jaemin flashed his card, “Debit.”
Jungwoo immediately starts the Americano, allowing Mark to do Donghyuck’s strawberry Frap. He adds even more strawberries then usual, and gives it perfect whip cream and daintily adds a shit ton of chocolate sprinkles in the shape of a smiley face for good measure. Jungwoo hands him Jaemin’s finished drink with a look and a half smile.
Mark walks up to Jaemin to hand him his drinks. He takes a deep breath and starts to talk, “Look Jaemin, I’m so sorry, I can explain-”
“Too bad I don’t care then,” Jaemin hummed to him as he took the drinks. He sees the stupid lopsided smiley face on Donghyuck’s drink and mutters, “Disgusting,” as he turns around leaving.
Mark stands there stunned for a moment, then rushes back behind the counter to help Jungwoo’s growing line. Tonight was going to be a long night.
***
Mark had been at school for less then 20 minutes and he was already panicking. He spent an hour on the phone with Taeyong, who was thankfully alone this time, talking about the situation an various other things, and texted Lucas for a bit who simple told him he’d make out with him to make Hyuck jealous. It had only been a day since he messed things up with Hyuck and it shouldn’t seem like the end of the world, but it was definitely shaping up to be. Mark had thought about it enough to last him another life time, let alone have to put up with it at school. He was fucking screwed.
Lucas patted him on the back again and whispered, “I love you, fool.”
“Idiot,” Mark replied. Lucas and him shared Bio together, but that didn’t mean it made the class any more bearable or any less anxiety filled.
His next block wasn’t much better, but he had lunch next, and after that it was the dreaded class. His peer torturing class with Donghyuck. There was no way in hell it wasn’t going to be the worst class in the world. Lucas walked him there and patted him on the back as he walked away. Mark took a deep breath and walked into class, his eyes peeling around the room, and surprisingly he didn’t see Donghyuck. He could feel the tightness of his collared shirt around his neck, as if it were suffocating him, but sat down at his and Donghyuck’s usual seats. He had a plan, and that plan was to apologize to the best of his ability and try to ask him to hang out today after school since he begged Jungwoo to take his shift today. Mark couldn’t help but worry that he was going to blurt out something stupid. He knew it was unlikely, but Donghyuck often made is head a jittering mess, and the more he thought about it, the more he began to sweat.
As the class filled up, Mark realised there was only a minute to the bell, and the most terrible thought occurred to him, what if Donghyuck doesn’t show up today because of him. He was about to pull out is phone to frantically text Jungwoo for advice, when the bubbly boy walked in and froze upon seeing Mark next to his usual seat. Mark gave what he hoped was the most apologetic smile of his life and titled his head towards the seat next to him.
Donghyuck looked down the whole way to the desks, his face emotionless, and dropped his bag with a small thud. Donghyuck sat as far as physically possible from Mark in his seat, and Mark silently thanked the heavens because he probably smells like stress sweat, but his heart jumped sadly.
“So, uh, Hyuck,” Mark said gently, as the class started.
Donghyuck looked at him. His heart shaped face was drawn down so vulnerably that Mark’s voice was suddenly stuck in his throat, and his mouth open before his brain could catch up. “I would love to own your ass.”
Donghyuck’s mouth dropped open.
Mark’s brain caught up and the panic started. “I meant I like you too! No, I didn’t like you, I wanted to ask you to hang out! But not like that, I just haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” Donghyuck giggled as Mark spoke, “But not in a creepy way, like regular person way of having a crush. Oh my gosh, I’m not making sense anymore.” Mark let his face fall into his sweaty hands.
“No, you’re not, Mark.” Donghyuck was stifling his laugh with his hands.
Mark mumbled into his hands ass his face burned. “I’m sorry for being such a dumbass yesterday. I just panicked, and I was late for work, and it was wrong of me to just leave without saying anything.”
Donghyuck hummed gently.
Mark peeked out from beneath his hands. He eyed the room and thankfully, no one was paying attention to the mess that was happening between the two of them. Mark took a deep breath and held Donghyuck’s gaze. “I really like you, Hyuck. I would love to go out on a date tonight with you. If you’ll have me?”
Donghyuck smile grew blinding. “I would love for you to own my ass, Mark.”
Mark head slammed into the desk with a light thud. “Oh my gosh.”
Donghyuck’s laughter echoed in his ears. “I didn’t mean to say that!” He hissed sitting up straight.
“I just can’t believe you said that!” Donghyuck shot back and swatted at Mark’s arm.
Mark huffed, but he couldn’t help the smile that filled is face. “Is that a yes?”
Donghyuck took his hand and rubbed the back of his knuckle. “Yes, Mark, it’s a yes.”