Chapter Text
Mark is not dumb, he´s just confused.
Not many people know about his and Donghyuck´s friendship, but all the ones who know feel entitled to offer their unwanted opinion. The thing is that he doesn't understand why people think Donghyuck and him shouldn´t be friends. He doesn´t understand why they would say the other boy is a bad influence. Yes, Donghyuck might be all about wearing black clothes and piercings. He might be sarcastic and an absolute brat. He might have a flirty, confident personality that intimidates people. He might be a sassy little shit who´s too used to getting his way. He might be a menace with his auburn hair, tanned skin, sharp tongue and burning eyes. He might own a motorcycle and be one of campus´s biggest fuckboys.
But, despite all of that, Donghyuck is not a bad person. What Mark doesn´t want to admit is that it took him a while to figure it out, too.
At first Mark also thought Donghyuck was a bad boy or something like that. He didn´t know how he was going to survive having the younger boy as his roommate. Especially after their not-so-good first meeting with each other – where Mark happened to come into the room to find Donghyuck having fun with another boy on their living room. Yeah, he left quite a first impression on Mark.
And yes, things after that little incident only got worse between them. Mark kind of hated Donghyuck, and Donghyuck loved making Mark´s life hell.
Truthfully, going against each other was easy; their personalities are different enough for them to clash often. For example, Mark is a huge nerd. He´s passionate about learning and loves reading, playing the guitar, and writing lyrics. He´s also absolutely in love with his major (music production). He likes pink, playing basketball and eating sweet things. He is a romantic. He is shy, but he never doubts to defend what he believes in. He prefers to stay in and have few but close friends. He sucks at cooking and his room is not a mess but it could definitely be cleaner. He hates ketchup and seafood. He is busy all the time, a perfectionist and a bit of an overthinker. Overall, he couldn´t be more different from Donghyuck.
Donghyuck, on the other hand, is all about fun and parties. He actually is kind of a genius. He doesn't like his major, but doesn´t hate it either. He hates sports and likes chicken and ketchup. He is cynical and doesn't believe good things about love. He is bold and unworried of what others might think. He is a social butterfly. He is good at cooking and kind of a neat-freak. He is easygoing and relaxed.
The only things they seemed to have in common at first were their irregular sleep schedules, their competitiveness and their mutual dislike for each other. Which became the source of their problems when they first met. They began a war to see who could endure it for longer.
Donghyuck had purposely started bringing people into the dorm to sleep with them at times he knew Mark was there. But it turned out, being a nerd doesn't mean that Mark lets people intimidate and walk over him. So, every time Donghyuck brought one of his friends over, Mark would bang the wall with a broomstick until Donghyuck´s visitors got annoyed and left. The younger boy obviously didn´t like that.
And that´s how the war started.
Mark would leave his things lying all around the place because he knew Donghyuck hates disorder. Donghyuck would put ketchup on all the food inside the fridge because he knew Mark can´t stand it. And those were only the first ones. The level of the pranks grew exponentially from there. In that first month or two living together, they got to know each other only so they could piss the other off. They would never admit it, but it was kind of fun. However, it was also a bit tiresome. But both of them refused to see it and kept at it, ignoring the fact that they were both normal people with normal struggles and sometimes they needed someone to rely on.
But one night, everything changed.
Mark had come into the dorm pretty late that night. He had gotten caught up studying in the library and lost track of time. He usually went into the dorm early or didn´t appear there until the next morning. So, it was an unusual hour for him to come in. Maybe that´s why Donghyuck thought no one would see him crying in the living room.
Mark had never seen Donghyuck look something other than confident. He was always smiling, flirting, teasing, calling him weird nicknames. He never showed any signs of weakness; he never seemed to be sad, frustrated, or beat down – sometimes he looked annoyed, but nothing further than that. Mark thought there were very few things that could get to Donghyuck. Maybe that´s why seeing Donghyuck kneeling on the floor besides the sofa, curled into himself, head buried in his arms, sobbing, took Mark by surprise. Maybe that´s why he didn´t hesitate to sit beside him the second he saw him.
“Hey, what´s up?” was the first thing Mark had said as he sat beside the younger boy. Donghyuck´s head had snapped up so fast, Mark was surprised he didn´t break his neck.
“What are you doing here, pretty boy? Thought you weren´t coming back tonight,” had been Donghyuck´s reply. He´d tried to smirk as he usually would, but his swollen eyes, the little sniffs and the crack in his voice made his act unbelievable.
“Just tell me what´s wrong, I wanna head to bed as soon as possible,” Mark had replied, trying to seem uninterested. It was then when he knew that he didn’t really hate Donghyuck – he´d actually come to care about the younger.
“Honey bun, I´m fine, fuck off,” the younger said. But the tears were still streaming down his pretty face. He didn´t look like he could´ve hold it any longer. So, Mark had done something he´d never thought of doing before: he had put his arms around the smaller boy and carded his fingers through his auburn hair. Donghyuck had frozen at first, but started holding on to Mark after a few seconds. And the older boy had let him cry until he couldn´t stay awake anymore. Afterwards, they had both fallen asleep in that position.
Although that night had changed Mark´s perspective on Donghyuck´s character, what really changed their relationship into a friendship happened the next morning. They had more or less woken up at the same time. Donghyuck had thanked Mark and tried to stand up. But Mark wasn’t having any of it. He´d coerced the talk out of the younger boy.
“I failed a big test I´d been preparing for the whole month,” Donghyuck had said. “I just feel like nothing I do, no matter how much effort I put in, is not worth it because it went wrong anyway. And it is really fucking frustrating!”
“It´s okay to feel down about it, as long as you don´t give up,” Mark had replied. Donghyuck had huffed, defeated.
“I´m just tired of never being enough,” he had confessed.
“One failed test doesn´t mean anything.”
“It´s not only that, sweet cheeks, this is just the drop that spilled the glass,” he had said with a sad smile. Mark had frowned. He didn´t know much about Donghyuck except for what he´d picked up from gossip and bits and pieces from living with him. The thought that Donghyuck had problems or struggled with something had never crossed Mark´s mind, but well, he´d never thought of Donghyuck crying either. That´s when he´d realized how wrong he was about the younger boy.
“Maybe you could ask for help?” he had supplied. Donghyuck had rolled his eyes in annoyance.
“Although I might look dumb to you, cutie, I have more brains than you have books,” he had said snarkily. “I was desperate enough to get past my pride and ask for help,” he had admitted, eyes down. “But no one wanted to help me out, I´m too pretty for them, apparently,” he joked with a grimace, although Mark could clearly see the facade. Mark had instantly felt bad for the other boy.
“Maybe I could give you a hand?”
“You can give me a hand whenever you want, baby boy,” Donghyuck had said with a smirk, accompanied by a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows. Mark had blushed. Donghyuck had chuckled at him.
“I take that back, go shower or something,” Mark had replied with burning cheeks.
“No, wait, I…I do want help,” Donghyuck had said, clearly freaking out. He had these big puppy eyes and huge pout on. Mark had never seen the younger like that, so it was a huge surprise how cute the other could be. “Please.”
“I´ll help you out,” Mark had conceded. “Just please stop putting ketchup on the food,” he´d pleaded. Apparently Donghyuck found his request hilarious, because he´d laughed.
“Truce?” he´d offered.
“Yeah,” Mark had said, smiling, for the first time of many yet to come, at Donghyuck.
“Glad to be friends with you, cupcake,” he´d said with a wink. Mark had felt his ears get hot, despite his better intentions.
Ever since then, they became friends. They stopped the war between them, only pulling harmless pranks at times, for the sake of fun. And it turns out they get along pretty well despite their differences in personality and tastes. Actually, their relationship is more based in their differences than in their similarities. They weirdly complement each other.
The only problem with that is that people keep wanting to interfere. They keep telling Mark about how Donghyuck is a bad guy, how he´s a bad influence. However, Mark doesn't agree with them. Donghyuck might appear like someone arrogant, overconfident and selfish. But Mark´s found all of that to be wrong. Yes, Donghyuck does sleep around a lot (read: he´s huge fuckboy), and he might be kind of a rebel when it comes to what people expect of him. But, he´s not a bad person. He does have a sharp tongue and is too smart and wild for people to cage him. But he is also funny, cute, and caring with the people he keeps close. He´s only hiding his vulnerabilities behind his bad boy persona.
But Mark doesn´t care about that. He thinks it´s part of what makes Donghyuck multifaceted and complex and himself.
He thinks people are wrong about Donghyuck and he wants them to see the wonderful person he sees on a daily basis.
Maybe Donghyuck and Mark didn´t start off with the right foot. But by the end, they managed to find someone to trust, to rely on.