Work Text:
The clock that was hanging above the Christmas reef in Donghyuck's room continuously ticked away, it's soft ticking sounds of 'tick tock' filling the serene and tranquil environment of the young teenager's room. It was the first of June, 11.59 p.m., and Donghyuck was still awake, eyes still open, mind still working, the cogs and gears in his brain never ceasing in their relentless turns and quirks, stopping only once in a while when Donghyuck decides to tear his gaze from absentmindedly staring holes into his bedroom's wall to eyeing the clock. He squints, and he grunts, falling back on his bed with a soft breeze of air colliding against one another as his body sinks under the bed, swallowing him, engulfing him in the warm comfort of softness, in the place where time doesn't move, where time is a standstill, where Mark Lee will not be 18 years old in exactly two more months.
Donghyuck wasn't envious, sad, disheartened, weak, or jealous of the fact that his best friend of 16 years and lover of 2 years is growing older than him, most probably will be leaving him for a prestigious university somewhere else in the country sooner rather than later. He wasn't, because he understood that this was how things were; Mark was older than him by two years undeniably, and he was younger than Mark by two years undoubtedly. There was only a small moment where their age gap was merely a year; when the sixth of June arrives and Donghyuck was older, while Mark was not - yet. That time only lasts for a month and so, until the second of August arrived and Mark will be growing another year older, and the two-year age gap would become permanent once again until the cycle repeats itself as the months of the year passes behind them.
"Huh." Donghyuck mumbles, as he turns on his side on his bed, his hands blindly searching for his phone in the dark that has been veiling his room since the Sun had set earlier that day.
Once his fingers find their way to the item, he wraps his fingers around them, and turns on his phone, bringing it close to his own face. He allows a soft groan to leave past his lips as his bright screen catches him by surprise, momentarily blinding him in its wake. He sees the date and time now - June second, 12.09 a.m. In another four days, it would be his birthday; in another two more months, it would be Mark's.
Donghyuck doesn't really care about his birthday, though, he cared about Mark's.
Mark's birthday in which he has yet to provide a present for, Mark's birthday in which he is broke as heck since he had just spent all his savings of three months to pay for the lunch of Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle, Jisung, Mark and himself when he had lost the bet of 'Which Senior is going to be the first to get accepted into SNU?'. Damn Jaehyun and his whipped puppy-self for failing his Seoul National University entrance examinations to enter the same university as his boyfriend, Taeyong, KNU instead.
Therefore, Donghyuck tells himself that what he was about to do was a reasonable thing, something logical, something any other person with a significant other that they completely adore from the tips of their hair to the sole of their feet would do as he taps on Mark and his chat in KakaoTalk.
Donghyuck: i need money, let's work together.
Ugh, My LOML: what the heck are you doing awake at 12.20 a.m.?
Donghyuck: You Replied.
Ugh, My LOML: I Had Reasons.
Donghyuck: overwatch?
Ugh, My LOML: that's too mainstream. i do digimon.
Donghyuck: what era were you born in, the heck?
Ugh, My LOML: Anyways.
Ugh, My LOML: what do you need money for anyways?
Donghyuck: can't a guy ask for money without being considered suspicious?
Ugh, My LOML: the last time you saved money for, which was three months ago, was all for a useless ass bet that you lost at.
Donghyuck: the past shan't be brought up.
Ugh, My LOML: ,,, why am i going to say yes?
Donghyuck: love you too, now sleep.
Donghyuck prides himself for being able to swerve across Mark's questions on why he needs the money, and also DigiMon for probably having sapped most of Mark's energy to question him and interrogate him properly at something close to 12.30 a.m.
1. Amusement Park Mascot.
"Why the heck am I the one wearing the one with a golden dress?" Donghyuck screeches as he holds up the body of Lotte World's Raccoon (Raccoon? Bear? Raccoon-Bear hybrid?) mascot, eyeing it with the most offended eyes he had ever had painted across his facial features.
Mark keeps silent as he twirls his own head of the male mascot in his hands, nodding his head while his lips are in an approved pout, agreeing with how much of effort Lotte World has put into creating their mascots and the costumes that come along with them. Donghyuck had said earlier when they entered the rooms that Lotte World was really damn great for putting so much money, time and sweat into making their mascots, but Mark thinks Donghyuck would rather chuck the female's body inside a chimney right now. However, they had to work, and so Mark swerves around, gives Donghyuck a shrug, and puts on the head of the male. Donghyuck steps on his foot which was cushioned with the costume before he proceeded to change himself.
+/+
It was stifling. The inside of the god be damned costume was stifling as heck, Donghyuck couldn't even fathom how anyone else did this job. Maybe that was why the previous mascot workers had quit just yesterday and why Lotte World's staff was desperate enough to approve of two high school boys to become their mascot. Donghyuck was dying, he was choking, he was about to bang his head on the nearest person to him's head. That person just so happens to be Mark, beside him, holding a bouquet of balloons.
Donghyuck grabs Mark's arm and bangs their heads together, something Donghyuck has done before countless times.
Until he hears a yelp and a scream, followed by a thud and Donghyuck looks down, through the stifling air inside of his costume, through the eyes of the mascot that he could barely see from, to see Chenle on the ground, knocked out and Jisung beside him choking on an ice cream and snorting.
"That's not my Mark." Donghyuck says and Jisung laughs out loud then, falling to his knees and clutching his ice cream to stand lone and proud.
"I'm right here." A voice sounds beside Donghyuck, and Donghyuck clumsily turns around in the huge ass body of his mascot costume to see Mark in his costume, hugging a small, young toddler in his arms as the toddler eyes Donghyuck with widened and scared eyes.
Donghyuck knows that they would probably get fired after the day is over, but before that, he should probably be a good mascot. He decides to kick Chenle out of the image discreetly as he spreads his arms open to give the toddler a hug.
The toddler screams and cries, and the mother appears and smacks Donghyuck with a bag and reprimands him.
Donghyuck tells himself that he would get money by the end of the day, so he cannot smack the woman back with his dress.
He wonders if he could borrow the costume to smack Chenle with it, though, later today. This is all Chenle's fault, yeah. Not Donghyuck's fault, no.
2. Convenience Store Cashier.
It was one thing to be a cashier during the day, when the sunlight was shining through the windows, tarnishing a person's face if they didn't have sunscreen on with its UV rays, but it was definitely another to be a cashier during the night (Morning? What was 4 a.m. described as if one skipped the sleeping part of the day?) of a weekend with drunkards staggering in every 20 minutes. The sober ones were disheveled, clothes tugged to the side, body sweaty and once in a while, some patrons would have their partner hanging onto their waist, pecking the sides of their probably Dominant's neck.
It was much hell of another situation when you're a high school student, barely passing through surprise quizzes and mock-examinations the whole day during school and having to clean the mess your little sister had made in the kitchen when she tried to make a mashed potato but had instead, created the reincarnation of Satan as food, taking the night shift and having to handle the drunkards. Donghyuck convinces himself that it was not his fault when he accidentally gives a customer some bleach instead of a pack of cigars, muttering, "Well, they both kill, so." towards the customer who had taken the bleach, opened it, and threw it at Donghyuck.
He did pay for the bleach, though, so Donghyuck thinks 'Whatever' and calls for Mark to clean up the mess.
Of course, Mark appears by the door of the closet at the back, wet mop in hand as he saunters over to Donghyuck, ready to clean up the mess that was made. He did not expect to see the liquid on the ground, almost transparent but with a tinge of an ugly yellow that only Chenle would be able to make in Art class out of a combination of colors even Renjun didn't know existed in the first place. He expected vomit, but as he looks at Donghyuck's soulless eyes telling him to not ask, he screws his mouth shut and proceeds to clean.
The next customer that enters the store was someone they knew - Jaehyun and Taeyong. Jaehyun waved to them, and Taeyong nodded. Donghyuck makes a small grumble of a reply and Mark pokes his head up, waving back to their ex-seniors. The two elders go to the aisles for baking, and Mark scrubs the floor.
"That's the baking aisle. The condoms are by the window, hidden behind the porn magazines." Donghyuck says out loud, and Taeyong almost drops the baking powder he had in his hand.
"We aren't here for that, what the fuck?" Jaehyun said, an incredulous expression painting his face at the same time as Mark screams out a, "Donghyuck, you're nasty!" in English.
Donghyuck shrugs in reply, and Jaehyun sighs. "We bought that yesterday."
Mark screams out another "You're nasty!" but this time, Jaehyun's name was said primarily to that, and Jaehyun also gets a hit on the face with a bag of sugar that Taeyong was holding.
Once the pair was done with picking up the things they needed, they approached the counter and dropped their items. Mark pushed Donghyuck away with his hips, saying he would do it, and Donghyuck waddles off to pick up the mop that Mark left behind.
The second Donghyuck arrived back to the counter, Taeyong and Jaehyun were hiding and hugging Mark, and the microwave had visibly exploded with a carton of milk inside it.
"Jaehyun told me to!"
Jaehyun gets another smack, but this time by Donghyuck and with a burned milk carton that was leaking a disgusting amount of milk.
3. Floral Shop Assistant.
"Do you even know what to do?" Taeil asks as he worriedly eyes Donghyuck's hands managing the flowers. "This is for a funeral, y'know?"
"I know." Donghyuck replies back, enthusiasm lacing his words as his tongue peeks out from the cracks of his lips, slowly working the flowers into a small bouquet.
Taeil blinks as he goes to look at Mark's work, and he nods his head as he sees the boy tying the bouquet of white gladioli with a black ribbon. Doyoung walks into the scene, and screams when he sees Donghyuck's work. Taeil stays quiet as he continues with his own bouquet. He has to make just one more bouquet and they would be done, and they could close down the shop early of five minutes for the day. Five extra minutes in his day to be able to go to the nearest D.I.Y store to buy some glitter glue to paint his nails with later.
Once he was done, he turns to look at Donghyuck, and he drops his bouquet as he sees both Doyoung and Donghyuck huddled together, slapping at each other's hands, hissing silent curses towards one another as they fluff the flowers in the arrangement.
"Why are you using yellow roses and fennel?"
"It's pretty."
"Do you know what it means?"
"No, but I heard pretty things lightens the soul. The soul of the deceased should be happy with seeing this."
"Yellow roses means highest achievement and fennel means to congratulate."
Doyoung stops his arrangement and looks at Taeil. "Shit."
"Re-do. Doyoung, I'm disappointed in you. Make 400 flower bouquets tomorrow."
Taeil doesn't get his five-minute to close the shop early, and so he makes both Donghyuck and Mark stay with Doyoung the next day to make 100 flower bouquets each. Donghyuck also gets a call from his school after his shifts to make a bouquet for their principal's daughter's three-year birthday.
Donghyuck accidentally makes a bouquet full of flowers that means 'I'm sorry' and Taeil sends him a 'Flower Meanings: For Hopeless Dummies' in the mail after he quits.
4. Daycare Center Babysitter.
"Shh, quiet there baby, shh." Mark says softly in the ear of the baby he was holding, patting the bum of the baby as he does so, another hand securely holding the back of the baby.
"That boy's good." Johnny says as he eyes Mark from where he was putting the younger kids to sleep.
"Excuse me?" Ten asks, as he finishes sliding up a blanket to cover the child that was dead asleep, dead to the world, and probably won't wake up for another two more hours.
"Yes, as in, he's better than you." Johnny replies, pecking the head of the child he was caring for opposite of Ten.
Ten huffs as he slides up to Johnny, snuggling himself in the arms of the taller. It was nice to have other babysitters in their daycare. They get the time to rest, they get the time for each other. They've lost too much time for one another after opening their own daycare center. It was fine during the first few months, when they were small, but once they got big, it got hectic and chaotic with the influx of kids screaming and crying, begging for attention from the two males. Getting babysitters had crossed their minds before, but they never really got the chance to put up advertisements for those since they were simply too busy. However, when Mark and Donghyuck had came to them, asking if they knew of jobs around, then Johnny's green lights of 'Take This.' started shining in his mind.
Suddenly, there was a wild wail coming from the other room, a room for the older kids, and it was a wail from someone they had never heard it from.
Johnny, Ten and Mark headed to the other room, where Donghyuck was awkwardly holding onto a kid upside down on his leg with a bottle of milk in his other hand.
"In my defense, this child put up one hell of a fight for milk." Donghyuck said, still having the kid dangling upside down.
"You know, Baekhyun has never cried before." Ten said, amusement lacing his words as he eyed Baekhyun who was wailing, tears rolling down (Up? He was upside down, so which way did his tears roll?) his cheeks, his voice reaching high notes. "This kid could be a singer in the future, too. Huh."
"Are we forgetting the main point which is to stop him from crying?" Mark asked, pointing to the kid with a finger.
"Should we record this first though? Mrs. Byun might want to hear how high his voice could -" Ten gets a stomp on the foot by Johnny who scowls at him. "Just saying." Ten mumbles, rubbing his foot as he squats to the ground.
Johnny waddles over to Baekhyun and Donghyuck, who now has a Chanyeol who has woken up hitting him with a toy hammer. Johnny takes Baekhyun from Donghyuck, putting him right side up, pats his head, and gives him to Chanyeol who had his arms spread open to have Baekhyun in his arms. Baekhyun hugs Chanyeol and sniffles, hiding his face in Chanyeol's neck as he glared towards Donghyuck.
"Meanie! Meanie! Meanie!"
"Well, I wasn't the one who was about to drink milk meant for a 3-month old baby." Donghyuck snorts.
"You drink milk meant for 3-month olds, too." Mark deadpanned, and Donghyuck hisses a 'Shut up.'.
5. Club's Bartender.
"Uhh, are you sure this is legal?" Mark questions as he wipes a wine glass clean, wondering silently on why is there a fancy wine glass in a club where this glass could probably break to bits and pieces in no time, but Mark has never been to clubs anyhow, so he probably has no rights to judge.
"Nope, but we get paid."
"But -"
"Why did we start working again?"
"Yeah, but -"
"Shush, and do your job." Donghyuck says as he squirts some lemon inside an alcohol he can't even pronounce properly, though Donghyuck knows it's from France.
"How do you even know how to make drinks?" Mark asks, suspiciously eyeing Donghyuck's concoction.
"I don't." Donghyuck replies easily, blindly throwing away the lemon inside the open trash bin.
Mark looks behind. The lemon doesn't enter the trash bin, just like every other fruit that Donghyuck has peeled for the last past hour. Mark pretends to ignore the mess, and looks back to the counter, at the display of people much older than them grinding and rubbing on each other.
His poor, poor eyes.
Mark looks back down, grabs a towel, and goes to wipe the counter, sanitizing it as much as he feels the need to. He does not want to think about the amount of people who have probably done things Mark shall never think about for quite a long while in his own small world of imaginations. He turns to look back at Donghyuck, who professionally slides a drink towards a customer who looks already too drunk to consume anymore drinks.
There's suddenly someone who sits in front of Mark, the high counter being the only barrier between the two. Mark looks up to see Yuta, his neighbor, with his eyebrows raised and his lips quirked up to a smirk.
"Does Aunty Lee know about this?" The older asks and Mark's eyes widen, his expression seeing as a deer caught in headlights, and the other laughs merrily. "Don't worry, I won't tell. You do know what club this is, right?"
"Uh, is it important?" Mark questions, confusion now instead displayed on his face.
Yuta snorts in amusement, as he glances to the right and sees Donghyuck. "Hey, Donghyuck, you know what club this is?"
"Yeah, it's a strip club. Why?"
Mark chokes on his spit, and Yuta hands him a drink that he took from the person beside him.
"Hey -" The person says, reaching for his glass meekly but Yuta slaps his hand away.
"The boy needs it, Winwin." Yuta says and Winwin pouts but nods, placing his head on Yuta's shoulder. "You didn't tell him, huh?" Yuta asks, referring to Donghyuck.
"Well, I thought there was no need to since, well, y'know the sign of the club." Donghyuck says and Yuta nods, clearly remembering the neon lights of the much-too open-exposure display of the club.
"We are quitting after tonight!" Mark declares and Donghyuck shrugs.
Hey, he's probably earned about 400 bucks that night, minus the extra tips from the customers he stays to chat with, so he'll just make Mark happy and quit after tonight.
6. Sniper of Bunnies.
"I'm pretty sure snipers are suppose to kill people, and I'm pretty sure this isn't legal, even for adults." Mark mumbles, as he holds the sniper in his hand and he eyes that thing he should use to aim at his prey. "We've never even held guns before."
"Yeah, but how hard could it be to shoot a rabbit?" Donghyuck asks, his tongue poking out as his usual concentration mode clicks on automatically, his hand ready to pull the trigger.
Donghyuck pulls the trigger once he was positive he had aimed for the rabbit, but the bullet goes straight into the window of the house of the person's rabbit they were suppose to shoot and Donghyuck and Mark hide behind the bush as a karaoke of PSY's Gentleman could be heard from the crack of the window. Instead of the lyrics, though, they hear someone shouting, "Who just fucking shoot through my window?!".
Thank God it was just Taeyong's house and Doyoung was their employer. Mark wonders why Taeyong's karaoke-ing with PSY's Gentleman, though.
7. Parkour Challenge.
"This isn't even a job." Mark chirps, as he sits on the see-saw of the playground, making himself comfortable.
"Yeah, but he gets money, so." Jaemin says, waving the 50 bucks he had in his hand in the air, making a show to Donghyuck.
"He'll probably use the money to pay for his hospital bills." Jeno says as he snakes an arm around Jaemin's waist.
"Don't say that." Renjun mumbles, fiddling with his fingers as he glances at Donghyuck who was getting ready by the slide of the playground.
"I need money, Mark." Donghyuck calls out, and Mark replies with, "You still haven't told me why.".
Donghyuck ignores him as he slaps his hands together, getting ready to jump, twirl, and whatever he needs to do to make the perfect parkour that would blow Jaemin's mind and have him give Donghyuck 100 bucks instead.
Donghyuck goes home that day limping, Mark carrying him bridal style since both his arms and legs might've been broken when Donghyuck accidentally hits his head on the monkey bars, and falls face first on the acupuncture mat under the monkey bars with his leg dangling off on the playground's set.
Donghyuck counts the money he has in his hands, his fingers skillfully going to and fro each piece of paper, each weight of another dollar in his hands comforting his heart and soul for he now has enough money to buy Mark a birthday present. He smiles to himself as he swings his feet at the edge of his bed, his healing foot still in a cast as he carefully and slowly swings it along with his other foot. Mark still doesn't know what they did the jobs for, and Donghyuck wants to keep it that way until it was Mark's birthday and he could surprise him, and Donghyuck imagines Mark with his face contorted in happiness, a laugh about to fall from his lips and Donghyuck will earn a hit on the arm with the knife that comes with the birthday cake, and he'll tell Donghyuck that he loves him even if he didn't buy him a birthday gift.
Donghyuck's phone turns on and there's a chime, signalling that someone had sent him a message on KakaoTalk. He jumps back on his bed, where his phone was lying down on his pillow. Once he was stomach-flat on his bed, he uses his elbows to support his weight as he looks as his screen.
[ New message from: Ugh, My LOML ]
Ugh, My LOML: since you've got enough money for my birthday present now, i want a macbook.
+/+
A grin tugs on the edges of Mark's lips as he eyes his message to his lover and best friend, shaking his head as he eyes the message full of caps locks and curses, Donghyuck's silent questions of how did Mark know, but how could Mark not know?
Mark had spent most of his life with the younger, and the younger has spent his whole life with Mark. They've understood the meaning of 'friends' by heart before they even knew the word to describe it. They had spent nights whispering quietly to one another, secretly, intimately, as if they were meant to be hidden from the world, as if their world was the small space that enclosed the both of them under blankets which shielded them from the outside world. They've cupped their hands together as they told each other their deepest secrets, and he remembers the night Donghyuck shakily cups his ear and whispers his sexuality in his ears, the eyes of the younger having pooled with hot tears threatening to spill two years ago. A few nights after that night, Mark had cupped Donghyuck's ear, whispering a, "Me too, and I love you." in Donghyuck's ear, and Donghyuck doesn't need to guess what the 'Me too' refers to. It wasn't Mark's first kiss, and it wasn't Donghyuck's either. They had kissed girls before, they had felt the press of lips on lips, they had felt the pressure of someone else's hands laced around their fingers, but it felt like it was their first when their lips collided and Donghyuck mumbles 'I love you' between each kiss, and Mark's breath was taken away with how much he really does love Donghyuck, how the flutter of his lips ghosting on Mark's was so frustrating because it felt so right when their lips moved together, but Donghyuck was whispering 'I love you's, so he'll take it.
Mark still loves Donghyuck, even after the series of mayhem he's put Mark through and the amount of bleach Mark would need to purify his eyes now.