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As long as Donghyuck can remember, he’s been swimming.
Day or night, rain or shine, he’s always found a way to get in the pool. What originally started as an after-school activity as a child turned into an addiction of sorts for the now seventeen-year-old. Every chance he gets, Donghyuck’s taking laps or just simply sticking his feet in the water at the local high school pool. He supposes that’s how he got so good; he’s hardly ever on land anymore, except for classes and being forced to sleep in his own bed every night by his incredibly supportive, but relatively strict, mother. He knows the water better than he knows himself, and there’s no place more familiar to Donghyuck than the forever drenched white tiles and luminous aquamarine chlorine of the pool.
Jaemin endlessly gives him grief for this because as many medals as Donghyuck has won in countless indoor pools, he adamantly refuses to step foot into the ocean, which is especially hilarious considering they’d lived on the beach their entire lives. The topic comes up more often than Donghyuck would like, and as he sits next to Jisung in the youngest’s Jeep on the drive to school this particular Tuesday morning, he can quite literally feel the atmosphere shift the instant Jaemin opens his mouth from the back seat.
“So? Dunes after school?” he asks, leaning forward to rest his head on Donghyuck’s seat, eyeing both Jisung as he drives and Donghyuck as he pretends to not hear his friend while scrolling through his Instagram feed.
Jisung is the first to respond, nodding his head leisurely. “Sure.” He flips his blinker on and after a five-second pause takes a left turn into the school parking lot. “I wasn’t planning on writing that Wuthering Heights essay, anyway.”
At this response, Jaemin cackles and grins brightly, displaying a mouthful of pearly white teeth. “I completely understand, my dude. I think I might still have mine saved on my laptop from last year if you’re interested?” Once Jisung’s found a decent enough parking spot, he swings in and puts the car in park. He sends Jaemin a look over his shoulder as if to say is that even a question?
Satisfied with their taxi driver of the day’s answer, Jaemin switches his focus to the oldest of them all, who has still yet to acknowledge the conversation. “Hyuck? Hello? Anyone home?” he wipes his hand dangerously close to Donghyuck’s nose, emitting an immediate response from the latter.
Without a second’s warning, Donghyuck smacks Jaemin’s palm out of his face and scrunches his nose in utter disgust. “You’re a real animal, you know that?” he huffs, unbuckling his seatbelt and gathering his swim bag, lunchbox, and backpack from the floor. “Also, I don’t even know why you’re asking me when I know you have eyes and can see my bag of swim clothes right here; you know I have practice today.”
Jaemin, quite used to this sort of snark from his childhood best friend, only grins in response, laughing to himself. He, too, grabs his backpack from the backseat and climbs out of the car, running after his pair of friends who have already taken to walking towards the building. It takes him a moment, but he eventually catches up. “Listen, I know you have practice, like, everyday, but that doesn’t mean you always have to go to said practice, you naïve guppy.” The nickname ‘guppy’ causes Donghyuck to roll his eyes instantaneously, eliciting a soft laugh from Jisung this time, too. “I’m just saying one day off wouldn’t kill you, Hyuck. Live a little!”
Donghyuck shrugs the swim bag on his shoulder up higher, throwing Jaemin a dirty look as they push through the main doors. “Live a little? Jaemin, I know you’re no genius, but the first meet of the season is in two weeks. Two weeks! I can’t be caught screwing around with you at the dunes unless I just want to have my ass eternally benched,” he quips. His red hair makes him stick out like a sore thumb against the soft teal and white that make up their school colors and most of the décor. Like usual, Donghyuck’s eyes are lit with a flame he only ever has when talking about swimming, so Jaemin knows that now would usually be the best time to drop it. Except for today, he’s got A Secret Weapon ™.
A secret weapon that goes by the name Mark Lee, also known as the unofficial love of Donghyuck’s life. Both the ocean and Mark are extremely sensitive topics for Donghyuck, but Jaemin has never really had stellar self-control, and he knows his best friend has practically grown gills with how much time he’s spent in the pool the last few weeks in preparation for their first meet. If Donghyuck continues on like this, Jaemin knows he’ll crash and burn and that’s the last thing any of them need, considering how fucking moody the swimmer gets during the season. Not that he’s much better during the break, either, but that’s beside the point.
Basically, Jaemin’s going to get Donghyuck out of the pool and onto the sand before his first competition if it kills him. Adding the fact that Mark and his group of equally unfairly attractive friends are usually always near the dunes on Tuesday afternoons because one of them works at the shitty little ice cream stand is just an extra incentive for all of them, including Jaemin himself. He loves a good chocolate waffle cone. And Jeno’s pretty, cute, too.
Jaemin grins to himself out of Donghyuck’s line of sight. “Fine, fine,” Jaemin huffs, pouting out his bottom lip like a child. He throws himself on the unoccupied locker next to Donghyuck’s, kicking at an invisible rock with his foot. “I guess I’ll just have to keep a certain blonde boy with the purple longboard company for you.” The reaction he’s hoping for comes before the entire sentence is even out of his mouth. Donghyuck immediately stops ramming his backpack into the tiny locker and falls still.
Jisung, two lockers down from Jaemin and witnessing the chaos unfolding between the older two with his very own eyes tries to throw a look at Jaemin that says STOP but the other seemingly ignores him, instead choosing to stare at their gold medalist friend in anticipation of a reply. For a second, Jisung thinks nothing too serious has gone wrong, until the very moment Donghyuck turns around to face them, fury blazing in his bright almond eyes. “He’s all yours,” he spits, slamming his locker shut and waltzing straight into the current of other students headed to class, not looking back at them even once.
Jaemin exhales deeply, closing his eyes and pouting for a second time. “Well, that could’ve gone better,” he supplies.
Jisung rolls his eyes at his shorter but older friend, shutting his locker door with much less finesse than the red head had. His facial features are dead pan as he looks at Jaemin through his blue bangs. “Yeah, no shit.”
+
The bell rings for lunch and Donghyuck is no where near ready to fight off Jaemin again with his bare hands; he needs a break before practice tonight what with the fresh ass kicking calculus class quite recently gave him. He wishes he had driven today so he could at least escape Jaemin’s clutches for thirty minutes to eat his turkey sandwich in the peace of his trashed Volkswagen bug, but sadly, that’s not the case so he’ll have to make other arrangements.
As soon as he packs his things, Donghyuck makes a hard left out of the calculus classroom and starts trekking his way towards the pool. If anything, he knows he can at least chomp down for a little while in one of the shower stalls, which might sound sad and lonely but if he’s being completely honest, it’s exactly what he needs at a time like this. He loves Jisung and Jaemin more than he would ever admit aloud, but they think they know what’s best for him when they really don’t. It’s almost heartwarming that Jaemin is as persistent as ever when it comes to forcing Donghyuck out of his comfort zone, but at this point in time Donghyuck doesn’t need any more pressure mounting on him than there already is.
He’s championship swimmer, an honor student, and he also needs to get into a pretty decent university that’ll offer him a full ride sports scholarship. Not to mention he had to give up drama club in the beginning of their sophomore year after his mother made him choose one or the other, saying she couldn’t have him almost killing himself being fully committed to both. At the time he had been hugely upset, but looking back on it he’s more than thankful he only has one thing to focus on outside of academics. To put it shortly, Donghyuck hardly has time for Jaemin’s antics and he has even less time for his own heart’s idiocy when it comes to Mark Lee. But, really, he can’t help himself.
It all started the summer after freshman year, when Donghyuck was first choosing between his two favorite pastimes. There were still a few days before summer training was set to begin, so Donghyuck attempted to make the most of his free time. He’d avoided Jaemin and Jisung for a few days, not having been in the mood to be talked in or out of either swimming or acting. His two best friends were both in the theatre club and he hadn’t wanted to break the news to them any sooner than he absolutely had to, if he was going to at all. Along with his friends, he also tried to not be at home much, either, so as to stay away from the prying eyes of his parents and nosy younger sister. This was one of the biggest decisions he’d ever had to make and he didn’t want to be influenced by any outside forces, including the people closest to him. To be certain he chose the one he really wanted, Donghyuck decided to find a good place to go to just think about the pros and cons of each one without any interruptions.
The issue with this was that there was no place in his small town that he wouldn’t run into either Jisung, Jaemin, or his family. He could go to his favorite café, but it was also Jisung’s favorite, and there was a high chance he’d be there on a hot summer day to get an iced latte. He could go to the pier, but that was Jaemin’s favorite place to people watch and Donghyuck somehow wasn’t entirely too keen on being observed by his best friend’s sharp eyes. The only other viable options were the library (too quiet), the market (too noisy), or the beach (too sandy).
Because it was the safest choice, Donghyuck chose the beach. So, on a particularly gloomy afternoon, he shucked on sandals, his favorite pair of swim shorts (the ones with goldfish on them), slapped some SPF15 on his cheeks and made his way toward the shore with an old middle school swim club shirt shielding his back from the possibility of cloud burn. He knew neither of his friends would bother looking for him at the dunes, seeing as he hardly ever went, so he figured he would be safe to walk up and down the coast for a good few hours to contemplate. Even if Donghyuck knew Jaemin would call him ridiculous for taking this decision so seriously, he didn’t really care because to him, it was more than just one club or the other. This was the equivalent of shooting for Broadway or the Olympics in the years to come and one shouldn’t choose between the two recklessly, Donghyuck thought.
On that day of all days, he expected the beach to be practically deserted, and it was, with the exception of an old couple scouring for sea shells and four teenage boys. These weren’t just any beach bums, though, oh no. They were four faces Donghyuck recognized but didn’t know beyond the surface of having a math or literature class with each of them in the past. The one making a sandcastle was Renjun, the one with the bright yellow goggles on was Chenle, and the one with the bucket hat and floaties was Jeno. The only one out of all four who was fully dressed in regular clothing was Mark.
Donghyuck wasn’t usually one to trust in overly-glossed high school stereotypes, but these guys were definitely more popular than himself or Jaemin, or Jisung, for that matter. They were only freshman, like Donghyuck, but they hung out with upperclassmen and got a really good lunch table even during their first semester. All in all, they were way out of his league; to be honest, he and his pair of theatre nerd friends had no business even being in the same dimension as them.
For a full five seconds, Donghyuck feared he might lose consciousness because he’d never seen them out of class by himself. He usually always had Jisung or Jaemin by his side, throwing out terrible jokes or pointing at someone’s ugly shoes, but now Donghyuck was all alone with no one but the ocean and a group of the most attractive boys he’d ever seen.
It wasn’t a secret that Donghyuck was gay, even back then, but he still felt uncomfortable publicly ogling boys his age. He’d never been given grief about his romantic preferences, and something told him the boys on the beach weren’t about to give him any trouble, but still, Donghyuck was on edge. Mark Lee was almost too good-looking to be real and Donghyuck’s mouth never quite worked right in the presence of beautiful people. Especially beautiful people who decided to start walking in his direction. Oh shit.
Above the sounds of the waves, a voice called out to him. “Hey, Donghyuck!”
The sound of his own name gave the young, at the time, brunette whiplash. He felt his eyes grow to the size of saucers as the same time his mouth went dry. He really couldn’t believe any of them knew his name, let alone that they were willingly approaching him outside of school. I must be dreaming.
It was too late to try and run now, especially when the tallest of them all was rapidly approaching with a wide grin on his face. Mark Lee, in all his clothed glory, was looking extraordinarily angelic that day; his black hair had grown out ever-so-slightly so that he had a real fringe framing his eyebrows. His red tank top had the sleeves cut low down to his abdomen and his navy-blue shorts were just the slightest bit too short for Donghyuck to consider them an authentic piece of heterosexual clothing. His feet were bare and his pale feet practically glowed compared to the rest of his legs and body; the sight almost made Donghyuck laugh if it weren’t for the fact that said boy with the atrocious tan lines was now right in front of him, the other three close behind.
“What are you doing out here? Didn’t you hear it’s going to storm?” he asked not unkindly, stopping only a few inches in front of the swimmer. His eyes were the same shade of brown Donghyuck had seen on a million other people, but he still found them to be pretty, somehow.
For comedic effect, Donghyuck looked up at the cloudy sky. He checked the weather report before heading out, but it said nothing about a storm, only that it was likely to be overcast all day. “I didn’t think it was going to rain,” he admitted, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. The towel around his neck brushed his ears as he spoke. “I could ask you guys the same question, though. What are you doing out here if you know it’s going to rain?” He quirked an eyebrow suspiciously at the motley crew behind Mark, who were all dressed like it was any other sunny day at the beach.
Up close, Donghyuck could tell that all of them were nothing more than slightly better than average looking boys and not the models from a magazine he’d been imagining. None of them were perfect, what with their messy hair and faded acne scars and even crooked teeth. This gave some comfort in Donghyuck to continue the conversation without having a nervous breakdown; it still wasn’t fair that he was having a real ugly phase and they weren’t.
From the back of the pack, Jeno spoke up. “I was supposed to be giving a surf lesson but the kid never showed up. The others only followed me out here so we could hang out afterwards, in case it doesn’t actually rain,” he explained calmly, smiling sweetly at the new comer with his eyes. At this point, Donghyuck was almost lulled into a false sense of security until Jeno opened his mouth again. “I thought you hated the beach, though. Why the sudden change of heart?”
Before anything else, Donghyuck felt a hot spike of embarrassment on his cheeks, followed by a fresh bought of confusion. He wondered how the other boy, who could quite honestly be considered a stranger in his book, knew such a fact about him. Before his mind could catch up to his mouth, Donghyuck was already defending himself against such a malicious rumor. “I don’t hate the beach, I just don’t like swimming in the ocean. Who told you that, anyways? It’s not even close to being true,” he huffed, crossing his arms. The wind whipped his face and as he looked sideways to look out into the sea, he realized that maybe the others were right. A storm really was brewing.
The idea that Donghyuck hated the beach more than likely came from the fact that he spent most of his time actively avoiding it, if he could help it. Growing up in a relatively small coastal neighborhood, this was just as difficult a feat as anyone could imagine. Every aspect of the local community had something related to the ocean, be it school activities, fundraisers, concerts, weddings, or simply giving kids something to do when they aren’t in school. As a child, Donghyuck had actually loved spending time in the sand, building rudimentary sand castles with the guidance of his father’s gentle hands. It had been one of his favorite past times; that is, until he’d been pulled mercilessly under the current at the age of seven.
One moment, he was floating easily on his back, only a little further out from the shore than his mother had told him to go. He’d done the same thing a million other Saturdays, the same distance from the shore, the same beach, and even with the same swim trunks on. Donghyuck never expected the waves to engulf him as quickly as they did; when the seaweed at the bottom of the ocean floor wrapped around his ankle stubbornly, it was more than panic that clouded his mind. He couldn’t breathe, so shocked by the sudden submergence he hadn’t been able to get a good gulp before being pushed under. When he tried to open his well-trained salt-water eyes, all he could see was the murk he’d created by struggling against the seaweed. The water was filled with sand and countless shell particles, not to mention the seaweed, itself, that seemed absolutely menacing to his seven-year-old brain, was both obstructing his view of his surroundings and keeping him bound under the waves.
An unknown amount of time passed while Donghyuck’s head was under the water, his eyes open but unseeing. To this day, he has no idea actual memory of being rescued, he only knows what his parents tell him. Apparently, his mother had been keeping a careful watch of him over her terribly-outdated romance novel, and had immediately panicked when she could no longer see his little head poking out over the waves. His dad had dashed into the water and rescued him, but Donghyuck doesn’t remember any of it; all he recalled from that day at the beach was staring straight out into the water and being blind.
It's a memory he can never quite shake, even as the years go by and time passes. He’d never told either of his closest friends about why he refuses to set foot into the ocean, and thankfully, neither of them press him too much about the situation. They always seem satisfied enough when he agrees to stay safely on the shore, sunbathing, and Donghyuck can’t be any more thankful for their lack of curiosity.
But then, when confronted with this unpleasant memory by a group of almost strangers, he had no idea what to do with himself. He couldn’t exactly tell Jeno he doesn’t hate the ocean, but fears it, because of how difficult it is to see underneath the surface. He couldn’t say he only swims in chlorine because in the cool aquamarine of an artificial swimming pool he never has to be afraid of losing his sight, and that the only reason he took up competitive back stroking in the first place was to get over his sudden, irrational fear of water after the incident.
Instead of announcing any of this, Donghyuck stayed silent. It was quiet for a moment before he turned his attention back to the group of silent boys who all looked slightly guilty. Chenle, the smallest, smiled shyly. “We just assumed you didn’t like the beach because you never come out. We didn’t mean to make assumptions!” he promised, scratching his neck nervously. “I mean, I also may have thought you had some sort of superiority complex when it came to chlorine versus sea salt, but now I see the error in my ways and—” before he could finish he was being elbowed in the ribs by Renjun, a slightly taller boy who Donghyuck would recall seeing only a handful of times. Out of the four of them, he was the least familiar but not any less friendly.
“What Chenle’s trying to say is we’re sorry. We were curious about you, is all,” Renjun amended. He had shiny black hair similar to Mark’s, only it was cropped shorter in the back. “It’s unusual for people to be out when there’s a storm coming our way, nonetheless, one of the school’s top rookie chlorine dwellers,” he teased. “Plus, we know a little birdy who happens to know a lot about you." Beside him, Jeno snorted loudly, earning a strangled look from Mark, who looked anything but playful. Chenle caught on and started laughing too, covering his mouth with his hands.
Donghyuck, as oblivious as always, rolled his eyes in disbelief. “Is that little birdy’s name Na Jaemin?” he wondered aloud, not wanting to believe for a second that his own best friend would sell him out to these pretty boys for what was likely an ice cream sandwich. A rising star athlete like me can’t even trust his own friends around here. I’ve been sold out by a fucking Pomeranian puppy.
Before any of the fantastic four could reply, a rain droplet fell directly onto Donghyuck’s exposed forearm, causing him to look up yet again into a sky full of angry clouds. He exhaled slowly, knowing that he now had no choice but to go home and brood in the silence of his room. “Well, I guess it really is going to rain. I should probably jet,” he said, not wanting to be in the company of the quartet any longer. Something about the way their eyes settled on him and not the bad weather gaining speed all around them made him uneasy. The fact that he had no idea complete, quite popular, strangers took so much interest in his life was another thing that made his evacuation not come quite quick enough.
Surprisingly enough, it was Mark who spoke up next. He must have felt the misery radiating off Donghyuck because he offered something Jisung and Jaemin would’ve never believed unless they were there to witness it with their own eyes. “Do you want to stick with us for a while, instead? We were all going back to my place, if you want to come.”
Looking back on it, Donghyuck decides a demon must have possessed him and forced his one brain cell to say yes because there was no way that if he was in his right mind he would’ve agreed to going to Mark Lee’s house with three other boys he was no where near acquainted with. Either way, demonic influence or not, he agreed and was soon following the group of Ken dolls down the opposite side of the beach he had entered from, praying to God he had not just made a huge mistake.
After that, the rest was history.
Donghyuck had sealed his fate by creating a friendship with them, one that had lasted the trials of time so far. Now, in their senior year of high school, he knows the four of them pretty well. Renjun, whose hair is now a soft ashen blonde, is probably one of the most talented painters Donghyuck has ever seen. He spends as much time behind the easel as Donghyuck does in the pool, and his hard work shows in every one of his works. Jeno still gives swim lessons to little kids and smiles sweetly at Donghyuck every time they meet while also managing to slip in questions about Jaemin nonchalantly, although he wasn’t born yesterday and can clearly identify a crush when he sees one. He thinks it’s cute that a heart-throb like Jeno would pine after a freak of nature like Jaemin; it’s touching, really. Next is Chenle, who’s dyed his hair a soft purple that almost rivals Jisung’s electric blue. In his head he calls them grapes and blueberries, but would never embarrass them like that out loud, especially since the pair aren’t really what Donghyuck would consider friends yet.
Last, but certainly not least, is Mark, who honestly hasn’t changed a bit. Sure, he’s gotten taller and ditched the Bieber cut for a new blonde ‘do, but he’s still every bit of the fifteen-year-old Donghyuck had first met on the beach all those summers ago. His eyes are still the same beautiful shade of amber, he still wears his shirt and not-swim shorts on their walks down the beach, and most of all, he still makes Donghyuck’s heart skip a beat. There’s just something soft and sweet about the way Mark exists in Donghyuck’s space, even if it’s a rare occurrence during the swim season, that makes the swimmer’s palms sweat.
The last time Donghyuck was with Mark had to be at least two weeks ago, when he had been forced to take his sister to the beach to meet with her friends. Mark just happened to be in the parking lot, and the moment he saw Donghyuck, he lit up like a Christmas tree. It was endearing, really, the way he’d immediately snatched up his longboard and halted the conversation he was having with Yerim, another one of their classmates, and started jogging towards Donghyuck’s car. He hadn’t even asked if he could come in; he simply opened the door and tossed himself in the passenger seat. His teal shorts, which Donghyuck wholeheartedly adored, were paired with a pair of equally as zany lavender socks. He was wearing an old baby pink spirit shirt from what was probably their freshman year, and atop his head sat a nice ass pair of over-the-ear headphones Donghyuck assumed cost more than his entire outfit combined. In summary, he looked like a giant Easter egg. Donghyuck was enchanted, naturally.
When he opened his mouth, the first thing he’d said was, “Long time, no see, Hyuck.,” and it made Donghyuck truly regret being so goddamn busy with practice.
It’s a crying shame, really, that he’s unable able to see Mark and his ridiculous outfits on a daily basis, which is why all the air in his lungs quite literally freezes as he sees Mark, in the flesh, leaning up against the gymnasium doors. He’s obviously not paying attention to his surroundings as he scrolls through whatever it is he’s looking at on his phone, but it’s as if he feels Donghyuck gaping at him because his head jerks up within seconds of the other noticing his presence. Whether he genuinely doesn’t notice or if he pretends not to for the sake of Donghyuck’s pride, Mark acts as if the younger boy isn’t openly gawking him in the hallway. He smiles easily at the red head, showcasing his little rounded teeth Donghyuck finds annoyingly adorable.
“Hey!” he greets, pushing himself up off the wall with one leg. Today, he’s sporting a plain pair of orange athletic shorts with some golden surf shop shirt he’d more than likely picked up from one of the tourist traps along the main drag of town. His hair is blonde and getting long and Donghyuck has had more than one daydream about brushing it out of his face eyes, but that’s beside the point. In summary, he looks incredibly handsome, even if his knees are just as purple as the longboard Donghyuck knows is hidden in his locker up on the third floor.
Before Donghyuck can ask what in God’s name has Mark near the pool, the other answers the question without being prompted. “Jisung told me there’d be a strong probability of you skipping the cafeteria today, so I took a wild guess as to where you’d hide and eat your healthy little lunch,” he says, crinkling his nose at the mention of Donghyuck’s infamous meal choices.
The fact that Jisung, who was almost unbearably shy around his second group of friends, went out of his way to talk to Mark for Donghyuck is touching, but incredibly embarrassing at the same time. Now he looks like an actual idiot for thinking he’d be able to sneak into the locker room unseen, when in actuality, it was the most obvious place in the world for him to go in order to avoid Jaemin and his big mouth. Dammit.
“Did he also tell you I’m the number one Na Jaemin anti right now?” Donghyuck retorts, beginning to head through the doors to the pool. Thankfully, there’s not a class being held right now, so both he and Mark slip in without trouble from underclassmen or one of the coaches who takes their job as a high school P.E. teacher entirely too seriously. Neither of them say anything as Donghyuck pushes his way through the entrance of the boys’ locker room, where he sets his things down on a bench and begins unwrapping his sandwich. Mark follows suit, sitting down beside the younger boy and watching him nibble on the wheat bread and grilled turkey combo. The scent of chlorine tickles Mark’s nose, masking his ability to think for a couple of moments due to how simply Donghyuck the room around them smells. It’s both comforting and nerve-wracking for the blonde boy who’s only just now coming to realize that he and the swimmer are completely alone.
As if the conversation had never paused, Mark replies to Donghyuck’s earlier question with another. “What happened with Jaemin? I thought you guys were two peas in a pod.” As he says this, he pulls his legs up onto the bench and sits criss-cross applesauce to where his body is facing Donghyuck’s head on, while the latter still faces the lockers, giving Mark a perfect view of his side-profile.
At that, Donghyuck stops chewing and quirks an eyebrow at the older. “Two peas in a pod? More like apples and bananas because that idiot must’ve hit his head pretty fucking hard when he fell off the tree that afternoon with Sir Isaac Newton three billion years ago,” he grumbles, rolling his eyes in what can only be interpreted as pure vexation. Mark cups his mouth with his hand to stop the stream of giggles that threaten to spill out at Donghyuck’s choice of words when he sees that the other isn’t done explaining the situation. “It’s like he doesn’t understand at all that I’m trying to get a full ride scholarship with swim. They don’t just hand those out, you know? This is like, my last chance to prove to every school I applied to that I deserve to be chosen and I can’t fuck it up by playing around the dunes after class everyday with Jaemin.” Now finished eating, he crumpled the sandwich wrapper into a ball in his palms, rolling it easily as he talked. “And I know he probably means well, but even the thought of not going to practice makes me want to break into hives. I love Jaemin, I really, really do, but god sometimes he’s just too much to handle.”
Mark had only ever hung out with Donghyuck’s best friend a handful of times over the years, but from those experiences alone he can clearly understand where the red head’s coming from. Jaemin, although funny and bright and full of laughter, can be a bit of a handful more often than not. His flair for the dramatic doesn’t really make things better, either. “I think he just wants you to take a break is all,” Mark supplies unhelpfully. “He’s worried you’re going to burn yourself out or get hurt by pushing yourself too hard, Hyuck.” Like I am.
Donghyuck huffs hotly and turns his head to face Mark, looking him square in the eyes. He’s no longer playing with the ball of saran wrap. “Have you ever wanted something so badly that it didn’t matter if you got hurt in the process?” The tone of his voice has shifted from flat-out anger to desperation and Mark’s heart starts doing this funny thing where it makes breathing or simply looking at Donghyuck difficult. His red-hair is so starkly bright in comparison to the navy blue lockers that surround them and the off-white at their feet in the form of tiles; he looks like the personification of the fire that burns so radiantly in his eyes. Mark can feel the heat of flames radiating from Donghyuck’s golden skin, oozing nothing but pure passion and determination. To put it quite simply, he’s beautiful and Mark is enamored by every word he speaks in the close quarters of the cool-toned locker room.
Mark thinks that maybe he can’t relate to what Donghyuck’s saying on an athletic level because he’s never really cared much for sports, nor has he ever wanted to fight tooth and nail for a top scholarship to some big college. But, sitting there in a room filled with the scent of the boy in front of him with nothing else to distract him from the other’s allure, Mark sort of understands what it’s like to yearn for something so desperately. Years later, looking back on this moment as he tells this story to countless friends and coworkers and family members, Mark still won’t be able to exactly explain what the sudden surge of confidence that overwhelmed his heart and mind in the following moments.
Instead of looking away from the intensity ablaze in Donghyuck’s eyes like he so desperately wants to, Mark chooses to maintain the eye contact as he begins to smile. “Yes, I have.”
Donghyuck’s expression fades into something softer, all the while still managing to showcase his confusion in the form of his wrinkled brows and lips. “What could you possibly want so badly, Mark Lee?” he grins, apparently finding humor in his friend’s words. “Don’t you already have it all? The looks, the grades, the friends, the fancy headphones? What else is there to add to your wish list?”
Mark rolls his eyes at the smaller boy, who’s now leaning his face into his hand with his elbow balancing the weight of his bent arm and side-ways head. He says nothing for a moment, contemplating the magnitude of what he’s about to say next and how it could possibly alter the path of their friendship in the years to come. Now or never.
“You, of course,” he announces, feeling both brave and nauseous all at once. He’s still looking directly at Donghyuck, fighting the ball of absolute terror in his throat as he gauges the reaction of the other, more athletic boy whose expression gives none of his emotions away. There’s a feeling of relief mixed in with the waves of anxiety somewhere inside Mark because finally, after all this time, he’s come clean about how much he genuinely adores Lee Donghyuck. Jeno would be so proud of him. “I’ve always wanted to tell you how much I like you, Hyuck, but I’ve been afraid of ruining our friendship. To be honest, I think I’ve actually had a crush on you since we had that eighth grade Earth Science class together. Way before we were even friends.”
Finally, as if a flip has been switched, a tiny close-mouthed smile breaks out on Donghyuck’s lips. His entire face, neck, and ears have turned a deep rose as he rubs his eyes with his hands, seemingly trying to wake himself up. Mark doesn’t say another word, giving Donghyuck the emotional space to breathe because he kind of just dropped an atomic bomb on their relationship in the middle of lunch on an uneventful Tuesday. Oops?
“You’re lucky I like you as much as I do, and have since the beginning of time, because if anyone else were to cheesily compare their feelings for me with how much I love swimming, I’d punch them in the throat,” Donghyuck retorts, pulling his head out of his hands and finally looking up at Mark for the first time in a couple of painfully quiet seconds. Under the tough façade, he still looks slightly flustered, but the wide grin splitting his face does a good job at distracting Mark’s eyes from the pink on his cheeks. In a bought of his own self confidence, Donghyuck grabs Mark’s hand where it lay on his exposed purpled kneecap and squeezes it. He looks at their entwined hands for a moment before turning his attention back up towards Mark’s face, laughing sweetly. “But, you’re cute and I’m probably in love with you and your hideous wardrobe so I’ll let it pass just this once.”
“Just this once?” Mark teases, leaning forward and squeezing Donghyuck’s hand right back. “But what if I’m probably in love with you, too? Does that give me any more free passes?”
Donghyuck, ever the performer, pretends to contemplate the matter by putting his free hand on his chin while tapping it. He ignores the rapidity of his pulse at the mere thought of such a beautiful boy returning his feelings and focuses on the newfound happiness in his heart that overwhelms him when he sees Mark gazing back at him with the most adoring expression fathomable. Unable to help himself, Donghyuck leans across the bench and places a tiny kiss on Mark’s cheek, openly cackling when the older boy starts to blush just as deeply as he had only a couple of minutes earlier into the conversation.
“I’ll have to think about it. Now, c’mon, I have to find Jaemin and tell him our after school meet ups at the goddamn dunes are eternally cancelled.”
Mark sputters, again following Donghyuck’s lead in gathering his backpack off the floor all the while trying to not release the other’s grip as they stand up. “Wait, why?”
“Because I’m going to be too busy watching my boyfriend coast around the boardwalk to have time for Jaemin’s satanic ocean tomfoolery outside of practice time. Duh.”
“Oh yeah, of course. Duh!” Mark parrots happily. “Let’s go! I can’t wait to single-handedly ruin Jaemin’s afternoon.”