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“Mark? Your shoelaces.”
It always came in moments when Mark’s attention was being put elsewhere. Waiting for their order at the cafeteria, getting ready to board the bus, chatting while they were walking to the basketball court for PE.
Because then Mark would automatically reach down to fix his shoes and he’d walk head first to a devious trap set up by his Renjun.
Literally.
Renjun would kiss his cheek through the curtain of his hair that’d gotten a little bit too long it was risking him detention time. On top of that, he would also give Mark’s nape a playful squeeze.
By the time Mark caught up with the situation, Renjun would’ve already ran ahead of him. Leaving behind only the tail end of his giggles and a ticklish sensation ghosting over the blushing of Mark's cheeks.
_ _ _
“Mark? You have something on your face…”
“Where?”
It seems that there is a common thread running through Renjun’s unnecessarily mischievous plan. And that is only to engage it when Mark wasn’t paying any attention to him. They would be sitting on a bench at the back of the cafeteria, eating their lunch, and Mark too busy discussing the plot of some old 80s sci fi movie with Donghyuk to notice the incoming attack until it hit him.
Renjun would kiss him on the corner of his lips when Mark absentmindedly leaned to his minder, too used with Renjun’s habit of babying him to think that his trust could one day be used against him.
“There.”
By the time Mark caught up with the situation, Renjun would’ve already walked halfway to the trash bin to throw his plastic drinking cup, and Mark was left behind having to listen to his friends' heckling as he tried his best to hide his reddening face behind his empty tupperware box.
Renjun’s lips felt cool under the stinging afternoon sun, and the smell of lemons would not escape him for hours to come.
_ _ _
Mark was standing on the stairway, lounging around. Chatting with Jeno about their upcoming music practical exam when suddenly he heard his name being screamed from above.
“MARK!”
Instinctively, he turned his head to the left, expecting to see Renjun barreling down the stairs in his preparation to tackle him to the ground.
But there was no one there.
Weird.
Suddenly, one second he saw a small shadow popping into his vision, and the next he was headbutted, teeth first, by Renjun who’d somehow managed to lean the entire upper half of his body over the railing and gave Mark his own extreme brand of a forehead kiss.
“Renjun!” He yelled, still nursing the spot on his head that should've turned into an angry shade of red by then. Beside him Jeno was cackling, and Renjun too, was gasping for breath as he struggled to pull himself back behind the railing.
“Are you crazy?!”
But he shouldn’t have worried all that much, because if only he calmed down a little bit and listened more carefully, there was actually a third voice hidden at the back of the mad chorus of laughter.
Jaemin, who was acting as Renjun’s safety harness, who’s completely lost his mind while he squatted down on the floor, hands hooked around Renjun’s belt and using his whole entire body weight to prevent Renjun from completely going over the railing and breaking his neck as a result.
By the time Mark’s headache had subsided and he’d caught up with the situation, he was chasing Renjun and Jaemin through the school’s empty corridor, not minding that they could be caught and put into detention (again).
The stagnant, humid air stirred with their movements and Mark felt it flow all over him in soft caresses that tended the still throbbing spot on his forehead.
He found himself touching it absentmindedly throughout the rest of the day.
_ _ _
“What’s wrong with him anyway?” Donghyuk asked him one week after Renjun started doing his silly shenanigans.
To that, Mark only let out one long, exhausted sigh, “I accidentally called him short.”
Donghyuk snorted. “Well, then it’s your own fault.”
Is solidarity dead? Mark knew he messed up, the last thing he needed was for everyone to rub it on his face even further.
Seeing that they were the only two left in an otherwise empty classroom, Mark decided to call it a day and announced that he was going home. Out of habit, he slung his backpack around his shoulders in a very exaggerated manner. One grand movement that is so unnecessary, but it made him look kind of cool so why not, right? It is a concussion hazard but miraculously nobody’s ever been hurt by it. Not because Mark’s always been careful, but because he’s lucky.
But looks like his luck runs dry that day.
First there was the dull, dampened sound of his heavy backpack hitting something, followed suit by a surprised, muffled cry of some poor student who just got hit face first with Mark’s gigantic backpack.
Some poor student? It’ll be easier if it was just some poor student. It was Renjun.
Of course it was Renjun.
“Oh my god! Oh my god are you okay?!” Ignoring his own pain from when his hips collided with the edge of the wooden table (and ignoring the unmissable sound of Donghyuk’s snicker), Mark used the empty chairs to regain his balance and dragged himself to Renjun who was doubling over in pain.
It seemed that Renjun was trying to tell him something. But his hands plastered tight over his mouth didn’t allow him to make anything more than a garbled mumble. And so Mark leaned in, further and further, swimming too deep inside his pool of panic to notice that there was a waterfall waiting for him at the horizon.
When Mark bent down low enough that his eyes were aligned with Renjun’s, it was already too late.
When he saw the calmness that exudes from Renjun’s eyes, a complete one eighty departure from his body language that screamed of distress, it was already too late.
Renjun winked, and with it came the feeling of his hands on his shoulders, moist and warm from the condensation of his breath. One simple tilt of his head and...
By the time Mark caught up with the situation, he was standing in the middle of an empty class, dazed and slightly confused, with only the echoes of Renjun and Donghyuk’s laughter ringing inside his inner ears. The fact that the door was still swinging from when Renjun used it to propel himself out of the classroom acted as the only indication that the event has just ended very recently, because if not, Mark would’ve thought that he’s been petrified on the spot for minutes, hours on end.
Instinctively, Mark brought his right hand up and pressed the back of it onto his mouth, in a vain effort to bring back the quickly disappearing memory of a stolen kiss.
The salt on his skin perfectly mimicked the taste of Renjun’s lips. And never before has he ever desired so intensely to have seconds.
_ _ _
“Mark, your wallet,” Renjun said, pointing at a random spot on the floor. And like an obedient cattle, Mark spun around, patted the back of his pants, before looking down to seek for his missing wallet.
He couldn’t believe that Mark still fell for his cheap tricks, even if a whole week have passed since Renjun decided that he would make Mark earn his kisses, after he dared laugh at him when Renjun had to resolve to jumping if he wants to give Mark’s cheeks a little peck.
What a mule, Renjun mouthed as he got into position to greet Mark with a kiss when he realised he didn’t actually drop anything on the floor.
It was unfortunate that he spoke too soon. Because the next thing he knew, his mule has spun his trick and caused it to backfire spectacularly on his face.
By the time Renjun caught up with the situation, Mark had looped his arms around Renjun’s waist and used the upward momentum of him straightening himself up to pick Renjun clean off the ground, that only the tips of his shoes scraped against the floor when he tried to wiggle himself away from this compromising situation.
He hates losing.
Yet somehow Renjun was rendered silent when he realised how close the two of them were.
Eyes to eyes, nose to nose, lips to lips. No difference but for the expression on their faces. Where Renjun’s were scrunched in annoyance, Mark’s beamed with a blinding grin of victory.
“Put me down.”
Mark’s answer came in the form of a kiss. No, that much was clear, because his kiss was leagues ahead from what Renjun’d ever gave to him. Something that wasn’t as playful, yet not too serious that Renjun would’ve started to feel shame for letting such a special occasion unfold in one of the drabbest place in the world.
An empty school corridor nearing the end of their afternoon recess.
He did let Renjun down, eventually, when his fingers were seemingly pulled by an undeniable desire to run themselves across Renjun’s hair and he wasn’t able to keep up his grip with only one arm. Renjun slipped from his hold then, and his legs wobbled under the sudden weight of his upper body that returned with a vengeance. Thankfully, Mark caught him before he could embarrass himself any further.
“Is this a challenge?” Renjun mumbled, still too frazzled to speak in anything louder than a whisper.
“Maybe.”
Unfortunately, the bell signifying the end of their recess rang before Renjun could string up a retaliation worth saying. Besides, Mark had leaned down to steal one last kiss from Renjun’s pout before he ran to his own class at the other end of the corridor.
The giggle that escaped from the corners of his smile fizzled like the first sip of a glass of cola against Renjun’s lips.
He was instantly addicted.