Chapter Text
“I asked Mark to prom, but I think he thought I was asking him as a friend,” Lucas sounded put out, over the phone.
Jungwoo was sure if he’d been there, Lucas would be wearing his perplexed expression, the one he wore when he stared at the microwave waiting for his hot pocket to be done only to realize he’d just set the timer and not the actual cook time. Jungwoo had seen that look a few too many times.
Jungwoo sighed, set down the shirt he’d been attempting to fold, and switched his phone off speaker. Lucas needed his undivided attention.
“What makes you think that? And did he say yes, at least?”
Maybe if Mark said yes, Jungwoo could focus on that and cheer Lucas up.
“He did say yes!” Lucas brightened, briefly. Then, “After I handed him the daisies he said ‘thanks, bro.’”
Jungwoo hissed in commiseration. That wasn’t very promising. But, perhaps ‘bro’ was just the sort of pet name boys like Mark and Lucas used for their potential romantic partner.
“That’s not all!” Lucas's voice cracked and Jungwoo involuntary raised a hand to his heart. Poor Lucas, his emotions straining his throat like that.
“What else happened?” Jungwoo prompted.
“He said… dude, he said it was great I’d asked because now he doesn’t have to find a date .”
Lucas injected fake cheer into his tone, but Jungwoo was so used to hearing him sincerely joyed. He could tell his fake happiness apart from the sincere kind in a heartbeat.
“Oh, Lucas,” was all Jungwoo could say. He felt awful for it, being unable to sufficiently comfort his friend, “maybe he just didn’t get that you were asking him like that?”
Lucas didn’t reply instantly. In the beat of silence following Jungwoo’s paltry efforts, he heard the faint sound of a door closing on Lucas's side. A soft ‘whump’ and a huff of breath from Lucas in his ear. Maybe Lucas had sat down forcefully. Or, more likely, Lucas had fallen backwards onto his bed. His voice sounded different, when he spoke, like it was stretched and thin.
“I gave him flowers. Chocolate. I made a poster, man.”
Jungwoo walked over the kitchen and flicked on the electric tea kettle. He had a feeling he’d need some chamomile after this phone call was over. It seemed unlikely anyone could miss the romanticism of flowers and chocolates but, then again, this was Mark.
As his chamomile steeped, Jungwoo patiently comforted Lucas. After he’d fully convinced Lucas that Mark was just oblivious, Jungwoo immediately took to Instagram. He’d sort this out for Lucas, he decided. A few minutes of stalking Mark’s profile revealed he was always pictured with some mix of a group of six other boys, if he wasn’t taking a selfie with Lucas or a blurry shot of the horizon.
One boy was featured more prominently than the rest of the six. In the most recent pictures he had light brown hair, but in the older ones it was a faded orange. Jungwoo vaguely remembered him from his senior year of high school. He didn’t remember his name, just that he’d always seemed to hang around Mark.
Jungwoo clicked on the boy’s profile and typed out a DM, hoping desperately he wasn’t coming off a complete stalker. He was a stalker, of course, but he hoped he wasn’t coming off that way.
Hi, my name’s Jungwoo! I’m a friend of Lucas's! ^^ I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions about Mark….
Jungwoo waited anxiously for the reply, doubt mounting as the minutes spent in wait eclipsed. He shot off a few cute dog pictures to Lucas in the meantime, and was gratified at the smiley faces Lucas sent back. Lucas could never resist pictures of puppies.
Then, Jungwoo got the alert he’d been waiting for. One Instagram DM from @leedh . Heartrate spiking, Jungwoo opened it.
alright, “Jungwoo”, if that’s even your name….
Jungwoo paused in the midst of reading the reply and made a face. Was the combative tone really necessary? Mark’s friend seemed nothing like him, as kind and conciliatory as Jungwoo remembered Mark being. Jungwoo shook his head at himself-- the boy had a right to be suspicious of a random account coming forward claiming to be Lucas's friend, he supposed. He read on.
alright, “Jungwoo”, if that’s even your name, i’ll answer your questions. i’ve got a few conditions first though.
- tell me why the fuck lucas asked mark to prom out of nowhere
- tell me if lucas likes mark or something
- tell mark and lucas nothing of this conversation
thanks.
Jungwoo choked on his chamomile. He stared, transfixed, at his phone screen. He was struck by the contrast between the smiling face of the boy’s profile picture, kind if a little bland, and the content of the reply he’d received from him. Jungwoo set his mug down, the tea within rocking up in little waves from his shaking hands, and composed a response.
Umm okay that works for me! :) can you give me your number so we don’t have to talk over dms anymore?
seconds later, before he’d even navigated away from the DM screen, came the reply
‘kay here you go xxx-xxx-xxxx
we should like… meet up or something. talk face to face.
Jungwoo shivered. A meet up would be ideal, but he didn’t feel like getting his face pummeled in. And this boy seemed feisty enough to try it. Then, amidst the fear setting in, he recalled Lucas's thin voice. Lucas's faux cheer and his uncharacteristically poor mood.
Jungwoo had to get to the bottom of this, for Lucas. He saved the number under a contact with the boy’s name and a scary angry face emoticon.
to: Lee Donghyuck
hi again! it’s jungwoo
i actually go to college downtown
so if we could meet downtown somewhere
that’d be really great :))
from: Lee Donghyuck
oh it’s you
yeah that works
i can meet you on campus tbh?
but you better be ready to buy
me a coffee for my troubles
Lucas, Jungwoo reminded himself. You’re doing this for Lucas. If he told himself that, he could suffer any teenager, no matter how rude and feisty.
to: Lee Donghyuck
of course! there’s a cafe right by the library
i can get you something there
✥ ✥ ✥
Lee Donghyuck was nothing like Jungwoo had expected. Meaning, when Jungwoo stood up to greet the boy, he realized with a jolt like an electric shock that Donghyuck was about a head shorter than Jungwoo. He’d seemed so much bigger online.
His shoulders slumped forward, and the hoodie he was wearing swallowed him up. The hood was up, casting his face in shadows. The stormy expression underneath the hood was the only hint of the feisty boy Jungwoo had encountered on instagram.
“Mark’s creepy stalker?” Donghyuck accused, more than asked, as he levelled a look up at Jungwoo.
Jungwoo winced. Donghyuck’s moniker for him was somewhat earned, he supposed.
“I’d prefer you call me Jungwoo.”
Donghyuck sniffed and shifted from foot to foot. After an awkward spell of prolonged eye contact, he averted his gaze.
“Whatever,” Donghyuck slunk away, in the direction of the cashier. Jungwoo followed in his wake after a moment’s deliberation.
When he caught up to Donghyuck at the counter, Jungwoo cleared his throat,
“So, uh, I take it from the conditions you sent that you and Luc--.”
“Yeah, can I get a vanilla bean frap, please?” Donghyuck cut him off.
Jungwoo was taken aback at the sudden shift in his face as he switched from speaking with Jungwoo to speaking with the barista. The grin he directed the barista’s way was wide and easy. Donghyuck looked so much brighter; his smile seemed even to have diminished the shadows his hood cast over his face.
The barista nodded as passed a cup with the order written on it to the employee working the frappuccino machine. She was smiling widely back at Donghyuck and it looked, for all intents and purposes, to be a completely genuine smile. Jungwoo sighed. If only she knew.
“Fantastic! Thank you,” Donghyuck slid aside and nodded at Jungwoo, “he’s paying.”
Once they were seated, Donghyuck with his hood thrown back and already a third of the way into his frapp, Jungwoo felt it was safe to try his question again.
“So. You and Lucas…,” he trailed off, Donghyuck’s intense gaze making him feel he’d trip on his words if he’d continued to speak.
“Me and Lucas?” Donghyuck prompted, the bit of annoyance that had receded when he’d received his coffee making a comeback.
Jungwoo’s shoulders inched up with his rising unease, “You seem like you aren’t very fond of him?”
Maintaining eye contact with Jungwoo, Donghyuck lifted his cup and took a long, noisy sip of his frappuccino. Jungwoo blinked. He supposed Donghyuck’s non-response was as much an answer as a simple ‘yes’ would have been.
But Jungwoo couldn’t quite fathom Donghyuck not liking Lucas. Who wouldn’t like Lucas? He was so bright and charming. Donghyuck had to be the only person to have met him and not immediately fallen under his spell.
“Okay. Uh.”
Jungwoo was at a bit of a loss at how to continue. He could jump straight in and ask if Mark knew Lucas had asked him out to prom as a romantic date, but Jungwoo wanted to maintain some semblance of tact.
“So is Lucas like… into Mark?” Donghyuck blurted out.
He pressed his lips together in the wake of his outburst, as if he hadn’t meant to say that aloud at all. The rising blush on Donghyuck’s cheeks was unmissable with his hood pushed back. His pinked cheeks softened him, and suddenly Jungwoo was reminded that this kid was just that-- a kid.
Maybe he was acting so brash and rude out of concern for Mark. Maybe he was just worried for his friend who might have been about to embark on a new romantic relationship.
Jungwoo answered Donghyuck’s question with another question.
“Does Mark like Lucas?”
Donghyuck’s blush deepened to a ruddy red. He leaned back in his chair, and Jungwoo moved forward unconsciously, following him.
“I… don’t know,” Donghyuck said, soft and bitter, like it’d been ripped from him.
Jungwoo mentally struck out his previous tentative theory for Donghyuck’s petulance. If he didn’t know if Mark even liked Lucas back, it didn’t make sense for him to be concerned that Mark was about to get a boyfriend.
Jungwoo felt he wasn’t getting anywhere. If anything, he was just accruing more questions, and was nowhere nearer to any answer.
“Did Mark really think Lucas brought him chocolate and flowers platonically?”
In his frustration, Jungwoo asked exactly what was on his mind. In fact, it was what had been on his mind since Lucas called him in the midst of laundry day. Jungwoo had no time to regret his frustrated question, he only stared at Donghyuck, determined to know the answer.
Donghyuck stared back at him, for the span of a couple of pounding heartbeats. Then, strangely, he laughed.
When Donghyuck laughed, he used his whole body. He curled inward, wrapping his arms around his waist, and guffawed. When Donghyuck finally straightened, he swiped at his eyes with the sleeves of his hoodie, as if he’d been crying actual tears. Jungwoo watched in increasing concern.
“Oh my god, he totally did. He totally thinks Lucas asked him to prom, like, as bros. It’s fucking hilarious.”
Jungwoo frowned. His view of Mark, at least, wasn’t unfounded. Mark was just hopelessly oblivious after all, not needlessly cruel or awkward in not rejecting Lucas straight up. But Jungwoo’s view of Donghyuck kept worsening.
“If you knew Lucas didn’t ask Mark to prom as a friend, why didn’t you tell him?”
Donghyuck was silent once again. Jungwoo caught subtle movement out of the corner of his eye-- Donghyuck’s finger was twitching. He flicked the beads of condensation from the logo of his frappuccino cup, continuously, repeatedly. A nervous tic, maybe. Then it hit Jungwoo.
Maybe there was a reason why Donghyuck didn’t like Lucas, why he hadn’t informed Mark of Lucas's intentions, why he’d laughed at Mark’s obliviousness in regards to the promposal. Maybe he was jealous.
“Donghyuck, do you like Mark?”
Donghyuck’s hand stilled.
“No?”
He wasn’t looking at Jungwoo, though. Donghyuck’s hand slipped from the cup, leaving a trail in the beads of condensation, four slashes clean through the water droplets. The song that had been playing in the background petered out, and a new one started up. The new song was a different genre than it should have been. Still indie, but something a little darker than the typical cafe tune.
Chastened, feeling sorry for so clearly pushing a near-stranger’s boundaries, Jungwoo relented.
“Okay,” he said, gently, using as soothing a tone as he could muster “forget I said anything. How about you ask me some questions now?”
Donghyuck’s eyes snapped to Jungwoo. He fiddled with his hoodie sleeves, tugging the oversized fabric over his hands until just the tips of his fingers were visible.
“I think I’m good, actually.”
Jungwoo took a moment to process. He couldn’t keep up with Donghyuck’s shifting moods and whims. Surely he hadn’t been like this as an adolescent. Still regretful and more than a little confused, Jungwoo slowly nodded.
Donghyuck swept up and out of his chair. He donned his hood, plunging his face back into shadows, and raised up a peace sign at Jungwoo.
“Talk to you later, man.”
“A-anytime,” Jungwoo was frozen to his seat as he watched Donghyuck go. Before he left, Donghyuck threw his frappuccino out at the trash can by the door. He hadn’t even drunk half of it.
While still in the cafe, Jungwoo shot off a quick text to Doyoung.
to: doyoung
when did teens get so angsty
why are their lives so
complicated
from: doyoung
weren’t you literally a teen last year
Jungwoo sighed. Doyoung, as always, was right. But that wasn’t the point.
He feared he’d really scared Donghyuck, the poor boy. He’d just up and asked Donghyuck about his crush, out of nowhere. He deliberated, then shot off another couple texts before gathering his things and heading out the door.
to: Lee Donghyuck
i didn’t get the chance to thank you
for answering my questions!
it was really nice to meet you:))
i hope we can hang out again soon
✥ ✥ ✥
Lucas and Jungwoo had a longstanding Friday night tradition, established within the first month Jungwoo was away attending college. Doyoung was scheduled to drive the college’s drunk shuttle on Fridays, leaving the apartment to Jungwoo. Lucas had taken to showing up outside Jungwoo’s apartment door as soon as he beat the rush hour traffic. convenience store snacks in tow.
Jungwoo would make popcorn and Lucas would magically find a perfect HD file of some movie that Jungwoo would swear had only been released in theatres the week prior. They’d watch the movie and, more often than not, end up talking through it, sharing everything that’d occurred in the week they’d spent apart.
Their movie night tradition was how they coped, what with Jungwoo in college and suddenly not at Lucas's side anymore. It wasn’t the same as seeing each other every day and eating lunch together and studying for classes together after school, but it was what they had.
Jungwoo was worried how Lucas might react if he discovered Jungwoo had meddled in his love life by contacting Donghyuck, but not worried enough to put a hold on movie night. He attempted to do something special, an apologetic gesture for a transgression that Lucas wasn’t aware of. Jungwoo tried, for the first time, to bake cookies for movie night.
By the time Lucas showed up, the apartment smelled of burnt sugar and singed chocolate.
Lucas walked in through the front door as Jungwoo was struggling to remove the pan from the oven. Lucas had long dispensed with such formalities as announcing himself or, perhaps, knocking before entering.
“Lucas!” Jungwoo greeted, startled.
He made an aborted movement to wave, then remembered he was holding a tray of piping hot cookies, taken straight from the oven. The cookies slid across the length of the tray, a couple abandoning ship and falling with sad thumps onto the kitchen tiles.
“Oh, dear,” Jungwoo said, as he tried to right the tray without burning himself.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Lucas's voice sounded out from the front door, loud and urgent.
He dropped off his plastic bags by the front door and dashed to the kitchen. Carefully, Lucas took the tray from Jungwoo’s shaking hands, grabbing it by the hot pads. As he took it out of Jungwoo’s hold, Lucas's hands first clasped over Jungwoo’s before he adjusted his grip.
Jungwoo quickly snatched his hands away. The heat at his palms from the oven-hot tray had nothing on the burning feeling at the back of his hands from Lucas's touch.
Jungwoo stared at his hands, turning them over to see if they were seared, red. No, they looked fine. He frowned, disliking that there was no physical evidence of the strange heated sensation when he could still feel the skin there tingling.
“You made cookies?” Lucas asked, drawing Jungwoo’s attention away from his hands.
Jungwoo pressed his lips into a thin line. The smoldering blackened rocks on the tray could hardly be classified as cookies.
“I tried to.”
With a sigh, Jungwoo began to untie the apron he was wearing. He’d found it in their kitchen, tucked away behind the coffee maker. He was sure it wasn’t one of Doyoung’s-- he doesn’t recall ever seeing Doyoung cook anything that didn’t make use of a microwave. But before the Cookie Fiasco had begun, he’d offered up a quick Thank You to whichever of Doyoung’s friends had left it in their apartment.
Lucas stepped forward, into Jungwoo’s space. He reached ahead, making Jungwoo freeze, wondering just what on Earth Lucas was doing. His questions were answered seconds later when Lucas's hands enclosed on the apron’s top tie. Lucas's knuckles brushed up against the nape of Jungwoo’s neck, sending shivers down his spine originating from the point of contact between them.
Lucas took Jungwoo’s apron off for him, and it was a good thing he did, because Lucas's proximity seemed to have paralyzed him.
“Why? What’s the special occasion?”
Lucas didn’t seem to know anything about Jungwoo’s meetup with Donghyuck. He had his broad, unsuspecting grin on his face.
Rediscovering his agency when Lucas looked away to fold the apron, Jungwoo cleared his throat.
“No special occasion.”
Lucas handed the apron back to Jungwoo, folded, and Jungwoo made sure to take ahold of it carefully. He didn’t want a repeat of handing off the tray to Lucas, had no desire to feel that strange, inexplicable heated sensation to return.
“If this is because you feel bad about Mark friendzoning me--.,” Lucas began, his grin dimming.
“It’s not! And I’m still not sure that’s what he was doing.”
Jungwoo rushed to reassure him. It didn’t have as much a positive effect as he’d tried for-- Lucas's grin returned, but something about it was off. It was bitter, wry-- an unusual look on Lucas.
“It’s no sweat, really. I’m kinda used to it at this point.”
Jungwoo paused, brought to a stop by Lucas's last sentence. He searched his mind. He knew Lucas better than he knew anyone else, but he had no idea why Lucas would say he was used to being friendzoned. It didn’t sit right with him, not knowing the explanation to something that was clearly weighing on Lucas.
Still, he wouldn’t push Lucas into talking about it. He trusted Lucas to know he could always come to Jungwoo if he was in need of someone to talk to.
“If you say so. Oh!” Jungwoo clapped his hands together, pushing his consternation to the back of his mind, “What movie are we watching today?”
Lucas insisted upon taking a plateful of the singed cookies with him to the couch. Jungwoo refused to touch them, content to nibble on the candy Lucas had picked up from the seven-eleven. Lucas, on the other hand, ate no less than three of them.
“These really aren’t that bad,” Lucas insisted, spraying overcooked crumbs out of his mouth and all over himself and the couch.
Jungwoo giggled. He could tell when Lucas was lying, and Lucas knew he could tell, as well. But Lucas had still eaten his overcooked cookies just to spare his feelings, when he clearly hated them.
Jungwoo reached forward from his spot at Lucas's side to brush off the crumbs that had landed on Lucas's lap.
“One of these days you’ll learn not to talk with your mouth open,” he mused, softening his words by sending a smile Lucas's way.
Lucas was looking at him oddly, all perplexed, like Jungwoo was one of his hot pockets. Jungwoo realized his hand was over-warm, still on Lucas's thigh. He quickly removed it, under the pretense of refocusing on the movie.
“Wha! Is that robot fighting godzilla?”
Lucas snorted, and the odd moment between them passed. The only memory of it at all was Jungwoo’s heated cheeks.
“Dude, that’s a kaiju. And the robot’s a jaegar. Have you been paying attention at all?”
Jungwoo shrugged, hoping beyond hope that Lucas couldn’t see his the color on his cheeks in the dark of the living room. He didn’t even know why he was blushing.
One thing was for sure-- he’d made Lucas uncomfortable just then, when he’d brushed the crumbs off his lap. Jungwoo hadn’t even thought before doing it, it’d just seemed natural to him. But had he crossed a boundary? Maybe Lucas wasn’t comfortable with Jungwoo being so touchy with him anymore, now that he’d set his sights on securing Mark.
Jungwoo’s cheeks grew even hotter. Without meaning to, it seemed he’d only added to the confusion surrounding Lucas and Mark. And Donghyuck, he supposed.
Jungwoo nestled closer to Lucas's side, craving the solidity and warmth offered there, now that his thoughts were so untethered. Wordlessly, Lucas lifted his arm, allowing Jungwoo to lean in further. He dropped his arm around Jungwoo’s shoulder, pulling him in tight.
Jungwoo made a soft noise of surprise. He hadn’t expected Lucas to cuddle him tonight, of all nights (because that’s Lucas was doing, right? that’s the only thing it could be termed as). It went unnoticed under Lucas's overjoyed hoot as a woman with cropped black hair and an umbrella appeared onscreen.
He pointed with the arm that wasn’t wrapped around Jungwoo’s shoulders.
“That’s Mako! Spoiler alert-- Raleigh and her are drift compatible.”
“Huh?”
Lucas laughed, “You’re so spaced-out tonight! She’s like…,” he paused, searching for a way to describe the woman, “... she’s Raleigh’s Jungwoo.”
Jungwoo realized, with a stuttering heartbeat, that that clarified nothing. His list of unanswered questions seemed to be growing at an ever increasing pace. He didn’t know what Lucas meant to Mark. Jungwoo didn’t know what he meant to Lucas. He didn’t know how he and Donghyuck fit into the puzzle that was Lucas and Mark’s prom date, or if they fit in at all.
In the end, Jungwoo was forced to do what he probably should have done at the outset of his answer-seeking journey.
On Saturday morning, he scrolled through his contacts until he found the name of the boy at the center of it all.
“Mark?... Can we go get boba?”