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“Wait, lemme get this straight,” Jaemin says on the other end of the phone. “You straight up told him you liked him, by practically yelling it at him in an empty hallway, before running away?”
Donghyuck nods, before realizing that Jaemin can’t see him. “Yeah, but when you put it that way…”
“When I put it that way it really makes you seem like a dumbass Hyuck, that’s what I mean.”
The orange-haired boy frowns, shifting in the crouch he’s doing at the bottom of some unnamed supply closet at their current music show station. This time, it’s at MBC Show Music Core, and its only their second comeback stage and he’s already royally fucked up. He adjusts the orange straps criss crossing his chest before responding to Jaemin.
“I panicked! What else was I supposed to do?!”
“Uh? I don’t know? Maybe actually wait for a reply instead running off and hiding in a closet somewhere? You know he’s looking for you right now?” Jaemin huffs into the phone, amidst the ruffling of what can only be the stylists rushing about the room.
Donghyuck groans, burying his face into his knees, his voice muffled when he answers back.
“Huh? What did you say there Hyuck, I don’t speak ‘I fucked up royally and now my dumbass is hiding in a closet’.”
He removes his face from his knees, snarling back into the phone, “Shut up Jaemin. I said ‘It was your dumb idea to confess in the first place’! Not me!”
“Uh, correction, it was Jeno’s, and I only backed him up because we were all sick of you whining about Mark-hyung in the first place.”
Another voice crackles over the phone speaker after Jaemin’s, interjecting playfully into the conversation. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d like, jump it on him and bolt the other way though, where’d Jaemin say you were again? Hiding in a supply closet?”
Donghyuck huffs, blowing his bangs out of his face. “You know what, screw you Lee Jeno, I didn’t ask for your opinion anyway.”
“Yeah, but you did take my advice, so who’s the real winner here?”
He hears a high-pitched shriek of laughter and he’s suddenly more alert than he was before. “You asshole,” He growls, “Am I on speaker?!”
There’s a brief pause before someone who suspiciously sounds like Jisung replies with a drawn out, “Nooooo?”
“That’s it, I’m hanging up.”
He ends the call with Jeno’s sharp retort of, “Well it’s about time you came out of the closet!”
Donghyuck can practically hear the maknaes laughing after he hangs up, and slouches over even more when he realizes that, Jeno, is in fact right and he has to leave the closet eventually. He still has the pre-recording for Dream, and he’s thankful 127 went first, cause otherwise, it’d be even more painfully awkward trying to do that song with Mark, after stumbling through one pre-recording.
He buries his face in his arms even more when his blunder from 20 minutes prior resurfaces to the front of his mind. Donghyuck slaps his hands against his cheeks in anger.
“What the hell is wrong with you Lee Donghyuck?”
It’s fine, it’s gonna be great. That’s what he tries to tell himself, but telling your best friend and groupmate that you like them, isn’t an easy feat. Especially if said groupmate tells him he’s a great best friend. All. The. Damn. Time.
So it’s safe to say that it’s not reassuring to hear that he only thinks of him in a platonic way and not in a ‘I really want you to kiss me senseless and hold hands and cuddle with me’ kinda way.
Donghyuck’s pretty sure that he’s liked Mark since they were trainees, but he’s only realized it recently. He’s not sure how or when, but he knows that it was sort of spontaneous. He’s also pretty sure he freaked out for about an hour after realizing at the Dreamie’s dorm before Renjun kicked him out because he was tired of hearing him yell about it.
It’s all good, it’s fine , he chants to himself as he waits around the corner down the hall from their dressing room. He had called Mark out a few minutes ago and everytime someone rounded the corner his heartbeat kicked up a notch.
Donghyuck peers around the corner and startles when he sees Mark exit from the dressing room. He’s not sure what he was thinking exactly in that moment, but he’s suddenly turning the corner and yelling his confession directly into the other’s face.
“Mark Lee, I like you!”
He startles, either from Donghyuck’s sudden appearance or confession, he’s not sure. Mark’s eyes widen, as Donghyuck feels his adrenaline lower and the sudden realization of what has exactly transpired hit him. It’s now Donghyuck’s turn to look shocked, his eyes widening as he watches Mark process what he said.
“Oh shit,” He swears, “It wasn’t supposed to go like that.”
His adrenaline spikes again and suddenly he’s running down the hall in the opposite direction, away from Mark and the shocked cries of his name. He’s not sure how far he had ran or how he had come to be sitting at the bottom of the supply closet, but he does remember being extremely embarrassed about how he’d confessed.
Donghyuck had a plan (not really), and had envisioned exactly how it was going to happen (a lie), but as luck would have it, he happened to have zero impulse control and a big mouth as well.
He decides he’s gonna have to face Mark eventually, so he stands up, shaking his legs to regain the feeling in them from crouching for so long. Donghyuck carefully opens the door, peering out into the hallway.
After looking both ways, he leaves the supply closet, closing the door behind him and walking back to the dressing room. He sighs, carefully fixing his hair and clothes even though the stylists were most likely going to have a fit either way when they saw him. When he’s finally in the vicinity of the rest of the dressing rooms, Jaemin appears and grabs him by the arm.
“There you are, manager was losing his mind because you disappeared.”
Donghyuck huffs, pulling his arm out of Jaemin’s grasp and crossing his arms.
“Well, I didn’t exactly plan for that to happen now, did I?”
Jaemin rolls his eyes and pushes him in the direction of the dressing room, ignoring the huffy protests from the other boy. Donghyuck suddenly gets nervous when he sees some of the other members milling about, realizing that he is in fact not ready to face Mark and turns to run away again.
He doesn’t get far as suddenly he’s being pulled back by Jaemin, who has him by the orange straps criss-crossing his chest.
“Oh hell no,” Jaemin grumbles, “You are not getting away this time, Donghyuck. You’re going to face Mark whether you like it or not.”
Donghyuck tries to twist out of the other’s grasp, but he can’t really bend his arms backwards in order release himself so he just struggles in the other’s hold.
“Well of course I was planning to face Mark, just not right now, at this very moment.”
Jaemin gives him the most unimpressed look ever before turning towards the dressing room door. “Hey, Mark, I found Donghyuck.”
The sentence has Donghyuck’s body kicking into high gear and he’s finally able to wrench himself out of the other boy’s grasp. Jaemin makes a surprised noise, watching as Donghyuck races back down the hall and out of sight.
“Yah, Lee Donghyuck, get back-”
He’s caught off when Mark pushes past him and down the hall after Donghyuck, Jeno coming out of the dressing room to stand beside him.
“I see you found Donghyuck, well, you did .”
Jaemin glares at him before punching him in the arm and stomping back into the room. Jeno yelps, rubbing at the spot where he was hit and looking at Jisung confused when the maknae pokes his head out.
“What’d I say?”
Jisung just rolls his eyes in response.
He isn’t exactly sure where he’s going or why he’s running, but Donghyuck isn’t stopping anytime soon. His plan at the moment is to try and lose Mark who he can hear right behind him, and hide out until Dream’s pre-recording. Mark wouldn’t dare start anything before a pre-recording, well, there was that one time, but that was only because they were fighting. They’re not exactly fighting, per se, this time, but he still doesn’t want to be faced with a situation like that again.
His train of thought is derailed when he’s abruptly pulled back again, with the stupid straps of his outfit, and dragged into an empty room. He successfully wiggles out of Mark’s hold and steps away in order to put some distance between the two of them.
That doesn’t faze him, however, as Mark immediately starts advancing towards Donghyuck, a determined expression on his face. He keeps pushing forward until Donghyuck’s back is pushed against a table in the room. “Yah, what the hell do you think you’re doing Mark Lee?”
Donghyuck tries to look confident in front of the other, but his heart pounds noisily in his ears, betraying him. He tries to play it off, hoping the other will forget about and see it as just another one of his many antics.
“Look, Mark-hyung,” He says, adding the honorific for extra measure, “It was a stupid dare from Jeno, really, just forget about it and-”
He’s cut off when Mark’s face is suddenly right in front of his, eyes staring straight into his own. Mark’s hands are resting on the table, caging Donghyuck in his arms. Considering how close they are now, Donghyuck’s pretty sure that the other can practically feel his heartbeat frantically beat against his chest now.
“Hyuck,” Mark says, finally speaking, “Do you really mean that?”
Donghyuck’s breath quickens, and he’s suddenly wondering where that shy, timid Mark Lee from years ago went. As much as he finds this Mark to be a pleasant surprise, he’s much more used to dealing with an awkward, constantly tripping over his words Mark.
He gulps, because if he’s honest, he really doesn’t want Mark to forget about this and he really doesn’t want to go back to pining over his best friend since trainee days, either. Donghyuck chews on his bottom lip, watching as Mark glances down briefly at the action, before returning upwards. The slight change in his pupils at the small action has Donghyuck throwing caution to the wind, in the next second.
“No, I don’t want you to forget it.”
Mark raises an eyebrow. “So you meant it?”
“Yeah,” Donghyuck breathes, “I meant it, I really like you Mark Lee.”
Mark moves forward, until their noses are brushing against each other’s. “Good, because I really like you too, Donghyuck.”
At that, Donghyuck surges forward connecting their lips in a kiss. He threads his fingers through Mark’s hair, and sighs when the other wraps his arms around his waist to pull him closer. The kiss escalates quickly, as suddenly they go from close-mouthed kisses to full-on making out. Donghyuck can’t say he doesn’t like it, especially not when he’s suddenly sitting on the table he was previously backed into, Mark’s hands sneaking up his sweater and resting on the small of his back.
He knows they’re both going to get an earful from the stylists, especially since he’s pretty sure that whatever lip tint or gloss they put on his lips is entirely gone from Mark sucking on his bottom lip. Along with the fact that he’s also been running his finger’s continuously through the older boy’s hair, messing it up everytime he nips at his lips with his teeth.
They only fully pull apart when someone’s phone starts to ring, realizing that they still have a pre-recording to do and that’s probably one of the members calling. He’ll deny he made an embarrassingly loud whine when Mark pulls away to answer his phone, already addicted to kissing the other. He pouts, his arms slung loosely around Mark’s neck as he slides the answer button up.
“Hello?” He sounds like he just ran a marathon, his hair tousled out of it’s perfectly styled hairdo by the stylists.
“Where the hell are you guys? It’s almost time for pre-recording, did you find Donghyuck?”
It’s Renjun, and he sounds a little annoyed about the sudden disappearing act the two have made.
“Yeah, I found him,” Mark breathes into the phone, his free hand toying with the hem of Donghyuck’s sweater. “He’s right next to me, we’ll be right there.”
Donghyuck scrunches his nose up, displeased at the fact that their make out session has been cut short. He’s not paying attention to the conversation anymore, already knowing that Renjun is probably chewing both of them out on the other end of the line. He perks up when an idea forms in his mind, a small coy smile playing across his lips.
Mark’s not paying attention, he’s too busy trying to get Renjun to finally hang up the phone when he feels a sharp tug on his right ear. He almost drops his phone when Donghyuck starts pressing kisses up his jaw, hands clutching at the front of his jacket. He chokes when Donghyuck playfully nips at his neck, big brown eyes looking up at him from under long lashes mischievously.
His attention is suddenly shifting back to the pretty boy with golden skin and strawberry blonde hair that’s trying to get his attention rather than what Renjun has to say at the moment.
“Hey, wait a minute, are you even listening to me Mark Lee?”
He’s barely paying attention when he answers Renjun, too focused on the way Donghyuck’s lips are kiss-swollen and pink.
“Huh? Yeah, I’m listening, we’re heading back right now, promise.”
There’s a brief pause over the line before Renjun speaks.
“Are you two making out right now?”
Mark almost drops the phone when Renjun says that, Donghyuck laughing into Mark’s shoulder at his reaction.
He splutters, making it all too obvious that they were and making Renjun groan in disgust into the phone.
“You guys are something else, I can’t believe-you know what? I don’t care anymore I’m hanging up, just get back here before Taeyong-hyung and the manager lose their shit.”
Mark stares at the phone incredulously before turning to Donghyuck who’s giggling into his neck. He removes his face from the other’s neck, smiling beautifully up at the older. Mark smiles back, because you can’t help but smile back when Lee Donghyuck smiles at you.
“10 bucks says Renjun is complaining about us to the other members now about how we were ‘making out’ when he called you.” Mark raises his eyebrows at the other when he makes air-quotes around ‘making out’.
“So we weren’t making out then? I was just casually kissing my best friend because that’s what best friends normally do, right?”
Donghyuck hits him on the shoulder, rolling his eyes at the other. “Shut up Mark, you’re lucky I like you.”
Mark smiles at him, wrapping his arms around the other and pecking his lips once.
“I am really lucky, aren't I?”
(When they do get back to the dressing room, Johnny’s the first one they meet at the door. He’s standing there, a wide grin across his lips when he sees them as he leans against the doorframe.
“So I heard you two were making out?”
Mark groans, dropping his face into his hands. “Johnny, please shut up.”
Johnny laughs, before turning towards Donghyuck, who’s looking pretty pleased with himself. Donghyuck only smiles in response, before grabbing one of Mark’s hands away from his face and pulling him into the dressing room.
The older man shakes his head before following the pair into the room, where he can hear the staff, and Taeyong, already yelling at them. He’s not surprised to see that neither look especially bothered by the scolding their getting, too content with sneaking glances at each other and giggling.)