Chapter Text
Donghyuck and Renjun strolls on the hallway after their class is over, making small noises swallowed by the crowd as they talk to each other. Their conversation topic is mainly focused on their pilled up homeworks, thanks to the coming end of term. Renjun has mostly done his assignment while Donghyuck just shrugs when Renjun asks him in return about it. When they are about to get down the stairs, Donghyuck hits his own forehead, recalling something important that he hasn't do yet.
"Renjun, did you get your english essay corrected by that exchange student?"
"Yeah. Around a week ago," Renjun answers, reading Donghyuck's panicked expression, "oh, no. The deadline is tomorrow. Don't tell me..."
"I need to get back to classroom now," Donghyuck grins while stepping back, "it's okay if you want to go home first. Bye, Renjun."
"Wait! I'll come with you," Renjun shouts as he runs to follow him.
"Oh, yeah. Now I remember that you have a big fat crush on him. Of course you wouldn't let me go alone," Donghyuck nudges Renjun's arm as the elder mutters a shy rejection, "how did it go with him a week ago?"
"Great? I mean, I don't know," Renjun replies in an erratic tone, "it was just normal. More like sucks, actually, because some of my words on the paper were lost. A software problem, I guess."
"Good for you. I'm actually so nervous right now. As you know, I'm not really good at english," Donghyuck takes a deep breath, "I'm afraid I won't understand what he has to say."
"That's bullshit! Donghyuck, you're good, alright?" Renjun pats his shoulder, "nothing to worry about, man. Just do your best."
They finally arrives in front of the classrom, meeting Jungwoo and Yukhei in front of the class. Those two troublemakers are pushing each other's back, which Donghyuck guesses they try to make each other go inside first. Both pairs of those eyes gaze at them as if they just see an angel.
"What are you guys doing here?" Renjun asks, not out of curiousity.
"Yukhei is being a jerk. He doesn't want to go first," Jungwoo folds his arms, rolling his eyes at the giant behind him.
"As if you want to do it yourself!" Yukhei shouts in exasperation.
"Calm down, guys. How about I'll go first and talk to him?" Donghyuck offers, "since I need to go home as soon as possible. Can I?"
"Sure, sure!" Jungwoo pushes his back in hurry, "aren't you going too, Renjun?"
"No, I'm going to wait here," Renjun waves his hand as his friends swallowed by the door.
As his foot are fully inside, Donghyuck regrets his slowly fading out bravery. Of course Jungwoo and Lucas can't be relied on at this moment. They occupies two chairs in the front, staring at Donghyuck as he would save the world and feed the homeless. That exchange student is sitting on the teacher's seat, observing those three as they enter the classroom awkwardly. Donghyuck watches him whilst walking to his target as the other does the same thing. Unlike usual, he was wearing a glasses.
"Hey, Mark," Donghyuck grips onto the air, "are you in free time to discuss my english essay right now?"
Mark nods as he throws a smile, Donghyuck swears he has never been attacked as far as this moment in his life, "sure. Take a seat. Oh and please pick your assignment by yourself, because I'm still having a hard time reading hangul."
"Okay," Donghyuck says, accepting bunch of papers those Mark offers. He searches for his work but couldn't find it, "it's not here. I'm sure I have submit it already."
"Then it must be the one I'm checking right now," Mark lifts a paper in front of him to read the name on top of it, "Lee... Dong..."
"Hyuck," Donghyuck cuts him off.
"Right. It's yours," Mark changes its position so Donghyuck can also see it, "shall we start now?"
"Sure."
Mark is a detailed person, Donghyuck concludes. He can actually draw a line without a ruler, yet he is using it. It looks neat and Donghyuck likes it, but it wouldn't be a problem if Mark just simply strikes on the words messily. This is too much work for him. Mark is also glad to explain Donghyuck's mistakes, even striking on the same mistake over and over again. Donghyuck doesn't know whether he is really dumb or just nervous, but he only understands twenty percent of their whole conversation. Mark keeps blabbering while Donghyuck can only mumble these words and phrases: ah, yes, okay, I understand, I got it.
"Why did you wrote 'bla bla bla dream the love'? Why did you choose to use 'the'?" Mark raised his right eyebrow while asking, and Donghyuck somehow find it... cute.
"It's best," Donghyuck tries his best to elaborate.
"I think the correct word is 'is', not 'the'. When you are explaining things, it's better to use 'is'. Because 'the' refers to something that you and the readers already know about. And when I read this, I don't know which love you're referring to. Do you mind to explain?"
Donghyuck decided not to answer. Holding back his embarrassment his more urgent.
"I actually made this," Mark took out some papers from his folder, handing it to Donghyuck, "students at this school are good at vocabulary, but they often make small mistakes on things such as to be and auxiliary. It's a simple understanding regarding them and more importantly, tenses."
"For me?" Donghyuck asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. You can keep it."
"Copy for my friends?"
"No, it's for you," Mark answers firmly, "after you read it, you can ask me if you still don't understand."
Mark explains a few more things but it's getting worse because Donghyuck's brain can't receive a single thing well. Donghyuck has never hyped up about any exchange student who came to their school before such as Wendy and Krystal, or Johnny and Jeffrey two years ago, but this man is somewhat different.
"Thank you," Donghyuck mutters when their session is done and he is about to leave.
"No problem."
Donghyuck quickly runs into the hallway, leaving Jungwoo and Yukhei behind. His face is red, completely flustered. Just when he is about to scream his feelings out, he catches Renjun and Jaemin sitting side to side above the bench, staring at him. Donghyuck swears he just see rose tint on both of Renjun's cheeks.
"Hey, Jaemin," Donghyuck completely gets himself controlled after seeing Renjun who isn't in better condition than him, "I'll walk Renjun home, if you don't mind."
"Please, Donghyuck," Jaemin stands up before going, "make sure he's safe on the way. I'll see you both tomorrow."
"So Jaemin, huh?" Donghyuck raises his eyebrows playfully.
"Shut up," Renjun spanks his friend hard on the back to cover his true reaction, "look at you. What's with your face? Did Mark do something to you?"
"Oh, shut up!" Donghyuck is about to slap Renjun with the papers in his hand but he repents.
"What papers are those in your hand? I'm pretty sure you don't own it. And it's impossible that you write an essay that much," Renjun says.
"It's from Mark. Sort of a document about tenses that he made himself. He didn't gave you one?"
"Nope," Renjun shakes his head, "I'm pretty sure Jeno and Jaemin didn't receive one too because I came to Mark with them."
With nonstop teasing coming from Renjun's airhole, Donghyuck finally reaches his home in tiresome. He doesn't usually study but because the essay due is tomorrow, he has to. His hand sluggishly grabs those papers from his bag, reading the sentence one by one, page by page, until it comes to an end. Then Donghyuck spots a green post-it with a messy handwriting stuck on below part of the last page.
It's amazing that you reach this point.
For further information: cafeteria, over lunch, southeast bench, tomorrow.
- Mark Lee
And suddenly, the knowledge Donghyuck's obtained for the last three hours feels like gone. Screw the deadline, he's going crazy tonight.