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They’re laying next to each other on the single beds they’ve pushed together in their shared room, music from Mark’s bluetooth speaker playing on shuffle.
Mark runs his fingers down the slope of Donghyuck’s back, drawing no particular shape on the soft fabric. The younger squirms at the touch, attention trying hard to not part the game on his phone screen. He’s long stopped feeling annoyed at Mark’s habit of leaving light touches that stirs laughter from the pit of his stomach, in place of that is a giddiness that makes him a bit lightheaded.
He puts the phone on the bedside table as the screen reads ‘game over’.
“ You thinking of anything?” Donghyuck asks, shifting to lay on his side and face the other.
Mark’s hand once again finds its place on Donghyuck, this time resting low on his hip.
“ Just some stuff in my head.” Gaze still locked in each other’s eyes. The answer pulls a chuckle from Donghyuck.
“ So- thinking. Stuff in your head, that’s thinking Mark.”
Mark loves the way the corners of his mouth pull up and his lips purse out as he teases him, the way his left brow raises and settles into a challenging look, how his neck cranes a bit to peer at Mark’s reaction as if they weren’t already sharing the air between them. He mentally jots down notes of how the pursed lips pull back into a grin that resembles a pout; he could publish a few books on the quaint language that is Donghyuck’s gestures.
As if perplexed that Mark could be too focused on his every movement to respond to his teasing, his half moon eyes close to a squint, accentuated by the frown forming on his brows. Mark laughs at how child-like yet otherworldly it all seems.
“ Sorry, yeah. Just thinking about anything that comes up.” Mark answers, amusement never leaving his face.
Donghyuck sighs and props his head up with his arm, “ When did you get so vague Mr. Thinker?”
“ Learned it from you yourself Mr. Smart Quip.” conversation is easy, the flow of everything slow yet never stagnant.
Donghyuck’s eyes widen with something warm, and his resting expression turn into the mischevious one he sported before. Jaehyun used to ask him how he could bare with the constant “annoying remarks” (Jaehyun’s words, not his) from the sun kissed boy, to which he would shrug and say ‘it’s bearable, I got used to it’. He lied. Donghyuck’s quips of wit are never just tolerable to Mark, he loved everything about them. He just couldn’t tell Jaehyun about this nights of talking when Donghyuck would tentatively ask Mark if he’s ever out of line, or the ushered finger that grazes his thigh after every teasing remark on camera, and the tap that Mark gives back as reassurance.
“ Wouldn’t you share my last name, though? Or do you like the ring of Mr. Thinker-Smart Quip?” Donghyuck’s tone is light, no sign or forewarning that what he’s about to say will make Mark’s heart crash against his ribcages.
They’ve never talked about longevity, or what they’ll do after the idol gig is over; forever is a big label neither of them were ready to welcome. Despite that, something about the thought of a future for them sits right in Mark’s mind.
“ Lee-Lee would look ridiculous on paper, though.”
At that last quip Mark laughs. A sigh from him replaces it once the laughter’s died down.
“ You know that I’m absolutely whipped for you, right?” His words barely audible, “Utterly hopeless when it comes to you.”
A kiss on his nose, a kiss on Mark’s favorite mole on his cheek, a kiss on his closed eyelid, all to emphasize the already explicit words of devotion. In return he gets a hand that rests on his chest, close to his heart while playing with the collar of his sweater.
“ Are you now?” Donghyuck’s tone is light, the rhetorical question’s only purpose is to keep the conversation’s flow. His lips are pulled into a tightlipped smile, walking the line between shy and sly, "Tell me more about that."
Mark loves this about his favorite boy; the way he leans into the touch of attention and appraisal, the way he eats up affection from others, but no one glows like Donghyuck does when Mark tells him he's all wrapped around him. His cheeks are dotted with the lightest touches of pink, blooming on warm glistening skin, rivaling color of the curves of his ears. His body language is louder than ever in instances like these, when his need for affection gets the best of him and the little unconscious shifts he does make Mark's heart tingle.
The slight lean of his head onto his shoulder, the almost unnoticeable fidgeting he does with his index finger and his thumb, his eyes softening into the warmest shade of brown Mark's ever had the pleasure to have seen.
" Hm," is all that Mark mutters in response before closing their distance for a touch of foreheads, "I, Lee Minhyung," he takes a breath,"adore so many things about you. I'm obsessed with the way you chew on your fingers when you're excited, and the way you pull on your ear if you're embarrassed. I like it when your voice gets quieter when you're talking to just me, because you want me to pay extra attention to what you're saying. I absolutely, unabashedly adore how your lips jut out when we have to wake up early, oh- and when you roll onto your stomach with your head on your arms just to give me a good morning look, you know my innards melts at that."
Mark's stopped at this point, because Donghyuck's face is now hidden behind his hands, buried into the pillow. He could tell from bright red ears that his cheeks are that exact shade of pink that Mark loves on him. The protruding of his cheeks is visible, telling Mark that the embarrassed boy beside him enjoyed the little tangent he went on.
" C'mon Hyuck, you can't not look at me when I'm telling you you're practically perfect." Mark's hand carefully move Donghyuck on his side again, to face him. The glowing red cheeks and furrow of brows that greet him when Donghyuck lowers his hand tears a quiet 'oh my god' from him.
"Not like I can look at you when you're listing every single one of my habit like they're natural phenomenas."
It never fails to baffle Mark, how somehow so needy for affection and approval, Donghyuck gets unbearably shy when met with compliments. It's one thing when he brags about things himself, but the moment anyone agrees with him his mouth with twist into a crooked grin.
"Might as well be," he says, closing the distance between them as he responds, "everything about you is so grandeur."
Donghyuck giggles at the dramatic word choice, Mark knows that, and he wonders how long it will take for him to realize that no word that Mark can pronounce is beyond being used to compliment him.
" Come back down to earth, Mark, that compliment was really far-fetched."
He doesn't think it was. Donghyuck is grand in the war a waterfall is, beauty up-close and from afar, just a small part of the stream but a large part in the beauty of the landscape. He doesn't try to correct him.
Instead he motions the younger to turn his head, his ear right next to Mark's lips, "Let me try that again, then-
- Baby, I'm in love with you."