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Chemistry passes by as usual. Which is to say, rather uneventfully.
“Thank you, class,” their teacher says, once an hour has passed. Mark, along with most of his classmates, have already started packing their things away into their backpacks. Mark’s just about to get up and leave when he hears someone clear their throat.
“Mark.” It’s Yukhei, who has been Mark’s Chemistry seatmate for the past year. The Chinese boy had moved to Seoul from Hong Kong at the start of the school year, and his infectious and flirty personality made him impossible not to like. Mark liked Yukhei fine, maybe a little too much to be considered friendly.
It’s not like he was going to try and make a move, anyway. While Yukhei was adorably clueless at the best of times, he was also a gigantic fuckboy. There’s no way Mark’s going to get involved with someone whose sleeves are constantly rolled up to his shoulders to show off his perfectly tanned, toned biceps- seriously, just wear a fucking tank top if you want to show off your arms that badly-
“Mark?” Oh, right, Yukhei was talking to him. The classroom was empty save for the two of them, as even their teacher had gone off somewhere.
“Yeah, hey, Yukhei,” Mark says. “What’s up?”
Yukhei stares at him with wide, unblinking eyes for several uncomfortably long moments.
“You okay, man?” Mark questions, feeling vaguely concerned. Yukhei’s expression shutters at the words.
“Why don’t you ever call me something different?” he asks, quietly.
“Different?” Mark echoes. “I don’t know what you mean by that, Yukhei.”
“I know you’re uncomfortable with public displays of affection-” Wait, what? “-but you haven't even treated me like your boyfriend once since we’ve started dating. I thought you needed time, Mark, but it’s been six months and you still treat me the same way you treat your other friends.”
What the fuck, Mark’s brain goes vehemently. Unfortunately, his brain doesn’t really provide him with anything else that he could say to Yukhei, so he’s left gaping at the older boy confusedly instead. Yukhei smiles sadly.
“I guess we were never meant to last,” he says, a little dramatically. “I’m sorry, Mark, but I think we should end things between us.”
Silence. Yukhei stares at Mark again with those imploringly large eyes.
“Um,” Mark says, after what seems like many, many hours, but in reality is probably around fifteen seconds.
Yukhei gathers his things and slings his backpack over his shoulder. “Goodbye, Mark,” he sighs. And then it’s just Mark, alone in his Chemistry classroom with his backpack situated on his lap.
“Mark Lee?” his teacher says, as she re-enters the classroom. “What are you still here for? Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Nothing, sonsaeng-nim, I’m sorry,” Mark says hurriedly as he makes his way to the exit, because he’s not going to tell his teacher that he just got dumped by the guy he likes without ever knowing that they were dating.
“You’re fucking joking.”
“No, I’m not,” Mark says sullenly into a forkful of noodles. “He really did say I don’t treat him the way a boyfriend should.”
Donghyuck looks like he might cry with laughter. Scratch that, Donghyuck is actually crying with laughter. Wiping a few stray tears from his cheeks, he asks, “Well, did you tell him that you didn’t know that he thought you guys were dating?”
“I didn’t get the chance to. I was so shocked that by the time I regained my ability to speak, he’d left the room.”
This sets Donghyuck off again, leaving Mark to wish he had picked a better best friend. Like, say, Jeno, who is approaching them with Jaemin, both of whom are sporting mildly bemused expressions on their faces.
“Hey, guys,” Jeno says as he sets his tray down. “What’s up?”
“Yukhei just dumped Mark,” Donghyuck says, almost gleefully.
“You guys were dating?” Jaemin asks, eyebrows raised.
“Not that I knew of,” Mark replies.
“That’s kind of funny,” Jeno says. “Haven’t you been thirsting after him for months?”
Mark refuses to dignify that with a response, so he chooses to glare at his noodles with reddened cheeks instead. Donghyuck snorts, leaning over to ruffle his hair fondly.
“It’s okay, Minhyungie, ” he says. Mark relaxes fractionally at the sound of his Korean name, something Donghyuck only calls him by when he knows he’s stressed. “Here’s a plan. You find Yukhei, ask him if you can talk to him, clear up your misunderstanding, and tell him you’re interested in actually dating him.”
It sounds easy enough when Donghyuck puts it that way, so Mark offers up a nod in response. The ordeal is pushed to the back of his mind as lunch carries on.
Mark’s worries come rushing back as he stares at Yukhei, standing in the school foyer, talking to his college friend Jungwoo, who he’s met a couple of times. Mark doesn’t actually know why Jungwoo is here, but he does know that Yukhei’s now noticed him and is trying not to make eye contact with him while Jungwoo glares at him fiercely.
“Uh, hi Jungwoo,” Mark says awkwardly as he walks up to them. He pretends not to notice the way Jungwoo is standing in front of Yukhei protectively. “Can I talk to Yukhei for a bit?”
“No,” Jungwoo says, just as Yukhei goes “Uh, okay,” softly. Mark watches with mild fascination as Jungwoo whips around to glare at the Chinese boy, before the two proceed to seemingly have an entire conversation with their eyes alone. After a couple of seconds where Mark pretends to be interested in the potted fern that lies directly in his line of vision, Jungwoo turns back and clears his throat.
“If you make things worse I’ll kill you,” he says simply, before flouncing off to stand by a pillar approximately ten metres away. Mark eyes Jungwoo, who sort of resembles an angry puppy, warily before facing Yukhei.
“Have you come here to make me even sadder?” Yukhei asks. There he goes, with his big fucking eyes again. It’s actually kind of worrying that Yukhei is this hung up on his and Mark’s nonexistent relationship.
“No, Yukhei,” Mark says. “I just wanted to ask you- do you remember ever asking me out?”
“Um,” Yukhei says. There’s a pause, and his eyes widen in realisation. “I guess I didn't.”
“I didn’t know you thought we were dating,” Mark says gently. “Honestly, if I had known, then I would have-” he cuts himself off, before he says something dumb like I would have treated you better.
“You would have what?”
“I would have treated you better,” Mark’s traitorous brain makes him say anyway. It seems to be the right thing to say, though, because Yukhei’s expression softens considerably.
“So, to clear things up,” he says. “You didn’t know I thought we were dating.”
“Yeah.”
“But you want to date me.”
Mark hums noncommittally. “Maybe I do.” He tries to say the words with as much confidence as he can muster up.
“Great!” Yukhei exclaims. “I’ll text you, then.” Without warning, he leans down and presses his lips to Mark’s cheek.
“Bye,” he says. Mark barely manages to croak out a bye in return before Yukhei goes back to Jungwoo, going Jungwoo hyung I forgot to fucking ask him out I’m an idiot loudly.
Mark touches his fingers to his cheek stupidly. Yukhei’s fucking weird. But that’s okay, Mark has always liked weird things.
+bonus
“Ditch Chemistry with me,” Yukhei says one day during lunch. He’d started sitting with them after him and Mark had quote unquote ‘officially’ started dating, and much to Mark’s relief, he’d gotten along amazingly with his friends. He’d also brought along his own tiny friends named Renjun and Chenle, who had integrated seamlessly into their makeshift group.
“Our golden student would never,” Donghyuck scoffs. “The number of times I’ve tried to get him to skip-”
“-okay,” Mark says, effectively ending Donghyuck’s tirade. Everyone goes silent. Yukhei takes a sip of his drink, looking entirely too smug for Mark’s liking.
“Mark, what the fuck.”
“You son of a bitch- ”
“Some fucking excuse for a best friend you are-”
His friends’ voices intermingle with each other until it’s almost impossible to discern who’s saying what, and Yukhei gets up.
“I think we should get out of here before class starts,” he says, holding out a hand. Ignoring everybody’s affronted expressions, Mark grabs it, hauling himself up.
“Whipped!” A Donghyuck-sounding voice calls out as they depart, but honestly, Mark can’t bring himself to care.