Chapter Text
“But I want to kiss him.”
“Donghyuck, you don’t even know him.”
A temper tantrum was set into motion and it took a good twenty minutes to calm the elementary schooler down. He couldn’t help that the new transfer student was so cute and he was in the principals office for squishing his cheeks and trying to kiss him right on the mouth. If he remembered anything from dramas, it was that was how you told someone they were cute. He didn’t know why Mark had shrieked like that, either, since in the dramas kissing looked so nice!
“But mommy, he’s so cute. He’s like a little puppy! Like our puppy! We kiss our puppy all the time!”
“Do you want random people coming and kissing you if they think you’re cute?” Donghyuck pouted, he knew his mom was right but still, she had clearly never even seen Mark.
Donghyuck was seven years old, and he had a giant crush on Mark, who was just a year older than him in the Forbidden Second Grade. He swore to himself that he would have to kiss Mark before he could ever date anyone, and he swore to himself that he would keep it up.
He kept this promise through the entirety of elementary school, making sure that he would always sit with him at lunch time and share his lunches. He would go into his classroom during recess and just peek into the room without saying anything. And on the way home, he would trail behind the older boy until they both reached the bus stop (Donghyuck a few feet behind him). He was sure that maybe it was a bit much to be following him around so much, but Donghyuck just enjoyed looking at him too much to distance himself. His mother was getting concerned with how obsessed he was, but she also understood that he was only seven – though her excuse grew less relevant as he grew older.
Middle school rolled around and Donghyuck still found himself trailing behind, until one day in the seventh grade when Mark Lee turned right around and made direct, prolonged eye contact. Donghyuck felt his heart stop at the sudden attention. There wasn’t a word shared for a minute, and Donghyuck was actually a bit scared that he was going to hit him or something. Now that he was older, he did know that it was a little weird. But, unfortunately, he had missed out on social interactions as a kid because he had followed Mark around, so it left him with no friends and just someone he admired.
“What’s your name?”
“Lee Donghyuck.” His voice came out a lot smaller than he expected it would.
“Donghyuck.” The voice came out stern. “Stop following me around.”
“Why?” There was no way he’d except this, not after how many years he had spent following him.
“Because I can’t get a girlfriend with you following me around like a shadow!”
“Good.” Donghyuck spoke just as sternly as Mark did now, and he could see the other boy’s frustrations rising. “I don’t want anyone else to kiss you, only me.”
***
For the next few years, Mark would actively tell him to go away when he caught Donghyuck following behind him. Donghyuck continued to be relentless with his affections and refused to back down despite the threats of going to the principal with his complaints, and they ended up in high school without Mark acting on his claims.
Once Donghyuck had started high school, he ended up attracting a few friends in the process; namely, some of these being Chenle, Jisung, Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin. The Chinese students found comfort in him being alone too in their new school and the others from ending up in his homeroom class. Even between his small group of friends, his admiration for Mark Lee was very public and known.
“I don’t get why you love that Mark guy so much,” Chenle had asked him with his food stuffed with mouth. “all the girls here are in love with him, just you wait and he’ll have a girlfriend by tomorrow!”
Donghyuck just told him to shut up because his love for Jisung was unrequited anyway. Maybe it was a low-blow, but he was just angry to have the truth told to him verbally. Chenle was right either way, and yet he had never found Mark walking with a girl unless they were the groups that followed him around. He had never walked around with a girl intentionally, anyway. Donghyuck was grateful for that nonetheless, and yes, he had still run into trouble because of following Mark around despite that.
One of the times was when a few of Mark’s girl admirers had backed Donghyuck up against a wall in one of the hallways after school, berating him for following around the man of their affections. They insisted that he was annoying Mark to no end and it had to stop now, and that if it didn’t, they would cause grave consequences. Donghyuck was about to protest before he saw Mark standing a few feet from him, watching the interaction with a frown. His arm was hanging over his shoulder with a book in hand, a stance that Donghyuck always felt butterflies in his stomach to see. He cleared his throat loudly, causing the girls to turn around. “Ya, Lee Donghyuck, hurry up before I leave you.”
Donghyuck felt like it was his right to stick his tongue out at the girls before clasping on to Mark’s arm (for as long as three seconds before he shook him off) as they walked away together.
Donghyuck had learned that Mark Lee had grown accustom to his company, and he had learned this gradually over his first semester in high school. The new school left him a lot busier than before, and despite Mark being an entire grade above him, it was almost like he expected Donghyuck to be there. One of the times he realized this was when he had fallen sick one day and hadn’t been able to come to school for a few days. It wasn’t too bad, just a regular flu that had gone around and left him stuck in bed. When Donghyuck had come back to school after his sickness, he was met with Mark Lee staring him down in front of the shoe racks.
“Where were you?”
“I was sick.” Donghyuck huffed, putting his shoes in his locker and turning to face Mark. He noticed he was rubbing his neck like he did when he got nervous, but he quickly dropped it to scowl at the younger boy.
“Next time, you should tell m-”
“Mark!” They both turned to see his classmate Lucas calling him over. Mark glanced back at Donghyuck before jogging off to meet him, causing Donghyuck to huff again, drudging his way to his classroom. Mark Lee was a weirdo.
***
Donghyuck wishes he could be like his cousin and just have a talent scout come and whisk him away to an entertainment company, to be a famous idol without as many school responsibilities. Though he was confident that he could hold his weight, his mother insisted that he stayed in school because it was just unrealistic to expect to be scouted. Donghyuck still wished that XY Entertainment would take him away from the nearing English test that he just couldn’t grasp.
The problem with his friend group was that no one could aid him with English. Well, technically Chenle could since he had studied so rigorously in China, but he was reserving his talents for Jisung only. Sounded like a waste to Donghyuck, but he could keep his complains to himself.
Because of the clear lack of friendship in Chenle’s heart, Donghyuck was stuck in his classroom after school was over for the day, trying his best to understand what the heck was the difference between though, through, and thorough. A loud groan reverberated off of the empty walls, Donghyuck laying his head on his desk in defeat, only to hear a snicker from the doorway behind him. “Jeno, go away, I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be following Jaemin around right now.”
“I have no idea who either of them are but I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate that.” Donghyuck’s head snapped up fast enough to have broken his neck, since he had quickly recognized that voice as Mark Lee’s. “What are you doing here so late? I was waiting for you for like, twenty minutes now.”
“Why were you waiting for me? You’re always whining that I’m annoying you when we walk together.” Donghyuck’s eyebrow was cocked with suspicion, and Mark took a seat in the desk next to him, setting his bag on top of it. He rolled his eyes.
“At this point both our parents have deemed me your guardian, so I don’t have much of a choice.”
“It’s not that you miss me when I’m not around?” Donghyuck leaned closer to Mark’s desk, to which the older boy leaned backwards.
“What are you studying?” Of course, his question was evaded as usual. To Donghyuck, he believed strongly that it never hurt to try anyway, despite that he knew how Mark always replied to him. He tore his stare from the boy’s face and back to his homework with another groan. His dilemma with the English test was explained to Mark, subtle pleading eyes being thrown in since he did already take the test last year and would conveniently know what to study. “So you’re planning to study here alone for the next week?”
Donghyuck pouted and rolled his pencil between his fingers sadly. “I don’t see another option.”
“I’ll tutor you.”