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The thing is, Donghyuck isn’t a snoop. He doesn’t like to crawl around on his knees in search of something juicy to spread on campus. In fact, in most cases, the juice comes to him on a platter, all pretty and served in a glass. Whether that be when his friends trip on a wire in their story and are forced to tell him, or when he keeps up his persistence when asking them about the secret and ultimately are forced to tell him.
This time though, this particular time Donghyucks’ skin is crawling with the urge to tip toe around Mark and his late night activities recently. Late at night when Donghyuck would expect his boyfriend to be knocking on his dorm door with an arm bared with snacks, he has been getting texts in place of snacks and cuddles. He can tell Mark had started out trying to be creative with his excuses, but that quickly dispersed after the 8th time Donghyuck got texted ‘hey babe, cant make it tonight, gym night with lucas.’. It wouldn’t have been so hard to believe, (because Mark does in fact work out) if Mark hadn’t told him previously how gyms make his nervous so that’s why he only goes once every two weeks.
Donghyuck is a good boyfriend, at least he thinks he is. He brings Mark cuddles on days when his boyfriend sends cryptic and slow response texts, meaning something bad happened in one of his classes. When his boyfriend is too busy with his classes and projects, Donghyuck never fails wake up early to trek across campus so he can make Mark breakfast and pack his lunch, even though he himself has classes that day. On days when Mark is stressed out from an assignment or extra credit club duties, he drags his whiny (and unusually clingy) boyfriend to his favourite burger place that reminds him of his childhood back in Canada. Donghyuck doesn’t give himself enough credit because he loves Mark and he knows that his boyfriend loves him just as much, but lately Donghyuck’s been wondering one simple (read: terrible) question; why would Mark cheat on him?
It had started with Mark being absent in texts and their usual Sunday night hang outs (not Saturday because Mark has basketball and Donghyuck has open mic night with his band club.) Donghyuck was suspicious, sure like any other boyfriend would be, but he trusted Mark. It was when Mark’s habit of tilting his phone away from Donghyuck’s view that he got curious, and well, worried. Especially since he’s dating Mark Lee, for fucks sake.
Was he not good enough for Mark? Of fucking course Donghyuck knows he’s gorgeous, anyone with a pair of eyes could tell, but maybe Mark had finally gotten tired of his constant whining, or his persistent need to make his boyfriend flush scarlet whenever his friends were around.
It’s not like Mark was completely absent, if he was Donghyuck would have talked with him by now. Donghyuck still sees his boyfriend in between classes, briefly waving with a warm smile, or at lunch when a couple of their friends’ schedules matched up to their own.
“I’m telling you, they should have debuted Hangyul in the unit,” Jaemins’ voice carries around the bench they were sitting at, his food long forgotten to engage in a passionate debate with Chenle.
“Nope,” the youngest shakes his head. “You’ve got it all wrong. Dongmyeon should have been the one to snatch that last spot.”
Donghyuck watches his friends bicker back and forth while pouting, and normally his voice would be an added in the mix of frustration and disbelief, but he really can’t stop switching his focus back on Mark beside him. His boyfriends’ eyebrows are furrowed, and his eyes are focused on his phone, intent clear in his pupils.
“What’s got you frowning so hard, Lee,” Donghyuck pokes the others’ cheek, but gets no response to his attempt at annoying his boyfriend.
Mark continues tapping on his phone, the wrinkle in his forehead getting deeper. Donghyuck sighs and waves his hands in front of Marks’ eyes.
“Helloooo, earth to Mark.”
The older readjusts his eyes to the outdoor lighting before he turns to Donghyuck and is met with a frown.
“What’s wrong?” Mark asks, reaching his hand up to caress through Donghyuck’s bangs.
Mark still has his phone in his hand, the screen locked, but at least his hand is resting on top of the bench. Donghyuck thinks it’s a miracle he even got Mark to look away for more than two seconds.
“You tell me,” Donghyuck huffs. He folds his arms on the wooden table and leans his chin on top. “You’re so quiet today.” Lately.
Mark sighs and continues to soothingly run his fingers through Donghyuck’s hair, and he’s supposed to be mad at his boyfriend but he’s making it really, really, really hard.
“I’ve just been… busy, that’s all,” Mark mumbles out.
“Too busy to kiss me?” Donghyuck grumbles, leading Mark to chuckle.
“Is that what this is about, you want a kiss? If you wanted me to kiss you, why didn’t you just ask?” Mark hums, tracing his hand down the side of Donghyuck’s face and pulling him upright.
“I shouldn’t have to ask for a kiss from my boyfriend, I thought we were past our awkward phase, Lee.”
Mark rolls his eyes and leans down to press a chaste kiss on Donghyucks’ cheek. “Happy?”
Donghyuck narrows his eyes at Mark. “No, that wasn’t a kiss! That wasn’t even a smooch!”
Just as Mark opens his mouth to reply with a smile, his phone screen lights up and Donghyuck moves forward to look at the text. The problem arises when Mark moves quickly to grab his phone and turn it over in his hand, so the screen was away from Donghyucks’ eyes. Donghyuck raises his eyebrows at his boyfriend with an offended glint to his eyes. Across from them, Jaemin and Chenle stop bickering to stare wide eyed at the two.
Donghyuck isn’t a love expert, but he’s almost ninety-nine percent sure that it’s very disrespectful to hide your phone screen from your boyfriend, especially if they’ve been dating for over a year now. Donghyuck doesn’t forget to mention how shady it is, either.
Marks’ eyes are wide in shock and he hurriedly packs his stuff. “I gotta go, that was my mom. She’s taking me out with dad for lunch.”
Mark doesn’t wait for a response and he throws his backpack over his shoulder, disappearing from Donghyucks’ view. He’s still staring in the direction of where Mark left with a slightly opened mouth and a weird feeling in his chest.
“I’m sure she just texted him something embarrassing and he didn’t want me seeing,” Donghyuck reasons after clearing his throat.
Jaemin and Chenle give a numb nod, the older of the two attempting to give a chuckle. Later, Donghyucks’ in his bed and staring at his messages, zero from Mark and over ten from his group chat with Renjun, Jaemin and Jeno. He sighs before tapping out a response.
its fine, me and mark are okay don’t worry about it, he sent me a ss of his moms’ text
How he wished that was true.
Now, he’s stuck pouting at his laptop screen, his attention disregarding the movie playing and instead focusing on his reflection in the screen.
“Knock knock.”
Donghyuck sighs when he hears the familiar menacing voice, he’s gotten way too used to the devilish edge to Renjun’s voice to know it’s him.
“You do know just because you say knock knock doesn’t mean it counts as knocking, right?” Donghyuck quips, shutting his laptop and moving it to his nightstand.
Renjun flops down on his too-small-for-two bed, crushing Donghyuck’s legs with his torso in the process. Donghyuck would usually shove the smaller boy off and cackle while Renjun tries to choke the living daylights out of him, but he really can’t bother when he keeps checking his phone for any sign of life from his absent boyfriend.
“Who shit in your oatmeal,” Renjun mutters.
Donghyuck raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. “I didn’t do anything to you?”
Renjun, who’s not really than much shorter than Donghyuck, snuggles into Donghyuck’s legs and grins. “That’s exactly my point. On a normal Sunday night in your dorm, I’d be on the floor by now.”
Donghyuck is nothing but a people pleaser, so he shoves Renjun’s chest until the smaller rolls off the side of the bed and his ears are met with the sound of a thump.
“Happy?” Donghyuck raises an eyebrow at the boy over the edge of the bed before he leans back against the wall and stares at Jeno’s empty bed across the room.
Renjun releases a huff when he stands up and dusts his flannel off. “Hyuck, seriously what’s wrong?”
“Besides you assuming I eat oatmeal for breakfast, nothing.”
“Whatever,” Renjun turns on his heel slowly. “But you’re missing me being sincere for once, this is the last time I reach a gracious hand out and save you from your–“
“Alright!” Donghyuck sighs with a roll of his eyes. He crosses his legs and pats the lumpy mattress beside him. “But don’t call me stupid or say that I’m over-speculating.”
Renjun sucks a breath in between his clenched teeth, yet he still sits. “I don’t know if that’s possible Hyuck.”
“Renjun!”
“Okay, fine,” Renjun leans against the wall and turns to face Donghyuck when he’s comfy. “Well?”
Donghyuck grabs the pillow at his feet and hugs it against his chest. “I didn’t realize I would ever be telling someone this, or even thinking about it.”
“Donghyuck, I’m three seconds away from ditching to go to the buffet with Jaemin.”
“He invited you to a buffet? Why didn’t he ask me!” Donghyuck briefly straightens his back and furrows his eyebrows.
“Yes, he did, and now I’m regretting declining, so that I could come check on your hermit-ass.”
Donghyuck mumbles rude under his breath before settling back against the wall and pulling on the loose thread hanging off of his pillowcase. “I think Mark is cheating on me.”
The silence that follows is deafening, to say the least, and Donghyuck’s never heard his dorm room so quiet before. Other than the first time he and Jeno met, (the younger boy had decided to bring his boyfriend over when Donghyuck had walked in on them making out on his bed. Yes, his bed.)
Donghyuck squirms on the mattress and he suddenly regrets bringing this up to Renjun first. Despite Renjun being five foot nothing, Donghyuck knows what he can do if anyone who’s close to him gets hurt. Donghyuck’s tenth grade boyfriend can testify to that. He should have at least mentioned it to Jeno to begin with, for which he’d just get comfort food and a marathon movie with his roommate, (which is hard to come by with Jeno since he’s so busy all the time.) Whereas Jaemin would immediately confront the situation and claim to bust his face in. (“Just let me do it!” “Jaem, the last time you said that, you almost broke your hand and you didn’t even hit his face.”)
“What makes you think that, I thought you guys were okay?” Renjun finally asks.
Donghyuck lets out an airy chuckle. “What can I not say on the list of obvious signs that your boyfriend’s cheating on you?” In the corner of his eyes, he catches Renjun biting his lip and clenching his fist.
“Have you seen texts, caught him on the phone with someone?”
“That’s the thing, Injun, he won’t let me near his phone. Usually he doesn’t care if I take his phone to play games, or lean over his shoulder to see what he’s doing out of boredom, but now he flinches at the smallest movement of me looking at his screen. And don’t get me started on him not hanging around as much lately.”
Renjun sighs and Donghyuck sees him unclench his fist. “Hyuck, I’m sorry. Do you want me to ask him about it?”
Donghyuck chuckles and leans his head on Renjun’s shoulder. “Injunnie, we both know that means a lot of glaring and cold words.”
“Is that not what asking him about it means,” Renjun mumbles. “This doesn’t make sense. Why would Mark cheat on you?”
Donghyuck shrugs and he suddenly feels like curling under his blankets and crying it all out now that someone knows about what’s been going on in his head for the past week.
“I mean, are you sure?” Renjun scratches his head and furrows his eyebrows. “Don’t make me regret saying this but, Mark’s crazy about you, there’s no way he would do that, he loves you.”
“Allie was in love with Noah but she still married someone else,” Donghyucks’ pout gets deeper.
Renjun sighs. “This isn’t the notebook, Hyuck.”
“Feels like it,” Donghyuck mutters and groans a millisecond after. “We aren’t even going to last our second Valentine’s Day.”
Donghyuck’s head gently falls off of Renjun’s shoulder when the smaller moves forward to reach past Donghyuck and grab his laptop. The younger taps Donghyucks’ password in before the Netflix logo lights Renjun’s face up in red.
“You pick a movie, one you won’t talk all the way through, and I’ll go down to the university centre to grab snacks.” Renjun places the laptop in Donghyucks’ lap and stands.
“Thanks, Injunnie,” Donghyuck mumbles, letting Renjun ruffle his hair.
“I only accept gratitude in the form of strawberry milk.” Renjun points.
Before Renjun leaves to grab the snacks, he turns to Donghyuck and over his shoulder he says, “when the movie’s over, you’re going to text Mark and confront him, or I will.”
The next time he has Mark in his sight, the older doesn’t wave quickly and turn the corner, he walks towards Donghyuck with a small smile and shining eyes.
This is it. He knows I know and now he’s breaking up with me.
“Hey Hyuck,” Mark breathes out, reaching his hand down to intertwine with Donghyucks’.
The pressure and warmth of Marks’ hand is enough to send Donghyuck into panic mode. It’s not that Donghyuck is an amateur with these kind of things with Mark, it’s just that he hasn’t held Marks’ hand for longer than second since before the he started acting weird.
“Hi, Mark.”
Mark snorts and raises an eyebrow. “No ‘Lee’ today?”
Donghyuck shakes his head and briefly remembers how he sent a text to Mark right after he and Renjun finished their movie.
This time, Marks’ lips turn downwards in a frown while his thumb begins to rub circles on Donghyucks’ hand.
“Hey,” Mark softly murmurs. “What happened to my Hyuckie? Is it one of your classes, did you get a bad grade–“
“This has nothing to do with school, Mark,” Donghyuck finally speaks, surprising himself when his voice comes out more stable than he thought.
“You said you wanted to talk, right, are you okay?” Are we okay?
Donghyuck looks around at the students in the hallway, passing by them with annoyed expressions. He takes a deep breath before pulling Mark into an empty meeting room.
“I know, Mark,” Donghyuck takes a deep breath before turning around and fiddling with his fingers. “I know about the texts, the excuses to miss our Sunday nights–I know about it all.”
Mark frowns and scratches his head out of confusion, and Donghyuck would just wish he could get this over with so he can crash into his bed and cry into oblivion. Or until the blanket suffocates him.
Mark clears his throat. “Okay, so you know.”
Donghyuck raises his eyebrows. He didn’t deny it. Suddenly, Donghyucks’ eyes begin to feel a little less dryer and his chest feels heavy.
“You’re not even going to deny it?”
“Well, no,” Mark shrugs. “I really wanted it to be a surprise, but I always knew you were too clever.”
A surprise? Donghyuck feels anger run through his chest, replacing the sadness and hurt and instead creating a mixture not to be challenged with.
“Going behind my back and cheating on me was supposed to be a surprise?”
Donghyucks’ nostrils flare and there’s a single tear that rolls down his cheek, but Marks’ quick to close the distance between them and swipe it with a delicate brush of his thumb.
“Baby, no. Cheating? I would never do that to you. I was talking about your valentine’s present.”
Donghyucks’ face falls flat and he uncurls his fists at his sides. “V-valentine’s present?”
Mark smiles, reaching down to grab his phone and display the date to his boyfriend.
“I… totally forgot about valentine’s day,” Donghyuck mumbles.
“I noticed,” Mark chuckled, slipping his hand back into Donghyucks’. “Follow me.”
Donghyuck does as he’s told, following Mark as if he was his compass to the world and everything. If he wasn’t so embarrassed about throwing a tantrum seconds prior, he would probably be giggling and jumping in excitement about what Mark planned. But all he can think about as he passes the hallway decorated with hearts, and the pleasant warmth enveloping his hand, is the fact that he doubted Mark and their relationship.
Mark halts and stops just before the door of the student council, turning around the face Donghyuck. The boy looks unsure, nervous and there’s a slight pink tint to his cheeks, but Donghyucks’ never been so in love before. He feels his eyes begin to water again, only this time, it’s not out of sadness or anger.
“It’s not much, but I really worked a lot on it and I probably would have given up if it weren’t for the fact that this is your present and I did it for you,” Mark stumbles on his words and Donghyuck giggles at his nervous habit. “Anyways.”
Donghyuck watches Mark step aside, but not before turning to door handle for him and lightly pushing the door open. When Donghyuck walks in, he’s not expecting a lot, so he’s not surprised to see a younger council member standing in the center of the room, holding a single sunflower.
“Hey, Donghyuck!” Xiaojun grins. “I’ve heard so much about you, Mark talks about you a lot and–“
“Jun,” Mark sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Xiaojun cocks his head and his face brightens with realization. Donghyuck chuckles at the boys’ reaction and Marks’ nervous smile. Xiaojun holds the sunflower out for Donghyuck to take, followed by chirping, follow me.
Donghyuck glances at Mark to see his reaction only to see his boyfriend already looking at him. Two years ago, Donghyuck never thought he would be able to be on the receiving end of Marks’ loving and affectionate smiles. He’s been by Marks’ side through middle school and high school, seeing that same (if not a little lessened) smile reserved for his past relationships, he himself being through relationships in an attempt to numb his feelings for his best friend until they went away. Thankfully they never did. Nothing could have prepared Donghyuck for the amount of love and kindness Mark has given him, not only during their relationship but throughout their friendship. Nothing could have prepared Donghyuck for the beautiful open air he feels in his chest whenever he’s hugging Mark, kissing Mark–just being with Mark.
“Alright,” Xiaojun announces, coming to a halt. “I think these were my instructions, if not, you can ask the next flower dude, or I’m sure Mark wouldn’t mind helping out.”
Mark looks seconds away from strangling the kid before he skips away, a smile adorning his face. At the same time Donghyuck sees another council member holding a flower, a rose this time, he feels Marks’ hand slowly slip away. He looks towards his boyfriend with a concerned raised eyebrow.
Mark chuckles, brushing his hand over the crown of Donghyucks’ head before letting it rest at the back of his neck. “I kind of still have to finish preparing this, but I’ll be there at the end, waiting for you.” Mark leans in and places a soft and fleeting kiss to Donghyucks’ forehead, before he turns away with a smile.
Donghyuck takes a deep breath, clutching the gentle sunflower in his hand and walking towards the second council member. He takes the rose from a girl he knows by the name of, Mina. Mina smiles and points towards the direction of another council member, and another, and another. By the time Donghyucks’ sure his heart is beating at a pace deemed unhealthy, he’s got a bouquet full of sunflowers and roses, and he’s standing in front of his house. Before he twists the handle to open the door, he can hear loud voices behind the wood.
“I said I would do it!”
“You always get to be the front man, let someone else do it!”
“Donghyucks’ going to be here any second, give it to me–useless, you five.”
Donghyuck rolls his eyes and pushes the door open. The five of his friends stand in the living room with smiles plastered on their faces. It’s silent, save for Chenles’ muffled giggling. Jeno holds a rose in his hand, shoving it into the empty air between them and Donghyuck.
“Mark’s upstairs,” Jisung rambles.
Renjun rolls his eyes and leans past Jaemin to gently flick Jisungs’ forehead. “You’re supposed to keep it romantic.” Then he turns to Donghyuck. “He’s waiting for you in your room.”
“Like you would know what romantic is,” Jisung mumbles, sticking his tongue out at Renjun.
Donghyuck takes the rose, ignoring his friends in favour of the nervous butterflies in his stomach. “Thanks, you guys.”
Without wasting another second, Donghyuck hurriedly skips the steps, careful not to fall because he would like to stay alive until after he sees what Mark planned, thank you very much. In a haste to open his bedroom door though, he stops hard in his tracks and is almost blinded by the amount of red, pink and purple in his room. The walls of his bedroom are covered in pink chiffon and roses delicately folded from tissue paper. The floors that were once hardened and battered wood are now scattered with paper lily pads and swans. Donghyuck doesn’t miss the crisply-folded hearts hanging on strings from his ceiling. He almost doesn’t see Mark standing by his window, wearing a crisp white button-up with a black blazer.
“Mark,” Donghyuck says breathless, walking towards Mark, careful not to step on the lily pads and folded swans.
“Do you like it?” Mark asks, nervously biting his lip.
Donghyuck didn’t think it was possible to fall more in love with Mark, and it’s probably not the last time he’ll be thinking this. He tears his eyes away from the decorations to look at Mark, one hand in the pocket of his slacks and the other hand holding a single sunflower. When he looks back up at Mark, there’s so much love in his eyes and Donghyuck lets his tears flow this time. He throws his unoccupied arm around Marks’ neck and hides his face in his boyfriends’ neck, letting his blazer catch his tears.
“Baby,” Mark soothes, running his free hand through the hair at his nape. “Why are you crying?”
Donghyuck can only sob as a response, he’s never felt so overwhelmed by intimacy and tenderness that crying is something he can only do. Mark is patient with him, continuing to run his fingers through his hair and occasionally dropping a kiss on his head.
“I love you so much,” Donghyuck murmurs against Marks’ shoulder. “I’m s-so sorry, I thought you were cheating on me when you were busy doing all of t-this.”
Mark shakes his head and pulls Donghyuck away from his shoulder to look at him. “I’m sorry for making you doubt me, I should’ve told you I was with Johnny and that he was helping me with something, I just wanted to surprise you. You have nothing to be sorry about, I love you.”
Donghyuck sniffles and lowers his head to place a soft kiss on Marks’ neck. “I love you.” He continues repeating, lifting his head away to press another kiss to his jaw, all the way until he reaches Marks’ lips.
“I love you,” Mark murmurs against Donghyucks’ lips before letting the younger press their lips together in a gentle and tender kiss.
“You did all of this?” Donghyuck asks after pulling away.
Mark nods. “Johnny helped me out a lot, for some reason he’s extremely good at origami.” Donghyuck chuckles. “But it’s not over yet.”
Donghyuck looks at Mark with a frown.
“There’s an outfit for you in the bathroom, and if you want to make it to that reservation, we still have-” Mark looks down at his phone. “-about ten minutes.”
Donghyuck gapes for a moment, staring at his boyfriend and wondering how in the hell he got so lucky to be with his best friend. He sighs, leaning in the place another kiss on Marks’ lips, and another, and another.
“Hurry up, we have to go!” Mark laughs, gently shoving Donghyuck towards the bathroom.
Mark manages to push him up until the bathroom door, watching Donghyuck with a smile turn around and open the door to the bathroom.
Donghyuck glances over his shoulder, a warm smile on his face and he really can’t help himself when he turns around one last time and throws his arms around Marks’ neck, bringing their lips together. “I love you, Mark Lee.”
Mark pecks his nose. “And I love you, Lee Donghyuck.”
When Donghyuck looks at himself in the mirror, he doesn’t shy away from his reflection, he basks in the glowing of his flushed skin, sees the twinkle in his eyes, the bright smile adorning his lips, and the warmth in his chest.