Chapter Text
Mark feels a tap on his shoulder as he finishes the third mile of his morning jog to the beat of Walk the Moon. He glances to his left, pulling out an earbud, and nearly trips over nothing when he sees Jaemin.
“Mark! I thought it was you.” Jaemin grins, falling in step with Mark as they make a sharp turn. Baby Lake, the smallest of the four lakes, is also the most dangerous because there are so many blind spots that are detrimental to careless drivers and joggers. “You’ve been here for a while?”
Mark struggles to control his breathing, its irregularity more a consequence of Jaemin’s appearance than the intensity of his workout. Jaemin is still as straightforward and ambiguous as ever, and Mark really wants to ask him so many questions. But he has a workout to finish, and then he has to shower and get to work. Mark glances down at his watch, which happily notifies him of his too-fast heartbeat. “I’m on my fourth mile.”
“Cool,” Jaemin says, and leaves it at that.
They go around Baby Lake together, not stopping until they reach the crossroads to turn towards Super Lake. Jogging with a partner always helps, and Mark notes with satisfaction that he’d beat his own five-mile record. He slows down, turning off the road towards the edge of Baby Lake, and Jaemin follows him.
For a moment, neither of them speaks as they catch their breaths and drink water. Jaemin wipes the sweat from his face with the edge of his shirt, and Mark can’t stop himself from staring. Their eyes meet when Jaemin looks up, and Mark quickly turns to stare at the edge of the lake.
“You still run a 400 in 48 seconds?” Jaemin asks.
“My fastest time was 46.” Mark shakes his head. “I just jog these days, though. Don’t think my bones could handle the speed.”
“Laketon’s pride,” Jaemin says, and Mark laughs at the ill-fitting but well-meaning title.
“I didn’t know you were back.” Jaemin changes the topic abruptly, sitting down in the grass. He pulls on a loose shoe string, retying the knot.
“Yeah, well.” Mark watches a dragonfly drift over the surface of the lake, then looks down at the top of Jaemin’s head. His hair is back to black now, no longer the soft brown or dark blond hues that it had seen in their high school days. “I moved back last month.”
“A whole month and I didn’t even know?” Jaemin’s pitch rises in mock outrage, and Mark laughs as he sits down next to him. “Does anyone else know? I saw Donghyuck just the other day, and—”
“No, no one else knows,” Mark cuts him off quickly. His chest tightens, and he wishes that he hadn’t stopped running. High school was so long ago, but it’s hard to remember that when you’re back in town. “I’ve been busy moving back and getting settled, so I haven’t had time to catch up.”
Jaemin raises his eyebrows. “Okay then, Mr. Mark Lee. What are you doing now? We thought you’d never come back.”
Mark smiles, trying to hide how that small dig hurts for all the wrong reasons. “I’m working full time at the Zhongs’ research center.”
“No shit?” Jaemin whistles lowly. “I haven’t even heard from Chenle in ages, pretty sure he’s still out of the country.”
Mark shrugs, then leans forward to bump his knee against Jaemin’s. “What about you? What have you been doing recently?”
“I’m a pediatrician at the hospital.” Mark’s jaw drops in surprise, and Jaemin laughs—at him, Mark realizes, flushing as he closes his mouth again. “Yeah, I finished residency at Austin a few years ago, so then I decided to come back. Hey, do your parents still live here?”
Mark shakes his head. “They left after I went to college. My dad’s in the city, my mom’s up north. I live in one of the condos down that way.”
“You mean the new complex in front of Mama Lake?” Jaemin grins, holding out a hand. “Lake front property, man. Congrats, you made it.”
Mark laughs, high-fiving Jaemin. “It’s not one of the houses, but the view’s pretty nice. And it’s close to my work. What about you?”
“Moved back with my parents last year after Jeno and I broke up. I’m still looking around for a place, but it’s been nice being back home again.” Jaemin pauses, noticing that Mark’s still processing his words. “What’s wrong, Mark?”
“Nothing, I—” Mark swallows, trying to find a sensitive way to convey his surprise, but words have always failed him when he needed them the most. It’s probably a good thing that he does most of his heavy brainwork in front of a computer. “I just—I didn’t think—you just—I—”
Jaemin takes mercy on Mark, brushing it off with a shrug. “People change. This is the third time that we’ve broken up, and I think it’s going to stay like that. We’re still young.”
Mark blinks, taking in Jaemin’s words. Hearing him lay the truth out so plainly, Mark isn’t even sure why he’s so surprised. It’s unfair to think that while he was away and growing up, the rest of Laketon had remained frozen in time. Yet Mark thinks that he was expecting everything to remain the same, even if there are so many new residences and businesses all over Laketon, some still in the middle of being constructed.
It’s just—Jaemin and Jeno had been a thing for so long. Even before they began dating, they were Jaemin-and-Jeno, never one without the other. Mark had assumed that they would stay together, maybe even get married at some point down the road, because that’s what you would expect from childhood friends who end up falling in love with each other.
Jaemin rests his chin on his knees, turning his head to stare at Mark thoughtfully. “Are you going to the high school reunion this weekend?”
Mark blinks, caught off guard. “Why would I go to your class reunion?”
“Well, you missed all of your class reunions. It’s the fifteenth year reunion, don’t you want to see everyone? Only like half of the people there are going to be from my class, anyway. I heard even Jisung Park is going. You should stop ghosting us, Mark. We miss you,” Jaemin says, and Mark’s throat tightens at his words.
Then Jaemin leans a little closer, his voice dropping like he’s about to reveal a secret. His eyes glint with danger, and Mark can’t stop himself from leaning forward as well. “You should come as my date.”
Mark chokes on thin air, coughing violently into his fist. “Sorry, what?”
“Come on,” Jaemin says, his voice dropping lower, and there it is—the infamous charm that had earned Jaemin the title of their town’s sweetheart and heartbreaker. “I know you had a thing for me in high school.”
Mark hides his face in his hands, though he knows that his ears are probably bright red as well. “Oh my god.” Fifteen year old Mark would have died from mortification, but thirty-five year old Mark is stronger. Somewhat.
Jaemin laughs, tipping backwards onto the grass. He closes his eyes, and the rising sun illuminates his face with an ethereal glow. “I’m serious, though. We should go and pretend we’re dating. Can you just imagine how everyone would react?”
It does sound like a pretty good prank, Mark will give him that, but he looks carefully at Jaemin. “You’re just doing this for fun? You’re not using me to—”
“God, no.” Jaemin meets Mark’s eyes, and Mark relaxes at the earnestness that he sees in them. If there’s one thing Jaemin can’t do, it’s lie with a straight face. “Jeno and I aren’t dating anymore, but we’re still best friends. There’s no bad blood between us,” he says solemnly, placing a hand over his heart.
Mark swallows, glancing down at his watch. He startles when he realizes the time; he’d been so wrapped up in talking to Jaemin. “Shit, I have to head back now, or I’ll be late to work.”
Jaemin gets up with him and hands Mark his phone. “Here, put in your number. Let me know if you want to go to the reunion or just hang out.”
Mark enters his number and saves himself as a contact, then calls himself so that he has Jaemin’s number as well. “Here.” Their fingers brush as Jaemin takes his phone back.
“Cool, thanks. I’m going to do Super Lake, so I’ll see you around, Mark.”
“See you!” Mark calls, though Jaemin has already put in his earbuds and started jogging towards the main roads.
Jaemin waves without turning back. Mark watches him go, giving himself a moment to take in everything, before turning down the other road.
Mark ends up pulling into Jaemin’s driveway Sunday evening. It’s been over a decade since he’d last come to the neighborhood where he had spent his first eighteen years. These were the roads on which he had first learned to drive, and his old house is just the next block over. It’s all a little disconcerting, Mark thinks, getting out of the car to ring Jaemin’s doorbell.
He hears voices inside the house, and then Jaemin’s mom answers the door. “Mark, you’re here!”
“Hello, Mrs. Na.” Mark bends slightly to return her hug.
“I haven’t seen you in so long.” Mrs. Na steps back and opens the door wider. “Come on in. How long have you been back?”
“Just a month.” Mark takes off his shoes before following her into the house. “I meant to come by earlier, but I’m still getting settled.”
“Are your parents back too?”
“No, but they might come down to visit me.” Mark clears his throat, glancing around the house. A lot of the furniture has changed, and the TV on which they used to play video games has been replaced by an OLED screen that covers almost a whole wall of the living room. “Is Jaemin here?”
“He’s still getting ready in his bedroom. Do you want anything to drink? I’ve started making dinner, but Jaemin told me ya’ll are already going to a restaurant.”
“No, thank you,” Mark says, trailing behind Mrs. Na as she walks briskly into the kitchen. “And maybe some other day. I miss having home cooked food.”
She laughs, turning to check the pot on the stove. “You must be really busy. It’s so hard even getting Jaemin and his father to eat dinner at home. Do you cook for yourself?”
Mark smiles, rubbing the back of his neck. “I try.” Sometimes without much success, but at least he hasn’t gotten food poisoning from his own cooking.
“I’m here, Mom.” Jaemin steps out of his bedroom and waves at Mark. “Mark, come over here, I need help.”
No, I need help, is the most intelligible thought that Mark’s brain can come up with when he sees Jaemin. He knows that Jaemin is objectively very handsome, but Mark needs a second to process this Jaemin, who effortlessly fills out his white button-down, the top few buttons undone, his hair artfully tousled.
Mark leaves Mrs. Na with promises to greet his parents for her and to come over for dinner sometime. He finds Jaemin in his bedroom, sitting on the ground and pulling on his socks. “What do you need help with? Are you ready?”
“Almost.” Jaemin waves him over. “Don’t stand in the doorway like that, just sit down on the bed.”
As he waits for Jaemin to fix his hair in the mirror, Mark glances at the pictures on Jaemin’s bedside table and along the walls. Before, Jaemin’s bedroom had been covered by various posters, books, and papers, with holiday lights strung across the walls. Now, other than the slight messiness and the many pictures, the room looks barely inhabited.
A few of the pictures are from high school; Mark can tell by their haircuts and the poor image resolution. He can find himself in some of them, as well as other people within their friend group, like Renjun and Chenle. Most of the pictures, though, are of Jeno—Jeno biting into a giant cookie, Jeno petting a puppy, Jaemin and Jeno posing before a wall with the words You’re my butter half painted in black.
Mark tears his eyes away, feeling like he was caught looking at something he shouldn’t be looking at. A picture near the bottom of the wall catches his eye: Donghyuck, sitting on a railing with Papa Lake shimmering in the background, closing his eyes as he tilts his head towards the sun. It’s a picture that Mark’s all but memorized, with how much he’s stared at his own copy in the past. His senior year photo album even falls open automatically to this picture. It’s been a while since he’s had the urge to dig it out, but he still feels the familiar longing from looking at this picture. It’s effortlessly beautiful in its simplicity, just one irreproducible moment captured forever.
“What are you looking at?” Jaemin asks, his voice right next to Mark’s ear.
Mark leans closer to the photos to hide his surprise. He hadn’t even noticed Jaemin approaching at all. “You have so many pictures.”
“It took me a whole day to print all these and put them up.” Jaemin points to one of the framed photos. It’s slightly grainy, taken back when they were in high school. “How did you ever convince your parents to let you dye your hair into fried macaroni?”
Mark chokes on a laugh and elbows Jaemin. “Come on, it wasn’t that bad.”
Jaemin flashes him a bright smile, jumping off the bed. “Whatever you say. Let’s go, or we’ll be late.”
Mark glances down at his watch. We’re already late,” he says, but Jaemin doesn’t seem to hear him.
It’s not until they’re already in Mark’s car that Jaemin turns to him. “Oh, by the way, I booked a room in the hotel.”
Mark shoots Jaemin a started look as he continues to back his car out the driveway. “Why did you book a room?”
Jaemin clicks his tongue and shakes his head, like Mark is being the illogical one. “Don’t you read anything I send you? We’re having dinner and drinks at the hotel. It’s not safe to drive after you drink, so I booked us a room.”
“You booked both of us rooms?” Mark asks, coming to a full stop at the stop sign.
Jaemin reaches up to pinch Mark’s cheek. “A room. Singular.” He leans back into his chair, sighing dramatically. “You’re not good at being a fake boyfriend, are you?”
“It was your idea,” Mark argues, only slightly miffed. He’s taken friends as dates to many dances when he was a teen, and he’s certainly a respectable plus one at social events.
“Relax. Everyone knows about Jeno and me breaking up, and they’ll probably be more concerned about you actually being alive than us dating. But if anyone does ask, you asked me out a few months ago when you finally decided to do something about your high school crush.”
“Stop bringing that up.” Mark turns down the temperature in the car, which is starting to feel a bit too warm.
“Why not? It was cute.” Jaemin grins widely at Mark, then leans forward to fiddle with the car radio. “I can’t believe you listen to the local news while you drive.”
Mark frowns when Jaemin stops at a station that’s currently playing bubble gum pop music, but he doesn’t change it back. “It helps me know which roads to avoid if there’s a car accident or just construction,” he says, but Jaemin is already singing along to the song and ignoring him.
It doesn’t take them long to reach the hotel. Mark parks into the back parking lot, where the dining area of the hotel is located. He unbuckles his seatbelt slowly, already feeling inexplicably nervous.
Jaemin seems to notice, since he turns to Mark with a slight frown. “You good?”
Mark pulls down the sun visor and checks his reflection in the small mirror. “Yeah.” He pauses, then admits, “I’m just—worried about seeing everyone at once.”
“They’ll be happy to see you.” Jaemin adjusts Mark’s collar, then leaves his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “You can hold my hand, and if anyone antagonizes you, remember to duck and bark.”
Mark laughs, pushing Jaemin away. “Get out.”
There aren’t many cars in the back parking lot, but Mark guesses that they must be one of the last ones to arrive, seeing how it’s already half past the agreed meet-up time. Still, he spends a few seconds smoothing out the ends of his shirt before walking over to Jaemin. He slips his hand into Jaemin’s, interlocking their fingers, and they walk towards the hotel together.