Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

So when Mark casually turned to face Sicheng and pulled on the bottom of his ear, pursing his lips at the adorable reaction he gave, Mark found it weird how Donghyuck glared at them from across the room. It wasn't like him to get jealous, or even the slightest bit annoyed when Mark chose others over him.

"I like Winwin hyung a lot, recently." Mark said, holding the mic up to his face and tucking a strand of his back hair behind his ear. Donghyuck frowned even more, sitting up straight and shooting him a look, almost as if he was saying that was enough. Johnny noticed what Donghyuck was trying to do, and began to laugh silently, hitting the younger on his back and dying in the corner of the room, hoping the cameras wouldn't catch him.

Taeyong, who also caught on to what was happening, snaked his hand around Donghyuck's shoulder and then pat his chest, whispering that it was alright, not knowing that Donghyuck had actually taken Mark's words to heart.

"So Donghyuck." Mark said once the cameras turned off, and the group started making their way to the dressing room. "What's up?"

"What do you mean, what's up?" Donghyuck said, sending Mark a side glance before turning down the corner and opening the door of the room.

"You seem upset." Mark laughed, elbowing Donghyuck and then taking a seat, allowing the makeup artists to wipe their faces clean. Donghyuck only scoffed and turned his head away, choosing to ignore Mark's statement.

Finally, Mark had finally found a way to get Donghyuck jealous. Strangely enough, it took him a good three years into their relationship to discover this, but now that he did, he was definitely going to make the most of it.

As the group slowly exited the dressing room, now in comfortable clothing, Mark shuffled towards Sicheng and wrapped an arm around him, leaning his head onto his shoulder and sighing in comfort. Sicheng tilted his head to the side to check Mark out, making sure he's fine, before focusing his attention on Taeyong, who was trying to explaing to him the meaning of a word he didn't understand.

Mark could literally feel his eyes, Donghyuck's I mean, staring straight into the back of his head. A small bit of joy burst into Mark, knowing that Donghyuck liked him just as much as he did to the point that he also got jealous seeing Mark with others. Johnny sent him a confused look when Donghyuck hurried to the front and climbed into the van, but Mark shrugged it off, although he knew exactly why Donghyuck was in a bad mood.

The second they got home, Donghyuck rushed to his room, closing the door behind him and not even joining the members for dinner. Jaehyun, deciding that it would be best if he checked up on his roommate, stood up from his seat and walked away. Mark only watched him leave and then turned his attention back to his food.

This had happened to Mark multiple times. Donghyuck would get really close with someone in front of the camera, and Mark's jealousy levels would be above the roof. So it was a little weird seeing Donghyuck in the position Mark was in previously.

Maybe making Donghyuck jealous this way wasn't a bad idea. Maybe this would make Donghyuck more vary of his actions.

-

The plan was working out just fine.

Mark very confidently pinched Sicheng's cheek, and then leaned forwards, placing his head on his chest, smiling as be saw Jaehyun raise an eyebrow at him from across the radio studio. Even though Donghyuck had said he was going to be sleeping whilst the others were at the radio show, Mark knew he was watching.

And it was more clear that he had seen it, because when Mark returned to the dorm that night, Donghyuck called him over and pulled him into a long warm hug, stuffing his face into Mark's chest and throwing his arms over him. Mark stared down at the younger boys brown hair, and happily caressed it, remembering how it had been a long time since the two last did anything like this.

Ever since Mark had started initiating more skinship with the other members, Donghyuck began to cut down on the amount of affection he would show the others with, instead focusing it all of Mark. Yes, Mark felt bad making his boyfriend not be too lovey with the other guys, but it was just too infuriating.

"I love you." Donghyuck mumbled, falling in between reality and dream world. Mark hummed, before bringing a hand up to Donghyuck's face, placing a small kiss on his cheek before muttering a love confession back.

-

"Mark wanna—"

"Sorry Hyuck, I'm kinda busy."

"Ah, that's fine... Taeil hyung! Wanna watch a movie?"

"Mark, I was wondering—"

"I can't speak right now Hyuck, can we talk later?"

"Mark, you and Sicheng hyung—"

"Donghyuck I need to finish this song, alright?"

"Yeah yeah, that's cool."

"Recently, Mark you've been busy—"

"Donghyuck." Mark said, taking his glasses off and placing them on his notebook, the one he was currently writing song lyrics in. The company was putting more and more pressure on him, continuously reminding him that he still had to finish writing up lyrics for his last Dream album, and it was too much. "I'm really tired, can we not?"

Donghyuck stood there for a while, eyes stuck on Mark's hands, and arms by his side. For a while, he remained silent, breathing softly with his mouth slightly parted like always. Mark stared at him with confusion, and a slight bit of annoyance, wondering why he hadn't left yet. Just as he was about to question it, Donghyuck nodded, before scurying out of the room, his head hung low.

Doyoung shot Mark a look, putting his phone aside and following the 18 year old that had just left his room. Letting out a sigh, Mark turned around in his chair, putting his glasses back on, before picking his pen up, groaning loudly as he couldn't recall the last bit to the song.

-

"Are you guys even dating?" Johnny asked, watching Donghyuck bend forwards and allow Taeil to jump on his back, laughing quite loudly before running across the road. Mark raised an eyebrow at Johnny before turning his attention to the younger.

To be honest, it didn't seem like Mark and Donghyuck were dating, anymore at least. They didn't spend any time together, Mark being stuck with his immense pile of work, and Sicheng who apparently also found Mark cute. Whereas, Donghyuck spent more of his time with the dreamies, not even using the opportunity to sneak into Mark's room during the night.

It was strange, but Mark guessed it was because Donghyuck wanted some space between them, or maybe he was just tired of seeing Mark every single day.

That's what Mark thought, but he didn't expect this.

"I think we should break up." Donghyuck said, when Mark suddenly brought him into his room and pushed him onto the bed, enveloping Donghyuck into a hug because he missed him that much.

"What?" Mark squeaked, pulling his head back and staring at the younger with surprise, his stomach turning in a horrible way. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said." Donghyuck replied, keeping his eyes up, choosing to look at the ceiling instead of Mark, which caused the latter to feel even worse. "I think we should break up. We don't really spend much time together and whenever we do, we end up getting into a fight. It's not healthy."

That was true. Whenever Mark and Donghyuck were in a room together, one of them (majority of the time, Donghyuck) would speak up and disturb the silence, causing the other to let out all of his anger or stress by yelling. The members had gotten worried for them, and even suggested talking their problems out, but since both of their were extremely stubborn, no progress was made.

"But we love each other." Mark said, putting his hands on Donghyuck's cheek and making him look down, the thin layer of salty tears in Donghyuck's eyes encouraged him even further to stop the younger from breaking up with him.

"Mark..." Donghyuck sighed, closing his eyes, letting a single tear escape his eye and fall onto the pillow. "Only one of us is in love."

Mark isn't sure what happened next, but he does remember seeing Donghyuck push him away and scramble out of the bed, pretending he couldn't see Mark silently cry into the pillow. And a faint memory of Doyoung walking in, climbing o the bed and wrapping his arms around Mark, whispering to him that it'll be alright, and that with time, he could move on.

The ringing in Mark's ears got worse, and the tears in his eyes weren't going to stop any time soon. The thought of Donghyuck falling out of love never came across Mark's mind, but after hearing what he said, things started to make sense now.

Donghyuck, slowly drifting away from him, finding the other members more enjoyable to hang around with, and the way his smile dropped every time he saw Mark. It must've been a reminder that he was trapped inside a relationship that he didn't want, but couldn't bring himself to break.

The thoughts got louder, and Mark placed his hands over his ears, sobbing into Doyoung's chest, hoping it would just stop. And then finally, as sleep blinded his eyes, the sounds became muffled, and the tears dried up, Mark fell asleep.