Chapter Text
Mark is having a bad day.
He’s plagued with the typical college student stresses along with sleep deprivation and—oh right—he’s burning up.
He knows it’s bad because he’s already burnt Jeno with only a high five, the books he’s holding are becoming charred under his hands, and he can see his glow.
Mark hates embodying Wildfire and he hates not being able to control it even more.
As he’s bustling through the halls, people are squirming away from him and his heat as if he’s a walking furnace.
At this point he wishes his essence was anything else calmer—Water like Jeno’s or Stone like Jaehyun’s.
People usually think his wildfire is ‘cool’ at first. Until they touch him for too long or catch him in a bad mood. Then they’d rather not be near him.
No one touches him and he doesn’t touch anyone else unless their essences are compatible. It’s the way he’s learned to live. He can only be truly comfortable around other Fire element essences like his mother, from whom he inherited his Wildfire. His father’s essence is stone, which is of the earth element, but they’re compatible because of the indestructible nature of the essence. His best friend and roommate Jeno can balance Mark out on the good days since he’s a water essence but they couldn’t be in contact for long since it would be uncomfortable for both of them.
As Mark is rushing out of the Music building, anticipating the end of this terrible day, he feels incredibly self-conscious, maneuvering around other students as best as he can, and holding his steaming breath in. People still flinch away once they’re in a meter’s radius of him, though, and it makes him feel worse every time. The severe lack of Fire essences in his school is very obvious to him now.
He bends a corner, not slowing down to look, and someone’s shoulder collides with his, throwing him off balance. A dozen expletives race through his mind as he feels himself falling, and he throws his hands—and the books—out to break his fall.
“Oh crap, I’m so sorry!” the person blurts, but Mark is already grimacing from the pain shooting through his limbs.
He doesn’t hesitate to push himself off the ground, pretending that he’s fine as embarrassment heats him up even more. A boy who looks close to his age—the person he bumped into—reaches his arms out quickly to help Mark up. Before Mark can stop him, the boy grabs his arms and hauls him up.
“Don’t— !”
The boy doesn’t flinch and finishes his movement before looking at Mark skeptically. Then he lets him go to stand on his own two feet.
“Sorry?” He bends down to gather up Mark’s books.
Mark is confused. “No, I– You weren’t– How did you–"
The boy sets all of Mark’s books into his hands and tilts his head to the side in question.
“How did I what?”
“...touch me,” Mark mutters.
The boy is radiant, Mark notices, his skin tan and glowing. His hair is auburn, catching the sunlight coming in through the windows, and his brown eyes pick up the sun as well, looking clear and warm.
The boy frowns at him. “How did I touch you?”
Mark is mesmerized by the way the boy is glowing like gold. Or rather, like the sun.
“Uh... yeah.”
Another questioning (or judgmental) look.
“I’m burning up right now,” Mark explains. “Can’t you feel it?”
The boy squints at him for a moment before stretching his arm out and resting his hand on Mark’s forehead. That’s when Mark really feels it.
This boy is born of the Fire element like him.
His heat resonates as a buzzing that’s all too familiar to Mark. Since he can’t feel heat, he knows it as a hum of energy throughout his body—a hum of energy similar to what he feels from the boy’s hand. Except where Mark’s hum is more of a frantic, urgent buzz trying to go in every direction at once, the glowing boy’s is rhythmic, calm, and a million times more powerful and focused than Mark’s.
When the boy meets his eyes, he knows the boy feels his energy too. With a tilt of his head, the stranger pulls away his palm. “You are.”
Mark can’t believe he’s found another Fire element essence. They’re very rare given their lack of compatibility and tend to keep to themselves for the same reason.
“You’re...?”
The radiant boy smiles—a pretty, warm smile. “I’m Donghyuck. My essence is—“ He holds out his hand and the sunlight streaming through the window seems to tilt towards his palm, making his skin tone gleam, “the Sun. So you can’t burn me. Nothing can. The Sun is way hotter than whatever your essence is.”
“Wildfire,” Mark offers.
Donghyuck quirks an eyebrow. “Feisty.”
Mark blinks hard. There’s a sun essence in front of him! No wonder he felt so powerful. Sun essences are even more scarce in the Fire element spectrum because their essence rarely passes on to their children despite being so powerful.
“So I can’t hurt you at all?” Mark asks dumbly.
Donghyuck shakes his head slowly, the way you would when speaking to a small child. “Not at all. You didn’t want to, right?” He glances at Mark’s hands. “I think you’re hurting your books, though. They’re kind of catching fire.”
Mark curses, dropping his smoking books to the floor. Damn it. He can’t afford to lose any more notes.
Donghyuck acts fast, unscrewing a water bottle attached to his bag and emptying it on the scorched pile of notes. They simmer out quickly.
Mark sighs and bends down to salvage his work but then remembers that he was the cause of the destruction. He settles for watching the water evaporate as his hands hover over it. Donghyuck reaches down and picks up the now crispy books instead.
“Are you okay?” Donghyuck eyes Mark as he straightens himself, a pout pulling down his lips.
“No, no, I’m not. I’m literally ruining everything,” Mark mutters, frustrated with himself. His wildfire is thrashing inside of him, it’s buzzing wild and persistent. He looks at his hands and sees that his glow is now an inch wide around him. Not good.
Donghyuck grabs his wrist. “Come on, you need to get out of here. You’re clearly in distress.”
Before Mark can think for himself, Donghyuck tugs him towards the exit. There’s less people crowding the halls now since no one is eager to stick around on a Friday afternoon so they have no problems making their way through. The entire time, Donghyuck repeatedly tells Mark to take deep breaths. Mark can feel the sun’s energy through Donghyuck’s hand, a slow, calming pulse.
When they emerge into a courtyard, Donghyuck leads Mark underneath a big shady tree (one of Renjun the Foliage essence’s favourites) and sits him down on a concrete bench before letting him go and taking his energy with him.
“Close your eyes,” Donghyuck says, his voice soothing. “Continue taking deep breaths. Imagine you’re breathing out the hot air, letting all the steam out, slowly outing your fire.”
Mark listens to him, trying to do what he says. Imagine I’m putting out the fire.
“Clear your mind of whatever is stressing you out.” Midterm exams, group projects, organizing the guitar club’s display for the club expo, practicing for the band... Mark pushes it all out of his mind and focuses on Donghyuck, this beautiful stranger who can touch him normally, who knows how to calm his fire.
He isn’t thinking about any of his problems anymore because Donghyuck is a distraction—a welcome one.
He cracks his eyes open a bit to find Donghyuck smiling at him. His breath slows at what he sees. Donghyuck already has an aura on his own that’s much bigger than Mark’s by default, but being outside seems to have magnified it. The sunlight surrounds him, bending through the spaces in the leaves above them to create a golden haze around the boy. He’s really like the sun himself, Mark thinks, absolutely radiant.
“See, you’re already cooling down. Your glow is fading,” Donghyuck says.
Mark can feel his fire calming, curling in on itself and going to rest dormant in his gut again as it’s buzz becomes dull and faint. He looks down at himself and watches his red glow recede until he can’t see it at all. He tentatively touches a dry leaf on the edge of the bench and it doesn’t crumble into ash.
He looks at Donghyuck and the boy prompts, “Better?”
Mark tries to find his voice. “Um, yeah. Yeah, I feel...normal again. I mean, still burning, because Wildfire, but regular burning.”
Donghyuck nods in understanding.
“How do you know how to do that?” Mark asks. He’s never approached his burn ups like that. He would usually just stand under the freezing cold water of his shower until his inner fire gave up but he knows that might not be the best approach.
Donghyuck shrugs. “I’ve had a few, uh, flares myself. I can cause wildfires if I get too hot, you know. So I learned how to control it.”
Mark stares at him in awe (for many reasons). “Huh. I guess I should practice that.”
Donghyuck quirks an eyebrow. “If you’re planning on being stressed a lot.”
Mark shrugs. “Not planning on it but it’s kind of inevitable at this point.”
The Sun essence tilts his head and studies Mark. “Perhaps. Are you-”
“Donghyuck! I’ve been look—“
A boy with small pink flowers scattered in his hair stomps up to them and stops in his tracks when his eyes land on Mark.
Donghyuck’s head snaps over to the newcomer. “Yeah?”
The flower boy flicks his gaze back to Donghyuck. “You said you would come with me to the mall today? I’ve been looking for you since my lecture finished. Are you ready to go?”
Donghyuck glances at Mark for a second before standing up. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” He backs away in the direction of the flower boy and looks Mark in the eyes as he says, “I’ll see you around, Mr. Wildfire?”
Mark’s response is slow in his daze caused by the embodiment of the sun before him. “...Uh, yeah. And my name is Mark, by the way.” But Donghyuck has already turned around to leave with the flower boy. “See you.” Mark waves lamely at the Sun’s back.
{}~{}~{}
When Mark gets back to his dorm room, he disturbs his roommate from studying. “Jeno! I met the Sun!”
Jeno swivels around in his desk chair to look at Mark and raises an eyebrow. “Uh...are you burning up so bad that you’re delusional?”
Mark drops his bag next to his own desk and drops into his chair in one movement. “No!” He flaps his hands to dismiss the accusation. “A sun essence! His essence is the sun!”
“Whose essence is the sun?”
“A guy named Donghyuck. I met him today,” Mark explains.
Jeno’s eyes widen in realization. “Oh, Donghyuck!” He exclaims in recognition. “Yeah, yeah, he’s a Sun essence. Calls himself ‘Fullsun’ even. You’ve never seen him before?”
“No.” Mark is pretty sure he would’ve remembered if he had. He keeps count of the Fire essences on campus and he only knows two others who are both older than him.
“He’s a freshman like me,” Jeno says. “We have Music Theory One together.” He purses his lips. “Actually, I kind of know him through Jaemin. They’re usually together.”
Mark knows that Jaemin is a boy who Jeno has a crush on but since he doesn’t mingle with any freshmen besides Jeno, he doesn’t know Jaemin personally. Apparently his essence is flowers. Then it clicks.
“Oh! Jaemin is the flower boy!” Mark realizes.
A toothy smile emerges on Jeno’s face and his eyes curve upwards. “Yeah.”
“He left with Donghyuck today. They went to the mall,” Mark says, remembering the boy with pink flowers in his hair who’d come to meet Donghyuck.
Jeno scowls. “Man, I wish I could go out with him.” Suddenly he sits up straight. “Do you want to go to the mall?”
Mark frowns at him. “Dude, what?”
Jeno makes an exaggerated groan.. “I’ve been trying to talk to him outside of class for ages now but it never works out. Maybe if I bumped into him at the mall...”
“By ‘it never works out’ do you mean you chicken out every time?” A smirk tugs on Mark’s mouth.
Jeno scowls at him. “You aren’t one to talk.” The smirk is effectively wiped off of Mark’s face. “Anyway, what about Donghyuck? He’s the Sun. We been knew.”
Mark splutters, “I didn’t know!”
“He literally has a golden aura that’s, like, at least a foot wide at all times. How have you never noticed him?”
“I don’t know! We’re in different years! A lot of people have auras!”
“No, not really.”
“Oh, shut up!”
Jeno chuckles. “So, is that all you’re hyped up about? That you met a sun essence?”
When Jeno says it, it sounds so anticlimactic, Mark thinks. “And that he can touch me. For more than, like, two seconds.”
Jeno doesn’t seem impressed.
“I ran into him when I was burning up today. I was even burning my books. But he picked me up. Like, he held my arms with his hands. And I can feel his energy!” Mark relives the entire encounter as he tells it.
“Well, he is a Fire essence so obviously you’re compatible,” Jeno points out.
Mark doesn’t appreciate his matter-of-fact tone of voice. “Sshhh—okay, I know, but after my books caught on fire and he threw water on them, he dragged me all the way outside and he calmed me down.”
Jeno mocks him. “No,” he says over-dramatically.
“Yes!” Mark yells, excited despite his better judgement. “He calmed me down and told me all these instructions and in no time I was back to normal! I can’t believe there’s a way to control my fire and he figured it out!” He pauses, looking at nothing in particular with his eyes wide open as his brain races.
Jeno shrugs. “Pretty believable if you ask me.”
Mark slouches, deflated.
“I mean, it makes sense, Mark,” Jeno says in a kinder tone and leans towards him. “He’s a Fire essence, you’re a Fire essence. Since he’s the Sun, he’s probably more powerful than you are and if he can control himself then he’d know how to control you too.”
Mark leans back in his chair and puts his feet up on his desk with a sigh. “Yeah, okay, I understand that, Jen. It’s just...” He wonders what it really is for a minute. “He understands me. He can touch me without being harmed or uncomfortable.”
Jeno’s expression softens. “Okay, I get it. There aren’t many Fire essences that you know outside of your family. And, Mark?”
“Yeah?”
“Why’re you blushing?” A teasing tone creeps into the younger boy’s voice.
Mark’s hands fly up to his cheeks. “What? I’m not blushing.”
“Yeah, you are,” Jeno declares. “What is it that you’re not telling me?”
Mark weighs the pros and cons of telling Jeno what he keeps thinking. The cons really outweigh the pros but Mark is a bit high off of the glowing boy.
“He’s... really beautiful,” Mark admits. “The sunlight is drawn to him, you know? His eyes are so warm and the sunlight makes them shine. And his skin is gorgeous and he has this radiant smile and the light catches on his pretty brown hair...” Mark is in a daze, demanding his memory to keep a clear image of Donghyuck in his mind’s eye.
Jeno is laughing now, in an incredulous way that makes Mark fall back to earth and glare at him as severely as he can.
“You’re so infatuated with him!” Jeno accuses loudly, amusement making his eyes dance.
Mark slouches even further down in his chair. Is that what it is? “Shut up.”
“It’s never too soon to declare a crush!”
Mark groans. “I can’t afford to have crushes. He’s just...” really beautiful.
Jeno isn’t convinced. So naturally, the teasing ensues.
{}~{}~{}
Throughout the weekend, Mark’s thoughts drift to Donghyuck like it’s default. His mind runs through every possibility. Meeting him in class? No, they don’t share any classes. Seeing him on campus? He’s never even seen him before so what are the chances now? Where does he hang out a lot? What’s his major? Does he live on campus? Mark has no answers.
Why does he even have a possible crush on him? Mark chastises himself. He’s being ridiculous. He doesn’t know anything about Donghyuck except that he’s gorgeous and they’re compatible. He’s getting ahead of himself. Maybe it’s his lack of a love life making his hormones latch onto the next eligible partner.
When his mind reaches this point, he gets sad because that might actually be true. He’s never been in a relationship. He’s only had two crushes before and neither of them were compatible with him. And even if they were—say, if they were a water essence like Jeno—he couldn’t maintain contact with them for long, so holding hands and anything else was out of the question. He could only match with another Fire element or Earth element who wouldn’t be harmed, like a stone essence.
So, to sum it up, his chances were really slim and this wasn’t something he liked to think about. He locked up all those feelings and put it to the back of his mind as he hustled through the work he had to do.
A week passes and Mark has reached the point where he’s telling himself he definitely needs to forget Donghyuck.
It’s Friday evening and he’s trying to finish the last few pages of an essay that’s due at midnight. He stares at the word count on his laptop, glances at the time, lets out a long pitiful sigh.
Why is he doing this? Why can’t it finish itself? This is torture, he thinks.
His fire sputters up.
No.
He takes a deep breath in an effort to calm it. It pushes against him, unfurling and spreading through his middle, making his insides feel charged.
“Oh, God. Not now, not now, please.”
He pushes back from his desk, closes his eyes and tries to take deep breaths and think about other things.
What did Donghyuck say? Breathe out the fire?
He opens his eyes to look at his palms for a second. Okay, not glowing yet, that’s good.
Just then the doorknob jiggles with a key and Jeno walks in, a big smile on his face.
“Dude! You wouldn’t believe—“ His eyes fall on Mark, curled up in his chair with his hands fisted and breathing hard, and his smile slides off. “Are you having a burn-up?”
Mark nods. “But it’s not that serious.”
Jeno looks at him incredulously. “What do you mean ‘it’s not that serious’? You can set things on fire!”
“Look,” Mark says, feeling his fire reach into his throat and his legs, “I’m not glowing yet.”
“Yet.”
“I think I can handle it.” Mark tries to chuckle to relieve some of Jeno’s worry but it doesn’t work.
“I’m calling Donghyuck.”
Mark’s eyes pop open wide and his mouth drops. “What?” he yells, much louder and in a higher pitch than he’d intended.
Jeno already has his phone out. “I was just walking with him and Jaemin. They passed here on the way to their dorm. They live across the street in Summer Hall. They’re not far.”
Mark splutters. “What— But you can’t make him come back here just for me. I’ll be—“
The phone is on Jeno’s ear. “Donghyuck likes to help people. Plus, he even asked about y— Hey, Donghyuck! Sorry to bother you but can you come back to my dorm for a sec? My roommate, you know Mark, he’s having another one of his burn-ups and he’d like your help.”
This is not helping said burn-up. Mark’s Wildfire has reached the surface of his skin now as his brain scrambles with the information that Jeno has befriended Donghyuck, and he lives across the street from them, and he could’ve just asked Jeno about Donghyuck and he said that Mark would like his help, and he asked about what and oh my god what has he done!
He’s definitely glowing now.
“Oh, shit, Mark, you’re glowing now! See, I told you! Are you even trying like you said?”
Mark snaps. “I was but then you had to CALL Donghyuck and tell him I’d LIKE HIS HELP and he’s the cause of, like, a quarter of my anxiety right now!”
Jeno stares at him wide-eyed. “Shit, I angered a Fire element. My mom said to never anger a Fire element. You know what? I’m gonna go wait outside. Donghyuck will be here soon. Wait, forget I said that!” Then Jeno backs out the doorway, leaving Mark to huff by himself.
Mark buries his face in his hands. This is a disaster. Wait no– that’s not helping. This is fine. It’s gonna be fine. Fine, fine, fine.
The door opens and there stands Donghyuck, glowing dully at night, eyes scanning Mark.
He flashes the smallest smile and steps towards Mark. “Hey, so how bad is it?”
Mark just knows he looks like shit. This is definitely not ideal.
“I’m glowing, so, pretty bad. The buzzing is everywhere too, but I haven’t started melting the chair yet or singeing my clothes so I’d say it’s not as bad as last time yet,” Mark replies, his thoughts a jumble in his head and his fire fighting for control.
Donghyuck reaches Mark and holds his hands out, quirking his eyebrows in question to Mark. Mark figures out that he’s asking permission to touch him and finds it ironic how the first time they met there were no such boundaries. The idea of people touching him is still foreign to him, though, so it takes a second for him to nod yes, remembering that they’re of the same element.
As soon as Donghyuck’s hands encircle his wrists, Mark feels the powerful pulse of the sun’s heat energy which is so much more calm and refined than his own.
“Do you remember what I told you last time?” Donghyuck asks, trying to catch his gaze.
Mark’s social meter can only do so much in one day so he avoids Donghyuck’s eyes even though he’d love to stare at the golden specks in them. “Yes. I tried the breathing and everything.” There’s so much going on in his brain. He tries to ignore the way his heart is beating in his ears at the attention Donghyuck is giving him.
“Okay, close your eyes,” the Sun says. “You need to clear your mind or think about something that makes you happy.”
Mark tries his best despite everything that’s going on (and his growing adoration for the boy in front of him).
“You’re still frowning, your mind isn’t clear,” Donghyuck says.
Mark tries to relax his face muscles.
“Forget everything that’s bothering you. Go to your happy place. Breathe out the fire.”
Okay, okay. Mark takes deep breaths again, paying attention to Donghyuck’s voice as he repeats breathe out the fire. He also notices that the hum of Donghyuck’s energy against his wrist is somehow taming his own fiery buzz, as if speaking to it.
Apparently that’s all he needs because he feels his muscles relaxing, the thrashing vibration of the heat in his chest slowing.
“There you go,” Donghyuck says, “I can feel it calming.”
Mark opens his eyes. His fire retreats, it’s hum quietens and it concentrates in his gut again. Donghyuck lets go of him.
Gosh, Donghyuck is beautiful. He’s wearing a yellow shirt today which complements his skin tone and black ripped jeans that Mark would rather not verbalize his thoughts about. His hair is parted a bit, leaving more of his forehead exposed, and he has on dangling gold earrings. So pretty.
Naturally, he forgets to reply as his brain focuses on Donghyuck.
Donghyuck smiles at him. “Mark.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay now?”
“Oh.” Mark suddenly remembers where he is and what they’ve been doing. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. You really... worked your magic.” He chuckles drily as he cringes at himself. That wasn’t cool.
Donghyuck chuckles back, though, so maybe he isn’t a total failure.
Donghyuck leans against his desk. “What caused it this time?”
Mark glances at his laptop behind Donghyuck. “I’ve got an assignment due in five hours and it’s not looking good.”
Donghyuck follows his gaze and turns around to look at the monitor. “Yikes. For what course?”
“Music history. One of the worst courses I’ve ever taken. The lecturer is so boring.”
Donghyuck pouts sympathetically and Mark thinks it’s the cutest thing he has ever seen and the world must stop to witness it. “My shitty course this semester is Music Theory One. Which I have with Jeno and Jaemin and we all just sit down there clueless, talking or on our phones. It’s a waste of time really.”
“Oh, yeah, I know.” Mark likes how easily this conversation is going. “I did Music Theory One last year and I was terrible at it.”
“Oh, really? What do you major in?”
“Music composition.”
“Are you serious?” Donghyuck’s eyes light up. “That’s so cool, I have respect for all music composition students.”
Mark is flattered and feeling validated. He smiles. “Why?”
“Because writing music is so hard. I can’t write more than a verse of a song.”
“You’ve written songs?”
“I’ve written verses.”
Mark chuckles. “Right.”
“I’m more inclined to one instrument that’s relatively easy to learn. My voice.”
Mark’s eyebrows pop up. “You sing?”
“I sure hope so, considering I major in vocal performance.” Donghyuck smirks.
Mark’s heart flutters. “Well, I think that’s even cooler than music composition.” And kinda hot (attraction-wise, not temperature-wise, thank goodness).
Donghyuck shrugs. “Right now I’m just doing a bunch of introduction theory courses with not a lot of actual vocal training so it’s not that exciting.”
“That’s how freshman year is for everyone,” Mark sympathizes. “Boring introduction courses. Soon you’ll be doing more interesting stuff that you like.”
“Oh, like sophomore year music history? With essays due at midnight on Friday?”
Mark cracks up, laughing at Donghyuck’s quick wit. “Yes, exactly the interesting stuff you’d like,” he jokes. “But maybe you’ll get out of it. Music composition has a lot of technicalities and, well, a lot more boring theory classes than I think vocal performance does so I’m stuck with this for a while.”
Donghyuck hums. “We’ll see. At least I know to prepare myself just in case. Wouldn’t want to be flaring as often as you.”
Mark flushes and looks away, embarrassed. “Yeah. College has it’s rough patches. And unluckily for Fire elements, we have our mental breakdowns outwardly so... good luck.”
Donghyuck shoves Mark lightly and his energy pulses through Mark momentarily. “Such inspiring words.” He starts towards the door and Mark almost sulks at the sun walking away. “You’ve got to get back to work so I’m gonna go. Good luck to you and remember what I said to calm yourself, or you know, try to stop burning up,” Donghyuck says, smiling sweetly at Mark.
Mark thinks he’s being teased but he can’t stop himself from smiling back. “Yeah, okay, thanks. Bye.”
Donghyuck waves and walks out of sight only to be replaced by Jeno coming in.
“You okay now, bro? Donghyuck was in here kinda long.”
The smile lingers on Mark’s face as he turns back to his laptop. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Mark wonders if he’s going to have to keep getting burn-ups to see Donghyuck but then he mentally slaps himself. That’d be really stupid.
{}~{}~{}
There’s shaking.
“Mark. Hey, Mark, wake up.”
Mark’s consciousness pulls itself out of sleep and he opens his eyes slowly to find Jeno standing over him, hand shaking him.
He groans. His body doesn’t want to get up. “What?” He tries to remember what day it is. Sunday. Why is he being woken up? He’s not supposed to wake up before noon on the weekends. He registers all the sunlight coming through the window. Okay, maybe it is noon.
“Do you wanna come get lunch with me, Jaemin and Donghyuck?” Jeno asks. He doesn’t look ready for anything, still in his pajamas and glasses.
“Lunch? Donghyuck?” Mark rubs the sleep out of his eyes. “What time is it?”
“Eleven thirty,” Jeno responds. “Jaemin just texted me all of a sudden asking if I wanted to go to lunch with him and at first I thought it was a date and my heart stopped but then I saw the ‘and Donghyuck.’ But I still have hope because he’s been talking to me a lot more over the past week.” Jeno grins, eyes sparkling with the mention of his crush.
“So what am I? Your plus one?” Mark grumbles. He did not wake up to be a plus one.
Jeno scowls at him. “No, dumbass, he asked for you too afterwards. Which I personally think is even weirder. Maybe it’s so Donghyuck wouldn’t be a third-wheel.”
Mark bites back, “There’s no two-wheeler to third-wheel.”
Jeno glares at him. “Alright, I was giving you a chance to be with your crush but since you wanna be that way I’ll just tell them that you’re still sleeping... or you’re sick with diarrhea, which is totally attractive.” He quirks a sly eyebrow at Mark and the latter sits up to punch him in the shoulder.
“Hey, you punk, I’m coming. Tell them I’m coming.”
Jeno concedes. “Get ready, he said they’ll meet us downstairs in, like, an hour.” Then he heads to the bathroom they share with the boys in the dorm room next door, Renjun and Dejun.
Mark only then realizes that he’s going on a sort-of unofficial double date with his crush. Here come the butterflies— or the fire sputters, which is what it actually feels like.
Since Jeno has beat him to the bathroom, he takes a few more minutes to lay in bed and go through his phone before he gets up to find a decent outfit since he’s not very good at that. He ends up settling with his most stylish hoodie (although warm clothes are purely a stylistic choice for Fire elements since they are their own source of heat) and his newest jeans and his cleanest shoes. He doesn’t have much impressive clothes because he doesn’t usually have people to impress.
In fifty-five minutes, he and Jeno are ready and they head downstairs to meet the subjects of their affection.
They have to wait on the curb for a couple of minutes before Jaemin and Donghyuck emerge from the building opposite them.
Donghyuck’s glow merges with all the noon sunlight and his skin tone looks warm and golden. His brown hair shuffles in the wind and he’s quick to brush it out of his eyes, effectively taking Mark’s breath away. He’s in an oversized orange and black sweater, the front tucked into his jeans—the ripped ones he wore the last time Mark saw him— and sneakers, looking totally out of Mark’s league.
Jaemin walks beside him, telling him something, with white flowers in his hair today to match the white shirt he’s wearing along with light blue denim jeans and a white flower bracelet, but Mark barely notices; that’s more of Jeno’s focus.
They spot Mark and Jeno and smile and wave before crossing the street to meet them.
“Hey, guys!” Jaemin greets them and Donghyuck is soon to follow his lead.
Mark fights the urge to look away in shyness and tries to greet them back as not-lovestruck as possible.
“I was thinking we could go to the Waffle House on campus? I haven’t had breakfast,” Jaemin says.
Jeno doesn’t consult Mark before blurting, “Yeah, that sounds great! We haven’t eaten either.”
Mark thinks it’s a good thing he likes waffles.
They set off on the short walk to the Waffle House, none of them really starting a conversation. When they get there, they snag a booth and Jeno rushes in to sit next to Jaemin before Donghyuck can.
As a result, Mark ends up sitting next to Donghyuck and pretending that he’s not nervous about it.
They order quickly since they’re all familiar with the place and soon Jaemin and Jeno have seemingly forgotten that the other two are there because they begin talking about types of flora and they hit it off together.
The two Fire elements sit in silence as Mark wonders how awkward this is. He can’t seem to think of something they can talk about so he gets lost in his own thoughts.
They would be perfect for each other, Mark thinks as he watches Jaemin smile sweetly at Jeno. His water sustaining his flowers. That’s cute. Would Donghyuck–
“Haven’t had any more burn-ups, I hope?” Donghyuck’s actual voice breaks through Mark’s thoughts.
Mark turns toward him, unreasonably surprised that the other has chosen to speak to him.
“Yeah– uh– I mean, no. I haven’t,” Mark stumbles over his words, mouth ahead of his brain.
Donghyuck’s eyes flick over his features and Mark figures he must know how nervous he is. The Sun essence smiles. “You don’t seem sure.”
Mark chuckles shortly. “I’m sure, my brain just doesn’t work as fast as it should sometimes.” Why did I just insult myself? He tries to brush it off. “Weekends are easier. I sleep more and don’t have any classes.”
Donghyuck nods. “Makes sense. Is school the only thing that’s stressing you out?”
Mark thinks. “Mostly... I’ve also got my band and I’m organizing a display booth for the club expo. I’m the secretary for the guitar club.”
Donghyuck’s eyebrows perk up. Is he impressed? “You play guitar in your band?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“What’s it called?”
“Neo City,” Mark responds. “It basically means ‘New City.’ It wasn’t my idea.”
“It sounds cool,” Donghyuck comments. “Much better than a lot of band names I’ve heard.”
Mark smiles. “Thanks. We’re performing at the club expo actually and we haven’t decided on a set list yet.”
“When is it?”
“In two weeks.”
The waiter arrives with their food and places it in front of them. Coincidentally, Mark and Donghyuck have ordered the same thing: chicken and waffles. Jeno’s gotten a pile of chocolate chip waffles and Jaemin has a set of regular ones with lots of whipped cream and honey.
All of the boys are hungry so they dig in immediately.
When the first bout of their hunger is satisfied, the conversation starts up again.
“So you’ve got to get the guitar club display and your band ready for the expo in two weeks,” Donghyuck concludes.
“Yeah,” Mark mumbles. “I haven’t even thought about the display yet, honestly, I’m waiting for my midterms to finish next week.”
“Sounds like you need some help,” Donghyuck says. He takes a bite of a waffle as if waiting for something, but Mark takes too long to consider what he’s said.
“Well, I usually manage everything on my own.”
“And how’s that working out for you?” Donghyuck asks, sending a pointed look his way.
Mark just looks at him and his brain goes into overdrive. What does Donghyuck mean by that? Oh, his burn-ups.
Mark scratches the back of his head. “Uh, not too great I guess.”
“You’re doing so many things, how do you even sleep?”
Mark presses his lips together. “I don’t, really.”
Donghyuck gapes at him incredulously.
“Maybe, like, three to five hours a night,” Mark admits.
“No wonder you keep having burn-ups! You’re actually just burning yourself out.” Donghyuck shakes his head in disbelief. “Do you want help? I can help you with something. The club display, maybe?”
Mark didn’t expect that. “You’d help me?” Donghyuck—radiant, out-of-his-league Donghyuck—wants to help him after speaking to him a total of three times including now?
“Sure, why not?” Donghyuck smiles softly at him.
Mark thinks he’s dreaming.
“Jeno doesn’t even help me,” Mark blurts.
Jeno snaps towards them at the sound of his name. “I offer to help you all the time but you never let me!”
Mark looks to him. “Yeah, but you never actually want to.”
Jeno shrugs. “It’s the thought that counts.”
Mark nods complacently. “Sure.”
“So will you let me help you?” Donghyuck nudges Mark.
There’s no debate in Mark’s mind. “Yeah, if you really want to.” He can’t help but smile at Donghyuck and his fire tickles at his stomach in his version of butterflies.
Donghyuck smiles back and the sunlight hitting their table from the windows seems to get brighter.