Chapter Text
Donghyuck was done. If he could only be sure of one thing in the entirety of his life it would be that Mark Lee was to be the death of him. He holds back a scream as he shoves his blankets away from his face and the sharp pain in his head as he meets with the light in the room. His eyes flutter to the clock hung on the wall opposite him and registers the time. It was 3 in the morning and he had to be up in 2 hours for baseball practice. Donghyuck puts on his coat and steps aside from his roommate who was coughing as he pulled apart his side of the room to find an inhaler. He doesn't bother putting on his shoes as he walks out of the room with feet that were at least still cladded with socks. He could take this route with his eyes closed, which he does, as he’s walked this exact way almost every week.
Donghyuck arrives at the infirmary and knocks. The school's nurse stayed in a room above it and was thankfully was a light sleeper like he was. Without exchanging any words, the nurse, Wendy, who he saw more often in pyjamas than in her work uniform, hands him a box and Donghyuck is pretty sure he's sleepwalking as he walks back to the room where he resides. He throws the box in the general direction of Mark, switches the light off and jumps into bed.
'Thank you.’
Donghyuck barely registers the small whisper as he returns to a sleep where he dreams of only darkness.
You see, Donghyuck was not particularly good at anything. He was pretty decent at baseball, so he joined the school's team to fill up his spare time. There was only so much you could do at a boarding school without getting bored. Jeno was the total opposite of him. He was his neighbour back home and here he was good at absolutely everything. He was the captain of the swim team, a prefect and spends his free time either knitting, waxing poetry or feeding the stray cats at the school gates. During holidays when they return home to Korea, Jeno was the one who received shining praises and looks of pride while Donghyuck got half-hearted pats on the shoulder. He doesn't mind really, there was never a time where he felt jealous of Jeno's success and attention. He was genuinely happy and proud of his best friend. Donghyuck just preferred things differently than him. While Jeno said hello to everyone he passed in the hallways, Donghyuck can't remember the last person he spoke to besides the baseball team members and Mark. He wasn't particularly lonely, he just enjoyed his own company. Most people were boring anyways.
-
Mark was done. If he could only be sure of one thing in the entirety of his life it would be that his lungs were to be the death of him. That is if Donghyuck doesn’t kill him first. His asthma wasn’t that bad, according to his doctor, but he just kept waking up with cough fits and even had special passes out of gym. To be more precise, maybe how disorganised he is was going to end him. Mark constantly misplaced his textbooks, his glasses, his inhaler and even his own camera. He can’t remember the last time he went through a full inhaler. He felt extremely bad every time Donghyuck wakes up because of him. He knew that his roommate was a light sleeper and always had to wake up early for conditioning and he often went to sleep late. He knows this but somehow his belongings just keep disappearing from where he last remembers putting them. He can’t be blamed for that.
Today, Mark gets an email from the school notifying him that he got decent grades in the midterms but he still needed to fulfil his extracurricular requirements which he currently had zero points in since he was not a part of any club or sport. Attached was a form he had to fill with all the different options of clubs or sports he could join. He looks over the list after his Math class that afternoon and sighs. Sports was a definite no. He could barely jog without losing his breath. Just the act of climbing the stairs up to his classes winded him. At the same time, all the clubs that were listed were not anything that particularly interested him. Mark was too timid and easily affected by other people’s opinions to join debate. He doesn’t know any good metaphors or how to interpret deeper meanings to join poetry. His butter fingers and the lack of good judgement of what colours go well together made knitting and arts and craft a bad choice. The rest already filled the maximum quota of members or required auditions like singing and theatre club and Mark was too nervous to perform in front of crowds. He sighs once more and decides to just sleep the rest of the day away and maybe by the time he woke up he would magically come to a decision.
-
‘Can you believe Roy quit?’ Donghyuck huffs to Jeno as the two boys stinking of sweat sat on Donghyuck’s bed. Mark put his bag down by his desk on the other side of the room and begins to unpack it. The two boys barely acknowledge him except for Jeno who gave him a small smile. ‘All he has to do is put water in bottles and make sure everyone stays hydrated. Is that too much to ask for?’
‘That’s the point, Hyuck,’ Jeno says in an understanding tone. ‘He said he hates that that’s all he’s needed to do, right? You said he only became a waterboy because he sprained his arm and couldn’t join basketball.’
‘We take him in with open arms and this is how he pays us back?’ Donghyuck crosses his arms.
‘Hyuck, let’s just leave him be. It’s just a small issue, alright?’ Jeno rolls his eyes. ‘You can find another waterboy.’
Something in Mark’s brain clicks and he turns in his chair to face the two boys slowly. Sure, he couldn’t throw a pitch or run around the field but he definitely could prepare water and stand by the benches if that meant getting extracurricular points. The two boys continue talking, as usual paying no mind to Mark.
Mark clears his throat. Jeno looks up and notices Mark, then hits Donghyuck to get him to pay attention.
‘I’m good at keeping hydrated. I mean I don’t always drink the 8 glasses of water needed a day but I always keep my bottle around with me and I drink from there. I let my friends drink from it if they need to too,’ Mark rambles as he adjusts his glasses.
Donghyuck’s brows furrow. ‘Good for you, Mark. Should I get you a sticker or?’
‘Shut up, Hyuck,’ Jeno pinches him playfully and Donghyuck exclaims in pain. ‘You can continue, Mark.’
‘Well, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I swear I never do. I just happened to hear that your waterboy quit and you need someone new? Well, I don’t really care if that’s all I need to do in a sports team because well, I can’t exactly do sports because of my asthma and stuff but-’
‘Mark, breathe,’ Donghyuck sighs.
‘I really need to join a club or sport for my extracurricular points and I really can’t knit or debate or take pictures or dance, so could you let me be your waterboy?’ Mark says in one breath.
‘Was that so hard to say?’ Donghyuck grumbles.
‘That would be great, right Donghyuck?’ Jeno beams. ‘He really needed to find a replacement and he would love to have you on his team.’
‘Can you even wake up in the morning? We condition at 5am,’ Donghyuck raises his brow.
‘You literally live with him. What’s so hard about nudging him awake if he does sleep in?’ Jeno says.
‘Whatever. I have to ask the captain before anything, so no promises okay?’
Mark grins. That was enough for him. ‘Okay. Thanks, Donghyuck.’
He turns around to his laptop and fills in the form. He ticks baseball team and sends the email to the dean. Mark swears he feels Donghyuck’s gaze linger on him for a second but he’s too gleeful to notice.
-
‘Mark, get up.’ Donghyuck says in an annoyed tone as he tucks his hair into a black cap. Mark rolls to the other side of his bed and continues sleeping which makes him even more annoyed. Donghyuck was already never much of a morning person and was grumpy until about 10am. He absolutely hated talking in the morning because it required too much energy from his sleep deprived brain. Mark had seemed so dedicated and excited to join the team a few days before but couldn’t even wake up for call time. Yeah, right. To think he had to talk to his snarky captain about him.
‘Mark,’ Donghyuck tries again. This time, he gently shakes his roommate through his thick blanket. Mark lets out a small whine and Donghyuck almost feels bad for disturbing his sleep. Mark always stayed up late at night to finish his massive pile of Biology tutorials. Almost. He then remembers how his coach will have his head off if Donghyuck was not warming up on the field in 10 minutes.
‘Mark, get up. There’s a whole pack of sweaty boys waiting for you to pass them cold water and I swear to god, if you’re not up and shoving ice into plastic water bottles in exactly 2 seconds, nothing, and I mean nothing will stop me from stran—‘
Mark’s eyes slowly blink open and at the sight of Donghyuck, he sits up in a rush. ‘Oh shit.’
-
‘Where’d you find the dude?’ Jisung, one of the boys on the team asks Donghyuck as they passed Mark on their second lap across the field. The sun was slowly rising and Mark had been sitting on the bleachers, falling asleep every few seconds before being awakened by one of the boys on the team asking for water.
‘He’s my roommate,’ Donghyuck rolled his eyes.
‘Oh, wait. He’s Mark Lee?’
‘Unfortunately.’
‘You mean that tiny, sleepy lion cub is that evil, menacing roommate who lives only to torment you?’ Jisung starts jogging backwards as he turns towards Mark again, studying the poor boy whose hair stuck up in a few places as he had rushed out of bed.
‘A lion still attacks no matter how soft they look alright,’ Donghyuck picks up his pace. ‘I only let him be on the team because no one else in the entire campus would be willing to be in his position.’
‘Alright, team! Good job today. Go hit the showers. I’ll see you again at 5pm,’ Coach blows his whistle and pats Mark’s shoulders before leaving the field.
Donghyuck goes for another round of jogging as the rest of the boys immediately swarmed towards the lockers. He wasn’t as fast as Jisung or as skillful as Jihoon. He had to work harder.
By the time the rest of the team had slung their gym bags on their shoulders and headed back towards their rooms, Donghyuck finally stops running. Mark had left sometime ago with his gigantic blue cooler. On the bleachers where he had sat throughout the morning was a water bottle sweating under the morning sun. Donghyuck tries to bite back a smile.
-
Mark was dozing off again in the library as he tried to concentrate on the process of mitosis but his lids were getting heavier and heavier. He had a quiz the next morning and he knew he was doomed if he didn’t finish the other 3 chapters being tested on, but he couldn’t fight the temptation.
‘Mark? Is that you?’ A voice calls from behind his desk. He jumps in shock then turns around to meet the smiling face of Jeno.
‘Oh. Hey, Jeno.’
Jeno grins in response and pulls out the chair next to Mark, then scooting closer to take a peek at his textbook.
‘Splitting cells not your cup of tea?’
Mark scratches the back of his neck. ‘I can never memorise all the steps.’
‘Hmm. With these kinds of things, you can’t memorise them. You have to dissect each step until you understand how everything flows.’
‘I’m so going to fail.’
‘That’s the magic of biology right? That everything has an answer and every process has a flow. Even the tiniest things like lifting up your finger or sugar moving around your body,’ Jeno sighs in wonder. ‘By making it boring and a chore, you’re taking the absolute joy of Biology out altogether.’
And that’s how Jeno and Mark end up sitting in the library until it closed at 6pm. Jeno had a way of explaining Biology concepts that had Mark hooked. From boring diagrams in his textbook, mitosis became this intricate and beautiful thing that Jeno had weaved in his mind. It was a bit odd at first to be studying with Jeno. They had never really talked before this.
‘Thank you so much, Jeno,’ Mark says as they head out of the library. ‘I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate your help.’
‘Hey. It’s no biggie. Any friend of Donghyuck’s is a friend of mine,’ Jeno beams and waves as he heads of to the debate club room.
Donghyuck. He never really considered himself as one of Donghyuck’s friends. Mark didn’t think Donghyuck thought of him that way either. He checked his watch and cursed. It was 6.15pm. He had forgotten about baseball.
-
‘Great job, big head,’ Donghyuck crossed his arms after taking a swig of water. ‘You literally had one job.’
Mark’s brows furrowed. It had totally slipped his mind that the baseball team had practice at 5pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He had ran all the way to the field then all the way to the kitchen where he went to fill the cooler with ice then all the way back to the field. He was panting and coughing by the time he had settled down. The rest of the team looked a bit pissed at first but their looks softened as they saw Mark’s panicked and breathless state. He was starting to feel the symptoms of an asthma attack but he tries to withhold it. Mark was already late, he didn’t need the team to see him like that.
Donghyuck sighs and digs through his backpack. He throws something which Mark barely catches before running back to the field with his bat. In his hands was a purple inhaler. Mark pumps twice and feels his chest clear and his muscles relax, breathing becoming an easier process. He watches as Donghyuck goes into position and swings his bat over his shoulder. The sun was shining bright and golden, casting a golden halo around Donghyuck’s hair. He almost looked surreal. Mark tucks the inhaler in his pocket and turns away.
-
Mark scores an A- in his biology test. He checks it twice to make sure it was really his name on the paper. His best friend, Renjun checks another two times. Most of the questions were on mitosis and meiosis which he knew he could not have answered without Jeno’s help previously. He decides to buy some cookies from the convenience store as a token of his appreciation. Mark checks the library to find it empty and so is the debate club. He considers going back to his room to ask Donghyuck for Jeno’s contact when he catches sight of a familiar face in a yellow swim cap doing back strokes in the campus pool.
This was the first time Mark had ever stepped into the pool area in all of his boarding life. He was a senior and yet he had never seen these lanes, Mark thought as the smell of chlorine fills his head. Mark sits on the bleachers and waits for Jeno to reach his end.
‘Mark?’
Out of nowhere, Mark feels kind of shy. This was so silly. His own junior who did not even take biology had helped him score so well in an exam filled with easy concepts. Mark had probably wasted so much of Jeno’s time. He was a prefect, head debater and the swimming team captain. The cookies in his hand felt small suddenly.
‘Give me five minutes. I need to do two more laps or my coach will bark my ear off,’ Jeno waves and dives back into the water swiftly.
Mark sits back and watches the way the water moves as Jeno gracefully lifts one arm then the other, reaching the other side of the pool with almost no effort. Something tugs in Mark’s chest. He had always wanted to learn how to swim. There was just something so enchanting about being one with the water, something so exhilarating about holding your breath and all the sounds around you mashing into one symphony. Then of course there was the feeling of finally resurfacing, when sound comes back to you, when your chest fills up with oxygen and you feel free. Jeno finishes his laps in no time and Mark is too caught up in his own thoughts to notice him wrapped in a towel taking a seat next to him on the bleachers.
‘What’s up?’ Jeno takes off his swim cap and shakes his hair out like a dog which caused a few droplets to wet Mark’s sweater. Jeno’s eyes widened and apologises for getting him wet. Mark only laughs.
‘I just wanted to thank you,’ Mark grips the cookies tighter before handing them over to Jeno. ‘You really helped with bio and that day with Donghyuck as well. You somehow convinced him to take me in which was really nice of you.’
Jeno smiles shyly. ‘No problem! Honestly, it’s not a problem. Like I said, Donghyuck’s friends eventually become mine. And helping friends out is something important to me.’
‘I really don’t think Donghyuck thinks of me as a friend,’ Mark shrugs.
‘Are you kidding?’
‘He’s always angry with me. I know he doesn’t really like me being on the team cause I never wake up on time and I forget a lot,’ Mark plays with his fingers. ‘It’s already bad enough that I wake him up in the middle of the night from my coughing fits.’
‘Donghyuck’s always grumpy in the morning, trust me. He’s not so bad after the sun rises fully. I’ll let you in on a secret though,’ Jeno grins almost evilly, if Jeno could ever look evil. ‘Donghyuck’s one weakness is a smile. No matter how grumpy and stubborn he gets, after I flash him a grin, he gets in a better mood or just gives in. That boy is the biggest softie I’ve ever met.’
‘That’s because you’re you,’ Mark groans, feeling a bit dumb. He can’t imagine Donghyuck ever giving in to any of his smiles. ‘You could smile and the president would bow down to you.’
‘Hey, you’re not so bad yourself. You’re honest with your smiles. It’s nice.’
‘Jen! What are you doing?’ A familiar voice calls out. ‘The cats are waiting! Where have you be-’
Lee Donghyuck himself steps into the pool area and Jeno stands. ‘Just talking to Mark over here. Let me get changed for a second.’
He leaves with his blue towel and swim cap over to the showers and it left Mark and Donghyuck in a moment of awkward silence. Was he still mad at Mark for being late?
’Sorry. Again. For forgetting.’
Donghyuck traces the tiles on the floor. ‘Whatever. Just don’t do it again.’
‘Sorry.’
‘The captain can be an ass sometimes. I didn’t need him to yell my ear off about you being bad at your job.’
Mark gulps, guilt building in his throat. ‘Why doesn’t he just yell at me?’
‘Because he hates me for some god known reason. He’s out to get me, I swear.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘If you apologise one more time, I’ll—‘
‘Can we save your plans of murder for after dinner?’ Jeno grins as he approaches the two of them.
Donghyuck rolls his eyes. ‘Fine. Only because they have curly fries today.”