Chapter Text
Mark glances at the other boy for what feels like the hundredth time since his arrival to class and Donghyuck lets out an annoyed sounding sigh. “God could you be anymore obvious with your ogling?” He hisses out not so subtly. Mark glares back, elbowing him in retaliation.
“Keep it down! Someone might hear you.”
“Oh please. I’m pretty sure everyone here has caught on except for him. Good on you for choosing someone as oblivious as you-OW” Donghyuck yelps as Mark stomps down on his foot. “What the fuck-ugh you’re hopeless.” he sneers as Mark turns back to make sure he hasn’t been caught.
The boy in question is still seated a row down from them in the neighbouring aisle of their lecture hall, and has thankfully not turned around. It was pretty loud in the room since everyone was rushing in now to get a seat on an actual chair and not on the ground.
Today he has on a cream coloured sweater underneath a blue jean jacket and wire rimmed glasses that kept slipping down his nose. Mark had nearly tripped over his own feet, because he has never worn glasses to class until today and he looked ridiculously good. He was already attractive but now it was just amplified, and it was not good for Mark’s poor heart. One of his earbuds dangled down onto the desk in front of him as he types away at his laptop, oblivious to the pain he was causing Mark.
Mark had only seen him for the first time this year when he was waiting outside for their first music theory lecture. He had been standing next to the staircase and Mark probably would have missed him had it not been for his hair. Back then it was a bright shade of silver and he looked ethereal even in the dim lighting of the music building.
His hair has now faded considerably but that didn’t take away from his attractiveness. Jaemin insists that it was the eyebrows but Mark would like to disagree. It was everything. From his perfect cheekbones to his sharp jawline and gorgeous eyes. He had the kind of face that belonged in a museum rather than their school.
What more was how Mark was so fascinated by him. He didn’t even know the boy’s name but he’d always look forward to this class just to watch him from afar. He has had crushes on people before but this was the longest anyone has held his interest. And he hasn’t even done anything. Mark didn’t even know what he sounded like, but frankly he didn’t care.
He’s snapped out of his thoughts when the professor walks in and all conversations around them ceases at once. With one last glance at the boy, Mark opens up a new word document and sits back, ready for the two and a half hour lecture ahead of them. Donghyuck has his phone out under the desk, and the slight smirk on his face indicates that he’s messaging Jaemin.
The two of them had gotten together nearly a month ago and if you ask Mark, it was well overdue. They have been in this ridiculous flirtation-ship since high school and the rest of them-mostly Jeno-were left to watch whilst wanting to slam their head against a wall. It had taken a drunken night out and Donghyuck pulling out the big guns (meaning his twenty something dollar eyeliner along with tight ass jeans and a silk button down) for Jaemin to literally pounce on him. Renjun had nearly cried ( “about fucking time” ) as they made out over the pool table at Jungwoo’s place.
Together they were insufferable and would never miss an opportunity to flaunt their relationship whenever they all hung out together. That was to be expected when the two most shameless people in existence were dating. While Mark was happy for his friends, he and Jeno got stuck with the short end of the stick being Donghyuck and Jaemin’s respective roommates. Donghyuck especially took joy in not giving him a heads up and permanently scarring him. Lets just say he won’t be sitting down on the loveseat in the living room of their apartment anytime soon.
He looks up when one of the TAs hands over a stack of papers that he had to pass down to the rest of their row after taking one for himself. An outline, and by the looks of it they would be having some sort of project. He briefly recalls Dr. Kim mentioning that they’d have a group assignment while going over the syllabus weeks ago.
Donghyuck makes a face after quickly skimming over his sheet, “Assigned partners? You have got to be kidding me.” he grumbles under his breath. Mark flips his around and notes with dismay that he was not in fact kidding.
You will receive an email by the end of today’s lecture with your partner’s school email address and will be required to get in contact with them by the end of the week. By next week’s class the two of you must have a topic selected that has been approved by me...
The gist of it was that they had to record a video and then write up a report to go along with it. Something about tone and composition. At least they didn’t need more than ten citations for this. He still had nightmares from his final paper for music since the 1900s.
“Well this bites. I was hoping to have you do most of the work anyway” Donghyuck pouts. Mark rolls his eyes and carefully tucked the sheet away in his binder. “Sucks to be you. I just hope my partner isn’t totally useless."
“Tell me about it. Remember the no show from our film project last semester?”
“How could I forget? I had ten extra minutes of talking to do. We were lucky that it was individually marked.” he shudders. That had been the most mortifying group project experience in his entire life and he really hopes that whoever he was assigned with for this was better than that. “This one doesn’t seem that bad though. It’s only a video and a writeup.”
“Markie only you would find a twenty percent weighted project ‘not that bad’.”
“...nevermind.”
xxx
By the time class was over Donghyuck practically flew out of his seat to make a run for the door, because he had somehow managed to drain his entire two litres of juice within the first half of the lecture, leaving him squirming in his seat much to Mark’s amusement.
It was their last class of the day so Mark took his time grabbing his belongings and placing them away in his bag while standing out of the way so others could walk past him. He also had a chance to steal once last glimpse of the boy and made sure to quickly duck his head down when he passed by to get to the exit.
Once he had stepped outside, he pulled out his phone and was greeted by a bunch of notifications from twitter and the group chat. There was also an email from Dr. Kim titled group assignment . He quickly swipes up and begins to scroll.
From: Kim Junmyeon, Ph.D
To: Lee Mark, undergraduate
Partner: Xiao Dejun
Email: xiaode99@smu .org
The rubric to the project will be linked in the class website under the group assignment folder . If there are any further questions or complications, feel free to reach out to either me or one of the TAs.
Best of luck.
xxx