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Mark smiled at the sight of an extremely grumpy Donghyuck making his way down the driveway to his car, and his smile only widened when Donghyuck yanked open the passenger door, claiming, “I hate you so fucking much.”
“Oh, I love you too, baby.” Mark cooed, leaning over the console of his car to press his lips to Donghyuck’s cheek.
Swatting him away, Donghyuck sunk down lower into the seat. With the hood of his jacket pulled all the way up, he crossed his arms against his chest, pouting. “I can’t believe I’m awake right now.”
“You’re the one that offered to help me time my swim laps. No one was forcing you to.” Mark answered back as he started to drive.
“Well, the only reason I offered to help was so that I could see you shirtless.” Donghyuck deadpanned. Then waving his hand out against the purple sky, he shouted, “I didn’t think you did it at such an early hour. Even the sun isn’t awake yet!”
Shaking his head, Mark said nothing in return as he continued to drive to the local pool. When Donghyuck had pestered him the night before about tagging along with him for his morning practice, Mark knew that Donghyuck was in way over his head. He had mentioned it more than a couple times that he went to the pool really, really early. But Donghyuck claimed that it was okay— clearly it wasn’t, judging from how there was a permanent pout on his lips at the moment.
That was alright though, because Mark had already planned for a situation as such in advance.
As he made a turn out of the neighborhood, Mark reached for the drink in his cup holder and handed it over to the sulking boy. “Here, an apology for waking you up from your beauty sleep.”
“Chocolate chip frappe?”
“Yes, with an extra pump of chocolate, just how you like it.” Mark nodded.
Not caring that he was still driving, Donghyuck dived over and pulled him into a tight hug. “I love you!”
“I thought that you hated me?”
Donghyuck shook his head. “I did, but not anymore. I love you now.”
.
When he came out of the changing room, Mark saw that Donghyuck had already made himself right at home. He wasn’t sure where Donghyuck had found it, but he was floating on a pink doughnut tube, sipping on the rest of his frappe. Despite the morning sun barely even up in the sky yet, Donghyuck already had a pair of sunnies perched on the edge of his nose.
Dropping his stuff on one of the lounge chairs, Mark pulled his swimming goggles over his head before walking closer to where Donghyuck was.
When he stood right behind him, Donghyuck let out a whistle, sliding his sunnies down to the tip of his nose, and gave him a once over. “Now, this is the reason I woke up early today.”
Rolling his eyes, Mark shoved at Donghyuck’s pink floatie, pushing him further out into the water. “Shut up.” Doing a few stretches before he got in, Mark mumbled out, “You see me shirtless nearly every day.”
“And I can never get enough.” Donghyuck winked at him.
“Quit ogling and time my laps.” Mark scoffed before jumping into the waters.
As he broke through the surface again, ready to start on his breaststrokes, he heard Donghyuck yell out, “Stop kicking so much! You’re getting my clothes wet!”
“We’re literally at a swimming pool. You’re surrounded by water, Hyuck. What did you expect?” To prove his point, Mark made sure to kick a little harder to make the water splash even more. He distinctly heard Donghyuck shouting at him again but the water drowned it all out.
There was something awfully therapeutic about being underwater.
When he first started swimming, Mark had hated it — he was barely six at the time. He hated the way the chlorinated waters stung his eyes, making his vision blurry. He had also hated the way the chlorine clung to him even after he got out of the pool, the humidity nearly suffocating him every time.
He wasn’t sure when he started to enjoy his time more and more at the pool than not. His eyes got used to the burn of the chlorine, especially after Donghyuck started to let him borrow a pair of swimming goggles, after being so sick of hearing him complain about it. The following year, he joined the school’s swim team.
Now, Mark couldn't stop swimming.
Mark would always need the air to breathe and the sunlight to warm his skin, but he needed the chlorinated water to touch his skin and flow through his eyelashes more. These days, he could swim laps after laps and never grow tired. He didn't even have to try too hard either, the strokes just came to him naturally. When he was in the waters, he didn’t have any worries. There weren't any deadlines that he had to meet or problems that he had to solve. It was just him and the cool waters.
Making his fifth lap, Mark resurfaced, searching for his boyfriend. He opened his mouth to ask for his current time, but seeing that Donghyuck wasn’t even holding the timer anymore, he sighed.
Donghyuck had his face raised up to the sun again, letting it soak his body entirely and making it glow underneath its rays. For a summer child, Mark always found it strange that Donghyuck didn’t like to spend his time in the waters like he did. Instead, Donghyuck loved sunbathing the most. Every single time that Donghyuck had accompanied him to pool, he would always float around, above the water, and relish in the feeling of the sun on his skin. Donghyuck would always come with the promise of helping him time his swim laps, but that almost never happened. So, he shouldn’t have been all that surprised that the same happened this time around too.
With that fact in mind, Mark decided to swim over to where his boyfriend was. When he got closer, he threw his arms on the edge of the floatie, asking, “You know I never really understood why you float around like this when you don’t like getting wet.”
“I’m trying to catch some sun.”
Mark hummed. “Yeah, I know. But you can do that by sitting in the lawn chairs too, that are actually out of the water.”
“Nah, I like this better.” Donghyuck said, smiling widely at the sun before throwing him a look, “Just don’t splash water on me again. It gets cold floating around like that when my shirt is soaked.”
Rolling his eyes, Mark groaned. “You can’t have both, baby. Either get out of the pool or get in it. The water isn’t too bad either. It’s like perfect.”
“Your opinion is very biased. You love the water. Even if it was freezing, which I know it is, you’ll say that it’s perfect.”
“How would you know that it’s freezing? You haven’t even tipped your toes into the water yet.”
“Yes, I have.” Donghyuck countered hotly.
“Yeah? When?”
“Right now.” Donghyuck barely grazed his toes into the water before he withdrew them, crying out loudly, “It’s colder than an ice cream freezer! See, I told you it was cold.”
“It’s always cold when you first get in, but then your body gets used to it.” Mark tried to explain but Donghyuck shook his head, eyes growing wide at the prospect of having to get into the water. He even made a move to get away from him, but Mark held onto the floatie, not letting him go. “Oh, come on, Hyuck. It’s warm, I promise.”
“Nope, you’re a liar and I don’t believe you for one second.” Donghyuck retorted. “You literally just said it was cold not more than two seconds go.”
“You’ll find it warm. Trust me.”
“No, I won’t.”
Before Donghyuck could complain any longer, Mark bit his lips and thought to hell with it as he sent Donghyuck overboard, tipping the floatie over. Donghyuck’s loud shrieks echoed sounded muffled as Mark dived underwater.
Feeling the cool water brushing past his eyelashes again, Mark sought out for his boyfriend, catching him by the hips. Donghyuck thrashed and struggled against his hold as he tried to get away. Without warning, Mark tugged him in underwater with him.
He smiled at the sight of an angry faced Donghyuck staring right back at him. With his cheeks puffed out from holding his breath, Donghyuck threw a punch at his shoulder. Mark tried his hardest not to laugh, because swallowing the chlorine water was disgusting.
Despite not liking the waters, Donghyuck was still a pretty good swimmer. That meant that he was able to hold his breath underwater for quite some time. Knowing this, Mark surged forward and pressed his lips against Donghyuck’s.
The kiss lasted for a whole second before Donghyuck gasped in mouthful of water and had to resurface.
Donghyuck gripped onto his shoulders tightly as he sputtered and gasped for air. “What the hell was that for?”
A pink hue dusted across Donghyuck’s cheeks and nose, whether it was from being in the sun too long or from the kiss, Mark wasn’t too sure, but he had an inkling that it was from the latter.
Arms wrapped around his waist, Mark tugged Donghyuck closer to him until their noses touched. “I told you that you wouldn’t be cold, didn’t I?”
“What?” Donghyuck stared at him strangely, making him chuckle.
“I said that you’re not cold, right?” Mark asked again.
“Cold? No, not really, but that’s only because you kissed—,” Donghyuck stopped mid-sentence, gasping out loud as a realization dawned on him. Mark only smiled wider in response. “I hate you!”
“No, you don’t.”
“I hate you so much. You’re such an asshole, Mark Lee.”
“You say that now, but you’ll change your mind in like the next couple of seconds.”
“What makes you think that I won’t stop hating you in a couple seconds from now?”
“Because, I’m going to do this.”
Even though that was the second time that Mark kissed Donghyuck again, it still sent the boy into a sputtering mess. Donghyuck would have sank back down underwater had it not been for the arms Mark had around his waist. Letting Donghyuck all of his weight onto him, Mark smiled into the kiss.
The best thing in his life aside from swimming was Donghyuck, especially kissing Donghyuck. Whenever their lips touched, Mark felt like the entire world stopped on its axis for a brief second and in this single second, nothing else was moving, except their lips against one another and their hearts beating together in sync.
The anticipation of wanting to feel Donghyuck’s lips on his forever, hanging in the air, suffocated him more than the chlorinated waters would ever will. Mark knew that Donghyuck felt the same way too judging by the way his hands gripped onto his shoulders even tighter, trying to pull them closer, deeper into a moment that was so perfect.
The biggest thing that a swimmer feared was lightning during a storm. But right now, Mark felt like he should fear the electricity that’s coursing through his veins, stemming from Donghyuck’s lips against his. He should be careful to not let the sparks that were appearing behind his eyes to reach the waters.
But the longer he moved his lips and continued to kiss Donghyuck, Mark found that he didn’t care if he could be electrocuted at this very moment. Mark would gladly take all the shock and allow his heart to skip a beat if it meant that he could kiss Donghyuck forever.
Breaking the kiss first, Mark rested his forehead against Donghyuck’s, gazing deep into his beautiful dark eyes. “So, do you still hate me?” He breathed out.
“No. I love you again.” Donghyuck answered back, equally winded, cheeks flushed.
Mark laughed. “I love you too, baby. Always.”