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“You know people are gonna avoid this part of the room like the plague if you hang that up, right?”
Donghyuck casts a look towards him before returning back to hanging up the handful of decorations he had prepared for the empty wall in their living room. In his hands is a mistletoe, the one he’s struggling to hang up right now. He had originally called Mark over to help him, but upon seeing that mistletoe in the younger’s hands, Mark decided to back out and watch him from the doorway, muttering an ‘I don’t want to kiss you’ when Donghyuck demanded him to help.
“Say what you want, Lee Mark,” Donghyuck frowns after catching sight of Mark’s judgemental look being sent towards him. “But if I catch you and Huang Renjun sucking each other’s faces off here, exactly where I am standing right now, you’re gonna have to owe me one. Now are you gonna help me or are you gonna stand there like a coward?”
Mark purses his lips. Donghyuck really needs to learn how to filter his words.
“Because of that comment you just made, you’re gonna have to hang up those decorations yourself,” Mark says, turning his heel and returning back to his room. He takes a sip out of his coffee cup as Donghyuck continues to make comments behind him, which he turns a blind eye (ear?) to as he closes his door. It’s too early in the morning to deal with this. It’s too early in the day to even deal with Donghyuck.
This was not something he had signed up for when he agreed to be Donghyuck’s roommate. Hanging up mistletoes and decorations to ‘get into the Christmas spirit’ or to set their friends up or whatever else the latter is planning. It’s too much for his brain to process after the two hours of sleep he got last night after almost pulling an all-nighter to finish off an assignment that’s due today.
“Mark!” Donghyuck calls from the living room. “Mark, I’m so sorry I called you a coward, but this thing will literally break if it falls and I did not pay fifty dollars as a starving college student for that to happen, so can you please get a chair for me?”
Mark exhales sharply through his nose as he grabs the spare fold-up chair he keeps in the corner of his room. Today will be a long day, he thinks as Donghyuck lets out another shrill scream. A long, long day.
Mark definitely did not expect to come back to the apartment to see bags and bags of food and drinks piling up on the kitchen table.
“Hyuck, what is all this?” Mark questions as he narrows his eyes towards Donghyuck, who conveniently exited his room as if on cue, with eyes glued onto his phone.
“Hm?” He looks up and meets Mark’s eyes. “Oh, welcome back, I was starting to think you died.” He pockets his phone as he walks up to the bags. “You didn’t answer my texts.”
“Would you have called the police?” Mark asks, raising an eyebrow. He watches as Donghyuck digs through one of the fabric bags brings out bags of chips and full liter bottles of soft drinks. His confusion spikes when Donghyuck goes onto the next fabric bag and brings out even more Christmas decorations, along with a few infamous plastic red cups.
Mark sets his bag down on the chair beside him. “You’re not hosting a party, right?” he blurts out. “At least not in our apartment.”
Donghyuck gestures to the Christmas decorations he had spent all of last night putting up. “What do you think, Mark,” he challenges. “What do you think?”
Mark wants to hit him. “Our apartment can barely house us! Let alone how many more people!” he cries, running his fingers through his hair. “How many people did you invite?”
Donghyuck opens his mouth to answer but Mark quickly cuts him off. “I’m the older one here. I’m also the one who cleans this place. Do I not have any say in this household?” Mark furrows his eyebrows. “When is this party? Because I don’t want to be anywhere near it when it’s happening.”
Donghyuck grins. “Are you done?” he asks in a mocking tone. Mark nods. “Okay, good, because I stopped listening the moment you said ‘I’m the older one’.”
Mark chucks a plastic cup at the younger’s head.
Donghyuck catches it as it bounces off. “Okay,” he begins. “First off, you made a lot of assumptions, my guy.” He opens the packet of chips in front of him. “Second of all, it’s not gonna be a full-blown party, it’s just gonna be us.”
“Who’s ‘us’?” Mark interrogates.
“Just the usual crowd.” Donghyuck shrugs. “You know them all, don’t worry—”
“How would you know?” Mark interjects. “I barely even leave my room.”
Donghyuck deadpans at him. “It’s just Renjun and his friends. Who are also, you know, our friends.”
Mark freezes up immediately at the mention of a certain name. “Oh.”
Donghyuck shakes his head. “Gotta get tidying, Mark,” he says, sending him a smirk. “Wouldn’t want Renjun to see your dirty room, would you?”
Mark throws another plastic cup at Donghyuck’s head. “I clean my room, thank you very much. Unlike you.”
Donghyuck makes a face. “It doesn’t matter because it’s not my room he’s going into.”
Mark stares at him. “Can you not say that?!” he squeaks, feeling his entire face grow hot. “Oh my god!”
The redness on his face prompts Donghyuck to tease him even more. “Why are you so red?” Donghyuck laughs. “Not so innocent are you, Mark? I didn’t even say anything,” he laughs, shaking his head. “You and your dirty mind.”
Mark feels light-headed. This is too much for him right now; Haechan, Renjun, the number of people who are going to be in his apartment in a few days. Mark needs to sit down.
Mark sluggishly walks back into his room, almost tripping over his feet in the process.
“Where are you going?” Donghyuck calls out behind him.
“I need to sit down,” Mark replies dryly. “I… I’ll see you later for dinner.”
Donghyuck needs to start telling Mark when people are going to come over to their apartment because the last time they had a fight, it was over the exact same thing Mark is sure he’s going to have an outburst over again.
“Mark, you made it,” Jaemin cheers from the couch.
“I live here,” he replies, dryly. “Where’s Donghyuck?”
Jaemin shrugs, adjusting the Santa hat that’s sitting on his head. “Why are you back so late?” he asks.
“Work,” Mark replies, en route to his room.
“Don’t walk under the mistletoe,” Jaemin warns, stuffing another cupcake into his mouth. “Chenle and YangYang walked under it and Donghyuck wouldn’t let them go until they kissed.”
Mark frowns as the memory of Donghyuck’s struggle hanging up said mistletoe replays in his mind. “I’ll keep an eye out,” he mutters, twisting his doorknob, as well as eyeing the mistletoe as he walks past it.
He enters his room and sighs in relief. Okay, he’s managed to get away from the ‘crowd’ for a short while, or at least until Donghyuck comes barging in and forces him to socialise. He sits his bag down on the pulled out chair by his desk and changes into something a lot more comfortable.
The door slams open behind him halfway taking off his shirt and Mark is met with an overly excited Donghyuck.
“Do you know what ‘knocking’ is?” Mark cautiously asks, narrowing his eyes. He slips the rest of his shirt over his body and grabs the jacket hanging off his bed. “Can you knock when we have guests, at least? Not everyone would like to see me half-naked, unlike you.”
Donghyuck shoots him a look. “Stop being all sad and angsty and come into the living room. Jisung almost brought down all my Christmas decorations I spent so hard putting up because he tripped over Jeno’s bag.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Come use your ‘I’m old’ card and tell them off.”
“Oh, so now I’m older than you all,” Mark frowns.
Donghyuck repeats after him in a mocking voice and pulls Mark by the arm. “Come on, bro. We’re gonna open presents.”
Mark takes back his arm immediately. “Presents?” he hisses. “I didn’t buy anything! It’s not even Christmas right now! We have like a week until December 25th.”
Donghyuck shrugs. “Better late than never.”
Mark bites his tongue and reluctantly walks out into the living room. There’s no point arguing with Donghyuck, it’s a war he can never win.
Six faces turn to look at him as he enters the living room and Mark feels kind of bad after seeing the bag of presents sitting between Jaemin and Jisung. To be fair, if Donghyuck had told him the party was today he would have gone Christmas shopping a week ago.
Renjun’s face lights up once he sees him and he scoots over to the right a bit, making room for Mark, and patting the empty space beside him. The older smiles softly as he squeezes himself between him and YangYang.
“Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while,” Renjun muses, slapping Mark’s knee.
“Likewise,” he replies. “I, er, didn’t get anyone presents. I didn’t know we were gonna have a Christmas party today and I wasn’t prepared.”
Renjun waves a dismissive hand. “It’s alright. Honestly, this party was just for Jisung. He’s not gonna be here with us for Christmas and so Donghyuck suggested that we could have a pre-Christmas party.”
Mark nods in understanding. “Still wish Donghyuck had said something to me though, I should quickly go buy Jisung a present.”
The younger leans on his shoulder and Mark feels his ears become red. “Nah,” Renjun mumbles. “Just paypal him like $50, he’ll be happy with that.”
Renjun is too close. Too close and the safety of Mark’s heart is suddenly threatened. He stammers out a few words, none making a complete sentence, before ultimately deciding to just shut up and nod.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Donghyuck holding back a snicker.
“Alright,” Jisung says, clasping his hands together. “So, presents for everyone.” He begins to pull out wrapped boxes varying in different sizes from the bag to the people around him.
Renjun’s head snaps back once his name is called and Mark frowns at the sudden loss of warmth.
“I hope everyone likes them,” Jisung smiles sheepishly. “I’m kinda sad I won’t be able to spend Christmas with you all this year but thank you for the pre-Christmas party.”
Jeno laughs. “Anything for you, Jisung.”
Mark eyes the small, wrapped up box in his hands, inspecting it. An accessory, maybe? What else could fit in such a tiny box?
“You’re not gonna open it?” Renjun whispers to him.
Mark looks around him. No one else has opened their presents, and instead are conversing deeply about some movie they watched the week before.
“I’ll open it later,” he hums, turning back to Renjun.
Renjun’s leaning in and their faces are so close now, and Mark feels his entire face heat up. Renjun looks really good today too. He’s wearing his signature golden, circle-framed glasses and a simple black button-up. His hair is styled in a comma hair, which places emphasis on his jawline.
Mark feels like his heart’s going to burst out of his chest.
“You’re looking a bit red,” Renjun says with a tint of worry in his voice. He brings a hand up to Mark’s forehead. “It’s really warm...”
Mark is pulled back into reality by YangYang shaking his shoulders behind him. “Both of you stop being weird and start moving. We’re migrating to Donghyuck’s room to build a pillow fort and watch Tamako Market.”
Mark then realises that the living room is empty with the exception of the three of them. He frowns. Why do they all move so fast?
Renjun waves YangYang off. “Yeah, we’ll be there in a few. Mark needs a drink of water so…”
YangYang lifts himself off the floor. “Alright,” he hums. “Don’t spend too long getting a drink, we need all the extra help we can get for the pillow fort.”
Renjun looks at Mark with a teasing smile, which sends his brain into abort mode, before returning his attention to YangYang. “Sure.”
Once YangYang leaves to join the others, Renjun pulls Mark up by the arm. “C’mon, let's get you a cup of water. You look really flushed,” he laughs lightly.
Mark is unable to do anything, so he just lets Renjun lead him into the kitchen, with Renjun’s hands clasped over his. None of this was out of the ordinary, but Mark still can’t help but panic whenever Renjun gets too close to him. It’s not that he doesn’t like it, but he has trouble controlling his facial expressions and mouth when he’s flustered, and that’s not something that’s ideal when you’re in front of the guy you’ve had a crush on for a good two years by now.
In the midst of his thoughts, he trips over his own feet.
Renjun moves quickly, immediately placing a hand in front of Mark, preventing him to fall on his face. The elder lets out a small yelp of surprise.
“Are you alright?” Renjun’s face is flooded with worry. “You really need that cup of water, don’t you?”
Mark steadies himself before running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I’m so sorry.”
Renjun smiles softly. “No, it’s alright. How about—”
He gets cut off by a way too familiar voice calling out to them.
“You’re under the mistletoe!”
Chenle’s cry goes ignored and the two slowly trail their line of vision to the small ornament hanging above their heads. Mark looks at Renjun, observing his reaction, before saying anything that may potentially change their friendship.
“You have to kiss!” Donghyuck continues off Chenle.
Oh how much Mark wants to smack Donghyuck on the back of his head right now, but alas, he is unable to do so, so instead he carefully grabs Renjun’s hand.
“Hey, just ignore them,” he says quietly. “We don’t have to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
Renjun stares at him, before looking away abruptly. “But, it’s tradition… isn’t it? It’d be unfair to Chenle and YangYang if we don’t, you know, do it…”
Mark’s brain short circuits for a second.
“A-Are you sure?” he stammers, taking a small step back.
“Are you sure?” Renjun shoots back, uneasiness painted all across his face. “Oh my gosh,” he says quickly. “I’m so sorry if I made you uncomfortable I-”
Mark immediately shakes his head. ”No, no,” he mumbles out with a shaky breath. “I’m fine with it, but are you?” He looks into Renjun’s eyes, looking for any sign of something, anything.
Renjun looks away nervously with a tint of red on his cheeks. “Alright,” he mumbles softly, taking a step closer to Mark.
Mark’s a little taller than Renjun, so when Renjun peers through his eyelashes, head slightly tilted down, to look at him, Mark has to do everything in his power to not faint on the spot.
“You’re really pretty,” Mark blurts out in a panic.
Renjun has the audacity to giggle and take another step closer. “Thank you,” he whispers, a shy smile adorning his features.
He’s close enough to the point where Mark can feel Renjun’s breath fanning over his lips. The younger’s gaze is fixated on his lips and after much consideration, Mark decides to close the gap between the two and press their lips together.
The kiss was short, short enough to be considered a peck. Mark quickly pulls away in embarrassment to face a baffled looking Renjun, face entirely red.
“You… okay?” Mark coughs.
Renjun blinks back to reality and softly pushes Mark’s chest. “You call that a kiss?” he pouts. “C’mon…” he pulls Mark towards him by the arm and crashes their lips together once more.
Mark finds himself reaching over to the back of Renjun’s neck, closing his eyes and melting into the kiss. This was something he had always dreamed about - kissing Renjun, that is - but he had never thought it would actually happen. This was 1,000 times better than whatever his brain came up within the middle of the night when he’s tossing and turning. Renjun’s lips fit so perfectly on his and for some reason, that fact itself makes Mark’s heart burst out of his chest.
Renjun pulls himself away and Mark slightly frowns at the sudden loss of warmth from his lips.
It was nice while it lasted, he thought, tapping his foot and looking everywhere but at Renjun. He drowns out the loud sounds of hollering being made by his friends behind him, and takes a step backward. The embarrassment finally dawns on him and he has the sudden urge to run away to the nearest bathroom.
Renjun must have caught on because he calls out for Mark in a soft voice.
Curse Mark and how whipped he is for the boy in front of him. “Yeah?” he mumbles, peeking up and finally meeting Renjun’s eyes.
Renjun’s eyes hold worry as he looks at Mark with flickering pupils. “I’m sorry if that was weird,” he murmurs, scratching the back of his neck. “That was my first time and -”
Mark’s entire world seemed to have stopped the moment he heard the word ‘first’. He, Mark Lee, was Renjun’s first kiss? Okay, now this just became a bigger deal than Mark had originally thought.
“Your first kiss?” Mark quietly exclaims.
Renjun shyly nods and lets out an awkward chuckle. “Yeah,” he sighs. “So I’m sorry if I messed up or did something weird.”
Mark takes Renjun’s hands. “No, no,” he says. “You didn’t do anything weird, it was good. I liked it.”
The words hang between them and it’s then Mark realises how weird the last three words sounded.
“You liked it?” Renjun asks, and if Mark didn’t know better, he’d swear he saw his eyes light up.
The older one rubs his nose, feeling his cheeks burn up once again. “Yeah?” It comes out more like a question than an answer. “I’m making this weird aren’t I?”
Renjun shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. I’m happy you liked it.” He smiles.
The cogs in Mark’s brain begin to turn. That sentence has to have some hidden meaning behind it, there’s no way Renjun would just say that without implying something.
But instead of saying anything smooth, all Mark does is let out is an off-putting sound of “Huh?”
Renjun giggles. “You should look at yourself right now,” he teases. “You’re so flustered.”
Mark lightly pushes Renjun away. “Is that a confession?” he asks, narrowing his eyes.
Renjun nods, a small smile etching onto his face. “I don’t know,” he taunts. “You tell me.”
Mark pouts and crosses his arms over his chest. “Renjun,” he whines. “Give me something to work with here. You can’t just say that and expect me to think it to not be a confession.”
The younger stares at him, before bursting out into laughter. “I mean, do you like me too?” he asks between giggles.
Too? Too?! Do you like me TOO?!
“Yeah?” Mark stutters out in response to the unexpected question, looking everywhere but at Renjun’s eyes.
Renjun pinches Mark’s cheek. “Can you at least look at me when you say it,” he sighs. “Are you sure you like me?”
Mark doesn’t say anything, but instead nods really fast, as if confirming it.
“Good,” Renjun smiles, then leans in once more to close the gap between them.
Mark is pulled back to reality by Donghyuck and Chenle’s fake gagging sounds being made behind him.
“Shut the hell up,” Mark cries after Renjun pulls away, rolling his eyes and craning his neck to face the younger two.
“Aye, get it, Mark!” YangYang cheers, holding up a pillow in the air. “Let’s go, Renjun!”
Mark ignores them and returns his attention to the male in front of him. “So I’ll take this as a confirmation that you like me too?” he shyly asks Renjun, even though the answer to his question is quite obvious. He still needs a confirmation though, because what happens if he and Renjun are not on the same page?
Renjun sighs. “Yes, Mark. Yes, it is.”
“Okay,” Mark says, straightening out his back. “Okay,” he repeats. “So what does this mean for us now?”
Renjun raises an eyebrow. “Honestly, I’m not sure,” he answers, shrugging. “We could take it slow if you want, maybe go on a few dates and stuff. You know—”
“I’d like that, actually,” Mark cuts him off. “I’d like that a lot.”
Renjun laces his fingers together with Mark’s and as he sends a shy smile his way, Mark realises that he could get used to this.
He could get used to such a feeling in his chest, the touch of Renjun’s hands in his, and the taste of Renjun’s lips on his.
And it’s all thanks to Donghyuck’s dumb idea of a mistletoe.