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Donghyuck woke up from his deep sleep, sheets tangled tightly around his whole body. He yawned loudly, wishing he had more time to snooze. If he had done his research for his afternoon lecture, he would’ve had the chance, but, unfortunately, Donghyuck was the king of procrastination.
Annoyed by the fact that he had work to do, he stretched out his limbs with a groan and let his legs dangle off the edge of the bed. Only then did he notice the heavenly smell of French toast in the air, which was the only thing that could make him stand up immediately. Donghyuck put his Totoro slippers on and padded to the kitchen.
Only Mark’s back was visible as he stood in front of the kitchen stove and nudged a piece of bread around the frying pan. The noise from the kitchen hood and Mark’s quiet humming made it impossible for him to hear as Donghyuk tiptoed behind him. He sneaked his arms around Mark’s waist and rested his head on his shoulder, startling his boyfriend.
“Food,” Donghyuck croaked intelligently, staring at the toast.
Mark laughed softly, bumping their heads lightly. “Good morning to you too, bub.”
He put the last piece of bread on top of the already fried ones and waddled to the table with Donghyuck still clinging to him, setting the plate down. Donghyuck yawned again, finally letting go of his boyfriend and taking a seat.
“I’m so lazy today, can’t believe I have to pay attention during class later,” he complained, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Mark chuckled as he returned from the kitchen with two cups of chocolate milk in his hands.
“Sucks to be you,” he put down Donghyuck’s cup in front of him and ruffled his bedhead affectionately, “I’m gonna do my best to annoy you by spending the whole day lying on the couch and doing nothing.”
“I hate you so much, you know,” Donghyuck mumbled, taking a huge bite of the French toast, “Next time I’ll find myself a boyfriend who looks like me so he can pretend to be me in class while I sleep throughout the whole day.”
Mark only shook his head as he put a generous amount of jam on his toast, “You know he has to match your personality too, right? Good luck finding someone as bratty as yourself,” he snickered.
Donghyuck considered throwing his oily toast at his boyfriend, but wasting food was a sin, so he decided against it.
.ೃ࿐
After breakfast, Donghyuck did his work quite fast (maybe because the end result was pretty half-assed, but he believed in quantity rather than quality, especially when it came to school). He had about one hour left until the start of his lecture and nothing interesting to do.
Looking back, the beginning of the pandemic was the hardest time for Donghyuck. He loved going out, going shopping, taking pics at cute places, and making Mark visit small underrated coffee shops with him. But then the lockdown came and his days got very boring.
Still, Donghyuck respected the measures and knew the safety of everyone was much more important than his cute little dates and shopping sprees, so he didn’t complain much. It was just that sometimes he wished the virus could go to hell and let him leave the house and show off his pretty lip tints to everyone without them sticking to his stupid face mask all the time. They said beauty was pain, but Donghyuck believed this was a bit too much now.
Aside from the fact that he couldn’t get out of the house, he was also getting quite frustrated by his lack of socializing. Spending seven days a week only with Mark was starting to make him bitchier than ever. There was no problem with his boyfriend, he was, in Donghyuck’s opinion, as stupid and adorable as always. But spending all the time with only one person inside a tiny rooftop apartment was turning Donghyuck into a very easy explodable bomb of tantrums.
The two of them had always had their differences - Mark liked to wake up early and make his day meaningful, while Donghyuck woke up with annoyance every day, wishing he could hibernate; Mark liked to spend his evening quietly working on his music, while Donghyuck played games till three o’clock, screaming his lungs out at the screen; Mark wasted five minutes of his life every week trying to explain to Donghyuck why he shouldn’t leave his socks all over the house, while the latter refused to accept criticism from a person who put cereal first. Even though they had always had their disagreements, they always found a way to resolve their problems.
Despite that, Dongyuck had noticed that their skirmishes were way more frequent recently. It was a mix between Mark’s unruffled point of view on certain topics and Donghyuck’s own stubbornness and pettiness that usually ended with the two of them not talking to each other and then reconciling after a couple of hours. Fighting with the only person you live with meant you had no one to talk to (or in Donghyuck’s case - no one to pester) and that kinda sucked.
He had to admit their fights weren’t that bad, though. Donghyuck was also quite pleased with the fact that he could use them as an example of why they were the stronger couple. He was sure Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun could only dream of bantering almost every goddamn day for four years and still loving each other even more than they did before. Mark and Donghyuck just had a different way of showing it.
Donghyuck was thinking about this whole situation for the fifth time this week, lying on their bed and humming Mark’s last song to himself, when his boyfriend came into the room, hands on his hips.
Donghyuck sighed and closed his eyes, “What?"
“Hyuck, I asked you to take out the plastic trash two days ago. Why is it still in the storage behind the door?” Mark said, the annoyance in his voice as clear as day.
“I don’t know, maybe because I didn’t do what you asked? Why else would it be there?” Donghyuck murmured, mentally slapping himself for forgetting about his task.
“The whole hallway smells like trash, Hyuck.”
“Quite fitting, don’t you think,” Donghyuck snickered.
“No, like, I asked you to do the laundry two weeks ago and you didn’t do it,” Mark complained, “Then last week you said you’d help me with cleaning the windows, yet you didn’t lift a finger, and now you couldn’t even remember to throw the freaking trash out? I know you have a lot to do for school too, but you could at least try and help me out a bit instead of napping every two hours.”
Donghyuck’s eyes snapped open as he sat up, clenching the sheets in his fists.
“Look, Markie,” he spat out the nickname Mark hated to bits, “I may not have done these things in particular, but I did clean up after you two days ago when you fell asleep on the couch. I did go get the vacuum cleaner fixed even though you promised me you’d do it yourself, and I didn’t say anything about it, did I?”
Mark sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Okay, that was my fault, I admit. Still, it doesn’t mean you should use that as an argument against me for scolding you. I literally feel like I’m the only one doing stuff around the house lately. Is it really that hard to just do things when I ask you and then move on?”
“It’s as hard as not complaining about it every day is for you, Jesus, spare me, please,” Donghyuck rolled his eyes, “I’m sick and tired of your nagging, my head hurts.”
The sudden silence in the room made instant regret seize Donghyuck, but his pettiness kept his mouth shut as Mark just stared at him, his disappointment more than evident.
“Okay then,” he said tonelessly, “I’ll quit bothering you. Have fun.”
Mark closed the door behind him and Donghyuck fell back on the bed, burying his face in his hands.
.ೃ࿐
Although he had said he would do absolutely nothing the whole day, Mark’s mind was preoccupied with their fight and couldn’t let him be. He spent most of the afternoon cleaning around the house, sweeping the dust off the shelves and finally taking the smelly trash outside.
He saw Donghyuck only once when his boyfriend came to the kitchen to take his lunch to the study room. Seeing the sullen look on his face made Mark regret his actions from earlier even more.
Donghyuck wasn’t the only one who had noticed they were quite on edge lately. Mark didn’t really like fighting, but the past few months had made him pretty bossy, which was something he knew his boyfriend disliked. Donghyuck had always hated people ordering him around and Mark was wondering how he hadn’t snapped at him seriously yet.
Fighting about small things like that was pretty normal for them, considering their clashing personalities, but Mark didn’t really mind it as long as it wasn’t unhealthy. A lot of people had told them that it was ruining their relationship, but what they weren’t aware of was that the two of them had already talked about it multiple times.
Aside from fighting, Mark and Donghyuck spent a lot of time talking to each other about themselves and making sure there were no misunderstandings between them. They knew each other well enough to know harsh words were never really meant and always deeply regretted. Both of them made sure the other knew how grateful they were for having them in their life. That was enough.
Still, seeing Donghyuck’s pouty face at lunch made Mark’s heart clench. He waited till 4 pm when his boyfriend’s class ended and knocked on the door quietly.
“Hyuck, let’s talk?” he said softly.
He heard the crunching from the beanbag where Donghyuck liked to nap after he was done with his work.
“Coming in a sec,” he answered, voice sleepy.
Mark made some milk tea (with a lot of sugar, how they both liked it) and sat on the couch, patiently waiting for the other boy to join him. Donghyuck came out of the study room, stretching his limbs out like a cat, and Mark had to resist the urge to coo at him. He threw himself next to Mark, the two of them facing each other.
“Hey,” Donghyuck spoke, resting his head on his palm.
“Hi,” Mark smiled softly.
“Can I start?” the younger asked. Every time the two of them had an argument, they gave each other some time to let off the steam and then talked things out. Normally the first one who started believed he was the one to blame for the fight.
“Yeah, go ahead,” Mark answered, taking a sip from his tea and giving all of his attention to his boyfriend.
“First of all, I’m sorry for being a dick,” Donghyuck started, “I know you do a lot around the house and I forget to help you all the time. I should’ve taken that stupid trash out years ago but I forgot and then I got annoyed at you for no reason. Also, I shouldn’t have tried to explain myself by saying I actually do stuff, because I don’t and we both know it. And I’m not annoyed by you.”
Mark threw a mocking look of doubt at him, chuckling.
“Okay, well, you are annoying but I still love you,” Donghyuck rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, “I’m really sorry, though. I shouldn’t have barked at you like that.”
Setting his cup down on the small table, Mark took Donghyuck’s hand in his and started playing with his fingers.
“I’m sorry, too. I started going off on you for not doing anything when that’s not even true. I know you’re busy and you try to help me as much as you can and I really appreciate that. It was hypocritical of me to tell you to concentrate on school and then scold you for forgetting to do your tasks. I’m sorry for being bossy with you when I know you don’t like it, I’ll try to fix that.”
“You’re faulty, but I forgive you, I guess,” Donghyuck shrugged, scooting closer to Mark and resting his head on his shoulder, “We’re fine, right?”
Mark smiled and hugged his boyfriend, “We’re always fine.”
After spending some time in comfortable silence, the two of them opted for cuddling on the couch as the sun began to set and the room bathed in purples and pinks.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss the three idiots we call our friends,” Donghyuck sighed, head buried in Mark’s chest, “It’s been so long since we last went out and had fun. I feel like I’m gonna go mad soon.”
Mark stroked his hair affectionately, “I miss them too. I hope everything’s gonna be fine soon so we can all meet up. It’s no fun only hearing you and Renjun banter on the phone, seeing the live-action is so much better.”
“Tell me about it,” Donghyuck groaned, “The amount of annoyance I’ve piled up is so huge that you three are gonna have to stop me from killing him when we see each other again.”
“After everything gets better we’re gonna go to that cat cafe you love and you’ll get your revenge, baby,” Mark chuckled, “But I have to say I’m very glad we have each other. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you, would’ve probably lost my mind or something.”
Donghyuck fake-choked, “Ew, cheese.”
“Shut up, you bratty bitch, it’s called affection.”
“Yeah, it’s disgusting.”
Donghyuck cupped Mark’s face in his hands and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips.
“Now do it again.”