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The pressure of getting all his assignments done in a week is making Donghyuck’s shoulders to drop as low and as deep as the Antarctic ocean.
Heavy footsteps can be heard every time Donghyuck walks towards his bedroom that’s occupied with his comfy, comfy bed. All he wants to do right now is fall onto the soft foam of his mattress and let the pillow swallow every thought in his mind.
He was expecting those objects to greet his tired and exhausted self. Surely, they did but there’s also an instrument leaning carefully at the side of his bed.
The sound of water flowing out coming from the bathroom helps Donghyuck to recognise the other individual the unit is sheltering .
His bag that’s carefully strapped around his shoulder finally meets the ground and his tired body fell on top of the bed. Slowly, Donghyuck drifted into dreamland.
Mark steps out of the bathroom to see someone’s leg poking out of the bed and their head resting on the blanket. He smiled and shook his head with a small chuckle.
Cute , he thought.
The awake individual carefully lifts the sleeping one.
Mark tries his best not to wake Donghyuck up by his movements. His hand crawls slowly under the boy's neck and the other arm under Donghyuck’s knees. When Mark moves, his chest bumped into the younger’s head and he can feel how the owner grunts before snuggling closer.
When Mark finally places Donghyuck’s body safely under the blanket and a soft pillow holding the head, he lands a small peck on top of the round skull.
Mark pulls the curtain to cover any opening that will allow sunlight to slip into the room and disturb the tired boy. (Even though he knew the room is filled with the most glowing sunshine)
Once he made the room as dark as it could be during the day, Mark sits down on the floor and leans his back against the drawers placed by the bedside. The guitar that was initially resting on the bedroom wall is now on top of his lap and against his chest.
A shuffling sound catches Mark’s attention and he quickly turns to his right with fear that Donghyuck might move too much during his sleep and lands on the floor.
Afraid of what he thought might actually happen, Mark decided to climb up the bed and sat at the edge of it. Donghyuck’s body was already in a diagonal position with his head at the top right corner and legs at the bottom left.
Mark guards the body with his own sitting one and he picks the guitar up again.
His eyes move from Donghyuck’s hair down to his chin. He watches how calm and collected the boy could be when sleeping. Mark has seen it for more than a year now but nothing that involves Donghyuck doesn’t faze him.
If you tell Mark to describe the past few weeks, he would say it’s hectic . Not for him but Donghyuck.
The continuous class and piles of assignment turned the apartment unit and Donghyuck into a mess.
Sometimes you’ll catch him on the couch reading lecture notes with his mouth munching any energy bar he could reach for but another time, he’ll be under the kitchen table searching for the cap of his pen.
There’s also days when you’ll see Donghyuck unintentionally dozing off because he was too tired.
For countless times, Mark had seen the boy sleeping in front of the fridge and when asked, definitions started to flow out of his tiny mouth.
The thing about Donghyuck is that he never listens when he’s told to rest so Mark trains his body to always be ready with the sudden change of working hours.
If Donghyuck is still asleep at 3 pm, Mark will force his body to also rest.
All to prevent the possibility of Donghyuck being awake alone and that’s because there’s a list of incidents that have happened which scares Mark.
- Donghyuck chokes on air for practicing his script too hard.
- Donghyuck falling off his chair while reading a textbook.
- Donghyuck skipped his meal for 2 days and doesn’t realise that he'd been staying up for almost a week. (the amount of caffeine the boy consumed are a lot more than Mark’s entire life meal)
- Donghyuck sitting on the coffee table staring at nothing. (top 3 scariest shit that Mark had ever witnessed even though Donghyuck said it was because his brain buffering)
Mark respectfully will not let Donghyuck be careless about his own well-being.
However today, he caught the younger on the bed allowing himself to get some rest without hearing Mark’s nags or being dragged and forced into sleeping.
So with the image that’s reflected by his retina, Mark strums the chord of a song that Donghyuck had been listening to repeatedly —Be Alright (Justin Bieber)
Even though he tried to hide everything, it didn't take much for Mark to see the emotions behind Donghyuck’s eyes.
Science says that people can still hear you when they’re sleeping and that’s exactly what Mark did. He sang the song and if his voice was too loud, Donghyuck did well in pretending to stay asleep.
Once the song ends, Mark lay next to the boy who seems to be so far into dreamland that even when Mark pulls Donghyuck into his arms, there isn’t any sign of him waking up.
“You’re probably talking to weird creatures in that sleeping mind of yours. I wonder, if the flower petals filled with written formulas? or if the grasses were papers you tear apart when the line drawn isn't straight”
He pauses, waiting for any slight response yet he receives nothing.
“Life can be difficult, I know that. Due dates are hunting you every second it can and there are times when you’ll hug your knees to hide from the world because you’re scared that you couldn’t get everything done before the time is up. At those hours, I’d prefer you to crash our bodies together so that when your knees grow weak, I could catch you.”
Mark pats the small head resting on his chest.
“You’ve done well for the past few weeks and I’m beyond proud of you for working hard but really, I need you to start taking care of yourself more. I genuinely have no idea where the hell you get your energy to always be supportive of others from but I know that you need to take a break in between two or three subjects and for pete's sake, please never skips your meal and actually sleep hyuck-ah”
There’s sniffles filling the room as well as Mark’s eardrums once the phrases swim out of his mouth. The fact that Donghyuck was up and listening shocks him, but Mark really doesn’t care about how surprised he is when the boy in his arms is now sobbing and making Mark’s shirt start wrinkling.
Donghyuck push himself deeper in Mark’s embrace. All the black cloud of thoughts and days when he was physically shaking in the dark came back to him. They were indeed, heavy .
All the tears he’s been holding back finally find themselves escaping their cage and his lashes tangling up as he wets them with his own water droplets.
Mark didn’t say a word but moved his arms around Donghyuck’s waist and their chest met. His palms strokes the boy’s back as he pats them while humming before he finally speaks.
“I know. I know how painful it is to handle all of it alone. I’m here, okay? You don’t have to tell me anything that the voices say but you are always welcome to come and lay next to me when it gets too dark”
Donghyuck sobs even more .
The walls, the furniture, the air and everything that’s surrounding the two boys watch and listen to the sound of someone’s tear dam breaking apart in his boyfriend’s embrace.
Time passes by and Donghyuck’s tear ducts finally reach the lowest point.
He rips his body away from the embrace and Mark watches how Donghyuck’s fingers reach for the guitar by Mark’s side the same time the curtains crack and creates a small opening.
The space allows sunlight to creep in and shine the boy in front of Mark.
Donghyuck’s figure is wrapped with a thin white Adidas tee as his slender fingers pull the strings one by one in silence, probably tired from all the crying. The way his skin glows under the natural light and how his bangs start to fall off his forehead strands by strands reminds Mark how unbelievable it is that the most beautiful creature on earth wants to be with him out of the millions other breathing living things.
Mark pulls his phone out and snaps the sight as much as he could even when pictures will never do justice when it comes to explaining the godly visual that Donghyuck has. In silence, he thanked god for intersecting Donghyuck’s path with his own.
The sound of camera clicking brought a smile up on the melanin skin boy. Donghyuck turns his head towards Mark.
When their gaze met, he tilted his head and smiled.
The non-living things could tell that Mark was less than a second away from combusting.
“Mark….”
The older one knows that tone. The slow and dreamy tone that Donghyuck often uses when he wants something from Mark.
“Before you say anything, have some water or I’ll go watch a movie”
The only thing that Donghyuck will never win over are movies.
The second Mark hits the play button, he starts to enter the scene and will not come back to Earth until the credits end. It annoys the heck out of Donghyuck when Mark stays silent with his eyes attached to the phone screen, that’s also the only chance he gets to scan Mark’s feature and stick it all in his head.
The glass is now empty and Donghyuck pulls Mark from his lying position and made him hug his own guitar.
Mark waits for Donghyuck to say something but those puppy eyes just sparkles, so he plays his own pickㅡBest Part (Daniel Caesar, H.E.R)
“Liar, you literally ignore my entire existence when watching a movie. I bet if life is actually a movie, you’ll be searching for clues in our shoe rack”
Mark threw a pillow at Donghyuck but missed. Soon, laughters fill the room.
If Mark didn’t take the opportunity and move out of his comfort zone, he may never know how it feels to laugh out loud with the love of his life in their bedroom without any lights on.
If Donghyuck never made it a must to greet every unfamiliar face that he sees in the hall every time it’s a new semester, Mark would never know how hard he could fall for someone.
If the universe never puts them in a group during summer camp, Mark may never learn how capable he is of feeling anger or how dull his life would be without Donghyuck in it.
Most importantly, Mark will never know how amazing it is to love someone and receiving love from Donghyuck, the embodiment of love himself.
Mark puts his guitar out of his way and continues to stare at the boy lying on the bed they share. Mark observes how Donghyuck’s chest rises and falls in a fast pace with tears of joy escaping the boy’s eyes.
The laughing slowly dies down and the younger one takes a deep breath in before crawling onto Mark’s lap. Donghyuck reaches for Mark’s hand and wrestles their fingers.
Mark let the boy be and place his chin on Donghyuck’s shoulder.
“That was the longest time I laughed after weeks, thank you”
“Admit it hyuck, I’m funny”
“Don’t push your luck, Lee”
“Dude, you’re a Lee too”
Donghyuck bite Mark’s hand and smile proudly when he lets out a small ‘ouch’
“That's what you get for addressing me with that word. One day people are going to think I’m being delusional for saying we’re in a relationship”
“You bit me for saying you’re a Lee? That is your name”
Donghyuck strips his body away from Mark and stares into the older boy’s eyes.
“Mr.Lee, would you like me to step out of this apartment unit and hang with the 00 line instead? They did ask me if I wanted to play Kartrider at Jeno’s and I can still invite myself there”
Mark scrunches his nose and pulls Donghyuck’s cheeks.
“If that's what you want to do. Baby, I really don't mind. You deserve to have fun after all those weeks”
Is it really a surprise if I tell you that Donghyuck crawls back into Mark’s arm?
Exactly.
The room watches as the two boys stay in silence, feeling each other’s presence.
Donghyuck’s back against Mark’s chest, their fingers in between one another. Mark’s chin on the space where Donghyuck’s shoulders and neck attached as he took in the boy’s scent.
No fragrance can ever beat Donghyuck’s natural smell. The sweet scent of honey on the golden skin is Mark’s favourite aroma in the entire world. Every night when he has Donghyuck in his embrace, the same exact piece of clothing will be his outfit of the next day. There’s something about the younger smells that make Mark believe everything will go well even when the day starts with him spilling coffee on his notes.
Donghyuck on the other hand was busy feeling Mark’s fingers between his. How Mark strokes his hand.
Donghyuck lets his mind remember how it felt to hold those fingers instead of his notebooks’ rough surface. To others, it may seem as if Mark is solely holding Donghyuck’s hand but really, having their hands intertwined is how his broken body finally glues their pieces back together.
Mark looks down to stare at Donghyuck but caught himself being stared at instead. The two exchanges smile and even though no words were said out loud, those two souls understand completely what they were going to voice out.
I personally think that’s the beauty of actions or physical touch. When you can't figure out the word to describe your feelings in a moment, one simple action will do it all.
I don't have to mention what Mark and Donghyuck was about to say because you know what it is, right ?