Chapter Text
“Those are some cute glasses.”
They’re actually really not: oversized dark green alien sunglasses that sit awkwardly on the guys nose, but the guy wearing them is quite cute. So Donghyuck is more than willing to drop a white lie for a conversation starter.
The guy in question turns a pleasant pink, an earnest grin curving up his lips as he giggles bashfully. “Oh, thank you! I found them on the ground!”
Donghyuck had seen him from across the room of whoever this house belonged to, a party hosted by someone not even he can recall the name of. He was standing in the corner alone, aimlessly watching people flit past him, and Donghyuck had been intrigued.
“Right,” Donghyuck says slowly, an eyebrow creasing, before blinking himself out of it to smile and lean in flirtatiously. “So, what brings you here?”
This is usually the part where the guy goes red, laughs nervously and leans backwards, but doesn’t stop Donghyuck’s advances. Except this guy stares at Donghyuck unflinchingly, even inching a little closer to frown at him.
“What brings me to Earth?” He asks, as if trying to clarify the original question.
Over the noise surrounding them, Donghyuck is quite sure he couldn’t have heard him right. “What?”
The guy blinks in quick succession before squinting his eyes. “Sorry, what was the question?”
“What… brings you to this party?”
He looks around the room slowly, doing a near 360 degree turn with his body, before looking back to Donghyuck. “Oh, I don’t know. I just walked in here. It’s very bright, and loud.”
“Okay,” Donghyuck says slowly. “What’s your name?”
The guy just stares at him, tilting his head after a few uncomfortable moments of this. “My… what?”
“Your name, could I get your name? I’m Donghyuck.”
The guy just keeps on staring at him, features impassive behind those damn alien sunglasses. Wow, he is bombing this badly, what the fuck?
Maybe he’s not into guys? But surely he would’ve said something sooner, if that were the case? Surely Donghyuck is obvious enough with his intentions?
“No worries if it’s too soon. Could I go get you a drink, instead?”
Even though it’s a completely normal thing to ask, this stranger is cute enough for Donghyuck to play along with the hard to get schtick if that’s what he’s getting at. He doesn’t mind getting to know someone first. After all, Donghyuck thrives off the chase, anyways.
The guy perks up considerably. “Oh! Yes, please.”
“What do you want?”
“Um,” and he’s back to staring blank faced at Donghyuck. “There are options?”
Donghyuck refrains from the immediate urge to squint incredulously at him. Who is this guy? Has he even been to a party before?
“Yeah, I dunno the guy hosting the party but I heard his friends hooked him up with a ton of shit, so. I could find whatever, probably.”
“Alright,” he nods firmly to himself. “Uh, I’ll just- whatever you want. I’ll have that.”
“Okay, sure.”
He makes his way through bodies and groups of people to get to the kitchen, an assortment of beers, wines, and other light alcohol set up on the middle counter. He helps himself to two cans of a light simple beer, something fruity but not too intense.
When he gets back, the guy has taken off the ridiculous glasses, deciding to hold them up close to his face and peer curiously through the black lenses, inspecting it every which way. Donghyuck ignores how weird it looks in favor of appreciating how fucking good looking this guy is. Maybe the universe is doing him a solid right now, despite the stranger’s eccentricities.
He’s all sweet faced and earnest, equal parts cute and equal parts attractive, like a boy spun fresh from Donghyuck’s fantasies.
Donghyuck hands the can to him with a wide smile, heavy on the flirtation, though it pales in comparison to the bubbly grin he receives in return, those stupid glasses no longer concealing the planes of his face.
“Thank you!” He nods, though immediately holds the can up with a frown. It’s like he’s never seen a can before in his life.
Donghyuck grabs the can from his hands, placing his own down momentarily, to pop the tab open with a concise fizzling noise that has Mark bending down to eye it with unrestrained awe.
“Woah, how’d you do that?”
Donghyuck cocks a brow, halfway trying to figure out if this guy is messing around with him or not. “Magic. Here, cheers.”
The guy accepts the can back gingerly, only lifting it up to take a sip after Donghyuck’s opened his and drinking it.
It turns out to be a mistake, though, as the guy can’t seem to hold his alcohol at all. He flushes a light pink after three sips, gets giggly after three more, and can’t stop talking when he’s downed the whole can.
“And the strangest thing is that your trees make noises! Mine don’t make noises.” The guy laughs, loud and amused, as if the entire room is laughing with him.
Donghyuck smiles along, but it’s a little tight. “I think you’re a bit drunk.”
“Is that what this feeling is? Is that a bad thing?” The guy stops to look at him gravely. “Am I going to die?”
“You’re not gonna die,” Donghyuck eyes him. “But you might wanna sleep for a little bit, man.”
“Sleep sounds so nice right now.” He sighs longingly, sinking face first against the cool aluminum of his can.
Donghyuck breathes out a subtle sigh from his nose. “Do you want a ride home?”
This really has not been his ideal night, but at least it was spent with a cute boy. The least he could do is make sure he gets back safely.
“Home?” He sounds the word out slowly, and it makes Donghyuck smile just a little despite his slight irritation at dealing with a stranger who seems to get tipsy at just the smell of alcohol.
But whatever.
“Yeah, do you want me to?”
The guy studies the ceiling with a deep frown, and when they make eye contact again Donghyuck is slightly caught off guard by how serious he looks. “Home is where you sleep, and play, and read books, right? And eat meals with your loved ones?”
“Uh… sure?”
He seems to wilt all at once, as if he had been dreading the affirmation. “No, that’s okay. I don’t have a home.”
Donghyuck blinks rapidly, that slight irritation draining out of him in one clean go.
“You’re so drunk,” Donghyuck says with a laugh. “Just tell me your address and I can take you home.”
“I don’t have a home.” The guy repeats, seeming frustrated. Whether at Donghyuck or the statement, he can’t really tell.
Maybe this is his way of telling Donghyuck to fuck off?
“Will you be able to get home okay on your own…?” Donghyuck asks hesitantly. It’s late, and he should really get going himself, but he can’t just leave this guy stumbling on his feet and giggling about trees all alone.
“I don’t have a home!” He snaps and Donghyuck laughs even if the tone is very uncalled for, endeared by the flush that colors his face and pouts his lips rosy.
He steels himself anyways, knocking the guy’s shoulder to get his attention. “Do you want to come back to my place? Not to do anything, just-“
He looks at Donghyuck curiously. “To your home?”
“Yeah? Just- you’re kind of fucked up, so-“
He’d probably be fine, all things considered, but he also has to consider that it doesn’t seem like the guy knows anyone at this party, and is quite possibly a danger to himself or others at the rate he’s going. Letting some random guy he spoke to for a few hours at some random party crash at his is, really, the least he can do.
He doesn’t have to stress too much about it, though, because said random stranger’s face crumples as if Donghyuck had just offered him some heartfelt, precious gift. “That would be so nice of you, wow.”
“Alright, grandma,” Donghyuck pats him, resists from rolling his eyes. “Try not to cry about it.”
“What’s a-“
And Donghyuck, thoroughly over whatever the hell goes on in this guy’s brain, pats him once more to shut him up. “Don’t worry about it.”
He follows after Donghyuck easily after that, the two of them walking the familiar paths and streets he takes back to his apartment together.
His roommate, Yangyang, is probably not home tonight, most likely with Renjun, his boyfriend, or doing something otherwise lame. Which means he has only one weirdo bothering him in his home tonight, rather than what would probably be the full force of two.
The guy is very talkative, though, which makes what would be an awkward walk between strangers smooth and natural. Well, natural for the most part, as the guy’s topics of conversation are not any more normal than they had been to start with.
“Did you know trees are artificial?”
“Are they, really?”
“Well, not your trees,” the guy giggles. “My trees. We don’t get sunlight, so-“
Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “Is the world a flat circle, too?”
“What?” He turns to him quickly with a confused frown. “No? No. That wouldn’t make any sense?”
“Okay, sorry, buddy, you tell me.”
“Buddy? What does that mean?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Donghyuck sighs, giving him another patronizing pat to the shoulder. “Just look at the sky.”
“That’s the other thing-“
So the guy babbles, and babbles, and babbles, to the point that Donghyuck can confidently say he has no idea what he’s even talking about anymore. He sounds so pleased and excited doing it, though, so it’s hard to put an end to it. It’s like playing with an overeager puppy, all things considered.
He only stops when Donghyuck accidentally slips over a leaf on the sidewalk once on their walk to his place, and this ridiculous fucking guy loses himself over it immediately. For what feels like the rest of the walk back he’s throwing himself against Donghyuck with louder than life laughs, and though Donghyuck should be maybe weirded out, he can’t help the slow burning warmth spreading outwards from the middle of his chest.
As soon as they get to his apartment and he has the door unlocked and opened, the guy barrels past him to take a look.
“Wow,” he breathes out, a sense of wonder at the exhalation. “This is a lot smaller than I thought it was gonna be.”
“Excuse me?” Donghyuck huffs, dropping his keys onto the nearby counter and removing his shoes.
“It’s cute! So cute!”
He lets the guy excitedly explore his little abode, picking up throw pillows and analyzing whatever knick knacks grabs his attention. Donghyuck knows he should be a lot more wary, willingly letting a stranger sleep in his home and stake out his possessions, but another part of him is unsure this guy had ever even seen alcohol before this fateful night. It’s enough for him to stop giving a shit, on top of everything else.
Eventually, he’s able to corral the guy a little ways forward into his designated bedroom area. It’s not much of a bedroom, more like a cordoned off section of the apartment. Unfortunately, Yangyang gets the special privilege of the actual bedroom, as the original tenant of the place whereas Donghyuck had showed up later.
“Okay, you can sleep in my bed,” he gestures forward, eager to end this incredibly bizarre night. “I’ll take the couch.”
“No, but-“ he stumbles a little, righting himself back up to glare indignantly at Donghyuck. “It’s your room.”
“It is my room,” Donghyuck replies patiently, already grabbing a pillow and his favorite blanket. “And I’m saying you can sleep here.”
He finds himself halted by the hand on his wrist, though, the guy frowning at him defiantly. “No.”
“No?”
“No.”
And that’s how he ends up on the floor, eyes shut against the continual rustle of his sheets as the stranger rolls over every once in awhile in Donghyuck’s bed to glance down at him. Donghyuck can tell he thinks he’s being subtle, but he’s really, really not.
After the tenth time of listening to the shifting of sheets and then feeling eyes boring through his face just after, Donghyuck has enough. “Are you not gonna sleep? Weren’t you tired?”
The guy seems to startle, response delayed. “I can’t sleep yet, my body is still adjusting.”
Maybe he means the alcohol? Donghyuck is too tired and too irritated to care. “Sure.”
Except that the guy doesn’t stop peeking over to look at Donghyuck, like he thought he’d gotten away with it? God, this was a mistake, no matter how cute this guy is.
“Are you just gonna watch me sleep?” Donghyuck asks, less patient this time but his eyes still closed.
“I mean,” he replies, slow and unsure. “I was… wait, is that weird?”
Who is this fucking guy, what the fuck? Never talk to a guy standing alone in a corner in alien glasses, fuck.
“Uh, yeah,” Donghyuck answers, just as slow. “Super weird. Don’t do that.”
“Okay, I’ll just watch the ceiling.”
“You do that.”
It only grants him a few slim minutes of peace and quiet before he can hear the guy shifting around once more, and he has to shut his eyes and count to three. Worst fucking night of his life, maybe.
“Donghyuck,” he whispers timidly, and Donghyuck barely graces him with a grunt. “The ceilings not as pretty as you.”
Donghyuck is tired. Donghyuck is fucking annoyed, and yet…
And yet. “You think I’m pretty?”
He hears him move around some more, and then eyes boring into his face again. “Quite literally so! Like, when your trees move and make those noises! It’s so pretty.”
“Are you comparing me to a tree?” Donghyuck hisses through the sudden laughter that bubbles up his throat.
Who the fuck even is this guy?
“Was that rude?” He asks, sounding very worried that he might’ve just hurt Donghyuck’s feelings beyond repair. “I’m sorry, I meant it kindly. Your trees are very pretty.”
Donghyuck is truly at a loss, tired and not prepared for whatever the fuck this is. “You’re the strangest fucking guy I’ve ever met.”
“Sorry…”
“Don’t- ugh, just go to sleep.”
The guy settles down again temporarily, but once again shakes Donghyuck away from the precipice of sleep with another timid little question just five minutes later. “Are you sure I won’t die? I’ve never felt so strange before.”
“Trust me,” Donghyuck replies shortly, asking way too much from a stranger. “You’re not gonna die.”
“I feel like I’m gonna die!”
The guy is rolling dramatically around Donghyuck’s bed, hands cradled to his skull.
Donghyuck stands above him, sleep rumpled and tired. “How are you hungover?! You only drank two cans!”
And the rest of Donghyuck’s, when he rounded his eyes prettily enough and asked politely for it.
“What vile poison did you feed me?” He cries out.
Donghyuck rolls his eyes, yanking at the guy’s hand to deposit a painkiller into it and then holding out a glass of water expectantly for him to take with the other. “It’s just alcohol, don’t be so dramatic. Here, take this. Swallow it down with water.”
“I don’t know what alcohol is !” Surprisingly, he accepts the pill without complaint. How is he gonna complain about Donghyuck’s foul play but then proceed to do it again? So very strange.
“You’ve never had alcohol before?”
“No! It’s disgusting.” He refutes, as if he’s suddenly some kind of expert on the matter now.
Donghyuck rolls his eyes, unimpressed. “Well, you seemed pretty eager to drink for both of us last night, so.”
“I don’t recall!” He argues back easily, and after the longest night and morning of Donghyuck’s life he’s ready to grab a pillow and start beating him with it. It doesn’t even matter how cute he is anymore. “Because your evil poison is destroying my brain!”
This is way too much sass coming from a guy who should be grateful Donghyuck let him be weird and creepy in his home.
“What were you even doing at a party if you don’t like alcohol?” He continues, disbelieving.
“I told you, I just walked in!”
“Oh, so, you can remember that tidbit, but you can’t remember chugging down those drinks out of your own free willpower? Or your address? Or even your name?!”
The guy’s antics stops abruptly, though, sitting up cross legged on Donghyuck’s bed with an expression so quietly sad that Donghyuck is suddenly very, very sorry for even fighting with him in the first place.
“Donghyuck, I don’t have a name.” He says it with such profound sadness that Donghyuck feels a piece of his heart freeze over and shatter. “Not an Earth one, at least.”
He has got to still be drunk, fuck, that’s the only conceivable reason for this behavior.
But even still, those unusually round eyes are filled with such discontent that Donghyuck can feel it in his heart, and he’s so fucking /weak/.
“Okay,” he says gently, like a weak loser that’s weak to strange boys. “That’s okay, we can just… find you one.”
“We can?”
“Of course, yeah,”
He’s trying to think of something before this absolute fucking stranger starts crying in his apartment and he’s stuck with the fallout. Desperately, his eyes search the around the room for ideas until they lock onto a bright blue marker placed on a small nearby table.
“How about… Mark?” Donghyuck tries, the one syllable name rolling awkwardly off his tongue.
He thinks that’s a name, he really hopes it is. He’s pretty sure it is.
The guy’s sad, anxious little face smooths itself out immediately. “Oh! I like that! That sounds so Earthy!”
Donghyuck blinks from the whiplash, but is mostly happy to not have to deal with this guy’s wailing any longer. “Yeah?”
“Yes, thank you!” He grins at him, and, wow, he is very cute. “This is really kind of you, really.”
“Okay, so, you’ll be known as Mark now?”
He’s not sure what the guy’s actual name is, or why he’s so keen on keeping it a secret, or why Donghyuck had to christen him with a new one just to refer to him as something other than ‘the guy’, but he supposes it’s not really much of his business at this point.
“Yes! I’m Mark, pleased to make your acquaintance! Wow, that’s so Earthy.”
The guy- Mark- has this strange way of saying everything like it’s an exclamation, as if it holds something of untapped importance that you feel compelled to listen to.
“Um, right?” He can’t help but agree, even when all he can think is ‘what the fuck’. “Uh- yeah, and I’m- I’m Donghyuck.”
“I know! Wow, this is so cool. Really.” Mark looks at him all excited, those sparkling eyes imploring him to feel just as excited as he apparently is. But Donghyuck feels zero reason to be excited, it’s just a name?
So he eyes him for a moment before taking the plunge. “Dude, can you be honest with me? Zero judgement. Are you tripping right now? Or- like, is this just one long trip that you’ve made my problem, or what? Like, do you need help? Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Donghyuck is not used to being out of his comfort, accustomed to the security of knowing exactly where his footing is in most every situation. Right now? It’s like he can’t even feel his feet, that’s how confused he is.
“Dude?” Mark tilts his head, raises a curved brow. “My name is Mark.”
It’s more of a slip of the tongue than anything, as being around Yangyang for any length of time will undoubtedly rub his speech habits off on you, but that’s not important. Donghyuck can’t believe that’s the standout odd piece in what he just said to Mark.
He breathes in carefully. “So you’re just going to ignore all my valid questions, is that it? What is your deal?”
All Mark’s excitement is slated away cleanly by the way his eyes shiftily dart to the door, awkwardly scratching at his ear. “Um…”
“Yes?” Donghyuck encourages.
“I- um… well…” Mark wrings his hands nervously, and for as excited as he had been to just be in this random home, he suddenly appears extraordinarily keen on booking it out of there as fast as he can.
It’s so suspicious that it makes Donghyuck itch to know the answer even more, peering at him curiously as he waits for the response.
Is it that invasive of a question? Okay, the phrasing was pretty off, but it’s not like Mark’s response is helping matters in the slightest.
“Yes, you have me on the edge of my seat here.”
“I- I-“ he can almost physically see the moment Mark’s decides to stone cold avoid the question, his form fully tensed and turned towards the door. “I have to leave! I have- there’s… I have somewhere to be. Right now, actually!”
That’s all he gets? After all this? That’s it?
“Mark, what the fuck?” He replies, fully and truly at a loss. For the millionth time in a row.
But Mark is hardly listening, hurriedly slipping on his shoes and opening the door with an urgency that adds ten more layers of weirdness. “Thank you for the name!”
He’s not even doing a very good job escaping, all awkward and disjointed movements. It’s like watching a guy learn how to be a human for the first time, so fucking odd.
“The name?” Donghyuck repeats incredulously, following after him. “You’re not even gonna thank me for letting you stay the night?”
“And that was lovely of you, too!” Mark assures, stepping past the threshold and out of Donghyuck’s apartment. “Goodbye, I have to go- home!”
“You don’t have a home?!” He calls out after him, but Mark seems much more concerned with escaping as quick as his legs can carry him.
“Don’t worry!” Mark calls back, voice light despite the evident panic.
Donghyuck stares in shock after Mark’s retreating figure, further and further until he’s gone, gone, gone. Completely out of sight, just like that.
What the fuck.