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The worst part about being an omega is having to deal with unwanted heat. It’s a biennial occurrence which makes it a little more bearable, but Donghyuck rates it as one of the painful moments and he really can’t bring himself to care about anything other than making himself comfortable.
This year, Donghyuck is a little more prepared. He buys a cute calendar from the Daiso around the corner and makes sure that he keeps track of his heat cycle. It’s a recommendation from his doctor seeing that he already passed 18 years old, and his heat would become more common. The doctor also mentioned that his heats would become less painful and that his instinct would lose less control over his emotional and sexual needs.
(These claims go unsubstantiated as Donghyuck still feels a sharp pang of pain in his stomach whenever he tries to move in his bed to make himself comfortable.)
((And unremarkably, Donghyuck still feels very much horny and feels slick running down his shorts.))
Donghyuck does find some relief when he fully rests in his nest and lets the scent of fresh pine comfort him. Surrounding Donghyuck, is a large pile of unfinished knitting projects that mostly consist of soft blankets about to unravel themselves.
🧶
Donghyuck swears that he’s not already head over heels for his new boyfriend, but his heat and heart make it difficult for him to differentiate love from being horny.
He always knew that he would fall in love with an alpha like most other omegas his age, but he didn’t think that the person he’d fall in love with would be someone so close to him.
(Or someone so wonderfully sweet that Donghyuck doesn’t believe that he is deserving of such a lovely relationship.)
Donghyuck finds himself resting in one of the unfinished blankets Mark knitted for him before Donghyuck entered his heat.
“I know I suck at knitting, but I wanted to make sure that you feel as safe as you can during your heat.” Mark hands him what Donghyuck thinks is a bright yellow blanket with sunflowers embroidered around the seams.
Donghyuck laughs, placing the blanket around his shoulders. “Should I consider this another courtship gift then?”
“When I get better at knitting, I can officially name it a courtship gift,” Mark proclaims with a sense of growing pride that makes Donghyuck almost swoon right then and there.
The unfinished blanket Donghyuck decides to call his favorite is the same sunflower blanket Mark attempted to recreate after seeing it on Pinterest and thinking about how well it would suit Donghyuck.
🧶
markie 💕
Fri, April 3 at 11:33am
markie💕: how’s my beautiful boyfriend holding up?
donghyuck: 🥺 missing u
markie💕: don’t worry. im going to make up all the missed time when you feel better
markie💕: love you
donghyuck: 🥺 love u too
🧶
Mark was Donghyuck’s childhood friend, just a year older than him, which meant that he had already gone off to university and gotten a head start on life, a whole year that went on without Donghyuck being a part of it.
It’s not that Donghyuck minds that Mark had a whole life without him; Donghyuck did too, and Donghyuck learned the ABCs of life on his own when he first moved into the SDSU dorms.
What Donghyuck doesn’t expect when he settles in, he doesn’t expect to meet Mark at a frat party, and he doesn’t expect Mark to help him get to his room as he vomits on the elevator of his freshman dormitory.
Donghyuck remembers waking up with a massive migraine and his roommate cooing over him.
“I didn’t know you had such a cute boyfriend,” Jaemin says with a soft smile. “He brought you home last night.”
“Boyfriend?” Donghyuck blinks in confusion. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Really?” Jaemin gives Donghyuck a look of surprise. “You could fool me. He made sure you got home safe after the party and even gave you whatever you want to call that? A Snuggie?”
“A Snuggie?”
Donghyuck sees that he’s still in the same outfit he went to the frat party in. The only difference is that Donghyuck’s covered in what he thinks is a blanket. He can’t tell what it is because the seams are all wrong and the yarn used to knit it.,.Donghyuck doesn’t think it’s the right type.
But what Donghyuck does know is that Mark did not present as a beta like Donghyuck believed him to. Mark had always been so mild-mannered and clumsy, falling over the smallest of rocks on the sidewalk whenever they walked to school together.
There’s a fresh scent of pines that permeates Donghyuck’s bed.
🧶
Donghyuck marks another day off his annoying heat cycle. From what he has learned after presenting as an omega just before leaving for university life, Donghyuck’s heats average about five to six days. He’s quite lucky that despite its long stay, his cycle is infrequent but predictable. Regardless of these facts of life, it doesn’t make having his heat any more pleasant.
He washes his face, feeling his cheeks flush pink from the cool feeling.
Fuck my life, Donghyuck thinks to himself as he moves from the bathroom of his apartment back to his room. With great luck, his professors excused his attendance to section this week and he was given extensions on some of his assignments. This still didn’t mean that it was work that would go away anytime soon.
He finds some strength in looking through the notes Jaemin sent him over text for his sociology class. Donghyuck’s eyes peer over his phone as he prints the notes off the old printer his dad bought him week of welcome. His dad was always a very reasonable person, thinking about the terrible possibilities that come with attending such a large state school regarding printing issues.
He takes the notes and looks through them on his lap desk. He takes out his Mildliner highlighters and begins skimming through them. Covering the lower half of his body is another one of Mark’s knitting projects. It’s a long orange throw, this one with small little lions across it as a motif. Again, it’s so hard to tell as it’s one of Mark’s earlier knitting projects, which meant that it wasn’t very well done.
Despite this, it doesn’t mean that the throw doesn’t bring Donghyuck any comfort during his studies.
🧶
“So, you started knitting after getting into college?” Donghyuck says as he walks with Mark to class.
Both enrolled in the same Intro to Art History class because of how many people on RateMyProfessor claimed how easy it was. All you had to do was attend and press a couple of buttons on an iClicker. The funny thing here is that Donghyuck and Mark didn’t realize they were enrolled in the same course until they went to the same party.
“I would have never guessed you were into knitting.”
“I know,” Mark laughs. “I tore my ACL freshman year and I had to find something to do to kill time other than basketball. The knitting club accepts everyone without any requirements or fees. All I have to do is donate some yarn every once in a while.”
“Aren’t you an econ major? You really have time to do anything else.”
“You’d be surprised how much free time I have,” Mark remarks, opening the door for Donghyuck to the lecture hall. “And I still have quite a way to go before I consider myself any good.”
They take a seat in the back seeing that they got to lecture early, and they can be the first ones to leave for the dining commons. The plan is for Donghyuck to swipe Mark in with his ridiculously overpriced meal plan and catch up over burgers and fries.
“Did you knit that too?” Donghyuck points at Mark’s pencil case.
And again, what Donghyuck believes to be a pencil case. It’s a small red case with a weird fringe pulling out from the sides. There’s a lion patch placed gently in the middle with bright orange flowers all around it. It’s a rather ambitious project if Donghyuck says so himself. And quite befitting of Mark if Donghyuck says so himself.
Mark beams brightly at Donghyuck with pride. “Yeah. Yeah, I made this myself with my club.”
🧶
Mark made Donghyuck a matching pencil case. The only difference—other than the pencil case being so much better knitted—is that there’s a bright yellow sun in the middle. It’s the same pencil case on Donghyuck’s lap, with highlighters and pens trying to spill out as Donghyuck tries to finish annotating his notes.
He can’t with the continued pain in his stomach and decides to take a break from studying to text his boyfriend.
markie 💕
Today at 9:34pm
donghyuck: missing u right now
markie💕: i miss u too babe
donghyuck: ❤️❤️❤️
donghyuck: do you think u can stop by later?
markie💕: sorry babe. i have a midterm tomorrow :c
donghyuck: :c
donghyuck: love u tomorrow
markie💕: love u tomorrow
🧶
It was their third date.
Mark was the one who asked Donghyuck out first after leaving their lecture on a Thursday. His cheeks flushed bright pink when he asked Donghyuck if they wanted to try to be something else than friends. Donghyuck notices that Mark is tugging at the side of his jeans, which is something that Mark only does when he’s nervous.
Donghyuck for the longest of times, never thought about Mark romantically when they were children. Donghyuck’s first crush had been a boy named Renjun from his 9th-grade English class, although that never really went anywhere. Donghyuck quickly got over his crush by the time the second semester hit and spent most of his high school years meeting his A—G requirements for college. He didn’t even apply to SDSU because of Mark either. He wanted to stay in the San Diego area and UCSD wasn’t a good fit as USD was far too expensive for his family to afford.
But looking at Mark now, all grown up and sincere about his feelings about trying to date makes Donghyuck smile.
“Sure. But I want something in return.”
“Really…wait what do you want?”
“If we make it past the third date, I want to wear your SDSU hoodie to class,” Donghyuck smiles at Mark, who only looks relieved that his confession was accepted.
“Yeah, I would love that.”
🧶
markie 💕
Today at 11:30am
markie💕: hey, can you come out your door?
“Hey,” Donghyuck says, covered in another one of Mark’s knitted projects.
This time it’s an attempt to create an SDSU hoodie, which may or not be Donghyuck’s favorite non-courting gift from Mark. It’s made from grey yarn, and it has bright crimson applique that spells out SDSU. Of course, Mark would be the type of person to try to mix these two materials together, but it doesn’t mean that Mark’s affection is any less than what Donghyuck appreciates or deserves.
“I wanted to stop by and make sure you were eating well,” Mark says with a bag of breakfast from Donghyuck’s favorite breakfast diner, Black Bear Diner. “I got you pancakes and some grilled cheese if you want to heat it up later.”
“Thank you,” Donghyuck smiles before planting a small kiss on his boyfriend’s lips. “God, what would I do without you?”
“Well, I hope you’ll achieve great things,” Mark beams at Donghyuck while helping him get his things into the kitchen. “How are you holding up?”
“Good, this damn heat is pretty much almost gone,” Donghyuck replies. “Eat with me?”
“Yeah.”
🧶
“Are you sure you want me to cuddle with you?” Mark asks Donghyuck who pulls him.
“Well, I want to make sure my alpha boyfriend makes me feel better,” Donghyuck asserts. “You make me feel safe.”
“Okay, okay,” Mark replies as he covers Donghyuck with the sunflower blanket. Mark cuddles with Donghyuck, who leans into his chest.
Warmth immediately spreads through Donghyuck’s body, finding relief in the fresh scent of pine trees. Donghyuck closes his eyes before letting himself fully relax in Mark’s arms.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
🧶
Alphas were well-known for creating handmade courtship gifts whenever they were attempting to make their affection well known in the world. It wasn’t that betas or omegas didn’t give their mates gifts, but alphas were extremely well known for going over the top with their courtship gifts.
Donghyuck’s dad made his mom weld their engagement rings, but those days and gifts were considered old-fashioned with the rise of Amazon and Etsy. It was considered far easier to buy your mate a gift and court them that way.
Donghyuck expected for Mark to be the latter, the type of person to buy his courtship gifts.
But on their six-month anniversary together, Mark surprises Donghyuck with a black scarf at a local pizza place on campus.
“I wanted to make you something even though my knitting skills aren’t quite to par to even consider or even qualify this as a courtship gift.”
Donghyuck laughs, “You want to court me?”
Mark turns as red as his SDSU hoodie. “No—I mean I would love to…you’re such a great guy…but I don’t think this scarf is good enough for that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to make sure I knit something great for you…it’s kind of hard to impress when your dad made your mom her engagement ring.”
“God, you still remember that?” Donghyuck smiles. “My dad was always a very extra person. You don’t need to compare yourself to him.”
“Yeah, but I want to make sure I make a good impression on him when spring break comes. Your dad is a really cool guy and I’m sure he will be hard to impress.”
“Don’t worry about it. I told him all about you.”
🧶
“This grilled cheese is so good,” Donghyuck says before taking another bite. “I can’t believe you drove all the way there to get me this.”
“I want to make sure my boyfriend is comfortable,” Mark asserts, sharing the same meal. “When are you planning on coming back to campus?”
“I think Tuesday. Luckily, I don’t have any classes on Monday, so I just need to focus on catching up on my assignments and make sure I’m ready for my second round of midterms.”
“Let me know if you need anything,” Mark says. “I asked Jaemin, and he said you didn’t miss much this week. But you never know with Professor Kim. I’ve heard she’s quite tough towards the end of the semester.”
“I will, I will,” Donghyuck starts. “But I need you to knit me another hoodie. This one smells like slick. Unfortunately.” Donghyuck adds at the end.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get it to you by Monday.”
“Did you already start on it?” Donghyuck chuckles, thinking about
“Let’s just say I want to call it a kind of courtship gift now,” Mark puffs.
“Well, I hope I can wear that kind of courtship to class then.”
🧶
“I still can’t believe you joined the knitting club,” Donghyuck comments. “I remember when we were kids, you couldn’t even cook instant ramen without burning it.”
“I tried joining other clubs, but I love the comradery.”
“Comradery?”
“Yeah! It’s such a great feeling getting better at something when everyone is supportive of you,” Mark happily proclaims. “And they never judge. And…well…”
“Well, what?”
“Knitting can be a great…never mind. I’ll tell you later.”
“Fine, I’m sure I’ll find out anyway.”
🧶
@eternal__sunshine just got the best hoodie from the best boyfriend ever <333
View comments:
@marktoyourheart love u!
@jaemin.na why r u guys making me feel so single…