What if...? || Markhyuck

-54-

[end of february 2021]

[minhyung]

When I went out for a cigarette,  huge downpour greeted me from threshold. I really quickly felt like seeing tobacco in any form isn't that necessary now for my further existence. I was supposed to go back to the underground after a few puffs when something disposed me to check the time. Whenever it rained, I thought about Donghyuck. Even without rain, thinking about him took up a lot of my day, but during storms I was especially concerned about the boy's well-being.

In 17 minutes he finished classes.

I tossed the barely lit cigarette into the puddles and ran towards the car. Those few seconds were more than enough to make me look like a wet hen. I called Steven in the meantime, starting the car. The man answered almost immediately, but instead of words, a bored grunt came from his lips.

"If Marco wants something from me, tell my mom broke something in the kitchen and I'm going to help her," I let him know, slowly driving out of the parking lot behind the restaurant. The visibility was so pathetic that I prayed silently for the absence of pedestrians and life-hating cyclists.

"Your willingness to help sounds ridiculous," Steven pointed out to me and he was quite right. Usually I didn't even answer the phone from my mother.

"Then come up with something," I shrugged. Man always boasted about his vivid imagination, so he had the opportunity to use it now. "I'm going to get Hyuck from school because of this downpour," I explained to the man so that he wouldn't think I was taking a recreational beer break on the beach.

"He's not made of sugar," Steven little gently reminded me. When it comes to Donghyuck, our approach was completely extreme. I knew Steven's perspective might have been closer to the truth because Hyuck had some sick secrets from me, I just knew it. Whatever these secrets were, brunet was my boyfriend in our private life, not at work. That's why Steven just couldn't know about some things, so I wasn't going to explain it.

"For me he is," I only replied seriously and hung up. I wasn't going to argue.

When I entered the school with umbrella, the corridors were already empty. The lights were on only in the main hall and in the two classrooms down the hall. Donghyuck was sitting under a row of cabinets with eyes focused on the phone and headphones in ears. I was supposed to walk towards him, but my attention was drawn to a well-known female figure. If I were Dalmatian, she would be Cruella de Vil. Only she's black, and I'm not a dog, but her nightmare.

"Hello, vice-headmistress," I greeted with a fake smile as she approached hesitantly, but kept distance nonetheless. Very correct.

"Headmistress" corrected me haughtily. I nodded appreciatively. If I was more mean, I might even start clapping.

"Promotion for putting teenagers in juvie?" I asked, feigning curiosity. The woman crossed arms over chest and sighed heavily.

"Mr. Lee, why do I owe your, as usual, impudent visit?" she asked, getting straight to the heart of our complicated relationship. I shrugged, looking around a bit theatrically.

"Social goals, old sentiments..."

"There is no room in this building for your sentiments, which you certainly don't have," she broke into my word, holding out hand to the front. It showed the direction I had come from. Namely - the exit. "I have to ask you to leave this school," she added politely but firmly. Definitely without the sentiment I mentioned.