NCT Oneshots {ot23} | open

A New Romance: 2Chan

▹prompt: 90's love
▹word count: 1721
▹genre: post break-up, getting together
▹warnings: alcohol

ˑ༄ؘ ۪۪۫۫ ▹❀◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ ˑ

The night is cold when Donghyuck stumbles out the bar. The chill tickles his cheeks and gets into his brain to mix and messes with the fog of alcohol in his brain. He's not drunk, just tipsy, he convinces himself.

Tipsy enough to stumble along the pavement and nearly barrel into a bin as he stumbles along the pavement. Failing his arms to cling onto the closest streetlight, his head spins and his vision tunnels and his stomach convulses from an awful wave of nausea.

His trainers are muddy and his black sweatpants are too big for his frame, allowing the breeze to escape inside and scratch at his legs. He's grateful for the long sleeves of his shirt, because they provide protection from the night even if it's thinning from age and too many cycles in the launderette. He haggled for it in a charity shop when he was fresh out of college a few years ago, and he hates to admit how much he likes the simple grey stripes. It's plain and simple, but tonight is not a fancy night out with friends. There's nothing to celebrate. Tonight is a night of drinking. To forget.

Mark. Minhyung. Whatever he's called. Both names make his heart clench tight in his chest.

Being suddenly single saddens him to no end. Only it's not the prick of sadness at losing a game in the arcade, or when he runs out of gum. This is deep, dark sadness. It seeps right into his bones and hollows them out until it has full command of his actions, tainting the way he sees the world.

The stars aren't beautiful - they only disturb the otherwise perfect blankness of the sky. The music in the bar was far from exciting - it pulsed through his feet and ears until he dropped his shot glass on the floor and left, fed up of the surging mass of bodies and clouds of cigarette smoke.

He found the exit before he could even touch his fourth shot.

Mark would have told him to stop after one. But Mark isn't here anymore. He's somewhere in Canada, far away on the other side of the globe. He said he wasn't ready for a long-distance relationship. Well, he would've been if he really cared about Donghyuck. Their relationship was only another addition to the list of things that haven't lasted in his life.

But Donghyuck likes to believe that he's a positive person. He believes a lot of things do in fact last forever. Even a relationship can. He just needs to find the right person.

His phone beeps. He groans and leans against a shop window as he fumbles to pull it from his pocket and read the message, squinting at the tiny screen that's a little too dim to read without moving closer to a streetlight. Jeno wants to know if he's showing up to work tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Saturday. No one wants to do the Saturday shift, having better and more thrilling things to do than stack shelves in a dingy corner shop, but he and Jeno were allocated it, because being the youngest employees means they're at the bottom of the pecking order by a long way. They have fun, sometimes. There's a small box TV next to the tills for a bit of entertainment, even though neither of them are interested in the strange game shows, but they can always listen to some old ladies' gossip from the next aisle.

Donghyuck really doesn't want to go tomorrow, either way. He doesn't feel ready to face the world with how low he's feeling. Mark was supposed to be The One and even he doesn't want him anymore. So what was the point?