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"So how was your weekend?" Donghyuck asked curiously.
"It was stressful," Mark answered unsurely, wondering if he should add that he was spending it thinking about coming back here. Probably not.
"Did you get to clear your head from the hallucinations?" Of course, he knew that the hallucinations weren't real, but if it kept Mark satiated and from asking questions that he couldn't answer, then he'd hold it up. "It's best that you try not to stay too long when you visit. The flowers have strange affects on people."
"But not you?"
Donghyuck chuckled lightly at the concern on Mark's face and found himself blushing slightly. He didn't receive that expression often. "No. I spend so much time here that they just don't affect me anymore." His hands went out on either side of him, palms upturned. "But you definitely shouldn't let yourself get to that point."
Mark tilited his head and bit the inside of his cheek. "Do you actually ever leave? I know you said you do, but I feel like you don't."
Donghyuck stared at him with a flustered half-smile, eyes drifting off to the side to think up an answer. "I...do leave. It's just that I arrive early every morning and leave late every night. That's all."
He wasn't convinced this time. He didn't want to pry into the guy's life, but he was interested in him and he couldn't help the longing to know more about him. "And you just so happen to wear the same clothes everyday?"
"My wardrobe is limited."
"And you eat here and rest here?"
"Well, it's comfortable."
"You never visit the town next door?"
"Don't need to."
Mark scratched his chin in suspicion and narrowed his eyes. "...Right."
Donghyuck shrugged and folded his arms. "Are you scoping me out? Am I so weird that you feel uncomfortable around me?"
Mark shook his head quickly and waved his hands dismissively. "No! The opposite, actually. I guess I feel like I can let my guard down."
Donghyuck's eyes sparkled at the confession. He hadn't really had friends before, well, except for the people who passed through the meadow to get to their final destination. He also felt that his guard was slowly dropping, but for better or worse, he couldn't quite tell yet. "I feel comfortable with you too," he finally murmured and pulled his knees into his chest, lying his head down on them.
Mark noticed the little spark in his heart when Donghyuck said that and smiled at him with his beautiful face. He went silent to watch the boy's eyes flutter open and close with each blink, hair tufting out from the gentle breeze. "Sometimes I wonder if you're even human," Mark whispered but it was carried away across the field with the petals and the little fairy-like seeds, lost to the surroundings.
"Hmm?"
"Oh, nothing," he chuckled awkwardly and looked away towards the forest, where the darkness of the shadows was slipping through. "It's just...I'm glad I went out for that walk last week, or else I wouldn't have found this place."
Donghyuck beamed at him and suppressed the agreement from escaping his lips. He too was thankful for the company. "And I told you so many times to go away but you just keep coming back." But there was no anger in his tone, no irritation, just a sense of fondness. The sky was streaked with jet streams - the only imperfections on the otherwise azure-blue blanket spread above their heads.
"And I'll keep coming back," Mark reminded him jokingly. Because you're mesmeric. "But you have to be here whenever I arrive because I'll be lonely otherwise."
That was an easy ask for Donghyuck because as much as he was battling the suggestion earlier, he never left the garden. And he never would.
