𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱; markhyuck

❦18❦

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"Dad," Mark murmured quietly as he tried to slowly cut up some carrots for his father's cooking. It was one of the only jobs he could do without killing someone or something, so they tended to allow him to stick to it.

"Mhm?"

"Have you ever been...I don't know, unusually different? Like, acted a certain way that wasn't like you at all?"

"I don't quite get the question," the young enough parent paused his movements of stirring the sauce and glanced over his shoulder to his son. "Unusual? How so?"

"I mean, I've had these weird spells of paranoia lately, and unshakable fear. It feels like someone is either watching me sometimes, or I'm not understanding what's going on. Have you ever been like that?"

"Well, not exactly," Mr. Lee yawned and tossed in the onions to start stirring, "But I remember getting into this depressed funk when you were first born. Since I was sixteen at the time, everyone felt it was their place to tell me what to do, how to raise you, where I was going wrong...I was angry. I got irritated easily, I was upset all the time, and sometimes I lashed out at people who only meant well...And you know me."

"That's so unlike you."

"Precisely. I got over that period though when you turned....one? So I must've been seventeen or eighteen, I guess. We were way more relaxed once you started to grow a bit."

That's not really the same thing though, the teenager slumped defeatedly. This wasn't about induced stress like having a child, or regular youthful hormone problems. He was suddenly worried about himself, and that never happened back in Canada. "I know you always answer the same way...but you never regret having a kid, do you? It wasn't the worst thing ever?"

"Hell no," the man cooed playfully before trailing over and pinching the other's cheek to be annoying. "It was the best thing your mother and I did, against what you might think. Don't stress too much, Markie. You're just trying to adapt to your new life, and it's hard."

Ugh, I hope so...

• • •

Days later, Mark's eyes were dropping as he sat patiently in music class and attempted to absorb the information his teacher was spewing. Quite unfortunately, however, the sheer boredom radiating off the class and the lack of enthusiasm to the woman's tone was reason enough to contemplate throwing oneself out of a window and down a five story plummet...or spoon one's own eyeballs out. No in-between scenario.

The autumnal colours outside past the dew-dashed glass were pretty around this time — oranges, golds and reds littered the growing grass. The grey sky was, as always, threatening to piss havoc upon their local setup, but there wasn't anything anyone could do about it anyway. Mark sucked in a deep breath and played with his pen as he daydreamed, simply getting lost in his own head.

"Remember guys, F# minor never appears in these works after the invention of..." blah, blah, blah, the teen blinked lazily. This had to have been some sort of divine punishment at this stage. By the looks of the zombie classmates surrounding him, they'd have agreed.

As though a greater being living amongst other celestial legends had heard his pitiful and silent cry for entertainment, there was a firm knock to the door that repeated three times, and in walked a familiar student to interrupt the mind-numbing example of a backing chord question.

"Excuse me, Miss," Lee Donghyuck hummed as he leaned against the doorframe without a supposed care. "I have to do an errand with Mark Lee. Can he leave for the rest of class?"

An errand? The pinpointed boy frowned in confusion, I was never told I had an errand...

"Oh, that's fine. Make sure you get the homework from one of your classmates," the lady agreed quickly and nodded her head in the ravenette's direction to assure him that he wasn't about to be rejected. "Have a good weekend."

"Yeah," he gushed in response while leaping from his seat and shoving his books into his bag. Thank fuck. Everyone else sent him these pleading looks that could've been translated as 'lucky sod' or 'help a guy out and let us join'. The only motion he was able to return to the few faces he actually knew was a small salute.

Hyuck stepped aside to let him out, and once the older was stumbling into the hall, he slammed the door closed behind him and dusted his hands off as a dramatic 'job well done'. "Hey."

"Uh, hi? What's this errand we have to do?"

"Psh, there is no task, Mark. I got you out of class due to the goodness of my heart. Thank me later."

"Fuck, won't we get in trouble? They'll find us..."

The blonde repeated his words in a mocking, stupid voice and pinched his fingers together repeatedly to annoy him. "They won't find us, because we won't be here. C'mon, let's get a drink and go for a walk, yeah?"

"Okay..." the older nervously agreed, yet found himself quite willingly trailing along behind the male like a lost puppy. Donghyuck remained ahead at all times, almost like he was avoiding eye contact...yet that couldn't have been it. Mark hadn't failed to notice the new bruises blooming along his cheek and lower jaw, but chose to keep it to himself.

He'd open up eventually, wouldn't he?

"So why did you aid my escape, hm? Me of all people."

"Well, I was in chemistry and literally dying on the inside...so I cut my finger a little to make it bleed and got myself out of class. Easy peasy. But, I wanted company, and you're the best version that's on offer here."

He did what? Jesus. "I-I see. Is your finger okay?"

Hyuck didn't turn to look at him, though held up his hand and showed the nasty, healing wound along his index that had possibly been dug into with the sharp tip of a compass. "It's fine. I'll get a plaster when we get to the shop."

"Screw that, I'll get a first aid kit. You need to think more wisely, Man."

"Mhm. I knew you'd say something like that."

Mark swallowed thickly and gripped the strap of his bag tighter. Conversation faded, but not overly awkwardly. One thing that lingered on the ravenette's mind was how this person seemed to read him and always keep that very one step ahead of him.

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——— please read ———

hey everyone! i mentioned this before on my other stories, but i'll be pausing these updates for about four or five weeks due to my exams coming up! i'll be back as soon as possible and with more frequent chapters i hope.

thanks so much for your support and patience, and stay safe, lovelies!

-lily