𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱; markhyuck

❦19❦

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After visiting the local convenience store and purchasing a first-aid kit between the both of them (more-so with Mark's help) the pair wandered onwards towards a withered park in the centre of town. The sky was a dull, grey colour and had a sparse collection of clouds drifting aimlessly from one end of the horizon to the other. A few crows flapped in twos or threes, but aside from this, nature was crumbling.

The trees creating an avenue along a moss-grown cement path were dark and polluted with streaks of sickness, while the grass hadn't been cut for a few months and had ended up scraggly from neglect. "Sit here," Mark suggested with his finger motioning towards a rickety, wooden bench to the side of the said pathway. There were no other pedestrians out at this time, probably due to the fact that school and work were still in session.

"It probably won't support my weight," Donghyuck murmured, but placed himself onto it regardless and winced when the oak panels creaked and bent a bit.

"What weight?" The older tried to sound lighthearted and along the lines of amusing, although he instantly questioned if commenting on the guy's emaciated figure was fair or called for. Maybe he shouldn't have touched that subject yet. Was Donghyuck even the type to care about all that? He didn't seem to be.

In the end, the younger nodded weakly and curled his lips into a smile to insist that he was fine. His finger that had been wrongly treated with a compass was shoved up towards the ravenette's face, and he kneeled down in front of the teenager instead so that his height wasn't intimidating this way, and so that they could feel level with each other. He took the hand and inspected the damage, finding the blood to have dried into his finger's print. "Does it hurt?"

"Not really." 

"Oh, that's good." Little did he know that the pain inflicted by his 'friend' himself was never as bad as the torment and torture dished out by those around him. "Tell me if it stings, alright? Letting it get infected is a stupid thing to do."

Hyuck didn't respond much as the older started making small-talk with random impersonal questions. Things like 'our teacher is so boring, isn't she?' or 'you're always getting into trouble, aren't you?' The answers were obvious or the questions were rhetorical, and either way, he didn't have to part his lips to feed words. A part of him believed that Mark planned this; that he knew not to step over the line in the sand just yet. It was...admirable.

"Sometimes my mum asks me to bring people over, but she doesn't understand how bad our school is," the Korean-Canadian was saying now that the blonde tuned into the conversation, and he panicked once he realised he hadn't been paying any attention before now. "I don't think she'd like anyone."

"Mhm, we have a lot of sheep, don't we?" He finally added. "Followers with their heads in the ground, hoping they won't be spotted within the crowd. And then there's the gutters, where I live. Packed to the brim with people who weren't and aren't good enough."

"Don't say that about yourself," Mark insisted, holding the disinfectant down on the finger harder and eliciting a hiss from his patient. "The school is run in a weird way. It isn't fair, but it isn't your fault."

"I'm aware."

"Good," he murmured, dragging the little wipe along the digit once or twice before humming satisfactorily now that the blood was cleared and he could wrap the plaster around the wound. "Anyway, this business of sneaking around just because you can't be caught with people is extremely annoying. Can't we just...I don't even know, work around it?"

"Unless you can convince that prick and his hoe to accept my existence and move on, then no. Well, of course you can hop down into the drains with me as well and we can be outcasts together. Sound fun?"  

"No, not at all, to be honest."

"Mhm, didn't think so. You get the point though," he chuckled bitterly and leaned down to bring their faces closer. "What shall we do now, hm?"

"What do you mean?" Mark enquired distractedly as he flicked his gaze between the tanned boy's full lips and eyes. He couldn't decide what to focus on, and he half wished he'd back up again, and half wished he'd close the gap entirely so this distance wouldn't be so hellish.

"We have a couple of hours. You were saying something about your house?"

"I...was? Oh, yeah, I was. But...are you even comfortable coming over?" His breath fanned across the younger's lips, and vice versa. Hyuck was entrancing him in a locked gaze and inviting him into a party through his eyes — one he'd never escape if he accepted.

So he looked away.

He pulled back and tried not to let the screams of terror and pain that had twisted into audio from the tortured gaze get to him. His heartbeat was rapid, but it wasn't the good kind. It was the panicked kind. When he lowered his sights down to the hand he'd fixed up again, he found the sleeve covering Hyuck's wrist had ridden up a decent length and was exposing a few purple grip marks and nail crescents.

Oh my God, he thought, blinking twice to ensure he wasn't imagining something so disgusting and then confirming it to be true.

"I'd be fine," the other's quiet voice whispered darkly and secretively, the teen himself not even bothering to cover up what he knew his classmate was seeing. "Won't you have me over? We can get to know each other better." 

I saw those on his torso before when I lent him my P.E jacket, Mark couldn't help but think. What was someone to say in this situation though? Ignore it? Wait for the 'right moment'? Tell somebody?

"Mark, you're daydreaming," the boy reiterated his statement which he'd actually already said three times now. "Pay attention to me."

"Donghyuck..."

"What?"

"You're..." You're what? Bruised? Hurt? Hiding something? C'mon Mark, don't be stupid. "Would you like to come over?"

"Duh, that's what I've been asking about for the past three minutes," the blonde scoffed, but he had a cute smile on his face for once. One that didn't come out for just any occasion. "Yes please. I don't want to go home yet."

And somehow, I don't want you to either...

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hey guys, i'm finally back! now that school is over and i'm free of responsibilities in that sense for a little while, hopefully i'll be able to get more of this done quicker. 

thanks so much for your patience!
-lily