hyung | markhyuck

9

— Chapter Nine —

Donghyuck was tired. So very tired. Of course he was happy too, their comeback had been more than successful after all but still he was tired. It was a tiredness that had sunken so deep into his bones that he couldn't sleep it off. Not that he would have gotten the chance to anyway.

He wasn't the only one, all seven members craved for a break. Donghyuck knew they would do a repackage soon but between that and their last promotions for Hot Sauce they would have at least a little bit of a break and that was all he was looking forward to.

Their dorm had gotten unusually quiet and Donghyuck knew exactly why. Jeno and Jaemin enjoyed each moment they got to their own, Renjun and Jisung rested as much as they could and the only two not being exhausted were Shotaro and Sungchan who only had occasional shootings for NCT's youtube channel. Donghyuck spent much of his time with them, seeing as especially Sungchan but also Shotaro were a nice distraction to the other members. Not that Donghyuck didn't love them, he did very much so but after months and months together in the practice room and in many waiting rooms before shows it could happen that they grew annoyed with each other. It was only natural and very usual in the industry. It even had a nickname called 'promotion sickness' where the members of one group would get mad at each other because they had spent too much time together.

Donghyuck believed the same was happening with the Dream members right now, they were all a little too on edge right now but after every argument they found back together again.

Nonetheless Donghyuck now enjoyed spending time with Sungchan. Actually Taeyong had invited the two younger's to eat together with him, Jaehyun and Mark and both Sungchan and Donghyuck were happy about the invite.

Seeing as the date of their meeting fell onto the last day of promotions, Donghyuck saw it as a little celebration and therefore dressed fancier than he normally would. With tight black jeans, a white shirt and of course his black leather jacket, combined with mask and baseball cap so he wouldn't get recognised, he stepped out of the room.

"Wow hyung, going all out today, I see." Sungchan hummed, already waiting on the couch. The younger male was dressed a little more casual, blue jeans and some band t-shirt that used to be Jeno's.

"Ah, you know me." Donghyuck said in a nonchalant tone and Sungchan laughed at his smug smile that brought out Donghyuck's confidence.

He had gained some, he knew that. All those wins combined with Mark's confession a few weeks ago had boosted his ego for sure but nonetheless he tried his best to stay humble. His mother had even scolded him on the phone yesterday to stay down to earth which he had jokingly replied to that if she wanted that then she shouldn't have born such a perfect son. To that he had gotten even more scolding and Jaemin laughing at him as the conversation had happened in the living room.

Now however, after all the schedules were done and they had even practiced the new choreography already, now Donghyuck finally had some free time. He wanted to spent it well, maybe visit his parents for a few days and hang out with his 127-hyungs.

And so when Sungchan and Donghyuck took the elevator downstairs, they didn't bother looking at the sasaengs or being much upset about their presence. Donghyuck was just happy to see Taeyong and Jaehyun again. Mark of course as well but he had seen the man plenty in the past weeks and it was still fairly awkward between them so maybe Mark not that much.

Speaking of Mark, the two hadn't talked about their make-out session. Donghyuck knew they should, he even wanted to but the opportunity had never presented itself during their busy schedules. For some reason, seeing Mark now, casually sitting in the lobby with Taeyong and Jaehyun, it was so different from seeing him every day for their promotion schedules. Mark chose to join them, knowing that Donghyuck would come and as ridiculous as it was, Donghyuck felt flattered, maybe even shy.