MARKHYUCK - Alexithymia

04.

Mark sat in the main area of the school, scanning the people to see if he could find Haechan. Seeing him leave his house in such a rush made him worry, he couldn't help but wonder why he seemed so anxious.

Mark heard a loud noise at the main entrance, and his head immediately whipped up to see.

The cause of the noise was none other than Yangyang himself, with an injured Haechan beside him. Seeing Haechan like that made Mark's heart drop. What happened to him?

Mark looked at Haechan's face, which had a bruise on his forehead and a cut along his cheek. It nearly brought Mark to tears seeing his friend like that,

"Yo, are you okay?" Jeno asked, pulling Mark out of his thoughts.

"Y-yeah..." Mark said, still not taking away his attention from the boy. Jeno stared at Mark, and began to follow where he was looking, where he saw Haechan aswell, Jeno knew Haechan was going through something, but he didn't know it was this serious.

Jeno felt like he had something caught in his throat. He couldn't believe what he saw, was that really the boy he once knew? The boy who always wore a smile no matter what, the boy who would never even try to get in a fight, but rather break them.

Jeno looked at Mark again, whose eyes were following Haechan as him and Yangyang walked to the rest of those friends he had,

Mark didn't know how Haechan even began to get close to them, they all were on a different level than him. They all constantly got in fights, smoked, drank, everything a gang member would do.

And the scariest part, is that if they weren't in NCT, they definitely had connections. He would always overhear plans that Taeyong had planned, although he could never quite catch what it was, or who it was for.

Mark turned away from Haechan, and instead looked at Jeno.

"Jeno, I need to talk to Donghyuck." Mark said, Jeno flinched a little at Mark's stern voice, he can't recall a time he heard Mark so serious.

"Okay... what about?"

"Why he's doing this. Why would he change so much, why would he change from the kind boy who was always happy, who always did everything in his power to make others smile, to whatever this is," Mark said, "I miss him, Jeno. I miss him so much. I miss the boy I once knew." Mark said, looking down to the ground,

"The boy I fell in love with." Mark whispered under his breath.

After leaving Mark's house, Haechan got nervous upon just entering the parking lot of the base. He had a feeling something bad was about to happen.

Him and Taeil got out of the car, walking to the enterance of the house, where they were greeted by Taeyong.

"Lee Donghyuck," Taeyong started, making Donghyuck nearly jump out of his skin. He knew he was done for now. "Why were you gone for so long, hmm? You didn't come back with the boys,"

Donghyuck gulped, he knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn't. Taeyong slammed his fist onto the chair, "Tell me, now."

"I-I.. I was with the boys.. But I passed out and woke up in someones house," Donghyuck stated, trying to make his voice as firm as possible, but his voice gave away the fact he was scared.

He turned around at Taeil, who looked at him with fear. Taeyong looked at Donghyuck, then at Taeil. "Taeil, go somewhere else. Donghyuck, please follow me to my office. We need to talk." Taeil looked at Donghyuck and nodded his head, doing the most assuring smile he could get out before running to their room.

Taeil felt as though it was his fault, he knew Haechan wasn't at the base, and now the consequence of his actions was having to hear Haechan's screams and cries of the pain he was going through in the office.

He didn't know how he could ever face him again, or how he could ever forgive himself for what he's done to the boy.

Taeil had Haechan's belongings in the room with him, where he had set his stuff on Haechan's untouched bed.

Taeil began to cry, he couldn't believe what he's done. He was one of the only people who knew about Haechan's situation, and he still let him down. What if he was sent back home? Who knew what his dad would do to him.

Taeil was curled up on his bed, his hands covering his ears as he tried to drown out the screams he heard, whenever he heard buzzing coming from Haechan's phone.

morkleigh: hyuck. we need to talk, now.

morkleigh: answer your damn phone.

(2) Missed calls from 'morkleigh'

Taeil didn't dare to touch Haechan's stuff, but for once, considering the pain his friend was going through, he thought it was insensitive for this guy to act this way to him.

hyucksun: don't you think donghyuck has been through enough? he deals with so much on a daily basis. youre not considering his situation whatsoever. leave him alone. It's selfish of you to act like you have control over him.

After typing that out, he threw Haechan's phone back on his bed. He didn't care how mad this guy got, he needed to know how he felt. If he really needed to talk to him, if he really cared, he'd do it in person. Not over the phone.

Taeil laid down on his bed, trying to distract himself from the current situation whenever he heard the door open. He looked up and saw a bleeding and bruised Haechan. Haechan's lip was swollen and bleeding, not to mention the long gash along his back due to being pushed against the edge of a desk, that was bleeding nonstop. Taeil got up and immediately went to his aid, and took him to their doctor.

Haechan hissed as he felt the medicine touching his cuts, he kept flinching and pulling away.

"Hyuck, I know it stings. But we don't want the cuts to be infected," Ten said, gently dabbing his wounds and wincing every time Haechan winced.

"There," Ten said, putting up the supplies and throwing away some stuff, "If it starts to hurt again, please come to me." Ten turned around and smiled at Haechan, who was touching where his bruise was forming. He looked at Ten and nodded his head.

He laid down in his bed, and checked his phone. He opened the messages to see it was left on him and Mark's text, he glanced up to Taeil after reading it, and assumed he was the one who sent the text. Donghyuck sighed and plugged his phone in, before flipping to his side and closed his eyes, and fell asleep.