MARKHYUCK - Alexithymia

11.

Mark's house was completely silent, other than the laughs coming from upstairs.

Mark and Haechan sat in Mark's room, doing everything they had before. Just joking around and acting like the kids they once were.

Mark wiped tears from his eyes, clutching his stomach in an uncontrollable laughter. Haechan continued to joke around, he eventually ended up stopping and falling onto his back on the bed.

"You know, I missed this," Mark said, turning on his side to see the younger's face. Haechan smiled and looked at Mark,

"I did too. It's been a while since I've felt so genuinely happy." Haechan chuckled to himself, resting his arm on his stomach.

"Do you want to invite the others over?" Mark suggested, Haechan's eyes brightened whenever he heard the suggestion and nodded his head quickly. Mark laughed and grabbed his phone and called Jisung and Chenle, leaving Haechan in the room by himself.

Haechan laid on the bed and looked at the ceiling for a bit, before pushing himself off the bed and looked around at the pictures on Mark's desk.

He saw multiple pictures, he saw pictures of Mark and his parents—who are in Canada for business at the time,— and smiled to himself, he missed Mrs. Lee, she had always loved Haechan as if he was her own son.

Whenever he was younger, whenever he'd come over he'd find himself sitting in the kitchen with her and talking about everything with her.

He examined every picture individually until his eyes settled on one of whenever they were younger, he reached over and grabbed the picture.

It was a picture of them in elementary school during the summer. He, Mark, Jisung and Chenle were all at the beach. Chenle was buried under the sand, with Jisung beside him crouched and holding a peace sign.

And as usual, Mark and Haechan were beside each other, Mark was smiling his usual big smile,

Haechan smiled at seeing him, one thing he loves about Mark is the fact he never changed. Not within personality, and not with his smile.

Haechan looked at himself, and saw how he had his arms crossed, his hand covering a darker spot on his arm. The boy squinted his eyes a bit trying to see what exactly he had been covering, and he eventually realized that it was a bruise.

"What're you doing?" Mark asked, walking over to Haechan and putting his hand on his shoulder, looking at the picture with him. He heard Mark laugh, "Ah, I remember that," he said, turning his head to look at Haechan.

"Why're you looking at the picture so seriously?" Mark asked,

"Hmm? Oh, no reason..." Haechan said, putting the frame back in its original spot, "I just thought it was cute,"

"So, are they coming?" Haechan said in an attempt to change the subject, Mark smiled the smile Haechan loved so much, "Yup! They were over the moon excited to hear from me finally. And, they were especially excited to see you again. They missed you, Hyuck. We all did."

Haechan felt his heart warm after hearing Mark say that. If he had heard that from anyone else, he probably wouldn't have affected him. But it was different with Mark, he didn't know why, but it really touched him to hear that they cared for him.

Haechan opened his arms and embraced Mark, which made Mark jump before putting his hands on Haechan's back. "Why did you hug me so suddenly?" Mark said, before hearing Haechan sniffle,

"I just missed you. So much." Haechan said, nuzzling his head in the crook of Mark's neck, making Mark blush. He rubbed his hand on Haechan's back,

"I missed you too, Haechan." He said, wrapping his arms around Haechan and squeezing him tightly, not wanting to let go of him and possibly lose him again.