your rhythm - MarkHyuck

- sixteen

The morning was as normal as usual. When I got out of the store, Johnny was sleeping at the curb. He must've been cold considering how thin his coat was. I didn't bother to do anything because I didn't want him to wake up.

Orientation week was still going on so I went to the engineering booth right away, putting my bag down.

"Hey Mark,"

I looked up from the table and saw Donghyuck. He reeked of alcohol. "Madam Irene wanted to meet you," he said. He never looked at me in the eyes. I don't know if he was embarrassed by what he did to me a few days ago or he just never got over it.

"Oh when and where?"

"I kinda smell like shit beer right now so maybe when it dies down a bit I don't know," he played with the hem of his shirt and wasn't standing properly. "Yea you can sit here meanwhile. Do you have a hungover?"

I'll be nice to him, that's what I want to do.

"Oh don't worry I'll go back to my place and Jaemin can help me with this," he said with a smile but I insisted. "Relax Mark I'm okay just mind your own business,"

"No Donghyuck let me help you. Your condtion seems bad,"

"Mark I'm okay just sit down. I'll go back now,"

"Donghyuck please let me-"

"God fucking damnit do you not understand the word I'm fine Mark? What's so hard for you to understand that simple shit!" His eyes looked at me with anger. I sat there not knowing what to say and just looked at him walked away.

Great, now my everything is a mess and I don't know how to fix it. "Oh please let this day end fast," I let out a sigh and put my head down on the table.

____

"Hello Madam," I greeted her with a bow and put my hands behind me. She turns around to look at me and Donghyuck. Her eyes moved from me and then to Donghyuck and back to me. Madam Irene looked at me from head to toe. "You are very different Mark," she said with a hint of unsureness in her voice.

I knew she was talking about my piercings. They might stand out but there's nothing wrong with it.

"So! Since this is a duet, I suggest we do something fun. We'll be performing at a secondary school and I thought we should do the duet from Corpse Bride," She said happily. The woman grabbed a file from her bag and passed it to me.

I flipped it open and saw a bunch of piano sheets.

"I made the song more interesting by adding speed to it and more chords to make the melody better. I think it's better if Mark gets Victon's part and Donghyuck gets the bride's," she explained. Donghyuck listened to her with no enthusiasm. He was probably hating my presence.

"This room is oddly quiet," her lips were in a thin line as she looked around.

"Um, Madam Irene," I called out for her name.

"Yes Mark?"

"I've never really listened to the song before," I admitted. That movie was popular from where I was but I never got the chance to watch it. Well, technically I do have time to watch it but it never took my interest.

"Oh you can revise the song with Donghyuck later. It's better if we start tomorrow since the competition will be in 6 months. I believe both of you are fast learners when it comes to piano so I'm expecting both of you to perform amazing," she got up from her seat and started packing her stuffs.

"Sure, will do," I reassured here and flashed a genuine smile. Madam Irene seemed gentle unlike my last teacher. She was always pressuring me into playing better where in fact that was my limit. I cannot do better because if I tried, I'll mess things up.

"Should we go through the song real quick?" I turned to the younger male but his attention was on his phone. Donghyuck also had his earphones on so he didn't really heard my question I'm assuming.

"Donghyuck?" I called one more time, tapping on his shoulders once. He took his earphones out and looked at me. "What?"

"I thought we should revise the song a bit and see what we could do before we dismiss ourselves,"

I genuinely wanted to make the situation better between the both of us because I know I annoyed him. "Can't we just do that on our own? It's not that hard," he said. Being the person I am, I know I couldn't fight that if I didn't want it to worsen. "Yea sure," I gave him a faint smile and took the file with me, leaving him in the room alone.

____

I stared outside of the window. The street looked longer and much narrower when you view it from the second floor, giving a clearer perspective of the people walking around.

This street never gets wild because of how peaceful it is. Teenagers walk past here once in a while but there aren't really any store that piques their interest. There were just bakeries, mini fish market, bookstore and other boring stalls.

Nevertheless, this street will always be my favorite when it comes to Christmas. The decorations will bring out the store's presentation. Nana on the other hand, never decorated her store. She never wanted to change the looks of it ever since my great-grandma passed it down to her. I wonder who will be taking care of this place when she's not around anymore.

"Mark Lee!" Johnny waved his hands from below, trying to catch my attention. "Come down!" He screamed once more. I let out a loud sigh and picked myself up to walk downstairs.

I swung the door open and got out, feeling the cold breeze hitting my bare skin. "Look Johnny I don't want to talk about th-"

He punched me to the ground, beating me like he would always do. He didn't give me time to finish my sentence. I felt the pain on my cheek, and it added up on my eye and tummy.

"Selling drugs huh? You had a good life there didn't you?" He said to me with a smile. My body was weak at that point, I could barely talk. "Johnny.." I tried to hold him but my hands didn't have enough energy to pick itself up. Blood was already running down my nose and my vision was slowly getting blurry.

"Should've told me earlier if you knew this would happen. Listening to it coming from Gahyeon hurts a lot, have you ever thought of that?" He said with a hoarse voice. "Fuck out of my life," he said before leaving me on the ground feeling lifeless.

I could only view what was above me. There was only the sky, nothing else. Do I deserve to be up there and become a beautiful sunset? Wouldn't that be nicer and easier, to live beautifully and admired by thousands of people.

I came back here to change, to live a good life. So why is my life not... perfect?

"Mark!" The last thing I heard before shutting my eyes closed.