My Ace

Chapter 13 ♦️

The next morning was shit, but Mark managed to pull himself out of his bed and get ready for work. He had extra time, so he decided he would run to the cafe down the street and grab a coffee and a nice breakfast.

Mostly, he was just procrastinating having to see everyone. Everyone who probably knew all about the disaster his date ended in by now.

He should just tell them. About everything. Would it result in his death? Probably.

But what if his parents found out? What if Yeri's did? This would probably ruin both of their lives, ruin this delicately crafted ruse they both kept up. The one he's been messing up already.

Now he's going to mess up things here with everyone, and he's going to mess up everything he and Yeri had been doing. He's going to end up with nothing.

He finally stepped out of the elevator.

Today was going to be long.

He opted to work from home today, promptly returning home to avoid his coworkers. It was just him and his thoughts until lunch rolled around when he put on his recent obsession. It was a rom-com that came out recently, but he fell quite deep into it.

He found a lot of parallels with parts of his life in the show, and it had him entirely hooked.

He was shoving his face full of a cup of ramen when the inevitable happened : someone knocked on his door.

He set it down and bolted over to check through the peep hole who it was.

Unexpectedly, it was Renjun.

After their failed date, Mark thought Renjun wouldn't seek him out for a few days.

He couldn't bring himself to open the door.

"Who is it?" He asked through the door, feigning not knowing.

"It's Renjun."

"What do you need?"

"Are you naked or something? Why aren't you opening the door?"

He slowly cracked it open, just enough that he could hide his face from the younger. "Do you need something?"

Renjun sighed. "I want to talk. I brought a peace offering." The sound of a crinkled plastic bag met Mark's ears.

He opened the door slightly more to peak at the expression Renjun had. It seemed regretful almost, which made Mark feel guilty.

He opened the door fully and motioned into the room. After a minute of awkward silence, Renjun got settled next to Mark on the floor in front of his couch. Renjun set the bag on the coffee table and unpacked the contents of it. They were containers of hot food.

"You didn't come to lunch today... I thought you might like some." He opened it and slid one of the containers to Mark, who moved his instant noodles to the side. "And I thought it would be a good time to talk about... Everything that happened last night." Renjun sighed as he unpacked his own container and played with the rice.

They both turned to each other at the same time, the words leaving both of their mouths before either of them realized. "I'm sorry," they both said gently to one another.

Mark frowned. "Why are you sorry? I'm the one that fucked up and was acting weird and let my friend interrupt and ruin our date."

Renjun shook his head. "Neither you nor your friend ruined our date. I got all weird and jealous over nothing and messed everything up and made everything awkward and- and you couldn't even come into work today because of me." Renjun pouted, angry that tears were already brimming his eyes. Renjun sighed and turned back to his food. "Look, I ruined our date. I got all jealous and couldn't deal with the fact that you have a friend, you used to like that friend but no longer do, and that friend was there."