FOR THE FUTURE ⋮ nohyuck/markhyuck/markhyuckno

Chapter Four

As soon as the lecture ended, Donghyuck packed his stuff and headed toward the elevator. He got inside in a rush and pressed the button in aggression to go down already. The door was about to close, but it never did as Renjun put his hand in between the cold metal, making it stop. He and Jaemin then got inside together and took control of it. Donghyuck didn't even need to press the buttons—everything was done by his two friends.

"Wanna hang out?" Renjun asked, whipping his head to Donghyuck. "I and Jaemin will be heading to the PC cafe. I just had money from my parents."

"That doesn't mean that you have to spend it," Donghyuck pursed his lips. "Anyway, I think I'll have to refuse. I don't feel really well."

A smile was wiped off Jaemin's face. "What happened?"

"He had a hard time sleeping," Renjun explained, shrugging. "That's okay then. We can hang out tomorrow."

About that... Donghyuck was sure that hanging out will have to go to a second set now that he had to deal with one problem.

"Yeah," he faked a smile. "There's always tomorrow."

They exited the building together, but right after that, their ways separated. Donghyuck followed the two with his eyes and only when he made sure they turned in a different direction, did he head towards the playground.

He safely crossed the street and walked to Noram who was now using the slide. As that thing looked wet, Donghyuck got worried about the kid's clothes. Especially, when he didn't remember the boy having a bag with him. Only a photo that was still troubling Donghyuck's mind.

When Noram saw his papa Donghyuck knew from his expression. His kind of sad face was replaced with a wide grin. He jumped off the slide before he could go down and ran towards the older. He was really close to yelling his loudest "Papa!" but controlled himself and said the filtered version.

"B-Brother!"

The boy hugged Donghyuck and rubbed his cheek on the student's jacket.

"Did you get cold?" the older asked as he noticed the boy's cheeks were pink.

Noram nodded his head. Donghyuck felt bad.

"Let's go and grab some lunch," he said as he ruffled the kid's hair. "You waited for me so long. You need a reward."

"Really?" Noram squealed.

Donghyuck could bet that having lunch with his papa at the city center was rare for Noram. Knowing that he was an exotic dancer... Fuck, Donghyuck felt like it was way easier to believe that Noram was his son than to accept that he was dancing for horny people. But believing the kid meant that he had to accept that stuff too. If Noram mentioned that, it means it was actually happening in the future. How else could he learn that phrase?

Anyway, the two headed deeper into the city center, where Donghyuck looked for a place to eat. As he was a student who lived out of his parents' money and little concerts his course did once in a while, he couldn't afford a fancy restaurant with a normal amount of meals. Therefore he took Noram to the small but cozy and cheap place.

There they ate in silence as both were hungry. But just as both were half full, they slowed down and started speaking.

"It's very delicious," Noram purred. "But not as delicious as your food!"

"I must be a good chef in the future, huh?" Donghyuck mumbled under his breath.

"I'm so happy today!"

"Hey," Donghyuck leaned to the boy. "So your, uh... mission is to find you, daddy. But do you have any plans or..?"

"Wait!" Noram put his hands on his head as if it could make him remember things better. The funny part was that it did help. "I remember! You, Papa, told me one thing! We don't have to do anything, just live and watch!"