𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐍𝐨𝐰 || 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐧𝐨

Chapter 3 : I Got It

It’s just a few days after the last game of their high school senior year, in the beginning of the summer, when Mark receives a call from his mom.

They’re hanging out in the local pool after promising they weren’t going to play volleyball during the whole summer — but they know they’ll be back at it two days later anyway. Sungchan decided they were going to play with another kind of ball so they’re currently playing soccer or attempting to.

Jaemin says it loud and clear, “We suck.”

They have kicked more grass than the actual ball.

Mark laughs when Sungchan bows down to apologize to a passerby that just got kicked and fishes his phone when it starts ringing. He walks away from the loud chattering to have a clear hear although he doesn’t need to — she’s screaming.

“What’s going on?” Jaemin asks when notices his best friend frozen with his phone still glued to his ear despite the call being finished a few seconds ago.

Mark blinks, once, twice, and then, “I got a sport scholarship for NCT U.”

The feeling of the last game comes all at once when he feels all his friends throwing themselves over him in a barbaric hug.

It’s not until two weeks before the start of his freshman year in college that Mark starts practicing seriously for volleyball again. Mark brings Jaemin begrudgingly after he comes back from his vacation in Miami. Jaemin is porting this sun-tattoo thanks to his bratty cousin that decided to spread cream on his back with Lenny’s face.

“I swear to god if you tell someone—“

And by someone he means Sungchan because if he finds out then Jaemin won’t see the end of it.

During one of their breaks, Jaemin too focused on stealing food from Mark’s bag, he takes a photo and sends it to their group chat. Jaemin has a bad feeling when his phone starts ringing obnoxiously in his pocket and without a doubt he starts chasing after Mark, maniac laugh filling the air.