𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐍𝐨𝐰 || 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐧𝐨

Chapter 12 : Wanna Hug You

The sound of a volleyball coming in contact with the wall echoes through the empty gymnasium. Mark hits it against the wall and then bents down to pick the volleyball up again, following a pattern. It must be two or three in the morning, Mark is not quite sure. He has been there for hours trying to put his mind in a peaceful state.

Mark has been overthinking on what level his relationship with Jeno is. Yeah, they’re teammates and friends, but that last word seems to be lacking something. Jeno's actions have been confusing him to no end and he’s not sure whether a confession would be appreciated — blame his insecure side for this.

Hitting the ball one last time, Mark catches it after the comeback and tucks it under his arm, letting out heavy puffs of air after the continuous exercise. His body is screaming at him to stop so he stays there, numb while trying to catch his breath.

Mark is scared. He doesn’t want a gone bad confession and end up with an awkward atmosphere whenever they have to practice together. But if he’s quite honest, Mark doesn’t know if he can keep pushing his feelings away, they’ve grown to an extent that he’s sure Jeno must have noticed. Hell, he didn’t even try to hide them that much lately either.

Letting the volleyball roll away, Mark drags his feet towards his belongings and fishes his phone out of his sport bag’s pocket. Notifications appear on the upper part of the screen, Mark ignores the team’s group chat spamming about the next frat party and goes straight for the worthy one. Mark chuckles when he reads Jeno's message and then checks the time, it was more than two hours ago.

Jeno [00:22 AM]

let me spoil you Moon Knight's last episode pleaseeee

Apprehensively Mark catches his bottom lip between his teeth, thumb hovering his phone’s screen as the message flashes back at him. He has this urge of wanting to say screw it and let everything out because his feelings have been hitting him like a truck lately, coming up like hot waves even with the smallest thing — so in a last second thought he starts typing.

Whiny baby [02:47 AM]

i really want to see your pretty face right now

Well, it’s done.

Embarrassment kicks him after perceiving that yeah, he kind of exposed himself.  And that was corny and cheesy as hell and freaking old-fashioned — that’s so not him. Fuck. Mark looks at his feet waiting for the Earth to swallow him up.

But that’s what he wanted anyway, at least two seconds ago before realizing that it’s none of his dreams and reality actually has consequences. Mark is not sure anymore whether his urge of bravery was the best option. He groans out loud. It’ll be hard to come up with a good excuse if he wants to play dumb.

Mark lies on the parquet floor, long limbs sprawled as his forearm comes up to cover his eyes whilst his face grows red, reaching his ears. Phone placed over his chest because he doesn’t want to see what he just did but doesn’t want to keep it away either. It’s a confusing feeling.

Actually Mark doesn’t even expects an answer, at least not immediately because Jeno must be soundly sleeping right now but still he can’t stop hoping. Mark knows he’ll be embarrassed as hell when the reply comes but — Mark seriously needs to take everything off his chest, it’s consuming so much space and energy.

His phone vibrates against his ribcage and instead of reading it away, Mark waits — not so long because he’s kinda dying right now.

Jeno [02:56 AM]