Signing // Mark ff

he's going to kill me

Mark sat down at the lunch table with a big huff. "I'm actually gonna cry." Jisung rolled his eyes. "What now? Did you show up to class with two different shoes again?"

Mark hit him on the back of his head. "Jisung shut the fuck up that was one time."

Chenle laughed from across from him. "That actually happened?" Mark groaned while his head fell into his hands. "Listen! This is serious!"

Kyungmi could tell Mark was still complaining about something as they were still laughing at him. She wanted to know why Mark was so distraught but couldn't because he was covering his face.

She asn't able to reach Mark so she resorted to tapping the table to get Renjun's attention.

"What's wrong? Is everything okay? All I saw him say was that he was about to cry." Renjun raised his eyebrows at Kyungmi teasingly. "Aww, are you worried about him?"

Kyungmi glared at him but figured it wasn't very effective as her face was beet red. "Shut up. Just answer me."

Renjun let it go for now, tapping Mark on the shoulder as he was sitting right beside him. "Mark lookup, Kyungmis trying to get your attention." At the mention of Kyungmi, Mark's head shot up. "Huh?" The concern on Mark's face made most of his friends chuckle. "Kyungmi is something wrong?"

She immediately shook his head. She was going to try and ask him with gestures but quickly gave up. "Renjun ask him what's wrong, I don't want to get my phone out."

Mark had been trying to keep up with all their sign language but Kyungmi always moved her hands too fast.

"You said you were about to cry and she got all worried and sad so she asked me to ask you what was wrong." Mark's eyes flickered to Kyungmi as the corners of his mouth twitched up.

Kyungmi huffed, embarrassed. "Renjun that is not what I said!" Renjun responded with an eye roll. "Yes but you meant it. You had your sad frowny face on." As much as Kyungmi wanted to deny the claim, she knew he was probably right.

Mark chuckled at Kyungmis glare before getting her attention. "It's okay, I was just whining about me forgetting my lunch. You're cute for worrying about me." Kyungmi let out a squeak before her head fell on the table causing most of the group to laugh.

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"Wow, you are getting pretty good at this!" Mark gave Chenle a smile. "Thank you! I've been..." Mark paused,  "How do you say practicing?"

Renjun showed him slowly, Mark copying it. "Practicing?" Renjun nodded so Mark continued. "I've been practicing a lot at home. Hyuck has even started to... pick some up because I use it so much."

Mark usually sat somewhere in their dorm room, having conversations with himself in sign language. He didn't have many people to practice with so he figured out that it was the best option.

Donghyuck knew that he was learning sign language as he was the one that told him where Renjun lived. (He wasn't sure why he knew where Renjun lived but Mark chose not to question it). He must've forgotten to tell him about his home practices because Donghyuck came home from class one day very confused.

And Mark was odd. Donghyuck knew that the second he met him in 7th grade, but he never thought he'd ever see Mark sitting on the floor in their living room, talking to himself.

And Mark was obviously not perfect. He's only been learning for a couple of weeks, but with the amount of time he practices at home and comes to Renjun's, he's getting pretty good, but he doesn't know if he's good enough.

"I don't know if I'm practicing enough." Chenle's eyebrows furrowed and Renjun made a confused noise. "I want to be able to ask Kyungmi out on her birthday in a couple of weeks, I don't know if I can do it."

They both hummed in realization as they thought about Mark and his progress. "Honestly, I think you'd be able to pull it off. You're having a decent conversation with us now aren't you?"

Mark shrugged dejectedly, "Ya I guess... but I still pause a lot and have to ask what certain words are, not to mention I'm slow. That's not me being very ready."

Over the past couple of weeks, Chenle and Renjun have gotten to know Mark very well. He is quite entertaining and so sweet and they quickly realized why Kyungmi liked him so much.

But they also learned that even though he is confident, he gets doubtful sometimes.

They knew this was important to Mark so they decided to drop the sign language, for now, to make sure they were able to get through to him.

Chenle took Mark's hand into his grasp to get his attention. "Nonsense Mark. It took us years to get it right. If you need to ask Kyungmi to repeat himself or ask what a word is, she's not going to judge you." Renjun nodded at that, but Mark was still looking between the two, uncertain.

"Do you know how many times we screwed up, Kyungmi included?" It's gotten the three of them in trouble a few times.

"She would never rudely correct you..." Chenle paused for a second before scoffing. "Honestly I think she's going to be too starstruck to nitpick a mistake you might make."

Renjun outright started laughing. "Oh my god, she is going to be a mess."

Mark's nerves started to fade away, deep down he knew Kyungmi was going to be understanding. "Will she be that flustered? She doesn't get super flustered with me."

Chenle's jaw dropped. "You're kidding, right? Have you seen Kyungmi around you?" Mark's eyebrows furrowed as Renjun added on with a scoff. "Her face is the colour of a fire truck more than half the time she is with us at the lunch table, she never stops talking about you."

Chenle clicked his tongue in annoyance. "It was funny at first, but now it's just annoying."

Renjun's face scrunched up as he glared at Chenle. "Wow. That's a lot coming from someone who never shuts up about Jisung."

Mark gasped and Chenle turned to Renjun with fire in his eyes. "Renjun what the fuck?!"

"I'm telling him the truth!"

"He's best friends with Jisung! He doesn't need to know I like him!"

Mark cleared his throat, effectively breaking up the little quarrel they had going on. "You guys know I can understand you right?" Chenle's face burst into flames and Renjun snorted.

Mark could see that Chenle was about to run so he quickly cleared some things up. "Hey, Chenle it's okay though! Jisung never shuts up about your 'beautiful smile and soft hair'." Both of their jaws dropped and Mark immediately threw a hand over his mouth. "Oh good lord Jisung is going to kill me."

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I'm so tired omg