My Ace

Chapter 21 ♣️

Mark was, in fact, not fine. He might've been the furthest thing from it. However Taeyong insisted everything would be fine and went into town for some groceries.

He didn't know if being able to see the road leading to town was a blessing or a curse as he watched Taeyong's car drive down the winding road.

He turned on his phone, to see over a hundred missed messages and calls from Jungwoo, Jisung, Hyuck, and Le. He sent a short text saying he was fine, and almost immediately received a call from Hyuck.

"Are you okay? Why didn't you answer sooner?" He questioned, clearly distressed over the MIA adult.

"I'm fine. Taeyong asked me to turn off my phone for a bit," Mark explained. "Everything's all good, you don't need to worry."

"Is he gonna send you back down tonight? Can you come to my apartment?"

Mark bit his cheek. Taeyong never said whether he could tell where they were. If he didn't want Mark to say something and he did, that wouldn't be great for the younger.

"I can't, sorry. Taeyong wants me to stay with him for a few nights, so I don't know if I can leave."

He heard a huff of frustration on the other end. "Alright we'll if that changes, let me know. I want to see you."

"I will. Can you just tell anyone who's worried that I'm alright?"

"Yup." There was a pause for several moments. "Don't upset him, okay? He can get creative with his punishments in the bedroom."

Mark's heart stopped beating for a moment. "SO I WAS RIGHT THEN!" He yelled. "THE PUNISHMENTS ARE KINKY SHIT!"

"Jeez you don't need to break my eardrums-"

"Oh... Sorry."

"No one told you already?" Hyuck hummed on the other side. "That's weird."

"They told me it was stuff the bosses didn't want to do."

Hyuck laughed. "And you believed that?" Mark blushed at his own ignorance before he heard Hyuck laugh again. "Wow, never would've taken you as the gullible type. That's good to know."

Mark turned abruptly as he heard the keys jangle outside the door. Taeyong was back already.

"Hey I think I need to go," Mark said, but Hyuck whined on the other side of the call.

Taeyong opened the door to see Mark still on the phone. He rushed over and checked the call. He put them on mute before deadpanning Mark. "Seriously? Hyuck? He's gonna tell the whole office."

"I didn't tell him where we were just that I couldn't go to his apartment."

Taeyong's face flooded with relief. He turned off the mute and turned on the speaker. "Hey Hyuck, I need Mark so we're gonna go."

Hyuck whined but Taeyong ended the call quickly. "That was stupid."

"I turned my phone on to a hundred missed messages- I wasn't just going to ignore them," he defended.

Taeyong wrapped his arm around Mark's shoulders. "And that is why they texted you instead of me."

"No one texted you?"

Mark walked with Taeyong as he brought them to the car. "Jeno and Doyoung did."

"Jeno texted about me?" He asked, skeptic of the fact. "He seemed like he could care less about me after everything..."

"First off, he cares about you enough to text me knowing that I'd be busy with you. Second, he was just worried I was going to be mean."

"Is that your plan?"