FOR THE FUTURE ⋮ nohyuck/markhyuck/markhyuckno

Chapter Nine

Waking up in that room for the third time did no good for Donghyuck. He still had flashbacks from yesterday. As he remembered his secret came to light, he suddenly felt relieved. Hey, he no longer needed to hide it and deal with Noram alone―he was the problem of three people now! But, of course, it had a negative effect too. It shouldn't have happened.

The room was quiet as all three who teamed up yesterday were still asleep in the little dorm bed. Holding onto the bedside table, he stood up. He tried to stand on the injured foot but had to clench his teeth and put all the weight on another. Great. It looked like he really had sprained his ankle and couldn't even walk to the bathroom.

Turning at the bed and staring at them, Donghyuck couldn't help but wonder how they even fit in there. Jeno laid at the very edge of the bed, with a hoodie under his head instead of a pillow. Everything about that screamed uncomfortable as he could've fallen out of the bed any minute. Noram was in the middle with no trouble. He had enough space, which made the situation even funnier as Mark, just like Jeno, occupied only the other side of the bed. In fact, the senior literally faced the wall, almost as if he was willing to kiss it.

Donghyuck chuckled. He looked for his phone to record this for the future or maybe to turn it into blackmail material. To find one, he had to look for his bag first. Donghyuck spotted it on the floor, near a mini fridge. Jumping on one foot, he snatched it and was about to take out his phone when suddenly a loud alarm clock pierced the silence in the room.

The boy heard people waking up, so he jumped back and sat down as if he didn't do anything. He locked his eyes on the folks, greeting the morning. Mark was the only one who actually woke up from this as it must've been his alarm clock. It seemed, however, that he forgot, he shared his bed with two other people as he suddenly dropped on his back and fell on Noram, causing the kid to yelp. Now that was an alarm clock that woke up Jeno. He fell off the bed, knocking out stuff and also Mark's phone that still rang.

"Shit―" Mark jumped, backing into a wall. As soon as he realized that Noram was behind him, his expression became concerned. "Are you okay?"

"N-no..." the kid sniffled.

He must've stared at Mark with those big eyes he knew made everyone's heart melt. He had to because the senior suddenly got so flustered that he didn't know where to look.

Jeno found Mark's phone and turned on the alarm clock. He sat on the floor and looked at his roommate, "You have a dancing class in two hours, right?"

"Yeah. And you have one in four hours?"

"Mhm."

They knew a lot about each other.

"And you," Jeno turned to Donghyuck. "You have an afternoon class."

Donghyuck nodded.

"How's your foot?"

It was as if Jeno knew Donghyuck avoided talking that he asked a more open question.

"It hurts," the latter said dryly.

Jeno stood up and walked to the mini-fridge. There he found a cold water bottle and brought it to Donghyuck. Kneeling in front of the boy, he asked Donghyuck to put his legs back on the bed. Jeno took off the elastic bandage, then touched the water bottle to the sprained and swelled place. Donghyuck knew what to expect, but he cringed at a sudden cold object to his quite warm feet.

"Stay in bed for these hours. I'll take you to your lecture when I return."

"I won't go."

"I know it hurts, but it's not the end of the world. Look," Jeno pointed somewhere at the other side of the room. "We have a crutch. You can use it to walk."