FOR THE FUTURE ⋮ nohyuck/markhyuck/markhyuckno

Chapter Five

Even though everyone was prepared, the birth of Noram was quite shocking. The early morning of the 6th of August was horrifying. Donghyuck was in so much pain that he claimed he would pass out. Mark had to ditch his work for that day―he was now working as a vocal coach―and stay with Jeno, who was panicking as he walked back and forth in the local hospital.

Doctors struggled as it was their first time with a male in labor. Donghyuck roasted them all and almost put every single doctor and nurse on their feet. Even interns nervously trembled and stood at the very corner of the room. With the power of teamwork, they succeeded to get the baby out by leaving a nasty scar on Donghyuck's stomach.

The brunette was under anesthesia for quite a while. When he woke up, he was very dizzy and felt a light pain in his stomach. He saw Mark near his bed and weakly asked how Noram was.

"He's fine," Mark smiled, putting a supportive amount of pressure on Donghyuck's hand. "He cried very loudly. You know how he is."

"Yeah..." Donghyuck scoffed. "I'm dead tired now. I don't know how I would even endure him."

But it wasn't as hard as Donghyuck thought. The next day, he demanded to see the baby himself. He just couldn't be away from him that long even when he barely had strength. So, Mark and Jeno fulfilled his wish and carried Noram from the nursery room.

When Donghyuck saw the baby's face, he was shocked at first. Staring at that little red and wrinkly face, the brunette thought this baby wasn't him. It wasn't Noram. He didn't look like this! But then he wanted to slap himself. What did he even expect? The baby needed time to look similar to that Noram. He was just like any other baby for now.

"I can't believe he's finally here," Jeno said, clenching the metallic bedframe. "After so long..."

Donghyuck needed a lot of time to recover. And when he did, when he got his strength back, he fell into a mild depression. He had a hard time eating and lost self-esteem whenever he saw the scar on his stomach. He had mood swings when he saw Noram. He refused to make love with Mark and Jeno. Instead, he listened to how they did it, and with a heart full of sadness, he faced the wall.

All the time Donghyuck was dealing with this, he kept wondering what could've happened if things were different. Did that depress Donghyuck too? If he was, what stopped him and lent him strength?

Thinking about something that would never happen weakened Donghyuck. Mark and Jeno saw it, so they found their boyfriend a therapist and healed him. The therapy sessions weren't successful at first, but when the brunette started openly talking to the therapist, and after all the trouble had come out, he felt relieved. Soon, he was back on his feet again. He spent more time with Noram and even hung out with Renjun and Jaemin. The two were already dating and brought happiness to Donghyuck when they broke the news. He also told them something. He introduced them to Noram and watched their expressions full of confusion.

It seemed like Renjun and Jaemin were informed that Donghyuck used to be depressed, so they didn't say anything about this. But the more they saw Noram, the more confused they got. The similarities between his parents and Noram from the future started appearing when the baby was nine months old. He started crawling around the apartment and was very loud. Staring at him, Renjun obviously recalled that once he had an oddly similar kid at his place too.

"What's going on?" he asked one day, crossing his arms and flicking his eyes on the trio. "Where is Noram, and why's there another kid named Noram who looks exactly like him?"

"Because that is Noram," Mark explained, patting the kid's head.

"That's a baby, hyung," Jaemin looked at the older suspiciously. "Where's the kid?"