uneven ground || lee mark

chapter 2

if it's meant to be, it will happen.

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'what do you want to be when you grow up?'

as a child, you get confronted with that question basically on the daily. back then, everyone had an answer ready. whether it'd be a policeman, pilot, astronaut or princess, everyone wanted to be something.

(funfact: my brother used to say that he wanted to be rich, own a yacht and not have to work💀)

as a teen, the question starts to pressure you.
people will make you feel like they expect great things from you, and suddenly being a princess, astronaut or pilot isn't really an option anymore.

mark had reached the age where he stood directly in front of that final decision.

he was privileged enough to have parents who gave him the freedom of deciding a future for himself.

for the most part, at least.

being people of influence themselves, it was only natural that they wanted their son to be successful as well.

for context — your basic NSOE student will mostly have the idea stuck in their mind of stepping into their parents footsteps.

because let's face it — a good 80% of the students there came from weathly, well-known families.

if you weren't part of that 80% and got in there through hard work and not money —not saying that all of the well-off ones didn't work hard— you're even more likely to have a clear idea of what to do after graduation.

because, why in hell would you put yourself through the torture of passing an NSOE entrance exam if you didn't know exactly that you wanted to attend a top university later in life?

mark was proud to say that he didn't have any struggles with his studies at all and therefore didn't mind attending university.

it wasn't like he never considered zorion-training. 

not to come off as a narcissist or anything, but he was well aware of the fact that many considered him to be one of the best fighters currently attending NSOE — but he wasn't going to take any chances and waste 3-4 precious years of his life on training for something he might not even become or would have to retire from at the age of 45 already.

so why not just go to school a little longer?

his parents didn't mind that at all, of course.

but he would've preferred if they hadn't made him sign up for the university-preparatory summer classes his school offered to those interested in applying to university.

because now mark was sitting in an almost empty classroom at seven in the morning — in his school uniform and in the middle of his precious summer break.

he could feel the phone in his pocket vibrate as his friends bombarded him with texts.

he really didn't have to open them to know that it were all videos and teasing voice messages telling him about the beach house chenle's parents had rented for them (along with a small fucking private beach) over the summer.

but guess who would only be able to join them for the last three days because of school of all things?

also, you might be wondering how his six friends were even awake at that early hour already. simple — they weren't awake already. they never fell asleep in the first place.

"dang, someone's in a good mood."

mark looked to his right, to see two boys of his age sit down on the desks next to his own — xiao dejun and wong hendery.

they were about his only somewhat close friends in his grade. for better or for worse, all of mark's close friends were actually younger by him, the youngest starting his first year now, the very same year that mark was graduating.

to have all of his friends be younger than him was both a blessing and a curse.

in a way, he was glad that he never had to endure donghyuck's annoying nagging when he studied physics, and not having to be responsible for jaemin passing his history exams (that was renjun's job) was relieving as well.

but he couldn't say that he didn't feel lonely in class sometimes.

dejun and hendery were a duo of their own, despite including mark as much as they could in the few classes they shared.

"well, you sure seem to feel great considering you have to spend half of your summer break at school."

the two boys laughed.

"i'm sure it won't be too bad. it's school, but we're here on our free will, we can decide how much effort we put in."

and mark knew exactly what hendery meant when he said that.

"so i take it you're just here to get away from your parents?"

"smart boy~"

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y'all have no idea how fucking much i hate my life rn ...

i literally just participated in a TRIATHLON today bc some people advertised it at my uni and my friends thought it would be fun

i feel dead, my whole body hurts so much, but at least my friend and i didn't do all that bad

and our other friend literally came in 2nd???? when we finally passed the finish line this bastard was already sitting there eating his sandwich like he didn't just do a fucking triathlon??

i wish i could sleep for the next three days straight, but school :(((

also, i was contemplating on calling hendery kunhang (since i mainly use the real names), but i feel like not that many ppl actually know his real name so i just went with hendery, let me know if you would like me to change that tho!

and i'm so sorry for the short chapters, i promise they'll be getting longer (and better omg, what even is this TT) from here on!!