never not | markhyuck

sixteen ♣

   mark laid on the roof with one hand behind his head for a while, simply holding donghyuck close to him. it felt relieving, and he was glad that he didn't have to worry about the eyes of anyone else. a million thoughts were racing in his head. he'd never liked a male before... it was a new feeling. 

   as he laid there, he thought about the future. the distant future, and the near one. how would donghyuck react when he was fully awake? how could mark confess too? would they start dating? if they started dating what would happen if they got caught?

   the canadian stared at donghyuck's peaceful resting face, and dammit he suddenly really wanted to kiss him.

   he groaned, pulling donghyuck a little closer as if he were scared to lose him. just thinking about all of it made his heart race. he wanted to protect donghyuck by keeping their status as friends. mark already knew about the incident with renjun, and to imagine it happening with donghyuck was a thought he couldn't stand. 

   yet at the same time, he wanted donghyuck to be his. he wanted to know him more, and he wanted to be with him whenever he could. he wanted donghyuck to support him during games, and he wanted to go on secret dates with him during the weekend. he was now coming to the rude awakening that he had a real date in mind when he asked donghyuck if they could study together. 

   it was now clear to him how he'd been avoiding admitting how he felt towards the younger to himself. it was true that over the past couple of weeks, he had felt a strong attraction, but he'd been denying that the attraction was anything more than platonic.

   mark never took donghyuck as the type to confess first either. seeing how he was knocked out and in a deep sleep immediately after, it made sense though. now he began to wonder whether donghyuck never would've said anything had he not been so sleepy.

   have feelings always been this complicated? he thought to himself.

   he stroked donghyuck's hair a few times, the feeling of wanting to protect him coming over him once more. then he intertwined their fingers just as donghyuck had done. the same feeling of electricity sparked through mark, but he let go a moment later. there was something he wanted to check.

   as they were studying in the library, he didn't fail to notice donghyuck adjusting his sleeve to fall over his wrist every few moments. honestly speaking, it had made him quite curious.

   hoping that he wasn't being too intrusive, he lifted donghyuck's arm and pushed the sleeve up to his elbow, eyebrows furrowing at the sight. there was a purple ring around his wrist, showing off obvious bruising. frowning, mark lifted his hand closer to examine it, and to his surprise, it looked like grip marks from someone else. 

   making sure donghyuck was still asleep for good measure, mark gently brought donghyuck's wrist to his lips and pressed a soft kiss against it. it bothered him knowing that someone had been violent with him, and by the looks of it, no one knew about it. he wished donghyuck had told him at least. 

   he tried to think of a person who might argue or quarrel with donghyuck, but failed to come up with any. it didn't make sense for donghyuck to have enemies either. he was technically still relatively new, and he didn't go out of his way to pick fights with people. in fact, mark was sure donghyuck didn't talk to that many people to begin with. it just didn't make sense for him to have aggressive bruising around his wrist. a sudden thought came to him.

   ...unless he was hurting himself?

   but still, donghyuck didn't seem like that kind of person.