"So, Mark, do you really not recognize me or are you just ignoring your childhood best friend?"
When her best friend moved to Korea to become an idol, their contact died down and they soon started living lives completely separate from one another...
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Gyuri's fingers paced across her keyboard at a steady pace as she worked on a long paragraph of her thesis. She had attended a lecture in the morning and had hurried home to work on it right away. She had been at it for hours, and her mind as well as her body was getting drained from the constant focus. She rolled her neck and stretched out her body before saving her project and closing her laptop.
Since it was around dinner time, she texted Mark if he had eaten already since she knew he had finished practicing by now. She thought it'd be nice to get some food together since it wasn't all that often that both of them were free this time of day, but her chat with Mark remained quiet. She figured he must still be in the company somewhere, so Gyuri decided to go over there and surprise him.
The security by the doors already recognized her by now and let her pass with a small nod. Over the course of a few months, Gyuri had become more and more familiar with the people working at SM, especially those who worked for NCT. Some of them she saw every time she visited, others she ran into occasionally but most of them treated her very kindly and that made Gyuri feel welcome.
Even though the SM building was huge and Gyuri hadn't even seen half of it, she knew where to find the rooms Mark spent the most time in, which were the practice rooms. After going up a few floors with the elevator, she ran into Chenle in the hallway. The Chinese took out his AirPods when he saw Gyuri and smiled.
"Hey Chenle, have you seen Mark?"
"He's still in the practice room," Chenle replied, motioning with his arm to one of the doors in the hallway.
"I thought practice ended at 4.30 today?" Gyuri asked, confused as to why Mark was still in there when his members weren't.
"It did, but he... wasn't satisfied, I think. He wanted to stay behind and practice some more. You know how he gets," Chenle shrugged with a small frown.
"Ah," Gyuri nodded in understanding. Mark was a perfectionist, and wouldn't leave without knowing he did as much as he could to perfect his performances. "Okay, I'll check on him. Thanks," she smiled and waved at Chenle before departing in the direction of the practice room. She knocked softly and opened the door slowly when she didn't get a reply.
The soundproofed room didn't allow much music to be heard from outside, but as soon as she opened the door her ears were met with the loud music blasting over the speakers. Her eyes were drawn to Mark's figure in the middle of the room, dancing intensely to the beat. His skin gleamed with sweat and his baggy clothes danced around his body.
The room felt hot from the previous hours of hard work, and Gyuri softly fanned her face as she stepped forward. Through the mirrors, she saw Mark's eyes glance to the newfound presence in the room but he quickly refocused and continued dancing. Gyuri figured he wanted to finish before greeting her, so she stood to the side in silence while watching the boy move his body around in a precise manner. Gyuri could sense some frustration from him in the way he executed his moves with a hint of anger.
