KAIROSCLEROSIS || lee mark

chapter 10

"do you see him anywhere?"

pretty sad that ellie was starting her fourth and last year of high school with those exact words.

and i'm sure you already know who she was (not) looking for.

yeah, that was her main goal for the year — at least for the start of it; to avoid mark lee at all costs.

after realising that simply telling him off was not good enough, ellie had decided to put in a little more effort.

as you've noticed, it worked pretty well for the last week of summer-classes — though that was a bit of an exceptional case.

"chill ell, he's not here."

now that school had started, dahye and ellie were alone again.

their friendship was one of those typical ones that start mainly because of being roommates, but dahye actually managed to grow on the seemingly cold girl more than anyone would've imagined.

when they met haeun, it was obvious to everyone that the two were the duo of the trio.

they didn't have any bad intentions, in fact, they loved the girl just as much as they loved each other. but from the very start it had been clear to the three of them that haeun had other friends that she prioritised outside of class, and dahye and ellie were not going to get in the way of that.

it was like an unspoken agreement that the trio would do everything together in the classes they shared, but rarely ever talk to eachother other than through their phones for the time they spent outside of the schoolrooms.

that was what worked for them, so why change anything about that?

but back to what ellie and her maroon haired best friend were discussing.

"where is he though? he's a fourth year, and all fourth year students are supposed to gather here now. so why the fuck is he not here?"

"well, that's better for you, so what are you complaining about?"

that made ellie shut up.

she didn't want dahye to further dig into her theories of why ellie might not hate mark as much as she claimed to do.

of course, what she said had sounded suspiciously like someone worrying or caring about someone, but that was definitely not the case.

ellie WAS worried, but not for mark.

no, she was worrying for her own safety concerning the fact that she did not know about mark's current whereabouts.

any minute, the boy could appear behind her, or be standing next to her, or maybe see her from across the room.

ellie still clearly remembered the way he would look at her with his round, brown, captivating eyes. he seemed to like it when she spoke, because everytime she directed her words at him, be it for an insult or just to say anything else, his pupils would dilate, and there was this unexplainable shine to his eyes.

after all, it was not that she didn't pay any mind to him, she just didn't care much.

except for now.

many would probably think that the girl was insane for her sudden obsession with going unnoticed by mark lee.

"oh, look! there he— nevermind, that's just dejun."

dahye was pointing to the entrance to the auditorium, where xiao dejun had appeared in the doorframe.

ellie, who had realised the situation long before her best friend did, tried her best to stop the shorter girl from doing what her outgoing personality forced her to do, but it was too late.

"hey, xiaojun! over here!"

her hand stopped mid-wave as she saw two other boys enter the hall behind the one she was calling over.

her smile dropped, and so did her hand.

"oh my fucking god! ellie, i'm so sorry! go hide!"

dahye dramatically gripped her best friend's shoulder and shook it, while said girl just stood there with a deadpann, not believing what was happening.

"there's no point, they saw me already." ellie spoke in a monotonous voice, still not showing any emotions show on her face either.

that seemed to confuse dahye.

"so you are going to talk to them?" she tilted her head to the side. "to mark?"

ellie had most certainly not thought as far as that.

"fuck. yeah, i'm out. see you later."

"just fucking go!"

to their luck, and since the auditorium was pretty big, they actually did have the time to have that conversation in the time it took the boys to walk over to them.

so ellie nodded, taking one last glance at the approaching group of three. with a few fast steps, she walked away from her friend, glancing around the hall to find someone familiar to chat to.

that way, she would at least look busy when trying to get away with that very poor attempt of avoinding mark.

and it seemed to be her lucky day, because haeun was standing there, chatting with two other girls of their grade that ellie believed to have shared some classes with in her 2nd year at NSOE.

'oh, thank the lord! this girl is really always there when i need her the most.'

"ellie!"

haeun had noticed the girl and her discomfort long before she had even started escaping the situation she had been about to face.

hurriedly hiding in her friend's embrace, ellie let go of a breath she was holding.

"you're insane. why would you do all this just so you don't have to talk to a boy?"

ellie just shook her head, nodding to the girls haeun was previously talking to, partially as a greeting, partially as an apology for interrupting their conversation.

"i don't know either."

she dared a quick glance over to where the boys had now reached dahye, but quickly realised how bad of a decision that was.

because there was mark lee — in all his might and attractiveness — looking right back at her.

of course. he had seen ellie before she even left dahye.

her eyes met his, and it was as if he had put her under a spell. like he had frozen time, paralysed her in a way that she couldn't break the eye contact, no matter how badly she wanted to.

'i don't know, haeun. i really don't.'

_________________________________

at least it didn't take me a month this time :))

i've kind of not been feeling myself lately, but then at the same time i've been the happiest i've ever been... idk.

for context; i kind of focused a lot on loving myself and on living my life the way i want to this year, and that's going well.
but idk if anyone remember the time around chapter 40 (or sth) of adomania that i took a short break and then explained it was bc of some bad news my bsf got that indirectly affected me too.

well, the truth is that she is moving away. we got the news back then, and it's not something she can control, but i guess we kinda just pushed that to the back of our minds and continued with our lives like we usually do.

but it's really happening now, she's moving in a week.

not that i'll lose her completely, but i hate the thought of getting to see her only once maybe twice a month when we used to see eachother multiple times every day. 

so yeah, that's kind of been fucking with my mind.

anyways — love you all, and hope that you've been doing alright too <333