uneven ground || lee mark

chapter 16

mark wanted to dig himself a hole and hide in it, he really did.

bemused by ellie's actions that tuesday, he had searched for help in one of her friends; haeun.

he had initially thought of approaching dahye, but then remembered the time he had appeared in front of their dorm, rambling to her about how sorry he was for bothering ellie.

so it was going to have to be haeun.

"okay, so let me summarise this all real quick -- you walked her home, basically against her will, then asked her why she hates you, and proceeded to tell her that you aren't hitting on her because she has a boyfriend."

ko haeun stared at the boy in front of her in disbelief, as if she couldn't believe that someone of that level of stupidity actually existed.

"...and you've known her for how much time exactly now?"

she added, seeing that the boy was needing a bit of a push to talk.

"two months or so...? maybe less." mark mumbled, a little ashamed of his answer.

haeun burried her head in the palms of her dainty hands, groaning loudly.

"you, my boy, are an idiot."

now, it wasn't that mark didn't know and tell himself that quite often already, but hearing it from someone else's mouth stung a little more.

"wow, thanks haeun. can we get to the actual point now though? what did i do wrong?"

"okay..." haeun nervously pulled at a small piece of skin on her cuticule that had suddenly caught her eye. "so, where do i start with this...?" the last bit wasn't directed towards mark, but he still felt the need to answer.

"at the very root of the problem, please."

the electricity shifter nodded. "lee yoonsung, he is the main issue."

mark forrowed his eyebrows. he had heard of the boy, good things mostly, but other than the gossip and his looks, his knowledge was rather limited.

"he's ellie's boyfriend?"

eyes wide in disbelief, he gaped at haeun, who confirmed his suspicions.

"he was her boyfriend. they broke up before summer break, mark."

okay, now he felt bad. really, really bad.

"the break-up was nasty, i'm actually surprised that you didn't hear about it. it was all pretty public, after all."

mark didn't know what to say or do. he had probably brought back many memories the girl was trying to forget. how could he be so insensitive to assume that everything was going well in the relationship?

although the boy wasn't sure if he actually wanted to know the details, he was pretty curious on how nasty the situation actually was.

"if you say nasty... how nasty are we talking, exactly?" the words hesitantly left his mouth, and haeun sighed.

"the cheating, not even trying to hide it, not feeling even a little apologetic, and humiliating her in front of a crowd kind of nasty."

now that really did it for mark.

he couldn't even begin to imagine the things ellie had to go through and now he had to live with the guilt of reminding her of it.

"mark, if you want to apologise, don't do it now. the two were together for two years, and they did love eachother. i don't know what changed the bastard during ellie's suspension. she's scarred for life." haeun went silent, not sure if what she was about to say next was very smart to share.