Back To Square One

Chapter 4 - Date To Busan

"Mark hyung! Wake up!"

Jisung's voice together with a light tap on the cheek pulled Mark back to reality, waking him up from his deep slumber

"Urgh—5 more minutes, Jisung!" He complained but instead of granting his request, the younger opened the curtain, letting the sun rays peek through the close windows to strike his face, waking him up. He was fast to pull the blanket above his head to take cover from the blinding light.

Jisung just shook his head and pulled the blanket away from Mark who sat up, irritated. Why is Jisung up so early? Why can't he be just like the other maknaes who wake up way way later than everyone else?

"Remind me again why I chose to live in an apartment with you and Jeno?"

"It's because our dads said so... and also because deep down, you want to stay here." Jisung replied sassily.

Mark scoffed. His dad can easily rent or even buy a condo for him alone yet when he came here in Seoul to attend school, he found out that he was to share an apartment with two other schoolmates of his. 'At least you will have instant friends' – That's what his old man said.

The parents of the three are college friends but they don't see each other very often, Jeno lives in Seoul but not in the same district as SM Academy while Jisung's from another city, both of them used to rent a place near the school. When Mark's dad told the parents of the two that his son will be attending the same school though, they made an agreement to put them in the same apartment.

Mark's dad told him to try and see whether they will get along together and if they don't, he can look for another place anytime... but they became his best friends.

"You really have to get ready now, hyung."

"Okay, fine!" Mark flails his arms up as if surrendering. "I'll get out of this bed... how about Jeno?"

The maknae shrugged. "Jeno hyung wakes up earlier than roosters."

Mark broods as he watches Jisung walk out of his room. He really hates waking up early in the morning, today's Tuesday, means he will be waking up early for three days more!

After a minute of sulking like a child, Mark decided to finally start his daily routine but before everything, he took his phone from the bedside table to check if someone messaged him.

Indeed, there's a few. Some are from his schoolmates but there's one that made him snort as soon as he read the sender's name. It was his dad.

The message reads "It's your mom's birthday today."

For that, he hissed and rolled his eyes. It's not like his father should remind him. After all, he's the only one who never misses her mother's birthday every year.

"Don't act as if you care." He muttered, bitterness evident in his voice before putting the phone back on the table and headed for the bathroom.

-s-e-i-m-a-r-i-

When the teacher said detention, Mark wanted to argue. It didn't sound appealing since he already planned on going to Busan to celebrate his mom's birthday but because it's partly his fault, he couldn't just ask the teacher to give him a chance.

Well, he wasn't going to detention anyway. Even though Professor Kim is kinda scary whenever he's angry, Mark won't just let this day pass without visiting his mom. He wasn't going to attend the afternoon classes and will leave before lunchtime is over.

And talking about lunch, when Mark was about to order lunch in the cafeteria when he received a message from Jeno. The latter wasn't with them yet since he was to pass something to the faculty room.