Bring It On! HAECHAN

epilogue

Jeju Island is cool in late September, the perfect weather for a night out at the beach.

For once, Mark is able to relax.

All he wants to do is stretch out his feet in the sand and lie down motionless until the campfire dies out, and even then he'd only move until someone wakes him up so they could all retire to the villa for the night. Despite the chatter and off-tune guitar strumming in the background, Mark feels at ease, and he wouldn't trade this moment for anything else.

Weirdly enough, Donghyuck is nowhere to be seen (or heard, considering Mark has his eyes closed), but it's not like he's complaining. The past couple months of planning the senior trip and managing Donghyuck and Chaerin's stupid competition on top of that has taken a huge toll on him, so any time away from either of them, Mark would take.

He couldn't help but to feel a little concerned, though. Despite the noise that surrounds him, the absence of his roommate's shrill voice is very much noted, and that alone is enough to make Mark a little uneasy, because a quiet Donghyuck could only mean one thing: he's up to something. Very much like a child who's left unsupervised, and that doesn't sound like good news.

Mark cracks open an eye, the first thing he sees being the blanket of stars in the night sky, before he turns his head to the side to see the campfire in the distance. He squints to spot for any sign of Donghyuck, only to realise that the idiot isn't even there to begin with. The guitar that he had loaned him earlier is now in the hands of that theatre kid Jungwoo (which probably explains why Hey There Delilah suddenly sounds so horrible), and while Mark is silently grateful that his guitar is safe (though probably not for long), he's beginning to get increasingly worried.

Let him be! He's a grown man, Mark, the voice in his head chants, only for him to quickly shut it out as he sits up with a groan, putting on his glasses. Mark wishes he could let him be, but leaving Lee Donghyuck unsupervised might as well be a recipe for disaster. Plus, the fact that his bandmates are sitting around the campfire and he's not? Mark wouldn't be surprised if he had already wounded up at the local police station, or something.

Brushing off the sand from his pants, Mark sets off to look for his roommate. Plus, it's almost time to announce the winner for the Dirty Smoothie anyway, so he'd still have to go find him regardless.

The beach goes on for miles, but he figures Donghyuck couldn't have set off very far. There's a small convenience store somewhere behind them, and with that being the most probable option, Mark decides to head there first.

Before he could, however, his eyes catch sight of two silhouettes down by the water, a little further from the campfire, but not far enough for him (and his night blindness) to miss. Mark squints again, already recognising one of them as Donghyuck— the slouch of his back is very distinctive— and the other one as... a girl?

He scoffs to himself. Leave it to Donghyuck to go on an escapade with a girl when they're supposed to be on a group trip (and no, he's not just saying this because he's jealous he doesn't have half the confidence Donghyuck has to ask a girl out).

Trudging carefully through the sand, Mark makes his way to the water, but his steps soon slow down when he realises who Donghyuck is with, and what it is they're doing.

With Donghyuck's back to him, he sees Chaerin first, the two standing really close to each other, almost as if they're about to... kiss?!

And when Mark sees his roommate duck his head, indeed confirming his hunch, Mark let's out the loudest gasp, causing the two to instantly spring away from each other, like opposite poles of a magnet.