barriers | donghyuck

Chapter Five

< Things spoken in Korean will be in italics >

Lunch was undoubtedly your favorite part of the day, so when you heard the bell go off after third period you flew out of the classroom oblivious to the stares you received from your fellow classmates.

Entering the bustling lunch room, you instantly search for your favorite table in the back corner  of the room that thankfully wasn't occupied by anyone yet.

You stride over to your seat, placing your bag on the ground next to you and your homework in front of you from your language class. Random Korean verbs stared at you left and right as you tried making sense of the words across the page. You were so immersed you'd almost forgotten about your lunch sitting next to.

You also hadn't notcied the boy that decided to take a seat in the spot next to you. "Aren't you going to eat?"

The voice made you jump so bad that you knocked over your drink, luckily catching it before it could spill its contents. Turning your head slowly, you're surprised to see Mark occupying the space next to you. "You love sneaking up on people don't you? A simple hey would work just as well." Mark holds his stomach in laughter watching your flustered form. "And to answer your question, yes. I am going to eat thank you very much."

"Fiesty. You remind me of one of my friends." He chuckles, and you had to smile. "Do you always sit here?"

"Yeah," you sigh. "I mean I can't really socialize with anyone else."

"How about I introduce you to some of my friends then." He suggests, you suddenly became nervous to meet his friends. "Here they come now. Yah!" He yells across the room to his friends who suddenly join you at your once silent table.

Six more boys of different ages all take up a seat, eyes all shifting over to you at some point. "Who is this, hyung?" The youngest asked Mark in Korean, which you of course didn't understand.

"This is ___." Mark began to explain. You just sat there watching them interact back and forth trying hard to understand what they were saying, but ultimately failing. "She just moved here from America because her dad's job got transferred. She doesn't speak Korean yet." Mark received a round of oh's from the boys as he most likely finished explaining who you were.

"She's pretty," Another remarked while the youngest proceeded to slap him on the back of his head knowing that you didn't understand him, and he emitted a dolphin like laugh seconds later that made you jump again.

"Oh, and ___," Mark turned to you this time in English. "This is Jisung," he pointed to the curly youngest. "Chenle," he pointed to the boy with the dolphin laugh. "Jaemin," he looked at the smiley boy. "Jeno," Mark moved on to a shy, cute looking boy. "Renjun," he then pointed to the red haired boy that jumped out at you but surprisingly looked really nice.

There was one more of Mark's friends left. As he was introducing you to each one of them, your eyes couldn't help but drift over to the last familiar looking boy. The entire time he was mocking Mark, moving his mouth and imitating Mark's english as he spoke. You giggled to yourself, earning a smile from the boy as he saw that he made you laugh.

Mark sighed to himself, looking at the last boy as he whispered under his breath. "Stress." This only made you laugh more. "That's Donghyuck. The handfull."

After Mark had finished saying his name, it had finally clicked where you knew this boy from. For he was the same one you crashed into at lunch the previous week before. "You're the one who bought me ramen!" You look excitedly at him, feeling stupid remembering he couldn't understand you as he looked to Mark for help.

Mark quickly translated, and Donghyuck immediately understood as he said something else in Korean. "He said he remembers you." Donghyuck spoke some more. "Donghyuck, I'm not telling her that!" Mark yells at Haechan, only to earn a pout from him. "Ugh," he rolls his eyes. "He says he's been waiting for his money back."

Your eyes widen at first, taking Donghyuck seriously until you see him smirk evilly at how uncomfortable you looked. Eventually you laughed to. "Kidding." Donghyuck giggles in the most adorable English.

Smiling to yourself, you eventually looked to Mark, a question suddenly coming to your mind. "Mark, what is NCT U?" All the boys turned to you, knowing exactly what you'd just asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"I heard some girls in my math class say your name, which honestly I thought had to be you because how many Mark's are in this school, and I heard them say NCT U over and over. I wasn't sure if that had any relevance to you or not."

"Tell her about NCT! She doesn't know anything yet, she just moved here." Jaemin offers to Mark, and he just nods.

"Um, I debuted recently in a group called NCT U." He begins, and your jaw immediately drops.

"You mean you're an idol right now?" You say astonished. Going to school with someone like this in front of you was unheard of to you back in the States.

"I mean, yeah I guess so." Mark rubs his neck awkwardly, still new to this whole thing. "But NCT U is just a small unit in our larger group NCT. It'll have different units that are supposed to debut around the world under SM Entertainment. This was just the first step."

"Are they all apart of this as well?" You ask, looking at the other boys who were lazily listening in on the conversation.

"Yeah. They'll debut in different units eventually." He smiles, not wanting to give away too much information.

"This is so cool. How come I didn't know about this in America?" You laugh to yourself, suddenly enjoying the idea of living in South Korea.

There was a small silence as you took in everything Mark had just told you. The idea of the Korean Entertainment industry opening up to you. Not knowing much more of what to say, you heard Donghyuck speak up once more.

"Tell her to be our fan and maybe it'll be enough to pay back for that ramen."

Mark tried hard not to reach across the table to hit him. "I'm not translating any more of what you say."