upstaged || markhyuck

74: stress run.

"well, at least the costumes have been found," mr byun sighed, taking off his round glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose.

mr park stood beside him, in his usual shirt-knitted-slacks outfit, nodding in agreement. but he wasn't the only one who found the whole thing a bit suspicious.

"have we got everyone here?" the drama teacher asked.

the cast and crew looked around. the boyz were all present, with mark standing with beside donghyuck on one side of the auditorium. everyone else was sitting or standing by the red seats, but xiyeon said, "nancy's not here."

"usually late," mr park commented.

"i'm sure she'll be here in a minute, babe," mr byun said, though he sounded stressed. "anyway, we have two hours until curtain up, so we can all start getting ready. okay?"

the cast and crew vocalised their understanding, and doyoung and mr choi headed to the dressing rooms to put the costumes in order for the dress run.

"she's unreliable," xiyeon sighed. "well, if she doesn't turn up, we could always get mark in a dress."

donghyuck snickered. "what do you think of that, markie?" he asked, prodding mark's side.

mark rolled his eyes. "let's just wait for her to turn up, shall we?"

"come on, kyla," xiyeon said, linking arms with her girlfriend, "let's go get our makeup done."

"sure," kyla agreed. "at least none of the makeup went missing."

"true," said xiyeon, before the two grabbed chenle and jeongin to have doyoung do their hair and makeup.

"hey," said jaemin, sneaking up behind daehwi and back-hugging him. daehwi jumped before he broke into a massive grin.

"i didn't think you'd be here so early!" the honey-haired boy exclaimed.

"i'll leave and come back later if i'm too distracting," he offered, but his gaze was drawn towards the wings that he knew lead to the dressing rooms. "so, were the costumes found?" he asked. he remembered why renjun and jeno had asked him to check up on the show, but he was momentarily distracted by how daehwi was wearing a denim jacket that matched his own.

"yeah, they were back in the dressing room this morning," daehwi answered with a shrug.

"are they all intact?" he asked, wincing a little at how obvious he was being.

"i think so," the honey-haired boy said. "let's go see," he suggested, grabbing jaemin's hand and pulling him towards the dressing rooms.

"you good, hyuck?" mark asked, making donghyuck realise he had been standing there with a vacant look for at least a few minutes. he folded his copy of the script and tucked it under his arm, sliding his hand into donghyuck's.

"yeah, fine," the redhead answered, "i was just thinking about my costume changes."

mark nodded. donghyuck had a few costume changes during the show, including a quick change where he had about thirty seconds to run off, change his entire outfit and come back for a dance break.

"it'll be fine, hyuckie," he said quietly, giving his hand a squeeze. "the crew are going over the tech schedule for this afternoon, so i'll drop by the dressing rooms after, okay?"

donghyuck smiled. "thanks, markie," he replied, leaning in to kiss the older's cheek. "i should get my make up done."

the two parted ways and mark went to the sound and lighting box for a meeting with the backstage crew.