Head Down

◤nineteen◢

Mark has to have a pep talk with himself inside of his head once they make it to Donghyuck's front porch. He's nervous, rightfully so. He's normally never this shaken up when going to a friend's house for the first time. But that's the thing. Mark and Donghyuck aren't friends, and there wasn't a sense of security of welcomeness. This was Donghyuck, Lee Donghyuck, and Mark was barely acquainted with him.

"I'm home," Donghyuck announces bluntly as he walks in, promptly toeing off his shoes.

No one answers him, and Mark thinks that the only reason Donghyuck even announces his presence is so that people in the house are at least aware of his presence.

He thinks it's a little sad, that no one would pause to acknowledge the younger, but then again, Mark's own parents had left him in an empty house as well, so he is a bit immune to the emotion.

"Hyuck?"

Mark feels his blood boil at the sound of the voice. He knows that he shouldn't get too worked up over the fact that he's running into Jeno, since it had been a factor he considered before agreeing to accompany Donghyuck back home. Either way, it was an unpleasant experience to have to encounter Jeno.

"What?" Donghyuck simply barks back, stunning Mark a bit. He'd always known Donghyuck and Jeno as the inseparable pair who everyone at school had labeled 'soulmates'. Thinking about it know, the term definitely doesn't refer to them romantically, however, people at school don't know that. That thought makes him uncomfortable, so he shakes his head a bit to get rid of his thoughts. Instead, he thinks about how Donghyuck and Jeno are known as the sun and the moon, as the duo who are always in sync with each other. The duo that has never ending affection and patience for each other, as rumours and previous actions address.

This, however, the hostility which Donghyuck was addressing Jeno with, was different. It wasn't anything Mark had known about the two, and he's pretty sure that it's nothing anyone had ever known about the pair. Last time Mark checked, Donghyuck was still unsettled and upset at the fact that Jeno was his stepbrother.

"Why is he in our house?" Jeno sneers. Mark is ready to scoff and come at Jeno sideways because of the way he's been referred to, but Donghyuck answers the question before he can.

"Because he's my friend," he simply says, grabbing Mark by the wrist and dragging the both of them into the kitchen. "I'm going to eat some ice cream, take at look at if there's anything you'd like." And with that, Donghyuck let's go of Mark's wrist, much too soon for the latter's liking, and instead reaches up on his tippy toes to retrieve a big bowl from an overhead cabinet. 

Before Mark can even think about what he wants to do, Jeno storms into the kitchen, marching right up to Donghyuck.

"Absolutely not. Don't let this scumbag touch what's in our kitchen."

"Scumbag," Mark scoffs, an amused smirk playing on his lips. He was faster than Donghyuck this time, reacting to the other's words. "That's rich coming from you."

Completely disregarding Donghyuck now, Jeno turns to sneer at Mark for the second time tonight.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" He challenges, unleashing a glare from Mark.

If Donghyuck thinks he looks hot when he glares, he keeps the information to himself. Instead, he scoops himself a lot of rocky road ice cream.

"That's supposed to mean how you're dating my best friend when you don't even deserve it."

Donghyuck halts for about half a second at those words, grateful that no one was paying enough attention to him to see his pause. From their previous encounter and conversation in the library, Donghyuck can assume that Mark had, or has, some more than platonic feelings for Jaemin. He doesn't know where Mark is with that, since Jeno and Jaemin are dating and all.

"What do you mean—" Jeno starts, but Mark cuts him off.

"I mean how you don't give two shits about Jaemin! Where were you all the times he was getting the crap beat out of him? I'm pretty sure that if you actually like him, you would've stepped in and stood up for him before Donghyuck made you."

Jeno's eyes widen just the slightest bit at what Mark says, and the elder clearly knows that it's because of what he said about Donghyuck. It's a soft spot for Jeno, his reaction proving it.

"You don't know what the fuck you're talking about." Jeno growls, taking two steps forward, until he was almost nose to nose with Mark. "Don't talk about me or my boyfriend like that until you know what the fuck you're saying, Mark Lee." He emphasizes the elder's name by poking him square in the chest. Mark has a retort on the tip of his tongue, but once again, Donghyuck steps into their heated discussion.

"Back off Jeno, don't kiss him before I do."

Jeno makes a sound of disgust in the back of his throat before he's pushing Mark away, the latter ignoring the somewhat painful sensation in his lower back caused by him hitting the counter.

Once the words Donghyuck had said registered into Mark's brain, he makes a sound of distress before turning to glare at the younger.

"Why would you say that?" He asks.

"Don't deny it city boy," Donghyuck rolls his eyes, picking up his large bowl of ice cream and equally as large metal spoon. He starts walking off into the corridor, and he throws Mark a wink over his shoulder as he sashays away.

"You called me pretty not even an hour ago."