drivethru [nct dream]

s1e19

while another cheesy 80s song was playing on the speakers, donghyuck yelled out a "woohoo!" as he made his third lap around the rink. mark, who had now caught up to his speed, just chuckled at this with a smile of adoration.

meanwhile, jisung stood at the bench near the rink, his skates already laced up. his hands gripped onto the metal edges, which he had to regrip consistently due to his sweaty hands. he had done it so much, it begun to hurt just a bit.

jisung would dance his eyes all around the rink at all his coworkers. but mostly, he was looking at chenle who seemed to be having just as much fun as donghyuck.
he watched him trying to get renjun in the same mood, who just playfully rolled his eyes.

he also noticed jeno and jaemin skating shoulder-to-shoulder, not really looking at each other as much but still having some type of conversation regardless.

so why wasn't jisung out on the rink too? sure, he liked the idea of spending time with his coworkers. he wouldn't have come had he not felt like they actually wanted him there and were just obligated to invite him along since they all work together. but he seemed to have forgotten that he would actually have to be doing some sort of roller skating... and he's never even worn skates until tonight. he'd always been slightly afraid of falling on his face, so he never tried it out.

he was actually contemplating whether or not he should actually give it a go. but every time he would begin to get up from the bench, his stomach would drop and he'd sit right back down.
so for now, he decided, he would just wait until he could fully convince himself to actually give this a chance.

meanwhile, donghyuck and mark had linked arms with each other. mark heard donghyuck softly hum at this, and he watched as his lips curl into a smile. it sent him going red all around his neck, cheeks, and ears. sure, this was nice for mark. but he didn't want this to feel nice. he wanted to feel indifferent about this...

"mark!" yukhei's front was leaned against the rink's edge. he was leaned so far forward, it seemed he'd tumble out onto the rink any second. "she texted me a huge ass paragraph!"
he held his phone out, showing the large and grey text on his screen.

mark almost let out a sigh of relief. whatever this was, it would be a distraction from his thoughts of donghyuck. so, he turned to donghyuck, and gave him a pat on the shoulder.
"i'll be back, hyuck."

"oh, uh, okay..." he watched the older roll his way to yukhei, and he heaved a defeated sigh. he tried to keep renjun's assurance in his mind, but for some reason it was just too hard. he couldn't help the bitter expression on his face as he kept making laps in silence.

eventually, donghyuck's eyes fell onto jisung, who was still on the bench. he noticed his frantic eyes dance around the area. he wondered why he was sitting there still, and why he was lone too. so, he made his way to edge of the rink, where the younger sat.
as he made his way over there, he noticed that jisung had his eyes on one person in particular. he followed his eyes, soon realizing that person was chenle.

"you're staring.." he pointed out.

jisung flinched at his voice, but was able to regain himself quickly. he looked up at the older, worried that he was catching on to his thoughts about chenle.

"s'okay, kiddo." he assured, leaning an arm against the edge of the rink.
the two continued to look out at the rink. at first, donghyuck was watching chenle skate with renjun. but he soon drifted his eyes over to mark and yukhei who were still talking. he let out another sigh.