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-ᴛᴡᴏ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛs ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏɢᴇᴛʜᴇʀ
ᴡᴇ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ᴛʀᴜʟʏ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ-
Just as Donghyuck expected, as soon as a cast had covered his leg, which was now swollen due to the injury, his dad barged in and began to yell. It was a pretty normal thing for Donghyuck, as his dad never really spoke quietly to anyone, especially Donghyuck. But Mark was surprised. He watched as Donghyuck stared at his dad with a blank expression, as he went on and on about how the media caught Donghyuck 'cheating on his future husband'.
"Mark's just my friend," Donghyuck commented, and Mark was sure that his heart felt that, even though they weren't exactly together, or even close in that way, but he still felt weird. "He helped me to the car and that's it."
"Could've asked Jaemin to do it." His dad replied, already thinking about how his company might've received a lot more attention if they caught the couple hanging out. He knew that people wanted to see Jaemin and Donghyuck be together more, even though they had been stuck by the hip before the engagement, now they wanted to see them do couple related things.
"Father," Donghyuck started, but was soon cut off by his annoyingly loud dad. Mark gripped onto the edge of the hospital bed that Donghyuck was sitting on, and held in his anger. He wanted to tell Donghyuck's dad to leave him alone, since he hadn't down anything wrong, but knew that if he did that, Donghyuck would get shouted at more. "I understand."
Donghyuck's dad, who had just told him that if he doesn't recover within a week his job title would be given away to someone else, walked past Mark and opened the door to leave. Mark glared at the back of the old man, and then turned to Donghyuck with soft eyes.
"Why do you just sit and listen to him?" Mark asked, shuffling forwards in his seat. Donghyuck sighed and then shrugged his shoulders.
"When I was younger," Donghyuck said, lowering his gaze from the door to his lap. "I used to be really rude to my father, but then my mother told me to not be disrespectful, and actually be nice. So when I started doing that, only because my mother said so, he took advantage of it to shout more. I still listen to him because— because my mother said I should. If I stop doing that, it'll take away one more thing my mother taught me."
"Oh," Was all Mark said. He leaned back in his chair, internally groaning when his back came in contact with one of the cuts in the seat, and then glanced over at Donghyuck, who was smiling at the memory of his mum. "So, are you prepared to get married to Na Jaemin?"
"Kind of," Donghyuck replied, biting his bottom lip. "I'm a little scared..haha...I've been his friend since we were kids, but now forcing myself to—to um, think of him in a romantic way, especially when he's still in love with his boyfriend-"
"He has a boyfriend?" Mark interrupted, and Donghyuck visibly tensed, not liking the questioned he was just asked.
"Yeah, uh—his name's Yangyang." Donghyuck answered, his mood clearly dropping by the mention of his fiancés boyfriend. "All three of us used to be really good friends, and then those two got together."
Mark nodded and then thought about whether or not he should or shouldn't ask the question that had been bothering him since the conversation he shared with Donghyuck at the office. He took a deep breath and then cleared his throat.
"If you don't mind me asking," Mark paused, waiting for Donghyuck to mutter a yes, and then continued, "Why don't you leave your house? Like...runaway?"
"I tried it before." Donghyuck starts, looking at Mark with a sad expression, before turning back to his lap, which seemed more interesting than Mark at the moment. "I packed a suitcase of my belongings, jumped out the window, bribed the security guards to let me leave, and then ran to the closest person to me. By the time I entered Jaemin's apartment, he had already gotten a call from my father, warning him to tell me to come back home. I refused to do so, and well, he started to do the things he threatened to do.
"My father first got Jeno kicked out of the University he was in," Donghyuck grimaced, remembering how he was the source of trouble between his friends group. "Then he got Yangyang's dad to get demoted, removed from his high position and caused problems in his house. He then decided to take action on Nana and his family, but I quickly returned home before he could've done anything else."
Donghyuck sighed, and then turned to Mark, feeling a large amount of guilt wash over him as he retold his story. Mark saw Donghyuck's face and immediately shook his head, leaning forwards and taking Donghyuck's hand in his.
"Hey, it's okay," Mark hushed, stroking his fingers down Donghyuck's hand, trying his best to let him know that he wasn't blaming Donghyuck. "It's not your fault that your dad's an asshole."
"Ha," Donghyuck laughed weakly, smiling softly and then glancing up at Mark. "Thanks Mark, but I know it was my fault to some extent. I shouldn't have let it go that far. Jeno's parents were pissed when he got kicked out of school, but thankfully I managed to help him get into the company. Yangyang's family was destroyed, and they're still going through so much debt! Jaemin has tried to help them, but the damage my father had done was too much. And what's worse is that they don't even feel any hatred towards me!"
"Why is that bad?" Mark tilted his head to see Donghyuck's eyes soften.
"It's because...I feel horrible for what I've caused." Donghyuck whispered. "Yet they always just tell me everything okay. I don't want them to feel bad for me just because I'm their friend and immediately forgive me. I want them to properly accept my apology."
"Donghyuck," Mark sighed, before standing up and crouching to hug the boy. Donghyuck froze in his arms, before allowing himself to be enveloped by the elder. "I'm sure they really meant it."
