ᴀғғᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ-ʟᴇss | ᴍᴀʀᴋʜʏᴜᴄᴋ [ᴇᴅɪᴛɪɴɢ]

8

Donghyuck clearly remembers the day Jaehyun had entered the main lobby and announced to them that he wanted someone to join him on his day out in New York. After multiple people yelling and shouting, Mark had jumped out from behind the crowd and thrown himself over Jaehyun, talking about how he would be the best person to go out with (and after the trip Jaehyun agreed with that statement). Donghyuck also remembers how Doyoung had entered the room, his eyes narrow and full of wonder. He looked around the room, eyeing everyone before asking Jungwoo to accompany him — he said he was the most mature one out of them all and to some extent, the others couldn't disagree with that. 

He also remembers the way Jungwoo had waltzed into the room, a determined expression on his face as he ignored Doyoung's outstretched hand and picked Johnny. They both shared a strange smile between them two and no one bothered asking them what it meant. 

But then when it came to Donghyuck's turn, and he awkwardly shuffled into the room, a piece of paper which included the name of the place they were going to ("arb-arboto-arbor— you know what, I'll just let hyung say the name"), he glanced around the room and tried to push down the pain he felt when they all groaned. He knew it was probably because none of them wanted to hang out with him — it's okay, it's perfectly okay — but he tried to fool himself into thinking it's just because they're tired. It's not because of him. 

A whole ten minutes of silence passed before Donghyuck mentioned his trip. Everyone in the room froze for a few seconds, probably grimacing over the fact that Donghyuck had finally mentioned it and now they had to pick between them all. But before anyone could say anything, Mark jumped up from the ground, brushing off imaginary dirt before smiling at Donghyuck.

"I'll come with you," He said and immediately left the room. Donghyuck stood his ground, shocked that out of all the people who had volunteered to go with him, it was Mark. He was more confused than shocked, as shown by his wide eyes and raised eyebrows, but he was also happy. Although Donghyuck had avoided Mark for the longest time now, and he was probably the cause of Donghyuck's inner annoyance and frustration, he was the one that Donghyuck wanted to see the most. It was strange but Donghyuck felt more angry seeing Mark cuddle with Jungwoo rather than seeing Taeil jump onto Johnny. 

"So where are we going?" Mark asked, snapping Donghyuck out of his little daydream and then gestured towards the camera pointed towards them. (Was he only doing this because of the fans?) 

"I don't really know," Donghyuck said slowly, glancing over to the manager and smiling at the way he facepalmed, annoyed because he had told Donghyuck the name of the place almost ten times before already. "Oh wait," Donghyuck closed his eyes to think, remembering just the first few sounds of the words before giving up and saying, "Some garden place."

Mark lifted his eyebrow and then shot the manager a look. He wasn't against going to see flowers and other nature related things but, was it really just that? They couldn't possibly spend 5 hours at a garden.

"And then we'll go eat," Their manager added and shook his head when Donghyuck flashed a cheeky smile.

The trip to the arboretum wasn't bad, or at least that's what Donghyuck prefers to say. He had started playing music on the way there, his weak attempt to distract Mark so that they wouldn't need to converse, but of course, Mark had other plans. He spoke in English and kept asking Donghyuck questions. Mark clinged onto Donghyuck's side at one point and it was driving the younger mad. All those months ago, Mark would shy away from skinship, yet here he was doing it himself. He really had to stop sending mixed signals.

Mark tried hard to made Donghyuck speak. He really did, the constant chatter, the asking of questions, the glances. It was all too much, in all honesty. Donghyuck amazingly managed to stay quiet for most of the trip, since he didn't exactly know how to phrase his words in another language and chose to let Mark do all the work. Obviously the older noticed this and but there wasn't much that he could do.