ᴀғғᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ-ʟᴇss | ᴍᴀʀᴋʜʏᴜᴄᴋ [ᴇᴅɪᴛɪɴɢ]

9

Mark had had enough. 

The whole day has passed yet Donghyuck hadn't spared even a single glance at him. What was his problem? Why was he acting like this? Mark didn't understand. But that wasn't even the real reason as to why Mark felt like ripping his hair out. As they were having concerts, whenever the two would climb the stage and begin their performances, Donghyuck's entire attitude towards him changed. Instead of averting his eyes whenever they met Mark's, Donghyuck would send him a smile, give him a push and then sometimes he would even bless him with a side hug.

Mark didn't like this. He enjoyed the attention, sure, but what came after it was what annoyed him.

As soon as they stepped off the stage, breathless and exhausted, whenever Mark would reach out for Donghyuck's shoulder, a question asking him about whether or not he'd like to get dinner with him on his tongue, Donghyuck would shrug his attempt off and hurriedly cling onto another member. 

Just as Mark felt special, a little glad that Donghyuck was finally back to normal with him, the younger would crush his hopes and take away all his love and affection. It was bothering Mark. Why was Donghyuck acting as though Mark was a disease that needed to be avoided? 

Mark had truly had enough.

"Donghyuck, what the hell is your problem?" Mark barked as he grabbed Donghyuck's arm, spinning him around and glared at the younger. Donghyuck flinched at the harsh tone but immediately regained his composure. He wasn't going to be shouted at by just someone. He wasn't that weak.

"What do you mean, Mark hyung?" Donghyuck asked with venom dripping in his voice and he jerked his wrist away from Mark's grip, hissing at the stinging feeling of a burn. Mark's eyes dropped to his wrist and then back up to his face, his expression clearly showing that he wanted to ask if it hurt but his mind was fogged with anger. 

"You know exactly what I mean," Mark replied and put a hand to Jaehyun, stopping him from coming any closer and turned his attention back to Donghyuck. "First, you ignore me, for some reason I do not know about. Second, you act as if I'm some horrible person. But then on stage you give me hugs as if we were in normal terms. What is your problem?"

"My problem," Donghyuck started, ignoring Yuta's small hands which grabbed onto his shoulders. He shrugged them off and clenched his fists. This was the first time Mark had properly gotten mad at Donghyuck. Of course, there were times when the two would have arguments, but it always got solved before it could escalate. One of the two, majority of the time Mark, would apologise for what they had done wrong and everything would go back to normal. 

"Yeah? What is it?" Mark questioned, taking a step forward and poked Donghyuck's shoulder in a petty move. The rest in the room internally groaned at his action. "Just tell me."

"Well," Donghyuck scoffed and the others grimaced as they remembered what he was going to say. "My problem is that you guys push me away all the time." Donghyuck copied Mark's action and pushed his shoulder. "You guys call me things just because I don't complain," Donghyuck repeated his move and pushed Mark with more force. "You all think I don't see it, but I know you all good some sort of a grudge against me."

Donghyuck pushed Mark again, causing Mark to stumble into Jaehyun's arms. The room fell silent as Donghyuck walked closer to Mark, placing his hand on Mark's shoulder. 

"My problem is that you all think I'm some sort of joke," Donghyuck continued, his voice wavering as he spoke and everyone around them were frozen in their spot. "You don't like hugging me, alright. You all choose each other over me, okay, I understand. I'm annoying, I know. But can you seriously not even act as if you guys care about me? Is it that hard? Just to pretend?"

Mark's eye twitched at that and he stood up straight, pushing Jaehyun away — and he didn't make much of an effort to grab onto Mark again as he was as shocked as the others. Mark slapped Donghyuck's hand away from him and stepped forward in anger. Donghyuck was in no place to misjudge his feelings. Mark cared for him deeply, so Donghyuck couldn't use that against him. Sure Mark pushed Donghyuck vaway most of the time, but he never cared about Donghyuck less than anyone else.

"Donghyuck, you're such a child!" Mark exclaimed and chuckled bitterly. "You're actually getting annoyed over the fact that, what? We don't baby you!"

Johnny's eyes widened comically and he moved forward to stop Mark from saying anything else. But before he could, Mark turned to glare at him, something he never did, and shook his head.

"No hyung, he needs to hear this," Mark said and then turned back to Donghyuck. "Fine, we choose each other over you. But have you ever thought of why we do that? Have you never thought that maybe you're the one in the wrong. Ever thought about that, hm? That you're acting so immature that it's actually hard to be your friend?"

Donghyuck stared at Mark with a straight face and tried his best to hold his emotions in. But as Mark came to an end of his sentence, Donghyuck couldn't control it.

"What do you mean?" Donghyuck shook his head furiously, digging his nails into the palms of his hands. "I'm not asking you to baby me! And I know I'm not doing anything wrong, if I was then why would I have friends like the dream members?"

"That's because they're babies like you!" Mark yelled, causing everyone to flinch. Mark took deep breaths as he calmed himself down. The rest in the room looked at him with disbelief and shock. Mark normally never raised his voice at people — he didn't like conflict between friends. So seeing him like this was surprising. "They're just babies like you. They're loud and don't know when to stop, but at least when talking to us they're mature! That's why we—"

Mark stopped mid way through his sentence and he watched Donghyuck's eyes water up. He knew what Mark was going to say next, he expected it. Donghyuck lowered his arms and took a deep breath, trying his best to not burst into tears. Not here. Not in front of them.

"We what, hyung?" Donghyuck smiled softly, his eyes softening as Mark sighed. "That's why you guys like them more than me? Is that it? You like to spend more time with them? Give them hugs? Love? Am I really that annoying?"

The way Donghyuck spoke hurt everyone. He spoke with pain and no one could find themselves correcting him. He wasn't annoying, at least not in the way he was talking about, but what he had said was true. They hadn't been treating him right and he knew. They all knew. Donghyuck wiped at his eyes roughly and laughed a little.

"None of you can answer that, can you?" Donghyuck ran a hand through his hair and took a step away from all of them. They all held their heads low as Donghyuck moved around the room. The door to the dressing room opened and their managed strolled in.

"Alright! We need to go home," He said and glanced around the room to see that they had all circled themselves around Mark and Donghyuck, who had been rubbing his face with a wipe. "Haechan, what's—"

Before the manager could finish his sentence, Donghyuck smiled at him, his red eyes and flushed cheeks completely ruining it, and dashed past him to leave the room. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to do as they had all thought they had returned to good terms with Donghyuck. Little did they know that they hadn't truly fixed anything. Instead, they had just proved Donghyuck's conclusion, unknowingly.

"Okay," The manager stuffed his phone into his pocket and pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing into his hand before he looked up at the members. "Which one of you did that to him?"

They looked at each other.