(would you be my) american boy
"if you don't kiss him on the lips by the end of this week, at least tell him you're not interested." donghyuck's eyes are closed and he's lying on the carpet when renjun enters his room.
"why are you in here?" he asks, stepping over his friend and dropping down on his bed, the soft fabric wrinkling under the pressure of his butt. he knows his weak attempt at distracting from what he knows is about to be discussed – a topic he's been dealing with for the whole month of november – won't be effective, but he can still try.
donghyuck sighs and sits up, legs criss-crossed and face stern as he gives renjun a condescending look. "my best friend is so in love with you and it's giving me back pains. actual pain, injun. he thinks he's so slick, when he's really not. i might die from second hand embarassment."
it's – true. renjun buries his face in his hands.
mark lee, bless his soul, has the biggest, most obvious crush on him and it's... actually kinda cute, but now it's been over a month and the older still hasn't made a move and- well. everyone is kinda over it, at this point.
it all started with The Realization. you see, mark lee has never been good at hiding what he's thinking, face scrunching up when he eats something johnny cooked, that everyone wordlessly agreed on would be good because johnny is very shy about his kitchen skills and they love him very much – it isn't like anyone can blame mark. johnny isn't a good cook and mark isn't a good liar.
so, one day, while renjun, jeno, jaemin and mark hung out in the dorms, the noises chenle and jisung made while playing overwatch in one of their rooms accompanying them, as well as the soft string of jeno's guitar and his and jaemin's acoustic rendition of estelle's american boy, renjun felt the need to jump up and dance – there hadn't been any ulterior motives behind it, just the sudden urge to move. so he did.
and while jaemin did his absolute best at singing the second verse, kind of struggling with the lyrics even though his english pronunciation wasn't that bad, renjun closed his eyes and made his way from the couch to in front of the tv, where the most space was, swaying his arms around him and wiggling his whole body – he didn't care if it didn't look as pretty as the choreographies they learned for stage, or his old ballet routines, it still felt good to just let loose for a moment.
through jaemin's singing, he heard jeno cheering for him (and promptly messing up some of the notes, but it was fine), the chinese mouths some of the lyrics he knows, copying some dance moves he'd picked up from his hyungs' dances, first something xuxi had shown him some time ago, then some of donghyuck's signature ones, smooth and wannabe-sexy. renjun never had been the one to feel extremely hot or anything, but it was still fun to exaggerate some movements now and then.
he hadn't worn makeup and neither was is hair styled, but when mark's eyes met his and a small wah escaped the canadian's lips, renjun felt his stomach drop. the older was looking at him like he was the most beautiful thing it the world and renjun quickly grew flustered, dropping back on the couch, pulling up his hoodie to hide the embarrassed flush that was creeping up his neck‐
"yah, are you even listening to me?!" donghyuck's voice cuts through renjun's throughts and the brunette jumps, feeling himself grow annoyed by the second. "what do you want me to do? i can't just go to him and. like. kiss him or something." the or can i? stays left unsaid, but donghyuck wiggles his eyebrows raunchily. renjun scowls.
"i'm pretty sure he'd be the last one to complain, don't you think?" renjun doesn't know what to say to that. sure, he – and he guesses everyone else on this godforsaken planet – is well aware of the canadian's infatuation with him, has been for longer that he'd thought it would last, but that does not mean that it doesn't scare him anymore.
—
jisung and chenle have a habit of getting hungry at two am so renjun isn't surprised when he catches the two of them making pasta when he gets up to get a glass of water.
the two of them stare at him like deers caught in head lights, before realizing it's them, chenle turning back to stirr the noodles immediately while jisung gives him a tired smile. renjun smiles back. it's obvious that most of the trouble the two youngest get into stems from chenle's urge to fuck around and jisung's inability to say no to him.
"hi nighthawks," he greets them, ruffling jisung's hair as he passes him. he's sitting on the kitchen stool, head resting on his hand. the brunette's eyes close the moment renjun's hand touches his head and renjun considers just sending him to sleep in his bed, rather than in the living room where he'd been camping ever since he'd gotten the top bunk in his shared room with jaemin.
chenle copies the screech of a hawk, jisung wincing a little, before a soft smile spreading on his features.
renjun shakes his head, walking over to the fridge to get out a bottle of water, halting however when he sees the picture of all of them – donghyuck, jeno, jaemin, chenle, jisung, mark and himself. jeno and the three youngest are piled on top of one another, jisung's smile sheepish and chenle's mischievous. donghyuck's grin is beaming and renjun thinks it shows well how innocent the younger can look.
his eyes stop at mark, seemingly not bothered about jaemin sitting on his leg, even though all of them always complain about jaemin's pointy ass. he looks right into the camera, blue contacts making his face look different than his normal, un-idoled appearance. but even like this, even dolled-up and in expensive clothes, mark looks like the sweet boy next door he really is.
renjun chews on his bottom lip.
"don't sleep too late," he tells mostly to jisung, his water forgotten. the younger hums tiredly, chenle only giving him a look, an uncooked spaghetti poking out of his mouth.
he looks down at his text, frowning at the small hi canada, you up? popped up in his and mark's imessage chat. they've only ever texted twice, renjun very openly hating to type in korean and the both of them not really knowing what to say to each other.
proof of that were their last conversation, where mark had texted him first, asking what he was up to. back then, renjun had found it weird and unexpected – now it makes a little more sense and he feels bad for his curt responses back then.
the phone slides out of his hands once the writing bubbles appear, the delivered having turned into read.
it doesn't take mark ten seconds to send a reply and then another:
can't sleep either huh?
hahaha
renjun cringes. mark's a weirdo. it's kind of really endearing.
yup, he types, dumb halting above the send button. too curt. he needs to really give this a shot.
yeah :( the kids are making pasta and i've been listening to music to try and fall asleep but nothing's working.
the text gets read immediately, due to mark still being online. renjun locks his phone to take a breath. he's strangely nervous about this. his phone vibrates against his chest only a couple seconds later and he makes it a point in taking his time entering his code.
i know that feeling ahahaha. indie music helps me a lot, maybe i could recommend you something?
another text pops up. only if you want to ofc
abbreviations. renjun truly hates korean texting, but mark isn't as bad as jaemin with the whole aegyo thing. he's made it a habit of ignoring jaemin's attempts at a text conversation, which resoluted in the younger calling him nine times a day.
hit me
too short, he thinks and quickly sends a :)).
café amarillo by local natives, my favorite fish by gus dapperton, these days by wallows, tropicana by vanilla gorilla, i wanna be your girlfriend by girl in red & marcel by her's r really good songs
renjun feels himself melt and he can't help the gushy smile splitting his face in two.
i'll listen to them and tell you how i like them tomorrow. goodnight mark.
he closes imessage and opens up spotify, quickly creating a new playlist titled marks sleepy time songs. he doesn't react to the notification he gets of mark wishing him a good night back.
(part two coming soon)
