Head Down

◤thirty nine◢

"As much as I'm obsessed with you, those jeans don't do you justice," Mark sighs, watching as Donghyuck pouts in front of him.

"I think they make my butt look great," Donghyuck argues, tilting his chin high, standing true behind his statement.

"Oh shut up," Mark sighs, rolling his eyes as he averts his gaze from Donghyuck. "Your butt always looks great."

"You look?" Donghyuck asks as a follow up, lifting up an inquisitive eyebrow.

Mark's entire face flames red.

"S-Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable—" He starts, stuttering over his apology as he feels his blush crawl down to his neck.

Donghyuck snorts.

"No, keep looking," he giggles, seating himself down on Mark's lap, relishing in how his face gets redder. "I don't mind."

"Can we change the subject?" The older boy groans, closing his eyes and tilting his head back, in order to not look at Donghyuck. He's beyond embarrassed at this point.

"Sure," Donghyuck easily agrees, laying his head on Mark's shoulder. His legs are splayed horizontally over the former's lap, and his hands are playing with the other's. Mark is so comfortable sometimes it baffles Donghyuck. "What's taking Jaem so long? We've been waiting for like fifteen minutes."

Prior to the talk about Donghyuck's jeans and... Other things, they had planned to go for lunch with Jaemin. The couple hasn't left the younger alone since his nasty break up, which happened about four days ago. They don't know if Jaemin is irritated by their constant presence or not, he hasn't said anything yet.

Neither of the two of them will admit it, but it just scares them to leave Jaemin alone right now. He's not in the right frame of mind, that much is obvious, and although they do know Jaemin, it's impossible to tell what could be running through his mind. Mark and Donghyuck don't want to take any risks.

Before Mark could suggest they go check up on him, they hear footsteps come down the stairs, and they're watching as Jaemin makes his way down, clad in ripped blue jeans and a navy hoodie.

They both, however, notice something a bit different.

"I bleached my hair yesterday," the youngest announces, standing in front of the other two boys. However, the head of blond wasn't what Mark had noticed first. Before he could question Jaemin about it though, the younger continues to speak. "Because I was going to dye my hair blue today." He adds, and the two boys sitting on the couch are alarmed by how his breath picks up after that sentence, and how his eyes seem to go frantic.

Donghyuck is quick to jump up from where he was sitting on Mark, quick to hold onto Jaemin's shoulders and help him calm down by leading him through some simple breathing tips.

Along with Mark, Donghyuck is extremely confused.

"Why, um... Why didn't you?" Mark ends up asking carefully, talking about how only the front two pieces of Jaemin's hair were dyed blue and not the rest.

"Because I hate how it looks, and no one was there to tell me looked good." Jaemin admits, still visibly shaken. "It looks awful, doesn't it?"

"No! I think it looks cute," Mark immediately compliments, not wanting Jaemin to go down that train of thought. He's already in a vulnerable state as it is.

"Yeah, you look pretty," Donghyuck adds, smiling dazzlingly to get Jaemin to look at him. He does, but his expression crumbles and his eyes go blank.

"Please don't call me pretty," he says quietly as his shoulder slump. He closes his eyes shut, squeezes them tight for a second before gulping. "It doesn't feel the same."

Mark's eyes soften, and his heart aches so much for Jaemin.

Jaemin, who doesn't deserve this at all. Jaemin, who's too sweet to have his heart broken like this. Jaemin, who loved Jeno through all his flaws, through all his insecurities and through all his problems.

Jaemin was so patient with Jeno.

Where did he go wrong?

"Jeno's an asshole," Donghyuck seethes, causing Mark to jump a bit at the harshness in his tone.

Donghyuck picks up Jaemin's chin, holding it between his thumb and pointer finger, making the younger boy look at him.

"Listen, I know I said that you were the best thing that's ever happened to Jeno, you still are—"

"That doesn't help Donghyuck—"

"Shut up hyung. You're still the best thing that's ever happened to Jeno's pathetic excuse of a life, but Jaemin. He's not worth your tears. He's Lee Jeno and he isn't worthy of you tearing yourself apart because of him."

Judging by the look on Jaemin's face, Donghyuck shouldn't have said what he did.

"How can you say that?" The youngest asks, tone bordering on being furious. "Jeno— Jeno deserves the world. He's just like everyone else; struggling to make it through. He didn't have anyone to help him, to hold his hand in the dark or dry his tears when things got too hard. He—" Jaemin chokes in the middle of his sentence, and Mark sees the tears well in his eyes. "He never let himself feel anything, and he lived so alone for so long. He tried so hard to open up and to love me like he did. He loved me so purely and so innocently. He tried so hard to give me everything I wanted, and he did. He made me happy when I hated myself, and he made me smile when all I wanted to do was cry. He cared for me and called me his princess, so please. Please don't say Jeno is undeserving.

"My Jeno deserves everything in the world."

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this is a short filler i just wanted to make you sad