cedar avenue (book 2) -got7

two

mark are you ok?

yugyeom held a bowl of cereal in one hand, messy hair swept into unruly curls, tshirt crumpled. he watched mark drag his feet into the kitchen, concern floating in his gaze. mark shrugged, sighing deeply, "another nightmare. same one."

he busied himself grabbing a cup of water, not wanting to face yugyeom and lie about his dream again. when he had first had the dream, it had been his and yugyeom's very first night in their apartment. he had dreamed of bambam, of finding his dead body, of being strangled by jaebeom. it had shaken him, and he had woken up screaming. of course, yugyeom had questioned him about it and mark had lied. afterall, he was hiding a secret, that he had found blood in bambam's apartment, and that he was most probably in danger. so he lied, made up some stupid dream about an axe murderer chasing him.

5 months later, and the lie was still being told, and yugyeom still didn't know about the blood. mark felt bad about it, of course, everytime he lied he felt bad. everytime he thought of bambam he felt bad. but it was too late to do anything about it, so why even bother yugyeom with it? he guessed he'd be taking the secret to the grave.

he didn't like how selfish he had become. but his whole time at wingate, he had been living for others. for jinyoung, for jackson, for bambam. and they were all gone. so now, in cedar avenue, he had decided to live only for himself. because people would always disappoint him. so far, all had been well, despite the aching guilt he felt when he thought of bambam.

yugyeom didn't question him any further, and they both went about their mornings as usual, yugyeom heading to work far too early in the morning, and mark pottering around the apartment- watering the plants, unloading the dishwasher and other household chores. by 11am, he was off to work, and it was just the same as any other day.

normality.

it took some getting used to.

going from the crazy world of wingate, the fast pace, the violence, the excitement to.... a life in the suburbs. it was weird, and mark was still unsure of where he stood with it all. what he did know though, was that life was easier, and far more comfortable, even with the shadows of wingate and jinyoung still lurking like cobwebs in the corners of his mind. the smallest things reminded him of it, and his old life.

he did miss it. sometimes.

other times, such as when he was walking to the cafe he worked in, feeling the warm breeze on his skin and bouncing along to his playlist, mark couldn't have been happier. his eyes would wander through the trees and the flowers lining the pathways and he would feel lighter. he'd feel the sun resting on the back of his neck and think about how lucky he was, to still be with gyeom, to be moving closer and closer towards happiness.

at work, wingate just melted away, to the point where he would forget it was ever a part of his life. a distant dream perhaps, the kind that you could only remember for a few moments after waking up before forgetting it completely. the cafe was small, nestled into the corner of a street, decorated in pastel pinks and blues. his boss, park jihyo, would greet him every morning with a mug of hot coffee, and he and his coworkers would sit at a table and catch up. they didn't know about his old life, and mark liked it that way.

they were an eclectic bunch. seo changbin was dark and mysterious, no-one knew anything about him, mark sometimes wondered if seo changbin was really his name at all. but whilst mark knew next to nothing about him, he still found his presence warming. changbin was the guy to go to for honest advice, and he could always pick up on mark's mood changes. the only one who knew anything about changbin was jihyo, but she refused to tell them anything. much to the annoyance of ahn hyejin. she was bouncy, and full of life. she'd cling to mark like her life depended on it, smiley, happy. she liked to call herself "the moodmaker" though jihyo would always object.