Apocalypse ✦ Nomin

63

⊱ ───── { Donghyuck } ───── ⊰

"I'm so sorry," Mark murmurs as he finally breaks the silence between him and Donghyuck.

"You should be. You made me look like an ass," the younger grunts as he keeps his arms crossed and face turned away from Mark as they sit in opposite ends of Jeno's couch in the living room, "I thought we agreed to never keep secrets."

"I know we did–"

"So why didn't you tell me that Taeyong ordered you to erase Jaemin's memories?" Donghyuck hisses.

"Because he wanted me to keep it a secret," the man pleads his case, "I was following orders, I thought you would have understood."

"I would have understood more if you told me the minute you agreed to do something like that," he fires back, "But no, I had to hear this all after the fact and after I tried convincing Jaemin that Jeno might've been the person responsible. Do you even realize how suspicious this makes you and Taeyong look? I mean, why was it so fucking important to keep this a secret? Why would you both do this without Jaemin's knowledge and behind everyone's backs?"

"Taeyong said he knew Jaemin would refuse and he insisted that it was for Jaemin's sake that we do it. He told me if I didn't do it, he would make someone else do it for me. I tried my best to only erase little insignificant moments so I could tell Taeyong that I was just having difficulty and it was a really slow process for me, but...I couldn't exactly control it," Mark makes a full admission, "Jeno was right. I would accidentally erase chunks of Jaemin's memory by accident, and I could've done so much worse."

"Mark, that was so reckless of you to do. I know you don't always make the best choices, but this...I can't defend this," Donghyuck states with a disapproving shake of his head, "You fucked up really bad this time."

"I know..."

Donghyuck exhales deeply as a million thoughts race through his mind.

"You know he's not gonna be happy about this, right? When he finds out what you did, he's going to be livid."

"He doesn't need to know. He's already too wrapped up in all of this. The less he knows, the better," Mark shakes his head dismissively.

"You act like he won't find out. He will. He always does."

"He has bigger concerns than my fuck up, right now," Mark insists.

"Yes, but the second he finds out-"

"The second he finds out, Taeyong will tell him to mind his own business. It's not his job to interfere, anymore."

"You say that like he hasn't continued to do that despite Taeyong's warnings. He always has, and he always will. Nothing anyone says will stop him. You know that."

"Yes, but-"

"Then start preparing for a second round of your ass getting torn to shreds by someone angry at you for pulling this shit," Donghyuck refuses to listen to the man's objections.

"And what about Taeyong?"

"I don't know, and I don't care. He can deal with whatever backlash he gets from Jeno and everyone else lining up to defend Jaemin; I'm worried about you."

"Why?"

"Because something's really wrong about Taeyong asking you to do what you did, and the fact he's asking you to take on dirty work like this makes Jeno look like he's right. And frankly, I hate admitting that Jeno is right," Donghyuck explains, "But if he is right and Taeyong isn't as good as he makes himself out to be, that would mean he's assigning you tasks to do for him so his hands are clean. It means he would be able to absolve himself of any potential guilt or blood on his hands. He would pass the blame onto you for doing it."