The Professor's Son

Forever - Part 20

The restaurant Mark had picked as your rendezvous was a fancy Italian place, tucked away in a side street of a hipster area of town. He had booked a table for you out on the terracotta patio, rose bushes surrounded the area, filling the warm night air with their enchanting perfume. Sitting underneath the stars while the sound of Opera from inside the restaurant filtered outside made you feel like you were in a movie.

You nervously bit at your nails while you watched the clock on your wrist.

Where was Mark? You thought to yourself, noticing that the time was already 8.20pm. He was 20 minutes late, not a great start.

Suddenly, you heard the door click behind you. You turned just in time to see the waiter in his tuxedo opening the door and ushering Mark out, who was dressed in his best cornflower blue shirt and black dress pants. He appeared flustered and disheveled, his coffee coloured eyes searching the garden area.

"Right over there sir." the waiter directed with a courteous bow.

As soon as Mark spotted you, his face relaxed and he gave you a generous smile. Automatically, you stood to greet him with outstretched arms. He came closer to you, you noticed the bunch of yellow roses in his hands. Without another second to waste Mark wrapped his arms around you. You nestled your chin into the crook of his neck and held him tight, like it was the last time you two were to meet.

"I've missed you," you mumbled into his ear.

Mark let out a huff, "I've missed you too. It's so good to see you again. Sorry I wasn't at class today." He let go of the embrace and held you at arms lengths so he could peer directly into your face.

"Are you okay? I was really worried something happened to you."

"Yeah I'm fine, some stuff came up with my family...But that's not why I'm here. Let's talk about that later, please sit." Mark motioned to the rusted metal patio chair, "Oh and here I got you some flowers."

You gleefully took the flowers from Mark's hand and examined them. They were freshly cut and sweet smelling, wrapped in fancy silver paper with intricate gold filigree patterns decorating the hem.

"Thank you Mark, you really didn't need to get me anything." you said gratefully, examining the silky texture of the petals and inhaling their aromatic scent, "But why did you choose yellow?"

Mark chuckled, "As a sign of friendship." with that he pulled your chair out for you and let you sit down before taking his own seat across from you.

"I'm glad we're still friends...Especially after what happened at Jungkook's party." you replied sympathetically, still regretful for having put Mark at risk.

"Oh don't even mention it," Mark uttered, he cracked his knuckles while trying to think of something to say, leaving a period of impregnable silence, "I don't think any of us were in our right minds that night."

"Yeah me neither. Thanks for being so understanding Mark, you're seriously such a good friend to me."

Mark smiled and it made your heart swell with happiness, besides Jaehyun he still had one of the most charming smiles you had ever witnessed. You couldn't help but smile as you watched the corner of his eyes crinkle with gladness and warmth.

"I just hope Jaehyun is alright," Mark said, breaking into a more solemn tone, "I remember hearing a crunch when I punched him in the face."

"Oh he's fine, his nose just dislocated a bit apparently. Jaehyun's got this ugly Band-Aid over it, but other than that he's okay." you blurted out.

You watched as Mark's face turned from playful to serious, his dark eyes stared directly at you. The smile had been wiped off his face, now his mouth was straight and tense.