BGM: Fly - GOT7

Tuesday came along faster than expected.

Mark was jittery in his seat in his last and most hated class, English Literature. He didn’t even want to be in the class, but his father ordered him to as it would be good for later on. Mark saw it as complete bull, but it wasn’t like the work and the grading were fairly hard. The class barely reached enough signups every year and the teacher was beyond boring as it was obvious he didn’t care about the subject much either. Most people ended up falling asleep anyhow, including Mark usually, which is why he often was the last one in the locker room. Walking quickly after a nice afternoon nap was not pleasant, so he took his time. He was sure one of these days he was going to sleep through the bell and forget about swim practice.

But not today.

The swimmer constantly kept his eye on the clock and he was practically bouncing out of his seat with his shaky legs that were making quite a ruckus, getting glares from those sleeping next to him trying to nap. He awkwardly smiled back and mouthed “sorry” as they turned the other way, putting earphones in their ears.

    “Mark, are you okay?” asked the teacher as his eyes pulled away from the book they were reading.

Embarrassed enough, Mark shook his head and tried his best to calm down, which was a waste as the bell rang shortly after. The boy grabbed his backpack that hung on his chair and slung it over his shoulder before running out to practice, ignoring his teacher’s announcement about homework. He hardly did the work in general, but he could find out online if anything, who cares.

Everyone was shocked to see Mark running around the halls as the swimmer never moved at such a rate. He often walked slow and cool, enough for girls to gaze at his good looks, not intentional however, he actually kinda hated the attention. His territory was the water, not the land. The captain ignored all the stares and just tried to get to the locker room as fast as he could. Yes, it may be a waste of energy as he had the contest to worry about, but they still had a full hour and a half of practice before it and Mark wanted to work the swimmers off as hard as he could before then.

He also was just rushing because he was nervous.

His heart was at an unease due to Peniel telling everyone what Mark had been hiding if he lost the contest. It wasn’t like his secret was a big deal, well in his eyes it wasn’t. He just didn’t want people to know and he was scared of what people would think or how they would treat him. He wanted to only be known about what he excelled at, swimming, and nothing else. Usually, Mark was the type who didn’t care about other people in general, but this was something that may affect his comfort zone and he was nowhere near enthusiastic about that.

    “The swimmers better help us out again during this season when the school year starts up again,” Peniel demanded as they walked out of the yearly team captain conference. It was nothing new for the two as they both went the year prior.

Mark hadn’t spoken to the boy since he caught him cheating unless he had to and when he did, it was often short and to the point. The swimmer didn’t want to have any lingering feelings and Peniel respected that, surprisingly, and kept his distance from Mark as well, usually.

    “Why should we? You guys don’t really need us. All we do is clean up after your damn stuff, fetch the ball, and occasionally swim for other petty needs,” Mark scoffed as he knew all too well from his experience last year. He tried to walk away from the boy only for Peniel to grab onto his shoulder and pull him back.

    “I wanted to play nice, but I guess we’re gonna have to make a deal,” chuckled Peniel as he stared into the other’s eyes.

    “I don’t make deals with s,” Mark gritted through his teeth as he walked away, thinking he had barely escaped until he heard Peniel yell.

    “Then I’ll tell your burning secret,” Peniel shouted across the room, getting curious stares from those around him, “You know, the one that absolutely no one knows about you.”

Mark’s eyes widened and he quickly walked back and pushed Peniel onto a nearby wall and glared at him with tears watering up in his eyes.

    “What did you say?” he rhetorically asked, “You’ll tell the secret you promised me you wouldn’t tell anyone? How low will you ing go?”

    “Anything for the team. You now know the conditions of our deal. If the swim team helps us out, I won’t tell anyone your secret. I have nothing else to left to say,” Peniel said triumphantly, walking away right after.

    “God damnit.”

Mark went inside the locker room and saw a bunch of half guys still changing, which was a bit unfamiliar to him as he usually arrived when no one was inside and was the last one to leave the pool as well. He quickly went to his locker, which was, unfortunately, right next to Peniel’s as the captains were given the largest lockers. His ex-boyfriend wasn’t at his locker, fortunately, but not wanting to make awkward eye contact if he comes along, Mark just looked straight ahead and undressed, which he habitually did at a slow pace. In the meantime, he listened to the conversations of the others around him as he did so. Some talked about the contest and what they think will happen while others talked about the usual gossip going around school; it wasn’t too appealing to him, learning about who was with who and who did what that was so scandalous as he was trying to be the way he was before and not care, but some of gossip was so ridiculous he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

Mark was folding his shirt as he liked to keep his locker organized before undressing the bottom half. He placed his hands on his belt buckle to loosen it until someone’s arms went around him and placed their hands on top of his. Their chest was heavily against Mark’s and the swimmer could feel the other’s heartbeat and smell him as well. The person didn’t even have to speak before he knew it was his ex.

    “I missed this because god, you look so ing hot without a shirt,” Peniel growled into Mark’s ear, nibbling on it slightly, “Good luck today, hun.”

Peniel released his hold on Mark and walked to the water polo pool with a cocky sway to his hips that Mark couldn’t help but watch. Once the water polo player walked out, Mark immediately took a deep breath and tried to get himself together. Yes, Mark still considered Peniel one of the biggest s he has met, but he was still quite charming.

Mark looked around and noticed that almost everyone was done changing and he realized there was no point in even rushing to the locker room if he was going to be the last one anyway. He quickly changed into his swim trunks and walked out to the pool to start the first hour and a half of practice for the day.

“Can we start using weapons now?” asked Jaebum as he was in the fencing room with just him and their coach.

Jackson was usually one of the first people who finished changing into sports clothes as his class was right next to the room and he didn’t have anyone to really talk to either. He decided not to bother his captain and coach and just casually eavesdrop instead.

“Jaebum, you know the rule. We don’t start using weapons for the first month. Conditioning is important. You have to have full control of your body before you can control a weapon,” the coach lectured.

“We’re all beyond capable and you know that. Come on, coach,” begged the captain, peaking the man’s curiosity.

“Rules and rules, especially when it comes from the principal. Why are you asking this when you know there’s no exceptions?” he asked, tilting his head at Jaebum.

“Because of… you know,” Jaebum coughed, “You know…”

You know? What could that be about?

Jackson came closer, trying to listen in, but only to be disrupted by a loud and obnoxious group of fencers walking out of the locker room. Their name was Up10tion or something like that; Jackson wasn’t too sure. He heard they were crazy good fencers for sophomores, but since they were young they were nowhere near mature enough to be taken seriously outside of matches.

“Jackson sunbae, what are you doing?” loudly asked one of them, shocking Jaebum as he had heard just before he was about to explain.

“Nothing, nothing,” Jackson suspiciously said. The boy just shrugged his shoulders and decided to let it go, playing along again with his friends.

After the group passed by, Jaebum, out of curiosity, walked to where he heard Jackson’s voice and saw no one there. He felt very uneasy about the boy possibly listening in on his conversation with the coach. It made Jaebum feel like Jackson was planning something.

Even if it actually was not the case.

The captain decided to let it go and walk back to the fencing room. Once Jackson saw that the coast was clear, he moved out of the small corner and walked to practice, hoping not to get yelled at by Jaebum. He didn’t want to be on high alert, but Jackson realized that eavesdropping was a careless mistake.

    “Alright. Who’s ready for another hardcore workout?” Jaebum asked with a bright smile after they had ran two laps around the room. The fencers to groan in agony, while Jackson just kept quiet as he didn’t mind too much.