Mark’s Playlist for I’m Screwed Even If It’s Not My Fault

Young and Menace-Fall Out Boy

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?!?!”

“Dad it’s just a small acc…”

“Where are you?! I’m getting the car and coming out to you!”

“Dad you cannot just…”

“Ignore your dad Mark. I’ll handle him. Call a mechanic and talk to the girl. If she wants to go to the police station, call us ASAP.”

******************

“Is your dad coming out?” Donghyuck asked, shuffling his feet inside the mechanic’s shop in the nearest city of SM.

“No thank god.” Mark sighed, putting his phone away. His dad has made a lot of careless decisions in life. Bought too much spaghetti, installed a useless home burglar system that did nothing but scared the neighbour’s cat. If anything, his best move (aside from having Mark with his mother) was marrying Johnny. “Jeno, how’s the van?”

“You want the good news or the bad news first?”

“Bad news.”

“The van needs to stay here for a few days for necessary repairs. Not only did we bust a tyre but there is also a small problem with the transmission as well as the bent and scratch. I asked if we could delay the transmission problem because it doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but my dad said I should just get it fixed.”

“Okay, then what’s the good news?”

“I got no more bad news.”

“Great.” Renjun sighed. “We are without a ride, a place to stay and we have to delay our trip by a few more days.”

“How much is this going to cost us?” Donghyuck asked.

“I didn’t dare ask. We got insurance for this thing, my dad is going to call up the company. There’s no way we can pay for it by cash.”

“You know what, that ought to pay. She was the one who slammed our van and dragged us all the way here.” Donghyuck stomped his foot on the ground. He turned to look at the two girls, whose beautiful car was parked right next to their van, it’s front damaged badly by the accident. The girl who smacked Mark’s face with her purse was visibly annoyed as she texted somebody while her friend was just sitting around checking her makeup.

“Hey you!!”

“Who’s calling?” The girl on her phone asked, looking around the garage.

“You with the ugly shoes and big purse! I’m talking to you!”

“What did you say about my shoes?!”

“I said…” a hand reached over to muffle Donghyuck’s mouth.

“Don’t antagonize her!!” Mark said.

“Like I give a flying .” Donghyuck snapped, pushing Mark’s hand away. “You, the one who drove into us! You owe us an apology, money and at least 6 month’s worth of burgers!”

“Excuse me but I don’t owe you anything.” The girl spat out, tucking her phone away in her purse. “Your frumpy van was the one stuck by the side, blocking that sign. If it wasn’t there, I would have just crashed into the post and avoided your van!”

“Where in God’s name do you get your license from?” Donghyuck huffed. “Because people like you shouldn’t be even be crossing roads much less driving.”

“I just happen to be a little distracted. It’s not my fault.” She pouted. “I told Daddy I needed a bigger review mirror to do my makeup but he said no.”

“You were trying to do makeup in your car?” Mark dropped his jaw.

“It wasn’t really makeup, more like touch ups. Joy was the one trying to change her bra in the car!”

The boys couldn’t quite believe what they were hearing. It was like something out of a Mr. Bean movie. All these couldn’t possibly be true.

“Whatever,” Donghyuck shook his head. “You owe us big time for crashing into our van!”

“What my friend is trying to say is,” Mark elbowed Donghyuck to try and get him to shut up. “Is that we should take this to the police station.”

“No no no!!” the girls shook their heads in panic. “We can’t go back there again!”

“Again?” Jeno raised an eyebrow.

“Yeri! If your dad finds out…”

“I know I know.” Yeri sighed, pulling her friend Joy away from the boys as they went into a corner, whispering something into each other’s ear.

“Why did you ask me to shut up?”

“Because if you do the negotiating we might really end up behind bars.” Mark hushed. The girls turned around and walked towards them, their heels clacking loudly against the garage floor.

“We can strike a deal. A compensation of some sort, if you agree to not bring this to the police.” Yeri said.

“That sounds like a good idea.” Mark breathed a sigh of relief. “Maybe we should go some place, cool down and have a proper negotiation.”

“Let’s just go back to my place.” Yeri said.

“Fine, how do we get there?” Donghyuck asked.

“Let me make a call.” Yeri said, bringing out her phone. “Driver, I need you to pick me up.”

******************

“So you guys have been travelling on the road like this for a few days already?”

“It’s been at least 2 days.”

“That is so cool.” Yeri said, resting her chin on palm as she lazily swirled her tea with her gold porcelain spoon. “Tell me more about it Mark.”

“Excuse me sir, could we have some more of that cake?” Donghyuck asked, giving his plate to the house butler, who simply nodded politely and went off for more cake. When the boys were picked up by the family Rolls Royce and dropped off at the family’s 15-bedroom mansion on a hill overlooking the city, they were immediately greeted by the family butler and bought to the tea room, where they had a very expensive collection of cakes, sweets and drunk out of fine china that you have to mortgage a house for.

“I think we can save the rest of the story for later.” Mark smiled embarrassingly. “We need to talk about the accident.”

“Yesh, we want pull comphenshasion…”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Mark nudged him again. “We are asking for compensation to fix the bend…”

“The whole package.” Jeno piped up, sipping his tea with his pinky in the air. “Is this how they do it?” he asked Renjun, waving his pinky in the air.

“Well,” Yeri rolled her eyes so subtly Mark almost couldn’t catch it. “I’ll pay for the full expenditure of the van if you won’t go to the police.”

“Deal.” Donghyuck swallowed his cake and gave a thumbs-up. “By the way the cakes are delicious.”

“Thank you. The patisserie who made them studied exclusively in France.”

“Oh. In that case, it could use a little more dressing.”

“Don’t mind Donghyuck, he’s like that.” Mark laughed awkwardly, secretly digging his nails into Donghyuck’s thigh and the boy squirmed in pain. “He doesn’t mean you any harm.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t.”

“Well it’s nice meeting you Yeri and thank you for the food but we should get going.”

“Where are you going?”

“We have to look for a place to stay while the van is getting fixed.” Renjun said, wiping his lips with the stain napkins.

“You don’t have to do that. You can just stay here with me.”

“Are you high- I mean serious?” Jeno asked, eyes wide open in total shock.

“Yeah, here with me in a large mansion with a private butler, two swimming pools and a bowling alley.” Yeri showed off, the jewels on the bracelet she wore swinging around carelessly. “Why would you say no to that?”

“We can’t,” Mark said, looking at his friends. “But we really can’t…”

“What he means to say is,” now Donghyuck was the one who slapped his hand against Mark’s mouth. “Is that we thank you for the generous offer, and we accept-“ he glared at Mark for a few seconds “but we insist on paying you back in some way.”

“As long as you don’t tell anyone you are here.” Yeri said. “My dad is gone for a whole month but he will freak out when he finds out that I brought in 4 strangers to live with me for a while.”

“A whole month? Where is he?”

“Mexico, I think. Or maybe Argentina? Whatever, doesn’t matter.” Yeri waved carelessly. “So, I let you stay here and pay for your van, while you don’t go to the police and don’t even breathe a word about you staying here. Deal?”

“Is there a jacuzzi in this place?” Donghyuck asked one last time.

“3rd floor, east wing, bathroom number 7.”

“We have a deal.”

******************

Now, you may be wondering: I thought this was a road trip story about 4 boys? Who the hell is this Yeri character and is she important to this story? The answer to those 3 questions are yes, I’ll get to that and not to everyone, but certainly to Mark’s.

Yeri’s character is not unlike the high school everyone has at least one memory of. That girl who thinks she is the top dog. That girl with more money than hair on her head, whose hair by the way is always flawlessly silky and smooth. That girl who dated the captain of the football team, student body president AND the leader of the chess club all at the same time while voted captain of the cheerleading squad. The girl you hate but can’t help wishing you were her.

At this point, I’m sure you must be questioning this child’s thought process. What in God’s name is she doing applying makeup while driving? She was on her way back home from a party outside of the town with her best friend Joy, and because she was in a rush to leave she didn’t get time to fix her makeup. Why is she so adamant about not going to the police? Well what 18-year-old kid wants to be put in jail? And why did she agree to letting Mark and his friends, 4 complete strangers, stay with her? That one is obvious, because Mark is, to quote teenage girls, hot.

Mark would never agree to that. He would always say he is just normal looking, but by high school standards, Mark is a pretty attractive boy. He’s tall and lean (a little on the skinny side, but not too skinny), with nice eyes he picked up from his father, and a cute nose that crinkles when he smiles. He has dark eyebrows that contrasts nicely with his fair skin, and well-defined cheekbones for a teenager his age. It’s no wonder Yeri found him attractive, but Mark is too dense and innocent to pick up flirting signs like this so quickly.

Donghyuck on the other hand, knew it from the moment they stepped foot into the garage back in town, and in usual Donghyuck fashion, he would not stop teasing Mark about it.

“She is so into you.”

“She is not.” Mark said, after they had settled in their rooms (one each because there were so many to choose from) and gathered in the main living hall.

“Renjun, square with me. Is Yeri interested in Mark, or not?”

“I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Jeno?”

“Neither was I.”

“Seriously, is everyone here born with one eye or something?” Donghyuck groaned. “She is so into Mark.”

“She is not. How could she be when we’ve only known each other for an hour?”

“Then why would she let strangers into her house for a few days? She could have very easily thrown us out onto the streets, give us our money and call it a day. Why does she want us around her? Aren’t people like us supposed to be beneath her?”

“Why, just because we’re not rich like she is?” Jeno asked.

“Grow up guys. Did you see the way she first looked at us? It was like we were disgusting amoebas the life out of a dead fish.” Donghyuck crossed his arms. “Then, Mark started talking and all of a sudden he’s the bee’s knees and she keeps looking at him with googly eyes and pretending to be interested in our sweaty, unwashed and road trip story.”

“Come on, Yeri is a nice girl.” Mark said, trying to offer some defence for their host.

“Sure she is, because you are here.” Donghyuck laughed. “If it was me she would have cast me aside like a pair of knock offs of those ugly shoes she was wearing.”

“That’s because you keep antagonizing her.”

“Hello, she ran into our van.” Donghyuck said, rolling his eyes. “Did you all forget that she caused the accident or has the luxury of this Playboy mansion blinded you?”

“Stop acting like this Hyuckie.” Renjun said, placing a hand on his arm. “Let’s just be thankful we have a roof over our heads.”

“Renjun is right. This would be the last and only piece of luxury we could afford on this trip.”

“Fine.” Donghyuck nodded, because it was true. “Mark,” he called, wriggling his eyebrows. “You should go and talk to her.”

“Why?”

“Flirt with her a little and maybe she’ll take us out dinner, dancing and probably a trip to Hawaii.”

“Shut up Hyuck.”

A/N: I just want to make clear about the next few chapters of this story. First of all, I adore Red Velvet and Yeri is my child XD But I wanted to find a character that is not only the same age as Mark but also completely different from him, so I chose Yeri. It's not my original intention to make her as the or the 'bad girl' in this story but rather to make a complicated character that can clearly showcase the struggles many teenagers share. In the next chapter you will understand Yeri better and get a glimpse into her circle of friends (for the record, Jihoon and Woojin from Wanna One will be characters XD ) and by the end of this part of the story I hope you will be able to see the growth in Mark's character. Do leave comments and let me know what you think so far!!!