Fin

Set my heart high (like a volleyball)
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After endless practice sessions and continuous muscle aches that led them to sleep deprived nights, it seemed like this moment would never come but it’s finally here: the last match of the season — and their goodbye to their high school life.

Mark is thrilled.

His balled hands are deep down on the pockets of his navy blue tracksuit, earbuds stuffed in as he walks into the gymnasium. Mark sits on the bench assigned for his team while the playlist rolls away, not really paying attention to the music. Instead, he observes the bleachers filling up and banners being placed on the railings. Mark settles his sport bag near his feet and lets the feeling of reality sink in.

It’s not just a simple final game, not when it’s against the rival school. His right leg starts hammering against the gymnasium’s floor as nervousness fills his system. Mark knows they’re ready to put up a good fight but can’t avoid feeling a bit jittery and expectant.

After a few minutes the bleachers are almost full. Their classmates along with other people from their school came to cheer for them ready with a bunch of cheerleader’s pompons and whistles matching the official colors of their school, yellow and blue.

Switching his eyes around the agitated audience, Mark spots his family in the crow and immediately facepalms. His older brother is porting a big banner with Mark’s name and number along with an embarrassing quote: fly high supercaptain! And an attempt of a cute doodle in the corner.

Mark acts as if he didn’t see them when his brother starts moving it around vigorously.

There is a sudden, warm, heavy feeling on his knee that makes his leg stop and takes him out of his self embarrassed bubble. Jeno looks up to him as his hand is consistent on his best friend’s leg.

“Feeling nervous?”

Taking his earbuds out and letting it drop on his lap, Mark scoffs. “No.” Freaking yes.

“Don’t worry, we’ve got this.” Jeno pats his leg with reassurance.

Even if Mark confines his real thoughts to himself, Jeno will always see through him.

“Hmm,” That’s the only thing Mark manages to say.

It’s not like Mark is a negative soul, he just has a lot of things weighing on his shoulders. Mark’s the captain of their team and he forces himself to put up a tough façade for the younger ones so they can rely on him. Plus, Mark has been spending every free time of his high school life playing volleyball so he could fight for a sport scholarship to get into NCT U. When everyone was socializing like normal teenagers, Mark didn’t even know what the trendy song was at the moment.

Since this morning his mind has been a bit cloudy with too many thoughts flowing through it. Mark knows scouts will be checking their performance and he can’t let pass this once in life opportunity.

With too much going on in his head, Mark almost misses Jeno’s eyes lighting up when a certain blonde from the opposite team enters in. He seriously expects that Jeno stays in his freaking line for once, not like last time when he scurried to sit with their rivals, gaining a few odd looks — and a yell from Mark because what the hell.

The referee calls for the captain of both teams and Mark has to suppress the urge to roll his eyes.

“Look who managed to get into the final.”

“Definitely not to see your face.” Mark retorts.

There is a smile blossoming on Donghyuck’s lips that’s growing into a smirk and Mark seriously wants to spike a ball onto his face. Pity that the referee is still there and they have to keep it somewhat civil, so they just shake hands barely tightening the grip.

His hand becomes languid to his side as the referee calls for heads or tails.

“Tails.” Mark opts.

The coin flips a few times in the air before being caught.

“Tails it is.”

“We call serve,” Mark chooses and nods towards the referee before looking at Donghyuck.

He has that expression that says the same as his: last game, this is war.

 

 

The game is tough. Sets always end up passing the usual line of points as none of them want to give up the opportunity of carrying the trophy in their hands.

They’re currently on the fourth set.

Mark’s team is winning by two sets and if they kill this one they will be proclaimed champions, but obviously Donghyuck is not letting that happen. The scoreboard shows 19-21. If they keep on like this, they’re going to lose this set and that means they have to go for a fifth and last one.

Sweat is persistent on Mark’s forehead and he rubs it away with his blue official t-shirt. Mark bents down and places his hands on his bare knees as he looks at his teammates. They’re outworn. Their coach called a time-out to establish a few new strategies and to cut the good streak from the rival team.

“They’re good with tips, we’ve fallen for a few of them already,” Mark points out, annoyed. A few teammates look over their shoulders as they spot the rival captain.

Donghyuck is an expert at that and doesn’t doubt playing his best card. It’s his trick and Mark can’t stop falling for it. With just the contact of his fingertips the ball passes the net and they barely have time to run and set it high again. That stupid smirk never fails to do a comeback when the ball touches the floor.

“We need to use our best weapons too,” Mark’s eyes land on the referee that’s checking his watch before looking at his teammates. The time is ticking and Mark’s heartbeat starts speeding up matching the watch handles. “We have a few tall members, we need to create a decent wall. Jeno, Jaemin and Jisung will take care of that.”

There is a consensus nod as the named boys get closer to sort out a plan.

“About the serves, go straight for it. Send them powerful shots that will destabilize their libero and the ball will go off limits.”

That’s the best way of getting extra points just from the beginning of the serve. Mark doesn’t want to let go of this set, he knows their teammates will be too tired for a fifth one.

“Alright guys, gather up,” The rest of the team as well as the seated ones on the bench huddle around him in a circle. “We’ve been doing amazing up until now; let’s keep up the good work!”

The whistle pierces the air and they howl as their hands gather up in the middle of the circle to chant a few team-words. The ones on the bench pat their backs and butts to encourage the players.

We’ve got this. Jeno’s words keep repeating on Mark’s mind as he scurries to take his position up at the front.

Donghyuck is in the other side of the net, eyes looking straight at him as a few strands of red dark hair are stuck on his forehead.

“Feeling energizer?”

“You can bet.” Mark replies, lips tugging up in a half smile.

Donghyuck’s stare hardens when the ball is tossed into the air.

24-24

They managed to match the score and the rival team is fuming.

It’s not an easy task to keep the two points difference, they keep on achieving one point and then the rival school does the same. It’s like a never ending game.

28-27

Mark is up at the front again as he gets ready to attack. From the corner of his eye he observes Donghyuck moving, trying to follow his position. Mark looks at his setter to determine the direction of the ball and he leaps, his hand comes in contact with the ball and sends it flying between the blockers. The ball bounces off the floor as the rival libero misses it.

Mark wishes he could see the scoreboard going up but as he comes off his jump, his leg slips and his knee collides with the floor. Mark hisses. A piercing pain runs through his leg as he drops his arms to hold himself up, head hanging down to hide his distressful face. Mark endures and blinks away the tears that are about to fall out.

 “You okay?”

It doesn’t take long for Jeno to come up running to check on him and Mark lets himself be dragged up as he forcefully sends the pain away.

“Your bad knee again?”

Mark mutters a ‘yeah’ through gritted teeth and eagerly takes his dark hair off his face as if it’s going to relieve the pain or make him focus more in some kind of way.

Before the game resumes, Mark stares at Donghyuck and immediately looks away when their eyes lock, getting off the nonexistent dust that could have landed on his clothes. Mark just doesn’t want to look at him, he’s still processing the fact that Donghyuck, his archenemy, asked him a simple question that actually wasn’t simple at all.

You okay?

 

 

29-28

One point. Just one point is what separates them from getting the trophy. Both teams are pulling up a good fight even if their energy is very much depleted.

Mark looks at Jeno sideways when he notices who the next server is in the rival team and a ray of hope blossoms in his chest. Donghyuck is an amazing setter and even better to carry out tricks up at the front in the net, but definitely he’s not one of the best when it comes to serve powerful shots.

As expected, the ball crosses the net with a low impact. It’s very playable and Jaemin takes advantage of that to set it up and send a useful collocation to the setter. Mark and Jeno are ready to play the trick as the hitters without letting know who is the one killing the ball at the end.

They both leap and the rival team forms a wall trying to knock it off but their focus is mostly on Jeno who has a better position. In a last minute decision, Jisung suits it to his right where Mark is already waiting and before he knows it, his wrist moves and he spikes it to the open corner.

The buzz comes off and he’s just there, numb.

His sport shoes are glued to the shining floor as the scoreboard moves: 30-28.

They’ve won.

“We’ve won!!!” Jeno jumps on his back, yelling and Mark comes off his trance and laughs as his teammates hug him fervently almost knocking him off.

They end up on the floor forming a human buddle as the players on the bench join them and it’s just a mess. They are yelling, laughing, crying… Mark comes with the excuse that it’s sweat and tries to hide his face behind his forearm but Jeno knows him better than that — and he will never let that die anyway.

Wiping his tears away with the back of his hand, Mark calls for the team to gather up.

“Line up guys.”

The rival team is already waiting on the other side of the net and they shake hands as they pass by.

“Congratulations.” Donghyuck says, coldly.

“Thank you,” Mark replies, trying to suppress the bliss. “You put up a good game.”

Donghyuck just looks at him making Mark squirm in his own skin before dropping his eyes. Mark follows his stare and notices his scratchy knee. Damn, he showed his weak side in front of the enemy. Well, it’s over anyway.

They lock eyes again and Donghyuck lets out a hum before going for a handshake with the next opponent player. Mark looks after him as if he just missed something he should have known.

He’s lost.

 

 

It’s just a few days after the last game of their high school senior year, in the beginning of the summer, when Mark receives a call from his mom.

They’re hanging out in the local pool after promising they weren’t going to play volleyball during the whole summer — but they know they’ll be back at it two days later anyway. Jaemin decided they were going to play with another kind of ball so they’re currently playing soccer or attempting to.

Jeno says it loud and clear, “We .”

They have kicked more grass than the actual ball.

Mark laughs when Jaemin bows down to apologize to a passerby that just got kicked and fishes his phone when it starts ringing. He walks away from the loud chattering to have a clear hear although he doesn’t need to — she’s screaming.

“What’s going on?” Jeno asks when notices his best friend frozen with his phone still glued to his ear despite the call being finished a few seconds ago.

Mark blinks, once, twice, and then, “I got a sport scholarship for NCT U.”

The feeling of the last game comes all at once when he feels all his friends throwing themselves over him in a barbaric hug.

 

It’s not until two weeks before the start of his freshman year in college that Mark starts practicing seriously for volleyball again. Mark brings Jeno begrudgingly after he comes back from his vacation in Miami. Jeno is porting this sun-tattoo thanks to his bratty cousin that decided to spread cream on his back with Lenny’s face.

“I swear to god if you tell someone—“

And by someone he means Jaemin because if he finds out then Jeno won’t see the end of it.

During one of their breaks, Jeno too focused on stealing food from Mark’s bag, he takes a photo and sends it to their group chat. Jeno has a bad feeling when his phone starts ringing obnoxiously in his pocket and without a doubt he starts chasing after Mark, maniac laugh filling the air.

 

 

The atmosphere in the gymnasium of NCT U is cold and Mark feels like someone took away the air from his lungs. He’s sitting on a bench as he waits for the coach to show up. His fingers flicker over his trembling legs as he lets out heavy sighs every time someone enters in.

A few players from the current team are walking around getting the set up done for the new members.

Mark follows them with his eyes as a distraction until a blurry red spot calls his attention.

Donghyuck is walking up to the bench of newbies when he stops on his tracks as he locks eyes with Mark.

None of them were sure where the other would go. Mark always made it clear that he wanted to get into NCT U because he was a big fan of a previous hitter from this university. He still has the walls from his old bedroom filled with posters showing his not so lowkey obsession that leaded him to start playing volleyball.

Of course, Donghyuck didn’t know any of that because they barely talk — they just glare.

As expected, Donghyuck sits as far away as he possibly can at the beginning of the bench away from Mark. He’s not surprised though, they’re not friends anyway it’s not like he was expecting a warm greeting.

Two seconds later the coach comes in and the chattering dies down as they start hushing.

“Good morning.” He says and everyone replies in unison. His eyes scan the now upstanding new members and they start quivering under his gaze. Jung Yunho is young with a firm authority as makes them know when he starts demanding from the beginning a few serves to check their skills.

Mark is about to send his third serve when the coach stops him. He feels as if his knees are going to give out any second.

“What’s your position?”

“Wing spiker, sir.” Mark manages to spill, voice caught up in his throat.

Yunho’s gaze lands on the boys perched on the bench and announces, “I need a setter.”

Apart from Donghyuck, two other boys raise their hands and the coach checks his clipboard. He flips the pages reading the provided information until his head comes up again and Donghyuck is about to vomit his breakfast.

“You two are from the same district?”

Donghyuck and Mark look at each other briefly before letting out a ‘yes’.

“Good, show me what you got.”

With quivering steps, Donghyuck approaches the net and catches the volleyball that Mark throws at him.

“Set it high.”

Donghyuck is too focused with getting his together that ignores the fact that Mark demanded him something. If they still were in high school, they would be bickering like dogs by now.

His Adam’s apple moves as apprehension fills his system. Donghyuck manages to put out a decent ball as his first set but it’s nothing spectacular. The coach calls for a second one. Rotating his shoulders trying to loose his muscles, Donghyuck sets it high and a bit inclined to the right as he had saw Mark’s old setter do it every time it was his turn. Mark spikes it perfectly and the coach hums in satisfaction.

 

 

The season starts with a bunch of seniors taking the spotlight. The new members barely are taken in consideration for the start lineup so Mark finds himself benched almost in every match. It , but it also motivates him to practice more.

Mark’s feeling a bit unwell today so he’s kind of glad that he’ll be benched again. What he’s not so glad about is seeing a certain blonde boy with innocent looking eyesmile walking up to him.

“Yo!”

“What are you doing here?!” Mark hisses, half yelling at his best friend as he approaches him. “I told you I’m not playing today!”

Jeno scoffs. “Who said I came to see you?”

Mark quirks a brow at that. He calls Jeno his best friend for a few reasons: Jeno is an amazing supporter to everything he does and even better when it comes to give advices. Mark knows he can rely on him on everything. Mark also calls him the devil — for even more than evident motives.

“Hey Donghyuck!”

And Mark is positive Jeno is the second one today.

Said boy stops on his tracks and looks at them as if one of them grew a third head.

“Hey?” Donghyuck replies, with a hint of a question.

Jeno snakes an arm around Mark’s shoulders and brings him closer. “Take care of buddy here, will you? He’s still a bit nervous.”

And then happens what they would never expect in a million years — Donghyuck looks at Mark for help. Donghyuck is bewildered as hell but Mark looks even worse, eyes too round almost falling out. He prays his teammate gets the hint that he doesn’t have anything to do with this sudden-unwanted approach and soon even less with a dead blonde.

“Okay?”

Donghyuck starts walking in whatever direction; he forgot where he was planning to go because it caught him off guard, but still looks back to give a quirked eyebrow to the two freaks. Donghyuck’s still unsure of what happened with his old rivals.

“Oh my god, he’s going to think I’m a weirdo!”

“So now you care what he thinks of you?” Jeno says, smirk on point. Mark grunts.

“No!” Their hate relationship is a bit broken with the amount of meet-ups the team has but they still prefer to stay as far away from each other as possible. “Just—“

Mark doesn’t even finish whatever he was going to say because he thinks beating up his best friend is a more accurate answer.

 

 

The season ends with their team getting the third position. Mark and Donghyuck managed to get a few minutes out of the tournament but their thirst for a whole game is still intact. Nevertheless, their coach doesn’t look pleased with the outcome. And the fact that a few seniors graduated takes his angry state to a whole new level. The team looks a bit unbalanced so the coach starts bickering a few new plans for the upcoming season.

Mark swears he must be deaf or something when the coach points at him and then at Donghyuck before the next words leave his lips, “From now on I want you two to start practicing together. I want a good synchronization.”

He seriously prefers to be deaf.

And that’s how they end up shut-in the gymnasium at the beginning of the summer. Thoughts of a relaxing holiday long forgotten.

The situation just can be defined as awkward as hell.

Usually, Mark is the first one to come in and starts warming up. Then Donghyuck comes and they avoid each other as long as they can manage before one of them give up on their pride and asks to start practicing the synchronization.

One day, Mark is a bit late for practice because he stayed until late listening to Jeno complain about how cute his crush looks with a new haircut and how his heart can’t stand such perfection —thank you Jeno, but that’s not relevant information in my life.

Donghyuck is already there practicing serves. Mark plops his sport bag on a bench and cleans his face with the bottom of his t-shirt for any kind of trail from his sleep. He observes how the ball passes the net and comes off with a light bounce after touching the line at the back.

“You should use the heel of your hand for a better track—” When the sound of his own voice reaches his ears, Mark covers his mouth, realizing he said it out loud.

.

Donghyuck’s head shots in his direction, hand held up ready to try a new serve.

“I— don’t mind me,” Mark hurriedly spits and rounds, freaking out because damn — and busies himself with his bag as coverage.

There is an awkward silence that follows after his outburst before he hears Donghyuck talking.

“The heel you said?”

Mark looks over his shoulder and finds Donghyuck with the ball secured on his side, grey t-shirt a bit riled up around his hip.

“Um, yeah,” Mark replies, pushing his growing bangs aside. “Hit the ball in the middle with the heel of your hand. It’ll follow a straightest trajectory.”

Donghyuck looks at him sideways before trying the new information. Mark looks at the scene, arms crossed over his chest and feeling a bit uneasy — it’s too early for this , his brain can’t function properly.

The ball comes off with a more secure track. It’s a basic serve just to pass the bulk, they can’t ask for more.

Donghyuck hums in satisfaction and his eyes land on Mark. Donghyuck’s lips tug up in a half uncertain smile. Mark gives him a thumb up, lips pressed tight, not really knowing how to react.

The atmosphere feels heavy.

Then Donghyuck breaks it when he adds with a sassy tinge, “Should I set it high again?”

And Mark knows he’s referring to their coordination trick. Tucking his hands on his black sweatpants, Mark walks up to Donghyuck and scoffs but a playful smile makes its way to his lips.

 

 

Mark thought it would be a onetime thing, but when Donghyuck comes up to him the next day making his ball roll away — after hitting Mark’s head— as Mark misses the ball’s path, he’s perplexed.

“Can you check my serves?”

And by that he means: can you give me more advices?

Mark blinks first because what the hell, and then nods. He stays out of the court and observes. Donghyuck has improved in just one day and Mark may be a bit amazed —but saves the compliments to himself. He doesn’t notice Donghyuck looking back at him waiting for a feedback until seconds later.

“Oh,” Mark says, still a bit out of the blue. “It was nice. I mean — you can add a few steps to make it more powerful.”

Donghyuck moves his hand in a negative. “No way, I barely can handle a basic one.”

“I can help you,” Mark’s eyes grow like saucers at his outburst. It’s becoming an annoying habit. He seriously needs to filter everything he says.

“Really?” Donghyuck asks, amused. “You don’t look like you meant it.”

Transparent. That’s what Jeno always calls him.

“No, I mean — yeah, I don’t mind helping you out,”

Donghyuck chuckles. Mark’s puzzled face is way too funny. He’s taking all his willpower not to add a few remarks.

“If you insist,” Donghyuck’s eyes have a playful glint and Mark doesn’t know what’s going on anymore. “How do I place my feet?”

Their coordination task is long forgotten as they’re too engrossed with the serves. Mark has a lot of patience thanks to his years as a captain in his old school. There were a lot of kids that haven’t played volleyball in their whole life, but Haikyuu!! made them want to play. Mark had to deal with a lot of Hinata wannabes.

Donghyuck still waits for Mark to yell at him at some point because he’s too afraid of getting hit in the face if his position is wrong —that yell never comes though.

They end up sprawled in the gymnasium’s floor after hours of practicing. Their t-shirts are drenched in sweat and their muscles are sore. Heavy chests come up and down as their breaths are the only sounds filling the gymnasium. They lost track of the time and it has become dark outside.

Begrudgingly Donghyuck gets up and ignores his legs complaining, they need to rest —but an essay is waiting for him on his desk and no one is going to make it for him. Donghyuck walks up to his sport bag and tosses everything in. Mark figures he’s going to leave, that’s what they always do anyway. Collect everything and leave without a word.

This time it feels different. Especially when Donghyuck walks next to the benches and stops when he reaches Mark’s bag. He spins around on his heels, facing it and then bends. Mark quirks a brow because all he can see is Donghyuck’s back and he never comes near Mark’s stuff nor him but today Donghyuck is crossing all the lines their archenemy relationship built up during all these years. Donghyuck rises up and turns, lifting his hand up as a farewell —scratch another line there— before marching to the door and getting out.

Mark’s eyes follow him until he leaves the gymnasium and then hurries to the benches. There is a Kit-Kat pack placed on the top of his bag and he knows the coach is very much against it —and so is his strict diet— but it doesn’t stop a smile to form on his lips.

They’re still too stubborn to say a simple thank you.

 

 

“What’s that?”

Mark barely registers his best friend talking to him, too focused on the videogame at hand. At first, when Jeno barged into his room saying they needed a Sunday’s best friend thingy because Mark has been neglecting their friendship, Mark had buried his face into his pillow ignoring the statement because it was ridiculous. Jeno decided it wasn’t a decent answer and dragged him out from his bed by his foot.

“I asked you,” Jeno kicks his side and Mark almost drops the stick placed on his lips. “What’s that?”

“Kit-Kat, have you never seen it?”

Jeno kicks him again because how dare he be a sassy . “I know that , I’m asking you why are you eating it. Aren’t you a freak of healthy food?”

Mark just shrugs and continues playing as the stick disappears into his mouth.

“Gimme some,”

“Nah.”

“Why not?” At the lack of response, Jeno makes his way to the other side just to get his hand slapped. He brings his beaten hand to his chest and caresses it. “Why are you being such an ? It’s from a fan or something?”

Mark almost drops his gamepad. “As if,” Just imagining Donghyuck batting his eyelashes at him makes him shiver.

“Then share! Sharing is caring!”

Mark’s clothed foot makes its way to Jeno’s face. He has had enough; it’s time to counterattack.

 

 

The following week, Mark feels a bit nervous —not that he’s going to admit it— because he has been giving to his old-enemy or whatever they’re now more time than he ever thought he would. Mark passed the afternoon from yesterday looking for old stuff from his volleyball team where he explained easy stuff for different positions.

So when Donghyuck comes in, Mark’s voice sounds a bit high pitched from his excited state and startles his teammate.

Clearing his throat to save future embarrassments, Mark says again, “So, casually, yesterday I was checking stuff from my old team and found a few tips for good serves.”

Donghyuck drops his belongings on the floor as he locks eyes with Mark. “How lucky I am huh? I’m glad casually you found it,” He draws ‘casually’ a bit too much for Mark’s liking.

“Yeah,” Mark murmurs. “Casually.”

He’s starting to hate that word.

“So, what did you get me?” Donghyuck asks, playfully. Arms crossed over his bluish t-shirt, wrinkling the Adidas logo.

Mark bents down and rummages his sport bag, putting aside his showering stuff and pulls out his grey laptop.

“Oh , you’re even going to make it fancy,”

“Shut up.” Mark grunts, placing it on a bench and sitting cross-legged on the floor as he looks for the document. From the corner of his eye Mark notices Donghyuck taking a seat an arm-length away from him, but enough to have a good view of the screen.

Mark passes the slides while explaining the content.

“I think that if you nail those, we can go for a flying serve with steps, how that sounds?”

“It sounds like my neck breaking on the floor.”

Mark blinks and then laughs, craning his neck and catching Donghyuck’s sheepish smile. It must be weird for him too to try to ease the atmosphere and get along with someone that he sort of hated for three years and he has to work with now.

As much as Mark would like to say ‘have faith in me, I’ll help you’ he’s not quite sure Donghyuck can believe him just yet and Mark doesn’t blame him. This sudden kind of friendship was forced but as time goes by, Mark doesn’t feel that irritating feeling whenever he sees his teammate.

“Let’s try it,” Mark gets up, raising his arms and stretching then over his head.

“No promises of a good performance,” Donghyuck tries to play it cool but Mark notices him looking a bit nervous.

Mark has observed that Donghyuck likes to play around too much but sometimes he uses it to hide his insecurities.

“Don’t worry, actually I need to practice my serves too,” Mark lies.

Donghyuck looks at him sideways and Mark knows he has been caught but Donghyuck doesn’t say anything.

 

They practicing together become a routine. Initially it was uncomfortable but as weeks passed by they grew comfortable with each other. Mark would busy himself with his phone until Donghyuck showed up and then their practice would begin —even their warm ups have become the same ones.

“Set it hi—“

“High,” Donghyuck finishes for him and rolls his eyes. “You’re so stubborn with showing your strength. You’re putting too much pressure on your bad knee.”

Mark flushes, hand coming up to scratch his nape. “So you noticed. Most people think I just slip.”

Donghyuck is pretty much offended. “I’m not most people.”

And yeah, he’s not. Donghyuck has been making his way through Mark’s daily life as if he always belonged there. Donghyuck is actually very funny and witty, he comes up with the most absurd but brilliant ideas. Mark finds himself staying longer after their practice sessions just for the sake of enjoying the other’s company.

One night, Mark realizes they’ve been there longer than planned when Jeno calls him demanding where the was him —literal words. Donghyuck had to cover his upcoming laugh when he heard Jeno whining like a baby because Donghyuck was stealing his best friend from him.

“Why don’t you try tips? You still have to jump but the pressure will be lower.”

“Tips,” Mark repeats with bitterness. “Of course you would recommend it. It pissed me off to no end. You did them on purpose in high school, didn’t you?”

Donghyuck shrugs as he smirks. “Maybe?”

Mark groans. “I seriously hated you for that.”

“You don’t hate me anymore?”

The tips of Mark’s ears redden. It’s not like they’re now the best friends ever, but they somehow buried their enmity somewhere along with a bunch of Kit-Kat’s wrappings —much to their coach’s despair.

So he goes for an almost inaudible, “Shut up.”

 

 

When the new college year comes in, their teammates look at them a bit suspicious. Yuta even had the audacity to ask a few cheeky questions which Mark vehemently ignored for the sake of his own pride.

And just like that, the routine is back.

Mark settles his belonging on a bench and looks into his bag for his energizer drink —only to be snatched right away.

“Thank you, I’m freaking thirsty.”

Mark observes how Donghyuck drowns his drink and he would protest but Donghyuck’s hair is a bit disheveled and he looks breathless. Donghyuck still has a few marks of bed-sheets on his face and Mark can’t avoid sniggering into his palm.

Donghyuck quirks a brow at him. “What’s so funny?”

Mark is saved thanks to their coach as Yuhno calls for the team to gather up — but Donghyuck doesn’t miss the opportunity to slap Mark’s as a retaliation as they walk up to the court.

They’re divided into two teams to play a practice game. Mark is positioned in the attack line as Donghyuck gets ready to serve. The ball passes with a sharp shot and the libero from the opposite team is caught off guard, sending it off court. Mark looks over his shoulder and gives him a proud smile which Donghyuck returns with taking his nonexistent-longhair off his shoulder. Mark chuckles as he focuses on the opponent team again.

The session goes harder than what they’ve expected. They’re still a bit stiff from the summer although they have been playing for almost most of it, but it’s not the same with a whole team. Still, Mark feels like he missed having a real game and enjoys the practice.

Unfortunately, their strength starts to fade as the game goes on. Mark laps for a very high set and after the jump, he lands on the heel of his foot and slips, knocking his knee against the floor. Mark screams when the pain reaches his whole body. He barely can move but manages to bring his bad leg to his chest like a protection reflex.

His teammates hurriedly crowd him.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Taeyong worriedly asks.

Donghyuck manages to make his way and bents over Mark, touching his shoulder and inspecting his afflicted face. Mark flinches away with gritted teeth, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“We need to take him to the infirmary.” The coach informs, squatted down next to the suffering player.

“I’ll carry him.” Donghyuck offers as he calls for Taeyong’s and Jaehyun’s help.

They try not to make a harsh move as they settle Mark on Donghyuck’s back, positioning his arms under Mark’s thighs protecting him from slipping. Donghyuck notices Mark circling his arms around his neck as he buries his face on Donghyuck’s shoulder, trying to hide his teary eyes —Mark has always been difficult with showing his feelings to others.

Donghyuck senses a wet spot growing on his shoulder but doesn’t mention it, instead he grabs Mark more securely as he makes their way to the infirmary.

 

Mark exhales as he suppresses a sob, fingers tight around his brushed knee.

“Has it been giving you a headache for a while?” The nurse asks, taking off the blue gloves and tossing them into the bin after inspecting Mark’s knee.

“I—It has been fine for a while, but it’s not fully healed.”

And the truth finally comes out. Mark made a bad move at the beginning of his senior year and end up injuring his knee, the doctor said it wasn't that serious, but it would hurt from time to time. Mark couldn’t admit it when the scholarship arrived because then he could have lost it. His knee has been behaving well anyway so mentioning it didn’t look like a big deal. Still, he knows it was wrong, it was crucial information.

The nurse nods as she clicks the back of a pen and starts writing down. Donghyuck is stiff next to Mark, just listening to the unveiling conversation.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” She straightens and looks at him with pity as it’s her job to give the bad news. “It doesn’t look good,” She points out, and Mark feels tears filling up his eyes again. “But it’s better if you get that scanned.”

Bringing his arm up, Mark hides his eyes behind his forearm as tears start dripping again. Bottom lip caught between trembling teeth as his chin quivers. His head is filled with thoughts of having to quit the team and losing his scholarship, the one that he has been fighting for for years. It’s too soon to give up on his dream of becoming a professional player.

Donghyuck hesitantly grabs his other hand, it’s sweaty and shaky but he doesn’t mind. Mark doesn’t pull away either and they set on a comfortable silence as they wait for the ambulance. At some point, Mark ends up leaning on the other’s shoulder as Donghyuck caresses his back, trying to distract him from his agony.

Mark has dry tears on his face when the ambulance arrives and gets in with Donghyuck’s help. He steps out of the ambulance and Mark looks at him with glistering eyes and wet eyelashes as if he wants to say something but the words are stuck on his throat.

Donghyuck smiles lightly at him as if understanding whatever he’s trying to convey.

They’re still bad with words.

 

 

Life without volleyball . It even more because Mark has to deal with a big cast that reaches his whole leg and restricts him from doing almost everything. Mark wants to throw his crutches into the sun.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” Jaehyun inquires as he sits next to him. He lifts his hand and points to Mark while yelling “poor baby, he’s lonely!” when Taeyong demands him to take his to the court again. Actually it’s just the perfect coverage for a sneaky rest.

After staying caged in his dorm for days, Mark decided that it, he needed to get out of his dorm or he would become crazy — mostly because Jeno took that as an opportunity to talk even more about Renjun, like if he didn’t do it on a daily basis anyway. So Mark determined he pretty much prefers to be in the gym watching the team even if the green monster crawls in his insides.

Yuta joins them as he pats Mark’s back, ignoring Taeyong glaring from the distance. “Admit it, you can’t live without us.”

“In what universe?”

Mark is thankful he has that stupid cast because Yuta is more than ready to give him a taste of his fist. Yuta retracts his lifted hand when Jaehyun murmurs ‘he’s an invalid, you can’t hit an invalid’.

“I’m not an invalid, what the hell,” No one pays him attention because they’re discussing whether if he still deserves it.

Looking past those two bickering fools, Mark spots Donghyuck making his way to them and immediately gulps. Heat creeps up Mark’s collar reaching his ears when the other gives him a small smile.

The thing is: Mark is screwed.

It’s not like he has been avoiding Donghyuck for the past two weeks — but he kind of was.

Mark was embarrassed as hell when his thoughts were finally in place after the unfaithful long day and realized his actions. Mark’s not one of making skinship easily and there were too much for someone that just started a friendship. It didn’t help either that Donghyuck sent him a message during the night asking how he was feeling. Mark felt his insides stirring up uneasily as his face grew brightly red. Donghyuck caring and worrying over him made Mark feel unsettled.

“Hey,”

“Hi.” Mark replies, hand coming up as a greeting. It’s awkward and he’s making it even more awkward with his hand up there. He tries to dissimulate and takes it down, ruffling his own hair.

Instead of looking mad, Donghyuck seems amused — maybe it’s because Mark’s face may look like a tomato by now. Mark would protest but he deserves the embarrassment.

“How long?” Donghyuck nods towards Mark’s casted leg.

“Four months,”

Donghyuck clicks his tongue, “Sorry for that.”

Squatting down, Donghyuck places his chin on Mark’s good knee and looks up to him, shiny eyes boring on his own. Mark wishes he could stop blushing for once but even the rots of his hair are burning. The restless feeling is back and everything is just too much. Help.

“You okay?” Donghyuck asks as if sensing his tangle of thoughts.

It’s the same question Donghyuck asked him almost two years ago and still he doesn’t have an answer for it.

Mark’s glad Donghyuck doesn’t ask him what happened during those two weeks when he declared himself dead and out of reach.

“It’s me or we’re being blurred in the background?”

“We are.”

It’s not like they’re ignoring Yuta and Jaehyun — they’re still sitting next to them even if they were tuned off — but Donghyuck is looking at him with too much intensity that Mark just can’t look away.

“It just , I can’t do anything and we’re going to be behind with our practice.” Mark whines, defeated with the situation.

Donghyuck rolls his eyes and takes his chin off Mark, placing his hands behind his back with his arms stretched up for support. “Don’t worry for that, we can plan strategies and I’ll ask a newbie to help me out.”

“You sure?”

“Definitely,” Donghyuck’s smile looks so reassuring.

Mark hesitates but agrees anyway. Somewhat he feels like he can lean on Donghyuck even if their friendship is still fresh. Even so, Donghyuck has probed to care and wanting their coordination to work out, Mark has no right to doubt him. But Mark doesn’t want to make Donghyuck work more than what he already has to.

 

 

It becomes their new daily thing. Whenever the team has a break, Donghyuck sneaks out and joins Mark on the benches. Mark feels guilty for taking his free time but he’s thankful that someone takes the boredom out of him. The other teammates make him company too but Mark feels more relaxed whenever Donghyuck is around, even if it makes his insides burn with an undesired feeling, one very different from the one he used to feel.

Donghyuck is cross-legged in front of Mark, his burgundy sweatpants adorned with white lines on the sides rile up around his ankles, showing his socks full of tiny bunnies. He carries an inedible black pen in his hand and is scribbling on Mark’s cast leg.

Mark doesn’t notice Donghyuck writing ‘LOSER’ with big fat words on one of the sides of his cast because he’s too focused looking at Donghyuck’s eyelashes. Mark doesn’t know when it started but sometimes he catches himself staring and noticing things about the other that wasn’t important two weeks ago. Donghyuck has really nice cheekbones and a few moles scattered around his face that Mark finds quite endearing. But Mark really loves his eyelashes, they’re so long and look so cute against his che—

“Your eyelashes are so pretty.”

Realization hits him when Donghyuck glances up at him with shock evident on his features. He looks as puzzled as Donghyuck with his sudden outburst, eyes too round almost falling out. Mark avoids eye contact and fixes them on his lap instead.

He’s digging his own grave; there is not room for Jeno to make the dirty work.

“Were you staring, Mark Lee?” Donghyuck teases and Mark groans. Obviously he wasn’t going to miss this opportunity, his kindness has a limit.

“No.”

“Sure,”

No one is buying it, not even himself so he doesn’t try fighting it.

Donghyuck takes the marker’s cap off again with a pop and starts scribbling again. This time, he chooses a more visible place to write his masterpiece. Across Mark’s thigh is now written: ‘I ♡ Donghyuck’s eyelashes’.

“What the— I’ve to wear this for four months!”

“Boy, my eyelashes are going to be pretty for longer than that.”

And Mark can’t refute it.

Later, Mark wishes he did though. Almost two seconds after Donghyuck returned to the court, Yuta points out how it was an evident fact and Jaehyun agrees. Looks like the whole team have noticed his staring demeanor —and here was Mark thinking he was being subtle. Who loved it the most was undeniable his roommate aka his best friend, Jeno. He took a photo for future ‘wedding stuff’.

 

 

It was a bad idea.

Their new practice sessions continue with the help of Lucas, a new member that’s far too tall, too kind and too handsome for Mark’s liking. He swears he’s not jealous that Donghyuck’s attention is being taken away from him, Mark prefers to define it as an auto-defensive way of disliking someone that’s trying to take his position in the team and that’s why his glares are justified.

Yuta calls bull.

Today Mark is feeling especially whiny. His tongue darts out over his dry lips as he observes Lucas commenting something while Donghyuck laughs, ball tucked under his arm when it should be flying somewhere because they should be practicing.

Mark is annoyed.

“Donghyuck!”

Said boy looks at him briefly, bringing a hand up with his index finger extended as if saying ‘one minute’. Mark is having none of that. He knows he’s being a crybaby but his hurts from being in that stupid bench for hours and his pride is a bit shattered so when Mark yells again, he doesn’t feel that guilty.

“I’m feeling unwell!”

It’s a big fat lie but he got Donghyuck’s attention anyway.

Donghyuck jerks his head towards him and drops the volleyball behind himself letting it bounce away. He jogs until he reaches Mark and bents down, hands on his covered knees as his eyes inspect Mark’s face.

“Are you alright?”

Pink dust Mark’s cheeks with the sudden attention — maybe he’s starting to feel a bit guilty for his childish behavior.

“Let me,“ Donghyuck places his hand under Mark’s bangs to determine his temperature. Mark doesn’t need to do it though; he already knows he’s burning.

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Comments

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starlet_tara
#1
Chapter 1: Ahhh this is looovee
Xoxo
itzmeguyz
161 streak #2
Chapter 1: soo cuteee :)))
irresistaeble_kookie
#3
Chapter 1: aw cute cute cute cute~~
dreamland93 #4
Chapter 1: This story so damn well written wth omggggg.
_usernamenotfound #5
Chapter 1: Aaahhhh poor my hearteu can't handle their cute relationship, I was embarrassed when they kissed in front of everyone and I was kind of whaaaaaatttt? realllly? Haha.. I need more markhyuck!! It should be in details..their make out I mean.. sorry for my ert mind..anyway good job!!
shenolza #6
Chapter 1: I am crying so much I need to print this because I want to read it everyday kwjrkwmwjw ITS SO PERFECT AND I AM SO THANKFUL THIS EXISTS
LeeJiyoung_23 #7
Chapter 1: love it!! the pace is perfect not too fast and not to slow either, great job :))
astroemeria
#8
Chapter 1: I loved this one-shot so much!!! I especially liked how you took your time with the development and didn't just rush the story (like 99% of fanfics), it really has a nice pace to it. I'm always up for a noren - or norenmin - side story ;)
nicohuang
#9
Chapter 1: Love this! Is there a chance for a NoRen side story or sequel? :)
bbong02 #10
Chapter 1: too soft