jaemin reasons that it has to be that all the people that he was asking for help were old. they didn’t get him. that has to be why he keeps on failing. he needs advice from someone his age and preferably in a relationship. who would be better to ask than the wiser and better half of nct’s resident couple, mark lee?

after what feels like much contemplation, jaemin approaches mark and donghyuck’s shared room. their door is not completely closed, so he leans in closer to open the door slightly. peering in, jaemin can see donghyuck is asleep on mark’s lap while mark is reading a book.

not wanting to interrupt the pair, jaemin turns back around but in the process trips on his own foot and kicks the door open. mark looks at him with a shocked face and calls him in.

“what’s up?” mark asks as he takes off his glasses and places his book down.

waving his hand in front of donghyuck’s face, jaemin crouches down and eases closer to the sleeping boy as mark watches amused. when jaemin is assured that donghyuck is sound asleep, he then goes on to tell mark his dilemma.

“you want my advice?" mark laughs although with one look of jaemin’s face he knows the answer very well.

mark then begins playing with donghyuck’s hair and mentions,“you know, donghyuck would never admit it, but he’s super into super corny and cliche things.”

gazing fondly at donghyuck, mark recounts to jaemin the time he surprised donghyuck after weeks of packed practices and late nights. when it was just the two of them, mark had said to donghyuck he was thirsty and the other offered to get drinks from a nearby convenience store. when donghyuck came back, he had been greeted by candles and mark holding a poster that he had prepared the night before. he instantly dropped the bag he held which contained the canned drinks and jumped into mark’s arms knocking the other onto his back.

“i’m sure donghyuck wouldn't mind if you did something similar for hina,” mark says with a grin.

the next day after telling taeyong that he will be taking a walk during his break, mark is met with donghyuck’s skeptical face. he smiles at donghyuck to assure him that everything will be fine. once he exits the room, mark leaves to find jaemin.

“this looks amazing,” mark says in disbelief as he looks around the practice room jaemin had borrowed. it is a hundred times better than what he had done for donghyuck.

along the edges of the room, large poster papers are tacked to the walls. the posters all read lines straight off the internet ranging from cute to down right cheesy. the floor, on the other hand, is covered in candles which form a heart, and surrounding the candles are various flower petals.

the scene in front of mark is beyond magical.

“i just need to adjust one sign and then i’ll be all done.” jaemin says as he points to the back of the room.

mark smiles encouraging jaemin, “oh don’t mind me then. i am just going to wait for donghyuck. he says he wants to see the room.

jaemin turns around and walks to the posters in order to fix one which is not straight. he removes the poster from the wall and then looked at it itself. jaemin angles the poster to check its edges, but as the paper falls too close to the candles, it catches on fire.

immediately, jaemin drops the paper to ground and begins to to stomp out the growing flames. once the fire is put out, jaemin falls to the ground clutching onto his heart attempting to catch his breath. mark rushes up to jaemin to asks if he is fine.

“i’m okay but there’s too much smoke,” jaemin says as he waves away the smoke.

mark looks around. “wait but if there's this much smoke doesn’t that mean tha-”

before mark can finish his thought, the two can feel the sprinklers go off. mark pulls the dazed jaemin up to his feet and tells him to follow him out. as jaemin frantically runs out of the practice room, he bumps into a smaller body. he looks down and sees no one else than hina who is soaked from head to toe.

jaemin instinctively reaches out to hina, but koeun grabs tightly onto hina’s hand and pulls her away from him. mark, on the other hand, calls for jaemin to follow him to a different set of doors. jaemin and mark head towards the other nct members who look wide range of concerned to annoyed. most notably there is taeyong who talking to donghyuck exasperatedly as he throws his arms into the air flailing them around. donghyuck then turns and points at jaemin.

taeyong marches up to jaemin and grabs onto his shoulders and begins to yell. “not only are you a thief trying to rob hina of her heart, you're also an arsonist?”