Relevant Ages for this chapter:

Mark - 12 Years Old

Jisung - 10 Years Old

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“Mark, don’t walk away from me! Care to explain why I’ve had yet another call from your teacher about you not showing up to class?” Ten’s enquiry went mostly ignored as Mark stormed passed him, marching up the stairs and promptly shutting himself in his room in lieu of making any form of polite conversation.

From the bottom of the stairs, Ten wondered briefly what had happened in the past year to turn his son into such a spoiled brat

“He still won’t talk?” Johnny inquired offhandedly, poking his head out of the kitchen with a tea towel slung over one shoulder and his sleeves rolled up to the elbows. “He’ll come around, just let him cool down for a while. Mark’s a good kid, he’s just having a hard time right now.”

--

Mark trudged down the stairs almost three hours later, running a hand through his already unruly dyed-blonde hair and throwing a hand over his mouth to poorly conceal a yawn. He wasn’t really supposed to sleep after school because it usually meant that he wouldn’t sleep properly when he was actually supposed to but he’d been tired and fed-up with the day when he’d arrived home and falling into bed was the easiest option when it came to dealing with the pent up emotions.

“Dad,” He murmured simply, shuffling into the room and latching himself to Johnny’s waist with a small whine that he hoped telepathically conveyed his immediate need for dinner to be ready.

“Hey bud, you feeling better now?” Johnny inquired, amused at Mark’s one hundred and eighty degree mood shift from that afternoon. “Hmmm,” The boy hummed noncommittally in return, still unwilling to talk about his day no matter how much better he might have been feeling after his sleep.

“Well why don’t you go and wash up? You’re dad’s just finishing up with dinner and Jisung is here so why don’t you at least run a brush through your hair?” Johnny didn’t actually care much for how his twelve year old son decided to present himself at the dinner table but Ten likely wouldn’t be happy if he walked into the kitchen after having obviously just woken up from a nap.

“Why’s squirt here?” Was Mark’s sleepy response, already turning to shuffle out of the room and try and make himself slightly more presentable for their company. It wasn’t like it was anything out of the ordinary for Jaehyun and Doyoung’s youngest son to grace their dinner table but it didn’t stop the preteen from asking for a reason.

“The usual, he fought with Jeno and no amount of convincing will have him believing that his parents aren’t on their