“Okay, I can’t. I seriously cannot right now.” Mark found himself stating as Yukhei looked at him with a confused expression. 

“What’s wrong, dude? You’ve been looking forward to this showcase for months,” Yukhei replied, skin between his eyebrows creasing a little as he looked at Mark with confusion in his eyes. “You were going on and on about how you wanted to see that guy in the year below us sing-“

“Donghyuck,” He interrupted the other, ignoring the sly smirk that Yukhei had plastered on his face. “His name is Donghyuck.”

“Well, Donghyuck is the one thing that you’ve been looking forward to seeing at this showcase for months so there’s no way in hell that your gay is leaving my gay behind.”

“Can you…can you not make jokes like that?” He hissed out to the other, pulling Yukhei’s ear down and ignoring his cries of pain. “What if someone heard you?” Despite everything that he expected, Yukhei laughed.

“Like it would make a difference,” Yukhei replied easily, happy-go-lucky nature coming into play. “We all know that you’re going to be the soccer captain, no matter what.”

“It’s not that, Yukhei,” He whined before sighing and releasing the other’s ear since he saw the smile of a past student being directed towards them. “Hurry up and go make out with your boyfriend already.”

“Was planning on doing that,” Yukhei stated, opening his arms and leaning down to lock lips with his college boyfriend, Kim Jungwoo. Sighing and walking past them, Mark tried his best to find his stupid older step-brother who was also a past student and meant to be helping out with the school’s technology team to ensure that the showcase ran smoothly. Fair enough, he spotted the other who waved at him from behind a soundboard. 

“Yo, if it isn’t my little brother, Mark Lee!” Johnny shouted from where he was running a quick sound check to ensure that the volume level could be heard at the very back of the hall. “What brings you here to the tech area?”

“You, actually,” He replied, eyes dropping down to the soundboard before coming back up to Johnny’s face since the board seemed complicated. “How’s everything been going?”

“Eh…could use improvements,” Johnny stated, pressing a few more buttons before adjusting some of the faders on three separate channels. “How’s high school? Any progress with soccer?”

“Planning to become captain but other than that, school’s boring,” He answered honestly before his phone vibrated, a new message from Jaemin coming in about his whereabouts and informing him that he was with Jeno. 

“Who is it? Your girlfriend?” Johnny teased, smirk plastered on his face before Donghyun walked up to them to check the inputs in each channel on the soundboard. Slowly, Mark felt his inside grow cold since his older brother had no idea that girls weren’t his type. 

“Haha, very funny,” He said sarcastically, already typing up a response saying that he was backstage with his brother before hitting send. “It’s just Jaemin.”

“Just Jaemin? Well that isn’t fun,” Johnny complained as he began to walk away, urging Mark to follow him as he didn’t even glance back at Donghyun who had taken over the soundboard. “When will your life be fun, Mark Lee?”

“Maybe when you stop asking it to be, Johnny Seo,” He retaliated, earning a good natured laugh from the older who accompanied him all the way to the seats of the hall. “And my life isn’t boring.”

“Name me one thing that’s interesting other than soccer.” Lee Donghyuck. The kid who sings. The kid who is sarcastic. And the kid who doesn’t care about how many people know he’s gay. 

“Okay, you got me,” He replied, putting his hands up in mock surrender as the lights in the hall dimmed and they rushed to grab their seats. Looking around, Mark saw that his companions were nowhere in sight and decided to ask one of them for their whereabouts. Maybe I should ask Jeno…I haven’t texted his new number yet…

Jeno’s NEW Number

Jeno, where are you?

I’m already seated with Johnny

Hurry up

Um…I’m sorry but I don’t think I know you

Confused, Mark stared down at his phone before rolling his eyes and double checki