Once they were done showering, Mark and the rest of his group went over for burgers at the local McDonalds that was near Yukhei’s house. As everyone else recited their orders (which was near futile since they all knew what the other’s liked and vice versa), Yukhei volunteered to pay and dragged Mark along while complaining about how broke he was.

“You wouldn’t be broke if you didn’t volunteer,” He pointed out once they were in line, patiently waiting for it to inch closer to the cashier. “And why the hell did you drag me here?!”

“Because we need to talk,” Yukhei replied, humming while taking out his card from his wallet. “While you were at practice, I was in the library and overheard some people talking.”

“How does this concern me?” He asked, eyes narrowing when the other started wiggling his eyebrows at him. “Oh no…no no no no! I know what that look means!”

“I promise it isn’t anything bad,” Yukhei insisted, eyes pleading him to listen and since Mark always had a soft spot for the other, he listened despite his better judgement. “Some people apparently want to prank him and since he had gone to you for the interview, they’re planning to use your name.”

“ing hell,” He let out, already feeling dread at how messy the future would be if these people were to do what they wanted. “Do you know who they are? Can we report them?”

“I doubt the staff would actually do something about it,” Yukhei answered grimly, sighing afterwards. “I don’t know them either but I do know that they’re probably homophobic pricks who can’t see the ground in front of them.”

“That does a lot to help our situation, Yukhei,” He replied, holding back his next remark since they were next in line to order.

“Hi sir, what can I- Do you want Jungwoo-hyung?” The girl at the counter asked as Yukhei laughed and traded a few jokes with her. 

“Yukhei!” He heard a relatively loud voice scream as the girl chuckled and moved away from the chas register and to the packing station where Yukhei’s boyfriend was. 

“Go take over, manager.” He heard the girl say to Jungwoo, clapping him on the shoulder and causing him to smile at the interaction. To him, it was rare to see people hating on Jungwoo and even more rare for anything bad to happen to him but every positive sight he saw made him think that maybe telling people wouldn’t be so bad. 

“The usual for your group?” Jungwoo asked them, already tapping the screen on the register to put their order in. Their friendship group (Kouen, Hina, Yeri, Jeno, Jaemin and themselves) always came to this fast food joint for dinner after soccer practice. It had become a ritual to meet up at Yukhei’s place while Jeno and himself took showers. 

“Since when did we get anything other than our seven meals?” He fired back jokingly, earning a laugh from Jungwoo in agreement to his statement. 

“That just comes down to seventy-three thousand, two hundred and eighty-nine won,” Jungwoo said and both of their eyes widened at the rise in total price. “They upped the price to ten thousand, four hundred and seventy a meal.”

“Damn it, can’t we get a discount?” Yukhei asked, eyes pleading his older boyfriend who stared back at him. 

“Even though I love you, Yukhei,” Jungwoo started, smiling softly at him with his eyes holding immense adoration. “I am not dishing out my ten percent staff discount for you.”

“Ugh, worst boyfriend ever,” Yukhei grumbled as he waved his card over the machine with Mark trying to stifle his laughs beside him. 

“I think you pronounced ‘perfect’ wrong,” Jungwoo whispered, laughing even more when Yukhei glared at him as he took the receipt. “Your number is seventy-three. Go and wait for your order.”

“Yeah, enjoy working and managing,” Yukhei replied easily, earning a nose scrunch from the older before they went over to the pick-up area. 

“Since when did he become manager?” He asked, watching as Jungwoo left the cash register and returned to the packing station, helping out the new workers with what needed to be done. 

“Last month was his promotion,” Yukhei replied, waving his receipt all over the place in sheer boredom. “Perks of sticking around since last year of high school, it seems.”

“Anyway, back to what we were discussing,” He stated before the conversation shifted to Yukhei gushing about his boyfriend. “There’s really nothing we can do to prevent this? Wouldn’t we be with the bullies if they do do this?”

“Mark, calm down.” He heard Yukhei say, the other putting a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “We’ll think of something to save your boyfriend-to-be.”

“Can you shut up?” He hissed, glancing all over the place and hoping that no one had heard him. “What if someone heard?”

“Then thank god because it’s been so long for you,” Yukhei replied just as their number was called and they collected their orders. “Besides, I think Jeno and Jaemin deserve to know. You said that you knew them when you were here before, right?” Yukhei asked him once they were on their way to the table. 

“Well yeah but I don’t know how they’d react,” He answered, knowing that the two would accept the new information easily since they both had quite a few queer friends. “And then there’s the problem of Jaemin spilling it to Yuta-hyung who would then tell Taeyong-hyung that I told them and then they would tell me to spill it to Johnny-hyung-“

“Woah, slow down,” Yukhei interrupted him, glancing at him and stopping briefly since their table was quite close. “Just do it one step at a time, okay?” He simply sighed in response, continuing to walk to the table and distributing the burger meals that everyone had ordered.

“Where’s Jeno and Jaemin?” He asked, holding both of the younger boys’ burgers in his hands as his eyes fell on their empty seats. 

“They saw Donghyuck and the rest of the news team,” Kouen answered, mouth so close to her burger with her stomach rumbling. “They said they’ll come back so don’t worry too much.”

“Well, their meals are here,” He replied, leaving their meals on the tray and sliding into his seat. “How we all doing?”

“Save the formal things,” Hina said before leaning forward on the table in front of him, causing him to raise an eyebrow. “You’re the new captain, aren’t you?”

“No, you are not going in the locker room to see half guys,” He answered flatly, earning a good-natured laugh from the girl in front of him. 

“You make it seem like I’m a ert when I just want to see abs in real life,” Hina said easily, leaning back in her seat and eating quietly as Yeri cocked her head to the side. 

“You’ve seen Jeno-yah and Mark’s abs,” Yeri pointed out, the memories of all of his friends greeting him when he was in a towel after his shower playing in his mind. “The