The first time that Donghyuck knew of his existence was when he was entering his maths classroom at the beginning of the school year and Jaemin ran up to him, words flowing from his mouth like how Jeno drank water after soccer practice. 

“Hyuck! Apparently there’s a new guy! From Canada!” Jaemin had shouted, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him slightly to convey his excitement. Being the wonderful friend he was, Donghyuck sighed and gave Jaemin a look of disgust. “Ok, I know you’re thinking ‘shut up, Jaemin, new guys mean more explaining about what being gay feels like’ but I swear he doesn’t seem that bad!” Again, Donghyuck blinked while maintaining his look of disgust. “Please just meet him! He might be the one for you!”

“Jaemin, this happens every ing time a new guy comes to our school…what the makes you think that I’m going to even consider meeting him after what happened with Yukhei?” He calmly asked, earning a sheepish laugh from the younger whose grip on his shoulders began to loosen. 

“But seriously! This Mark Lee guy seems to be different!” Jaemin protested, shortly being dragged after by a sleepy Jeno who had just walked in the room. Sighing, Donghyuck followed a few of his only friends as he waited for the last one in their friendship group to arrive. 

“That ‘Mark Lee guy’ is one of my best friends and we literally share him,” Jeno stated, pushing Jaemin into his seat before taking the seat next to him. “Don’t act like you don’t know him.”

“But Donghyuck doesn’t know him!” Jaemin shouted, pouting as Donghyuck eyed the pair warily. 

“I’ve only been in the city for like three years,” He started, his drying lips as the two turned towards him with curious gazes. “I can’t know everyone.”

“Mark’s been gone for around five years since his dad got a job in Canada,” Jeno explained as Jaemin hit him, claiming that Donghyuck should have figured that information out on his own by talking to the new student. “He’s finally back now.”

“Hey guys!” He heard a higher pitched voice from behind him and turned to see the one and only Huang Renjun - a literal prince that never failed to make his heart beat faster. “I heard about a new student! Do you think they’ll be interested in the news team?”

“Jun…literally no one is interested in the news team,” He stated, ignoring the small voice that said ‘but you are interested in the news team because Renjun is working so hard to get it approved’. “Why would the new kid be interested in it?”

“Because it’s a good way to find out the latest gossip?” Renjun asked innocently, blinking at him as he pinched the elder’s cheek.

“He might not even want to meet new people,” He retaliated as Renjun whined, Jeno and Jaemin both smirking at him from where they sat next to each other. 

“I’m sure Mark would need people other than Jaemin and myself,” Jeno piped up, ruining his argument as Renjun’s eyes lit up. Why the hell is he so adorable? “So…I think it’s worth a shot asking him, Jun.”

“That’s great!” Renjun exclaimed before he dug into the pocket of his uniform pants and pulled out a folded piece of paper that he dramatically showed them as if it were a gift card. “Because this is our new scoop!”
“Hang on…our? As in plural?” He asked, grabbing the piece of paper and unfolding it to lay on the table in front of him. “We’re not on the news team.”

“Hey, I’m on the news team!” Jaemin shouted, glaring at Donghyuck before he got up to hug Renjun in comfort. “It’s okay, Injunnie. I still love you.”

“I literally have a girlfriend, Jaemin,” Renjun stated, elbowing the youngest in the stomach and turning around when a high pitched female voice called him. “And the queen calls. Have a look at my plan and tell me what you think, yeah?”

“Sure,” He absentmindedly agreed, ignoring the familiar twists in his chest as Huang Renjun - the literal prince - walked towards Kang Soeun- the literal princess. Those two are so lucky to be living in a fairy tale. “What’s the supposed plan?”

“An article on the LGBTQ+ community?” Jeno asked once he had read the headline, skimming through the rest of the plan before he pointed to a box in the bottom right hand corner. “Seems like we are part of the club, Hyuck.”

“Bull,” He replied, leaning down to read the box and discovering that it had his name written next to a question mark underneath Jeno’s own that was next to Wong Yukhei. Beneath his was Jaemin’s, next to Kim Yerim. “What the is this even meant to be?”

“I think these are people we’re meant to be interviewing,” Jaemin suggested, pointing towards a dot point near the top of the page. “Renjun wants to gather information through influential people. Yeri-noona is one of the most popular girls on campus, Yukhei is the new basketball ace and well…we just need someone to fill your spot.”

“But why me?” He whined, pointing at himself to emphasise how bad of an interviewer he was. Shrugging, Jaemin sat back down in his seat when their maths teacher entered the room.

“I don’t know man. Your interview, your problem.” Was all Jaemin said before he was forced to shut up and sit in his own seat - all the way on the other side of the room and next to the one and only, Kang Soeun.

~ 

The first time that Donghyuck saw him was when the trials for the final soccer team was being held. He had gone to support Jeno who (after being a steady mid-fielder for a year) was helping the seniors decide who deserved to be on the team. He remembered sitting next to Soeun who was currently arguing with her best friend, Chenle, about how the new guy was obviously a striker. 

“I’ve been a striker for years, Le! He’s got the right physique!” She screamed, dark hair whipping around her as the wind came and her lightly tanned skin blinded his eyes. “Don’t you think so, Donghyuck-oppa?” Forcing himself to pay attention, he smiled down at the smaller female and nodded, not really giving two s about the positions of soccer and whatnot but also wanting Soeun to win the argument.

“Who has made it?” He heard Renjun ask when he came with Jaemin and Jisung, the older calmly sitting down between Soeun and himself, oblivious to the old wounds that had opened up again. “Has Jeno kicked anyone out yet?”

“He hasn’t but he has kicked the new guy,” He reported as Jaemin came on his other side, screaming out a foreign name and waving his arms in hopes that the new kid would look at him. Donghyuck watched on as the kid whose name Jaemin had called out turned and gave him a thumbs up, shortly laughing after before he focused on the game. The new guy had a terrible bowl cut, barely any muscles and yet seemed to fly across the field as he handled the ball effortlessly, shooting it into the goal with ease more than once. 

“Is that Mark Lee?” He asked Jaemin who hummed and side eyed him as Renjun and Soeun began to fight childishly over a soft drink that Jisung had thrown at them. “As in the new kid?”

“Interested, are we?” Jaemin asked him smugly, smirking before Donghyuck rolled his eyes and kept them trained on Jeno who had called for a player switch. “What’s on your mind?”

“He seems dumb,” He said just as Mark Lee tripped over a stray water bottle on his way to the bench. “Like a complete airhead.”

“There’s a reason why he’s Jeno’s best friend,” Jaemin replied before chuckling, swiftly placing his hand inside Donghyuck’s pocket and pulling out his phone. “He’s really good at English though.”

“What are you doing?” He asked cautiously, not really caring what the other did with his phone as long as the police weren’t being called.

“A favour,” Jaemin answered curtly, expertly unlocking his phone and typing something into his contacts. “In case you ever need it, it’s there,” Jaemin said, holding out his phone to him before he took it and glanced down at the new contact that was under the name of THE Mark Lee. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever need it,” He huffed, pocketing his phone and looking back just in time to see Mark Lee in the final line up for the school’s soccer team, smiling and laughing alongside a laughing Lee Jeno.

~

The first time that Donghyuck heard him was when he was in a meeting for the news team, run by the innocent yet devilish couple, as they were discussing the plans for a new article. It had been a few months since Mark Lee had entered the school and he had quickly risen to fame, becoming the school’s soccer ace in less than four games, be