So I decided to add songs to listen to when reading this fic, sometimes it’ll be the melody or sometimes it’ll be the lyrics that fits into the chapters, but either way, it was a subjective pick from me so sorry if it doesn’t really fit you. I try putting the songs before and after every chapter*hopefully*, because a lot happened in one chapter right? One song is not enough to express the whole chapter ㅋㅋㅋ

Enjoy~

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Taeil (Block B) – It was love

~~~

The bell rings.

Mark goes to open the door, his mom walking not too far behind him. When he opened it, there’s a woman standing in front of him with a cake on her hands.

“Hi! Good morning! I and my son here..” She looked to her left and seemed a bit surprised to find nobody there. Mark almost laughed at that expression she’s making. Almost. 

She turned her body a little and yelled “Haechan come here!” Mark follows where she was looking at and he sees a boy running around on their front yard.

She turned her body back after the boy come standing next to her. “I wasn’t looking just for a second, Haechan, a second!” she nags him, but the boy didn’t seem to be listening to her though, instead he looked at Mark curiously. 

Seeing her son’s attention is clearly somewhere else, she decided to just continue the greetings “So, I and my son Haechan, just moved next door, -” “Hello!” the kid said excitedly, smiling wide. She turns her head for a brief second to give Haechan a smile and continues “and we just made this cake, here, please take it as our greetings to you” she said, smile still intact. 

“Oh! It looks nice! Thank you.” Mark’s mom returned the big smile and takes the cake, then she turns to Mark “Please introduce yourself too, Mark.” She said to him. 

“Hello, I’m Mark. I’m 10 years old. Nice to meet you.” He said while bowing his head.

“Aww, what a polite boy. I hope you can be friends with Haechan, he’s just a year younger than you. He’s 9.” She said smiling wide, while patting his head. What a bright smile. Mark thought.

“Of course.” Mark said, smiling politely. And the boy, Haechan, smiled widely upon hearing Mark’s words. Mark can see the resemblance between them. Their smiles are very similar. It’s really, really bright.

-------

Haechan follows Mark everywhere after that, whether it in school or just when Mark was playing with his friends, and he’s sorry to say this, but he found it kind of annoying. Haechan’s just so loud. Mark doesn’t like loud kids. They’re annoying, sometimes shameless, they’re just drawing too much attention. 

He did say that he wanted to be friends with the kid, but he started to get sick of having Haechan following him everywhere.

Until one time, he was just so annoyed he pushed Haechan to go away, but he accidentally pushed him too hard and Haechan fell to the ground. “Don’t follow me!” he said. They were at the park, Mark was playing with his friends, and as usual, Haechan followed him. 

He can see that Haechan is surprised by the sudden harsh treatment and the smile that adorned his face earlier died down, it replaced with a frown. 

No matter how annoyed Mark is with the boy, he still felt guilty that Haechan fell, so he help him up.

“Sorry..” he said quietly. 

“It’s okay hyung” Haechan said that but Mark can see the tears already forming in his eyes.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked, genuinely worried.

“No.. I’m okay..” Haechan shakes his head.

“So why are you crying?” he asked, while looking at Haechan’s face closely.

“I’m not crying..” Haechan quickly wipes his eyes. “See?” he smiled. Mark couldn’t help but smile at that too.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again.

“Yeah! I’m okay hyung!” Haechan said, his cheerful voice is back.

“Okay then.. if you say so.” He’s not in the mood to play anymore. “Um, let’s just go home?” 

Haechan nodded. “Can I come to your house hyung?”

Mark would feel bad if he said no after what happened. “Uhm.. sure..” he said, but just as he was about to walk, Haechan grabs his sleeve.

“Hyung is a good person, I really want to be friends with hyung” Haechan said and pecked him on the cheek. Mark is shocked. He wanted to get angry at Haechan, he thought that he was just messing with him, but when he saw the sincere smile on Haechan’s little face, with his twinkly eyes, Mark’s anger disappeared. He thinks maybe it’s just Haechan’s way of saying thank you. 

-------

It became a habit. Haechan always comes to his house to play, and the younger would peck his cheek everytime they meet. 

It’s not a problem when they were kids, but now they’ve grown up, Mark’s on his last year of junior high for god’s sake, and people started to give them looks.

But their friends liked it though. 

“Come here hyuung~ Lemme kiss youuu~” Haechan said while making kissy faces, pushing his body towards Mark, trying to kiss him, while Mark trying to push him away by putting his hand on Haechan’s head. 

All of their friends laughed at the sight, they’re used to it. Haechan is always so clingy to Mark. It’s fun to watch how Haechan would just cling to Mark or try to kiss him and Mark would try to avoid it as best as he can.

“Aww don’t be shy, Mark hyung~” Chenle said.

“Yeah, it’s okay~ we’re used to it, we don’t mind your PDA around here.” Jeno added.

“What the hell guys!” he turned his head to his friends to give them a glare before turning it back to Haechan. “Haechan, enough!” he said to him.

Haechan stopped pushing then. “Okay..” he said. But just as Mark putting his hand that was on Haechan’s head down, Haechan quickly leaned forward and peck him on the cheek.

“Aww~” come all the squealing. 

“I didn’t know that I was friends with a bunch of squealing schoolgirls” Mark sighed.

They went to the same school since Haechan moved in town. Haechan is one grade below Mark, but he always plays with Mark and his friends, Jeno and Renjun. Sure Haechan had other friends, many of them actually, but he always liked to follow Mark everywhere, so it required him to play with Mark’s friends too. And now, he’s just casually hanging out with them like he belonged there in the first place. His closest friends, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung, even joining them now. They just become this one group of boys, that he personally liked to call ‘The Dreamies’.

-------

It was one of those days where Mark stays in school until it’s dark, he’s preparing for the upcoming exams. A girl came up to him when he was about to stand up from his desk in the library.

“Uhm, sorry. Can we maybe.. talk for a second? I have something to tell you.”

Okay, that was sudden. Mark knew this girl, they’re in the same class. And she has quite the fame too. But Mark didn’t really ‘know’ her beside her name. 

She has such a fair skin Mark could see that her face was bright red from blushing so hard. He knows where this is going. He tried not to be obvious though, so he just answered with a simple “Okay” and wait for the girl to speak again.

Mark has been told by his friends that he was quite popular with the girls, but they never really come and talk to him. This is new.

“Great. But not here.. can we talk in somewhere more private?”

Mark nodded at that and followed the girl outside. 

-----

“Come on, let’s go home. It’s getting dark already” Jaemin said. 

They were at one of the school building’s rooftop, hanging out after the school ended, just because they have nothing better to do. They basically just laying around playing games on their phone on the dirty floor. 

“Do you think Mark hyung is finished yet?” Haechan asked to no one in particular. He actually wanted to ask that to himself but it slipped out of his mouth. Oh well.

“I don’t know.. maybe we should just check it out?” Jisung said.

“Well I was planning to anyway” Haechan mumbled to himself.

“Aww someone’s checking up on his boyfie” Chenle teased.

“Shut it” Haechan hissed.

They were walking past the back of the library building when suddenly Jisung speaks “Hey, isn’t that Mark hyung?” he asked, drawing all of their attention.

Haechan noticed there are two people where Jisung pointed at, not too far ahead of them, one is a girl and one is.. yup, that’s definitely Mark.

“Who’s that girl?” Chenle asked.

“Uhm.. maybe you don’t want to know about that..” Jaemin whispered.

“Yeah, that situation there, looks a lot like a confession is going on to me.” Jisung said.

“Well you don’t have to make a statement out of it” Jaemin said, giving the two the eye signal, glancing at Haechan. The realization hit them. “Oh..” they whispered in unison.

They started to slow down their pace, not very sure now if they want to proceed with their mission. But Haechan didn’t seem to be affected, he just continues walking ahead.

He looks back when he realized the other three are not walking with him anymore. “What are you guys doing? Come on, quick! I want to listen to what they’re saying!”

“I think we shouldn’t do that.” Chenle stated.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself.” 

“Wait, Haechan-ah!” Jaemin tried to stop Haechan but he’s too far away already and if he shouts, their target might hear them and that’s just stupid.

“Well. Let’s just hope for the best” Jisung said. He earned two hits on his shoulder for that. "Ow!"

“Let’s go” Jaemin said as he turned his body to go home.

-----

Haechan walked more carefully as he got closer to his target, then he gets behind one of the trees nearest to the two.

“….so will you be my boyfriend?” he could hear the girl said.

“I..” He heard Mark started. He sounds hesitant. Haechan knew Mark is not good at saying no to people. Well, based on personal life experience here, so Haechan knows this is not going to be easy for him. If he’s going to say no to that.

“Thank you for saying that, really, but I don’t think that I could be your boyfriend” he finally heard Mark said.

“Why? Am I not pretty enough?” She asked.

“No.. it’s not that. I just.. don’t really know you..? So..”

“Don’t you want to at least try? Maybe then you could fall for me too”

Ugh, this one’s pushy. Haechan thought, starting to feel irritated.

“I’m sorry.. but I don’t think I can do that-” 

The girl grabs Mark’s hand tightly. Haechan raised his eyebrows at that. What the hell girl?

“We’re graduating, just try going out with me until graduation, please. I’m fine if you want to break up with me then.” She said while pulling Mark closer.

“No.. Please, don’t do this to yourself.” Mark tried to pull his hand back but the girl just hold on to it tighter.

“Please, Mark.. I like you so much, I have been since the first time I saw you.”

Well, Haechan had enough of this .

“He said he’s not interested, girl. Don’t push it” He said while walking out of his hideout.

Mark’s eyes looked like it was going to come out of it’s place when he saw who’s talking. “Haechan-ah?” he whispered.

“Who are you?” the girl asked.

“You don’t need to know about me” he walked closer to them.

“Wait, I think I know you. I saw you before. You’re the kid who always follows Mark around, right? You just don’t know when to stop huh?” She mocks him.

“Oh no, that was you, girl. I know when to stop when I can do this.” He pecked Mark’s cheek then, just like he usually did, and Mark is just so confused right now he didn’t do anything to stop him. 

“You, on the other side, just keep pleading when he already said no. Don’t you have pride to keep?”

The girl opened ready to throw words back at him but he stopped her.

“A-Na-ah. I think we’re done here” he gave her a smile and pull Mark away with him. 

Haechan’s heart is beating like crazy. The truth is, he was scared. He really was. He didn’t know what he was doing, he didn’t know what was going to happen. And that girl’s words kind of hurt him. But he has to put up a good act if he wanted to win that. And he did.

“You know, you don’t have to be that rude to that girl” Mark said as he closed his bedroom door. 

“I was just trying to help you hyung. She’s pushy. She almost coaxed you into dating her.”

“What? No, I had it all under control.”

“You said that now, but you looked like you wanted to cry back there” He said while wiggling his eyebrows, a teasing grin evident on his face.

“Don’t push your luck there Haechan.” He sent him a brief glare before continuing “I was just saying that you shouldn’t be that rude to her.”

“What’s with that anyway? Don’t tell me you liked her.”

“Well I said no, didn’t I? I’m not interested in her, you said so yourself.”

“Okay. I buy that” he nodded. “And that interests me.. do you even liked girls hyung?” he asked, standing up from his previous position on the bed where he was seated the moment he stepped into Mark’s bedroom.

Mark is surprised by the sudden question. “M-maybe? I don’t know, I never really thought about it. What made you ask that anyway?”

Mark was ready for any kind of mockery and teasing to be thrown at him but nothing really came. Haechan just stayed silent and started walking towards him.

He walks until he’s standing right in front of Mark, and Mark is getting nervous as to why Haechan is suddenly so quiet and standing very close to him.

Haechan looked into his eyes. He did the same. “What?” he asks.

But there is no answer, Haechan just gets closer instead, their faces are just a few inches apart now. What is he doing? Mark asked himself.

Haechan keeps leaning closer until Mark can feel his breath on his face, he realized that Haechan’s eyes were no longer on his eyes, it have shifted downwards, and if he’s not mistaken, Haechan’s now looking at his lips. It feels weird. What are you trying to do Haechan-ah? Is this some kind of a joke?

Haechan leans closer even more and Mark can almost feel his lips touching his. He can’t take it anymore. 

He pushed Haechan away, but maybe he pushed him too hard, as Haechan is now sitting on the floor. 

“Ouch” was all he said.

“What was that for?!” Haechan heard Mark asking, or more like, yelling to him.

“I.. I’m just messing with you hyung” he tried to say it with a laugh, but he couldn’t help the trembling of his voice. He can feel the lump forming in his throat.

Mark just raised his eyebrows at him.

“Oh, uhm.. Maybe I should just go home now.. I don’t feel so good.. sorry hyung” he continued, as he gets up from the floor. 

He didn’t wait for Mark to reply as he already gathered his things and goes straight to the door, not even looking back as he closed the door behind him. 

Mark doesn’t know how to respond. His head is filled with questions right now. What was that? What just happened? Why is he going home? Did he got upset? Was I too harsh on him? Did I hurt him?

Haechan met Mark’s mom on the way out. 

“Hey, honey, going home already? But we don’t even have dinner yet”

“Yes auntie.. uhm, sorry, but I don’t feel so good. I should just go home.” He tried giving her a smile.

“But your mom is not home yet right? What would you have for diner? Just eat here with us honey”

“It’s okay, I ate snacks earlier before coming here, so I’m still full. Thank you for the offer” He reasoned, then he bowed his head and walk out the door before she could even answer him.

-----

Haechan didn’t know why he was crying the moment he closed his bedroom door. What he did know is that his chest hurts so bad, like someone was punching it, and it feels like someone is choking him, his breath felt heavier as each minute passed by.

What were you thinking? Why did you do that? You should have known better than that. Ugh, stupid. He said to himself.

-----

Haechan is back to normal the next morning when Mark met him at school. And by normal, he means running on the hall screeching some unrecognizable words with his friends, stopped on his track when he saw Mark and went and kiss him on the cheek and say “Mornin’ hyung!” then continue running again.

~~~

The weight
Of a simple human emotion
Weighs me down
More than the tank ever did

The pain
It's determined and demanding
To ache, but I'm ok

And I don't wanna let this go
I don't wanna lose control
I just wanna see the stars with you

And I don't wanna say goodbye
Someone tell me why
I just wanna see the stars with you

Troye Sivan – The Fault in Our Stars

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So, just to make it clear, I make Chenle and Jisung to be at the same age as Haechan and Jaemin, while Renjun and Jeno are the same as Mark. ;)

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PS : HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK LEE~~ OUR BABY LION AAWW >~<♡♡♡ thank you for existing, really ㅠㅠ hope you always get what you wanted and be happy~ I’m so proud of you :”) please don’t be too hard on yourself :”

Mark hyung, I’m always happy when you’re around. I love you – Donghyuck ❤