"They're not going to stay."

The words were repeated. Making sure the boy would remember.

I don't believe you should care.

------------

Mark had come to school early today. He wanted to get away from his house for a bit.

He was looking outside when his phone notified him that he had received a message. It was a message from Jaehyun.

'What does he want? He even bothers me at school now.'

Mark chuckled while reading the message. He was going to reply until he heard the class door be opened, and his name being called.

"Mark! Didn't expect you to be here before us." It was Renjun who had called while walking over to him.

"Yeah, decided that I'll be coming early now." Their conversation was later interrupted by Haechan.

"Mark, you have a cute smile."

Mark was surprised by these words. He did receive compliments about his looks, but when Haechan said it, it sounded so honest.

When Mark heard Haechan say that, he felt something warm rush through his body. He felt as if a wave had enveloped his chest. His heart more specifically. It felt so nice.

"Ummm.." Mark had gotten flustered and he didn't know what to say.

"Haechan, your gay is showing." Renjun started to tease Haechan, but Haechan was quick to defend himself.

"No homo." Haechan raised his hands in a defensive way.

"That just came as a surprise." Mark was happy for some reason he didn't know."Thank you though."

As Mark was smiling, Haechan suddenly shook his body and sat down in his seat.

Renjun teased Haechan for a bit as Mark just laughed at them. The teacher soon came and started the lesson.

-------

The boys were at lunch, waiting for Haechan.

"Mr.Morris is so annoying! Someone put a thumbtacks in his chair and he sat on them! Omg you should have seen him. He started to yell at the class to know who did it!" Chenle spoke about a crude act that was made towards his boring teacher.

Jisung listened and chuckled a bit while Jeno smiled at this sometimes adding things that happened to the teacher when Jeno was in their class.

Renjun, Jaemin, and Mark were talking about their grades and how a kid almost fell out the third floor window because of a stunt that failed.

Haechan had arrived sitting between Mark and Jeno.

"Hey Haechan." Mark greeted, waving his hand a bit.

"You don't need to wave. We're sitting right beside each other." Haechan stated while opening his milk. "Anyways, what are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing special. We were just waiting for you." Jeno and the two youngest started to play attention to Haechan.

"Mark, do you think we can invite Lucas to one of our hangouts?" Haechan asked, forgetting the others didn't know of Lucas.

Mark tensed up to Haechans question. He didn't plan on letting the others know of Lucas.

"Lucas? Who's Lucas?" Jaemin asked as the other four gave equal looks of curiosity.

"Oh right, you guys don't know him. He's a friend of Mark who I had just met a few days ago. He's cool, so I wondered if he could hang out with us as he's about the age of Mark." Haechan explained to the others.

"Oh, I wanna meet him! It's not fair that only Haechan knows. We should meet up!!" Chenle said while Jeno nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, let's have him over. Mark what do you think?" Renjun asked. The others had expectant looks on their faces.

"He might be a bit busy. I don't want to bother him." Mark shook his hands trying to end the conversation. It seems it didn't work since the others wouldn't give up.

"Come on Mark! The more the merrier." Jisung said

As the others kept pestering him, Mark gave in.

"Yes! Well, where will we go?" Asked Renjun not really wanting to have a stranger at his house.

"How about we go to a basketball court? That way it wouldn't be at our houses, but we would still have something to play." Haechan suggested which the others, except for Mark, agreed to.

"Then it's settled. Mark don't forget to tell him." Haechan said as the other five agreed.

"Yeah... I won't..." Mark wasn't too excited for this. Anyways, Lucas had his own friends. These six would seem like little kids to Lucas.....right?

Bell rang and so the boys separated.

----------

Six boys were at the basketball court. They were waiting for Mark and his friend, Lucas.

"I bet that Lucas guy isn't going to come." Jisung said as he sat on one of the benches there.

"Be a bit more patient Jisung." Renjun said while pushing Jaemin and Jeno. They played around to keep themselves busy.

"We're here!" Mark yelled out. He was walking towards them with three boys behind him.

"Mark! Lucas!" Haechan called over, not knowing who the others were.

The six boys that were there for a while now were waiting for introductions.

"Right. This is Lucas, Jaehyun, and Taeyong, my brother." Mark pointed to each of them while Lucas waved at Haechan, vice versa.

"These are my friends from school. Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung." Mark finished the introductions and everyone started greeting each other.

"Have you been taking care of my little brother?" Taeyong asked, putting his arm around Mark's shoulder.

"Taeyong~ don't be like that." Mark whined, a bit embarrassed by his brother.

"You know I want to ask them. I'm just checking up on you." Taeyong said shaking Mark's shoulder softly.

The other six laughed at the two brothers.

"We have been taking good care of your little brother." Haechan answered a bit teasingly.

"So you're Mark's other friends? I had seen Haechan but it's nice meet more of you." Lucas grinned while shaking hands with all of the 'kids'.

"I see you guys chose to meet up here. How about we play a bit?" Jaehyun quickly went to get a basketball and split the teams.

Everyone joined in and played until it started getting dark.

"We need to get going. We're still young you know. Our parents are going to get mad if we don't get home early." Jeno said, panting.

All the other young ones started to pack their things as the game had ended.

"Let's meet up again, yeah? It doesn't really feel like the hang out ended right." Jaehyun said and the other agreed. Lucas ran up to them and hugged them before packing his own things.

"We can drive you home?" Taeyong suggested while pointing to their van.

"I mean, sure. But what's up with the van? Seems quite suspicious." Jaemin joked a bit.

"My brother and his friends usually go to play sports so they wanted to get van for them to be able to carry everything and everyone." Mark explained as he carried his bag and started walking to the van.

"So are we going?" Taeyong asked  the others which just ran on over to the van.

Everyone was dropped off at their houses, each bidding their goodbyes.

------

"Mark, they aren't too bad." Jaehyun said while smiling at Mark."They might actually stay. You made the right choice of friends this time Mark."

Mark looked down while, smiling while fiddling with his fingers.

"I know hyung. I know I did." Mark took out his phone, looking at a picture he took with the other six.

"I'm sorry about the other day Mark. I'm glad you stopped me before I made things worse." Lucas apologized, staring at Mark.

"I know Lucas. I don't want you thinking you did something wrong. They must've lied to you. That's why we have each other." Mark always forgave Lucas.

The two of them were similar. Always betrayed, always lied to by 'friends'. Lucas was just worse at handling it. That's why Mark was there. He'd forgive him. That's who Mark was. He forgave no matter what someone did.

Mark will forgive liars too. They will be punished anyways. Most of the liars could just have their lives ruined by their own lies. Mark forgave because he had an excuse.