“Holy mark I’m so nervous”

“Isn’t the word for that is “excited”?”

“I’m more nervous than excited, to be honest”

Mark gave his best friend for 10 years an “I don’t get it” look.

“What is the main difference between two?”

“”excited” is more of a positive word while “nervous” is negative. For example, when you are going to see someone you like you would be excited but before an exam, you would be nervous.”

Donghyuck was used to mark asking him questions like that because sometimes, even though he studied Korean so hard, he was still getting confused at some words or sentences. Yes, he was Korean, his parents were also Korean but he was raised in Canada for a while before coming back at Korea so he had to learn Korean from the beginning.

Mark smiled at donghyuck brightly “I get it now. Thank you hyuckkie”

“You’re welcome babe”

Maybe if someone else said it mark would blush but they had been best friends for years and things like that were normal between the two. Damn, they even lost their first kisses to each other because na-ing-jaemin thought daring them to kiss in the truth or dare game is a great idea. They did not complain tho. “How the hell your lips are so soft donghyuck what the fluff?????” “I mean your lips are so sweet so I’m more shocked believe me” “I used strawberry lip balm you gave me” “oh so that’s why” “yeah but why your lips are so soft?” “I use a lip scrub and lip balm constantly. Different from how you leave your lips chapped. You almost made my lips bleed you know. Use the god damn balm every day for the love of God.” “I don’t like its smell.” “It’s strawberry. How the hell you do not like its smell?” “I would prefer watermelon” “mark I swear to go-” “whatever! Next dare!” “Calm your kitties jaemin” “shut the up bitc-” “okay who is next” “I swear to god Jeno hyung is the only sane one in this group”. Yeah, they did not complain at all. And they were always calling each other with cute names like “babe, baby, dear, darling” but it was normal for them even though everyone thought they were dating. It did not matter for them. They knew they were not dating.

“Mark”

“Hmmm?”

Donghyuck took a breath and slowed down his pace.

“What if you find a pretty girl and start dating with her and forget me.”

“What?” mark stopped walking and looked at donghyuck with wide eyes

“I mean I will be all alone then…and I will miss you...a lot...ugh I sound so selfish I’m so sorry.”

“No no. donghyuck look at me” Mark said and cupped his cheeks, making them connect their eyes.

“No girl or boy can make me forget you. You know I love you so much. You are my best friend. I will never leave you alone even if I date someone. Okay?”

“Okay….”

“Donghyuck…”

“Okay yeah, whatever. I just asked anyway. Don’t go so dramatic on me I don’t wanna cry on the first day of uni”

Donghyuck threw his arm on Mark's shoulder and tried to keep walking even though he was shorter than mark so he was struggling with his arm on his shoulder. Mark just laughed and said an “okay”. Being best friends with a Gemini meant you had to be ready for everything they will do. Even if it means they will go from emotional to chill just in minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“They all look like y people who would make fun of me for listening red velvet on repeat” donghyuck whispered to mark when they sat down in their classroom. Well, their first classroom actually. Cause they told that all of their classes will be in different classrooms but with same people. This did not calm donghyuck’s nervousness in any possible way but oh well they had to do what they had to do.

Mark looked at people in the classroom and whispered at donghyuck back “don’t judge everyone so fast. I’m sure there are some great people that we can be friends.”

“I just wanna be friends with you tho. For forever. Only having you is enough for me.”

Mark was gonna say an “awwwww baby same” but the teacher entered the room suddenly and slammed the door hard.

“Sit the down and shut the up everyone or else I will make you fail at this class.”

All students stopped talking and did not even move an inch in fear of the aggressiveness of their “teacher”.

“Well, that isn’t so nice”

“Shut the up lee taeyong. Do you want to fail and take this year again???”

The boy, taeyong sighed and shook his head “no Mrs. Kim”

“good.” The teacher said and started writing something on the board.

“Uhm we will start the class right away Mrs. Kim? Won’t we meet first?”

Mrs. Kim turned around and glared at the cute girl with the long ponytail.

“What is your name?”

“H-herin”

“Okay herin look. I woke up 5 am in the morning and had a fight with my wife, yes I have a wife and if any of you talk about it behind me I will make sure you will get a punishment, whatever so we had a fight. Then I dropped my coffee accidently and burned my legs and they still hurt so badly. Then I almost got late to work so I ran here in the speed of light. Then that one fake , one of your teachers, said I look like and everyone in the room laughed. So yeah, I am not very in the mood to be the “friendly and nice” teacher right now. So please shut your mouth and just listen the class.”

Herin just looked down on her desk with a kicked puppy face and no one said anything. They just opened their notebooks and Mrs. Kim went back to writing on the board. Then someone knocked the door.

“GOD DAMN IT COME IN!”

A boy with a sweet smile entered the classroom and smiled at her.

“Hello Mrs. Kim”

“Sit the down jo kwangmin. If you ever come late again I will kill you with this board pen in my hands.”

He just kept smiling at her and said “okay Mrs. Kim.” And walked to the back of the classroom. Towards donghyuck to be exact.

“Hi, can I sit here?”

Donghyuck looked at the smiling boy with his mouth open, jaw dropped, eyes wide then shook his head and smiled back “y-yeah of course”

“Thank you. I’m kwangmin by the way.”

“I’m donghyuck.”

“It’s such a beautiful name”

It was the first time in such a long time that mark saw donghyuck blushing. He didn’t know why but he just did not like it. At all.

“t-thank you”

“Actually I-”

“SHUT THE UP BRAT!!!”

“Whatever you want Mrs. Kim” kwangmin said and made a “zipper closing” move in front of his mouth.

“She is moody again I guess. But she is not like that all the time don’t worry. We just gotta be quiet. She will calm down eventually. She calms down when she teaches her class.” Kwangmin wrote down on his notebook and showed it to donghyuck.

Donghyuck just nodded at the handsome boy beside him and smiled back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How can someone be that handsome? And nice??? I’m so….” Donghyuck buried his face into his textbook while mark sighed and gave him a judging look.

“You met him just a few hours ago. How you know he is so nice?”

“Haven’t you seen how nice he was to everyone?”

“Yes but-”

“I’m so in love!” donghyuck buried his face into the book again.

Mark should have said, “That’s great that you found a crush at the first day” or a “yeah he is nice” at least or maybe help donghyuck to get kwangmin but he did not do any of them. He just could not. He was some kind of mad about donghyuck’s new crush. Maybe because he never saw his best friend falling for someone that fast or maybe because he didn’t trust that kwangmin guy cause he looked way too nice. Or maybe…no! He did not love donghyuck like that! He was not in love with his best friend for god’s sake. No. god, please no.

“Do you think he would like me back?”

“Who wouldn’t? You are amazing.”

Donghyuck chuckled and mark felt like his heart filled with butterflies cause of the sweet sound.

“Says Mr. “absolutely fully capable”.”

“You promised me that you won’t make fun of it!”

“Mark, baby, I always joke with you, it’s nothing new.”

“I know but…I’m just sensitive about my lyrics you know. And I know they are not that good so I-“

“Are you ing kidding me?” donghyuck said and turned around in his chair to look at Mark with a shocked face.

“What?”

“Mark oh my god! your lyrics are always so amazing! Iconic even! Like, if you were in one of those boy groups like exo you would even be one of the most popular members. Like, not even just your lyrics but you can rap, you can sign, you can dance, you are so handsome but also silly. You are so perfect.”

“I…thank you”

Donghyuck walked to mark who was sitting on his bed and pulled him into a tight hug, which made them fall on the bed, still hugging.

“I never want you to feel bad. Especially for something you are great at. I love you so much.”

Mark wrapped his hands around donghyuck back and whispered “I love you so much too” to his hair, cause donghyuck buried his face in Mark's neck already.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Donghyuck hi, good morning”

“Good morning hyung”

Kwangmin said the other day that he was taking the first year again so he was actually a year older than he was.

“Ahh just call me kwangmin” he said, smiling brightly and gave donghyuck a few papers “these are the copies of the notes I had taken last year. I thought you can use them if you need to before exams.”

“Oh my thank you so much! You know I at taking notes. You just saved my grades!”

Kwangmin laughed sweetly and pointed at the papers “but my handwriting is so bad and I make a lot of mistakes. Mostly in grammar and some words.”

Donghyuck raised his eyebrow in a questioning way “you make mistakes in Korean? But you are Korean aren’t you?”

Kwangmin laughed harder this time “yes. But I still make mistakes”

“You are just like mark”

“Mark? Oh your boyfriend?”

“My boyf-oh no! Oh god no we are just best friends.”

Mark turned back and hid behind the wall when donghyuck checked the door of the classroom to be sure no one was listening. No one was listening to them of course at freaking 6 am. Well, no one except mark.

“Are you sure you two aren’t dating?”

“Nope. We surely don't.”

Mark couldn’t take it more. He walked away to boy’s restroom to wash his face. He knew they weren’t dating but…they had a moment the other night and…it just felt different than all of their “best friends” moments. He wanted to kiss donghyuck and cuddle with him all night. And it wasn’t a “because your lips are so soft” kind of kiss this time. He wanted to kiss him soft and sweet but then hard until they can't breathe. It was such a non-friendly kiss what he wanted from him. But it looked like it wasn't possible for mark to kiss donghyuck anymore, anyway. Not when donghyuck insisted so intensely that they were just best friends. Well, he wasn't wrong anyway. They were just...best friends...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been two weeks since mark last hang out with donghyuck when he heard his voice coming from behind the bushes. He was walking to school alone because someone(donghyuck) wasn't there to accompany him. He almost tripped and fall thanks to his shoelaces so he knelt down to tie them up. That's when he heard donghyuck. Most probably talking on the phone. And by how he spoke english he was ,again, probably talking with his friend jessica.

"No you don't understand he is just so...ugh i don't know how to describe him. He is taller than me, he raps so well, he can sing too but his rapping is better, he has the most beautiful pair of eyes, his smile can lighten up the whole world like how he lightens up my world. He isn't so good at korean to be honest and i found it weird at first cause his parents are korean but it's okay i love him anyway"

Wait, wait, wait donghyuck had a crush on someone. That's how he sounded like when he had a crush. Mark knew that tone. He definetely had a crush. But on who???

Taller than donghyuck, can rap, has beautiful eyes, has a pretty smile, isn't very good at korean but is korean...

.......

. It was that kwangmin guy. He was a lot taller than donghyuck, mark had heard him rap before and saw his exam paper that he mmade mistakes in grammar, in korean. That had to be kwangmin who hyuck was crushing on. He didn't think donghyuck was serious when he talked so lovingly about kwangmin the first day they met but maybe he was serious. Well, he was indeed now that he was talking about him to jessica.

And now it was clear why donghyuck chose to spend LOTS of time with him instead of mark. Not that he was right about it. No matter what you should not leave your beat friend alone. Even if you are having a severe crush.

But thank god it wasn't like kwangmin liked donghyuck back. He didn't. Right? He wouldn't. He looked straight. Yeah of course he was straight. So there was nothing to worry about. He wasn't going to date with donghyuck. They were just very good friends. That's all. That had to be all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Kwangmin stop i'm gonna cry" donghyuck said, holding his stomach but still laughing.

"But it is true. She thought me and youngmin hyung are the same person and almost fainted when she saw us two together. You should've seen her face."

"Stoopp." Donghyuck said, this time hitting on kwangmin's arm playfully. "I shouldn't laugh at that poor girl's confusion. You are a bad influence to me i swear to god."

"Yet you are still here sitting with me." Kwangmin said and winked at him.

"Ugh shut up you were the one who asked me to be your deskmate with your eyelashes fluttering. 'Hyuck want to be my deskmate?' Like, what was that?"

Mark watched the two laughing together, making jokes he didn't understood, most probably inside jokes between the two and sinked into his seat. He didn't use the word hate usually because he thought it was a very big word to say but he honestly, really, truly HATED seeing them like that. Mark was donghyuck's best friend. His one and only best friend. Not that kwangmin guy. How and when donghyuck forgot it? Maybe mark should've remind him the FACT that they were BEST friends.

"Hyuckkie" mark said with his sweetest tone and leaned on donghyuck's desk "do you want to hang out after school?"

Donghyuck looked at mark then at kwangmin then at mark again and sighed.

"I would love to markie but i promised kwangmin for karaoke date after school."

Oh so no cute nicknames like "babe" or "honey" for mark anymore huh mr. Lee donghyuck?

Kwangmin, being the sweet guy he is, jumped into the conversation when he saw mark's smile dropped.

"You can come with us mark. It will be so fun. There will also be my-"

"No. Thanks. I will go home i guess. Alone." mark said in a tone that if looks and tones could kill, kwangmin would be dead already.

Kwangmin gulped down nervously and tried to keep smiling at mark to calm him down. Mark glared at him in return and walked away.

When mark is away enough to not hear them kwangmin sighed and looked at donghyuck with a pout.

"Are you sure we should do that? He seems sad, hyuck."

"I know...but that's the only way." Donghyuck said, watching mark kicking a trashcan in front of school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now listen. Mark wasn't stalking donghyuck and kwangmin. No he really was not. It was just a coincidence that he happened to be in the same karaoke place that these two are. Compeletly coincidence. Nothing more.

The door of their karaoke room's not being closed was also compeletely a coincidence. Maybe a chance. A chance that mark took and watched them from the small crack.

Kwangmin had his arm on donghyuck's shoulder while donghyuck was holding his waist. They were swaying together and singing a love song. It made mark feel sick on the stomach. Donghyuck promised mark. He ing promised him that he will be his best friend forever. Only him. But now he was in someone else's arms.

Oh...maybe he and kwangmin wasn't best friends...

Oh...

Oh god...

"God i love that song so much" donghyuck said and only then mark realized the song had ended.

Kwangmin laughed and ruffled donghyuck's hair "i gotta go pee. Wait for me, don't start a new song till i'm back, okay hyuckkie?"

What the ?? 'Hyuckkie'???? Only mark called donghyuck 'hyuckkie'! His hyuckkie!

This time donghyuck laughed and hit his chest "ewww gross. Go pee you dumb dumb."

Kwangmin walked out of the room and mark panicked so hard that he almost crushed down the glass door of the room next to him that he entered to hide.

He listened kwangmin's footsteps so he could enter his and donghyuck's room and catch hyuck alone. Finally. To talk about this...this mess they had.

But then he heard someone saying "baby?" And kwangmin's steps stopping.

He opened the door to see what was happening and got shocked by the view in front of him.

Kwangmin ran to a guy mark had never seen before and literally jumped into his arms.

"Babeee where have you been? We had been waiting for you for like an hour."

The guy smiled at kwangmin and kissed him. Right on the lips!

"I had some things to do baby i'm sorry."

Oh now the pieces fell to their places in mark's mind...This kwangmin jerk was cheating on donghyuck!! How dare he!!

Mark stormed out of the room he was hiding in and yelled at the ing cheater's face.

"HOW DARE YOU CHEAT ON MY HYUCKKIE YOU ING JERK!!!"

Kwangmin looked at him with such a confused face that mark almost felt bad for yelling at him and shoving him away that hard. Almost. But then he remembered how this was cheating on his precious hyuckkie and got even madder. Screw feeling sad for him. He didn't deserve it.

"OH SO NOW YOU CAN'T TALK? WHAT? CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?! OR THIS GUY HERE DID IT? HMM?!"

Kwangmin opened his mouth to say something but a voice coming from mark's back stopped him.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Mark turned around so fast he almost broke his back...okay maybe it is too much but he felt like he indeed did break it.

"Hyuckkie?!"

"Mark?" Donghyuck asked with one of his eyebrow rised judgingly. "Do you mind explaining to me what is going on here? I'm pretty sure the owner of this place is about to throw us all out. Thanks to your yellings."

Mark pointed at kwangmin angryly and yelled again, his face was so red that donghyuck couldn't help but find it so cute. He always thought mark looked like an angry kitten when he was mad.

"HE IS CHEATING ON YOU WITH THIS GUY!"

"Who?"

"KWANGMIN!"

"He is cheating on me?"

"HE DOES! MY GOD HOW ARE YOU SO CALM WHILE I SAY YOUR BOYFRIEND CHEATS ON YOU!"

"Maybe because he isn't my boyfriend."

"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND HE CHEA-wait what?"

Donghyuck giggled and and walked closer to mark to pet his head tenderly.

"Kwangmin is not my boyfriend you dummy. His boyfriend is hyunseong hyung, 'that guy' if it's more easy for you."

Mark looked at kwangmin then at hyunseong who had his arms around kwangmin as if he was trying to comfort him, then at donghyuck lastly.

"What?"

Donghyuck giggled more and pecked mark's cheek before taking his hand on his own smaller one.

"I guess it's better if we talk it somewhere else. Let's go to the café we go all the time. I'm sure you missed there, right?"

Donghyuck was talking so, so sweetly that mark couldn't even say anything. He just nodded like a good puppy.

Donghyuck apologized to kwangmin and hyunseong before leaving the lovers alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"One extra sugary hot chocolate and one strawberry hot chocolate please."

Mark watched donghyuck ordering their drinks and smiled at him lovingly.

"You didn't forget?"

Donghyuck rolles his eyes but a smile was wandering on his lips.

"Of course i didn't dummy. How long it had been since we didn't come here? Three weeks?"

"Yeah but-"

"But no. Shut your overdramatic . We are not in a romantic drama or a fanfiction. And it's not like i can forget your favorite drink just in three weeks. Damn, i don't think i can EVER forget it. For like, forever."

"Even though you got so ing close with kwangmin? Even if you really get a boyfriend?"

Donghyuck laughed at that and leaned closer to mark to whisper to him playfully.

"Yeah. Not even then i won't forget this."

Okay wow donghyuck's whisper did some things to his heart. Damn oh damn he really was in love with donghyuck? His best friend?...god...

"Will you explain to me now why you made a whole fuss about kwangmin and hyunseong hyung being together? And how the you got the idea of kwangmin and i dating for god's sake?"

"...you said you will have a karaoke date with him, donghyuck. A 'date'"

"Oh come on mark i go to study dates with you. But they aren't real dates, are they?"

"They are not?" Mark asked in a small voice so donghyuck won't hear him.

But mark lee had never been lucky in his life so donghyuck of course heard him and smirked playfully.

"They were really dates?"

"I-i mean uhm uh..."

Donghyuck laughed and shook his head like he was trying to shoo away the thoughts in his mind.

"I can't believe it."

"What? What you can't believe?"

"Why you were about to beat the out of kwangmin when you thought he is cheating on me?"

Mark was sweating. Hard.

"C-cause i care about you. I didn't-i don't want you to get hurt. Ever. You are so-very precious to me."

"Okay. Understandable. But why did you get mad when you thought i'm dating with kwangmin?"

"I-i uhm it's cause uhh"

Had i said mark was sweating? Because wow he couldn't believe it was winter while he was sweating that hard.

"You were jealous. Weren't you?"

Mark wanted to kiss the smirk on donghyuck's lips so, so so badly.

"Uhm"

"I ing knew it!" Donghyuck said, leaned back on his chair and sipped from his hot chocolate.

Mark blinked at him, confused and curious.

"Uhm what do you mean hyuck?"

"I mean i spent DAYS without you mark ing lee just so you will get jealous of me and kwangmin. i gotta be honest, i wasn't 100% sure if you like me back but it was a risk i was willing to take. And i was right." Donghyuck said and looked at mark with...stars in his eyes? Okay maybe mark was being cheesy but he was pretty sure he saw stars in donghyuck's eyes. "You do like me back."

"Did you really had to play with me like that? You could've just confess me you know." Mark said, pouting.

"Awww baby" donghyuck said, leaning forward to peck mark's lips. "I couldn't confess you back then. I couldn't take the rejection. I...i know it sounds so selfish but i couldn't take it if you rejected me and it ruined our friendship."

Mark just looked at him for a few seconds, trying to take all the newly learnt information in his system. He thought maybe he should be mad at donghyuck for making him so SO jealous, for almost beating an innocent guy but all his thoughts washed away like the waves of a sea when donghyuck gave him those soft puppy eyes.

He could've never be mad at donghyuck.

Not when he looked at mark like THAT...

"Come here" mark said and pulled donghyuck forward for a kiss.

It was so soft, so sweet, so tender that mark lost himself in it. It was just like how he imagined it. No oh it was even better than how he imagined it. Because he could feel donghyuck's fingers in his hair, pulling it softly and his own hands cupping donghyuck's face, caressing it softly. Somewhere between his caresses and donghyuck's soft pulls the kiss became more aggressive. The soft pulls turned into hard ones, their moans were being swallowed by their mouths.

"I can't believe you made me wait for so long. You ."

Mark laughed into donghyuck's mouth, his breath tickles donghyuck's face.

"I'm sorry. I was being dumb."

Donghyuck rolled his eyes and said "aren't you always." Before kissing him again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Awwww look at them being cuties. Such cuties. Cuties." Kwangmin said, tightening his hold on his boyfriend's arm. "Can we adopt them hyunseong? Please please we can be such a happy family. Donghyuck is so adorable. He is like my son. My little baby."

"Darling, he is just a year younger than you."

"...but he is just like my baby."

Hyunseong kissed kwangmin's head and mumbled a sweet "you are the baby here."