Yours Truly, Mark

It has been a year and today would be the day I would see Mark again. Or more so, in another 15 hours. My phone was on and I heard Mark shuffle in the background, my boyfriend staring into the camera while I shifted through the clothes in my closet. I held up the dress and laid it on my body, Mark tilting his head to the side before frowning.

“I don’t understand why you can’t just wear one of my hoodies,” he said as he squinted at the screen, his finger pressing down on something. “Uh… It says that it’ll rain—”

“It’s one of those family gatherings, Mark,” I said and Mark furrowed his eyebrows, his lips pursing. It was obvious that he wanted to say something but was stopping himself. “And right after that, my parents are going on their yearly retreat and my brother will send me to the airport to pick you up.”

“Yeah… so….” Mark’s voice trailed and I placed the dress on the bed, trying to decide between the red and blue one. “So, if it’s one of those family gatherings, shouldn’t you be okay with a hoodie?”

I raised an eyebrow and I could see him lower the phone. There was a flash of his passport and I could see that he was checking in. There was a soft voice telling him that the process was done and Mark thanked her politely. He had a beanie on and I smiled when his face came back into the frame. When he saw me smiling, he smiled back shyly and I sighed.

One year had been quite a ride for the both of us and we spoke like how we usually did. We went through handling the time zones, trying to understand the concept of distance and relationships, put up ground rules of what we can and cannot do and Mark had been nothing but cooperative and I was entirely grateful for how hard he worked in trying to be a reliable boyfriend.

He was still Mark though, and more often than not, he hardly voiced out his thoughts because he was scared of how I would react. But our dynamic didn’t really change, we just showed each other how much we cared a little bit more.

I could see the strap of his Jansport bag and he told me that he was going through immigration now. I nodded and I could see him pocket the phone first when my brother called me to go down and I did, my parents asking me if I was ready. Our aunt from another country came to visit so we would be having dinner with her in the hotel and coming back to the house before my brother would send me off to pick Mark up.

“You should standby by the gate,” I told Mark and his voice cackled from the other side. Jaehyun was bringing his girlfriend again and she was more like family now than my ‘brother’s girlfriend’, New York slipping on heels. “I’ll see you in another… 14 hours?”

“Okay,” Mark replied and I saw him appear back at the camera, smiling at me before he kissed the camera, and I couldn’t help but blush. “See you in a bit.”

And that was how the call ended.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The dinner went well and after dinner, we came back to the house without my parents and in the meantime, and looked at Mark’s flight details while my brother and his girlfriend yelled at each other in the background. If anyone didn’t know them, they’d think that New York and my brother hated each other but it was just how they communicated.

Since our parents weren’t around, Jisung and Chenle had also arrived and I could see them in the living room, their hands pressing down on the joystick as they played on the PS4. New York was asking them if they were hungry and I yawned, retreating to my bedroom.

I decided to change and take a nap, finally falling asleep when my brother shook me awake. By the time I woke up, it was an hour till Mark would arrive and I was still groggy. I sat up, my brother told me that it was time to pick Mark up, and New York and I filed into the car, Jaehyun driving to the airport.

When we reached the airport, the information board showed “landing” and stood at the third entrance where Mark would come out. Jaehyun went to get coffee with his girlfriend because he was driving back and I shuffled, my hands gliding over the screen of my phone to text Mark when I heard someone cough.

I looked up to see him there, his beanie on the top of his head, his hands shaking. I tilted my head at him, wondering why he looked so awkward when I heard my brother in the background, shouting out Mark’s name. Mark gave him a bow and he walked closer. I had lifted my arm towards him to hug him when Mark stopped a foot away and grabbing my hand, shaking it.

“Really, Mark?” I heard New York ask, laughing.

“Mark, even when we were friends we would hug—”

“Right…” Mark’s voice trailed. “How do we do that again?” he asked and my jaw dropped open, Mark tinging pink before he stepped closer to hug me, a hand patting my back awkwardly.

“Oh, this is going to be fun.” I heard Jaehyun tell his girlfriend and I frowned at Mark who gave me a meek smile. “Mark, you’re staying with us for two days, right?”

Mark nodded, blinking. “My parents are opening an ice cream branch in another district and they’ll be back in two days—”

“That’s nice. How are they handling the cost structure?” New York asked absentmindedly as she reached up to pat Mark on the head.

“The what?” Mark asked, looking like he was panicking. “What structure?”

“Nevermind,” she replied, motioning to me. “You two must miss each other. Jaehyun and I will get the car, wait by the entrance, yeah? Get… acquainted.”

And with that, both of them left and I stood in front of Mark, studying him. He couldn’t meet my gaze and I poked his arm, Mark jumping backward at the skinship. Why was he acting so weird? We were fine just a few hours ago.

“Alright, what’s up with you?” I demanded, Mark blinking rapidly.

“N-Nothing…” his voice trailed and I frowned. “So… How was your day?”

“We had dinner,” I told him, still staring at him. “And then we came here to pick you up but you’re acting weird.”

“I’m not weird!” Mark protested, the car finally coming forward and Jaehyun honking it. “Your brother is here—” Mark grabbed his luggage and loading it in the back. He was about to open the door but I was blocking him and he quickly took two steps backward to give me space.

Right, he was definitely acting weird.

We finally went into the car and my brother; his girlfriend and Mark began to make small talk. Questions were mostly about how Canada was and his experiences there. I could see Mark fiddling with his watch nervously and I still couldn’t pinpoint why he was nervous. We finally reached home, Mark jumping off the car and pushing his luggage out before all of us entered the house.

“Mark hyung!” Jisung greeted from the couch, both he and Chenle seemed to have ordered pizza. Chenle greeted Mark casually, the sounds of the speakers blaring as they shot down what seemed like zombies. “Welcome back!”

“Hello, Jisung,” Mark said, raising a hand.

“Why do you and Muffin noona look awkward with each other?” Chenle asked, his eyes on me and I blinked. “Did you two fight?”

“No, but if he keeps this up, we will definitely fight,” I said to him and Mark froze. “Go and put your stuff in the room, Mark. It’s not like you’re a stranger here—”

“I’m not but we’re… together,” Mark said to him and I frowned. Of course, we were together. We were standing right beside each other. “I mean….”

His voice dropped an octave.

“That kind of together…”

“Jesus, Mark! Why are you making such a big deal out of it?” I managed to say, finally grabbing his elbow and dragging him up the stairs to bring him to my room. He pulled his luggage behind him and I heard my brother yell from the kitchen.

“Oi! Don’t lock the door! Ground rules—” Jaehyun said but I heard his girlfriend in.

“Give the kids some privacy, Jae. Besides, it’s Mark.”

“Oh, right. It’s Mark.”

“Now, what does that mean?” Mark asked under his breath as we reached the room. He placed his luggage by the door and shuffled through his things, grabbing a towel before he froze in the middle of the room. “I’m gonna… I’m going to take a shower.”

“Yes, Mark. Who's stopping you, Mark?” I asked and he turned to enter the bathroom. I still couldn’t pinpoint why he was acting the way he was acting. Did he change his mind? But it made no sense considering he was fine a few hours ago. I grabbed the remote and began to shift through Netflix, trying to find something to watch when Mark came out of the bathroom, rubbing his hair with the towel.

He seemed visibly relaxed, bounding to the bed and asking me what we were watching.

“Did you finish the Ozark?” I asked, Mark shaking his head and pushing his glasses up his nose to squint at the screen. “What? You didn’t? I thought I told you to catch up so we can watch Season 2 together.”

Mark fell back onto the bed. “It got pretty dark 3-4 episodes in and I got scared so I didn’t finish it. Shouldn’t we start on something new to watch instead?”

“Haunting of Hill House?” I asked, my hand moving across the remote.

“Isn’t that the one that got a nomination?” he asked. “Yeah, we can try that out.”

And that is how we ended up watching a movie, both of us under the covers beside each other. The series itself was interesting, what was even more interesting was how Mark seemed to move every other five minutes and when I looked at him, his hand was shifting towards mine.

“Mark—”

And he jumped, his hand shooting back just for him to cross his arms across his chest.

“Why are you so stiff?” I asked, Mark chewing on his lower lip. “It’s not like we haven’t touched each other while watching a movie before.”

With my words, Mark’s shoulders relaxed and he looked at me. I raised an eyebrow, Mark shifting closer before leaning to the side.

“How… Do I hug you? Do I not?”

“Mark, you don’t have to if you don’t want to—”

“Well, I want to… I just—” He moved his arm and I sighed, moving forward to make space before leaning against his shoulder. “What if my arm goes numb?”

“Then should I just move away?” I asked, moving my head away but Mark tense his arm up, locking my head against his arm and shoulder. I yelped, slamming my fist against his arm. “Mark! You’re going to choke me!”

“Oh, sorry. Sorry,” he mumbled, relaxing his arm before giving me a meek smile. I focused on watching the movie, a hand going to place on Mark’s chest to feel his heart pounding on his chest. Why was he so nervous?

“Mark.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re as stiff as a rock,” I told him and he gave a sharp inhale. I looked up to see him peering down at me. “Relax. I’m still the same person, you know.”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. We finally watched the movie when I felt his head against mine and when I looked up, I saw that he had fallen asleep, his arm limp by my side. I slowly moved away from him, pulling him down under the covers as Mark scratched his cheek and turned over to the side while I tucked the sheets underneath his chin to give him warmth.

He was still innocent and I finally fell back against the covers, turning over and closing my eyes.

And then it was 3 am and I jolted up at the sound of Mark’s alarm clock, my boyfriend fumbling for his phone to put it off. I wondered why he had an alarm for 3 am when Mark began to speak, talking to himself as he cracked an eye open to stare at the time.

“Oh no, it’s 3 am,” he said, pressing something on his android phone. “It’s 3 am, I need to call her, or she’s going to get mad.”

“Mark?” I asked, a hand reaching out to touch his shoulder, Mark jolting up and sleepily dialing someone’s number. “