#markhyuck fluff

the older boy giggles uncontrollably while finding his spot behind haechan and bouncing on his feet. maybe it was the fact that his boyfriend was here or the candies he and jaemin stole from the concession stand were now giving him a sugar rush.

"i like to think you came here for me," mark rests his head against haechan's shoulder.

the hot-headed president keeps his arms crossed and eyebrows knitted as he closely monitors the venue with eyes like a hawk. today was the annual sports day and not even with his boyfriend's playful energy could haechan ease up. this event was put in his responsibility and if the timeline isn't followed, it'll lead to a catastrophe.

"not now, mark," haechan leans and shrugs him off, an action which he didn't think much of. that's until he turns and sees mark's disheartened expression.

"alright. well, i have to go to a race. see you later," mark straightens up and leaves without waiting for haechan's reply.

the brown haired boy instantly regrets pushing away the only person that can withstand him. he watches as mark regroups with a few classmates, namely jungwoo and jaehyun, for the track.

haechan has to make up for it, or else he'll have even more things to worry about for the entire duration of the event.

bang! the pistol being fired signifies the beginning of the race.

jungwoo being the first runner is off to a great start and is already ahead of the other students. his long legs give him an advantage. it's not long before jungwoo passes it to jaehyun, who widens the gap even more and is now running towards mark, the last runner.

however, the boy couldn't help but look over to the stands where he'd last seen his boyfriend, only to find no sign of him. mark felt his heart sink.

"dude!" jaehyun had finally reached mark, pushing the baton into his hands but due to the younger being distracted, he lags a little and falls behind the other passing opponents.

"the race is so close! with class 12-7 falling behind, 12-1 has now taken the lead!" he can hear the commentators through the surround sound speakers.

mark felt sorry to his teammates for letting them down, and he can feel his energy draining inside him as they get closer to the finish line.

but that's when he sees him.

the chestnut brown hair that he wouldn't miss in a room full of people, he was by the finish line carrying some sort of banner.

'MARK LEE YOU'RE THE BEST' it reads, the text is bright and vibrant and is written in many colors.

mark feels his spirit immediately lift, using a reserve of energy he didn't know he had to gain on the other runners and bolt towards the end. where his beginning, present and end awaited him.

"mark, come on!" haechan yells, waving the paper violently. the other class were fighting for their lives as to not let mark take the lead, but he eventually does.

when mark passes the finish line he doesn't stop running. he goes towards the boy waiting for him before engulfing him in a hug. he was sweaty, and short of breath but mark has never felt so relieved.

"what took you so long?" haechan pulls away, shyly folding the paper in his hands. "i had to stand with that sign the whole time,"

After he’s calmed down, Doctor Moon reappears with some medication and tells Donghyuck to take it easy and not force himself to remember because that might permanently alter his memories.

Renjun is the one who had dropped Donghyuck off at the hospital after his concussion so he had called Donghyuck’s mom afterwards, deciding it’d be best if she was here when Donghyuck woke up.

A sweet lady rushes up to him that evening and Doctor Moon introduces her.

“This is your Mother, Donghyuck, we hoped that seeing her would flip some sort of memory switch”.

She stays with him until visiting hours are over, tears threatening to spill every time he calls her Ma’am instead of Eomma, but Doctor Moon assures her that the amnesia is most likely temporary and will wear off once Donghyuck falls back into his routine.

Surprisingly, sleep comes easy that night because his mind is completely clear, like a blank slate and Donghyuck wonders how soon he’s get his memories back, until he falls asleep.

In his dreams he keeps seeing a boy with blonde hair and wide brown eyes. He sees them hanging out and eating together, not entirely sure where but he’s sure the boy has to be real, his brain couldn’t imagine up details so intricate all on it’s own.

Mark

A voice, that Donghyuck believes is his own, calls out and the blonde boy turns around.

Mark

Donghyuck repeats and the said boy nods his head.

“Mark”.

The name is on his mouth when he wakes up and he’s flooded with fragmented memories of this blonde boy.

He was a close friend, at least that’s what Donghyuck gathered from the memories.

He was also sure they were from the same school because he remembers seeing a memory of them wearing school uniforms together and pushing each other to check themselves in the mirror of what seems to have been a bathroom.

“Doctor Moon”, Donghyuck addresses him as he’s getting his checkup done, “I remember someone, his name is Mark”.

“Oh? And what relationship did you have with this Mark?”

“We’re friends, close friends I believe and from the same school too”.

“We’ll try to get in contact with him, it might help you”.

-

“Mark there’s someone on the phone for you”.

Mark puts down his textbook, being interrupted from his studying for the third time now, the first two being by his brother and then his brother’s girlfriend who came looking for his brother.

He picks up the extension to his room and brings it to his ear.

“Mark Lee speaking”, he answers.

“Mark, Good Morning, I’m Doctor Moon from Seoul National Hospital, do you have some time?”

Concern flashes across his face, taking a seat on the edge of his bed.

“Of course, please go ahead”.

“Thank you, you see we’ve admitted a patient after a head injury who is from your school. He can’t even recognize his own mother when she came to see him and he refuses to see anyone else if he can’t remember them, but he seems to have memories of you”.

Mark fists at the sheets by his thigh nervously. One of his friends had amnesia for Christ’s sake. Who wouldn’t be nervous?

“Could I know his name Doctor?”

“Donghyuck. Lee Donghyuck”.

Mark’s breath hitches in his throat.

Donghyuck.

Donghyuck who told the entire class that Mark is a selfish asshole.

Donghyuck who put up a fight every time Mark told him to follow a school rule - don’t gel your hair, tuck your shirt in, tie your laces, straighten your tie – and was responded with fuck you, Mark Lee every time.

Donghyuck who was once Mark’s best friend.

That Donghyuck.

“I’ll be there in an hour”, Mark speaks as quick as he can into the phone before hanging up.

-

“Follow me, and really, thank you for coming”.

Mark trails behind him nervously, biting the remainders of his nails, nodding along to whatever Doctor Moon has to tell him which is basically, don’t pressure him, let him talk as much as he wants.

Donghyuck is propped up against the head of the bed, a bunch of pillows at his back and a mop of unruly brown curls sitting on his head. His eyes are intently scanning through what seems to be their school magazine. He slowly looks up from it, eyes flickering to Doctor Moon and then to Mark.

Mark stares, dumbfounded, expecting Donghyuck to yell, to shout, throw the magazine at him, anything the Donghyuck he knows would do. But the younger boy just sits up straighter, eyes widening and never leaving him.

“Mark?”

“That’s me, bud”, he smiles warmly when Donghyuck sighs in relief.

“At least I remember one person correctly, right?”, Donghyuck laughs nervously.

Mark cringes, scratching the back of his neck nervously. He wonders how much Donghyuck remembers of their friendship, wonders if he remembers the big fight they had an year ago.

“Something like that”, Mark replies, just as nervously and the odd response goes unnoticed.

“Can I ask you something?”

Mark only nods, placing a reassuring hand over Donghyuck’s own.

“We were very close right?”

Mark thinks for a while. Technically, they were close and it wouldn’t be a lie to say yes. He also doesn’t want to give Donghyuck any bad memories just when he’s starting to remember.

“Very, yeah”.

“I want to see my friends, but I’m not sure who I was close to and I don’t want randos in my personal space you know?”

Oh if you only remembered what happened with us, Mark thinks.

“Yeah”.

“So I was hoping you could tell me who else I was close to”.

Shit.

Donghyuck and Mark used to have the same friend circle but when Mark fucked up, the circle split and the only one who still spoke to him from their ex-circle was Jeno. And that’s only because Jeno is the nicest human being on the planet and he’s also Mark’s lab partner for biology.

So if Mark were to call anyone other than Jeno at the moment, he’s bound to get ripped apart by Renjun’s bare hands or stabbed with Jaemin’s deadly sarcasm simply for having gone to see Donghyuck.

“Um, well, there’s Jeno”.

Donghyuck nods, repeating the name softly, Jeno.

“But take it easy, Hyuck, don’t strain too much”.

Donghyuck’s eyes widen even more.

“Hyuck? Is that what people call me?”

Mark nods, realizing he’d let the name slip, he hadn’t called the younger boy that in a long long time, but it felt right, slipped right off his tongue like it had always been there. Like the way your phone predicts the next words in a sentence because you use it so frequently.

“Do you want me to call Jeno here?”

Mark asks softly, half scared because Jeno might bring with him the two spawns of Satan.

“Not right now, no, but… could you let him know I’m safe, that I’ll come around soon if my memory comes back?”

“When”, Mark states and Donghyuck looks to him, confused.

“You said if your memory comes back, say when instead, and of course, I’ll text Jeno right away”.

-

Donghyuck is discharged from the hospital that afternoon and he asks Mark if he could come over so they can talk.

Mark hesitates, like really hesitates, but agrees in the end. Maybe if he does this at least, Donghyuck would forgive him when his memory comes back.

They sit on the big white swing on Donghyuck’s porch and Mark lets Donghyuck carry most of the conversation. Losing his memory certainly hadn’t affected Donghyuck’s speech- he was still as talkative as Mark remembered him to be, when they used to be best friends and they would sit in this exact spot and rant about things they wanted to get off of their chests.

Maybe a part of Donghyuck remembered it because he’s the one that chose to sit on the swing instead of heading inside.

The autumn chill sweeps across the porch and Donghyuck shivers, scooting closer to burrow against Mark’s side. The older blushes and scratches his neck (a nervous habit) but stays put. Donghyuck doesn’t seem to sense how anxious Mark is at their proximity which is why he goes a step further to rest his head on Mark’s shoulder.

Then all of the fights come rushing back to Mark, the way they had ended their friendship on the worst terms.

  *Flashback*

Mark opens the door, expecting it to be another bunch of trick-or-treaters but instead is met with Donghyuck’s flashy smile. He holds up his arms to show the grocery bags hanging on each, one full of snacks and the other with rented movies. Mark smiles back and takes one of the bags from him, inviting him inside and heading to the TV room.

It’s still a long way from twelve o’clock so they watch a comedy first, an old comedy at that, which made everything that much more cringey and laughable.

By the time the third movie rolls around, they’re out of popcorn so Donghyuck takes it upon himself to rip a bag of chips open and place it in the space between him and Mark, which to be clear wasn’t that big of a space because this movie was a horror and Donghyuck wanted to be as close to Mark as possible in the event of any jump scares.

Donghyuck hides his face in Mark shoulder when the eerie music begins to play, earning a scoff and “pussy”, from the older.

Then they both reach for the chips, accidentally grabbing each other’s hands instead.

Now in any normal situation, because this had occurred many times before, they’d apologize and move their hands. But this time, Donghyuck feels his cheeks heat up and Mark can’t deny the sudden swarm of butterflies in his lower stomach and the both of them end up making eye-contact for way too long.

In the span of a minute, the movie is long forgotten because Mark leans over and kisses Donghyuck very very softly on the lips, cautious, gentle. When he pulls away, eyes lidded and lips a little wet, mirroring Donghyuck, they stare at each other a little longer until the sound of Mark’s house door opening startles them apart, like they had been doing something wrong.

Mark’s parents, followed closely by Donghyuck’s parents, enter the living room after their dinner party and Donghyuck stands up to leave, awkwardly shuffling around to collect the movies he had brought.

After he’s shoved them hastily into his backpack, he calls Mark softly.

“Mark, can I talk to you?”

Donghyuck is still a little pink on his cheeks when Mark looks at him, eyes glancing around nervously.

“I don’t know, Hyuck- you know I like girls”.

At the sudden rejection, before Donghyuck could even say anything, the younger feels a sharp pain twist in his chest, near his heart.

“But you kissed me, you leaned forward”, Donghyuck accuses, eyebrows furrowing together in frustration.

“You kissed me back!”

Mark whisper shouts, not wanting their parents to hear any of this.

“Mark you know I’m gay, what the fuck do you mean?”

Donghyuck’s mom’s voice carries from across the hall, “You boys done? We have to get going, Hyuck”.

Donghyuck doesn’t respond, still waiting for Mark to say something, for some closure.

“Just go, Donghyuck, let’s never talk about this again”.

Donghyuck feels his heart clench but he laughs a sad laugh, “You know what Mark Lee? Let’s never talk again, period”.

He grabs his jacket from the arm of the sofa and brushes past Mark, eyes glistening with hurt and somewhere in his head still hoping that Mark would say Wait.

Mark doesn’t.

If this were the only beef, they may have made-up in a few months, but Mark just had to go fuck it up a little more. Donghyuck was running for Student Body President this year, it was a dream that he had had for so long and Mark knew it too, because Donghyuck had been talking about it from the eighth grade practically.

There weren’t any other strong competitors in the grade either so Donghyuck was obviously over the moon. That is of course, until Mark puts his name down for the campaign, signing himself up as a candidate.

Mark, captain of the basket-ball team. Mark, president of the book club. Mark, goody two shoes and teacher’s pet.

Donghyuck was obviously qualified too, being the captain of the baseball team and maintaining his perfect grades but he had quite a knack for pranks, so when the teachers found out that Mark would also be running, they changed their vote without hesitation.

Mark would be a better president, he’s less playful.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened after.

Donghyuck lost it when he found out and that basically put the permanent full stop to their friendship.

*End of Flashback*

Donghyuck gasps, jumping off of the white swing, swaying from the whiplash.

Mark’s eyes widen and he grabs his hand to steady him.

“I remembered something”.

Mark gulps, “What is it?”

“I play baseball, don’t I? And so does Renjun and Jaemin too”.

“Oh”, Mark bites his lip partially relieved, but at the same time fully afraid, “You remember them too”.

Donghyuck grins and turns around.

“Oh don’t get down and jealous Mark, I remembered you first so that makes you special”.

Mark smiles sadly.

If he could go back to that Halloween night, he’d do it right and kiss Donghyuck again and tell him how he had really felt. That he was just scared of his own feelings.

“You’re the special one, Hyuck, you’ll always be special to me”.

Mark regrets what he did so much and in this moment, when Donghyuck blushes at the compliment, Mark wants to grab his cute face and kiss him. But he fucked that chance up all by himself last year.

-

Donghyuck’s mom gives him his phone back a few days later and he’s slowly started to remember everyone around him, so he decides to text Renjun.

His message is seen in a matter of seconds and immediately, Renjun facetimes him.

“My God, Hyuck, it’d be easier to call the president than get in touch with you”.

Donghyuck laughs, immediately feeling a little better.

“How’re you feeling now?”

Donghyuck shrugs, “Still don’t have most of my memories, but I remembered you guys a few nights ago”.

Renjun nods, understanding.

“It’s not easy remembering only half of the world I knew, but Mark is helping me a lot so…”

“Wait, who is helping you?”

Renjun looks concerned but Donghyuck brushes it off as a fault of the connection.

“Mark, Mark Lee, he’s the first person I remembered but I can’t seem to remember any memories with him yet, we must’ve been very close though if he was the first one”.

“Yeah, right”, Renjun visibly scoffs but doesn’t say anything further (only for the sake of Donghyuck’s pending memory).

Donghyuck doesn’t like the uneasy feeling that’s beginning to settle in his stomach so he lies that he has to go and take his medicine and says goodbye to Renjun - who doesn’t really notice anything unusual other than the fact that Mark has been helping Donghyuck – and hangs up.

That night, Donghyuck dreams again, the first dream he’s had since the last one at the hospital and Mark is in it again. This time it’s different. There’s details, there’s scenes playing out behind his closed eyelids, there’s hurt, there’s tears and there’s fighting.

Donghyuck wakes up in a fit of pants, struggling to breathe, knocking several things off his nightstand when he attempts to turn the lights on. His chest squeezes tight, throat even tighter when everything comes flooding and flooding, like a dam had been opened, like he was drowning.

He tries to shout but no sound comes out so he scrambles to his feet in search of his phone that’s gotten lost in the sheets and calls the one person who can solve all this.

-

The annoyingly loud trap remix blares from next to Mark’s ear and he groans, rolling over in the thick sheets to grab his phone. He almost declines the call but when he reads the caller ID he sits up, awake, sliding his finger to answer.

“Hyuck, it’s three in the morning”, he yawns.

He’s met with some heavy breathing and the smallest, pained hmph sound.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Mark says, a little louder, getting off the mattress in case he needed to rush over to Donghyuck’s right away.

“K-Keep talking, please”, he finally hears and Donghyuck has never before sounded so weak.

Not even when they fought last year.

So Mark complies, he says nice things, comforting Donghyuck, having no idea that he was the cause of Donghyuck’s panic attack.

It seems to work though, Mark’s voice, it calms the younger boy down, his breathing gradually coming to a slow.

“Hyuck, do you remember when I said you’re very special to me? I really really meant that”.

Mark says softly and Donghyuck breathes in and out slowly.

“Mark, I remember everything”.

-

Mark buttons his shirt carefully for the second time, having missed a button the first time and tucks it into his jeans. He’s wearing a yellow shirt, because it’s Donghyuck’s favorite color and he hopes and prays that Donghyuck will at least hear him out.

Last night’s conversation had ended with Donghyuck tiredly saying, “We’ll talk tomorrow, I’ll meet you at the park”.

This morning, Donghyuck had texted him

Meet u near the swings at 4pm

The distance from Mark’s place to the park is a mere ten minutes so he walks. He gets there earlier than Donghyuck so he sits on one of the swings, swaying back and forth solemnly, kicking at the sand by his feet.

It’s not until he feels a hand on his shoulder that he looks away from the sand, startled.

“Hey”, Mark squeaks, incredibly high.

Donghyuck sits on the swing besides Mark’s.

“I-“, Mark starts and Donghyuck interrupts him.

“Don’t say you’re sorry”.

Mark nods sadly.

“I came here to thank you”, Donghyuck sighs.

Mark turns to him, confused.

“Thank me?”

Donghyuck turns too, looking into Mark’s eyes.

“Given our history, you could’ve easily refused to help me, but you didn’t, why?”

Mark looks down at the sand again, blushing.

“I finally had a chance to speak to you again and I wanted to be close to you again”.

“Yeah but why?” Donghyuck presses on and Mark blushes deeper.

“I told you, you’re really special to me Hyuck”.

Donghyuck goes quiet.

“Then why didn’t you even try, after what happened, you didn’t even try to fix things”.

Mark’s gaze drops lower before coming up to meet Donghyuck’s sad eyes.

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to, and that’s my fault, I’m so so sorry, Hyuck, I should have, I should have tried until you forgave me, I should’ve handled things better that night, I should’ve kissed you again and told you how I really felt instead of running away from my own feelings because I was scared, I called you a pussy but really, I’m the pussy, for being too afraid to confront myself”

“And then I went ahead and ran for student council president because I heard that you kissed Jaemin in the locker rooms and I was jealous, I was so stupid and selfish and I knew after that, that I really fucked things up. Turns out the rumor was false too and I felt so shit after that but I knew it was too late, you technically hated me by then but I don’t blame you, I was such an asshole”.

“To be fair, I’m the one that spread that rumor about Jaemin and I, hoping to make you jealous”, Donghyuck nervously laughs and Mark is taken back for a second but smiles.

“Still, I had no right to get mad at you when I had turned your feelings away just months back, you had every right to kiss anyone you wanted- even if the rumor was false”, Mark argues, bashing himself, kicking himself into the dirt.

They sit there for a few minutes in comfortable silence, thankful now that it’s all out there.

Donghyuck stands up from his swing and holds his hand out for Mark to take.

Confused, the older still takes it.

He’s pulled up and into Donghyuck’s embrace, warm and forgiving in the autumn weather.

“We both did some immature shit, but I’m willing to bury all that if you are”, Donghyuck mumbles into Mark’s shoulder.

“Dude, heck yeah”, Mark mumbles back, almost sobbing into Donghyuck’s shoulder from the overwhelming emotions that are rising in his throat.

“Friends first, then we’ll see where this goes”, Donghyuck pulls away, holding out his pinky.

Mark crosses it with his own and brings his thumb up to meet Donghyuck’s thumb, like they’re tying together a promise.

And just to be completely honest with you, the friend’s first ordeal lasts maybe a few weeks – if you leave out all the excessive flirting before that – because soon enough they decide it’s time to see where it goes when Mark yet again finds himself kissing Donghyuck on a movie night, but this time, they both intend to make this a regular thing.