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"Thirty Seven„

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November

"Go out with me." 

Mark stared at the younger as if he had grown to heads. "That came out of fucking nowhere, what?"

Donghyuck sighed and repeated himself: "Go out with me."

"No?" Mark chuckled nervously, eyes darting to look anywhere and everywhere as long as they didn't meet Donghyuck's.

"Why not?" The younger's bottom lip jutted out, a pout forming on his face and Mark only became more flustered. 

"I don't know. I just, like- Honestly, I kinda don't want to? I don't know" 

In short, Mark hated himself. Jeno patted his back once he finished telling him the events of this morning. 

"I've only made things worse for myself."

"Yup."

"I won't be able to last."

"Not at all."

"Are you ever helpful?"

"Depends."

Mark shoved Jeno off of his bed. The younger gave him his sweet eye smile and just crawled back in with him. 

"Get your thoughts straight and explain everything again because whatever you just said two minutes ago was not Korean."

Taking a deep breath, Mark explained himself again, this time speaking slower and in the language Jeno understood. "So, earlier, Donghyuck came up to me and all of a sudden, asked me out. I said no and he started whining. So, we made a bet."

Mark groaned again, hands rubbing his eyes as he thought of the situation he had gotten himself into. "We're both pretty much addicted to alcohol-"

"Oh, really? Didn't notice."

"-so if I drink first, I have to go on a date with him and if he drinks first, he has to do whatever I want him to."

Jeno paused. "That's it?"

"Do you want more? I can barely go a week without alcohol. The only reason Taeyong doesn't know is because I buy it myself." Mark groaned and buried his face into his pillow. 

"Why don't you just lie?"

"My tell is was too obvious for that to work."

"Well, what is it?"

"My ears turn bright red."

"Prove it."

"I totally do not have the biggest crush on Lee Donghyuck." He instantly started to feel his ears burn and Jeno burst into laughter and fell off the bed, again. 

The loud noise caused Jaemin and Renjun to rush into Mark's room, only to see the older clearly embarrassed about something while Jeno laughed on the floor. 

"Are you..." Jaemin started.

"Okay? Absolutely not." Mark deadpanned, trying to hide his ears as discreetly as he could. After knowing Jaemin for so long, he knew the younger would be able to sniff out anything suspicious about him. 

"Hyung, if you like him, why the fuck would you reject him?" Jeno wiped his tears from laughing too hard. 

Mark burned an even brighter red. "I was nervous! It came out of nowhere! I gay panicked! I get it, I'm stupid but has the person you liked ever abruptly asked you to go out?"