𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 l ♡ mark lee

26.

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"thanks for taking me home the other day." i thanked renjun. i was hungover and the only thing i remembered about last night was falling asleep as we left the basement and waking up in my room. i assumed renjun was the one to take me home.

he furrowed his brows and tilted his head. he looked confused.

"yah! you partied without me!" chenle shouted while running up to us.

"we didn't plan to! and plus you were busy." i reasoned with an upset chenle. we laughed and he huffed.

"you owe me chips!" chenle demanded to renjun. renjun chuckled and nodded. we were about to head to lunch when i remembered i left my water bottle in my locker. i told them to go ahead and i'll catch up to them. i opened it up took out my bottle when i suddenly heard a voice.

"annie! how's the hangover?" a voice mocked from behind me. i whipped around to see mark and his friends coming my way. donghyuck took it upon himself to tease me again.

"it's fine." i rolled my eyes. my eyes moved from donghyuck to mark and my eyes couldn't help but soften. he beat up a guy for me, even though my memory was blurred from the alcohol, i still remember what he did. i looked to his knuckles and they were bruised. though, he had one hand behind his back like he was hiding something, it had me curious.

i wanted to reach out to him .i always feel such a pull to him especially when he's hurt. his eyes zeroed in on me, searching every part of my with concerned eyes. i nodded my head slightly towards him to signal that i was fine.

"last night was probably the most wild version i had ever seen of you." jeno joined in on the taunting. i tried to push out the memory of the bad dancing and drunken behaviors. i thought it would be awkward between me and renjun, but i guess we were both ignoring it.

"well cherish that memory because it's staying a memory. it's not happening again." i asserted. he rolled his eyes and began to walk away with donghyuck and jaemin. mark stayed back and his eyes were focused on the floor like he was thinking.

"are you okay?"

"are you okay?" we said in unison. i widened my eyes and he snapped his eyes up to me.

"i'm okay, what about you? your hand.." i pointed to his injured hand. he narrowed his eyes like he didn't know what i was talking about. he looked down to his hand and widened them in surprise, like he didn't know his hand was bruised at all.

"oh yeah, it's completely fine." he paused and looked conflicted. "are you alright?" he continued.

"yeah" i sighed. he nodded lightly as a response. we fell into a silence and we were avoiding eye contact. it was just slightly awkward. it felt like we both wanted to say more to each other but didn't.

i drew the courage to look at him and he did the same. our eyes met and his eyes went soft. he held me in his gaze and it felt comfortable.

"um i brought you—" he stopped his words when we heard footsteps approaching.

"annie?" renjun's voice calling out broke us out of our moment. i looked his way and he was holding a juice box out to me. i gave him a small grin and walked up to him to take it.

"you okay?" his eyes drew to mark behind me. i nodded and realized i should probably end our staring contest and go to the lunchroom now. "let me just close my locker." i walked back to my locker to see mark hastily shuffling away from my locker. i was confused, he looked flustered. what is he doing?

"mark?"

mark had a brief panic look on his face when i called out his name, but his jaw clenched when he saw renjun. he walked away without another word, as renjun came towards us. my eyes trailed after him.

"let's go?" renjun gestured to the lunchroom and i nodded, shut my locker and followed him. we got lunch and sat down.

"when are you finishing the story?" chenle mumbled through his food. renjun made a disgusted expression at chenle eating with his mouth full, but chenle shrugged it off.

"story?" renjun questioned and turned to me.

"the story of how mark and me stopped being best friends." i sighed. him bringing that up again was not what i wanted.

"since you went to a party without me yesterday, you have to tell me! skip the boring parts and get to the juicy bit." chenle smirked and opened a bag of chips that renjun bought him. i was conflicted on whether or not to tell the story in front of renjun.

chenle looked impatient and lifted his brows to signal me to start.

"alright calm down ." i exclaimed.

i guess it's finally time to relive that moment.

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[a/n: cliffhanger sorry. the next chapter will be the flashback/main reveal of the big fight. thank you for reading and pls vote :))]