Save Your Tears For Another Day ⟨Markhyuck⟩||Completed

chapter 23

It was lunch time and Mark desperately wanted Donghyuck to talk to him. He feels lonely without the tanned male popping up at his lunch table to talk with him and give him snacks. He feels alone. He never had any friends in this school and right when Donghyuck was the first person to talk to him, he pushed the younger away like the idiot he is.

The older walked right up to the younger's lunch table, eyeing the others around him. Renjun noticed him first and stood up, but Jeno grabbed his arm, sliding his hand down to interlace their fingers together. And that made him sit back down.

Donghyuck looked up from his tray, his smile disappearing when he noticed who was standing right in front of their table. He rolled his eyes and continued eating and chatting with his friends.

He's not just going to give Mark a free passage, he has to earn it.

"Donghyuck," Mark gently called out, the younger ignoring him.

Mark tried calling for the younger again, but this time he stopped when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He silenced it and continued trying to talk to the tanned male who now stood up to throw his tray away, the older following him.

"Donghyuck please. I'm so sorry I-"

Mark's phone went off again, making the younger raise a brow at him, gesturing the older to pick up the call. Mark did so, answering it.

"Mark! I-It's Yejun!" His grandmother frantically cried over the phone, hurting his ears.

"Stop crying, what happened?" Mark answered, trying not to sound disrespectful, but the wail was hurting his ears too much.

"H-He.... Mark. We- Hospital-"

"I said stop!"

Everybody had eyes on Mark for what happened next. The older dropped his phone in the middle of the cafeteria, grabbing attention from the people inside the cafeteria. Mark covered his ears, crouching to the ground.

Donghyuck's eyes widened. He was confused, but acted fast and shrugged off his jacket and bended down to reach Mark's eye level, covering both their heads in the middle of the cafeteria with his jacket.

The younger watched as Mark's breathing was becoming heavy in anger, his jaw clenching and unclenching as he squeezed his palms against his ears as if he was trying to avoid hearing a specific sound. But what was that sound? Donghyuck didn't know. In fact, this was not the first time Donghyuck witnessed something like this.

He remembered how Mark told him to stop clashing his rings before, how his face screamed annoyance. That was the same look Mark had right now, but more intense.

Donghyuck decided to speak with caution.

"Mark, it's okay."

Mark looked at the younger, quickly avoiding their eye contact as he rapidly shook his head.

"It's loud. I can still hear it. Make it stop!" Mark yelled in anger, which took Donghyuck off guard by the sudden burst and frightened him.

"Hyuck, is everything okay?" The younger heard Renjun ask.

"Everything is fine. Please tell everyone to stop drawing attention," Donghyuck answered calmly and averted his focus back on the shaking boy in front of him.

"Mark, how about we leave the cafeteria hmm? You can get away from most of the noise," Donghyuck suggested, but the older didn't move.

The tanned male swiftly grabbed Mark's phone which now had new cracks on the screen because of how hard it hit the ground. He put it in his pocket and spoke gently.

"Markie, can you hold my jacket over your head for me?"

Mark, still shaking, nodded his head reluctantly and removed his hands to grab the jacket to which Donghyuck quickly replaced his hands to press softly against the older's ears to block out the noise.

It was a surprise to see Mark in such a vulnerable state. This made the younger want to protect the older with everything, even if he could not do much.

"We're going to stand up now, okay?" Donghyuck warned him before guiding him to stand up.

Donghyuck looked around the cafeteria, taking his head out from underneath his jacket to keep Mark's face covered. The students were back to doing what they were. He glanced over at his lunch table to spot a worried looking Renjun, but Donghyuck reassured him with a small smile and walked Mark out of the cafeteria.

He led Mark all the way to his locker and uncovered the male's ears so that he can unlock his locker and grab his belongings. Mark frowned at the loss of contact as he happened to be feeling slightly calmer than a few moments ago.

Mark pulled the jacket off of his head to be met with Donghyuck untangling his ear buds. Once he finished, he pushed them into both of Mark's ears and pulled out his phone to play music that would hopefully help calm him.

"This will help block out the noise," Donghyuck smiled warmly.

He shoved his phone into Mark's pocket and went back to grabbing his things from his locker. Once he finished, he pulled his arms through the sleeves of the jacket he covered Mark's head with and swung over his bag.

The younger hesitantly held Mark's hand, but was assured that he can continue when Mark interlocked their fingers together. The younger smile shyly, looking away so that the older didn't see but he already had seen.

They went to pick up Mark's belongings and started walking out of the school. Donghyuck halted when he felt the older tug his hand, looking away.

"You should go back. Don't skip because of me. I treated you terribly and I don't deserve you. I'm so sorry," Mark said with a frown and disappointment, which made Donghyuck's smile disappear.

"Mark, if it isn't already obvious, I like you a lot, even if it didn't seem like I did these past weeks. I had already accepted your apology from that day, I just didn't know how to face you."

"You shouldn't forgive me though," Mark sighed, his eyes welling.

Seeing the tears brimming from Mark's eyes, hurt Donghyuck. He had never seen Mark in such a state, but he wants to make sure he never feels like this again.

"Nonsense, people make mistakes. We're human," Donghyuck smiled in assurance.

Before Mark could respond, Donghyuck felt Mark's phone vibrate. He pulled out his phone and showed it to the older, to which the said boy stared at the phone in confusion.

"Are you ready to answer this?" Donghyuck asked and Mark nodded his head.

He pulled out one of the ear buds and answered the call while Donghyuck waited. Mark's reaction didn't seem the greatest once he answered though because the said male's grip tightened around Donghyuck's hand.

"Are you related to Yejun? This is xxxxx hospital and we're calling to inform you that Yejun had gotten into an accident today..."

-☀️-

Oh no, what happened to Yejun😫

Thank you for reading!I hope you enjoyed. Please take care of yourselves and stay safe!
Much love....xx