lost in japan | markhyuck

-5-

"N-no, my love, I'm dying!" Donghyuck played off his flustered state with a dramatic twist. Mark frowned in confusion.

"I'm genuinely fine, mailman, that was a joke."

Mark furrowed his eyebrows at the nickname. "Mailman?" Donghyuck sighed and placed both of his hands around the man's neck, leaning closer to him. "I will give you any nicknames that I think of, Mariel." He couldn't believe he was getting that close to someone he'd met only a few hours ago, but he felt it was the kind of relationship he wanted to have with Mark. A little flirting, or maybe a lot.

Mark only chuckled at his response and spaced out his legs slightly to move backwards, pulling Donghyuck along with him and earning a yelp from him. He was living the dream any fan of his would love to have and he was determined to enjoy every second of it.

He spent the hour he had left with Donghyuck skating around randomly and talking about each other's lives. Donghyuck was especially interested in getting to know about Mark's job as a producer for an entertainment company. Of course, working for Zhong Chenle paid well, and considering the CEO was also one of his closest friends, the workload was insanely reasonable as well as the chinese believed that rest was most important for good work quality.

"Do you meet idols often?"

And so, Mark told him of the various idols and idol groups he had met. He laughed his ass off, quite literally as he fell over and landed on his ass as he wheezed, when he heard the story of how Mark had tripped over three GayCity members' bags at the same time and landed on the box of donuts he'd bought for them.

"Attention, all attendees. The event will be ending in five minutes. Please make your way to collect your belongings and refrain from pushing each other. Thank you."

The voice Donghyuck had been dreading for the past three hours finally spoke from the PA system. He hated to part with Mark so soon, and it seemed the older felt the same way, as he held Donghyuck's hand during the entire time that they were skating to the figure skates rack to return their skates and to collect their belongings.

As they sat on the bench together, Mark waiting for Jeno and Jaemin and Donghyuck waiting for Renjun, the tanned male was desperately devising a plan to find another way to contact him. He knew he wouldn't be able to live in peace if he'd given up the opportunity of getting Mark's number. Donghyuck noticed that despite the fact that they weren't even talking to each other, their fingers were still intertwined, Mark's thumb occasionally brushing over his hand. Not that it gave him an idea to get Mark's number, he was still racking his brain for ideas. Unable to think of anything at last, Donghyuck put aside his ego and cleared his throat.

"Can I, you know, get your number?"

His voice has cracked mid sentence but he was still proud of saying the words. Mark must've caught on to how long Donghyuck had been thinking of asking him the question, as an amused grin made its way to his face.

"Of course, sunshine. Who would refuse giving their number to someone as pretty as you?"

Mark's attempts of flirting were going a little beyond borderline cringy but Donghyuck appreciated him being so comfortable around him to even flirt with him,jokingly or not. The older held out his hand, gesturing for Donghyuck to give him his phone. After typing in the few digits, he saved his own contact as "mqrk hyyng", a result of typos he couldn't be bothered to change.

"Haechan! Get your ass over here, we have to go now!"

"I'll text you later then, hyung." Donghyuck whispered, ruffling Mark's hair one last time before running over to Renjun who'd been the one yelling at him. Mark called out a hasty goodbye to the younger who had already disappeared behind the door he'd entered from. Mark still hadn't fully processed the day's events, but he knew he'd be yelling about it for days and weeks.

♧

"Youre telling me, some guy rescued you from reporters and you ran away to your dressing room together, and you flirted with him because he was cute, he flirted back, you taught him how to ice-skate while flirting, and then you flirted your way into getting his number? All in five hours?" Renjun was taken aback by Donghyuck's unwavering composure as he told them of his achievement.

"That's kinda sus, though."

"Shut the fuck up, you're like two years old, Kai," Donghyuck snapped as he peeled off the shirt that was stuck to his skin because of his sweat. It had definitely been a long day, but it was completely worth getting Mark Lee's number at the end of it all. He'd learned a while later that they shared the same surname. "And Renjun, don't think I didn't see you flirting with Mark's friends at the rink."

The sentence was enough to redden the order's face. "We weren't flirting, we just got acquainted with one another," He huffed, but his reasoning was in vain. Donghyuck could clearly see through it,  he knew well that Renjun had taken an interest in the black-haired smiley boys. He simply shrugged his exposed shoulders and walked over to his closet, not caring that he was literally shirtless and only wearing a pair of shorts. Their mutual idol friend pouted as he watched Renjun silently cursing Donghyuck out.

"I want a boyfriend too!"

♧

Mark lay in his bed, staring at the blank screen of his phone. Not a single text. He'd been waiting for hours, waiting for even the shortest, most driest, message from Donghyuck even though the man was the farthest thing from dry. Yet he had nothing. The screen remained dark. Sighing, he set the device down and tried to start planning out what he'd be doing the next day.

Keyword; tried.

He couldn't focus on anything at all. No matter how hard he tried, his thoughts circled around Donghyuck, and only Donghyuck. He couldn't get his smiling face out of his head, and neither could he fall asleep. The day's events were simply too unreal. He picked up his phone again and decided to stare at the blank screen until it lit up, which he wasn't expecting to happen anytime soon.

Controversially, the screen glowed, showing a message from an unknown number. The moment he read the text, it was almost like his ears were set aflame.

unknown:
hey
shawty
can
I
kiss
u
<3

mqrk hyyng:
thats fruity

unknown:
you're fruity

mqrk hyyng:
stfu

'unknown' has been changed to 'sunshine'

mqrk hyyng:
shouldnt you be sleeping rn
it's late

sunshine:
right back at ya

mqrk hyyng:
il sleep if you slepe
*sleep

sunshine:
yea ill go "slepe" if you "slepe" too
😘

mqrk hyyng:
alrigjt then goodnight sunshine
sleep well 🏋️♥️

sunshine:
a goodnigjt to u too and sleep well too hyung🪂♥️

Mark slept insanely well that night, better than he'd ever slept in his entire life.