best friend ꒱ markhyuck

one

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"Mom! Why are you doing this to me?" little Mark Lee whined, tugging at his mother's sleeve as he threw his tantrum. Mrs. Lee only groaned and gently shook off her nine year old son, walking into the kitchen and preparing the last bits of the welcoming meal.

"Stop being dramatic, Mark. It'll be good for you to make some friends here before school starts, Mrs. Lee said that her son is very excited to meet you."

Mark huffed and crossed his arms, making a big show of flopping onto the couch dramatically. Mark and his family had just moved back to South Korea after Mark had spent all nine years of his life living in Canada, so naturally he was filled with resentment and anxiety and all the other heightened emotions that occurred in young children, and he took every chance he could to rebel against his parents in his last ditch effort to show them that moving had been a horrible idea.

At the moment, Mark's mother was preparing to welcome their new neighbors into their home. They were another Lee family, and they had a son that was eight years old, so of course the adults had the brilliant idea of forcing the two boys into a play date. Mark thought they were dumb and naive, he could count on one hand the amount of times an arranged play date had actually resulted in a genuine friendship for him.

Thinking about his friends only made Mark even angrier, as all his friends were still in Canada. They had become pen pals, but it wasn't the same, and Mark hated the fact that he was basically back at square one in terms of his social life. He was a natural introvert, shy and awkward and easily nervous, and honestly he was scared. He was terrified that he would end up being a loner, that he might be bullied, that his life in Korea might become a lonely, living hell.

As Mark sat there on his couch and continued to fume, the doorbell rang, and his mother smiled brightly before scurrying over and opening the door to let in their neighbors. Both of the women exchanged pleasantries, and Mark's mother led the other Mrs. Lee into the house quickly, showing her around and gesturing to the food she made as a gift. Meanwhile, Mark's gaze fell onto his neighbor's son, a small boy with curly brown hair and tan skin. The two boys made eye contact, and Mark could immediately sense that the other little boy did not share his feelings of resentment, because he instantly perked up and flashed one of the brightest and warmest smiles Mark had ever seen. Mark scoffed and blew a strand of long black hair out of his face, glaring down at his small neighbor and smirking in satisfaction once a look of confusion and disappointment washed over the boy's face. Finally, the other Mrs. Lee looked down at Mark with a warm smile.

"Hello, Mark! It's so nice to meet you."

"You too," he responded coldly, and his mother shot him a warning glare before chuckling awkwardly.

"I'm so sorry about him, he's still upset from the move...we had to leave all of his friends behind, he hasn't taken it very well."

"Oh, don't worry, I completely understand. It's natural for young children to feel that way, I know he'll eventually love it here," the boy's mother chimed in kindly before leaning down to her son, "go ahead and introduce yourself, honey."

The boy nodded before bowing at both Mark and his mother. "I'm Lee Donghyuck, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Donghyuck! You're eight now, aren't you? You're growing up so fast," Mark's mother leaned down and patted Donghyuck's head sweetly, and Mark seethed as he watched the little boy grin and accept his mother's kindness without even a second thought. If Mark had been older, he would've been mature enough to understand that his feelings of resentment were not Donghyuck's fault and that it was unfair of him to project them onto him, but he was only nine and he desperately needed someone to take the blame for all of the negative feelings churning inside him.

"How about we leave the boys to play together, and you can show me around the house!" Donghyuck's mother suggested, and Mark's mother cast a nervous glance over at her son before eventually nodding.

"Sure! You two have fun, play nice Mark."

Mark rolled his eyes and watched as the two women left the room, an awkward silence falling over the two boys.

"Um... do you wanna play something?" Donghyuck asked hesitantly, and Mark shot him a nasty glare.

"No." He snapped, and the brunette flinched instinctively.

"Well... can you show me your room?"

"Why?" Mark groaned, and Donghyuck bit his lip and crossed his arms.

"Because I don't wanna just stand here and do nothing! That's boring," he huffed, and Mark let out a dramatic sigh before jumping down off of the couch.

"Fine! Let's go see my room, then," he grumbled, trudging up the stairs to his bedroom while Donghyuck awkwardly trailed behind him. Mark opened the door and let Donghyuck walk in first before leaning against the doorway, looking disinterested as the younger boy curiously wandered around the older's room.

"Oh my god!" Donghyuck suddenly gasped, running over to one of the boxes in the corner of the room. Mark furrowed his eyebrows and rushed over to the smaller boy, grabbing his shoulder and yanking him away from the box.

"Hey! Don't touch anything!" Mark snapped, and Donghyuck cowered, looking up at Mark sadly.

"S-sorry... I just got excited by your legos, you have a huge collection," he mumbled softly, pointing at the box once again. Mark's facial expression softened a little as he leaned down, glancing at the box before turning back towards his neighbor.

"You like to play with legos too?" He asked slowly, and Donghyuck nodded quickly.

"Of course I do! They're the most fun toys ever!" the younger boy chirped, and Mark hesitantly sat down next to him.

"I think so too, they're way better than toy cars or G.I. Joes," the taller boy added with a playful eye roll, and Donghyuck giggled softly.

"I agree! Do you... maybe want to play with them together...?"

Mark bit his lip and shrugged, sighing dramatically before grabbing a handful of legos.

"Fine. But I bet you're not as good of a space commander as I am. I'm gonna destroy you, dwarf," Mark grinned as he started to build a small spaceship out of the legos in his pile.

"Hey!" Donghyuck protested, grabbing some legos as well and scrambling to start building his own spaceship, "I'm only shorter because I'm younger! And I'm totally gonna take you down, Hyung!"

By the time the mothers came up to check on their sons, Mark and Donghyuck were in the midst of an intense intergalactic struggle between a dictatorship and a rebel force, and the two had eventually decided to join forces and use the armies from both of their respective planets to take down the dictator.

"They're closing in Hyung... I don't know if I'm going to make it," Donghyuck panted dramatically, subtly adjusting the tiny lightsaber in the hand of his lego avatar.

"Don't say that, commander! You have to have hope, our armies are strong enough, I believe in us!" Mark cried out, flying his spaceship closer to where Donghyuck's small lego person was being cornered by the makeshift monsters and bad guys that they had built hastily as they played.

"Do you have a plan?" Donghyuck responded, looking up at Mark hopefully. Mark merely grinned to himself, glancing at the smaller boy slyly out of the corner of his eye.

"Of course I have a plan! Watch this!"

And with that, Mark's spaceship swooped down, and the older boy made the 'pew pew' sounds of his space gun with his mouth as he shot down the enemies surrounding Donghyuck, and the brunette gasped dramatically.

"Oh Hyung, you did it! You're my lifesaver!" Donghyuck pretended to swoon in the same way he had seen many female actors do in movies whenever they played the 'damsel in distress' role, and both boys fell into each other in a heap of laughter.

It was one more instance that Mark could add to his list of times when an arranged play date had resulted in a genuine friendship.