Nocturnal Sunshine - Lee Donghyuck

✧43✧

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

Jiyoung

incoming call from Markie🥱...

I slowly opened my eyes, aware of the incessant ringing from my phone, but quickly closed them again due to the bright light peeking through the curtain which was slightly pulled aside. I reached my hand out from under the duvet and grabbed my phone once I felt it's familiar shape under my hand.

I squinted at the name on the screen, recognising the first two letters.

"Hey." I mumbled into the microphone.

"Hey to you too. Did I wake you?" Mark's voice came through very cheerfully.

"Yeah. You did actually. It's too early for this."

"Well how do you think I feel about having to actually get out of my bed and go to another country."

"Honestly, sucks to be you."

"Right thanks."

I laughed, "How are you feeling?"

His sigh came through the phone, "I'm really going to miss having you so close by and all this down time we had, even with filming it was still so much more relaxed than usual. But I can't wait to be on familiar ground. Seoul is my home away from home, you know. We've got a few days off to adjust to the time zones and then we're back into preparations for everything so that's going to be nice."

"I'm excited to be home as well, though I can't say I'm eager to be swamped with university workloads again. It is my last year- I'll be graduating in summer, so the workload is going to be insane. Plus, if I get my placement, I'll have to do it on top of having a job. Ugh, it's going to be busy."

"You've got it, Ji. Besides you have still got a while before anything happens. Don't stress it just yet. It might not even be worth the stress. Save your energy for more important things."

"Pretty sound words."

"Thanks. They're from experience." He chuckled.

"How is everyone else doing?"

"They're mostly in the waiting area with me, there's another ten minutes before we need to go for the flight, so the managers dumped us here to try and keep us all contained."

"Okay, but have you ever considered how much of a hassle it must be to keep 23 rebellious children under control."

"That sounds like a them problem. SM wanted the infinite members concept. They dug their own grave."

"Don't say that. They might terminate your contract. Or feed you more shrimp brains."

"I'll settle for shrimp brains if the need arises."

"Did you have a particular reason to call or were you just bored?"

"Hahaha, funny you should ask." He began, sarcasm spilling into his tone. "When were you going to tell me about your relationship status?"

"Oh um that. I guess Hyuck told you?"

"Mhm, he sure did." He drawled across the line, clearly not pleased to have heard from Hyuck rather than me.

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

Mark

The airport was eerily empty.

After our inbound flight details had been leaked, the managers had been a lot more careful about keeping everything under wraps. In fact, they had purposefully leaked rumours that we wouldn't be flying until tomorrow morning just to be on the safe side. And by that time, we would already be on homeground and have the advantage.