never not ✧ mark lee

53

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It had been a long day for Mark since NCT Dream had just dropped their comeback with their first full length album. They'd done a live showcase and performed a few of their songs as well, before going back to their company and practicing Dive Into You, Diggity, and Hot Sauce again for their upcoming music show performances.

The song was charting a lot better than any of them had expected it to. It seemed like a lot people were anticipating their first comeback as seven as much as they had been themselves.

The comeback was doing well so far, with them recording over one million preorders. Mark felt like he could relax a little, things were going fine.

"Mark!" Donghyuck shouted, bursting into his room. "Can we go have pizza for dinner?"

"Can't we just order in?" Mark asked him as Donghyuck sat on the foot of his bed.

"Nah, I wanna go out," Donghyuck said. "It's pretty nice out right now too."

"Okay fine," Mark said, getting out of bed. "Lemme change out of these shorts."

Donghyuck didn't bother moving, so Mark just sighed and changed in front of him.

"Let's invite Dasom too," Donghyuck suggested, and Mark frowned.

"What? Why?"

"Dude, you're not gonna get to see her much for the next month or so," Donghyuck reminded him. "Our schedule is fucking PACKED."

"Hmm," Mark considered that. "Okay, you're right. I'll call her."

"Cool, let's go."

"If that's the case though, you should call Haru too."

"Okay yeah, good idea."

Mark and Donghyuck were joined by Dasom and Haru a while later at a pizza place that they knew usually didn't get too many customers. They ordered two pizzas to share and paired them with a beer each.

The two guys explained to the girls that they invited her since they'd be really busy soon and wouldn't be able to hang out much or even talk online.

They spent their time just talking, and it was also a good chance for Dasom and Haru to get to know each other better. The night was turning out to be fun, so they agreed to hang out as a group more often once the boys were free again.

"Hey, I have a question," Dasom said. "You all were talking about The Dream Show like it was traumatic or something. What's up with that?"

Mark and Donghyuck looked at each other with sad smiles.

"Haru can probably explain," Mark said.

"NCT Dream started off as being the NCT unit that would only have their youngest members," Haru obliged. "The original plan was that every time a member turned 20, they would graduate from the group."