best friend ꒱ markhyuck

four

Once Donghyuck joined Mark in high school, a lot of things changed. They changed their styles; Donghyuck started straightening his curly hair while Mark adopted a clothing style that involved a lot more black shirts and ripped jeans. They weren't each other's only friends anymore—they had met three boys in Donghyuck's freshman year, Jaemin, Jeno, and Renjun, who were all Donghyuck's age, and the five of them had formed a little friend group early on in their high school years. Donghyuck got taller, though still remained just about an inch shorter than Mark, and eventually the older boy's baby fat dropped off and his body became much more lean and toned. And with that particular development came perhaps the biggest change of them all; the older of the two of them had joined the dating scene.

Mark had a few girlfriends over the years, kissed a few of them, and Donghyuck would smile and play nice to their faces but glared at them behind their backs. Donghyuck didn't understand why he seemed to dislike every girlfriend Mark had, despite a lot of them actually being very nice to him and most of them being very good to Mark, but everytime Mark got a new girlfriend he would roll his eyes, scowl, and go home and throw his teddy bear from Mark across the room. The teddy bear was named Minnie (derived from Minhyung, Mark's Korean name that he never actually used) and Donghyuck often took his frustration out on the poor plushie as opposed to Mark himself—though he always went over and would pick it up, apologize to it, and cuddle it afterwards.

However, none of Mark's relationships lasted very long. The longest one he had been in lasted about a month, and that had been the only breakup Donghyuck had seen Mark cry over. It was mysterious to everyone, why all of Mark's girlfriends seemed to dump him and want nothing to do with him anymore after spending so little time in a relationship with him, and all it served to do was make Donghyuck feel even more wary of any new girl that came after Mark, because he hated seeing his best friend go through so much heartbreak over and over again.

Eventually, they got to the age where they started discussing sex. The rest of their friend group had always hounded Mark about it, asking if he had ever gotten that far with any of his girlfriends, but Mark had shrugged it off and shook his head "no". Mark didn't even seem to mind being teased about it, but he seemed adamant on not sleeping with any of the girls he dated.

"It's, like, a respect thing, I guess," he had explained one day when they were about sixteen years old, after all his other friends had pressed him about it for weeks and finally managed to get him to spill. Donghyuck just sat quietly and listened, trying not to feel too left out.

"I barely date these girls long enough for it to get that far, and even when I do... I don't know, it just doesn't feel like the right timing for me either. It's not fair for me to sleep with someone if either of us aren't 100% ready, that's disrespectful to both of us and our bodies. I don't need to sleep with a girl to like her, I like girls who are nice people with good personalities."

"Wow..." their mutual friend, Jaemin, had whistled. He was looking at Mark with a facial expression that was equal parts amazed and weirded out. "You're such a fucking dork."

The rest of the group broke out into laughter, but Mark had just clicked his tongue and took a sip of his water, his face still very serious. Donghyuck knew that Mark meant what he said, so despite his own discomfort with the conversation topic, he tried to voice his support for his friend.

"I think that's really cool of you, Mark," Donghyuck had said softly, turning to the older boy and flashing him a genuine smile, "you have a really big heart, and you're a great guy... I think a lot of other boys could learn something from you on how to be better men."

Mark beamed at him, looking immensely fond and appreciative, and across the room, the three other boys all exchanged mysterious knowing looks.

"Well let's talk about you then, Donghyuck," Jaemin countered slyly, "the biggest virgin loser that we know."