best friend ꒱ markhyuck

nine

Mark ran past his mother, ignoring her as she called out his name, and made a beeline straight for his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him and collapsing against the wall in a heap.

As he sat there, his whole body burning hot with embarrassment and shame, he tried to process what he had just seen.

Jaemin... hovering over Donghyuck, pinning his best friend down on top of Donghyuck's bed that Mark had helped him put together during the summer after 7th grade when Donghyuck's mom decided he was old enough to have a full sized bed instead of the little twin bed he had been using all of middle school. Donghyuck, laying on his back and totally vulnerable, at Jaemin's mercy, like Jaemin had been about to devour and ruin him. His best friend, his Donghyuck, being used and taken advantage of by someone he thought he could trust to take care of his Hyuckie.

He snapped his eyes open, quickly shaking his thoughts out of his head. He had to quickly remind himself that Jaemin was not a bad guy, he wasn't some sort of evil predator that was hurting Donghyuck—he was just a close friend, one that happened to be dating Donghyuck. He had to remember that Donghyuck wasn't the little boy that needed Mark's protection anymore, he was eighteen years old and perfectly capable of handling himself and making his own decisions.

But it was hard, in a way. Because for Mark, sometimes when he looked at Donghyuck, he still saw the little kid who had looked up at him with teary eyes and begged him not to go to middle school without him. He still saw the Donghyuck that collapsed into his arms and cried after a long hard day, the Donghyuck that he had to cuddle and rock back and forth with until he felt better. Lately when he looked at Donghyuck and Jaemin together, he started realizing that he saw Jaemin as a threat, as someone who was going to hurt the person that he cared about more than anything in the world, the person that he still saw as vulnerable and naive—and with harrowing clarity, a person that he realized that he had considered as belonging to him for most of the time they had been friends.

When he looked at Donghyuck, he was overwhelmed by his love for him and the memories they shared and all the knowledge of how sensitive his best friend really was, and in his head, he had been the only person that was there for him and had protected him all this time, and there was no way he could ever trust anybody else to take care of him the way Mark knew he deserved.

He let out a long deep sigh, trying to shake his head once more and clear his thoughts. He didn't know what was wrong with him all of the sudden—why he felt weirdly possessive and protective, why seeing Donghyuck with Jaemin made bitterness rise up in his throat, why he felt neglected and sad now that Donghyuck was spending so much time with his new boyfriend. Donghyuck had put up with the same thing when he dated all of his girlfriends, and Donghyuck had handled it with grace and never once made Mark feel guilty about spending so much time with another person... so why did Mark feel like it was impossible for him to do the same? Why did he feel the urge to go back into Donghyuck's house and grab his best friend by the wrist and drag him away from Jaemin, and make him spend all of his time with Mark like he used to?

"Honey?" His mom's voice cut through his thoughts suddenly. She was knocking softly at his door, no doubt worried from the way he had stormed back in and slammed it shut behind him when he had gotten back. He cleared his throat, slowly rising back up to his feet before he wordlessly padded over and cracked the door open, peeking up at his mom through the small space.

She furrowed her eyebrows at him, staring at him like she didn't know whether to be mad at him for being rude, or be worried that he was suddenly acting so out of character. "Mark, what's going on? Are you okay?"

"I'm... fine," he said softly, clearing his throat a little and trying to come across as casually as possible. He didn't think it was working, based off of the way that the creases between her eyebrows only deepened, but he still tried anyways. "I'm sorry for ignoring you and slamming the door, that wasn't very nice of me."