best friend ꒱ markhyuck

thirteen

When the game of spin the bottle was just starting to wind down, Mark suddenly disappeared into the crowd of students without any prior warning.

Reasonably, they all panicked a little. They were supposed to stick together, but not one of them had seen Mark leave, or had any idea where he could possibly be. Jaemin had been focused on soothing Donghyuck, Donghyuck had been humiliated and staring at the floor, Jeno had been flirting with the senior girls, and Renjun had been keeping an eye on Jeno just in case he needed someone to jump in at any point to help him make an escape.

"I'm a terrible friend," Renjun whined, tugging his bottom lip worriedly between his teeth, "I should have been keeping an eye on Mark instead. I should've known Jeno would've been fine on his own... and I should've watched Mark as soon as I saw one of those senior girls hand him a drink."

"You're not a bad friend, Junnie," Jaemin reassured him, patting the smaller boy's back gently, "Mark is older than us, we've all always looked up to him in a way, so it's only natural that you assumed he could handle himself. We all know that Mark is always capable of handling himself."

"Almost always," Donghyuck huffed, trying not to let his worry show too obviously on his face as he squinted and peered into the crowd, searching for his best friend. Where did that idiot even go?

"Should we split up to try and look for him? In pairs, I mean," Jeno suggested. Jaemin nodded quickly, immediately looping his arm in Donghyuck's.

"Good idea. Me and Hyuck, you and Junnie. You both have your phones on you, right? We'll text you if we find him."

"Same here," Jeno agreed easily, sending Jaemin a mock salute before grabbing Renjun's hand and disappearing into the crowd.

They had been calling and texting Mark since they noticed he was gone, hoping that he would pick up, but the oldest boy hadn't answered. It made Donghyuck nauseous with worry, wondering where his best friend could possibly be where he was unable to answer his phone.

"Come on," Jaemin murmured, squeezing Donghyuck's arm a little in reassurance before taking off into the crowd, dragging Donghyuck with him. The brunette did his best to stand on his tippy toes and try to look at every face in every room they passed, hoping to spot the top of his best friend's head or even the sexy grey tshirt Mark had put on to go to the party.

"Should we check the kitchen?" Jaemin asked when they had searched the entire downstairs floor and came up empty handed. Donghyuck bit his lip and nodded, following Jaemin into the kitchen area.

And there he was. Mark Lee, the quote unquote "responsible adult" of their friend group, the boy that had begged them all to steer clear of alcohol—that very same Mark Lee was holding a cup of what appeared to be beer, so far gone that he was barely holding up his own body weight as he leaned back against the kitchen counter. A senior girl was trying to flirt with him (and was obviously failing, because Mark was drunk off of his ass and probably didn't even know she was standing there), and Donghyuck didn't even bother trying to be nice as he shoved her out of the way and approached his best friend.

"Mark, can you hear me? Do you know who I am?" He asked, grabbing the older boy's shoulders and shaking him a little. Mark's head rolled, like it was too heavy for his neck to hold up, and he met Donghyuck's eyes through a half lidded gaze.

"Mhm, hi Hyuckie," he giggled, slurring his words a little as he spoke. His face was flushed bright red from all the alcohol, and his eyes were distant and far away, and Donghyuck felt a surge of both worry and anger as he realized how long Mark must have been down here in order to get this drunk.