"Dude...you had a glow up."
"Did THE Mark Lee just call me ugly?"
_____
A book in which Mark Lee hits rewind and reconnects with his old school friends from New York, who he abandoned on his journey to become an idol.
"You have to tap your elbow before you swirl it" Johnny said, watching the younger boy swing the green bottle around
"After!" Haechan and Doyoung corrected him strictly, knowing the American around him was prone to forget simple Korean drinking culture habits. Haechan slammed down the bottle of the freshly swirled beer onto the table making Mark shift his eyes towards the bottle of soju that he had created a whirlpool in
"I still can't get the hang of it" Mark chuckled, watching the youngest of them all pour everyone a drink before his own glass
"That's because you have no one to drink with and hence, therefore, ultimately, consequently you are fundamentally, essentially, intrinsically a loner" Haechan said, using more vocabulary than Mark or Johnny thought was possible. Jaehyun let out a small chuckle at his words, his eyes grazing over Mark's taken back expression before he propped his elbows up onto the table.
"I'm just glad someone else is his victim this time" Doyoung chuckled with relief and Haechan shot him a flying kiss back in response, making his uncomfortably laugh
"When did you learn to talk like that?" Johnny asked, eyeing Mark who was still somewhat shocked as his cheekbones poked through his skin.
"It's definitely because of Kira's friends" Jaehyun said with a light pink blush on his cheeks as his hand ran through his hair. Mark's ears perked up at the sound of the girl's name, his eyes raking over Jaehyun who seemed too in his head thinking about the girl he had just mentioned
"Yeah, you and Taehyun are getting closer recently" Johnny said and Haechan shrugged simply
"He's a fan you know, I have to do my service" Haechan said, faking an ego centric vibe making Jaehyun snicker at their dynamic that even Kira was worried to see evolve
"Actually it's kind of nice to be able to talk to people outside of the industry" Haechan said and Mark ran his tongue over his dry lips at that statement. He watched as the boys slowly nodded their heads in agreement, him doing the same.
"So...when are you going to ask the big question?" Johnny asked with a smug smirk, nudging Jaehyun with his elbow and the latter shyly looked away, his ears going red at the question.
"Maybe like...in Bali or something" Jaehyun said with a small voice and Doyoung smiled widely at the thought of it.
"You bought it already right? Can we see?" Doyoung asked, sitting up straight and Jaehyun groaned slightly, too embarrassed to continue the conversation—yet it was his friends that had been there for every other milestone in his life. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small black velvet box.
"Jungwoo helped me pick it out" Jaehyun said, opening it slowly, eyes grazing over the sleek diamond before placing it onto the table. Mark's eyes widened as his beer almost went down the wrong pipe before he turned his head to Jaehyun
"You're getting married?!" Mark exclaimed, garnering the attention of others around them and the boys immediately hid their faces against the table
"Nice one Mark." Haechan scoffed as they started to huddle together but Mark couldn't care too much at that point
"Dude—what—that's insane!" Mark said, utterly shocked by the news
"Well not now...just like in the future" Jaehyun shrugged and Mark looked to Haechan who seemed already aware of the news
"You knew about this?" Mark asked and Haechan furrowed his eyebrows
"It's in the groupchat" Haechan said
"What groupchat?" Mark asked, taken back slightly
"Our groupchat" Johnny stated, reminding him of the groupchat the boys had—now extremely dry due to the groupchat with Kira and her friends becoming their main form of communication.
"He's too busy texting his girlfriend to check our texts" Haechan teased and Mark awkwardly cleared his throat
"You have a girlfriend?" Jaehyun asked, thinking Mark having a girlfriend was far bigger news than him proposing
"No-what...No I don't" Mark said quickly shaking his head to shut down the rumours and Haechan rolled his eyes, seeing right through it but not caring enough to ask in a more civil manner than outing him infront of everyone
"But hold on—isn't this so sudden, like you guys just confirmed the relationship" Mark asked and Jaehyun hummed, pursing his lips
"Well...not really. My mom loves her, Jihye is already calling her mom...it just feels like the right thing to do" Jaehyun said with a simple shrug and Mark remained struck by shock at how ready she sounded for such a big change
"When you know, you know" Jaehyun said simply once more, turning his head to the waiter that approached their table with the bill while his words remained in Mark's head. The younger man felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, reaching for it only for a smile to return back onto his lips.
Alice 🫂
Alice: our wedding photos just dropped bro
Alice:
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Alice: my mom says hi btw
Alice: u were such a cute little bean
Alice: what happened lmao
Alice: KIDDING (im not)
Alice: how was the concert? 00:37 ________
Mark swiped out of the chat, opting to answer her messages later as he saw Jaehyun walk further away from him towards the car.
"Hey uh...dude like..." Mark trailed off, looking at Jaehyun turned around to face him with his eyebrows raised. Mark let dropped his shoulders that had tensed up slightly in thought.
"H-how did you or like...when did you know?" Mark asked, the concept of finding someone you love so much to the point of spending the rest of your lives together already complexing—let alone seeing one of his best friends be so sure of it.
"It kind of just hit me out of nowhere...I can't really say for sure..." Jaehyun said, pursing his lips into a thin line as he saw the boy nod slowly, not having his question answered. Jaehyun chuckled and took his hand out of his jacket pocket before patting the younger's shoulder comfortingly
"You'll just know...trust me" Jaehyun said, knowing his words probably sounded like code to the one who was so perplexed by the situation. But he was more than sure that Mark would come to realisation at some point.
"Yeah...see you tomorrow" Mark said, shaking his head lightly and letting out a breathy laugh at why he was so deep in thought all of sudden. Jaehyun nodded his head and followed Johnny into the car while Mark jogged back towards Haechan to get in the other car.
"Hey, you wanna play pubg with me, Jeno and Taehyun later?" Haechan asked as Mark strapped on his seatbelt and Mark shook his head
"I'm kind of tired" he said and Haechan shrugged
"You'd probably die anyway" He said simply, turning to his phone and preoccupying himself. Mark rolled his eyes, resting his head against the back of the seat as he fished his phone out of his pocket again, only one other person on his mind at this very moment in time.
