underrated | Mark Tuan ff

8 ~ Unprepared

Mark's POV

"You seemed really close with Mae." Marie states as she hands me a sweater for me to hold while she looks through the racks in Hollister. Why does she care?

"Uh... yeah." I say as she hands me a shirt. "She's nice." I smile as I think about her.

"It annoys me." Marie rolls her eyes and walks over to another section of the store. I follow her quickly, full of confusion.

"Why does it annoy you that she's nice?" I ask. She shrugs with her back facing me.

"All my life she has been nice to everyone." Marie says. "Why can't she talk bad about someone for once?" She asks rhetorically. I can feel Marie's anger in her voice. I sigh. You can't live hating everyone.

"Maybe you should try it sometime." I tell her as I feel my head tick and deepen my tone. Marie turns to face me with an offended reaction.

"What's with the attitude?" She says and folds her arms.

"What attitude? It's hard to bite your tongue when you hate something. Unfortunately, you can't hold back how you feel when something annoys you. You just insult someone when you feel mad, do you know people have feelings?" I snap at her. I could feel the whole store staring at us. I don't care. She has to know this.

"What the fuck, Mark?" Marie whispers, trying to not make a scene. I could tell she's very angry with me. I couldn't deal with her anymore. I hand her clothes to her and storm out of the store.

When I reach the outside of the shop, I could feel my heart racing. I take deep breaths as I try to calm down and look over the railing of the mall. I sigh as I think back to what I did. Was I too mean? Should I apologize? Just then, I hear a familiar laugh and look to my right to see Youngjae, Mae, and Liz leaving a store together. Mae puts on Youngjae's sunglasses and laughs as she dancing like a weirdo. My grim face immediately disappears as I watch Mae.

"You're so embarrassing!" Liz exclaims and takes out her phone to videotape her.

"I love this song!" Mae shouts and dances more as they walk towards me.

I try to listen closely to the song and realize it's Nobody by Wonder Girls. I laugh while staring at her. She turns to see me watching from afar and stops dancing. I cough and look away while trying to act cool. Shit. What if she saw me staring? I stare down at my phone and pretend that I'm texting. I can hear footsteps near me and look up to see Mae, Youngjae, and Liz. I put away my phone and blush.

"You liked Mae's dancing?" Youngjae laughs and takes his sunglasses from her face and puts them back on.

"What?" I question, acting like I didn't see anything.

"You missed it, Mark." Liz giggles. "She's so weird."

"I'm right here guys." Mae rolls her eyes and blushes in embarrassment. "Where's Mar?"

"Inside." I nod my head while trying to act cool.

"I'm going to go in." Mae smiles.

"Me too." Liz says and walks beside Mae as they walk in. Mae is one of a kind.

Mae's POV

What if Mark thinks I'm so weird that he doesn't want to hang out with me now? I try to clear my head and get away from the awkward situation by walking into Hollister.

When Liz and I enter the store, I can already smell Marie all over the place. Clothes are everywhere on the floor and her strong, lavender scent is spread throughout the store. I walk around until I spot Marie from far away. I pause when I notice something is off. She's crying. I lost Liz while trying to find Marie. I didn't want to call Liz over to witness Marie crying. Marie hates it when people see her weak side. Marie is in the shoe section of the store and is sitting in one of the seats. I empathetically watch her as she continues to silently cry. Should I go over there?

The last time I comforted Marie when she was crying was when her college boyfriend was cheating on her. I sigh as I think back to that moment. I am still always there for her but nowadays Marie acts like a bitch to me. She still needs her best friend though. As I step forward towards her, I stop when I see someone else approach her. My eyes widen when I see who is hugging her now and holding her in his arms. Jinyoung?

I quickly exit the store as I replay Marie and Jinyoung embracing each other while Marie sobs into his sleeve. I let out a deep breath when I leave and look up to see Mark still at the railing as before. He is staring at me with a concerned face. Within a second, Mark walks up to me and touches my face gently. I freeze up.

"Why are you crying?" He asks me. I didn't even notice I was crying. Am I that upset about Marie and Jinyoung?

"I'm..." I remove his hand from my face and quickly wipe my tears.

"Mae..." Mark says with a soft tone. That soothing voice. I have heard that beautiful voice before.

"I'm fine." I say and give him a small smile. Where have I heard that voice before?

"I don't care." Mark says and gives me a hug anyway. I felt paralyzed in his arms. A few seconds later, his warmth and arms became more and more comfortable. I relax my body in his and hug her back as I dig my face into his neck.

"Thank you." I whisper. I don't deserve this. I shouldn't be hugging my best friend's boyfriend. But my best friend is in my ex-boyfriend's arms. That's different. It's my ex. This is her boyfriend. The boy she is with right now. I let go of his embrace and could tell he wasn't ready to let go of me. I give him a smile and step back a little. "I have to go find JB." I say immediately and run off.

A/N

Mae still doesn't remember what happened at the party. She also doesn't know if she likes Mark yet. Marie and Jinyoung, don't know what's happening there. Or maybe I do lol.