upstaged || markhyuck

75: apologies.

"is donghyuck alright?" mr byun whisper-yelled, pushing his round glasses up his nose and clutching his clipboard as he caught mark's arm.

mark's eyes darted around the dark curtains of the wings.

"i'll get him," he found himself muttering softly as the intro music to the girls' next song started playing, "don't worry, mr byun."

"okay, babes," mr byun huffed out, waving mark away as he reached out to grab suhyun, who was helping out with the backstage work.

mark gripped his copy of the script and headed for the dressing rooms, ducking out of chenle and jeongin's way as the two went to their positions in the wings. he let the door close behind him, blocking out most of the sound coming from the stage, and sighed.

"donghyuck?" he called. he glanced into each dressing room as he passed, stopping short when he saw doyoung backing out of the main boys' dressing room.

the older lee brother gave a hopeless shrug and pointed into the room, which mark entered to find donghyuck sitting at a dressing table, head buried in his arms and shoulders shaking with sobs.

"hyuck..."

"go away."

mark paused, setting down his script on the table and placing his hands on donghyuck's shaking shoulders. "hyuck. it's alright... talk to me."

"i can't go back out there," donghyuck whimpered, "i messed up so bad."

"i'm really sorry," mark mumbled, sinking onto his knees beside his boyfriend. "it was my fault... i didn't mean for you to miss your cue-"

"no," the redhead interrupted him, "it wasn't your fault, markie." he looked up, face streaked with tears, makeup smudged. "it wasn't your fault."

"it wasn't yours either," mark told him, gripping his arm, "it was just a mistake."

"i can't believe i'm over-reacting so bad," donghyuck said, laughing through his tears. mark gave a grin.

"yeah, but you were always a bit of a drama queen," he remarked.

donghyuck shrugged, drawing mark into a hug. "sorry for being an asshole all day."

mark smiled into donghyuck's chest. "it's alright, you idiot. it's been a pretty stressful day."

"yeah..." donghyuck trailed off. "wait. am i supposed to be back onstage? shit!"

"not for roughly ten minutes, hyuck," aaid doyoung, poking his head round the door frame. "so i should fix you up."

donghyuck sighed, pressing his hands to his eyes. "okay. i can do this."

"you can do it, hyuck," mark said. "besides, a bad dress run means-"

"we'll fucking smash it on the night," donghyuck said with a sniff. "okay, go back to your duties, markie."

mark smiled and leaned in to press a quick kiss to his boyfriend's lips. "no more freaking out - you'll be fine."

"thanks," donghyuck said in a small voice, and mark squeezed his hand before leaving the dressing room.

doyoung gave him a grateful look and a subtle thumbs-up as he left, before going in to help donghyuck get into his new costume and fix his makeup.

"is donghyuck ready?" mr byun asked as mark opened the door to the wings.

"he'll be on standby in about two minutes," mark said softly, and mr byun nodded.

and just like that, the rest of the dress run went smoothly, leaving the audience unable to do anything other than give everyone a thunderous applause when the curtains closed.

the cast exploded in a mixture of yelling, laughing, crying, hugging and jumping up and down. multiple people clapped donghyuck on the shoulder, telling him "good job", and the atmosphere was tangibly warm and alive.

"this calls for pizza!" daehwi exclaimed above the sound of his fellow cast members who filled the dressing room corridor. people were getting changed out if their costumes and back into their usual clothes, ready to go hang out and eat good food.

"i'm down," said jaemin, popping up behind the younger, having snuck round the back of the theatre and worked his way towards the honey-haired boy.

daehwi gave a shriek before smacking jaemin's arm. "you scared me," he pouted, but jaemin just hugged him tightly, going on and on about how amazing he had performed.

"disgustingly cute," donghyuck remarked, but gave a grin when mark grabbed his hand. "let's track down renjun and jeno, and like daehwi said - pizza?"

"can we come?" chenle piped up, arm slung around jeongin's shoulders.

"sure! xi?" he added, turning to his friend.

"kyla and i have a date," she answered, and donghyuck smirked.

"tell us where it is so we can crash," he said slyly.

"yeah, no," the black-haired girl told him. "nice try, chen."

"whatever, krystal," he teased, but was dragged away by mark and chenle.

"bye," xiyeon laughed, waving the boys off. "nance?" she glanced round to see the brown-haired girl stalking off, and sighed.

"if she doesn't want to bother, don't bother," kyla spoke up, pulling a sweater over her head.

"yeah," xiyeon remarked, shrugging. "she's not like she used to be."

"you could say that," kyla agreed, crouching to tie her shoelaces. "are you hungry?"

"starving," the black-haired girl said with a grin.

"i know a good place," said kyla, holding out a hand, which xiyeon took hold of.

"thanks, mr byun!" xiyeon called as she and kyla left the theatre, hand in hand.

"no worries, babes! get some rest and i'll see you two on monday," he replied, tugging mr park along behind him towards his office.

"so, where was this place you were thinking of?" xiyeon asked. the two girls looked almost coordinated in their blue jeans, sneakers, and sweaters - only kyla was wearing a white one and xiyeon's was lavender.

"well," kyla said thoughtfully, "i had a place in mind, but my mom just text me saying that she was cooking dinner."

"oh?" xiyeon looked at her.

"so... you can come over for dinner if you want," kyla mumbled.

xiyeon giggled. "i'd love that," she replied, poking kyla's blushing cheeks.

"love you," the mousey-haired girl responded, and xiyeon pressed a kiss to her pink cheek, before the two continued their walk back to kyla's house.

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hey guys, apologies for the ridiculously long wait for me to update this book T.T i've had a lot of assignments lately so updates have been scarce but i will try to update this book more often (i won't leave it a whole month next time!)

thank you all for the support and love, as usual, you're the best~ i will be trying to update my other books also x

taellipses out x