Head Down

◤twenty◢

"Okay, I most definitely didn't call you pretty," Mark splutters, marching up right behind Donghyuck. The younger rolls his eyes, but Mark can't see it. Mark sometimes thinks that Donghyuck is too confident for his own good.

"It was heavily implied, you bimbo."

"You can't base heavy weight words by implication," the elder continues, not even realizing that he's crossed the threshold between the corridor and Donghyuck's bedroom. He stops in the doorway, not knowing if it was an invasion of privacy if he steps right into Donghyuck's room.

"But I just did," Donghyuck pouts. "What're you gonna do about it, Mark hyung?"

Spluttering, Mark simply has his mouth gaping open, since there isn't really anything he will do about it.

"Y'know, maybe coming here was a mistake," Mark grumbles, earning a pout from the boy in front of him.

"You can't leave," Donghyuck whines, placing his bowl of ice cream down on his desk, and coming over to where Mark stands in the doorway. "You're my only friend." He adds, grabbing the elder's wrist and dragging him inside.

Stunned by Donghyuck's words, Mark blinks rapidly at the younger boy.

Friends?

They were friends? Since when?

"I'm not your friend," Mark instantly said.

Donghyuck's pout turns into a frown.

"Yes you are," he insists, letting go of Mark's wrist, grabbing his ice cream bowl and sitting down on his bed. "We always bump into each other, at school, at the park, at the library, and we have at least some relationship because my stepbrother is dating your best friend. Can't you see Mark hyung, we're fated to cross paths and be friends."

Mark is speechless after Donghyuck's done his spiel, once again, rendered mute by how Donghyuck has a way with his words.

Did Donghyuck really think that way?

Mark's never met someone so... Whimsical with the way they see things. The way Donghyuck pulled all the strings together, the way he came to this conclusion... His mindset was so different.

Sure, Mark's never met a boy like Donghyuck before. A boy who can do his makeup better than any girl Mark's ever seen, a boy who prefers his skirts over his jeans, a boy who obsesses over flowers and crying in the park, a boy who dated his stepbrother, a boy who's family is ripped and torn in the most complicated ways—

Mark's never met a boy like Donghyuck, never felt for a boy like Donghyuck, never knew he could come in contact with a boy like Donghyuck.

And that scares him. Terrifies him to no end. Because Mark was never good with new. When he moved to this small town, he hated it. He came here with the intention to keep his head down and to keep a low profile. He wasn't interested in getting involved in this tiny town in any way. Because change wasn't good to Mark. And to avoid change, you avoid the prying eyes of the people who look at you like you're someone who doesn't belong. And that's fair, Mark doesn't belong. Doesn't belong in the countryside with his ripped denim jeans and his black leather jacket. Doesn't belong with his too long t-shirts and trench-coats. With his beanies and designer sports shoes.

Mark doesn't belong here. With his inability to even fathom the type of people he'd meet, Mark can't see himself actually talking to the people here.

Being friends with the people here.

It's been burning in his mind since the moment he's stepped foot into the boundaries of this town: people here are different. People from small towns don't think the way he does.

And yeah, maybe it's a disgusting prejudice, but Mark isn't Mark if he doesn't know and better. Maybe he just doesn't know how to accept people who aren't like him, who aren't like the people who he's grown up with. People who don't bring him a sense of familiarity or a sense of belonging. Whatever it is, whichever reason he has, the fact that Donghyuck can even think that they're friends... That scares Mark in his sick, twisted and wrong mind.

"Donghyuck," Mark starts, incapable of bearing the silence for any longer. "We're not friends."

Donghyuck doesn't react, simply continues to spoon ice cream into his mouth. He doesn't even look at Mark, just licks around his spoon to collect the remains of what ice cream has melted onto it. He doesn't say anything for a while, but when he does, Mark feel something akin to guilt bloom in his chest. 

"Then get out of my room," he whispers, seeming eerily calm for someone who's just been rejected.

Mark doesn't bother looking for a second longer, just turning around and leaving the younger's room, just like he asked.

He doesn't bother thinking too much once he's out of the room, heading straight to the foyer and slipping his shoes back onto his feet. Thankfully, no one sees him in the hallways, and no one sees him slip out through the front door.

Back in Donghyuck's room, he sits with his ice cream bowl empty, fingers delicately touching a bouquet of red dahlias.

"You're just like everyone else, Mark hyung," he whispers. "You're happy, s'long as I'm not."

Donghyuck doesn't let himself feel much after he heard Mark's simple statement of him announcing them as not friends, he just grabs his scissors off his desk and takes out a single stem from the bouquet of dahlias. He stares at it for a minute, simply lost in his static thoughts, before he feels the sting of tears behind his eyes. The moment he feels the familiar burn, he snips the entire flower off the stem, watching as it falls pathetically onto the floor.

It's dead.

The red dahlia, the flower which reminds Donghyuck of everyone in his life, the flower which reminds him of Mark, the flower of betrayal, is dead.