call me by your name | markhyuck

otto

[ANNELLA comes in and while she is seating herself, asks]

"Try later, what?"

________________________

The table was silent, each person in their own headspace and eating peacefully. It was Donghyuck's self-mocking and random comment that broke the calm atmosphere.

"We almost did it. Chaeyoung and me."

Heechul raised an eyebrow and set down his newspaper, setting his full attention on his agitated son.

"And why didn't you?"

Donghyuck shrugged nonchalantly,  expertly cracking the shell on his breakfast egg.

"Better to have tried and failed...." Mark comforted him, but there was a hint of mockery in his tone that annoyed Donghyuck further. He could mock himself all he wanted, but hearing it from Mark brought a stinging pain to his chest.

Donghyuck was quick to defend himself from Mark's backhanded comment. "All I had to do was reach out and touch her, she would have said yes."

Mark waved him off with three simple words, and the conversation topic was dropped as abruptly as it was started. "Try again later."

Heechul chuckled at the twos sibling like behavior.

"I just heard from the people in Sirmione, they say they’ve come up with something. I’m going there today, would you like to go with me?" He asked Mark, who responded with a respectful and delighted nod. Donghyuck's ears perked up at his father's words, and his interest was further piqued by Mark's agreement to go.

"Can I come too?" Donghyuck pouted at his father, giving him his irresistible puppy eyes. The man sighed deeply and covered Donghyuck's face with his newspaper.

"Just stay silent," He muttered and Donghyuck quietly cheered. Mark smiled at him teasingly.

"Silent as in too many opinions on things, or silent as in security: not telling anybody what fabulous things have been dug up?"

Heechul shook his head.

"Nothing is being dug up. It’s what has been brought up - out of the water."

Donghyuck leaned against the side of the families car with his arms crossed. He was watching Anchise wipe the windshield of the car with an unamused frown on his lips, a frown that deepened when he saw Chiara pull up to the house on her obnoxious colored bike.

"On va au lac de Garde avec mon père. Il veut montrer à Mark l'endroit où ils draguent. (We’re going to Lake Garda with dad. He wants to show Mark where they’re dredging)," Donghyuck answered with distaste when the girl asked about Mark's whereabouts. She was clearly disappointed by the answer, probably expecting another hot night with the intern Donghyuck had grown particularly fond of.

"Dis-lui que je suis passée. (Tell him I came by)."

Donghyuck nodded but didn't actually plan on telling Mark anything. In an attempt to ease the awkward and tense atmosphere forming between the two, Donghyuck started a casual, yet forced,  conversation.

"Il est à l'intérieur, il aide mon père. Tu étais incroyable sur la piste, hier soir.
(He’s inside helping dad. You were great on the dance floor last night)." The last sentence physically burned his throat to say, but it was better than nothing. Any thoughts of Mark's intimate dance with Chiara made him want to bitch-slap both of them, so he took a deep breath and turned his gaze to the clouds above him.

"Il danse très bien. (He dances great)."

The contented, almost loving, smile on her face didn't go unnoticed by Donghyuck, and he sent the girl a cheeky wink. Her cheeks flushed crimson, and it wasn't from the heat.

"Et il est beau aussi, non? (And he’s great looking, isn’t he?)" Donghyuck pushed her further, watching her placid expression contort to one of discomfort from Donghyuck's straightforwardness.

She laughed uncomfortably, rubbing her exposed arms with her hands. "Tu veux jouer les entremetteurs? (What are you trying to do, fix us up?)"

Donghyuck didn't reply, and Chiara took his silence as her cue to leave, hastily entering the back door of the house to try and find Mark. Donghyuck settled himself into the back seat of the car with a mischievous gleam in his dark eyes that slowly faded when the pair walked from the house. Mark held Chiara close as they talked, and with a kiss on the cheek, Chiara was on her way, hopping back onto her childish bike.

Mark was practically bouncing with excitement as he threw himself into the front seat of the Lee's car, but his mood changed when he caught sight of Donghyuck's tired eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Dad always sits up front with Anchise to navigate." He told Mark, tone even and emotionless. Mark moved to the backseat next to Donghyuck, getting the perfect view of Chiara as she pedaled away.

"She seems to like you a lot - She’s more beautiful than she was last year," Donghyuck commented when he noticed who Mark's stare was focused on. The man didn't respond, so Donghyuck continued his desperate rambling, ignoring the sadness that pooled into his heart with each word he spoke.

"I saw her naked on a night swim. She has a great body."

That seemed to catch Mark's attention as he nearly snapped his neck to look at Donghyuck, eyes wide with surprise.

"Are you trying to make me like her?"

Mark felt Donghyuck's exposed leg brush against his own and moved farther away, disliking the way the usually cheerful boy was acting.

"What would be the harm in that?" He asked the question so monotonously that Mark almost thought Donghyuck had turned into a robot. He was clearly not feeling well, and his determination for Mark to like the girl was starting to annoy the foreigner.

"No harm. Except I like to go at it alone if you don’t mind." Mark smiled sarcastically at Donghyuck, who turned to listen in to his father's conversation outside the car.

"Guido io oggi, non ti preoccupare.
Non fare quella facci Anchise!
Prenditi il pomeriggio libero. (I
think I will drive myself today.
Anchise, don’t be upset! Take the
afternoon off)."

"Don’t play at being the good host, just don’t," Mark hissed at Donghyuck. There was a demeaning undertone in his words that made Donghyuck, once again, feel like a child in his presence. It was infuriating, to say the least. When Heechul got into the car he immediately sensed the tense aura around the two sitting in the backseat.

"What’s going on, boys? Mark, come sit up front and be my navigator."

Mark smirked at Donghyuck and joined Heechul in the front seat. He was feeling abnormally petty about the Chiara situation. He had honestly been hoping to see a more negative reaction from Donghyuck at the pair's relationship, but the boy seemed unfazed. The ride remained as tense as it had been in the beginning, and Donghyuck, for once in his life, stayed completely silent.