[1] markhyuck | instagram

thirteen

MARK

Mark felt a pang in his chest at Jaemin's recent post.

Maybe it was the way Jaemin was hugging Donghyuck, and Mark knowing that could never be him? Or maybe it was that Donghyuck was back in Seoul and didn't tell Mark? That he was still avoiding Mark's messages...

Honestly, Mark had no idea where they went wrong, he has no clue as to why Donghyuck stopped responding to him, and it's eating him up inside.

He just wants things to go back to the way they were, and so he was finally taking Donghyuck's advice...

A smile graces his lips as he sees Mina walking towards him, juggling folders in her arms. She promptly drops them onto the table the first chance she gets, laughter spilling from her lips, "I've been carrying these around all day, I swear, of course I have all my different modules on one day"

She takes a seat across from Mark, who managed to score them a corner table in the campus' coffee shop.

"Do you want anything to drink?" He asks, and she sighs gratefully

"A vanilla latte please"

After smiling sweetly and pulling out the puppy eyes, Mark shakes his head dramatically, "fine, fine", chuckling as he got up to order her drink, with Mina shouting a quick 'thank you' as he went.

~~~

After settling down with their drinks, Mina looked down at the table, twirling her straw between her fingers, "We haven't properly talked since the date, I was wondering when coach would let you breathe"

Mark shrugs, "Our first game is right around the corner and we still need to nail our formations.." he catches himself before he rambles too much, sending an apologetic smile her way, "But yeah it's been a couple of days... I actually wanted to talk to you about that... I mean.. about our date"

Mina hums, cocking her head to the side and gesturing for him to continue.

"I just.. I kinda want to clarify where we stand, you know, with each other" He stumbles through his words, hands fidgeting with the hem of his jumper under the table

"I mean, where do you want us to stand?" She asks, her voice soft which only makes Mark more nervous, he's always hated confrontation

Biting his lip, Mark collects his thoughts, "You... You know that I really like you, I mean we've been friends for years- we literally grew up together"

Mina offers a small smile, "I've seen you cry over dead flowers and was there when you vowed to only eat watermelon for the whole week"

Mark's nerves take a backseat as he smiles fondly at the memory, "yeah, mum wasn't really on board with that one"

Mina reaches over until her slim fingers brush against Mark's, "continue"

Mark nods, "So yeah, we're childhood friends, and our families are close, and I like you.." slowly Mark retracts his hands from Mina's, placing them on his own lap, "but the way I like you is platonic"