after lunch, everyone went to their classes and just like before, mark and dae ended up together.
they both were walking down the hallway, dae a little bit behind mark. dae yelled, "mark, look here!" he quickly jerked his head to see her holding her phone to take a picture.
"hey!" he ran closer to her and tried to grab her phone but she turned it off just in time before he snatched it out of her hand.
"dammit! you better not post that anywhere dae, seriously." he looked at her.
"yeah yeah, whatever," she replied cheekily.
they kept on walking, mark still taking the lead. he was intensely focused on his schedule, still trying to memorize the format of the school, when he felt a buzz from his phone.
DAESEEMEROLLIN MENTIONED YOU IN THEIR STORY! TAP TO VIEW!
"oh my gosh." mark whispered under his breath as he saw the photo.
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"DAE I SWEAR TO-" before he could finish his sentence dae had already ran past him while giggling.
soon enough, mark caught up to her and begged her to delete it but she wouldn't budge. he gave up in the end and admitted he actually didn't look too bad in the candid photo.
they were walking with long strides as they were trying to find their next class.
mark and dae entered the classroom side by side- and for the both of them, someone caught their eye.
for dae, it was na jaemin. jaemin had been a very good friend of dae's for her years of highschool. he was one of the people from the group of friends she didn't talk to all summer. with his peachy hair and bright smile he was irresistible.
on the other hand, the person mark saw first when he walked in was park hana. after hearing a little more about her from dae he felt uneasy. he didn't want to give up now though, he felt like maybe she had a chance.
"omg jaemin! hi!" dae exclaimed. mark followed dae's eyes and was surprised to see his fellow friend.
"hey, what's up, jaemin?" mark asked slowly approaching closer to him.
jaemin looked up and smiled widely seeing the faces of both his close friends.
"dae! mark! i've been good. i didn't know you guys knew each other?" jaemin responded.
"yeah, we just met in the summer actually. but i didn't know you two were friends." mark said pointing towards jaemin and dae.
"we've been friends ever since we were freshman!" dae continued, "i didn't know you guys knew each other either."
"are you kidding! me and mark have been close for forever! with him, donghyuck, jeno, renjun, chenle, and jisung. we had our own little group in middle school." jaemin explained while mark nodded his head.
"yoo-hoo! mark! over here!" in the corner of mark's eye he could see someone vigorously waving their arm at him.
as he expected, it was hana.
"oh, hey hana." mark said nonchalantly.
"how bout you sit next to me? then we can be partners!" the obnoxious girl exclaimed.
"haha yeah, sure." mark awkwardly replied. he really didn't want to, but he was the type of person who had a hard time saying no, especially to people he wasn't close with.
he sat next to her and placed down his stuff slowly. dae noticed the odd action but continued small talking with jaemin.
"so what, do you have a girlfriend?" hana asked abruptly.
"huh? oh no, i don't." he answered.
"okay cool."
"do you have a boyfriend?" mark asked back. he honestly really didn't care if she did or not but he hated sitting in silence.
"not if you don't want me to." hana responded with a wink.
mark tried not to gag on the spot. he felt like he was going to pass out from the cringe.
"nah, i don't really care actually." he said back.
as the two continued talking, dae continued staring. losing focus in the conversation often, jaemin soon noticed.
"hey, if you don't like what's going on over there, do something about it." jaemin said.
"no, it's no use. i can tell he likes her." dae replied.
"why do you care? do you like him or something?" jaemin questioned.
dae looked at him with a 🥺 face.
jaemin's eyes widened in disbelief, "wait!" he whispered, "you like mark?!"
she quickly looked back to see if mark was paying attention and whispered back to jaemin, "i don't know, okay! i just, ugh, i don't like seeing him with hana."
"ooh daee you definitely like him." jaemin said giggling.
"sshhh!"
"well you're gonna do what you have to do. if you want to win over mark show confidence! go take him away from hana!"
she looked back. "i'm not too sure about that, nana."
