Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 22

After an eventful weekend, Donghyuck was looking forward to a quiet week, come Monday morning. He arrived at his homeroom classroom fifteen minutes early, at Renjun's insistence, and quickly regaled him and Jaemin with the minutiae of his trip--save for a few choice details pertaining to his meltdown in front of Dongyoung on Saturday afternoon. He likely would share that with them too, eventually, but decided that he needed a little more time to process the feelings it had dredged up inside him first.

As expected, Renjun quickly pulled out the list from his pocket as Donghyuck spoke--the folded paper definitely looked like it had seen better days at this point, but the words were still legible. The older boy ticked off Taeil and Jungwoo's names as they were mentioned, as well as scratching out a quick correction above Doyoung's name, reflecting the version of it that he used in this reality.

During their conversation, Donghyuck offered them his suspicions regarding Dongyoung's mystery crush, as well as mentioning how Ten's name had all but been confirmed by Yuta, but Renjun hadn't added any more markings to the sheet. He trusted Donghyuck's judgement implicitly, he assured him, but they wanted to be sure first. Besides, as Renjun helpfully reminded the other two boys, the list was meant to be for members that Donghyuck had actually met, and he definitely hadn't met Dongyoung's 'Mr Perfect' or the 'guy with a number for a name' yet. Neither of them could argue with that logic, so the list remained unaltered.

At lunch that day, Chenle cornered him outside the door to the drama studio, to ask if he would be free at some point to help him practice for the auditions the following week. Feeling more than a little guilty, having temporarily forgotten the promise he'd made to the younger boy, he readily agreed. Chenle was free every day after school, which made life easy, so they made plans to meet up after school in the music department, immediately following the end of afternoon classes.

The wide, beaming smile that Chenle flashed Donghyuck in response followed him through the rest of the day and, before he knew it, he found himself sitting behind the piano in Practice Room B, waiting for the freshman to join him. Chenle was running late but Donghyuck didn't mind, lazily pressing keys down on the Baby Grand in front of him, enjoying the soft notes that echoed off the walls of the small, mostly empty room.

He didn't play much anymore, not when others in the group played much better than he did, but he had always enjoyed the way that, when armed with a piano, you could easily create complex imagery with just a few simple flicks of the wrist. He had started to tease out the chords to a few of his favourite songs, the muscle memory coming back quicker than he might have expected, when the door slowly opened and a familiar head of dark hair popped in around the doorframe.

"I'm sorry I'm late, hyung," Chenle said earnestly, dropping his bag and blazer onto the floor next to the door. He hesitated, glancing from the messy pile of fabric to the piano and then back, before retrieving the jacket and folding it neatly. Placing it back on top of his backpack, he hurried over to where Donghyuck sat, sliding onto the bench seat beside him.

"It's fine," Donghyuck told him, shifting to give the smaller boy a bit more space. Then he turned to face him. "So, how do you want to do this?"

"What do you mean?" Chenle sounded confused, and Donghyuck smiled down at him affectionately. The boy was adorable when he pouted and puffed his cheeks out like that, Donghyuck thought.

"Do you have an idea of what you might want to sing for the audition," he clarified. Chenle let out a small gasp of understanding, then shook his head. "What about the part you want to try for? I'm guessing I still can't persuade you to try out for a main role."

"Not this time," Chenle agreed, reaching a hand up to play absently with a strand of black hair that had fallen into his eyes. He looked up, meeting Donghyuck's steady gaze. "I don't really know what I want. Are there any small parts?" Donghyuck wasn't sure himself, if he was honest, but he made a mental note to ask Jaemin, who was quickly becoming his walking encyclopedia for all things Les Miserables. That and the occasional Naver search, which wasn't proving to be all that helpful.