Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 23

"Renjun-ah?" Donghyuck lay sprawled across the sofa in his living room, head pillowed comfortably on Jaemin's thigh as he stared up at the phone in his hands. He was tempting fate by holding the device directly over his face, but the lights in the room had been dimmed so that they could more easily see the movie playing on the television screen, and proximity to his nose was the only thing that made the message he was reading legible.

"Yeah?" Renjun was seated on the floor, his back pressed up against the large piece of furniture. The top of his head was close enough that Donghyuck could reach out and touch it, if he was so inclined, and tilted back just enough that he could see that the older boy had his eyes closed. Jaemin was the only one watching the movie at this point, the other two distracted by the alert tones from Donghyuck's phone, but they were all enjoying the quiet, comfortable companionship regardless.

"What was my favourite childhood pet?" Renjun let his head fall to the side, resting a cheek against Donghyuck's thigh as he fixed the other boy with a confused stare. Donghyuck shrugged, holding out the phone so that Renjun could read the words displayed. "That's what he asked."

"You didn't have any pets growing up," Renjun told him, once he was satisfied that Donghyuck had conveyed the message accurately. "Not that I know of, anyway." He frowned, pulling Donghyuck's outstretched hand closer so that he could read the question again. "Why can't he just ask Jaehyun about all of this?"

"No clue," Donghyuck offered, retrieving the device and typing up Renjun's answer before pressing send. The question had been the latest in a string of increasingly random and oddly specific questions that Dongyoung had been sending him over the past few days, and both Renjun and Donghyuck were exhausted from the mental gymnastics it had taken to answer them. He had started simple, with casual questions about Donghyuck's family and friends, about the school he attended and about the upcoming drama auditions, but, eventually, they had moved on to more probing questions about his childhood, ones that Donghyuck had struggled to answer.

"He must really like you," Jaemin offered, shifting his position beneath Donghyuck to reach for a bowl of snacks on the coffee table in front of him. "That or he hates you and he's trying to pester you to death." Donghyuck laughed, but waited until the younger boy was settled back into the sofa again before answering.

"I'm hoping it's the first one," he said with an easy smile. He didn't sense any particular malice or ill-intent from Dongyoung's incessant questioning. Just genuine curiosity and a deep-seated desire to find out more about the kind of person his roommate's brother was. Donghyuck wasn't that surprised, considering what the man knew about their relationship history, but it was difficult to respond to him when the answers weren't conveniently stored up inside his brain. They'd quickly delved into topics that Donghyuck had needed Renjun's help with, hence why the three of them were currently camped out in his living room on a Sunday afternoon, eating through a mountain of snacks and pretending to watch trashy movies whenever his parents checked in on them.

"What are you going to ask him?" Renjun asked, turning his attention back to the television. Donghyuck suspected it wouldn't be long before the boy started to fall asleep again--he could feel his own eyelids drooping, whenever he wasn't actively staring at the phone in his hand--but Renjun was trying to stay awake for as long as he could, so that he could help Donghyuck out with Dongyoung's questioning.

Donghyuck thought for a moment, then typed out a second message to Dongyoung. "I'm asking him about Mr Perfect." Jaemin snorted, eliciting a lazy smile from the other two boys. Dongyoung's questions weren't exclusively an interrogation, as he'd proposed that they alternate asking each other questions. That way they could both get to know each other better, which Donghyuck had readily agreed to.