all the stars | nct dream

s i x t e e n

Donghyuck was about to go out to McDonald's when he received a call from none other than the one and only, Mark Lee.

Groaning to himself, he picked up his phone and hesitated before clicking the accept button on the screen.

"Hi," he heard Mark say from the other end.

Donghyuck had to physically restrain himself from rolling his eyes. "What do you need?" He asked flatly.

"Wow, not even a hey?"

This time Donghyuck really did roll his eyes. "Didn't feel the need. Why are you calling me?"

Mark paused before speaking and Donghyuck swore he could almost hear the nervousness of the other through the phone. He makes sure to make a mental note of that for possible blackmail purposes in the future.

"I was just, uh, kind of bored? And tired." Mark said, "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out? I could go over to your place, I haven't been over yet," he suggested.

Donghyuck stopped in his tracks. He was almost out the door already and Mark wanted hang out now? The other really did have the worst timing.

"What about the others?"

"They're busy. I can't reach Chenle or Jisung either so..."

Donghyuck quickly ruled out the options in his head. He could allow Mark to come over, but that would mean he would have to suffer from the older's awkwardness. He would also miss out on his McDonald's which was a terrible downside.

The other option would be to reject Mark and go out for McDonald's, but then he would miss out on the company. Even if Donghyuck never admitted it, Mark's company was...nice, and somehow comforting.

Donghyuck chose the first option.

"Fine. Come over, but I'm warning you that I'm missing out on a whole McDonald's meal because of you, so you better make this worth it," Donghyuck warned.

Mark chuckled. "I'll try," he said cheerfully, "I'll be there in around ten minutes."

"Okay," Donghyuck said before hanging up the phone.

He turned on his heel, and smiled to himself.

It was moments later when he was hit with the sudden realisation of what he just did.

"Why did I just do that?" He asked to no one in particular.

Donghyuck had nothing against Mark. It was just that, hanging out with him over the past few weeks made him remember how irresistibly cute the other was.

And that wasn't good.

The one thing Donghyuck didn't want was to rely on other people. Why would he need to if he was fully capable of doing things by himself?

As of right now, Mark seemed like one of the main threats to his system and he hated it.

"Stupid Mark Lee," he muttered under his breath. Why did Mark even have to appear in his life anyway?

The doorbell rang a couple minutes later, and Donghyuck reluctantly got up to open the door.

He took a deep breath, muttered some words of encouragement to himself, and then put on his best smile before swinging the door open.