Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 33

The bell above Donghyuck's head chimed softly as he pushed open the door to the cafe, hurrying in out of the rain. Once inside, he shook out his damp hair with his fingers and peeled off his now soaked hoodie. The downpour had come out of nowhere and he hadn't brought an umbrella, leaving him little choice but to run the short distance from the car. Underneath, the grey t-shirt he wore was damp in places, sporadic dark spots dotting the hem and across the chest, but he knew they would dry while he talked to Dongyoung. He suspected that their conversation today would be a long one, especially when he factored in the decision he'd made while stuck in traffic on the way, so he knew there would be plenty of time.

"Over here." Lifting his head in the direction of the sound, Donghyuck saw Dongyoung waving at him from a small booth by the window. The rain was sheeting down outside now, despite the sunshine still streaming through the gaps in the low cloud cover, and the patterns the droplets made on the glass cast interesting shadows on Dongyoung's face as he approached. Pulling out the seat opposite the older man, Donghyuck draped the sodden hoodie over the back of it as best he could, then sat down with a groan of satisfaction. He'd been stuck on the highway far too long.

"Hi, hyung," he said, flashing Dongyoung what he hoped resembled a relaxed, pleasant grin. Inside, he was growing more and more nervous by the second, as he watched Dongyoung close up a small notebook on the table in front of him and slip it into the pocket of his jacket. The man kept the pencil he'd been writing with, twisting it in his fingers like he was equally ill at ease, but there was a secretive smile playing at his lips that didn't seem to be at all related to Donghyuck's presence. He looked a little spaced out too, and his gaze kept flicking over to an empty booth by the far wall, like something there distracted him. "Is everything okay?"

"Great." Dongyoung sighed happily, eyes glazing over as he stared unseeing at a spot on the wall just over Donghyuck's right shoulder. Then he blinked, seeming to shake whatever he had been distracted by out of his mind, and focused on Donghyuck's face. "I mean... I--uh, fine. I'm fine." Dongyoung tried to sober, but he couldn't quite wipe the smile off his face.

"You don't look fine, hyung," Donghyuck offered helpfully, examining the older man's face more carefully. Now that he was looking closer, he could see that Dongyoung's cheeks were a little flushed, and his eyes were bright and over-wide. "You look like you just saw an angel."

Dongyoung delicately choked on his own tongue for a few seconds, then let out a bark of laughter. "You're actually not far off there, Hyuck-ah." When Donghyuck just stared at him, a frown pinching his brows together, Dongyoung sat forward and leant his forearms against the tabletop between them. "I ran into Taeyong this morning."

"What?" Donghyuck almost jumped out of his seat at that, making the table wobble precariously as he mimicked Dongyoung's position, arms pressed to the tabletop and body suspended eagerly above it like he might climb over and pounce on the older man at any moment. "When? Where? On your way here?"

"Not exactly," Dongyoung explained, attention drifting across to the empty table on the other side of the room again. Donghyuck turned to follow his gaze, but there was still nothing there but an empty mug and a crumpled napkin. "He was here, waiting for his brother to finish his shift. His brother works in the cafe." The news that Taeyong had a brother in this reality wasn't especially surprising, considering that Donghyuck, too, had several family members here that he'd not been blood-related to his own reality, so he quickly filed that particular piece of information away under the man's name in his mind. He wondered absently if he'd ever met Taeyong's brother before. Perhaps, given the similarities that seemed to exist between here and home, it was someone else from the company.

"I thought he was in your classes," Donghyuck said thoughtfully, when Dongyoung didn't immediately elaborate. He suspected that there was more to the story, considering the way that Dongyoung had started to practically vibrate in his seat, but he was staying quiet for the time being. "It's a bit far from campus here, isn't it?" He knew that some college students lived off-campus; WinWin, Jisung and their brother were a good example of that--Donghyuck thought they lived somewhere near here actually, come to think of it--but the rest of his hyungs lived much closer to the university.