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Things weren't the same as they had been the day before. It was to be expected though, since Donghyuck was now fully enlightened on the situation. He officially hated everyone, including himself.
Who knew? Who could he trust? How had he been screwing around with a boy this whole time, when he wasn't even wired that way?
His body shivered with anxiety and anger as he slid his white button up on, quickly clipping it together over his chest. Those horrible little 'bug bites' were hickeys after all, and that chewed away at his soul.
Mark walked through the room to pull the curtains back, blinking harshly from the sun that hit him.
"You know," Sicheng yawned whilst pulling his jumper on, "The school were saying that we might be able to have that midterm break after all."
"Seriously?" Doyoung arched his brow. "But we missed it."
"They've rescheduled it. They're saying it could be in the next couple of weeks."
Taeyong clapped his hands together joyously, "Well thank god for that. I'm starting to lose my mind in here."
"No shit," Donghyuck huffed, "Same."
Mark glanced over at him with a questioning expression. His head was slightly tilted and he appeared to be ready to go.
Donghyuck, however, completely ignored him. He didn't have the energy nor patience for him or the crappy secret he had been hiding.
"I'm going down," Mark muttered quietly, moving towards the door and waving the others goodbye before disappearing. The youngest was tempted to see whether he would talk about this or not, but he was too frustrated to question it right now.
Once downstairs, Donghyuck was swift when getting to his table with Jeno and Jisung. It appeared that his many other friends were still upstairs, leaving him to have a more private conversation.
"Wow," Jeno cringed, eying up his best friend, "You look like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards, and then denied sleep for sixty years. What the heck happened?"
Jisung hummed in agreement, "You do look pretty bad.....no sleep?"
"Ugh! No, no I didn't have a good fucking night, okay?! I've been awake the whole time!"
The pair winced from the stern and grumpy tone, falling silent and hoping for the other to explain himself. Though instead, they were posed with an odd question.
"Y-You two are pretty close with Mark, right?"
"Yeah...." Jisung nodded skeptically, leaning in curiously.
"Well," Donghyuck sighed, "Has he ever talked to you guys about me? Like....mean things? Or weird things?"
"Dude, how well do you know Mark?" Jeno scoffed with a lighthearted chuckle. He was starting realise that this was just his dramatic friend being a diva again. "He's never said anything bad about you to us. Why? Worried he'll get you back for all that you've said?"
"Psh, no. Like hell I'd be worried about something he'd say."
"Then why did you ask?" Jisung pressed, concern still swirling through his mind at the possibility that their best friend was withholding something from them.
"Just curious."
"I feel like you were looking for something specific-"
"Drop it, Ji! Alright? I'm fine. I was just wondering whether the guy was bitching behind my back or not!"
Again, the three fell into silence as both Jisung and Jeno waited for Donghyuck to cool off. He got frustrated frequently....but they weren't usually the receiving end of his brattiness.
Yet as the days once again started passing them by, Donghyuck didn't get any better. He was skipping sleep an awful lot, snapping at a lot of people, sometimes getting emotional over nothing.
Mark had also noticed how he cried softly at night. He always chose to say nothing, not even sure what was wrong. Hyuck was ignoring him, much to his dismay, while all he could do was back off and watch him self destruct.
They hadn't been up to any indecency as of late, since there wasn't a real chance to. The youngest wore himself out so much that when he did finally get some rest, it was heavy and beneficial.
Suddenly, there seemed to be two insomniacs, and Mark was dead worried about him.
So, a few days before the midterm break would commence, the ravenette sat in the common room alone with Ten, Chenle, Jaemin and Renjun, ignoring the passers by who were curious to see a senior with the small group.
"I don't know what's going on," he muttered defeatedly. "He's completely pushing me away now..."
"Wouldn't you be happy about that?" Renjun frowned, drinking a hot chocolate fondly as he listened. Mark sat with Jaemin on one couch while the other three sat opposite them on another.
"Yeah, a couple of months ago I would've...."
Ten crossed his legs and placed his hands on them, "Isn't it about time we throw all the cards on the table? Hm? There's no way to half ass the story now...."
"What are we talking about?" Jaemin threw his arms up exasperatedly, "Or is it just me who hasn't a clue as to where this is going?"
"Also, I wasn't aware we were adding a new member," Chenle motioned towards the Thai male with a quizzical expression.
"Alright, first of all, Ten and I hang out at night. We chat, we pass the time, we relate to each other," Mark cleared the air. "He's helping me out here. Second of all, don't act as shocked as I know you will.....but I think I have the worst crush in the word, and it's killing me inside."
"Oh...." Chenle narrowed his eyes, pulling his feet up onto the couch and tilting his head. "Are we talking about-"
"Donghyuck?!" Renjun hissed, almost spilling the boiling hot drink. "Please, please tell me that asshole whom crawled from hell to be here, isn't your crush."
When the silence answered his devastated question, everyone couldn't help but throw dirty looks at their friend. "I thought you hated him," Jaemin sighed.
"He can't help what he feels," Ten pointed out. "But none of that is the point, is it? Go on, tell us what it is that's bothering you?"
Mark sunk back into the sofa and sighed reluctantly, "I.....I think he may or may not have been awake that night."
"What?"
"What night?!" Chenle hissed, "How is there this much tea that I haven't sipped?"
"I showed Donghyuck to Ten a few nights ago....since he was curious."
The oldest continued, "We sort of talked about something.....and you're guessing he heard?"
"That something being.....?" Renjun urged.
"Well.....I haven't been completely honest with you guys, have I?" Mark muttered guiltily.
