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Ten curled up into a cute ball on the sofa in the darkened room, yawning softly as he chatted with Mark. It was somewhere around four in the morning, and he was struggling to stay awake and entertain the younger.
"I think I should be an actor," Mark hummed quietly, engulfed in a large and fluffy blanket. The warm fabric was draped over his entire frame, only exposing his face for speech.
"Oh? And why is that?"
"I've been faking it all, haven't I? Acting as though I don't like my friend, pretending that the lack of sleep isn't affecting me....having lied to my friends for so long. If I wasn't the heir to my parents' company, I'd join the theatre."
Ten chuckled fondly, "You'd be a wonderful star. I'm sure lots of boys would fawn over you."
"Yet here I am, pining over an unrequited love. What do you do to make it stop? Surely you've found ways around this feeling."
The Thai thought for a short moment, nodding in agreement though cringing while doing so. "As you know, the boy I like right now is straight."
"Mmm."
"He texts girls all the time, sometimes even showing me pictures of them. I think he wants to believe that I can change. That my interests will suddenly shift towards girls so that we can have a less tense friendship."
"Ten, that's-"
"Unhealthy? Depressing? Yeah, I know. I've seen it all before as well. But I don't care, anymore. I intend to sit at the sidelines for as long as it takes for my prince to come find me."
Mark gazed at him sadly, feeling his fingers dig into his shins aggravatedly. Why did everything have to be so lonely? Why wasn't there a happy ending awaiting him at the end of his story?
"That Donghyuck boy," Ten chuckled quietly, shifting in his position, "Are you sure he doesn't feel the same way about you?" You haven't seen his efforts to hide you from me...
"Of course. He's straight, problematic, clearly hates that I have something on him, and probably can't wait to be rid of me."
"Aren't you both friends now?"
The ravenette nodded slowly, questioning how long it would last. "We are.....for now. I just know something will go wrong though. It always does, doesn't it?"
"You're creating problems with no sources. If I were you, I'd have a serious chat with him."
☆★☆
"Is that a book about hormones?" Jeno frowned, yanking the hardback from Donghyuck's grip as they sat in the library together. Jisung was completing some homework he didn't want to face later on.
"Ugh, give it back, Jen!"
"What's this about, though? Why hormones?"
"We're studying it in science!"
"I'm in your science class, Idiot! If you're going to try fool someone, actually put in the effort for a decent lie."
The brunette rolled his eyes grumpily before taking the book back and explaining himself. "I heard that liking the same gender has something to do with hormones or something."
"Hyuck, are you still beating yourself up over this gay business?" Jeno sighed, massaging his temples. "Do us all a favour and just ask this guy out on a date, yeah? Who even is it?"
Donghyuck pouted, scanning his eyes over the small writing as if it would help. "I can't tell you....and I refuse to ask him out. I just don't want to be proven wrong."
Jisung looked up from his copy and shook his head. "Quit pitying yourself! Even if this boy has someone he likes, you can still try to seduce him! Just shut up about this already, it's been a week!"
Jeno nodded in agreement, much to their friend's dismay. The brunette thought of Mark, then about what he did at night. No matter how he saw it, he was going to cause the older nothing but grief. It was a bad idea from the beginning.
☆★☆
"He accidentally dropped a strand of hair onto our experiment," Mark giggled in an all too hyper manner after school a month later, sipping tea with the others. Christmas had long since been and gone, so had New Years.
Both periods in which the boys had wanted to say something. Anything. Any openly gay couples occupying the school had each other to love and hold on those special days.....but two cowards refused to man up.
"It smelled awful," Jeno cringed, "Hair and fire should never be combined."
Donghyuck slapped his shoulder, "It was an accident, okay? And Mark let mould grow on our apparatus, so it's not like I'm totally useless."
Renjun sat back tiredly and had tolerated just about enough of their flirting, whining, confessions to the wrong people and messing about. He and the others were all too close to cutting both males off completely until they sorted their shit out.
"Wear gloves then," Mark cooed, taking Donghyuck's hand and tracing his finger over a small burn from earlier in the week.
"There was only one pair, remember?"
"You should've taken them from me-"
"Yeah right, like I'm that heartless."
This has gone on long enough, Chenle thought, standing up to stretch out and eliciting a soft yawn. "I want to bake."
"It's almost dinner time," Jaemin pointed out, though the younger Chinese sent him a death glare, and it was made apparent that he would bake with no disruptions.
"Can you bring me a spoon, then?" Renjun requested, folding one leg over the other and brushing against Mark as he did so.
"Why?"
"So that I can scoop my eyes out?"
Jisung couldn't help but chuckle, quickly covering his mouth upon realising how confused Mark and Donghyuck were. Both had questioning expressions on, unaware of the running joke about their irritating relationship circulating the joint friend group.
It was only a matter of time, however, until both teens realised how far this had gotten.
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Don't worry guys, this was the last filler chapter. Next one means business~ -lily
