Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 41

By the start of final period on Friday afternoon, as he slumped over his desk in class and rested his chin on his forearms, Donghyuck was ready to admit defeat. He'd done his best, a strong start with Renjun and Jaemin in homeroom first thing buoying his spirits, but the universe had decided that it was simply not meant to be. There was just no feasible way to get every single--extant--person on his list in one place on Saturday night, despite his very best efforts.

It had been a great idea, in theory, he thought to himself, as he brushed off Jaemin's curious looks and pulled out the thick course textbook from his bag. Finding a page he hoped was somewhere close to the correct one, he settled back into his seat, crossed his ankles and fixed his attention on an empty spot on the ceiling above their heads. He was far too distracted by all the thoughts running through his head to focus on Korean history right then, so he ran through the events of the previous night once more instead, as the teacher began to take roll.

After Jaehyun's rather dramatic entrance, they'd all had dinner. His mom had been surprisingly subtle in her perusal of them both, all things considered, but Donghyuck hadn't missed the way that she'd deliberately seated him right next to Jaehyun at the table, or the way her eyes darted distractedly between the pair of them as they made casual small talk over their side dishes.

He also hadn't missed the way that Jaehyun had seemed just a little bit off throughout the entire meal, distracted in a way that he'd never seen before from the older man. Jaehyun had told them it was just exam fatigue and a busy schedule when it had come up organically in conversation, and that had seemed to appease their parents, but Donghyuck couldn't help but retain a modicum of scepticism. He'd resolved to keep a closer eye on his brother over the next few weeks, even if that meant calling on his roommates for assistance.

That--as well as the cryptic text message from earlier--had led him to call Dongyoung after dinner, excusing himself to his room under the auspices of doing his homework. He'd promised Jaehyun that they'd watch television or play board games together the following night, then he had made his escape. Dongyoung had answered on the second ring, apparently thoroughly unsurprised to hear from him so soon, and had quickly promised to help him in checking up on Jaehyun.

"He seemed fine this morning," Dongyoung had mused, "but he does have deadlines coming up." He'd thought for a moment, before continuing. "I'll keep an eye out for you, Hyuck-ah. Don't worry." That out of the way, the topic of conversation had then quickly shifted to the text messages, and Dongyoung had been all too willing to clarify. "Taeyong-hyung and his brother will be there," he'd explained.

"WinWin-hyung."

"Sicheng-ah," Dongyoung had corrected playfully, and Donghyuck thought he'd felt the older man's wry smile even through the phone. "Anyway, Taeyong is the only person on your list you haven't yet come across here, aside from the obvious..." Donghyuck hadn't responded to that, neither of them needing to elaborate on that front, so Dongyoung had pressed on. "I can't help but wonder if that's significant somehow."

"In what way?"

"Well, think about all the different theories your friend Renjun came up with," Dongyoung had said thoughtfully. "We still don't really know what happened to bring you here, other than your fight with Johnny that night, so any one of them could be the correct one." Or it could be something else entirely --those words had gone unspoken by both of them, but Donghyuck knew they had both been thinking it. The truth was, none of them had any clue why he was still here, or what it would take to get him home.

"And you think that meeting him could be important?" he'd asked hopefully. It was wishful thinking, Donghyuck knew that, but he'd been more than willing to try anything Dongyoung suggested.