Black and Blue | Markmin

𝚃𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎.

Jaemin closed his front door behind him, jiggling the knob to make sure that the door was locked. It was. He checked his pockets again.

Grocery money? Check. Keys? Check. Phone? Check.

He nodded, then turned to walk down the outside stairwell, tugging his winter jacket closer around himself to fend off the cold. He always found that he wasn't as prone to staying warm in the winter as everyone else was.

"Hey Jaemin! Wait up!"

He turned around to see Jisung running towards him, his own house keys dangling in his hand that was raised as he waved. Jaemin stood, beginning to walk again as Jisung arrived next to him.

"Going grocery shopping?" The taller boy asked and Jaemin nodded, internally cooing at how cute Jisung looked with his scarf wrapped tightly around his neck.

"Yeah, why? Do you need to go too?" Jaemin raised his eyebrows in question as they walked down the steps and began to stroll down the sidewalk. Jisung nodded and Jaemin smiled at the younger boy's now red and puffy cheeks. "Good we can shop together then."

It had been about a year since Jaemin had moved into his own apartment for personal reasons. But it had only been around two months since Jisung had moved into his own apartment on the same floor as Jaemin.

Jaemin wasn't entirely sure why the younger boy had moved there but they had both realized that they lived in the same apartment complex when they had been running late to school and bumped into each other. From there they became friends of sorts. Not too close but still not complete strangers.

"It's getting colder isn't it," Jisung complained as they walked into their local grocery store, shivering in his light coat. Jaemin nodded in agreement before pulling out his list. He had everything planned out, calculating all the prices like he always did.

So the two boys grabbed grocery bins and began to wander from section to section together.

"Hmm which coffee should I get," Jisung called over to Jaemin and he walked over to where Jisung was looking at instant coffees. He scanned the shelf and pulled one out. It wasn't the cheapest but it was the best for its price.

He handed it to Jisung and then took a look at his own list. He hadn't written down coffee but he had allotted some money for treats. He sighed before picking another one of the bottles for himself. He looked at the coffee in both of their bins for a moment as something picked at the back of his head.

"Hey Jisung-" Jaemin started, catching the boy's attention as he checked off something on his own list. He nodded for Jaemin to continue. "-how do you know Renjun and, well, I'm assuming Mark as well?"

Jisung looked blankly at him for a moment before something clicked in his head. "Oh from when we saw them at the cafe a couple of weeks ago?" Jaemin nodded.

"Well," Jisung began walking further down the isle and Jaemin followed, listening with an attentive curiosity, "I think I met the two of them...oh yeah! I met the two of them when I bumped into Mark and spilled my coffee all over him. I bought them food as an apology and we got to talking after that."

"Huh, and he wasn't like...mad or anything?" Jaemin asked, keeping the fact that Mark was supposedly known as the school's "bad boy" in mind. Jisung shook his head.

"I was scared he would be, I mean, you've heard all the rumors right? About him beating tons of kids up, smoking on the school roof, and skipping classes? So of course I was trembling in my shoes but he just pushed it off to the side. He almost didn't take me up on my apology." Jisung explained, the two now stopped in the middle of the isle.

Jaemin frowned. "He beats tons of kids up?"

Jisung gave him an incredulous look, almost as if he had grown a second head. "W-Wait you don't know about that?"

"I didn't even know Mark Lee existed until like a month ago," Jaemin said pointedly and Jisung gave him a strange look again.

"Yeah, it's like a thing for guys in our school to challenge him to a fight but he always ends up beating them up good," Jisung whispered now, leaning closer while looking around, "I even heard he broke a kid's leg once."

Jaemin's face paled. That couldn't be true, could it? The image of a tired Mark sitting on the playground swing eating watermelon ice pops with an over-sized jacket swallowing his figure popped into mind. He had seemed so...normal. Cute even. 

He didn't seem like the type of guy to beat another kid up, but if these rumors and allegations were true... Jaemin felt sick at the thought. How could anyone be so horrible?

"Hey Jaemin, you okay?" Jisung's voice called out and Jaemin blinked himself out of his thoughts. He nodded, smiling tiredly at the boy.

"Yeah I'm fine, let's just finish our shopping."

And so for the next ten minutes Jisung and Jaemin walked through the store grabbing their necessities. Jaemin's for the next two weeks until he got his paycheck and Jisung's until he got whatever sort of payment he needed.

In no time, after braving through the cold wind again, Jaemin was waving goodbye to Jisung as they both walked into their respective homes. Closing the door behind him, making sure to lock it like always, Jaemin walked to the kitchen, tossing his keys onto the counter top.

He began to put the food into the small fridge he had and into the cupboard where they needed to go. His head hurt and he bit his lip while he thought about the new information he learned.

Sure, he knew that Mark was a bad guy, a renowned rebel who was always getting into trouble. But he just couldn't believe that he would voluntarily beat up kids if they asked to fight him. That just seemed so absurd.

Especially after he had seen the boy doting on his sister and munching innocently on ice pops to try and fend off his smoking addiction. He had genuinely seemed like a good guy for a moment there.

Jaemin let out another stressed sigh, closing the fridge and tossing the bags under the sink for later use. He leaned against the counter and ran a hand through his fading blue hair.

He didn't know why he was so intrigued by the older boy. Besides the fact that he apparently knew nothing about this so-called popular boy, the duality of the boy scared him a little.

His curiosity was eating away at him as a part of him wondered who the real Mark truly was, while another part of him berated him for even wondering about this mysterious stranger.

Jaemin bit at the inside of his cheek and drummed his fingers melodically against the countertop behind him.

Maybe he should just talk to Mark.

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