Macabre | Dowoo

f o u r t e e n

The next day Jungwoo was acting weird at breakfast. He was more restless, his fingers drumming against the dull cafeteria tables, his left leg shaking up and down in place. He wasn't really focusing on his friends in front of him, instead looking around the cafeteria and spacing out occasionally.

"Hey, Mark," Donghyuck nudged Mark in the side gently, who was sitting right next to him. Mark blushed and looked up at Donghyuck with a questioning glance. "Don't you think something's off with Woo today?"

Mark nodded in agreement. "I wish you would call me something sweet too," he muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately for him, Donghyuck heard what he had just said. "Oh really?" Donghyuck smirked, "Do you prefer darling? Doll? Baby?" Mark looked away in panic, hiding his red face with his hands.

Donghyuck spared him any more embarrassment, instead turning to speak to Jungwoo, who was staring at something. "Hey Jungwoo!" He said a bit too loud.

Jungwoo jumped up right in his seat, his heart beating fast while he looked at his friends with confusion in his face. "What's happening?" He was obviously taken aback by Donghyuck's loud voice.

"You seem very out of it today. Who were you staring at?" Donghyuck smirked. He knew something was up.

There was suddenly a tension in Jungwoo's shoulders and his fingers rubbed against each other under the table out of nervousness. He couldn't tell them he was just staring at Doyoung from across the room, admiring how good he looked just sitting alone at his table.

"I didn't get much sleep last night, to be honest," Jungwoo lied. His nervous gestures could easily been mistaken as shyness or embarrassment.

"You were smiling, though," Donghyuck continued. He didn't seem too convinced that it was this simple. "Right, Mark?" The other one who wasn't speaking in their trio had somewhat recovered from Donghyuck's words earlier. He nodded, although he hadn't been paying attention to what Jungwoo was doing from the moment Donghyuck spoke to him at the table.

Jungwoo let an awkward smile show. He knew he was very good at deceiving people, since he had a certain way with improv and his emotions. It was something that came in handy sometimes throughout his life, but backfired on him during his murder trial.

"I only had one or two hours of sleep, but I managed to have a really good dream. I was thinking about it all morning and even now," He said.

"Ooh, what was the dream about?" Donghyuck rested his chin under closed fists attentively, ready to listen.

Just at that moment their supervisors announced that breakfast was now over. "I'll tell you two at lunch!" Jungwoo stood up from the table with a smile and went over to discard of his tray. He had barely dodged a bullet back there, but he was sure that he would've been able to handle it anyway.

The rest of the day passed quickly. Everything seemed the same and before he knew it he was once again back in his bed, staring at his empty ceiling that was now just a dark grey surface above him.

Back home he had on his ceiling little glow-in-the-dark stars that he'd painted on messily when he was about seven without his parents' permission. They were mad at him, but eventually decided it wasn't such a bad thing and let them stay there.

Now things were different. The stars were still there, waiting for him, but he was somewhere else. And not for a good reason.

Jungwoo smiled as he closed his eyes and recalled the words that Doyoung had said to him just that night while they were in the bathroom.

I don't know what this is between us, but I don't want it to stop, he had said.

Me too, Jungwoo said in return and nodded, right before they connected their lips another time.

It sent butterflies through his stomach when he thought about it after they were away from each other. It was their little secret, that they were like this, because they wouldn't be in for a fun ride if anyone else found out.

Doyoung was like a breath of fresh air in this suffocating prison. Jungwoo didn't know and didn't want to imagine how long he would be spending here and what they would do with him afterward, but when he began thinking of Doyoung instead it felt like he didn't need to worry about that anymore.

The mattress felt uncomfortable underneath him, making him shuffle until he finally found a comfortable place in the material and his mind. He thought he was lucky, that he fell asleep that night earlier than all the other nights, thinking of Doyoung.

a/n

Finally an update! Sorry that it's a bit short but its needed for the story. I'm having a little more time to myself with the holidays soon so expect updates. Hope you enjoyed ^-^