cryptic | Mark Lee

3

"You know my name?"

The first words spoken in a few minutes since reaching Aera's bathroom were spoken by Mark, seated on the toilet lid while Aera rummaged through her shelves looking for antiseptic.

"Of course, we went to the same school." she laughs.

She douses a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and walks towards Mark.

"But I never heard of you until today?" he wonder aloud. "How could I have not noticed you?"

"This might sting a little." she warns placing the cotton ball over his wound.

He winced at first from the contact. Aera began to blow cooling air onto his neck hoping it'll help with the pain.

"I'm just not the type you'd notice I guess." she shrugs. "Okay do you want a Hello Kitty bandaid or a Pokémon bandaid?" she holds out the two options in front of him.

"Pokémon." he decides and parts his legs slightly so she can stand more comfortably in between them as she applies the bandaid. "There's no way I couldn't have noticed you." he assures himself.

"I try my best not to stand out." she explains.

"But you knew me?"

"You're Mark Lee, leader of Neo City High School's F5." she teases the older boy.

The nickname was rightly earned. Mark, Donghyuck, Jaemin, Renjun and Jeno. The replica F4, or F5 as they were called, were the most influential group in their school. Good looking, talented, and smart; it was impossible to walk the halls without hearing someone gush on about them.

Once Chenle and Jisung joined the group as well they began to be known as Dream. No one really knows where it came from, but the group liked it so much they began to call themselves that outside of school as well.

"Oh yeah, that." he grimaces.

It wasn't that he disliked the experience as a whole, in fact he did grow curious as to why girls were so interested in him, but nonetheless he hated the attention of it all.

He was supposed to be the badass leader of Dream, not some high school playboy.

His cold, indifferent personality began to take over once he officially became the leader. There's no time for girls or feelings in the mafia after all.

Aera was completely unaware of that of course, she only knew him as the oldest member of their friend group. She never understood the hype around them, they were just students like she was.

"If it makes you feel better, I only learned your name cause Hyuck talks about you nonstop." she jokes. "Plus Jisung kinda rants to me about everything."

"What does he-"

Mark gets interrupted by Haechan bursting through the bathroom doors.

"Oh wow, uh sorry I can come back."

The two finally notice how close they had been. Aera standing between Marks legs, hovering right next to his face.

Haechan knew both of their tendencies, Mark never let people get too close to him and Aera hated physical touch. Yet there they were, close as can be with each other.

"What, no I was just- putting a bandaid on." Aera defends herself becoming red from embarrassment. "I'm gonna get more blankets for your friends." she runs out of the bathroom at light speed.

Coming down the hallway again she sees the majority of the group passed out on different areas of the living room with only 1 person up.

"You want some coffee?" she asks as he looks exhausted but definitely not ready for bed.

She knows what a restless mind looks like, and his was one she could read like a book.

"Got anything stronger?"

-/-

"So, you let a girl actually get within 2 feet of you?" Haechan asks with a smirk. "I never pegged Aera as your type, but then again i've also never seen Aera let anyone breathe the same air as her."

Mark ignores his statement, more focused on the fact that he was shocked as well. He didn't even notice that they had been that close together.

"It's cause I was injured, if the circumstances were different we would of never even talked tonight." he pushes away any other thoughts. "Let's head to the living room and get some sleep."

"She's a good kid, if I were to let anyone in, it would be her." Haechan says as they walk out of the bathroom.

"Exactly, she's a good kid. That's why we won't let her get caught in our shit."

-/-

"When I was little my mom always told me about the importance of tea." Aera begins her story by pouring two cups of tea and placing them on the table.

Taeyong begins to silently sip on one of the cups as she continues on.

"You have to make sure you boil the water at the correct temperature, otherwise the leaves will scald. When you pour each cup little by little so no ones tea is too strong or too weak" she thinks back to whenever her mother would lecture her about the proper preparation of tea. "And to always use loose leaf tea, never the ones in packets."

"Why loose leaf?" Taeyong asks.  "Wouldn't the flavor be the same regardless."

"Because you can't read your fortune through a tea bag."

She takes his cup and shows him how his tea leaves have spread.

"When it's in the middle that means it's a message about your future." he takes his cup and peeks at the blobs of figures it has make. "What do you see?" Aera asks as he stares at the cup.

"I see a tree, a mountain, and I think that's a wavy line?" he questions.

A giggle escapes Aera's mouth seeing how serious he was about figuring out what the blobs mean.

"A tree means good luck, and being surrounded by happiness and prosperity." she starts. "A mountain means a powerful friend. So those are what you should look out for in the future"

"What about the wavy line?" he asks.

"A journey, the direction of a difficult journey." she sighs. "You can take it literally or metaphorically, so if you've ever wanted to hike somewhere nows the time." she jokes.

"Difficult journey." he ponders on the phrase. "What are yours?"

She looks down at her cup and she's the same image she always gets. An hourglass.

"An imminent danger." she shrugs. "I always get it though, two small triangles on top of each other. But it's just a cup of tea, i try not to take it to heart."

"Why did you show this to me?" Taeyong asks.

"Because you're stressed, I don't know why or if it's serious, but I thought I could give you some peace. I've been getting a death symbol since I was 5, but i'm still here. No matter what you think is written out into the universe, you can change it."

"Are you sure your Haechan's age?" he asks with a smile playing on his face.

"No, i'm 3 months younger."

-:-:-:-:-:-

I did so much research on tea leaves for this,, it's clown behavior.

But i'm getting withdrawals from NCT 2020, someone help:(.