Chapter Text
Donghyuck is running, like he always does when he wakes up and feels a little pit in his stomach. A constant reminder of all the mistakes he’s made that have led up to where he is right now.
He’s a few minutes away from his apartment, wanting nothing more than to run away from all the problems he has.
Donghyuck is good at that — running. He’s been doing it since he was young and realized that he didn’t really want to be around his problems all the time. Sometimes, he just wants to get away and give himself some space to breathe, to look at the bigger picture and try to figure things out on his own.
Though he doesn’t really understand what exactly his problem is. The only thing their apartment has that the outside world doesn’t is his boyfriend — and he’s happy with his boyfriend. He is.
At least that’s what he’s been trying to tell himself these last few months. Recently, something changed between them and he couldn’t understand what exactly it was.
Was it the way Jaehyun stopped coming home early? Or was it Donghyuck's fault because he somehow failed to give Jaehyun the love he deserved which caused him to pull away?
That was the thought running through Donghyuck’s head today, the thought pushing it’s way forward with every step he took. He jogs down the sidewalks that lead him nearer to the city — he’s been gone for so long he didn’t even realize the time, and how little of it he has left before his first class of the day.
It was one of the days he knew Jaehyun had to leave early for work, something else that changed only a few months ago. Donghyuck remembers when they’d lie in bed together, just holding each other as the sun slipped past their curtains and hit their faces, making them glow in ways that made his heart skip a beat.
But now Jaehyun left for work way earlier than he used to, and it was also around the same time Donghyuck started going on his early morning runs before class.
He has a few minutes left before class starts when he finally enters his building. His calves burn as he slows his pace and makes his way to the stairway in the corner.
The apartment is empty when Donghyuck enters, nothing out of the normal at all. He grabs himself a glass of water in the kitchen before hopping in the shower, letting the hot water splash down on his back as he hangs his head low.
He thinks of just skipping his first class and maybe getting a little more time to himself instead of rushing around and making it just a few minutes before class ends. It isn’t a very important class, anyway, and their professor let them have the period off when she didn’t feel like teaching.
Donghyuck finds himself standing on his balcony, not really there for anything except the feel of the wind blowing on his face as time passes by. He closes his eyes, basking in the cold air as his fingers tighten around the mug of coffee in his hands.
It’s his favorite mug, a gift from his and Jaehyun’s neighbor — a kind boy named Jungwoo who moved into the apartment beside them a few months ago. He always tries making conversation with Donghyuck, getting to know both him and Jaehyun. He was a good friend and he always invited the boyfriends over to his apartment when he felt lonely.
His eyes involuntarily trail up, locking onto the balcony above the one across from theirs. There isn’t anything special about it, just that it was always empty and it seemed like more than one person owned it.
There have been four different people Donghyuck has spotted living in the apartment, and none of them seemed to be living there permanently — like it was just a place they went to when they weren’t in their real homes.
Donghyuck wonders if the people there even knew each other at all.
But there was one person who interested Donghyuck a lot. He was around more often than the others and spent more time there than the rest. Sometimes Donghyuck spotted him when he was out on his morning runs, letting his eyes follow the boy before he pulled them away, face flushing in embarrassment when he realized what he was doing.
But the apartment is empty this morning, the lights off and the sliding door leading to the balcony shut — like no one had been there in a while. The observation makes Donghyuck drop his head in embarrassment.
He wasn’t a stalker. He was just curious, and the people living in that apartment interested him a lot. It was something different for him to pay attention to — the fact that every day there could be someone new there, or maybe no one at all. The uncertainty excited him and it was one of the only things that brought a little spark of happiness to his days.
✦
Jaehyun
I might be home a little late today
Sorry
I love u
Donghyuck lets out a scoff, staring at the ingredients he has laid out for the dinner he was planning to cook for him and Jaehyun. At least he didn’t start yet, he would’ve cried if he wasted all his time for nothing.
He lets out a breath and decides to just order fast food for dinner that night, then he walks towards the balcony.
The night is colder than usual — the wind blowing against his face a lot stronger and he has to pull his legs up to his chest the moment he sits down on the chair they had outside, balling up his hands into little fists and shoving them into his pockets.
His eyes travel across the balconies surrounding him, some of them with people on them — looking almost similar to him, maybe feeling just a little too suffocated inside their own apartments.
His eyes move towards the balcony he checks every day. The lights are on.
He sits up straighter in his seat, trying desperately to see which boy was in the apartment today, or if it’s just some random cleaning lady who he didn’t know and was there to fix up the apartment, or if there was no one — and the last person to stay there just forgot to turn the light off.
He sighs. Is this really what Donghyuck’s life has come to? Sitting out on his balcony waiting for his boyfriend to come home as he stares at other people’s apartments. He sounds like a fucking creep.
When the wind calms down a little bit and standing up is a little more bearable, he finds himself leaning against the railing, just staring down at the people walking on the sidewalks below him, the few children running around and screaming down there.
He smiles, his mind drifting off to some imaginary future where he and Jaehyun have their own house, little kids running around and laughing, images of him and Jaehyun in the kitchen of their future home appear in his head. For a moment, he finds himself enjoying the imaginary future.
His eyes open, and they immediately meet the all too familiar car parked in the farthest parking space of their parking lot. He knows that car, it’s his and Jaehyun’s — the one they saved up for the previous year when Jaehyun first started his current job and realized that it might be embarrassing to take taxis to work everyday.
Why was the car even here? Jaehyun had said he was getting home late today, and he had been the one with the car.
It doesn’t exactly make sense, but Donghyuck pushes the thought to the back of his mind. He was probably reading into it more than necessary, and mentioning it to Jaehyun would just cause an unnecessary fight.
Instead he finds himself knocking on his neighbor’s door, craving a little company. He’s been lonely the entire week, and not even his parents are replying to his texts. One more second alone in the apartment would make him go insane.
He stands outside Jungwoo’s door, fist hanging by his side, ready to knock on the door again. Jungwoo doesn’t open the door though, and Donghyuck is about to walk away in defeat.
The sound of shuffling and soft mumbling brings him out of his trance. He lets his lips pull up in a smile as he waits for Jungwoo to open the door and invite him inside like he usually does.
“Hi,” Jungwoo says, opening the door just a bit to stick his head out, not letting Donghyuck see into his apartment at all.
Donghyuck gets the feeling that he isn’t wanted, which only brings a sinking feeling to his stomach. “Hey Jungwoo,” he smiles. “Can I come in?”
Jungwoo’s eyes drop down to the ground, losing eye contact with Donghyuck as a guilty look appears on his face. “I’m sorry, I have uh — company… tonight.”
Donghyuck’s eyes widen in realization as he takes in the flushed look on his neighbor’s face and the fact that Jungwoo’s hair is a lot messier than normal. He lets out a soft chuckle when it dawns on him that he just interrupted something.
“Fuck,” he giggles. “I’m sorry, I’ll leave you to it, then.”
He drags his feet back to his apartment, smiling at how awkward it must've been for Jungwoo and whoever he was in there with to pause what they were doing just because Donghyuck was at the door.
It really isn’t his place, but Donghyuck finds himself wondering who Jungwoo was with in the other apartment. The darkness of his own apartment gives him lots to think about as he waits for Jaehyun to come home.
Jungwoo has never mentioned a boyfriend, or anything remotely close to it. He had never seemed like the type of guy to sleep around with people either and Donghyuck is just a little too nosy to stop thinking about who exactly Jungwoo could’ve been with.
His eyes catch a figure standing on the balcony of the apartment that he stares at from behind the curtain.
It’s too dark for him to figure out who exactly is standing there, but just the thought of someone being in that apartment makes him smile.
He had never talked to the owners, but the thought of one of the four boys being there excited him.
He rolls over, grabbing one of Jaehyun’s pillows and stuffing it under his chin, inhaling the smell of his boyfriend as a small smile creeps up onto his face.
I miss you, he thinks as he breathes in Jaehyun’s scent. They haven’t been spending much time with each other recently. It was starting to make Donghyuck a bit anxious, but he understood that Jaehyun had work and that was important to Donghyuck, too. He would never take Jaehyun away from doing what he was supposed to.
✦
The sound of water running wakes Donghyuck in the morning.
Jaehyun is in the shower, he can tell that much. His work clothes are thrown messily on the floor and his humming can be heard through the door.
Donghyuck doesn’t know what time Jaehyun had come home last night and why he’s awake so early. It’s barely past 7 on a Saturday and Jaehyun is already up and taking a shower. He couldn’t be busy today, it was a Saturday.
He remembers the weekends in the past when he and Jaehyun would go out on dates, just to the movies or a walk in the park, they were easily the highlights of his week.
Jaehyun walks into the room then, the heat from inside the bathroom instantly meets Donghyuck’s face as he rolls over on his stomach to stare at his boyfriend.
“Hey,” he mumbles sleepily. “What time did you get home last night?”
Jaehyun chuckles, moving towards him to ruffle Donghyuck’s already messy hair. “Late. Busy day at work and then the car broke down somewhere on the way home so it took me a while.”
His eyebrows furrow when he thinks of how he definitely saw the car parked downstairs last night before he went to talk to Jungwoo.
Was Jaehyun lying to him? He didn’t even want to entertain the thought — they never lied to each other, or at least Donghyuck hasn’t. He breathes out a frustrated sigh and maneuvers his way past his boyfriend.
“I’m gonna go for a run,” he says when Jaehyun notices how he’s avoiding eye contact. He shakes his head just a bit, hoping it will somehow make the thoughts that are pushing past his walls leave.
“Okay,” Jaehyun hums, gently wrapping his arms around Donghyuck and pressing a soft kiss to the back of his head, leaving his head there for a bit to inhale the smell of Donghyuck’s hair. “I have some work stuff to do anyway. Text me when you’re on your way back.”
Donghyuck closes his eyes and forces himself to forget about everything for a few seconds as he leans back into his boyfriend’s chest, relishing in the little comfort it brings him.
“I’m serious,” Jaehyun says, thumb rubbing over Donghyuck’s arm. “Text me.”
“Yeah,” Donghyuck hums in reply, untangling himself from Jaehyun’s arms, and grabbing a pair of socks from the drawer. “I will.”
He’s crouched over by the front of their building, tying his shoelaces one last time so he’ll be able to run without any distractions. He really just wants to go on a run to clear his head, maybe convince himself that nothing was wrong with Jaehyun that he had to lie to Donghyuck like that — because he knows what he saw last night, he knows the car was back home way before Jaehyun was.
They’ve been together for two years, if there was something Jaehyun wanted to tell him and wasn’t comfortable yet — he’d understand. Jaehyun’s comfort was more important to him than his own insecurities.
Donghyuck raises his eyebrows in surprise and releases a frustrated sigh when a pair of running shoes stop in front of him. They were dirty and he couldn’t tell if the brown stuff on the laces was mud or not.
He slowly raises his head, squinting when his eyes connect with not a person, but the shape of the person’s head as the sun shines in his eyes.
Donghyuck stands up slowly, blinking a little bit faster to let the spots in his eyes clear before he looks at the person in front of him — and when he does, he can’t help but let out a quiet gasp.
Standing before him is one of the boys who lives in the apartment he always finds himself watching. But the boy in front of him right now is also the boy who has always interested Donghyuck the most, the one who was around more often than the rest.
He stays still, frozen in place as he waits for the stranger before him to say something — he’s just staring at Donghyuck, eyes traveling all over his face with an almost confused expression.
“Hi,” the boy says, his hand rubbing his wrist and his eyes flickering in all directions, it makes Donghyuck a bit uncomfortable.
Donghyuck nods, waiting for the boy to continue speaking. He doesn’t want to ruin anything by opening his mouth and making the situation any more awkward than it already is.
“I’m Mark,” he pauses, somehow making Donghyuck wonder if there was anything wrong with how he looks because the boy seems to be pausing every few seconds only for his eyes to roam all over Donghyuck’s face.
Donghyuck nods again, kind of over the awkwardness of the situation. He gives Mark a small smile and goes to turn around to begin his morning run.
“Wait—” Mark holds a hand out before stuffing it in the pocket of his shorts. He chews on his bottom lip nervously, eyebrows furrowing with each second that passes before he smiles.
“I— uh, just noticed that you tend to go on runs a lot… morning runs, I mean. And so do I,” he chuckles. “Just wondering if you’d like to go together…”
Mark trails off, staring at Donghyuck with a shy smile on his face — it almost makes him laugh.
“Sure… I guess,” Donghyuck’s eyebrows furrow. “But I’m in a hurry today and I might be going a bit fast.”
Mark nods, bringing his lips inside his mouth as he nods at everything Donghyuck says. “No, it’s fine. I can keep up.”
Donghyuck breathes out a quiet laugh before he turns around to start running, not really knowing how exactly to tell Mark he was willing to start with his morning run already.
He starts jogging, not really knowing if Mark could actually keep up — he’s been going on runs for so long he was faster than the average person and he didn’t want to make Mark uncomfortable by leaving him behind.
But only a few minutes down their route, Donghyuck realizes he was the one trying harder to catch up, pushing his legs forward to move faster than the boy a few feet before him and maybe try to overtake him.
He focuses on his own feet, pushing them in front of one another as they continue down the straight road. They were running past so many people and cars it was exhilarating, the cold wind blowing on his face as he tried catching up with the boy who is always a few feet before him.
The challenge makes him grin — pushing all his worries out of his mind for a while as he focuses on pushing his feet in front of one another.
They pause by a convenience store after almost twenty minutes of nonstop running. They ran pretty fast and for so long that Donghyuck isn't very sure they are still even near his apartment.
Mark grabs two bottles of water from the freezer towards the back, not even looking back at Donghyuck who stops the freezer from closing at the last second and grabs his own two bottles of water.
They wait in line in silence, both boys just standing beside each other with their eyes staring anywhere but at the boy beside them.
“Hey,” Mark frowns at the bottles of water in Donghyuck’s hands when he finally pushes himself to look at Donghyuck. “This was for you,” he pouts, lifting one of the bottles in his hands to show him.
Donghyuck’s eyes widen and he presses his lips together when he understands what Mark means. He shakes his head almost frantically, pressing his lips into a thin line with embarrassment.
“You don’t have to,” he chuckles awkwardly, locking his eyes on something behind the boy in front of him so he didn’t have to deal with any more awkwardness.
“No it’s fine,” Mark mumbles, reaching his hand out for the two other bottles in Donghyuck’s hands. “I’ll pay.”
Donghyuck only looks at him, lips parted and eyes wide with surprise, not finding it in himself to even reply properly as Mark slowly pulls the bottles away from his hands and cradles them in his arms — trying his best to hold all four bottles as he grabs his wallet from his back pocket.
They chug down their water outside the convenience store, throwing the bottles away before getting ready to run back to their apartments.
“Is my pacing okay with you?” Mark asks, looking up at Donghyuck from where he’s crouching down on the ground tying his shoelaces.
Donghyuck nods, a small smile on his face as he stretches his arms and legs, mentally and physically preparing himself for how fast they could be going this time.
“Are you sure?” Mark asks. “I can slow down if you want.”
Donghyuck smiles. “No, I like the challenge.”
Mark looks down, shaking his head side to side as his shoulders shake with laughter. “Let’s go then.”
They run back in silence, similar to earlier. No words are exchanged between the two of them as they run through the same route they took earlier.
This time, Donghyuck notices he isn’t very far behind Mark — not as much as he was earlier. They’re almost side by side this time and he can’t figure out if it is because Mark is slowing down or if Donghyuck has somehow gotten faster.
They make it back to their apartment complex earlier than they both thought they’d get back. Both boys are leaning against the wall of one of the brown buildings, catching their breath and wiping the sweat off their faces and neck.
Only when they’ve both caught their breath does Donghyuck realize he doesn’t know exactly how to say goodbye to Mark.
Is he just supposed to go ‘okay bye’ and turn around? Does Mark want to talk more? This whole encounter between the two of them was a whole new level of awkwardness, Donghyuck couldn’t help but want to giggle..
“Is that… something you’d want to do again?” Mark asks, biting the inside of his lip as he raises his eyes just a bit to look at Donghyuck.
He chuckles in reply, his head hanging low and his eyes following the drop of sweat that hits the concrete below him.
“It sounds so sexual,” he says, giggling.
Donghyuck doesn’t catch Mark’s reaction, looking up just in time to see him reach up to hold the back of his neck as his eyes squint at Donghyuck, eyes trailing all over his face with wonder.
“It did, didn’t it,” he chuckles a bit, playing along and trying to slowly move the awkwardness aside. “But it was a serious question.”
Donghyuck looks up to make eye contact, wanting to know what exactly was going through Mark’s head. “Aren’t you… not here all the time though?”
Mark’s eyebrows raise — seeming unsurprised that his absence was something Donghyuck noticed, it was as if he was expecting the reply.
“Jaemin was right,” Mark mumbles to himself, quiet enough Donghyuck would’ve missed it if he wasn’t paying enough attention.
“I’m here every so often, and you go on runs a lot, right?” Mark replies, eyebrows raising just a bit — playfully, of course, it made Donghyuck smile.
Donghyuck nods. “Not everyday… just to clear my mind when I need to.”
Mark smiles. “I can leave my number with you,” he suggests. “So we can… you know, talk… if you wanna go for a run again.”
Donghyuck nods, already reaching into his pocket for his phone.
They exchange numbers and say goodbye to each other before they head back up to their own apartments. Mark stays behind for just a few minutes as his eyes curiously follow Donghyuck’s figure until he disappears into his building.
Donghyuck thinks about everything that happened in the last hour — from Jaehyun maybe lying to him, how someone finally joined him on one of his runs, and how he enjoyed it.
Donghyuck never did think of inviting anyone to go on runs with him, especially Jaehyun. It seemed like Donghyuck went on runs to avoid him, so the thought of inviting him never came to mind.
He had also never thought of asking Jungwoo to come along. They were friends and Donghyuck loved spending time with him, but a small voice at the back of his head was telling him he wouldn’t enjoy his runs if Jungwoo ever came along.
He makes his way up to their apartment, swinging his arms beside him as he hums along to a song playing in his head. He passes by a few people on the way back to his place, smiling at them as they pass each other.
The apartment is empty when Donghyuck enters — again. His eyebrows furrow, Jaehyun was supposed to be doing ‘work stuff’ like he said, why wasn’t he home?
His eyes widen in realization when he remembers that he was meant to text Jaehyun when he was on his way back. What if he went out for some groceries or something? Donghyuck sends him a text, telling his boyfriend he was back home and asking him where he was, before hopping in the shower.
The hot water hits his back, relaxing his muscles as he rubs shampoo through his air. His mind wanders to different things, mainly thoughts about Mark — one of the boys he’s been curious about for so long.
Meeting one of them was kind of surreal — until now, it seemed to Donghyuck like they were just a figment of his imagination. Like one of the things that showed he was going insane from how much time he spent alone in their apartment.
He rubs his hair with a towel after his shower, his eyes unconsciously catching his reflection in the mirror beside him. His eyes were dropping down a bit, if that was even possible, and there were dark circles growing around them as well. Small pimples were developing all over his face and his lips were tilted down so low he’s sure it’s a sign of unhappiness.
But he shoves the thought away, reminding himself once again of how happy he is with where he is in life now — in his last year of school, living with his boyfriend who he loves, and with a good paying job. He doesn’t have anything to be unhappy over, he’s fine.
When he exits the shower, Jaehyun is laying on their bed — looking as if he’s been there the whole time. He is typing away on his phone, holding it so close to his face that it seems like he doesn’t want anyone else to see what he is doing. Donghyuck smiles at him, walking through the room with his towel hanging low around his waist as he heads toward his drawers.
He grabs a random shirt from inside and some sweatpants, putting them on quickly as he watches Jaehyun text someone, letting out a few chuckles every so often.
“Work stuff?” Donghyuck asks when Jaehyun laughs over something he’s looking at. The sound of his laugh, deep and hearty and full of absolute joy, putting a grin on Donghyuck’s face.
Jaehyun hums before looking up at his boyfriend, putting his phone away when Donghyuck climbs into bed and snuggles into his side.
They lay in silence for a while, the only sound was the wind from out on the balcony as Jaehyun’s hand runs through Donghyuck’s wet hair, leaving water droplets all over their pillows.
“Hey,” Jaehyun mumbles right as Donghyuck is drifting off to sleep. “About my birthday…”
Jaehyun’s birthday was coming up in two weeks, and it was something Donghyuck was very excited about. He was planning on throwing a surprise party here in their apartment; maybe inviting all of their friends, Jaehyun’s officemates, and Jungwoo — it would be a small gathering and he hoped Jaehyun would enjoy it.
Donghyuck hums in reply.
“I kind of have to be out of town the weekend of my birthday.”
Donghyuck’s eyebrows furrow, the statement waking him up almost completely. “Do you really have to be?” he asks, letting his bottom lip stick out in a pout.
Jaehyun nods. “Yeah, something a few hours away from here, and they need me there.”
Donghyuck breathes out a sigh of defeat, his mind trying to work out the dates so he could still host the surprise party for his boyfriend.
“Just the weekend? You’ll be back after that?”
Jaehyun hums in reply. “I’ll text you if anything changes.”
✦
Jaehyun’s birthday approaches faster. He spends more time at home, as if he was really guilty that he wouldn’t be here for his birthday.
Donghyuck has been going on his early morning runs, leaving before Jaehyun woke up and coming back after Jaehyun had left.
It isn’t that he has any bad feelings towards his boyfriend, but the sight of him made Donghyuck a little sad and he needed a bit of space to himself, and that came in the form of his morning runs.
Mark hasn’t been around since the last time Donghyuck saw him. It’s been almost a week and he still finds himself staring up at Mark’s apartment like before, but when he saw that the last boy that was there wasn’t the one he was looking for, he sighed and continued on with his day.
Donghyuck is at work now, a children’s day camp — he was usually in charge of the little kids, running around after them and playing with them when they wanted him to. Donghyuck was usually exhausted by the time he got back from work, falling down flat on his face when he got back home.
Jaehyun used to rub up and down his back when Donghyuck came back from work, no words exchanged but sometimes he’d hum a song while doing so.
Jaehyun hadn’t even been home the last few times Donghyuck came home from work. He’d enter the apartment with a smile on his face hoping he would find his boyfriend waiting for him, but it hasn’t happened recently.
It wasn’t a big deal anyway — Donghyuck worked three days out of seven in a week and he understood Jaehyun was busy everyday so he didn’t really mind as much, but it still hurt that things weren’t the same as before.
“Hyuckie,” one of the kids whines, holding up the paper she’d been working on since Donghyuck started his shift.
“Hi,” Donghyuck smiles down at her, leaning forward on the chair he was sitting on to look at what she’s been up to with the many crayons scattered over the table.
The little girl before him is an adorable four year old named Jinah who enjoys running around and being carried by Donghyuck as much as she could. She was here almost everyday and Donghyuck was starting to wonder what exactly was so important that her parents decided leaving her here all day was a good idea.
But four year olds saw the good in almost anything, and Jinah always made the most of her time at the day camp — befriending everyone who worked there and trying to make all the other kids her age feel welcome.
When she first spotted Donghyuck, it was like a lightbulb went off in both their heads and they knew there was something special about what their friendship could become.
Jinah knew when Donghyuck would be working and she’d always prepare a little gift for him — even if it was just a little flower she pulled on the way here.
There is a large circle in the middle of the paper and it almost looks like the drawing could be a face but Donghyuck doesn’t say anything — not wanting to hurt Jinah’s feelings in case it wasn’t what he thought it was.
“What is it?” he asks, leaning over to pick her up and sit her down in his lap.
“I drew you,” she giggles, shoving her paper in Donghyuck’s face. Her laughter is contagious, her smile so wide you’d think she discovered something amazing.
“Really?” he asks, taking a closer look at the paper hanging way too close to his face.
“Mhm,” she says excitedly. “Because you’ve been looking like this every day,” Jinah furrows her eyebrows so much that it’s adorable how she looks.
“Why are you sad?” she asks with a pout, reaching out a hand to hold Donghyuck’s, making his heart swell for the little girl.
“Don’t worry about it, Jinah,” he mumbles, pulling the little girl close to his chest and leaning his chin on top of her head.
A few hours later, once all the kids have been picked up and Donghyuck is done for the day, he takes out his phone — scrolling through all the notifications he got during his shift.
Mark
Hey, I’ll be back on the 14th
Down for a run?
Donghyuck finds himself smiling, replying almost instantly that he would enjoy a run on that day. It was the day Jaehyun was leaving, on his birthday, and Donghyuck really didn’t think he wanted to be home that day — another reminder that he had no else to spend special days with.
To top it off, when Donghyuck asked Jungwoo a few days ago if he would be around on the weekend of the 14th, he told Donghyuck he had a family emergency and he was leaving a few days before — which only made Donghyuck feel worse about not having anyone to be with.
He didn’t really have many friends, he had his college classmates, groupmates for different projects he had, but he wouldn’t really consider any of them friends — not really people he’d ask to spend time with him, so Mark texting him about spending time together is easily one of the highlights of Donghyuck’s week.
He replies to Jaehyun’s text next — just his boyfriend saying he was going to be spending time with Jungwoo today so if Donghyuck needed him he’d be next door, which Donghyuck just replied a short ‘Ok.’ to.
He walks out of the building, bag in his hand as he prepares himself to walk all the way back to the apartment. They had a car, of course — a shared one, but he knew Jaehyun needed it more and all the places he needed to be were of walking distance anyway, so not having a car didn’t really matter to him.
But it is times like this when he really wishes he’d asked Jaehyun for the car in the morning — days he’s feeling a bit empty and can’t even hold himself up for a few minutes. His apartment is just a few blocks away, but he isn’t sure if he can make it without stopping at a cafe or a convenience store to rest first.
He makes it two or three blocks before he decides he can’t hold himself up anymore and just leans against a wall. He sinks down to a crouch, just holding his head in his hands as he felt his feet throb and his calves burn.
He breathes out a few frustrated breaths, wondering why he thought it was a good idea to even go to work today if he knew he was in this much pain. He has been overworking himself recently — with school, work, and even just exercising in general.
“Hey,” a voice calls out and Donghyuck’s head instinctively lifts, eyes searching for the speaker. “Do you need a ride?”
When Donghyuck’s head turns, he spots Mark, sitting in the car parked right in front of him — it’s almost laughable how he didn’t notice it. Mark’s window is rolled down and he’s leaning on the edge of it, eyes staring curiously at where Donghyuck is crouched against the wall.
He nods in reply, his teeth chewing on the inside of his bottom lip as he pushes himself off the ground, standing up so fast he almost stumbles back and his vision goes blurry, but he catches himself — hand holding itself out behind him so he doesn’t slam into the wall.
He walks around Mark’s car, dragging his feet below him just a few steps so he’s standing by the passenger’s door.
“Here,” Mark mumbles, reaching over and opening the door for Donghyuck. “You okay?” he asks once the boy is inside, waiting for Donghyuck to put his seatbelt on before he starts driving.
Donghyuck only hums in reply, not wanting to even open his mouth to reply as he leans his head against the window, feeling the cool glass against his forehead. It’s a bit uncomfortable but he no longer has the strength to move.
“Are you sure you can get up safely?” Mark asks once the car is parked in the parking lot of their apartment complex. He parked the car nearer to Donghyuck’s building so the boy didn’t have to walk farther than necessary.
Donghyuck hums, pushing himself out of the car too fast and his head feels dizzy again once he’s standing outside, the fresh air not helping the pain he feels at the back of his head.
“I’ll be fine,” he says, giving Mark a smile. “Thank you.”
Mark mumbles out a quiet ‘Anytime’ he doubts Donghyuck even hears, before the boy drags himself towards the entrance of his building.
Mark stands by his car, eyes worriedly following Donghyuck’s figure as he enters the building and makes his way for the stairs — only causing Mark to roll his eyes in disbelief.
His head hurts and he can barely hold himself up and he still decides to take the stairs.
He rushes after Donghyuck, slipping past the automatic door with someone who enters the same time he does, he immediately runs towards the stairwell Donghyuck disappeared into.
He finds him there — not even halfway up the first flight with his hand supporting his head as he leans against the wall and an annoyed look on his face.
He lifts his eyebrows at Mark when he sees him standing before him. He doesn’t even have the energy to open his mouth and hopes that Mark understands the silent question he’s asking.
“Your head hurts and you can barely walk and you think it’s a good idea to take the stairs?” Mark asks him, a small smile playing on his face as he takes in how tired Donghyuck really looks.
He shakes his head and gently grabs the boy's arm, draping it over his shoulder as they slowly descend the stairs — at a very slow pace but one that Donghyuck is comfortable with.
Mark leaves him inside the elevator, pressing the button for the fifth floor after asking Donghyuck which floor he lives on before he exits, hoping that he makes it to his apartment safely.
“Take care of yourself,” Mark chuckles as the elevator doors close, watching as a dizzy Donghyuck nods his head back at him with a small smile on his face as a silent ‘thank you’.