Dec 17, 2020
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Watch "Spacestar Ordering (The One True Path)" on YouTube
A Red Velvet song blasts through the speakers of Mark’s phone, jolting him out of his peaceful slumber. He curses as he accidentally knocks the device off the nightstand instead of grabbing it, coughing a few times to make his voice sound less raspy and more awake. He answers the phone on the last ring.
“Did I wake you up?” Donghyuck sounds frustrated, exhausted, and guilty- a common mixture of emotions at 3 in the morning.
“You know I’m always awake for you babe,” Mark responds while jumping around the room, slipping on the closest pair of pants and grabbing his dorm keys.
“I can’t sleep. Can you come over?” There’s soft sniffling on the other end of the line and Mark feels his heart break bit by bit.
“Of course Angel, I’m already on my way.”
“Jaemin-ah~,” Jeno whines cutely, “I want pizza! Pizza!”
“Order it yourself,” Jaemin mumbles, turning to show Jeno the broad expanse of his back. His boyfriend frowns and climbs into the bed, pressing his cold ankles against Jaemin’s warm calves. Jaemin yelps and promptly shoves him off the bed, sighing loudly when Jeno lets out an alarmed noise and pouts up at him from the floor. When did he get so clingy?
“Fine,” he finally concedes, moving out of his messy sheets to pull Jeno up. “But you owe me. We have to watch the scary movie that just came out.”
Later, when Jeno is curled up against Jaemin with his face buried in his chest to block out the visage of the ghost on the screen, Jaemin can’t help but think that it was a good trade.
Yukhei and Donghyuck gaze timidly at the mess in the kitchen. Flour is everywhere, on the floors, on the counters, in their hair... and on top of that, Donghyuck isn’t really sure what happened to all the eggs. They started with 12, but only one lonely egg stares back at him from the carton. The recipe called for 2 eggs.
Yukhei coughs. “Let it be said,” he grabs a rag and moves to start wiping down the counter tops. “You started it.”
“Unfair,” Donghyuck grumbles back, but he moves anyways to grab the mop from the cabinet with all the cleaning products. It’s time to make the kitchen spotless before Taeyong comes back.
Mark feels the beginnings of unease grip his heart. This was way more blood than he was expecting. Beside him, Jeno shifted.
"I told you," he whispers, "I told you it would end this way. Are you happy now?"
Mark feels the wet stickiness flow through the grooves of his palms and clenches his fist. Was he happy? He presses his side against Jeno's and wraps an arm around the younger boy's shoulders, careful not to get blood on him. Jeno is still pure, untainted by Mark's lifestyle. "Baby," Mark whispers back, "I did this for you. Of course I'm happy."
Jeno smiles and presses a finger to his lips. With his other hand, he pulls a small notebook out of his back pocket. He finds the name of the body in front of him, crosses out Lee Donghyuck off a long list. One down, 99 more to go.
“Yukhei,” Donghyuck mumbles, making grabby hands at his boyfriend from his spot on the couch. “Carry me. I wanna sleep.”
“Hold on babe.” Yukhei drops his backpack by the door and puts the large white box he’s carrying on the coffee table before pulling Donghyuck into his arms, settling comfortably onto the couch. He feels curious eyes shift between him and the box but doesn’t elaborate.
“What’s that Xuxi?”
“Why don’t you open it?”
Donghyuck is still slightly suspicious, but shifts out of Yukhei’s hold to reach for the box. He pulls it into his lap, giving it a tentative shake. At this point Yukhei is practically vibrating next to him, so he bites the bullet and uses one manicured nail to slice the tape off the opening, revealing the soft material of what looks to be a very expensive jacket.
“Do you like it?? It’s cold now, so you should wear it to stay warm.” Donghyuck pulls the jacket out of the box to examine it further, face flushing when he notices Yukhei’s name and number on the back of it. He coughs. Yukhei has basically just gifted him an extremely nice varsity hoodie. Still...
“I love it,” he can’t stop the tiny smile that insists on growing on his face, “I love you.”
Mark Jenkyns — Mind Dust (by rinsefm)