another no tears drabble bc i like hurting my own feelings.
mark tuan x reader - ex bsf, hurt/comfort, eventual happy ending implied?
your ex best friend mark comes back after a decade of living abroad acting like he never left you in the dust. you feel like a stranger, blindsided after no contact since high school, and don't really know what to make of the grown man your silly little twig of a teenage crush has grown into.
"y/n!"
You spin around from where you've been standing, rocking back and forth in place as you wring your hands. You take a deep breath. You were purposely staring at the floor. If you don't look at him this moment isn't real.
You don’t even know why you agreed to meet him here today.
"Mark." Your voice is dry, tone so carefully neutral that he blinks in surprise at your cold delivery.
It doesn't totally deter him. Your best friend stops a few steps away, setting his bags down and pulling you into a hug. You just stand there, frozen, as he holds you like the last ten years never happened. Like he didn't pick up his entire life and leave you behind without a word for an entire decade. If it wasn't for the smile that hasn't changed since you first met him, you wouldn't even have recognized him.
He's grown up well. It hurts to admit that. To see how much of the lanky awkward teenage boy you remember that he’s lost. This isn't the Mark you used to spend nights in your backyard watching the stars all summer or on the phone with at 2am listening to his even breathing because the insomnia was winning again.
This was a man. He had changed so much and all of that time, you hadn't spoken. You don’t even know if he still likes the same things, if his favourite colour is still red and if he still likes spicy food. If he still talks in his sleep or watches horror movies or skateboards everywhere. You already notice the way he doesn't default to his left hand as he steps back and reaches up to brush your hair out of your face.
You should have tied it up today. Damn him for acting like nothing has changed.
His face falls as you take a step back. You need to put a little distance between you. You might have known him like the back of your hand once but you haven’t spoken in longer than you've known him. You've graduated college, landed your first full time job and moved into your own apartment. You have so many memories that you don’t share anymore. So many years where you didn't get so much as a text or a phone call.
Until he reached out last week, saying he would be back in town and wanted to get coffee and catch up, you thought he'd moved on and forgotten you completely. It had been a long time. You wouldn't have blamed him for leaving all of this behind. He had done well for himself, from what you'd heard from mutual friends that had stayed in touch, and you were happy for him. Or, at least, you wanted to be.
"Hi."
"Hey."
Mark slipped his hands back into his pockets and grabbed his bags. You tried to plaster on a smile as he got his suitcase in hand again and nodded towards the exit.
"Come on, my car is outside."
He nods, following as you lead him towards the parking. You don’t know what possessed you to offer to pick him up from the airport like this. It’s an hour drive in close quarters on the highway back to your place. About the same to the airbnb where he's staying. You haven’t asked too many questions. You're not sure you want the answers.
"How's your family been? Your sister graduates this year, doesn't she?"
You're not sure how he remembers these little details. You nod
"She's finishing her last semester, yeah. They're good. My parents are actually on vacation right now so she's house sitting for them."
You should have kept it to the bare minimum but you never could shut the fuck up around Mark. Everything you hold in with everyone else always seems to come spilling out when he's with you. You shake your head and pop the trunk as you get to the level your car is on.
"Here, this is me. Do you need any help with anything?"
"Nah, it’s okay, I've got it."
He waves off your offers to help and you sit in silence most of the drive. You don’t really know what to say. You don’t need to ask about his family, you and Joey still talk. You know how they've been. Mark reaches over to plug his phone in and you let him pull up some music. You're surprised to see him click on one of your playlists.
You've made one every year since high school. He used to tease you about it. You didn’t know he still listened to them. You’re not sure if it’s on purpose that he picks the one from the year you graduated, the last time you'd been in touch, but you force yourself not to react. It has to be a coincidence, maybe being home is just making him nostalgic.
When you pull up to the building where he's staying, he waves off your offer to help again and leans over to press a kiss to your cheek when you roll down the window. You knew you weren't going inside, he'd mentioned having to rush to get ready for a schedule as soon as he got here which was part of why you had offered to drop him off when his ride had fallen through. You didn’t have time to linger and you'd thought the drive would give you time to figure out how you felt about him being back without the commitment to sit down in his space and be trapped together for a while afterward. You were glad of the excuse to leave, waving as you pulled back into the street.
You probably should have just let him find another ride and stuck to coffee tomorrow. The entire drive home you were in your own head. You hadn't even asked what he was back for, why he had returned after so long. You'd been too distracted to say a lot of things. Maybe that was for the better.
