summary mark, haechan, and taehee — they come as a package. when one of them is mentioned, you’d always expect the other two to be around somewhere. that’s why it’s also inevitable that one fight between two is a fight for three, but they know it’s all just a small part of a lifelong friendship.
featuring mark, haechan, and a little bit of jeno and jaehyun
words 1.6k
from anon how was taehee during markhyuck summer fight
from seul this was supposed to be longer but since they’ve cleared up about it in their recent live, i had to change it up a bit !!! lmk if you wanna read the deleted parts. and since this ask was sent before the live, just take this as taehee when they fight in general.
I. LATE AUGUST-EARLY SEPTEMBER 2017
“wait, so doyoung oppa switched rooms with mark?” taehee asks, her forehead creasing with worry, “it was that bad?”
“yeah,” jaehyun replies. he props his elbows up on the table and releases a sigh, “do you know what’s going on between them?”
taehee stays quiet for a moment.
then she answers, “no, actually.”
taehee knew it was inevitable for friends to fight or disagree on something, let alone best friends who have been with each other every single day for years.
even if her legs felt like jelly and she swears her arms were about to fall off at any moment, she wasn’t home for most of the time. she coops herself in the studio all night long after practice, itching to produce at least a good beat. she didn’t know anything about what was happening in the dorms; how the members could hear the fuming exclamations mark and haechan threw at each other behind enclosed walls; how doyoung had to switch rooms with mark every now and then when some nights got too bad.
when she enters the practice room, she takes light of the silence that hung around the atmosphere. it was still earlier in the morning anyways. her eyes shift from haechan’s gloomy expression to the straight frown mark held on his lips. she snorts, “now who shit in who’s cereal?”
as she placed her training bag on the floor, she was expecting mark to at least come up with some sort of excuse, then she’d hear haechan tease him and laugh about it, except she continued to hear silence. instead, taehee looked up to see mark glare at haechan oh-so-discreetly; the latter doesn’t even spare him a glance. making sense of the tension in the room, she pursed her lips and made eye contact with jaehyun through the mirror. she’d find herself asking him about it later.
after finding out what had happened the night prior, taehee approaches mark (not to probe or anything but ..... yeah). “hey, you okay?” she mumbles to him. mark shakes his head and a small sigh comes out of his mouth, one that she notices, “it’s fine. it’s.... it’s nothing.” taehee observed that he didn’t want to talk about it, so she let him be. “okay,” she tries to give him a comforting smile, “i won’t force you or anything. i’m just here.”
now with haechan, it seemed like every time she opened her mouth to say something to him, he turns away from her and proceeds to act like he had something more important to attend to. taehee plays it off and tries to show that it wasn’t bothering her (after all, this was their issue. she didn’t want to insert herself into situations where she wasn’t supposed to be), but she did feel hurt that haechan was ignoring her too.
but then the car ride to meet with the rest of the dreamies was awful.
mark had offered to sit in the back row even when there was clearly enough room for the three of them to fit in the middle. “oh shit,” taehee thought, half humoring herself to distract her from the tension, half dreading all the negative energy that’d be hanging around for twenty minutes, give or take. she decided to catch up on sleep during the ride, trying to pay no mind to the gnawing feeling in her chest.
it wasn’t until the following week that mark started to avoid her too. he seemed to be fine with everyone but her and haechan.
“did i do something wrong?” she asks jeno on their way to music bank. they stayed behind the rest of the group, watching as an invisible brick wall form itself in the middle of mark and haechan.
jeno hums in confusion, “what’s wrong?”
“mark’s starting to ignore me too.”
“huh?”
taehee bites her lip and faces the silver haired boy, worry evident on her features. “is it because i asked? am i being nosy?”
“noona,” jeno’s face softens at the older girl before wrapping his arm around her as a comforting gesture, “you’re just concerned. it’s probably nothing, you know them.”
taehee decides to give them some space.
by then, fans would see how taehee would hang around jeno rather than mark and haechan. they were always attached by the hip before (not that taehee wouldn’t laugh at jeno’s corny jokes by the way).
meanwhile, mark and haechan were too caught up in their fight that they failed to consider how taehee would feel. they were all a trio, but it felt like they were all sucked into the whirlwind of flaming emotions when they started avoiding meeting each others’ gazes or telling jokes that the other would like.
first, haechan started ignoring taehee because he thought that mark would come to her and she’d take his side. on the other hand, mark (stupidly) had the same feeling about her and haechan except he didn’t want to burden the former by making her the middleman. he began to steer clear from taehee a few days later.
“we might have had hurt noona too, you know,” hyuck sighs to mark. they had already made up by this time. “i know,” the elder replies, “then we’ll just have to fix this with her too.”
thanks to doyoung, mark and hyuck didn’t have to wait too long to clear things up with taehee.
the girl was distracted with the phone that occupied her hands, failing to notice that there were already people in the room before she looked up from her device. her eyes widened in surprise and she stepped back, making quick movements to close the door until mark and haechan started shouting a string of ‘no!’’s.
“NOOO!”
“WAIT, TAEHEE!!!”
unbeknownst to the two, taehee tries to suppress a grin when she picks up the lighthearted tones in their voices. a short sigh of relief slips past her lips and her grip on the doorknob loosens.
only her head peeks out from behind the door and she’s met with the fondest of smiles from her two closest friends. just to make sure, her expression then turns into a soft pout, “are we okay now?”
while mark nods, haechan decides to coo and tease at her further, making his voice slightly a pitch higher, “we’re fine now! come here, you big baby.”
taehee rolls her eyes at his antics before pushing the door wider and stepping in. once she’s within arm’s reach, the youngest of the three pulls her down beside him and squishes her into a side hug. mark watches them with an affectionate gaze, chuckling when taehee tries to push away the maknae’s kissy faces.
haechan ceases in his mini-attack, letting out another giggle at his noona’s adorableness before deciding to press his cheek into her shoulder, “were you worried about us?”
“if i wasn’t so nice about all of this, i would have pulled both of your hairs out,” mark laughs in his own fashion, clapping his hands excitedly as he releases his own amused giggles. on the other hand, haechan sneaks a peck to the side of taehee’s forehead which adds to her faux annoyance, “ya!”
taehee catches mark’s sincere eyes with her own and she feels more warmth envelop around her. “we’re really sorry,” mark stammered, pushing down his bangs to his forehead with his right hand.
“that’s okay,” taehee shrugs, or at least tried to. haechan continued to show his affection by perching his chin atop of her shoulder, his nose brushing against her cheek. she continues, “you guys are fine now so i’m cool with that.”
a few beats of silence tick by. though taehee might be appear to be happy and content with her words, the two other boys knew she’d still want to know what the heck happened between them considering the fact that they left her in the dark for weeks. “you wanna know what happened, huh?” haechan prompts.
mark lets the younger boy give a gist of what they were arguing about in the first place (past is past!), as well as mentioning why he regrettably started ignoring taehee at the time. mark explains his own reasoning after, adding another rushed apology by the end of his statement.
“you guys are so stupid,” taehee deadpans, causing the two boys with her to chuckle. “while i do believe the line between right and wrong may get blurry depending on the situation, i won’t take sides when it comes to you two,” she wraps an arm around the younger boy beside her and starts playing with the hair on the back of his head out of habit. “i could’ve helped you guys make up if you’d let me, but i respect your privacy. i just kinda hated the part where the two of you just started ignoring me when i didn’t even know what was happening in the first place.”
“we’re sorry, noona,” hyuck mumbles, placing another soft kiss on her clothed shoulder (mark visibly grimaces much to the amusement of taehee).
taehee hums, “let’s just move on with this— i don’t like mushy talks.” mark chuckles at this.
“so, we’re all okay now?”
“we’re all okay now.”
again, taehee knew that disagreements among friends were bound to happen in the years they spent with each other. taehee also rolled her eyes at hyuck when he said that the three of them were most probably fated together one way or another (“the three of us? soulmates.” “okay, mark and i? could be. but you and i? impossible.” “you’re just too scared to admit that you’re in love with me!”).
what she didn’t know was that she’d spend almost a lifetime with these two. she could never admit it willingly, out loud, and straight up in front of their faces but she doesn’t, and won’t, ever regret putting through the amount of headaches and mountains of bubbling rage they’ve all experienced within their friendship.
because past all those scary, clashing, unpredictable, deep ocean waves were her two best friends, calming and radiant like the australian sunset.
summary haechan’s one-sided marriage pact with taehee apparently has its perks — “free” food dates she never lets him pay for, an adorable poof of hair she could just tousle up whenever, a loving puppy, and an incredibly observant and witty wingman.
featuring haechan, mentions of mark and jaehyun
words 1.7k
I. MARCH 14, 2021 IN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
“noona, you go wait in line,” haechan tells taehee, “i’ll just switch these for another flavor.” he knew she wouldn’t been able to eat the spicy ramen packs he wanted anyways.
meanwhile, taehee remembers the confused look on the younger’s face upon seeing the longer than usual line as they neared the entrance of the store.
taehee shrugged, “it’s white day, see? they’re all lovey-dovey.” she didn’t notice the snicker that bubbled out of haechan at her distasteful tone, opening the door for her as they entered. if he didn’t know any better, he’d say she hated them, but then he really does believe that his noona was quite inexperienced in that department; her first ‘relationship’ wasn’t entirely serious in essence.
“excuse me, are you in line?” taehee looks up from her phone to see a couple, not much older than she is, standing right in front of her. her cheeks grow warm as she stutters, “no, go ahead. please.”
they flash appreciative grins at the girl, both of them taking a synchronized step forward. “were they always in sync?” taehee thought as she eyed their brightly colored matching shoes.
“weren’t you umm,” she jolts in surprise when haechan suddenly appears behind her, now holding mildly flavored packs of ramen to his side with his right arm and a peppero box on his left. he leans closer to her ear, “in line?”
feigning ignorance, taehee furrows her eyebrows at him, “i am in line.”
“about five people already left the store and you’re still in the same spot.”
“you were taking too long,” she brushes off quickly before turning back around, an amused smile growing on the latter’s features at her attitude.
taehee takes another glance at the items in his hands and gently nudges his side with her elbow, “you wanted peppero?”
haechan hums, “yeah. you want to share?” taehee raises a brow at him and a short chuckle escapes her, “oh please. the last time we shared peppero—”
“that was renjun!” he exclaims a little too loudly, and taehee shushes him before disrupting into giggles. “you’re too loud, keep it down,” she lightly scolds him, eyes turning into crescents despite her stern tone. “i was just joking, chill.”
“i don’t even know why you brought that up again,” haechan continues, this time his voice was level, “unless....”
the suggestive turn of his head makes taehee kick his foot, moving forward to the cashier as if nothing had happened. haechan tries to smile but a wince takes over his expression instead, muttering how the small (read: slightly smaller, it’s a 3cm difference) girl had massive amounts of strength. “i got injured there, you know.”
“that was your other leg.”
the employee quickly scans their items and punches some numbers on the keyboard before giving them the total cost. taehee reaches into her pocket to bring out her wallet to see haechan doing the exact same thing.
“i’m paying,” the boy gapes his mouth at her incredulously, “i’m older.”
“i’m the guy.”
“it’s the 21st century, girls can pay for guys.”
“today is white day,” haechan presses, shifting his weight on his other foot as he raises a brow. to add to that, the annoying tilt of his head makes taehee’s eye twitch internally. did this dude just imply that we were a couple? though their faces were both hidden by their masks, haechan could sense the angry pout that was taking place on taehee’s lips. “we aren’t-“
“he’s right,” the employee cuts taehee off, “it’s white day. the boyfriend,” the girl’s eyes widen comically causing haechan to suppress a laugh, “should treat his girlfriend today.”
baffled, taehee’s hands go limp mid-air as haechan smugly slides a bill to pay their ramen and peppero. once the plastic bag is handed over to him, he wraps an arm around her shoulders and walks them both to the exit.
“i can’t believe you just said that,” taehee mutters, closing her wallet and shoving it inside her jacket. “i can’t believe— how could you say that? what if someone heard you?”
haechan laughs loudly as he leans into her side. “everyone’s just lovey-dovey in there,” he teases, recalling her words from earlier, “it’s just ramen and peppero. you can pay when we get an actual meal. and no, no one can hear me. even if they did, i just said it was white day, i didn’t say i was your boyfriend.”
“i wouldn’t even date you.”
the brown-haired boy stops in his tracks, holding taehee by the wrist and turning her around when she doesn’t. “ouch? why wouldn’t you date me?”
“you’re.....” taehee looks at him up and down, the action causing haechan to scoff in faux annoyance before running his tongue along the inside of his cheek, “you’re you. i can’t date you.”
“you know, i’m actually serious about marrying you if we’re both still single by the time we retire,” an unreadable expression takes place underneath taehee’s mask and haechan lets go of his hold on her arm. “you’re scaring me now. if you’re really serious, then i’d have to plan my rejection speech early. i don’t want to be mean,” taehee replies, turning on her heel as she starts walking.
“and what about me is not ‘dateable’?” haechan argues as he catches up to her, “i’m sexy!” taehee doesn’t even look at him, “okay and? i’m sexy too.”
“then what’s your type?” though he sounded genuinely curious, taehee couldn’t help but want to wipe off the cheeky glint in his eyes. “you sound like every emcee we meet,” she clicks her tongue, “what’s next? who am i going to date out of all of you?”
“as one of your closest friends,” haechan puts a hand on his chest, waving the other in the air dramatically as he speaks, “i am well aware of the fact you hate that question.”
“good.”
“we already know the answer to that anyways,” he teases under his breath.
taehee whips her head to the side, “what was that?” haechan shrugs, imitating her attitude from when she had kicked him earlier in the store, “nothing.”
when they round the corner, the entrance doors to their apartment complex come into view, but haechan still wanted to know her answer to his question. he pulls taehee to a stop, turning her around and dragging her closer to him. “what are you doing?” taehee’s eyes widen, “people might say stuff.”
haechan rolls his eyes, “you didn’t care about that stuff before.” taehee removes his grip on her arm as she takes a subtle step backwards away from him. sadly, the latter notices. “well, i do now,” he hears her murmur.
“come on, just hit me,” haechan tells her. “once you go back to your dorms, you’re gonna go to work-mode again and it’s going to send your brain to overdrive,” he brings his hand up to deliver a soft flick to her forehead by the last bits of his sentence, taehee letting out an exaggerated whine at the impact. “i am actually going to hit you,” she breathes out, “shouldn’t you not be hitting people older than you? women?”
“it wasn’t even that hard!”
“it wasn’t even that hard,” taehee mocks childishly, pinching his own ear in retaliation. haechan thought he deserved it though (kind of), but when the girl in front of him moved to turn back around, he lets out a loud yell. “HEY!!”
the older member is quick to cover his mouth with her palm, the latter grabbing her by the arms when she pushes her weight onto him causing him to stumble backwards. taehee lets go when she feels haechan shake with laughter, before tugging at his jacket in a scolding manner.
“just give me an answer,” he chuckles, “i’ll be your wingman.”
taehee raises her eyebrows in question, her head tilting towards the right. “how do i know you’re not gonna rope them into teasing me too?”
“i’m serious,” this time, haechan walks ahead of her first, already starting to notice the amount of people that were looking at them. once he makes sure taehee was following beside him, he continues, “i don’t want you to end up with someone who makes you unhappy.”
“aww,” taehee coos, “that sounded really sweet. quite weird coming from you, but sweet.” a playful scoff comes from the younger boy as he raises her eyebrows at her, “who else?”
haechan knew of taehee and jaehyun’s secret dates and late night escapades, even helping them on a few occasions by suggesting some places to dine and have lunch or dinner in, but he also saw how they weren’t, by the least bit, in love. well, at least with each other.
it didn’t even come as a surprise to him when taehee blurted out that they stopped going out on dates, ignoring the shocked stutters coming from mark lee who was also in the room with them. “we weren’t like, serious or anything,” said taehee. “like official?” mark asked. “nope. i guess it was just attraction— i don’t know, dude. but it was fun.”
“how’d you know?”
“there wasn’t going to be anything for us in the future if we just continued doing whatever we were doing,” she clicked her tongue. “that’s what we told each other. we’re just like, meant to be friends, you know? we’re fine with it, you don’t have to worry,” she let out a genuine chuckle by the end of her sentence, quieting down as her eyes moved from mark’s concerned expression to haechan’s unreadable one. “why?” taehee asked softly, directing the question at the youngest in the room, “are you mad at us for doing that?” haechan shook his head, “no.”
“were you happy?” he throwed at her, catching her off-guard for a moment.
she replied after two beats of silence, “we got closer. of course i’m happy.” the two boys with her were at least glad to hear those words.
still, he hoped his noona would find the right person for her (after all, things like that aren’t supposed to be taken lightly anyways. who knows whose heart could break, right?).
“come on, tell me before the others hear,” haechan pulls back the door handle and lets her walk inside first, him following soon after with that playful grin of his. “just letting you know, no one can be as handsome and cute as me.”
“oh he’s definitely cuter than you.” (“so she does have someone in mind,” haechan thinks, but he doesn’t say anything about it).
“huh,” taehee laughs at the look on haechan’s face as he turns to her, pressing the up button by the elevators, “that sounded way more enthusiastic than it should be.”
does taehee's parents have a fav nct member?? like johnny's mom w taeyong
taehee’s parents only met some of the members (in-person and on video call) a few times! but if they were to pick a favorite ,,,,
her mom would pick doyoung! she’s super grateful that he took care of taehee when they were still trainees, even accompanying her when she couldn’t go home on the holidays. taehee’s mom isn’t very open with her emotions (the apple does not quite fall far from the tree oops) but you’d always see a fond smile hanging on her face when she sees doyoung during her visits to korea or when she’d video call taehee and he’s there too (“hi mom!” “hello, doyoung-ah~!” “...i’m literally standing right here.” T___T) if taehee’s mom saw doyoung more often, she’d most likely start treating her as her son ;D
as for taehee’s dad, he’d pick hyuck! they met through video call and he fell for his wit and humor (who wouldn’t). whenever he’d call taehee, you would hear him ask, “is haechan there too?” and taehee would either joke that he was looking forward to seeing hyuck more than her or she’d lie and say ‘no’ even when he’s clearly there with her in the room. mark comes a close second! he thinks that mark’s really sweet and nice, and he’s thankful for the fact that someone like him is there for taehee. they also have a lot of similarities! they both love playing the guitar, listening to john mayer, and watermelons. lots and lots of watermelons. (side note: mark got a little embarrassed when he called taehee ‘joanie’ while he was talking to taehee’s dad one day. “it’s fine, mark. you’re family already!” he chuckled. secretly, his heart warmed at the fact that mark was also the one to remind taehee of what home sounded like).
Heyy! Why would taehee get a tattoo if haechan gets one? Like why specifically haechan?
she thinks haechan isn’t likely to actually get a tattoo out of all the members (even though he mentioned that he wanted to), so if he did end up getting one, she might just consider it.
