MARK

"C'mon man, we're going to be late!" Jeno hollers, leaning out of his car window so that he can flag Mark down at the end of his drive.

Mark ducks his head, trying to make himself as small as possible, embarrassed by his best friend, "Isn't it like... I don't know.. good.. to get there late?"

Jeno laughs as he leans over to open the door to Mark's side, "Usually yes, but Junnie just text me saying that he's there already and I have a feeling that if we leave him there alone much longer we possibly won't live to see tomorrow"

Mark hums, quickly sliding into the car and putting his seatbelt on as the thought of Renjun's wrath begins to form his head.

He can't even believe that Renjun is even showing up to tonight's party, especially after he'd sworn off the team's house parties after one pretty memorable one (or for Mark a completely blurry one) a couple of weeks ago whereby he drunkenly danced on top of Yewon's dining room table only to hit his head on her low swinging chandelier and fall into Jeno's arms- knocked out cold.

Mark bit his lip to try and stop himself from smiling, but given the look Jeno throws him it seems like he's already been caught.

"Right well.." Jeno starts the car before putting it in gear, "Lets go party..!"

~~~

Mark hadn't even been in Felix's house for more than five minutes before he'd already downed one drink and had been accosted by Renjun who was still whining to both him and Jeno about how long they took to arrive.

"I'm sorry, but Mark took forever getting ready" Jeno defended only to have Mark jab him in the ribs

"You came late to my house" He accused, but Renjun just rolled his eyes at their playful quarrelling.

Sighing Renjun grabbed his drink and took a swing, "I think there's games going on upstairs- you know like seven minutes, truth or dare.. all that"

Mark furrows his eyebrows as he looks at Renjun quizzically, "I didn't think that was necessarily our scene"

The shorter shrugs, placing his drink down, "Well it beats whatever beer pong game and awkward dancing is going on down here... plus I think I saw Mina upstairs"

Renjun winks in Mark's general direction, before turning his attention to Jeno who had already been stolen from them by his girlfriend, Sihyeon, and they were now heading to the kitchen, probably for some alcohol- as you can never endure a house party sober, especially Felix's.

Mark opts just to skirt around the edge of Felix's front room, offering the odd smile or wave to those who spot him- being the captain of the basketball team and a straight A student, Jeno calls Mark's social presence 'legendary'- everyone knows him, and being the friendly Canadian he is, Mark can't help but offer a smile or engage in conversation.

He supposes that's how him and Mina got so close. They were childhood friends, and spent a lot of time with each other since their parents worked together. It was clear that his parents liked Mina for him, they saw them as a good match, and as Mark is generally easy going and unconfrontational, he concludes that that's why one day they were just playmates and the next he was sat in a café across from her, picking at the whipped cream on the top of his drink and making polite conversation as if they were something more than just friends. She is a lovely girl- a cheerleader who also has an expressive academic record that could rival Mark's- but she was just a friend. Not that anyone really believed him when he told them that though.

Mark spots Changbin from across the room who gives him a little nod before gesturing upstairs, and Mark gives him a thumbs up. He didn't necessarily want to play truth or dare and he really didn't want to partake in seven minutes of heaven- but since he's here he might as well go upstairs and mingle with some of his more sober friends.

After Mark climbs the stairs, turning into the second door on the left which was wide open, he sees a good portion of his basketball team sprawled across the room, either nursing a drink in their hand or some pot. As their captain he should give them grief, as their friend he almost asks them to share, but he stops himself as he spots Jeno and Sihyeon sat off to the side next to Renjun and some of his friends from his art class and Mark's from his music production class.

Mark scans the room slowly, there's his team, students from all different school departments and Mina also brought along some of the cheerleaders, there's a good mix of people present.

Sihyeon is the one who spots Mark, opting to give him a warm smile before gesturing him over, and so Mark complies, sitting crossed legged as Felix throws his head back, downing whatever liquid was left in his bottle, only to place it dramatically in the middle of the room, "Who's ready?"

There's a chorus of responses before Felix is spinning the bottle himself and the room grows quieter.

Mark feels like he's fourteen, waiting for the bottle to stop seems to take forever, and even though it's not his turn Mark feels his hands grow clammy from anticipation.

The bottle slows to point at Yehana who blushes slightly. What seems like the entirety of the basketball team begin to shout, some slapping Felix's back and arms in excitement.

He swiftly gets into his feet, walking a couple of steps only to drop down onto his knees and deliver (what seemed like to Mark) an awfully long and enthusiastic kiss.

Mark felt his toes scrunch up as he watched them and cheered with the rest of his friends when it was finally over.

A couple of spins later and everyone's in a more relaxed state- things still get loud whenever the bottle stops spinning but as the time draws closer to midnight and more and more alcohol is consumed, Mark feels more free- he's not holding his breath like he was when he first started playing.

"Mark, Mark!" Someone yells over the noise and suddenly he's being pushed forwards, "Captain's turn!"

Mark lets out a laugh as he flicks the bottle, sending it spinning. Mark's not really worried about who it lands on, it's just a game, yet when someone reaches out and stops the bottle firmly, the neck pointing at Mina, Mark's brain short-circuits and suddenly he's not as drunk as he thought he was.

The room is in uproar once again, and before Mark knows it, "kiss her! kiss her!" is being chanted and suddenly he begins to panic.

Apologising silently beforehand Mark shuffles over to her, leaning in slowly, only to place a quick kiss on her cheek, which leaves Mina completely stunned.

"Aww man! What was that?" Minhyuk laughs and Mark could see Mina attempt to laugh along too

"You guys are animals- Mark's just being a gentleman" Chaeyoung chimes in, earning a couple of other girls to voice their agreement with her, something along the lines of 'as expected from the golden boy'- and it's meant as a compliment, the swooning over his 'considerate' actions, but Mark still feels a little bad, especially for Mina, "of course he isn't just going to kiss her in front of us all"

Mark, with his cheeks painted red, backs into his previous spot- watching as the commotion begins to die down and someone else spins the bottle- and it's not long before the noise levels peak again, this time for Jeno and Renjun.

There's a few shrieks from a couple of the cheerleaders and Mark watches on apprehensively as Renjun turns to face Jeno.

Mark feels as though his heart is about to jump out of his chest as Renjun leans in, placing his lips on Jeno's. Their kiss is soft, gentle even as Jeno brings his hand up to cup Renjun's jaw as he deepens the kiss.

Without meaning to Mark notices that he's holding his breath- his gaze solely concentrated on his two friends as they pull away slowly, eyes hooded.

It's almost as if time has stopped, as if everyone in the room was frozen. Everything was peaceful, until a deep voice shattered it all.

"Man, that's so gay"

There was another moment of silence before Jeno laughed, throwing his arm around Renjun- his infamous eye- smile causing all the tension in the room to just melt away

"Just bros being bros" he jokes, and Mark elects to ignore the flash of hurt that falls over Renjun's face- he'll address that later, maybe.

The game picks up again and Jeno retracts his arm from Renjun's shoulder to wrap his other around Sihyeon's waist, planting a kiss to her temple.

Mark almost cries in relief when Yewon requests to change the game, now opting for truth or dare, which to be honest Mark doesn't think will be any better, but he welcomes the change nonetheless.

The requests are pretty basic, mostly to do with french kissing or shots, Renjun stays in the shadows for most of it which only makes Mark want the night to end faster.

Mark ends up choosing dare when it's his turn, all the truths seem to revolve around girls and he really doesn't want to upset Mina by answering something in the wrong way, so he deems 'dare' the lesser of two evils.

His dare has something to do with his phone, someone can sift through his contacts, camera roll, twitter, and to be honest he doesn't mind- it's not like he's hiding anything so he allows them to raid his phone- as long as they don't touch his music apps he can't really see the harm in it, already borderline tipsy to care.

"Yo DM someone!" One of the guys suggests, all shouting out random names of girls in their year, before someone else suggests he DM some lesser known celebrities to see if they respond, Mark laughs at that.

Jeno takes his phone and tells everyone that he's messaged this Instagram star or something, saying something along the lines of how Mark had a thing for her eyes, which is an absolute lie but Mark lets him be, after all it's not like she'd ever open his message.

As morning approaches, the party begins to fizzle out, especially with classes early, and Mark suddenly finds himself in Jeno's passenger seat, head resting against the window as he yawns into his sleeve.

Jeno has always been their designated driver ever since he got his licence and even though Jeno had been drinking, compared to Mark he was relatively sober.

In the car was also Renjun who would usually get the bus back but since buses don't run at this time and Jeno reasoned that he shouldn't get a stranger to drop him off- even if the stranger was said classmate and friend of Renjun's- the later found himself in the backseat, fiddling with his hands.

They arrived at Renjun's house pretty soon and Mark doesn't even realise that a couple of minutes later they're at his, until Jeno nudges him gently, waking him up.

"Dude, we're here"

Mark hums as he sits himself up, blinking slowly as he tries to regain enough strength to get out of the car.

"Hey, quickly before you go.. " Jeno pulls Mark's phone out of his pocket and hands it over, but before Mark can thank him, Jeno smiles sheepishly, scratching his neck

"So, you know how I had to message someone on your phone?" He asks and Mark nods sleepily

"Yeah, the Instagram girl or something-"

"Well here's the thing" Jeno interjects and Mark gets a sinking feeling in his gut, "I didn't message some girl... actually I messaged that boy, the model that you've been obsessed with for some reason"

And suddenly Mark is awake, eyes blown wide in shock. He scrambles to unlock his phone, failing several times and cursing silently to himself.

"I didn't say anything too embarrassing, just that you thought he was beautiful-"

"Jen!" Mark's face heats up, but Jeno carries on oblivious

"What? It's not like you have a crush on him, or even swing that way... " Jeno trails off, giving Mark a guilty smile "Look if it bothers you that much just message him the truth, your friend took your phone to mess with you but it doesn't mean anything and you've got a girlfriend"

"I don't have a..." Mark trails off, unable to finish his sentence.

He didn't have a girlfriend. He didn't have a crush on Haechan. And he didn't need to clear anything up.

Haechan wouldn't even check his messages so really... no harm was done, right?

Mark sighs, apologising to Jeno for being a sleepy drunk to which the other brushes off with a 'don't worry', before stumbling out of the car and up his drive.

As luck would have it he makes it upstairs and into his room without waking a soul, which he's pretty proud of.

Mark doesn't even get changed- or check his phone- before he falls onto his bed, eyes closing immediately and shortly after falling into a deep slumber.

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Notes-
I hope you guys are enjoying it??
Sorry that this was all text but things will begin to pick up now and I can start adding in the Instagram edits considering Mark (or more accurately Jeno) has made the first move ☺️