"want another cup, mark?"

"yes, please." the teenager replied, handing his glass to yuta who was eager to ask the bartender to refill their drinks – the bartender was a student at their school, working nightshifts at the bar to earn money. his name was sicheng, and he had caught yuta's eye.

mark looked around the club, his eyes squinting at the amount of light that blinded him.

he wasn't specially fan of those kind of places where you could barely see because of the dozens of artificial coloured lights turning around and changing to the beat of the deafeningly loud music that prevented you to hear whatever your friends were saying.

but coming there once in a while was cool, mostly since mark wasn't the flirty type, and that this was the only place he felt good while dancing with girls – surely because most of them were too drunk to see how awkward he was.

"have you found yourself a girl yet?" jaehyun asked – while screaming, because otherwise, mark wouldn't be able to hear him.

"for tonight? or in general?" mark questioned.

"both."

"no, and no." mark shrugged.

"i am tempted to ask you if you found a boy, but all the hot boys are in gay bars, so not here." jaehyun sighed.

"i'd prefer a girl for tonight."

mark was bisexual.

in fact, he used to define himself as heterosexual, closing his eyes on the fact he could find boys attractive and develop feelings for them.

actually, this seemed to be the case of their whole group of friends. but then, johnny and ten declared that they had been dating for a few weeks, and all of the boys in the group started questioning their own sexuality or voicing out that they also had preferences for men.

this conversation had happened more than a year ago, and since that day, lots of things had happened. doyoung had found himself a boyfriend, an older guy named taeil that he had met at a concert, jungwoo admitted he had a crush on a boy of mark's class, and mark had told them he did like boys as well, but to that day, he had never had feelings for one.

"mark, your drink!" yuta declared, handing mark the cup filled with an alcoholic brewage.

"thanks." mark smiled, taking a sip of the liquid and burning his throat for a few seconds.

"oh, taeyong found someone." yuta continued, looking at the dancefloor, where taeyong was dancing, his body glued to a girl wearing way-too-revealing clothes.

"yeah." jaehyun said simply, chugging down his own glass of alcohol.

in their group of friends, taeyong was the only one who didn't like boys. at least, he had never said he could like them.

this pained jaehyun a lot, because he had been head over heels for taeyong for a year now, and the older only paid attention to women.

"come on, he's just playing. they'll stop dancing in a minute." yuta said, patting jaehyun's shoulder as the boy was glaring hard at the poor woman who was dancing with his crush.

"well..." mark dragged the word as the woman dancing with taeyong had turned around to face him.

"they probably need to talk about..."

yuta stopped talking halfway as taeyong leaned forwards, gluing their mouths together in a sloppy wet kiss, never breaking their intimate dancing.

"okay, jae, look, they're probably too drunk to understand anything that is happening at the moment."yuta told, turning jaehyun around so that he couldn't see them anymore.

"i need another drink." jaehyun muttered.

"no, you don't." mark shook his head.

"the boy i like is currently kissing a girl! i think i need a whole bottle of alcohol rather than just a glass." jaehyun continued rambling.

"look, things like those can happen... but it's not the end. i swear you'll find someone." yuta tried reassuring his friend. "we'll all find someone, even me and my desperate crush on the bartender, even mark and his awkward flirting, and even you, jaehyun. i assure you."

🎀

"god... why did we decide going out yesterday again?" doyoung groaned, holding his head between his hands.

"it's yuta who proposed." mark sighed, closing his eyes for a few seconds, hoping his headache would disappear.

"very bad idea. i'm never doing this again." taeyong groaned. "not only i have the worst hangover, but i also can't remember shit about yesterday night."

next to him, jaehyun silently snorted, images of taeyong and the girl flashing in his mind and ruining his day.

"guys, i thought you had understood yuta always dragged you to the club on thursdays because sicheng works there that day." ten rolled his eyes at their friends' state. he couldn't believe that had all gotten drunk like hell despite knowing they had classes at 8 the next day.

"we're friday?!" mark asked, completely lost.

"bravo, markus!" johnny clapped his hands in front of mark's face. "you're an intellectual."

"fuck...." mark whined. "i need to pick my sister up from school on fridays..."

"sucks to be you." yuta told.

"everything sucks." jaehyun rolled his eyes. "let's get to class now."

the nine boys headed in the hell-hole that was school, all dragging their feet towards their classrooms.

the day was long for all of them, most of the boys falling asleep a few times during classes because of their intense night.

anyway, they were all very happy when the last bell of the day rang for them, meaning that they were free to do whatever they wanted, and that they were finally on weekend.

mark left school quickly, his head still pounding because of the alcohol he had drank the night before. he walked fast, checking his watch from time to time to be there for the end of classes in his sister's elementary school.

thankfully, he was there on time.

maria walked out of the school gates, happily greeting her brother.

"hey mark!" she exclaimed, making mark flinch.

"hey." he replied nonchalantly. "let's go back home?"

"yeah, sure!"

mark held his hand out of maria to take, he knew she liked holding hands with mark when they were going back home on fridays, because they had lots of roads to cross, and she preferred feeling safe and protected by her big brother.

"so, how was school?" mark asked in a flat tone, too tired to deal with anything. at least, his sister's annoyingly loud blabbering would keep him awake.

"cool! i brought my dolls to school to show my friends. but mina said that i wasn't special for having butterfly because she had it as well? and she also had the new mermaid doll, with red hair, so she bragged about it, because no one has it yet. i showed her haechan then, and she laughed at me for having a male doll. she said it looked ugly and useless. but haechan is not ugly, he's beautiful and perfect. i'm sure she would love having him as her lover if he was a human. don't you think?"

mark didn't answer, too caught up with everything else to pay attention to his sister.

"mark?" maria pulled on mark's arm.

"what?" he asked, looking down at his little sister.

"don't you think haechan would be a perfect lover if he was human?" maria questioned, making mark think.

"yeah... if you say so."