donghyuck lifted his head when he heard someone entering the classroom, lowering it immediately when he realised who it was.

mark and him had kissed two days ago.

and let's say things were... awkward.

donghyuck had been avoiding mark like the plague, and mark was doing his best to never cross paths with the younger boy as well.

but it was quite impossible considering they were living together for the moment, because mark was still dahyun's girlfriend and their parents were still away.

the boys hadn't talked for two days now, and didn't even dare glancing at each other, which had been noticed by dahyun who was curious to why her boyfriend and her brother – who seemed to be just fine together – had suddenly stopped being friendly.

but there was no way mark and donghyuck would explain to her what had really happened.

so, things were awkward.

the fact is, donghyuck was seriously starting to wonder when this awkwardness would disappear.

as much as he hated himself for letting his instincts take over him and literally devour mark, he still had a mission to complete and he needed to speak to mark for that.

of course, he didn't want to get rid of this awkwardness because he missed mark. of course not!

there was no way in hell he had taken a liking to the movie nights they had with mark and his sister.

there was no way in hell he had taken a liking to the moment dahyun would be having a shower, and it would be just him and mark, talking about whatever.

there was no way in hell he had taken a liking to all those times he felt superior to mark whenever the older would ask him advice about love.

there was no way in hell he had taken a liking to mark fucking lee, the annoyingly perfect boy whom he was supposed to destroy.

of course not. donghyuck and mark weren't friends. they were rivals.

"okay, so we can start class!" the teacher declared, making the loud chatter of the classroom die down slowly. donghyuck sighed, giving a last glance to the back of mark's head before concentrating on the teacher again. "we'll be working on group assignments today. go back into the pairs of last time and start working. you have quite a lot to do!"

donghyuck was currently debating if he should slam his head against the table for having to work with mark, or jump in excitement, because it meant they would need to talk and solve this awkward phase.

in the end, he simply raised his head, his eyes falling into mark's confused ones.

with a head motion, he silently asked mark to come to him, which the older immediately did, sitting down in front of donghyuck with red cheeks.

"h-hey..." mark stuttered, looking at his hands.

"hi." donghyuck replied, keeping his eyes on mark.

the two boys stayed silent after that, waiting for the teacher to hand them the assignment.

she eventually did, smiling brightly at the two boys and encouraging them to finish the bonus exercise she had put at the very bottom of the page.

thankfully, she walked away quickly, leaving behind her a long silence.

both mark and donghyuck kept their heads lowered as second passed.

none of them seemed ready to engage a conversation. they were too preoccupied by the kiss that had happened.

thankfully, after a few seconds, donghyuck decided they would need to work even if they didn't want to explain themselves. the tanned male held his hand out, reaching for the sheet of paper that the teacher had placed on their desk.

however, he was surprised when, instead of feeling the rough paper, his hand met with something rather soft, which was in fact, mark's hand.

as if they had received an electric shock – which could be compared to the unfamiliar feeling both boys had felt when their skins had touched – mark and donghyuck pulled their hands away, looking into each other's eyes with flushed cheeks.

"s-sorry... y-you can- "

"take it." donghyuck coughed, signalling mark to take the sheet of paper.

"b-but you wanted to- "

"it's okay, take it." donghyuck nodded, pushing the paper towards mark.

the older boy smiled shyly before taking the paper in his hands and reading the words written on there.

donghyuck could see the sheet of paper trembling, meaning that mark's hands weren't steady. he was as affected as donghyuck by the events, if not more.

on his side, mark tried reading the instructions, but failing to do so as his brain refused to cope with him. his mind preferred to focus on donghyuck, making him get flustered when he noticed donghyuck was staring so intensely at him.

"so, what do we need to do?" donghyuck asked, looking completely unbothered by the situation – which made mark panic even more, because how could donghyuck be this indifferent when they had clearly made out two days ago?

"h-h-huh..." mark stuttered, hiding his face behind the paper as he took a deep breath.

"does it seem hard? because i'm absolutely not motivated to- "

donghyuck was cut in his sentence by mark who had just slammed his hands on the desk. the tanned male flinched at the sudden move.

"we need to talk." mark declared, barely over a whisper. "there's no use trying to act as if nothing happened because something did, and we are both affected by it."

donghyuck slowly nodded, coughing as he readjusted his leather jacket over his shoulders while looking around to see if anyone had caught a glimpse of their conversation.

"so, what do we talk about?" he asked once he had made sure everybody was too busy with their own things to care about them.

"why did you kiss me?" mark tilted his head to the side, making donghyuck's whole body flush. did he really need to ask this very question?

donghyuck tried playing the scene again in his mind, recalling how good it had felt for donghyuck to have some power over mark, and how beautiful mark looked trembling under his harsh glare. it was beautiful because it usually didn't happen, right? definitely not because donghyuck thought mark actually looked beautiful with his scared eyes and his trembling lips.

"to teach you how to do it properly." donghyuck told, pushing all those thoughts away.

"yeah, well, you didn't have to go all the way to licking the inside of my mouth and everything..." mark muttered, making donghyuck scoff.

"excuse me, but last time i checked, you were pretty into it too." he informed.

"i wasn't." mark shook his head with red cheeks.

"you are the one who wrapped your arms around my neck. and you had a fucking boner." donghyuck whisper-yelled.

it was mark's time to cough. the boy was so red right now because the more he thought about it, the more he realised that he had indeed loved what donghyuck was doing to him.

"y-yeah, o-okay." mark nodded. "i d-did like it too..."

"great." donghyuck sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "what now?"

"what do you mean what now?" mark raised a confused brow.

"first of all, we have been awkward for the past two days and dahyun is getting suspicious. second of all, you seriously need to act before you lose your girlfriend. and third of all, how the hell can you be so bad at that?!" donghyuck asked, leaning over the table to be closer than mark so that no one could eavesdrop on them.

"s-stop saying i was bad when you obviously enjoyed kissing me!" mark told, his cheeks still flaming red.

"i didn't enjoy- "

"you initiated the kiss, you pushed your tongue into my mouth, you held my waist and my hips and you groped my butt, and you had a boner too!" mark listed, leaning forwards as well.

the two boys had their faces centimetres apart, both leaning over the desk as if they were about to kiss in the middle of a romantic restaurant date. none of them were aware of the position they were in, which was visible by the whole class.

and of course, this is the moment the teacher chose to stop by their tables and check on their work.

"so, boys? everything alright? you seem tense..." she stated, looking between the two boys.

this was enough to make mark and donghyuck acknowledge the position they were in, and make them sit back on their chairs properly, creating more distance between them.

"y-yeah..." donghyuck coughed.

"w-we... we have troubles agreeing on the way to solve question 3." mark explained quickly.

"woah, already question 3!" the teacher exclaimed. "you're even faster than i expected! that's a really good job, boys, keep going."

both boys smiled sheepishly at their teacher, letting a sigh of relief when she headed towards another group.

mark and donghyuck stayed silent for a few seconds, but mark eventually broke the silence.

"so, what do we do?" he whispered.

"what do we do?" donghyuck repeated. "about what?"

"about that kiss. it happened, we both liked it, but well... we need to stop being awkward because of it. you were just teaching me, nothing ambiguous."

"yeah, sure." donghyuck nodded. "nothing ambiguous."

"as long as you don't try kissing me again, we're all good." mark nodded.

"yeah, don't worry, i won't." donghyuck assured – and tried convincing himself that he wouldn't be tempted either.

"great. so, now that you taught me how to do it, there's no reason i fail with dahyun." mark explained.

"if you do the same things that we did, she'll love it, and you'll still have a girlfriend in two weeks."donghyuck nodded.

"i'll do it then." mark smiled. "thanks a lot for your help."

"yeah, no problem." donghyuck replied, his lips curving upwards on their own, making him force them down again.

he couldn't be sympathetic with mark.

once again, they were rivals, not friends.

he was simply doing that for himself, to finally be better than mark.

no feelings should get in the way.