donghyuck loudly slammed his tray on the table, startling his five friends that were having – until then – a very peaceful conversation.

"hey gays!" he exclaimed.

"hello dong- we have a special guest...?" jeno spoke, stopping in the middle of his greeting when he noticed mark standing shyly behind their friend.

donghyuck wiggled his brows, turning around and wrapping an arm around mark's waist to pull him closer to the table.

"guys, meet mark, my boyfriend." donghyuck declared, kissing mark's cheek as the boy blushed.

"h-hello..." mark mumbled, his hands trembling.

"aw... he's so cute..." jaemin cooed, placing his elbows on the table and resting his chin on top of his palms.

"back off. you already have two boyfriends. this one is mine and mine only." donghyuck declared, glaring at his friends.

"please mark, have a sit, don't stay standing like that." chenle ignored jaemin and donghyuck's bickering as he invited mark to take the empty seat next to him.

mark shyly placed his tray on the table and sat down right next to chenle.

not so long after, donghyuck took the spot next to him, draping his arm around mark's shoulders.

"so, guys, i expect you to be as amazing as you always are with mark. he's a sweetheart, you'll love him, i promise." donghyuck explained, smiling brightly as his boyfriend was shyer and shyer every second. "baby, these are my best friends. jeno, jaemin and renjun, they're a couple. and this is jisung and chenle, who also are a couple."

"we're not- "

"you guys still aren't together?!" donghyuck yelled, making mark flinch.

"hyuck, calm the fuck down, you're scaring mark." renjun rolled his eyes.

donghyuck ignored his older friend. "no, but seriously, what prevents you two to get together?? you guys love each other, it's more than obvious!"

"not to be that guy, but mark's there, and we'd like to get to know him." jeno cut their bickering. "you will argue about jisung and chenle's slow asses later on."

"so, mark, how are you?" renjun asked, batting eye-lashes at donghyuck's boyfriend.

all eyes fell on mark. he was used to being the centre of attention; he was an athlete and participated in games in front of full bleachers, and his good grades made him receive prizes at the end-of-the-year rewarding ceremonies in front of the whole school.

but for some reason, mark couldn't help but feel super nervous.

he was sitting in front of six people, five of which he had never spoken to before. and they weren't just anyone. they were donghyuck best friends, some of the people who held most importance in his life. mark couldn't fuck up in front of them; he absolutely needed to make a good impression – which wasn't starting well considering the bad buzz they had lived a bit more than a week ago.

"i-i... i-i'm huh... n-nervous..." the boy stuttered with red cheeks as he tried his best looking into renjun's eyes.

"aww, it's okay mark, you should relax, we won't bite you." jaemin smiled reassuringly at mark.

"yeah, we're leaving that to donghyuck." jisung nodded.

this made mark even shyer than he was before.

why? well, as we all know, he was a noob in love, and more than love, he was a noob in sex and everything sex-related.

the only knowledge of sex he had were the sexual education classes he had had years ago, the few times he had watched porn, and the sexual intercourses him and donghyuck had had.

but even knowing that he had done it, mark couldn't help but being shy with this topic.

and so, when he heard the boys making an allusion to those intimate times, mark's whole body flushed.

"okay, but was this really necessary?" donghyuck rolled his eyes. "this is not helping him relax." he added, digging into his food.

mark did the same, slowly eating the vegetables in his plate as he listened to the six friends talking – and quite often bickering – about random topics.

the boys were trying to include him in the conversation, often asking for his opinion, but mark never responded more than monosyllabically, and he made sure to always have food in his mouth so that he couldn't develop his answers more.

"renjun you traitor! you used to agree with me on that point!" donghyuck exclaimed, pointing his spoon at renjun menacingly.

"well, he changed his mind." jaemin wiggled his brows.

"more like you made him change his mind." donghyuck mumbled. "i will get my reven- "

as he was scolding his friends energetically, donghyuck hadn't realised he kept moving, causing his elbow to hit mark's arm – which was bringing a spoonful of food to his mouth – and to make mark's hand hit his nose while his spoon fell on the floor loudly, and as the spoon's containing ended on mark's trousers.

"oh my god, baby, i'm so sorry!" donghyuck immediately apologised, his eyes widening.

"wow, donghyuck apologising and sounding sincere..." jeno chuckled, looking at his younger friend being panicked.

donghyuck ignored his friends, having all his attention on his boyfriend as he kept mumbling how sorry he was not to pay attention to his surroundings.

he picked the crumbs from mark's trousers and placed them on his tray before he grabbed his napkin and dipped it into water to erase the stain that the food had left.

once that was done, donghyuck picked mark's spoon up from the ground and placed it on his tray as well.

"here, take my spoon." he told mark, placing his utensil inside mark's hand. "i'm sorry, baby."

"i-it's okay..." mark smiled at his boyfriend.

"no, i should be more careful." donghyuck shook his head. "i could have hurt you! and your nose? is it okay? you hit your nose because of me."

mark flushed again as donghyuck pulled his face closer so that he could inspect the boy's nose.

it was quite useless, because mark had barely hit himself, but he let donghyuck do whatever he wanted. and he was quite happy to have done so, because donghyuck pecked his nose sweetly for it to stop hurting.

"god, mark makes you soft." a female voice interrupted the sweet moment, making all the boys of the table look at the girl who had just spoke.

"that's exactly what i was about to say!" jaemin exclaimed. "dahyun, we're so connected!"

there stood dahyun, with her own tray of food and a bright smile on her face while she looked successfully at everyone around the table.

her eyes fell on mark, making both of their heart accelerate for a bit. but it wasn't from love. far from that. it was from anticipation and fear, because none of them were sure that the other would be okay seeing each other as friends after everything that had happened between them.

"and... what are you doing here?" donghyuck raised a brow at his sister.

"well, first of all, i wanted to know if you guys would mind if i had lunch with you...?" dahyun said, her eyes falling on mark, because she knew the others wouldn't mind, but she didn't want to make mark feel uncomfortable.

"baby, do you mind?" donghyuck asked, his hand patting mark's thigh. "don't hesitate to say if it does okay, we would all understand."

"no, i don't mind." mark shook his head, looking at dahyun and giving her a smile.

him and dahyun had been together for almost eight months, sure.

but they weren't made for each other, lovingly speaking, and they both knew it.

they had broken up, perhaps not in the ideal way, but it was the best solution for both of them.

and none of them doubted the fact that they could still be friends. it was better that way, and both were happy about that.

"great." dahyun returned mark's smile. "then, second, i'm here to introduce you all to my girlfriend, choonhee!" she added, stepping aside and revealing a blonde girl wearing a beautiful dress. "choonhee, these are my brother, my brother's friends, and mark, my ex-boyfriend who's now my brother's boyfriend." dahyun explained, pointing to each of the boys.

"nice to meet you all. i'm choonhee." she said brightly.

"come sit down with us, girls!" chenle exclaimed. "it's a pleasure to meet you!"

choonhee sat down next to jeno and in front of donghyuck while dahyun took the seat at the end of the table, between donghyuck and her girlfriend.

"so, how long have you been together?" renjun asked the two girls who had started eating their food.

"a few days only." dahyun replied. "but some things had been going on for a while obviously."

"oh, i see..." renjun smirked at dahyun, making her roll her eyes in a similar way donghyuck did.

"can you not?" she asked, with a smile. "you're going to make my cutie pie uncomfortable..." she added, leaning towards choonhee and puckering her lips as her girlfriend willingly leant forwards too to peck her lips.

"aw, isn't that super sweet...?" chenle cooed.

"not as sweet as you and jisung." donghyuck mumbled loudly. "oh, stupid me, you're not even a couple."

"can you guys stop with that, we both- "

"wait you guys are not together?!" dahyun yelled in surprise.

chenle and jisung both blinked simultaneously. "no, we're not." jisung finally said.

"why do you keep assuming that we are?"

"well, choonhee saw the two of you kissing a few days ago in the art classroom." dahyun explained. "so, i had assumed you guys were together."

as all heads turned towards chenle and jisung, and both of them were bright red and awfully silent.

"well, well, well..." jeno raised a brow.

"we weren't kissing!" chenle squeaked.

"yeah, dahyun said it wrong." choonhee spoke. "you were making out."

the whole table now faced choonhee who didn't seem to be bothered by the sudden attention.

"so, you're still as dorky as you were before." donghyuck nodded slowly. "i like that."

"i knew you would." choonhee wiggled her brows at donghyuck.

mark wondered how choonhee could be this confident in the middle of people she didn't know.

well, she seemed to know donghyuck already, and mark hadn't liked their small interaction, which is why mark had leant against donghyuck's side, placing his head on his shoulder as he wrapped his hands around donghyuck's arm to show the rest of the table that donghyuck was his.

"aww, that's a cute protective boyfriend you got here, donghyuck." jaemin said, as he had noticed mark's not-so-subtle action.

"you were jealous, baby?" donghyuck chuckled, patting mark's head gently.

"mmh." mark hummed.

"don't worry, choonhee is taken by my sister. and even if she wasn't, i couldn't care less about her, because i love you." donghyuck pecked mark's temple, making mark's heart skip a beat.

dahyun sighed at their interaction. "oh god, my brother's a romantic..."

donghyuck's head shot in her direction. "big brother." he corrected.

"so, you still have your superiority complex." choonhee spoke, imitating donghyuck's sentence a few seconds ago.

"of course, he does." jeno snorted.

"being the best in everything is all he thinks about." chenle nodded.

"well, more than being first. he likes to be the one controlling everything and everyone." jaemin specified.

"can we stop- "

"i think we should all take some time to pray collectively for mark's ass then. because i can't imagine how hard this might be for him."

the whole table roared in laugher at choonhee's words, except donghyuck who was glaring at her, and mark whose cheeks were as red as tomatoes.

chenle was laying on jisung as both of them held their stomachs, dahyun had her forehead on the table as she laughed loudly, jeno was trying to breathe and laugh at the same time after choking on his food, and renjun and jaemin were both crying at that point.

"oh god choonhee, that was said so perfectly!" renjun exclaimed, going into another fit of laugher.

"she was gifted to always have the right words." dahyun explained between her own laughs.

"we're still here, you guys know?" donghyuck crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at his friends.

both donghyuck and mark waited another minute for the seven other people around the table to stop laughing loudly and go back to eating.

"so, now that we know that we all get along well, how about we have a quadruple date someday?"donghyuck declared, wrapping his arm around mark's shoulders.

"sure." jeno nodded.

"we'll be there as well." dahyun smiled.

"and i guess we'll be required to be there..." jisung rolled his eyes. "what are we doing?"

"well..." donghyuck started. "i was thinking about a laser tag at- "

"oh nooooo!" donghyuck's friends and sister exclaimed at the same time.

"what now?!" donghyuck groaned.

"do we seriously need to remind you last time we went to laster tag?" renjun snorted.

"or all the other times before that." jaemin added.

"i would like a reminder, please." mark lifted his hand shyly, making the boys coo.

"well, mister donghyuck here plays laser tag likes his life depends on it." dahyun explained, pointing an accusing finger at her brother. "he does everything he can to win, whether or not it is against the rules. each time we go there, one of us ends up hurt because he was in the way of donghyuck's win. last time it was chenle and his bloody nose, before that it was renjun's ankle, and he even hit jeno in the groin once."

"this was an accident!" donghyuck exclaimed. "he was standing there the moment i let my gun down, i couldn't expect for the gun to hit him there!"

"liar! i saw you smirking before that!" jeno rolled his eyes. "my balls are still hurting to this day when thinking about it."

mark chuckled at their exchange, catching the attention of the other boys and girls.

"so, you understand the problem with laser tag?" jisung asked.

"well, i don't mind." mark shrugged. "i've always been the best at laser tag. i could beat him up easily."

"you sure about that?" donghyuck raised a brow, looking down at his boyfriend.

"yes." mark nodded, leaning forwards.

donghyuck got the message and leant forwards too, gluing his forehead to mark's as they stared at each other's eyes intensely.

"okay, game on then." he whispered before closing the gap between his and mark's mouths for a second. "and we'll see who's better than the other."

and here was their stupid rivalry back, trying to become better than the other...

except that this time, there was no more hate. but just love.

and anyway, what was the point of wanting to become better than the other when both of them were cheaters?

＃ the end ＃

thank you so much lovelies for showing lots of love and support on 'cheater'!!  and special thanks to @marksicecream for requesting this unique story!

this was an amazing journey, and i'm honestly really happy on how it turned out even though i was a bit reticent since it was a top hyuck fic and i usually don't like them!

anyway, i really am thankful for all the votes and all the comments that you dropped! they mean so much to me!

love you all <3<3<3