"here is perfect, thank you."

"you're welcome. call me when you need to be picked up."

almost half an hour had passed since each fan was paired with a super m member, and each of them had gone separately at that point.

mark and donghyuck had decided they would just be chilling in a park where there weren't too much people. they had stopped at a bubble tea shop previously to grab something to drink, and then, one of the sm entertainment staff had drove them all the way to the park.

"is this place okay?" mark asked, looking around to make sure there was not many people around. he was an idol after all, and he knew that being seen here would cause a lot of unnecessary attention.

"yes, it's perfect." donghyuck nodded before plopping down on the grass and waiting mark to sit down next to him.

"do you think i can remove my mask?" mark sat down right next to the tanned male, still looking around.

"there really aren't much people here. i think you can." donghyuck glanced at his surroundings.

mark carefully removed his face covering before placing it in his pocket and concentrating on donghyuck again. he smiled as he noticed that the fanboy had lied down on his back on the grass, his arms spread apart and his eyes closed. the sun hit his skin in the most perfect way, almost making in glow with golden reflects.

"are you sleeping when i'm right here?" the idol asked with a brow raised, making donghyuck open one eye to look at him.

"i'm sunbathing." the tanned beauty replied with a content smile as his eye closed again.

mark smiled at the boy's gorgeousness.

he looked so peaceful and ethereal lying on the grass while the sun kissed his naturally tanned skin. mark didn't get why the asian world worshipped pale and white skins. donghyuck was far from having his flawless skin as white as snow, and mark found it much more beautiful than any other pale-skinned girl he had seen in his life.

"it's not usual for people to sunbath here." mark stated, keeping his eyes on the fanboy.

"i know."

"in korea, people tend to consider pale skin as the epitome of beauty." mark continued.

donghyuck groaned, opening both of his eyes and turning his head to look at mark. he placed a hand over his eyes to shield the burning sun from his eyes.

"fuck korean beauty standards. it's my body. i can tan as much as i want." the beautiful boy said his eyes locked with mark's.

the idol couldn't help but let out a chuckle as his lips stretched in a bright smile. in a matter of seconds, mark was lying on his back just next to donghyuck as the tanned male still looked at him with a confused face. mark's laughter slowly died down and he stared back into donghyuck's chocolate orbs.

god, he looked even more beautiful from up close.

"were you laughing at me?" donghyuck raised a brow, his face serious.

"no." mark shook his head. "i just wasn't expecting you to be this straightforward with me."

"oh, well... i mean... yeah. korea shouldn't decide how i should look to be pretty. if i prefer having a tanned skin, it's my business. and what if korea doesn't find it pretty?"

"you are pretty."

if donghyuck's cheeks hadn't coloured red in the past half an hour, they were now.

mark lee, the youngest super m member, a worldwide-known idol had called him pretty.

this was too good to be true...

"t-thanks..." donghyuck turned his head quickly, looking back up at the sky so that mark couldn't see his red cheeks anymore.

mark smiled goofily, his eyes staying on the tanned male for long seconds before he looked up at the sky as well, placing his arms under his head.

"so, why did you choose to come to a park for those two hours with me?" mark asked after a while.

"well, it's outside, and it's peaceful. and also... well... i assumed that you'd be happy to feel... huh... normal? like... not being an idol and having very strict duties and everything. i wanted you to feel like you were just having a few hours, chilling with... huh... with a friend...." donghyuck admitted shyly, tuning his head to look at mark. "i mean, we're not really friends since... well, you're an idol, and i'm just a fanboy, and you'll probably forget about me tomorrow but- "

"i won't forget about you." mark cut donghyuck's rambling, turning his head as well to face the tanned male.

donghyuck and him stayed in this position for a while, looking into each other's eyes ang getting mesmerised by their depth. both were lying on their backs on the grass, their shoulders brushing against each other and their faces inches apart.

mark had to fight the urge to roll around and wrap his arm around the boy's waist to pull him closer.

yeah, it was definitely love at first sight.

"ughh..." mark groaned as he sat up quickly to prevent himself from doing something embarrassing. the boy grabbed his bubble tea and took a sip from it.

"what do you like the most in being an idol?"

mark blinked, gulping the sweet liquid down as he watched donghyuck sitting up as well and taking a sip from his own bubble tea.

"huh... doing what i love to do, i guess. like, singing, writing songs, dancing..." mark replied.

"and do you like being famous?"

mark raised a brow. "being famous?"

"yeah... having people from all over the world knowing you and loving what you do. and basically, having tons of girls at your feet, dying to get a small touch from you." donghyuck explained.

"i'm... i'm fine with it. i guess i got used to all of this." mark shrugged.

"woah. i could never." donghyuck let out.

"what? be famous?"

"yeah." the tanned male nodded. "i don't really like being the centre of attention. i'm not comfortable when it happens. and most of the time i end up embarrassing myself."

"that's a shame." mark declared. "you could have run a modelling career with your beauty."

donghyuck choked on one of the bubbles from his drink, making the sweet bead explode in his throat as he coughed loudly.

could mark stop saying such thing? donghyuck wouldn't make it till the end of the day if this kept going.

"shit, shit, shit!" mark swore. "i'm so sorry!"

donghyuck continued coughing as mark patted his back with force.

it took him a few seconds to stop and breathe normally aain.

"oh my god... stop saying things like this! you're going to kill me!" donghyuck whined.

"i'm sorry." mark pouted. "i just want you to know how beautiful you really are."

as usual, donghyuck blushed. "thank you..." he mumbled. "you look handsome yourself."

mark smiled as donghyuck turned his head to look away, surely to hide his blushing cheeks. it was useless, because the idol had already seen donghyuck red cheeks a lot today, but he didn't comment on it. the younger looked even cuter when he was shy.

"oh! look! that's so romantic..."

mark frowned, looking in the direction donghyuck was pointing at and seeing a boy and a girl quite far from them, setting down a large tablecloth on the grass.

"what is romantic in this?" mark asked.

"they're having a picnic date. that's the cutest thing ever." donghyuck cooed.

"how can you know that they're having a date?" mark questioned further.

"the boy was holding a big basket from which he pulled the cloth out. and they were holding hands!"donghyuck commented. "oh god, i would die to be in their spot..."

mark raised a brow, looking as the boy pulled out a few things from the basket while the girl sat down on the cloth.

"you like those kinds of things?" mark frowned.

"that's like the most romantic date ever in my opinion!" donghyuck nodded energetically. "i want my first date to be like that. walking hand in hand in a park and settling the cloth before taking forever to eat while talking about our lives. and at some point, him leaning in for a kiss and then asking me to be his boyfriend. woah... that would be the best date ever!"

the idol hummed, listening to donghyuck's sayings while staring at the two people setting their date. so, donghyuck was the kind of guy to like cute and romantic picnic dates... and he wanted that very special date to be the moment him and- wait a damn minute!

"h-his?!" mark blurted out. "you're gay?!"

donghyuck's head immediately faced mark as his eyes widened like saucers, realising the mistake he had just made. yeah, he had come out to one of his favourite idols in a country where homophobia was frequent.

the tanned male's body started shaking lightly, and mark could even see tears forming in his deep eyes.

"i-i..." he blurted out, not knowing what to say as a tear rolled down his cheek.

"oh my god, i'm sorry, don't cry." mark gasped, agitating his hands in front of him. "i didn't mean it as bad, i'm just surprised."

the fanboy didn't answer as more tears escaped his eyes.

"please, donghyuck, don't cry. it's okay. i don't mind if you're gay or anything. don't be scared like that." mark told reassuringly. seeing as the younger didn't seem to calm down, mark allowed himself to pull his body closer and to wrap him in a hug the best he could while they were still sitting on the grass.

cute sniffles escaped donghyuck's mouth as he pressed his face into mark's chest, his body evacuating the sudden rush of stress that had taken over him when he had realised mark could have badly reacted.

"i-i'm sorry..." donghyuck mumbled, his face still hidden in mark's chest as he had finally stopped crying.

"don't apologise, it's perfectly fine." mark reassured him. "i'm the one who should be sorry. i shouldn't have asked it like that."

"no, no. it's okay." donghyuck shook his head. "i shouldn't have been this careless with my words."

"you don't have to think about your words when you're with me, i promise." mark assured. "you can tell me all you want about boys you like or anything. i don't mind."

"d-does that mean you're gay as well?" donghyuck asked, pulling away from the hug and going back to sitting facing mark.

"well... not gay but... huh... not 100% heterosexual either." mark shrugged, glancing at donghyuck – and making his heartbeat quicken. "but i'm trusting you with my life on this secret, because basically no one knows about it. my members may doubt it, but the company or... or the fans... they don't know about it."

"it's okay." donghyuck smiled. "your secret is safe with me."

mark flashed donghyuck a smile as well as he suddenly felt so much lighter.

some part of him was quite relieved to know that donghyuck was gay, because this meant that mark had a chance, and he wouldn't miss it in the world.

a comfortable silence took place as both boys looked at each other.

"so... i head you've been listening to super m for quite a while." mark stated, his eyes on the tanned male.

"yeah. i was one of the first!" donghyuck nodded happily.

"and... i'm guessing after all this time watching us, you have a favourite member?" he raised a brow expectantly. mark knew that there was one chance out of seven for him to be donghyuck's favourite member. chances were slim, but never zero...

"yeah..." donghyuck nodded, looking at his lap with flushed cheeks.

"who is he?" mark questioned.

"lucas." donghyuck mumbled, fidgeting with his fingers.

mark's heart somehow broke in his chest.

yeah, of course donghyuck would prefer lucas to him. he was tall and handsome and manly and tall, very tall and his all being screamed 'boyfriend material'.

"good choice, i guess." mark stated.

donghyuck shrugged. "my heart chose, i didn't decide anything, it just happened."

"you should have told me before. i would have asked for you to swap with the girl that has been paired with lucas so that you could have been with him instead." mark stated, his heart aching a bit more.

"well... lucas has been paired with ryuwon and he's her bias too, so she wouldn't have accepted..."donghyuck said sadly.

"oh..."

donghyuck thought for a few seconds.

"plus, ryowon doesn't really like me, so even if her bias wasn't lucas, i'm sure she would have refused to swap with me just to annoy me..." he told, looking at his hand that was caressing the grass.

"she doesn't really like you?" mark frowned, wondering how it was possible not to like donghyuck. "did you guys know each other before?"

"no." donghyuck shook his head. "she just thinks i've been falling around just to catch lucas' eye." he sighed. "but it's not true. i would never embarrass myself on purpose to be the centre of attention. plus, i hurt myself while falling this morning, so yeah, i wouldn't intentionally do this!"

mark hummed, his hand reaching for the back of donghyuck's head as he gently ran his fingers across the boy's honey locks.

"does it still hurt a lot?" he asked, looking into the boy's eyes as his hand caressed the prominent bump which was the consequence of mark's eye-contact a few hours earlier.

"just a bit, it's okay." donghyuck replied, shyly looking back into mark's eyes.

after long seconds, donghyuck looked away, his cheeks getting hotter at the intense eye-contact they had shared.

"w-what time is it?" he asked shyly.

"it's..." mark pulled his phone out of his pocket. "...5:12pm. we still have around 45 minutes before we need to be back. would you like us to walk back there slowly? we could always grab something to eat on the way if you see something you like."

"sure." donghyuck nodded with a smile.

mark stood up, dusting off his pants before picking up the empty glasses of bubble tea and throwing them in a nearby bin before walking back to donghyuck.

"can we... take a quick picture, please?" mark asked shyly. "to... have a memory of this moment?"

donghyuck flushed red. a freaking idol was asking for a picture with him.

wasn't it supposed to be the other way normally?

"o-of course." donghyuck nodded.

"cool." mark smiled brightly, opening the camera app on his phone and setting the selfie mode. "come here."

the fanboy took a step closer to mark, but seemed like the idol wasn't having it.

mark wrapped an arm around donghyuck's waist, basically gluing his and donghyuck's bodies as he held his arm out with the phone in hand.

"smile!" mark declared before pressing the photo button once.

as soon as this was done, donghyuck pulled out of mark's embrace with red cheeks.

he was sure he looked awful on the picture, and his cheeks had to be bright red after mark had pulled him against his body.

"h-how is the picture?" donghyuck asked as he saw mark smiling brightly while looking at it.

"it's perfect." mark declared. "you look beautiful, as usual."

and here were donghyuck's cheeks, colouring red for the nth time that day...