Just a small warning, mentions of homophobia

The waitress looked up from her notebook and patiently waited for Mark to finish his order. He held the menu close to his eyes as he scanned over the expensive coffee options. Why was a simple cup of hot water mixed with coffee so expensive nowadays? Mark wasn’t asking them to prepare it in a fancy manner, neither was he paying for any extra cream, yet it was still creating a hole in his wallet.

“I’m fine with just water,” Mark nervously chuckled, pulling the menu down and shooting the waitress a small smile. Wonwoo sighed and then put his hand forward, brushing it against Mark’s to catch his attention.

“It’s my treat, come on. Pick something nice.” Mark immediately shook his head, but Wonwoo was quick to stop him. “Listen, I’m your senior and I’m offering a treat, don’t refuse it.”

Mark awkwardly reached out for the menu once again and quietly ordered his pick, making sure that it was on the cheaper side. Wonwoo quickly followed and the waitress then left them alone. On the way to the cafe the sun had fully risen and a few people had already made their way to the streets. It was quite lively for such an early morning, but that wasn’t the thing bothering Mark the most. The way Wonwoo kept stealing glances at him was worrying him.

“Is,” he paused for a moment as Wonwoo sent a text message. “Is everything alright?”

“Hm?”

“Is everything fine? You look sort of restless,” Mark explained, fidgeting with the pot of sugars on their table.

Wonwoo checked his phone one last time before leaning back with a sigh. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?” Mark turned to him in confusion, his fingers resting upon the base of the pot as Wonwoo continued. “I caught you dozed off on a bench in the park when the sun wasn’t even out yet. On our way here you barely spoke and keep getting all jittery every few minutes. Are you okay?”

Mark opened his mouth to reply but no words came out, or rather his mind stopped him from revealing anything. He had already acknowledged the fact that he couldn’t tell them anything, but Wonwoo seemed so persistent, it was getting difficult to deny his questions. Instead of answering, Mark nodded hoping that the smile on his face would be enough to put Wonwoo off.

But he didn’t look like he was going to back down just yet. “Was this related to Yerim?”

Mark was quick to shake his head. He didn’t want to get Yerim involved in anything, especially since it seemed like she was trying so hard to move on and start over. “Yerim has nothing to do with this.”

“So there is something after all,” Wonwoo leaned forward with his chin on his palm and he watched in amusement when Mark blushed. “You know, I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again, you can always talk to me, Mark. If you ever need something or ever want to just get something off your chest, I’m here.”

Mark knows that Wonwoo is probably really trustworthy and could maybe talk some sense into him when he makes his future decisions. But when it comes to talking about the past, Mark can’t seem to overcome that wall. It’s far too high for him to reach. It’s always looming over him and whenever he thinks about getting over it, the words of his parents repeat in his mind, the way people used to look at him comes back to him.

And then his pride kicks in. Why should he reach out to his parents first? Why can’t it be them who apologise to him and tell him that they were too forceful and that most parents, or at least sensible parents, wouldn’t be going around and making promises that may not be fulfilled in the future like them. Why was it expected by Mark to come around first?

“Mark?” Wonwoo grabbed onto his arm and shook him out of his thoughts. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Mark started and almost pulled away when Wonwoo’s hand came up to brush his fingers against Mark’s cheeks. To his surprise, Wonwoo wiped away the few tears that had been threatening to fall.

“As I expected,” Wonwoo stood up and slipped his hand into Mark’s. “We can’t discuss something like this in public, let’s go to my apartment.”

“Wait!” Mark tripped on his feet as Wonwoo dragged him to the counter and paid for their drinks. Wonwoo held the drinks in one hand and Mark in the other and rushed out of the cafe. “Wait, Wonwoo Hyung, I’m really fine!”

Wonwoo abruptly stopped, almost dropping the drinks as Mark bumped into his back. A few people made looks as they passed by them at their joined hands. Mark blushed under the attention and tried ripping his hand free, but Wonwoo’s strength was one he couldn’t fight.

“Really?” Wonwoo sounded annoyed, the expression on his face completely different from the one he had when they were casually talking. Mark didn’t want to know how he’d react after finding out what Mark had experienced in the past. Would he look at him like this and even worse? “You’re fine? Mark, please don’t lie to my face.”

Mark’s hands shook as Wonwoo edged closer to him. “I’m not lying,” Mark mumbled. He didn’t want Wonwoo to get angry at him, this wasn’t why he happily agreed to get breakfast with him. After so long, Mark was finally comfortable to some extent to talk to someone else and here he was making it all go to waste. He didn’t like where the conversation was going.

Without saying another word, Wonwoo turned around again and continued to pull Mark through the roads. Mark remained quiet on their way, too scared to say anything else. As they walked he tried to come up with an excuse, just anything he could use to say instead of the truth. Something that he could use to stop Wonwoo from worrying. Before he realised it, they were making their way up a flight of stairs.

“Listen, Mark,” Wonwoo spoke gently as he typed in his passcode for the door. “I don’t want to force you to talk or anything, I’m just worried. You started crying out of nowhere when I offered to hear you out. If that doesn’t ring alarms then what does?”

Mark slowly nodded. He appreciated Wonwoo’s concern, even if he believed he didn’t deserve it. But what was he supposed to say? In fact, where exactly was he supposed to start? Should he start from when he found out his parents had thrown away his right to choose someone to love, or should he start from when he ignored how his friends began to bully Donghyuck?

Wonwoo led him into the apartment and sat him down on one of the sofa's. "Let me heat our drinks up."

Mark nodded and watched as Wonwoo walked over to the open kitchen. Wonwoo glanced back at him a few times, almost as if making sure he wasn't trying to run away. But they had made it too far now, there was no way Mark could escape.

"Have you calmed down now?" Wonwoo asked once Mark took a few sips of his drink before holding it over his legs.

"I'm fine," Mark mumbled, averting his eyes to his lap when Wonwoo raised an eyebrow. "It's really not a big deal, don't worry."

Wonwoo's scrutinizing gaze was difficult to fight against. He drank from his cup before placing it to the table beside him. "If it's not related to Yerim, then could it be your parents?"

"My parents?" Mark's heart beat faster as he wondered if Yerim had already told him everything. How could Yerim have done that to Mark, had she really not changed? What if everything she said to him wasn't real, what if there wasn't any truth to her apology? Mark knew it, he shouldn't have trusted her, he shouldn't have tried to put their past together away. Was this a plan? Was she just trying to make a joke out of—

Mark shook his head. What was he thinking? Yerim had apologised and had been nothing but nice to him, despite Mark showing but a forced smile to her. Assuming she had been the one to tell Wonwoo was too far of a stretch. Thinking like that only reminded Mark of how he immediately jumped to conclusions a few years back. And here Mark thought he had moved on from all of that.

"Jungwoo told me that you were crying in your sleep," Wonwoo explained, causing Mark to blush. Jungwoo had been awake. How embarrassing. "Apparently you said something about your parents, so that's why I just assumed that was the reason why you looked so down."

Mark raised his cup and took a sip. "I had a fight with my parents." Here goes nothing, Mark thought. "Uhm, before I left home. Something happened and they blamed me for it. We stopped talking and I decided to move out so that we wouldn't need to see each other again. I thought that maybe they would realise they were in the wrong once I left, but we haven't spoken since."

Mark kept his eyes to his lap. There was no way he was going to look up and see Wonwoo's reaction. Wonwoo was probably disappointed in him for leaving his parents over a fight, but then again Wonwoo didn't know the full story. Either way, he looked bad for simply moving out and being petty. Maybe it was a bad idea telling him.

"Mingyu and I started dating when we had just started high school." Mark's head snapped up and he saw Wonwoo staring down at the ground with a distressed look on his face. "Obviously, we had kept it a secret from our parents for the longest time. As we were friends since birth it wasn't strange when we would go over to each other's houses to stay over. Everything was fine and we were enjoying our time together, until we reached the end of high school. It was graduation day and our parents had said they wouldn't be able to make it for the pictures. Our friends had joked about us taking a picture as we kissed, so we did just that."

Wonwoo sighed heavily and ran a hand down his face. "His parents saw. They had managed to get off work and came to the school just to see Mingyu and I kissing. To be honest, we could've played it off as a joke, say we were just showing how close we are, but his parents are very…" Wonwoo paused and made a gesture with his hand.

"Homophobic?" Mark offered, feeling dread fill him when Wonwoo nodded.

"It was so embarrassing. They grabbed Mingyu's arm and dragged him out of school. All of our friends were watching and I had to quickly follow them out. By the time I reached home, my parents had already been informed and were waiting for me. A long argument came after that and so much happened." Wonwoo smiled a little at the memory. "Mingyu is such an idiot, he fought with his parents, took a bag filled with his clothes and came over to mine, asking my parents if he could elope with me."

"So, did you?" Mark asked, genuinely intrigued. Wonwoo chuckled and shook his head.

"No, but as soon as the summer was over, the two of us got into the university we wanted and moved out together into this apartment." Wonwoo finished his drink before putting it aside. "We assumed that our parents were disappointed with us and never wanted to see us again, so we kept our distance. Without any phone calls from them and none from us, this carried on for a while. But then Mingyu decided to call his parents up, ask them if they were fine.

"The second they picked up they apologised," Wonwoo smiled. Mark's eyes widened as Wonwoo continued. "They apologised for blaming him and told him about how they were too scared to call Mingyu up and get rejected. After that I called my parents up and all I could hear over the call was them crying and telling me they missed me."

Mark didn't expect that. He didn't think their parents would've come round at all. "So did you guys...forgive them?"

"I wouldn't say we forgave them," Wonwoo answered, tapping on his chair and he thought about it. "But we did go to meet them once. They all seemed so apologetic that we couldn't bring ourselves to feel angry at them anymore."

Would Mark's parents do that? If Mark was to call them up, then would they be ready to receive his call on the other side? Would they be happy to see his name on their phone? Mark paused as he wondered if they had blocked his number or not.

"I went a little off-topic there for a while, but what I'm trying to tell you is that maybe you should call your parents up?" Wonwoo suggested. "Even if you're not in the wrong, just give them the benefit of doubt and ring them up. You never know they might be too scared to be rejected by you so they aren't saying anything."

As much as Mark wants to say he doubts they'd even pick his call up, after hearing Wonwoo's story it doesn't sound like that much of a bad idea.