#first time i saw this name tittle i thought it was gonna be some silly unserious storyline but then i remembered yeah

[ick25]

Rockman.Exe Episode 54 Review.

Let’s play “What is Mahajarama holding?”

A stuffed big foot/chimp plush?

The episode opens with an advertisement for some noodle restaurant with a Navi name Sanukiman.

For the ad he makes a simple dance that Netto, Meiru and Tohru copy for fun.

Netto asks Meiru about Dekao who wasn’t in school and she tells him that Dekao’s younger brother Chisao has come to visit him from Ameroupe. Netto is curious about what he would look like since he has a poorly drawn image of a mini Dekao in his head, but after the tittle card, everyone is suspicious that Chisao looks nothing like him.

WOW, Meiru.... Dekao is standing right there! o_o

Tohru asks Chisao why he doesn’t live with his brother in Akihara. Chisao tells them that he lives with his dad who works in Ameroupe where he attends a special kinder garden for “Genius” kids, according to Yaito.

Again? We are being very mean today, not just against Dekao, because Chisao tells them how his brother told him in his e-mails that they are his worthless and stupid pupils. 

This angers everyone secretly because they remember that Dekao begged them to pretend that he is the best Net battler in the city and that they were all ex-gangsters in fourth grade that he reformed, just so Chisao could respect him.

In the next scene we see a long line in front of a restaurant, then the same ad with Sanukiman’s dance with everyone imitating him again.

This silly dance is gonna be important later on.

Looks like Chisao’s welcome party is gonna be in a new Udon restaurant called Heineken that just opened, conveniently, next to the Ex-WWW’s curry shop, which looks completely deserted. Netto and friends mention that they have reservations at the restaurant but the WWW suddenly appear to scold Netto for betraying them or something.

“And besides, you guys have tried to kill me in multiple occasions, I don’t owe you anything!”

The Ex-WWW proceed to insult the Udon shop and this infuriates the owner named Kotaro Saburou who starts to argue with Mahajarama.

He has a point. 

To spite him even further, Mahajarama steals Netto and his friends by offering them free curry, something he later regrets when they leave various stacks of empty plates.

Hey, Gulping Netto is back!

In another scene, we see Saburou contemplating a bowl of Udon noodles and then spying on the curry restaurant through two peep holes on the wall located in a menu along with a new code!

Which is the code for shrinking the “Collect” program, that is also the most expensive item in the menu.

After eating almost all of the curry in the shop, Chisao tells Dekao that he wants to see him and Gutsman in a Net Battle, so Dekao asks for permission to use the net (I’m guessing free Wi-fi was not a thing here yet) and everyone plugs in their Navis.

Just like Dekao, Gutsman is pretending to be a super powerful Navi and tells the others to attack, unfortunately for him, Rockman forgets about their arrangement for a second and shoots at him leading to probably my favorite scene from this episode.

I just love how Gutsman is scared to death of Rockman’s buster shots. XD

Anyway, Roll reminds Rockman what he was suppose to do and Dekao orders Gutsman to attack.

That dramatic pain shot followed by Rockman softly landing on his back is so funny.

Then he proceeds to attack the rest of the Navis, including Rush.

I don’t know about that, Rush seems to be enjoying himself.

After seeing Gutsman in action, Chisao gets excited and asks to operate him, and just out of nowhere, makes a perfect PROGRAM ADVANCE! 

Yeap, apparently the whole “Navi and operator must be in perfect sync” is just something Miyuki made up, because if a preschooler can make Gutsman summon a Beta Sword while he is in shock, then episode 15 was just a huge waste of time... Or Netto was just really dumb.

And not only does Gutsman copy the steps like Rockman, but when Chisao sends the Sword he does the same reaction Rockman did in the Planetman episode.

You can’t fool me anime!

Legendary technique my butt.

Everyone is amazed after seeing Chisao use a program Advance that almost hits Rockman, but after he says how he wants to be as strong as his brother, Dekao feels guilty and takes the PET away from him.

If anyone should be pissed here it should be Netto, that kid just did what he took many episodes to perfect in only two minutes!

After this, we see Chisao sitting all alone somewhere in town when a disguised stranger, who is totally not Saburou, gives him a PET with a Navi to help him fight some alien spice monsters he just made up. That night, while Dekao is sleeping, Chisao sees his new Navi, at first he is disappointed when he sees it, but turns out the Navi can shape shift into anything he wants.

Right after this, Netto gets a called from a worried Gutsman telling him that Chisao has gone missing.

Then we go to the Curry shop where we see Mahajarama in his pajamas and his stuffed monkey discovering that everything in the shop is out of control. The other WWW operators believed it was the work of the Udon shop and sent their Navis to deal with them, but Heatman and the others were captured by a Navi that looks just like Gutsman named Nuggetsman AKA Kutzman.

After commercials, Netto and the others split up to look for Chisao while he stays with a very worried Dekao. And I like this shot because it looks like Netto just hit Dekao.

“That’s what you get for calling me your stupid pupil!”

Back in the curry computer, Mahajarama sends Magicman to save the other WWW Navis, but Kutzman uses them as a shield to block his Magic Fire attack.

What’s worse is that Kutzman’s noodle like tentacles prevents the WWW operators to plug out their Navis.

Chisao attacks Magicman by sending a made up chip that doesn’t exist in the game called “Hi-Guts Beam”, and it looks like something Masa-san would have.

ITS A TUNA THAT FIRES A LASER!

This defeats Magicman and creates more damage to the curry shop. Dekao and Netto see smoke coming out of the store and go in to investigate, where a very angry WWW is telling Dekao to stop Chisao.

After hearing this, Netto and Dekao send their Navis into the computer where Rockman frees the WWW Navis by shooting at the tentacles and allowing them to log-out.

They are surprised to see that the Navi looks like Gutsman and that Chisao is the operator. Not-Saburo tells Chisao that Dekao and Netto are fakes, and Chisao believes him because he tells Dekao that he is weak after Gutsman and Rockman receive a hit from two more laser tuna chips.

Ouch.

Netto tells Dekao that he is being fooled by someone and they both fight back to destroy the tunas.

Now I have shots of Rockman and Gutsman killing tunas.

They proceed to attack Kutzman as well but he repels them with his noodle tentacles. Rockman tries to fire his buster, but Gutsman stops him and says that it is Dekao who should save his brother. After this, Kutzman uses a titus gun that looks like a Vulcan chip and shoots... Fried dough, I think?

I guess the dub doesn’t need to cut this shot because it is not firing anything potentially dangerous.

The WWW searches for Chisao inside the store with no luck, and all seems lost until Kutzman suddenly does something stupid that gives away his identity.

Yeap! That stupid dance from the noodle ad revealed to everyone that Kutzman is actually Sanukiman, the mascot for the Heineken Udon shop.

So immediately after, Dekao kicks down the door of the Udon shop and tells Chisao that he’s been fooled. Chisao doesn’t believe him until Dekao does something that forced the dub to skip it, pull down his pants and show him his birthmark.

 I am not gonna take a screenshot of that, so trust me when I say that we don’t actually see the birthmark, I even had to open my eyes just to make sure. And now I will never get that image of Dekao’s butt crack out of my head T T.

Gutsman reveals Sanukiman’s true form with his Guts Hammer while Dekao and Netto scold Saburo for what he did.

Saburo orders Sanukiman to attack Gutsman but Rockman protects him with his Buster. Then we get this unusual scene that I like for some reason.

I needed this so bad after what I saw, DON’T JUDGE ME!

Dekao sends Gutsman a Gold Fist Battle chip (which sounds familiar), he defeats Sanukiman, Chisao and Dekao celebrate and Saburo surrenders.

Now I remember! Nobody returned the Battle Chips Yaito stole from Higure’s counter in episode 33?! Then Netto did kept that meteor chip! O0O

The next morning, Hinouken threatens Saburo, Netto asks why so much hate and the WWW say that Udon and Curry can’t go together (Like they are suddenly so obsessed with curry). Netto reminds them that there is a dish called Curry Udon and Mahajarama gets an epiphany, with the same code for shrinking Collect in the background.

In case you didn’t see the code in the menu.

With tears in their eyes, both parties make peace and look forward to a brilliant new future for their stores. Even Chisao finds Netto’s argument inspiring, Netto tries to give credit to Dekao but he grabs him to talk in private.

And he does...

Okay, I think the writers wanted this to be just a joke for this episode, but in the later seasons they needed an excuse for Dekao to leave Japan for some reason.

I’m saying this because the next scene morning, we see the Udon stor closed and Dekao feeding Netto a noodle from a udon curry he did and then eates the rest in front of him.

And the episode ends with Netto yelling at Dekao for only feeding him one noodle and eating the rest, with a heart closing in on chisao.

My thoughts?

First of all, Udon is a type of noodle that is commonly used in Japanese cuisine, and Sanuki is a special type of udon. I had no idea there were different types of noodles.

I’m not a fish expert like Masa, but I did some research and it looks like the fish in the High Guts beam chip is a Skipjack tuna, a tuna that is used very often in Japanese cuisine which is known as Katsu or Katsubushi, so I think there was a pun in here somewhere.

Dekao and Chisao’s names are puns, with Dekao meaning “Big Guy” and Chisao meaning “Little Guy”.

You might have noticed that Chisao says “-chu” all the time. I think that’s a way of saying that he is so little that he sounds like a mouse, since Chu is the sound a mouse makes.

So, this episode introduces Chisao who will, for some reason, appear unnecessarily often in future seasons, and in that regard, the episode also gives a tiny hint of what will happen to Dekao too. As I mentioned before, I think that it was originally just a joke for the end of this episode since it is not brought up again until the next season. I don’t know if they were already planning Axess, but let’s not think about that for now.

Who knows what happened after Saburou and the WWW make peace because we don’t see him or Sanukiman ever again.

[thenctcults]

Go with the Flow

Pairing: Mark x reader (there’s a lot of Donghyuck in this one sorry) Genre: highschool!au, fluff , a tittle of angst Warnings: none Word count: 5,425

“Ah, please.” your best friend, and perhaps your only real friend other than this girl that sat next to you in class, Donghyuck whined, stomping on the marbled floor of the school hallway while tugging at your wrist. “You’re such a party pooper.” he pouted and let go off your wrist leaving it to hang against your side.

“You know I don’t like parties.” you pressed. A wallflower is what people would describe you as but you chose to describe yourself as just really shy. Throughout your childhood you didn’t make friends easily and the only friendship you had maintained through the years was with Donghyuck.

 The first meeting with him happened when you were five years old, your young jovial self building castles on the sand. Until they came crumbling down under the sole of someone’s shoe. You had looked up and were met with the devilish gaze of a boy with chubby cheeks looking down at you. It was only a matter of seconds before you were bawling, your tearstreaked face was a deep red and you were throwing handfuls of sand at the boy towering over you. That was enough for Donghyuck to start crying too and the whole situation suddenly had turned into a competition of who could cry the loudest. Up until his mother intervened and made Donghyuck apologize to you and help you rebuild your castle.

Years later, Donghyuck was still the same or worse to be frank. Somehow your conversations would always end up to him endlessly teasing you, sometimes if you were too brave it would earn him a slight slap on the shoulder or two. He was only one year younger and it felt as if he was your annoying younger brother whom despite his annoying antics you still loved to death. That’s how you could describe your friendship with him. And although you were very different from each other, your personalities complimented each other and it seemed as if they balanced each other out. Donghyuck being the more outgoing one of you two, he always invite you to parties or other little get-togethers but his attempts were futile. 

“Y/N,” Donghyuck spoke, his face blank. “it’s not a party. There’s only going to be two more people and we’re just gonna watch a bunch of movies.” he continued, explaining their plans. “It’s gonna be pretty chill, nothing too wild. I promise.” he reasoned, and extended out his pinky. 

“No.” you declined his offer once again, not giving his offer a second chance. 

“You’re not being any reasonable at all.” he huffed in exasperation. Truthfully, it was often when you would rather be in the comfort of your bedroom either studying or mindlessly surfing the Internet. 

Breathing out through your nose, you looked at your eager and expectant friend who was trying his hardest to convince you to come, doing all sorts of cute stuff to win you over. Shaking your head lightly, you couldn’t fight back the small tight lipped smile forming on your lips.  “Alright, I’ll come.” you said defeated and you were soon attacked by Donghyuck’s bone crushing hug.  “Cannot, breathe.” you managed to choke out in his strong hold and he instantly untangled his arms from you and took a step back, not bothering to hide his excitement. 

“That’s why you’re my friend.” 

“So, I’m friends with you because you peer pressure me?” 

“I don’t peer pressure you, you are capable of making decisions on your own without much persuasion from me.” Donghyuck retorted, his eyebrows raised up high on his forehead. 

“True.” you trailed off, “Just know this, though,” you continued, “the only reason I agreed was because I couldn’t stand you trying to act cute. It was 

atrocious.”  “I’ll do that all the time, then.”  “Don’t you dare.” 

You huffed as you squirmed awkwardly, sitting on an armchair away from the three boys sitting on the couch. You didn’t know any of the two boys Donghyuck had invited over, and as much as you wanted to befriend them you didn’t know how to initiate or hold a conversation for longer than thirty seconds. Donghyuck and his friend were goofing around on the couch when a certain boy caught your attention. His name was Mark, he was in the same year as you but in a different class and seemed to be equally shy. It wasn’t the first time you’d seen him, he often hung out with Donghyuck during lunch time. 

To top it all, he was extremely cute at that. A mop of messy brown hair laid on top of his head, doe-like eyes darting around the room, sometimes meeting your gaze for a few seconds before averting it quickly. He laughed often, though, you had noticed. The way it bubbled from his chest brought a slight smile to your lips, that thankfully no one noticed. 

Or so you thought. 

“So, do you have a crush on a certain boy called Mark?” Donghyuck proded.

“I, what?” 

“Oh, don’t play dumb with me, I saw the way you looked at him yesterday. Or the way you look at him whenever he has lunch with us.” your best friend smirked at you and jabbed your shoulder in a teasing manner. 

“You were hallucinating.” 

“My eyes don’t deceiving me, Y/N. I know what I saw.” Donghyuck replied, his squinted eyes inspecting your face suspiciously, making you squirm and hope that he wouldn’t notice your strange behavior. Him being him though, he was bound to find out sooner or later and that would be the end of you. 

“You know though,” he thought out loud, “you guys could make a good couple, but you didn’t hear this from me.” he said, throwing his hands up. 

His comment made your breath hitch in your throat, heart beat faster against your chest. Different thoughts raced through your mind, making up all sorts of cutesy romantic scenarios involving you and Mark. The pair of you holding hands, fingers lightly intertwined as you took a stroll or cuddling next to each other watching movies together. 

Shaking your head lightly, the thoughts instantly dispersing, you turned to look at your best friend. 

“I don’t like him, okay?” you tried to convince him. You’d only seen him a few times and didn’t know much about him, you were not the type to develop crushes so easily. 

“If you insist.” Donghyuck huffed and bid you goodbye for now and rushed to his class, already being two minutes late. 

You almost choked on your rice as a certain boy placed his tray on the table and sat next to you. 

“Hi.” Mark greeted you in a low, timid voice. 

“Hey.” you choked out, a few rice grains spewing out of your mouth and onto the table. Way to go, making a fool of yourself. “I’m so sorry.” you mumbled, covering your mouth with your hand and gulped loudly. 

“How, um, how are you?” your face flushed as Mark asked you this question. Donghyuck’s eyes were trained on both of you, silently observing the scene in front of him unfold. 

“I’m- I’m good, thanks for asking.” you stumbled over your words and you tried to keep up a conversation with him, asking him how his day and classes went. The conversation lasted longer than thirty seconds and you felt a sense of pride washing over you.

“Well, aren’t you two the loveliest couple?” Donghyuck interjected, cutting your conversation short. Much to your dismay, his remark attracted a few curious gazes from your fellow students sitting at the nearby tables. 

“Donghyuck, we’re not.” you chided, but it seemed as if your words went in one ear and out the other. 

“Whatever you say.” your friend smirked mischievously and went back to eating his lunch, his teasing gaze not leaving your form the whole time. 

“Oh my God, is it true?” your class friend gushed as soon as you stepped foot inside the classroom the next morning. 

“Is what true?” you questioned, clearly confused. You raked your mind trying to recall any conversations you’ve had recently but you could not think of anything that could answer to her question. 

“About you and Mark, silly. Almost everyone is talking about it, we were all caught by surprise.” she squealed and jumped up and down, resembling an overexcited bunny. 

You were about to tell her that you didn’t know what she was talking about, until a certain memory hit you. Donghyuck pretty much saying that you and Mark were dating, no wonder people were looking at you today. 

“Oh, that. It’s not-” 

“When did it happen? How did it happen? Tell me everything!” you were interrupted by her continuous questioning. 

“It’s really not like that. We’re not dating.” you waved a dismissing hand at her and sat to your assigned seat, fishing your textbooks out of your black backpack and flipped it open at a random page and began reading; basically doing anything to avoid talking to her. 

“Y/N, you’re reading the book upside down.” she trailed off, giggling slightly as she watched you fumble with the book. “Okay, I get it. You don’t want to talk about it, I’ll leave you to yourself then.” she finished, sitting down as well. “But remember, you’ll have to tell me eventually.” and pointed a warning finger at you. Lee Donghyuck, you are dead. 

“I’m gonna kill you!” you whisper shouted as you angrily set your food tray down on the table, some of your spicy stew spilling from the bowl. 

“What did I do again?” your friend asked, sounding disinterested, his voice monotone and a blank expression graced his features. 

“You know damn well what you did.” you pointed an accusing finger at him. “And because of what you did, now everyone thinks I’m dating Mark.” 

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Mark sat down on the table, next to you of course and looked around the table. 

“Did anyone say my name?” 

“No.” “Yes.” both you and Donghyuck spoke the same time, earning confused glanced from him. 

“Yes, Y/N was just telling me cute she thinks you are.” your friend continued, Mark’s jaw slacking open, his high cheekbones blushing furiously. 

“He’s lying.” you said to him, your voice coming out squeaky. 

Mark was at a loss of words, not knowing how to react in this situation. This morning when he had gotten to school his small group of friends would question and tease him about you. Even though on the outside he tried to seem bothered about the rumor that was going around, he truly wasn’t. He didn’t know why it didn’t bother him at all, smiling slightly at himself at the thought of him and you dating. However, it didn’t seem you were very happy about it. 

None of you said another word and continued eating your food in silence until Mark leaned in and whispered in your ear. 

“Can we talk after school, just the two of us?” 

His breath fanned over your neck and it make you jump in your seat, scooting away slightly. 

“Y-Yeah.” you stammered, turning away from him and staring intently at your tray and wondered what he possibly wanted to talk about. Truth is, you had an inkling feeling of what he wanted to say to you but you still felt nervous. What if he told you to never even be remotely close to him and stop talking to him ever again? What if he hates you? 

You tried to brush away any negative thoughts and waited patiently for a couple of more hours until school was over, eager to talk to him. 

You sighed slightly, rocking back and forth on the balls and heels of your feet and flattened your lips, growing more and more anxious by the minute. Ten minutes had passed since the last bell had rang, indicating the end of another school day and Mark was nowhere to be found. By now you were starting to think he had stood you up and only intended on making you wait at the front gates like a fool. Right when you were about to leave you heard someone call out your name. 

“Y/N!” 

Your head snapped back and you were met with a running Mark. Once he reached you, he hunched over and rested his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. 

“Oh wow, I’m so out of shape.” he wheezed, standing up to his original height. “I thought you had left and I ran as fast as possible. I got caught up with something, sorry I’m late.” he apologized meekly. 

“It’s okay.” you brushed him off, bemused. 

“Do you mind if I walk you home?” Mark asked nervously, looking down at his worn out Vans - he really needed to get a new pair, a hole was already beginning to form on his right shoe. A small group of girls from his class greeted him and returned to their previous conversation, whispering about you two and how much of a shock the news of your relationship were. 

“No, not at all.” you replied and fell into step with him. You silently walked down the street side by side, making small conversations every now and then that faded away much too soon for your liking. Your house was now a few steps away and Mark had yet to tell you what he wanted to talk about, so you took the matters into your own hands. 

“So,” you halted, “what did you want to talk to me about?” 

“Oh, that, yeah.” Mark fumbled over his words. No, he hand’t forgotten it, he just hoped that you had forgotten about it, since he really didn’t know how to bring it up to you. Inhaling deeply, he decided it was best he got straight to the point. 

“I’m assuming that you’ve heard about the rumors, right?” he asked, looking up at you through his dark lashes, hands fumbling with the straps of his backpack.

Your throat felt dry, the corners of your lips suddenly feeling dry. Licking them quickly, you took your bottom lip between your teeth, you should have known he wanted to talk about that. 

“Are you bothered by them?” he asked again, not giving you a chance to answer to his first question, plus he already knew the answer to it. 

“Are you?” 

“Don’t answer my question with another question.” Mark let out a slight whine, his tone was playful though. He was right, though. As much as you tried to avoid answering him you knew that you had to do it eventually.

“I don’t know,” you trailed off, pursing your lips deep in thought. “I’m not as bothered as I thought I would be. No one will remember after a week, right?” 

“Yeah...” Mark said, his voice barely audible. “but would you mind if we acted like an actual couple?” he squeaked out, grimacing and preparing himself for the worst. 

“What?” you breathed, a wave of shock washing over you. 

“You know what? Forget I even asked, have a nice evening.” he said and hurried down the street, leaving you there dumbfounded. 

Your mind was racing with thoughts the previous night, Mark’s words not letting you fade to unconsciousness. You really thought over how things turned out if you agreed on acting like a real couple and you came down to two possible endings: either both of you actually developed feelings for one another or one of you ended up getting heartbroken due to unrequited love. You really dreaded the latter; despite heartbreak being inevitable you really disliked the thought of it. 

You had arrived at your usual time at school this morning, or maybe even a little earlier and went straight to your classroom, passing Mark’s. Your eyes fell on his figure hunched over his desk, bopping his head along to some music that played through his headphones. Maybe I should talk to him, you thought. Hurrying into your class you hastily put your backpack on your assigned shelf in the back of the classroom and went over to Mark’s classroom. 

It was only him and two other boys goofing around quietly in the corner. Mark’s head was turned towards the window, watching the students and teachers pass by, not having noticed you come in yet. Mark’s head snapped back once he felt a light tap on his shoulder, his expression changing from a confused one to one of surprise then one of happiness, a grin making its way onto his beautiful face. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked, voice breathy and ripped his headphones from his ears, pausing the song that was playing on his phone. 

“Nothing, i just thought I’d pass by and say hi. So, hi.” you giggled lightly, no visible tension between you lingering in the air, as if yesterday hadn’t happened at all. His face flushed at your words and he squirmed in his seat and got up dragging you along. It was now your turn to blush as you stared down at your clasped hands, maybe you could get used to this? Truthfully the reason you had decided to talk to Mark was because, maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t hurt anyone to try, right? 

“Really, what is it that you wanted to talk about?” Mark asked you once you were at a secluded area, his hand still holding yours, his eyes searching for yours. 

“I thought about what you asked me yesterday.” you began and you sensed Mark instantly stiffing, his hand leaving yours.

“Just forge-”

“I wanna try it.” you cut him off. 

“What? Are you serious? You know if you don’t really want to do this, you don’t have to and we’ll disprove all the rumors circulating around.” he rambled, his eyes wide. 

“No, it could be really fun.” you mused, pursing your lips and took his hand in yours once again, giving it a slight squeeze. 

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

And you were right, about two weeks and a half had passed since you and Mark had started fake dating and things were going just like you had imagined them to be. It was only a little hand holding here and there and you guys talked after lunch; basically just for the people’s eyes. That, of course, meant one thing: you and Mark didn’t really talk outside of school. At first, you were completely fine with it but these past couple of days you’ve been getting greedy and wanted more. 

You were sulking the whole day and even though a part of you was thankful that neither Mark nor Donghyuck questioned your behavior, but another part of you wished a certain someone would just ask what was wrong. Huffing, you shoved a spoonful of rice in your mouth and munched on the soft grains slowly, not having much of an appetite. A soft hand on your knee startled you, making goosebumps appear on your skin. 

“Are you okay? You’ve been like this all day.” he spoke softly over your ear, his warm breath hitting the sensitive skin of your neck. For a moment you thought he sounded truly concerned, but you quickly disregarded that thought. 

“I’m not really,” you mumbled back at him, shoving your food around your tray. “but I will be if we get some ice cream together after school.” you asked, your eyes big and hopeful. 

“Sure.” Mark agreed, giving your knee a slight squeeze and resumed back to his food. 

You sighed in content as the icy and sour substance of your lemon flavored ice cream hit your tongue. When Mark found out that your favorite ice cream flavor was actually lemon he gave you an incredulous look, as if you had committed the most foul crime ever. 

“You’re so boring with your plain vanilla ice cream.” you jeered. 

“Pff, I’m not boring, I’m normal.” he countered, a fake offended tone gracing his voice. 

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t survive if all you could eat in the world was lemon flavored ice cream.” you deadpanned. 

“So not right at all, I can adapt very easily.” he boasted and pushed your shoulder lightly, but sadly you were not prepared for the attack and stumbled to the side and fell on the concrete sidewalk. However, your left hand that was holding the ice cream cone was held up high, the ice cream intact. 

“I could’ve dropped my ice cream!” you screeched at him trying to come off angry but couldn’t keep a straight face as you watched him double over in laughter, his nose scrunching up and a few wrinkles forming at the corner’s of his eyes as he laughed wholeheartedly. 

“I’m glad you have your priorities sorted out.” he joked, after having recovered from his laughing fit. 

“Hey, I love my ice cream and I payed for it!” you quipped and pouted slightly and let out a small involuntary whine. 

“Ah, you’re so cute.” Mark cooed, and ruffled your hair, grinning like an idiot. At that moment you swore your stupid heart stopped beating, your palms growing sweaty. Both of you had agreed you would just go with the flow and act like a couple for the kicks of it but you had not taken into consideration that you might’ve start developing feelings for him. 

“Stop that.” you mumbled weakly. Truth is, deep down you didn’t want him to stop but at the same time you wanted him too because you couldn’t bear the way his simple touch made your insides churn and your heart skip a beat. 

“Stop what?” he asked, oblivious to what you meant. 

“That.” 

“What, this?” he asked once again, this time stroking your hair softly, weaving his fingers through your soft hair lightly. “But I don’t want to stop.” he said, flashing you a cheeky grin. To your dismay, his hand left your hair but he swung his arm around your shoulder and brought you close to his side, causing you to squeal at his sudden boldness. That moment you could’ve sworn that maybe he liked you too, but you couldn’t get your hopes up high. 

The sun shone brightly in the sky, making the day extra warm; April was coming to an end and the air grew hotter and hotter each day. It was lunchtime and instead of sitting at the usual table with your small group of friends, you opted to sit under the shade of a tree. You had been avoiding Mark all day today, after having come to the conclusion the previous night that your agreement was turning out to be a bad idea since you were pretty much smitten by now. 

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” a voice called out to you, making you look up from the grass and you were met with Mark’s soft gaze. 

“Why didn’t you sit with us in lunch?” Mark asked, and plopped down next to you. However, you ignored his question, plucking a few strands of grass instead and began braiding them. 

“Hm?” he nudged your shoulder softly, trying to get your attention but to no avail, “I felt really lonely without you, you know.” he admitted softly, this time having your full undivided attention. 

“You did?!” you exclaimed sounding both happy and shocked at his statement. 

“Yeah, is that so surprising?” Mark asked you as if what he had just told you was the most casual thing ever. 

“It kind of is, yeah.” you admitted sheepishly. 

Mark stayed silent for a while, but he wanted to do and say so much more than just sit and pick grass, but he couldn’t muster up the courage to do so. 

“Do you want to hear some puns?” he asked, changing the subject. 

“No, n-” 

“Great, listen to this one,” he interrupted, turning towards you and clearing his throat, puckering his lips trying to keep himself from laughing. “Why is a skeleton such a bad liar?” he asked excitedly an enthusiastic expression gracing his face, jumping in up and down in his seat - or more like the ground. 

“Because you can see through it.” you replied nonchalantly as you were working on your third grass-blade braid. 

“Why do you know the answer?” he whined, pouting slightly and frowned at the ground as he tried to think of another pun. “What did one toilet say to the other one?” he tried again. 

“What?”

“You look flushed.” he replied and let out a snort and tried to bite back a snicker but soon his shoulders slumped in defeat when the only response he got from you was a shake of your head. 

“Is there anything I can do to make you smile? I hate seeing you sad like this.” he frowned and took the braid made out of grass from your hands, his fingers brushing against yours ever so slightly. 

“Who said I was sad?” you asked, trying hard to mask your shaky voice. 

“You don’t have to tell me when you’re sad, I can see it.” he jabbed your shoulder, “Your shoulders get a little slumped, your bottom lip juts out slightly and,” he paused, “your forehead crinkles just a tiny bit, right here.” he finished, his finger brushing the wrinkle between your eyebrows away and let it trail softly against the slope of your nose and booping the tip, giving you a small chuckle. 

You stayed silent for a while, you were too shocked by his words. Not once would you have imagined that Mark payed so much attention to you that he took notice of your little quirks, it honestly made your heart flutter and your toes curl. 

“Do you wanna go to watch a movie tonight?” Mark asked, looking up at the leaves of the tree that provided both of you with much needed shade. 

“I’d love to.” 

“Ugh.” 

“You should have brought a jacket with you.” Mark tutted, side eyeing you and shaking his head at you as he watched you wrap your arms around your bare arms trying to warm yourself. You being bold or rather dumb you hadn’t taken a jacket with you not taking in the fact that it was still April and not June. Mark sighed and began unzipping his hoodie. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Uh, I don’t know, isn’t this what boyfriends do?” he asked you, taking it off and leaving himself in just a flimsy t-shirt. “That’s what they always do in the movies, right? Whenever the girl is cold, the guy will take out his jacket and give it to her.” he continued, helping you put it on and zipping it up all the way for you. “You look really cute.” he mused, observing the way his hoodie was a little too big for you, the sleeves completely covering your hands. 

But you’re not my real boyfriend, you thought bitterly to yourself and a frown etched on your face. 

“You’re doing it again.” Mark pointed out. 

“Doing what?”

“You know, the pout and the frown. What are you sad about?” he nudged your side. 

“Nothing, it’s nothing.” you brushed it off and you were thankful Mark didn’t prod you to answer him. Maybe you would tell him another time. 

However, you couldn’t muster up the courage to tell him anything, not that one time he took you bowling, or that time he took you to his favorite restaurant or that other time when he took you to the amusement park and won as many games as he could and you had got back home holding five giant plushies. 

You told yourself that today would be different. 

Both of you were sat at a bench at this park, an ice cream cone on your hands; you had just returned from what you would call a date. You watched silently as you watched the ice cream melt and start dripping down the cone and licked it off just right before it could touch your hand. 

“You’re doing it, again. And no, don’t ask me what I mean by that because you and I both know what I mean. So, will you tell me what’s wrong? I’m not gonna back down this time.” he pressed, “You’ve been like this a lot this past week. What is it, am I not being a good boyfriend?” he asked, your heart almost jumping out of your chest at the word boyfriend. 

“No,” you denied, your voice trailing off, “you’re doing a great job at it and because you’re doing a great job, it saddens me. It saddens me because at every little touch and every smile I remind myself that this,” you said, gesturing between you, “is sadly not real. It didn’t start because we shared genuine feelings for each other. No, it started because Donghyuck was messing around. And as much as I want to be happy, it hurts me. It hurts me because I think that I like you but this will probably end soon and I don’t think I will be able to handle it.” you finished your rant trying hard to fight back tears. 

Mark’s mouth opened and closed again as he tried to find the right words to say after having witnessed your outburst; he really didn’t know he made you feel this way and he felt guilty that he was the reason you felt sad. Despite all he did to make you happy, he only made you sadder when that wasn’t his intention at all. 

“I didn’t know you felt like this because of me,” Mark began speaking after a few seconds of silence, “I’m truly sorry. The only thing I wanted was to see you smile, I thought my actions would’ve made my feelings obvious by now.” 

“What?” you choked out, your ice cream had began sticking to your hand, long forgotten now. 

“What I mean is that, I’m not good with my words, so I hoped that by my actions I could show you how I feel about you. What I mean is that, I like you too, silly.” he finished with an adoring smile, taking your hand in his and intertwining his fingers with yours. You had held hands before, but not like this, so it was a new feeling for both of you. 

“I never really had the guts to tell you how I felt straight up or didn’t know how. I know we agreed that this would be just a show for others, but I want to end this.” 

“What do you mean?” you asked panicked and confused. He had just confessed that he liked you too but now he said that he wanted to end this. 

“I want us to begin new. From now on we’re an actual, real, legitimate couple.” Mark smiled and gave your hand a squeeze. 

“Ah, you gave me a heart attack.” you whined and let go of his hand so you could punch him lightly on the shoulder. 

“Can I kiss you now?” he asked, his voice just a above a whisper and his eyes darted down to your lips. 

“You should have done that the moment I said I liked you.” you smiled, leaning in, your eyelids fluttering shut. Ιn a matter of seconds, his lips met yours in a sweet and soft kiss and you could’ve sworn that every bit of worry was erased from your mind; everything finally felt right. After a few seconds, you pulled away and both of you burst into a fit of giggles, your faces flushed. 

“You owe me another ice cream.” you pointed out down at the mess on your hand and burst into a fit of giggles again.