#nct mark imagines

♡ 2.6k, fluff  =^._.^= ∫

• you first met Mark on a Nature Republic photo shoot where your friend was a hair stylist 
  
• she called you frantically because the SM staff caught multiple employees from each department posting on their personal social media stories the location and whereabouts of the members and dismissed them from the site
• they were shooting at an island in the middle of nowhere which you were conveniently writing a thesis on different landscapes of South Korea 
• you had no experience of styling other people and only did it for yourself but you knew you couldn’t leave your friend deserted so you came to help in any way that you could
• half of the staff were fired on the spot so they immediately pushed you towards the members to prepare them for their next shoot after threatening legal action if you decided to act as stupidly as the other stylists did 
• you saw your friend quickly adjusting the collar of theHawaiian shirt that was roughly put on Jaehyun and she gave you an apologetic look and mouthed a ‘thank you’
• you were assigned at styling Mark’s hair, which you were scared of because you had never styled a man’s hair before never mind a celebrity but you squared your shoulders and hoped for the best
• he was already used to the chaos but he was slightly concerned at how well you would perform considering that your eyebrows were furrowed and had sweat rolling down your temples as you scrunched the ends of his hair with mousse to create beachy waves
• every stylist that he met was always either professional and stoic or overly friendly to try and get with the members romantically but he tried to suppress his laughter when he saw your distressed face under your medical mask
• in such a stressful and hectic situation, he would never talk to the staff to help them focus but he couldn’t help but strike up a conversation with you
• you looked younger than him too so he felt more comfortable
• “first time?” he asked with a smile on his face as he looked up at you
• your hands stopped in the middle of combing the fluffy mousse through his hair and your face dropped slightly, “you could tell?”
• Mark covered his laugh with his hand as he didn’t want to discourage you but couldn’t help but chuckle at the cute expression on your face 
• “yeah,” he answered but then realized that it came out meaner than he had intended
• “but you’re doing a great job! Keep going!” He tried to encourage you by motioning with his hands to continue
• you patted his hair into place for finishing touches but you pouted under your mask when you realized, “how would you know? You can’t even see it” 
• there were no mirrors in sight except for the hand mirrors that stylists held on their belt
• he choked on his saliva out of embarrassment and rubbed his hand awkwardly on the back of his neck
• “well let’s see then!” He exclaimed and you begrudgingly gave him the hand mirror to see 
• you were bracing yourself in case he thought you made his hair into a bird’s nest and demanded you to be fired on the spot but he let a “wahh” escape his mouth as he admired the hairstyle 
• “this actually looks great!” He said a little too excitedly 
• “we were both expecting it to look bad then, huh?” You joked but really you were relieved that he thought it didn’t look atrocious 
• Mark shook his head to deny but you held his shoulders in place to not disrupt his hair 
• his face went pink and you realized that you just touched a client, a very influential client 
• you lifted your hands off of him quickly and stepped back so that he could stand up from his chair and go in front of the cameras to prepare for the shoot
• “thank you” he said and you both exchanged bows before awkwardly getting back to work 
• you stayed on the set with your friend for the rest of the day until the sun went down and the sky turned a bright pink from the previous ocean blue 
• luckily, that was the last hair and clothes change that NCT needed and everyone started to pack up after the photographer and managers shouted “thank you for your work” and everyone bowed and clapped to each other 
• while each member started to load into their vans to get back to the city for their next schedule, Mark ran up to you and asked if you were apart of the SM staff or were for hire from another beauty boutique
• “oh, I just came last minute,” you said 
• “I’m not actually licensed for this I came to help”
• he let out a disappointed “oh” and decided not to take your number down since it was unprofessional and knew that after the fiasco today that there could be anyone around to expose him if he did 
• “good night, see you around,” he said in hopes that he would see you again
• you doubted that he would see you around but you repeated what he said and waved at him as he ran into the van 
• the other members were confused as to why he ran off to greet you and were ready to tease him since they noticed that you were his type physically 
• but he knew that they were about to so he lied and said that he forgot to take a bracelet from you and pretended to fall asleep so that they couldn’t question him further
• you thought about that was a once in a lifetime experience until 2 weeks later the campaign was a hit and everyone was fawning over Mark specifically since he looked like boyfriend material in a white button up shirt and blue jeans with messy beach hair 
• your friend called to tell you that she recommended you as a freelance hair stylist after they asked her who did Mark’s hair 
• as a broke college student living in another country you took the offer but felt guilty getting an amazing job with no credentials so you got licensed at a beauty school within 2 months 
• the next time you saw Mark was on the Punch music video set 
• he had everything on except makeup and hair 
• you were taken aback at how different he looked with the leather pieces, chain jewelry, and overall bad boy vibes
• he was sitting in front of the dressing room vanities and his face lit up when he saw you stand behind him with your cart of hair products and tools 
• usually he’d stay still in his chair but this time he turned around to face you, “hey! I thought you said you weren’t even licensed?”
• “I decided to after getting offered a job” you smiled 
• he turned around and looked at you through the mirror’s reflection, “or did you come back because of me?” 
• you coughed through your mask and felt the heat creep from your neck all the way to your cheeks and temples
• Mark smiled to himself when he saw your bright red face and was even more excited for the music video shoot knowing that the stylist he thought was cute would be doing his hair on a regular basis and could see him act cool on stage
• to not let you out of his sights again, Mark pulled his phone off of the vanity table in front of him and went straight to his Instagram search page, “can I have your Insta by the way?” 
• you were combing the translucent gel through his hair when you tilted your head out of curiosity of why he would want your socials 
• “I send what kind of hairstyles and concepts I’d like to try to stylists on here,” he said 
• in actuality Mark wasn’t one of the idols that really cared of how his stylists dressed him like Johnny or Jaehyun but he wanted an excuse so that his interest in you was too obvious
• “oh sure,” you spelled out your Instagram handle and you saw him follow you right away
• for the rest of the shoot for the two days that it took place, Mark would admire you every time you came up to him between scenes to wipe the sweat off his forehead and to spray his hair with setting mist 
• although you were a fan of the group, you didn’t want to make them uncomfortable so you invested all of your focus on making them look their best
• Mark appreciated that; you weren’t completely cold and professional but you also didn’t cross any boundaries by asking him about his personal life or interviewing him like some new stylists did 
• when you got home you decided to look at Mark’s profile and saw that he was only following his family, friends from Vancouver, idols friends, and a few celebrities that he looked up to 
• you were the only staff member that he was following other than his managers
• but you didn’t think for a second Mark liked you
• even though during promotions he would text you on his time off about your day and ask you about yourself 
• “because I don’t want to be to formal” was his excuse to his unofficial game of 21 questions 
• even though after promotions when he was on his break, he’d ask you to go shopping with him “to get some inspiration from uh hair stuff” 
• at one point he was bold enough to ask you to go to a cafe because he said he felt like you two were friends at one point
• behind the scenes, Johnny caught on quickly at how Mark was on his phone more often when he’d usually just use it to play mobile games or listen to music 
• “I don’t think you left the bracelet with the pretty stylist,” Johnny would tease Mark one day when he saw him re-reading your texts and smiling to himself 
• “you left your heart,” he’d say and slap himself on the knee from laughing too hard at his own joke
• “can you get out of my room?” Mark would retort in embarrassment but it was worse for him from there
• Johnny told both floors that Mark had a big fat crush on the young stylist and was flirting with them 24/7 
• Mark wasn’t really the type to get in his feelings 
• sure he’d find different celebrities or employees that he’d work with attractive but he knew it was for business or that they’d just be really good friends in the industry 
• but you felt like home 
• like he could imagine that if he was back in Vancouver that you two would meet at a library or something and he’d ask you for a coffee after you asked him to watch your bag to go to the washroom 
• that was what he’d imagine before he went to sleep at night anyways 
• half of the time he’d stay up thinking about asking you out officially and keeping your relationship as a secret and the other half of the time he’d kick his blankets scolding himself for even thinking that because it would put both of your careers on the line and he didn’t want you to feel the burden of dating in secret
• you also had feelings for Mark but thought that he was just friendly and flirty 
• even if he did have feelings for you, you thought that it would be best to just stay as friends because you didn’t want to get in the way of his career
• one day Mark couldn’t take it anymore and went to the convenient store by himself instead of riding bikes with Haechan and Renjun like he originally planned to 
• they noticed that he didn’t get embarrassed or annoyed at the teasing anymore and just kept to himself so they followed him to the store and found him outside on a bench with a beer in his hand
• both of them sat beside him and Haechan grabbed the beer and took a swig, “just tell her” 
• Mark placed his elbows on his knees and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, “I don’t want to ruin it for us… Or for her”
• Renjun placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, “if you both have strong feelings for each other then it’ll always work out in the end” 
• Mark shook his head although he appreciated the support, “what if the stress gets us to break up? What if I make it awkward for her at work?” 
• Haechan stopped him and told him sternly, “I see the way you two look at each other and I know that she’d accept if you asked. If the press or pressure causes you to break up then at least you tried.” 
• Renjun added on more gently, “do you just want to continue suffering forever? What if she’s waiting for you too?” 
• Mark didn’t want to think about it any longer and as a lightweight, the 2 cans of beer in his system were already giving him courage
• if he had another night to think about it, he’d probably never confess to you so he decided in his tipsy state to confess right then 
• with urgency, he told you to meet you at Hangang River right away 
• “thank you guys,” he said while standing up too quickly 
• he stumbled a little bit before starting to walk towards the meeting place, “I can do it!”
• “you can do it!” Renjun laughed while holding up too fists to show his support
• Haechan on the other hand held up his phone and started to record Mark walking clumsily towards the river, “don’t mess up loser!” 
• you were finishing up on your readings when you got Mark’s text 
• it sounded like he was going to confess but you shook the thought out of your head at the thought of a global star asking you out 
• “probably wants to de-stress with a friend,” you thought before putting on a hoodie and jeans before walking to Hangang
• when you arrived you could smell a mixture of beer and mint in his breath
• His face was flushed pink which was a result of the alcohol and the 2.2km he had just walked
• “why did you call me out all of a sudden?” You asked 
• “will you go out with me?” He said a little bit too loudly
• you quickly looked around to make sure that no one was within a kilometre near you too and asked in a hushed voice, “what?”
• “I like you!” He nearly shouted, not aware of his volume due to the nervousness of the chance of rejection
• “I tried not to like you ever since I met you but I can’t get you out of my head,” he avoided your gaze and couldn’t believe how cheesy he sounded
• Mark continued regardless, “I know that we have to date in secret if you do like me but I promise to protect you and I won’t regret my decision if anything happens. So uh-”
• “yes,” you grinned. “I’ll go out with you”
• he was surprised at how you accepted with ease, “oh wow I wasn’t expecting this. Thank you for listening to me talk on haha, I don’t even know what to say I-”
• to stop his blabbering you held onto his arms to steady yourself for when you went on your tippy toes to peck him on the lips
• “that’s not fair” he pouted
• “what’s not fair?”
• “that’s it?” He murmured under his breath 
• “then get some more” you teased
• his hands cupped the sides of your face and bent his neck down to reach your height
• your hand wrapped around his waist to pull him into a hug while his warm lips pressed onto yours

Y/n has one goal and one goal only. To make a gingerbread house. It shouldn’t be hard right? When Mark walks in to Y/n’s place though he’s not sure what to think when he sees what you’ve been working on.

Part of the long term couple series. Can be read as a stand alone.

           Scooping out another large glob of frosting you are determined this time to make sure that the walls of your gingerbread house stay up. When you had gotten the brilliant idea to make a gingerbread house for Christmas you didn’t think that it would be this hard. But it was proving more difficult than you thought it would be. Every time you got three walls standing the last wall would somehow fall and you knew that if you couldn’t get the walls to stand on their own there was no way that they were going to stay up when you put the roof on. Carefully adding frosting to the bottom of your stand and the gingerbread wall you move it into place once again.

           Holding your breath, you push the wall up against the other two walls hoping that they’ll all stay standing this time. Slowly moving your hand back, you pump your fist in the air when the walls stay standing. It had only taken you four tries, but you finally managed to get the walls to stay standing. Now all you had to do next was get the roof on and then you could really start to decorate. Glancing over at the clock on the wall you knew that Mark would be to your place soon and while you had hoped that you would have the gingerbread house done before he got to your place you didn’t think that was going to happen anymore.

           Turning your attention back to the gingerbread house you focused on getting the roof on without any of the walls collapsing. Somehow you had managed to get the roof on with all of the walls standing up. Maybe the hard part was over and everything after this was going to be easy.

           “Are you kidding me why are you falling!” Mark hears as he opens the door to your apartment.

           “Y/n?” Mark calls as he walks further into the apartment. He wasn’t sure what was going on but from the sound of your voice whatever was happening was making you upset.

           “In the kitchen,” you call back to him. “Why are you leaning to the side?”

           Mark enters the kitchen and sees your kitchen table is covered with a variety of gumdrops, m&m’s, frosting, and other candy. He also sees what he is assuming is supposed to be a gingerbread house though it looks more like a pile of cookie, frosting, and candy. Mark then looks at you. Your hair is thrown up into a messy bun, pieces of hair are falling out of it. You have frosting on you and some red dye smeared across your face.

           “Do I even want to know what is going on?” Mark is approaching you like you are a wild animal and that any sudden movements by him will cause you to either bolt or strike out at him.

           “I’m trying to make a gingerbread house,” you tell him barely giving him a glance as you try to shift the leaning house back into an upright position. “But the stupid house won’t stay standing, the roof is collapsing in, and I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten my weight in chocolate because I’m getting stressed out from this stupid thing.”

           “Okay why don’t you just calmly set down the frosting and butterknife and we can figure out a way to fix this.” Glaring at Mark you can’t decide if he’s being serious or if he is teasing you.

           “Mark, I swear if you’re teasing me about my gingerbread house, I’m going to throw it at you.” What you don’t do is set down the frosting or the knife. Instead, you focus back on the leaning house and wonder if you could use pretzels to support the house and keep it upright.

           “I’m not teasing. I’m being serious just set everything down and take a step back. Maybe what you need is a break and when you come back with a fresh mind, you’ll be able to get it to stand upright.”  Mark does have a point. You have been working on this house for hours maybe you should step away for a bit and come back to it later.

           “You might be right,” Setting the frosting and knife down you really look at your boyfriend and while you know he is being serious you can see it in his eyes and the twitching of his lips that he wants to laugh but won’t.

           “Making a gingerbread house is harder than it looks!” You defend yourself. Though you’re probably the only person on this planet who has struggled as much as you have with getting a gingerbread house made.

           “I’m sure it is,” Nods Mark. He moves towards you and leans in to wipe the frosting from your face. “I think even with your gingerbread house leaning to the side and the collapsing roof it still looks great.”

           “Really?” You question because glancing over at the house you think that it looks like a mess, and you don’t think would give Mark the same complement if your places were reversed.

           “Maybe it’s not great but I like it because you made it.” Mark admits causing you to laugh and Mark joins you. It’s as the two of you are laughing that the house leans even more and eventually the whole thing collapses into a pile of cooking, frosting, and candy.

           Your eyes widen and you look over at Mark who is looking at the pile with wide eyes as well before he turns to face you. He’s waiting for your reaction your sure of it. He probably doesn’t know if you are going to laugh, cry, or scream. And while you want to do all three laughter wins out. You throw your head back and laugh. Mark joins you once again and moves towards you to pull you into his arms.

           “Still think my house is great?” You laugh into Marks chest. You can feel Mark’s body shaking and you look up into his laughing face. He leans down to kiss you while the two of you continue to laugh.

           “I think anything that you do is great. Even a collapse gingerbread house.” Mark reaches out to the gingerbread house and picks up one of the pieces that is covered in frosting and candy and holds it out to you to take a bite. The house may not have turned out, but it sure does taste good.

Mark and Y/n are enjoying some time together and are just being an adorable couple. 

Part of the long term couples series. 

With your eyes closed you let your mind wander as the bright colors from the sunlight danced across your lids. In the distance you could hear Mark laughing as him and Haechan played their video game. Mark and you had spent the day together wondering shops together, hands linked you leaning into him. Thinking of that you smiled softly to yourself. Mark was not a big fan of being touched by others but with you he seemed to be fine with you invading his space. When you had asked him about it, he just shrugged and told you ‘It’s because it’s you’.  You liked that.

           Later the two of you returned to the dorm and you had found your way out onto the small deck they had and lounged in the hammock they had set up. Mark and Haechan settled on the couch and had started to play video games together. Their laughter had died down and you figured that the two of them had settled back into their game. You dropped your one leg placing your foot onto the ground and pushed off the ground to make the hammock sway gently.

           As you swayed in the hammock the lights dancing behind your eyes were stopped. You cracked one eye open to see Mark standing over you, hands on his hips, smile on his face. You shield your eyes and smile up at Mark.

           “All done with your video games?” Mark continues to watch you as you sway back and forth.

           ‘Haechan had to leave to go record some of his lines at the studio.” Mark tells you, you nod your head and then scoot over on the hammock, “join me, it’s nice out here.”

           Mark joins you in the hammock the two of you shift around. Mark turns to his side and pulls you towards him, so you are facing him. He pulls your one leg over his waist, your hands rest on his chest and your head is tucked below his chin. It’s comfortable and you snuggle in closer to Mark. The two of you lay in silence for a while. Letting the sun beat down on you two, listening to the sounds of the city below. Just as you are about to drift off to sleep Mark speaks.

           “I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but I have never been more thankful to Haechan then when he made me go on a double date with him,” you smile into Marks throat before leaning your head back to smile up at Mark. He’s already looking down at you when your eyes connect and there’s a smile on his face.

           “Me too. If someone would have told me that three months ago, I would have met an awkward man, who can rap like it’s breathing I would have laughed in their faces. But now here I am.”

           “I wasn’t awkward,” Mark protest and you can’t keep your laughter in. The fact that Mark honestly believes he wasn’t awkward when the two of you first met is hilarious to you. Every time you think of the first time the two of you met all you can remember is him shifting around awkwardly and going yo a bunch and you were almost positive his face was in a constant blush.

           “Mark the first words out of your mouth were yoooo and then you blushed a bright shade of red. If that isn’t awkward, I don’t know what is!” You tease, “And then you couldn’t even look me in the eye for the first half an hour that we were together.”

           “Okay, that’s enough talking about our first meeting,” Mark covers your mouth with his hand causing you to laugh hard and squirm against him. When he doesn’t move his hand away from your mouth you use your hands to start tickling him and Mark lets you go quickly.

           “Y/n stop!” Mark shouts but there is laughter in his voice, and you know that he isn’t serious. You continue to attack him causing the hammock to sway dangerously. On one of your attacks, you lean into Mark too far and the two of you start to tumble. Lucky for you Mark wraps his arms around you quickly and leans the two of you back the other way saving you both from flipping out of the hammock.

           “That was a close one,” you breathe.

           “Would have served you right for making fun of me and attacking me like you did,” Mark scolds. You roll your eyes at his statement.

           “And yet you saved me from falling,” you point out to Mark. He tucks his chin into his chest to peer down at you and kisses the tip of your nose.  You scrunch your nose at him you would never admit it out loud, but you loved when he kissed the tip of your nose.

           “That’s because it’s you,” Mark informs you once again.

           “Are you saying that if it was Haechan you would have let him fall?”

           “I would have pushed him out and wouldn’t have thought twice about it,” you laugh at that. You should have picked someone else. Of course, Mark would have pushed Haechan out of the hammock. Mark loved Haechan but they definitely acted like brothers.

           “What if it was Jisung?” You counter. Mark thinks about this a moment before he gives you a squeeze.

           “I would hesitate but would probably save him. I wouldn’t hesitate though if it were you.”

           “Because it’s me?” You whisper.

           “Because it’s you,” Mark confirms and that makes a warm feeling spread throughout your body and you shove your face into Marks chest to hide your blush and let out a little squeal.

           “You have to stop being so cheesy I don’t know what to do with it! And don’t ever say that you don’t know how to be in a relationship ever again. Because you are doing just fine with it” You whine. Mark just laughs and if you didn’t like him so much you would push him out of the hammock.

           “Alright, I’ll try to be less cheesy. If you’d liked when I order dinner, I’ll forget to order your favorite food to bring me down from being so amazing at this relationship thing.”

           “I would appreciate that.” You grumble before touching your lips gently to Marks. He smiles into the kiss before he deepens the kiss.