Mark unconsciously grazes his left hand repeatedly, where the faintest of a scar lies around his knuckles. He had just finished watching a romantic comedy with Yugyeom and Jinyoung. Even though the genre says romance and comedy, Jinyoung has ended up in a mess of tears and snots while Yugyeom has his eyes moist when the movie ended. Mark himself is no better than the other two, lost in thoughts as his mind brings him down memory lane.

-

“If you have never skipped school in school uniform, you will regret it when you grow up!”

               Jackson had his smirk on when Mark came running to him with a Math textbook when the former ordered him to bring him the textbook as Jackson’s class has a Math class field trip. Mark asked about the others since Jackson’s clique is notorious for being the bad apples in school. “Which Math class organizes field trip, Mark?” Jackson laughed as he took the textbook and dragged Mark towards the school fence. “W-wait, the school bell just rang, I need to go back to class!” Mark, being the good student he was, reasoned. “C’mon Mark, if you have never skipped school in school uniform, you will regret it when you grow up!” Jackson manhandled Mark up the school fence as he spoke, the upturn of the corners of his lips never fading as Mark yelled “I hate you”s repeatedly at the younger and accidentally cut his skin open at his knuckle because of that.

-

“When people say they are alright, they are not! And it doesn’t matter means it does matter!”

              Mark had told Jackson this among other things like “copying lyrics to confess is so uncool, you should write quotes in foreign languages” when the latter was trying to win over Bambam, one of the most popular guys in school and had convinced(threatened) Mark to help him break Bambam and Jaebum up seeing Mark likes Jaebum, even though Bambam and Jaebum were not dating.

“I’m alright, can’t talk right now, bye!” Mark hung up immediately after speaking, the reprimand he had gotten from hanging out with the most rebellious student in school earlier still rang clear in his head. He was halfway through his apology letter, as requested by his parents, when pebble after pebble was thrown at his window. Getting up to check, Jackson had a backpack loosely hanging from his shoulder, waving at him from the road opposite. “Hey.. I came to say hi, I was just passing by.”

-

“Do you have a person you like? Is that person here?”

              Mark, Jackson, Bambam, Jaebum and another two of their friends were hanging out when one of them squeaked with excitement and asked to play spin the bottle. The bottle pointed to Jackson and Jaebum asked, “Do you have a person you like? Is that person here?”. Jackson’s “yes” rang loud and clear and it had Bambam smiling sweetly, unknown to everyone but a pair of watchful eyes that the former stole a glance at Mark. The bottle then pointed to Mark and Bambam asked the same question. Jaebum looked at Mark expectantly while Mark’s eyes ran back and forth between Jaebum and Jackson, clearly in doubt.

-

“The first person you hit with a water balloon, it wasn’t because you hated him, it was because there is only him in your eyes.”

               One of the school’s anniversary celebration was water balloon fight among the students. It was the most anticipated event of all as buckets of water balloons were stationed randomly across the field, students gathering and waiting for the whistle to go off. Mark laughed with so much glee when his first water balloon burst upon impact on his target, successfully drenching Jackson. The latter was quick to react and threw one back as revenge, yet Jaebum made his sudden appearance in front of Mark and blocked the attack, throwing one back as payback. This time round, Bambam popped up behind Jackson to counter attack and the war went on. “The first person you hit with a water balloon, it wasn’t because you hated him, it was because there is only him in your eyes.” It was much later that Mark realized this.

-

“Ngo oi lei.” ^{*I love you in Cantonese}

               Mark felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest when Jackson left without any notice. Everywhere of the school reminded him of the days when Jackson used to , him and Jackson plotting to break Bambam and Jaebum up, up on the balcony where Jackson told him Bambam had confessed to him when Mark was going to confess to him. Everything hurt so much because they reminded him of Jackson’s presence, of the fun they had and of the time they spent together.

“Hey dimsum, I guess you are with who you like now huh? I got Bambam and you got Jaebum, we completed our promise in the beginning. I figure this is the only and the last thing I can do for you. Even though you are so quiet like a wall and your laugh is the dumbest, and you like other guys, even though you are like this, I still like you so, so much.. Mark Tuan, if you finish listening to this recording, then look up at the sky, because then I’d know I am looking at the same sky with the person I like. Ngo oi lei.”

-

“Earth to Mark~”

“Hellooooo”

“Mark watch where you are going!”

“Ouch!”

Jinyoung and Yugyeom’s voice faded in the background when Mark raised his head and saw who he has knocked into when his mind decided it is wise to think about the past without looking at where he is going.

“J-jacks—“

“Are you alright, Mark?”

A/N: soooo if I'm free I might rewrite this to be longer, depends on my schedule and your feedback.Tell me what you think, thanks!