Anxious didn’t even begin to cover how Mark felt. His fingers ran over the cool buckle sitting in his lap, leg bouncing as he watched the seat belt light above him. They were at the gate. Why weren’t they turning the seat belt light off? What were they waiting for?

“Cut it out,” Jaebum hissed. The leader watched Mark out of the corner of his eye, but the older didn’t care. There was only one thing on his mind right now and that was the sick boy that they’d left at the dorm two days ago. The image of him curled up under the covers, glistening in his own sweat had been stuck in Mark’s head the entire time they were gone.

It seemed like an hour before they finally got off the plane, filing into the airport terminal. No one had to tell them to stick together. By now, it was habit. Mark shoved his earbuds into his ears, making sure the bill of his hat covered his eyes before he skimmed through the contacts on his phone, pressing the call button next to one of them.

The phone only rang twice before the other end connected. “What’s wrong?” a male voice answered. It sounded deep and raspy, like the person had just woken up.

“What do you mean?” Mark asked, laughing a little. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“Then why did you call?”

Mark rolled his eyes. Even in the midst of sickness, the boy was a ball of never ending sass. Somehow, though, it was endearing. His goofy personality grew on Mark the longer he spent around the boy. “I can call just to check in, Jackson. You’re sick, remember?”

The two texted back and forth all weekend, Mark checking that Jackson took care of himself while Jackson complained about how bored he was sitting around the house. Singapore was one of the boy’s favorite places to visit, so missing out on the trip really tore him up. The six others had made sure to send Jackson plenty of photos and messages reminding him that they weren’t even staying long enough to enjoy the area. It was a half-assed attempt to make him feel a little less depressed. One that, unsurprisingly, didn’t work.

“Okay, so what’s up?”

“We just got of the plane, so I wanted to check in with you. See how you were feeling and stuff. Do you need us to grab anything?” Mark spoke quietly, not wanting any of the staff or nearby fans to hear what he was saying. He wasn’t saying anything bad, but he liked to keep his conversations with Jackson private. It was like a secret between the two of them.

Jackson’s hoarse laugh echoed through Mark’s earbuds, making him smile under his mask. “You called just to ask how I was? You’ve been checking on me all weekend,” the boy teased. They both knew why Mark called. They also both knew that he was too shy to admit the real reason without a little coaxing. “Why don’t you just tell me why you really called.”

“I’m in the airport,” he muttered, lowering his voice even more. “I can’t just say stuff like that. You know why I called. Isn’t that enough?”

“No, I want to hear you say it.”

Mark sighed, noticing the customs gate ahead. “Fine, I missed your voice, alright?” he said. Jackson’s squealing giggles resonated through the headphones. A typical Jackson Wang reaction to anything overly cute or cringe-worthy that he heard. Not even sickness could keep the boy’s personality at bay. “We’re almost at customs. I have to go.” Jackson whined on the other end, but Mark cut him off before he could really hear what he was saying. “I’ll call you when I’m on the other side.” Without waiting for an answer, he hung up and pulled the headphones from his ears.

A few minutes later, he stood on the other end of the small row of booths next to their manager. Yugyeom and Youngjae were still queued up on the other side, waiting patiently for Jaebum to finish. BamBam made it through just seconds after Mark, reaping the benefits of being an international citizen yet again.

It only took Jackson one ring to answer the second time. “That took longer than usual,” he said. Mark just shrugged, trying not to notice how his heart skipped a beat knowing that the other boy had been timing him.

“It was about the same as usual,” he said. “Maybe it seemed longer because you weren’t going through it.”

“Well, you’re on the other side now, which means you’ll all be home soon.”

“You didn’t make a mess of the dorm, did you?” Mark asked. The other had a tendency to be a bit of a human tornado when it came to leaving things around. What once had been their room was now an oversized closet for all of Jackson’s things that he’d collected over the years. Mark could only imagine how it looked now that the boy had been sentenced to bedrest for a week.

“It’s the same as how you guys left,” he said. “I swear.” Mark had a feeling that wasn’t going to be true, but it didn’t matter. Whatever mess he’d made in the two days they were gone would be easy enough to clean up. “Can you guys just hurry back?”

Mark followed along behind the other members through the crowd of fans and photographers, holding the mic piece of his headphones near his mouth. Holding it closer wouldn’t cut down the amount of screams it picked up in the background, but Mark hoped it would at least help his voice come through more clearly.

“Why? Do you need us to make you some food? We can pick some up on the way.” Mark’s worrying surfaced naturally when it came to his best friend. Jackson usually managed his own day-to-day life well, but when he got sick, he could get so needy.

Jackson’s laugh was quieter this time. “No, I don’t need you to get anything. I just need you to come home. I’ve been looking at pictures of you at the airport last night, but nothing quite matches up to the real thing.”

The staff formed their usual attempt at a guard bubble around the van doors, giving us just enough room to climb in without getting mobbed by giggling fans. Mark waited for Yugyeom and BamBam to move into the backseat, trying to hold back the blush that was slowly rising to his cheeks. Once the two younger members situated themselves in the back, he climbed into the seat behind the driver and turned to look out the other window.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be there soon."