The first thing Mark heard as he walked past security was Youngjae screaming his name.

The first thing he saw was Jinyoung’s all-knowing grin.

And the first thing he felt was Jaebum’s hand smacking him square on the back. “It’s about time you got here,” he said, a hint of amusement laced in his voice. “Jinyoung’s been dying to hear all about your new boyfriend.”

Jinyoung punched Jaebum’s shoulder, but not before Mark’s eyes dropped to his shoes, trying desperately to hide the blush that creeped onto his cheeks. Though they’d been messaging each other constantly ever since Mark walked away from the van that night, what exactly the two of them were still remained unknown. Neither had really bothered defining it. Not yet. But hearing Jaebum refer to Jackson as his boyfriend made Mark’s heart skip a beat.

“Okay, sorry,” Jaebum corrected. “He wants to know what you have to say about him. He already knows pretty much everything that’s on the internet about the guy.”

“What?” Mark asked, looking up at Jinyoung. “You researched him?” It didn’t surprise Mark that his closest friend was at least a little interested, but Jinyoung had never been someone who went out and Googled Mark’s crushes, either.

Youngjae, who’d been surprisingly silent for someone whose quiet voice was yelling to begin with, started laughing. A few of the people standing near him even jumped, surprised at the sudden burst of noise. “Hyung researching something,” he laughed. “You’re funny.”

“Hey! I’m in school aren’t I?” Jinyoung looked almost hurt by the accusation. “I study.”

“Yeah, for a test or something. But never just for fun.” Youngjae laughed again.

Mark glanced at Jaebum, whose gaze was fixed on Jinyoung. “Jinyoungie heard all about your boyfriend from Anna,” he explained. “I guess she’s a big fan of the group he’s in or something. She saw your picture and came straight over to our place. Right in the middle of dinner.”

Leave it to Jaebum to make their friend and next door neighbor coming over with important news sound like the world’s biggest inconvenience. Needless to say, when it came to food, the guy didn’t like to be disturbed.

“Whatever,” Jinyoung muttered under his breath. “Are we gonna stand around here all day or are we gonna go home?” Jaebum wrapped his arm around Jinyoung’s shoulders, leaning into him just enough to let his forehead rest on the top of the other’s head for a moment. Mark looked away as his best friend’s lips curled into a cool, relaxed smile.

Jinyoung and Jaebum’s subdued public affection had never bothered him before. No one’s had, really. Couples were going to be couples. He knew that. But now, what with finding his soulmate and then being separated almost immediately and all, Mark was a little more sensitive to everything. Even the smallest thing could remind him of Jackson. And when he thought of Jackson, Mark’s heart ached a little.

It was stupid, really. He barely even knew Jackson. They’d spent less than 5 hours together and already he was all Mark could think about. He blamed the greens and now reds that started littering his vision. An always-present reminder of what could have been, if it weren’t for the distance.

“Don’t look now,” Youngjae whispered as he casually slid into step next to Mark, “but I think there’s someone following you. It looks like she’s recording.”

Mark sighed. He’d be surprised if it weren’t for the fact that some of Jackson’s more intense fans had already decided to follow him around Taiwan the whole week he was there. Still, someone recognizing him in the States was a little unexpected. Who knew the impact of getting pushed in the airport could be so life-changing.

“It feels weird not saying anything,” Youngjae added. “Should I say something to her?” Mark just shook his head, keeping his eyes locked on the floor in front of him to avoid making eye contact with anyone else. Having one person following them wasn’t bad, but Mark didn’t want anyone else recognizing him. Not with his friends around. They didn’t deserve the chaos.

This must have been how Jackson felt, Mark thought, trying to protect him from the spotlight. A smirk slipped onto Mark’s face as he thought about how sweet yet utterly hopeless Jackson’s attempts to protect him were. As long as they were connected, Mark would be in the spotlight. He knew that now. It was something he was still coming to terms with.

His friends, on the other hand, didn’t have to be. They could stay out of it. “Hey, tell Jinyoung and Jaebum that you guys should go to the car. Just drive it up to the door. I’ll grab my bag and meet you guys outside.” Youngjae shot him a confused look. It was a pretty strange sounding request, especially from someone who hadn’t seen his friends in over a week. “I’ll explain in the car,” Mark added.

It felt weird, asking his friends to pick him up when they were already parked and inside. But when he turned the corner into the baggage claim area, Mark was relieved he’d sent them away. A small group of girls who clearly weren’t waiting for luggage milled around, smartphones ready in hand.

By the time he crawled into the backseat of Jaebum’s firetruck red Jeep ten minutes later, the sound of screaming and giggling was ringing in Mark’s ears.

“What was all that?” Jaebum asked as they drove away from the still-screaming mob of girls, glancing back at Mark through the rearview mirror.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess they just found out I was flying in today. I didn’t really expect them to be here, or else I would’ve told you guys to stay home.”

“Why?” Jinyoung asked.

“I don’t want to put you guys through all that,” Mark said. “It gets super tiring and you have nothing to do with Jackson, so how is putting you through that fair?”

“I don’t mind a bunch of girls hanging around, taking my picture,” Jaebum said, which earned him another swift punch in the arm from Jinyoung. He just snickered in response, his plan to get a rise out of his boyfriend clearly working.

“Don’t worry about us, Mark,” Jinyoung continued. “We’re big kids. We can handle ourselves.”

When they got back to their apartment, the three spent the rest of the day bothering Mark for more details, asking him question after question about what happened at the airport and how he felt and what it was like saying goodbye to a celebrity. They soaked in every last detail they possibly could, hearing everything there was to tell. Well, everything except the seeing-color-soulmates bit. That was something just for Jinyoung’s ears. As much as Mark trusted Jaebum and Youngjae, it wasn’t something he wanted to tell everyone just yet. But he still needed to talk through everything, so, naturally, Jinyoung was who he went to.

But even after Mark had herded him into his bedroom and spilled, Jinyoung didn’t seem surprised. “Your mom told me,” he said.

Of course she did. If there was one thing Mark absolutely couldn’t understand, it was why she told Jinyoung anything and everything about Mark. He had a sneaking suspicion that, despite Jinyoung and Jaebum already being set-in-stone, perfectly-made-for-each-other, seeing-the-whole-rainbow soulmates for three years now, his mom wanted Jinyoung as her son-in-law.

“She was just worried about you,” he added, noticing the slight grimace that spread across Mark’s face. “She wants to make sure that you don’t get hurt by some celebrity just because the system says you’re meant to be together.”

Sweet, yet infuriating. “I know she doesn’t exactly trust my judgement in guys, Jinyoung,” Mark sighed. “It’s pretty clear. And I’ll admit, I haven’t exactly had the greatest track record. Besides, we both know she’s never going to think anyone’s good enough unless it’s you.”

“Never gonna happen,” Jinyoung laughed.

“Hey, you’re not exactly some hot catch either.”

“I’m sure Jaebum would disagree with that,” Jinyoung teased, wiggling his eyebrows at Mark. Before either of them could get another word in, Mark’s text tone sounded from the other room. He hadn’t even realized he’d left his phone there. Without even thinking, Mark jumped to his feet, pushing Jinyoung over in the process, and shuffled to his phone.

852Puppy: I see you arrived safe and sound. ;)

Attached to the message was a picture of Mark from the airport earlier, standing by the baggage claim carousel and looking way more exhausted than he’d actually felt.

SilenT93: Yup. Got in a couple hours ago.

SilenT93: And wow. Way to pick a bad pic. :P

SilenT93: Where did you even find that?

He sort of regretted sending that last message. Not knowing where these pictures ended up was probably the smarter choice. But it was too late now. Mark walked back into his room, not bothering to close the door behind him, and collapsed onto the bed.

“Isn’t it like five in the morning over there?” Jinyoung asked. He was still sitting on the floor, but he’d leaned back on his hands, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Why is Jackson awake?”

“Who says it’s Jackson?” Mark asked.

“Oh please. As if you’d hold on to your phone like that for anyone else.” Mark hadn’t even noticed he was still clutching his phone. He loosened his grip a bit, letting the phone slide down just enough to rest on the bed but still sit easily within his reach. Just in case.

When Mark didn’t answer him, Jinyoung just sighed. They both sat there for a few moments, staring at the ceiling in complete silence, before Mark’s text tone went off again. That was enough for Jinyoung to get up and head toward the door. “We’ll talk more later,” he said, giving Mark a cautious once-over that the other didn’t even see before walking out of the room.

852Puppy: I got tagged in it. My fans are everywhere, you know. ;)

852Puppy: I’m a little hurt you didn’t text me when you landed.

. Mark knew he’d forgotten something. Seeing his friends waiting for him had caught him off guard, then their teasing and the people taking pictures of him had been overwhelming.

SilenT93: I meant to. I just got surprised by everything.

852Puppy: Hehe I was just kidding around. You’re okay. That’s all that matters.

852Puppy: So what have you been up to?

852Puppy: Besides missing me.

Mark felt heat take over his face. They didn’t need to say that they missed each other. Both of them already knew. But he still got embarrassed when Jackson brought it up, which he did. A lot.

SilenT93: Just hanging out with my roommates. Answering tons of questions.

852Puppy: Ohhhhh about me?

SilenT93: Yeah, mostly.

SilenT93: What are you doing up so early, btw?

852Puppy: We’ve got a music show today, so early start.

852Puppy: But I got up extra early to check in with you. ;)

All it took was a cheesy little message to get his heart racing. Mark’s past crushes had never been able to get a reaction out of him this easily. How did suddenly seeing the world in limited color change how he reacted to innocent flirting in such an extreme way?

Maybe it was because seeing the whole world in a different way made him a different person. Maybe he’d changed.

852Puppy: I thought you looked great in those pictures, by the way.

852Puppy: I may or may not have saved a few...

Or maybe Jackson was just different from anyone else that Mark had ever met before. Different in the most breathtaking way.

Woo! This one was a fairly quick write for me once I got the time to sit down and just jam away. And we got the first taste of Jaebum, Jinyoung and Youngjae! That's pretty exciting. They got a little bit of screen time in this chapter, but I'll definitely be looking to make them slightly more prominent in the next few Mark POV chapters.

Let me know what you thought of them in the comments. Next chapter we'll see BamBam and Yugyeom, so anticipate that! I'll give you a little sneak peek: There's gonna be some ultra-charismatic BamBam, so look forward to that.

Also, quick shout out to seitsemannen for letting me know that I'm not the only one who's certifiably obsessed with the boys' "This Love" cover. We most definitely have a problem. XD If you haven't watched it yet, oh man, you definitely need to. Go do it now. Do it.