Gift for chocobanana

Gift from ???

Title of the gift: I Like You Too

Pairing(s): Mark and Jinyoung

How many words: 2,202

Rating: PG

Warnings: None

Note to my giftee: I hope you will like it, sorry if the title sounds lame. And Merry Christmas!

I Like You Too

Chapter 1 (final)

Jinyoung sighs loudly for the umpteenth time. He sends glares across the library to a group of students being too loud. They; of course, don’t notice him and continue on with their banter. Jinyoung finds it hard to believe why the librarian hasn’t told them to pipe down or leave.

Then again, the group of kids are members of the basketball team and they’re kind of a big deal around the school. And now that he recalls it, he has seen the librarian cheering for them at the few games he’s been dragged to go to by his friends. He sighs again because he’s now sure that the librarian won’t tell them anything. Trying to block out the noise, Jinyoung goes back to studying for his math class.

Every once in a while, he stares at the table where they assemble around. He looks at one of them in particular. Mark Tuan, the basketball team’s point guard, the school’s star player laughing at whatever his friends are saying. His smile showing all his perfectly white teeth is what draws Jinyoung in even though he doesn’t want it to. Mark’s laugh rings in his ears, sounding so mesmerizing that he wishes he could hear it all day.

Jinyoung blinks his eyes and shakes his head. He falls out of his daydreaming of the school’s point guard. He positions his glasses correctly and focuses again on his notes. How he wished the group would just leave and let him be in peace. He’ll admit that he has an unwilling crush on Mark. Ever since he had the other for Physical Education class, the American native never left Jinyoung’s mind.

Jinyoung thought that it was cute how Mark sounded with his accented Korean (he had only been living in Korea for a few years and still had trouble learning the language). So whenever they had class, he would sit around where Mark would hang out with his friends and listen to him talk. Call him a little weird, Jinyoung doesn’t care. It’s not like he ever acted upon his feelings, heaven forbid something like that would happen. Jinyoung would prefer to stay out of the spotlight as long as he can because being rejected by Mark would surely cause a scene. And who was he kidding, why would Mark want to go out with him, hell did he even like guys? Jinyoung wanted to save himself the embarrassment and the bullying if people were to find out. Not that he’s ashamed of being who he is, it’s just that not everyone has come to terms with same couples.

Jinyoung breaks out of his thoughts and looks to see the now empty table where the basketball team was at. He looks around the quiet building but sees no sign of them. They probably left when he wasn’t paying attention and he tries to finish studying before his mom comes and picks him up. He wouldn’t have to wait for his parents to pick him up, he has a licence, but he crashed his car into a lamppost and that resulted in getting his licence confiscated and working at his parent’s restaurant on the weekends to pay for the damages. Jinyoung curses in his head about the day of the incident. He regrets being too engrossed with 2PM’s Promise (I’ll Be) song to notice on time about a dog walking across the street.

When he did notice, it was too late for him to brake so he revved around it and he lost control of the car and next thing he knew, his car struck the lamppost. Thankfully he wasn’t severely hurt, just a couple bumps and bruises but his parents didn’t care. His mom hit him on the head while his dad cursed him out, saying that he was irresponsible and didn’t deserve his license.

So until he was able to pay off the damages of the car and if his parents thought he was ready to have his license back, he was stuck with his parents driving him around.

Jinyoung looked at the time on his phone. He had an hour and a half left until his mom came to pick him up. All thoughts of Mark left his mind and he concentrated on his notes.

When Jinyoung was back at home, he went straight to his room and his computer. He went through his social media, watched a couple videos on YouTube and then decided to log into this chat room he found and few months back.  He logs in and notices that Youngjae is on too. They chat for a bit; Youngjae makes corny jokes that only he would find hilarious while Jinyoung rolls his eyes at his friend’s stupidity. Yugyeom also joins the chat along with Bambam and the four throw insults at each other.

Jinyoung decides to call it quits but when he moves his mouse to logout, he gets a notification that someone has messaged him.

NBA_from_LA: Hi

Jinyoung reads the one, two letter word. Question marks float around his head as he tries to figure out who this person is. No one in particular comes to his mind though. He doesn't feel like replying back since he doesn't know who the person is. He makes his way to logout when he receives another message.

NBA_from_LA: Whatcha doin’?

Jinyoung rolls his eyes at the message.

“Is he some kind of creeper or what?”

JYPark: ...who are you?

Jinyoung hits send and waits for the person to reply. It takes a few seconds and then there's a reply.

NBA_from_LA: Someone from school.^^

“What the hell?” Jinyoung glares at the computer screen and types away.

JYPark: okay, “someone from school”. What do you want?

NBA_from_LA: Talk

JYPark: About what?

NBA_from_LA: I don’t know… anything.

Jinyoung sighs and runs his hands through his hair. He hates how vague this guy is being. He just logs out without replying back. He turns off his computer and thinks that it’s time to go to sleep even though it’s still kind of early.

The blaring noise of his alarm wakes Jinyoung up from his sleep. He does his daily routine to get ready for school and he’s out of the house with at least 20 minutes to get to school. He meets Youngjae in front of a PC Bang that the younger often goes to. Judging by the constant yawns and bags under Youngjae’s eyes, Jinyoung concludes that he was there until way late last night.

As they reach the school, they are met with Yugyeom and Bambam at the school’s gates. The group of four talk nonstop about games, comic books, etc. The bell rings meaning that it’s time to go to class. Jinyoung makes his way to class with his ears occupied listening to his music. He doesn’t take notice at anything until he reaches his desk. When he looks up, he turns to the right and there sitting next to him is Mark.

He blinks several times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. He checks to see if he didn’t walk into the wrong class but he didn’t. What the hell is Mark doing in his Math class. Upon further investigation, Jinyoung sees that not only is Mark here but a lot of other students that he doesn’t recognize are here too. As if Mark caught on that he was being stared at, he turns and looks at Jinyoung.

Mark smiles at him and Jinyoung is quick to look away. Now he feels eyes on him and he is forever grateful for his teacher to come in at that point. Mr. Lee walks in along with Mrs. Kwon and the two explain why the students from another class are here as well. Mrs. Kwon’s classroom is under construction because someone thought that is would be a fun joke to put red paint all over her desk, the students’ desks, and everywhere else. Said someone was a pissed off student because Mrs. Kwon failed him. And Mr. Lee was kind enough to let Mrs. Kwon’s students come in.

“Since I don’t feel like doing anything today, we’re gonna watch a movie.” Mr. Lee said and he set up the projector and put on a movie. The students from both classes cheered and put the desks together to either talk to their friends or watch the movie better.

Jinyoung makes a face and asks Mr. Lee if he can go to the library. The teacher writes him a note and he makes his way out of the room. As he walks to the library his thoughts take him to Mark. The smile that Jinyoung was graced with is etched in his mind and he too, smiles himself.

He shows the librarian his pass when he gets there and makes his way to a table by the windows. He checks his phone when he sits and goes through the texts his friends send him (they don’t care if it’s class time) and he replies to them and he also checks the notifications that he’s gotten. The chatroom on his computer also has a mobile version and it says that the guy from yesterday messaged him.

He thought about not looking but curiosity got the best of him.

NBA_from_LA: Good morning, saw you in class today.

Jinyoung’s eyes go wide in shock. The guy was in his class. He takes note of his classmates; there’s Hoseok, but he and Taehyung are dating so he’s out. Then there’s Jongin but he’s dating Krystal who is also in his class, so they are both out. Jinyoung shakes his head at the thought of either Namjoon or Sehun since those two are always asleep in class. He marks everyone off his mental list of possible suspects and is back at the starting point. He thinks about Mrs. Kwon’s class but nobody comes to mind. Well except Mark, but that would be impossible.

As the thought comes Jinyoung stops in his tracks. He looks at the username again. ‘NBA stands for National Basketball Association and LA means Los Angeles which is in California which is in the U.S.’ Jinyoung eyes widen again. ‘Mark plays basketball and he’s from the U.S’

He starts to get a little excited as he thinks that maybe it could be Mark but stops himself all of a sudden. He never heard where exactly in the U.S. Mark was from. Jinyoung frowns but nevertheless decides to reply back.

JYPark: Is this Mark Tuan?

As Jinyoung sent the message, butterflies whirl around in his stomach. Time ticks s he waits for a reply. A sound goes off indicating that a message was sent and the librarian shushes Jinyoung since it was loud. He hurries to lower the volume and checks the message.

NBA_from_LA: Hi Jinyoung, how’d you know?

JYPark: I may know a lot about science and math formulas but I do have a life outside of school. I know what NBA  stands for and you’re the only one from the U.S. that I know.

NBA_from_LA: Hehe...sorry did not mean to offend. So I was wondering…

Jinyoung looks at the half-written message. He wonders why Mark trialed off. He’s paying too much attention to his phone that he doesn't hear the chair sliding out. He does; however, pay attention to someone kicking his feet.

“Hey, watch-” He pauses mid-sentence and blushes lightly. Mark is sitting across from him.

“Sorry about that.” Mark apologies.

“No, that’s okay.” Jinyoung’s mind goes black and he has no idea what to do. It was much easier to talk to Mark through messaging but face-to-face, not so much.

It’s quiet between the two of them with Jinyoung staring at his phone.

“So...um...I was wondering…” Mark stammers a bit. This time Jinyoung braves himself to look. Mark is looking elsewhere with his hand caressing his neck. He’s nervous is what Jinyoung notes.

“I was wondering…”

By this time Jinyoung is annoyed by the three words now.

“Wondering what?” He asks.

“Will you…”

“Will I what?”

“Go out with me?” Mark says this so softly that Jinyoung hardly heard it.    

“What?”

Mark sighs and looks straight at Jinyoung. “Will you go out with me?” Mark says again, this time clearly and with more confidence. Jinyoung is beyond surprised, more like shocked.

“I like you and I have liked you for a while now. I just never had the courage to ask you out until now.” Mark explains. Jinyoung is speechless; in his mind he’s saying yes but his mouth feels like it’s sewn tight. Mark also liked him back and he’s way overjoyed.

With the silence, Mark took that as an answer. “Sorry if this was too sudden, you probably don’t like me. Sorry again, I’m gonna go.” Mark stood up ready to leave and that’s when Jinyoung broke out of his statue-like state.

“Wait!” He yelled and grabbed Mark’s hand. The librarian shushed him again. Mark looked back at him; eyes wide.

“I like you too.” Jinyoung said.

“Really?” Mark asked, to which Jinyoung just nodded his head.  

Overjoyed as well Mark goes around the table and hugs Jinyoung tightly.

“So where should we go on our first date?” Jinyoung asks.