Kokorana finally stood and said, “Let’s just finish cooking.” 
She became quiet and Mark wondered if she was going to be okay. He helped her set the table and all three of them sat down and ate. Mark watched as both Rae and Kokorana ate in silence. Usually when they ate, there was always talking and laughter. Even though he enjoyed the silence a bit, he also enjoyed the playful banter between the girls. Rae fidgeted a bit and finally spoke up. 
“Koko I’m still not sure how I feel on the whole issue...but if you think everything will be fine and that there won’t be a problem then I guess he can come. This house is as much yours as it is mine. ” 
He? Mark thought, was this what their fight was about? Kokorana looked up with a smile on her face. She excused herself from the table and went to make a call. 
Mark played with his food on his plate, waiting and wondering when someone would tell him what was going on. As Mark watched Rae; he started to think about what they could have possibly been arguing about. Rae was used to being right 99.98% of the time and trusting her gut. Maybe she had a bad feeling about what was going to happen and so they fought. As if she could read Marks mind she shifted her eyes to him and sighed. 
“Koko has a friend she known before she move here to Korea, they pretty much grew up together. Well he fell into a wrong group and ended up getting injured. She wants to fly him out here so he can have a new start. She says he's really nice and loveable but he just fell on some hard times. I have my doubts because I have a bad feeling...like his past will catch up to him. I dont want me or Kokorana caught in the middle of anything that could get us hurt.” Mark just gave her a questionable look as he studied her face. She was hiding more than she was letting on. 
Kokorana came back into the room, smiling wide.
“He took my offer and will be here at the end of the week, I’m flying out in two days to get him myself.” 
Mark wasn’t a person who really cared to get into anyone's business, but for the safety of the girls he knew he need to talk to Kokorana. They finished their dinner and Mark offered to clean the dishes. As he was cleaning the dishes, Kokorana busied herself with site searches and phone calls to book a flight, while Rae was buried in her laptop as usual. Mark joined the girls in the living room and turned the TV on. As he zoned out from the television, something suddenly occurred to him. There was only three rooms and “His” was the spare. He thought he should probably ask about the situation. 
“Where will he be sleeping, I know the spare isn’t really my room but that's where I keep my stuff, and I practically live here.” 
Rae turned her head to glare at Kokorana and muttered something under her breath. Koko look at Mark with a sincere look on her face; “I guess we need to discuss this. Let’s go in my room.” Mark followed behind Kokorana to her room where she sat on her bed with her face looking down. He stood up against the wall that was cover with posters from some of her favorite groups. She suddenly stood up, her hands fidgeting a bit. She gave Mark a serious look. “See, the thing is, I know that you almost live here and this place is as much of your place as mine, but I was hoping it would be okay if you two just shared a room....” 
Was she really asking him if he cared to share the room with someone he's never meet and as if this house was his? There were times he helped pay for food or even bills just because he had the extra cash but this wasn’t his house why should he even care? But she was still asking, so it seemed she cared a lot about his opinion. 
“You know how I feel about new people but if you want to tell me a bit about this guy, then I might consider sharing the room.” Even though she knew he would allow this new person share the room, he like pushing Kokorana buttons. She grinned, knowing exactly what he was doing but went along with it anyways. Kokorana pulled him to the bed and they sat up against the wall. 
“His name is Jackson. He’s loud and very talkative. I met him at a park when I was little and I fell and ended up scratching my knee, he ran over to see if I was okay and even when I said I was okay he was so worried that he ran around the park yelling at all the adults until he found someone that would help me. I ended up being classmates with him in middle school and we became inseparable. I found out that he actually just lived down the street from me. When we became freshman he became a national fencer for our country. We slowly grew apart since he was always busy and I became a hermit and stayed inside a lot. Senior year came faster than I expected and entrance exams were around the corner. I had my own apartment by then and one night I got a knock on the door and it was Jackson. We ended up talking all night and he kept telling me sorry he wasn’t spending time with me and he wanted to save our friendship. I had agreed and a week later he moved in with me. Things started looking up and we finished high school and both got into good colleges. In senor year of college I got a job offer to move to Korea and I couldn’t pass it up. Jackson thought it would be a great experience and promised me he would be joining me in Korea when he was done with school.” 
She started tearing up and Mark held her and told her if she wanted to stop talking he would wait until she was ready. “No, I’m fine, anyways where was I? So, a month later I moved here and that’s when I met Rae. She took me in and helped me adjust to the culture and we became friends. Over the years I kept in contact with Jackson. I learned he had dropped out of college and concentrated on his fencing. Well, one day he broke his shoulder, which forced him to quit fencing. He tried finishing college but was really depressed and started hanging around the wrong crowd. He lost the apartment and was struggling to make ends meet. I kept offering to send him money and he said that he would get himself out of the situation he was in.” Her face was cover in tears and Mark wiped them away as they fell. 
Mark decided it was time to end the conversation. He didn’t like seeing either of the girls crying. “Okay, I'll share the room, it would be nice to have another guy around anyways. You say he’s a good person, so I'll trust your judgement. Though, if anything happens to you or Rae I will hurt him and you won’t know who I am anymore.” He spoke, mostly joking. Mark wasn't particularly the violent type, but he believed that if necessary, he could step up. Kokorana started laughing herself, “You hurting someone? Please! Plus, this guy is twice your size and can crush you alone with his thigh muscles. Although Jackson is pretty much a big teddy bear, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Kokorana glanced at her nightstand clock and noted to Mark that it was getting late and she should get some sleep. Mark kissed Kokorana forehead, sentimentally, and saw himself out of the room.
    Mark walked into the living room and saw Rae staring grumpily at her computer screen. He sat next to her and looked over her shoulder. “What’s wrong? Anything I can help with?” 
Rae seem to be in her own world, so Mark repeated the question. She sighed and push her laptop off her lap and onto the coffee table. “No not really, just trying to figure out the boys schedule for next week. Both Injun and Hwanyoul are going to be on vacation with their families and Chaebin is going to be a backup dancer for another group. I need to get them all together so I can get them to debut by the end of the year.” Rae closed her eyes and thought how this has been the hardest group for her to train. All of them were busy with other projects, they were good when she saw them all together but if they wanted to debut as a group they needed more practices as a whole and not units. This was going the group that she had been working on for the last seven years. They were still babies but she believe they were talented enough to debut. 
“Want a rub before I leave? I know how stressed you get and how much you love rubs.” Rae quickly turned around so her back was facing Mark. 
After helping her relax, Mark showed himself out an headed home. He decided things were a bit too tense for him to stay the night there that night. Mark started to wonder if letting Kokorana go alone to get her friend was a good idea. He didn’t trust this guy much, even if Koko did. As soon as he was home, he logged on to his laptop to search for tickets on the same flight as Kokorana.  He didn’t want to argue with her about it, so he decided it was best to leave it as a 'surprise'. A successful purchase screen was the last thing he remembered before passing out.