Mark inched back in his seat ever so slightly, Jackson naturally leaned forward to close the space again.

“Uhm-“ Mark breathed, his face confused yet hopeful.

Just then the final bell rang, it nearly knocked Mark off the chair with how sudden it was.

Jackson withdrew his placed hand, then turned away as if had just been caught doing something he shouldn’t’ve been doing.

“I’m going to head home, actually. I am getting tired.” Mark told the quiet boy. “We will still see each other tomorrow, though, alright? The library door will lock behind you.”

Jackson nodded, he was still a little startled by the loud noise of the bell, but he said nothing as Mark gathered his things and left the library.

*

The next day during lunch break Mark found himself at Mr. Burret’s door pacing anxiously.

“Can I help you?” the principal asked as he returned from his break. He jingled a few keys and unlocked the door, offering Mark a seat by his desk.

Mark sat down quickly and waited for Mr. Burret to find his own, meanwhile his leg bounced up and down furiously.

“Something the matter, Mark?” he asked, eyeing the unusually fidgety boy.

“This new guy, Jackson. What’s his deal?” Mark shot out, looking straight at him.

Mr. Burret chuckled and then leaned back into his leather chair, “Why, is something the matter? Did he do something?”

Mark leaned back into the chair and looked away, “No. It’s not that. I’m just curious I guess. He’s picked up English really well, I guess I’m just surprised.”

“Don’t be. Jackson comes from a very prestigious school in Hong Kong. He was even on the junior Olympic team for fencing. He has a very impressive resume, Mark.” He explained, “Reminds me a lot of you, actually.”

“I see…” Mark said, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

“If you’d like, I can assign a different guide to Jackson. I know you’re a very busy kid with all of these extra circulars. Must be challenging for you.” He offered, picking his phone up.

“No no-“ Mark insisted, already picking himself up and out of the chair. “It’s fine. I was just curious. Jackson is an awesome learner. We should be okay.” he spit out, dashing out the door.

Today Mark was scheduled to show Jackson the gym, locker rooms, and track field. He figured Jackson would be comfortable with it, now that he knew the boy was an ex Olympic athlete.

“Hi. How are you?” Jackson said in a low and polite voice as he approached, he bowed slightly, his English was choppy but definitely improving. This was the homework Mark had given him a few days prior: he needed to practice engaging people in light conversation by greeting them.

“I’m doing very well, and yourself?” Mark said, looking up at him.

“Good.” Jackson said with a smile.

 The boy was wearing a loose pair of black silk basketball shorts, a wristband, and a white tank top that hugged his body nicely.

Mark did his best not to focus on anything but the lesson, but every so often his eyes would practically force themselves in Jackson’s direction, staring directly at the boy’s round shoulders, his strong calves, and his thick arms.

“Okay, here are a list of the words we’re going to go over today.” Mark said, handing a stack of sticky notes over to Jackson.

“Ball… sports… gym… locker-room…” Jackson began mouthing to himself.

“Today we’re going to start off at the track field. That’s where a lot of our school’s sports teams meet.” Mark explained. “Looks like you’re dressed for that.”

Jackson looked up at Mark and smirked, almost as if he knew that Mark was checking him out.

Mark’s palms got sweaty and he suddenly felt completely nervous. “Yeah, okay. Just follow me then.”

Jackson’s smirk let out a small puff of a laugh, clearly happy with himself. He followed Mark through the field.

“I guess you’re a bit of an athlete yourself, aren’t you Jackson?” Mark said, trying to focus on anything but the sweat that was currently pooling on Jackson’s lower neck.

“Hm?” the other boy hummed. “Ath..lete?” he quipped.

“Yeah. You play sports, don’t you?” Mark repeated.

Jackson’s lower lip pouted a little, “No.” he shook his head.

Mark was confused. He remembered what Mr. Burret had said earlier about Jackson being a flawless and impressive athlete, and that he was even on the national team for China in fencing. He decided to ignore it for the time being.

“Oh, well in any case, if you ever do decide to join a team, this is most likely where you will have practices. You should get used to the words.” Mark told him.

The boys wandered around the field, Mark pointed out benches, fences, hurdles, soccer balls, anything that they came across, meanwhile Jackson made mental notes of everything.

“I guess I’ll show you the gym and the showers now. It’s getting pretty hot out here.” Mark huffed, his forehead was riddled with sweat.

“Hot.” Jackson whispered, his hair was matted with small beads of sweat and his skin was glistening against the sun. “Yes, hot.”

Mark led them towards the inside of the gymnasium. Inside it was a lot cooler, the air conditioning was on and there were a few people playing volleyball.

“This is where you’ll have P.E. class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.” Mark told him, "Do you remember how to get here?"

Jackson wasn’t answering; he was busy watching the people play, his eyes following them carefully.

“Jackson?” Mark questioned.

“Sorry.” Jackson said politely, scurrying back to Mark.

“It’s okay. Do you want me to show you the showers now?” Mark said, gesturing towards the entrance.

Jackson smiled and held his arm out for Mark to lead the way.

The two entered the men’s locker room through the front area. The walls and floor were covered in blue and white tile, the school’s colors. Every locker had a four digit number on it and was a pale grey color.

“Here is where you’ll change, shower, get dressed, etc.” Mark informed him, as the two walked through the room.

“Et-setra?” Jackson mumbled with a squint, stopping in his tracks.

“Oh, heh.” Mark laughed, “Umm, how can I explain this. It’s sort of like… ‘so-on-and-so-forth?’”

Jackson’s expression didn’t change, if anything he looked more confused.

Mark chewed down on his lip and did his best to figure out how he could explain it, while he did this Jackson slowly walked through the locker room listening.

Mark trailed behind him and fumbled through his definition, “Well, etcetera is usually abbreviated into etc, which basically means that it’s shortened for the sake of being quicker and easier to say. Just like abbreviations, etcetera is also convenient to use because it also gets a point across quickly without having to spend a lot of time on the rest of the items in a list. So for example, when you count from one to ten, you’re basically just saying one… two… three… four… five… etcetera. Anyone who knows how to count is going to know what comes after five and so-on-and-so-forth. So for the sake of being quick and to the point, we just say etcetera and that usually gets the point across. Furthermore, when you-“

Mark stopped when he finally realized where he was, he had followed Jackson directly into the shower room. Without wasting another moment, Jackson’s hand flew up and landed right next to Mark’s face, trapping the boy against the wall.

“Shhhh…” Jackson breathed heavily, his mouth only inches from Mark’s, making the other boy shiver. “You talk too much, Mark.”

“Jackson?” Mark questioned in a low and gentle whisper.

“I’m sorry if I’m being so… forward. It’s just… I couldn’t take it anymore.” Jackson hummed. “I thought this was going to be a cake walk, but I was wrong.”

“I knew it…” Mark said with a growing realization coming over his face. “Your English is perfect.”

“Well, it’s no where near as good as yours, but yeah, it’s not so bad that I needed you to help me with it at all.” Jackson said with a light giggle, “Which is exactly why I needed it to be horrible.”

“Why would you go through all that trouble, just to skip a few classes and have people think you’re a complete foreigner?” Mark pressed. “I know you’re a perfect student, or at least you were at your old school. Weren’t you?”

“No where near as perfect as you.” Jackson said, tilting his head to get a better look at Mark’s face. Mark was sinking back into the tile of the shower wall, feeling Jackson’s pulsing gaze on him.

“You’re an athlete too… aren’t you?” Mark said very quietly.

“I used to be. I gave that up a while ago.” Jackson said, releasing his grip from the wall. He turned away from Mark.

“Why put on this act then, what’s going on?” Mark said, intrigued now.

Jackson snickered, “I wasn’t lying the other day when I said that I like you. I thought you’d catch on, silly. Now it’s all awkward.” Jackson scratched his head and let out a defeated laugh.

Mark went silent, he blushed without saying a single word.

“I know, seems pretty dumb to do all of this just to talk to a cute guy, but you have no idea how hard it was at my last school. Everyone was always treating me like I was some sort of celebrity. When I switched schools and saw that you would be the one showing me around, I knew I needed to find a way to get you to stick around.”

Although the entire scenario was a bit odd to Mark, he sort of understood Jackson’s situation – it was one that he knew all too well.

“I know, how stupid.” Jackson scoffed.

“No-“ Mark said quickly, “I get it. That’s really sweet of you, actually.”

There was a brief pause between the two boys, Jackson turned back to face Mark.

“You get it?” he asked with a solemn glance.

Mark exhaled, “Yeah. I do. It’s been the same for me at this school. A lot of the time people that want to date me are just doing it because of who they think I am, they haven’t even had a chance to talk to me.”

Jackson lightened up and took another step towards Mark. Mark didn’t back away.

“You know, I wasn’t exactly annoyed when I found out I would be showing you around, like how I usually am when I get assigned these things.” Mark’s shy demeanor was replaced by a certain scared confidence. “I thought you were so hot.”

“Yeah?” Jackson asked, wanting to hear more.

“Yeah. Even though you didn’t say much, every moment with you was torture. I wanted to get to know you.” Mark said, looking deeply into Jackson’s eyes.

Jackson was the first to extend an arm forward, bridging the small space between the two. The sounds of students playing outside suddenly got louder, Jackson’s arm froze, his hand resting delicately on Mark’s waist.

“I want to kiss you.” Jackson said lowly, almost in a whisper.

“Do you think they’ll hear?” Mark leaned forward, took Jackson’s free hand, then placed it on his other hip.

“Probably.” Jackson gulped. The two were inches apart.

Mark could feel the hot but sweet puffs of air coming from Jackson’s mouth as their foreheads leaned into each other.

Jackson placed a small and tender peck against Mark’s cheekbone, making the boy close his eyes.

“Mr. Burret doesn’t know you speak English, does he?” Mark asked, eyes still closed.

Jackson’s breathing was heavy as he placed small but hungry kisses against Mark’s lower jaw and neck. “No, he doesn’t.” he answered between breaths. “Why?”

A tense and sharp moan escaped from Mark’s mouth, his lips were parted as Jackson nibbled into him.

“Shhh, Mark.” Jackson giggled quietly.

Mark bit down on his lower lip, stifling any more sounds that could’ve came out.

“If he doesn’t know,” Mark began to whisper, “Then that means I can still tutor you.”

“You don’t need to do that for me, Mark.” Jackson said, dragging his lips to the other side of Mark’s chin.

“I want you-“ Mark spit out, “I mean- I want to. I want to do that.”

Jackson smiled through his kisses.

“You’re the best tutor, I swear.” Jackson mumbled as he planted one last kiss on Mark’s collarbone. “But we should get going before Phys Ed is over and this place is flooded with people.”

Mark cleared his throat and quickly fixed his shirt and wiped his pants free of wrinkles. “You’re right.”

As Jackson made for the door, leaving Mark behind, he turned around with a cocky grin, “Whataya say we change the location of our usual meeting spot?”

Mark smiled back, “Where did you have in mind?”

“How about here? Same time each week? I won’t tell if you won’t.” Jackson offered.

“Deal. ” Mark answered. “I’ll have a lesson plan ready. It’ll be our secret.”

“Ah-“ Jackson paused, “Mark, what.. does… ‘secret’ mean? Gonna need a sticky note hun.”