“Good morning Mark,” Youngjae said in the middle of making eggs when he saw his roommate for what felt like the first time in a week.  “…morning Jinyoung.”  Youngjae added as Jinyoung trailed out of Mark’s room behind him seconds later.

Mark worked a lot; he was usually gone before Youngjae was up and came back after Youngjae was asleep.  That was part of the reason Jinyoung started practically living there, since he usually only ever got to see him late into the night and by that time he didn’t even bother going home.

He only agreed to live with Mark, adding Jinyoung to the mix had made his life a bit more intolerable.  Of course, Jinyoung loved Youngjae (sometimes a bit too much) but when all three of them together they unintentionally made him feel like a permanent third wheel.  It seemed to get worse every day.

“Good morning Youngjae!”  Jinyoung said as soon as he saw him, sneaking up behind him and hugging him from the back.  “I hope you made some eggs for me too.”

“I’m only making eggs for people who actually live here.” Youngjae replied nonchalantly and Jinyoung looked at him offended.

Mark just giggled at his boyfriend’s fake distress. “Don’t worry Jinyoungie, if you want eggs I’ll make you some.”

“Really?  You’d do that for little ole me?”  Jinyoung said as he walked over and put his arms around Mark, pressing their noses together.

“Of course, anything for my Jinyoungie.”  They both smiled goofily at each other before Mark started pressing puppy kisses all over Jinyoung’s face.

Youngjae suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore.

If there was a thing such as pre-newlywed newlywed mode Mark and Jinyoung were in that phase.  Youngjae wasn’t sure how much longer he could take them being absolutely gross around each other while he was in the room.

Youngjae cleared his throat extra loudly, hoping they would remember he was in the room and kindly detach themselves from each other before he actually threw up.  It seemed to do the trick.

Jinyoung was back at Youngjae’s side while Mark started getting more eggs.  “Hey Mark, did you know that Youngjae has a boyfriend now?”

“Ooh, a boyfriend?”  Great, now he has to dodge two people coddling him.  “I didn’t know you were interested in anyone.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend; I’m just going on dates.”  Youngjae clarified.

“Huh, you’re not dating Jackson yet?”  Jinyoung asked, genuinely surprised.

“Who’s Jackson?”  Mark butted in, and Youngjae was dreading trying to explain the whole situation.

“He’s just a guy who’s helping set me up on dates…” Youngjae tried to leave it there but Jinyoung had to continue.

“He’s really hot and I’m pretty sure he has a thing for Youngjae.” 

“He doesn’t.”  Youngjae clarified.

“You sure about that?  He is helping you out for no reason, and he likes climbing on top of you-“

Youngjae clamped a hand over Jinyoung’s mouth but it was too late.

“Wow, Youngjae, didn’t think you had it in you.  Found a hot guy right under my nose…”  Mark was kidding but that didn’t stop Youngjae from being beyond embarrassed.

“We’re just…”  Youngjae didn’t want to say ‘friends’ were they friends?  He didn’t consider Jackson his friend, but it’s not like they were strangers.  “We’re not dating; in fact, he’s setting me up with someone else today.”

“So that’s why you actually showered this morning!”  Jinyoung teased.

Mark laughed along with Jinyoung and Youngjae shoveled eggs into his mouth at record speed just so he could leave. 

“This guy, he’s not a creep or anything?”  Mark asked Jinyoung directly; obviously a little worried about Youngjae suddenly going on dates.

“Jackson?  He’s harmless; I even have his phone number if you want it.”

“When did you get his phone number?!” 

“I need to keep track of this guy, he’s officially spending enough time with you for me to know who he is.  If anything happens to you I’m calling him.”  Even his own mother wasn’t this protective.

“Jinyoungie, your eggs are ready!”  Mark said, presenting a plate to Jinyoung.

“Wow!  My hero!”  Jinyoung said as he dramatically accepted them, giving Mark more cheek kisses as he did so. 

“Be careful, they’re hot!”  Mark warned.

“Don’t worry, I have a lot of experience dealing with hot things, considering I have the hottest boyfriend alive.”  Jinyoung teased.

“I’m afraid that can’t be true, you’ve already taken that role.”  Mark rebutted.

 Jinyoung laughed at that.  “Oh really, when am I the hottest?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?”  Mark said, lowering his tone and smirking at Jinyoung.

“Yes, and I need all the details.”  Jinyoung was his lips, awaiting an answer.

“Woah! Still here, in case your forgot!”  Youngjae almost yelled.

“Oh, did you need something Youngjae?”  Jinyoung asked, not caring that he was still standing next to them.

“So, you’re sure this guy is normal?”  Youngjae asked as they met up at a very familiar place for Youngjae- a PC gaming café.

“This guy is a very close friend of mine!  I didn’t think you two would be a match before, but I know he’s into gaming and you’re into gaming so why not?”  Jackson was obviously not familiar with internet cafes, looking around like he had no idea what was going on.  “Is this food free?”

“No.”  Youngjae was slightly amused at how lost he looked.  For once, he felt like the expert.  “Are you going to be spying on me again?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll forget I’m here.”  He said and he shoved Youngjae off to the door.  “I see him now!”

“Wait, the one with the platinum blond hair?!”  Youngjae was hoping he meant someone else.  “And the Gucci jacket?”

“Don’t say that he’ll get upset.  I’m sure it’s Yves St. Laurent.  Anyways, I’m off good luck!”  Jackson said as he scrambled to get out of sight.

“Hey!”  Youngjae went up to him and greeted him with a smile.

“I’m guessing you’re Youngjae.”  He smiled back, reaching out to shake his hand.  Youngjae nodded.  “I’m Bambam.”

“Bambam?”  Youngjae didn’t mean to sound rude, but it came out before he could stop himself.  Luckily, he only laughed.

“I’m Thai, Bambam is kind of a nickname, since my real name is too hard to say.  At least you’re sure to never forget it.”   Colour Youngjae impressed, this guy didn’t seem half bad.

“I like it, it’s… cute.”  Youngjae knew that was incredibly lame and he was honoured by the pity laugh he got.

They settled into their seats and Bambam started talking his ear off about gaming and things.  It turned out he wasn’t quite as hardcore as Youngjae, but he did spend a lot of time casual gaming at least.  “What games are you good at?”

“Oh, Maplestory, Sudden Attack-“

“Let’s play something we’re both new at so it’s fair, a good idea, right?”  Youngjae had been excited to show off his skills, so he was slightly disappointed, but he wouldn’t complain.  “Sounds like a plan.”

“Have you ever played League of Legends?”  Bambam asked and Youngjae said no, even though he wasn’t entirely clueless about how the game worked.

Youngjae flipped through character select after joining Bambam’s room, trying to pick out which one had the easiest learning curve. 

“I’ll play as this slime guy!  He looks cool!”  Bambam locked in and was ready to start, Youngjae finally decided on some sort of female crossbow user that had easy enough skills.  That’s when he saw one of the users in the room with the name ‘852gamer’ and almost facepalmed at how obvious Jackson was being.  Bambam hadn’t noticed so he decided to let it slide.

The game started and Youngjae and Bambam got the gist quickly, but they still weren’t that great, even playing against computer players. “You take the top lane, I guess I’ll go to the bottom.”

“Huh, what’s this guy doing?”  One of their teammates seemed to be running in circles on home base, another teammate yelling at him in the chat already.  “Does he even know how to move?  Did he read the instructions?”

Ah yes, 852gamer, Youngjae was positive that even if he did read the instructions he wouldn’t have understood them. 

The minions started going down the lane and Jackson finally seemed to have found his footing, trying to follow Youngjae’s tower but instead walking past him and into a turret, drawing first blood by killing himself.  “What is this guy doing?!  He’s going to lose the game for us!”

Bambam1a: hey u!! do u kno how to play?????!

Ars333: …

tinMaster87: wtf are you doing 852

Youngjae doubted Jackson even cared what was going on in the game.  He at least figured out how to use the chat box eventually.

852gamer: ars!!! Look to the right!!

Nothing was happening on the right side of the screen, so he had no idea what he was talking about.

852gamer: Go in for the kill!

Again, there was nothing in his sights.

Ars333:  ??????

Jackson seemed to have given up on typing at that point, the game was almost finished anyways.  They managed to carry the team to a victory despite one team member dying forty times.

“That was fun,” Bambam said as he looked around the room.  “Shouldn’t have taken so long though, if only our teammates were actually helpful.” 

“Yeah.”  Youngjae said and the atmosphere became awkward for some reason. 

“I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t think we’re meant to be more than friends.”  Youngjae had almost forgotten this was a date.

“Oh, wait, what?”

“You’re a fun gaming partner but there’s no spark!  I mean, you didn’t even look at me for the past hour.”  Bambam put a hand on his knee.  “I’m sorry, I think you’re a nice guy though.”

“That’s…. fine.”  Youngjae wasn’t even upset, he had to agree.  The match hadn’t even been that fun, Bambam wasn’t great at talking about the game with him.

“I hope you don’t mind if I leave, I have somewhere I need to be.”  Bambam said as he grabbed a cup ramen off the shelf and headed out, leaving Youngjae much less disappointed than he thought he would be.  His peace and quiet, of course, was shortly ruined by one Jackson Wang.

“What was that?! You didn’t even try to flirt with him.”

“I was playing the game!”

“Didn’t you see my messages?!  I told you to look at him and go in for the kill!”  Oh. That whole time Jackson had been referring to real life.

“I thought you were talking about the game!”

“Why would I be talking about the game?! I know nothing about the game!”  They got so loud someone shushed them and they both bowed in apology and sat down.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think he was the right match for my anyways.”  Youngjae admitted.

“It’s fine, there’s still two more days left, I have faith.”  Jackson said to comfort him.

“You really were bad at the game though, I didn’t know anybody could be that bad.  Didn’t you ever game, even as a child?”

“Excuse me, I actually spent my childhood playing outside in the real world and not in a virtual world.”  Youngjae looked shocked and Jackson backed down.  “No offense, I’m sure a gaming childhood was fun too.”

“You looked like you never even used a computer before.”  Youngjae said, as payback for Jackson’s minor dig.

“The game’s stupid anyways, let me see it again!  I want a rematch, I’ll actually try this time!”  Jackson was already firing up the game again ready to play seriously.

“If you want… I could teach you.”

That’s how they ended up playing another game (this time with all CPU players so nobody would yell anymore) and Youngjae tried to explain to Jackson the controls but he was still having a hard time.  Youngjae had to hold himself back from laughing every time Jackson did something silly.

“Look!”  Jackson practically screamed at him.  “I killed a guy!!”  Youngjae had seen what happened, Jackson had managed to hit a guy and run back so far, he got killed by a turret, but the game still said he did it.  Jackson didn’t seem to notice that.  “Did you see that?!”

Jackson looked like he was waiting for praise, so Youngjae decided not to burst his bubble.  He knew Jackson well enough that he needed compliments. “Wow!  You did it!  I’m impressed.”

“I told you I could do it!  I’m amazing!”  Jackson was practically beaming and Youngjae was smiling too. 

The game ended in a victory and Youngjae had to hold Jackson back from standing on the table and announcing to the world that he won. 

“Hey Youngjae,” Jackson looked Youngjae in the eyes.  “Thank you.”

“For teaching you how to play?  It wasn’t a big deal.”

“No… never mind.”  Jackson closed the game and started to gather his things.  “This was fun, I’ll text you later to tell you when I find someone for you to see tomorrow.  I need to go now.” 

“You’re a fun gaming partner, we should do this again sometime.”

Jackson oozed tenderness when he smiled, and Youngjae didn’t realize how fuzzy it made him feel inside until that moment.  Woah, that was a weird sensation.

“Youngjae, are you okay?  You look scared.”

Youngjae took a moment to recollect his thought from all the weird places they were going.  “I’m fine, see you tomorrow Jackson.” 

“Yeah… see you tomorrow.”

Youngjae decided to ignore the way his heart was beating erratically and blame it on the amount of caffeine he had consumed in the past three hours.