Okay, I need to clarify some things before you read. There's a mix of Korean and English in this story. However, I am not fluent in Korean. I used Korean because it was cool, but some of Jinyoung's dialogue is in English when he's actually speaking Korean.

For the most part, if Mark and Jinyoung are talking, Jinyoung's speaking English. If he's talking to his mom or Jaebum, it's written in English, but he's speaking Korean.

Jinyoung is ten when he first meets Mark.

His family has just moved to Brazil for his dad’s work, and Jinyoung is scared.

No, actually, he’s terrified.

He’s in a completely different country that speaks a completely different language and has a completely different culture. He’s scared he won’t fit in, regardless of the fact that he’s going to an international school, so it shouldn’t be that bad. But right now, he feels like an intruder caught in someone’s house, and he wants to get out now. He needs to leave.

Then, the week before school starts, his dad has one of his colleagues and her family over for dinner. His parents bonded very quickly with the colleague and her husband, and it quickly became commonplace for them to come in for a visit. This is the first time they’d brought their kids, though.

The two daughters are closer to his two noonas’ ages, plus they’re girls, so he loses interest in them quickly. One of the two sons is a little too young, and Jinyoung can already tell that he would end up babysitting him instead of having fun. So that leaves the last son, one of the middle two children.

He’s quiet, too quiet, so Jinyoung decides not to be too extra. He doesn’t want to scare this kid who might be his new friend. He’s also really pretty, so much so that Jinyoung’s almost not sure that he’s a boy. His features aren’t that feminine, but he’s just too pretty. Jinyoung’s the same way, although not quite as much.

The issue, though, is that Jinyoung only speaks Korean, and the family only speaks English. He’d been poring over his English textbook in preparation for school, and he’d been learning English in Korea, but he still didn’t have a good grasp on actually speaking it.

It takes several moments and a few strangled syllables before Jinyoung finally points to himself and says, “Im Jinyoung.” He says I’m like the Korean last name, and his Korean accent is obviously still very prominent, but he’s proud of himself for being calm and at least trying to speak English to the boy in front of him.

The boy simply stares at him for a long minute. Jinyoung would be offended and upset under normal situations, but somehow he realizes that the boy just needs time to process and choose the right words, so he stays silent and patient.

Finally, he points to himself, and says, almost inaudibly, “Mark.” After another long pause and a contemplative look on his face, he adds, “I’m Mark.” It’s not a contemptuous tone, and when he continues, “How do you say it in Korean?” Jinyoung feels like he’s won an award or score the winning shot of a game or something. He instinctively knows that Mark won’t talk much, yet he’s already initiating and he’s happy about that.

He’s not entirely sure what Mark is saying word by word, but when Mark repeats, “How do you say ‘I’m Mark’ or ‘I’m Jinyoung’ in Korean?” Jinyoung gets it.

“제 이름은 진영 입니다,” Jinyoung says once, pointing to himself, and then points to Mark, saying, “You say... 제 이름은 마크 입니다.” He repeats it again, but slower, with little pauses in between each word. “You... go.”

“I go?” Mark clarifies, pointing at himself, and Jinyoung nods.

The phrase that comes out of his mouth is terribly butchered, though still somewhat comprehensible. It’s still bad enough that Jinyoung lets out a little laugh before realizing that Mark would think he was laughing at him and stopping.

“Almost,” he nods encouragingly, and then repeats the phrase, stopping at every word and gesturing for the boy to repeat it correctly before continuing.

The look of triumph on Mark’s face when he finally gets it is only subtly different from his usual face, but Jinyoung had been staring at Mark’s face intently for about fifteen minutes now, so he can tell.

What Jinyoung couldn’t tell was that the same feeling of triumph was showing on his own face.

They quickly become friends after that. The two of them are fascinated by the other’s native language, and with Jinyoung’s rudimentary English (and the textbook he grabs from his room) the two teach each other general, useful phrases, practicing until they can say them perfectly. They’re actually disappointed when they’re called down for dinner, despite the fact that both boys love food more than anything else. Already their friendship had become so important, so integral to their lives.

It was like they were meant to be together.

Later that night, before the Tuans leave, Jinyoung asks his parents if he could hang out with Mark more often. He finds out that Mark is going to his school also, although he’s in the grade above him (Jinyoung resolves himself to call him ‘hyung’ from then on... and figure out how to explain to him what a ‘hyung’ is) and that his family also happens to live in their neighborhood, only a few streets away. Their parents readily agree to set up times for the two of them to meet up, and have to hide chuckles when both boys’ faces light up like Christmas trees.

He's twelve when Mark gives him a pack of glow-in-the-dark stars and tells him he's moving away.

Mark and Jinyoung had spent the past two years with each other. They were almost inseparable, despite the fact that Mark was a grade above him in school, and the two didn’t share any classes (besides lunch). That didn’t stop them from spending each night at one or the other’s house, doing homework together and having dinner with that person’s family before heading home, or spending every waking minute of their weekends together.

This weekend is different, however. Jinyoung can tell from the moment he wakes up to look at Mark, who’s sleeping beside him. They’d had a sleepover at Mark’s house the night before, and they’d gotten to bed late, and Mark was already a late riser in comparison to Jinyoung.

Mark’s face is soft in sleep, Jinyoung decides. Because Mark’s always asleep when Jinyoung wakes up, he spends every morning by Mark’s side watching him sleep. He looks younger, more peaceful, and his sleeping face always stirs something in Jinyoung. He doesn’t really know what, but he always feels like Mark is his everything when he watches him sleep. It’s a powerful feeling, and he revels in it.

When Mark’s eyes flutter open, the first thing he sees is his best friend grinning down at him. “안녕하십니까,” he says, his voice groggy.

“Good morning, hyung,” Jinyoung replies. It’s become their habit, to speak the other’s native language. Their friendship had formed around learning languages, and it wasn’t unusual to see them conversing with each other in the other’s native language. They were fluent in Korean and English, and the two of them had begun to study Japanese as well, wanting to learn a language neither knew. “What do you want to do today?”

He sees it then, a flickering of some strange and foreign emotion behind Mark’s eyes. “Let’s go to the park,” he suggests.

Jinyoung shrugs, pleased with the suggestion. “Okay. I’m going to brush my teeth.”

“Okay,” Mark hums, disentangling his arms from around Jinyoung’s stomach, letting the younger boy clamber out of bed, and walk out of the room. When the door closes, Mark’s face falls.

All throughout breakfast, Jinyoung picks up more hints that something’s wrong. The family keep giving each other strange looks, the same strange emotion he’d seen in Mark’s eyes prevalent in theirs. A few times, he even sees them looking at him with something like pity. Pity for what? What was going on?

Mark needs to grab something from his room, and apparently Jinyoung’s not allowed to accompany him, so he sits at the foot of the stairs and waits. As he looks around, he notices little things. When had the big Tuan family picture been taken down? Why were the bookshelves emptied? Was this why the family was so suspicious earlier? Where they moving to another neighborhood in the city?

Before he can figure anything out, Mark returns, giving him a big grin and asking, “Ready?”

He nods.

He has time to figure it out.

Mark drags him on a walk the moment he gets to the park, pulling him towards a secluded park bench. By now he’s worried; Mark likes being alone with Jinyoung, of course, but the urgency at which he was being pulled to privacy was a huge warning sign.

“Mark, what’s wrong?” Jinyoung couldn’t hold it in anymore. “What’s going on?”

Mark didn’t say anything for a long while. Used to it, Jinyoung waited for him, sitting on the bench while waiting for his best friend to collect his thoughts.

Finally, he reached into the drawstring bag he had brought with him, and pulled out a small package wrapped in a brown paper lunch bag. “Open it.”

Uncertain of where this was going, he opens the bag hesitantly, pulling out a small packet of glow-in-the-dark stars, the kind Mark had on his ceiling. They both like to stargaze, even though they have little interest in astronomy or astrology or whatever it was (they often got the two mixed up) and often spend warm nights lying on a blanket together, watching the stars. Not for long though, as neither liked the bugs that came up at night, but the stars fascinated both of them so much that Mark bought a pack of glow-in-the-dark stars and he and Jinyoung had worked together to paste them onto Mark’s bedroom ceiling, making up random patterns and constellations. And now Jinyoung had his own packet.

“But... why?” He couldn’t help but ask. “Hyung, why are you giving this to me now?”

Mark’s gaze dropped to the floor, and fixated on one spot before taking a deep breath. “Jinyoung-ah... I’m moving.”

He didn’t get it. “So? Where are you moving to? Is it in the city still?”

His best friend shakes his head, finally meeting his eyes. They have that same expression he saw earlier, in his family’s faces. “I’m moving back to the United States.”

Jinyoung’s heart drops to the pit of his stomach, with no intention of coming back up. He can’t believe it. He doesn’t want to believe it. “No...” he whispers, throat suddenly closing up.

“My dad’s job got transferred back to the US,” Mark says sorrowfully, eyes flitting to meet Jinyoung’s and then darting away, and then back again. “We leave at the end of the month.”

“That’s why everything in your house is disappearing,” Jinyoung says hoarsely, tears starting to spring to his eyes. He’s not much of a crier, or so he believes, but this is a good enough reason for the waterworks. “You’re really leaving?”

Mark nods. “I just... wanted to give you something to remind you... of us.” He’s tearing up now too, but at least his eyes are steady now, staring straight into Jinyoung’s eyes, into his soul. “We’ll be tons of miles apart, but we can still be under the same stars, right? We can still watch our own constellations every night, right? With-without going outside.”

They’re both full on crying, and there’s no possible way for them to continue talking. So Jinyoung launches himself at his best friend, wrapping arms around his stomach and sobbing into his shoulder, cries of “Hyung,” and “why?” working their way out of his mouth, writing themselves on Mark’s shoulders, and sealing themselves into his skin with Jinyoung’s tears.

Mark doesn’t say anything in return, just pats Jinyoung’s shoulder and hums comforting notes into Jinyoung’s ears. His silent tears stain Jinyoung’s back, reminding him that yes, Mark is hurting as well, that he will miss him too, and that this is real, that this has to happen.

Jinyoung spends every day with Mark after that, even more so than before, physically hurting every time he has to part from his best friend, afraid he won’t see him again, although he knows full well what day Mark leaves.

What Jinyoung doesn’t know is that a few months after Mark leaves, Jinyoung’s family would also get a job transfer, only this time back to Seoul, South Korea. It’s not his hometown, but it is his home country. After two years, Jinyoung finally gets his wish to go back to his homeland.

It’s just that his best friend won’t be going with him.

His wish was fulfilled two years too late.

He's fourteen when they start Skype calling each other, watching the immobile stars on their ceilings grow closer.

That’s not to say they lost contact: they’d been emailing and messaging each other every day, almost every hour. They never missed a moment in the other’s life, even though they’re on opposite sides of the planet.

It’s only when his school has a video call with an important person in another country (he doesn’t really remember who) that he realizes he should be having a video conference with an actual important person in his life. So he and Mark make Skype accounts, add each other, and for the first time in two years, he and Mark see each other face-to-face.

Seeing Mark again... it is indescribable. Staring into that familiar face, Jinyoung feels like he was twelve again, staring at the stars with his best friend by his side.

Then Mark smiles, and it takes Jinyoung’s breath away because he had missed that smile. “안녕, 진영.” The Korean flows off his tongue like he hadn’t stopped speaking it, like it was his native language.

“Hello, Mark hyung,” Jinyoung says just as quietly. “Long time no see.”

“Yeah,” he breathes. “It’s... so good to see you.” Mark sounds like he couldn’t breathe, and Jinyoung knows that he had missed him too. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” is his response. “You?”

“Better, now that I can see you,” Mark says cheekily, a goofy expression on his face.

Jinyoung laughs. “I miss this,” he tells him bluntly, before continuing, “I miss you.”

His best friend (still, even after all these years) nods, giving him that special smile Jinyoung has only seen directed at him. “I miss you too. But at least we can see each other like this until we can meet again?”

He agrees. It’s just too hard to meet up now. Jinyoung has had his eyes set on becoming a trainee. For which company, he hasn’t decided yet, but right now he is working on his singing and dancing, to put together a good audition for all the entertainment companies he was applying to. Mark is less busy, certainly, but for some reason the idea of him going to the US or Mark going to Korea is a strange thought. They’re two completely different worlds that revolve around two people who have been separated and forced to grow up differently. As close as he is to Mark, he not sure if he wants to actually see his best friend in real life. Over the past two years, Mark has become almost like a fantasy, a nonexistent and present part of his life that straddled the border of reality and dreaming. Having Mark come to Korea or him to the US would cross the border, and Jinyoung’s not sure what would happen then.

In the end, Mark and Jinyoung talk for four hours straight, filling each other in on their lives, like they hadn’t been writing long emails for two years straight, and getting reacquainted with each other again. It’s one thing to read his emails, Jinyoung muses, but it’s another thing to see him and hear Mark tell him stories personally. It’s better.

Quickly, weekly Skype calls become a part of their everyday lives. They often happen on Friday (Saturday for Jinyoung) evenings, and often last well until the night. Mark and Jinyoung had chosen that time frame because the soft light the stars on their ceilings emit serve as a reminder of their bond.

It’s a bond that only grows stronger and closer as the months go along, and the immobile stars on their bedroom ceilings grow closer and closer with every passing Skype call.

They become so close that a year later, Mark is the first one Jinyoung calls when he gets into JYP Entertainment, and Jinyoung is the first to know that Mark lands a well-paying summer job at a restaurant (not waiting tables, thankfully for the silent hyung). They are so close now that it’s almost like they are still physically present in each other’s lives. Of course, they’re not, and some days it’s painfully obvious to Jinyoung that Mark’s trapped behind a screen, thousands of kilometers away, and not even on the same day as him (which is still kinda trippy).

When Im Jaebum, Jinyoung’s new trainee friend, sees the messages, he asks about their relationship. “Who’s Makr?” He asks, and the Korean pronunciation of Mark’s name almost makes Jinyoung laugh aloud. He’d forgotten how Koreans would pronounce Mark’s name, as no one, save his parents and sisters who knew how to say it, had ever brought him up.

“Mark hyung is my best friend,” he tells Jaebum, smiling gently in a way he hasn’t when around people who weren’t Mark. “I haven’t seen him in three years.”

Of course, Jaebum is curious, and he pries Jinyoung with many more questions, which Jinyoung is happy to answer. He hadn’t realized how good it felt to talk about Mark to someone who’d never met him. Jaebum seems genuinely interested in Mark, and doesn’t find it weird that Jinyoung still talks to him more than anyone else his age, something Jinyoung appreciates. Mark is his favorite person in the world, and he likes the idea of sharing him with the world.

Mark isn’t as keen about it, as shown when Jinyoung invites Jaebum to meet Mark. The moment Mark realizes that Jinyoung’s not alone, and he is introduced to the trainee, he clams up. He’s certainly polite to Jaebum, and integrates him into their conversation, but the tone is stilted, reserved. Mark doesn’t talk about the deep, introspective things they usually talk about; actually he doesn’t speak much at all. He doesn’t seem sulky or upset, but comes across as closed off and standoffish. Jinyoung’s confused, embarrassed and a little hurt, but Jaebum is quick to dispel his worries.

“He seems like the kind of person who doesn’t get used to strangers easily, especially as suddenly as you did,” Jaebum tells him the next day. “He wants to talk to you about stuff important to him, and he really can’t when he doesn’t know me or trust me enough to talk about it when I’m in the room. Don’t be so harsh on him.”

Put that way, Jinyoung wants to hit himself. How could he do something like that to Mark? Hadn’t he noticed Mark’s reserved and quiet nature when he’d first met him? How could he forget? He feels so bad that he decides to do something big. He immediately goes to the nearest convenience store, picking things he thought Mark would like. It was an odd combination of ddeokbokki, spaghetti cup ramen, mozzarella cheese, and ramen, but gut instinct tells Jinyoung that it was a good idea. Besides, he has other things to send him too. He sends that and some Korean clothes and plushies to Mark’s house in the US, along with an apologetic letter and a challenge to mix all the ingredients together. Of course, he’ll apologize on Skype tomorrow, but he wants to do something more.

Mark accepts Jinyoung’s apology readily but promises to try and connect with Jaebum, because he can see how important Jaebum is to Jinyoung. Not as much as you are, Jinyoung thinks, but he still appreciates Mark’s enthusiasm. Also, Mark managed to make a rather delicious meal out of what Jinyoung sent him, and now that’s another part of their Skype calls: four hour long sessions, glow-in-the-dark stars, and Mark’s meal.

He's sixteen when he falls in love with him.

To be fair, it had been happening gradually since he was ten, but he was sixteen when he finally realized it. They have spent two years calling each other on Skype at least once a week, even when Jinyoung had a full schedule.

Without even being there, Mark has fully integrated himself into Jinyoung’s life. He celebrated with him and Jaebum--yes, he’s friends with Jaebum now--when the two were given a debut. He consoled them when they had to go back and become trainees again. He laughed with him when Jinyoung managed to spill something on himself while eating Mark’s meal (they’d had to reduce their eating sessions to once a month, for the sake of their wallets) and then proceed to about it for the rest of the Skype call.

No matter what, Mark knows what was going on in Jinyoung’s life, and Jinyoung, Mark’s. So when Mark tells Jinyoung that he has something to tell him, Jinyoung’s ready.

Except he’s not.

“진영...” Mark’s taking lots of deep breaths, mouth opening and closing as he tries to find the right words to say. Jinyoung, for the life of him, can’t figure out what was wrong. Was his niece in the hospital? Did his mom get fired? Did he get expelled? Finally, Mark closes his eyes, and says it. “나는 게이야.”

That... hadn’t been what Jinyoung was expecting. Mark had made Jinyoung promise to at least be open minded, but... homouality was something he was still getting used to. He hadn’t even known it was a thing until two years ago, and he’d immediately put it in the back of his mind, not expecting to have a personal effect on him. How wrong he had been.

But this is Mark he’s talking about. His best friend. The guy he’d known since he was ten. They are so alike in so many ways, and they appreciate each other’s differences. This is just one of their differences. Jinyoung thinks back through five years of memories, and he finds no evidence of the homoual ‘symptoms’ people had been telling him about; he hadn’t believed them in the first place--they were stupid sounding to begin with--but with little knowledge of homouality or interactions with homoual people, he instinctively drew upon what little knowledge he did know, however misguided, and now that he knows Mark’s gay, he immediately feels guilty for falling back on such stereotypes.

He is so lost in his thoughts that when he finally comes to and looks up, he realizes that Mark has been waiting for a response this entire time, and as time goes on, his thoughts have gone further and further south. He must be thinking the worst, since Jinyoung didn’t respond to him.

Jinyoung panics, and that’s enough for a barrage of words to fly out of his mouth. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you I just needed to think about what you said and get some stupid ideas out of my head because homouality isn’t discussed in Korea but I’ve heard of it and some people were saying some really mean things and it just didn’t match up with you and so I promise I won’t think them anymore because you’re my best friend and you’re a really nice person so homouality can’t be that bad, so I, I...” He finally slows down (surprised he managed to say homouality correctly, despite never learning how to say it in English) so that he can finish with, “I don’t mind. You’re still you.”

All the way across the world, Mark cries.

Despite reassuring Mark several times that night that he doesn’t mind Mark’s uality, Jinyoung can’t help but worry that things won’t be the same anymore, that their relationship will have changed completely, never being quite the same and becoming their downfall as one side depends too heavily on the other, even though they’re so far apart.

He finds that he doesn’t have anything to worry about. His relationship with his favorite hyung is stronger than ever, actually improved by Mark’s revelation rather than harmed by it. The two of them are so comfortable in their relationship, easily talking about controversial topics for hours without ever feeling slighted or uneasy, that it is strange that neither of them are willing to bring up the topic of seeing each other in person again, even though it’s been four years. Jinyoung still has that same mindset he had two years ago, and is afraid of crossing the line. What he doesn’t realize is that he’s already crossed a line, just not the one he’s thinking of.

Jinyoung’s mom is the one who make him realize it, actually. He hasn’t spoken much about Mark since they moved back to Korea, but he mentions him ever so often.

“How’s Mark, Jinyoung-ah?” His mom asks.

“Good,” Jinyoung replies around a mouthful of food. His dad is still at work, and his sisters are out with friends, so it’s just him and his mom at dinner now.

“How is he in school?”

“He’s doing good,” Jinyoung says, a little confused now. “Omma, why are you asking?”

“I’m just curious,” his mom answers easily, unapologetic. “I just got off the phone with Mr. Tuan, and we were just talking about how close you guys were. You guys were attached to the hip the moment you met, and even now, it’s like you’re still attached. Skyping each other every weekend, talking until late at night, eating that... convenience store meal.”

“So?” Jinyoung’s not sure where she’s going, because there’s a twinkle in her eye that means she’s has a point. “Is it wrong to talk to Mark?”

“Of course not!” She denies. “All I’m saying is that you two were always really close. Sometimes we’d wonder if you were actually friends, or if you were closer. Your friendship certainly didn’t feel like it was just that, anyway.”

Jinyoung’s palms are sweating now, and his heart’s hammering in his chest. Does she know about Mark? He can’t even properly form a proper response, so his mouth’s gaping open, and his mom’s laughing at him.

“What? I’m just saying. You two never had a real friendship from the start. You were always clinging to him, and he to you. I saw more skinship between you two than you and Jaebum-ah.”

“Jaebum hyung isn’t the kind of person who likes skinship,” Jinyoung weakly defends.

Her eyes still has that nauseating twinkle when she smiles slyly at him and says, “That’s not the point, Jinyoung-ah.”

That night, Jinyoung can’t sleep. His mind is stuck on his mother’s words. Did he really like Mark romantically? Was their friendship ever a pure friendship? His brain is bringing up memories of their past, regardless of how much Jinyoung wants it to stop, wants to sleep peacefully and not think about it. His brain’s not letting him, as memory after memory comes back to him--

“즐거운 성탄절 보내시고 새해 복 많이 받으세요,” Mark grins at Jinyoung as he splutters. The typical holiday greeting is so terribly butchered--Mark had obviously tried to learn on his own--that he can hardly recognize it.

“Wha-what?” Jinyoung finally gets out when he finishes laughing. “I thought you knew how to read Hangul!”

Mark pouts playfully. “I didn’t do it right?”

He shakes his head, and Mark’s pout gets deeper. Unable to handle it, he curls up into Mark’s side, inhaling his comforting scent. “No, but it was very cute.”

“I’m not cute,” Mark grumbles, though he still leans into Jinyoung, resting his chin on his dongsaeng’s head.

...

“Mark hyung,” Jinyoung says softly, hesitantly, from his makeshift bed on the floor.

“Mmm?” Mark hums groggily above him.

“I... can’t sleep,” he admits weakly.

He can almost see the sadness in his hyung’s eyes as he rolls over to look down at him. “Do you want to go home?”

Jinyoung shakes his head. “No, that’s not it...” He hates being so close to Mark, but not being close enough, that he doesn’t hesitate to add, “can I sleep with you? In your bed?”

After a moment, Mark shuffles away, and his blankets are lifted. Excited, he jumps up and slides in next to Mark, immediately snuggling up to him, basking in his hyung’s warmth. “Mmm, this is nice.”

Mark doesn’t say anything as the two of them drift off into dreamland.

...

“What constellation is that?” Mark points to a cluster of stars.

“Why are you asking me?” Jinyoung retorts. “I know about as much as you.”

Mark just pouts and holds Jinyoung closer. Jinyoung’s head is on Mark’s chest, and Mark has an arm around Jinyoung’s shoulder. “Can’t we make a name for it?”

“You want to name it?” Jinyoung looks up at Mark to see him looking back down on him. The distance between them is small, so small that he’s aware of it,

“Okay, then... let’s name it... Markjin.”

“Markjin?” Mark sounds confused. Only a few moments pass before he asks, “Is it a combination of our names?”

“If it’s stupid, just tell me,” he mumbles, burying his head in Mark’s chest.

“No, I like it,” Mark replies. “The Markjin constellation.”

Jinyoung starts awake, the memories still flashing through his mind. He is not quite sure what to make of everything, of the message his brain is telling him.

They had never really been just friends, had they? Jinyoung’s never been comfortable enough to do too much skinship, yet he had burrowed into Mark’s side countless times. He’d never felt the need to sleep next to his friends during sleepovers. He’d never looked at his friends the way he looked at Mark.

“How long?” Jinyoung mumbles into the silence. “Since I was ten? Twelve?” He was so oblivious, and had been for years.

He loved Mark.

He's eighteen when they meet again.

Jinyoung’s changed a bit since his revelation. He’s matured and become more dedicated, if that’s even possible. He works hard to perfect his singing, his dancing, and his newfound love of acting.

He also hasn’t spoken to Mark in a year.

It started when Mark had graduated. He was taking a gap year before heading to college. He had gotten so busy, preparing all these activities that Jinyoung wasn’t aware of that he’d forgotten a Skype call. He had called the next morning and apologized, but it just didn’t feel the same.

The next week, Jinyoung is the one who forgets. He’s a trainee almost on the brink of debut, so naturally he’s starting to get heavier schedules. He also apologizes the next morning, but he can tell on Mark’s face that it’s just the beginning.

Slowly, the Skype calls became a biweekly thing, then a monthly thing, then... nonexistent.

Jaebum still asks about it, confused as to how a strong friendship like Mark and Jinyoung’s could just evaporate like it never existed, but after Jinyoung makes vague excuses and not-so-vague threats, he lets the subject go, though sometimes Jinyoung catches the elder giving him an analytical look, as if trying to figure him out. It’s weird: Jaebum’s known Jinyoung for about four years, they debuted together, there’s not much Jaebum doesn’t know.

Does he miss Mark? Of course he does. He misses him so much it hurts. It hurts that he’s not here, and it hurts that he hasn’t talked to him. It just hurts, but there’s nothing to be done. He spends several months doing work with the Skype screen up, just in case Mark called; in the end, Jinyoung never calls Mark, and Mark never calls Jinyoung. Eventually, he resigned himself to the fact that Mark didn’t want to talk to him anymore, or had forgotten him, and stopped checking.  He throws himself into his work because it hurts.

One day, Jinyoung hears gossip about an incoming international trainee.

“Did you hear?” Jaebum asks casually as they’re waiting for their instructor. “About the incoming trainee?”

He shrugs, uninterested. “Only that he’s an international trainee, and that he’s coming in today.”

“Apparently he already speaks Korean,” Jaebum comments, obviously intrigued. “Weird, huh?”

“Not really,” Jinyoung retorts. “Maybe his nationality isn’t Korean, but his ethnicity is.”

The hyung sighs, conceding. “I guess so. I’m just curious. I think he’s around our age. Think we’ll be put in a group with them?”

“Maybe,” Jinyoung says, still uninterested in the topic as he starts to stretch.

Clearly picking up the hint, Jaebum drops the topic, and starts to stretch as well.

By the end of the day, Jinyoung’s exhausted, he’s sweaty, and he just about to go home when there’s some commotion. The new trainee’s been spotted, and all the female trainees are gossiping and giggling over this new trainee’s looks.

Jinyoung couldn’t care less; he can barely put one foot in front of the other or lift his head up, let alone track down the mysterious new trainee. Jaebum’s always worried that he’ll overwork himself and end up in the hospital, but Jinyoung’s not stupid. He knows his limits. He just likes to test them. Everyday.

He’s on his way out when he bumps into someone. “아, 죄송합니다,” he says automatically as he bows and continues on his way, but he stops when that someone speaks.

“오랜만이다, 진영.”

His head somehow gets the strength to snap up, and he whirls around at that painfully familiar voice.

Standing right where he had bumped into the “stranger” is Mark.

For a long moment, Jinyoung is frozen in place, eyes locked onto Mark’s, because this can’t be real, can it? There’s no way Mark’s here, in Korea.

But it’s real. Jinyoung’s eyes work properly, and he doesn’t hallucinate, so that means it’s real. Mark crossed the border (metaphorically, although also literally) and has come into Jinyoung’s world.

Finally, Jinyoung’s mouth moves. “M-Mark.”

His hyung’s mouth twitch upwards into a smile as he approaches. “I missed you, Jinyoung,” he states as he wraps his arms around his favorite dongsaeng.

“I missed you too.” Jinyoung’s holding back his tears. “I missed you so much.”

Turns out, when Mark got into JYP, he contacted Jinyoung’s parents and requested to stay with them instead of the dorm. The request was granted by JYP, and so Mark had set up his stuff at Jinyoung’s house before heading to the company. When the two of them came home, they found Jinyoung’s parents and sisters there, with a large meal and a “Welcome to Korea” banner. Mark had been touched, and they spent hours that Jinyoung would have been spending on improving his skills laughing, talking, and reminiscing.

That night, Jinyoung and Mark are in their now shared bedroom. Mark’s left most of his stuff in a small corner of the room, only putting his clothes in the spare drawer Jinyoung’s mom brought in. “You can put your stuff wherever,” Jinyoung says. “Just--”

“Put it somewhere neatly, and keep everything organized,” Mark finishes, meeting Jinyoung’s eyes. “I know.”

Sometimes he forgets that Mark knew everything about him. With the exception of the past year. Had it been his fault that they drifted apart? Even if it wasn’t, why hadn’t Jinyoung fought harder to keep him?

“I’m sorry,” Jinyoung says finally, his voice soft. “For not calling you.”

Mark shakes his head dismissively, his eyes as soft as Jinyoung’s voice. “It’s okay. I didn’t try and stay in touch either, so it’s both of our faults. Besides, I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“Why did you audition?” The words are out of his mouth before he can stop them, and he winces as they sound accusing and harsh. “I-I mean, I didn’t know you were into KPop.”

“When you got in, I started listening,” Mark shrugs, turning to his suitcase to set up his stuff. “It’s really cool. I mean, the singers over in the US are awesome too, but they don’t sing and dance at the same time like KPop stars. I wanted to try, so I spent a year working on it before I auditioned.”

“Really? I thought you were taking a gap year,” Jinyoung asks. Things aren’t adding up in his head. Had Mark lied to him?

“I was,” he replies, still unpacking. “I dropped out before I came over here. College was just my plan B, in case I didn’t make it.”

“Oh,” is all Jinyoung can say. Mark had been planning to do this for a year. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Now Mark stops, turns to face Jinyoung again, and says, “In case I got your hopes up... or you didn’t want me to. I know it feels weird, seeing me in Korea. It would feel weird if you were in the US too. I just... I didn’t feel comfortable so far from you anymore. It hurt to not talk to you, but I wanted to work hard to just be with you.”

Jinyoung snaps, everything he’s been holding back this entire time flooding him like a hurricane. He is so used to holding anything remotely scary back in order to keep him safe, but he doesn’t care anymore. Mark crossed the border several times, because it mattered. Now it was Jinyoung’s turn.

“I love you.” For the first time in what seems to be forever, Jinyoung feels like a child again, unafraid to show his affection for his hyung and unafraid of judgement. He feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders, and even if Mark were to reject him now, he won’t regret it, because this feeling of freedom and honesty is the only thing he would ever be addicted to.

Mark looks startled, taken back by Jinyoung’s confession. It is a long minute before he responds, and Jinyoung instinctively knows that Mark just needs time to process. Finally, though, Mark responds. “사랑해.”

Later that night, when they go to bed, Mark wraps an arm around Jinyoung, pulling him closer than ever, and kisses him, a soft, warm kiss that reminds Jinyoung of his childhood under the stars, of his teenage years in front of a monitor, and right now, of his new path alongside his best friend, his hyung, his love.

Under the witness of the plastic, glow-in-the-dark stars that symbolized their relationship, they finally came together.

Oh my god this was supposed to be shorter. I predicted it would be around 4000 words (~800 words per period) but some periods required more details than others, so it became around 6400 words instead. Dear lord.

Eventually I will write an Epilogue for this, but until then, this story is complete!

Well, I hope you enjoyed it!