A/N: This was written from the Markjin FicFest prompt that didn't happen last year--if you recognize this prompt as yours, please let me know so I can give you credit ^^ I hope you enjoy the story, even if it is a bit belated :D :D

 

It was one of those perfect weather days, the kind you wait all summer for through the humidity and the thunderstorms in hopes that you'll get one passable day with gentle sun and cool breeze. It was an ideal temperature to be outside, which is exactly what they had done. Jinyoung had messaged that morning while Mark had still been in bed in his pajamas watching Youtube videos, asking if he wanted to go bargain hunting at the outdoor market, and Mark had literally bolted out of bed, pulling some clothes out of the closet and getting himself ready for a day which could very well match the weather in perfection.

 

They'd spent the morning browsing homemade necklaces for a potential birthday gift for Jinyoung's mother, and after finding one they both liked, they went to the food vendors and purchased themselves dakkochi and bungeoppang to eat. It was too crowded in the market to find somewhere quiet to enjoy their food, so they went to the park instead, which was where they were now, leisurely walking down the dirt paths and enjoying the day.

 

Every once in awhile, Mark would feel the cotton of Jinyoung's weather-inappropriate long sleeve shirt brush against his arm, tickling against the fine hairs of his arms and raising goosebumps on his skin even in spite of the warm temperature. He'd glance sidelong at Jinyoung, studying the glow of sunshine on his face until Jinyoung noticed him staring and looked back with a smile, eyes crinkling at the corner, and Mark would look away, feeling incredibly flustered and embarrassed. He could practically hear the voice of an oldtimer sighing Ah, youth in his head, which made him feel even more embarrassed. That wasn't what this was—or at least it wasn't on Jinyoung's side. It was just two friends hanging out, with one of them feeling each moment a little more than the other.

 

Jinyoung elbowed him in the side playfully as they walked, and Mark sighed and elbowed him back. Jinyoung pinched his cheek and gave it a rough pull, and Mark grabbed his ear and flapped it up and down. Jinyoung lifted an eyebrow, pretending to look threatening, and smacked him in the chest. Mark smacked him back, and when Jinyoung dramatically acted like he'd been nearly killed by it, Mark at last gave in and threw his arms around him, giving him a hug of apology. Jinyoung laughed triumphantly, but hugged him back, their cheeks pressing together a little. Jinyoung's cheek was warm, as if he was holding a little bit of sunshine in every pore.

 

What am I doing?, Mark wondered as he soaked in Jinyoung's warmth. But already in his head he was documenting every moment, filing it for his internal video replay, collecting details for further analysis. He'd probably write a page long message to Jackson later in the day with way too many descriptive adjectives dedicated to how flawless every detail of Jinyoung was in each and every single moment that passed.

 

“Let's not go home,” Jinyoung said as they walked a little more.

 

“What do you want to do?” Mark asked, tossing the skewers and wrappers from their food in a nearby trash can. He was glad that Jinyoung had said it first; he didn't want to seem as desperate to stay with him as he was feeling.

 

“I don't know. It's summer. I bet there's a festival somewhere.”

 

“And if we can't find one?”

 

“Let's just go to the Han River, or something. Or just keep walking. I don't care. The day is too good to waste.”

 

“Yeah, it's really—”

 

He never got to finish his sentence. Right in the middle of it, two guys holding a selfie stick barreled up to them, eyes glued to their phone camera as they smiled and flashed winks and overly try-hard swag poses. “Target spotted!” the shorter one of the two said in his best broadcast voice. “What will happen on today's Truth Test? Who knows? Let's meet our two participants!” He panned the camera to Mark and Jinyoung.

 

Mark would have been shocked and confused if he didn't know exactly who these two guys were. They were the host Youtubers of the YUGBAM 2BROS4LIFE channel, which featured the two of them wandering around and issuing challenges to random passersby which included would you rather questions, physical games, friendship tests, and rounds of “, MARRY, KILL” and “Never Ever Have I Ever.” Mark, a big fan of Youtube, had seen most of their available videos at one point or another.

 

“Oh, it's you guys!” Jinyoung said, recognizing them as well. “Yugyeom and... BangBang?”

 

“That would be BamBam,” he said good naturedly. “You know us?”

 

Jinyoung placed a hand on Mark's shoulder. “This one's a big fan.”

 

“Good taste, man!” BamBam gave Mark a high five. “What's your name?”

 

“Mark.”

 

“And I'm Jinyoung,” Jinyoung said, waving at the camera. God, he was so photogenic. Mark attempted an awkward smile for the camera, but looked so gawky and dull beside all of Jinyoung's brightness.

 

“Since you're a fan, Mark, you know about the Truth Test, right?” Yugyeom said, panning the camera back to himself. “The challenger of loyalty, the revealer of secrets, the destroyer of fake friendships?”

 

“Right,” Mark said.

 

“What about you, Jinyoung?”

 

Jinyoung shook his head. “Sorry, I'm no Youtube expert.”

 

“All right, we'll explain it to you. But first of all, we have a question for you: what is the relationship between you two?”

 

“Friends,” Jinyoung said right away.

 

“Best friends?” BamBam asked.

 

“Uh...well, about that...” Jinyoung chewed on his lips. “We're really close, but we've both got really long term best friends who would kill us if I said yes to that.” He waved at the camera again. “Hey Jaebum. Hey Jackson. If you're watching this, we love you!”

 

“So you guys are friends. Friends with benefits, possibly?” Yugyeom asked.

 

This at last caught Jinyoung off guard. “W-What?!?”

 

“Because BamBam and I had a bet on this before we approached you. I have 20,000 won on you two screwing on the side. BamBam has 20,000 won on you two having really hot girlfriends who will be meeting up with you in a few minutes.”

 

Jinyoung's cheeks were still a little red (as were Mark's, though he was doing his best to maintain a flat poker face). “Ahh, do you think that because you saw us playing around earlier? That's...uh, anyways, we're not screwing and we don't have hot girlfriends, so you're both out of money.”

 

BamBam and Yugyeom exchanged shrugs before turning back to them. “Anyways, since you two are friends, we're going to be figuring out how legit this friendship is,” BamBam continued. “A lot of people think they're friends until they find out how much they don't actually know about their buddy. Because everyone has their secrets, and sometimes those secrets can be...friendship destroying~” He said these last two words in a deep, ominous voice.

 

“Do you think you two have any secrets like that hidden from each other?” Yugyeom asked.

 

“No, I don't think so,” Jinyoung said cautiously.

 

All eyes turned to Mark, whose tongue felt stuck to the roof of his mouth. He was pretty sure having a huge, gigantic, soul-consuming crush on his friend could qualify as “friendship destroying.” But if he said “yes,” Jinyoung would instantly freak out, and he took a lot of calming down when he was mad about something.

 

“I hope not,” Mark said, swallowing. “Hey, guys, can't we do Would You Rather instead? That's my favorite segment.”

 

“Trying to worm out of Truth Test?” BamBam said, shaking his finger. “Coward! We haven't even gotten around to explaining it to your bud yet, either.” He turned to Jinyoung. “The easiest way to find out someone's dark secret is to explore their phone. They're addicted to Furry ? They're ting your sister? They have a foot ? They secretly talk about you behind your back? They're a stalker? The only song in their music library is Evanescence's Bring Me to Life? All the evidence will be somewhere on their phone for you to discover.”

 

Jinyoung laughed a little. “Seriously, I think the only thing I'll find on Mark's phone is that he's addicted to video games, which I already know.”

 

“I don't know,” Yugyeom said. “I get a Furry vibe from him. You should check to make sure.”

 

“Well, I'm game to try.” Jinyoung pulled out his phone. “Let's trade.”

 

Mark remained frozen in place, his heart thudding. No. Absolutely not. He couldn't let Jinyoung see his phone. There was nothing to be ashamed of in his browser history. There was nothing to be ashamed of in his photos. But the second Jinyoung opened his LINE account, he was going to find a year's worth of messages to Jackson 95% about him and how in love with him Mark was.

 

They weren't even written in a way that Mark could potentially brush off as a joke. They were gushing. They were filled with love. Some were even borderline inappropriate, like from the time Jinyoung had jokingly twerked at one their university parties and Mark had written a detailed report on why Jinyoung's was the most superior in the history of asses.

 

There was no way things weren't going to get weird if Jinyoung read that. There was absolutely no way the two of them would be able to remain friends or even acquaintances when Jinyoung figured out how obsessed with him Mark was. And Mark couldn't let that happen. He could survive not being able to date Jinyoung (probably), but there was a 100% chance that he would never survive Jinyoung actively hating him.

 

“I can't,” he said in a weak voice as Jinyoung held out his hand for his phone.

 

Jinyoung blinked. “What do you mean you can't?”

 

“There's some really personal things on there,” Mark said. “Not about me, necessarily, but about my sisters. They really would kill me if you saw some of the things we talked about in our messages.”

 

“All right, I won't read any messages from your family,” Jinyoung said immediately.

 

“It's not just my family,” Mark added quickly. “Jackson tells me things sometimes-”

 

“Nice try, Mark, but Jackson literally broadcasts everything on his mind to anyone with ears. There's probably nothing you know about him that I and everyone else in his friend circle don't already know.” He gestured for Mark's phone again. “Come on, give it.”

 

“Jinyoung...I really can't.”

 

Jinyoung's eyes narrowed. “Wait...do you really watch Furry ? Really? Or do you have a lot of saved to your photo library? Am I going to open your camera and see a billion pictures of s?”

 

“No...”

 

“All right, I'm going to keep calling you Man until you prove to me it isn't true. Don't you want to show me your photo library, Man?”

 

“We're all dying to see it, Man,” Yugyeom said, joining in.

 

“Pretty please?” BamBam asked.

 

“Fine, call me that, I don't care,” Mark said with a shrug. He was willing to endure any form of humiliation over risking Jinyoung reading his messages to Jackson.

 

“Seriously, Man?” Jinyoung snapped. “You're seriously refusing to let me look at your phone? You must have something pretty terrible on there if you're being like this.” His eyes widened. “Wait. Is it because you've been saying about me behind my back? You've been badmouthing me to Jackson?”

 

“What?”

 

“That's it, isn't it? You're only hanging out with me because you feel sorry for me, but you secretly think I'm this huge loser and a nag, and the only entertainment you get out of this is laughing about me to Jackson in your spare time?”

 

“Why on Earth would you think that?”

 

“Because there has to be a reason you're refusing to let me look at your phone!”

 

“It's not that. Seriously, Jinyoung. You know... you know how important you are to me, don't you?”

 

“I thought I did.”

 

Yugyeom and BamBam were exchanging enthusiastic “Wow, this is good!” looks with each other and flashing thumbs up to whichever viewers would be enjoying this quality content of two people on the verge of ruining their relationship without even needing to exchange their phones.

 

“Mark,” Jinyoung said beseechingly. “I'm seriously freaking out right now. You're hiding something from me, and it's not like you to do that. If you won't let me look at your phone, I'm going to have to assume it's because you have something bad about me on it, right?”

 

“But I don't. I swear, Jinyoung. I really, really don't.”

 

“I don't want to say this, Mark, because you're someone who I trust more than anything, usually—but right now, I honestly don't believe you.”

 

That hurt to hear. They both prided themselves on their trust in each other, the fact that they could talk about nearly anything without judging or overly criticizing each other. It was a huge part of their relationship, how deep they could take their discussions and how much they could safely confide in each other. Mark knew that if he continued to refuse Jinyoung, that trust would be permanently shattered. Even if Jinyoung never found out about his crush, their relationship would be effectively ruined.

 

Mark took in a deep breath. He couldn't allow that. It would be worse than any alternative. Even worse than Jinyoung finding out that Mark was head over heels in love with him.

 

With a tired sigh, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He looked into Jinyoung's worried eyes, his heart throbbing with the knowledge that those eyes would probably never look at him with any warmth when all of this was over. It had been such a perfect day, too—why did it have to be ruined like this?

 

“Don't think badly of me,” Mark said quietly as he set his phone on Jinyoung's palm. There would be no going back now.

 

“I never have,” Jinyoung said in a gentle voice, giving his phone to Mark. “If there's something weighing you down...we can talk about it when all this is over, can't we?”

 

Mark knew the answer was probably not, but said nothing. He opened Jinyoung's phone to his wallpaper, a generic photo of the sunrise, and began flipping through the screens, waiting for Jinyoung to inevitably open his LINE app and dig into Mark's horrific chat history.

 

“OK,” Jinyoung said, narrating for the benefit of the viewers. “I'm starting with the web browser. Let's check for first...ahhh...nothing. He probably watches it on private mode.”

 

“Smart,” BamBam said with a nod. “We've seen way too many people with crazy kinks who don't.”

 

“Looks like his browser history is mainly 'what is x word in Korean',” Jinyoung continued. “He's still learning the language, so that makes sense. And he spends most of his time on Youtube watching prank videos anyways, not on the web browser.”

 

Yugyeom gave Mark a nudge. “Come on, go through Jinyoung's web browser, too.”

 

Mark did so, but didn't come up with much interesting. Just a lot of online stores where Jinyoung liked to shop, and some entertainment articles. Yugyeom sighed in disappointment. “Boring!”

 

“Shut up,” Jinyoung said, frowning. “I'm going for the photo library next. Everyone, brace yourself for s...” BamBam and Yugyeom leaned in closer. “Uhhh...OK, wow. You certainly love selfies.”

 

“No s,” BamBam said with a sigh.

 

“Well, technically there are a lot of nips here, thanks to the shirtless selfies,” Yugyeom reported. “Zoom in for the ladies...very nice.”

 

Jinyoung continued to scroll through pictures Mark had taken with friends. At long last, he stopped on a picture from the pre-summer break party. It was a shot of Mark and their mutual friend Youngjae posing in Hawaiian leis while sipping fruit cocktails. Both were a little drunk, and Mark was kind of making a kissy face at Youngjae, who was pretending to look shocked.

 

“What's up with this picture?” Jinyoung asked.

 

“What do you mean what's up with it?” Mark asked. “It's Youngjae.”

 

“I didn't know you guys were that close.”

 

“Uhhh...yeah? I'd say we're close enough to take a silly photo and drink together?”

 

“Hmph,” Jinyoung said. He closed the picture and scrolled through others, oddly not bothered by the similar pictures Mark had with Jackson or Jaebum or even Jinyoung himself.

 

Mark opened up Jinyoung's camera and went to the albums page. He had a folder for food, nature, friends, and travel. Nothing particularly interesting.

 

“Check out his friends folder,” Yugyeom advised. Mark did, but mostly found the same kind of party pics of their friend group that he had in his phone. Nothing compromising. Nothing that would suggest Jinyoung was sleeping with any of them, most importantly. There were a decent amount of shots of himself in there, which was comforting to know, but nothing special considering there were even more shots of Jaebum.

 

“All right, moment of truth,” BamBam said, turning the camera to Jinyoung. “Break into his LINE.”

 

Mark took a deep breath, his hands shaking a little as Jinyoung obeyed. Naturally, Jackson had been pushed to the top of Mark's message list since there were two unread messages from him. Jinyoung pressed on Jackson's name, opening up their chat history.

 

“Where are you?” Jinyoung said, reading the message. “Out with bae?” Jinyoung glanced up in surprise. “Bae? He thinks you have a girlfriend? Wait... do you actually have a girlfriend?!?!” He frantically scrolled up to the earlier messages. The ones that would seal his fate.

 

Mark didn't even have to look to know what they said. There was the one from last week when he'd gone swimming with Jinyoung:

 

Mark: How do I get him to take his shirt off?

Jackson: He's still wearing a shirt?

Mark: He's wearing a full on rash guard. It's wet and clinging to his abs. I want to die.

Jackson: Abs? Nose-in-a-book Jinyoung has abs? I wanna see!!!!

Mark: Yeah, me too...

Mark: He's going to get us snacks right now...maybe I should drop my ice cream cone on him. Accidentally?

Jackson: Dude, just rip off the rash guard. They're pretty thin

Mark: Jackson...no...NO

Jackson: You are forever no jam. And no Jinyoung :p Enjoy your chaste swim party, oh boring one.

 

And the time they'd had a study group for exams:

 

Mark: Have I ever mentioned how beautiful Jinyoung's eyelashes are? Can you kiss eyelashes?

Jackson: You can kiss my .

Mark: No. Jinyoung's on the other hand...

Jackson: In your dreams

Mark: Trust me, I have had plenty of those dreams. I hate reality

Jackson: Me too, dude, me too. Since my reality is 80% reading these kind of messages...

 

And the time they'd gone out for coffee with Jaebum...

 

Mark: Do you think I could get away with telling Jaebum to stop touching Jinyoung so much?

Jackson: Nope

Mark: Yeah, didn't think so.

Jackson: You could tell him to touch me instead? :p

Mark: Nope

Jackson: Yeah, didn't think so.

Jackson: You should call Youngjae up ;) Pull him into your lap and see how much Jinyoung likes that

Mark: Jinyoung wouldn't give two s, unfortunately

Jackson: Wanna bet?

Mark: Jaebum is his hair now. I want to kill him

Jackson: If his hair is taken, you could try something else?

Mark: SHUT UP!!!

Jackson: ...I meant his legs,

 

And then the worst ones of all, the ones where he got borderline poetic...

 

Mark: You know, I've been thinking...since Jinyoung's always reading...I wonder if his eyes in all the words he reads and holds them there? Because it's like his eyes tell stories, when I look at them. They're so deep and emotional and they tell the most beautiful story in the world.

Jackson: MARK IT'S FOUR IN THE MORNING, SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP

 

Mark didn't really know which messages Jinyoung was reading or what his reaction was, because he was doing his best to look anywhere but Jinyoung. He stared at his shoes, at the sky, and then at last at BamBam and Yugyeom who were reading and filming over Jinyoung's shoulder. Yugyeom had his hand pressed over his heart and kept mouthing “how cute!” and BamBam was wrinkling his nose and mouthing “ew.”

 

At long last, Jinyoung cleared his throat. Mark still couldn't look at him. His face felt unbearably hot. His eyes were darting around, look for a hole where he could curl up and die. The sandbox on the other side of the park was looking incredibly tempting.

 

“Mark,” Jinyoung said in a soft and somewhat wobbly voice. “I think you should look at my Instagram”

 

That was the last response Mark had been expecting, and in his surprise, he forgot to avoid Jinyoung's eyes. When he looked into them, his breath caught. Jinyoung wasn't exactly smiling, but there was an overcome look in his eyes that wasn't exactly upset or angry. It didn't look anything at all like disgust, which was what Mark had expected.

 

“Your Instagram?” Mark echoed blankly.

 

“Yes. I think you should look at it.”

 

“Why? I already know you never post on it. I'm one of your followers, remember?”

 

“I know. Which is why I didn't think you'd check it out when you took my phone. But now...it's OK. Go to my direct messages.”

 

Mark did so. Jinyoung only ever received DMs from one person on his account, which was Jaebum. He opened the chat page and was greeted with the sight of his own face. Jinyoung had sent the picture with Mark that they had taken at the pool the other day to Jaebum. And underneath it was...

 

Jinyoung: This is what my eyes are feasting on right now ^^

Jaebum: Good for you.

Jinyoung: I love Americans and their lack of shirts

Jaebum: K

 

Speechless, Mark scrolled up and looked at the earlier messages. It seemed like Jinyoung had a habit of saving all of Mark's Instagram posts and immediately sending them off to Jaebum, accompanied by messages like...

 

Jinyoung: IS IT FAIR TO BE THIS HOT!?!?!

Jaebum: Calm down

Jinyoung: NO. Would he freak out if I jumped him?

Jaebum: Mark Tuan, freak out? Never...

 

and...

 

Jinyoung: Beach shot of the future hubby~

Jaebum: CAN YOU STOP SENDING ME HIS INSTAGRAM PHOTOS. I FOLLOW HIM ON INSTAGRAM ALREADY, JINYOUNG. I CAN SEE EVERYTHING YOU SEE!

 

“Ohohoho,” Yugyeom said, peering over Mark's shoulder. “BamBam, are you filming this?”

 

“Of course, I am. This is gold!”

 

Mark looked up at Jinyoung, his heart thudding noisily, so noisily he could barely think. “Jinyoung,” he murmured shakily.

 

Jinyoung looked back, his eyes now telling a very beautiful story, one Mark desperately wanted to lose himself in. “Mark...”

 

“Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!” Yugyeom started chanting, hopping up and down. BamBam fixed the camera on them, nodding his head enthusiastically.

 

Mark wanted to. He wanted to tackle Jinyoung into the grass and kiss him so hard his lips ached from it. It would definitely make a pretty spectacular end to this rollercoaster of a Youtube video.

 

Instead he reached out to take Jinyoung's hand and whispered one word under his breath: “run.”

 

Before BamBam and Yugyeom realized what was happening, the two of them were already flying across the park, headed far away from them and their camera. “WAIT!” BamBam started yelling. “COME BACK!”

 

“LET ME KNOW IN THE YOUTUBE COMMENTS WHEN YOU GUYS START SCREWING, MARK!” Yugyeom yelled after them. “I WANT MY 20,000 WON!”

 

Mark pulled Jinyoung into a cluster of trees at the outskirts of the park before placing his hands on his knees and trying to catch his breath. He was in the middle of a beautiful whirlwind of thoughts, the first among them being I can't believe this. I just cannot believe this.

 

“Hey,” Jinyoung said once he'd collected himself. “That pretty much destroyed our friendship, didn't it?”

 

“I'd say so,” Mark said, laughing a little.

 

“Good. I kind of never wanted to be your friend anyways. Even before we met, I used to steal Jaebum's phone and like all your Instagram photos.”

 

“Oh? And all this time I thought Jaebum thought I was really attractive.”

 

“Not as much as I do.” He reached out for Mark's hand again. “Can we come to an agreement?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“I'll tell Jaebum not to touch me anymore if you stop taking flirty selfies with Youngjae.”

 

“That wasn't even that fli-”

 

“Promise.”

 

Mark pretended to consider. “Yeah, OK.”

 

“I'm still not going to take off my rash guard next time we go swimming, though.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah,” he leaned forward. “Although if you want to rip it off at some point...”

 

“...yeah?”

 

“I wouldn't say no...”

 

“Then I'll be sure to ask next time,” Mark murmured, placing a hand on his neck. “But as for right now...”

 

They kissed each other for the first time there against one of the trees, their bodies tangled together and the birds chirping around them. Perhaps it wasn't as spectacular as kissing in front of an entire Youtube audience with BamBam and Yugyeom screaming and whooping along, but Mark loved it all the same, having this secret moment that only the two of them would know. A friendship destroying secret that would, from here on out, change absolutely everything.

 

That evening, a video appeared in Mark's Youtube subscription list from channel YUGBAM 2BROS4LIFE. He read the clickbait title with a snort of amusement: YugBam Truth Test #35—You won't BELIEVE the secret these two “friends” were hiding!

 

He showed it to Jinyoung, who chuckled lightly. “I'm sending this to Jaebum,” he said.

 

“I'll send it to Jackson, too. They're going to be so sad that we're not going to bother them about each other anymore now that we've finally gotten together.”

 

“Uhh...about that...”

 

“...show me your phone, Jinyoung.”

 

Jinyoung showed him his Instagram chat, which now read...

 

Jinyoung: When I get home tonight, I'm going to tell you all about what a fantastic kisser Mark Tuan is. Prepare yourself :p :p :p

 

“I've got an idea, Jinyoung,” Mark said, running his thumb along the bottom of Jinyoung's damp lips.

 

“Mmm?”

 

“Why don't I give you more details to write about when you get home tonight?”

 

“That's good,” Jinyoung said, grinning. “But I've got a better idea.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“How about you prevent me from going home tonight at all?”