Jr is peacefully sleeping when he's awoken by an urgent banging on the door. His eyes slowly blink open as he becomes conscious of the fact that his head is resting on his leaders' broad chest. He lifts his head, only to see the older male slightly drooling out of the corner of his mouth. He chuckles lightly and shakes his head, staring at his leader fondly.

"Hyung! Hyung!" Yugyeom's muffled shouting reaches Jr's ears and he whips his head toward the door then. He sighs slightly, wondering what the maknae has gotten into this time. 

"Come in!"

Yugyeom bursts through the door, his face is filled with panic and he's breathing a bit heavy. Jr sits up immediatley and looks at the maknae curiously, wondering why he's looking so disheveled.

"What's wrong?"

"It's BamBam..." 

Jr's eyes widen and he's already pushing Yugyeom out of the way as he rushes into the hallway on full alert. He finds Youngjae already at the closed door, his expression is anything but calm. This only serves to alarm the motherly member even more and he's already got his hands on the door knob trying to open it.

"He won't open it no matter how many times we've asked him." Youngjae explains as Jr begins to bang on the door insistently.

"BamBam! What's going on? Open the door!" He puts his ear to the door but is awarded with the silence that he did not want.

"Hyung! Maybe I can pick the lock!" Yugyeom is rushing back to the door beside Jr who suddenly blocks him as he bends down to get the lock. The tall boy stares at him questioningly as he's frozen in place by Jinyoung's hard stare.

"What happened? Why is he like this?" Yugyeom looks over at Youngjae just then and nervously bites his lips. The duo both begin to fidget. It doesn't go unnoticed by Jinyoung of course, who in turn focuses his scary gaze on them.

"I-We...don't know."

"No. Don't give me that, there's got to be more to this. Why would he just lock himself in there and not make a sound?" Youngjae looks nervously between Yugyeom and Jinyoung.

"Youngjae?" Jinyoung inquires, noticing how he immediately grabs for Yugyeoms' shirt sleeve. Yugyeom looks down at him and nudges him lightly. Almost as if to encourage him in a way. Jinyoung's eyes never falter.

"Tell me. Now." 

 
Mark stares at the steam floating out of his cup, he smiles and hums in approval at the aroma hitting his sensitive nose. There's nothing better than hot chocolate on a chilly, spring day. As he lifts the beautifully decorated cup to his lips for a sip, he stops. His eyes land on the figure sitting across from him, Jackson. He sets the cup down slowly as he can't help but notice how the usually energetic man has suddenly stopped. Stopped in time, it seems. 

It's strange to think, but when you spend time with Jackson Wang it's easy enough to say that he moves around so fast, that time just speeds past and there's nothing you can do to slow it down. Mark finds himself wanting to slow time down when he's with the younger male. He sort of clings onto the minutes, hours and seconds spent with him, unknowingly.  

When he's like this though, still and expressionless, eyes casted down and hands tucked securely in his pockets. Mark finds himself wanting to speed time up again. He can't help but notice that it seems to happen only when he's away from the group and the dorm, out of earshot, out of sight. Almost as if he's running away from something, it's a reality that not even Mark wants to face for himself.

"So, are you gonna tell me why I've suddenly been dragged to this random cafe?" 

Jackson's gaze shifts to the window beside them, eyes following the figures walking past the small building. Mark waits patiently for an answer as he taps on his cup.

"Have you ever been in love with anyone?" 

The tapping stops and Mark sort of feels the need to walk out of the cafe in that moment. He stares at Jackson for what seems like an eternity, honestly a bit urked at the fact that it's been a full five minutes since he's said anything and Jackson doesn't seem to notice.

"What kind of thoughts do you think run through someones mind when they, you know, find that person?" Jackson is finally looking at Mark and he feels a sense of burden suddenly. He clears his throat a bit as Jackson keeps his eyes focused on him, clearly waiting for an answer. 

"Well...I don't know, maybe they feel good? I would imagine someone being extremely happy and wanting to be with that person all the time. If I was in love..." He swipes his tongue over his bottom lip nervously.

"I would like to spend all my time with that person. As much time as I could, really." He casts his eyes down and stares at his thumb as it slides back and forth over the rim of his cup. He feels his cheeks warm a bit and he just wants to hide.

"I don't think that's how it is." 

Mark feels a heavy pang in his gut, as if someone has punched him. Jackson's response was immediate, too fast. His eyes snap up and latch onto the rapper, who sits back in his chair. 

"How do you think it is then?" Mark can't help but feel a bit irritated and tries, he really tries his hardest to keep the bitterness from spilling into his tone. Mark's eyes narrow a bit whilst he stares at Jackson, waiting.

"I think...it hurts. It hurts because, you know that this is the person, you'll never let go of. For the rest of your life this is the one human being who can build you up to your highest peak, and just the same tear you right back down. It's scary because literally, they're your entire world, wrapped into one single person." 

Jackson sighs and bites his bottom lip a bit after he seems to think a bit about his words. Mark doesn't miss a single beat.

"What if that person is someone you can't have and you know it, isn't that what would really hurt you?"  He almost bites back, he only asks because he knows it's an important question. Something that Jackson must accept. 

Mark watches as Jackson lifts his head finally and time really does stop, he thinks. Mark's gaze softens and his heart feels as if it wants to break into a million pieces in that moment. Seeing this man, sitting across from him, with such an expression on his face. It's all contorted and trying to hold itself in. Anguish. 

"I'm sorry Jackso-"

"You know what I don't like? Pickles." Jackson says with pursed lips and just like that, it's gone. Mark blinks at him in disbelief and feels like crying and laughing at the same time.

"Why do you always do that?"

"What? Let it go Marky Mark. Hey, why don't we go see a movie later?" Jackson begins to laugh lightly, clearly a segway was attempted but this time Mark doesn't want to let it slip over his head. They've had too many of these moments where Mark just "let it go" and this time he needs to confirm it. 

He needs to know why, why does Jackson always cling to him and seem to make it hard for anyone to see him the way that he does? Why does he laugh so loudly around everyone else but speak with such a timid voice when they're alone? Why does he drag him away and treat him like he's a...container? A container. 

These are things only meant for Mark to see, emotions and sides of Jackson only for him to witness. Right? He wants to know, he needs to know.
 
"Jackson I-" 

Girls Girls Girls, they love me!

He jolts a bit as his ringtone suddenly goes off, he looks at the caller ID.

It's Jr, he raises his eyebrows as he presses the answer button.

"Hello, Jinyoung?" 

He keeps his eyes trained on Jackson as he listens to Jr, furrowing his eyebrows a bit at what he tells him.

"Alright, I got it. We'll be home in a bit." Jackson looks over at him as he hears the surprising response from the red head. He watches curiously as Mark gets up and walks over to the counter seemingly to pay, he follows after him.

"What happened?" Jackson leans his head over Mark's thin shoulder, watching as he swipes his card. Mark wants to lean into the heat radiating from behind him, but seeing as they're in public and not in front of fans he doesn't really know how to feel about it.

"That was Jinyoung."

"Yeah, I got that much." Jackson rolls his eyes.

"He said something's up with BamBam, he wants us to go home." 

"Did you just say it was BamBam?"

"Yeah. Hey, can you go get my hat?"

There's no response after that, instead he hears the distinctive ringing of the door bell.

"Jackson?"

Mark looks behind him surprised as suddenly the warmth is gone and all he sees is Jackson's back rushing out of the small cafe's door.

"Jackson! Wait up!" He rushes to sign the receipt, thanking the waiter and quickly makes his way out of the door, pausing as the cold april wind hits him, he's in shock that Jackson really did leave him behind. Only as he begins to jog home he can't help but think about something that Jr said to him on the phone. He recites it over and over, feeling his chest tighten each time he recalls the sentence.

"He's not coming out. He needs Jackson right now, Mark."

~Hey everyone! Oh wow I can't believe that I've got subscribers to my silly little story ^-^ I appreciate you all so much and please let me know what y'all think so far in the comment section, I would really love to know~!