chapter one || it can't be that bad ||

Jaebum was more than a little bit pissed off.

Looking at Jackson sprawled pathetically on his couch, eating his chips, crying his eyes out for no apparent reason made him extremely angry.

Sure, it was funny for the the first hour or two, but the novelty soon wore off and then Jinyoung started offering Jackson his food - to which he held no claim, by the way - and his patience ran out. And Jinyoung did nothing but encourage his strange behaviour by simply comforting him and not even trying to extract information from him!

Enough is enough

"Okay, you've been here for more than four damned hours, you've eaten all my food, and you've been crying nonstop. Either you tell me right now what's going on or I will personally kick you out on your and do everyone the favour of ridding the earth of your filthy presence, you leech!"

Jackson wailed harder. "He wants to be a goddamned priest!"

"Excuse me? Who wants to be a priest?" Jaebum's question went unanswered in the onslaught of fresh tears and inconsolable wailing, courtesy of Jackson. Jinyoung glared at him.

"See what you did!" He hissed. His voice lowered as he cooed comfortingly at Jackson, his hair in an attempt to bring him back to himself. "It's okay, Jackson, the bad man didn't mean it, now did he? Right, Jaebum?"

Jaebum ignored the jibe at him. "Actually, I did mean it. Now, shut the up, Jinyoung, and let Jackson answer my damn question. Who wants to be a priest?"

"Mark!"

Jaebum was more than a little bit amused. His prevoius fury quickly melted away to make room for the exploding laughter that soon filled the room, nearly, but not quite, drowing out Jackson's crying. "What? Mark? A priest? Oh, this is ing hilarious."

"Honey, I believe the correct term for what he wants to be is an ordained minister of God." Jinyoung gently corrected Jackson.

Jackson glared at Jinyoung, betrayal crossing his eyes. "You knew?!" He screeched.

"He may have mentioned it in passing." Jinyoung winced guiltily

"This just gets better and better. A goddamned priest!" Jaebum couldn't believe it.

This is comedy gold

Jinyoung cut in again, his tone protective and slightly angry. "He wants to be priest for the express reason that he does not want to be goddamned, unlike you, you uneducated swine!"

Ignoring Jinyoung once again, Jaebum directed his attention back to Jackson, who seemed to have run out of tears.

Thank God

"Now, Jackson, tell us exactly what happened yesterday."

-------

Jackson giggled nervously. 

"You shouldn't take the Lord's name in vain, Jackson." Mark gently chastised him.

What?! Nonononononononono. This is just your brain messing with you, Jackson. This isn't real. I repeat, this is not real. This is just a really, really bad dream. Not real. Not real. Not real. Not real. Not real.

"LOL, Mark, very funny. You got me. I'm sorry for saying you're weren't funny yesterday, you win. You're hilarious. Now go back to sleep, okay?"

"Jackson, I'm not kidding. This isn't a joke. This is real."

HE'S LYING, DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, JACKSON

"That's enough now, seriously. Joke's over."

But something in Mark's eyes warned him that he was ing serious.Dead serious.

"Jackson, listen to me. I. Am. Not. Joking. I want to be a priest. Technically, an ordained minister of God. Either way, I really want to do this. Isn't this a beautiful opportunity?"

With Mark looking so cutely excited and just plain happy in every sense of the word, Jackson really couldn't just not agree with him. I mean, look at those eyes. Would you be able to say no to that face? It would be like kicking an innocent little puppy.

No wonder he said what he did.

"Yeah, you should totally go for it, Mark."

Wait, what?

------

"All I can say is that, Jackson my friend, you brought this upon yourself."

Even Jinyoung couldn't disagree.

"Kill me now."