Narrator POV

“I can’t believe this!!!” Jackson threw his hands up in the air, “We were supposed to win!”

“With your tent building skills?” Ally teased.

“With Mark!” Jackson swung his feet from the counter, “He was supposed to help us win! Not a random person that popped out of nowhere.”

“That’s not nice Jackson,” Ally frowned, “She’s called Lydia.”

“Yeah whatever,” Jackson rolled his eyes.

It was after dinner and everybody except the winning couple had to clean up. Jackson and Ally where appointed to be dishwashers but Ally had insisted on Jackson not wetting his bandaged hand. She wouldn’t even let him come within a 50 cm radius of the sink.

Ally rolled her sleeves up and started scrubbing the dishes one by one.

“At this speed you’ll be done by tomorrow morning,” Jackson muttered.

Ally looked up from the sink, “Did you say something?”

“Huh? No!” Jackson smiled ignorantly and she gave him a weird look before going back to work.

She reached out to grab the next plate but another hand beat her to it.

“Jackson! I told you to-… oh Mark?” Ally looked at the red hair beside her.

“Hey,” Mark smiled sheepishly and Jackson got up from his lying position, “What are you doing here in the loserville?” Jackson asked still mad, “Shouldn’t you be enjoying a nice cup of hot coco beside the campfire?”

“I-I… feel bad so… I wanted to help…” Mark looked hopelessly at Jackson who was jerking his neck in the opposite direction, to prove that he was beyond mad.

Since Jackson was as impossible as a rock, Mark turned to Ally, “I’m sorry…”

Unexpectedly, Ally did the last thing Mark had expected and laughed, “Don’t worry about it and don’t feel obliged to wash the dishes, you won, you should rest.”

Mark shook his head and started scrubbing with Ally, “I’d rather be here… so you are… not mad?”

“What’s with all of you?” Ally looked at Mark amused, “Just earlier today Lydia asked me the same question, I’m not upset. In fact I find it kind of hilarious.”

“Hilarious? How?” Mark frowned.

“It’s just… now you know how I had felt,” Ally bumped Mark in the shoulder, “A taste of your own medicine, serves you right.”

Mark chuckled, “Yeah… I guess.”

Behind them a pile of fume was growing bigger and bigger, the fume source? Jackson Wang.

The way Mark and Ally were huddled closely to each other, talking, laughing, and teasing each other. The way Mark reached behind Ally to grab another plate or when Ally would help Mark wipe off the soap that somehow got on his face. It was tormenting Jackson.

“HEYYYY I want to help too!!!” Jackson barged in between them and was about to dunk his hand in the water when Ally grabbed it.

“Are you crazy?” Ally sighed, “Just how many times do I have to tell you ‘no’.”

“But you let Mark help,” Jackson pouted and tried to use his aegyo to soften her.

“I would let you too if you didn’t have a wide gash in your hand!” Ally was persistent.

“Stop exaggerating, it’s not that big of a deal!” Jackson was getting annoyed.

“It is! What if you get an infection?”

“If you don’t want me here then just say so!” Jackson snapped.

“Jackson,” Ally bit her lips, this wasn’t what I wanted.

“Yo dude,” Mark grabbed Jackson by the shoulders, “It’s just a few plates, not a big deal.”

Jackson looked from Ally to Mark then back again, so those two are on the same side huh? Well of course they’ll be.

Jackson shrugged off Mark’s hand and stared at Ally one last time before turning his back to leave.

The stare, it gave Ally chills to her bones. Something about it was… unsettling, Jackson had never looked at her … looked at anyone like that. With eyes colder than Antarctica in the middle of December.

Mark noticed the slipping plate between Ally’s fingers, he quickly caught it before it could fall, “Should we go after him?”

“No,” Ally swallowed the lump in , it was like swallowing shattered glass, “Let him be. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

Mark wondered if now was the time to tell Allyson, tell her everything, Jackson’s jealousy, Jackson’s love, Jackson’s sufferings. But Mark, despite being considerate, saint-like, was still a human being, and humans were selfish. Even for one day, one minute, Mark wanted to keep Ally, so he didn’t say anything.

They worked in silence, but it was clear that Allyson’s heart wasn’t in it. She rewashed the clean dishes, and poured detergent into the dried ones. Mark took the supplies out of her hand and untied her apron.

“You need to rest,” Mark tucked a strand of lose hair behind her ear, “Go on a walk.”

“But-…” Ally looked at the messy sink.

“I can handle it,” he smiled and gave her an encouraging nudge, “it’s almost done anyways.”

Ally nodded, “Thanks Mark.”

Mark