Mark groaned again. This had been the fifth time his phone was ringing. He glanced at the caller’s ID before letting out a heavy sigh and reached for his phone. “What do you want, Jackson?” he asked lazily, knowing what the other boy would be answering.

“Starkeekz,” replied the other party at the end of the line shortly. Bingo.

“I told you for the thousandth time, Wang Jackson. I’m not going. You should just go on your own if you’re that stubborn.” The brown-haired boy went to lay his body properly on his comfy bed. He was still feeling tired after unpacking his stuffs from his family trip back from LA yesterday. Plus, tomorrow would be their first day of the new semester; Mark would not want to get a warning on his first day. “I’m tired, can you please understand my condition, buddy?”

For a moment, Mark could hear nothing from Jackson, making him curious if the Hong Kong boy was still on the line. “Jackson? You’re still there?” Mark was not left hanging for long as his short question was replied with a childish whine from Jackson.

“Come on, Mark. Don’t be so nerdy. So what if tomorrow’s a school day? I’m not asking you to stay the night out, alright? I’m just asking you to accompany me and watch the boys performing for a short while only. Please~ Mark … I beg you, please please please? They’ve got a new member and the rumours had it that the boy is very good at martial arts tricking!” Jackson explained his wholeheartedly, hoping that the effort would somehow change the mind of his best friend.

Mark glanced at his room’s wall clock, hesitating on whether he should or should not agree with Jackson this time. To be honest, he would rather hung up the phone and went straight to dreamland but a part of him said that he should just accompany Jackson to watch the street dance performance they were talking about earlier. After all, Jackson was his closest friend and the boy knew Mark would never say no to martial arts tricking. It was his thing, as Jackson always said.

With a heavy sigh, Mark finally gave his agreement on the matter. “Fine, I’m letting you win this time, but do remember. We got to be back home by midnight. Okay?”

Jackson laughed slightly, scoffing at Mark’s last sentence. “By midnight? What are you? Cinderella?” Jackson laughed even louder after he spoke his words out loud, earning a loud groan from the elder. “It’s that or none, Jackson. You choose.”

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry, okay?” the younger’s laugh could still be heard at the end of the line. “Fine. Midnight. Hurry up, or else we’d be missing the best part!” Jackson abruptly ended the call, leaving Mark in no words.

The boy eventually got up to a sitting position, looking around his room before mumbling to his self. “I hope mom, dad, and the rest have all gone to sleep though. It’d be troublesome if they haven’t,” said the boy while pacing his lazy feet to his wardrobe and got changed. He put on a simple sleeveless shirt with his favourite black hoodie and long pants, and then sneaked out of the house to meet Jackson at the nearby junction near their neighbourhood.

The crowd surrounding the small area was getting bigger. At one side of the crowd, stood Mark and Jackson; getting pretty excited of how Starkeekz performance could be. It had been 20 minutes since the two had been waiting with the rest of the crowd yet there was still no sign that the performance would start shortly. The American boy kept on glancing to his wristwatch as he kept track on the time passing by and he anxiously kept on letting groans and sighs while doing so. That eventually annoyed the boy standing beside him.

“Hey, can you please stop that?” Jackson complained, being pretty annoyed by Mark’s action. In return, Mark let out another sigh, and then showed his watch to his best friend. “Look. It’s already 11.30pm, Jackson. I can’t wait anymore. If they’re not starting right now, I’m going back home.”

“Then what about me? You’re leaving me alone?” Jackson glared at the elder.

“What’s wrong with that? It’s not as if your home is far from here anyway.” Mark slid his phone back into his pocket.

“Mark Tuan, you mean boy-“

“Shut up, Wang. I’m going.”

“Yah- Yah! Where are you going- damn it, Mark!”

Mark heard his friend keep on calling out his name but he ignored it. He still did not know why Jackson would even need him to be there till the end, since in the end, it would be the two of them going back in separate ways after all. Mark shook his head a bit before continuing his way back to his neighbourhood.

After awhile, as he expected his phone rang and ‘Jackson’ was appearing on it again. This time Mark decided to just ignore the phone call and let it rang till it found its own stop. However, by the second time the phone ringing, the boy took the call after all. “What?”

He was expecting an angry boy answering his question, but the sound of calm Jackson’s voice was greeting him instead. “Where are you? I’m going back with you. Wait for me,” Jackson did not sound angry at all and the noise from the crowd earlier had subsided, and Mark assumed Jackson was walking away from the crowd the time he made the call.

Mark nodded without even realising that Jackson could not see his actions. He then looked around him to give the other boy the proper description of his current whereabouts. “Uh, I’m right at the junction after the Hwayeon supermarket and-“

Right at that moment, Mark’s eyes caught a glimpse of few figures in one alleyway near him and he paced his feet towards them that instant. Later to his view, he could see a boy around his age in his striped shirt was getting beaten up by two other boys – bullies, Mark thought. Almost immediately, Mark ended the call between him and Jackson earlier and went to help the poor boy.

“Hey!” he yelled slightly, intending to scare the bullies away but having a bad luck he was that moment, the two bullies turned their attention towards him instead. One of them was attacking Mark, while the other kept on beating the poor boy up. Luckily enough, as Mark had distracted one boy away, the poor boy could fight back and turned the table around, being the one attacking then.

“What the hell-“ It was as if a perfect timing, Jackson came towards them right at that moment. Only god knew