“How do you spell anniversary again?” Jackson asked as he scrunched up his nose in response to the mephitic smell of raw wall paint.

Mark rolled his eyes. And Jackson claimed he got accepted into Stanford? “I don’t have time for this, Jackson,” he mumbled as he continued stirring the cake mixture in the mixing bowl. He had a broken bowl beside him and ingredients strewn all over the kitchen counter and floor, yet he worked with complete focus as though he was used to sock skating on flour.

Jackson scoffed and whipped his phone out from his pocket. “Fine, Mister Use-your-friends-as-event-planners-for-free. I will check with my new best friend, Dictionary.com.”

“Wow, how competent,” Mark remarked sarcastically. He swore, he was not usually that mean, but Jackson was really getting on his nerves. He thought his goofball of a friend would be great comic relief from the entire week of stress over planning for his and Jinyoung’s wedding anniversary. Oh, he was so wrong.

Jackson’s antics only slowed down the preparation progress and Mark wanted – needed – everything to be perfect.

“Hey! At least I’m pretty decent at art!” The younger protested in annoyance, flaunting the paintbrush in his hand with obtrusive, flamboyant flicks of his wrist. He stepped back to admire his “masterpiece”, awkward spacing between letters and uneven he decided were more of an artist’s free expression than mistakes.

“Yeah,” Mark deadpanned. “So decent, you bought smelly wall paint when I clearly told you to get acrylic.”

Jackson looked up, slightly offended. “They were on discount! Fifty percent!” He finished up the banner: a paint-splattered one with the words “Happy 2nd Anniversary!” sprawled across carelessly in red. “I’m done, you slow Markie Pooh.”

Mark initially planned to quickly steal a glance at the product and go back to baking, but the red letters jumped at him like shark out of water. His jaw dropped before he groaned in disbelief, “Jackson, oh my god, it looks like something from a bloody horror movie!”

There was no apology, only a shrug from the artist responsible. “Whatever, at least Jinyoung likes red. I think.” Jackson wiped the excess paint thoughtlessly on the apron he was wearing (probably Jinyoung’s, but he believed friends were supposed to share). “As if you could do a better job,” he sneered at Mark. “I told you, I should’ve baked instead.”

“Forget it, you can’t even tell the difference between sugar and salt.” Mark cringed in disgust at the memory of Jackson’s birthday gift last year: cookies as salty as the sea. He was still fumbling with the measurements, his hand-eye coordination almost haywire from switching his focus between the recipe and measuring cups. He could definitely use some help, but not help from Jackson Wang, King of Trouble. If not for Jackson’s ineptitude at keeping secrets, he would have gotten Jaebum to help him and sent Jackson to take Jinyoung out. He quickly stowed the fresh batter into the oven, careful to avoid eye contact with Jackson in case he wanted to add in some “special ingredient” to ruin the cake.

“So, why do we need to go to the mall?” Jackson asked as he stared at the checklist for that day’s agenda. They were done with everything, except cleaning up and their trip to the mall.

“To pick up Coco,” Mark replied, a hint of excitement lingering in his voice as he rapidly swept up the mess in the kitchen. Ever since the day they had been to the pet store, he couldn’t forget the image of Jinyoung gazing lovingly at the puppies. After several phone calls and secret visits to the store (he had lied that he had to work overtime), he decided to adopt a snow-white Maltese puppy, Coco.

When Mark observed the puppies in the enclosure, he noticed a bundle of white fur poking out from behind the kennel, the fragile creature blinking through tousled strands with eyes full of expectation. She was quiet at first, liking to play alone in the corner. But with time, she warmed up to Mark and exposed a completely different side – affectionate and hyperactive with limitless energy.

Coco reminded Mark of himself, and he fell in love with her quickly. He was, too, certain that Jinyoung would love her as much.

Jackson’s ears perked up at the unfamiliar name; he narrowed his eyes at the elder. “Are you and Jinyoung having threesomes with some girl I need to know about?”

“What?” Mark almost shrieked. “Of course not! You know I don’t s-swing that way.”

“Well, maybe you’ll do it for Jin–”

“GOOD GOD, JACKSON!” Mark was so close to punching his best friend in the eye. What the hell was he thinking?

“Okay, okay. Chill, will you?” Jackson huffed, then his face lit up, eyes sparking with zeal as he wiggled his eyebrows cheekily. “Will you introduce me to her then?”

Mark could hardly keep his laughter from escaping from his mouth. “Of course!” he smirked.

~~~~~

Jaebum sighed. The guilt he was feeling for lying to Jinyoung was slowly, yet steadily, consuming him; he was afraid it wasn’t long till he burst. This is what you get for being friends with a couple, he thought.

The night before, he had received a phone call from Mark, who was speaking in hushed tones such that Jaebum could hardly distinguish his words. The elder had asked – no, it was almost begging – for him to bring Jinyoung out the next day. He gave no reason, and no detail, and just left him to the work it out.

He was looking forward to his movie date with a cute newcomer at his workplace, Youngjae. Yet, he had to blatantly cancel the date, using “family issues” as a lousy excuse, and bring Jinyoung to that movie instead.

“I didn’t know you liked romance movies,” Jinyoung commented as they sauntered out of the movie theatre. He had known Jaebum for years, and had never pegged him as the kind to like purely romantic movies. Red roses and mushy scenes just did not fit his cool, chic image.

“Hmm I d-didn’t know either?” Jaebum stammered, pretending to look far ahead and act as normal as he could so the younger wouldn’t catch the blush creeping up his cheeks. It was supposed to be for Youngjae. He couldn’t be more grateful when Jinyoung broke the silence. “Anyway, it was a nice movie, hyung. Did Mark ask you to bring me?”

While Jinyoung looked like he was tickled pink at the thought, Jaebum almost choked on his own spit. “No!” he yelled, before his brain could formulate any excuse. “Uh, of course not. Why would you think that?”

“It is our wedding anniversary tomorrow, he’s probably planning something at home,” Jinyoung reasoned. He seemed pretty calm, unlike Jaebum, who was trembling beneath his skin.

“Hmm, is it? I don’t know anything.” Jaebum lied through his teeth. Technically, he didn’t know much either, but it surely did not help with the burden of guilt.

“Perhaps with some homemade cake and cheesy banners,” Jinyoung continued, chuckling at the mere thought of it. Jaebum gulped. If he did remembered correctly, Jackson mentioned something about failed cake batters and brilliant hand-painted banners via Whatsapp, or did he accidentally send it in the group chat again? How did Jinyoung know?

Silence is golden. Shut your mouth, Im Jaebum.

Jinyoung didn’t seem to mind