{ chapter n i n e }

Mark eyed Jackson warily as the younger fidgeted on his seat for the nth time that day. The two rappers were practicing hard for their two-year anniversary event which will occur the next day, but Jackson’s focus seemed to be nonexistent as their choreographer halted the practice because the younger half of the duo was out of it.

The elder sat next to Jackson before chugging his water. “Jackson,” he called, but the other boy’s attention was still glued to his phone as he kept on scrolling. “Jackson Wang!” Mark tried again, startling Jackson.

“This dimsum!” Jackson spat in English. “Why did you have to startle me?!”

Mark didn’t bother answering him; the former instantly snatched the phone on his hand. Unguarded, the phone easily slipped away and Jackson let out an unmanly scream as Mark peered through the webpage displayed on the phone.

“YAH!” Jackson wrestled the phone away from Mark’s hold. He glared at the older as he hugged the phone to his chest. “Don’t snoop around other people’s belongings, man.”

“Why are you hanging around the fan forums, mandu?” Mark shot back. His eyebrows met as he recalled the comments made by the fans. It was about Heo Youngji– the girl who accidentally kissed Jackson. The so-called fans were bashing the poor girl from head to toe. “Is it because of Youngji-ssi?”

Jackson glared at him in response. “Of course not! I was just checking if fans were excited about the event tomorrow!”

“Hah,” Mark scoffed. “You’re checking if the fans are excited, but it seems like you aren’t even excited yourself. Your mind’s flying elsewhere, mandu.” He teased.

“It’s true!!!” Jackson insisted before putting his attention back on his phone.

Mark’s eyebrows raised as he heard the desperation in Jackson’s voice. He decided to speak then. “Neh, neh. But don’t you think that some fans are being mean to Youngji-ssi, Jackson-ah?” He baited. He saw Jackson stop scrolling but his eyes were still trained on his phone. Mark decided to go on. “They bashed Youngji-ssi a lot. It seems like the fans were thinking that she just did all that to get our attention…”

“DIDN’T THEY?!” Jackson suddenly turned his attention to Mark. “They were saying a lot of bad things about that idiot! They didn’t even know what really happened but they were saying all sorts of things and–” The younger saw the amused look on Mark’s face and unsubtly cleared his throat. “Just… I’m just saying.”

“Just saying?” Mark parroted with a smirk.

“YES! It was just my observation!”

The elder of the two slowly nodded his head. “Observation, hmm…”

“IT WAS MY OBSERVATION, TUAN!”

Mark pulled an innocent face. “I didn’t say anything, Wang! Chill.”

Jackson mumbled under his breath before turning his back to the elder, choosing to go back to his phone. Mark, on the other hand, could do nothing but shake his head amusedly at the younger rapper. He wanted to see Youngji and Jackson again tomorrow, but he was also worrying if that was a good thing. Fans were out to bash Youngji, and Mark wouldn’t want for the girl to get hurt.

He sighed as he sat down before craning his head to look at Jackson. The latter’s face was now contorted; his eyebrows twitching every now and then as he continued to scroll through the comments and bashes that fans left for Youngji. Mark heaved a deep breath before closing his eyes, thinking about the best way to weather the problem.

--

Youngji was speechless as she read the comments made by STORM’s fans on the forums secretly under her school desk. She knew that they were nothing but immature and rude comments, but it still made her very uncomfortable. One particular comment instantly stood out and made her eyes widen.

            User #87325 said…

                        I KNOW HEO YOUNGJI PERSONALLY. she is a junior high student at dsp high school. she always gushed abt storm and the day when the incident happened, she left school early. tbh i support the other netizens’ theory that she planned all this. she was always a girl who was greedy for attention bc no one cares abt her. i’m guessing that she just wanted the other boys in our school to notice her bc she has no suitors. we used to pity her but when this happened, we just can’t believe that she could do that just for attention. what a poor excuse she had for ruining storm.

She bit her lip at the comment as she reread it over and over again. She feels as if she already knew who did this. It was bad to accuse people without proof, but the only ones who were capable of selling her out like this was none other than Park Jiyeon’s group of friends. Eunjung’s words clearly rang through her ears: You’ll pay for this, Heo Youngji!

There were others who replied to User #87325’s comment. Her fingers were trembling as she clicked on the replies.

            User #547694 said…

                        WHOA JINJJA. what a b****. how could she destroy storm just for that sh**ty reason?! and she even had the guts to go to jype to APOLOGIZE?! HAH!!!1!1!! WHAT A LOWLIFE B****

            User #73694 said…

                        your being too nice to this girl. if i was her schoolmate i wouldve pulled her hair and slammed her to the door.

            User #50413 said…

                        GUYS!! DO YOU THINK THAT MARK AND JACKSON WOULD WANT DIS TO HAPPEN???!!!!

            User #324876 said…

                        Is this real?????? WHO WANTS TO GO W/ ME TO DESTROY THIS GIRL ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

          User #47813 said…

                        u guys need 2 chill real quick. jyp already said that it was an accident. no need to terrorize the poor girl.

            User #97421 said…

                        @User #47813 do u rly believe that?????? Who knows if that girl was just being a manipulative b****

She wasn’t even conscious when she was dialing Hara’s phone number. “O, Youn–”

“Unnie, something happened.” Youngji’s voice was trembling as she forced the words out of , horror evident in her voice.

“Youngji– Youngji-yah, calm down. Tell me what’s wrong.” Hara instructed.

“Someone posted my life’s personal details on one of the internet forums. I– I’m afraid they’ll show up later at school–”

“WHAT?! Someone posted it on the internet?!” The senior exploded. “Who do you think was the culprit?!”

Youngji bit her lip and stole a glance at their teacher who was still droning on before speaking. “I… I think it was Pa–Park Jiyeon and her friends. Yesterday Eunjung sunbae told me that I’ll pay for what I did…”

She heard Hara’s muffled curse on the other line before the elder spoke clearly once again. “Youngji-yah, don’t leave the classroom without Kangjoon, arasso?” The elder instructed. “I’ll confront those es, jinjja!!!” That was the last thing Youngji heard before Hara’s line was cut off.

Kangjoon warily turned to her. “Is there something wrong?”

Youngji repeated what she told Hara to Kangjoon. The boy could only groan in disbelief. “What the hell?! Do those girls even know what they did?!” He angrily spat. “Did Hara say that she’ll talk to them?” He questioned and Youngji nodded as an answer. “Damn it, she won’t survive them alone.” He muttered.

She placed her palm on top of his shoulder to get his attention. “Kangjoon-ah, go find Hara unnie. Help her. I know that Jiyeon sunbae and her friends won’t treat her kindly.”

“What about you? School will be out soon.” Kangjoon worriedly said.

“I’ll be fine. For now, Hara unnie’s the one who’s facing those girls head on. She needs the help more than I do.” She insisted.

“Yah are you sure? But–”

“Seo Kangjoon.” Youngji seriously called out. “If something bad happens to Hara unnie, I’ll put all the blame on you.”

Kangjoon sighed before staring at her. “Fine! But make sure you’ll keep yourself safe or else Hara will be the one to kill me.” He last said before making his way towards their teacher. He made up an excuse about the football team’s emergency meeting before being let off.

The remaining class time passed quickly. Youngji was scared as she stuffed her things inside her backpack. Logically speaking, she should be happy because it was already Friday and a weekend all to herself sounds nice. However, she was still left thinking about what she would do so that those sasaeng fans of STORM won’t catch her.

She tiptoed her way towards the school gate when she saw various girls in front who weren’t from their school. Her heart skipped a beat when one of the girls noticed her and began pointing her out to the others. It was a good thing that there was a guard and a teacher in front so that they weren’t able to get inside the school.

Youngji ran back to the school, heading towards the empty classroom that she, Hara, and Kangjoon frequents. She wasn’t even able to close the door as she rushed to slump to the floor on one corner of the room as her lungs protest at the exertion. She hugged her backpack to her chest as tears began falling down.

“Really an idiot,” someone suddenly commented and she froze at the familiar voice. She slowly tilted her head up and was immensely surprised to see who it was.

“Jackson…” She said, her face tear-stained.

Jackson only shook his head before throwing her his handkerchief. “Don’t cry anymore, idiot.” He told her as he averted his gaze.

“I’ll protect you from now on.”

A/N: /squeals so hard i'm d y i n g/ Manly Jackson is umfff!!! HAHAHA. And please comment? :(( Read this if you wanna know my feelings lol.

P.S. If there are Daragon fans out there, please do visit DaraGon Fic Prompts Fest!~  It's a prompting/writing meme for DG fans ~~

P.P.S. sorry for the long a/n.

P.P.P.S. (i swear this is important) Updates might be slower starting next week bc I'll be in school! T.T I didn't even feel the summer, do you guys feel me hahaha.

P.P.P.P.S. Nothing, hope you guys had a great summer and are currently having a blast rn!~~ ^^ (and MarkSon is lifeuuuu)