"Jackson!" Bambam grinned when he saw his friend, waving at him so he could see them.

All students had been dismissed from their classes to the school's festival. Because of the talent show, the student council decided that they should do games and food's stands, giving a day off for everyone.

Bambam was more than having fun with a cotton candy in hand, while his free hand was linked to Junior's, this one seemed to be happy enough just to see the other kid having fun. Jackson had just arrived, and was relieved to find the two friends.

"I thought I'd never find you" he commented, adjusting his cap on the platinum hair. "Have you seen Mark?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking, Jackson!" Jinyoung replied in an ironic tone, laughing in the next second. "Not even his shadow, if you ask me"

"Don't be dramatic" he rolled his eyes, laughing as well. ", really? I wanted to see him before he perfoms... By the way, you're not going to believe me!"

Bambam and Junior exchanged glances before returning to stare at his friend, both raising their eyebrows at the same time, as if they knew what the other was going to say. Jackson ignored these signs completely, and all excited, added:

"Yien's Mark, man! I don't believe it took me so long to realize!"

"Oh my God, really?" the youngest of the three asked with obvious sarcasm.

"Yeah, I swear!"

"Jackson, they're joking around with you, they already knew."

The fourth voice that was present startled the trio, who turned to come face to face with Youngjae, the latter accompanied by another boy that Jackson took seconds to recognize.

"JB!" he exclaimed excited, jumping on his friend to hug him like there's no tomorrow. "God, I missed you!"

"Jackson, I talked to you on the phone these days" he complained, but didn't fail to return the embrace.

"What are you doing here?"

Jackson's gaze drifted from Jaebum to Youngjae, trying to understand how the two ended up together since he had never heard of their friendship.

"Actually... I wanted to talk to you."

The Chinese knew very well that this time would come. He and Youngjae had a lot to talk and they couldn't avoid it forever, he only didn't want that misunderstanding to happen, but life was life — maybe he could've discovered the truth about Yien since the party.

"And since JB is your friend and we came together, we took the opportunity to put all our friends together" he added later with a small smile.

"Okay, so here we go!" Jackson opened a smile, trying to kick his nervousness. "We're gonna comeback soon!"

The other three only agreed in answer, Junior and Bambam quickly starting to talk with JB, trying to fit in with the boy of the dance classes that both heard a lot about.

Meanwhile, Jackson and Youngjae walked side by side, trying to not go where there were many people who could disturb or hear them. It brought a certain nostalgia to the Chinese, remembering the party's day as if it were yesterday.

"So..." the younger began, putting his hands in his pocket. "I'm sorry about that day. I even thought about looking for you, but Mark hyung said it was better to wait everything settle down"

The blonde looked up to face him, a little bit confused.

"Mark knows?"

"He already knew about it before, and didn't agree with the idea, actually" he shrugged; "But I asked for Yugyeom to not let him leave the room for a few minutes"

"What were you planning? I might have given up on Mark..." he commented in a low tone, without really wanting to blame him, but spotting a truth.

Youngjae stopped walking when he saw they were near the gym, an almost deserted area, thus being able to sit, mentioning that Jackson did the same. He then looked at the Chinese in his eyes, talking seriously.

"Jackson hyung, look... Mark hyung likes you for a long time, probably a few days after he entered this school. He had been helping in the piano class always with a smile on his face, and we knew he had probably seen you" he paused, took a deep breath and then continued. "Yugyeom and I became friends with him fast, he's a nice person, though he doesn't talk much. Over time, we got him to admit it because it was too obvious"

Jackson absorbs little by little the information. He didn't know exactly when Mark started to study in Korea, but apparently it was for a long time by the way Youngjae told him. He motioned for the boy to continue, listening carefully.

"He was always good at reading people, so I wasn't surprised as I should be when he knew more about you than people who studied with you a lifetime. And that's when I began to worry. I knew he had a bad experience before he moved here, and I don't want him to have one more. No offense to you, but you have a reputation at school and a lot of people like you for interest"

The Chinese nodded, sighing. Youngjae was right, popular kids were unreliable and he had a bad experience about it, so he understood the concern of the boy with his friend.

"Well... There was one day that Mark hyung arrived very happy. I asked what happened and he told me he talked to you. Not by anonymous papers or anything, it was himself. He also said that you checked him out so much that he was afraid that you knew who he was" he giggled, accompanied by the other. "When he told me you didn't know, I saw it was a good opportunity to act. I combined with Yugyeom that I'd pretend to be your secret admirer to see if you would accept me or not"

"He... He said you used to like me. Is that true?"

"Oh! Yes, it is. I've always had a great admiration for you, but with time I lost the "like" feeling and saw that it was nothing" he laughed again, shrugging. "I think it was a test for myself, because I could clearly see that day that I didn't like you how I used to think"

Jackson nodded a few times, looking thoughtful. Mark could be very controlled when near him, he showed no such happiness when their first spoke and came to let the Chinese with doubts if he had his feelings returned. The boy would make a great actor.

"Anyways... As I clearly saw that you had liked both Mark hyung and your secret admirer, I was afraid of you being the typical popular kid who wants everyone, you know? But... but then I saw that there, you know very well that I wasn't who you wanted, especially when I talked to Bambam the next day. Your friends discovered everything before you"

"What?! And they didn't tell me?!"

The blonde exclaimed in disbelief, however, on the other hand not as surprised as well. Perhaps that explained Bambam's insistence that Mark should play the piano that day at the mall. They gave him so many signs, and yet he had not realized, maybe he should admit defeat that he was slow to understand things.

"Mark hyung didn't let us" he sighed. "We all wanted because it was obvious your interest in him, and was no use to him hide in the shadows. But he always had a lot of fear of being rejected, always thinking he's not enough"

" I... I can't believe that he was afraid of being rejected. God, who in their right mind would reject someone like him?"

"Don't talk these cheesy things to me, talk to him!"

Youngjae laughed loudly, getting up from the grass as he saw that their problem was solved and they needed to get back before the boys complained a lot.

"Well, now you know, I don't like you that way and it's okay that I was rejected" he smiled, reaching his hand out to Jackson.

"Thank you for trusting me now" he smiled also, holding Youngjae's hand to get up.

"Don't worry, we know he's in good hands"

Both began to walk back to the stands, laughing and talking about different subjects within what had begun the conversation, until Jackson arrived at a point that was killing him with curiosity.

"By the way, how did you meet JB? He always tells me everything and I didn't know you were friends"

"Oh... That..." he laughed loudly again, trying to compose himself after a few seconds. "That's when I realized I didn't like you, because I met Jaebum hyung, if you know what I mean"

Jackson stared at him, watching Youngjae as if he had said that he liked to parade through school. Jaebum used to be a difficult person, so boring that could be compared to a grandpa, to hear that from someone was amazing.

"I don't know how I've never realized that all my friends were dating each other" he commented incredulously. "I'm going to leave you alone, I'm a third wheel between the four of you"

Youngjae laughed even louder, giving Jackson's back a few pats, shaking his head.

"Don't be silly. Although I imagine you want to go after Mark hyung, right?"

"Yes! Do you know where he is? I will die if I have to wait until the competition!"

"If he's not in the room of our club, he should be in the gym. Alec hyung had some things to go repass, so..."

Jackson nodded and thanked the information, retiring himself in a quick pace, starting to run after a few steps, trying to find the boy as soon as possible. When Youngjae arrived where the trio of friends were talking, they looked with obvious question in their eyes.

"He's going to find Mark hyung" he shrugged, stopping next to JB. "He said he was a third wheel between us"

The four friends laughed, not believing how the other boy could be. Without further ado, they took advantage of the small school's festival on their own, combining to do a celebration party if Mark won the competition — and, on the other hand, the party was because Jackson had finally discovered who was his secret admirer.

xxx