“Jackson Wang! Are you even listening to me?” Bam yelled in my ear, making me return my attention to him.

Bam never called me by my full name, so I knew he was really angry. But heck, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. “Huh? Oh yeah, I think that would be awesome.”

“Ah, so you approve me marrying Bambam and having 7 babies?” The 182cm boy narrowed his eyes at me.

“I’m sorry guys, it’s just that… ugh I don’t even know what’s wrong with me.”

The Thai boy pouted. “Jacks, we’re your friends. You know you can tell us anything.” He sneaked a look at Yug, who nodded in agreement.

“Well,” I started, “There’s this guy that’s kind of hot-“

The two boys pumped their fists in the air. “We knew it!”

Bam immediately transformed into the diva, wanting all the gossip. “Ooh, let me guess. Wow, it’s really hard though, who in the world could Jackson like? Oh, I know, the new guy who’s sitting next to Jinyoung!”

“What!” They really knew? “How do you even know that? I’ve only known him for like 3 hours.”

“You’ve been looking at them for the past, oh I don’t know, 30 minutes?” Yug smirked.

“Was it that obvious?”

“Totally.” The two young ones grinned at each other.

I sighed. Things were going to get very messy, especially when these two were involved. I didn’t really need them messing with my love life.

“This is so exciting! Jackson has never been mesmerized by anyone before; it’s usually the other way around. When was your last serious relationship?” Bam smirked.

Yug laughed. “Well, it’s about time the tables turned. Our Jacky here is going have to go through the trouble of trying to woo someone.” He high-fived Bam, both getting overly joyous about my current situation.

“Don’t even. I’ll tell you guys more when I have everything figured out. What were you guys talking about before I zoned out?” I tried to change the subject.

“I know what you’re trying to do, Jacks. But you can’t run away from it and eventually you’ll have to tell us.” Bam looked me with serious eyes. “And, just for your information, we were discussing the theme for tomorrow’s party. This time, how about we make it simple and just go all black? What do you think?”

Ah, . I had totally forgotten about the party that was supposed happen at ‘my place, 7 PM tomorrow’.

Yug stared. “You’ve forgotten already, haven’t you? And here I was thinking that maybe you could invite you-know-who and get to know him even better.” He held up air quotation mark fingers for emphasis.

That was an awesome idea. “Thanks, Yug. I’ll remember to invite him. Bam, send out word for the party again.”

“As if people didn’t know about it already.” Yug rolled his eyes.

Bam grinned and saluted. “Aye, aye, sir.” He got on top of the table, showing off his long, thin legs in the process, and I covered my ears in anticipation. "People who were invited, don’t forget about the party tomorrow at Jackson’s place! It starts at 7 and remember to wear black to get in! Dress y, or else I won’t let you in.” He added the last part with a wink, making both guys and girls hoot.

“How can we forget, Kunpimook? It’s Jackson Wang’s party!”

Yug nudged me, prompting me to say something since it was my party. I stood up and coughed for attention. “Bambam here pretty much said everything you need to do. Just so you know, there are gonna be peeps from YG, SM, and other schools as well. Don’t let them look down on our JYP family, and we all gonna have a good night.”

There were more hoots, cheers, and even stomps as the teachers rushed in the cafeteria, trying to calm everyone down but failing miserably. The bell rung to signal the end of lunch, shutting the noisy students up and getting them to go to class. It was kind of a weird situation at JYP High, seeing how everyone liked to party but they cared for their grades at the same time. Well, most people – not including me.

As I looked around the cafeteria, Mark was already gone.

I trudged slowly to English, suddenly remembering that I had an essay due, but I haven’t even started it. Great. Even though Ms. Choi was nice, she was strict when she came to deadlines, and this was my fourth time turning in work late. Luckily for me, she was going to introduce Mark and return other papers to us, completely forgetting about the one due today.

I plopped down next to Mark. “And so we meet again. Didn’t think you’d see me so soon again, eh?” I spoke in English to make our conversation more ‘private’.

A small snicker. “Psh, I’d rather not. And that was a pretty huge ruckus you made back at the cafeteria. The party’s only open to those who are invited? What’s up with that?”

“Ooh, where’s the shy Markie that I met in first period? I want him back, not this smartass. And for your information, I can invite whoever I want to my parties. It’s my party after all.”

The blonde boy chuckled, reminding me that I should never look at his face when speaking to him. He was too hot for his own good. “Korean’s just way too hard and I’m not good enough to insult anyone yet. I figured that life would be more interesting if I had someone to diss in English: namely, you, Mandu.”

“That’s just cute.” I tried to focus on what Ms. Choi was saying, deliberately not looking at Mark when it slipped out.

Mark blushed lightly. “Shut up.” He had somewhat retained his shyness again.

“Markie-pooh is embarrassed? And here I thought you were going to diss me like there was no tomorrow.” The smirk was pretty evident on my face.

“Seriously, stop it. Don’t say I’m cute.” The pink hue was spreading over his pale cheeks as he turned towards the window to hide it.

“I’ll stop if you come to my party. Remember to wear all black, like Bambam said. And it’d better be something y.” He better come; I even winked when I said y. Even though I must have seemed really cool right now, I don’t think I had ever been this nervous in my life except when I crashed my dad’s Porsche.

Said person who was making me so anxious sighed. “I’ll go, but can’t I at least go with a friend? It’ll be really awkward because I don’t really know anyone…”

“And is that friend Park Jinyoung?” Ugh, even saying the name gave me the shudders.

Mark looked at me questionably, probably wondering how I knew.

“Yeah, I’m awesome like that. And no, you can’t go with him because I hate that guy.” I was being immature, and I didn’t care.

He made a small frustrated noise. “Please? I’ll make sure you don’t see him.” Where he learned those puppy eyes I will never know, but I did know that it made me surrender.

This time I was the one frustrated. I hated Park Jinyoung so much that even seeing his face made me boil, but for Mark… I could take it. “Fine. But you better come wearing mesh or something because only that can make up for having to even acknowledge Jinyoung’s presence.”

Mark looked ecstatic. “I can’t promise mesh, but I’ll think of something.”

“Did I tell you that you look hot when you’re happy? Makes me want to see what else can make you even happier…” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively.

His face turned red instantly. “I thought you were going to quit it with saying that I’m hot and everything!”

“No, we agreed on me not calling you cute, but we didn’t say anything on ‘hot’.”

He massaged his temples in frustration.

I grinned.