Jackson was worried.

Him roommate, Mark, had always been the quieter of the two.  He was a good friend, but he hardly even noticed he had a roommate sometimes.  Still, there were occasions where he asked him to watch some cute puppy video with him or even times when he asked him out to eat in the middle of the night.  It was a nice low maintenance friendship and he had to admit he enjoyed it more than he let on, but something had changed. 

He first noticed a shift eight days ago.

Jackson had walked into his room to find Mark on his lying on his back on the bed, his laptop resting on his stomach, a typical position for Mark to be in.  Jackson greeted him as he walked in with his usual “I’m back!”  To which usually Mark would nod or grunt in response, or if he was in a really good mood he got a “Welcome back.”  Those were rare occasions.  However, that day had been the first time in their entire friendship that Mark had completely ignored his greeting.  He kind of looked at him for a minute waiting for some sort of response, but there was nothing.  He was just staring at his laptop screen, ear buds in his ears, sheltered from the rest of the world.  It was as if he was stuck in some sort of trance.

Jackson found this extremely odd but he decided to ignore it.  Maybe Mark just wasn’t in the mood to greet him today. 

The next day Jackson arrived back at the dorm late from fencing practice again and Mark was in that same position.  Eyes glued to his laptop screen.  He wasn’t even sure if he had even moved since Jackson had left.  “I’m back!”  He yelled to no avail.  Mark didn’t even flinch.  Jackson decided to ignore it again, but he knew there was something going on.

Five days.  Every single night he got home and Mark was on his laptop staring at the screen with an unreadable expression on his face.  If Mark hadn’t, at least, changed his clothes daily he would’ve thought Mark just lied in bed with his laptop all day.  Jackson finally broke, tonight he decided to walk over to Mark and wave his hand between him and his laptop screen.  That turned out to be one of the worst decisions of his life.  Mark finally looked up at him but with an angry stare. 

“Jackson, I’d appreciate if you didn’t bother me.”  Mark’s voice was stone cold and even Jackson was a little frightened.  He decided to calmly climb into bed and pray that Mark didn’t suffocate him in his sleep.

Three more days passed like this and Jackson decided to take another approach.  He rarely had free days in his busy schedule of school and practice but he decided to take most of the day off and just sort of relax in his room.  Honestly, even when he had nothing to do he hated staying in his room for too long, it made him go stir-crazy.  For the sake of observation, he camped out on his bed. He kept himself looking busy as he surfed aimlessly on his laptop while casually sneaking glances at Mark.  He knew Mark had class today but he had made no effort to move from his position.  What he had gathered was that Mark was constantly watching some sort of show.  He had been doing this for the past eight days.

Finally, he heard Mark snap his laptop closed beside him.  He was so startled because he hadn’t seen Mark move in days he jumped right up out of bed and stared at him expectantly. 

He was only greeted by Mark’s dry expression as he slid the laptop off of his lap and went to change out of his pyjamas.

“Mark!  Are you actually going out?” 

“I’m just going to run down to the university library real quick.”  That wasn’t the answer Jackson was expecting.

As soon as they walked through the door Mark tossed his backpack onto the counter and ped it to reveal four DVDs.  Mark was about to toss them all into the return box but Jackson reached out and grabbed his wrist.  “What are these?”  Jackson picked up one of the DVDs and examined the cover.  “Lost? Isn’t that just the show where they’re all trapped on an island or something? Have you just been watching this for the past eight days?”

“It’s not just a show, Jackson. It’s amazing.  I’ve never seen a show like it before.”  Mark quickly grabbed the DVD out of Jackson’s hand and deposited it into the return box with the rest of them.  “I have the fifth season waiting for me on the hold shelf, so if you’d excuse me…”

This time, Jackson grabbed Mark by the arm to stop him from walking away.  “Mark, this needs to stop.  I know you skipped class today.  This TV series is taking over your life.”

“Are you really scolding me for skipping class?”

“Hey! I’m not here to discuss my personal class attendance.  My record is already shot; you still can still salvage something.  I won’t let you go down this path.”

“Jackson, let go.” 

“Mark, please!  You can finish the rest when we have a break in a month.  Don’t you see this show is tearing your life apart?”  Jackson pleaded with him.

“I said, let go.” Mark may appear to be skinny but he was stronger than he looked.  He pried his arm out of Jackson’s grip and marched towards the hold shelf.

Jackson, completely forgetting that they were in a library, thought the only reasonable solution was to run after him and tackle him right to the ground.  Everyone was staring now and Mark just looked like he was about to rip Jackson’s head off.  “Mark!  I can’t let my best friend do this!  You don’t need to finish it now!”

“No, Jackson!  You don’t understand!  I need to know what happens next.”  Mark was struggling underneath but Jackson managed to keep him down with his entire body mass on top of him.

“Mark, you have barely said a word to me in over a week!  I’m sure they all make it off the island!”

“It’s not that simple!  Jackson, I just don’t know anymore!” Mark was almost yelling at this point, he had only heard him get this loud a maximum of three times since he met him. “Are they on the island? Are they off the island? Are they on and off the island at the same time? Were they ever even on the island?  I can’t just leave it hanging!”  Mark stopped struggling and just looked at him with desperation in his eyes.  “Please, there only two more seasons left!  I promise I’ll go to class, just let me pick up my DVD.”

Jackson felt his head spin just trying to comprehend what Mark was saying.  “Mark, it’s fictional!  It’s not real!”

“Jackson you don’t understand.  You’ll never understand.”

Before he even had a chance to reply he spotted a very angry library assistant walking towards them

“Listen.  This is a library.  A library is a spot for quiet studying or reading.  If you guys want to wrestle and have arguments, please do so elsewhere.  If you wish to remain here, get off the ground and be quiet.”  In that moment, Jinyoung looked angrier than both of them combined.  Mark must’ve thought the same because they both made an effort to stand up and brush themselves off while Jinyoung told everyone to go back to what they were doing.

“Jinyoung!  Please tell Mark he’s wasting his life away watching a show—“

Jinyoung’s face softened when he came down from his fit of anger and noticed Mark was there.  “Oh!  Mark, I grabbed your hold off the shelf for you.  Did you want me to check it out for you?”

Mark glanced between the two of them and sighed.  “Jackson.”  He turned to walk towards him, he was back to talking in his hushed library tone.  “I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring you for the past week.  It’s clear you care a lot about me and I’m thankful to have a best friend like you.”

“M-Mark…”  Jackson was never great at holding grudges with friends so he immediately pulled him into a hug and apologized into Mark’s shoulder.  “I’m so glad….”

Mark unlatched himself from Jackson and gave him a warm smile before turning towards Jinyoung.  “Jinyoung… switch roommates with me.  I’ll take Jaebum and you take Jackson.  Three days at most is all I need. ” Jackson’s jaw dropped and Jinyoung just stared at him in confusion.

“What, are you saying you want to room with Jaebum for three days?”  Jinyoung squirmed from just saying that aloud.

“Yeah, we’re not that close so if I room with him for three days I’ll be able to finish up Lost and he won’t bother me that much!  Please, Jinyoung?”  Mark said the ‘please’ in a higher tone and he put his hands together and begged.

“I thought we made up Mark!  Now you’re trying to get rid of me for three days? You… you…”  Jackson glanced over at Jinyoung who now looked like he had just swallowed a bug.

“Me… rooming with Jackson for three whole days?  Do you want him to come back alive?  I’m pretty sure we’d rip each other’s throats out before the time was up.”  Jackson knew that was definitely a legitimate concern, but he knew that was not the main reason Jinyoung was opposed.

“Uh, please Jinyoung.  Can Jackson just stay somewhere for three days?  How about you let him room with Jaebum and you can room with me?  You wouldn’t bother me, right Jinyoung?”

That suggestion managed to shut both of them up as they both read the flush on each other cheeks and the dread in their eyes.  “No.”  They replied in unison.  

Jackson awkwardly walked over and slung his arm around Jinyoung’s neck.  “Well, you heard Mark!  Guess we’re roommates for three days.”  They both forced smiles at each other as Mark looked at them with a puzzled look before shrugging and walking over the counter to check out DVD.

“Jackson, this is your fault.  Now I’m stuck with you for three days.”

“I know, I know.”  Jackson still couldn’t believe he had gotten into a heated argument in the library of a series.  Just what had Mark so riled up he would get that passionate, he wondered.  “Three days, eh…”

“I don’t like that look on your face.”  Jackson was deep in thought for a moment before he turned to Jinyoung.

“Hey, do you want to watch Lost?”

“Why would I want to watch that—“

“Mark likes it.”

“I’m in.”