"Was this your plan all along?" Mira mumbled into her phone as she spoke to Mark's answering machine late that night when Jackson was passed out. "You hoped that sticking us in a car together, chasing after you would somehow make your two best friends fall in love with each other? Did you not see the problem in that?"

She was hidden in the bathroom with the water in the sink running, "Why him? Why did you think he'd be good for him? Why would he be any better than Jaebum?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, "Why am I getting those feelings again? , Mark. I hate you. I hate you so much for this. I hate myself. I hate that after 3 years of building myself up, he's making me feel like--"

"If you're satisfied with your message, press 1." 

-----

"Does Mark know?" Mira looked up to see Jackson standing next to her.

She was sitting by the motel's pool the next morning, slipping out of their room long before Jackson had woken up to steal a moment to herself.

She looked back as the water, counting the ripples that her feet made as they paddled back and forth. "Mark knows a lot of things."

"Does he know about Lena?" Jackson said while staring off across the pool.

Mira didn't know how to talk to him after last night. She didn't know if she should pretend he didn't bare his heart and just talk to him like everything was normal or if she should revert back into herself and treat him the same way she'd treat Jaebum.

"He does." She said while closing her eyes.

Jackson kept his eyes forward, "What did he say?"

"Nothing. He just nodded and moved on." Mira said as she thought back to the day when the two of them hung out a little drunk, her confession slipped out and Mark took it without flinching. He never brought it up again and it had made her wonder if he actually remembered what she had told him.

Mira lifted her head to see Jackson just staring blankly ahead. She wondered how he felt, if he actually still thought that he loved her or if he had realized that maybe he romanticised something that he didn't really feel. His face was hard to read for the first time, his emotions clogged up and hidden beneath his skin.

"It took a long time to find you." His voice was empty, no emotion, neither positive nor negative, was audible in his tone. "I woke up and you were gone. I spent an hour looking for you."

"I--"

"And then I started thinking about your panic attack yesterday and back at the lake. I started freaking out, wondering if you were passed out somewhere after having an attack." He said plainly.

She couldn't tell if he was mad at her or if he was just worried, "I'm sorry."

"Is that why you freaked out at the lake? Lena reminded you of Jaeho when he went under water."

Mira sighed, her stomaching curling in a sickening twist, "Love doesn't fix panic attacks."

"No, I guess it doesn't." Jackson affirmed. "And maybe you're right. I don't think I love you."

The twist in her gut tightened. That proclamation should've hurt less than it did. She knew he didn't love her, so this was expected, but if it didn't make her feel like . "Yeah, I didn't think you did."

"Doesn't mean that I can't." He finished, his tone clipped and harsh, cutting her off before she could say anything else. "Now come on, we need to check out and hit the road."

Mira pulled her legs out of the water and stood up. Jackson handed her towel and watched her pat her legs dry before the two of them walked down the hallway to their room. Jackson kept quiet, not even glancing at her while they walked. Something that should've taken 5 minutes, felt like it took an hour.

"Did you leave the door to our room open?" She asked with a frown when she spotted the ajar door.

Jackson frowned, his eyes narrowing as he stepped in front of her, blocking her with his body, "No, I locked it."

He slowly pushed the door open before stepping in. His eyes widened at the sight of their belongings strewn across the room, ransacked. "Holy ."

"Oh my god." Mira blurted as she stared at her clothes hanging off of chairs and thrown across the room. "Did we get robbed?"

Jackson bent down to pick his things up, scanning the room. "It looks like everything's here. Both our wallets, the car keys, it's all here. The only things of actual value are still here. But someone was definitely in here. I was out of the room for an hour, they had all the time in the world to do whatever they wanted."

"Let's get out of here." She said, her voice in a panic as she packed her belongings haphazardly in her bag. "Now." 

-----

"Excuse me?"

Jackson clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, "I said that someone broke into our room and ransacked the place."

"That doesn't make sense." The motel manager said incredulously, "I've been posted by the front desk since the morning and I haven't seen a single person come in or out of the motel. There's no way anyone could've gotten to your room."

Mira shook her head, "What about the people staying next to us or the entire block next to us."

"I'm sorry but there's no one staying on your block. I could call the cops if you'd like but if nothing was stolen like you said, I don't know what they could do for you." He offered.

Mira sighed in frustration, "Forget it. Let's go."

Jackson shot the man a glare before following her out to the car. They got into the car in silence and drove towards the next location.

"Do you think it was Mark?" Jackson asked out loud. "His way of throwing a hissy fit to make us know he's watching."

She leant her elbow against the window and rested her head against her fist, "I don't know. I'm starting to really get tired with Mark. He better be at the damn Gardens of Eden when we find him."

An unexpected chuckle left Jackson's lips and a weird burst fired out of Mira's chest. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to react to him laughing because of something she said. She expected snide comments and a standoffish attitude.

She didn't expect laughter.

Her own lips twitched at the sight of his grin but she looked away just as he glanced at her. He stared back at the road before sighing. "Ever heard of Tabula Rasa?"

"Don't start." She mumbled.

He rested one hand on the wheel and the other one out the window, "Clean slate. We all need one."

-----

The second Twin Falls made the first one look like the Grand Palace.

The sign was flickering one of the Ls and the glass door was cracked down the middle. The ceiling was cracked and leaking and the tiles on the ground were uneven.  Jackson looked around before tapping the bell on the front desk.

The door at the back swung open before a kid in his teens strolled out, snapping the bubble in his mouth. "Can I help you?"

Mira, who was growing tired being polite, cut to the chase, "We're looking for Yi En Tuan." She glanced at the kid's name tag, "Youngjae. It'd help if you could give us whatever it is he gave you."

"Yi En. You know Yi En?" Youngjae's face stiffened as he surveyed them cautiously while reaching under the desk.

Jackson resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "Yeah, we're friends with him. He told us to come here. Now do you have something for us or not?"

In a second, Youngjae pulled out a gun from behind the counter and pointed it at the two of them, "I told him to leave me the alone!"

"Woah." Jackson and Mira raised their hands up and took a step back. "What the hell!?"

Youngjae's hand was shaking as he pointed the gun back and forth between them, "Back off, you hear me? Stay the away from me and tell Yi En to off unless you want me to blow yours and his brains out."

"There's no need for that." Jackson said calmly, "Let's put the gun down, yeah? We don't want anything from you. We're not