A/N: Thanks for liking the cliffhanger in the last chapter ;D I was going to update earlier but I had a lot of problems with this chapter. I hope you'll still enjoy it after editing, re-editing, deleting, and writing it new. Next chapter is going to be the last. Let's continue with the story for now. So, Markson were at the restaurant, where Mark dropped the bomb that it wasn't him.

“What do you mean, it wasn’t you?”

Mark shrugged, looking at his drumming fingers on the table top in a sign that his nervousness didn’t dissipate. “Just… keunyang that it wasn’t me.”

Jackson folded his hands, unfolded them, threw them in the air in frustration, then hit them on the table top with a loud bang as a thousand questions rushed through his mind in a supercoil. He thought Mark was past the “just… keunyang” phase. He suddenly seemed like the young foreigner again who switched back and forth between English and Korean because he didn’t know how else to express himself.

Mark jumped slightly and stopped the drumming, obviously disturbed by Jackson’s behaviour.

Jackson didn’t apologise, he was too distracted by his own shallow breathing. “How do you know? Why are you telling me this? But more importantly, how do you even know?”

“You do realise you asked the same question twice?”

“Not my point,” said Jackson.

“How do I know I wasn’t dating him?” Mark whispered. “Don’t you think I would know better than anyone else whom I dated or not?” He had a very small smirk on his lips, barely visible with the shadow of the snapback cast over his face but Jackson noticed it. Mark tried to be funny.

The problem was, Jackson didn’t find it funny at all, when Mark talked so casually about his dating life.

“Not my point. Don’t act smart with me.”

Mark restarted the drumming and it was driving Jackson crazy to the point that he wanted to stop Mark’s fingers but his own felt too numb to move. It took forever before Mark replied but Jackson knew he had to be patient at such a crucial moment.

“All right,” Mark sighed. “I know because Jaebum talked to me.” Mark looked anywhere but at Jackson.

A wave of embarrassment went through Jackson’s body, colouring his cheeks. All he could hope for, was, that Jaebum didn’t tell Mark the cringe-worthy parts of their bedtime conversation. Jackson vaguely remembered telling Jaebum that Mark was easy on the eyes, which made him want to creep into a hole and never resurface.

It was Jackson’s turn to avoid eye contact. He fished for his mobile phone in his pockets with a rage-driven energy boost. “That traitor, I’ll have a word with him… about loyalty and… and trust and all the things he keeps preaching of as the leader… and what the heck are you doing?”

Mark gave him another surprise, he leaned closer and withheld Jackson’s fingers from fumbling on his touchscreen in search for Jaebum’s number under his contacts. Jackson was forced to look up for a second. He saw nothing but a blur of the shadow cast over Mark’s eyes but it was enough to know that he held Mark’s attention. Jackson froze.

“Okay, I got to confess something.”

“Wh-what?” said Jackson. He had the urge to drum his fingers now.

“I lied. Jaebum didn’t talk to me. No need to get mad at him. I…” Mark hesitated. By the time his face was flushed again, it dawned on Jackson.

He gasped and withdrew his fingers from Mark’s very warm hands, eyes wide. “You eavesdropped,” Jackson pointed an accusing finger at Mark just as the waitress brought their raw meat for the grill and various side dishes.

His finger fell to help her with the plates but his accusing stare didn’t leave Mark. For a tiny second he thought Mark would confess something else.

He thanked the lady as she went away and silence expanded between them. Jackson considered her to be pretty but it was Mark who his eyes would always be drawn to in the end. He was startled to see that Mark’s eyes, glowing in a flicker of the fire from the grill, were fixated on him, as well, as if he didn’t consider the lady pretty. As if, Mark didn’t notice her existence at all. It confused Jackson.

“I’m sorry,” Mark said as he started to grill the meat and a low sizzling sound filled the background noise. Jackson’s stomach growled with the mouth-watering scent that spread.

Jackson was too hunger-driven to remember why Mark apologised. It was a while later, after Mark shoved the first piece of grilled meat into Jackson’s mouth with his own chopsticks and said, “for overhearing,” when Jackson started to chew the juicy bite and his brain worked sufficiently again to process the words. He remembered all the reasons to be embarrassed about, all the things that Mark overheard.

“Oh, God,” Jackson palmed his face. “Till where did you eavesdrop?”

“I wouldn’t call it such a harsh word as eavesdropping.” Mark had the nerve to sound amused, to Jackson’s chagrin. “I told you, I overheard… as I walked by.”

Jackson dropped his palms from his face to glare at him. “You were and you were going to shower in the complete opposite direction, as far as I remember. With my shampoo, which you haven’t returned, by the way.”

Mark’s face looked as heated as Jackson’s felt, which was calming. “Sorry about the shampoo,” he said and shoved another piece of meat into Jackson’s mouth. He felt giddy every time his lips touched Mark’s chopsticks but he tried to play cool. “Okay, I was going to shower, , which everybody does and is nice of you to notice, by the way. How observant.”

Jackson coughed through his mouthful, act of coolness blown up. He didn’t know whether Mark was being sarcastic or not and he had never heard Mark use the word so often and so casually. Mark patted his back and offered him a glass of water which he thankfully took.

“But I followed you to talk to you. We had a dispute, if you remember, and you ran away.”

Jackson did remember. Why hadn’t he thought of the possibility of Mark following him to that door and staying there behind it when he closed it to enter his bedroom? He also remembered Mark’s shaking body with water droplets and goose-bumps all over it. How long had he stood there in his cold state? Pity made Jackson feel guilty. He took a piece of meat from the grill and shoved it into Mark’s mouth for a change. “Till where did you eavesdrop?” Jackson repeated. “How long did you eavesdrop?”

Mark chewed while flashing his white teeth, grinning from ear to ear. His Adam’s apple bopped as he gulped. “I heard everything.”

Jackson’s mouth became dry. “E-everything?”

“You said I was easy on the eyes.”

Jackson had never been so humiliated in his entire life. “Oh, my God.” He palmed his face again and crawled under the table to the sound of Mark’s laughter filling his ears.

Familiar warm hands pulled him up. “Come on, people are staring,” said Mark in a still amused tone of voice.

“I don’t care.”

“It’s not that bad. I say that you look handsome all the time.”

“You do?” Jackson questioned, letting Mark guide him back to his seat.

“Yeah, in every interview and show.”

“Oh,” said Jackson as he remembered the different occasions. A flutter spread in his stomach that warmed up his insides. Anxiousness eliminated the warmth with its coldness, when he dreaded that this didn’t have to mean anything at all. “But that’s just for TV.” Everything was superficial, because Mark didn’t confide it to someone in the security of his bedroom, cuddled up on a bed behind a closed door he didn’t expect anybody to eavesdrop at.

“Jackson…” Mark sighed and tried to feed him again but Jackson turned his mouth away.

“Coming back to my previous question, why are you telling me this?”

“Telling you what?” said Mark, shoving his chopsticks with leaf salad wrapped around a piece of meat into his own mouth.

“Telling me the guy Jaebum-hyung dated wasn’t you.”

Mark took a sharp breath after swallowing. His eyes wandered around again, or so Jackson presumed from the movement of his face. “Well, technically, Jaebum didn’t date anybody. He wanted to… but that’s another story and not mine to tell.”

It did surprise Jackson but he wasn’t satisfied. “That’s not the answer to my question. Why was it so important for you to let me know?”

“It’s important, because…” Mark hesitated. “Because… uhm…”

Jackson looked away, too. He couldn’t see Mark struggling with words. He took another piece of meat from the grill, gulfed it down and looked out of the window onto the night-street. Pitch blackness enveloped the city and only the outlines were visible by the orange glow of some lanterns. Very rarely, a car with red and white lights drove by, engine rattling lowly, then it was silent anew.

One of Mark’s warm hands enveloped his again, thin fingers entwining with his thicker ones, making him all conscious of his sweaty palm and of the importance of such an occurrence. He was mostly used to Jinyoung doing this to him. Mark’s hands and fingers felt different, familiar but different, old and new at the same time.

It didn’t go past Jackson’s notice that it was Mark’s turn not to care about the staring eyes at them, one pair being of the pretty waitress.

“Because I have a feeling that you are considering some things,” said Mark and Jackson looked at him like he had never seen him before. “Because you’re about to make some decisions… and it’s important for you to know before.”

“Before what?” said Jackson in trance, captivated by Mark’s thumb the back of his hand.

“Before you make them,” said Mark. As suddenly as it came, the hand was gone, the warmth, too, making Jackson’s fingers feel cold and lonely, as if it was strange to feel anything but those fingers around his own. The air between the spaces of his fingers felt unusual.

Jackson coughed and took another gulp of water, trying to distract his useless fingers by holding onto the glass.

By the time he put the glass down on the table, fingers still surrounding it, Mark held another grilled piece next to his mouth. “Now, eat your meat, this is some expensive stuff,” he said with a winning smile that didn’t allow a rejection. “You can brag to Jinyoung about it, if you want. He didn’t want to eat meat with me.”

“You asked him out to dinner?”

“Yeah, but all he wants to eat is sashimi every day.”

“Huh.”

Jackson took everything that Mark offered without another protest but every piece he chewed on from then on didn’t taste like the previous ones, either they were stale or he was too tired and confused to register the flavours.

He didn’t perceive how time went by, if it slowed down or flew by, he only realised it was the moment to go when Mark had nothing to feed Jackson or himself anymore and stood up.

Jackson followed tiredly as Mark approached the pretty waitress to pay. “How much?” He asked her but turned to Jackson to rub his back, as if it was natural and he never did anything else.

Jackson couldn’t believe his behaviour.

“Sixty thousand Won,” said the waitress.

Relieving Mark’s wallet of a pretty hefty sum, he felt another sting of guilt so, he let Mark have a little moment with her as Mark paid and went outside into the fresh breeze by himself. He lifted his head up to the stars, closed his eyes and breathed the night air deeply in. The whole situation felt bizarre. What was happening? Was this happening? Or was he still in his Hong Kong-plane on his way to Seoul and dreaming?

A pinch on his arm-muscle made his eyes fly open, waking him up if he wasn’t awake already. The pain felt real.

“Stop looking pretty and let’s go,” said Mark, knocking the breath out of him.

“Mark, I’m ing tired,” said Jackson a second time that night. “I’m too tired to understand, what the you just said.”

Mark put one of his warm hands on the small of Jackson’s back, guiding him down the street on the way back to their dorm. “I just said, let’s go home.”

Home, that sounded nice, that he understood. He nodded and let Mark lead him.

The street lanterns threw orange light over the night scenery as their feet carried them the known way without thinking too much about it. They continued walking next to each other comfortably, shoulders bumping from time to time, the first few times accidentally, later, on purpose to tell the other they were still close and to tease each other childishly, eliciting a chuckle here and there.

In the blink of an eye, so it seemed to Jackson, Mark pushed him into the elevator to their dorm.

Jackson pressed the button to their floor, when Mark stepped past the threshold and stood in front of Jackson, facing him. The elevator shook with its starting movement and Jackson swayed sleepily around but Mark put his right arm on the wall next to Jackson’s head, trapping and shielding his body from swaying. The whole situation felt like a déjà-vu. Water droplets, he couldn’t stop thinking about water droplets. They didn’t grimace and just stared at each other, till Jackson had enough of the provocation, closed his eyes and leaned his head on Mark’s shoulder, taking in the scent of his own shampoo and some of his favourite that reminded him of said home. He remembered one of the first lessons he learned on the depths of observation. Jaebum was absolutely right. There was a definite difference between Mark using his fancy perfume and not.

“I’m tired, Mark.”

“I know,” said Mark and continued rubbing the small of his back.

“Did I say thank you for the meal?”

“Yeah, before we started eating.”

“Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome. Next time, you’ll pay.”

“Of course,” said Jackson and took a deep sniff that clouded his senses. “Hyung, you smell so nice.”

Mark leaned quickly out of his personal space, but not before his hand on the small of Jackson’s back went down to his to give him a light squeeze. This wasn’t surprising since it was Mark’s habit in an elevator but Jackson jumped up nonetheless and Mark giggled like a five-year old.

“Stop doing that every time,” he said and shoved Mark further away at arm’s length.

“Why, it’s funny.”

“Not when you could sleep for five days straight and you’re in a state, where every little movement makes you jumpy and gives you a heart attack.”

Mark’s hand came to rest on his chest. “Aww,” he said as Jackson’s heart pumped even faster against his ribs. “My adorable scaredy-cat.”

Jackson shoved the hand away, too, cheeks feeling alarmingly hot. “Shut up, Markie Pooh.”

Something happened and it happened faster than Jackson could register, either Mark just called him adorable or the world shook or both.

Maybe, it was just the elevator finally coming to a halt as his body swayed again.

Mark’s protective arm came back to support him but they didn’t speak till they entered their dorm. Jackson just stole glances from time to time and every time, he got the same result. Mark was staring at him intensely, brazenly without a pause.

It intimidated Jackson enough to tie his tongue for a good while.

They slipped out of their shoes and went into the dark living room, switching just a side-lamp on to throw mild light on their surroundings. Without discussing it, they came to a silent agreement to sit on their couch, both sinking their bodies onto the leather side by side.

Mark threw an arm over his shoulders and took the rare initiative to talk. He only did this when Jackson was really quiet, which happened just as rarely. “Hey, Jackson.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you want to hear something funny?”

Jackson sighed. “Go ahead.”

“Guess who couldn’t keep their eyes off the waitress this whole night?”

Jackson couldn’t think of a single reason, how this was supposed to be funny. “You?”

“No, you, Jackson. Isn’t it funny? I thought you wanted...”

Jackson turned his head faster than his neck allowed. “Wait, me? Are you kidding me? I was looking at her because she was going nuts for you and you didn’t even spare the poor thing a look!”

Mark’s face turned a visibly crimson shade, even in the soft light. Jackson took his snapback off to have a clearer look at Mark’s face. Mark made an attempt to snatch it back but Jackson threw it across the room. The colour reached Mark’s hairline but he shook his head vehemently and made his face too blurry for Jackson to see. “You got it all wrong. It was her who called you pretty.”

Jackson couldn’t believe his ears. If this was the funny thing Mark wanted to tell him, he didn’t like it but it sure made him laugh. “Oh, please. Stop making fun of me.”

Mark was chewing his lips, was he nervous again? “I’m not. When you went out, stopped for a moment and did your star-gazing thing, she called you pretty.”

Jackson took a deep breath, he felt like he had run a marathon. “Stop saying that word, it’s strange.”

“You know what?” said Mark with a sadness that didn’t suit him at all, going on, as if Jackson hadn’t interrupted. “I couldn’t even blame her. See, I’m not the only one, who thinks you look good.”

“Mark…” Jackson said breathlessly.

“So, stop having such low self-esteem,” he said in conclusion, though Jackson didn’t think this was the point Mark wanted to bring across at all.

“Okay, Hyung,” said Jackson, shaken and flattered to the core. He was too embarrassed to look Mark in the eye, he leaned his head on Mark’s shoulder instead and was surprised that he didn’t fall asleep in that cosy position instantly. “So, you didn’t want her number?”

Mark hesitated before he answered. “She gave it…”

“Ha!” said Jackson triumphantly, pointing a finger into Mark’s side, who flinched.

Mark took the finger and surrounded it in his warm palm. “For you, though.”

“Where is it?” said Jackson, lifting his head to watch Mark’s side-profile.

“I threw it away,” said Mark without batting an eye.

“You’re not saying this to keep it to yourself?”

“No!”

“All right, no need to flip,” said Jackson in an amused tone as Mark pressed Jackson’s head back down on his shoulder. “Too bad,” added Jackson, squeezing Mark’s thigh. “She was pretty.”

Mark pulled the hand off his thigh and squeezed it painfully back. “You think so?”

“Of course, I have eyes in my head.”

“Hmm, I’m not too sure about that,” said Mark. “You consider her pretty but don’t really see yourself. If that’s not a lack of observational skills, then I don’t know what is.”

That hit Jackson deeply. He had been getting quite sensitive about that topic over some time now. It made him mad.

He pulled back from Mark and ran his fingers through his hair before deciding out of a crazy impulse that it was the right thing to do to climb on Mark’s lap and pull at his T-shirt collar with both fists.

“So, you’re saying I don’t have eyes? So, you’re saying I don’t have observational skills? Then, how come that I can clearly see how you’re acting like a jealous boyfriend?”

Mark’s lips trembled. “What? What?”

“You threw her number away!”

“That’s because… she didn’t want to give it to me. I was mad because she liked you more.”

“Okay,” said Jackson, trying to calm down. “Okay, that may be, even though I don’t believe it. Then explain me this. How come I see how everybody is in love with you but you don’t?”

Mark’s chest rose and fell rapidly, he was breathing as hard as Jackson. “What do you mean with everybody?”

“Everybody means everybody. Despite the waitress,-”

“Shut up.”

“Every lady we come across,” continued Jackson, “all the fans, and-”

“And?” asked Mark, staring at Jackson as he put his hands on Jackson’s wrists to loosen his grip. Jackson shivered.

“And every member.”

Mark took one of his pauses, in which he did nothing, didn’t talk, didn’t move, just melted with his surroundings, reminding Jackson of his favourite comparison. Mark became a wall.

When Mark did talk, after a lot of time had passed, it surprised Jackson so much that he fell side-ways off Mark’s lap.

“That’s not true.”

“It is,” said Jackson, sitting up, sighing as he stared up the ceiling. Shadows fell across the whiteness. “You heard how Jaebum-hyung said he would date you. How did you feel about that?”

“I was flattered but that was just hypothetical. No, you’re completely off your mind again because you’re too tired.”

“You know what? Maybe I am,” agreed Jackson reluctantly. “But for some reason, I can’t seem to fall asleep.” He tore his eyes away from the shadows and looked at Mark sideways. He couldn’t believe, how Mark could play with his phone at such a moment. Worse was, he seemed to be texting someone. “What are you doing?”

Mark looked at him with a smile on his face. “Nothing,” he said.

Mark’s phone vibrated, his smile getting wider and his cheeks darker. When Jackson didn’t stop to glare at him, he buried one of his hands in Jackson’s hair on the back of his head, starting to it languidly.

Jackson’s eyelids fell close on reflex, enjoying the bittersweet assault. “You’re obviously lying, but if you keep doing this, then I’ll excuse your rude behaviour.”

Mark laughed angelically. “Jackson, are you the one who’s, by any chance, jealous?”

Jackson became stiff. “No, of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Of course,” repeated Mark, making Jackson feel stupid.

“Stop smirking.”

“How do you know? Your eyes are closed.”

“I can hear it.”

“No, you can’t.”

Mark’s hand went down from his hair to his neck and started massaging his stiff knots. He was very close to groaning. He tried distracting himself to get his mind out of the gutter.

“Hey, Mark, do you want to see a funny video?”

“Again?”

“It’s a new one, I swear it’s funny this time. It’s about a Japanese guy, who-” he moaned tiredly in between, “sings about apples, a pen and pineapples.”

“That’s it? What’s so funny about that?”

“He’s wearing leopard-prints.”

“Oh, my goodness.”

“You don’t understand, Mark, leopard-prints! That makes it funnier because he was dancing in them.”

“Jackson.”

“What?”

“Shut up and sleep.”

Jackson was about to protest but the massaging hand on the back of his neck was a very convincing argument to make him. His head fell back against the couch-rest and he started to drift away.

The last thing he noticed before he was completely knocked off, or maybe he just imagined it in a lucid dream, were chapped lips on his cheek.