The library was slowly becoming one of Mark’s less favorite places.

“Mr. Wang, I will have to ask you to leave if you and your companions make more noise. The library is an academic area for quiet academic activities only.” The middle-aged woman sternly warned the boy.

The boy only grinned. “Oh please, Ms. A, you know how much you love us. Our laughter makes your day happier, doesn’t it?”

The lady sighed, then smiled. “I really don’t know what to do with you, Jackson. But please lower your volume. There are other students who have an exam later today.”

“I got you, Ms. A.”

“We’ll be quiet, sorry!” The boys surrounding Jackson echoed, waving as the woman walked away.

Mark Tuan turned his head around to glare at Jackson. He was one of the very people who had to deal with an exam later in the day. In fact, it was his second exam and Mark really could do without Jackson and his posse fooling around, disrupting the peace and quiet of the library. He didn’t understand why they chose the library as their hangout place when there were plenty of other places around school that could better accommodate their noise.

Mark had to admit, though, that Jackson Wang was very attractive. Too attractive for his own good, as Mark found his gaze often straying towards the boy. While he had a dumb crew cut in the beginning of sophomore year, now as a senior with amazingly platinum blonde hair, Jackson was definitely a looker. He was captain of the basketball team and no doubt the most popular person in the whole high school. How he had managed to get all the teachers to like him was a miracle as well. Needless to say, Mark was jealous.

“Whatchu looking at, Mark?” Jinyoung asked.

“S’nothing. I was thinking about what to eat later.” As sad as it was, Mark would not tell his best friend that he had a little crush on Jackson. He had complained about how the blonde boy disrupted classes and asked dumb questions in class, causing the teachers to go off topic. Mark remembered rolling his eyes after Mr. Chan had spent an entire class talking to Jackson about organic green tea. He had too much pride to admit that this hate relationship had turned into something more, and he kept quiet. Jinyoung didn’t have to know; the crush would die off soon.

The raven-haired boy laughed. “You better get your mind off food and study more – you can’t fail in Korean when you basically have a walking encyclopedia of Korean knowledge as your best friend.”

“It’s not my fault that everything in your language is lines, circles, and squares okay. Now, shut up before I show Jaebum the picture of you imitating his angry chin again.”

Jinyoung was silent for the rest of the period.

Once again, Mark listened to how Jackson and his crew howled with laughter as they watched something on their laptops. Sighing, he picked up his laptop and bag and moved to the other side of the library. Usually during this free period Mark would find an empty classroom to sleep in, but this video on martial arts was way too interesting for him to watch later. Engrossed in the flips and tumbling of the performer in the video, he didn’t notice a certain boy approach him.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. He tensed up. Shoot, it’s Ms. A and she doesn’t like me as much as she likes Jackson. And this video is definitely not academically related.

Mark slowly pulled out his earphones and turned around. Instead of the greying hairs of the librarian, he saw blonde. Platinum blonde, to be exact. It was Jackson freaking Wang.

“Yes?” His stomach lurched as he imagined what the boy would have to say.

Jackson grinned. “Hey, Mark. Whatchu watching?”

“None of your business. What do you want?” Mark’s bad habit of being mean when he was nervous popped out again. He mentally punched himself.

“Well that’s very interesting, a video on none of your business? Anyways, I’ve got a question for you: How do you make holy water?”

From that all-too suspicious grin, Mark reluctantly answered, “Um, I… don’t know.”

“You burn the hell out of it.” As soon as he said the answer, the boy emitted a high pitched laugh, holding his stomach as he started to snort from his own joke.

Mark resisted the urge to roll his eyes in front of the other boy. “Sure, Jackson.”

Against his own will, Mark chuckled as the boy gave him a cheeky grin and walked away.

The next time Mark was at the library, it was surprisingly quiet. There was no big group of Jackson and his friends to be seen.

Ah, peace and quiet, Mark thought. He stretched, giving his limbs a pull to ease the soreness. Jinyoung had a meeting somewhere, and it was just Mark and his alone time. Even Ms. A was gone – Mark grinned. It was the perfect time to watch even more “academically unrelated” videos. He was just getting to the most interesting part of the video when he felt someone staring at him. He pulled out his earbuds and slowly looked at his surroundings. No one was there, except a few freshmen who were furiously finishing their semester essays.

“You really should get some glasses, Mark. You would look real cute.”

Mark froze. It was that familiar voice of Jackson again. He turned around. Jackson was standing right behind him, giving him a smirk before he sat himself next to Mark.

Struggling to ignore Jackson’s very obvious flirting, Mark replied, “What do you want? I’m finally getting to watch videos without Ms. A watching me like a hawk. You’re not ruining it for me.”

“So it was videos that are not academically related, eh? I knew it!”

Mark rolled his eyes. “No one ever does anything academic at the library unless they have something due next class, Jackson. Now, if you’re just pointing out the obvious I would like to get back to my video.”

You’ve done it again, Mark. This is why people don’t want to be friends with you, let alone Jackson Wang, the love of your life.

Seeing that Mark was serious, Jackson grabbed his hand before the earbud rejoined the ear. “Wait, I actually have something to ask of you. Um, I heard that you were in AP Japanese and I was wondering if you could help me out with a few problems.”

If Jackson wasn’t there, Mark would’ve clutched his chest and yelled, “Shinkum!” because Jackson blushing and looking to the side was the most adorable thing ever. However, Jackson was there and Mark was not going to do that in front of him. Not in a million years. Not even if someone gave him a lifetime supply of galbitang.

Mark paused the video and took a deep breath. “Which part do you not understand? Japanese is really easy – it’s similar to Korean and Chinese.”

A small smile appeared on Jackson’s face at Mark’s agreeing to teach him his worst subject. “Well that’s easy for you to say. I don’t get when you have to use the honorific form and the humble form. Like seriously, how am I supposed to know if there’s no subject in the sentence?”

“You really weren’t listening in class, were you? And to think you’re only in Japanese 2.”

“Yeah, I’m only in Japanese 2. And yeah again, I was sleeping.”

By now Mark was undeniably in love with Jackson. Somehow they had arranged a schedule for Mark to tutor Jackson in Japanese during the last period every other day.

“You know, you should just take over Sensei’s job. I don’t understand a thing she says, but when you explain the stuff I get it almost instantly. How is that?”

Mark just laughed awkwardly. “And then I would get fired because I’d probably never show up to teach. I’d rather sleep.”

“I know. Thanks again, man, I really appreciate your help.”

Mark was overjoyed. Really, really, happy.

“Well, someone’s in a good mood today. That’s rare,” Jinyoung smirked.

“Apparently, I’m an awesome Jap teacher. So there. Ha.”

“Apparently, either your student is just stupid or she is so in love with you she can’t see that all you’re doing is breaking the material into smaller sections.”

Mark huffed. “Correction, he. Not she.”

“And I learn something new about you every day.”

A few weeks passed and Spirit Week rolled around. Spirit Week was a whole week in which different grades competed to see which grade had the most “class spirit”. Mark remembered last year’s events as boring, time-wasting, and wet. Yes, wet. But this year things were probably going to be a little better, because guess who Mark was in the same group as? You guessed it, Jackson Wang!

And boy, did Jackson make Spirit Week memorable for Mark. His neon yellow and pink socks combined with multiple layers of sequin and plaid shirts for Clash Day shook the school. He was only outdone by Kunpimook Bhuwakul, some crazy sophomore who wore something that had him sent home.

For the last day, everyone competed in athletic games, such as sponge dodgeball. Players dunked sponges in water and threw them at the opposing team, which was why everyone became wet at the end of the day. Mark lurked at the back of the gym to avoid getting hit. He was sure that he was going to survive the day, dry and comfy. But before he even finished the thought someone smacked him in the head with a sponge. A fully wet sponge, he might add. Mark snatched the sponge, only to find the culprit dance away, laughing that annoying hyena laugh.

“Mark, pay attention! And don’t be lazy – wipe out these juniors!”

Mark had never participated in class activities this activtely.

Wet. Wet again, was Mark’s thoughts on the dodgeball game. But it was fun. Everything was fun when Jackson was involved. However, it was getting kind of cold but they still had one last game – Don’t Drop It. Players on the same team had to line up and join one of their body parts together, be it the hip or the thigh. They then had balloons stuck between each of them and the whole team had to move forward, winning only if they crossed the cone first. Mark was at the end of the line, like he usually was, and thankfully he only had to hold hands with Jaebum, who he was already friends with so it wouldn’t be awkward. Jackson was at the front of the line, like he usually was too, with his friends. But somehow he had slipped out of his friend circle and came to line up behind Mark. Jaebum shot Mark a questioning look, and Mark replied with a shrug because honestly, he wanted to know what was happening too.

“Hey, we’re supposed to be holding hands, right? Give me your hand.”

And before Mark could even react, Jackson had already taken his hand in his grip. Mark barely heard the whistle and struggled to divide his attention between squeezing the balloon between his arms and how nice his hand felt in Jackson’s. He became even more distracted when Jackson intertwined his fingers with Mark’s. He glanced at Jackson, then at their hands. Jackson only gave him a smile before concentrating on shimmying forward with the whole team.

Mark was glad that the game was over quickly, because one more second and he would’ve died from his heart thumping.

Are we dating right now? No, Jackson hasn’t said anything yet. Heck, it’s probably just my own imagination. Why would he even like me?

So much was running through Mark’s head. Jackson was a notorious flirt – the whole school knew. But the way he acted around Mark, what was that about? Slowly going down the stairs, he saw Jackson with his friends, but there was one more addition. That sophomore Kunpimook. Or Bambam, as the fashionista was equally famous in notoriety. Bambam was sitting on Jackson’s lap and Jackson pinched his cheeks. He squeezed the daylights out of the kid and they just seemed to be having a good time. Too great for Mark’s liking. That was all it took for Mark to back out. He didn’t need another reliving through his memories when he was rejected, causing him to stop even looking for people to date. Jackson was just probably playing with him.

Mark have had enough. He wasn’t like Jackson who had tons of dating experience. In fact, he’d never dated in his life, ever. Mark wasn’t the type of person who had lines of people waiting just to date him. But Jackson was. Mark felt immature – he was already a senior, 18, and he wasn’t supposed to fret over such trivial things. He was supposed to worry about college, about life. Not about this. But he just did.

“You’re awfully quiet today. Even more than usual.”

When Jackson leaned in to pull Mark into a hug (even though PDA was strictly prohibited in the library), Mark pushed him away.

“Jackson, you need to stop fooling around with me like this. Whatever this is.”

Jackson’s eyes widened. “W-what do you mean? I thought we were cool.”

“You purposely telling me to tutor you, all that flirting and the looks you give me during class. If you’re not serious, then please stop this. Just stop. The last thing I need right now is someone who doesn’t even like me. What do I mean? I don’t need to feel like a toy is what I mean.”

The platinum blonde boy stared at Mark. “Okay, listen, Mark.”

“Talk.”

“You remember during sophomore year we had that research paper we had to write for History? This is so cliché and everything, but whatever. Everyone else was doing stuff about the royal family but you were the only one doing ordinary peasant life. You really intrigued me starting from then. Not saying that you didn’t catch my eye during new student orientation. Who would miss out on a pretty face like yours?” Jackson awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, waiting for Mark’s response.

Mark could feel a blush blooming on his cheeks.

As if his sudden confession wasn’t enough, Jackson added, “Then I noticed you practically lived in the library, since you came here every day. Not that I’m stalking you or anything, but I happened to have detention here every day too, so… you know.”

Spluttering, Mark asked, “Wait, so that’s why you started hanging out in the library? With all of your friends?”

“I knew I wasn’t going to get your attention right away, but I couldn’t stand being in the library alone, so of course I had to bring the crew up here with me.” Jackson said that with a matter-of-fact face.

“You know that y’all made this place the most difficult to study in the whole school? When its main purpose was exactly that?”

“Well, you could have moved to a better study area. Why stay, hm?”

Mark could not believe the face Jackson was giving him. He wanted to slap that smirk off his face. But he couldn’t. Just like how he couldn’t answer that question.

He knew all too well why he didn’t move. He looked away.

“It’s all because of you, freaking Jackson Wang.”

Jackson glanced around to check that no one was watching. He then pecked Mark on the cheek.

Okay – the library just turned into Mark’s favorite place on earth.

Weeks later, Mark had learned from Jinyoung that Bambam was actually Jackson’s cousin.

To say that Mark was embarrassed was an understatement.

“Stop laughing, Jackson.”

“I can’t. You’re too cute, Markiepooh.”