“For how long are you gonna avoid from hanging out with the rest of us? It has been two weeks.” Jackson started his daily ritual of bugging Jinyoung when the latter refused to join him for lunch with the other, yet AGAIN!

“I didn’t avoid them. It’s only Mark and you know that.” Jinyoung retorted back. He was done with this conversation and all he wanted to do was a peace of mind before the showcase tonight which he wanted to skip but Youngjae and Wonpil would probably kill him if they find out.

“Same thing, Nyoung-ah. Mark is always there and avoiding him also means avoiding the rest of them. Another round of Yugyeom whining about missing you then I would completely lost my mind I would probably chuck him in Han river.” Jackson grimaced with the possibility of bratty, giant maknae pestering him on Jinyoung’s whereabouts with Bambam on tow.

“I’m sorry, Jacks but I’m not ready to be within a close proximity with him. I do miss hanging out with the maknaes though but it wasn’t like I completely refused to meet them for no reasons. I have lots of things on my plate right now.”

Jinyoung sounded so tired and Jackson knew he should stop. Truthfully he missed his best friend whom was always busy these past few weeks that it was impossible for them to sit and talk despite living together. He sighed.

“Why are you so busy nowadays?” Jackson was pasting a huge pout of his face while waiting for the other’s answer. They barely sit and talk like this for the past two weeks.

“My professor gave me tons of work to do on this one program. Is it exchange student kind of thing?” Jinyoung wondered to himself. He didn’t clearly ask his teacher and maybe he should do it the first thing in class next week. “Whatever it is, I’ve been assigned to submit some of my works for evaluation. Hence why I was busy and maybe continue to do so for a while.”

Jackson pondered on his best friend’s answer and he felt something stirring inside but shrugged it off thinking maybe it was just him starving. “Wait! You would tell me right if you’re going somewhere?” Jackson perched up from his seat and seated himself beside the other who was lazying around on the couch.

Jinyoung simply chuckled at that random question. Jackson could be so adorable sometimes in his eyes. Yeah sometimes being the keyword because more often than not, the slightly older guy was a huge pain in the and would be Jinyoung’s cause of headache to deal with.

“Where would I go now, Jackson? Plus you always find your way around that if I don’t tell you anything, you would somehow get the slightest idea about it.” Jinyoung replied lazily. Jackson on his side was somehow having a mental conversation with himself about how he was suddenly out of character because Jackson Wang simply doesn’t get anxious easily. Or so he thought.

“That’s pretty much true.” He then pondered again on his next words; not wanting to trigger anything from Jinyoung’s seemingly good mood.

“Know what Jinyoungie… I’m actually hoping you being near Mark will help you move on. I’m sorry for pestering you so much.” Jackson looked down at his friend who was resting his body on the couch. The person at the receiving end simply stared at his best friend with a reassuring smile to convince that he knew his best friend was simply acting for his own benefit. Jackson, however, couldn’t help but to notice Jinyoung’s slight weight loss. “But still are you sure you won’t join us for lunch? I know Mark would be there but I’m sure you are bound to meet tonight right?”

“I guess so but I still want to give myself a break up until tonight. I’m tired anyway.” Jackson decided not to push the issue further. He got up and prepared to leave but not before he reminded Jinyoung not to skip any meals. Claiming that his best friend was getting skinnier that Bambam himself might be jealous later. Jinyoung only scoffed at that.

Once he heard the front door was closed, Jinyoung let out a heavy groan. He understood Jackson’s worry over him but he found it difficult to move on. Just yesterday that he saw the redhead with his girlfriend at the coffee shop in front of the university and his heart clenched painfully. He was about to enter to get his dose of caffeine when he saw them but he shrugged his thought off; not wanting to be acknowledged by the two. Little did he know the redhead actually noticed him when he turned his back to walk to the opposite direction and Mark couldn’t help but to let out a big sigh.

“How come only now I see the two are always together? Why not before I made this stupid mistake of confessing my feelings to someone’s boyfriend?”

Jinyoung couldn’t help but to wonder though because honestly he never saw the couple around before and he spent a decent amount of time with Mark which saying something. If only he witnesses those two together before, he would have known how to connect the dots and prevent him from making that drunken mistake. He’d rather suppressed his feelings inside than make things awkward with him and Mark despite the fact that would also hurt like hell. But hey, that thought seemed more appealing than what he had to face now.

Jinyoung couldn’t meet the older because he felt like he was walking through his own walk of shame. Where some people’s walk of shame consisted of them being miserable waking up in the morning after some drunken moments and one night stands with strangers they would probably never met again, Jinyoung’s involved him simply doing what he did to one of his now closest friends which resulted with him running not walking on his shameful path for almost two weeks.

That was mainly the reason why he had gotten himself more works to do just so he can have a good distractions from overthinking; that one thing he is simply good at that he could proclaim himself as a master in that field. He wanted some peace to stop himself from thinking about Mark and his occasional nightmares visiting him in his sleep nowadays.

Looking at the clock and only seeing that it was 2pm, Jinyoung was back to throwing daggers at the ceiling before he suddenly drifted off to sleep; desperate for that much needed sleep. He woke up a few hours later with a shaking figure after dreaming about being trapped in a car when he was trying to hide from this scary-looking clown. Not again.

xxxxx

Mark was looking at his watch while making his way inside the performing hall. They were almost running late and Mark glad he made it on time. Yep, they as in him and Mina. His girlfriend insisted to come and Mark wasn’t all that pleased when he arrived at her house only to find out she was still getting ready while in the middle of planning something with her best friend.

Don’t get him wrong. He perfectly knew the ordeal of females getting ready but he had expressly told Mina that he would be picking her up early around 5pm just so they can grab a nice dinner before the start of the night. When he arrived at her house at 4.30pm and waiting for his girlfriend to go through her routine, it was already 6.45pm.

Now he found himself grumbling from the pastry he bought in the coffee shop in front near the university with Mina trotting prettily behind his boyfriend. Mark Tuan was clearly annoyed because he was hungry as he had to leave early from his lunch with the boys. It didn’t help his mood at all knowing that Jinyoung wasn’t there either because he was hoping the latter would spend his weekend out with the maknaes who had been complaining about his absence.

Mark immediately sat himself comfortably upon finding his designated place that was reserved by Jaebum and Youngjae with Mina placing herself beside him after she had greeted Jackson, Yugyeom and Bambam who were already there. He took the opportunity to look around the hall and saw it was almost full with people. He tried looking for a specific boy sporting his favorite eye wrinkles but Mina’s voice made him turned his face her way.

“Baby, please don’t be mad. I’m sorry okay. I lost track of time.” She clung to Mark’s left arm as an effort to get his attention. Mark didn’t want to drag things much simply muttered an okay and that it wasn’t a big deal. Mina smile grew upon that before saying how she would make him feeling better tonight but Mark had stopped paying attention when he heard his younger brother complaining to Jackson yet again.

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