Mark sighed for the umpteenth time within the past hour. It was already 2.30am and he still couldn’t sleep as his mind was making a war flashback to what had happened few hours ago. His heart thumped loudly whenever the sudden discovery of his feelings towards Jinyoung crossed his mind.

Another sigh was let out but this time it was out of relief for succeeding in handling one of his major problems with Mina which was now safe to say his ex-girlfriend. It was funny how Mark decided to confront the other but he didn’t expect for them to break up soon enough after he decided to end things with the said girl. There weren’t any major problems other than his lingering thoughts that the said girl was seeing someone else (which was pretty major when the redhead thinks about it again) and they barely argued so whatever happened a few hours ago was truly unexpected.

His mind drifted back to what had happened. It was after the showcase that the boys had grabbed dinner together with the exclusion of Jinyoung who only texted Jackson that he was about to head home early which left the latter in confusion. Mark chuckled upon remembering Yugyeom’s grumbling face after he found out that Jinyoung was gone but it was soon faded after he received a text from the other promising a lunch together sometime next week along with Youngjae and Bambam. It caused his aesthetic younger brother to keep dancing to random songs which greeted Mark as soon as he was home a moment after.

Prior to that, the redhead had gone to Mina’s house as the girl had left something in his car and since it was still early after the dinner, Mark just decided to drop it off. He tried to call the other when he was outside her house and when there was no response, Mark just decided to go inside using the password that she once told him.

Sometimes Mark thought the other girl could be very dense or forgetful whichever was the better version as she most probably had forgotten how her boyfriend has the password to her house and what greeted Mark when he entered wasn’t exactly pleasing but Mark wasn’t exactly mad either. It was like he wasn’t feeling anything because his mind was full with a certain raven haired boy.

When Mark thought the girl was probably in the shower when she failed to answer his calls, his question was answered when he saw the girl was face with another guy on her couch which Mark soon recognized as one of her so-called best friends, Brian. The guy was shirtless while his now ex-girlfriend was almost half as she was still in her bra and pants.

Mark didn’t have to do much to grab their attention as the girl’s eyes suddenly popped open when she saw the newcomer. “Oh god, Mark. This is not what it looks like.” The said girl exclaimed while busy grabbing around for her top. “I can explain, baby.” Mina pleaded while Brian shuffled on his feet to escape the two.

“If what I saw just now wasn’t you both trying to get into each other’s pant, then I welcome an explanation.” He remembered saying that but the other seemed petrified and leave him with no response. “I’m pretty sure you didn’t leave any of your stuff at my house so I’m guessing there’s no need for me to see you again to return anything.” That was his last words before he left.

Laying on his back and stared at the ceiling while Yugyeom’s occasional singing voice outside his room as the background music, the redhead was left to his own thoughts. He was expecting a slight bitterness in his chest from breaking up but the only bitterness he was feeling inside was due to his remembrance on Jinyoung’s crying face.

Thinking that he should call it a day, he decided to go to sleep but not before asking his annoying brother to shut up and go to sleep all the while saying how the younger should thank the heaven that their neighbors weren’t home to complain about his noisy . His mind drifted to dreamland with possible ways on how he should amend things with Jinyoung because he clearly wasn’t planning in letting the other goes away now that Mark Tuan was so sure about his growing feelings that had been lingering inside him for a while.

xxxxx

At the same time in the two best friends’ shared house, Jackson was just about to land his tired on the couch when he heard someone groaned from Jinyoung’s room followed by the illuminating of his bedside lamp that escaped through the small space below the door.

He immediately went to his best friend’s room to check on the other and simply entered without knocking only to find out Jinyoung sitting by the bedside with shaky figure and a small bottle in his right hand. Jackson saw how Jinyoung was trembling with his sweaty face and ragged breaths like he just had a nightmare. … Nightmare.

Jackson who slowly came to realize what was happening hurriedly went to Jinyoung’s side and brought him into a hug. Jinyoung’s flinched with the sudden contact but other than that, he wasn’t pushing the other away. “Damn, Jinyoung. Are you okay? Why didn’t you tell me they are coming back?” Jackson asked in a hushed tone; worried about his best friend.

He knew he won’t get any immediate answer so he instead told the other to breathe properly which the other complied with until he could breathe regularly. “Feeling better now?” He asked again and fortunately this time Jinyoung responded with a nod.

“Since when?” Jackson asked and Jinyoung knew what he was referring to. “Around two weeks ago.” He muttered softly. “And you didn’t even tell me? Is that why you couldn’t sleep that well?” Jackson asked, his face scanning his best friend who started to breathe properly. He didn’t stop from rubbing Jinyoung’s backside while still waiting for the other’s answer but all he gotten in reply was a silent whisper of “I’m sorry” from Jinyoung.

“What happened, Nyoung?” Jackson still feeling dissatisfied asked his best friend again. Jinyoung wanted to escape from answering but that thought was gone with the wind upon looking at the soft but stern gaze given by Jackson. Jinyoung knew better than to face Jackson’s wrath now if he decided to just sweep things down the floor.

“I don’t know it’s just I guess I overthink too much these past few weeks that it gave me a hard time to sleep at night. Then the nightmares started coming back to me around a week ago. I thought it was gonna help if I take more work and keep myself busy but it didn’t help much.” Jinyoung explained softly while his eyes boring a hole at the wall.

He then turned to look at Jackson when the slightly older guy shot him another question. “Did you perhaps start overthinking stuff because of whatever happened between you and Mark hyung?” Jinyoung didn’t answer that; he preferred not to and Jackson knew what the other remained silent meant.

Jackson remembered how Jinyoung was so calculative over the slightest thing since his kidnapping incident and honestly who wouldn’t. Everyone including Jackson himself was so conscious on their surroundings for they didn’t want the worst to happen again despite the culprits were being put behind bars. None of the bad things can be predicted, as they all would reminded themselves countless times.

Ever since then Jinyoung would somehow overthink any occurrence and remained defensive for certain amount of time due to his lingering fear. He might be a friendly person but Jackson had to admit the amount of persons Jinyoung is closed with can be counted with one hand being with him and Wonpil. He was glad the circle gotten slightly bigger with the presence of the others especially the maknaes.

“Did Junho hyung know about this?” Jackson asked which earned himself a nod from Jinyoung. “I went to him earlier before the showcase. That is why I was late. That old guy seems to love nothing but to talk about random stuff.” Jinyoung ranted to Jackson in which the latter just laughed because he indeed knows that hyung’s habit of talking like a machine gun.

“Remember that one time he visited your house during summer when we were in high school and we decided to pull a prank on him as a congratulatory present?” Jinyoung looked at Jackson as he tried to rack his brain about that particular memory his friend was talking about.

“Wait… you mean that time we both trespassed my mom’s kitchen to bake a cake for Junho hyung and we put like a bowl of salt in the cake mixture?” Jinyoung asked back while trying to hold his laughter because he knew that was exactly the memory Jackson was talking about.

Jackson smiled upon seeing Jinyoung’s face; his intention to distract Jinyoung clearly worked. “Oh man… I still remember his face upon having the first bite. He looked constipated.” That did it for Jinyoung because he ended up bursting into laughter. He remember how Junho cursed at the both of them with all his might but it only went about for a while because Junho favors the two of them so much. The duo however got a handful of nagging from Jinyoung’s mom for messing with her kitchen and they were both banned from the kitchen (Jackson was included because he was a frequent guest at Jinyoung’s house that people may mistook him as one of the occupiers) for a whole year with meal times being the only exception.

“He almost threw the whole cake at us but decided against it because he didn’t want to add himself into mom’s list of persons to be banned from the kitchen.” Jinyoung retorted