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Title: The Unexpectedness of Love

Summary: Old childhood friends Jaebum and Mark meet again in college. And Jaebum realizes that his feelings for Mark are more than just a friendship.

Character(s): Im Jaebum and Mark Tuan

Word Count: 3,624

Genre(s): Romance, College AU

Point of View: 3rd Person

Author’s Note(s): Well for starters, Happy Holidays! (＾ω＾) To my giftee Hotaru-hime, I hope that you like what I wrote for you.ｖ(⌒ｏ⌒)ｖ This was actually my first time writing MarkBum, but I had a blast! Feel free to leave your thoughts on what you liked or didn’t like about it.

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Final Chapter:

“Bye mom, now go or you’ll get stuck in traffic.” Jaebum hugged his mom for the…. well he lost count after the fourth hug. His mother was in tears as she stared at her son.

“Let me get a good look at you,” she placed her hands on his face. She stared at her son’s features, wanting to etch it into her memory. “I’m gonna miss you so much.”

“Mom, I’ll be home for the winter holidays.” Jaebum removed his mother’s hands but held them onto them. “I’m gonna miss you too.”

“I love you,” his mothers said and hugged him again.

“I love you too,” Jaebum replied. He waved at his parents as they drove off. And when they were out of sight, he grabbed his suitcase and other belongings then made his way to the dormitory. He passed by other students saying goodbye to their parents along with people going back and forth with signs to join clubs/organizations. When he made it pass the crowds, he had a handful of flyers.

Jaebum arrived to the dormitory and after finding out his room number, he made his way to the elevator. The door to his room was already open and he noticed that his roommate had already taken occupancy on the right side of the room. There was an open suitcase on the bed with a duffle bag next to it.

He walked over to the left side of the room and rested his suitcase atop of the bed. As he was unpacking, he heard someone walk in.

“Hi, sorry that I already claimed a side of the room without you here, I hope that’s alright?” his roommate said.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Jaebum replied. He turned around and his eyes went wide.

“Mark?”

His roommate was equally surprised, “Jaebum?”

The two stared at each other and then broke out into a huge smile. “Wow, it’s been a while,” Mark said.

“It’s been ten years,” Jaebum elaborated. They hugged each other and the both of them couldn’t stop smiling.

“What? It’s been that long!” Mark exclaimed, “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

“Yeah,” was all Jaebum could say.

“And it’s so awesome that we’re roommates!” Mark said through a smile. Jaebum agreed and the two of them talked while they unpacked. By the time they finished it was around lunch time and the two decided to go to the food court. On their way, they were again bombarded with people passing out flyers, some of which they had already gotten. With their small stack of papers, they made their way inside of the food court.

On either side of the place was food stalls for sandwiches, tacos, burgers, pizzas (all of which had vegan options) and other food options. There were smaller stalls for smoothies and bubble tea. The two of them looked on in awe. “Are we at the mall?” Mark rhetorically asked. They walked around, looking at the menus for what they wanted.

Jaebum settled for a bulgogi hamburger while Mark ordered a mini all cheese pizza. With their food in hands, they sat down at an empty booth near the entrance. For the first few minutes they ate in silence, the noise of the other students’ chatter filled in the void.

“What are you majoring in?” Mark asked, stuffing the last bit of his mini pizza in his mouth. He then washed it down with a Sprite.

Jaebum swallowed his mouthful of food before answering. “Accounting, what about you?”

“I’m majoring in Chemistry,” Mark answered. They continued on with stories from their childhood. The both of them laugh at the idiotic things that they had done. After they were done eating, they headed back to the dorms and got ready for orientation tomorrow.

----

Jaebum woke up the next morning and was greeted by a still sleeping Mark. He looked at his old childhood friend’s sleeping face in admiration. How different did Mark look when asleep? He looked just as handsome asleep as he was awake. Jaebum didn’t realize that he had been staring for too long until Mark’s eyes opened slightly.

Jaebum quickly looked elsewhere and got ready. “It’s already 8:00?” Mark asked and he checked his phone. He too started to get ready and for some reason Jaebum felt weird when he saw Mark take off his shirt. His broad flawless back was on display and Jaebum couldn’t help but stare. Shaking his head, Jaebum threw the thoughts away and continued getting dressed.

They walked together for a short while until they parted ways. Jaebum headed to the Accounting building while Mark went to the Chemistry building. Orientation commenced and Jaebum got to know his fellow classmates and seniors. He met a Hong Kong exchange student by the name of Jackson. He tried to explain to him that he was the hyung since he was born in the beginning of the year, but Jackson had insisted that they were friends since they were from the same year. It was an endless argument that Jaebum decided to give up.   

He was eating lunch with Jackson and a few others when he noticed Mark was at the door. Excusing himself, Jaebum made his way over to Mark. “Hey, what’re you doing here?”

“I wanted to see how you were doing?” Mark smiled at him. Jaebum replied and they talked for a bit until Mark had to leave.

----

The orientation ended late that night since the seniors had wanted to drink. Jaebum had a few beers since he didn’t want to be too hung-over for the first day of school tomorrow. His new friend Jackson however was different. He drank every beer and shot of soju he was served. By the end of it, he was out cold. With the help of another student, Jaebum dragged a passed out Jackson back to his room.

After dropping off Jackson, Jaebum surprisingly met up with Mark in the elevator. He was with of few of his classmates from the Chemistry department. “Hey, how’d it go for you?” Mark asked.

“It was alright, the seniors got wasted and wanted us lower classmen to be too.” Jaebum replied. He noticed that Mark’s classmates were slumped against the elevator doors.

“Yeah, the same happened to us,” Mark said. “You don’t look drunk though.”

“I managed to escape a few of the offerings.”

“Yeah, same here.” Jaebum helped Mark drop off his friends at their rooms. When all of them were safely back, they made their way to their room. As they got dressed for bed, Jaebum unconsciously took peeks at Mark as he took his shirt off. This time it was his chest that was in display. Jaebum took in the taut six-pack that his friend had while his chest looked equally as flawless as his back.

“Night Jaebum,” Mark said as he put his nightshirt on and got into bed. Jaebum broke from his thoughts and quickly got into bed. He muttered back good night and drifted off into sleep.

----

Three months have passed since the first day of school. Classes were a handful; filled with essays, group projects, exams, etc. but it was nothing that Jaebum couldn’t handle. Along with all the assignments, Jaebum had started to come to a realization.

And it was that he was in love with Mark. It was after the Halloween party back in October that he saw certain. He and Mark were coming back from a party that was held by the Theater Arts department. Knowing that there was school the next day, it didn’t stop the both of them from drinking. And they drank lots of it. So much, that they were stumbling back into their room. Mark was drunk out of the two and he kept muttering to himself about nonsensical things.

Jaebum heaved him onto his bed and Mark not so gracefully fell back on it. He was dressed as Harry Potter and he was tangled up in the black cloak he wore. The drawn on lightning bolt on his forehead was smudged with sweat from all the dancing he had done. He‘d lost his wand along the way, but he still flicked his hand as if he still had it.

“Alohomora! Expecto Patronum! Wingardium Leviosa!” He spouted spell after spell which had a now slightly sober Jaebum shaking his head. Jaebum removed his gloves and wiped off his Joker makeup (from The Dark Knight, not Suicide Squad). From the background, Mark continued to spout out spells.

When Jaebum was fully dressed for slumber (which called him so deeply), he went over to Mark and tried to wake him up. “Mark, get up and change.” The Taiwanese American paid no attention to his words and flicked his wrist again. Sighing, Jaebum grabbed him and sat him up right. Changing a drunk person is no easy feat and Jaebum let out a sigh of relief when he was done. He laid Mark back down and was about to back away when Mark draped his arms around him.

He held himself up from falling on his friend with his hands on either side of Mark’s body. “Mark let go.” He didn’t listen. With eyes closed, Mark pushed his head up and pressed his lips against Jaebum. With wide eyes, Jaebum freed himself from his friend. He slumped on the floor, hands to his mouth. He looked at Mark and wondered if what just happened happened.

But he wasn’t disgusted by the sudden kiss, he quite enjoyed it actually. And the sparks of recognition slowly hit him. He knew that what he was starting to feel for Mark wasn’t just that of friends, but that of lovers. He just wished that Mark remembered what had occurred the next day.

----

Jaebum stared blankly at his laptop screen. It was opened to a Word Document, but there was nothing written. He was supposed to be writing an essay for his English class, but his thoughts were elsewhere. The events from that morning; to be exact.

Jaebum was in his room on his bed, reading, when Mark walked in. He had come from the showers that their floor shared. And he forgot to bring a shirt. So he walked in with wet hair and shirtless. Jaebum stared in subtle awe. While Mark looked for a shirt, Jaebum tried to concentrate on reading. But since the events on Halloween, Jaebum couldn’t see Mark the same way he’d used to. Now when he looked at his friend, he wanted nothing more than to hold him close and kiss him softly.

And right now was one of those occurrences. He felt his nether regions begin to tighten and before it could get worse, he hurriedly grabbed his things and bolted out the door. Now here he was in the library thinking back instead of focusing on his assignment.

He closed the Word Document since he knew that he wouldn’t be able to write right now. He logged into his Youtube and watched videos he had on his Watch Later playlist. He was in the middle of a World of Dance performance when Jackson plopped down in the seat next to him. The Hong Kong native sighed in frustration and so Jaebum paused the video.

“Hyung,” Jackson cried out. He finally understood (although begrudgingly) about the fact that since Jaebum was born early in the year (1994), he was considered part of the previous year (1993), which makes him the older brother. Now Jackson calls him hyung even though sometimes he does it just to mess with Jaebum; especially when it comes to paying for things.

“What’s wrong?” Jaebum asked.

“Jinyoung rejected me,” Jackson wailed, which caused the other students in the library to stare and give him dirty looks.

Jaebum looked at him confused, “Who?”

“Park Jinyoung, he’s in my Accounting 1301 class and I like him,” Jackson started to talk fast, which made his Korean sound jumbled up, but Jaebum managed to understand him. “I told him yesterday, that I liked him and if he wanted to go out this weekend. He didn’t say anything right then and there but this morning he texted me that he didn’t want to.”

“Maybe he’s busy?” Jaebum said, trying to give an explanation for this Jinyoung guy that he didn’t know.

Jackson looked at him with glassy eyes. Was he going to cry? “He told me that he just wasn’t up for it. He rejected me.” he exclaimed and buried his head in his hands.

“I don’t think so, just maybe talk to him again,” Jaebum said to help his friend stay optimistic.

“Can you help?” Jackson asked.

“How do I do that?” Jaebum asked; eyebrows furrowed.

Before Jackson could answer, someone sat down in the other seat next to Jaebum. He turned and saw Mark. “I thought I’d find you here.”

“Oh, hey,” Jaebum said, though he wasn’t looking Mark in the eye. While he tried to keep his composure, Mark and Jackson greeted each other.

“Mark, do you think you could help too?” Jackson asked (he didn’t bother calling him hyung since Mark didn’t care for honorifics).  

“Help with what?” Mark asked, he opened his backpack and slid out his laptop. Jaebum side eyed him, wanting to stare at Mark without being obvious about it.

“This guy I like rejected me, what should I do?” Jackson simplified the situation.

“He asked the guy out, but he told Jackson that we couldn’t go, not that he rejected his feelings,” Jaebum elaborated further.

“Well he basically did, he broke my heart,” Jackson whined. Instead of stares, he received a “shh” from one of the library employees as they passed by.

“Well what did he say exactly?” Mark asked.

Jackson took out his phones and looked through his texts, “He said, “Hey, I don’t think I’ll be able to go out this weekend, I just want to stay at the dorms,” see, he rejected me,” Jackson read out.

“He didn’t flat out say no, he’ll probably want to hang out here at school.” Mark said.

“What could we possibly do at school, other than study?” Jackson mocked.

“You could have a movie marathon in his room,” Jaebum inputted.

“I think you should ask him again,” Mark added.

“But what if he says no again?”

“He didn’t say no the first time, just go for it.” Jaebum said

“Yeah, won’t know unless you try,” Mark said.

“But I already tried,” Jackson replied.

“Well, try again,” Mark suggested. Jackson looked at them and suddenly stood up.

“I’m gonna go look for him, laters,” he gathered his things and bolted out of the library. The two of them watched him go and then went back do what they were doing.

“What were you doing just now?” Mark asked as he opened up his web browser and logged into his Blackboard account to view some assignments that still needed to be done.     

“I was just on YouTube, procrastinating on my essay,” Jaebum answered. He tired to focus on his laptop screen, but then he got a whiff of the cologne that Mark was wearing. He smelled like autumn (which he did mention was his favorite season), a hint of dry fallen leaves, cinnamon, almost a little rusty. It was a delightful smell, one which Jaebum could bask in all day and night if he could. If left him feeling warm. Jaebum turned away and took deep breaths and tried to calm down.  

“What’s your essay about?” Mark asked, oblivious of how he was making Jaebum feel.

“It’s an argumentative essay to see if social pressures are greater on students today than in the past.” Jaebum replied.

“Oh, well what do you think?” Mark asked.

“Well the only difference why I would think it’s difficult today, is that there’s many social media platforms like, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.” Jaebum explained, “Nowadays, it’s not just your friends who can see what you post. Or every moment can be captured in a picture or a video and then posted for the whole world to see. People you don’t know will leave either positive or negative criticism about you and it can cause drastic consequences.”

Mark looked at him which made Jaebum panic and thinking that he may have said too much and overwhelmed him, “Sorry, I’ve got to sort things out and figure out how to start it and get all my points across.”  

“No, it’s okay. I’ve got quite a bit of assignments to finish too.” Mark said.

They stayed silent after that. Mark read through his textbooks and highlighted what was important and looked online for extra resources. Jaebum closed the YouTube tab and looked up source material for his essay. He didn’t want to be the only one not working and looking like a bum.

“So...can I ask you something?” Mark asked after several minutes of silence.

“Yeah, sure,” Jaebum half-heartedly answered. He was actually engrossed in looking up materials for his essay and one particular article seemed interesting to use.  

“Do you like me?”

Jaebum’s head whipped toward Mark, the article long forgotten. Mark wasn’t looking at him, but his hands fidgeted nervously. “Um...yeah, we’re friends.”

“Not like friends,” Mark began, “the kiss on Halloween, that wasn’t one-sided, right?”

Jaebum’s eyes widened. Mark remembered the kiss. Oh !

“Wait, one-sided?” confusion arose within him. What did that mean?

Mark’s face flushed red a little. “Yeah, I….I like you, Jaebum. But more than a friend.”

Jaebum’s silent shock gave Mark the wrong impression. “Is that weird? Gross even?”

He shook his head, “No, it’s fine. I like you too” His voice went lower at the confession part.

“Oh, cool,” Mark replied. He’d never confessed to anyone before, so all this was new to him. And it was new to Jaebum too. They awkwardly looked at each other. Sheepish smiles passed between the two.

“So, you wanna go grab some lunch?” Jaebum asked after typing and deleting random words on Google search. Mark had accidentally highlighted unnecessary information on his textbook and nodded his head.

“Yeah, I’m a bit hungry.” The two of them gathered up there things and headed to the cafeteria.

They walked closer than usual, their hands touching and Jaebum boldly decided to hold Mark’s hand. Both of them smiled, hands tightening as they walked.

----

“Jaebum hyung!” Jackson barged into Jaebum’s room without knocking (as always). Jaebum was in a heated make out session with Mark which would have escalated into something more if Jackson hadn’t interrupted.

“What do you want?” Jaebum was beyond annoyed. He sat up straight on the bed (it was Mark’s bed; they’d been sharing it since they got together). Mark sat up and scooted until his back rested against the wall. He fixed his hair since Jaebum likes to run his hands through it every chance he gets.

“Hi Jackson,” Mark smiled. Jackson greeted him back.

“Help!” Jackson yelled and slumped on Jaebum’s unused bed. They actually have clothes thrown on it, along with textbooks and old assignment papers.

“Help you with what?” Jaebum asked.

“Jinyoung is mad at me,” Jackson exclaimed.

“And what the hell did you do wrong this time?” Jaebum isn’t surprised anymore, that almost every three weeks Jackson comes pleading for help on something that he annoyed Jinyoung with. Jaebum wonders how Jackson manages to always piss off his boyfriend.

“I was video chatting with my parents and I introduced Jinyoung to them,” Jackson explained, “and he said that it was too soon and unexpected and he was in his pajamas when it happened. He said that he didn’t make a good impression on them.”

“”You guys have only been dating for three months, why would you put him in an awkward situation like that? At least wait a few more months,” Jaebum isn’t up to listening to Jackson, but his friend can never get the hint to piss off.

“I thought it was okay,” Jackson replied.

“You think everything is okay. Go apologize or something,” Jaebum said.

“But he won’t talk to me or answer me calls, and reply to my texts.” Jackson explained.

“Just give him a few days and maybe surprise him with something he likes,” Mark inputted.

“You think that’ll work?” Jackson was skeptical.

“Yes, it worked when I was upset with Jaebum not too long ago,” Mark teased. Jaebum gave him a playful glare.

“Wow, and here I thought that Jaebum hyung was a good boyfriend.” Jackson cackled out.

“I’m better off than you,” Jaebum kicked him for emphasis.

“Whatever, well I’m off,” Jackson stood up, “Bye Mark, and I guess bye hyung.” Jaebum waved him off and when the door was closed, he turned to face Mark. Mark was playing a game on his phone, oblivious to Jaebum.

Jaebum crawled on the bed, head buried in the crook of Mark’s neck. The natural scent of his boyfriend makes Jaebum go delusional. His lips brush over the exposed skin, loving the slight shivers that go through Mark.

He leaves light feather kisses and trials his mouth up to Mark’s. The game his boyfriend was playing is long forgotten and all focus is on Jaebum. Arms are wrapped around Jaebum and lips are locked tightly. Mark is lowered onto the bed while Jaebum hovers over him.

Six months have already passed for them, and they still can’t get enough of each other. Everything still feels new to them and they bask in in every chance they get.

They break away from each other. Eyes locked on one another. The world seems far away from them.

“I love you,” Mark smiles at Jaebum.

Jaebum beams back, “I love you too.”