A/N: Please be aware that there will be some bullying triggers in Jinyoung and Mark's sections of this story. I don't think they're to the extent of requiring a content alert for the entire story, but please use discretion if that's a difficult subject for you.

Jinyoung

Jinyoung adjusted his uniform blazer with a grimace, scowling down at his freshly bought clothes as if they were to blame for everything. He still couldn't believe that this was happening, that he was actually being forced to join a brand new school in his very last year and spend the time he needed to be focusing on tests and studies instead adjusting to a life among complete strangers who'd already long ago decided upon their cliques and hierarchies without him. It had been selfish of him, but he'd gotten down on his hands and knees and begged his father not to take the job transfer, even though it came with the promise of a fantastic salary and higher seniority. Naturally, he'd been completely ignored, and now here he was, starting the first day of his graduation year in a strange school where he knew absolutely no one.

Sighing resignedly, he made his way to the administrative office where he was supposed to pick up his school ID, schedule, and class assignment. As he approached, he spotted another student standing nearby in a low conversation with a pretty middle aged woman who was brushing off his jacket for lint as she talked.

"I'm sure this school is much, much better than your old one," the woman was saying. "I've had several conferences with their principal and board of educators, and they assured me that the students here are all intelligent, hard workers who would be eager to embrace...ah...diversity among their ranks. This won't be a repeat of last time, I promise you, Mark."

"I wasn't at all bothered by last time, Mom," the boy, Mark, said in a voice Jinyoung could only describe as oddly lacking in tone. "I've told you before, what people say means next to nothing to me. Transferring me to a new school was completely unnecessary."

Jinyoung stopped in his tracks. The principal had mentioned during Jinyoung's orientation that one other student would be joining the graduating class along with Jinyoung— this must be him. Mark, the boy in question, was incredibly good looking with his dark brown hair and small, delicate face, but at the same time there was something incredibly awkward about him and the way he held himself, as if he didn't fully fit inside of his own body. His hand kept twitching as if he wanted to brush his mother off, but instead he eventually reached into his pants pockets, pulling out what looked like some kind of rock or marble, which he then tossed into the air and caught again in his palm.

"It means something to me," Mark's mother said darkly. "I don't want you spending your daily life listening to that kind of nonsense. You're a bright, intelligent boy, and you deserve far better than a class full of immature bullies. This will be a far better environment for you to spend your last year of high school in, OK?"

Mark continued to toss and catch his stone, by all appearances disinterested in the subject. "I appreciate the good intentions then, I guess," he said. "But you don't have to follow me around to the administrative office now that you've finished all your paperwork and asked them every question you can possibly think of. I can do the rest on my own."

"Are you sure?"

"Perfectly." He patted his mother on the shoulder with his unoccupied hand. "You don't need to worry so much. It will give you forehead wrinkles, and there's enough people in this country getting plastic surgery without you needing to contribute to the industry, all right?"

"Fine, fine," his mother said, laughing lightly. "You take care of yourself, Mark."

Jinyoung felt himself perking up slightly. Maybe this would be more simple than he'd given it credit for. If the other new kid had been bullied at his old school, perhaps he would be receptive to the idea of making friends with someone who wasn't a jerk, and Jinyoung could find someone to hang out with right away without any fuss. He couldn't imagine why anyone would want to bully someone as good looking as Mark anyways, but high school students were nothing if not needlessly cruel in Jinyoung's experience. Perhaps he could do his part to make sure Mark never had to go through something like that again.

When Mark's mother was out of the way, Jinyoung approached Mark in front of the administrative office door. "Hey!" he said in what he hoped was a bright and companionable voice. "You're the other new student, right? My name's Park Jinyoung."

Mark looked at him a moment, tilting his head as if something about Jinyoung was incredibly odd to him. "Mark," he said at length. "Mark Tuan."

"This whole situation is kind of crappy, isn't it?" Jinyoung said, maintaining his overly friendly tone. "Transferring schools so late like this? I'm personally not thrilled about it, but it's good to know I'm not doing it alone. I hope the two of us can be friends."

Mark paused his stone tossing, his brow furrowing so exaggeratedly that it looked as if he was deliberately trying to act out the emotion of confusion. "You really don't sound like that normally, do you?"

Jinyoung blinked, caught off guard. "E-Excuse me?"

"The way you sound right now. The way you sound right now is not really what you sound like, is it?"

"I...I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're trying to say."

"What I'm trying to say is what I said: the way you-"

Mark was interrupted by the office door swinging open. A very tidy looking thirty something year-old woman opened the door, regarding them both with a very stern and business-like expression. "You two would be Park Jinyoung and Mark Tuan, yes?" she asked.

Mark didn't say anything further, so Jinyoung answered for them. "Yes."

"Come in, come in. I'm your homeroom teacher, Mrs. Yoon. Both of you are in Class B. We printed out your IDs, right over here." They had only just stepped through the door, and already she was shoving papers into their hands as if there was no time to spare. "This includes your schedule, and a map of the building. There are five minutes in between classes, but I've asked your teachers to excuse you if you arrive a few minutes late just for today. I'm sure you were already walked through lunch break and the location of your lockers during your orientation, but if you have any questions...?"

Jinyoung was too bewildered to say anything after this rushed dump of information. Mark just continued tossing his stone up and down, up and down, once again seemingly disinterested in the entire situation.

Mrs. Yoon glanced at Mark's stone as it flew up, her expression pinching. "You've discussed that issue with the principal, Mark, but I just want to ask you not to disrupt any of your classes with it. Is that clear?"

"As crystal," Mark said. It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. His tone still hadn't changed in the slightest.

"Right then. Follow me, and I'll take you to your homeroom class."

Jinyoung followed after her, feeling a bit disgruntled and anxious. He really wasn't looking forward to having the spotlight on him for the first week here, and was anticipating being pumped with brainless questions about his old school before he lost all his novelty and everyone started ignoring him. And Mark was turning out to be a tougher nut to crack than he thought. What was up with his ceaseless stone tossing? And more importantly, why had he taken such issue with the way Jinyoung 'sounded'?

The three of them arrived at the door to Class B, and Mrs. Yoon paused at the entrance. "I'll bring you in and introduce you to your classmates one-by-one," she said. "Jinyoung, you first. Mark, if you wouldn't mind, would you wait outside in the hall until I come to get you?"

Mark leaned against the wall next to the door. Jinyoung took a deep breath as Mrs. Yoon opened it and the two of them stepped through into the classroom of chattering students.

Everyone's eyes turned to him, and their loud voices hushed into whispers as they murmured back and forth about who he was and what they thought of him at first glance. Jinyoung chewed on his lips awkwardly, wishing they wouldn't do it so obviously with him standing right there. He felt like a monkey in a zoo who any second now they'd start demanding tricks from.

"Take a seat, class," Mrs. Yoon said in a brisk, clipped voice. "Our two new students are here. This is the first, Park Jinyoung. He's joining us from Jinhae-gu. He's a top ranked student, so I'm sure you'll have a lot in common. Jinyoung, would you like to take a seat in the back row?" She pointed to one of the two open seats in the back right corner of the room. Apparently she didn't require him to say anything about himself, which seemed a bit cold, not that Jinyoung particularly wanted to say anything. He walked to the back of the room, doing his best to ignore the whispers following after him, though they were for the most part positive. Whether they had good things to say or not, he didn't like being examined this closely.

"I'll be introducing our second new student shortly," Mrs. Yoon continued. "But before I do, I feel I should warn you that he has a developmental condition. He may talk and behave in ways different from what you're used to, but I'm asking you all to be as accommodating as possible about this. Try not to make a fuss about it and leave him alone if you can't interact with him politely, all right?"

"Developmental condition?" a guy from the front row asked. "You mean like he's a dwarf or something?"

"Do you even pay attention in science?" a girl behind him quipped. "She means he's autistic."

"What?!? Aren't there special schools for people like that?"

"There's such a thing as high functioning autism," a friendly looking guy across the room from Jinyoung pointed out.

"Like, what does that even mean? He still won't be, you know, like a normal person our age, right?"

Mrs. Yoon lifted her hands. "Kids, the administration promised you wouldn't be brats about this. He had some difficulties with students at his former school, and it resulted in serious complaints being filed against the faculty and staff. Trust me, we don't want that kind of thing knocking at our own door. Be courteous, all right? He seems like a nice kid. I'm sure you can find something in common with him. According to his mother, he's into science...and rock."

Still, the students were already gossiping excitedly to one another about just how weird this guy would end up being. Jinyoung watched the whole scene slack jawed, feeling like his blood would start boiling. Was that seriously how the school was going to introduce a student with potential special needs to a hoard of potentially mean spirited teenagers? All the education and explanation they were going to give about Mark's condition was that he might be a little strange but they should all be nice anyways? Jinyoung wanted to stand up and yell at Mrs. Yoon to at least give Mark the courtesy of a little more support and context, but already she was opening the door to expose him to the whispers of a class of people who were already anticipating him to be a freak show.

Mark walked in haltingly, glancing around the room with the indifferent expression he'd worn since Jinyoung had first laid eyes on him. "Everyone, this is Mark," Mrs. Yoon said, gesturing to him with a smile plastered on her face. "He's coming to us from Donsan-ri, but was born in the US. Mark, your seat is in the back, next to Jinyoung."

Mark ambled forward, bumping into one of the desks as he passed, causing the girl seated at it to bark a "Hey, watch it!" with a bit more annoyance than was necessary. A few people were talking about how handsome he was, but Jinyoung couldn't help but overhear most of the guys pointing out the awkwardness with which Mark moved as if that proved everything they'd suspected of him the moment they heard the words 'developmental condition'.

Jinyoung's heart ached as he watched. How long had Mark been enduring this? He said he hadn't cared, but surely he'd been going through life facing these kinds of childish speculations for years now. Jinyoung was now even more determined to befriend him and give him at least one person who would treat him with kindness. What was so terribly strange about him, anyways? Sure, he was awkward, but he certainly wasn't the only high school student that could be said of.

Mark took a seat next to Jinyoung, pulling out the stone from his pocket and bouncing it in his palm as Mrs. Yoon started discussing the school's expectations for the graduating class in their last year. Now that Jinyoung got a closer look, he realized it was quite pretty, a deep red shade flecked with spots of black.

"Hey," Jinyoung whispered, leaning towards Mark's desk. "You were really born in the US?"

Mark looked at him, the exact same almost exaggerated expression with which he'd stared at Jinyoung before settling in his eyes. The look of someone who could not make coherent sense of the person speaking to him no matter how hard he tried.

Jinyoung tried again. "Mrs. Yoon said you're into rock? Who's your favorite band?"

Mark lifted up the stone in his hand. "Rocks. She meant rocks. Or more specifically, the minerals that make up rocks. But if you're truly curious about my taste in the musical genre, if I had to pick, I would pick The Jimi Hendrix Experience."

"Oh," Jinyoung said. At least he was answering now. And this also explained why he was carrying a rock—or mineral?—around with him. Still, Jinyoung wasn't sure he'd ever talked to someone with such an academic hobby before. Even so, it was better to show a friendly, encouraging interest. Perhaps he'd learn something if he asked Mark more about it in the future. "That's interesting."

Mark's brow furrowed again. "Is there any reason why you're doing that?"

"Doing what?" Jinyoung asked self-consciously.

"You don't even realize? Huh. Usually someone would notice if they're going through the trouble of making an effort."

"Umm?" Jinyoung still didn't follow what he was getting at, but was now left with the nagging sense that whatever he was doing was genuinely bothering Mark. He shrank back into his seat, feeling a bit embarrassed. Mark stared at him for a moment with that overly puzzled look on his face, then returned to playing with his rock.

After homeroom was over, they were unceremoniously sent off on their new daily schedule. Since they were both in Class B, Jinyoung and Mark had most of their classes together, and were time after time shoved together into the back corner away from the pre-established groups of friends who wanted to sit next to each other. Every once in awhile, one of the students approached Jinyoung to ask him a few questions, but their eyes would focus on Mark as Jinyoung answered, watching as he toyed with his rock and trying to find something funny to report back to the other students. After awhile, Jinyoung started answering a bit coldly so they wouldn't feel comfortable approaching him so often for the sake of gossiping about Mark.

Throughout the day, he tried to engage Mark in conversation a few more times, but every time he did, Mark was more likely to stare at him with his persistently puzzled expression rather than answer him clearly. Jinyoung still couldn't figure out what the problem was. Whatever the nature of Mark's condition, he was incredibly intelligent given how informed and detailed his answers were whenever a teacher called on him in class. It wasn't as if he couldn't understand what Jinyoung was saying. It seemed more like he couldn't understand Jinyoung himself, and he was refusing to interact with him fully until he figured him out.

Jinyoung wished he could help to speed along the process somehow. He'd already written off most of his classmates considering how obnoxiously they were already treating Mark, so he wasn't particularly interested in befriending anyone else. There was so much he wanted to know about the person beside him, but it seemed almost rude to ask, especially since Mark couldn't seem to get comfortable with him. But how would he ever know if he just stayed silent?

By time the day ended, Jinyoung's mind was a whirlwind of unanswered questions. He lingered around the school courtyard and watched as Mark's mother picked her son up in her car, surely questioning him about how his day had gone and if he'd made any friends. He wondered what Mark would say to her. He wondered if Mark would mention him, and how he would describe him if he did.

What a weird day, he thought to himself. It hadn't gone at all like he'd expected, but he found he wasn't as despairing of the whole situation as he had been when the day had started. There was certainly something worth going to school for now. He just wasn't sure if that something found anything about him worthwhile in the slightest.

0

As it turned out, Jinyoung hadn't needed to worry so much about people not wanting to befriend him since he was the new student. Almost right away, he was singled out by a guy in his dramatic arts elective named Im Jaebum. Jaebum was almost overbearingly friendly, and tended to hang on to Jinyoung's every word as if he was the most fascinating person on the planet. He also came attached with Youngjae, one of the guys in Jinyoung's homeroom, who was genuinely sweet and funny and most importantly nice to Mark whenever they crossed paths. Jinyoung suspected Youngjae and Jaebum of having something going on in secret, though it bothered him somewhat that Jaebum had a bad habit of ignoring Youngjae a bit when the three of them were talking together. He half-wondered if he was doing it deliberately so Jinyoung wouldn't figure out the relationship between them.

Even so, Jinyoung was almost entirely fixated on Mark during the first weeks of school. Mark still seemed to be putting up walls whenever Jinyoung tried to engage with him, but Jinyoung was still determined to flesh him out. Though people were still gossiping about him like crazy, it seemed purely nitpicky since he so rarely gave materials to use against him. There was the stone tossing thing, but other than that, all of his quirks— his occasional clumsiness, his tendency phrase himself a bit oddly for a high school student, his inexpressive tone, his inherent awkwardness— weren't so terribly strange other than the fact that they were all piled inside of one person. What was of more interest to Jinyoung was that he seemed deeper than anyone else around them, like there were thousands of fascinating thoughts and ideas tumbling through his head that were never spoken aloud. He wanted to know what they were. He wanted Mark to open up to him.

It seemed like it would take time for that to happen. Something wasn't yet clicking. Mark would respond to him from time to time, but it was never without that look of confusion on his face. It never appeared with anyone else. When Mark talked to Youngjae, he looked nothing but earnest. When he talked to the teachers, he was often eager and engaged, especially with their science teacher, who shared his interest in minerals. When he talked to everyone else, especially the people who gossiped about him, he looked completely disinterested. It was only Jinyoung he didn't know what to make of.

And about three weeks into the school year, the bullying began. During homeroom, one of the guys tried to steal Mark's rock as he was throwing it. Mark quickly snatched it back into his palm, looking at the student with a look of mild disapproval. "That's not the first time someone's tried to do that," he'd said. "You'll have to be faster than that."

"Shouldn't be hard when dealing with a slow kid from special school," the guy had quipped back.

Mark's expression hadn't changed upon hearing that, but Jinyoung had lept to his feet and chucked his pen at the student's head at full force. When the student started cursing at him, Jinyoung had snapped, "Work on your own reflexes before you go around being an about anyone else's."

Mark had looked at him differently for once after that. "I see," he said, as if something was dawning on him. "That's who you really are."

"What do you mean?" Jinyoung had asked him, feeling a little nervous to hear the answer.

"You seriously don't realize? You don't realize when you're making an effort, you don't realize when you're not making an effort... doesn't what you just did feel more natural to you?" Mark had gone right back to looking at him quizzically after that, but Jinyoung still tried to count it as progress.

The incident in homeroom sadly wasn't the only one. People started calling Mark 'rock boy,' even to his face, and started leaving rocks from the school grounds on his desk and throwing them in through the slats in his locker. Mark's reaction to these cases was entirely different to what they were probably intending. He'd pick up each rock and study them carefully, muttering to himself in phrases Jinyoung couldn't understand in the slightest. He'd toss the ones he wasn't interested in, but every once in awhile he'd deem one 'a good find,' then tuck it in his pocket.

Mark refused to be bothered, but Jinyoung was becoming increasingly more and more infuriated. He surprised himself by snapping directly at the gossipers whenever Mark wasn't around and calling them out for the s they were. Everyone resented him for it and he was steadily becoming more and more unpopular, but Jinyoung didn't care. If being popular meant trying to make the life of someone who was already living with a developmental condition harder, he didn't want to be popular.

He tried to bring it up once with Mrs. Yoon, but she shut him down quickly. "Look, Jinyoung, I appreciate your concern, I really do," she'd said. "But if it's not an issue for Mark, let's not make it one, shall we? It would just make things unpleasant for everyone concerned." It amazed Jinyoung how people could go through life caring so little for others, even when it was their job to.

All of it made him all the more determined to find a way of reaching Mark. No matter how many walls Mark threw up, he was going to find a way through. More than anything, he didn't want him to be alone. Even if the words of others didn't bother him, surely it would make his life more bearable if he filled it with the words of someone who looked at him kindly instead of all the cruel ones he couldn't escape from hearing.

0

A month into the school year, Jinyoung was verging on desperate. He was still making very little progress with Mark, but the need to get closer to him was becoming more and more persistent. At long last, he found Mark sitting alone on the gym steps after school one day, reading one of his geology books and tossing his rock, and Jinyoung took a deep breath and approached him.

"Hey, Mark!" Jinyoung said, using the upbeat-I'm-a-nice-guy-I-swear tone he reserved for their conversations. "What's up?"

Mark glanced up at him, lifting an eyebrow. His expression seemed to be asking Jinyoung something—most likely "Aren't you tired of this yet?" Still, Jinyoung wasn't about to give up so quickly.

"I wanted to tell you that I really liked your essay about Edgar from King Lear," Jinyoung continued, determinedly cheerful. "You really nailed the double meanings behind his lines. He's a really hard character to grasp, but I felt like I understood him better, thanks to you."

Mark tilted his head, a sigh escaping his lips. He still wasn't saying anything.

"I like Shakespeare a lot, since I'm interested in theater," Jinyoung continued, his spirits sinking a little as Mark refused to engage with him. "If I ever get a chance to act in King Lear, I'll keep your interpretation in mind. So...thank you for sharing it, I guess?"

"Hmmm," was Mark's response. Was that frustration building in his eyes?

Jinyoung was about to make one more attempt when he heard Jaebum's voice calling out to him from nearby. "Oi, Jinyoung!"

Jinyoung whirled around, halfway shocked to remember he was still at school and not lost inside some unsolvable maze with Mark at its unreachable center. He blinked, trying to orient himself. If Jaebum wanted to talk to him, that was a possible escape route from this awkward situation, but all the same, he found himself not wanting to leave. He wanted to keep working through the maze, even if he got hopelessly lost. There was always a path, after all. He just needed the right determination and endurance to pick it out in the midst of all the wrong ones.

"J-Just a second!" he called back. Though he wanted to stay, he also didn't want to keep bothering Mark while he was trying to read. He'd try again some other time. And again and again if need be. He glanced at Mark over his shoulder one more time, giving him a firm smile as if to tell him that this wasn't the end. "Talk to you later, Mark."

He turned back to walk towards where Jaebum was waiting with Youngjae in tow, but all of a sudden he heard Mark's voice from behind him. "You know," Mark said, his voice cuttingly frank. "You don't have to fake being a good person."

Jinyoung's entire body froze in one moment, and then in the next winced as if he'd been physically struck. That was what Mark thought of him. He thought Jinyoung was doing this to prove he was a good person, that he wasn't like everyone else. That he was the good little boy who stood behind the bullied kid, trying to make himself into a saint for his acts of kindness.

It wasn't completely true, but the parts of it that were true raked across Jinyoung's conscience. In the end, wasn't that the first thing he'd thought when he'd heard about Mark being bullied? Wasn't his first reaction to take advantage of it to make a comfortable friendship without much effort? Wasn't he going out of his way to deliberately try to be this perfect model of friendliness and compassion so that Mark would trust him more? Wasn't Mark more right in his accusation than he was wrong?

I'm no better than anyone else, Jinyoung thought, his heart throbbing as he closed his eyes shut tightly as if to block any tears from falling. I'm the exact same, singling him out to gain something for myself.

He took a deep breath. He wasn't going to let these feelings spill over so close to Mark with Jaebum and Youngjae watching. He snapped his eyes open, squared his shoulders, and walked forward. He'd confront it later. He'd comb through his moments with Mark in his mind and pinpoint every disingenuous thing he'd ever did and scream at himself for it. But right now he was going to do a little bit more faking. He was going to pretend like everything's fine until he could be in the right place to handle all the emotions that came with realizing that nothing was.

After pestering him a bit about how he was doing, to which Jinyoung kept snappishly insisting he was perfectly fine, Jaebum started going on about some jazz festival coming up. Jinyoung barely heard any of it. He kept thinking to himself about how much Mark surely despised him for his seemingly superficially friendly behavior over the past month. Had all his confusion been a result of bewilderment at Jinyoung's apparent lack of sincerity? Had he been waiting the whole time for Jinyoung to shut up and leave him alone?

Youngjae at last seemed to notice something was wrong and cut Jaebum off. "Jinyoung, are you OK?" he asked in a sincere and gentle voice. Why couldn't I have spoken to Mark like that?, Jinyoung wondered. Why is someone who probably hates my guts for intruding on his time with his boyfriend more genuine than I've ever been?

Jinyoung quickly made an excuse about having hay fever and needing to go back to his locker to get medicine. He made a break for it as fast as he could, leaving Jaebum sputtering in confusion behind him. It didn't matter to him. There was only one thing that did, and he had potentially messed that one thing up beyond repair.

He rushed down the hallway, his mind a blur of conflicting emotions berating him over and over again. Strangely, he'd lost his urge to cry, even though he was still upset. It didn't feel like it would solve anything, and he needed to keep his head clear. He knew that Mark had picked up on his atmosphere of forced cheeriness and had been annoyed by it, and that was only fair. But had Mark understood at all that the forced part wasn't because Jinyoung didn't want to be friends with him? Did he understand that Jinyoung's wish for them to become close was deep and honest, even if he'd expressed it poorly?

If he didn't, Jinyoung couldn't just leave it there. He couldn't just hang his head in embarrassment and avoid Mark simply because he'd made one idiotic mistake in trying to get to know him. He had to tell him. He had to make it clear that his intentions were better than they looked and that his fascination was simply because Mark was fascinating, not that Jinyoung only felt sorry for him and wanted to feel good about himself by being nice.

Abruptly, Jinyoung his heel. He couldn't waste time pouting in the men's room. He needed to tell Mark right away, before he spent the rest of the day convinced that Jinyoung was the exact self-righteous he thought he was. He had to at least try to make it right.

Luckily, Jaebum and Youngjae had left by time he made it back outside, and Mark was still waiting on the gym steps, reading. Jinyoung took a deep breath and stormed right up to him, plopping down next to him and firmly looking him right in the eye.

"Look," he said, completely dropping his affected tone. "I'm sorry about before. You were right, I was trying to act a hell of a lot nicer and brighter than I am, and that was incredibly rude of me. I'm really, really sorry that I've been bothering you recently, and I won't do it again, OK?"

To his surprise, Mark's brows furrowed again. "Was I implying any of that?"

"You said that I was faking being good."

"Which doesn't imply that I think you're not good or not nice. I think you're nice and bright and all of that already, so the fact that you were making a big effort with it was completely ridiculous when there's no need for a nice person to pretend that they're nice. You haven't bothered me in the slightest, Park Jinyoung. Merely baffled me."

Jinyoung stared at him blankly for a moment, trying to process this. Mark had a positive impression of him, but he failed to mention or show it until now? "Why didn't you tell me that you thought that way about it?" Jinyoung asked, resisting the urge to yell a bit in frustration. "I was acting like an idiot for weeks, and you just let me do it without saying anything!"

"I said something just now."

"Mark, it's been like this for a whole month! I would have appreciated it if you had told me this sooner!"

"I thought all the effort you were putting in would exhaust you eventually and that you'd drop the act and be more natural on your own. Your stamina was far beyond what I expected it would be. The incident with the pen was your only slip-up. That seemed like a much more 'you' way of showing your kindness."

Jinyoung looked at him curiously. "How would you even know that to begin with? How did you know the way I was acting isn't who I really am? You barely know me well enough to be the judge of that."

"Oh, that? It's part of my therapy. My mom makes me attend Applied Behavior Analysis sessions where I work on my socializing problems. My therapist has this thing where she shows me pictures of people and makes me explain how they're feeling. In those pictures, sometimes the person's eyes don't match their lips. In your case, your voice didn't match the rest of you. And your smile was like the pictures where people are putting concentrated effort into something."

"Huh," Jinyoung said, surprised that Mark was so upfront with the fact that he went to therapy. "Did you learn that trick of refusing to talk to me until I acknowledged my bad approach in your behavioral classes?"

Mark surprised him by smiling a bit. It was Jinyoung's first time seeing it, and he really liked the unexpected playfulness of it. Since Mark's voice was generally toneless, Jinyoung hadn't really thought of him as much of a teaser or joker, but perhaps he hadn't been paying enough attention to what was being conveyed outside of just his words and physical actions until now.

"My therapist would hit the ceiling if she knew," he said. "Still, I didn't want to talk to a version of you that wasn't fully you, so I thought it best to wait for you to bring out the real version first. Do I owe you an apology for that? I can never tell."

"I'll let you off the hook this time," Jinyoung said, releasing a breath. It felt like a weight was being yanked off his chest and he could at long last finally take in the air easily. "But it wouldn't hurt to be more open with me about what you're thinking in the future."

"I won't promise anything I can't deliver on, unfortunately. Someone with communication problems can't go around promising to be open when that's not something they can personally guarantee"

The two fell silent for a moment, and Jinyoung's eyes fell again to the stone bouncing in Mark's hand. "I've been wanting to ask you this for a long time, but what is that?" he asked. "A stone, a rock, a mineral...?"

Mark glanced at it, too. "Ah, you want me to explain this?"

Jinyoung nodded.

"All right, then. It's jasper. Jasper is an aggregate of microgranular quartz, and in some cases chalcedony, and other minerals. It being a type of quartz also makes it a form of impure silica, and the colors it can be found in are dependent on its overall mineral content. The one you see here is a red color due to the inclusion of iron in its composition, but yellow and orange jasper aren't uncommon. Most jasper is flecked as is this one here, which is where the name jasper comes from. In early French dialects, the word 'jaspre' was used to indicate spotted or speckled stones, though of course it has a Latin etymology as well-"

Mark carried on in this fashion for a good three minutes, barraging Jinyoung with a stream of information he could barely understand. Jinyoung wondered how all of that information could fit in his head and how he could possibly expect Jinyoung to fit it all in his own. He tried to listen, but couldn't help zoning out a little as Mark went into all the different varieties of jasper that existed on the planet.

Eventually, Mark concluded his speech, studying Jinyoung's expression. "You look like the 'bored' emotion flashcard from therapy," he said. Luckily, he didn't sound upset by this.

"Uh, well, your explanation was a little long," Jinyoung said with a shrug.

"You were the one who asked me to give it."

"Yes, but I thought you'd give me the summary version."

"If someone asks for an explanation without specifying, wouldn't it be insufficient for me to cut out potentially essential details they might be interested in?"

"Maybe, but in my case, I don't even know what 'microgranular' means. Let's assume that anytime I ask for an explanation, the simplified version will suit."

"Your loss," Mark said. He paused for a moment. "Our homeroom teacher Mrs. Yoon announced to the class about my condition, correct?"

"She gave us a far too-simplified explanation, yes."

"I get the feeling you never bothered to Google it. Everyone else Googled it, but I get the feeling you have no idea what to expect from me."

Jinyoung nodded, guilty as charged. For some reason, he'd never felt compelled to figure out what the exact details were from research rather than experience. "Should I have looked it up?"

"No." Mark smiled a little again. "I'm actually pleased that you didn't. I'm a person, not a Wikipedia page. But I think in the interest of clarity, it wouldn't hurt for you to have a better idea. I'm not one to make excuses for myself, but considering that apparently I'm wired a bit differently than you, you can't just assume that I'll say things according to your expectations any more than I can apparently assume that you want to listen to my complete knowledge of jasper."

"All right, then. What is it?"

"Asperger's."

"Oh." It clarified some of what Jinyoung had noticed about Mark, but Jinyoung was hardly an expert on the subject. "Since we're talking about it, do you mind if I ask about how your habit of throwing jasper relates to it?"

"I don't mind at all considering no one else asks and prefers to chalk it up to me being crazy. My therapist calls it 'stimming'. Self-stimulation. She says its because enjoying repetitive behaviors is part of the package, plus it's supposed to be my way of calming myself or minimizing anxiety or stress. I don't know about any of that. I just like how the jasper feels in my hand. I like the feeling of separating myself from the sensation for a single moment so I can understand the loss of it before it comes right back." He stopped tossing it, holding it out in his palm for Jinyoung to look at. "I found it when I was three years old, and it felt like it just belonged in my hand. Go on. Feel it."

Jinyoung ran his finger against it. It was hard and smooth, and felt a little heated from the constant press of Mark's palm. He couldn't completely understand the feeling Mark got from it, but that was to be expected—it was a feeling just for him, not meant to be fully grasped by anyone else.

"It's nice," Jinyoung said earnestly. "And I think it's impressive. How you catch it every time."

"It might be the only physical activity I'm especially capable at, but it's the only one that matters." When Jinyoung pulled his hand away, he resumed tossing it. "You know, you don't have to worry about me, Park Jinyoung."

"Pardon?"

"Your concern about the possibility of me being bullied isn't worth dwelling on."

"I know it doesn't bother you, but are we supposed to just give these people a free pass to mock whoever they want?"

"I'm not suggesting that. I'm merely saying that your top concern should be yourself. You said you weren't thrilled about the whole situation of having to transfer schools, correct? I think you should manage your own concerns first before attempting to tackle all of mine."

Jinyoung was a bit surprised Mark had remembered. "I got over that within days. It wasn't something worth being angry over."

"Well. In that case, I'm sure you have your test scores and graduation to occupy your thoughts. You're within your rights to have some concern for me if you want, but I'd still rather you didn't shoot yourself in the foot in the name of defending me. You deserve a peaceable final year of high school just as much as anyone else."

"Hmm. Well, don't mind if I say that your concern about me being concerned about you isn't worth dwelling on. It's not in my nature just to let it go."

"Carry on, then. Throw all the pens you will, but I'd advise you not to do it when there are teachers around." The subject dropped, he glanced at his watch for a moment, then tucked a bookmark into his geology book and set it on his lap.

"Waiting for your ride home?" Jinyoung asked.

"Yes."

"You never walk home on foot?"

"It's too far. The school I transferred out of was the one near my house."

"Ah." Jinyoung paused. "That's a shame, actually. I was going to ask you if you might possibly want to hang out sometime, but would that be inconvenient for you when it comes to transportation?"

"Are we not 'hanging out' right now?"

"I suppose...but I meant more in the 'going out' sense...like, outside of school?"

"Going out? Isn't that usually in the terms of 'going out on a date'?"

Jinyoung flushed in embarrassment. "That's not what I was suggesting! I meant that we should go somewhere after school...to hang out...in some kind of environment that is not related to school but not necessarily a date either!"

"What for? What's wrong with school?"

"What do you mean, 'what's wrong with it'? It's school! I want to get away from it sometimes, right?"

"And you would like me to get away from it with you?"

"Mark, you're making this way harder than it needs to be," Jinyoung said, glaring at him.

Mark smiled in a way that almost looked cheeky, and Jinyoung wondered if he had done it on purpose. "Do you know Neungam-ri?"

Jinyoung nodded. The area wasn't particularly close to his house, but there were buses that went there.

"I'm going there this weekend for some rock hunting. I'm not guessing that would be your cup of tea, but if you want to hang out or go out or whichever you prefer, you're welcome to join me Saturday at 10 AM."

"I will," Jinyoung said immediately. He'd never been rock hunting before, but with Mark there, he could only imagine it would be an adventure.

"Bring your walking shoes, in that case. And a first aid kit. Mine is out of bandages."

"Wait, is this going to be dangerous?" Jinyoung asked in alarm.

"Only if you're prone to tripping." Mark rose to his feet. "My ride has arrived. Thanks for the conversation, Jinyoung. It was enlightening." Without another word, he hopped down the stairs, and ambled over to his mother's car, got in, and was gone.

Jinyoung watched the car driving away, his heart pounding. It felt like the whole world was shifting under his feet, like everything was on the verge of changing forever. He still couldn't fully grasp what was happening or what would happen, but he knew only that he was ready for it. He wanted to see what more he could learn from this multi-faceted and unpredictable person now that the walls had fallen and he'd finally found his way in.

0

There had used to be a mine in Neungam-ri. Jinyoung heard about it in what Mark considered 'simplified detail' on the car trip to the hiking location. Mrs. Tuan had picked Jinyoung up that morning, barely containing her delight that her son by all appearances now had a friend his own age, and they'd been driving together for the past thirty minutes. To Jinyoung's surprise, with the more scientific terms trimmed or replaced by simpler terms, everything Mark was saying was incredibly interesting. He knew an incredible amount about his hobby, and his passion leaked out enough to where it also spread to Jinyoung. It was amazing how a part of the world most people overlooked could matter so much to someone.

Mrs. Tuan dropped them off at the location Mark specified and loaded up their bags with water bottles, granola bars, and the necessary first aid kit. "Call me as soon as you tire out," she instructed Mark, pulling a ball cap onto his head to protect his scalp from the morning sun. "And make sure you don't wear Jinyoung out too quickly. I'll be at the spa nearby with the car, so I think I can make it back here in ten to fifteen minutes. Jinyoung, if Mark gets any scrapes, make sure to get him to disinfect and bandage right away. Don't stray too far from the trail, all right?"

"She's being pretty trusting, considering," Jinyoung remarked when Mark's mother drove away. "I honestly lied to my mom to get her to let me come here. Isn't she worried about us being out here alone?"

"I've been doing this since I could walk and I haven't died yet," Mark said. "Plus, the area's not dangerous at all. She always makes me do my research before I go on a hunt, plus my sense of direction is quite good, and I've yet to get lost on a trip. Not to mention, I'm almost an adult in US terms."

"I'm trusting you to look after me, in that case. I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Just keep your eyes open for pretty rocks. Perhaps beginner's luck will strike."

Mark got them started down the trail, scanning the ground as they went. Jinyoung took a sip of his water bottle, glancing around them and taking in the fact that they were now pretty much entirely alone. He liked the feeling of it, especially since Mark seemed to be accepting him so easily into what was probably an important ritual for him.

"So," Jinyoung said. "Why rocks?"

"Why not rocks is the question?"

"Because there are a million other things in this world a person could be interested in?"

"Well, this one in a million thing just happened to find me before any of the others did. I picked up my piece of jasper on vacation when I was three years old, and the rest, as they say, is history. Once I started, I couldn't stop collecting. My therapist says having a single-minded interest is common for people like me, but I think everyone just has their thing, and this is mine. Plus, people think rocks are boring. It's satisfying to know how wrong they are." He looked over at Jinyoung. "Your thing is theater, right?"

"Right. Theater and literature."

"Have you acted in anything before?"

"Two plays back at my old school. The Tempest and The Glass Menagerie."

"You were Ariel in The Tempest...and Tom in The Glass Menagerie?"

"Bingo. How did you guess?"

"Ariel's a fairy, and Tom's an aspiring poet."

"And what does that have to do with me? Are you suggesting I'm a fairy?"

"No, but there's something different about fairies and poets. And there's something different about you that makes you out of the ordinary."

Jinyoung wasn't sure if this was supposed to be flattery, but he somehow felt flattered by it all the same. "You could argue that Prospero and Caliban are out of the ordinary," he pointed out. "In The Tempest."

"A controlling father and a monster who lusts after beauty? Pretty typical." Mark pointed to the right. "There's an interesting formation over there. Let's check it out."

Jinyoung followed Mark off the path towards the formation. Almost ten seconds later, Mark stumbled over a bump in the terrain, and Jinyoung frantically caught him before he fell down.

"You weren't lying about the tripping thing," Jinyoung grunted as he heaved Mark back up. "Did you agree to me coming along so I could be a safety net?"

"No, but the assistance was appreciated nonetheless. You're stronger than you look."

"Are you implying I look weak?"

"No, just that based on initial impressions alone, you stand out more for being prince-like in the nobility and good looks sense than the sweeping in to the rescue sense."

Jinyoung tried to hold back his pleased smile at being referred to as good looking by someone as handsome as Mark. "I could say the same for you."

"Were you aware that Im Jaebum from Class A harbors romantic feelings for you?" Mark asked suddenly.

Jinyoung stared at him in shock. "But I could have sworn he's dating Choi Youngjae."

"He is. But you've inspired his eye to wander nonetheless."

"Not intentionally! God, I don't want to be involved in anything like that. And Youngjae's such a sweetheart, I absolutely do not want to have anything to do with causing any kind of pain for him."

"Of course you don't," Mark said matter-of-factually. "It's not your fault if someone happens to fall in love with you. I would never suggest that. You should never hold back your charms just because the wrong person may notice them. That's on them more than it is you."

"Why exactly are you telling me this, then?"

"They're probably going to break up. I just wanted you to be fully aware of the situation if Jaebum ever decided to approach you after the fact, romantically."

Jinyoung smiled slightly. "Is this you looking out for me, Mark Tuan?"

Mark stared at him a moment. "Perhaps? I just wondered after your whole thing this past month if you were lacking a bit in the social awareness department, and I thought you might like an advanced warning to prepare ahead of time."

"And I'm being lectured on social awareness by someone who essentially has to take social awareness classes?"

Mark actually laughed at this, an incredibly awkward yet beautiful sound. "The fact that I study it makes me surprisingly well informed in theory, if not in practice. But you're right, perhaps my advice isn't terribly helpful."

"Thanks for giving it nonetheless. I'll try to think of a way to handle it. Perhaps if I show Jaebum the full extent of my lack of social awareness, he'll start backing off."

"On the contrary, he may find it charming, since it's you."

When they reached the rock formation, Mark fell silent in order to focus more intently on examining the rocks he found and making notes in the little pad he'd brought with him. Jinyoung took a moment to process everything that had exchanged between them. Talking with Mark wasn't exactly simple and easy given his sometimes offbeat way of thinking and expressing himself, but Jinyoung found it incredibly enjoyable nonetheless. He felt somehow that although he and Mark had only just started communicating properly, Mark had been paying close attention to him in the time when their interactions hadn't gone so smoothly. It intrigued Jinyoung to consider what was going on in Mark's head and how he fit into it. Even if he only found Jinyoung a fraction of how fascinating Jinyoung found him, that would be a truly incredible thing.

Mark gathered a small collection of his findings in a pouch, and the two of them took a snack and water break. Mark seemed to be in incredibly high spirits, which bolstered Jinyoung's energy too. He took advantage of Mark's enthusiasm to pump a little bit more information out of him, mainly tactful questions about his old school which skirted the bullying issue, as well as a few more details about his family and his upbringing overseas. In turn, Mark asked Jinyoung a few questions here and there about his old hometown and his plans for university. From what Jinyoung could observe, he was naturally inquisitive and very analytical, and his attitude was frank but yet in many ways kindly and attentive. He only seemed truly at a loss when it came to the things outside of words. Every once in awhile, Jinyoung would have an emotional or nonverbal reaction to something, and Mark's brow-furrowed look would return, as if he couldn't fully understand what Jinyoung was intending to convey. Jinyoung was beginning to wonder if the exaggerated quality of Mark's own reactions came from him mimicking the people in the pictures he studied in his behavioral sessions, imitating what the appropriate reaction should look like.

By mid-afternoon, Mark had amassed a pretty decent sized collection of smaller "specimens" of rock he wanted to study, and he was ready to call for his mother to pick him up. Jinyoung himself was thoroughly tired out. Not only was he unused to hiking, but it proved to be a challenging job to keep Mark from walking into things or tripping on literally everything it was possible to trip on. He'd had to whip out the disinfectant so many times that at one point he stopped putting it back into the First Aid Kit and just kept it ready to go in the palm of his hand.

They were just about to head down to the start of the path when Jinyoung stepped on something which pierced slightly into the sole of his shoe, stabbing his foot. "Ouch!" he yelped, this time stumbling into Mark and needing to be caught in his arms. He was also far stronger than he looked, it seemed.

"OK there?" Mark asked.

"I stepped on something freaking hard, that's all." He reached down the grab the offending stone. "Whatever this is."

Mark's eyes widened, and he reverently took the stone from Jinyoung's hand. "Who'd have thought. Beginner's luck struck after all. Jinyoung do you have any idea what this is?"

Jinyoung studied it. "It's...um...an orange rock?"

"It's scheelite! That's what I came here looking for in the first place, and you found it just like that!"

"Scheelite?" Jinyoung asked.

"Remember how I was telling you in the car that this was the site of a tungsten mine? Scheelite is an ore of tungsten containing calcium minerals. They're particularly good for collection because they flouresce--glow--under ultraviolet lighting. Plus, they're not hard to look at, either. The one you just found is a really exquisite shade of brownish orange." He handed it back to Jinyoung carefully.

"What, you're not going to keep it?" Jinyoung asked.

"You were the one who found it. This can be your version of my jasper. Maybe not something you use for stimming, but at the very least, a good luck charm. The way you found it was incredibly lucky, after all."

"Tell that to my foot," Jinyoung said, grinning nonetheless. "Are you sure you don't want to keep it? You were looking for it, after all."

"I found things today. Many different kinds of things, some that I wasn't even looking for. This was what you found. You should keep it."

"OK," Jinyoung said, tucking it into his pocket. "Perhaps this will be the beginning of a collection of my own, after all."

0

Something seemed to be cemented between them after that outing. Without words needing to be spoken, they were simply always together after that. They'd spend their lunch breaks in the science lab, Mark studying the latest in his rock collection while Jinyoung worked on his own homework. After school, they'd wait for Mark's mother on the days she ran late, going back and forth about anything and everything that crossed their minds. When Mark got it into his head to go rock hunting on the weekends or Jinyoung wanted to catch an afternoon movie, there was no question that the other would also be tagging along.

It wasn't perfectly seamless. Misunderstandings and incidents of miscommunication still arose no matter the effort they put into getting themselves across clearly, and there were moments of frustration where one or both of them couldn't reach each other in the way they wanted. However, they were always quick to smooth it over, mainly because neither wanted to let such an issue change their opinions of each other. They both knew the other was a good person, and that spoke louder than any misinterpreted words did.

Their classmates were probably continuing to make fun of them behind their backs, but Jinyoung slowly forgot to care or even notice at all. He felt so wrapped up in his own happiness that everything faded into the background. He didn't even know what it was about Mark that touched him so deeply. Maybe it was the unique way he interacted with the world, or maybe it was his refreshing directness. Maybe it was the way he never lied or was ashamed or pretended to be what he wasn't. Maybe it was even his moments of difficulty which challenged Jinyoung but made him rethink his own perspectives and choice of words just as often. Whatever the case was, he was so slowly being wrapped up in every little thing about him.

About a month after that first outing in Neungam-ri, they were walking down the hallway together in between classes when one of the guys from their class stepped out in front of Jinyoung, blocking his path. "Look here, if it isn't the freak couple," he said in a loud voice so everyone could hear. "I'm seriously worried about you, Park Jinyoung. Do you need an examination to make sure you haven't caught the crazy from Rock Boy? I'm especially concerned if it spreads like an STD, considering he's probably been-"

His sentence was cut off by Mark abruptly stepping in between the other student and Jinyoung. Mark wasn't particularly tall and definitely wasn't intimidating, but something about him in that moment seemed entirely different from normal. He seemed to fill his body in a way he never seemed able to do in his typical clumsiness, and the air around him seemed completely cold and threatening. Jinyoung couldn't see his expression, but he imagined it must have been unsettling given how the other student instinctively backed up.

"Hey," Mark said in a low voice. "If you have a problem with autistic people, you take it up with me. But if you dare bring Jinyoung into it again, I'm more than happy to do something that will get us both expelled, plus hit this school with a lawsuit so big that it'll never be able to recover. Your father's head of the board of directors, right? After he promised up a hospitable environment here guaranteed, I'm sure he'd hate to see his own son go back on his word and bring the family to financial ruin. So if I were you, I'd back the off and shove your implications so far up your that you'll be the one needing an STD examination. Got it?"

To Jinyoung's amazement, with a few incredibly vulgar curses aimed at Mark, the kid did back off, taking most of his onlookers with him. Mark kept his defensive pose in front of Jinyoung until he was sure they were gone before finally relaxing his body.

Jinyoung's heart was pounding. He didn't feel scared, and surprisingly not even angry. For some reason, all he could feel was a deep desire to throw his arms around Mark and hug him until they both couldn't breathe. Mark, the person who was willing to take everything without flinching, had refused to take something targeted at Jinyoung. It moved Jinyoung to the point where he wanted to kiss him on the forehead with all the love bursting in his heart, and then shake him until his head rattled while he yelled "See?!!? This is why I get angry when they do the same thing to you! This is why I can't let it go, because I get as angry when it's about you as you do when it's about me!"

He didn't know how Mark would feel about being hugged, though, so he took his hand instead, the one that usually tossed his piece of jasper. He entwined their fingers together, squeezing the back of his hand gently, taking in the warmth of his skin. All of it seemed to have more meaning than it ever had before. In his heart, Jinyoung knew the wild thud in his body wasn't just gratitude, but the realization of something far bigger and deeper.

"Mark," he said.

Mark turned around, looking at him. His thumb gently brushed the back of Jinyoung's hand, as if from habit from always touching the smooth surface of a stone. "Yes?" he asked.

"That was incredibly y."

Mark's brow furrowed deeper than it ever had before. "Was it?"

"Yes. Thank you." Jinyoung cleared his throat. "I hope you'll let me return the favor sometime."

"By being incredibly y?"

Jinyoung smiled. "That. Or by backing you up when someone's a jerk. Whichever you'd prefer."

"Huh," Mark said. He tilted his head. "Your hand is just right."

"Hmmm?"

"It feels just like the jasper. A perfect feeling."

Jinyoung's heart continued thudding loudly. To his delight, Mark didn't let go of his hand, but kept their fingers tightly laced together.

It felt like a deeper connection, one more lasting than the one they'd already forged. It felt like from then on, neither one of them was ever going to truly let go.

A/N: Next week is the killer chapter... Jaebum