“So,” Jackson said as soon as Mark parked his truck in his usual space the next day. “Park Jinyoung.”

Mark groaned. “Can't you go off and more face with your boyfriend instead of bothering me?”

“I wish. Unfortunately Jaebum has a test to study for, so I have nothing better to do than bother you. Dish. I thought you completely flubbed your date with him, but apparently you're so damn irresistible that he couldn't stay away, huh?”

“I think he wants to be friends,” Mark said, keeping his tone neutral.

“Oh, right,” Jackson said, rolling his eyes. “Friends. Mark Tuan, I am a veteran of the online dating scene. You do not, I repeat DO NOT, go out of your way to see someone you went on a date with if you don't want to a) go out on another date with them or b) their brains out. If you pop up around them with the intention of becoming friends, you're just going to a) confuse them or b) royally piss them off. He is not trying to be your friend. The boy is quite obviously and quite aggressively pursuing you.”

“Stop right there, Jackson,” Mark said sharply. “Jinyoung and I discussed this. He knows that's not what I'm looking for and he figured out it was making me all awkward and weird like it always does. And he told me it was fine if we subtracted dating out of the equation so we could be comfortable with each other.”

“So basically he's willing to subtract it out for now in order to get you cozy with him, and as soon as you're hooked, he'll reintroduce it,” Jackson said knowingly. “Clever boy.”

“Don't you dare, Jackson. If you say that, I'm not going to be able to function when he's around.”

“All right, then. You guys are 'friends'. I hope you enjoy a nice and happy 'friendship'.” Jackson snickered a little. “It's pretty obvious where Jinyoung stands, but what about you? What do you think of him?”

Mark had been trying very hard to avoid thinking of this question. At the moment, he found Jinyoung to be beguiling. He couldn't figure him out or pin down what exactly he hoped to achieve with his whole arrangement. But at the same time, he found him equally fascinating. There was a side of him that was warm and sweet, a side that made Mark feel noticed and cared for in a way he wasn't used to. But then there was the other side, the playful and challenging side that seemed constantly ready to toy with Mark's head. It felt like a simultaneous push and pull, and though part of him felt a little repelled, another part was inevitably drawn in.

“I've never met anyone like him before,” Mark said finally. “I really don't know how to handle him.”

“Heh. Well you better catch up, then, because it seems like he's already figured out how to handle you.” Jackson paused. “Did he bring up Youngjae?”

Mark nodded. “He seems really concerned about it.”

“Duh. He can't possibly date you—I mean 'be friends with you'—with that kind of a huge mental and emotional roadblock in the way. What are you going to do about it?”

“Do about what?”

“Youngjae being back? Are you going to get in touch with him?”

“Why on earth would I do that?”

“Closure? Putting it behind you? Removing said roadblock so you don't make someone hit it at ramming speed in the future?”

Mark couldn't imagine talking to Youngjae doing any of that. He could only envision it ending with a destructive fight or passionate reconciliation. There was too much emotion involved in it for it to end peacefully. And Mark truly didn't want either option. He didn't want to hate Youngjae or love him again. He didn't want to invest anything more or lose anything further.

Jackson sighed a little. “Look, Mark. I am saying this because I love you. But you are going to regret it, and I mean seriously regret it for your entire life, if you let this ruin everything. You are going to kick yourself for letting a teenage disappointment spoil your adult opportunities. And that Park Jinyoung of yours is one heck of an opportunity.”

“He's not mine,” Mark said automatically.

“Yeah, but he could be. If you don't this up.”

Mark decided to ignore everything Jackson was implying. He wanted to be able to function around Jinyoung. He really did. And for that to happen, he needed Jinyoung not to be in love with him or want anything more than he was capable of giving.

Still, he felt a little listless as he worked. It didn't seem like Jinyoung was going to show up today, and everything felt slightly colorless from his absence. Which was odd, since Mark was used to working alone. It shouldn't have felt out of the ordinary in the slightest.

As it got closer to closing and traffic slowed, Mark at last checked his phone. He was surprised and a little disappointed that there were no messages from Jinyoung waiting for him. After yesterday, he had assumed that Jinyoung would be almost gratingly persistent about staying in touch with him, but apparently he’d read him wrong once again. Or else he was just getting too self-centered for his own good by this random influx of attention. Jinyoung had school and presumably a social life as well—perhaps he was even still going on dates with people he met on his dating app, though the thought of that made Mark feel strangely uncomfortable. And he’d mentioned something about a part-time job…where was that again? The local library?

Glancing around to make sure there were no customers approaching, Mark pulled up the library website and gave the daily calendar a quick check. There had been an event for the elderly that afternoon, and there was a children’s event marked down for that evening: Monthly Storytime with the Wandering Storyteller.

That was it, Mark thought excitedly. Jinyoung had mentioned being involved in reading to the kids. Which meant he was most likely the mystical "Wandering Storyteller" the event description promised. Mark almost burst out laughing, imagining Jinyoung showing up in front of the kids in monks’ robes, a walking stick, or maybe even a wizard’s hat. And the moment he imagined it, he knew he absolutely had to see it for himself.

It would be a nice form of payback, too. If Jinyoung thought he could get away with showing up at Mark’s workplace unannounced, Mark was going to do the exact same to him and see how much he liked it.

Jackson popped over again at closing time. "Got any plans with your new fan boy tonight?"

"Not as such, no." Mark didn’t want to go through all the grief Jackson would give him if he admitted his plans to go see Jinyoung himself. "How about you and Jaebum?"

"He’s going to introduce me to his cats."

"Whoa, moving pretty fast there. If you keep up at this rate, you’ll be married by the end of the year."

"Heh. I’ll be careful. Anyways, I was thinking of inviting BamBam out for drinks with us after. Jaebum’s already met you, so might as well initiate him to the rest of the inner circle. Plus Bammie’s another crazy cat man, so they’ll be able to relate. You can come with us if you want."

"Can I let you know later? I might have a thing."

"But you just said you didn’t have plans with Jinyoung tonight, you liar."

"I’m perfectly capable of making plans with other people."

"With people who aren’t me or BamBam? Really? You can’t fool me, man." He grinned. "In that case, you can also invite Jinyoung for drinks if you want, but I’d totally understand if you wanted your one-on-one time. Just text me about it afterwards for once."

"Keep dreaming," Mark advised before closing the shutter in Jackson’s face.

It had been a long time since Mark had been to the library—he wasn’t sure if he even owned a library card to begin with—but he found it easily enough a few turns off the main road. The parking lot was pretty crowded already, so he nabbed a space in the back and hurried in so he wouldn’t miss the event start time.

The children’s section was crowded with parents and their various collections of kids, who looked to be in the three to five age range. Mark seemed to be the only older person there not accompanying a younger family member, so he crept close to one of the bigger families to look like he belonged with them if anyone noticed. At the center of the room was a rather fancy looking chair with a sandwich signboard propped up next to it reading: "TONIGHT: JOIN THE WANDERING STORYTELLER FOR THREE WONDEROUS TALES."

A few minutes later, the overhead lights dimmed slightly to signal to the parents that it was time to round up their kids and get them to attempt to be quiet. One of the nearby librarians discreetly opened a playlist on her phone and began playing a new-agey sounding instrumental to set the mood for the storyteller’s grand entrance.

And then, suddenly, there he was. Jinyoung had entered the room wearing a dark hooded cape and clutching a stack of musty looking books to his chest. The children cheered excitedly, some of the veterans calling out "It’s the story man!" Mark smiled to himself. He bet that Jinyoung totally loved this, being an object of admiration to these adorable kids.

Jinyoung sat down in his chair with a sweep of his cape and pulled back the hood. “Good evening, fellow travelers,” he said in that sweet and velvety voice of his. “Thank you for joining me on this beautiful night. The sky is dark and the moon is bright, and it's the perfect evening for...what?”

“A story!” the children said in sing-song.

“Yes, a story,” Jinyoung said. “But not just one. And not just two. Today we will listen to three different stories. A story of bravery, a story of honesty, and a story of hard work. But before I begin, I have a question. Are you afraid of anything? If you are, please raise your hand.”

All the children and a few of the adults lifted their hands. Mark was afraid of plenty of things, but didn't want to attract Jinyoung's attention and kept his hand down.

Jinyoung pointed to a little girl sitting nearby. “What are you afraid of, Dahee?”

“The dark!” she said, shivering.

“I know just what you mean,” Jinyoung said solemnly. “The dark can be very scary. I used to be afraid of it, too. And as it so happens, the first story tonight is also about a little girl who is afraid of the dark. Would you like to hear it?”

The children nodded eagerly.

“There once was a girl named Gayoung who had a very beautiful bedroom full of fluffy teddy bears and fun board games and pictures of her happy, happy family. She loved spending time in her room every day, running around and playing and dreaming like most little girls and boys love to do. But her room, which was bright and sunny during the day, became very scary during the night. It was dark. Too dark to see her teddy bears. Too dark to see the smiles of her happy family in the pictures on the wall. Too dark to tell if the noise under her bed was the floorboards or the tip-tap of a hungry monster.” Jinyoung paused dramatically as eyes widened around him. “It was hard for Gayoung to sleep in the dark. How could she close her eyes when she-”

At that moment, Jinyoung's eyes, which had been traveling around the room as he connected with members of his audience individually, fell on Mark. He froze for a moment, his sentence cutting off short and his eyes widening as much as those of the anxious listeners in the room. His cheeks turned a little pink, and his hands shook just perceptibly. He looked tense and rigid, just the way he had looked in the car the day before when he thought Mark hadn't been watching.

He's nervous, Mark realized. He'd thought the incident from yesterday may have been because Jinyoung thought he was a terrible driver and was praying for Jesus to take the wheel or something along those lines. But he wondered now if he'd gotten it wrong. Maybe it was something about him that was making Jinyoung nervous. Maybe the cool and confident version of himself he tried to present was just a facade to cover the fact that he was as much a bundle of nerves as Mark was.

That single moment of eye contact continued to flood Mark with unexpected emotions. On one hand, he didn't mind being the one to catch Jinyoung off guard, especially since it seemed to have exposed a side of Jinyoung he'd been holding back; in a way, it made him incredibly giddy. But on the other hand, the moment felt somehow solemn, charged with an electric shock that surged momentarily through them both. Mark could practically feel his hair standing on end, a current of energy shuddering down his spine.

And then the moment passed. Jinyoung quickly collected himself before anyone could notice and carried on—“-when she couldn't see what hidden spooks might be haunting her in the dark?”

He continued with the story, an optimistic tale about Gayoung confronting the darkness, who wound being a kind and loving brother of Light who explained to her that he was simply taking over while his sister Light was sleeping. Gayoung and Dark became friends, and every night she looked forward to saying goodnight to him before bed and saying good morning to his sister Light when she woke up in the morning.

His eyes strayed to Mark every once in awhile as he told the story. At first, the look was slightly baffled, but near the end, a look of amusement crept back in as he watched Mark grinning at his low and throaty portrayal of Dark's voice.

When he finished the story, the children chattered excitedly about how they were going to become friends with Dark, too, when they went home for bedtime. Jinyoung rose to his feet, sweeping his cloak and bowing showily to them, and everyone clapped and begged for another story.

“The next story is a story about honesty,” Jinyoung said. “And to tell this story and the next story, I need a little help. In this story there is a mommy and a daddy. Would any of the parents like to volunteer tonight?”

A good natured young couple volunteered for the roles, and Jinyoung gestured them to the center of the room with him. “This story is about a prince, so we'll also need someone to play him.” He pointed to Mark. “Looks like there's a perfect prince right over there. Please come join us.”

All eyes turned to Mark, and he instantly flushed at the attention. Still, he wasn't about to give Jinyoung the satisfaction of seeing him squirm when he'd come to make Jinyoung feel like the awkward one for a change. With a sigh, he went to the center of the room and stood beside Jinyoung and met his eyes a bit defiantly. Just try to embarrass me this time, Wandering Storyteller.

“Once upon a time, there was a handsome king and a beautiful queen who had a very, very, very handsome son, the prince,” Jinyoung began, gesturing to his makeshift royal family. “The king taught his son to be strong.” The dad pulled from the audience flexed his muscles, and Mark mimicked him hammily, enjoying the giggles of the children. “The queen taught him to be loving.” The mom flashed finger hearts and did a cutesy wink, and Mark did the same. For some reason, the women in the audience were the ones reacting to this rather than the children.

“Both the king and the queen also tried to teach their son to be honest and to never, never lie, because lying is a very bad thing. The prince listened and promised to always tell the truth.” The mom and dad waggled their fingers at Mark and he nodded solemnly. “But one day, the prince was playing with his page boy. His mother told him never to throw his favorite red ball inside because there were so many lovely things he could break, but it was raining and the prince was very, very bored, so he ordered the page boy to play catch with him.” Mark elbowed Jinyoung accordingly, pointed to an imaginary red ball and flashed a thumbs up.

“But we can't!” Page-Boy-Jinyoung said shyly. “The queen would be so angry!”

“Tough!” Mark said in his best bratty voice. “I wanna play catch. This is a command from the prince!”

“The prince then threw the ball with all his might,” Jinyoung continued. Mark mimed doing so, winding up his arm and pitching the ball forward. “Then.... CRASH! Oh no! The prince threw the ball right into his mother's favorite vase! Hearing the crash, the king and queen ran into the room and saw the prince and the page boy and the broken vase. 'WHO THREW THE BALL WHICH BROKE THE QUEEN'S VASE?' the king thundered. The prince became very scared of his father's anger and didn't want to tell the truth and get in trouble. So he pointed to his friend, the page boy.”

“He did it,” Mark said in a shaky voice. “He broke the vase.”

“The king was very, very angry at the page boy,” Jinyoung said grimly. “It was a very expensive vase, and the page boy had been told by the king and queen to be careful around it. The king punished the page boy by ordering him to mop every floor in the castle—and it was a very, very big castle. And so the page boy set to work, tears streaming down his face as he began his nearly impossible and entirely undeserved task. He didn't cry because it was impossible, though. He cried because a precious friend had hurt him with dishonesty.” He hunched over, sweeping an imaginary mop across the floor and giving Mark a credibly tearful look.

“The prince watched his friend and felt a very bad feeling in his stomach. He knew lying was wrong, but he'd never known telling a lie would make him feel sick in his heart. It was a terrible, terrible feeling, and the pain he felt from it made him realize—if lying makes me feel bad, maybe telling the truth will make me feel good? So he ran to his parents and told them that he was the one who had thrown the ball and begged for their forgiveness.” Mark got down on his hands and knees and did just that.

“The king and queen were very angry, but they were glad their son had realized why what he had done was wrong. They told him that the real person he needed to apologize to was the page boy he had hurt with his lie. So the prince ran to the page boy, threw his arms around him, squeezed him tight, and begged again for forgiveness.”

Mark had a feeling that hugging and squeezing was not part of the original story he was telling, but he was not about to call Jinyoung out in front of pre-schoolers and their parents. Instead, he dutifully threw his arms around Jinyoung and pressed him close as he met his eyes. “Please, please, forgive me,” he said passionately, trying not to think of their incredibly close proximity or the fact that Jinyoung had a pair of rather full and soft looking lips.

“Luckily, the page boy liked the prince a lot, and believed he had learned his lesson. So he hugged the prince back and said 'Let's always be truthful to each other in the future. Pinky swear it.' And so the two of them promised to always be honest, and the prince never told another lie that made his stomach sick again.”

Mark and Jinyoung finished the story with a pinky promise, and then Jinyoung had the three of them who had acted the story join hands with him for his bow. Mark had actually thoroughly enjoyed himself, and before he could stop himself, he found himself squeezing Jinyoung's hand before they pulled apart. Before Jinyoung could do or say anything further, he slipped back into the audience to resume watching from a distance.

For the last story, Jinyoung chose the familiar Three Little Pigs story so that the children could recite it along with him, huffing and puffing and blowing the houses down and all. By time Jinyoung was finished for the evening, the children were practically bouncing up and down in excitement, wanting to retell all three stories themselves to their parents, ready to showcase the lessons they had learned and their own attempts at Jinyoung's silly voices.

“I thank you for listening to me, my fellow travelers,” Jinyoung said, sweeping his cape one last time. “But the night grows darker, and it is time for me to depart. Maybe we will meet again on another night for another story. But as for now—I bid you goodnight!”

The assistant librarian the music again, and Jinyoung gathered up his stack of prop books and left the children's section as dramatically as he had entered. “Bye-bye, story man!” a little boy called out after him.

The whole thing left Mark feeling incredibly charmed. He found this side of Jinyoung cute, and the whole feel of it seemed to fit him like a glove. Jinyoung may have had his teasing side, but his sweet side clearly made up a huge part of him.

With Jinyoung and his commanding presence gone, the kids were now getting quite loud, so Mark slipped outside of the children's section. Just as he was passing the reference section, a hand shot out and grabbed his shirt, jerking him back behind a nearby partition. Jinyoung was waiting there, looking at him expectantly.

“So what brings you here?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest. He was still wearing his cape, though he'd pulled down the hood so Mark could see his face.

“I wanted to hear a wonderous tale from the Wandering Storyteller, of course,” Mark said with a smirk. “I heard he was the best storyteller in town.”

“From who?”

“From your library's website.”

“You looked me up?” Now it was Jinyoung's time to smirk. “Wow, and here I was thinking you'd earned a day off from me bothering you. If I had known you'd miss me so much you'd go out of your way to hunt me down, I would have just invited you in the first place.”

Oh no you don't, Mark thought. Here he'd finally managed to fluster Jinyoung, and he wasn't about to let Jinyoung fluster him back. “It's revenge,” he said in English with a nonchalant shrug. “You know revenge? That thing you get when you pop up at someone's job without warning them beforehand?”

“Revenge? Huh. But I thought revenge wasn't supposed to be something enjoyable? Anyways, you shocked me, so if that's what you mean, mission accomplished. Congratulations.” He paused. “Did you like my little act?”

Mark nodded. “I did. I was expecting you to just read a picture book and show off the pictures. I wasn't expecting you to dramatize everything and recite from the top of your head.”

“I learned if you use picture books, the kids will just whine the whole time about not being able to see the pictures and push the people in front of them until someone bursts into tears and chaos errupts. Narrating is much more peacable and entertaining. You did a good job of that yourself. You made quite the prince up there.”

“I was just following off your cues.”

“Still, I wasn't expecting you to just crush me in your arms like that.”

“You asked me to.”

“But who knew you'd respond so obediently?”

Mark rolled his eyes. “Anyways, it was good. It was pretty cute to see the kids reacting to you so excitedly like that. You're like a superhero to them, Wandering Storyteller.”

“That's my favorite part usually, too,” Jinyoung said with a smile. “Seeing the way they get into it and respond. They're really so cute. But tonight, I liked watching you get all into it. You've never smiled and laughed like that around me this much until now, and it made me feel good that I'm capable of coaxing that out of you. You may have actually been the cutest one in the audience tonight this time.” He pulled off his cloak and tossed it over the partition. “Come on. I have to go out the back entrance so the kids don't see me. It would ruin the magic if they figured out I'm not actually a wandering storyteller in real life.”

Mark followed him out the back. There was a small ice cream store across the lot from the library, and Jinyoung pointed Mark in the direction of it. “Want to buy me a cone?” he asked.

Mark shrugged. “Sure, I guess you've earned it.”

He bought them both ice cream cones, one chocolate with peanuts, the other vanilla with sprinkles. Jinyoung took the vanilla one and plopped down on the bench outside the store, then patted the spot next to him so Mark would sit beside him.

“You know,” Jinyoung said. “I've always thought that pinky promises were sacred. That's what my sister told me when we were little. That if I broke a pinky promise, it was like spitting in the face of god.”

“That's a little dramatic, isn't it?”

“Maybe. But I believed it. I've never gone back on my word when I promised something to someone.” He turned to look at Mark. “And we promised something to each other today. That we would always be honest with one another.”

“But we promised that in character, didn't we?”

“I was being serious. Maybe you weren't, but I'll at least always be honest with you. So, if there's anything you ever want to ask me, just ask me. I'll tell you anything you want to know.”

“Why? Just because you promised?”

“Because I want you to know about me. And if you know about me, maybe you'll let me know a little about you.”

“I've already told you plenty considering this is only my third day of knowing you,” Mark pointed out. “I told you all about my job and school the first day. You even know about freaking Youngjae, which is not my favorite subject to talk about.”

Jinyoung smiled thinly. “Still. There's more to know, isn't there? You're not defined by just three subjects. Come on, let's play truth or truth. Do you have anything better to do?”

“Well. Technically I was invited out for drinks with Jackson, Jaebum, and BamBam.”

“Then go.”

Mark stayed right where he was, feeling like an idiot.

“Ask me a question,” Jinyoung prodded.

“All right, then.” He thought for a moment. “How many dates on that app did you go on before me?”

“Five. My turn. How many dates did you go on after you and Youngjae broke up?”

“Zero.” He paused, correcting himself. “I mean, one. Just the one. Did you enjoy any of the dates you went on before?”

“Not particularly. Did you really hate ours so much?”

“I wouldn't say that I 'hated' it. I just thought it was painfully awkward. Why are we asking dating questions, anyways? I thought we were going to stay away from this?”

“You started it.”

“OK, then I'll end it, too. What do you want most in the world?”

“To have my world pulled out from under me.”

“What do you mean?”

“That's two questions in a row.”

“You didn't explain your answer clearly enough for me to understand.”

Jinyoung was silent for a moment. “I don't know. I just feel like I've been living my life on one track for so long. Nothing ever happens. It's not like I hate my life or being me the way I am now, but...I guess I've always felt like life should be an adventure, you know? It can't go the exact way you map it out. You should do things you weren't expecting, meet people you weren't expecting. So I want to wake up one day and be like 'Wow. This wasn't my plan at all. Everything has changed. And I love that it has.'” He sighed, then said in a low voice, "Maybe that will also make me a little less boring."

Mark blinked. 'Boring' was the last word he'd use to describe Park Jinyoung. His life had never been weirder since meeting him. He was about to ask Jinyoung what he meant, but Jinyoung had already started to speak.

“My turn again," Jinyoung said, clearing his throat. "If you could go back and change one thing about your life, what would you change?”

He wasn't explicitly asking about dating, but Mark knew Jinyoung had still asked the question expecting the answer to be about Youngjae. Mark tried to find an answer that had nothing to do with it, but realized as soon as he tried that it would be a dishonest way of answering. “I guess I would have tried to become friends with Dark.”

“Pardon me?”

“Now you're the one asking two questions in a row.”

“I didn't understand what you just said.”

“Like in the story you told at the beginning. About the little girl confronting Dark, the thing she was afraid of, and befriending him before her fear got any worse. I would have done that, if I could turn back time. I wouldn't have let it fester until I lost all ability to face it.”

Jinyoung was quiet again for a time. “Do you really think it's too late for that?” he asked at length.

“I'm not sure,” Mark said honestly. “Who knows, maybe it will take my world getting pulled out from under me to find out, just like you.”

“I hope so. But I hope that happening doesn't completely knock you down in the process.”

"My turn, then? About what you said earlier...why do you think you're boring?"

"Because people have told me so."

"Who?"

"Guys from the app. That's why I don't get a lot of first dates, and why I don't get a lot of second ones, apparently. Not that I wanted second dates from any of those five I went on, but I wouldn't have gotten them even if I had wanted them. Because I come across as boring." His expressioned darkened a little. "Even though it didn't matter in those cases, I guess it just freaked me out a little. You know, what if it happened when it counted and there was someone I liked or wanted to get to know, and I blew my one and only chance by not showing them anything that's special about me? What if I can't make an impression and I lose their interest and that's that and it all ends there and I never get to see them again and make another attempt?" Jinyoung's voice was the rawest Mark had ever heard it before. This was clearly something that had affected him deeply.

"You're not boring at all, Jinyoung," Mark found himself saying.

"Really?" Jinyoung looked at him doubtfully. "Because I honestly struggle sometimes. When someone asks something like 'give me a fun fact about yourself,' I usually come up blank. I mean, someone like you could talk about your food truck or living overseas or working at a salvage yard. But I've never done anything truly incredible. Even my wandering storyteller thing is minimally interesting to most people."

"But that doesn't mean you're not interesting. Maybe the special thing about you isn't about how many things you've done or whether or not crazy things have happened to you. Maybe it's in the way you think or the things you say or...the atmosphere around you." Mark shifted from foot to foot. "Because I think that's something special about you. The way the world feels different around you."

Jinyoung's eyes widened, and he stared at Mark with a look filled with so much overwhelming emotion that was hard to read. If Mark had to put his finger on it, he thought he saw a little bit of wonder in his gaze, as if Jinyoung had never anticipated hearing the words Mark had just said to him in his life. Little by little a bright, nearly blinding smile spread across his lips. "You know what? I think that's probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me. I am going to have to thank you very much for taking that weight off my mind one day. Hopefully by returning the favor." He finished off his cone, rising to his feet. “Actually, thanks for all of this. Honestly, I wasn't at all planning on seeing you tonight. But I'm glad I did. Let's keep playing truth or truth when we have the chance."

"If you insist." Mark hesitated for a moment, then cleared his throat. "But Jinyoung, if you want us to be more honest with each other, you have to play by the rules, too."

"Hmm?"

"You don't have to force yourself around me. You don't have to try so hard to be...I don't know. Composed? In control? Careful? Whichever one it is. I know you think I'm going to run off if you do something wrong, but I'm not going to. So just...give yourself a break, OK? You're allowed to be human. It's not going to make me like you any less."

Jinyoung's eyes widened again, and Mark could practically hear some of his pent up breath leaking from his lips. "You noticed," he said in a quiet voice.

"Yeah. I don't understand why, but I noticed."

"You don't know why? I guess that just goes to show how long it's been for you." He took another breath. "All right. I'll do my best with that. But just so you know, I'm not always doing it to be dishonest. There's a very honest intention behind wanting to be likable, after all." Before Mark could ask him to explain, he cleared his throat. "Let's continue this some other time, then. Tomorrow, maybe?”

“Are you asking me or informing me?”

“Informing. I'll visit you at GuacMan.”

“You want me to answer your very personal questions in front of customers?”

“Not really. We can do this 20% of the time. The other 80% of the time, I'd prefer getting you to do that dorky laugh of yours.” He smiled. “Anyways, I should be heading home now.”

“Need a ride?”

“Not this time. It's just down the street.” He took Mark's hand in both of his for the third time, and squeezed it. “Sweet dreams, Mark. But not too sweet that they're better than reality.”

“That again? Really, what's up with that?”

“Ask me what I think you're most afraid of.”

“What do you think I'm most afraid of? Commitment? Love? Trust? Communication?”

“Nope.” Jinyoung shook his head. “I think you're afraid of the things you thought were permanent being just a dream. And that by waking up, you forget the beauty of your dreams and remember them only as nightmares. So even though I want you to have the best of dreams, I want the real things you have or could have to be there in the morning and stay with you. And I mean that very, very genuinely, all right?” To Mark's surprise, he leaned forward and planted a soft kiss in the center of Mark's forehead. “Don't torture yourself with that complicated head of yours,” he said. And then, with a wave, he was gone.

After that evening, there was a silent understanding between them. The awkwardness was gone, and any barriers that had existed between them collapsed into nothing. They were friends now, and that meant that the things that had felt unnatural before shifted to feeling comfortable and fitting, like a new pair of shoes that had been successfully broken in and now felt cozy and snug where they had previously chafed. That this kind of comfort had been established within a mere three days was besides the point (though Jackson certainly loved pointing it out regularly). Mark was just happy that he no longer felt compeled to keep Jinyoung at arm's length just to protect his sense of self-security. He didn't need to think of him as “Jinyoung, the guy I went on a terribly awkward date with” when just “Jinyoung” would do.

Most of the time, it was relaxed between them. Jinyoung would show up at GuacMan, order some food, and hop in the back to keep Mark entertained during the lulls in traffic or else help him keep his equipment and supplies straight when he was busy. After, they’d go out for ice cream or a drink if they didn’t have homework to do, or would call it an early night when they did. And on those nights when they went out, sometimes they would play a quick game of truth or truth and learn more about each other piece by piece through their questions.

Sometimes they asked truly pointless things—favorite color? Lucky item?—but other times the questions strayed into more serious territory—worst insecurity? Most terrible lie? Mark did his best to be as honest as he could, and though sometimes the answers were hard to give and his tongue felt heavy as he said them, it usually felt good to have them off his chest and out in the open.

Sometimes, though, Jinyoung would stray close to the only barrier left between them, the core truth that had most likely spawned the entire game to begin with: the lingering effects of his break up with Youngjae. Mark was more careful answering those questions. He never lied, but he also didn’t claim to have the truth when he still didn’t know. Even now, he was still a bit skittish about the possibility of running into Youngjae by chance or finding out from Jaebum some little detail about how he’d been since they’d split up.

But through it all, he began to feel better. His inherent caution and withdrawnness were beginning to shed around him like an unneeded second skin, and he felt lighter in its absence. He felt like even Jinyoung was shifting, too, showing the varying sides of himself with more ease, no longer needing to try so hard to be a certain way or to cause a certain reaction now that Mark was opening naturally to him. They were becoming more effortless, and it felt freeing not to have to exhaust himself just to be happy.

But still, one reservation was beginning to creep back in. Wasn’t this thing building between them becoming uncomfortably familiar? It had been a very long time since the emotion awakening within him had anything to do with his life, but his body still remembered. It knew that the last time these feelings had been awake, they had resulted in the nightmare still echoing through his head. They would be far better off remaining in their long and lonely hibernation, but they didn’t seem to want to listen to him. The more he fought them back, the more they yawned determinedly, stretching out their cramped limbs, cracking open their tired eyes, and preparing to take control of him entirely.

A/N: So...I've realized next week is Christmas Eve, and I'll be flying to my Granny and Pawpaw's at my regular posting time. I'm sure others among my readership base will also be spending time with their families that day, so...please don't kill me...but After a Dream will not be posted next week and will instead be resumed on the 31st (which I'm well aware is New Years Eve and also a holiday, but one I'll be home for at least!)

At least it will give you some more time to digest everything that happened in this chapter, I hope!