"His deal"

"Hyung, come on quick or you're gonna miss it!" He calls out to his cousin as he rushes to stand near the railings. Instead of the cityscape beneath the slope they were on, his eyes shoot up as he glanced at the sky awaiting the sight of a shooting star. "Hyung, quick! There it is!" He point excitedly at the shooting star which is making its way across the night sky but it passed by too swiftly and it so happened that his cousin is that slow.

"Where is it?" Mark asks him just right after the star vanished. Now the older is staring up at the starless sky. "I can't see it. Are you just bluffing?"

Jinyoung is now pouting at the blonde as he crossed his arms. "You were too slow. I told you to come out of the car quickly just so you could catch it but I don't know what took you so long to follow me." His eye roll came next. "Moments like these don't wait, hyung. Sometimes you need to be quick enough to catch these moments. If you're too slow, you won't realize what you're missing."

He might really be sounding like a whining child right now. He just feels bad, okay? This morning, he heard from the news that there'll be a couple of sightings of shooting stars tonight. When he heard about it, the first thing that came to his mind is telling Mark and talk him into spending the night out here in their special place to watch the shooting stars. His cousin said he hasn't seen one yet and it's the same case for Jinyoung, so that only made him more excited about it. He really wants to watch stars as they fall, as he sits beside Mark. He imagined how nice it would be to share the silence together with his cousin who has made him feel the most comfortable.

"It's like I should say sorry... but I am not sure if I really should." Mark said and when he turned, he saw that he's still holding the paper bags which contain the food they've ordered from McDonald's. "Maybe there'll still be a few more which will grace us with its presence a little later? Let's just sit first and eat fries. What do you say?"

Feeling half-tired of whining and half-tempted of the fries Mark is offering, Jinyoung nods and follows the older towards the hood of the car and they sat beside each other, with the bag of fries and nuggets between them.

Jinyoung was the first one to dig his hand inside the bag of fries, taking a mouthful. "If you were quick enough a while ago, you would've seen it." He just can't let this one go.

He heard a hum from Mark. "Was it beautiful, just like how dramas make them seem?" 

"It really is!" He instantly replied. "Although, it was a very quick passing moment. It's like if you blink, it'll be gone before you open your eyes again."

"So I shouldn't blink when I see one?"

"You should stop on being a slow poke first, if you want to catch seeing one." and that came with another eye roll which only earned an amused giggle from the older.

"Alright, I promise to make sure to catch these special moments next time." Mark then reached for his hoodie to pull it over his head and cupped his face briefly. "It's cold so you better keep yourself warm." The older then handed him his cup of hot choco. "Drink this up too."

Jinyoung followed what Mark said before they got back to talking again about school and stuffs. They were talking about the mess Jackson made in the cafeteria earlier at lunch, when Mark almost spilled his coffee as he jolted in his seat. He was just about to ask when Mark reached for his cheeks, making him look up the sky and there he saw a shooting star, and then another one, and yet another one. 

Just when he the third star fades into view, Jinyoung remembers something. "Hyung! We should make a wish!"

"A wish?"

"Yes! When you see a shooting star, they say when you wish upon it, it's bound to come true." Jinyoung then looks up again, waiting for another shooting star. But there was none. "We missed it again."

"Missed what? We saw the shooting stars this time."

"But we weren't able to make a wish." And now he's pouting.

The touch of Mark's hand made him lift his eyes to meet the older's. "That's okay." He heard him say. "I don't have anything to wish for at this moment, anyway."

And then Jinyoung thought... Mark may be right. Because right now, he can't think of anything to wish for too.

Jinyoung woke up to the sound of consecutive knocks coming from outside his door. Soon he hears Hyunjin calling out. "Sir Jinyoung? Sir, are you awake?"

Rubbing his eyes open, Jinyoung pulls himself up to sit on his bed and glanced at the mirror to check how his just-woke-up self looks like. When he thinks he looks okay, he answered Hyunjin. "I am. You can come inside."

From his bedside table, he reads from the digital clock that it's ten minutes before 8. That makes sense for the sound of his stomach grumbling. He should be eating breakfast by now.

When the door opened, Hyunjin walks in holding a box in his hand. "Good morning, sir." The boy greeted him with a bow which Jinyoung answers with a nod too. Hyunjin shows him the box which he already noticed upon the boy's entrance. "This came in just this morning, sir. It's addressed to you."

Jinyoung sized up the box and that reminded him of the order online which he made yesterday. "Oh yes. That must be my new phone." He signaled for Hyunjin to hand it to him, which the younger immediately did. "It arrived earlier than expected." The store told him that it usually takes two days to process an order. Maybe he was lucky that the process finished quickly for his case. 

He turned to Hyunjin to send him off. "Thank you, Hyunjin." 

The boy bowed. "Mr. and Mrs. Park are waiting downstairs for breakfast."

Jinyoung can't say anything in response but a nod. Glad that it's enough to send the younger off to leave him in his room again. He's hungry, that's positive. But nowadays, eating with his dad is still something he prefers to skip doing, although he knows his mom won't let him. So, getting out of his bed, Jinyoung fixes himself in front of the mirror. Once satisfied, he walks outside to head downstairs and eat breakfast.

"You bought a new phone?" His mom asked after putting down the cup of coffee she made for him. He watched her go back to her seat at the dining table beside his dad. "I saw the package Hyunjin has taken upstairs to your room. What happened to your old one?"

Jinyoung knows he can't tell his mom that he needed to replace his old phone because it has a crack on its screen after he threw it on his bed but instead hit the side of his bed's headboard. His mom would surely ask what's the reason behind the throwing and Jinyoung definitely can't tell him that it's because his emotions got the better of him after texting Mark two nights ago. 

His mom was still casting a look at him, waiting for his answer. Reaching his fork out to get another sausage, Jinyoung opted to reply. "I dropped it on the bathroom's floor when I was about to brush my teeth. There's this huge crack on the screen so I thought of buying a new one. I took the money from my allowance." He felt the need to add the last sentence.

"You didn't tell me about that." His mom said, sipping on her coffee. "I could've bought you the phone myself."

"It's okay, mom. It's not worth raising your concern, anyway." He didn't miss how his mom pursed her lips after hearing what he said but Jinyoung chose to not mind and just continued eating.

"You look like ."

That is definitely not the first thing he wanted to hear when he sat at the table where his cousins were waiting for him. He just arrived at Pizza Hut after Jackson texted in their group chat, asking to meet up at the said joint. The Chinese is craving for mozzarella sticks again and managed to bug each one of them until they agreed to hang out with him while eating his precious food. 

Rolling his eyes heavenwards, Jinyoung responded to Jackson's remark. "I don't need and I don't want to hear that, so I hate you for saying that."

His cousin just reached for his cheek to pinch it, so Jinyoung swat his hand away. Jackson doesn't seem bothered by it though and just continued to make faces which his cousin might assume were cute but Jinyoung begs to differ. 

"Why are you so cranky? School hasn't even started but you already look like your stress level is up at a hundred."

Jaebum, who is seated right beside Jackson was the one who responded to that. "If Jinyoung really is stressed about something, then you teasing him is not doing him any good."

This made Jackson curl his lips up but instead of saying something, he just sank himself in Jaebum's arm which is placed around his shoulder. He also saw how Jaebum leaned his head towards Jackson's as he played with the Chinese's hair for a brief moment before staring up at him and giving him a small smile. Jinyoung smiled back, thankful that the latter stopped his cousin from teasing him even more. Since Jaebum and his cousin are officially a couple, Jinyoung has talked himself into acting normal and casual again around the older. Like he said, Jaebum has already apologized to him for what he has caused before and Jinyoung already decided to put that one behind the three of them. And now, seeing how happy Jackson is with Jaebum, he knows what he did was right and is for the better.

"Will you order something else, hyung?" Youngjae asks him, handing him the menu. 

Jinyoung scans the food served on their table. "I don't want to eat anything in particular so, I'm just gonna eat whatever Jackson has paid for." He answered before getting a slice of