Mark had always liked the idea of having fans. It was cool to think that there were people all over the country who were enthusiastic about what he did and waited impatiently for each new video release. But seeing these fans in person was more overwhelming than he thought it would be. There were scores of them jammed into the panel room, many of them wearing My Men of Mystery t-shirts or hoodies, and as they talked among themselves as they waited for the Q&A session to start, he could hear his own name and Jinyoung’s leaping out at him over and over again. They were talking about him, and while the thought was somewhat exciting, it still made him feel as edgy as a high schooler nervous at the prospect of someone talking behind his back.

“Feels a bit surreal,” Jinyoung commented from behind him, also peeking from backstage. “Shouldn’t someone go out there and inform them we’re just two regular guys?”

“I kind of have the feeling that the second we go out there, they’re going to cheer for us like we’re not so regular,” Mark whispered.

“Huh. Maybe we should tell them about how we spend our Saturdays in sweatpants watching 48 Hours Mystery and cheering on our boy Peter van Sant when he’s grilling suspects.”

“That might not be such a good idea. They’ll probably go nuts at anything domestic sounding.”

“Really? Why?”

Mark forgot sometimes that while he knew way too much about the habits and preferences of Markjin shippers, Jinyoung had no idea they existed in the first place. “No reason,” Mark said vaguely.

“Hey guys, you’ll be going on soon,” BamBam said, calling them over. “I want to give you a little pre-talk, as is my duty as your manager.”

“What, are there things you don’t want us talking about in order to preserve our image?” Jinyoung asked.

“Meh, I think the fact that you guys are huge dorks is part of the image your fans enjoy. Go crazy being losers. I just wanted to give you a head’s up that if a fan asks something, you know, ‘over the line,’ I’ll step in with the warning so you guys don’t have to.”

“What kind of ‘over the line’ are we talking?” Mark asked.

“You know—anyone trying to hit on you or something like that. It’s been known to happen at these types of things, and you two being the hunks you are, I just want to be sure no one’s getting into ideas.” He patted them on the back. “Most other things should be fair game. But if they ask you to go into detail about having a YouTube career, tell them to attend your panel tomorrow for more details. I don’t want you guys revealing all the content you have prepared for that during this panel. Good to go?”

“Good to go,” Mark and Jinyoung said.

“All right. Your adoring public awaits. Get on out there.”

As they approached the stage entrance, Mark felt the usual urge to grab on to Jinyoung’s hand for courage so they were walking out as a united force, but held himself back just in time. Instead, he settled on giving Jinyoung a little nudge on the shoulder and a quick smile before they stepped out on to the stage.

The cheers were immediate. Mark smiled and waved, but it took him a moment to process it. It reminded him of when he’d gone to a Bruno Mars concert when he was in high school—of course it was only natural for people to cheer for someone famous like Bruno Mars, but why on earth were they going just as nuts over someone like him?

“Hey, mystery fans!” Jinyoung called out. He was smiling and beaming as if he were born for this kind of attention. “Thank you for coming out! Are you enjoying the convention so far?”

He was greeted by more cheers. One of the girls in the front row seemed to be visibly fanning herself.

“Glad to hear it! We’re Jinyoung Park and Mark Tuan from the YouTube series My Men of Mystery. All of you guys are tuning in, right?”

More cheers. Jinyoung turned to Mark, smiling. Your turn.

Mark cleared his throat. “This is our first time coming out to an event like this, but we’re excited for the opportunity to talk to all of you over the next few days. We’re starting off with this Q&A panel on Day 1, and we’ll be back on Day 2 and Day 3 for panels on covering mysteries on YouTube and some of the dumbest murderers we’ve ever heard about.”

“We wanted to do this Q&A first because we know you guys really haven’t had the opportunity to communicate with us directly until now, and you probably have a lot of questions about who we are and what we do,” Jinyoung said. “We’d love to clear up some of the mysteries surrounding us men of mystery! Keep in mind that we’ll be going into more depth on our YouTube career tomorrow, so you may want to save some of your questions about that until then. Who wants to start?”

Immediately, hands skyrocketed into the air, some waving desperately, others enlisting the help of their friends to point to them and boost their visibility. There were so many hands that Mark could barely see anyone’s faces anymore, and had to look for distinguishing accessories or hair colors to identify people by.

“Uh…yes…the girl in the pink baseball hat near the back,” Mark said finally. BamBam, their designated mic floater, hurried over to her.

“Hi guys!” she said, tittering a bit nervously. “I’m a big fan of yours. I was wondering what your favorite video that you’ve ever done was?”

“Hmmm,” Jinyoung pondered. “The first one we did, I think? We filmed it ages in advance and kept on doing reshoots as we tried to figure out our system and how to act natural and just let loose and have fun, but the moment it clicked…it just really clicked, you know? When it all started coming together and we could see what the finished product looked like and we came out with that very first video, I just knew we were going to have the time of our lives with it from then on.”

“Mine would definitely have to be-” Mark began.

“THE DAPHNE CROMWELL CASE!” a guy screamed out from somewhere in the middle of the audience.

Mark grinned. “Yup, that one! I mean, somedays I still can’t even process it…we actually found the evidence that convicted a murderer.”

“Yeah, I might have picked that one too, but I still can’t forget how the power went out right when I found the evidence and I literally thought we were going to die,” Jinyoung said.

“Right…we weren’t filming during that part, so you guys may not know, but we were scared less when that happened.”

“We had to play Marco Polo with each other until we could find each other again in that dark cellar.” Jinyoung shivered. “Probably the freakiest filming moment we’ve ever had to-date. Let’s have another question….yes, the guy in the second row with the Sherlock hat?”

“How do you choose what cases to cover? Do you ever read viewer comments?”

“Yeah, actually that’s my job,” Mark said. “I read viewer comments once a week for new ideas, although we do choose cases based on what we see in the news, and of course we like to cover cases in particular that no one else is really looking into. We’ve found that there are actually quite a few cases with fascinating backgrounds and weird twists that don’t really get mass coverage based on timing and who the victim is. Yes, the girl with pink hair?”

“Since you two live together, do you watch a lot of crime shows together?”

“Definitely! Dateline, 48 Hours, the Investigation Discovery channel…”

“Netflix documentaries, too, and even Law & Order: SVU!” Jinyoung paused. “Also, Mark loves those mystery games like Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes. He was actually just playing Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishment the other day. I’m a bigger fan of reading Sherlock, but sometimes I’ll watch him play when I’m having a lazy day. Yes, the girl with the finger gloves?”

“Do you actually do anything besides read, watch, or game about mysteries?”

“Good question!” Jinyoung laughed. “I’m actually big into standard literary fiction, and I sing a lot—Mark can tell you that sometimes he has to throw pillows at me when I’m singing in the middle of him trying to do research. As for Mark…I seriously sometimes have to pull him away from Overwatch to get him to do his dang job.”

“I also like doing outdoorsy stuff,” Mark added. “I’m hoping we can do more on-scene filming so I can incorporate more of that interest into our show. Yes, the guy jumping up and down in the fourth row?”

“Have you ever gotten to talk to a murder suspect in person?”

“Uhhh, well, kinda, by accident," Jinyoung said vaguely, most likely thinking of that time they'd had a run in with the Buckingham Circuit Neighborhood Watch, which they weren't allowed to talk about. "But not in an official context. Honestly, we do really like those aspects of shows like 48 Hours, that they actually get to sit down with suspects and hear what they have to say, whether true or false,” Jinyoung said. “But it’s a bit rough, since we’re just a small team. To talk to suspects, we’d need to go through their lawyers, and we don’t have the legal capacity to do that right now.”

“That being said, we would like to consult with more experts, journalists, and loved ones of victims who feel comfortable talking about their experiences,” Mark added. “We really enjoyed our episode with Spring Townsend, so we hope there’s more of that to come in the future. Yes, the boy in the glasses in the front row?”

The guy, a sixteen or seventeen year old dressed uncannily like Jinyoung, hopped up to his feet, cheeks flaming. He looked at Mark momentarily, then immediately turned his eyes to Jinyoung. “Um, hi Jinyoung! I’m a really big fan of yours, and I admire you so, so much,” the guy said in an excited stream. “When I go to university, I'm planning on being a criminal justice major, and I really want to become just like you!”

“Oh?” Jinyoung looked a little surprised. “Well…that’s certainly flattering. Thank you.”

“And, well, I was wondering…since there’s so many rumors about you and Mark being an item, I was wondering if that was actually true or if you two are single right now?”

Mark wanted to run up to the guy, snatch his microphone away, and kick it into another dimension. After all his hard work keeping Jinyoung from finding out about those rumors, now here this little twerp was shamelessly announcing it to him in a forum where he’d have to show some kind of response. And right now, Jinyoung's response was pretty shell-shocked. His eyes had gotten big, and he was looking at Mark in nervous confusion. “There’s rumors about that?” he asked faintly.

Mark glanced at BamBam, trying to suggest through wild eye contact that he should issue one of those warnings he’d promised for ‘over the line’ questions, but he was simply standing there, grinning with his this is good expression. Good thing Mark knew a thing or two about committing the perfect crime, because he was going to do so as soon as this whole thing was over.

Jinyoung was still floundering as the girls in the audience sat at rigid attention, clasping their hands together as if praying to god for the big reveal they’d been hoping for. Finally, he forced a smile and shook his head. “Um, I don’t think this is the time and place to go into private life stuff, but I think Mark and I have made jokes in our videos about being single, and that remains true for the time being.”

Then, BamBam finally reached out to relieve Mark’s new public enemy #1 of his microphone, though not before the Jinyoung fanboy sighed in relief and continued to stare admiringly up at his idol as he said “Oh, good!” to this news that Mark and Jinyoung were not, in fact, an item.

The little twerp is gunning for Jinyoung!, Mark realized. Of course, it could probably be said that a good portion of the audience either had a crush on him or Jinyoung, even among the Markjin shippers, but this guy actually had the nerve to make that as clear as day with that little “oh, good!” as if he actually had a shot. As if Jinyoung would ever be interested in dating a juvenile clone of himself—not that he knew the kind of person Jinyoung would actually like to date, he reminded himself, much to his discomfort. Maybe he was interested in people who were strikingly similar to him, but with that dash of cute blushy-stammery nonsense to go along with the boldness of asking that kind of blatant of a question right to their faces.

Mark made it through the rest of the Q&A in a bit of a ticked off haze until it was time to start the autograph portion of the panel. He calmed down in the excitement of getting to talk to the fans one-on-one and witness their infectious love and support firsthand, and it wasn’t long before he started smiling and laughing along with them. The Markjin shippers were a bit more subtle than he’d thought they’d be in person, and were generally identifiable only by their request for him to add hearts on the photosheet of himself and Jinyoung he was signing for them.

He’d just finished doing so for a female fan who BamBam was now ushering off the stage when he turned to glance over at Jinyoung and saw that the twerp from the-question-of-doom had finally reached him. He was currently staring up at Jinyoung with stars in his eyes, but Jinyoung was looking uncharacteristically strained in response, as if the encounter was making him decidedly uncomfortable. Mark sighed in relief. At least it didn’t seem like the feelings were mutual—not that he’d really suspected Jinyoung would fall for an underage high schooler to begin with.

Finally, the guy scooted over to Mark with his photosheet ready. He met Mark’s eyes for just a second before looking away. “Um,” he said, mumbling a little. “I’m Korean just like Jinyoung, and my name is similar. Hanyoung. If you wrote a message out using my name, that would be nice.”

“All right,” Mark said, reminding himself to smile. He looked at Jinyoung’s message first— it was in Korean, so he couldn’t read what it said. He picked up his marker and scribbled down “Thanks for the support, Hanyoung,” something neutral but kind, and nowhere along the lines of “You lost 5,000 points in my book for telling Jinyoung about those rumors, and you will probably never be able to earn them back.”

“Thank you,” Hanyoung said as Mark scooted the paper back. “Thanks for always being good to Jinyoung.” He glanced at Mark briefly again, flashed a shaky smile, and then darted off.

When Mark glanced back over at Jinyoung, Jinyoung was looking at him with an annoyed expression. He was a bit caught off guard at first—what reason did Jinyoung have to be annoyed with him?—but then he remembered the tiny detail that Jinyoung probably realized he’d known about the rumors since he read all their YouTube comments and reviews. He was definitely going to hear about the fact that he’d never bothered to tell Jinyoung or warn him about it when their panel was over.

Thanks, Hanyoung, Mark thought to himself bitterly. Way to ruin a perfectly stable partnership. I’m glad you don’t want us to date each other, because it’s probably never going to happen, after this.

To Mark’s surprise, Jinyoung didn’t bring it up backstage. He didn’t bring it up when they grabbed lunch or when they met with some of their fellow YouTubers for a networking chat. It wasn’t until they went back to their hotel room attached to the convention center and ordered some local food from UberEats that he turned to Mark with an eerily calm expression and asked, “So, how long have those rumors about us been a thing?”

Mark squirmed. “Uh…from the beginning, I guess…but just for a little context…this kind of thing is common, you know? Tons of girls are into boy/boy shipping…I mean, you know how much they ship Sherlock and Watson, right? It’s not a big thing.”

“Still, it seems like the sort of thing you maybe should have mentioned. I would have liked to have heard it from you rather than from a fan.”

“Sorry,” Mark mumbled. “I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable with me.”

“Why would that make me feel uncomfortable?”

“I don’t know…maybe you’d feel weird or awkward about how people interpret your actions and become overly conscious around me?”

Jinyoung shook his head. “Mark. You’re the one who determines how comfortable I feel around you, not anyone else on the outside looking in. And you’ve never done anything that’s ever made me feel uncomfortable or unhappy, OK? Except for this little intentional withholding.” He frowned suddenly. “Does it make you uncomfortable?”

Mark shook his head. “N-Not exactly. It just…”

“It just what?”

“I don’t know…I just worry sometimes about anything that could make us, you know, not work together as well as we do anymore. We have this perfect thing, and I just worry about doing something that will make you not want to do this anymore or not want to be my partner.” Mark swallowed. “I really couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else.”

“Good,” Jinyoung said, a small smile creeping on his face. “I’m not planning on letting you do this with anyone else. But you seem to be under the impression that you’re two seconds away from doing something I’d find unforgivable. Can you explain why?”

Mark shook his head. That was not a confession he was prepared to make right now.

“Well. Maybe you do have something up your sleeve that will contradict years’ worth of evidence that you’re a fantastic person and one of the most important people in my life,” Jinyoung said, lifting an eyebrow. “But I’m betting not. I know you, all right? I’ve spent so much time with you and seen you in so many different situations that I don’t see how there’s something inside you that I haven’t caught a glimpse of, something that would destroy everything else I know about you. So don’t worry about it, all right? If you ever have anything you need to say-”

He was cut off by a knock at the door. Mark was closest, so he got up and answered it, expecting their UberEats. Instead, there was an employee outside holding an eerily familiar stuffed bear in her hands, one holding a Conversation Heart. But this one said “ASK ME” instead of “CALL HOME” like the one he had back home said.

“I was told to deliver this to Mark Tuan?” the employee said. “Is that you?”

“Who told you to deliver this?” Mark asked blankly.

The employee heaved a sigh, as if she would rather not get involved. “A secret admirer,” she said drily. “There’s a message. I don’t have anything more to add than that.” She the bear into Mark’s hand and backed away quickly as if she didn’t want to get caught having this kind of conversation with a guest. It was very likely whoever had given her the bear had bribed her into it, which would get her in trouble if she was spotted.

Baffled, Mark turned around to go back into the room. As soon as he saw the bear in Mark’s hands, Jinyoung practically rocketed to his feet, his cheeks flushing red. “W-Where did you get that?” he asked urgently.

“Uh…apparently it’s a secret admirer gift? Maybe from a fan or something?”

“Is this some kind of a joke?” Jinyoung actually sounded genuinely angry, something Mark wasn’t used to hearing from him. He snatched the bear from Mark’s hand and grabbed the note tucked behind the heart in the bear’s arms to pull it out. He read it quickly, then tossed it on the bed, looking livid. “How?”

“Jinyoung…?” Mark asked cautiously. He picked up the note and read it. It was one of those poems in the stereotypical format:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

My man of mystery

Here’s your first clue

Of how all hearts are red

But loving hearts are redder

And anything he can do

I will do better!

“Huh?” Mark asked, staring at the note. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that someone in our audience is a freaking creep who somehow figured out our hotel room and other things they should have no way of knowing, and that if we don’t do something, they might, I don’t know, try to attack you before the convention is over?”

“Attack? Wait, isn’t this just some type of innocent love confession?”

“NO! I told you Mark, only a creep would hunt down our hotel room, and—and--!” He almost looked too angry to continue.

“OK, I can see why you’d feel a little anxious about it, given all the psychos we report on,” Mark relented. “Most likely it’s not a really big thing, and the person may be staying in the same hotel and saw us check in or go into our room. But as long as we lock up and stick together, it should be fine, right? It’s not like I’m the only one with an admirer here, anyways.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That Korean guy at our Q&A who was obsessed with you…?”

Jinyoung snorted derisively, as if a dorky looking seventeen year old couldn’t possibly be compared to the mysterious threat of the bear-sender. “I’m reporting this to BamBam,” he announced. Ignoring Mark’s protests, he stormed out of the room to go see BamBam next door.

Mark gaped after him. Jinyoung could have a short temper, but this was unlike anything he’d ever seen from him before. Was this really stemming from concern for their safety, or was it something else? Mark looked down at the bear and note again. On a second look, he realized how oddly both the gift and note seemed to be directly challenging Jinyoung—the blend of anything he can do, I will do better with a more romantic version of the bear Jinyoung had gotten him last year. Was that what had set Jinyoung off? And what did it mean that such a challenge had made Jinyoung so angry?

“Well, we’re getting off to a rather dramatic Day 1,” Mark informed the bear, plopping down on the bed. “You’ll have to excuse me, but I like your CALL HOME brother back home better.”

A few moments later, Jinyoung stormed back in, looking even angrier, if possible. “Our manager is incompetent,” he snapped. “Let’s research getting a new one as soon as we go home. Actually, I’ll start researching now.”

“What did he say?” Mark asked.

Jinyoung didn’t answer, but instead tapped furiously away on his phone.

“Maybe you and I can solve the mystery of who the bear is from?” Mark asked feebly.

This received an icy glare.

“Or not.” Mark looked back at the bear and shrugged. He just hoped Day 2 would pass more peacefully than this.

Jinyoung was still in a bit of a testy mood the next day, but calmed down enough to be civil to the fans who attended their panel on building and sustaining a YouTube career. They talked about the process of putting an episode together, brought BamBam up to cover video and sound editing, and then answered questions about marketing, ad revenue, raising viewership, and producing content that balanced information with entertainment. Their audience was engaged and enthusiastic, and luckily no questions of an incredibly personal nature came up during their hour-and-a-half time block. If Mark’s secret admirer was in the audience, they didn’t do anything to reveal themselves—unless it was one of the many girls wearing an I HEART MARK shirt. It didn’t seem like Jinyoung’s admirer from the day before was around either, much to Mark’s relief.

They wrapped up on time and headed backstage. They were going to be having an interview with an event reporter in just about twenty minutes, so they had to eat their lunch quickly beforehand. Mark made a beeline for the Chipotle bags the staff had gotten them from the cafeteria, but Jinyoung veered off to the restrooms.

Just as he was about to open up the bag, Mark noticed a stack of books with a bow on top of them on the chair next to the food. He picked them up and looked at the spines. They were a series of two minute mysteries, much like the one he’d been reading when he’d first talked to Jinyoung. There was a card with TO MARK written on it stuck between the pages of the first.

He opened it up, pulled out the letter, and read it to himself:

I know that Jinyoung is the one you love, but I wish you could be instead with someone who is brave enough to love you back.

Like me—I loved you from the moment I saw your video and have loved you ever since.

Obviously, because you’re so fantastic and amazing and you’re everything I want in a partner—

Vibrant and kind and loving and gentle and funny and charming and handsome and just--

EVERYTHING! There is no part of you I don’t like! But it all feels so

Useless because when you’re around someone perfect like Jinyoung, how could you notice anyone else?

Maybe you love the way Jinyoung always has the answer to everything

Or how good he looks by your side. I know he’s important to you, but

Remember that if you open your heart, you can find someone like him, but who loves you like you deserved to be loved!

Eternally, Your Secret Admirer.

Mark read it over again, feeling a little weird about the fact that this person seemed to be telling him his love for Jinyoung wasn’t going to work out and he’d be better off giving up. And what was with giving him another gift that tied back to his relationship with Jinyoung? Whoever this person was, they really seemed to have a thing about proving themselves against Jinyoung, and seemed to have uncomfortable insight into how Mark felt about him. He traced down the side of the note, reading all the capital letters that started each line—“I LOVE U MORE.”

No way am I letting Jinyoung see this, Mark resolved, ripping the letter to shreds before Jinyoung could return from the bathroom. He’d be screwed right from the I know Jinyoung is the one you love line. In fact, he’d be better off hiding the books, too. He shoved them into his backpack and zipped it up tight. Jinyoung was not responding to this secret admirer business well, so Mark resolved to keep him out of it until he figured it out or it resolved on its own. The admirer in question was probably going to reveal themselves tomorrow before the convention ended, and all Mark would have to do was kindly turn them down and politely inform them that the next time they fell in love, they would be better off doing it in a less stalkery way.

Putting it out of his mind, he dug back into the Chipotle bag and pulled out his burrito. To his dismay, the staff had forgotten to get him a drink to go with, so he popped out the back entrance into the hallway where there was a drinking fountain where he could fill up his water bottle.

Almost as soon as he stepped out into the hallway, he came face to face with a girl with curly black hair wearing a My Men of Mystery t-shirt. She met his eyes and turned bright red, squeaking out his name before running off down the hallway, her hands covering her face in embarrassment. Mark blinked. Maybe she was the one leaving the messages—she was certainly lingering quite suspiciously near the scene of the crime. If she was, Mark felt kind of bad for her—she clearly wasn’t the safety threat Jinyoung seemed to think she was, but just someone who turned into a shamble of nerves around her idol.

Mark shrugged and took care of filling up his water bottle. He was just finishing up when he heard someone clearing their throat behind him. He turned, and saw Jinyoung’s own little admirer, Hanyoung, was standing behind him, staring down at Mark’s shoes.

“Oh,” Mark said, trying not to sound annoyed. “Hey. Jinyoung’s fan. Sorry, but he’s not around right now.”

“It's OK,” Hanyoung said, not looking up. “I was actually wondering if you could tell me something.”

“Look, I really have to get going to an interview, and besides-“

“It’s nothing big,” Hanyoung continued quickly. “It’s just…I wanted to ask you about the Valentine's Day episode this year. About the filming process.”

Mark blinked. "The filming process...? I'm sorry, but that's actually not my area of expertise. Our manager is responsible for all our production."

"I understand that, but...I've watched the episode over and over again, and I noticed the lighting in the room changed from when you finished explaining the mystery to when Jinyoung gave his answer. It... it didn't take him that long to figure it out, did it?"

Ah, he's worried that his hero isn't as impressive as he hopes he is, Mark realized. "We did cut filming, for a bit," he admitted. "Our cameraman had a date to go on, and I thought it was only fair to give Jinyoung time to process everything he'd heard. But he didn't spend the whole gap in time thinking of his answer--he solved it pretty quickly, and we spent the rest of the time talking and eating pizza."

"Oh," Hanyoung said with a nod. "So you did talk to him in that gap. Knowing Jinyoung, he probably yelled at you for bringing up the discounted bear from last year, right?"

Mark's mouth fell open a little. How would he just guess that?

"Jinyoung doesn't like it when you say things that make him look bad," Hanyoung explained, as if Mark had asked this out loud. "He probably tried to explain himself, didn't he? He doesn't like it when you think badly of him, either."

"Why are you asking about all of this?" Mark asked uncomfortably. "I get that you're fascinated with Jinyoung, but...this is all behind the scenes stuff. Our business."

Hanyoung shrugged. "Oh, don't mind me. I'm just trying to solve a mystery."

"What mystery?" Mark frowned at him. "Look, if this has anything to do with what you asked about Jinyoung and I being an item-"

He shook his head. "That's already solved. If Jinyoung says you're not, you're not. But I'm still trying to figure out a thing or two about Jinyoung that I really want to understand."

"What?"

"Not 'what.' Why." Hanyoung cracked his knuckles. "Anyways, sorry to bother you, Mark. Good luck on your interview." With that, he headed back down the hallway.

“Huh,” Mark said, lifting an eyebrow as he watched him go. “OK….”

Luckily, the rest of the day passed without further incident. The secret admirer didn’t leave any further gifts, and Jinyoung didn’t discover about the two minute mystery books Mark had hidden. When they got back to the hotel, he did ask Mark in passing if there’d been any sign of the admirer lurking around, but Mark decided not to tell him about the books, note, the girl out in the hallway, or Hanyoung. Jinyoung looked a little suspicious at his denial, but he let the matter go, and Mark was also happy to let the matter drop.

The next morning, the first thing Mark saw upon heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth was an envelope slid under the door. Mark snatched it up quickly before Jinyoung could see it—even though Jinyoung was still asleep—and ducked into the bathroom to read it.

This time, it was a flyer for the very same True Crime convention they were attending, but random letters and numbers in the flyer had been circled in red, blue, and orange marker. In red, the letters “eacottinnnl” were circled, and in blue were the letters “asfebtrka.” The numbers 9, 8, and 3 were circled in orange.

Mark was about as good at word scramblers as Jinyoung was at two minute mysteries, so it didn’t take him long to unscramble the second word as “breakfast” and figure out the first word was “continental” from there—their hotel served a continental breakfast from 8:00 to 10:00. The numbers circled in orange probably represented a time, either 8:39 or 9:38. Since it was already 9:25, he was going to assume it was supposed to be 9:38.

So this was probably going to be the big reveal, then. It would be better off for everyone concerned if he handled it before Jinyoung was awake and knew what was going on, so he decided to quickly brush his teeth and get dressed so he could meet the person in question on time. He had a strong feeling it would be the girl from the hallway, and just hoped she would be able to take the disappointment in stride and grow from it. He hoped he could at least encourage her not to compare herself to Jinyoung, when winning Mark’s heart wasn’t a matter of being better than him. It was just a matter of being him—Mark just wanted Jinyoung, and not anyone better, worse, similar, or different.

Mark took the elevator down to the ground floor. A lot of people were already getting themselves breakfast, which was a good sign—if there were a lot of people, this wasn’t going to be a safety risk like Jinyoung had been worried about. He scanned the area for the girl with the curly hair, but didn’t see her anywhere. Instead, his eyes fell on Hanyoung, who looked even more like Jinyoung than ever in his blue plaid shirt and simply styled hair.

Ahh, so that note was for Jinyoung this time, not me, Mark realized. Still, this was probably for the best. He could explain to Hanyoung on Jinyoung’s behalf that Jinyoung wasn’t about to date a minor, and could at least bring that bit of ridiculousness to a close.

He approached Hanyoung’s table, and Hanyoung at last looked him in the eye. He had an impressively firm gaze when he wasn’t darting his eyes around, although perhaps that was because he’d been expecting Jinyoung and not Mark. Mark sat down across from him, setting down the flyer between them. “Hey,” he said. “I’m sorry, but I woke up before Jinyoung and got this note before he could read it.”

“That’s OK,” Hanyoung said, shrugging. “It’s fine if he didn’t see it. It’s for you, after all.”

“Oh?” Mark blinked. “Did you want to give me something to pass along to him? Or pump me for more information?”

Hanyoung’s brows furrowed. “No? I’ve been addressing all my messages quite clearly to you, so I thought you would know…”

“Wait…you’ve been the one sending me messages?”

“Oh…you didn’t realize? I thought you would considering, you know, you're My Men of Mystery and solving things is your specialty.”

Mark shook his head. “I don’t understand this. You’re clearly crazy about Jinyoung. Why would you address love letters to me if the one you like is Jinyoung?”

Hanyoung tilted his head in confusion. “Well…I do really admire Jinyoung. He’s pretty obviously your ideal type, so I want to be like him so maybe one day you’ll like me, too. It’s hard though, because he’s pretty much a perfect human being in all respects, but he has one major flaw, so I thought if I helped you realized this, it might help you get over him faster.”

Mark shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

“I'm not surprised. It's not like he wants you to know about his flaw. He's not being open with you about it, even when he had the opportunity to. That's why I wanted to know about the gap in your filming during your Valentine’s Day episode. Because if he was going to tell you, it would have been then. But he didn't. I know he didn't. If he had, you would have had a different look on your face when filming resumed again. You just looked proud at him for solving the mystery. Not overwhelmingly happy that the one thing you've always wanted was yours to have."

"What are you talking about?" Mark asked, his tone getting a little snappish. He didn't like the feeling of this outside party having far more insight into his feelings than he'd ever wanted to give access to. 

"The Valentine's Day episode," Hanyoung repeated. "There was a whole other mystery in that episode other than just the death of Nicola Floreth. It was the mystery of the ‘CALL HOME’ bear. It was obvious to me at this point that Jinyoung was in love with you. It made sense that he would buy you something special for the holiday, but I just couldn't believe someone who wanted to be with you so badly would buy you a weird gag gift on discount of all things. So after watching the episode, I visited my local Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS Pharmacy to see if any of them were once again selling the bears you had mentioned came from a ‘drug store.' I discovered a few for sale at CVS that seemed a match to the one you mentioned in the episode. Actually, they were selling the same ‘CALL HOME’ bear this year, there were two others, one that said ‘KISS ME’ and one that said ‘ASK ME.’ When I saw those, I reasoned that Jinyoung may have intended to buy one of the more romantic messages, but either chickened out or waited too long and found that the more romantic messages were sold out after the 80% discount. I also reasoned that ‘KISS ME’ was perhaps too bold a message for someone like him, but that ‘ASK ME’ would fit more with how he wants you to come to him rather than the other way around. I mean, he always mentions how happy he was that you went out of your way to be partners with him in school. And he never mentions that he would have approached you if you hadn't approached him.”

Hanyoung took a breath. “But one year after he failed to buy you the ‘ASK ME’ bear, he also failed to make his feelings known to you even when an opportunity presented itself to explain what he'd meant by giving you that 'CALL HOME' bear. He didn't tell you, even though he knows you're in love with him too. So I felt like you deserved someone who takes initiative with their feelings and has the courage to tell you. I thought it would be fun to do it in the form of a mystery, since you love that kind of thing, but I would have been happy just to tell you straight out, the way Jinyoung won't. I really, reallly like you, Mark.”

It took Mark a considerably long time to process all of this. He didn’t even know where to begin. “The bear,” he tried first. “Maybe they changed the sayings this year?”

Hanyoung shook his head. “I asked the staff. This is the third year CVS has ordered those bears for Valentine’s Day, and the bear’s manufacturer hasn't changed the sayings in that time.”

Mark felt a shiver going down his spine. Jinyoung had told him himself that he’d intended to buy another message—and that message was either “KISS ME” or “ASK ME” as Hanyoung assumed, and both of them seemed to indicate that Jinyoung had wanted an entire year ago to take their relationship a step further. But why hadn’t he ever followed through, if that was the case? Was it really all just a flaw of his courage or nature, as Hanyoung suggested, or had his heart changed since then?

“I think," Hanyoung's soft voice said lowly, "that the fact that Jinyoung loves you means more to you than anything else I said, right?"

“I…I’m sorry,” Mark said, snapping himself out of his thoughts. “I…I’m grateful for your intentions. I feel like I should tell you out of a genuine concern for any future relationships you may enter into though, that it really isn’t good practice to hunt down someone’s hotel room and, um, do something that would really upset someone they care about.”

“I know,” he said. "I'm sorry. I just...wanted to do it behind the scenes instead of in front of your other fans. I didn't want them to be angry with me, for what I was doing. Most of them just love the idea of you and Jinyoung together so much, and they'd be so disappointed if it didn't pan out."

“Thank you for your apology. But…” Mark took a breath. “I can’t just go out with a seventeen year-old, and more so than that…well…you already know. I’ve kind of already got someone I want to be with.”

Hanyoung looked pained. “So it’s impossible for me to outshine someone like Jinyoung, after all? I’ll be an adult in a few months, if you would give me more time to prove myself to you.”

Mark shook his head again. “I’m sorry. But I really, really love Jinyoung and only Jinyoung. And when you look at it, isn’t his flaw the same as mine? I haven’t exactly told him about my feelings either.”

“But you haven’t properly realized his feelings for you, so that’s only reasonable. You wouldn’t have wanted to risk the harmony of your partnership, not with so many fans who love and support you. Meanwhile, Jinyoung is well aware of your feelings, but won’t make that final leap. Don’t you find that frustrating?”

“He knows, does he?” Mark asked warily. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because reading the emotion in your eyes takes even less time than solving a two minute mystery.” Hanyoung chewed on his lip. “Now that I’ve told you all these things, will you be sorting it out with him, then? It’s not exactly the result I was looking for, but I suppose if I can’t have you, he'd be the only person I could take losing to…as long as he can make you happy, that is. Do you think-”

“Excuse me, but can I cut in here?”

Mark and Hanyoung looked up. Jinyoung was standing at their table, still dressed in his pajamas with a robe thrown over. His arms were wrapped around his body in a protective stance, and his expression showed a look that Mark had never seen on him before—something truly dispirited. He was looking at Hanyoung rather than Mark, and in fact seemed to be angling his body away from Mark so he wouldn’t have to look at him.

Mark opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Jinyoung was addressing Hanyoung in rapidfire Korean. The two went back and forth for a bit, Hanyoung’s tone flat and Jinyoung’s wavering between upset and firm. Mark couldn’t pick up on anything they were saying, but it didn’t exactly sound like an argument. It wasn’t quite a perfectly civil discussion, but Jinyoung at least didn’t seem to be snapping into a temper like Mark thought he would have given his initial reaction after Hanyoung’s first gift—which now that Mark knew better, had been completely justified if Hanyoung really had chosen the bear that Jinyoung had meant to buy him.

At length, Hanyoung rose to his feet and said one last thing to Jinyoung, something at last more sharp than flat, then stalked off to the elevators, leaving the two of them on their own. Jinyoung stood in place for a few moments, watching him go. He still seemed to be avoiding looking at Mark, until he eventually sighed and sank down into the chair Hanyoung had just vacated. He kept his arms wrapped around himself and glanced up at Mark only briefly before shifting his gaze to the ground at his feet.

“I had a feeling it was him,” he said in a low voice. “When he approached me at our autograph session, he basically said that I was his inspiration because he also wanted to be the kind of person who could be at your side.”

“You didn’t mention,” Mark said quietly.

“No. Just like you haven’t been mentioning things to me that you don’t want me to be aware of. Seems like it’s a habit the two of us share.” His eyes traveled back to Mark’s. “He told you about the bear, didn’t he?”

Mark nodded wordlessly.

Jinyoung winced and rubbed his forehead as if a headache that had been building for years had reached its peak of pain. “That was supposed to be my story to tell,” he said in a voice so soft it was practically a whisper.

“I did ask you about it,” Mark said gently. “But you didn’t seem to want to tell it.”

“Because…I thought there was going to be a right time. I thought we were both going to be ready for it when it came.” He looked like he was about ready to cry, and sharply looked up, blinking his eyes. “I must look like such an idiot to you.”

“Jinyoung,” Mark said firmly, reaching across the table to take his hand. “You know I could never think of you like that. Never. Out of the two of us, I’m the one who should be saying that.”

Jinyoung squeezed his hand tight, blinked his eyes a few more times, then took a deep and shuddering breath. “Mark,” he said.

“Yes?”

“You know how I’m driving across the state for Jaebum's wedding right after our panel is over today?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s too much to say to possibly squeeze it in before then. Can we…can we talk about this when I get back?”

Mark nodded. He felt like he needed the time to collect his thoughts and what he was feeling just as much as Jinyoung did. They both had their share of explaining to do, and he was still in the stage of just trying to process the bombshells that had just been dropped on him. “Of course.”

“Thank you.” Jinyoung slowly released his hand, then rose to his feet. “Come on. We’ve got a panel to prepare for, unless you want me to do it in my pajamas.”