Monday came around relatively quickly. I haven't spoken to Mark since his blow up on Saturday and I knew that today, there was no way I could avoid him the entire day. Luckily for me, we didn't decide to carpool together so I could drive to school without sharing a vehicle with Mark. It's one thing to talk to someone in school with the presence of other people, and another thing completely in the confines of a car. 

As I got out of Little Red at school, I scanned the parking lot for Mark's Audi, not seeing it parked in his driveway when I left home. I don't know why I was trying so hard to avoid him but I tried to be as stealthy as possible, scanning for his car behind the cover of my mine.

"What are you doing?" I jumped at the sound of Jackson's voice. I turned to find Jackson leaning against my car, arms crossed across his body, one eyebrow raised as if interrogating questions. 

"Nothing." I said as nonchalantly as I could. 

"Didn't look like nothing." I played dumb, acting like I haven't just been caught red-handed sneaking around. Jackson shook his head and smiled, "Mark's already inside. You won't bump into him here."

I looked at him in shock as he turned and headed for the school entrance. I shook my head and ran up to him. "Who says I was looking for him?" I asked. 

"You can drop the act, and before you think he told me anything, he didn't. I kinda put two and two together when he arrived here doing the same thing a few minutes ago." This information was new. So I guess I wasn't the only one dreading our eventual meet-up. "Something happened between you two?"

"Long story." I said. Before Jackson could reply, I heard someone calling my name. I turned around, looking for the source of the voice. I spotted him a few yards back, waving to me. It was Im Jaebeom, one of the guys on the basketball team. He is a senior too and is Mark's co-captain in the basketball team. We spoke a few times since I befriended Mark but we weren't close. "Hi Jaebeom." I greeted with a smile. Jaebeom returned the greeting, giving a small smile and a nod to Jackson next to me. Jackson returned a similar greeting of a simple nod. "What's up?"

"Uhm..." Jaebeom stared between me and Jackson. "Can I speak to you in private?"

I raised an eyebrow at his peculiar proposition. I looked to Jackson and gave him a 'Do you mind' look. He took the hint and walked towards the school, leaving me with Jaebeom standing in front of the school. "Okay, so what's this about?"

"Uhm well. I know we haven't really spoken much and all but I was wondering if maybe that could change?" He asked. Did I think correctly the meaning of what he was saying?

"Uhm... You gotta be a little bit more specific than that Jaebeom." I said. Best to be sure of his intentions before jumping to any conclusion. Because quite frankly, it sounded like Jaebeom was asking me out. 

"Well you know. Uhm... Maybe we could go have dinner together or maybe catch a movie?" OH MY GOD! He was asking me out. I thought about it from his perspective. Maybe I was overthinking and it was just his way of wanting to be friends. This was all new territory to me, having never been asked out in my life. Hell, I was the only openly gay kid at school. 

"If you are asking me out, just say it. I don't want any misunderstandings here." I said, trying to just clear up any misunderstanding on my part. 

"Wow this is awkward. Yes... I am." He said, giving me a nervous smile. 

"Uhm well... This is kinda unexpected." I was still reeling from the thought that someone had just asked me out, and by extension, that someone likes me. I mean, Jaebeom wasn't bad looking either, and the thought that a basketball jock liked me was more than enough to send my ego flying. 

"So is that a yes?" Jaebeom asked, giving me a hopeful smile. I thought about it but I wasn't sure. I mean Jaebeom was kinda handsome with his black hair and eye mole combo, but I didn't really know him much and then there was the whole liking Mark thing. In the back of my mind, I thought that maybe dating Jaebeom was a good way to get Mark off my mind. I mean, what better way to get over the cute straight jock than dating a cute gay jock? Was it fair though? Dating Jaebeom when I know that it wasn't him I liked but his teammate. 

"Jaebeom, I'm flattered, I really am, but..." I stopped. The look on his face changed from hopeful to disappointed at that last word, 'but'. The look he had made me consider maybe just saying yes. It wasn't easy asking someone out and he not only did that but kinda outed himself at the same time. Talk about double whammy. "Look, you're sweet and any other time I would have said yes, but I have a lot on my mind now and I don't think I'm being fair to you by saying yes."

"Oh... Okay. Uhm..."

"Listen, give me some time to sort out my problems. Maybe then I'll say yes, but right now, I'm gonna have to pass on the offer. Sorry." I said with a heavy heart. Maybe it was the thought that he still had a chance, that all hope wasn't lost, that his face lit up slightly. "We can be friends though."

"I'd like that."

"Besides, it'd be nice to have another gay friend in this school. Does anyone else know?" I asked. Last thing I wanted to do was accidentally out him. 

"Well it's not public but a couple of people know." He said, walking towards the school entrance. I followed him, keeping up with his pace. 

"Hmm well, if you need anything, feel free to ask. I guess I'm the leading expert in that field at Yongsan High."

"Good to know." He smiled. "Hey, see you around then. I gotta head to class." He said, turning down a different halfway. "Oh yeah, maybe we could exchange numbers?" He asked, fishing his phone from his pocket. I nodded and keyed my number in, letting him save it. "Thanks, I'll text you mine."

"See ya." I shouted, heading down the opposite hallway, heading to my locker. I felt like I was on cloud nine, knowing that maybe I wasn't so alone anymore. I would have skipped down the hall if it wasn't filled with so many students. I arrived at my locker and further down the hall I finally caught sight of Mark, who was leaning next to Jackson's locker. They were both chatting as Jackson retrieved some books. It was at that moment that Mark caught sight of me too. 

I acted cool. Opening my locker and retrieving the stuffs I needed, before doing my routine mirror check of my appearance.

"So... Jackson said that Jaebeom spoke to you earlier. In private?" Came Mark's voice on the other side of my locker door. 

"Yeah. What about it?" I asked, closing my locker and coming to face to face with Mark. 

"What did he want?" I stopped and thought about his question. Should I tell Mark? But then I realized I couldn't, seeing that Mark may not have known about Jaebeom's uality. 

"He asked if I could do a photo exhibit for him. For his mother's birthday." I lied. 

"Oh... I see." He didn't say anything else and leaned against the locker. I didn't know what to say too, letting the silence between us grow. I mean, what do you say after what happened on Saturday. So I simply stood there and looked at my feet, kicking at an invisible stone on the floor. "Sorry again." Mark said, breaking the silence. 

"I think you've already said that." I said, shooting him a small smile in my attempt to break the ice. Even the conversation after my outburst where I almost killed Mark wasn't this tense. 

"Yeah but I overreacted. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Pfft, I wasn't scared."

"Mmhmm sure, I felt your heart thumping." He pointed out, his smirk filling me with both the feeling of punching him and kissing him. Wait what? NO!

"Whatever." I said, turning to head to my class. 

"Hey hey wait. I wanted to ask you something." Mark shouted, putting a hand on my shoulder, spinning me around. "So this weekend I was gonna head down to my mom's house that's out of town. The place is beautiful and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?"

"Go with you, to meet your mother?" I asked incredulously. 

"Well it sounds bad when you put it that way. No, not to meet my mother, just to go with me. You know, for company."

"What about Yugyeom? Wouldn't he be company?"

"Well he would, if he was going, which he's not. He's got some sleepover or something this weekend. So, what do you say?"

"I don't want to impose on your mom."

"Nonsense. C'mon Jinyoungie. Just say yes. The project would be over and all so there's no worries." He pleaded. Once again, a new side to Mark I had never seen before. Him begging. But did my heart flutter at hearing his nickname for me? Absolutely not.

"Fine."

"Awesome! We'll be staying the weekend so do pack some change of clothes and stuff." He said. "We'll talk about it later." I nodded and waved goodbye as we headed in different directions.

                                  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As the week went by, I started regretting about agreeing to the trip. I mean, I should be trying to get over Mark and here I am going on a trip with him, just the two of us. Talk about rubbing salt to a wound. But, I guess no matter how much I'm beginning to regret my decision, I wasn't going to back out. I mean Mark is still my friend and there was only so much distance I could put between us. And to be honest, I wanted to go too. Yeah, I'm fickle like that, or maybe I'm masochistic. 

Through the week, Jaebeom called me a couple times. We talked about nothing in particular. He probably just wanted to get us comfortable with one another as friends and it was working. I don't know if it was because the little secret of his that we shared or just chemistry but we ticked. He had a surprising sense of humor, something I didn't expect as Jaebeom had always given me the serious impression. 

I spoke to Wonpil about Jaebeom too, and being the cynical pessimistic bastard that he is, said that Jaebeom was just trying to get in my pants. How all his so called 'friend' plot was just some elaborate plan to get me to sleep with him. I cursed him, because you know how when someone says something, it plants that seed in your brain and you can't help but always think about it? Yeah that happened to me. Curse Wonpil and his ideas.

"Why are you tearing down the person that could be the one to pull me out of this Mark funk?" I remembered asking him. 

"Because I don't like him."

"Yeah because who you like should dictate who I date. Besides, I don't see you tearing Mark down? Shouldn't you be doing that so I stop liking him?" I said, pointing out that fact. 

"Oh ho ho. I don't like Mark either but there is something that I see in Tuan that I never saw in that Ken doll look-alike." 

"Oh and what might that be?"

"Trust."

Did I agree with Wonpil? That's a simple yes, but I account that to the fact that I've known Mark for longer. I know Mark wears his heart on his sleeve and, as I have pointed out many times, Mark is, and have proven himself to be a very nice guy. Sure, he had a few moments here and there that proved to me that he wasn't some perfect cyborg made in a lab, but that he was just a normal human teenager with normal human teenager problems. 

Jaebeom on the other hand, was quiet a lot of times. I now knew that he had a sense of humor behind his unfeeling facade but that was all. He was smart and athletic, could hold a decent conversation but at the same time, secretive and mysterious. A person who is very difficult to read, let alone understand. It was this quality however, that also intrigued me, sparking curiosity to find out who Jaebeom truly was. Curious? Yes. But trust? Not so much. 

Would my love life ever be easy? A stupid question, seeing that I know love was never easy. 

However, fretting about the prospects of relationships was for another time. Today was the day I go on my trip with Mark. So here I was with a bag packed for a weekend stay at Mark's mother's place, heading out of Seoul in his car. Mark told me that his mom lived a few hours outside Seoul, somewhere around Gapyeong. I knew of the place but had never been there. However, I have heard that it's a nice