Jinyoung was at his nth video call for the afternoon, conversing with the lucky winners from his group's WithFans event. It's been a blur of conversations ranging from him doing aegyo to him serenading his fans. Although with the unavailability of meeting the fans personally due to unforeseen circumstances, he hopes that through these video call events that he does along with s, their fans could be comforted through these 2 minutes or so conversations.

His attention is immediately caught when another fan's video call went through. He greets the fan then starts up a casual conversation with her. Along the conversation, he is taken by surprise by her question.

"Jinyoung-ssi, what type of girl do you like? Or do you have an ideal type?" She asks, tucking her stray hair behind her ear.

Ever since Jinyoung's debut, he always gets asked by this same question at every interview. He knows how to answer this safely and perfectly. Something that would placate his fans to ease down their curiosity for the meantime. But, all the same, he is feeling differently nowadays. Ever since their group promotions, he's been feeling a little bit down due to a certain member's somewhat cold treatment towards him.

Feeling a little bit honest with himself, he answers his fan's question after a moment's pause. 

"I don't have an ideal. The person I like is my ideal."

Jinyoung was however, unaware of another person entering the room he was currently in as he conversed with his fan.

                                       ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A few minutes earlier, Mark entered the room silently where Jinyoung's video call event was being held. He was done with his schedule for the day and he wanted to take a rest for a bit so he slid his way towards a quiet corner in the room. Knowing that the room where the VC event is being held had comfy chairs and delicious snacks.

Once he is comfortably seated, he closes his eyes to get some much-needed shuteye. But, a few minutes to his rest, he hears the fan currently conversing with Jinyoung ask a rather overused question. Though being on some group interviews belonging to the same group as Jinyoung over the years, he was quite well-versed with the answer the younger would be answering with to this particular question.

"I don't have an ideal. The person I like is my ideal." He hears the younger reply.

To that, Mark is simply astonished. Usually, Jinyoung would state some qualities to provide a general picture for his fans, more to appease them than actually reveal anything about his preferences. Which is why, he's become intrigued of the unusual answer. He'll tuck this piece of information for later. For now, it seems Jinyoung's conversation with the fan goes back to the usual, quirky exchanges. He tries to listen for any kind of juicy conversation with the succeeding fans but quickly determines that all of them are just the usual idol-fan interactions. With that, he closes his eyes to rest for real this time.

Several minutes later, Mark is being shaken awake by another person. Seeing that his sleep has been disturbed, he guesses that he has taken a much longer nap than he intended to. Upon rubbing and opening his eyes, he looks to the person beside him and sees Jinyoung's beautiful brown orbs staring at him softly.

"Hyung, how long have you been asleep there? I didn't notice you enter earlier." The younger asks, Mark now noticing that Jinyoung was kneeling by his chair to be at level with him.

"Ahhh. I finished my schedule a while ago and just wanted to take a bit of a nap before we go home for the day. Is it 5pm already? You're done with your video calls then?" Mark asks the younger to which Jinyoung nodded to.

"It's actually past that already since I extended several conversations with the fans. It's BamBam-ssi's turn now." Jinyoung informs the older.

With that, Mark looks to the location where Jinyoung was a while ago and true enough, BamBam is having a good time laughing with a fan. Mark looks to Jinyoung again.

"Hey Jinyoung-ah. Do you have anything to do more after this? What would you say to going to your place since it's closer here then ordering take-out for dinner?" Mark asks, curiously glancing the younger's way.

At his hyung's invitation, Jinyoung is quite shocked to be honest. A while ago, he was thinking about how cold Mark has been treating him ever since their group promotions started. But all the same, he can't help but feel glad that his hyung is finally warming up to him again.

"I don't actually have anything more after the video call event. Let me just go get my things and I'll be ready. Will we meet by the parking lot or by my place already?" Jinyoung asks.

"Let's meet at the parking lot since I'd like to join you in the car. I'll just tell Manager-hyung to pick me up later at your place when we're done eating." Mark answers. Again, Jinyoung gets shocked by his hyung's sudden change of heart but gladly accepts anyways. He just wants for things to be better between them again.

In Jinyoung's heart of hearts, he can't stand being given Mark's cold shoulder for a long period of time. They've always had this close connection ever since their trainee days and even though they had arguments and misunderstandings from time to time, they never took long to make up since they both know how the other hurts from the fight. But to be honest with himself, the real reason that Jinyoung's torn about his hyung's treatment towards him as of late was because his heart can't take anymore of the pain. Knowing himself for years, he's been secretly in-love with the Taiwanese-American ever since he can remember.

All those fleeting touches, innocent kisses and touching messages between them making his heart flutter more than anything in this world could offer Jinyoung. He's contemplated several times just confessing his feelings to the older but ultimately stops himself at the perfect opportunity. Too many things between them to jeopardize and too many uncertainties to even bet for something as risky as love. So all the while, Jinyoung has been secretly pining for Mark while greedily taking opportunities he could get to be somewhat intimate with the older. He knows that it's all pointless and futile anyways yet he can't help but do those things to satisfy his heart's desire. What can he do? He was in love...

                                     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several minutes later, Jinyoung, along with his manager, makes his way towards the parking lot where his ride home would be. Upon reaching the car, he sees Mark casually leaning, using his phone and thumping his head to the music he's currently listening to. Once he reached Mark, Jinyoung taps the older's shoulder to get his attention.

With the sensation of someone tapping him, he looks to see Jinyoung smiling at him. His heart tugs at the sight. Mentally slapping himself, Mark removes his earphones to greet the younger.

"Hey Nyoung. Ready to go?" Mark asks.

"Yes hyung. Manager-hyung is already at the front seat to drive us to my place. Let's go?" Jinyoung replies, Mark nodding his head.

They both get in and get themselves comfortable while Jinyoung's manager drives along the busy streets of Seoul. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Jinyoung pipes up.

"Hyung, what food are we ordering?' The younger asks, turning to face Mark who's currently transfixed with his phone doing God-knows-what.

"Hmmm? Do you have anything that you wanted to eat?" Mark asks in return, putting his phone down to converse with Jinyoung.

"Well... There's no sashimi available for take-out but maybe we could go for chicken?"

"Sure. I'll order a set of spicy ones for me and a set of soy garlic ones for you. I'll add Soju and some side dishes also." Mark replies, taking his phone again to probably order their dinner.

With that, the conversation ends and Jinyoung's left to look out the window again, pondering his thoughts. He misses these kinds of hangouts with Mark to be honest. With his jam-packed schedule of drama and movie filming, he barely has enough time to hang out with the other members, much less with Mark who has his own set of schedules.

"Jinyoungie, I can practically hear your thoughts from here. Are you troubled by something?" Mark says, cutting the silence inside the car.

"I just... really missed this hyung." Jinyoung vaguely answers, still looking out of the car windows since he doesn't want Mark to see his expression right now.

Mark didn't reply but instead, tugged Jinyoung's hand to get the younger closer to him. Jinyoung's heart rate accelerated at that gesture by the older. Jinyoung eventually lets himself be pulled by Mark so they're now sitting with their sides touching. Mark lets his hand holding Jinyoung's rest at his thigh then looks at the younger who's busy staring at their joined hands.

"Jinyoung-ah, I'm sorry for being an lately to you. I was at a weird headspace lately and that's not an excuse for being indifferent to you. I hope to apologize for my actions starting with this dinner with you. To be completely honest, I missed having these moments with you too. So, would you forgive your dumb hyung?" Mark softly says, his thumb caressing Jinyoung's soft hand.

Jinyoung was left speechless at Mark's statement. He never thought that this evening with the older would entail them talking about Mark's recent demeanor towards Jinyoung. All the same, Jinyoung feels emotional at the moment since usually he was the one to bring up these conversations with  Mark for the two to make up. Jinyoung softly squeezes Mark's hand to somehow convey how touched he was by the older's statement.

"I'm sure you have your reasons for doing so Mark-hyung. I would like to know them if it's fine with you. Truth be told, I was hurt by your actions but with your apology, I am feeling lighter than ever in the past few weeks. I don't want to feel like this again hyung, so for next time, please tell me what I did wrong so we can both resolve it quickly." Jinyoung confesses, his tears just at the point of spilling due to the conversation.

With that, Mark turns his entire body towards Jinyoung and hugs the younger, bringing Jinyoung's head to the crook of Mark's neck. He then caresses and circles Jinyoung's back with soft touches. At the intimate gesture, Jinyoung completely lets loose his emotional turmoil and cries to his heart's content. Maybe it was the stress of having so much obligations right now and was expected of him to excel at them. Maybe it was the stress of not being on good terms with his hyung. Maybe he was just tired generally. Nevertheless, Jinyoung finally feels that he can breathe again as he releases everything to which Mark just took in stride. After a few minutes, Jinyoung's cries eventually died down.

"I'm so sorry for not sensing this earlier Jinyoungie. I bet you wanted so badly to let anyone know but since we were all busy, there was no opportunity for you to release your frustrations. I also apologize for adding to your suffering these past few weeks. I can't help but kick myself inside for doing this to you." Mark softly says, his arms hugging Jinyoung tighter without suffocating the younger.

Jinyoung didn't want Mark to feel guilty. Although he got hurt by the older's actions, Mark was never one to be quite illogical. So in Jinyoung's eyes, he must have done something to warrant the older's cold treatment towards him. As he was just about to tell this to Mark, the car stops. They both slowly separate at that then turns to look at the right window, seeing Jinyoung's porch.

Just then, the window separating the front of the car from the back slides down, revealing Jinyoung's manager in the process.

"Hey Jinyoung, Mark. We're here. You guys have a good night okay? Make sure to not stay too late. You both still have schedules tomorrow even if it's a Sunday." He reminds the two to which the boys nodded.

"Thank you for your hard work today hyung. Make sure to get some rest too." Jinyoung gratefully says, bowing his head towards his manager. Mark also followed suit.

"Thanks for the hard work today too. Take a well-deserved rest you two." At that, the window slides up, closing it.

Mark silently takes Jinyoung's hand then opens the door to get them out of the car. They wave a final goodbye towards the front before walking up to the porch of Jinyoung's place. Mark hasn't been here for a while. What with having solo schedules and their group preparations for the recent comeback being the reasons for not being back here.

"Hyung, can you let go of my hand first? I need to unlock the door so we can enter." Jinyoung sheepishly asks. At that, Mark quickly lets go of the younger's hand, embarassed at the way it just felt natural that he didn't notice their hand-holding.

"Sorry about that." Mark says, rubbing his neck. He's hoping that with it being night and all, it would hide his growing blush by his slip-up.

"I don't mind hyung." Jinyoung successfully unlocks the door then grabs Mark's hand again and intertwined them before dragging the older inside.

Once inside, Mark notices that there's nothing much that has changed inside Jinyoung's home. Noting the same arrangement of furniture and overall motif of the place. Not that he expected any changes, he still was looking for anything that might have slipped his earlier inspection.

"Nothing has changed here hyung. You can stop looking around now." Jinyoung jokes, bringing Mark to the couch for him to sit down.

"I just wanted to check, is all." Mark sheepishly says to which Jinyoung responded to by chuckling.

"I'll just go and change my clothes. I'll bring you some too so you could be comfortable. I believe I still have some of your clothes here from when you guys slept in the last time you were here. Be on the lookout in case the food arrives." Jinyoung informs Mark before heading towards his bedroom.

I guess Mark did leave some of his clothes from their last sleepover. He, along with the others, had a movie marathon at Jinyoung's living room. They were relaxing that day after a very rigorous dance practice for their concert preparations. Mark laughs at the memory of them watching a bunch of horror movies to which Jackson had to scream at every jumpscare moment. While reminiscing, Mark hears the doorbell ring. Must be the food delivery guy.

Once Mark gets the door and pays for the food they ordered, he sets on to preparing the table by the dining room so once Jinyoung gets back, they could start eating. Now that he's thinking about it, he's really hungry after a day of a