“You are so not helping, Jackson Wang!”

Jackson ducked to avoid the pillow Mark had just thrown at him. “What do you want from me, man? I’m trying my best here.”

Mark picked up another pillow and Jackson flinched. The older boy sighed before squeezing it to his chest. He was trying to come up with a plan for telling Youra that he loved her, but it was proving to be harder than he thought it would be.

1 month.

It had been one whole month since they had started dating.

And it felt like the days had literally rushed by.

What with their colleges starting up after the summer holidays again, it felt like one month had gone by in the duration of only a week.

But although this past month had been one of the best months in his life for a while now, there was a constant thought whizzing through his head.

The thought that he hadn’t told Youra that he loved her.

There were often moments where the words were on the tip of his mouth or moments where Youra would say something or laugh and he felt this sudden urge to just blurt out how he felt about her.

But the fear that she didn’t feel the same held him back.

They had been dating only for a month, and even though Mark knew she really liked him, he didn’t want to impose on her by saying he loved her. He didn’t want her to feel pressured in their relationship when he told her how his feelings for her ran deeper than just the simple words ‘I like you’.

Jackson had told him that he was being stupid, that Youra probably felt the same about him and that even if she didn’t, she would never feel pressured around Mark. His argument was that they were way too comfortable with each other for that to happen.

His words over time were now slowly starting to creep into Mark’s mind, making his urge to tell her stronger and stronger.

Which was why Mark was trying to plan out how he would confess with Jackson at his house.

But the latter wasn’t really helping very much.

Jackson scrolled through the Wikipedia page for the show Love O2O, a show he knew Youra liked when she mentioned it in passing. He was trying to look through plots of movies and shows she liked for Mark to adopt into his plan but Mark was getting increasedly annoyed with how they weren’t able to find anything he liked or could use.

“What are you scrolling through now?”

“Another show Youra mentioned she liked, but now that I read through it, I have no idea why she liked it. It sounds cringey.”

“Usually what guys find cringey, girls find cute.”

“Or cringey. Maybe Youra just likes torturing herself.” Jackson offered before searching for another show.

Mark threw the pillow he was holding at the younger male. “For your information, my girlfriend is not a masochist.”

“It’s been one month and I still have to take a second to realise that you’re talking about Youra and not a completely different person when you say girlfriend.”

Mark smiled fondly. “1 whole month, it’s crazy.”

“I know right, feels like only yesterday we were sitting outside my house and you told me you loved her. Now you’re dating and about to tell her you love her, next thing you know you’ll be married.”

“You know, I would literally marry her tomorrow if I could, because I know there’s no one else I want to be with. But that would be too fast. Besides, if I’m going to be with her for the rest of my life, I should be willing to wait at least a bit.”

Jackson looked up from his phone. “Why is it that guys are always in such a hurry to get married?”

Mark chuckled. “Get a girl maybe then you’ll find out why. Also, since when are you not a guy?”

“Well I am one, it’s just that I’m not the sort of guy who would want to instantly get married to the girl I love. I would want to give her and me some time before we take such a huge step. So maybe that’s why I just didn’t group myself in ‘guys’.”

“Really?”

“Yeah man, I don’t know, I’ve grown up reading and watching stories where the guy is always so eager to get married to the girl, but it just doesn’t feel right. Like I know, the guy or in this case you want to stay with the girl you love forever and you can’t even imagine being with someone else but marriage is such a huge change.”

“Let me guess, you’ve been watching too many chick flicks lately and now all of a sudden you think you know everything there is to relationships and dating?”

Jackson shook his head. “I don’t know everything obviously but sometimes chick flicks make good points, like look at ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’.”

“I actually haven’t seen ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’.”

“You uncultured soul.” Jackson got up and pulled Mark up too. “We are watching that right now.”

“We were supposed to plan my big confession, you know.” Mark reminded the younger man. “Not watch movies. Also, we should probably ask Youra if she’s free. From what I remember, I’m pretty sure she likes this movie.”

Jackson dragged Mark to the living room and sat down, pulling him down next to him before turning on the TV and looking for the movie on Netflix. “You just miss her too much.”

“Hey, I’m just saying.”

Jackson rolled his eyes despite the smile forming on his lips. Even though he often found his friends cringey and made fun of them, he had to admit that they were pretty cute together. “Fine, call her.”

Mark grinned at him and Jackson shook his head before finally finding the movie and waiting for Mark to ask Youra if she was coming.

“Hello?”

Mark smiled on hearing her voice before putting the phone to Jackson’s ear. He stuck out his tongue before mouthing the words ‘I do not miss her too much. See?’

Jackson rolled his eyes again. “Youra?”

“Jackson? Why are you calling from Mark’s phone?”

“Yeah, yeah I get it. You were expecting him but instead you got me.”

“Jacky.” 

“Anyway, Mark and I are watching ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’, wanna watch? By the way, he says he misses you.”

Mark shoved Jackson who handed the phone to him while sticking his tongue out.

“Hey baby.” Mark said before he put a hand over Jackson’s face, who had started making puking noises.

Youra chuckled. “Hi, I hear you miss me?”

“Well, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to you. I miss you almost all the time.” Mark said softly, now moving his hand to Jackson’s mouth after hearing him pretend to gag. “But yeah that was Jackson just making it obvious. Anyway, you coming?”

“I wish I could baobei, but I’m stuck at university right now and after that I’m going out for lunch with Key.”

After university started up again, Key had reached out to Youra one day and asked if she was up for hanging out and ever since, it had become a habit to see each other every now and then. It was going pretty well actually, both of them had moved on substantially since their first meeting so their meetings weren’t so awkward anymore.

“Just Key?”

“Yeah, the others were busy today so it’s just the two of us.”

‘The others’ referred to the rest of Key’s friends, collectively dubbed as SHINee, a nickname they had adopted when Taemin had accidentally misspelled the word ‘shiny’ in high school. They found the name weird at first but in the end found it pretty unique so they just went along with it. Later, they found out that there was already a k-pop group with the same name, but by then they were too lazy to change it so it just stuck.

Mark nodded even though he knew she couldn’t see him. “Alright, well have fun.”

“I intend to, I’m introducing Key to authentic Mexican food. Burritos here I come!” She giggled, making Mark smile fondly and slowly remove his hand from Jackson’s mouth. He wondered if she knew how cute she could be at times. “Hey, I’m free in the evening. You think you could come over to my house then?"

"Are your parents gonna be home?"

"I don't think so."

There was an awkward pause and Mark's eyes widened as he realised what he had just asked.

He scrunched his eyes closed. "Oh my God, I didn't, it's just that no one knows and I-"

She chuckled. "Hey, it's okay. I got what you meant. Besides, even if that wasn't what you meant, I still wouldn't have minded."

Mark's cheeks reddened on hearing her response. He all of a sudden was regretting not moving his conversation elsewhere instead of talking in front of Jackson, who was probably able to hear everything.

He glanced at Jackson who was scrolling through his Instagram on his phone before turning away. "You have got to stop saying things like that."

"Why?" She asked, sounding intrigued.

"Because," He lowered his voice. "I have a pretty wild imagination, Choi."

She coughed. "Oh."

Mark chuckled at her reaction. "Should have seen that one coming, babe. Anyways, Jackson's waiting. I'll see you later then?"

"Okay. See you later, Tuan."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Jackson sighed. "Well, I guess I should be grateful you guys aren't like Ross and that girl he dates, telling each other to cut the call first." He shuddered. "That would truly make me puke."

“I think Youra would puke too if I started doing that.”

“And that is why she’s my best friend.” Jackson said while waving the TV remote around. “So is she coming?”

Mark shook his head. “She’s busy.”

“With what?”

“University, Key.” The older boy replied off-handedly before taking the remote from Jackson’s hand and playing the movie. “Can we watch this already?”

“A while ago, you sounded so uninterested in this and now you’re voluntarily watching it. Wow, Youra sure is a mood changer.”

“I’m bored, and by the looks of things, seems like you’ve given up on trying to help me so let’s just watch this.”

Jackson threw an arm around his friend’s shoulder. “That’s the spirit. Now let me introduce you to one of the most chickiest of chick flicks.”

-

“You were right. That was one of the chickiest chick flicks I’ve ever seen, but it was pretty good.” Mark said as he switched the TV off. “I liked it.”

“It’s a sweet movie.” Jackson mumbled sleepily with his head on Mark’s shoulder.

Mark smiled before gently moving Jackson’s head to the armrest of the couch so he could sleep properly. He pulled up the younger boy’s feet on to the couch before looking at the time. It was lunch time and he was starting to feel hungry.

He was debating on rummaging through Jackson’s fridge and putting together something for them to eat or just ordering food online. He ended up settling on the first one, considering how he was in the mood to eat something simple like a sandwich. He looked through the pantry for bread before looking through the fridge for condiments and vegetables.

He found everything relatively quickly, probably because Aunty Sophia liked keeping the kitchen or rather the whole house pretty organised.

Mark smiled at the thought. He remembered when Jackson’s family would come visit them in the US from China and how Aunty Sophia’s first words on seeing their house once were “I love you guys but if you don’t let me organise the clutter on your coffee table, I think I might just cry.”

To be fair, Mark’s house had always been sort of messy. It wasn’t like his family was naturally messy or didn’t like being organised, it was more like they knew that cleaning up would be futile, what with the number of people running around in his household.

Mark would wake up to mornings with his siblings and parents running around the house asking each other if they had seen each other’s keys, lunchboxes and in Joey’s case, if anyone had seen his homework.

So looking at the way Aunty Sophia had arranged her whole kitchen and house, it was refreshing to say the least.

He washed the tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce he had found in the fridge before cutting them into slices. Then he untwisted the little tag that kept the bread in its packet, picked out a few slices and put them on 2 plates he had found after looking through a few cabinets.

He found some mayonnaise and ketchup, put together 4 sandwiches and left one in the fridge for Jackson’s mom who had gone out for some work. He figured she would like opening the fridge when she came home in search of food only to find a sandwich already ready for her.

“Man, I’m starving.” Jackson whined as he rubbed his eye and walked into the kitchen. “Sandwiches, really?”

“And just for that, you don’t get any.” Mark picked up Jackson’s plate and was about to put it in the fridge when the younger boy grabbed it out of his hand.

“Not like I’m ungrateful or anything but I was sort of in the mood for takeout.”

Jackson sat at the dining table and Mark joined him. “Brat.”

“You forget that this brat is the one trying to help you with your big confession, so you better be nice to me.”

“I d