Soori ended up keeping Mark’s jacket for the remainder of the weekend, which Mark had no problem with. She told him she’d have it washed first before returning it, but Mark had no intentions of taking the jacket back from her.

On Monday, Soori once again tried giving the jacket back to him. However, Mark would not take it back.

“Mark it’s yours!”

“It’s yours now, babe.”

Soori gave him a look, “Stop calling me babe!”

“Aww but babe… The jacket looks so good on you!” Mark grinned and took the jacket, placing it over her shoulders again.

At that moment, Jimin was walking over.

“Hey guys!”

“Oh, hey Jimin,” Mark greeted, his hands still on Soori as he was putting the jacket on her.

Jimin raised an eyebrow at the scene, “Am I interrupting something?”

Soori’s eyes widened as she shrugged Mark’s hands off of her shoulders, handing him his jacket back as well. She quickly shook her head, “No not at all!”

“You guys seem-”

“It’s not like that!! I’m trying to return the jacket but he insists I keep it…” Soori quickly explained to him while shaking her hands out in front of her. Mark raised an eyebrow at Soori’s behavior, she was behaving rather jittery.

“Oh… I see… Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out after school?” Jimin asked.

Soori felt her insides exploding and she was about to say yes, but then she remembered something else. Before she could even speak up, Mark did for her.

“No, she’s hanging out with me. Sorry, Jimin,” he said harshly.

“What? No. I’m sorry Jimin. I’d love to hang out with you, but I can’t. And I’m not hanging out with you either, Mark… I’m part of the play. I’m going to shadow Heesung Unnie,” Soori explained.

“You’re what?” both Mark and Jimin looked at her, confused.

“I’m studying under Heesung Unnie and then after she graduates I’m taking over her job as stage manager.”

“That’s what shadowing is?!?!?!” Mark asked incredulously.

“…What did you think it was…?”

“Not that…”

“Are you shadowing someone?”

“Daniel Hyung…”

“Have fun with that!” Soori burst into laughter, “But wait that guy isn’t even part of the tech team…”

Mark hung his head in defeat, “I’m still shadowing him for some reason…”

Soori rolled her eyes and shook her head before looking back at Jimin, giving him a sheepish look, “Sorry I can’t walk hang out with you today. Maybe Wednesday? We don’t have any rehearsal then.”

“Sure, Thursday would work out just fine!” Jimin grinned then tilted his head to the side, “Wanna walk with me to go to everyone else?”

“Sure.”

“I’m coming too!” Mark declared.

The trio walked with Soori squished in between both men. Although everyone appeared to be civil with each other, Mark grew a certain annoyance towards Jimin after seeing how closely he acted with Soori. He grew even more annoyed seeing how easily Jimin could make Soori nervous and how easily he makes her knees turn to jelly and how easily he made her cheeks turn into a tomato red. In other words, Mark was jealous of Jimin.

With Jimin beside her, Soori barely paid any attention to Mark. No, she was too busy giving the other man heart shaped eyes and rosy cheeks. She was so focused on him, that she didn’t even notice when Mark slipped away.

Unable to take the sight of those two being so lovey-dovey with each other, Mark simply walked away from Soori and approached a group of girls. Despite spending the last week ignoring any and all contact with other ladies, Mark easily smooth talked his way into getting them under his spell. He once again was enjoying the company of other ladies, sharing kisses here and there and being the flirt he was. Despite all the girls, his mind was still stuck on Soori.

Once Soori and Jimin reached the others, Jackson was the first to speak up.

“Where’s Mark?”

That’s when Soori blinked several times and immediately turned around, her eyes wide as she immediately caught the red-haired boy walking off with his arm wrapped around a girl. Without a doubt, they were going to a secluded area.

She scoffed inwardly and averted her eyes, crossing her arms as she turned back to Jackson.

“Being a flirt again…”

~

“I thought you guys’ had a nice date,” Jinhee mentioned during lunch.

Jackson and Bambam nodded in agreement. “Mark would not shut up about how happy he was after the date.”

“We had a decent date… What’s your point?” Soori raised an eyebrow.

“Well then… Why is off sticking his hands inside other girls’ clothes when he could be here with you?” Jaebum inquired, nonchalantly wrapping his arm around Jinhee’s waist, resting his hand at her hip.

The girl rolled her eyes, “I'm pretty sure he's a player. Why would he waste his time with one girl when he knows he can get several other women.”

“Because he likes you…” Jinyoung said more to himself than to her.

“What was that?” Serah asked.

“Nothing, nothing!” Jinyoung grinned, “Anyway, enough on Mark. How’s everyone else? Where’s Jimin, Woobin, and Moonhyun?”

Mina answered, “I saw Moonhyun and Woobin off with Jessica and Krystal. I haven’t seen Jimin though,”

“Last I saw Jimin he was with Yugyeom and Youngjae,” Hana said.

“Really? I wonder what those three are planning,” Bambam wondered out loud.

“It couldn’t be anything that bad,” Serah chuckled and nudged him.

Suddenly, all the men in the group along with Soori turned their eyes to the two. They all knew Bambam had feelings for Serah, and were just now noticing how close the two had grown.

“Hey, didn’t you guys also have a date over the weekend?” Jaebum questioned.

“Wait really? Serah you hoe why didn’t you tell me?!?!” Jinhee whined.

Serah blinked a few times and quickly shook her hands in front of her, “I-It’s not like that!”

Bambam just chuckled and nonchalantly threw his arm over the girl’s shoulders, “We just happened to bump into each other.”

“And what’d you guys do?” Soori wiggled her eyebrows.

“We hung out at the mall for a while… This girl really isn’t ashamed to hide anything…” Bambam suddenly blushed.

All the girls gave each other knowing looks and just sighed while the boys looked at each other, shrugging in confusion.

“She forced you into underwear shopping with her, didn’t she?” Jinhee sighed.

“Oh damn. I’d say that’s a lucky date for you!” Jackson burst into laughter, “If a girl forced me to help her find some underwear… Man, I swear the things I would do…”

“Unless the girl is Serah… Trust me, I tried, and I thought I would have had my whooped!” Bambam whined.

“Oh man up!” Serah exclaimed as an unwanted tint of red rushed to her cheeks.

Bambam frowned at her, “The minute I set my hands on a bra or some sort of underwear you immediately smacked me!”

“You don’t know where those underwear have been, another girl could have tried them on!”

“Talk about paradise… Can you girls take me out underwear shopping with you??” Jinyoung grinned from ear to ear. Jaebum and Jackson agreed with that statement.

“Tch… erts,” Naomi rolled her eyes.

“You guys could just walk in there on your own and say you’re shopping for a friend or something,” Soori suggested.

“No, people would get the wrong idea,” Jaebum said. "Plus we wouldn't be able to hold ourselves back if we didn't have you girls to smack us around."

“As much as I love the thought of smacking you guys around... Wouldn’t they get the wrong idea of us if we brought men in there to help us look for underwear?” Soori raised an eyebrow.

“What exactly did we just walk into?” Woobin chuckled as he sat down with the group of friends, Moonhyun, Jimin, Yugyeom, and Youngjae also joining.

Jaebum and Jackson happily caught the guys up to speed on their conversation.

“Damn. Where is Mark, he would totally love this conversation!” Moonhyun laughed.

“You called?” Mark suddenly took a seat next to Soori.

“Just the conversation they were having, it sounds like one you should be a part of,” Woobin chuckled.

Mark raised an eyebrow, “What was the conversation?”

And the group immediately filled Mark in.

Once the explanation was done, the red-haired boy smirked and nudged Soori gently, “Hey babe wanna take—”

“No,” Soori immediately replied. Her response was so quick, so cold, the entire group of friends shivered and could feel the tension that was beginning to rise.

So I’m back to cold replies… Great.

“Aww but babe—”

“I’m going to look for Kevin and Minhyuk.”

And just like that, Soori had gathered her things and was walking out of the cafeteria and into the main hallway. Normally, Kevin and Minhyuk were seen next to a pillar found next to the main office, so that’s where she headed.

“So… What exactly happened?” Jinhee finally asked.

“Who knows… Mark, what’d you do?” Youngjae teasingly asked.

“Nothing! I don’t think…”

“It may or may not have to do with the fact that you went out flirting again,” Moonhyun said.

“Well she doesn’t even like me anyway, I figured that out earlier.”

“What do you mean?” of course, it had to be Jimin who asked.

Mark shrugged lightly and forced himself to answer Jimin civilly, “I think she likes you.”

“She does like him. We were all aware of that…” Serah said.

Mark, Jaebum, Jackson, Jinyoung, Youngjae, Bambam, and Yugyeom all had a shocked expression. “We were not aware of that!” Jackson yelled.

“Do you want us to tell you the story?” Jinhee grinned widely.

“Yes!” Jaebum, Jackson, Jinyoung, and Youngjae all said immediately.

“I’m gonna… Go and find her while you tell that story… I’d feel too awkward if I stayed here,” Jimin chuckled and stood up.

Mark once again forced himself to remain calm while Jimin left the group and off to find Soori.

“Well… Here’s what happened…”

~

The boys were speechless once Woobin, Moonhyun, Jinhee, and Serah finished sharing Soori and Jimin’s story.

“No wonder she likes him…” Jinyoung was the first to find some words.

Mark sighed and nodded in agreement.

I couldn’t even hope to compete with that…

“But… None of us really approve of it…” Moonhyun spoke up.

“Really? Why?” Bambam asked.

Serah answered, “We love Jimin and all but… He’s kind of a douchebag. He might seem nice and everything right now, but if he finds better, he’ll abandon everything. And once that ‘better’ thing abandons him, he’ll come running right back like it never happened.”

“And you guys accept him back each time?” Jaebum asked.

“Well… It’s not like he’s specifically hurt any one of us. If he ends up hurting Soori in the future, then we won’t accept him back… Or maybe we will… After Moonhyun and I beat the living daylights out of him,” Woobin grinned as he and Moonhyun threw their arms over each other’s shoulders.

“I’ll happily help!!” Jackson grinned and hi-fived both of them.

“Me too!!” The other guys all hi-fived one another. All except for Mark, he was too busy in his own world.

“Earth to Mark?” Jackson snapped his fingers in front of the man’s face, speaking in English.

“Huh? What?” Mark asked, also speaking in English.

“Aren’t you going to join us in beating up Jimin if he hurts Soori?” Woobin grinned.

Mark blinked a few times then shook his head, “Nope… While you guys are beating him up… I’ll be comforting Soori.”

“But that’s our job!!” the girls whined.

Mark frowned, “Come on!!”

“No! If a man, especially Jimin, hurts our little girl we are going to look after her!” Serah exclaimed.

“Maybe she wants the comfort of another guy though?”

“Probably not yours,” Jinhee retorted.

“Ouch… It hurts more coming from you…” Mark playfully clutched onto his shirt where his heart was.

“Guys are we really going to forget that Jimin ran after Soori?” Mina deadpanned while propping an elbow up on the table, resting her chin on her palm.

~

Soon enough it continued on like that. Jimin hung out with Soori, Mark tried to play it off by flirting with other girls. After a while he actually asked another girl to be his girlfriend.

When the group of friends interrogated him, his reply was simple. “She’s just a little fun I’m having and then leaving after homecoming.”

Despite the girlfriend, during their walks home, Mark flirted with Soori as much as possible. Even if she wasn’t walking home with them, he sent her several flirtatious text messages.

Then there was the dreaded Wednesdays when Soori walked with Jimin. They walked separately from the rest of the group, stopped by the café, then by the park. They brought the bubble tea from the café over there, Jimin’s arm casually slung around her shoulders as they sat down at a bench. The couple talked for a few minutes, finishing their drinks, laughing, and sharing stories with one another. They almost looked like an honest pair, boyfriend and girlfriend.

After the two had finished their drinks, Soori stood up to finally get home. However, Jimin dragged her over to the swing set instead, despite Soori’s repeated protests. She laughed and hung her head in defeat as he finally sat her down on the swing before he began gently pushing her lower back to get higher up on the swing. She squealed a little as she got higher and higher, almost begging Jimin to stop. He only laughed and kept pushing her until he was certain the swing would not go any higher.

One day, Mark happened to notice them on the swingsets as the group passed by the park on their way home. He subconsciously clenched his fists, wanting to turn away but for some reason his head wouldn’t turn.

Serah was the first to notice, and she put a soothing hand on the tall boy’s shoulder. “It’s okay…” she whispered encouragingly.

“Thanks…” Mark muttered, finally bringing himself to turn away from the happy couple and continue walking with the rest of the group.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excuse me as I casually start up some drama~

Please don't hate me

I'll try to update as soon as I can~

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Comment Replies~

thelillcat - I'm glad you enjoyed their date~! Though this chapter kinda makes that date seem irrelevant-- Cough. Don't hate me--

KIM_MINAH_19 - I'm glad you do~! <3

almightytofu - Well he could :3 Eventually~ Her past won't be revealed until muuuuch later. Sorry~

Waffle_Berry - I REPEAT JOEY'S SCENES ARE GONNA BE MY FAVORITE TO WRITE. I'm glad you like my story and everything~ Thank you for reading! <3