Days had past and there was no change in the atmosphere. Youngjae was still being the Youngjae everyone knew, except for his change in attitude when it came to Jackson, who was starting to get attached to Youngjae’s little group of friends. Speaking of friends, after Mark and Youngjae’s conversation, Mark still had not gathered up the courage to ask Jinyoung out but at least the latter wasn’t ignoring him anymore; after Mark and Youngjae had talked that day, Jinyoung took the first chance he got to ask Mark what they talked about, but when Mark didn’t tell him anything, Jinyoung got mad and ignored him for two whole days.

Now here they all were back in class getting ready to get out of school and enjoy their weekend when Mrs. Kim surprised everyone with a group project, great. She explained what they had to do and the time they had to complete the assignment.

“Oh, and the groups must have five people in them, no more, no less,” Mrs. Kim finished stating to the class. “Now pair up!”

Youngjae and Jinyoung immediately turned around to face Mark, it was obvious that they would be working together, but who would be joining them. The other obvious choice would have to be Jackson because the guy was right there and it would be really awkward not to ask him after all the improvements they had all made in getting to know one another, so Youngjae asked…

“You want to join our group?” Youngjae said looking at Jackson in the eye. Jackson was taken a bit by surprise because although he and Youngjae were now saying hello to one another in the hallways, it didn’t mean that they were the best of friends again.

“Me?” Jackson asked only to make sure he understood the question. Youngjae and Jinyoung both nodded. “Yeah okay,” he said with a smile.

“Now who else should we ask to join us?” Jinyoung said looking around the room, watching as the other student did the same, gathering up in groups. Mark and Youngjae began their quest to search for potential candidates but no one seemed right.

“What about Jaebum?” Jackson asked only because he too had started looking around and turned back to see that Jaebum was just sitting there in his chair.

“JB!” all three said in unison causing some students as well Jaebum to turn in their direction. Youngjae, Jinyoung, Mark and Jackson were now staring at him. Jaebum pointed at himself and smiled, he then got up and walked towards their little group, pulled up a chair and sat down.

“Aw, you guys shouldn’t have –” Jaebum stated smiling at the guys in his circle.

“We didn’t,” said Mark. Jaebum visibly deflated at that, but quickly recovered before someone saw. He then proceeds to act like the victim by pouting and letting his head drop in defeat.

“Okay, I understand…” Jaebum stated getting off his chair and starting to move back to his desk.

“Wait!” Youngjae said, earning him stares from Jinyoung and Mark. “We still need someone else, don’t we?” Youngjae added. The rest of the groups didn’t protest any further as Jaebum made a quick 180 degree turn and join his group again.

“Marky-Mark come here you little rascal, being mean doesn’t go well with you,” Jaebum said pulling Mark into a headlock. Mark grunted a bit as he struggled to free himself from Jaebum’s hands.

“Let him go,” Jinyoung ordered not too happy that Jaebum was messing around with his Mark. Jaebum let go and put his hands up in mock defeat. “Now if you want to be in this group with us, J.B,” Jinyoung said emphasizing Jaebum’s nickname, “we want to know that you want to be in it to help and not free load. Got it?” After a second of thinking and looking at the other faces in the groups that told him that they were all thinking the same thing, Jaebum nodded in agreement.

“Fine, no more pranks, I got it you can count on me.”  Jinyoung simply rolled his eyes because he thought Jaebum was a lost cause.

“That is all settled then, now we need to pick who does what and we are good to go,” Youngjae said taking up the roll of team leader, he was the bookworm in the classroom and in their group so it only made sense that he was the one to make sure everyone did their part in contributing to the project.

“I don’t like reading, so any research involved, count me out of that,” Jaebum stated.

“Okay –maybe you can take notes?” Jaebum looked at Youngjae as if he had no idea what he was talking about.

“Yeah, I’ll just do the hard lifting, that’s what these are for,” Jaebum announced flexing his arm muscles.

“I don’t think there will be any hard lifting involved, it’s not science class you know,” Mark interjected.

“Besides I think I’d be better at lifting,” Jackson said impressing everyone with just how comfortable he felt by bragging.

“As if,” Jaebum snorted, undignified because he prided himself on being the strongest in the class. “You want to test that theory?”

“Alright class, that will be it for the day. I want a list of all the people in your group left on my desk before you leave. I hope you know what your role will be and remember, if you have any questions, come ask me,” said Mrs. Kim calling for the attention of all her students and instantly cutting down and conversations going on in the class.

The school bell went off, signaling the end of class and Youngjae quickly ripped off a page from his notebook and scribed down the names of the people in his group. This would turn out to be a great idea or the worst, depending on how he handled keeping his head on straight and concentrating on the work and not having Jackson on his mind like he always did. Then there was Jaebum who was not such a reliable person so Youngjae thought they would all end up having to do his part of the work. Stress!

To everyone’s surprise, Jaebum was not as bad a student as he made himself out to be. After a few days of not doing much for the team, Youngjae decided to take him under his wing and show him the ropes in the library. Up until that day, Jaebum had never really been inside a library, let alone the one in school. He couldn’t save his life if it depended on him finding where the library was located.

“Wow, so this is where the library is at?” Jaebum stated as he stepped into the three-floored book mansion. “But why is it underground?”

“I don’t know JB, now follow me and don’t get lost,” Youngjae stated moving on to go all the way down to the third floor. “We’ll be working on the third level since that is where all the books we might need are and basically that’s where the desks are.”

“I see, yeah sure.” Jaebum followed Youngjae down the flights of stairs without uttering another word. He looked around and saw rows upon rows stacked with book shelves, all aligned perfectly in order; he also noticed that there were more students on the first entrance level and as they made their way deeper underground, the students started to diminish.

“Okay then we will be using books from the last three shelves on the last row,” said Youngjae moving on towards the back of the room where they would be spending their time doing research. He dragged Jaebum around making him carry some books that he had pulled out of the book shelves and then they made their way towards the desks that were provided by the institution.

After what seemed like hours of sitting around and reading books along with taking notes, Jaebum was getting a little sleepy and bored, even though they had only been there twenty minutes.

“Where did you say the others were?” Jaebum asked interrupting Youngjae’s concentration. Youngjae looked up from his book and then checked the time to see that they still had three hours left before the school gates locked up for the day.

“We’ve been here twenty minutes,” Youngjae said matter of fact while raising an eyebrow at Jaebum’s lack of interest.

“Well it feels like hours down here,” Jaebum whined. Youngjae laughed at him because for someone like Jaebum, whining looked kind of cute and that was not something that should happen because Jaebum was supposed to be a bad boy; even more, why was Youngjae thinking that about Jaebum, gross.

“You know if you actually tried, I think you could actually be top of the class Jaebum. I don’t know why you pretend to be dumb when I can see that you’re not and you catch on fairly quickly.”

“I think I’ll leave that position for you,” Jaebum stated, blushing a little at Youngjae’s remark. No one had ever told him that he had potential which is why he opted to being the class clown and the prankster. “So are the others coming or what?”

“Yeah, I texted Jinyoung and Mark, told them where we are.”

“What about Jackson?”

“What about him?” Youngjae said stiffening at the mention of his name.

“Does he know where we are?”

“Oh, yeah Jinyoung and Mark are going to tell him.” Youngjae picked up the book he was reading and continued on, hoping that he could momentarily hide behind it before Jaebum picked up on anything.

“So like what’s the deal between you two anyways?” Jaebum said picking up his book just to not look awkward sitting there.

“What, what are you talking about?” Youngjae said a bit nervous that even Jaebum knew something now.

“You and Jackson, obvious.”

“What are you talking about?” Youngjae laughed it off nervously, but Jaebum was catching on faster than Youngjae thought his brain could work.

“Look I might seem really stupid to you and the rest of the world, but I’m not that dense. I see how you guys are with each other, just tell me.”

“Tell you what?” Youngjae instated that he had no clue what Jaebum was talking about.

“You guys don’t like each other do you?” Jaebum tested his theory.

“What? No!” Youngjae laughed because that is not what he thought would come out of Jaebum’s mouth.

“I knew it, so you do like him…”

“I think that is the most obvious response being as I don’t hate him or anything,” said Youngjae trying to roll along with that Jaebum was spitting out.

“I think we both know what I mean Youngjae. You like him, like like like him,” Jaebum smirked when he noticed Youngjae’s change in appearance. “I get it,” Jaebum continued on when Youngjae didn’t say anything in return. “I mean I would be hitting that as well if I were you.” Youngjae looked up to meet Jaebum’s gaze, smirk plastered on his face.

“You mean you –”

“Oh no I’m not like that, not that there is anything wrong with it, but it’s just an observation from a very confident guy,” said Jaebum smirking and sending Youngjae a wink.

“Right…”

“So why don’t you ask him out, I mean it’s very clear that he feels that same way about you, trust me I see the way he stares at you when we are in class.” Youngjae only sat there not saying anything, he was thinking of just how right he was when he felt like someone was always looking at him and now he knew for certain that Jackson was that someone.

“It’s complicated,” was all Youngjae managed to say because he wasn’t about to tell his whole life story to Jaebum of all people.

“Fine, whatever, you just keep wallowing in your misery.”

“I’m not wallowing.”

“Whatever you say man.” The way Jaebum was talking was starting to make Youngjae a bit angry and it was really starting to annoy him, but luckily his friends decided to show up at that moment.

“Guys!” Mark shouted when he spotted the other two males that completed their group. Jinyoung reached from behind and covered Mark’s mouth with his hand.

“We are in a library, keep it down,” Jinyoung whispered into Mark’s ear and said male turned a shade pink when Jinyoung pulled away. It was always like that between them, getting too close but feeling uncomfortable because of other people, but it always evoked the same reactions, lust. Jinyoung and Mark then continued on walking towards their friends, Jackson close behind, and when they were close enough to see Mark’s still flushed face, Jaebum didn’t fail to make a remark.

“What’s up with tomato face,” Jaebum said pointing out Mark’s colored face, the attention only making it so that he turned even redder.

“Jinyoung did a head lock on me and I couldn’t breathe,” Mark offered as an excuse.

“I’m sorry did I hurt your pretty head? Come here baby,” Jinyoung said in a voice one only used to talk to a baby. He reached over to bring Mark close and pinch his cheeks.  Youngjae and Jackson laughed at their little playfulness, but after hanging out with Mark and Jinyoung for a few days now, Jackson was used to the way of flirting with one another, though he had come to realize that maybe that was not what they would call it, but it was what it was.

Jaebum on the other hand, he recognized those actions and the look in their eyes. Even he could see it as clear as daylight; Jinyoung and Mark were totally going out, how was it that he didn’t know about this before.

“Look at you two, not afraid to show your love for  each other, even when your trapped almost a hundred feet underground,” said Jaebum moving his eyes from the couple to the ceiling, remembering that they were three stories under ground level. Everyone turned to look at him, including the supposed couple who had stopped their little quarrel. Jaebum felt eyes on him and the deafening silence of the library filled the room with an awkward atmosphere. “What?” he asked meeting everyone’s eyes; Jaebum straightened and met Jinyoung and Mark’s patronizing gaze. “Don’t tell me your ‘not dating’ as well.”

“We’re not!” Jinyoung said a little louder than allowed. He stepped closer to Jaebum who looked to deflate in place because it looked as if Jinyoung was ready to punch the next person that spoke.

“Now where have I heard that before…” said Jaebum, turning to face Youngjae once again. Jackson who was getting the feeling that things were getting a little awkward decided it was time they did what they came for and went home, the school would close down in a few hours and he did not like the idea of spending the night trapped in school and much less trapped down in the library.

“Why don’t we just get this project done and over with, I would like to get back to having a life and not have to worry about this stupid thing,” Jackson said stepping in to take a seat and grab a book from the pile in the center of the table. Jinyoung and Mark joined him and did the same; throughout the rest of their research session, Mark got this vibe that Jinyoung was mad at something, and he thought that that something was him because every time he looked up to see Jinyoung, he would catch him looking back only to quickly avert his eyes and turn back to his reading.

Jackson on the other hand, he was so concentrated on his reading that he never looked away from his book to catch Youngjae staring the same way Jackson did in class. All this however didn’t escape the only person who seemed to not be affected by the complexities of the relationships in the room; Jaebum simply smirked and smiled at how stupid the people in his group were. 

A/N: Here is an update and I reallyyy hope you like it so yeah... we are progressing a bit more and soon you will all be like WHAT!

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