AN: Okay, so I wrote this chapter in the middle of the night because of some reason that I can't rember now, so just a warning, the following may be a bit out of character, and let's just say that half of it can be considered crack because I don't even know what I was trying to go for, so sorry guys. :/

The next morning dawned bright and sunny with just the right amount of a breeze. This is such a perfect day. It must be a sign for me to talk to Mark, for real this time. Junior thought. He quickly put on the clothes that he had picked out the day before (after quite a bit of stressing) and ran down the stairs to greet his parents for breakfast. 

"Good morning, Jinyoung-ah, it's such a surprise to see you down so early in the mornings, is there something good happening today?" his mother asked as he sat down at the table. 

"It's nothing mom, I'm just really excited this morning," he replied.  

"I see. Well then hurry up for school, you don't want to be late," she warned, before turning back to what she was doing. 

"Yeah, okay, bye mom," Junior called as he headed out the door early, heeding his mother's warning. He took some time walking to school that day, enjoying the nice weather. When he got into class, luck seemed to still be on his side as there was nobody in the classroom yet except for Mark. Junior slowly made his way to the desk behind Mark, attempting to be cool and casual, recovering nicely after he stumbled over the leg of a chair. He sat behind Mark for a few seconds in silence, before finally mustering up his courage to speak. 

"Hey, Mark, what do you call a- oh , no, wrong joke... I meant what- why, I meant why- why can’t you use the bathroom in the Empire State Building?" (AN: Aw yeah, Korean-American jokes. If you leave a comment, I’ll tell you the answer! But tbh, it’s a really lame pun, so don’t punch me when you hear it.)

There was no response. "Mark? Hey, Mark,” Junior hesitantly asked, tapping him on the shoulder. 

"Huh?" was the reply he received, as Mark pulled the earbuds out from his ears.  

He didn't hear me? That's good I guess. But I worked so hard on that pun. Oh shoot, but now I have to think of something else to say!

"Oh, uh, do you need a pencil?" Junior quickly stuttered out, blurting the first excuse that came to mind. 

“What?” Mark asked, confusion etched on his face. 

"No, no, I mean, um, do you haveapencilIcanborrrow?" Junior rushed to correct himself.  

"Oh. Sorry, no. The teacher keeps some up on her desk though, if you need one." Mark sluggishly answered, before turning back to his iPod. 

"Ah. I see. Thanks," Junior muttered, disappointed that he had ruined his first real conversation with Mark so badly. He just shrunk in his seat and waited for class to begin, but not before trying once again.  

"Hey Mark. You look nice today," he whispered, but the compliment was ignored as Mark was already back to listening to his music. Junior spent the rest of class in silence, praying that Mark would forget about the incident, and wishing that he could too. 

"OMG I can't believe you asked him if he needed a pencil, wow you are so dumb," Yugyeom cackled, having way too much fun mocking the pouting elder.

"It's not funny, this is the worst day of my life," he whined, "Jaebum, help me!"

"Sorry man, I mean, maybe things would have been different if he had heard your pun, you could’ve gotten in a little skinship in when he slapped you for the stupidity of that joke," JB chuckled along with Yugyeom. 

"That's it. You're both evil and I'm never talking to either of you again," Jr pouted. "Why is it so hard to just talk to someone that won’t judge me? I'm gonna go find Youngjae." 

"Yeah, you really should I bet he's fawning over Suzy again, the way you fawn over Mark." Yugyeom teased. 

"I know right, they should just start a club, it can be called 'I'm too scared to make a move, so I just complain about it to my friends all day’ club,” JB put in.  

"Haha, thanks a lot guys," Junior sarcastically answered as he got up from the table. "I'll see you later." 

"What a bunch of jerks. I am so kind to them and I always give them great advice, why can't they do the same for me?" Junior grumbled to himself as he wandered the halls. "Where the hell is Youngjae anyways? Probably by the practice rooms or something, trying to impress Suzy, I bet." Junior dragged himself to the music wing of the school, with his head held down and his body slouched, all the while complaining about his choice in friends.

"Oomph," he grunted as he was shoved to the floor. 

"Oh , sorry," the muscular boy shouted as he continued running off to who knows where.

"I'm sorry about that, my friend, Jackson, forgot that he was supposed to be meeting a teacher for a retest, are you okay?" a deep voice asked. 

Junior looked up to see Mark standing above him. "Uhhh..." was his response, as he could only stare at the (beautiful, ethereal being’s) delicate and pale hand held in front of his face. But it was too late to find out if his dreams would come true that day and he would finally be able to hold the hand of the love of his life, because by the time Jinyoung had finally processed what was happening, Mark had merely shrugged and run off, calling after his friend. 

When Youngjae stumbled upon his friend a while later, Junior was still sitting in the same place on the floor, moping to himself about his lost chance at seeing if Mark really did have soft sking, and ignoring the people that passed by him. 

“Junior? What are you doing here? It’s time to get to class, you’re going to be late,” Youngjae prodded, trying to pull him up from the floor. As Jinyoung was so upset that he didn’t have any strength to resist, it was quite easy to drag him to his next class. What a kind friend. Unlike some brats such as Yugyeom and Jaebum.

“Can you believe it Youngjae?” Jinyoung was still moping, but now it was out loud, “I missed my chance to hold his hand! And now he probably thinks I’m an idiot, did you see me just sitting there? Do you think I could have passed as having fainted from the collision?” By this point, Jinyoung was practically wailing. “And what a bad impression I must’ve made on his friend too, not even looking where I was going? But you know where I was planning on going?” Luckily, there were not very many people in the hallway, but the few that were there avoided eye-contact as best they could and moved along (technically, they were running away). “I was going to see him. Actually, no. Youngjae, I was going to try to find you! Oh my goodness, Youngjae, this is all your fault!” And now we can see that Jinyoung had reached the stage of blame-it-on-someone-else.

“What, wait no hold up for a second, do you not see me suffering this second-hand embarrassment for you to help you get to class on time? No, I will not tolerate this anymore. Goodbye, Jinyoung,” and with that, Youngjae walked away, unceremoniously dumping the still whining Jinyoung next to a water fountain. “Don’t be late to your class, you have a math test.”

The next poor victim to come upon Junior was Bambam, who was much more suited to dealing with these cases- drama queens just have to stick together!

“Hey there guy-with-a-crush-on-Mark! What’s wrong with you today,” he asked as he squatted down in front of the depressed boy, trying to get to eye-level. 

“I’ve just made a horrible fool of myself in front of him. And my friends don’t love me anymore.”

“What? With a haircut like that, nobody could resist you!” Bambam declared. “I would stay longer to comfort you, but I have to get to class. You have to get to class too, Mark’s in your class, right? Trust me, he just needs a chance to get a close look at you, and he’ll be jumping into your arms.”

“Really, do you believe that?” Jinyoung sniffled. 

“‘Course I do, I’m like, the best at giving relationship advice. Now go get him, tiger,” he encouraged before flouncing away.

“Yeah, I look fabulous,” Jinyoung muttered encouragingly to himself. “But wait, why does that stranger know so much about me and Mark. Oh shoot, I only have a minute to get to class!”

It was only as he was running to his call that he thought, How in the world does that stranger know so much about me and Mark?

Today seemed to really just not be his day. By the time he had gotten to class a couple of minutes late, all the seats near Mark were filled up, and Junior got to sit at the front of the class. He then received an embarrassing scolding in front of everybody to not come to class late again. But I’m always on time, or even early, on all other days, can’t you just let me off, it was once! Too bad he couldn’t voice his thoughts or else he would receive a detention and then it would be an even worse day, because he couldn’t miss the chance to see Mark practice! 

It ended up not mattering anyways, though, because it was just then that he realized he had forgotten to study for that math test next period, even with Jaebum and Youngjae reminding him. It wasn’t that Jinyoung was particularly bad at math, it just took him a while to remember the formulas and do the work, especially if he hadn’t studied for it. Luckily, he had math next period, giving him one class to study before going to go take the test, and his teacher would let them stay after class to finish their work, as it was the last class of the day. But that meant that he wouldn’t be able to see Mark practicing anymore. 

The math test took him longer than he expected, and he was able to finish half an hour after the class ended. (What is the point of derivatives anyways, I don’t plan on finding “the rate of change at one particular point on a graph” at any point in my life.) By that time, the beautiful weather of that morning had receded and rain was pouring down. His newly styled hair and the perfect outfit of the day would be soiled by the time he made it home as he had to walk home without an umbrella. Even with Bambam’s words of encouragement, he couldn’t help but feel as if this was all a sign that there was no way he would ever be close to Mark.