Mark was sitting at the very back of the class and the teacher, Mrs. Park, was explaining something in Korean. Mark’s body was present in the class, but his mind was somewhere else. He was thinking about his meeting earlier with the new student, his new roommate. There was something about the new boy that made him feel warm and secure whenever the boy was near. It was an unusual feeling for a Machine like him.

***

"Annyeong," said the new boy.

"An... Annyeonghaseyo..." Mark stuttered and bowed. He was shocked to see someone in his room.

"Mark, right? Nice to meet you. I'm Jackson." Jackson said, offering his right hand to the latter.

"My new roommate, I suppose?" Mark said bluntly.

"Good, no need to be so formal then. You look fine, I like you. Let's hang out sometimes!" The boy then rambled in return

"First of all, we just met and I don't really know you. Maybe you should hang out with someone else. Also, you're not supposed to be seen with a machine like me," Mark then took the books he needed, his heels, and left the room with a little pink shade on his face.

***

It came to the last class for the day and was still not in his right state of mind. Eventually, he decided to go to the library and read some books before going back to his room. If anything could help him to calm his mind, it was reading. He loved it when he read novels with a happy ending. Simply, he wanted his life to be like one of those romantic fictional stories. His favourite was Nicholas Sparks’ The Last Song. Being obsessed over Ronnie Miller’s love life was an understatement to describe Mark. The machine was a hopeless romantic.

Ironically, people just mistook him as an arrogant brat because he could not express himself very well. Being Chinese-Korean was indeed hard and the fact that the people in school thought he could speak Korean fluently just added more gasoline to the fire. This was the main reason why he became the machine everyone knew and saw, emotionless and ignorant.

It was  5.30 in the evening when Mark walked his way back to his dorm room from the library. When he was walking down the school hall, he saw three familiar figures and his body became tensed when he realized who they were. There stood Jisoo and his two friends, Minseok and Hyojun. Mark tried to run away but it was useless. He got beaten up badly and no one was there to help him. Truthfully, he needed someone he could lean on.

***

Jackson was really worried when he looked at the clock for the umpteenth time. It was 7 p.m. and it was dark outside. Still, there was no sign of Mark, his roommate, coming back.

“Stupid! I should’ve asked for his phone number. At least I should’ve asked for his KakaoTalk ID or something,” he muttered to himself.

Suddenly, the door was opened and he was shocked to see Mark full of bruises and scars. He could tell that Mark was also shocked to see him in the room.

“What happened?” Jackson asked, his voice was deep and his tone was serious.

“Why do you care?” Mark asked back, not caring about Jackson’s question

“Ha! I asked you first,” Mark replied as he tried to reduce the distance between them and touched Mark’s shoulder. “Who did this?” he asked again.

Mark winced and slapped Jackson’s hand. “None of your business,” the boy retorded. He did not mean it to come out as a rude reply, but it did.

“Geez, I was just asking, no need to be so harsh,” Jackson muttered in Chinese, and that was when he saw Mark’s expression changed and Jackson could see tears were welled up in Mark’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...” Mark then replied in Chinese

Out of his instinct, Jackson hugged him and whispered some comforting words in Chinese. In front of him was the same fragile boy from earlier and at the moment,  he had the desire to protect the boy like his own brother.

Mark had an emotional breakdown that night as he revealed to Jackson why he had been called a Machine up to the moment. There was this huge language barrier for him.

***

After that night, they practically became best friends and they were also inseparable. Where there was Jackson, Mark would be there too. They even made nicknames for each other because they hated the nickname Machine. Mark was Jackson’s dimsum and Jackson was Mark’s dumpling. More than that, Mark was able to smile more with his Gege around. They communicated in both Korean and Chinese as Jackson also came from China.

Sadly, Mark’s reputation as a Machine could not be cleared and maybe people also thought that a loser like Mark should never come near a kingka Jackson. He was still bullied. Jackson, on the other hand, promised to take care of his little dimsum.

***

There was this one time when they entered the cafetaria hand in hand and pairs of eyes were set on them. Mark, being the shy boy he was, tried to let go of Jackson’s hand, but the latter would not let him. Instead, Jackson’s grip was only getting stronger. He also made it clear to everyone that if anyone dared to hurt his dimsum, Jackson would return the pain twice.

The situation was like that and Mark felt really safe under Jackson’s protection. Jackson was his shining knight and he was glad to know him. He had a nice life for the time being, until he learned that happiness was not meant to be forever and he had to learn it the hard way.

***

Of course he was shocked when he woke up alone in his room. His best friend was not there. Only a note with “I will be back for us” written on it was left for him.

He tried to ask everyone, but no one knew anyone by the name Jackson Wang. Not even the headmaster knew the missing boy’s identity. It felt like he disappeared completely without leaving tracks and Mark was the only one who knew he existed.

***

Mark wakes up early in the morning only to realize that he is still in the same room for the past few months. For the last two years, he has been a happy boy because he has someone he can call a best friend, but no one believes him. He can hear the doctor and the nurses from his room saying that his health is not getting better. “How can I feel beter?” he says to no one in particular. His hands are tied tightly and his legs bound together.

He sighs as he still believes that he is perfectly fine. He is the perfect definition on safe and sound, but no one listens to him. Despite the fact that he murmurs the word “dumpling” in his sleep, he still believes that he is fine and he will be out of the room someday.

***

“Dimsum,” a familiar voice pierces Mark’s ears. The voice he wants to hear all this time. The voice that is all too familiar. The voice of his knight.

“Gege!” Mark says happily as he misses his Dumpling too much.

“I’m sorry I took so long,” the visitor says.

“That’s okay, Gege. I will wait for you forever!” Mark points out cheerfully.

***

“Doctor Kim, how is his condition?” The nurse asks

Doctor Kim replies while reading Mark’s medical history. “It’s clearly not a mild mental disorder, and he still thinks that I am this Jackson guy,” he says matter of factly. “It’s all only in his mind, it is the result of being depressed. He has no one to talk to for a relatively long time. I’m pretty sure of it.”

“I see,” the latter replies, sighing heavily. “At least he’s happy in his own world now. He was bullied and he cut himself pretty badly back then,” she says.

-The End-