Celeste quickly glanced at Mark and he looked surprised to say the least. His lips were parted slightly and his eyes were open wide. 

“I’ll leave you two to chat.” His Great Aunt looked very please with herself and picked up one of her many bags. “We can talk more later.”

The three shared an awkward silence for a moment as she shuffled away.

Once she was out of earshot, Jinju spoke up.

“I’m really sorry about this.” She bowed formally again. “It’s all my fault. I told her that I broke up with my boyfriend and that I was hoping to start a new relationship soon so she took it upon herself to match me up with you.”

“It’s fine. I get it.” Mark nodded at her. “Once she gets her mind set on something set on something it’s difficult to get her to changer her mind. I’m going to introduce her to my girlfriend though,” Mark reached over and wrapped a protective arm around Celeste. “So hopefully she’ll let up.”

Jinju looked relieved. “I hope so. This whole matchmaking this is awkward and it makes me feel really uncomfortable.” She turned toward her. “I don’t believe I caught your name. My name is Jinju.”

“I’m Celeste.” She held out her hand and they shook hands.”It’s nice to meet you!”

“Nice you meet you, too.” Jinju smiled at them before turning slightly and gesturing to the lodge. “I’m going to go grab my skis and head up the mountain. You two should unpack and go get settled. I’m sorry again about this whole thing.”

They said there good byes and headed opposite directions.

Celeste sighed. “Thank god. I was so scared she would actually want to try to get together with you. It looks like she doesn't like this just as much as you do.”

“Yeah. I’m glad she’s not. That would have made this whole thing a lot harder.” Mark sighed. “I wasn’t expecting her to actually bring one of the girls with her.”

“‘One’? Damn, Mark. How many girls has she tried to hook you up with?”

He paused as if to think about it before saying, “I don’t know. I lost count around 50.”

“Holy really?”

Mark said nothing but his pained expression told her what she needed to know.

“Aw, poor Mark. To many cute girls for his poor heart to handle.”

“We should get going.” He picked up his suitcase as he tried to change the subject. “It’s cold and you’re not wearing the right clothes for this kind of weather.”

“My clothes are perfect for this weather and don’t you try to change the subject.” 

“It’s snowing and you’re wearing jeans and a thin sweater. You need to change into something proper.”

“No I don’t! I am invinc-ACHOO!” She sneezed and shivered at the same time, giving away her clever lie.

“Ah hun.” Mark gave her a look. “Totally invincible.”

“Shhh. No. I am.”

“Keep dreaming, Short stack.”

“I’m not short!”

“You say as you look up to argue with me.”

***

“I’m just saying. If you guys are going to have martial arts in your choreography where you’re doing back flips and flying around you have to have a least one comeback that takes advantage of that.” Celeste took a long slip of her coffee and slammed it down on the table with finality.

“You’re just looking for an excuse to see all of us running around in spandex and superheroes fit that perfectly.”

“Yes. Wait no! That’s not what I meant!” Celeste’s serious face crumbled off as she flushed bright red and buried her face in her palms.

The two had decided to take it easy after they unpacked. With Mark’s great aunt no where to be found and Jinju somewhere in the mountains, they were able to have some quality friend time. Celeste had been discussing some of her ideas for comebacks with him and Mark had been having fun trying to make her blush.

Celeste sighed. “Alright. Since superheroes obviously aren’t cool enough for you, what kind of a concept would you like to do.”

Mark hesitated for a second. “Werewolves.”

“OH MY GOD MARK!” Celeste started cackling and stomping the ground with her feet at this absolutely stunning reveal. “Werewolves? Seriously? And you thought my idea was lame!”

“Okay, but werewolves can be cool! Look at Wolverine!”  He seemed to be desperately trying to prove that werewolf could be cool in anyway post-taillight. It wasn’t working.

“Isn’t he a mutant?” He suddenly got very quiet and looked down at the ground. Celeste laughed even harder. “Well, as long as you don’t tell me to by fake fangs and dump glitter all over you, I think we’ll be good.”

“I’d make a terrible vampire.”

“I don’t know. You’ve got the quiet, broodiness for it.” She lightly pinched his cheek and pretended to coo over him. “Then again, you’ve got to much of a puppy face to pass off as a dead corpse. You would make a much better werewolf.”

“…Shut up, Celeste.”

“Aw… Don’t be like that. You know you love me.” She said as she pulled out her vibrating phone. As she checked to see who was calling her, Mark glanced at her through his bangs.

Of course he knew he loved her. It was hard not to with a personality as bright as hers.

“Yugyeom?” Her voice sounded confused. “Why would he be calling me right now?”

She accepted the call and put it on speaker for Mark to join in. “Hey, Yuggie. What’s up? You’re on speaker, by the way. Mark is here, too.”

“Hey.” He waved even though the younger boy couldn’t see him.

“Celeste!” A cacophony of voices rang through the phone and Celeste nearly dropped it in surprise.

“Candy, why didn’t you take me with you?!”

“Are you guys having fun?”

“There’s suppose to be a snow storm tonight! Stay safe!”

“Guys?” Celeste could barely make out any thing they were saying as they chattered on top of each other. “One at a time! I can’t understand you if you all talk at once.”

“Guys let me talk!” They could hear JB say faintly in the background. There was a shuffle as the phone was passed to him. When he spoke his voice was crisp and clear so he had to be holding the phone up to his mouth. “Mark, are you taking care of Celeste? You haven’t done anything inappropriate, have you?”

Celeste just laughed as Mark glared at the phone and blushed slightly. This happened every time one of them spent the night with her or really just spent time alone with her. Even though they all knew that none of them would ever do anything like that to her, it was an opportunity for her to speak out if they did anything that made her uncomfortable. She appreciated that they always tried to give her an opportunity to speak up even if she had never used it for anything but teasing.

“Well, it’d be great if his shoulders weren’t so damn boney. I tried to take a nap on our way up here but he was too uncomfortable.” She lightly shoved him and grinned.

“Well, sorry. Want me to change my genetic code so I have nice meaty shoulders for you?” He asked sarcastically.

“That would be very nice. Thank you so much, Mark. You’re so considerate.”

He rolled his eyes at her.

“Celeste!” Bambam’s voice came over the speaker. “I miss you!”

“Miss you too, Bambam!” She smiled. “Want to go out for ice cream when I get back?”

“Yeah!” His voice brightened,

“Candy, Take me too!”

“Well, it is important to take the trash out when it get full of itself.”

“Hey!”

Everyone but Jackson laughed at that. 

“So how are you guys?” Mark asked.

“It’s kind of quiet without you guys.”

“Why would it be quiet? It’s not like we took Jackson with us?”

“My mom’s visiting.” Jackson replied with a happy and proud voice.

“You didn’t tell me she was visiting!” Celeste’s eyes widened.

“I didn’t know! She surprised me!” 

“I’m so happy for you! Tell Mama Wang I love her!” Mama Wang was the nickname they had given her when they were younger.

“Okay!” There was some shuffling as he leaned away from the phone and yelled something in Cantonese. Immediately a woman yelled something back and he laughed. “She said, ‘Tell her that I love her more than you.’”

“Aw…thanks Mama Wang. You know that isn’t true though. Jackson is the best son in the whole world.”

“Yes I am!” He cut in and Celeste laughed.

“Anyways,” JB spoke up. “We’ll let you go. We just wanted to make sure that you guys were safe and that Mark was doing his job. Talk to you later!”

They all said bye at once in a loud chaotic way and hung up.

Mark and Celeste were quiet for a moment as they smiled at the phone. She spoke up first. “We should come back here with them. It’ll be more fun if we’re all here.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.” He leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before turning back to his hot chocolate.

***

Across the room, Mark’s great aunt eyed Celeste with disdain. If she want Mark and Jinju to work out, it seemed like she’d have get her hands a bit dirty.

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry I didn't update on monday! I had a really big and really important test yesterday so I was studying like crazy! But better late than never right? Also, I'd really apprciate comments some comments! We're almost ten chapters into this thing and there are barely any. I really want to know what you guys think! What are something that you guys would like to see? I can make it happen if I can fit iti n with the plot and I know it doesn't seem like there is any right now but thats because we're esatblishing the world and characters. I have a pretty sweet plot planned out and I'm excited to get to the good stuff but right now we have to get Celeste and the boys to that point. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I'll see you next week (or Friday if your reading Silver Rose as well).