Being woken up prematurely had never been Mark’s cup of tea. Being woken up prematurely during exam season was absolutely not Mark’s cup of anything. He cursed groggily under his breath as he begrudgingly rolled onto his back to reach for his phone. Through narrowed eyes, momentarily blinded by the sharpness of the light from his screen, he glimpsed the name “Jaebum” together with bright numbers indicating that the time was “3:46”, which caused Mark to groan out loud. “This better be ing important” he hissed, because he was not just about to lose precious hours of sleep for nothing. Mark did not consider himself someone to lose his temper over the smallest things, but to be fair it was o’clock in the morning and Mark was not a type A person. Point was that any deviations from his usual peaceful self as of this moment were entirely justifiable. Sighing audibly, Mark swiped down to unlock his screen and brought the phone close to his ears.

“What do you want, dickhead?” he croaked out hoarsely, voice laden with sleep. He didn’t even care about being rude because they were friends and Jaebum already knew how big of a Mark could be when he was denied his beauty sleep, as the former often called it. His half-lidded eyes were threatening to shut and so he blinked a couple of times to stay awake, while waiting for a reply from the other end of the line. “Minho hyuunnggg come pick me up please” an unfamiliar voice said in what sounded disturbingly much like a whine? Mark could faintly hear the muffled sounds of a thumping bass and people talking and laughing in the background. The person on the other end of the line continued “I swear I will make it up to you, I forgot my phone and I really need you to save my ”, provoking silence from Mark’s side. “Hyung? Hyung, I promise I will give you a massage if you come pick me up, you know how good they are” followed by a child-like giggle, which made Mark raise his eyebrows questioningly. He cleared his throat before asking “Who is this?” in the most civil tone he could master at the moment.

“It’s Jackson. Wangkong! Oh my god how can you not recognize me” Mark could literally hear his pout through the phone which made him frown mildly. The name seemed to ring a bell, he was sure he had heard it somewhere. He mulled the name over in his head for a while. Jackson? Wangkong? Jackson Wang? And then it dawned on him.  “Uh…” he started but was cut off “Hyung you sound kind of weird on the phone too you know, but I recognize you just fine” Mark tried again “Uh... I’m not… I’m M-““Hyung, it’s getting cold now can’t you hurry up” As if to prove this point, Jackson let out a loud sneeze that was too real to have been faked. “You heard that? I’m getting sick, Minho hyung!” He sniffled. The last word was dragged out in a way that tugged at Mark’s nerves. “Minho-““MARK” He aggressively barked into the phone. “M-A-R-K. It’s Mark! I’m Mark” it tumbled out of him in a fit of annoyance. He was met with silence for five good seconds before a sudden hyena-like sounding laughter broke out and the voice turned serious “Hyung it’s not funny I don’t have time for this”, after which he proceeded to give Mark an address and promptly hung up.

Mark momentarily froze and looked at the ended call on his screen in horror. His mind tried but failed to process what had just happened. Because why, why him of all people. It was just his luck to be woken up by a phone call from a drunk stranger, except he wasn’t really a stranger because Mark vaguely knew of his existence. For starters, he knew they attended the same college albeit in different departments, and the reason he knew this was that he occasionally heard his childhood friend, Jaebum, talk about the boy in a fond manner. But besides from that, he didn’t really know anything else about Jackson Wang, nor was he interested in knowing more. Speaking of… Jaebum! Oh right of course, he thought to himself, willing his brain to function again. He quickly dialed the same number, praying that his friend would pick it up this time so that he could clear himself of this mess. But the longer it took for the call to connect, the more Mark felt a part of himself die a little bit inside. He glanced out the window and shivered at the thought of going outside. It was mid-February, in other words winter, meaning no one in their right freaking mind should be wandering about at this time of the night. Mark sighed. With a muffled cry he forced himself to get up, grabbed some clothes and his car keys and left the apartment, all the while cursing himself for being raised such a saint.

On his way to the bar that was located conveniently close to the university, he let his own thoughts wander off on their own accord. If he remembered correctly, Jaebum and Jackson took most of their classes together so it was logical to assume that they both majored in Physical Education. In their second semester, it would have to be, because Mark had started university one year prior to Jaebum enrolling. Mark was in his fourth semester, majoring in Business Administration, the exams of which he was currently diligently studying for. Two of his exams were already over, and the only ones left were Management Accounting and Macroeconomics, which Mark was quite anxious about if he had to be honest with himself. He wanted to make up for the somewhat lacking grades that he had achieved in the previous three semesters. In the beginning, he had first consoled himself with the fact that college was a new experience and he had needed time to adjust, but as the disappointing averages dragged on, he realized, although reluctantly, that the excuse was getting old. Unlike Jaebum and his peers, whom were blessed enough to have finished off their exams earlier this semester, and were probably out to celebrate tonight, lucky bastards, Mark was forced to endure this torture of a studying routine just a couple of days more. All he asked for was a painless end to things, but this simple request was obviously not to be granted, given the situation he found himself in now.

Speaking of the devil, the source of all his troubles appeared in his view, clad in nothing but a white t-shirt, a black cap and some dark, baggy pants. Was he deliberately trying to get himself killed? Mark thought to himself as he parked the car and reluctantly left its warm confines in order to head towards the spot at the entrance of the bar, where Jackson had randomly chosen to camp down, completely gone off into his own world. He neared the boy tentatively as if afraid to trigger any adverse reactions, tilting his head slightly to catch a proper glimpse of him. The reason Mark knew Jackson by face was purely coincidental as he might or might not have stumbled upon his Facebook profile once or twice before. That was what people did nowadays, and Mark personally considered himself part of people, so naturally he believed that his social investigation was fully excused. The subject of his so-called social investigation perked his head up suddenly, as if having somehow sensed that he was being looked at. Mark blinked and swallowed thickly as he heard himself say “U