Choi Youngjae was 5 years old when he met Wang Jackson.

The little boy was eating at a pizza restaurant with his family when he got bored and looked around. He couldn’t understand half of the things his parents were saying; boring stuff. Everything they talked about made no sense to him and it was just so boring, he always fell asleep on the spot! That’s why he begged his parents to give him some cash so he could go to the tiny arcade section of the restaurant. They seemed to understand him since they have him 5 dollars.

He felt like he was on top of the world with those 5 dollars. The possibilities seemed endless to him when he eyed the different machines the restaurant had. None of them shone brighter than the crane machine though, and he knew at that moment, he was gonna spend all of his money on it. The little boy eyed the cute otter plushie it had as he took out one dollar.

Once he inserted the dollar into the machine, bright colors suddenly started to shine, changing colors and urging Youngjae to play. He looked almost unsure as he stared at it, but with one look at his otter, he felt determined again to get it. His tiny hands pressed the start button and he grabbed the stick, beginning to stir it. Youngjae went straight for the otter; straight ahead then left and below the crane was the otter amongst others. The little boy pressed the button quickly, a little too excited, and watched with big eyes how the crane went to pick up the plushie… only for it to miss and go back to where it started. A giant sorry was plastered on the machine as the lights started to dim just a bit, signaling the game was over.

In that instant, all of his hopes and dreams crashed down on him as he stared at the sorry. He couldn’t believe it. Youngjae clearly saw how the crane had it in its treacherous claws, paws, whatever it was! The little boy calmed himself down by breathing in and out, and he decided to try again. Maybe it had been some sort of glitch the machine had, after all. But like the first time, as the crane went to pick it up, it missed again and the sorry was plastered on the machine. He frowned.

He was starting to dislike this game a lot.

And more than before, the want and need to have that plushie in his hold grew. The little boy inserted another dollar, practically slamming the start button and ignoring the looks people gave him. His adorable little nose flared as he scrunched it into an adorable face. Like the first two times, he stirred it again at the direction of his plushie and aimed for it (he clearly saw it!), and yet, the world seemed determined to go against him that day. It missed again.

Youngjae didn’t bother to hide how frustrated he was. He stomped once, twice, before jumping in the same place to let it out. “Whhhyyyy?!” the poor boy whined, hands on his hair, ready to pull it out any second. “Why can’t you work…?”

At that moment, he heard a chuckle behind him. Youngjae turned around and saw a kid that looked a little older than him. It was a little scary, to be honest, considering he had heard all kinds of rumors of the big kids, that they were mean to little kids like him and liked to do mean things. The stranger didn’t look mean like Youngjae had pictured him to be (his best friend, Park Jinyoung, had personally faced them once and he described them as beings with sharp, pointy teeth like a shark’s and ears like an elf and the list goes on). In fact, he looked no where near mean or that description his friend gave him. He was smiling but it looked normal. And, well, friendly.

Which was weird.

“Need help?” the stranger offered and everything was just so shady to Youngjae. He wasn’t having any of it. The little boy opted to ignore him blatantly and tried again. It was a little more preassuring with the boy boring out holes in his skull, but he managed to ignore it and insert the dollar in. The outcome was obvious but he still wanted to put up some sort of fight anyways. He pressed the start button and began stirring the stick to his plushie for the fourth time. Like all the other times, it missed but more than defeat, he felt a little embarrassed at having lost like that in front of a stranger.

Unsure what to do next, he turned to the stranger only to be shoved gently to the side by the latter. Youngjae stood struck for a moment, blinking many times before registering what happened. “Hey, that wasn’t nice!” he complained now, forgetting his old, irrational fear of the boy.

“Shut up and watch.” The stranger said, his eyes glued not on Youngjae, but on the machine.

Having no choice but to do so, the little boy watched the stranger work his way with the stick. There was something magical about the whole act. Youngjae wasn’t sure what it was, but it just was. The way the stranger held the stick was a bit differently but it couldn’t be that. But maybe it was how the crane somehow grasped the otter that Youngjae was pining for, and how it went through the giant hole and now it was in their hands.

Oh yeah, it was definitely that.

The happiness and excitement Youngjae felt was radiating off him. The little boy’s smile reached up to his ears, giggling all the while as he hugged his new buddy. His eyes turned into two tiny moon crescents and everything about him at that moment was just so lovely (his terribly rosy cheeks, his messy blond hair, his perfect white smile…). He had no idea. “Oh my god!” he exclaimed ecstatic. “How did you do that?!”

The stranger shrugged, smiling at the boy’s reaction. “It’s a secret.”

“Tell me, pleeeaassseeee! I need to know!” Youngjae begged, batting his eyes to see if it had any effect on the stranger.

“Nope!” Guess it didn’t work. Tch.

“Fine…” he paused. “How about now?”

The stranger laughed out loud now, shaking his head and enjoying his reaction too much. Youngjae pouted. “Okay, fine.”

The latter shifted on his feet, almost shyly. “I’m Choi Youngjae.”

“Wang Jackson.” The stranger, Jackson held out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

And that was the start of everything.

▼▲▼▼▲▼

Many years later, both males were close friends and they were half way middle school. Unfortunately for them, they went to separate schools but as a way of making up for the lost time, they went to the arcade. It was always spent well there. They excitedly changed their money for golden tokens and spent it on different machines.

And yes, they always ended back at the same machine that started it all.

Even after all these years, Youngjae is terrible at the crane machine. It was almost like God was determined to make it so because it doesn’t matter if the crane grabs the plushie or not, it will fail no matter what. Jackson was the exception of the machine. Whenever the stick was in his hands and he directed it, it never failed to grab the plushie. During a period, it did make Youngjae a little jealous that his best friend had such talent for it and he didn’t. It quickly disappeared, however, when Jackson gave him an adorable alpaca that he wanted so much. It warmed his chest in the funniest of ways and for the rest of the day, he was smiling up to his ears.

Things started to go downhill during late eight grade. Youngjae was the same as ever, bubbling with happiness and an endless rain of smiles directed towards anyone he shared eye contact with. It attracted many outsiders and although unaware of his growing popularity, there a few that actually dared to go up to the cutie and talk to him. Amongst many of them, there was the mention worthy Mark Tuan. It was known around everyone that he was attracted to the latter except him. He didn’t bother being subtle about his advances to Youngjae because a catastrophe could happen around him and he wouldn’t realize until they point out to him. Mark needed to do everything possible to gain his attention for obvious reasons.

Since Youngjae didn’t have much experience, claiming that he-was-too-busy-for-love, AKA, just a lousy excuse for hanging out with Jackson, he was easily affected by every single thing Mark did or said. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t interested in him ‘cuz he was. His heart would skip a beat in a smooth rhythm and jump to the moon and back because of how lovely the latter was being to him.

But let’s be honest, it was nowhere hear to how Jackson makes him feel.

He already knew of his feelings… or at least, he was aware that what he was feeling for his best friend wasn’t normal at all. He couldn’t help it though. How was he supposed to not fall in love with Jackson? All of his endless showers of affection and care with his breathtaking smile, his adorable Wang puppy whenever he tries to make up for a fight, the heart stopping moment when he manages again to get him another plushie, how he makes him feel special and wanted when he ruffles his hair playfully, and basically every single thing that is known as Wang Jackson… how could you not fall in love with him? If Youngjae had known the answer, believe me, he would have chosen not to. Life is just full of surprises…

Just like how Jackson stopped all together waiting for him at the school gate to go to the arcade. To say Youngjae was surprised was an understatement.

He was dumbstruck. Baffled, even.

Never in his life would the thought of Jackson ditching him for once have crossed his mind up until that moment. For once, he was the one looking for his best friend at his school. Sure enough, he was there.

Hanging out with other people.

Youngjae lets it slide that one time, thinking that maybe Jackson had made the mistake of not telling him he wanted to hang with other people. It kept happening, day after day, and the poor boy felt like he had been a dog abandoned by its owner. Why was his best friend suddenly acting like that? He didn’t know. Had he done something wrong? Not that he knows of. He had never felt more confused than at that moment, and thinking it was for the best, he goes to his school.

He should just ask him directly, face to face.

Instead of greeting his best friend awkwardly like he had expected it to be, the reality was harsher. Right a few feet way was Jackson kissing a girl. A pretty girl. She had long, curly light brown hair and big thighs, just like how the latter went on about how much he liked them, and the way she animatedly kissed Jackson back made her seem wild. She seemed to be his ideal type. He should’ve been happy for the latter, he probably got the girl of his dreams, but he wasn’t.

Lying never seemed appealing to Youngjae so he tried never telling lies. It proved to benefit him in any situation of doubt, especially with the teachers, and it had become a part of him. Lying wasn’t in his system and he wasn’t about to start now. The truth hurts so much more than what he thought it would ever be, and no other pain could compare to what he felt at that moment. His heart crumbled miserably into oblivion and like it was on cue, rain started to fall like in an overly cliché movie. The couple noticed the rain and Jackson seemed to laugh before grabbed the girl’s hand, running and looking for shelter from the rain. Youngjae stood there in the rain, getting drenched and looking like a complete fool.

(He tried to ignore the memories of him and Jackson running around in the rain getting drenched in it, very similar to his current state. Youngjae remembers it so clearly the first time they arrived at the latter’s house looking like that. Mrs. Wang came running to them with towels in her hands, scolding them lightly as they dried themselves. What rewarded them was a horrible cold that lasted for days, but they kept doing it again and again. In fact, Mrs. Wang gave up on scolding them for it when she realized they weren’t going to stop any time soon. Those were some of his favorite memories with Jackson, partly because of the petrichor that would always greet Youngjae when he had to go back home and because Jackson always had the weird habit of smelling it off him.)

Youngjae took one hesitant back step, then another, before turning around completely and running away from the scene. He didn’t dare to look back at the scene and instead opted into looking ahead. The wind of the rain was cold against his skin and it seemed to have slapped some senses into him. Never again would he make the mistake of hoping. It had been true that he was hoping for a chance of something more and everything seemed to be going well or so he thought…

As he ran aimlessly, he accidentally crashed into a person. “Ow…” Youngjae whined pathetically, rubbing his . The other person seemed to stiffen and for a moment, the latter feared it was Jackson. His heart raced against his chest and he looked everywhere but at the person.

“Youngjae?”

It wasn’t Jackson.

And although he was torn over being disappointed or feeling relieved, he could recognize that warm and deep voice he’s been listening to an awful a lot these past days. It was Mark. Even though his vision was blurry with tears that were threatening to fall and he couldn’t see him that well, he recognized him instantly. And maybe it was because the presence of someone else he knew was so comforting at that moment that he couldn’t help but let tears fall helplessly. Mark looked genuinely surprised and worried, quickly putting his hands on Youngjae’s shoulders so they were looking at each other. “Youngjae? What’s wrong?” he asked, scanning over the latter to see if he had any injuries.

“Is everything okay?” No, nothing’s okay.

“Are you okay?” No, I’m nowhere near okay.

“Do you want me to be with you?” No, I want to be with Jackson…

Yet for some reason, he still nodded and let himself be taken to his house. Maybe it was for the best that Mark was there. Youngjae wasn’t sure what he would’ve done if he was left alone; maybe not cry at all. He had that bad habit of holding things in for a long time. During the whole way to his house, he cried his heart out, holding onto a handful of Mark’s shirt looking like a kid. The latter didn’t ask anything else, something he was grateful for. When he was about to leave, Youngjae stopped him.

Maybe this was God’s way of telling him to move on and forget about Jackson. What scared him was that he was very willing on forgetting about Jackson. “W-Wait, Mark…" Youngjae called out weakly.

Mark turned around, an eyebrow raised. “What is it?”

“Thank you for today.” His cheeks turned rosy. “I really appreciate it.”

That was the first small smile the latter saw Mark smile that day. “Don’t mention it…”

“Would you like some tea or something?” It was true a part of him was hoping for a yes.

“I shouldn’t…” Mark said a little shy.

“I insist!”

He paused for a moment before meeting his eyes. “Well, if you insist…”

It was just a moment ago he was thinking about Jackson. Yet, it only took but a moment to make him forget about his pain.

A/N: I'll most likely upload the next chapter one of these days. I'm finishing it up so look forward to it! Enjoy?