chapter thrirty-four

                                    

                                          
"Mark!" Jinyoung cried as soon as he saw me, running over and latching onto my arm. Youngjae and Jaebeom followed, shaking their heads with smiles.
                          
"Jinyoung?" I answered, patting his back and giving the two a confused look which they laughed at. "Are you okay?"
                          
"Yeah, I'm amazing!" He exclaimed, and he really did look happy. Too happy, in fact, to be considered sane.
                          
"Did something good happen?" I asked with raised eyebrows. "Are you high?"
                          
"Nope!" He exclaimed, popping the 'p' which made me cringe.
                          
Of course I didn't believe him, though.
                          
"You're already dating Jaebeom," I started, "so... are you getting married? Jaebeom, did you propose?"
                          
They both blushed and Jinyoung smacked my arm.
                          
"No, you idiot! Nothing happened at all!"
                          
I looked at him sceptically but decided if Jinyoung wasn't going to tell me, he wasn't going to tell me. I will find out one way or another, but I'll just have to be patient I guess.
                          
"By the way, and completely unrelated," Jinyoung added, slinging his arm over my shoulder as we began walking to class. "You don't happen to... still, perhaps, have feelings for Jackson?"
                          
I choked and started coughing, stopping and placing my hand against my chest.
                          
"What the fuck?!" I exclaimed when I'd gotten over the near death experience.
                          
"I asked," Jinyoung tried again, resuming our walk, "whether you still have feelings for Jackson."
                          
"...I don't," I said hesitantly.
                          
"Mark," he sighed, his voice softening as he reached over and slipped his hand in mine, squeezing it comfortingly. "We both know that's not true."
                          
I stayed silent, unwilling to talk because I knew I would start crying.
                          
"Why do you ask?" I said after a moment of silence, glancing at him. "You of all people should know it's not a topic I want to talk about."
                          
"I'm sorry," he apologised, squeezing my hand again. "I shouldn't have said anything. It was cruel of me."
                          
"It's okay," I answered. "And it's not like I can avoid talking about him forever."
                          
Jinyoung didn't answer, pressing his lips together as if he was suppressing a smile.
                          
"Why are you smiling?" I asked suspiciously. He couldn't help it and let his mouth stretch into a grin.
                          
"Nothing. I was thinking about... Jaebeom. Yep, that's it."
                          
"When are you not?" I sighed, to which he laughed.
                          
Weird. He would usually deny that he ever thinks about Jaebeom.
                          
Maybe I was overthinking things, but as the day went on something was definitely up.
                          
All my friends were oddly jittery and quiet, stealing glances at each other when they thought I wasn't looking and grinning randomly. Jinyoung and Jae, especially, both being unusually absent from both recess and lunch.
                          
When I was lining up for science, my last class of the day, I finally felt like I was going to get some sort of an explanation.
                          
Jinyoung and I were chatting when Jae came running toward us, leaping in front of me with a huge grin on his face.
                          
"Mark!" He cried.
                          
"Jae!" I said with equal enthusiasm, laughing. "What's up?"
                          
"I need you to meet me in the maths classroom when school is over," he said. I opened my mouth to protest but he placed his finger over my lips, his grin widening. "It's really important. See you~!"