gossip ;; 2jae [Editing]

Chapter 22

|| » Tug-a-war « ||
• Thursday •

A Week Later...

It was official. Jaebum hadn't gone on a date for two months, one week, five days and eight hours. It had dawned on him last night when Minhyuk had announced over chat that he and Shownu were finally dating. "Lonely, I'm so lonely. I have nobody for my own," Jaebum screamed from the lowest limb of a tree with a hand over his heart.

"Shush. You have Youngjae," Jackson replied from the ground, running his fingers through Mark's hair. They were sat against the trunk of the tree on the end of the basketball court, watching Jinyoung watch his crush watch Youngjae watch clouds. It was morning time, halfway through their weekly PE lesson.

"But he's just another person," Jaebum whined, "who I don't even particularly like!" He threw his arms into the air, almost falling out of the tree in the process.

"For now."

"No, Mark," Jaebum said. He draped himself dramatically against a slightly higher branch, "I'm so alone."

Ignoring him, Jackson asked Mark in Mandarin, "Did you dye your hair?"

"Yeah, last night," he said, closing his eyes while the sun snuck between the leaves of the tree, leaving him with luminescent freckles and warmth. "My mom helped me after my dad fell asleep. You really didn't notice?"

"I didn't get the chance to."

"Lies and slander, but go off I guess."

"We have no classes together today."

"Invalid excuse."

"He just doesn't want to admit he's been staring at your face too much today to get the chance to notice!" Someone, Minghoo (or something) from Class C, commented as he walked past, Jackson and Mark ignoring him .

"What even is a valid response then!" Jackson argued loudly while Jaebum hopped out of the tree.

"Not the one you gave!" Mark huffed, turning onto his side with his arms crossed, facing away from Jackson.

"Jaebum, where are you going?" Jinyoung yelled.

Walking away, Jaebum replied, "To Youngjae." A wave of hoots and howls erupted from his friends, Jaebum keeping his head down as he quickly moved away from them until he recognized a familiar voice.

"I'd heard they were going out but I didn't know--" the voice tried (she was terrible at it when she was surprised) to whisper.

"Mayo, my dear sister, sibling, compadre," Jaebum said, redirecting himself to a picnic table May and a few of her friends were sitting on top of. She was supposed to be in class right now, but Jaebum was not her father nor did he have any right to judge; he'd spent a good chunk of his high school career skipping classes, too.

"Please don't ever call me that again, Jaebum," May said, scowling while her brother skipped towards her.

"Stop frowning. You look ugly. Anyhoo!" Jaebum clasped his hands in a desperate plea. "My friends are cringy. Please let me hang out with you!"

"You literally insulted me and asked me to pity you in the same breath." May sighed. "You make my brain hurt, Bummie."

"I've been told."