wingate gardens -got7 ✓

35- the party

goodbye celebrations for mark were in full swing. mr lee's was flooded with people, and jackson, at the bar, was equally flooded with customers in need of alcohol. mark, of course, being one of them, desperate to get the thoughts of joey out of his head.

he was sat on one of the few wooden bar stools next to a much too drunk, and therefore hyperactive, bambam, waiting for a whiskey on the rocks. jackson seemed to be taking his sweet sweet time, despite the rush of people surrounding him and so mark waited, fingers tapping the wood in front of him delicately.

bambam, however, was quite the opposite of delicate, practically bouncing off the walls, rambling on about things that mark was far too emotional to listen to. something about yugyeom, he guessed... bambam was always talking about yugyeom.. and his ass.

though, of course, he was straight.

eventually, with sweat dripping from his slightly mussed hair onto his forehead, jackson slid a glass over to mark. the man smiled tightly, "it's on the house."

mark nodded, taking the drink and downing the strong alcohol in one fell swoop, "thank you.. and.. jackson?"

"yeah?" jackson asked, eyebrows raised at mark's swift consumption of his drink.

"don't give anymore alcohol to bambam."

jackson glanced up to bambam, who was now stood leaning simultaneously on both mark and the smooth oak wood of the bar, head lolling to the side as his quiet, slurred voice pushed out some random words that.... didn't really seem like they made a sentence. he had gone from hyper to exhausted much too quickly, he really was the lightest drinker mark had ever met.

though, in all honesty, he was starting to feel tipsy just from that one whiskey. he smiled, recalling his trip to this very bar with jackson and bambam, the night they found out park had been stabbed, and how jackson had complained about them both being lightweights.

good memories.

he worried, and he knew it was entirely irrational, that he would never make memories with the reds again.

logically, he knew he'd only be gone a week. but there was something nagging at the back of his head, telling him that something wasn't right, warning him that it might be his last chance to make those good memories again.

jinyoung would've told him it was stupid, that it really was only a week. but to mark, it didn't feel stupid, it felt like his brain was really trying to warn him. it felt like something bad, unexpectedly bad was going to happen.

it was a stupid gut feeling, but his whole body tensed with it. so much so, that he could barely focus on his grief for joey, or fear of being in close quarters with youngjae again.

still, he tried to ignore it as he hauled bambam up, stumbling against his weight. at the same time, jackson said, "gotcha, bam's on water for the rest of the night." and mark nodded back to him.

"thanks. see you round."

in the space of only a few seconds, bambam was starting to liven up again and mark sighed. life with bambam really was a whirlwind huh? though it was good, because he finally found himself able to ditch the boy with the ever silent yugyeom in hopes of beginning a search for park.

in the two hours he had been at the party, he hadn't been able to spot jinyoung anywhere. and trust me, he had looked. hard.

jinyoung was the person he wanted to see more than anything, the person he wanted to hug and kiss and say goodbye to. the person he needed to spend his time with before leaving for a week.

after a couple of minutes, he caught sight of wheein and wrestled through the hoardes of people (some of whom definitely were not invited) to reach her.