The trio ended up in Jinyoung's room after picking up some dinner. Mark and Jackson filed in after Jinyoung, the three being greeted with another dude that Mark found oddly familiar.
"Meet my roommate, Jaebeom." Jinyoung announced, the name ringing a bell in Mark's head, he just couldn't seem to place where he'd heard it before. Jinyoung gestured between his roommate and the pair that waved in a greeting. "Jaebeom, these are my friends. Get out."
Jaebeom put up a hand in a return greeting, slinging a bag over his shoulder and heading for the door. "Peace."
Jackson's face morphed into a frown as Jaebeom exited the room and shut the door behind him. He looked over at Jinyoung while wearing a pout. "Why'd you kick him out? He could've joined us."
"He doesn't want to. He's going to visit his family for the weekend so he's driving out there tonight." Jinyoung answered. He set his bag down beside his bed and took a seat, gesturing toward the plenty of plush chairs and small couch they had scattered about the room as an invitation for his guests to be seated.
"So you got your dorm to yourself all weekend!? How nice..." Jackson said as he opted to join Jinyoung beside him on the bed.
Mark frowned, both at Jackson's statement and the close proximity of the two. "Hey, you wouldn't want me to leave you anyway..."
Jackson let out a dry chuckle in response to Mark, his attention immediately directed back to Jinyoung as soon as the younger started to speak.
"Yeah, so feel free to visit anytime. Jaebeom is often out somewhere, so no one else here to worry about besides me."
Mark knew Jinyoung was speaking to both him and Jackson, but he honestly felt quite invisible. He took a seat on a nearby chair, trying his hardest not to look like he'd rather be anywhere else but there. Jackson looked happy, and Mark didn't necessarily want to totally ruin that smile, but Jinyoung's presence just made it all 1000 times harder to hide his true feelings.
"So, what subject should we start in." Jinyoung asked, finally getting to the main reason why they all were gathered.
Jackson hummed, reaching into his bag and pulling out a textbook. "Can we do math? I got more homework from my professor so I wanna get it out the way."
Jinyoung nodded, his eyes quickly shifting from Jackson over to Mark who'd been pretty quiet. "Okay, Mark you're okay with that?"
"Hmm?" Mark jolted from suddenly being the center of attention. He thought he was practically forgotten about, but Jinyoung acknowledged his presence. It was becoming so difficult to hate the guy. Mark was sure he was an asshole in some aspect, he just had to figure out which one. This temporary 'nice guy' act was getting on his damn nerves. "Oh yeah, yeah sure that's fine."
"First, I'm gonna eat." Jackson announced, throwing his book aside in favor of the bag of food that had all of their meals in it.
"Of course, can't forget the food." Jinyoung replied, which somehow made both of them giggle.
It wasn't even that funny. What, Jinyoung was a comedian now?
Mark thought their little interactions were too annoying to take, but he hadn't expected it to get worse as the night went on. While eating, the two were chatting nonstop about whatever the hell interested them while he sat across from the pair; trying hard to focus on his own food, but too busy constantly sneaking glances at them.
He couldn't help but notice that Jinyoung had scooted so close to Jackson that they were practically joined at the hip. Seriously, how close do you need to be to someone just to talk with them?
Was it weird that Mark wanted to drag Jinyoung onto the floor and handcuff him to something to keep him from moving?
Yes, 100% that was a weird, dark thought that Mark for sure should not have had. Everybody has had such thoughts and felt bad right afterward, but Mark genuinely had to fight a bothersome tightness in his chest due to Jinyoung's unnecessary clinging. And the fact that Jackson seemed so comfortable with it didn't help either.
"Jackson, your salad looks good." He heard the annoying younger state, rolling his eyes at the statement. He sounded like he was forcing a cute act just to get a reaction from Jackson. He was totally fake, Mark was sure that had to be why he was so unlikable. Why Jackson was wrapped so easily around his finger was beyond him.
"Wanna try it?" Jackson asked, the offer making Mark glance up at the two. He watched Jinyoung nod, the youngest's eyes glued to Jackson's fork that punctured different vegetables onto its prongs. He opened his mouth wide as Jackson led the fork toward his mouth, giggling the entire time, especially when some dressing dribbled down his lip and chin. "Oops, it's a bit messy, sorry."
Jackson naturally cleaned off the dressing from Jinyoung's lip with one swipe of his thumb, then rubbed it onto a napkin to clean his thumb.
That was the cringiest thing Mark ever had to witness; he had the urge to punch both of them in the face. He hated it so much, he couldn't even mask the noise of protest that escaped his throat. Only when he noticed that he had attracted the two's attention with the odd sound did he realize he should try and play it off as clearing his throat or something.
He tugged at the collar of the large sweater he wore, changing the subject as fast as possible so he wouldn't have to witness anything like what had happened in the past few minutes. "Um, so... Jinyoung, why did you transfer schools?"
Jinyoung seemed caught off guard by the question, his jaw fell open slightly. He let out a long sigh as his eyes dropped to his lap, his feet that dangled off the side of his bed kicking like a child's. "Just... my last school was shitty. I thought it was something I could handle but literally no one cared about education there. I wanna do something in the medical field one day, I need the proper training and education to get a job like that. So I transferred."
Jackson's face turned serious; Mark immediately noticed his hand that rested on Jinyoung's back. "That sucks. Did you at least make friends?"
Jinyoung shrugged loosely, a demeanor of defeat overcoming him. "The kids were shitty too. You'd think in college people wouldn't be so mean like, we're all adults and got our own shit to focus on. I was terribly wrong. Wasn't a good environment for me."
"I'm sorry..." Jackson mumbled, his arm sliding further around Jinyoung who leaned slightly into his touch. "Well, here people are pretty nice. They do care about education so, hopefully it's better."
Mark wanted so bad to tear the two apart, but he would feel awful about it since it looked like Jinyoung needed someone to lean on. And now hearing the struggles the guy went through at his prior school, Mark would turn out as the asshole if he said or did anything shitty like that.
Jinyoung seemed to perk up as he looked at Jackson, then Mark, a small smile gracing his lips. "It's been a great experience so far thanks to you guys! I was nervous, but I'm glad I already found some friends."
"Aw you're so sweet!" Jackson cooed, the hand that wasn't wrapped around the younger rising to pinch his cheek. Jinyoung blushed and looked away, giggling as Jackson tugged on his squishy cheek.
Mark cleared his throat yet again to distract the two from being so touchy. He had to keep this study group on track or else he'd witness moments of too much touching and clingy-ness like that all night.
Fuck. He still has to spend all night with these two.
"Um, so guys, wanna start that studying?" he asked, the two finally pulling apart as the topic of conversation was finally directed back to what they were initially here for.
"Sure." Jinyoung replied with an annoying bright smile, then offering to clean up everyone's garbage while Mark and Jackson pulled out their study material.
Mark watched him closely as they prepared to study and throughout the session. He hated that he low-key felt bad for the guy now, and while it did make it harder for Mark to dislike him for no good reason, he still couldn't ignore the burning contempt he felt for that man when watching him hang all over his roommate.
