777 Ways

CHAPTER 40 - CLAWS

Since Mark and Bambam's bar was scheduled to open by the end of the month, Youngjae offered to give the two some basic Korean lessons in order to help them interact with their clientele. Yugyeom had already helped his boyfriend find a barback and a couple of servers that were fluent in English, but the bar owners naturally felt entitled to learn the local language. Positions were quickly being filled, the bar staff was almost complete, renovations in the interior design of the place would be finished in a couple of weeks, licenses were obtained, and marketing was going well. Worried about his lover's safety, Jinyoung hired three security guards, who were supposed to guarantee that things at the establishment ran smoothly, no altercations between patrons would be overlooked, nor any kind of illegal activities would be allowed. The author didn't fail to tell them that their main task would be keeping the owners of the bar out of danger.

It had been three weeks since the events that took place at Nora's birthday party. Jackson still hadn't made any move that could indicate that the phase 2 of his revenge was in progress, but Jinyoung still drove Mark to whatever location the American needed to go. One of those locations, unfortunately for him, was Jaebeom's house. And even though Jaebeom was at Team Wang in the morning, whenever Jinyoung dropped Mark there for his 'Korean classes' with Youngjae, he felt a little unsettled.

Neither JB nor Jinyoung were happy with the fact that Youngjae decided to teach Mark and Bambam Korean during his time off. Jinyoung didn't like the fact that his boyfriend was constantly visiting the place where he had cheated on him, and Jaebeom always feared that Mark someday, would decide to tell his husband about his dirty little secret. However, several days passed since that night, and Mark seemed to have enough self-control to deal with the situation. The foreigner and Youngjae were getting along too well lately. The American clearly appreciated all the support and assistance the publicist was providing him and his best friend with the bar marketing, and they naturally started to spend a lot of time together. Sometimes, their growing closeness led JB to think that the older would never have the heart to tell Youngjae about his and Jinyoung's drunk mistake. At some point, Jaebeom convinced himself that Jinyoung was not entertaining strange ideas about that night, and he thought that they could go back being best friends just like before. Jinyoung was writing again, and he promised his editor a book until the end of the year. He spent several hours locked up in his office while his boyfriend focused on his bar business, and his Korean lessons.

Now Mark and Jinyoung were inside a car parked in front of Jaebeom and Youngjae's place. Jinyoung was asking Mark to give him a call whenever his lesson was over, but the older simply rolled his eyes at him.

"Nyoungie, I can ask Jae to take me home later. You have nothing to worry about. We haven't heard from Jia Er in a while. I'll be fine." Mark whined, dismissing his boyfriend's unnecessary overprotectiveness.

"Exactly! And that fact should make us even more alert. At least I thought that Bambam would be coming to these lessons with you, but the kid is not even in his apartment when it's time to come here. Since he and Yugyeom moved out, they don't seem to be available for anyone or anything. Such ungrateful children." Jinyoung complained, but Mark knew he actually missed his cousin's antics, and Bambam's dirty mouth. The young couple still visited them regularly, but Bambam did not take those Korean lessons seriously, after all, he was learning the language much faster while spending time with his boyfriend.

"Bambam is monitoring the renovations at the bar and Yugyeom is at JYPE. Of course they're busy, and so are you, mister bestselling author. Now go back home and resume your writing. I'll meet you at the apartment later." Mark insisted, giving the younger an impatient look. Strangely, after that roleplaying game in which Iyo asked Malik for forgiveness, things between them were relatively stable. Since Jinyoung was most of the time isolated in his office, whenever he got out of there to take a break, and Mark happened to be home, they would either have sex or cuddle on the living room couch. If it was nighttime, they would order some food, watch some Netflix, and chill. If their paths crossed in the morning or in the afternoon, Jinyoung would usually wrap Mark around a blanket, bring him to the balcony, lay down on the comfortable lounge chair and have the American lay on top of him. Mark would just nestle himself in his lovers arms, and rest his head on his chest. Sometimes he would just listen to Jinyoung's heartbeats and contemplate the Seoul sky while his boyfriend read him some poetry. Sometimes taking a nap together was also revigorating. They were having less time for each other, but somehow, that fact made them cherish even more the little moments they shared inside that apartment.