UNBLOCKED

27 | forgiveness

"are you sure this is the right place?" jaebum frowned as they pulled up to a familiar location.

jinyoung nodded as he stared down at the map on his phone. "this is the address he gave. but why not his own house-?"

"this is jackson's place," jaebum interrupted.

jinyoung glanced up at the window and instantly began to frown. "yeah... it is," he said slowly. "what is he trying to do? make some point? this is a load of bullshit-"

"jinyoung." jaebum reached over and placed a hand on jinyoung's thigh to calm him. "i read the texts. he sounds pretty genuine."

jinyoung chewed on his lower lip as he considered going inside. "why bring jackson along then?" he demanded.

"because he has nothing to hide?" jaebum suggested weakly.

"i'm not fucking doing this-"

"jinyoung!" jaebum rolled his eyes. "he's been your friend for ten fucking years. just hear him out, yeah?"

jinyoung swallowed a whole rant's worth of objections and sighed heavily. "fine." he undid his seatbelt and grabbed jaebum's hand tightly.

"...i'm coming in with you?"

"obviously."

after knocking at the front door, jinyoung wasn't sure what to expect - an insult-hurling mark coming at him for round two? or a sobbing mark begging for his forgiveness.

in the end, he got neither.

"hey," said jackson as he opened the door.

jinyoung had never really gotten a good look at jackson wang before. he was broad-shouldered and well-built, with seemingly serious facial expressions and a head of chocolately brown hair.

"um, hi," said jinyoung shortly.

"markie's... kind of a mess right now," jackson apologised. "he invited you guys over right... wait, jaebum!?"

jaebum waved awkwardly. "hi," he said. "how's the... um, team going?"

jackson grinned bitterly. "shit, since you quit. johnny's been made official captain, but that shit cheol keeps trying to take over... and we're basically destined to lose every game we play this season..."

the three of them fell into an awkward silence as they stood there on the doorstep.

"so... do you, like, wanna come in?" jackson offered.

"it's fucking freezing, move," jinyoung muttered irritably, pushing past jackson into his house.

mark tuan, meanwhile, was busy sobbing and snivelling into the couch, curled up in an enormous hoodie that was definitely too big to possibly belong to him. jinyoung stopped on the other side of the room and stared, his heart breaking.

it had always been this way and it always would be. jinyoung could never stay mad at mark, not when mark was upset. not even when mark had been the worst friend of all time.

"spill the shit then, tuan."

jinyoung pressed his lips together to form a thin line, and folded his arms across his chest.

mark peered up at him and immediately got to his feet. he blinked at jinyoung for a few seconds and violently cleared his choked up throat. "please..." he coughed again and his voice came out right. "listen to me, please, and then i promise you don't have to deal with my shit anymore."

"start talking," said jinyoung, trying to keep together a stern image - one you don't try and fuck with.

mark breathed a small, hasty sigh of relief and began to talk. "it's my parents," he rambled, "they've been going through a divorce."

"what?" jinyoung breathed.

"it's been horrible for a while, but they decided to go through with it... a couple weeks ago," mark said, hurrying as if he couldn't get his words out fast enough. "they've been fighting about everything, even about me, and i couldn't deal with it."

"you could've just told me," jinyoung accused him.

"i know," mark confessed, his knees giving out underneath him as he fell back down onto the couch. "but i didn't want you to have to deal with more stuff, especially with the jaebum thing... and i just didn't want you to have my problems..."

jinyoung edged closer and eventually sat about a foot away from mark on the couch. "when did you start seeing jackson?"

"that week," mark answered, starting to tremble, "things were really bad at home that day... and i bumped into him after school... i guess it was a distraction. at least at first..."

"what happened then?" jinyoung asked quietly.

"we got... attached," mark whispered, glancing up at jinyoung anxiously. "we couldn't stop meeting up to see each other, and i didn't know how i could tell you."

"so you didn't," jinyoung finished.

mark nodded, regretful tears forming in his eyes. "and at the party... i didn't know how to handle it, when you found out. so i lashed out, and all of the anger i had at my parents..."

"was taken out on me," jinyoung nodded. "i get it."

"it's not an excuse!" mark insisted. "it's just why i've been a shitty friend. but i still am one, so you should just go and find some new friends."

"mark, god, shut the fuck up," said jinyoung, chuckling slightly. "honestly, i expected you to be a total shit and have another go at me, but i get it. i kinda overreacted a little too."

"you overreacted?!" mark stared at him. "i had a fucking go at you when you didn't even say anything!"

"why didn't you just come and apologise, asshat?" jinyoung said through a sigh.

"i didn't know how to," mark whined. "why are you even still here? i'm the worst friend - go on, leave."

"i'm not fucking leaving, mark," jinyoung told him. "come here, you big mess."

and jinyoung took mark in his arms and hugged him tight, and mark hugged him back desperately, thanking the heavens jinyoung was being nice that day.

"jinyoung?"

"yeah?"

"i know you're probably still mad and everyone hates me, but are we good?"

jinyoung smiled at him, glancing back at jackson and jaebum who were still standing in the doorway. "of course we are," he said.

___________________

a/n: whoops
DOUBLE UPDATE
resolved that shit
way too quickly

for all y'all who hated
on poor markie, his story
will probs be explained
in more detail dw

and jinyoung also doesn't
forgive people that easily,
so they still have some
way to go before they get
back to their old friendship

i'm hoping for some soft
fluffy chapters to come
bc there has been way too
much crying and angsty
stuff ugh nO MORE CRYING

comment any date ideas?

now that most of the jaebum
shit is over, and the mark shit
is over, what should the squad
do to let off some steam?

will write some soft fun scenes
over this weekend whoop!

love u guys so much,
see ya next time xx