Mark woke up in the wrong bed. He was startled at first when his vision filled with Jackson's face, until he remembered what transpired late the night before.
His heart started throbbing.
Jackson being so sweet and caring, holding him so close, rubbing his back to soothe him from his awful dream-- Mark slowly remembered it all, and his heart pounded just thinking of it.
And he realized, he was still within Jackson's warm embrace, the younger had never let him go. He shouldn't be surprised, especially when he considered how many times Jackson had tried to get him in his bed and failed, yet Mark still hadn't expected Jackson to seriously clutch onto him all night.
The only thing was, Mark remembered facing the opposite direction when he went to sleep that night. Yet this morning, he was now facing Jackson, the younger's face just inches away.
Mark wanted to move away, yet he also wanted to stay put. His eyes explored Jackson's resting face, from those long eyelashes down to his plump pink lips.
Mark subconsciously ran a tongue over his own while staring at them.
Jackson looked so soft. Mark had noticed this before, but now being able to see it up close, his perfect sun kissed skin looked like glowing melted gold. And the tank top Jackson wore exposed more of that flawless skin; from his neck down to his chest, Mark drank in as much of Jackson as he could
He had the urge to touch.
Mark was not the touchy type whatsoever, but he's never seen such perfect features up close. Maybe this is what Jackson feels like whenever he's being flirty and annoying-- maybe he has such unfightable urges to touch what he knows he can't have.
Maybe those same urges are what caused Mark to reach out and drag his fingers along Jackson's jaw, finally getting a feel of the incredibly warm, smooth flesh. His heart beat a mile a minute, throat dry as he took in Jackson's complexion from a completely new angle.
Being this close to Jackson was really fucking with Mark's head.
He hadn't expected just a soft touch to be able to wake Jackson, yet just as soon as he pulled his fingers away, Jackson's eyes fluttered open. Mark was startled, and he immediately moved his hand away before Jackson noticed what he'd been doing. But he couldn't move his eyes away fast enough, so the first thing Jackson awoke to was Mark staring dead at him. How totally not terrifying.
Apparently it didn't faze Jackson at all, he actually seemed happy, a bright gleaming smile stretched across his lips. "Morning beautiful."
Mark hadn't expected a praise so early in the morning, especially with Jackson's deep just-woken-up voice. He wasn't ready for it. "G-Good morning..."
Jackson raised a brow as his hand rose to wipe something, probably a stray eyelash, off of Mark's cheek. "You didn't complain about the compliment."
"Well... it's a compliment so, it would be shitty of me to complain..." Mark replied; in awe at how easily Jackson touched him with zero hesitation while in contrast he nearly had a heart attack when he tried to touch the younger.
Mark tried to remain unbothered, as if Jackson's actions had no affect on him. But the one thing he couldn't control was the color of his face; he so desperately hoped he wasn't blushing at the moment.
Jackson hummed, his brows rising at Mark's response. "You're usually shitty to me though. I like this change."
"Don't get used to it." The elder retorted.
Jackson chuckled at their usual banter, sitting up slightly to stretch. "Did you sleep well?"
Mark gently nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"I wanted to make sure you didn't have any more nightmares."
"Oh, right." Mark's chest warmed. Since when was Jackson so thoughtful? He couldn't have always been this way and Mark was just now noticing, right? "No, no more nightmares."
"Good." Jackson nodded, yet again reaching out to touch Mark, this time gently patting his head. He smiled warmly, yet those gently brown eyes didn't take long to glint with his usual mischievous behavior. "Y'know, I think deserve morning sex as repayment for protecting you."
Mark gasped as Jackson's hand fell from his head down to his thigh faster than he could even register the motion. He squealed like a child, pushing away Jackson's touchy hands in a fit of panic.
"Jackson, no!" He retorted through high pitched giggles; for some reason, the flirting amused him that morning, which was completely opposite to the usual annoyed glares he'd give the younger whenever he acted like that.
Jackson also wasn't expecting that reaction, but it seemed to brighten his day to have Mark laughing instead of pushing him away in disgust. "Oh? But you're giggling. Does that mean I have a chance?"
"No, I'm laughing at how dumb you are." Mark retorted, trying his best to die down his chuckles. He cleared his throat, slowly shifting further away from Jackson as he grew slightly more awkward with each second that passed. He didn't know how to react to Jackson anymore. He was so used to being dismissive toward him that not doing so really felt out of character. "I'm uh... I'm gonna go shower. I feel like I didn't do anything productive yesterday besides sleep so I think I'm gonna head to the library to study."
"Sure." Jackson nodded, watching as Mark swung his legs over the side of the bed and slid off the mattress. "I think I'll go visit Jinyoung."
Mark spun around, the bright mood of the morning completely falling flat with the utterance of that name. "Why?"
Jackson cocked his head, shrugging at the elder. "Why not?"
He blinked, realizing that of course, one night sleeping with Jackson wouldn't keep him away from Jinyoung. They were nothing more than roommates anyway, why would Jackson give up his friendship just to satisfy Mark's possessive desires?
Last night was nothing more than just two roommates keeping one another company; Mark had no idea why he started to think it meant anything more than that. Jackson was just being nice, and besides, Mark didn't even like Jackson that much.
It was just a tiny little feeling in his chest that made him feel all warm and tingly, but it would pass. He shouldn't care at all about it. He shouldn't even acknowledge it.
He should just ignore it.
"Um... okay..." Mark mumbled back, suddenly feeling cold as he left for the bathroom, leaving Jackson alone on the bed they once shared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(*I'm gonna really start updating this book a lot I think, cuz I have a lot more time on my hands (for obvious reasons lol) and I kinda know the ending already, I just need to actually write it lol. But don't worry, it's not anywhere near the end yet. I'd say maybe... a little less than half way right now?? Yeah probably that lol; as you can see, we still got a stubborn mark on our hands 😂)
