"Hey Jinyoung."
Mark greeted the younger as he allowed him into his dorm, something he never thought he'd do. The only reason why he was accepting the underclassmen into his dorm was because Jackson told him to after class, saying he had some news to share.
The last thing Mark wanted was to be alone with Jinyoung again, but luckily they had loosened some tension between them earlier during their shared class, so he was able to bear him for a little while; for Jackson's sake, of course.
"Hi, Jackson here yet?" The younger asked as he stepped into the dorm, standing just in the middle of the room.
"No. He just texted me that he told you to come over."
"Yeah, he texted me to come here, so I guess he should be here any moment now." Jinyoung replied with a shrug.
Silence quickly settled between them. Mark never realized exactly how awkward their relationship was until then, mostly because he spent the majority of their time together hating him, or Jackson was always there to ease the atmosphere. Now they were left together with nothing to talk about, and the air in the room grew heavier with every passing second.
As much as Mark appreciated silence, in some cases he just couldn't stand it.
"Well um... y'know Jackson talks about you a lot." He blurted out, for some reason that being the ice breaker he decided to use between them. Of course, the topic of conversation had to be Jackson; he was the reason why they both were gathered in his dorm in the first place; and besides, how could Mark not think of Jackson when he was just feet away from the guy who's constantly occupying his time.
The younger glanced over at Mark, caught off guard by the slightly random topic, but smiling at the elder anyway. "Does he? I think you might have told me before, but I'm still flattered of course."
"Yeah, goes on and on all day, wish he'd shut up." Mark spoke with a dry chuckle; he really did wish Jackson would shut up about the younger.
"Wow, I had no idea." Jinyoung replied. He let out a small sigh, shaking his head. "Can't talk about me as much as he talks about you though."
Of course that caught Mark's attention; he felt his heart thump against his rib cage. "Oh... well, I think you also mentioned that before. I-I doubt I'm on his mind that much."
Jinyoung rolled his eyes, waving away the statement. "Oh please, I can't start a conversation without you being brought up. I'm sure he can relate any topic back to you; one time I was talking about how a cat peed in my shoe and he brought up how he's become more of a dog person ever since you showed him a picture of your family's dog and he thought it was the cutest thing. Seriously, any topic becomes about you."
Mark could definitely tell that Jinyoung and Jackson were similar in getting carried away when talking, and normally he'd want both of them to be quiet, but hearing Jinyoung go on about how Jackson never went a day without mentioning him was something Mark didn't mind listening to. He thought that Jackson didn't think much about him; that he wasn't anything special to the younger; but maybe he'd just jumped to false conclusions.
"I... don't know what to say..." He mumbled bashfully, his ears glowing red as his gaze fell to the floor.
"Must be nice to be thought about 24/7." Jinyoung replied, the smile on his face growing wider. "I'm glad Jackson had someone honest and trustworthy around him. You seem like a good friend who cares about him despite how you act sometimes."
Friend. Mark always told Jackson they weren't friends, they were nothing but mere acquaintances, if even that. It was already pretty known that he wasn't the nicest to Jackson, but the majority of the mean things he said, he didn't actually believe. He did regard Jackson as sort of a friend; he'd never admit it aloud, but he and Jackson had been together for a while now, and at this point he was one of the only people Mark really had to rely on.
