a week passed, so slowly.
a week of mark in america, his father had his passport- had taken it from him the minute they had stopped arguing- and mark was beginning to lose hope. he was sure he would never see jinyoung again, and that was enough to leave him wallowing in his childhood bedroom.
youngjae would come in periodically, with a glass of water or a biscuit, and ask if mark was ready to talk.
everytime, mark would say, "why would i want to talk to you? leave me alone." or something similar. sometimes, he would simply glare at youngjae until he left. but either way, or whatever his mood was, mark would never, never, talk to youngjae.
not when just looking at him brought so much anger to bubble inside him, sometimes it was unbearable- the sheer amount of hatred he felt towards youngjae. and to think he had ever been in love with such a snake. youngjae was scum to him, a lying, cheating dickhead.
mark could barely stomach just seeing him, without thoughts of fighting and... sometimes something worse, floating to the fore front of his vision. he didn't think himself a violent person. but when youngjae was stood in front of him, something feral emerged from within him.
and, he thought it rightly so.
youngjae had told him his brother had died, just to tear him away from his life in korea, which only got better as the days passed. sure, there was always that tiny possiblity of death, and he hated his job, but he was happier there than he had ever been.
youngjae had taken that from him. so he wasn't exactly in the forgiving mood, and was sure he never would be.
this only angered his seething father further. the man had been irate when mark first arrived, beginning screaming matches whenever possible- blaming him for joey's decline in health, when it was obvious the illness was getting worse by itself and telling mark he had ruined their "happy family".
it was never a happy family, not without their mother.
but his father wanted someone to blame, and mark had ditched them, and so it felt like mark was the villain.
mark would wake up to an argument, spend the whole day fighting with his father and then go to sleep to the sounds of his shouts.
on the seventh day, youngjae had entered the house with joey, as he did most days. joey stayed with him, an executive decision his father had made, on the grounds that he didn't want joey taking his brother's side.
they opened the front door and were greeted, as they always were, with loud, angry shouts.
"YOU CAN'T KEEP ME HERE!"
this from mark, who was sat on the family sofa, scabby brown leather, facing his father who was pacing in front of the ancient television.
"i can and i will." the man didn't need to raise his voice to sound angry, the malice showing in his commanding tone.
mark groaned angrily, throwing his head into his hands.
"why the fuck are you doing this? i don't understand."
"your life is here- not in korea."
the look on mark's face was enough for youngjae to anxiously tell joey to wait in the garden. mark had only looked that furious once, when he saw youngjae with minhee, in bed, naked...
"that's where you're wrong." mark spoke, and youngjae was surprised at the calmness of his low voice. still, he stood in the hallway, deciding not to make his presence known, "i had a life there. i had escaped this fucking hellhole, i was free from you and your stupid alcohol ... i had friends, and a job, and a boyfriend. so tell me again. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING THIS?"
mark exploded, jumping up so suddenly from the sofa that even youngjae flinched in surprise.
"your brother needed someone to look after him, because i was sick of doing it myself. with you gone, i had to go to all the hospital appointments, and help him with his oxygen tank and waste a lot of my time with him. so i went to youngjae, and he told me you went to korea."
"that fucker.." mark whispered.
"we made a plan, it worked, and you will not set foot in korea ever again. am i making myself clear boy?"
the pair stood neck and neck, neither dropping their eyes. the tension was unbearable, youngjae was just waiting for one of them to throw the first punch.
"give me my fucking passport."
"no. now go to youngjae's and get your brother, he has some hospital appointment. oh, can you pay for it too? i assume you made some money in korea."
"asshole. i wish you were the one who was dying."
youngjae hurried away then, taking joey from the garden and making his way back to his house. he was beginning to feel guilty about agreeing to mark's father's plan. he didn't think mark would be as upset as he was, and hearing him list all the things he had in korea only made the guilt intensify.
for a while, he had wanted to talk to mark about it- tell him he was wrong and he was sorry. but mark wouldn't listen.
still, he deserved mark's hatred. he shouldn't have gone along with minhee, he should've said no. and he should've said no to going to korea to trick mark into coming home too.
but he didn't.
as he was leaving with joey, he heard one last shout from mark.
"I FUCKING WISH YOU WERE DEAD!"
and then he heard the sound of a punch, mark groaning, and someone falling to the floor.
he pushed joey quickly through the door, and hurried him away, too scared to look back.
how had things got this far?
youngjae truly thought mark's dad wanted mark back because he missed him, and wanted his son back. not so they could fight and he could put all the things mark was running away from back onto his son.
and why was raymond so harsh? since youngjae had known him, he was always so sad- but never angry. sure, he'd shout sometimes, but it always came from a place of utter sadness.
but mark had changed a lot, no longer timid and quiet. perhaps that ellicited a change in mark's dad too.
either way, youngjae didn't want to be around either of them. he just couldn't believe how much they were arguing.
he wished he had never taken mark from korea.
----
and whilst mark fell to the floor, blood spurting from his nose as his dad walked away into the kitchen, jinyoung lay in jaebeom's bed.
blissfully happy.
that's how jinyoung would've described it. mark hadn't crossed his mind since that night, when jaebeom had come to see him, in fact, mark wouldn't cross his mind for a long while.
he lay there, head resting on jaebeom's naked chest, head empty of mark and the life they had dreamed of sharing for that short while, and felt happy.
if only he had known what would happen.
jaebeom chuckled, low and rough, a sound that made jinyoung tingle with admiration and what he could only say was love.
"i'm glad you gave me a second chance." jaebeom said softly, stroking circles on jinyoung's shoulder.
jinyoung nodded, "me too. i didn't realise how much i missed this."
"i did. every day in prison i was thinking of you."
this time, jinyoung was the one who laughed, "i know you've mentioned it several times now."
leaning up on his elbows so he could look jinyoung in the eyes, jaebeom tried his best to look at jinyoung with love as he said, "i just want to make sure you know it. i love you park jinyoung- for a while i lost who i was, and i'm sorry. but i will never leave you again."
and like a lovestruck idiot, jinyoung believed him. but of course he did, he would always believe jaebeom, because he loved him. and love is a pretty powerful manipulation tool, if you were lucky enough to have it- like jaebeom.
it was too easy.
way too easy.
a
/n
i just remembered the initial plan for this story and im SCREAMING
mark was supposed to come to wingate and then JINYOUNG was supposed to shoot jaebeom and get arrested, and then he runs away from prison and takes mark with him.
i-
what happened?
it was meant to be a book about them being on the run (and eventually falling in love) lmaoooo and now mark is being held captive by his dad in la while jinyoung cheats on him wtfffff