#got7 oc

“oh bang chan, you have always been the same from when I first met you.” chan smiled once again, taking a small glance at elsy. she too had a grin on her face and that made chan smile wider as he let out a small laugh. “I just love what I do.”

elsy had let out a yawn as she laid her head down on her pillow. chan took notice of elsy rubbing her eyes. “you should sleep, els.” the girl was quick to shake her head. “I’ll sleep when you go back to your dorm, and sleep.”

“actually, it’s 1am. you should leave now. save your work for tomorrow.”

“not happening, my love.”

elsy gave chan a soft smile after hearing those two words, deciding not to argue back with him. either way, elsy knew chan wouldn’t listen and would continue working on music.

after a few more minutes of talking, silence came between the two as chan concentrated real hard on finishing his work. elsy was still laying in bed, slowly closing her eyes.

chan didn’t realize elsy had fallen asleep on the call until he had closed his laptop. “woo! finally finished-“ he immediately stopped talking when seeing elsy sleeping peacefully. chan smiled at the girl, “goodnight, my love.”

sick

“how are you feeling now?”

“not any better.” elsy sighed, letting out a cough right after. the girl had been sick for about two days and had yet to feel any better. she felt horrible and chan could hear it by her voice and as well as her cough. “I can barely sleep now.”

it was close to midnight and as much as elsy was tired, the girl just couldn’t fall asleep. she was always woken up by her cough. “have you eaten?” chan asked. elsy shook her head no. “not really.”

“I’m coming over.”

“no! don’t do that, bang chan.” elsy said. “I don’t want you getting sick.”

“doesn’t matter, els. I’m coming over right now.” he said. “but it’s late!” elsy said right back. “see you soon, my love.” elsy couldn’t say one word as chan had finished the facetime call. she let out a cough, now waiting for chan to arrive soon.

and when a few minutes passed by, elsy’s door swung open with chan coming inside her apartment. elsy felt to weak to look up from laying on the couch, but she knew it was chan since he knew her passcode to enter. “oh look at you.” chan cooed as he sat a plastic bag down on the coffee table. he lifted elsy’s legs up so he could sit down and placed her legs on his lap. “still not feeling your best?” elsy shook her head at his question, rubbing her eye. “no, and I haven’t gotten much sleep.”

“here, I brought you some soup.” chan said getting it out the bag, along with a spoon. “eat it, then you can go to sleep. I’ll be here with you.”

“you don’t have to do that, chris.”

“I want to, I can’t leave you all alone like this.” he said. chan had taken the opportunity to be with elsy, instead of working on new music. “I’m not going to sleep until you do.” elsy gave him a soft smile as she slowly sat up, engulfing chan into a tight hug.

elsy ate the soup slowly while chan watched her. they had the tv on for background noise. and when she was finished eating, she rested her head on chan’s lap. “go to sleep now. I’ll be here with you.” chan slowly ran his fingers through elsy’s hair. she had her arms wrapped around his torso as she slowly felt herself drift off to sleep.

soon after, chan fell asleep, sitting on the couch. elsy had finally had her full sleep time.

surprise

elsy took a seat once she got inside the venue. she was attending one of the stray kids’ show in LA, but she hadn’t told chan about it. so he didn’t know elsy was there. “do you think he suspects something?” she questioned hannah, her being there as well and being the only one to know elsy was attending. hannah knew elsy wanted to surprise chan. “I don’t think so. does he think you’re in the states or something?”

“no, but I have been pretty dry with him.” elsy chuckled. “and he usually knows something is up when I only respond with one word messages.”

“we’ll then I guess this will be a great surprise for him.”

after much screaming and cheering, as well as singing out loud, elsy and hannah were on their way backstage to stray kids’ dressing room. they had left a little before the show ended, not wanting to get caught by the members. “I say we scare them.” hannah suggested, she laughed with elsy as the two found some hiding spots. elsy picked behind a sofa, while hannah picked behind a tall plant.

“that was a great show!” felix said as he barged into the dressing room with the others following behind. “boo!” hannah jumped out, startling everyone. “hannah?!” chan exclaimed. “jesus, you scared me.”

“that’s what we were hoping for.” she said.

“we?”

“surprise!” elsy slowly stood up on her feet from hiding behind the sofa, all eyes on her. the girl instantly made eye contact with chan and he ran towards her. the two engulfed each other into a tight hug. “oh my god! what are you doing here?!”

“well you know I was going to be here in LA to record a few songs, so I thought maybe I should stopped by and see you.” elsy smiled as she wrapped her arms around chan’s neck. “you did amazing out there.” she kissed chan on the lips, causing the boy to turn red. he tend to get shy when showing PDA around his members. “I definitely like this surprise.” he giggled.

his members began to tease at chan, causing him to turn even more red. “yah! turn around, everyone of you!”

caught

elsy giggled a lot more as she took another sip of her drink. she was sat on her couch next to chan, having a glass of wine. but the girl could feel herself becoming tipsy the more she drank, her face already being a tad bit red.

and she was laughing uncontrollably, which only caused chan to laugh with her.

the two decided to stay in, not wanting to go out like they had plan. which made elsy take out some wine. chan drank a few sips here and there but it was elsy who kept gulping down drinks. she had lost count after her fourth.

“I wonder when bam and yugyeom are getting here.” she said. “I’m almost done with this bottle.”

“and its only been you drinking, els.” chan chuckled. “might want to keep it down, no?”

elsy shook her head as she chuckled. she went and grabbed chan’s face and brought their lips to each other. she moved in sync with his, not wanting to let go of chan anytime soon.

the girl even went ahead laid back on her couch, bringing chan down with her. elsy only broke the kiss to take off her shirt. “elsy-“

“it’s hot.” she giggled. the girl could see chan’s red face. he would tend to get a little shy when their make outs turned into this, but nothing more would happen. but tonight felt different and maybe the two were finally ready to take that next step.

it was chan’s turn to take off his shirt, which he rarely ever done. so that made elsy think tonight would be different. chan went back down to kiss elsy again, her arms wrapping around his neck and fingers running through his hair. right when elsy had unclasped her bra and was going to throw it on the ground, her front door and swung open.

“lee jiyeon- oh my god!” bambam shouted as he turned around quickly. elsy let out a scream as chan tried covering her chest. “what is going on- oh, elsy.” yugyeom came in from behind bambam, laughing out loud.

“so this is what you guys do alone? have sex?!” bambam exclaimed. he still was laughing hysterically. “no!” chan and elsy said in sync. “I swear, I’m changing my key so you two never come barging in again!” elsy pushed chan off of her and grabbed his shirt to cover her chest and left the living room.

“I’m with it.” bambam said. “so I never have to witness this again in my life!”

chan let out a laugh as he sat on the couch. now the attention of the two was on him. “what’s so funny, lover boy?” bambam snorted. “you think we want to come in and see you like that with our member.”

the three began to laugh as elsy came back with clothes on. “wow jiyeon, first jin-“

“Hello, are you even listening?”

Mark glanced at the boy sitting in front of him before letting out a bored sigh. “Yes Jackson, you did look so cool at your match yesterday.”

“Ugh you weren’t even listening!” Jackson groaned, putting his head down on the table in defeat. “I've been asking if you could volunteer for the fencing team’s carwash fundraiser this weekend since one of our members can’t make it.”

“Yeah sure, whatever,” Mark replied dismissively, returning his gaze past Jackson. For Mark, it was just another day at lunch with some of his closest friends. Jackson would blab about some random topic of the day while the others would passively listen as they ate, occasionally taking jabs at the talkative boy.

Jinyoung, sitting next to Mark, had noticed between bites of his lunch that Mark had been checked out of their group’s usual silly conversation. He turned to see where the boy was staring and let out a snicker. “Why are you staring at Kang Jisoo?”

Jackson, being the King of Subtlety, quickly whipped his head around to the object of Mark’s attention. Jisoo was sitting alone at her usual spot a few tables down, completely engrossed in the book she was reading for a class. She would take a sip out of her milk carton every so often, but never put her book down, completely unaware of the stares she was getting. Jisoo was often seen eating by herself during lunch, so Jackson thought it was odd how Mark was paying her mind that day. “Oh? Does someone have a thing for Ms. Kang?”

“Jisoo? That’s her name?”

“You don’t know her?” Jaebum, usually half-present during these lunchtime conversations, looked at Mark incredulously. “It’s the last year of high school!”

“Exactly! I know I only transferred here in the second year, but don’t you think it’s weird how I’ve never seen her before? Or wouldn’t think of talking to her? It’s our last year yet...JB, do you know who that is?” Mark quizzed his friend, pointing to a boy tossing his trash.

“Uh...I actually don’t know...I think I have him in bio?”

“And Jackson! That girl over there!” Mark pointed to another girl walking into the cafeteria. “What’s her name?”

“Kiso? Miso?” Jackson scratched his head in confusion.

Jinyoung raised an eyebrow at Mark. “Is this your way of telling us you’re tired of us?”

“Of course not,” Mark assured. “All I’m saying is that even though our school is so small, we don’t even know our own classmates. We’ve been stuck in a bubble, not that there’s anything wrong with our group, but it’s our last year of high school. I think we should try getting to know our own class, don’t you think? JB, Mr. Class President, you of all people should agree.”

“You do have a point,” Jaebum agreed pensively. “So what? Are you going to try and be best friends with Jisoo now?”

Jinyoung sneered. “Yeah, good luck with trying to even talk to her.”

Mark looked at the three boys curiously. “What do you mean?”

“That girl will not give you the time of day unless you are a textbook,” Jackson joked, going back to picking at his food. “She’s all about school and grades so she doesn’t have a lot of friends. Or any friends, really.”

“See, all the more reason to try,” Mark contended.

“I’m surprised you don’t at least know of her,” Jinyoung said thoughtfully, hand under his chin. “Don’t you know her sister?”

“Who’s her sister?” The simple question was met with audible gasps.

“Wait, you really don’t know?!” Jackson looked around, making sure Jisoo—though far away and still not paying attention to anything around her—wasn’t listening. “Her sister is—”

“Hey Jackson!” A boy had sidled up to their table, notebook in hand. “Here are those notes you asked for earlier.”

“Oh thanks man!” Jackson took the notes and brought the boy in for a pound hug. “See you in math!”

“You’re hilarious! I’ll see you in English!” The boy chuckled before heading off. The three friends looked at Jackson with amused expressions.

“You have no idea who that is, do you?” Mark asked dryly.

Jackson simply shrugged. “I could have sworn the only class I needed notes on was math.”

——

The next day, Mark made it a point to hunt down Jisoo. He didn’t know why he was particularly drawn to attempt befriending her, perhaps it was the challenge? Mark wanted to prove his friends wrong. Was it so bad to want to try making new friends? Maybe she just didn’t have a lot of friends because people were jerks. And Mark wasn’t a jerk, he got along with people really well, even if he was the more soft-spoken one in his friend group. But there was a first time for everything. Mark could break out of his shell and make a new friend.

But if he didn’t know anything about her before, how was he supposed to find her now?

Luckily he had made it a point to actually look up when he was walking into his classes today rather than scroll on his phone as he strolled in, because he finally spotted her sitting in the back of the classroom—nose shoved in another book—during his third period.

“Hi, is this seat taken?”

Jisoo glanced at the seat next to her. “No, go ahead,” she replied, removing her backpack from the chair so Mark could slide in next to her. Before she could return to reading, Mark spoke up again.

“Thanks. I’m Mark, by the way.” He stuck a hand out to Jisoo.  

She only smiled at his hand, returning her attention back to her book. “Mark, I know who you are.”

He shyly retreated his hand to his lap. “You do?”

“Yeah, I’ve only been sitting a few rows behind you the whole year.” She smirked, eyes still glued to the pages before her.

“Oh, but—”

“Just because you don’t know me doesn’t mean I don’t know you,” Jisoo interrupted, glancing at the boy in amusement.

“Oh.” Mark didn’t expect their first interaction to turn out this way. He imagined Jisoo to be more...shy and soft-spoken. Lost when it came to people. Kind of like him, but more so. He didn’t expect her to bite. Dumbfounded but determined, Mark pressed on. “I know you like reading. What are you reading now?”

“What are you trying right now, Mark Tuan?” Jisoo put her book down and gave Mark a bemused expression. “You’ve never spoken to me a day in your whole life, despite us being in the same Honors English class for the last three years, and now you’re coming up to me asking what I’m reading?”

Mark looked up at Jisoo ashamedly, suddenly feeling small under her gaze. “It’s never too late to make new friends, is it?”

Her gaze softened a bit. “It’s a book of poems in English. Mrs. Baek let me borrow it to practice reading English prose.”

“Oh, cool.” Mark nodded, wanting to relate. “So do you like writing? Are you planning to go into it after you graduate?”

Jisoo shook her head and gave Mark a wry smile. “You don’t need to try so hard Mark, I don’t need your pity.”

Mark was silent for a moment. “I wasn’t taking pity on you. I was just thinking about how weird it was that we’ve been in the same classes but I didn’t know you, though I should, and that’s why I wanted to talk to you.” He averted his attention to the front of the classroom. “I’m sorry for bothering you.”

Jisoo continued reading until the silence became too unbearable for her to handle. 

“Do you really not know who I am?”

Mark shook his head. “Should I? You know, I didn’t imagine you as the type to have an ego.”

She grinned to herself at the boy’s cluelessness. How refreshing. “I do like writing, but I may go more into journalism later. What about you? What are you thinking of doing, Mark?”

Mark returned the smile, giving Jisoo his full attention. “Well I’m glad you asked...”

——

The usually empty desk next to Jisoo in her English class had become Mark’s self-assigned seat. Every day at the beginning of class, he would cheerfully slide into his seat as she was hovered over some assignment due the following week. 

“Good morning Jisoo!”

“Good morning Mark,” Jisoo would greet back quietly with a small nod before returning to her work. 

Despite having sat next to her for weeks, Mark felt he had barely learned anything about Jisoo. Jisoo had a tendency—and was really good at doing it without him noticing—to deflect questions back onto Mark whenever he’d ask questions about herself. When he asked her what she liked to do for fun outside of school, she had said she didn’t have much free time because of all the work she had to do for her other classes.

“But what about you Mark?” Jisoo asked before Mark could press on. “You’re on the volleyball team, aren’t you? What’s that like? When did you start playing?”

Seeing as only fifty minutes of class every day was not enough for Mark to get closer to Jisoo, and Jisoo would quickly leave to her next class as soon as that one was over, Mark knew he had to try even harder. 

Which brought him to lunch today. 

“So are they like...together now? Or something?” Jackson, Jinyoung, and Jaebum were baffled as they watched the unusual pair sitting together tables away from theirs. “Mark always sits with us during lunch.”

“Of course not, Mark would have told us if he was seeing someone,” Jinyoung assured Jackson, though he was half-convincing himself. His friend wasn’t one to step out and talk to others, but here Mark was, speaking animatedly to Jisoo. “I guess he was serious about trying to make new friends.”

“Still, this is the first time I’ve ever seen him talk to her,” Jaebum stated confusedly. “With Jisoo, Mark looks almost...outgoing.”

“See Mark, your friends think this is weird too.”

“What do you mean?” Jisoo nudged her head in the the direction of the three boys burning holes into the back of Mark’s head. They immediately busied themselves as Mark turned around, attempting to seem like they weren’t staring. Mark chuckled as he turned back to Jisoo. “So what? They think everything I do is weird. They can’t talk though, they’re really weird too.”

“No wonder you guys are friends,” Jisoo stated pointedly, stabbing at her salad. “So why aren’t you sitting with them right now?”

“Why? I can’t sit with my other friends?”

Jisoo looked at Mark skeptically. “You think we’re friends friends? You sit next to me in English and we talk before class starts.” 

“Hey, I told you about the time I split my pants in elementary school in front of my crush, and not even the guys know that,” Mark explains, darting his eyes at the aforementioned boys. “We are friends.” 

Jisoo studied Mark’s face for any sign of insincerity before relenting. “Okay Mark Tuan, I’ll bite. So what brings you here to sit with me today of all days?” 

Mark simply shrugged, finally allowing himself to start eating. “Well I realized that you know a lot about me, but I wanted to know more about you.”

“What do you want to know?” Jisoo closed her notebook, giving Mark her undivided attention. It didn’t seem like Mark was going to budge, so she knew there was no point in trying to get some studying done for tomorrow’s quiz. Jisoo was also just genuinely curious as to what Mark was getting at. 

“Oh! Uh...” His eyes darted around as if searching the cafeteria for the right question. Mark hadn’t expected her to open up that easily. “What is your favorite...color?”

“Mustard yellow.”

“Why?”

And that’s how it started. Jisoo went into a story of she had an affinity for fall colors and was compelled to buy everything she saw in those shades. Jisoo and Mark amicably went back and forth sharing stories of the random things about them, Mark feeling touched by the sentiment that these were now things only he knew. Jisoo was obviously very closed-off so Mark felt a sense of accomplishment with how much she was sharing with him, trusting with him, in such a short amount of time. Judging by how rarely he saw Jisoo talking to others, he thought that people also knew very little about her. Though he did vaguely remember the guys saying something about knowing her—

“So what does your family look like?” Mark asked after finishing a story about how his sisters used to dress him up when he was younger. “I think Jackson or Jinyoung mentioned something before about you having a sister too?”

The small smile that had inched its way onto Jisoo’s face instantly dropped and she looked almost panicked. She abruptly got up from her seat and started to gather her things. “I should probably start getting to my next class, it’s a bit of a walk.” 

Mark frowned at her sudden disposition. “Sorry, did I—”

She gave a small bow before leaving him. “See you tomorrow!”

He sat there watching Jisoo’s retreating form, completely dumbfounded by what just happened. Mark turned around, meeting the now-shameless stares of his friends who had watched the whole interaction happen. The three of them just shrugged at Mark, at a greater loss than he was. 

——

Jisoo found herself inexplicably looking forward to her daily interactions with Mark. 

After she brushed him off that day in the cafeteria, she was really worried about how she was going to talk to him ever again—Jisoo was even more shocked that she wanted to talk to him—but it turned out that she had nothing to worry about. The following day, Mark had sat next to her during class like usual and talked to her normally, asking if she had understood the assigned reading. He never mentioned anything about family ever again, conversing happily with her as if the end of their lunch together had never happened.

That’s when Jisoo realized she considered Mark a friend. 

And it was normal for friends to look forward to seeing their friends every day, right?

“Good morning,” she greeted teasingly as Mark lazily slid into his seat. “You look awful. Did you stay up late playing video games for the fourth night straight this week?” 

“Very funny. It’s the only way I can play with friends in other timezones.” He laid his cheek on the desk and side-eyed her. “But I’m glad you’re enjoying this.” 

“Oh no, it pains me to see you looking tired. It means you won’t be listening to me nagging you to put as much effort into your homework as you do video games.” Mark rolled his eyes before rolling his head on the desk so that he was facedown. Jisoo let out a hearty laugh as she finally took notice of his outfit. “Mark, were you too tired to even turn the lights on this morning? You look like you dressed yourself in the dark!”

“Wait, what do you mean?” He shot up in his seat and looked down at his clothes.

“Your shirt’s inside-out! How’d you even button up your shirt this morning?!” 

Mark quickly put on his cardigan, slightly hiding his little mishap. “Oh my god, I’ve been walking around like this all morning, and no one told me anything!” Jisoo, amid her fit of giggles at her friend’s troubles, wiped away the stray tears that had formed in her eyes. Her laughter subsided when she noticed Mark silently staring at her, an impish smile quirked on his lips. 

“What?” 

“You look prettier when you laugh. You should do more of that.”

Jisoo’s face quickly flushed. “Prettier? What do you mean by ‘pretty’?”

“What do you mean what do I mean? You’re pretty!” Mark shook his head and chuckled. “Oh wait I remember, the Kang Jisoo has a bit of an ego. Fine, when you laugh, you’re so beautiful,” Mark corrected himself with another laugh. “Happy now?”

Mark broke into more fits of laughter as he noticed Jisoo’s face turning shades darker by the second. She slouched in her seat and covered her face with her hands. “Mark, why would you just say that so easily? What am I supposed to do about it?!” To Jisoo, Mark had said it as if he were talking about the weather. 

“I don’t know, I think it’s Jackson’s sappiness rubbing off on me. We’ve been hanging out too much lately,” Mark joked, turning to the front of the classroom as Mrs. Baek walked in, signaling the start of the period. For the first time ever, Jisoo couldn’t focus on the lesson, Mrs. Baek’s words going in one ear and out the other. 

It was also normal for friends to call their friends beautiful, right?

——

Jisoo told herself she only let Mark walk with her home because her house was already on the way to his and the days were getting shorter. It’s better for a girl to walk home with someone, especially a guy, when it was starting to get dark, of course. 

And Mark most certainly forced his jacket onto her when a gust of wind had whipped past them that afternoon. She hadn’t asked to use it and she definitely did not exaggerate how cold she was by wrapping her arms around herself so that Mark would notice. Jisoo really was cold and Mark, being the nice friend that he was, had forced his jacket over her. 

“See if I weren’t walking with you, you’d be freezing!”

Jisoo rolled her eyes as she returned the jacket to Mark. “We were a block away from my house, I think I would have been fine.” 

 “Yeah, yeah whatever you say,” Mark replied with a sneer, waving you off. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, if you don’t oversleep and actually make it tomorrow,” Jisoo joked, earning a playful shove from Mark. “Bye—”

“Jisoo, you’re home!” 

A middle-aged woman donning an apron and with fresh dusts of what seemed to be flour on her face had emerged from Jisoo’s front door.

“Oh Mom, yes, I just got back.” 

The older woman walked up to Jisoo, lacing Jisoo’s fingers with hers and beaming brightly. “I just got the best news today! We’ve got a special surprise arriving tonight!”

Jisoo smiled as she dashed her finger across her mom’s cheek and flicked the powder off. “Is that why you’re going crazy in the kitchen?”

Her mom nodded. “It’s not every day we get this surprise, so we’re having a feast tonight.” She looked behind Jisoo to see Mark still standing there in the walkway, watching the interaction. He waved when Jisoo’s mom looked his way. “Oh! Is this a friend from school?”

Jisoo gave a nervous laugh. “Yes, well...” She nudged her head and gave Mark a slightly-panicked look, motioning for him to come over. “This is Mark Tuan from my Honors English class. He lives a few blocks that way so we walk home together sometimes.”

Mark stuck his hand out to the older woman. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Kang.”

She gladly took it, shaking his hand profusely. “Very nice to meet you, Mark! You must join us for dinner, I made a lot of food and this is the first time I’ve met one of Jisoo’s high school friends. More of a reason to celebrate!”

“No Mom, Mark is really busy—” Ignoring Jisoo’s protests and before Mark could get a word in, her mom had dragged the two of them into the house. 

Jisoo’s house was simply decorated, the mustard yellow walls doing most of the eye-catching. It was warm and cozy as the smell of her mom’s cooking wafted in the air. One thing Mark noted to himself was that he couldn’t spot any family pictures anywhere. 

“I think I’ll be learning more about you today than I have in all the time I’ve known you,” Mark teased, giving Jisoo a nudge as her mom ushered them to the living room. 

“Whatever you do, don’t ask too many questions, answer all of my parents’ if they have any—but be vague when you answer—and just give me your food when my mom’s not looking if you can’t finish it,” Jisoo hissed quietly as she pulled Mark to sit on the couch. She turned back to her mom. “So what’s the surprise?”

The older woman shook her head, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Well it wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, now would it? Your father is picking it up right now.” She was about to return to the kitchen but quickly turned back to Jisoo. “I almost forgot! Dear, could you go over to Mrs. So next door? I asked her to fix my pants and was supposed to pick it up today before she went on her trip with Mr. So, but I still have so much to cook.”

“I can come with,” Mark volunteered. 

Jisoo gave him a hesitant look. “No...you better not. Mrs. So gets weird about strangers coming over. You can just relax, I’ll be right back.”

Mark went to join Jisoo’s mom in the kitchen. “Mrs. Kang, I can help you finish cooking or set the table while waiting.”

She clapped her hands gleefully. “Oh, I’d appreciate that Mark! You can help me make the cheesecake, it won’t take too long to make. Here’s an apron!” Mrs. Kang lowered her voice to Jisoo as Mark busied himself with the apron. “He’s handsome. Bring him around more often.” 

“Mom!” Jisoo gave her mom a frightened look, silently ordering her to stop, before turning to Mark. She stifled back a laugh as she noticed he was wearing her dad’s “kiss the cook” apron. “I’ll be back. Don’t make too much of a mess.” 

Jisoo was at Mrs. So’s longer than expected. As soon as she rung her doorbell and the older woman came to the door, Jisoo found herself answering a parade of questions. Mrs. So claimed to have not seen Jisoo in so long and wanted to catch up, even though Jisoo would sometimes join her mom and the other older women in the neighborhood for weekly tea. Mrs. So had occupied Jisoo with so many questions that she had almost forgot the reason why she was there. 

Taking a breath after finally leaving Mrs. So’s with her mom’s pants in hand, Jisoo headed back to her house, hoping her mom wasn’t similarly bombarding Mark with questions or embarrassing stories about her. She was also really looking forward to whatever surprise her parents had in store. Perhaps it had arrived when she was gone? Maybe they were finally getting a dog? With that exciting prospect in mind, Jisoo happily bounded to her doorstep and opened her front door, ready to be greeted with a—

“Surprise! I’m home!”

Frozen in her spot, Jisoo allowed herself to be engulfed in a bone-crushing hug by her older sister. 

“Unnie...you’re—”

Suddenly Mark emerged from the kitchen, looking as giddy as a kid at a candy store. “Jisoo! I didn’t realize your sister was the Kang Jiwoo! I see her on tv all the time! I should have put two and two together. Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Yes, well...” Before she could even begin to formulate an answer, Mrs. Kang had enjoyed them in the foyer.

“Come and take a seat before the food gets cold!” She ordered, ushering the kids into the dining room. “Jiwoo dear, you must be starving! I made all your favorites!”

Jisoo felt like a lost scubadiver with only a couple of breaths left in her oxygen tank, a few seconds away from drowning.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to get away. But she could only sit there and watch silently as Jiwoo seemed to bewitch her friend at the dinner table like she did with everyone else she encountered. Jisoo couldn’t even enjoy her mom’s cooking. 

“This is top secret information, so keep this on the down low,” Jisoo advised jokingly as Mark pretended to zip his lips. “But we’re shooting the music video for our comeback single. One of the locations is a half hour away, and the other girls are just staying at a hotel, but I decided it was close enough for me to come home and spend the night.”

Mark had stars in his eyes as he conversed with Jiwoo. “Wow, a comeback? You must be super busy! You probably have a tour coming up too! I saw some footage from your concerts overseas before on the news, you guys got really big!” 

Jiwoo gave a shy laugh, looking down at her plate in modesty. “Yes, well...”

“Jisoo does that too!” Mark pointed out, turning to the silent girl next to him. “You probably get it from her, don’t you?” Jisoo could only shrug as she occupied herself by tossing the food around on her plate, not wanting to answer and confirm his speculation. 

“Oh, Jisoo gets a lot of things from me,” Jiwoo added with a lighthearted laugh. “When we were younger, she used to always follow me around and copied whatever I did. I remember I used to get so annoyed when she’d mimic what I’d say.”

“Really, she used to copy you?” Mark looked back and forth between the sisters. “But you two are nothing alike!”

Mark had no ill-intent behind them, but as those words left his mouth, Jisoo knew she was done for. He had finally seen Jisoo for what she really was—everything that Jiwoo was not. 

Out of breaths in her oxygen tank, she was drowning.

——

Mark was certain Jisoo was avoiding him. 

He thought nothing of it initially. She had been quiet during dinner at her house, but Jisoo was always quiet, so that was nothing out of the ordinary to him. The next day during their class together, she had arrived just as class was about to start. She had no choice but to take one of the seats up front, so Mark had no chance to talk to her in class. Perhaps she had been running from her last class? Mark knew Jisoo could be a bit of a grade grubber. He speculated that she was probably trying to negotiate her grade up from a 99 to a 100 with a teacher, and that’s why she ran a little late. 

But then it happened again the next day. And the day after that. And after that. And so on. He noticed she wouldn’t look his way during class. Then she’d quickly leave as soon as class let out. Jisoo was also nowhere to be seen during lunch. Nor was she at her locker after school, where Mark would meet with her so they could walk home together. 

Jisoo didn’t answer any of his texts or his calls. Had he not seen her every day during English, Mark would have been really worried that something happened to her.

But it had been a week after the dinner at her place and Mark was still worried because something did happen to her, otherwise she wouldn’t have been ignoring him for that long. He felt helpless, he didn’t know who to ask about her whereabouts. 

Jisoo had really opened up to him in the last few months, so why was she closing herself off again?

Mark finally caught her on her walk home. As soon as school finished that day, he had made it a point to race to her block so she would run into him. Jisoo was a good girl, she surely wouldn’t be skipping out on class just to go home early so she could avoid him. 

Jisoo found him leaning against a lamp post near her house. Waiting. She was about to make a run for it when Mark turned and saw her. 

“Jisoo, wait!” 

“Mark, jus-just leave me alone.” She tried to sound assertive, but sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Mark instead. 

He walked up her, eyes boring into her skull, willing her to look at him. “Why have you been avoiding me?” She stayed silent, averting her eyes in any other direction but his. Mark knew she was trying to figure out a way to make a run for her house. Jisoo knew he was a fast runner and could easily catch her. “Did I do something wrong? Was it something I said at dinner to your parents? To your sister?” Taking her chances, Jisoo attempted to dash past Mark. With cat-like reflexes, he grabbed her arm, spinning her around and holding her in place so she was forced to look at him. “Whatever it was Jisoo, I want to apologize for it properly, but you need to talk to me.”

She had never been so close to him. She found looking Mark in the eye unbearable so she averted her gaze elsewhere. “Why do you care?”

“Why do I care?” Disbelief laced heavily in his voice. 

“Yeah, it’s fine, it’s not like my sister’s going to hate you for not checking on me or anything,” Jisoo said offhandedly, slipping herself out of Mark’s grasp. “She loves all her fans.” 

Suddenly it all made sense to Mark. 

“Jisoo, do you really think that lowly of me?” 

Whatever resolve Jisoo had built up came crumbling as soon as she heard the hurt in his voice. “Mark...”

“I always thought that you were only distant from others because you were so focused on school and people misunderstood you, but you were doing this deliberately, weren’t you?” The heartbroken look on Mark’s face tore Jisoo to shreds. “Jisoo, how could you think I was being like everyone else? We’re best friends.”

Jisoo could feel herself getting choked up. She felt like a fool. Of course he wouldn’t purposely use her like everyone else did, Mark Tuan was the nicest person she had ever encountered. Never did he ask anything of her, except for her time. 

Which is probably why she had fallen for him, slowly but surely. 

“I’m sorry,” was all she could say, with her head hanging down. 

Mark looked at her with a stern expression. “You know what your problem is? You push people away before they can hurt you. You’ve never let anyone in long enough for them to see how amazing you are.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out a small mustard yellow gift bag. “Talk to me when you like yourself as much as I do.” Without another word, he tossed the bag to Jisoo and left in the direction of his house.

——

“Do you...mind if I join you all?”

It was an odd sight to take in. The boys looked to Jaebum for guidance, always yielding group decisions to the unofficial leader.

“Sure Jisoo,” Jaebum choked out. The boys hurriedly moved their stuff from the table, shifting themselves to make room for her. Jisoo quietly took a seat directly across from Mark and began digging into her lunch, unaware of the stares she was receiving. 

“So Miss Kang...” Jisoo made a funny face at Jackson’s formality. “What brings you here to sit with us?”

“You guys are always staring at me during lunch, I figured I’d join you so you wouldn’t have to strain your eyes so much,” Jisoo teased, side-eyeing the boys as she ate.

“Oh, she bites!” Jackson bellowed. All of the boys, except for Mark, laughed at the usually quiet girl’s uncharacteristic jab. 

“I was also just thinking about how it’s our last year. It’s kind of weird how I see all my classmates every day but I’ve never really made the effort to talk to them. So I guess, here I am now.” Jisoo gave them a sheepish smile, as if asking for permission.

“Well you’re more than welcome to sit with us during lunch whenever you want,” Jinyoung invited graciously with one of his signature eye smiles.

She smiled warmly at them. “Thank you.” 

Mark could only stare silently across the table at Jisoo as she conversed easily with his friends, his eyes fixated on the mustard yellow bow tying up her hair. It had been over a week since he had last spoken to Jisoo. Joining him and his friends at their usual lunch table was the last thing Mark expected her to do. Watching as she blushed and giggled softly at one of Jackson’s typical flirtatious jokes, he didn’t expect her to get along with his friends so well either.

“Better get going,” Jaebum announced as the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period. They all got up to clean up after themselves. “Don’t forget about the meeting after school. And Jisoo...”

“You’ll have lunch with us again tomorrow, yeah?” Jackson asked, looking at Jisoo hopefully.

She glanced at Mark who looked back at her with an unreadable expression. “Well...if it’s okay with you guys...”

“Of course it is,” Jinyoung reassured. “Anyone who’s able to completely debunk Jackson’s stupid conspiracy theories is all right with us.”

“Hey!”

“Sure, see you guys tomorrow,” she replied gratefully, waving the three boys off as they headed to class.

“Jisoo...”

“I’m sorry, am I overstepping boundaries?” She looked at Mark worriedly. Of course he’s still mad. She silently scolded herself for imposing. “I knew I should have asked you first if it was okay.”

Mark shook his head as he pulled Jisoo aside from the other students leaving the cafeteria. “No, not that. You always sit at the same table or spend lunch time cleaning lab supplies for Ms. Kim. What are you trying to do here?”

Jisoo sighed as she gazed up at Mark’s questioning eyes. There was no point in trying to come up with a lie, Mark had already seen right through her once before. “Can we talk and walk at the same time? I really can’t be late to History, we have a quiz.” Mark rolled his eyes before gesturing Jisoo to lead the way to class, a small smile playing on his lips. That was the Jisoo he was used to—always prompt.

“I missed you.”

Now that was the Jisoo he was not used to.

Mark stopped in his tracks. “Are you sick?” He placed a hand on her forehead. “Your temperature seems fine. Are you really the Kang Jisoo, the one who thinks nagging someone about how much sleep they’re getting is a sign of affection?”

She removed Mark’s hand before continuing to walk. “It means I care.”

“So do I.”

“And that’s why I missed you.” Jisoo stopped walking again to look at Mark properly. “Mark, you were right. I do tend to push people away because I’m afraid of getting hurt. Like before. I thought I was going to get hurt again so I pushed you away too.” She gave him a regretful look. “I’m sorry I thought so little of you, Mark. Of course you weren’t going to be like everyone else. You’re my best friend.” 

“But why do you keep pushing people away?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” She smiled sadly as she looked down at herself. “I’m not Unnie. She’s a beautiful and successful Hallyu star that everyone wants to be or be with. I was always compared to her ever since we were kids, and whenever people talked to me, it was always about her—they would ask if I could get them tickets to her concert or an autograph or if I could give her a letter and to let them know what she says when she reads it. I was always living in her shadow.”

Now Mark was the one looking apologetic. “That must have felt awful.”

“That’s why I’m so focused on school. I can finally do something that Unnie didn’t get a chance to finish. When it comes to my education, I can just be me, not Kang Jiwoo’s younger sister.”

They gazed at each other for a moment, letting Jisoo’s words sit. Though she had said that he was right, Mark now felt horrible about berating Jisoo before. He suddenly took her hand and started walking hurriedly. 

“You’re right, you’re not your sister,” Mark announced undoubtedly. Jisoo didn’t have it in her to protest. She could only stare at Mark’s grip and let him tug her along. “Jisoo, you’re you, perfectly you. You’re Kang Jisoo, the girl who silently judges my unkempt hair in the morning even though she’s basically had the same haircut since the fourth grade.”

“Hey!”

He gave Jisoo’s hand a gentle squeeze as he continued walking, unintentionally causing her stomach to stir. “You’re everything you should be and nothing less. I wouldn’t have it any other way, and neither should you.”

They had arrived right outside of her History class. With her hand still in his, Jisoo scanned Mark’s face with uncertainty. “So we’ve confirmed that we are best friends, but still, how could you be so good to me? I feel like I’ve always given you 10 when you’ve given me 90.”

“Because I like you,” Mark replied simply, releasing her hand with a shrug. “And don’t worry, you don’t have to say it because I already know. Otherwise you wouldn’t be wearing the bow I got you.” 

Jisoo felt her face flush red. “But I—”

The bell rang again. “I better run to class before Mr. Jeong gets mad again. Meet you at your locker after school?” Unable to produce a proper sentence, Jisoo nodded dumbly, earning an ecstatic smile from Mark. He quickly pecked her on the cheek before heading off in the opposite direction. “Go be the educated Jisoo that I like, bye!”

She grinned to herself like an idiot as she slid into her seat, Mark’s words replaying in her head over and over again. More motivated than ever, Jisoo happily greeted her classmates around her as she got ready for the rest of the period. 

“Because I like you.”

Slowly but surely, with the help of a good friend, she was beginning to like herself too.