𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓜𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮

𝙿𝙰𝙶𝙴 𝟸.

"Jackson! Hey!" Jinyoung jolted back into reality when he heard someone uttered that name towards the man seating in front of him. Confusion laced Jinyoung's face. Jackson?

The man turned around and got up from his seat, "Mark! What's up man?" He then leaned closer to whisper, "You didn't tell me you have a date in our restaurant? It's on the house, buddy."

Mark pulled away to peek around Jackson's right shoulder and then whispered back, "huh? That's Park Jaebeom?"

Jackson nodded and turned to face a wide eyed Jinyoung. "I'd love to stay and stare at how beautiful you are, but your date is here. Have a lovely evening, Park Jaebeom. And it was nice meeting you." Jackson bowed and then turned to Mark, "Aight, Mark, it was nice to see you. Let's hang out soon?" Jackson patted Mark's shoulder then raised his glass to Jinyoung and left.

"I'm so sorry for being late. I had a last-minute meeting at work and then traffic. Anyway, hi, I'm Mark. Nice to finally meet you, Jaebeom." Mark introduced himself as he took his hand out to shake Jinyoung's.

Jinyoung blinked slowly, then he blinked again until he gathered himself together, "I-I... I'm sorry. I'm just... if you're Mark, who was the one with me all this time? I mean...I'm sorry for making a mistake. I- I thought he was Mark."

Mark giggled, "Oh, please don't apologize... I was late and it was my fault. Don't worry about it. Jackson is cool."

"Yeah, but did you ask him to pretend to be you?" Jinyoung asked, annoyance laced his tone.

"No! I didn't even know he'll be here... though I'm glad that it was Jackson. He didn't like embarrassing people, so when you mistaken him to be me, he didn't want you to feel embarrassed that's why he didn't correct you. He knew that I would eventually show up, so he stayed with you. He is a gentleman despite his reputation. We've known each other way back. Our mothers are childhood best friends, so we ended up being best friends." Mark informed Jinyoung.

Jinyoung's curiosity piqued at "despite his reputation" and wasn't even paying attention to whatever Mark was saying.

"Jaebeom? Earth to Jaebeom?" Mark waving his hand in front of Jinyoung's face.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I zoned there for a minute...what were you saying, Mark?" Jinyoung snapped out of his Jackson trance.

"I asked you if you don't remember me at all. We met during high school, our schools had a basketball game, and I was playing, and you were there, sitting on the bleachers with Brian Kang, don't you remember it?" Mark informed Jinyoung which of course, the latter has no idea since he wasn't there.

"Um, sorry, my memory is shit. So, you know me then?" Jinyoung asked nervously.

"I don't personally know you but I know what Jaebeom looked like and you're not him. Because you don't have the 2 moles that define Park Jaebeom." Mark casually answered without batting an eyelash.

"If you know I'm not Jaebeom then why didn't you out me in front of your friend?" Jinyoung narrowed his eyes on Mark.

"Because I don't believe in humiliating people either...besides, Jackson would curse me if I did that. He hates mean people." Mark shrugged and continued eating his steak.

"If he is that great, then why would you say despite his reputation, which sounded like a bad reputation." Jinyoung raised one of his eyebrows.

"Hmm, I can't tell you anything about my friend until you tell me who you are and why did you pretend to be Jaebeom?" Mark raised his eyebrows at Jinyoung.