translucent [markson]

[Eighteen] Sleepover

Christmas Eve was one of Jackson's best days and one of Mark's worst. In one case, Jackson spent a Christmas he thought he'd have to spend alone with two people that meant the world to him. In Mark's case, he spent his first Christmas without his family and in a room that made him overwhelmed with jealousy.

Yugyeom's mom had a last minute business trip, which meant Yugyeom got to go back to his dorm for the holidays. To his delight and Mark's displeasure, he was able to spend time with Jackson, even if it meant he wasn't with his mom. While Yugyeom and Jackson spent every second together, Mark was third wheeled; he was very aware that Jackson and Yugyeom would never date, but he couldn't shake the thought away that he would never mean as much to Jackson as Yugyeom did. He knew it wasn't his place to have those thoughts, considering he refused to talk to Jackson for the first half of the year, so he did everything he could to distract himself from them.

Right before Christmas Eve, Mark tried to avoid Jackson, only to fail miserably. Neither his friends nor family would answer his calls or texts and he still refused to talk to Sehun after what he had seen. Jackson was still his only option and, frankly, Mark didn't fully mind. Without him, Mark only got insanely bored and ended up wandering back into Jackson's room anyway. The only thing Mark minded was Yugyeom.

The two had a friendship Mark so desperately wanted. It was a combination of wanting better friends and wanting one of those friends to be Jackson that made it difficult for Mark to stay in a room with the two of them. None of Mark's friendships in the past had ever been that close, BamBam and Jaebum being his two closest friends ever. In America, he was always too focused on school to really get to know anyone, so he was somewhat used to keeping to himself. After getting to know BamBam and Jaebum, Mark realised how much better it was to have people by his side. Jackson made it worse, making Mark wish that he had something better than what he had with either BamBam or Jaebum.

As much as he cared about BamBam and Jaebum, the two of them were quite detached from others emotions. Compared to Jackson and Yugyeom, they were selfish and didn't care about what other people felt. BamBam had put so much effort into cutting ties with Jackson for the sake of his reputation, and that was the most heartless way he could have approached the situation. That wasn't to say that they were evil people, just that, given the choice of BamBam or Jackson, Mark would now choose the latter.

That's why Mark ignored Jaebum's offer to spend Christmas at the Im's house to have a sleepover at Jackson's dorm. Mark was fairly certain that the only reason he was invited -- by both Jackson and Jaebum -- was because they felt bad that Mark was alone, so the decision was based purely on preference. He knew that Jaebum had a more traditional family and that made Mark worried that he would be willingly entering an awkward situation; Jackson and Yugyeom seemed a lot more fun than Jaebum, even if he was still a little shy around Yugyeom. The decision was made without a second's hesitation, leaving Mark to wait for their sleepover day to come.

When Mark walked into the dorm, he was met with nothing but silence. Yugyeom gave him the same menacing glare he always did, but Jackson just stared. Instead of focusing on the suspiciously quiet boys sitting on the floor, Mark looked around at the decorations around the room. There was a baby Christmas tree sitting on the desk and lots of lights strung around the room. They gave the room a cute vibe to it that it didn't have before, and Mark felt comfortable.

"Hey. I brought food." Mark gave a shy smile and placed the food on the desk. Yugyeom and Jackson's eyes followed each of Mark's movements, as if he was going to do something crazy at any second. Mark understood why Yugyeom was acting weird, but Jackson's actions made Mark worried that he had done something wrong -- he couldn't understand why Jackson felt the need to be suspicious of him.

"Thanks for coming, Mark," Yugyeom mumbled, an almost sarcastic tone underlying his words. Awkward silence followed Yugyeom's greeting, only to be broken by Jackson.

"Yi En?" Jackson's voice was almost a whisper, his hesitance making it seem like he didn't want to be heard.

"What's up?" Mark made his way over to Jackson and took a seat on the floor next to him. He could still feel Yugyeom glaring at him, but Mark pretended not to notice so he could focus on Jackson.

"Is something wrong?" Jackson asked, muttering his question in nearly inaudible Chinese.

"Something wrong? With me?" Mark would have figured that something was bothering Jackson rather than him, since Jackson was the one acting weird around Mark.

"Yeah. You disappeared a few days ago. We were supposed to have another day out, and you disappeared."

While Jackson prepared himself for the worst, Mark only laughed. Jackson had expected Mark to begin making fun of him for thinking they're friendship would last, so the laughing made him think that the next words that would be said would be something along the lines of "you're pathetic." Just the thought of Mark saying something so mean made Jackson terrified to the point he regretted asking. Still, he would rather know the truth than be left in the dark wondering why he was left in the first place.

Little did he know, Mark was only laughing because he forgot about their day out and went shopping instead. He had only wanted to buy Jackson a Christmas present and, eventually, an apology present, as a way to say sorry for forgetting about their plans. The only reason he didn't go back was that it was already late by the time be remembered. He also figured that Jackson would forgive him after seeing the apology gift  -- cute highlighters Jackson had wanted -- but apparently Jackson had misread the situation.

"You think I missed it on purpose, don't you?" Mark watched as Jackson gave a cautious nod. "I just forgot. I'm really, really sorry that it slipped my mind, but maybe it'll make you feel better if you knew I only went out because I wanted to get you the best Christmas present."

"Then why did it seem like you were ignoring me?" Jackson had visibly relaxed, though he still seemed to be carefully planning out what he said and did.

"I just figured that you'd want to spend time with Yugyeom, now that he's here." At the sound of his name, Yugyeom's head snapped to Mark, who was staring down at the ground in embarrassment. Even though Mark and Jackson were speaking in Chinese, he was able to hear his name in the middle of messy syllables he couldn't understand.

"If you're going to trash talk me, at least have the decency to use a code name or something," Yugyeom cut in, letting out a half-hearted sigh.

"We're not talking bad about you, Yugyeommie." Jackson reached over and ruffled Yugyeom's hair, only doing so because he knew Yugyeom hated it. Yugyeom huffed in annoyance and pretended to still be mad, even though he took Jackson's word.

"I only believe you because I'm perfect and there's nothing bad for you to talk about," Yugyeom scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Honestly, I can't argue with you." Jackson exaggerated a look of envy and glared at Yugyeom, causing the two to burst out laughing.

They continued talking as if Jackson's conversation with Mark and even Mark's presence as a whole was completely forgotten. Mark, despite usually keeping to himself, really wanted to join in on the conversation. In most situations, Mark liked to listen while he kept his thoughts to himself; however, around Jackson, Mark barely ever shut up. He followed their conversation, making comments in his head every now and again, but he couldn't bring himself to speak up. There was something about the way Jackson and Yugyeom interacted that gave Mark stress about cutting in.

So Mark just sat and listened. To be completely honest, he didn't expect any more or less than the situation he got himself stuck in. He knew that he would be somewhat ignored, but he had figured it would be better than getting stuck under the piercing gazes of Jaebum's parents. However, he was beginning to question whether he made the correct decision in choosing the sleepover.

It wasn't until everyone began to get ready for bed that the situation began to change.