In his arms (Markson)

Twenty

Mark is surprised by Lisa's straight forward questioning but he's not afraid to answer the question by any means.
"At that age? No. As a matter of fact when Jackson was probably eighteen I had accepted a marriage proposal, but that fell through some time later. I was dating another man for around a year and we broke up the day before I ran into Jackson." He pauses and laughs.
"Or I guess I should say Jackson ran into me." Jackson and Bam both laugh as well with Yugeom asking for the story. After everyone had a good laugh at their expense mark had a few more words to say.
"If you're still curious I could type you up a list of all my exes with their bios and contact information, Incase you don't believe me." Lisa just smiled apologetically at both of them and looks down to her fidgety fingers.
"My turn, hmm who should I ask?" Mark looks around the room trying to think of a good question for someone.
"Bam, tell me honestly how you feel about Yugeom?" BamBam's face was immediately a dark shade of red, but he still considers the answer as everyone waits anxiously.
"I can't answer that yet as I don't know myself but I will say that he's the first person in a long time that I've even considered going on a second date with. He's sweet and caring and he even likes my cats so I think he's a keeper." Yugeom smiles squeezing his hand as he leans in and kisses his cheek again. Everyone in the room was going into cuteness overload by his answer.
"Ok mine is for Lisa, do you really not like Mark and Jackson's relationship?" She wasn't surprised by the question so she swallows hard and just says what she's thinking.
"I don't know to tell you the truth. When we were younger I always hoped you two would end up together but it's just weird because of the age gap and the fact that you were so close in a whole different kind of relationship before. I'm sorry for being this way and I will come around as long as mark treats you right."
She looked down again ashamed of herself for the way she's been. She knows that love has no boundaries, you can love any sex, any race or any age but she just worries about her friend.
"Ok so I guess it's me again and since we're on this kind of topic. Jaebeom I've noticed you seem a little affected by Mr Youngjae over there so do you like him?" Jaebeom smiles confidently not being one to shy away from the truth.
"Honestly, I think he is the most beautiful person I've ever seen and I would love to get to know him better." Youngjae's cheeks heat up as everyone cheers and whistles. For just a second he let himself believe this until it hit him just how wrong it was.
"No, I'm not, I'm a terrible person, just ask them how we met." He says while wiping away his tears and pointing to Mark and Jackson.
Jaebeom is taken aback by his sudden change but doesn't waver.
"Well it's my turn to ask a question so I'll ask you Youngjae, how did you guys meet?" Youngjae looked at everyone's expectant faces then looked down to the floor.
"You don't have to do this Youngjae, it doesn't matter how we met, what matters is right now." Now everyone is even more confused at Mark's reaction, Jackson even still questions why Mark is being so nice to him.
"My uncle," He starts off even after Mark protests.
"He pretends for my fathers sake that he loves me but he doesn't even like me. I've always been a burden, he has never said this of course but any chance he has to get rid of me he does. He's Jackson's boss, he basically forced him to take me out to keep me out of his hair." He chuckles darkly. "My father sent me here to him for the same reason. Jackson did as he was asked and took me out. He tried to be civil, he tried to make conversation but I knew he was thinking of Mark the whole time. Being the selfish person that I am I didn't care, so I was determined to steal his heart." Everyone was silent as he continued.
"Mark over heard me talking to a friend and ended up misunderstanding Jackson's feelings.
It was all my fault. I hurt Mark, if it wasn't for me Jackson could have been with you that night." He says looking Mark in the eye. "If it wasn't for me you never would have been in that situation. The more I think about it the angrier I get with myself. All because I had to say something stupid..." he's sobbing as Mark goes to his knees in front of him.
"If I wouldn't have over reacted and maybe I could have listened to Jackson's side of it before jumping to conclusions and leaving. As I told you before, you didn't know I was his.." Mark hesitates so Jackson finished for him.
"My boyfriend to be." He says with a smile. Mark chuckles.
"Still, I just feel at fault and you shouldn't be nice to me." He looks at Jaebeom unable to read his expression so he stands turning to the door.
"It was nice to meet all of you but I'm going home." He starts to walk to the door but someone grabs his arm to stop him, he can't look anyone in the face now so he doesn't know who until they speak.
"I don't blame you, Mark's ex was going to keep trying no matter what. If it wasn't that night it would have been the next. Until he got what he wanted, he wasn't going to stop." Jackson said finally letting go of him.
"Ok so this is not going how I had planned, so we need to stop being petty, and self deprecating and just have a nice time between friends. Please? I've had a hard time recently because of my ex and some miscommunications with Jackson but I want us all to be friends and I'd like you all to have my back as I would have yours." Mark sighs running his hands down his face.
"Please, I've had enough drama." He finished off hugging Youngjae from behind, bouncing him up and down making cute faces at everyone. Youngjae finally caved and goes to sit again while Mark jumps around happily till he ends up back on Jackson's lap.
The rest of the night went smoothly as Lisa let go of preconceived notions and Youngjae worked on letting go of his self doubt and letting Jaebeom in, just a little.