"Bye bye Jinyoungie~ take care of yourself, please get some rest, you were up late!"
Mark frowned as he and Jackson walked down the hall; the younger yelling out farewells to Jinyoung who he'd probably see the next day anyway.
"I will Seunie, but make sure you do too! You studied hard!" Jinyoung called back, rapidly waving his hand. "Bye Mark!"
Mark glanced back at the guy wearing a stupidly bright smile. He did what he does best and faked it, smiling back and waving before Jinyoung retreated into his room and shut the door. Mark's smile instantly dropped opposed to Jackson who was still beaming. Of course he'd be, after a whole night of being practically suffocated by Jinyoung's body.
Mark looked over at him, his brows knitted together. "Jinyoungie? Seunie?"
Jackson shrugged. "It's a cute nickname."
Mark's gaze turned down to the floor. They had cute nicknames now. Great. "We don't have cute nicknames..."
"You didn't want any, remember?" Jackson reminded with a small shoulder nudge.
Mark blinked, realizing what had just slipped from his lips. That's right, he didn't want cute nicknames; they were cringey and annoying anyway. "O-Of course I remember, I was just stating a fact."
Jackson hummed as he pulled out their dorm room keys. Mark kept his eyes trained on the floor as they approached their room, the two quietly making it in.
Jackson and Jinyoung were never this quiet together. Yet Mark and Jackson were. Jackson was rarely quiet in general. Mark wondered if he were that boring that even Jackson couldn't be entertained with him.
No, there was no reason to start being so insecure. So what if Jackson thought that way? Mark didn't care. He truly didn't care.
He didn't.
That's what he kept telling himself.
"Well Mark, I dunno about you, but I'm gonna crash." Jackson announced as he stepped into the room, bee-lining for the bed.
The three of them were up pretty late studying, and apparently Jackson did pretty well learning math from Jinyoung. The younger offered to study some biology with Mark, but he refused to take any help from that guy. He didn't need the help anyway, he was passing bio with pretty average grades.
"Yeah I'll probably get some food and sleep too." Mark replied, making his way to his own bed while dropping his things on the floor as he did so. He climbed onto the mattress, glancing over at Jackson who had already made himself comfortable on his bed. He couldn't help but think about their late night bathroom talk; Jackson really had no plans of pulling away from Jinyoung. Not that Mark expected him to, but he really couldn't understand why he was so obsessed with the guy.
Mark thought he was as good as Jinyoung. Better than him even. But, maybe Jackson didn't think so. Maybe he was starting to favor Jinyoung more. Sure, Jinyoung didn't call him names and didn't ignore him all the time like Mark did but, Jackson was seemingly never affected by Mark's attitude. He always wore a smile on his face, and always showered Mark with endless attention regardless.
It was annoying.
And now, Mark was even more annoyed that Jackson seemed to be showering Jinyoung with attention instead. It seriously irked him. He shouldn't be so bothered by it but... Mark was sure that without Jinyoung, his feelings wouldn't be so jumbled up in the first place.
"Jackson, can I ask you something?" Mark blurted out, his overwhelming thoughts pouring over into tangible words.
Jackson shifted on his bed, just enough to glance over at the elder. Luckily he wasn't asleep yet. "Shoot."
