"Mark!" Jinyoung waved from across the room, beckoning for the elder to approach. His eyes shone with hope as Mark took a seat beside him, the younger nearly fidgeting out of his seat. "Mark, what did Jackson say? Did he talk to you about it at all?"
Mark scratched the back of his head, remembering how Jackson was that morning. Even though he felt bad, he was already deep in his lies; to unravel them now would be like suicide. "Um... well, he feels bad about blowing you off like that but, he meant what he said."
Jinyoung's bright eyes dimmed, the hope in them fading into nothingness. "S-Seriously? He just... wants to stop hanging out?"
Mark couldn't even bring himself to look any longer at the younger. He forcibly kept his eyes on the desk in front of them while unpacking his books. "Yeah... he didn't go into much detail, I think he's going through some things right now. But he just wants to be alone for a bit."
"I-I see..." Jinyoung mumbled, a small sigh following. He sat back in his seat, staring off into the distance. "That sucks."
Jackson had said the same thing. The two really did have some sort of connection, they were so similar and seemed so crushed about losing one another. Mark didn't like that he felt pain in his chest from seeing them both look so sad; he was supposed to hate Jinyoung, this was supposed to be a good thing, but he felt guiltier by the minute.
"I'm sorry..."
Jinyoung huffed as he rested his head in his palm while leaning forward on his desk. "He was one of my only friends here. You both were. Even if you don't like me as much, I still regard you both as friends. It's hard for the new kid to just hop into a different school and socialize; at least for me it is. I was glad for him to be so open to me but... now I'm back to square one."
Why did Jinyoung always make things worse?
He made Mark feel unwanted, thrown aside, left out; amongst other emotions that were arguably not his fault. But Mark hated him the worst when the younger made him feel guilty.
Mark wanted to believe that what he was doing was for Jackson's benefit, but seeing not only Jackson hurting, but Jinyoung too, really took a toll on his prior beliefs. He couldn't stand gazing at Jinyoung's stupid sad face; he didn't wanna feel anything for him at all.
"There are thousands of people here, you can definitely make friends." He stated, more so in order to make himself feel better rather than for Jinyoung's comfort.
The younger looked over at him, his eyes dimmed with gloom. "Will I though?"
"That all depends on you." Mark replied.
Jinyoung sighed, turning back toward his work. "I guess..."
Mark did not like the way his chest tightened from Jinyoung's melancholic tone, he tried his best to focus on his work during the class, but he constantly felt a pang of guilt stab him in the heart every time he glanced at the younger.
