A Beautiful Butterfly

Chapter 12

On Saturday, Jinyoung and Mark were on the train that was heading for Jinhae in the early morning. They were side by side, Jinyoung between the window pane and Mark.

For three whole hours, they were going to be this close, knee against knee, thigh against thigh and shoulders bumping against each other at every stir. Jinyoung tried his best not to visibly shiver at any skin contact but inside, he was trembling at every touch.

"Wanna listen to something?" Mark asked, holding up an earbud for Jinyoung. Reluctantly Jinyoung agreed and Mark fixed the earbud into his ear and another into his own, before scrolling down his playlist on the phone. "Any song you want to listen to?"

"Anything's fine."

"Taeyang's 'Eyes, nose, lips'," Mark said, the song starting to play right afterwards. He leaned back and closed his eyes, moving his head to the melody.

For a good two minutes, Jinyoung could not shift his eyes away from that serene sight beside him. Then satisfied, he followed Mark suit, closing his eyes and feeling the beautiful, emotional lyrics.

Then the next songs turned to be his lullaby because he fell asleep soon and they were calming him. How long he had been asleep, he had no idea, and he was woken up by someone shaking his shoulders. It was Mark, of course.

The very first thing he realised as he opened his eyes was that his head was comfortably resting on Mark's shoulder. With a jerk, he sat up straight and looked apologetically at Mark.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," Jinyoung said, flushed with embarrassment thinking of what else he had possibly done in his sleep. Had he talked in his sleep?

"Hey, it's okay. No big deal. I got some sleep too," Mark reassured him, "I just noticed we're getting near to Jinhae."

"Oh, yeah," Jinyoung murmured, in relief.

They were picked up by Jinyoung's grandparents at the station. Jinyoung was engulfed in a long hug by his grandmother, before he could even introduce them to Mark. Sure, they already knew Mark's name but he still needed to introduce them.

"Aigoo, our baby looks so good," she said, looking at Jinyoung, who rubbed his nape nervously, because he was getting a compliment in front of Mark. Thankfully, Jinyoung's grandparents finally turned to Mark; after the brief introduction, the grandmother could not stop praising his looks and the grandfather kept patting his back, saying how glad he was to meet Jinyoung's friend.

Jinyoung anxiously watched them, afraid Mark would find this frank, friendly way of his grandparents uncomfortable. But Mark was all smiles and they were getting along as well.

"You must be hungry and tired. Let's hurry and get home. It's cold here," said the grandmother, as they all left the station.

If Mark had not learned already how merry the townspeople were, he was definitely going to once Jinyoung's place came into sight.

Doyoon, the eldest boy of the neighbour household, had been waiting for them in front of his house and ran to them as they appeared, shouting, "Jinyoung hyung's back!". Followed by his sister, Jiwoo, who had just come out of the house. Behind them all was their mother, Sooyeon, with her baby cradled in her arms.

"Hyung, Jinyoung hyung, I've bought a gun for you to play with me! It cost all my pocket money! My friends said it's not cool to play with paper guns!"

Oh no. Doyoon was obliviously exposing him. Jinyoung winced and tried to distract him, "How's school, Doyoon? You've friends now? You promised me you'd do well! Tell me, are you doing well?"

Before there was any response from Doyoon, Sooyeon was already saying, "I thought you were bringing a friend. But who's this celebrity?" jokingly. Mark blushed and laughed nervously.

"This is my friend."

"He's just so handsome."

"Uh, thanks," Mark said, awkwardly.

"Uncle Jinyoung, where's my doll?" Jiwoo demanded, tugging at Jinyoung's trousers, "You promised me you'd bring one back!"

Jinyoung scratched his head, "Let's talk about that later, okay? Uncle Mark's tired and I'm tired. Let's get in first."

"You've no doll for me! You didn't keep your promise," she wailed, "I don't love you anymore!"

"Jiwoo!" Sooyeon said sternly, "Get back to the house." She then turned to Mark, "I'm sorry. She's so persistent."

She took her children away, saying she would visit her neighbours later, and only then the others could continue their way to the house.

"I'm sorry, Mark, the kids were too loud," Jinyoung said, when they were finally inside.

"Why're you sorry? I liked that. Honestly." Mark laughed, "You should've bought a doll though."

Jinyoung winced and nodded. "I didn't remember. But Jiwoo never can stay mad for long."

"Enough talk, boys. It's time for lunch. Go change into something comfortable first," the grandfather said and Jinyoung led Mark into his room. Deciding he would get into the bathroom straight, afterwards, once he got his own clothes.

In the afternoon, Jinyoung walked with Mark around the neighbourhood. Since it was weekend, most of the people were home and some streets were almost deserted. Jinyoung took Mark to his old highschool and since it was locked, they could only look at it from outside. The school had a pretty big yard, designed for sports such as soccer and basketball.

"It'd have been better if we could get inside," Jinyoung said, wanting to show Mark the cozy classrooms. "There's a teacher who lives around here. She was the one who helped me get the scholarship."

"You should visit her then."

"Yes. I was thinking of."

The place Jinyoung led Mark to was a small house with a home garden at the front where there were roses of different colours. The teacher he introduced Mark to was namely Chang Kyunghee, who taught Chemistry at school.

She was so delighted to see Jinyoung again and could not stop asking questions about how he was doing at the university. As what most teachers told their pupils, she reminded Jinyoung that he must continue working hard. Continuing to say that he was the only one his grandparents could rely on and that he must not be distracted by the fabulous city life.

Too late. Not by the city life but he had been pretty much distracted by what he felt for the the very person beside him.

They bid her goodbye and continued their stroll. And soon they were back on the way home. They had a family dinner and everything was going well. But what Jinyoung had been dreading the most came when he and Mark retired to his room for sleep.

There was only one mattress and one big duvet although thankfully, there were two pillows.

Jinyoung had to figure out how he was going to sleep tonight while Mark was cleaning himself in the bathroom. There was no answer even when Mark was back into the room and started to settle himself on the mattress.

"Such a long time since I'd ever slept on a mattress alone. A good change. Not sleepy yet?" Mark asked, as Jinyoung was sitting nearby, not making any move to the bed.

"Uh, I'm going to the bathroom," Jinyoung made an excuse and rushed into the bathroom. He remained there for a long time, helplessly sitting on the toilet seat.

"What am I going to do? If I refuse, he'll get suspicious of me," he murmured miserably. But as it turned out, when he fianlly got out of the bathroom, Mark was already asleep, having been worn out.

That night, Jinyoung stayed awake till the small hours. He was breaking into a sweat despite the low temperature, just at the sight of Mark peacefully asleep on the mattress. He was sitting near the mattress for hours and then fell asleep, laying down just there.