The bell to Mark's house rings and Jaemin patiently waits outside, his hands sweaty from how nervous he felt. The door opens slowly before revealing a dishevelled looking Mark Lee. His eyes were swollen, cheeks were flushed, hair was a greasy mess, clothes were falling off him and his mouth was wide open in shock as he faced Jaemin.

"Jaemin?" He asks in surprise and then the door shuts close. Jaemin blinks a few times in confusion and reaches out to ring the bell once again when the door reopens. This time Mark's has a cap over his head with a face mask on. His clothes are pat-down neatly and Jaemin looks down to hide his laughter. "What are you doing here? Actually, no. How did you find out where I live?"

"Dejun sunbae told me," Jaemin answers, shifting from one foot to another. "He said that since he has club activities that I should come over to hand these sheets to you."

"Club activities? What was he on about? Club's were closed for class tests," Mark says, looking at Jaemin with wide eyes that suddenly understood Dejun's actions. "A-anyways, since you came all the way here, do you want something to eat or drink?"

"Mark, you're the one who's sick," Jaemin lightly taps his shoulder and takes a step in. "Excuse me, now go get into bed. I'll make something for you."

Mark looks reluctant and tries to follow Jaemin into the kitchen, but he almost trips and breaks his head so then obediently returns to his bed. The door to his room opens after a while and Jaemin enters with some porridge.

"I bought some on the way here," Jaemin explains sheepishly. He holds the bowl in his hands and holds the spoon out to Mark, who huffs and complains that he could eat on his own. "Fine, try holding the spoon."

Mark frowns and reaches out for the spoon. His grips loose and the food almost spills on him. He shoots Jaemin a glare before parting his lips and allowing Jaemin to feed him.

"It's been a while since we saw each other, isn't it," Jaemin attempts to fill in the silence that they were both dreading. But then Jaemin remembers that the last time they were together was when they kissed and he clears his throat awkwardly. "What time does your dad come back from work?"

"Eight," Mark quickly answers and gets ready for another bite. Jaemin smiles and holds the spoon back up to his lips. "Normally, he leaves work at 5 but there was a lot to do today and his colleagues wanted to go out for dinner as well. He couldn't refuse."

"Why not?" Jaemin asks, annoyed that his dad wasn't even going to be home to check up on Mark. What was Mark supposed to do about dinner if he was stuck in bed and his dad was eating out?

"You know how seniors at work are," Mark says, looking distraught. "If he didn't tag along then they would immediately label him as the one who didn't listen to them."

Anger fills Jaemin but he remains quiet. Mark would probably be more affected by this yet he was acting calm, Jaemin had to do the same. Taking a deep breath, Jaemin shook off everything and continued to feed Mark, the warm atmosphere making him feel at ease.

A few moments after the food finishes and the dishes are washed away, Mark turns to Jaemin in the bed and stares at him with wide eyes.

"What, why are you looking at me?" Jaemin chuckles and pretends to be nonchalant when inside he was worrying over how he might look.

"I was just wondering if you really even needed me to tutor you," Mark says softly, his eyes drooping. "Should we just stop now?"

"No!" Jaemin leans down and caresses Mark's cheek, worried that the older boy was trying to get rid of him. "Let's keep this up till I can maintain the first place on my own, yeah?"

Mark nods along as his eyes continue to close slowly. "That'll be nice. I like this. It reminds me of when my cousins used to tutor me."

Jaemin turns to look confused. "Your cousins used to tutor you?"

"Yeah," Mark giggles, looking a little delirious which may have been because of the medicine. "Except, they were a lot more strict. They'd take away my meals if I didn't get certain grades, or take my rewards away when I achieved better than them."

Jaemin holds a hand over Mark's mouth to stop him from talking. He didn't want to hear all this when Mark wasn't even in his right mind. He wanted to hear it from Mark when the older boy felt comfortable enough with sharing information as such. He sighs and then leans in closer, removing his hand to curve it around Mark's cheek. "Anyways, I like this too."

Mark closes his eyes as Jaemin moves forward to close the gap between them when Mark suddenly places his hand over his lips. "Next time," he whispers, sleeps hovering right above him. "Get full marks."

-

"Who are you texting?" Donghyuck asks from behind his book. Jaemin looks up from his phone and glares at Donghyuck. "Is it Mark Hyung?"

"Don't call him that," Jaemin grumbles and throws a pen at Donghyuck when he sticks his tongue out. "Since when did you get familiar with him, hm?"

"Yesterday," Donghyuck snickers and shows Jaemin a glance from his chat with Mark. All Jaemin gets to see are a bunch of heart emojis and his blood begins to boil. "We exchanged numbers and he allowed me to call him Hyung."

"That's stupid, delete his number right now, no actually not just that, block him, he doesn't need a friend like you," Jaemin stands up and starts to kick Donghyuck, who only laughs in response and quickly spins around to grab Jaemin's phone.

"Let's meet at my house for the weekend!" Donghyuck reads out his message and jumps up when Jaemin launches himself towards him. "Your house? Yeah since the library's too cold for you and we can't meet up at school. I'd rather meet up at school on a Saturday than go to your house," Donghyuck pauses and then bursts into laughter. "He rejected you!"

"He didn't reject the idea! Look he then agrees— wait, don't look, pass it back," Jaemin climbs onto Donghyuck and peels his fingers open to retrieve his phone. "Asshole."

Donghyuck watches as Jaemin quickly deletes the messages that had accidentally been sent when they were fighting over his phone. "So," Donghyuck smiles. "What's up with the two of you? Are you guys just flirting, is it one-sided from your way? Are you forcing Mark Hyung to keep talking to you? What are you threatening Mark Hyung with to make him keep replying to you?"

"I didn't do anything," Jaemin mumbles, locking his phone and putting it aside. "And we're friends."

"Is that all you want to be with him?" Donghyuck follows up and shuffles closer to Jaemin. "Do you want to stay as friends or get even closer?

"I don't know," Jaemin replies, looking down. "I like how we are right now. It's nice, he's nice."

"How would you feel if Mark Hyung was to be with someone else?" Donghyuck is relentless as he continues with his questioning. Jaemin barely forms a reply when Donghyuck shoots the next question at him. Honestly, Jaemin wouldn't like it if Mark was to be with someone else if he was to kiss someone else. That was something that was only between Mark and Jaemin, it was something exclusive, right? They had kissed three times now, each time being a single peck which would hurt Jaemin's soul but he managed.

But now if Mark was to do that to someone else, Jaemin would hate that. Didn't kisses mean something? Isn't that why Mark agreed to reward him in that way? The warm feeling that Jaemin felt every time he met Mark, did Mark also feel that? Was it all Jaemin, all just part of his imagination or something? Thinking of it like that made his heartache.

Only now did he realise how involved Mark had gotten in his life. Whenever Jaemin woke up he'd message Mark and ask him where they should meet up to get to school. He spent most of his day chasing after Mark and then after school he'd spend hours getting tutored by him. Jaemin chuckles as he finally comes to understand why his heart always felt so light around Mark and why the blush on his face only appeared when Mark was there.

"I think I have feelings for him," Jaemin mutters and Donghyuck stops in surprise, his eyes widening at the sudden confession. "But I don't know if he feels anything towards me."

As soon as Jaemin finishes his sentence he gets engulfed into a hug. Donghyuck wraps his arms around him tightly and sighs. "You can find that out later, it's good enough that you've acknowledged your feelings."

Jaemin closes his eyes and allows Donghyuck to keep him in the embrace. It's a little nice, Donghyuck always gives great hugs and that was something Jaemin knew since he was younger. Normally, whenever Donghyuck hugged him his mind would go blank and he'd think things through rationally. But for the first time, Jaemin leans in closer and wonders how it would feel to hold Mark in his arms.