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You stood in your kitchen on an early Monday morning, making breakfast before school. The weekend had already passed since you're birthday party in Busan, and you have yet to speak to Yugyeom about Jinyoung's father.

You honestly didn't know how to go about it. You couldn't just walk up to him and be like, 'Hey, were you the one who kill Jinyoung's father a while back.' It sounds a little silly.

As you were about to pour yourself a bowl of cereal, the doorbell randomly rings. You place the box down on the counter and walk over to the front door. You lazily open it to be welcomed by your father.

"Dad?"

"Hi, sweetheart.." He smiles softly.

You stare at him in shock. You haven't seen or spoken to him in almost two months. You didn't think he'd have the guts to show his face after what he did.

"What do you want?" You ask coldly.

"I need to speak to your mother." He requested, but you shake your head.

"She doesn't want to see you." You speak in a monotone.

"Please.." He pleads, eyes full of guilt.

"No." You refuse. "I mean, what did you expect? You cheated on her. You dumped a twenty year relationship down the drain, for some home-wrecking bitch."

"Y/n.." He says your name with hurt written all over his face. "I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt her or you."

"You're only sorry you got caught." You stare at him with disgust.

"Please, just let me explain." He begged, but you ignored it.

"There's nothing to explain. You're a cheater, end of story." You spat. "Now you need to leave."

"I really am sorry.." He whispers turning around to leave.

Tears well in your eyes as you slam the door shut. You rest your forehead against the door, letting the tears stream down your face. You hated this, you hated having to hate your dad. But you're doing it for your mother.

It hurt you to see your mother in so much pain. Your father was the love of her life, and he hurt her like it was nothing. You don't think you'll ever be able to forgive him for that.

• I •

"Yugyeom!" You shout threateningly. "I swear to god, if you don't give me my damn phone back, I'm gonna beat your ass."

"Oh?" He crosses his arm, provokingly. "I'd like to see you try."

You pick up one of the chairs that sat at the empty tables in the cafeteria. Everyone at your lunch table stared at you in shock.

"I will throw this chair at you." You declare, hoping to come off as intimidating so he'd listen. "You better give me my phone back."

"Do it." He says, calling your bluff.

You watch as he walks over to the giant trash can with all the gross food emptied in it. Your eyes widen as he holds his hand with your expensive phone over it.

"Stop!" You drop the chair, running over to him.

You reach for his arm, but he pulls it away from you. "I'm gonna drop it." He laughs.

"You better not." You speak through gritted teeth.

"I'll give it back.." He pauses. "..only if you kiss me."

"Yugyeom!" You stare at him in disbelief.

"Both of you quit flirting and come sit down!" Jennie shouts from the table.

You suddenly realize that everyone was watching this whole thing play out. You began to feel your cheeks heat up as you saw Yugyeom grinning down at you coyly.

You swiftly snatch your phone out his hand before walking back over to the table. You noticed Bambam had his arm wrapped around Momo's shoulder while talking to Jackson. You smile at Momo, but she doesn't respond and just looks down at the table.

She didn't look happy at all, more like she was annoyed. You just shrug it off as Yugyeom headed over, sitting down beside you.

"Quit openly flirting with me. Everyone's gonna think we're dating." You whisper in Yugyeom's ear through gritted teeth.

"That's the whole point." He quirks a brow, and reveals a cheeky grin.

You were getting real close to jabbing him in the ribcage, when a familiar voice spoke out from behind you.

"Well, aren't you two quite the love birds."

You immediately stopped what you were doing as you recognized that voice. You slowly turn around and saw him. Mark.

"Mark!" Yugyeom exclaims cheerfully.

Yugyeom stands up to give his friend a hug.

"When did you get back?" He questions happily, wrapping his arm around Mark's shoulder.

"I got in last night, but it looks like I missed a lot." Mark says quirking a brow at you.

He looks back and forth between you and Yugyeom, smiling suggestively.

"They're the school's IT couple right now." Jackson teases, causing you to glare at him.

"No, I think that's you and Bambam." You clap back.

Bambam chokes on his food at the sound of your words.

"Oh how the turntables.." Jennie says and you laugh at her reference.

"Are you two actually..a couple?" Mark question curiously and you shake your head.

"No."

"Yes."

You and Yugyeom both said in unison.

"Yugyeom, I will suffocate you in your sleep." You glare at him, angrily. "Quit telling people we're a damn couple."

You both glance over at Mark in confusion as he just starts laughing.

"What's so funny?" You ask with furrowed brows.

"It's just, who knew the two of you would've gotten so close after I left." He grins, but his smile doesn't reach his eyes.

For some unknown reason, his gaze held so much pain. You wanted to know why he came back so late and what happened in France, but you knew it wasn't your place to ask him.

"Wanna hang out after school to catch up?" Yugyeom offers.

"Sure, why not." Mark agrees without any complaints and you were kind of surprised.

His usual response was to say he's not in the mood or he's too tired. He seemed pretty energetic today, more than normal.

You quickly start grab your things when you heard the bell ring, signaling that your next class was about to start.

Suddenly Momo walks over to you and grips your shoulder a little too rough which hurt since it was your injured one.

"Ow!"

You stare at Momo's face and she, herself looked shocked. She must have forgotten about your injury, seeing as Yugyeom eventually told the inner circle about what happened, including Momo.

Yugyeom quickly walks over to you, trying to see what was wrong.

"What happened?" He questioned you, only to see you staring at Momo.

He realized it was Momo who hurt accidentally you he began walking over. You grab his arm, yanking him back before he could get any closer to her.

"It was an accident, she didn't know." You speak sternly.

He glares at Momo before, turning around to face you.

"Are you okay?" He questions, checking your arm. "She should've known better, Bambam told her that you were hurt."

"Yes, I'm fine." You reassure him. "She didn't mean it, Yugyeom. Stop worrying so much."

He seemed unsure at first, but you forced him to go back over to Bambam and Jackson. He doesn't need to be so dramatic, you know it's all in good intentions, but still.

Your gaze finds its way over to Mark who was watching you the whole time. He makes eye contact with you and all you could do was study his face.

You let out a small sigh, turning around. You face Momo who was staring at you in an apologetic manner.

"I'm so sorry," She quickly apologizes. "I didn't realize you were still healing."

"It's okay, it didn't hurt that bad." You laugh it off like it was nothing. "Yugyeom was just overreacting."

"I need to get going before I'm late, I'll catch you later." Momo smiles before walking off.

You just nodded and began heading to your class with Jisoo and Jennie.

"Did you guys notice anything different about Momo today?" You question, but the sisters stare at you in confusion.

"No, why?" Jennie asks curiously.

"No reason.." You mumble quietly.

Maybe you were just imagining this, but the more you think about it the more it seemed like Momo grabbing your arm like that was intentional.

• II •

After your fifth and sixth period classes were over you decided to skip your seventh period to spend the rest of your day to hang out on the rooftop since its been a while.

When you got up there you realized that someone had already beat you to it.

"Mark, what are you doing up here?" You ask, kind of surprised to see him up here again.

"What? Am I not aloud to hang out up here anymore?" He smiles while leaning his back against the wall.

You walk over to him, with an unreadable expression on your face.

"What is it?" He frowns.

"You're a dick." You muttered. "You didn't even wait for me to say goodbye."

"I sent you a voicemail and I waited for as long as I could," He states. "But you never showed."

But you did.

"Well, I was still mad at you for what you said." You remind him, while sitting down.

"Y/n, I swear I didn't mean it." He begins, but you just shake your head.

"It's fine, I'm over it now." You smile and he slowly sits down next to you, still unsure.

"So, how was Paris? Did it work out between you and Victoria?" You question, changing the subject.

You notice how stiff his body got by you mentioning Victoria.

"It did work out between you two, right? I mean that's the whole reason you left in the first place, to be with her." You state with a creased forehead.

He could only stare at you awkwardly and that's when you new it didn't work out the way he wanted it to.

"What happened?" You sigh, knowing something went wrong.

"It's a long story." He smiles sadly, not wanting to talk about it.

"I got time." You insist.

"I can't, y/n." He leans his head against the wall behind him. "I'm not ready to talk about it."

Four Days Ago

Mark was sitting on his bed in the apartment room he shared with Victoria, reading a magazine.

Day by day, Mark became lonely being there with nothing to do as Victoria worked all day. It was around one in the morning when he was waiting for Victoria to get back so they could actually spend some time together.

They have lived together for about a month now and it was fun at first, but as time went on they began to see each other less and less. Victoria worked during the day, so Mark rarely got to see her and when she came back he'd already be asleep. He was beginning to feel like she didn't want to see him.

Once Mark heard the front door being unlocked, he placed the magazine down and quickly stood up. Victoria walked in, but she look exhausted.

"Hi.." He whispered quietly.

"Oh, Mark. What are you doing up?" Victoria questioned surprised to see him up so late for once.

"I wanted to spend some time with you." He explains, fed up with waisting his hours doing nothing.

"You know I wish I could, but I have work I need to do." She stated taking her shoes off.

She walks over to her desk and opens her laptop. Before typing in the password, she looks back up at Mark only to see his pained expression.

"Mark..." Victoria begins and Mark knew what she was going to say next.

"Please don't."

"We can't go on like this." She states. "I thought that this would be a good thing for us. But as time goes on, I realize that all I'm doing is letting you down. It pains me to see you like this."

She gave an apologetic look, knowing how Mark would feel after hearing this.

"Are you leaving me?" He questions, hesitantly.

"No, of course not. You're the one who will be leaving me." She reveals, smiling through the pain.

"What? No. I'm not leaving." Mark refuses. "I'm not leaving you. We're going to make this work."

"I'm not giving you a choice, Mark." Victoria spoke sternly and he could see she was holding back her tears.

"If we go on like this any longer, you'll lose yourself." She tries to explain the reasoning behind her words.

"But I love you." Mark confesses in a shaky voice, causing the tears in Victoria's eyes to finally fall.

"I know, which is why I have to let you go. This isn't good for you Mark. You can't love me forever. I know I'll only hurt you in the end." She says, wiping her tears. "You know I'll never be able to love you back. Especially not in the way you love me."

"You need to go home to the one who actually has feelings for you." She states, referring to Y/n.

"I know you have to at least feel soemthing for her, otherwise you wouldn't have reacted the way you did when she called you that day for help." She stops her tears, making a serious face.

Mark stood there speechless, not knowing what to say. He knew Victoria was right no matter how much he didn't want her to be.

"Fine..if that's what you want, I'll go." Mark took in a deep breath. "You just have to promise me to keep doing what you love even if it's not with me."

Victoria smiles gently before pulling him into her warm embrace. She squeezed him tightly, letting her tears flow onto his shirt. She was willing to risk the fact that she may lose Mark forever, if it meant he'd get the happiness he deserves.

"I promise."

Present Day

"So, what's going on between you and Yugyeom?" Mark asks, switching the topic over to you.

"Between us?"

"You two seem to have gotten really close." He points out. "Last I remembered, you guys hated each other."

"I wouldn't really use the word hate, but maybe strongly dislike..?" You laugh, "Yugyeom is Yugyeom. I mean he can be pretty annoying at times, but there's some good to him."

You roll your eyes thinking about him. He has definitely gotten better with how he treats the other students. You consider him your friend.

You know how Yugyeom feels about you, but you choose to ignore it. You don't want to think about anyone's feelings right now. Especially not after what Jinyoung told you on your birthday. You still have to figure out what he meant when he said Yugyeom got his father killed. You can't focus on romance right now.

"Well, since you don't like him in that way, does that mean I have a chance?" Mark asks and you looked up at him taken aback.

"Mark Tuan, are you flirting with me?" You questioned with raised brows as you stood to your feet.

"Of course not." He grins playfully standing as well. "..unless you want me to."

"Mark!" You smiled in disbelief.

"I'm joking, and besides I couldn't have you even if I wanted to. You're Yugyeom's girl." He spoke, his tone no longer sounding light-hearted.

Yugyeom's girl?

You've already said that there is nothing going on between you and Yugyeom. Why does he keep pushing it?

"What are you implying?" You frowned, not exactly understanding his words.

"He's claimed you, it means you're off limits." He explains, causing your brows to immediately furrow.

"Excuse me?" You crossed your arms. "Off limits, how?"

Mark was quick to take notice of your aggravation and decided it was best to not make the situation worse by saying anymore.

"Never mind, just forget I said anything." He attempted to dismiss the topic, but you continued to pursue it.

"No, you have to tell me now. You can't just say something like that and not tell me what you mean. Just–" Suddenly, Mark cuts you off with a question.

"Are you going to that carnival tonight?" He asks randomly and you eyed him angrily, knowing he was trying to change the subject.

"No, what carnival?"

"The one the school's throwing to raise money for our field trip at the end of the year." He explains.

"I guess it must've slipped my mind or something." You state, not really caring much for the school's activities.

"Have you been living under a rock or something?" He teased.

"Yes, actually, I have."

"Are you going then?" He asks again with hopeful eyes and you thought about it for a moment.

"Yeah, I'll go if you want me to." You nod.

"I want you to." He says, stepping closer.

You held eye-contact with him without wavering. You still wanted him to explain what he meant about Yugyeom's claim over you.

"I still haven't forgotten what you said, Mark. You're going to tell me exactly what Yugyeom said to, 'claim me'." You cringed at the thought.

"Fine, I'll explain at my house." He gave a sly smile before grabbing your wrist.

"Wait, what?!"

• • •