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“What’s so funny about it?”
The thought didn’t occur to Jackson the whole day as he was busy with work and interviews and the fashion show itself. He saw the reel last night that Bambam posted and at first, his face broke into a grin.
He never saw the video properly, Bambam only showed them a little for mocking purposes, just so he could giggle with others a little and at that time he actually paid no heed. He doesn’t even remember what they were teasing him about, just too invested in what Jinyoung was doing to care about anything else.
So when he saw the video, he smiled. The song fitted well. It fits well even right now.
But then his eyes landed on the caption.
“Still the funniest video”
A frown immediately formed on his face.
Funny? What’s funny?
Before he could ponder more over it, the director called for another take and with that his mind got diverted for the day. And when he was about to sleep that night, he even thought about calling Bambam up just to ask about this but decided against it at the end.
He’d see that idiot anyway today, he’d just ask in person so he could laugh directly on his face.
But he forgot about it when he woke up this morning and dived into work right away.
Until now.
Now they’re back at the hotel, he invited Bambam over to his room. Poor kid was saying he’d feel lonely if he had to spend the day alone. He was so happy to have Jackson there with him.
The smile that was caused by that thought only lasted for a few seconds before he again remembered that caption. Now’s the perfect time to get some answers.
“Huh?” Bambam doesn’t pay attention as he takes a big portion of ice cream into his mouth.
“The reel that you posted last night? Of me and Jinyoung?”
“Ohh that.” Bambam responds but doesn’t continue as his mouth is still full with the ice cream. Jackson kind of wants to shove his red head into the ice cream container but he doesn’t let his intrusive thoughts win and instead takes a deep breath and waits for him to finish. He shouldn’t have offered him any ice cream. He regrets it by the second.
It isn’t really that serious though.
But well it’s Bammie and he can get on Jackson’s nerves very easily.
“You didn’t find it funny?” Bambam finally swallows the melted ice cream in his mouth and asks instead of giving a straight answer; very expected.
“Why would I find it funny?” Jackson deadpans.
“Well it’s funny to me and the boys, except for you I guess.”
“But WHY?” He almost shouts.
“Because of the way you were looking at Jinyoung hyung? Because of the song that I added.” Bambam giggles as he replies, finding it all very amusing and funny, one can just tell with the way he started giggling and takes another spoon of ice cream into his mouth.
“What’s so funny about it?”
“Jackson you’re asking the same question again and again, what’s wrong with you? Just chill.” Bambam says in a muffled voice and if Jackson wasn’t annoyed before, he definitely is now.
He’s aware he’s overreacting but he got to know, so sue him.
“Because I just wanna know, I feel like you guys got some inside joke that I’m not aware of. I hate being left out, you know that.”
“There’s no inside joke. You just looked like you’re in love with Jinyoung hyung, that’s the joke. That song made it funnier.”
Bambam says plainly, again trying to scoop some ice cream from the container, not looking at Jackson at all as if he didn’t just make his heart stop.
“W-what?” Jackson laughs nervously.
“Yep. I showed you guys this video when I took it, everyone laughed. Except for you I guess.”
“Did….Jinyoung laugh too?” He asks after a few seconds, trying to remember if the person in question laughed or not and coming up with nothing. Jinyoung was smiling though and as far as he remembers, it was because of him, not because of Bambam or anyone else.
He absolutely doesn’t know why his hands are sweating right now or why he’s suddenly feeling like someone increased the temperature of the room.
“I don’t remember, may be? I don’t know. That was so long ago oh my God Jacks now stop.”
“Okay fine I’m gonna ask Jinyoung.” Jackson fetches his phone from the coffee table in front of them and opens his chat with Jinyoung.
“You can’t. He’s doing some winter military training where you can’t use phone.”
“Shit, he told me.” He locks his phone again and throws it away beside him.
“Yeah so just drop it. You can ask your Jinyoungie if he laughed or not later.”
Jackson doesn’t answer Bambam anymore and snatches the container from his hand to have some ice cream himself. He’s not satisfied with the answer he got and just got reminded that Jinyoung must be suffering in the cold and now his whole mood is ruined.
“Jokes apart, were you ever actually in love with hyung? Or at least had a crush?”
Bambam asks, his attention finally given fully to Jackson as he turns towards him and sits with one leg bent on the couch.
Jackson’s hands stop trying to scoop anything and he whips his head around to face him, his eyes comically widened.
“What? Of course not. He’s my best friend.” He quickly counters.
“And Yugyeom is mine but you won’t ever see me staring at him like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like he hung the stars in the sky and you can’t imagine anything more beautiful than that?”
Bambam says with a soft smile, looking directly at Jackson. “It wasn’t just that one time. It’s actually countless of times we caught you doing that. That was one of the few times where I caught it in 4k.”
Jackson’s eyes searches his face for any sign of mockery but Bambam’s looking at him with such a genuine gaze. For once, he doesn’t look like he’s messing with him.
“I do that?” He asks, his voice barely above a whisper.
“A lot. You don’t know?”
“Stop staring.” Jinyoung says, pushing Jackson’s face away and gulps down the water from his bottle.
Jackson watches his Adam’s apple bobbing as the water goes down his throat and then his eyes follow the droplets of water dripping down his chin. Jinyoung pats them away with a tissue, careful not to ruin his foundation and checks himself on the phone camera in front of him.
He probably could feel Jackson’s eyes still on him as he rolls his eyes before turning to him.
“Will you stop?”
“What?” Jackson feigns innocence, jutting his lips out into a pout and Jinyoung just shakes his head.
In Jackson’s defense, he wasn’t doing it deliberately. He really doesn’t think he’s doing anything out of ordinary. Observing Jinyoung feels like a usual thing which he never gave a thought to, sometimes he does it longer than five seconds and even then he doesn’t realize he’s actually doing it.
They’re currently on a break before Jinyoung talks to another fan and the others are either busy talking or just scrolling on phone, everyone except Jackson and Jinyoung.
For Jackson—he’s staring at Jinyoung.
And for Jinyoung—he’s fidgeting ‘cause Jackson’s staring at him.
“You’re moving too much.”
“You’re staring too much.”
“You’re pretty.” There’s no expression on Jackson’s face as he says it and a chuckle escapes Jinyoung’s lips. That manages to draw Jaebeom and Bambam’s attention on them.
“I know.” Jinyoung says and Jackson’s heart beat quickens a little this time when Jinyoung looks at him with a smirk.
“You guys are truly something.” Bambam chimes in and Jinyoung rolls his eyes again. Jackson thinks he probably needs to sleep or take some rest, it’s probably the continuous fancalls that he feels like his focus can only be on Jinyoung. He can’t even hear anything, he knows Bambam probably mocked them or him again but he can’t be bothered to know.
Looking at Jinyoung grounds him.
Even energizes him.
Even heals his brain.
Just gazing at Jinyoung for a few seconds will do that. Words aren’t even needed sometimes.
Jackson watches Jinyoung as he rapidly blinks his eyes, his eyes unfocused. It’s something he does when he racks his brain to come up with something to tease back.
How does he know? Well he’s spent more than 9 years observing and taking mental notes of his best friend’s every demeanor, habit and facial expressions. He’s pretty certain they can even finish each other’s sentences now.
“No one can beat you to it Bammie, you’re one piece in the world.” Jinyoung jibes at Bambam.
Before Bambam could get another word out, the staff gestures for Jinyoung to take up the next fancall. He nods and greets the fan with the prettiest smile in the world. Jackson thinks Jinyoung’s got a super power or something where he never gets tired of interacting with fans with a smile. They’ve been at it for hours and Jinyoung still sounds and looks as fresh as ever.
This probably is the reason why he feels energized looking at him. Jinyoung makes it all look so easy all the time. Jackson always feels the energy he radiates, his smile radiates.
But Jackson also makes up for the energy for his best friend when he does get tired at one point. They both do it for each other, Jackson believes. He does it mostly by making him laugh with his silly jokes that only Jinyoung laughs at.
This friendship was never one sided after all, that’s what he loves the most about their friendship.
They both make each other feel better just by their presence.
He’s staring at him, lost in thoughts until Jinyoung animatedly says wah at something the fan said. Now he gets lost in the way Jinyoung widens his eyes and his eyes widens as well, unknowingly mirroring Jinyoung’s expression.
Jackson takes a mental note of every little expression that flits across Jinyoung’s face— every scrunch of his nose when he’s amused, every crinkle of his eyes when he laughs, every quirk of his eyebrows when he’s surprised, every rapid blink of his eyes when he’s listening intently, every gesture of his hands to emphasize a point, every pout when he thinks of something to say.
He marvels at the way Jinyoung's eyes sparkle with excitement, at the way his lips curve into a smile that lights up the room.
He observes every single detail in awe, openly and blatantly.
It feels like he’s cast under a spell where everything else faded away and his eyes follow Jinyoung’s every move with an unwavering gaze.
Absolutely nothing unusual about it, nope. Not even when he's staring at his lips, unaware of someone taking a video of that exact moment.
Jinyoung’s so captivating with his words and gestures. It’s as if he couldn't tear his gaze away even if he wanted to, as if he’s spellbound by the mere presence of his best friend. This is why everyone always falls for him, Jackson assumes. If you look at Park Jinyoung for more than five seconds, you’ll most definitely fall, there’s just no other option.
Eventually the call ends and Jinyoung sighs. Jackson actually can’t tell how long that fancall went on. And he absolutely can’t tell if Jaebeom and Bambam were laughing or not afterwards. He could hear some of the side comments which sounded something like “Jack is so embarrassing” “How did Jinyoung not laugh?” “Jackson were you planning to murder Jinyoung or marry him?” but doesn’t pay any attention to it. Jinyoung shakes his head and finally glances at him.
“I love you.”
Jackson blurts out. Still nothing unusual at all but he has no idea where that came from. He probably really needs to take a break and get some sleep or probably he just felt like saying it. They aren’t very big on being verbal about their love and affection for each other so yeah this probably was a little off, but still…. he loves his best friend. He can say it anytime he wants, Jackson tries to reason with himself.
Jinyoung looks surprised for a split second, probably not expecting it but then a fond smile tugs at the corners of his lips.
“Me too.”
Jinyoung mumbles and Jackson smiles, a little shyly despite himself. There’s that feeling in his heart again that he can’t explain.
“Ewwww.”
“And now you’re smiling, I honestly can’t with your mood swings.”
Jackson immediately schools his expression into a neutral one. He didn’t even realize he started smiling thinking about that moment again.
“I’m not having mood swings.” He responds, clearing his throat.
“You were thinking about it, weren’t you? My God Jacks how do you not realize how down bad you are?”
“It’s because I’m not and you’re overthinking Bambam.” He protests, despite knowing he probably is down bad for Jinyoung but then again, everyone is. He’s not special.
“Oh please, you can’t hide shit. Stop embarrassing yourself.”
Jackson doesn’t bother to respond anymore and focuses on the ice cream container in his hand again which has started to melt at this point. It’s not like Bambam will believe him if he tries to defend himself. Better just have some ice cream ‘cause he really got nowhere with how Bambam and apparently others found a moment funny when he thinks of it and remembers it so fondly.
“Stop sulking.”
“M’not.”
“Yes you are.”
“And what if I am?”
“We should make a plan to kidnap Jinyoung hyung from there. You won’t be sulking anymore once you see him.”
“Sounds like a very good plan to me. You’re such a mastermind Bam.” Jackson looks up at him and gives him his sarcastic tight lipped smile and Bambam giggles.
“Just so you know, Jinyoung hyung is actually worse.” Bambam speaks up after some moments as Jackson gulps down his ice cream.
Jackson looks at him quizzically. “What do you mean?”
“He looks at you so endearingly, it’s disgusting. And he somehow does it more than you do.” Bambam says and Jackson just blinks at him. “Anyone who doesn’t know you guys would think he’s head over heels in love with you.”
It's not like Jackson never noticed it, he did, he does. Jinyoung looks at him with the softest gaze, he saw it, multiple times over the years they spent together. But still, hearing it from another person feels different. Makes it believable, consoles his heart that he wasn't hallucinating. May be that in love part is wrong but still.
The corners of his lips start to curve into a smile despite him trying not to show how his heart’s started to flutter really bad right now and Bambam makes a disgusted face, shaking his head.
“Ew.”