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Mark came home to see Youngjae on the couch, curled up with a blanket, his eyes red-rimmed.
He instantly forgot about whatever he was thinking about before entering, and immediately made his way to the his dejected roommate.
“Youngjae-ah, what’s wrong?” he asked, putting his arms around the younger’s boys shoulders, trying not to read too much into the way Youngjae moved closer to him.
“I didn’t get the part.” Youngjae muttered, putting his head on Mark’s shoulders. “They said I didn’t have enough stage presence.”
Mark internally scoffed. Not enough stage presence, Youngjae was able to light up a room just by being there. He was able to diffuse tense situations with just a smile. One of Mark’s favourite and least favourite things about Youngjae was how the younger boy was completely unaware of the effect he had on the people around him, especially Mark.
Looking at Youngjae’s face, Mark felt a jolt of rage, a rare occurrence for him. He wanted to go down and punch whoever did the casting for this play, but that probably wouldn’t be the best course of action. Comforting Youngjae was more important at this point, Youngjae was always more important, no matter what.
“Hold on a minute.” Mark said, releasing himself from Youngjae’s grip.
He quickly made his way to the freezer, picking up a large tub of ice-cream. He didn’t have a sweet tooth, but he always made to stock up on ice cream for Youngjae.
He sat back down on the couch, opening the tub and offering Youngjae a spoonful.
“Say ah” he said teasingly bringing the spoon near Youngjae’s mouth.
He usually felt awkward babying grown men but Youngjae’s eye-smile was always worth it.
Mark and Youngjae had been roommates, for almost a year and a half now. Mark had been looking for a roommate, after Jackson moved out to live with Jaebum. Mark had been happy for the couple but he had also been dreading looking for another roommate. He was naturally introverted and living with a complete stranger seemed like a dreadful idea to him.
But that was before he had met Choi Youngjae. At first the younger boy had seemed like a perfect roommate because he seemed like polite, responsible and organized. Of course, Mark had soon realized that Youngjae usually overslept, believed he could survive off ramen packets and often stayed up night playing games. But he also discovered, that Youngjae’s blinding smile whenever Mark bought him real food or covered him with a blanket when he fell asleep on the couch more than made up for all of the younger boy’s quirks.
Three months into their roommate arrangement, Mark had realized that his feeling for Youngjae ran way deeper than just friends but he was too afraid to tell Youngjae, afraid that his stupid feelings would turn off the blinding smile, the occasional cuddles or worse, the presence of Youngjae, himself.
He had confided in Jackson, a week ago. After his initial outburst of annoyance that Mark hadn’t told him sooner, the Chinese man had told him to just man up and just go for it, pointing out how all of Youngjae’s ex-boyfriends were spontaneous and then cackling at the jealousy on Mark’s face.
Mark had considered it often, late at night, when he couldn’t sleep and just listened to the comforting sound of the mouse click from Youngjae’s room. He had often thought of just going up to Youngjae and kissing him or just telling the younger boy how he felt. He had run a series of scenes through his mind involving dramatic gestures to show Youngjae how he felt but embarrassment and the fear of rejection always held him back.
His train of thought was suddenly broken by Youngjae’s (angelic) voice. “I’m sorry hyung.” He said looking up at Mark apologetically, ice cream smeared along his upper lip.
“What for?” Mark asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well you know.” Youngjae said, eyes not meeting Mark’s “You just had a test in your last class. You were probably looking forward to coming home and relaxing, instead of this.” He said gesturing to himself.
Mark opened his mouth to protest but Youngjae continued. “But I’m really happy you’re here.” He added, snuggling closer to Mark. Mark willed himself not to blush (too much.)
“Say hyung.” Youngjae started again. “Why do you always buy ice cream? You don’t even like ice cream.” He asked Mark.
Mark felt his heart constrict looking at Youngjae at the moment; wrapped in a blanket, hair askew, eyes wide and a confused pout on his face.
“I don’t like ice-cream.” He said slowly “But I do like you.” He added boldly, throwing all caution to the wind before, pressing a chaste kiss on Youngjae’s lips.
He felt a rush of relief and joy as he felt Youngjae kiss him back.
Mark didn’t really like ice-cream but he realized he didn’t mind it as much as long as it came with Youngjae.