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“So, have you introduced yourself yet?” Jinyoung settles himself down on Mark’s couch in the living room and sips at his lemon tea. Mark raises an eyebrow, passing a plate of cookies towards him.
“No, why would I do that?” He scoffs as if he hadn’t been thinking of the perfect way to do so ever since Mr. Hot Neighbor moved in next door three days ago. Jinyoung sighs in despair, and sets down his cup on the coffee table and straightens himself up, staring at Mark with disappointment heavy in his eyes. “Don’t look at me like that.” Mark snaps, he can just feel the lecture he’s about to get from his supposed best friend.
“You’re telling me,” Jinyoung says slowly, his voice is laced in judgement, which really isn’t anything new, “That Mr Biceps-Next-Door, Mr Never-Wears-A-Shirt, Mr Sex-Appeal-“
“Get to the point.” Mark sighs.
“Fine, fine” Jinyoung rolls his eyes, “He’s been here for three entire days and you haven’t gone over to borrow a cup of sugar yet?” The question is so serious, yet so ridiculous, that Mark bursts out laughing, his voice shooting up an entire octave higher than normal. “I’m serious!” Jinyoung insists, raising his voice and raising out of his chair to march into the kitchen. “You take this,” He flings a cupboard open dramatically and grabs one of Mark’s red mugs and flourishes it in the air. “And you march your pretty little butt over to his house and ask if he has a cup of sugar!”
“Jinyoung,” Mark wipes a tear from his eye and tries to compose himself, “Nobody does that.”
“Not in those shorts they don’t.” Jinyoung raises a disapproving eyebrow and glances in disapproval towards Mark’s basketball shorts.
“What! They’re comfortable!” Mark insists, “It’s a hot day, who cares?” Mark pouts, brushing some fluff from his thigh and ignores Jinyoung’s exasperated expression.
“They’re hideous, and they’re not going to win the heart of Mr Dream Boat any time soon. You need to put that booty in something a lot tighter.” Jinyoung tells him assertively and to his surprise, Mark says nothing as he gets up and begrudgingly disappears upstairs to change.
Mark wouldn’t normally give in to Jinyoung’s ridiculous demands, but lately, he has been beginning to feel like he was going to be single forever. He’s also tired of third wheeling for Jinyoung and his boyfriend who has lasted, so far, a staggering three months dealing with Jinyoung’s shit so it seems like he might be around for much longer. If Jinyoung could find someone, then why couldn’t he? And why couldn’t it be his mouth wateringly attractive new neighbor with the most fantastic thighs Mark has ever laid eyes on. Mark runs his hands through all the jeans in his closet before picking a fairly tight black pair with rips in the knees. As he throws the basketball shorts onto his bed and begins wriggling and jumping into the jeans- it was too hot for this- he tries to talk himself into confidence. What could possibly go wrong?
-
“Why am I doing this again?” Mark whines as Jinyoung leans over him, messing up his hair but Mark draws the line when Jinyoung licks his thumb and brings it to his face. “Get off me.” They squabble, and Jinyoung thrusts the red cup into Mark’s hands.
“Because you are baking a cake and you have suddenly realised you don’t have enough sugar, thus allowing him to come to your rescue and I don’t know, feel manly about it.” Jinyoung shrugs. “Go get ‘em, Tiger!” He pats Mark on the bottom and propels him out of the front door before he can change his mind.
New friends. Mark needs new friends, desperately.
It occurs to Mark, half way down his own driveway, that his new neighbour might not even have sugar. What if he hasn’t even unpacked yet? It has only been three days after all. Is asking for sugar this early bad manners? Would he think Mark was rude and vow never to speak to him again because he couldn’t even buy his own sugar? Mark was panicking, but his legs were still moving and moving fast, taking him down the street and up into his neighbour’s driveway.
Mark panics that his jeans are too much- who wears jeans this tight in weather like this? Who wears black in weather like this? He should have changed his shirt, he thinks as he heads up the steps leading to his neighbour’s house. He suddenly wishes that Hot Neighbour wasn’t in, but both him and Jinyoung had heard his car pull up earlier that day and rushed to the kitchen window to get a glimpse of him walking to his house. He’d been wearing some sinfully tight pants that gave Mark some ill thoughts about his thighs, and to Mark’s disappointment, a snapback and sunglasses, that prevented him from seeing most of his face and his delightful blonde hair. Mark extends his pathetic, shaking hand to the door and freezes.
Does he knock or ring the doorbell?
He knocks once, twice, three times and steps back, gripping the cup by the handle so not to make it obvious he’s shaking like a love struck school boy about to confess. In the short amount of time that he’s waiting, Mark wonders how long it would take him to jump off the porch and throw himself over the fence dividing the two properties and scramble up his own steps and make it into his house unseen. But there’s no time for that, he realises, when the door swings open in front of him.
“Hey?” Hot Neighbor is a little shorter than Mark is, and his frame is stockier, too. Not that it’s really that difficult to be thicker or bigger than Mark- Mark is slight and delicate in stature, and Hot Neighbor has a lot more meat on him. Hot Neighbor is also dripping in sweat. His almost white blonde hair is plastered to his forehead and Mark can see his chest visibly moving up and down as he noticeably catches his breath. Having ditched the sunglasses and snapback, he’s also clearly ditched the majority of his clothes as his work out shorts and black tank top do very little to disguise the curves and lines of his body, and Mark’s voice is catching in his throat as he desperately tries to remain calm.
“Sorry I guess I interrupted you,” Mark begins and he can almost hear Jinyoung mocking his voice in his head, how it’s nowhere near as cool and calm and collected as it should be- he’s asking for a cup of sugar for crying out loud. “I know you’ve just moved in and all, and you’re probably really busy, I mean you look like you’re really busy or maybe not but I guess you must be since you know-“ Mark physically has to bite his own lip to shut himself up and stop himself from saying anything else since all that’s leaving his mouth is absolute garbage. “Sorry,” Mark takes a deep breath. He dares to steal a glance at Hot Neighbor who is still leaning against the door way, looking at Mark bemusedly. “I came to introduce myself and maybe ask if you had a cup of sugar you could borrow and I realise now you might not even have finished unpacking or even have sugar so this is really quite embarrassing.”
“Well?” Hot Neighbor raises his eyebrows and a smirk finds it’s way to the corner of his mouth and Mark can just feel how red his face is getting and he wonders how socially acceptable it would be for him to hurtle over the fence and lay there until he rots. Mark blinks rapidly and stares with his mouth slightly open in total, utter confusion. “You came over here to introduce yourself and ask to borrow some sugar, and so far you’ve done neither.” He points out, and Mark can hear the amusement in his voice and he hopes to god it’s because he finds Mark incredibly endearing and almost charming, not amusing to the point that he’s going to go inside and call all his friends to laugh about it with.
“Mark.” He holds out his hand, albeit the hand with the mug in but he quickly swaps it over and tries to smile without looking like he’s in considerable pain. “I live next door,” He gestures to his house as Hot Neighbor takes his hand and shakes it firmly. He hopes that it’s his sweat that makes their handshake slightly damp, and not Mark’s clammy palms.
“Jackson.” Hot Neighbour flashes Mark a smile and Mark prays it’s not obvious on his face just how much his insides are melting and falling apart because of it. “Moved in three days ago, but I guess you already knew that.” He grins and shoots Mark a knowing look and it’s in that moment Mark realises he’s been rumbled.
“Nice to meet you.” Mark forces the words out even though he doesn’t mean them, because there has been nothing nice about this encounter. That is, if you don’t count the pleasant buzz Mark feels just from looking at Jackson’s body drenched in sweat. “Well, I’m sorry to have bothered you,” He trails off awkwardly and begins looking around as if to signal his imminent retreat.
“You don’t want the sugar then?” Jackson asks, smirking as he reaches for Mark’s mug with a suggestive look in his eye. Mark gulps and just lets him take the cup from his hand and stands in the doorway in painfully obvious unease as Jackson wanders into his house to get the sugar Mark whole heartedly regrets asking for. He returns as quickly as he’d disappeared and hands it back to Mark with a smile. “Happy baking. It was nice to meet you, too, Mark.” Mark just forces another smile as he takes back the mug and as his feet hit the pavement thunderously he hates Jinyoung more with each step.
-
A week later, Mark is pacing the living room aimlessly as he holds his phone to his ear, listening to Jinyoung go on and on about something his boyfriend had done on their last date and Mark has to grin and bear it and be careful not to voice the fact that he doesn’t really care. He knows the moment he does, Jinyoung will counter with something about Hot Neighbor Jackson, a topic that has been very sore with Mark ever since he came home from the sugar incident vowing never to leave the house again, never mind try to flirt with someone. Jinyoung is going on and on, but Mark becomes distracted when he hears a knock at the door.
“Jinyoung, hold on one sec, I need to get the door.” Mark speaks over him and pulls the phone away from his ear as he pads over to the door and glances through the glass panels at the side. He feels a surge of panic through his chest. “Jinyoung!” He hisses, simultaneously darting out of the way and hopes that through the glass panels, Jackson hadn’t seen him approach, just to give him time to compose himself. “I’ll call you back.” He takes a deep breath, ignoring the protests on the other line as he hits end call, and swings open the door.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” Mark replies and can’t help allow his eyes to fall on Jackson, who seems significantly less cocky than he had done on their first encounter, but just as attractive, if not more, in his sleeveless black shirt and tight fitting jeans. Mark cracks a smile as he spots a cup in Jackson’s hand.
“So I was polite enough to give you a week to get your act together, but I think that’s more than long enough before I reclaim my cup of sugar.” He holds the mug up and grins sheepishly. Mark laughs and takes the mug.
“Would you like to come in?”
-
“I’m just saying,” Jinyoung raises his voice so that he can be heard amongst everyone else as he wanders, or rather struts back from the kitchen to the living room after making himself another drink, “I deserve to take all the credit for this relationship.” He gestures with his glass towards Jackson and Mark who are lounging together on the couch, Mark leaning into Jackson’s chest with Jackson’s arm cast lazily around him. Mark rolls his eyes.
“I find if you agree, he shuts up.” Jaebum, Jinyoung’s boyfriend of now nearly four months, comments from the other couch and grins, ducking out of the way of Jinyoung’s hand.
“You’re a push over.” Jackson laughs, shaking his head as he absentmindedly rubs circles into Mark’s arm.
“Hey, would you get me another drink?” Mark asks softly, turning his head to look up at Jackson, making sure to push his lips together slightly in a hopeful pout, his eyes widening as they bore into Jackson’s.
“Of course.” Jackson leans down to press his lips softly to Mark’s and gets up off the couch to head to the kitchen. Mark shoots the other two a knowing grin as he leans back triumphantly into the couch cushions.
“He’s not the only pushover.” Jinyoung calls after him and Jackson turns round with a look of disbelief as he catches Mark’s eye, realising just a little too slow that he’d been played.
“You’re paying for that tonight.” Jackson warns playfully as Mark flashes him and innocent smile.
“I look forward to it.” He replies coyly, causing both Jinyoung and Jaebum to grimace and down their drinks as they take this as their cue to leave.
“Leaving so soon?” Jackson mocks sadness and waves them off before returning to the couch, setting Mark’s glass down on the table so he has both his hands free to pull Mark into his lap. “Tell me again why you listened to him on how to come hit on me?” He jokes, squeezing Mark’s waist causing him to squirm.
“Hey,” Mark scoffs, leaning down to meet Jackson’s lips heavily with his. “It worked, didn’t it?” And to that, Jackson has no retort.