“You’re brilliant, hyung,” Jinyoung

“You’re brilliant, hyung,” Jinyoung sighs, reaching out to touch Mark’s hand. “You’re not a native Korean, of course you need time to get used to the language, and you’re doing so well already! Plus, you have this cool native American accent the entire dorm is jealous of, and you can speak Mandarin too! How are you not good enough?”



Mark’s heart swells a little as he hears the compliments. As much as he feels Jinyoung is exaggerating, the words are sweet as honey and slowly mend the broken pieces of his heart with a thick sugar coating. Jinyoung continues, “And please don’t compare your dancing with any of us! All five of us have been dancing ever since we could walk, but you only started when you came to Korea. You’re very talented, Mark hyung, for picking up dance in such a short period of time. Jaebum hyung always praises you, he says that you’re the best example of hard work paying off!”



Mark tries to imagine Jaebum speaking well of him and smiles at the thought of it. Maybe Jaebum doesn’t dislike him that much after all.



“Also,” Jinyoung pouts, “you flip and fly around like nobody’s business! You have no idea how jealous Jackson is of your martial arts tricking and how the maknaes admire your skill! How can you forget about that, hyung?”