Seungkwan was sitting on a park bench. He hadn't called his mother in about a week and a half and even though he had Mrs Kim to talk to, he really felt like he needed his own mother.

"Seungkwan? You called less than two weeks ago! Are you ok? How's school? Anybody been giving you troubles for liking boys?"

"I just wanted to talk to you. School's fine, nobody's giving me troubles for being gay, and I'm fairly fine. Just a heap of drama with a guy I like."

"Oh, you'll be fine. Do you want to talk about something else to help you feel better? Oh! I sent you some oranges, they should get to you soon." Seungkwan smiled as he heard his mum's voice ramble about everyday topics and gossip.

"Seungkwannie, why aren't you with your friends? It's half past four on a Monday afternoon."

Seungkwan huffed in annoyance. "Mingyu found his soulmate earlier today, Dokyeom's finally found someone to play videogames and be a complete fool with, and Vernon's got a new piece of arm candy."

"Why not get some new friends if your current ones are MIA?"

"I'm gay, mum. And I'm the stereotypical flamboyant gay who falls in love with boys they can't have. The girls feel sorry for me because I'm a crybaby, and the boys think I'm not manly enough to hang out with them."

"Sometimes I regret letting you go away for middle and high school."

"Mum, it's fine. I'm enjoying myself, overall. These things would happen regardless of where I go to school."

"I'd be able to comfort you at least."

"I'm learning to deal with it on my own - you can't baby me forever."

Seungkwan heard his mum sigh in defeat on the other end.

"I love you, my gorgeous cherub, but I have to get off the phone - a large table of people just came in. See you."

"Yeah, bye mum."

Beep beep beep.

Seungkwan put his phone into Jihoon's jacket's pocket. He should probably return the jacket before their next fake date.

Seungkwan leant back into the park bench. The first fake date hadn't gone quite as he'd thought it would. He and Jihoon went to Jihoon's recording studio as they'd planned and Seungkwan had met some wannabe rapper called Scoops or something Jihoon had offered studio time to because they were somehow friends.

Seungkwan had joked around with the two, and Scoops left after an hour because he had a job interview. (A job interview on a Sunday afternoon? Seungkwan was dubious.) The next half hour was fine, then Seungkwan suggested Jihoon drop him off at home.

"How jealous do you want to make Vernon?" Jihoon had asked with a devious smirk on his face.

Seungkwan had shrugged and answered with "as much as I can." Then, Jihoon had suggested the hickeys. Seungkwan had been hesitant, but after a discussion of location, number, and size, Seungkwan had agreed.

He hadn't expected the hickeys to rile Vernon up enough for him to call Seungkwan out in front of the whole group at the cafe. But, Seungkwan supposed that his image was worth sacrificing for a chance of Vernon to like him.

Seungkwan had done the right thing at lunch and sought Vernon out so they could discuss any recent issues, including Vernon making a big fuss over the hickeys. Turns out, it wasn't jealousy as Seungkwan had hoped; it was Vernon being worried about their friendship if he got with Jihooon.

He sighed. Why'd he fall for his best friend? Why hadn't he been brave years ago and told Vernon he liked him? Why couldn't he be brave now? But Vernon had Chan.

Seungkwan stood up. He decided to try find Jihoon to unburden all his worries onto. But first, he had to head home to steal some of Mrs Kim's makeup to hide the hickeys. Or grab a scarf or something. Usually, Jihoon could be found at the cafe, and while he didn't have to worry about people staring at school - almost everyone ignored him unless he was crying - Seungkwan was sure that at the cafe people were going to stare.

Hickeys weren't something to show off in public.

The walk was quiet, peaceful. It was something Seungkwan felt like he hadn't had in a while. Maybe I need more me time, he thought to himself, watching as leaves fell to the ground.

Pulling Jihoon's jacket tighter around his body, Seungkwan reminisced on years passed. When he first came to Seoul and got asked a million strange questions about life on Jeju (where did these kids get all their strange ideas? A sweet potato is still a sweet potato!), his small crush on Mingyu (that lasted exactly fourty seven minutes before he saw the taller boy scratch his in public), his first day of middle school, and his first day of his second year when Mingyu had introduced him to a friend from primary school who was the year under them (also known as Heartbreaker Hansol back then because he didn't realise so many girls liked him).

If Seungkwan had to choose the moment he started liking Vernon, it would've been around half a year later, when he walked in on Vernon writing an apology poem for every single girl who'd liked him without him realising when he got his first girlfriend.

(Seungkwan had scared off every single girl who showed the slightest interested in his best friend after that, before they'd even gotten a chance to do so much as ask Vernon how his day was.)

He reached his house and snuck through to Mr and Mrs Kim's room. He went straight to the little drawers Mrs Kim kept her makeup in on her cabinet, found the concealer and her little mirror, then applied the magic liquid to his hickeys, using his fingers to blend it out. Just as he was putting the concealer and compact mirror back, who should come in but Mrs Kim herself?

"Seungkwan, what are you doing in here?" She didn't sound alarmed or accusing, just curious.

Seungkwan looked to the floor. "I had to cover something up."

Mrs Kim hmmed. "Those hickeys you had yesterday evening and this morning? Seungkwan, I know we've already had this discussion, but considering the hickeys I think we need a little refresher." She went over and sat down on the end of her bed and patted the space next to her to signal Seungkwan should join her. Seungkwan obliged.

"Firstly, if this this is going to be a continuing thing I'll buy you your own concealer, one that matches you're skin tone better. Next, have you had ?"

Seungkwan appreciated how to the point Mrs Kim was, while still being kind. He shook his head. "Nope, still a . Planning on keeping it that way until I meet my soulmate."

"OK, let me know before you do have , regardless of if you're living with us or not, so you and I can go buy the essentials. If your ual partner knows about gay , you can of course go with him rather than me. Also, remember to tell your mother."

"Of course I will, Mrs Kim. Can I go now?"

"Just one more thing, how much do you know about gay ?"

Seungkwan felt his cheeks warm up. "Just what I've seen in and read the occasional article about. Why?"

"I was wondering if you could help me with Mingyu? I'm sure he would've already let you know - his soulmate's a man. Of course his father and I were expecting him to and up with a girl - he's never showed interest in men and statistically with you liking males... So I never read up about what two males needed when they have - I have no idea what it's like and haven't any advice to gi-"

"Mrs Kim, calm down. I'm sure Mingyu will figure it out or look it up. I don't know what is actually like so I can't help you much - but I know you need lube, and condoms are still suggested like when a man and a woman have ." Seungkwan stood up. "Sorry I couldn't help more. I have to go, I just came back to put the concealer on before I go the cafe."

"Don't feel bad for not being able to help, Seungkwan. If you see Mingyu could you let him know his soulmate, Wonwoo I think it is, is invited to dinner tonight? His father and I would like to meet him. Mingyu insisted they could go to the appointment with the specialist on their own."

Seungkwan nodded, and left before anymore topics could be brought up.

Jihoon was at the cafe, but unfortunately so was everyone else. No complaining that afternoon.

"Seriously, get the hell out of there before I come in and make you. I'm not cleaning up come!" Jihoon yelled as he banged on the males restroom door.

Junghan and Joshua were canoodling over textbooks at a separate table, while Dokyeom was joking around with Vernon at the group table. It didn't look quite right, provably because Seungkwan wasn't used to seeing Chan in the cafe, especially in his seat.

"I mean it! If you e all over the damn bathroom again I'll make you two clean it!" Jihoon cried, slamming a flat hand against the door.

Seungkwan went over to him, and wrapped his arms around the shorter boy in a hug, conscious of Vernon. "Who's in there?"

"Mingyu and Wonwoo. I've had to clean up their nasty white twice already today. Why the hell can't they just get a hotel room? Nasty motherfu-"

"Mingyu? And his soulmate? Twice!" Seungkwan couldn't believe it, he and Mrs Kim had just talked about getting supplies!

"I know, they've known each other less than twelve hours and've already gotten further than I have with Joshua in the last two weeks!" Junghan complained

There was a light slapping sound, a loud "ow! You shouldn't hit unless it's in bed! Bad Shua, bad!" and a "I lightly slapped your arm, it up," followed by a "I would if you let me  you up", then another slapping sound.

Seungkwan shook his head. Junghan was really too much.

Jihoon continued slamming his hand against the door and cursing out Mingyu and Wonwoo. The door quickly opened to reveal a satisfied looking Mingyu and a dishevelled Wonwoo.

"There better not be anything gross in there, Mingyu, or today really will be the day I kill you. You too, Wonwoo."

Wonwoo smirked, "I know how to swallow." Mingyu blushed, and dragged Wonwoo to the group table.

Jihoon let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm glad the cafe's so stranglely empty today. That wouldn't have gone over well with most customers."

Seungkwan followed Jihoon to the counter.

"That kid, next to Vernon, he's the one Vernon's with at the moment?" Jihoon asked as he rearranged muffins in the display case. Seungkwan nodded. "Why's Vernon going out with him?" Seungkwan shrugged, and looked down at his phone. He didn't want to talk about Chan. "C'mon, Seungkwan, I can't help you out if I don't know what you want."

Seungkwan looked up in confusion. That wasn't the next logical sentence. He saw Vernon right in front of him, and wondered why he was over near the cash register instead of with his new toy.

"Doesn't want you for your body, huh? I can really see that now, Seungkwan."

Of course, he must've seen me and Jihoon alone, and come over to try ruin it, Seungkwan thought bitterly. He couldn't imagine what it would feel like if he was actually dating someone.

"Seungkwan couldn't decide on a muffin flavour," Jihoon stated darkly.

Vernon nodded, "really sounds like it. If you knew Seungkwan you'd know his cheat day's never a Monday. But, I'll let you try lie to me."

"Seriously Vernon, I'm getting sick of this. So what if someone thinks I'm hot? So what if someone wants me just because I seem easy? Does it matter to you if I have or not? You don't get to decide what I do with my body, you don't get to decide who I let do things to or with me. Stop acting like I need to be looked out for. Let me make my own decisions, and I'll let you tell me 'I told you so' if I end up hurt! One day I'm going to have and it'll be none of your business. Go back to Chan and leave me alone. I thought we solved this earlier but it appears not."

Seungkwan started towards the cafe door.

"Kwannie! I'm sorry, I shouldn't hav-" Vernon called after him, only to be interrupted by Jihoon.

"That's right, you shouldn't have."

Seungkwan made his way to the nearest entrance to the subway. He wiped a few tears away angrily with his fist. He shouldn't have started the fake dating, it had blown up in his face like everything else seemed to. The hickeys had been such a horrendous idea, why had he agreed to them?

Seungkwan sat down against a wall, out of everybody's way as they bustled around. He wiped away a few more tears. He should've just told Vernon how he felt, why was he such a damn coward? Who couldn't muster up the courage to confess to somebody you knew would politely reject you then continue acting more or less the same towards you?

Seungkwan hadn't been afraid of losing his friendship, Vernon would've just made it clear he didn't regard Seungkwan the same way, perhaps a week or two of slightly awkward interaction, then he and Vernon would've been back to best friends.

But no, Seungkwan had to try make Vernon jealous. He'd soon learned jealous Vernon wasn't very nice.

***

Two weeks. Two weeks and things still hadn't patched themselves up with Vernon. It probably didn't help Seungkwan had went on his two other fake dates with Jihoon and refused to talk to Vernon.

A week after their argument, Seungkwan had spotted hickeys on Vernon. The hypocrite.

Of course, Seungkwan's own collection of hickeys had grown, just to spite Vernon. Jihoon had said it was a bad idea, considering how much drama the first three had caused, but Seungkwan had insisted, so Jihoon complied.

Seungkwan became a little worried a week and a half after his and Vernon's argument that he'd completely ruined their friendship beyond repair. Vernon hadn't tried talking to him at all in ten days, a new record over their measly three from middle school.

That worry had been squashed when Jun let slip that Vernon had been asking Minghao and Soonyoung if Jun and Dokyeom had said anything about Seungkwan, was he doing well, was he eating properly?

The first time Seungkwan had been in close proximity with Vernon again was when Jun called everyone to the cafe on a Sunday evening after it had closed to show off what he'd been learning at university.

Two of the bigger tables were pushed together so everyone - Junghan, Joshua, Dokyeom, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Vernon, even Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Minghao, Chan, and Jihoon - could fit.

Seungkwan sat between Jihoon and Mingyu, shooting Chan and Vernon dirty looks.

Why had they all been gathered?

That was what everyone was chattering about before Jun cleared his throat.

"Thank you for making it. As some of you may know, I've been studying soulmates throughout university, and just have to finish a few documented tests to have enough credits to graduate. So, I'm going to practise on all of you."

Everyone nodded and hummed in agreement, the knowledge that Jun studied soulmates new and surprising to most.

"Firstly, I'm going to make sure the equipment is calibrated correctly on those of who already have our soulmates." Jun pulled a small machine out from seemingly nowhere and turned it on. He placed a small inkaps next to it and pressed the pad of his thumb onto the inkpad. He pressed his now inky thumb onto the machine and motioned for Minghao to go over go him. Jun pulled a small pot of powder out from a compartment in the side of the machine. He dusted the powder over the thumbprint on Minghao's palm, took a piece of translucent paper from another compartment in the machine and pressed it against the powdered mark.

"This is the standard way to test for soulmates; almost every specialist in the whole world will do it like this if there are potential soulmates who've booked an appointment to find out if their marks and thumbprints match," Jun explained as he held the paper against Minghao's palm. He took the paper off Minghao and layed it on the machine. Jun pressed a button on the machine and it beeped.

"Give it a moment to scan the prints and see if they match." The machine buzzed for a few seconds, less than half a minute by Seungkwan's count, before it beeped twice and stopped buzzing. Jun looked at at the machine, "Seems right, but let me test it once more on Joshua and Junghan." The two stood up and made their way to the machine.

"I don't have to walk you through it?" He asked as they started taking off a how and sock each. They shook their heads. Jun turned back to his crowd.

"Today, however, I'm going to do something we just finished covering in class. It's a more general test, but still just as accurate. The machine holds a little database of everything it scans, so I'm going to scan everybody's marks and thumbprints, then run a few tests to see if anybody among us matches."

The machine beeped twice and Jun glanced over, muttering a few numbers under his breath.

"Yup, all good. Thank you for your assistance, Junghan and Joshua." Jun screwed up the piece of paper, unclipped a piece of clear film from the machine, and shoved them both in his pocket.

"So, just to triple check, and so I can explain what they're doing as they go along, Mingyu and Wonwoo, if you don't mind?"

The two got up and went through the process, Jun explaining as they did it. Seungkwan thought with all the bravado Jun seemed more of a magician than someone studying to be a soulmate specialist.

The machine beeped twice, for the third time that evening, and, once again Jun glanced over to it, mumbling numbers to himself.

"So, who's our first volunteer?"

Seungkwan stood up, arm straight up in the air. "Me!" It would seem strange if he weren't the most eager, wouldn't it?

Jun nodded, as if he expected nothing less, and motioned for Seungkwan to step forward. He walked Seungkwan through the process. Seungkwan had always thought would be more complicated than it really was.

Once everybody bar Dokyeom and Jihoon had smushed their thumbprints and marks against plastic and paper (Seungkwan had had to go into the bathroom with Mingyu because of his mark's location on his in order to press the translucent paper against it), attention turned to the two left over.

"My mark's marred," Jihoon stated from his seat next to Seungkwan. There was a collective "oh" of pity. "It's not a big deal, it was like that when I got it. I wasn't ever really worried about falling in love, either."

"Dokyeom?" Junghan asked.

Dokyeom looked to the ground, his cheeks red. "My marks on my ."

There was a chorus of surprised "oh"s. Then, a sudden outburst.

"The side of my leg grazed your crotch when we first met and I tried to move around you to get to the other car racing seat at the arcade! You didn't mention your mark was there?"

Dokyeom turned to Soonyoung, who was seated on his left. "You didn't mention your mark was on the side of your leg!"

Soonyoung opened his mouth to say something else, but Junghan cut him off. "Whatever, you two can get checked out by a specialist if Jun's machine shows positive results. But for that to happen we need Dokyeom's mark powdered and pressed against paper." He stood up. "Dokyeom, I'll help you, c'mon."

The pair returned from the bathroom quickly, and Junghan passed the paper to Jun.

"So, I'm going to do check the numbers myself, then get them double checked by the computer to make sure I can work it out manually if I ever need to. I should be able to update you all on any results within the next three days."

Everyone, less Jihoon, groaned.

"I'm not staying around that long," Jihoon grumbled as he stood up. "I'll drop you off Seungkwan?"

Seungkwan nodded, and followed Jihoon outside. He was sure he heard Vernon complain and mutter to Chan something about little boys needing to stop being so desperate for attention.

Seungkwan pushed the anger and hurt he felt pooling up away, if that was how Vernon felt, maybe he didn't want Vernon anymore.

==========

A/N:

First, over 200 subs? Thank you guys so much for reading!

Second, I'll be changing my username to divabooT sometime soon.

This chapter feels like a muddled mess. I guess that's kind of what I intended, but not to this degree. This chapter seems a liitle all over the place - which I guess is Seungkwan's feelings at the moment?

I dunno, I can't justify this chapter. 

I enjoyed writing it, though (it's 3.5k, longest chap yet) and there was some crucial stuff happening at the end. Should be a while before the fic's finished though, I think. I want to write somebangst into it, a huge fight scene, a make up scene, and a bunch of fluff. 

This story is pointless, just me practising writing with tropes I love.

I hope the chapter wasn't too boring and that youbguys enjoyed it.