The lunch bell sounded. Vernon's time was up, he had to do the apple soulmate thing. Unless...

"Hey Chan?" he asked his seatmate. "Do you like apples?" The other boy made an affirmative hum, his attention preoccupied with the pens scattered across his desk. "Did you want to swap me?" Chan had finished collecting his pens from across his desk, but Vernon saw there was grey lead pencil across it. Chan began to rub it off with his eraser. Vernon assumed it was from the other boy drawing down dance moves or something like that he'd seen Chan do before. 

"I have some of that Jeju Island orange juice," Chan offered. Vernon thought about it for a second, but that stuff wasn't cheap. And, Seungkwan would whine for some, saying he missed the golden nectar of his home or something dramatic. 

Vernon shook his head. "Anything cheaper? That stuff's expensive." 

"So's fruit," Chan rebutted. "And besides, dad bought it in Jeju when he went there over the weekend with mum for a wedding. The flavour's too strong for me anyway." Vernon shrugged. 

"Ok, I guess." 

Vernon waited with Chan while he erased the last of his pencil marks, their teacher glaring daggers at them all the while. Just as Chan was finishing (how he'd managed to get so much on Vernon's side, too, would forever be a mystery) just as Seungkwan walked in. 

"It's lunch time!" The newcomer sang. "Where's your apple?" 

Vernon gulped. He'd have to go about this very carefully, otherwise Seungkwan was likely to throw some kind of tantum. He'd said lunchtime, so Seungkwan expected him to do that stupid apple thing. 

"I heard Chan liked ap-" Seungkwan seemed to only then notice the younger boy's presence. His eyes narrowed slightly, aimed at Chan. Not good, thought Vernon. "-ples, and that he had some orange juice from Jeju," he finished quickly, trying to appease the situation. Seungkwan's eyes turned to him instead of Chan. At least Chan isn't terrified out of his mind anymore. Now to get me out of trouble. "I know you've been homesick lately, I thought it might cheer you up." 

At this, Seungkwan visibly brightened. "Well then, why wait?" He grabbed Vernon's shoulders and steered him to his bag. Then, he opened up the bag and started digging around for Vernon's apple. 

"Hey! That's my bag, what if I had stuff in there?" Vernon shouted, indignant. 

Seungkwan snorted. "Trust me you have lots of stuff in here. Besides, you don't have anything you wouldn't let me see. And the one time you tried smoking a couple years ago - that was a catastrophe that taught you some things." Seungkwan found Vernon's apple, and bounded over to Chan, who was at his own bag. "Here!" 

Chan took the apple, and reached into his own bag. He retracted his hand swiftly, and handed the juice bottle to Seungkwan. Seungkwan took a sip of the juice, smiled, then went back over to Vernon to drag him to their usual lunch spot. 

Dokyeom and Mingyu were already waiting for them at the usual stair. Sixth up on a staircase not often used during lunch, close enough to the cafeteria that Mingyu can get up halfway through conversation to buy more for his blackhole of a stomach, and far enough from the staff room that the teachers can't hear them.

"What took you so long?" Mingyu called as they climbed the steps.

"Vernon swapped his apple for some Jeju Island orange juice,"  Seungkwan supplied as he sat down, putting said juice between his leg and the wall. Vernon couldn't help but feel slightly pouty, Seungkwan still had it and had already downed a quarter of the bottle. He reached over and grabbed the juice, took a couple sips, then placed it between him and the Jeju boy. 

"You have been homesick lately," Dokyeom mused.

"That's what I thought when I made the deal!" Vernon was pleased someone else had made the observation, sometimes he felt like he was the only one paying attention to his best friend. 

"Then why are you drinking my only connection to home?" Seungkwan joked, taking a swig from the bottle then offering it to Vernon. 

Lunch passed quickly, and before he knew it, Vernon was dropping Seungkwan off to his class. 

"How did you like the juice?" Chan asked him as they were seated waiting for the teacher to move out of the way of the board.

"My friend liked it a lot, it's been awhile since he was last back home."

"The one who picked you up?" 

Vernon nodded. 

Chan smiled. "I'm glad I could make someone feel better!"

*

The group was crowded around their usual table at the cafe, excited buzzing while they waited for Junghan to arrive. It was four past five when Junghan arrived. 

"I don't know why you order Americanos, you know they don't make you seem sophisticated when you can't take a sip without screwing up your face," Junghan told Seungkwan, stealing his coffee. He took a sip and screwed up his face. "You can have this back, you put like, ten sugars in it."

The boys waited in silence for a few seconds, waiting for who would continue the conversation and direct to the apple thing from that morning. 

"So," started Dokyeom, "I got the initials SK." 

There was another moment of silence, the group waiting for him to make a joke. 

"Is my soulmate my country?" 

Groans erupted. "That was so lame!" 

"You could have worded it better!" 

"I don't know why I expected more." 

And a polite chuckling for the sake of a friend's unbruised ego.

"Really, they were SK! So that's KS for a Korean name right?" Dokyeom checked with Seungkwan. Seungkwan nodded, still not recovered from the bad joke. "So many people's last name starts with a K! I've narrowed my search down to a couple million people or so!

"Mine was WJ, so JW. Less common than K, I'm happy," Mingyu shrugged. 

It was Seungkwan's turn in the circle. "Mine was HC, CH, so probably a Choi." 

Junghan waited for Vernon. When Vernon didn't announce any initials, and nobody else made to, Junghan took a deep breath. 

"I got two different sets of initials. I even went and bought more apples to do it, and kept getting the same two sets." He leant across Vernon to pat Seungkwan on the shoulder. "Thanks for asking your mum if it'd have a chance of working. I got the initials SC and JH. So, CS and HJ if they're Korean." 

"Wow, it's great it worked for you, Junghan! But be careful with the apples, they're expensive. Especially for a uni student like you," worried Dokyeom.

"It's okay, my mum bought them for me. I called her when I finished my morning shift to let her know; she's always worrying about my soulmates and if I'll ever meet them." 

Seungkwan sighed dreamily. "You're so lucky to have two soulmates, you've got double the chance of finding at least one."

"That's still only a one in over three billion chance," Vernon pointed out. 

"Why do you do that, Vernon?" Mingyu pouted, "You know you're supposed to meet your soulmate, they're your soulmate for a reason.They're the other half of you. Even if you're born on the complete opposite side of the world, you'll find each other." 

Vernon shrugged. "You guys just sound so sure all the time you'll meet them. What if you don't? People don't meet their soulmate about a sixth of the time. They end up happy with someone else. Just because someone has your thumbprint doesn't mean you can only be happy with them." 

The group was silent. Vernon could feel Seungkwan looking at him like he'd grown another head. He'd just pointed out the truth, the statistics everyone feared. The chances of not meeting your soulmate was high. 

It was what most people feared. 

And he'd just pointed it out. 

Mingyu sneezed. Vernon's phone buzzed. Dokyeom sipped his coffee. Seungkwan stared. Junghan cleared his throat. 

"That's probably your mum, Vernon. It's getting late, dinner time. We should all head home. C'mon Dokyeom, I'll walk you." 

Junghan and Dokyeom left, still silent. 

Now Vernon was left with the romantics of the group. "Um, mum'll be waiting. In the car. Do you two want a lift?" Vernon winced internally. Why did he offer a lift? Too late, now. 

He saw Seungkwan nod. Mingyu nodded. Then, somehow, the two boys were getting out of the car at Mingyu's. 

"That was the quietest car ride with you three I've ever experienced," Vernon's mum stated as she pulled back onto the road. Vernon just nodded absentmindedly. "You wanna shared what happened? You didn't even say bye." 

"Maybe later mum, I just said something I probably souldn't have." 

Vernon's mum stayed silent. He knew it was because he'd spill the beans anyway. He managed to stay silent until they were more than halfway home.

"I pointed out there's a one in six chance someone wouldn't find their soulmate." 

Vernon's mum put on the indicator. "Sweetie, you know how Seungkwan's always just wanted to find his soulmate and be happy. Definitely one of the dumbest things you've said this past week." 

Vernon smiled slightly, he knew his mum was just trying to cheer him up. "What other dumb things have I said this week?" 

"How about when you told your sister not get the toast out of the toaster with a knife and to use a fork instead?" 

Vernon grinned. "I meant the plastic ones you keep around for my younger cousins! How was I supposed to know she'd use a metal one?" He defended himself. 

The car stopped, they were home. Vernon would need to think of a way to patch things up with his friends in case they hadn't gotten over it tomorrow. 

=======

A/N: Hello! It's a longer chapter this time! I'm surprised by how many subs this has on the first chapter, thank you!

If you see something like /text/ it's where I was supposed to italicise the text, if you see any, please tell  so I can fix it. 

I've used Vernon, Dokyeom, and Jun's stage names because they'd be nicknames in this au. (I know Vernon is Hansol's actual middle name, it'd be easier to use his middle name than for his friends to come up with a nickname, I guess?)