If you asked Vernon what he had for dinner that night, he really couldn't tell you. He was too worried about whether his friends would still be hung up about the statistics.

He groaned as he sat back on his desk chair in his room. He had homework to do, but couldn't stay focussed on it. Maybe he should just do the stupid apple thing.

Vernon made his way to the kitchen to check if there were apples. Just as he was closing the fridge he heard the doorbell ring. That better not be one of my friends, Vernon worried. Sure, it was past eight, but Seungkwan and Mingyu had turned up at nine for impromptu sleepovers a couple times. Turning up randomly at eight was certainly not rare for his group. Thankfully, as Vernon found out trying to sneak past his father and their unknown guest, it was just a family friend dropping in for a couple minutes to pass something along.

After resolving to do the apple thing, and finding that there were apples in the fridge (why did his mother not put them in the fruitbowl?) Vernon could concentrate on his homework. He got most of it done before his mother came and told him it was time for bed. 

*

He took a deep breath at the cafe doors. Apple in his pocket, he walked in, straight to the group's usual table. The group was there. They stopped chattering abruptly when Seungkwan noticed him. Vernon sat down cautiously in his usual seat at Seungkwan's left, between him and Junghan. He figured they'd been talking about him and what he'd said yesterday. 

There was a moment of hesitation while Vernon bolstered his courage and the other guys all exchanged glances.

"I shouldn't have said-"

"Vernon, we understand if you don't want to do anything regarding information on your soulmate," Junghan interrupted. Vernon felt his eyebrows furrow, this was not the conversation he thought he'd be having. "As you said, not everyone finds their soulmate; but most do. A huge amount of people that don't find their soulmate have marred thumbprints, which as you know, makes it difficult to find them. We want you to know if any of our soulmate talk ever gets too much just let us know." Junghan patted Vernon's shoulder as he finished his speech.

Seungkwan wailed dramatically and threw his left arm over Vernon shoulders, putting his right hand on Vernon's arm. "You should have told us you didn't have a proper thumbprint! Now I feel really bad for trying to force you to do all that soulmate stuff!" 

Vernon shrugged Seungkwan off of him. His friends thought his thumbprint was marred? They'd seen it plenty over the summer after it'd formed, and summer just gone, too! 

"My thumbprint's fine! Haven't any of you guys ever paid attention to it?" 

"Obviously not, if we thought it was marred," Mingyu spoke up through a mouthful of what appeared to be half of Dokyeom's muffin. 

Dokyeom playfully hit Mingyu's arm. "It's on one of his shoulders, around all the bone at the top of his arm."

Junghan and Mingyu were shocked. Dokyeom couldn't remember where his own thumbprint was but he could remember Vernon's? Dokyeom shrugged, while Seungkwan pulled at Vernon's collar to try see his thumbprint.

Vernon could only let his best friend and tug at his collar. Any attempts to resist would get him told off.

"What, Mingyu decided we should all memorise the location of everyone's thumbprint right?" 

Everyone chuckled. 

"No, that was a joke," Seungkwan informed Dokyeom, still tugging at Vernon's collar.

"You memorised the locations of our thumbprints?" Mingyu asked in awe. Dokyeom nodded. "Where's mine then?" 

"Just above your..." Dokyeom paused to think, "right ." Mingyu's eyes widened. 

"What about mine?" Seungkwan asked, finally having found Vernon's thumbprint.

Dokyeom chuckled. "Your cheek." 

"Which one?" Seungkwan shot back. 

Vernon heard the cafe door open, and Junghan got up to greet whoever'd come in. He couldn't tell if it was one of the other workers at the cafe or a customer, and still wouldn't dare move. Especially now that Seungkwan was looking at his thumbprint.

"Left," Dokyeom answered smugly. Seungkwan let out a huff of annoyance and let go of Vernon's collar. 

"It is! Oh my gawd, it is! He made me check on his sixteenth!" Mingyu shrieked.

"I'm not sure I want to know what you kids are talking about." Jihoon's grumpy voice rang out across the near empty cafe from the counter, his gradient pink hair the only thing visible over the glass display case he was cleaning.

"I'm not even six months younger than you!" Mingyu called out, offended by being called a kid.

"Do you have a job?" Jihoon asked, smirk playing at his face. Mimgyu didn't give a reply, just crossed his arms and pouted. "No? Well, I guess you're a kid." 

"Jihoon?" Seungkwan called as he got up out of his seat and walked over. Vernon couldn't make out the rest of the conversation, but he saw Jihoon pat Seungkwan on the shoulder and pass him something from a container near the till. 

"Time for us to head off to school," Dokyeom called out, nudging Mingyu and making sure he got up, too. With sighs and reluctant byes, the four high school students made their way out the cafe. 

After a couple of minutes of mindless chattering and Vernon watching the other three run down the road screaming, Seungkwan slowed his pace until Vernon caught up. The two walked in silence for a few seconds while they decided what to say. Vernon wanted to bring up the other boy's exchange with Jihoon, but he wasn't sure how.

"Where's Dokyeom's thumbprint?" Seungkwan asked, his voice tinged with genuine curiosity.

"I dunno," Vernon shrugged. "Ask Junghan after school. But, umm, you and Jihoon get along well." 

Seungkwan nodded. "He's not as mean as you guys think. He's trying to be playful - he's just a bit prickly." 

Vernon kicked a rock. Seungkwan sounded too fond of the pink haired boy for his liking. "I'm not going to go losing my best friend 'cause he got himself a boyfriend now, am I?" Vernon forced a chuckle, trying to sound casual. 

Seungkwan gasped and interlocked his arm with Vernon's. "Me? Boyfriend? What makes you think that?" 

There were screams from Mingyu and Dokyeom as Vernon thought. He glanced ahead to where they were, and Mingyu was covered in a strange cloth he must've picked up out of a public bin somewhere.

"I dunno, Jihoon gave you something. You walked away from a group conversation to talk to him." 

Now Dokyeom had the cloth and was investigating it. It looked like a bedsheet to Vernon.

"I meant the boyfriend thing. Don't I seem straight?" 

Vernon raised an eyebrow and looked at the other boy. "Seungkwan, you tried kissing a boy after I got my first girlfriend when we were younger." 

Seungkwan shrugged. "I felt left out, everyone was dating! Sorry I've suffered from FOMO my whole life." 

"Then you had a gigantic crush on Junghan after Dokyeom somehow became friends him." 

Seungkwan shoved him, laughing. "He had nice hair! It wasn't a crush, Junghan's a literal angel." There was a shriek from ahead as the other two threw the bedsheet at each other. "How long until they realise it was thrown out for a reason?" 

Vernon weighed it up. "They're idiots; we'll have to tell them. I don't think Dokyeom would even think people would do that stuff in public, and Mingyu's so gross he probably doesn't care he might catch something."

Seungkwan wrinkled up his nose. "Ew! Mingyu's not that unhygienic!" 

"He sneezed into his hand and wiped it on my sleeve last Thursday! I've heard him be called "Snotgyu" around school!" Vernon protested. "But, anyway, what did Jihoon give you?" 

Seungkwan reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a handful of sugar sachets. "I told him last time I saw him that the school's coffee was rubbish and super bitter, so he gave me these." 

"I didn't know you drank the school coffee. I'll make sure you've got sugar from now on, it's my job as your best friend." Vernon saw Seungkwan start to blush from what he assumed was embarrassment at being seen as unable to look out for himself as the he put the sugar packets back into his pocket. Vernon remembered the apple in his pocket.

They'd reached the school, the two other boys had discarded the bedsheet somewhere along the way. Vernon only hoped they'd put it in a bin. The clock in the school entrance told him it was almost time for the bell. 

"Or you can make sure you have them yourself. Hey, I brought an apple. I'll do that initial thing at lunch if you want me to," Vernon rushed, trying to finish the conversation before the bell went.

"No," Seungkwan shook his head, "try to swap it with that kid with the duck hair for more orange juice. You don't have to do it if you don't want to." 

Vernon chuckled and shook his head. He should probably buy Seungkwan a bottle of orange juice from Jeju if the other boy did well on his next science test. "I don't think he'll have any." The bell sounded, signalling the start of classes for the day. "I'll see you at lunch!" 

"See you!" Seungkwan said over his shoulder, already heading up the stairs to his classroom.