Vernon woke up the morning after his date with Seungkwan thinking about the dream he'd had. It took him a few minutes to realise it wasn't a dream, and had actually happened.

Vernon let himself remember the events of the night before. Their date, how things hadn't gone like he'd planned, Seungkwan finally believing Vernon liked him, making out in the males toilets at the cafe, making sure Seungkwan got home safely, Seungkwan inviting him inside his home to continue what they'd been doing in the cafe toilets, jacking each other off.

He'd touched Seungkwan.

He'd held Seungkwan in his hands, watched him come undone and heard the name Hansol escape his mouth like a prayer. It was the second prettiest thing Vernon had ever heard pass Seungkwan's lips.

The next time Jihoon was working at the cafe, (Tuesday afternoon) he pulled Vernon outside to talk again. Vernon felt a bolt of fear go through him, and he wondered what Jihoon wanted to talk to him about now.

Jihoon laughed. "Just to talk, Vernon. I'm not going to beat you up or anything - I've got too much on my plate at the moment without worrying about you charging me with assault."

Vernon gulped, it was like Jihoon could smell fear.

Jihoon lit a cigarette as soon as he closed the back entrance to the cafe. There was a silent moment as he took a few drags from it.

"Seungkwan told me you touched each other's ."

Vernon was speechless. Of course Seungkwan had told Jihoon, he'd expected that. What he hadn't expected was for Jihoon to announce he knew so bluntly.

Vernon nodded, he wasn't sure how else to respond.

"He also said you left pretty quickly after you'd both gotten everything cleaned up."

"It was late at night," Vernon tried to defend himself. "My parents expected me home by a certain time, and I didn't expect Seungkwan to invite me into his bedroom to give each other s after our date. I would've loved to have stayed, but I couldn't."

Jihoon shrugged. "Sometimes you can't stay to bask in the magic of the aftermath of someone holding your in their hand." Jihoon brought the cigarette to his lips. "He told also me that the giant teddy bear takes up half his bed, and that he believes you like him, by the way," Jihoon tried to say flippantly, but Vernon could hear a hint of approval break through.

"Did he say anything else?" Vernon asked, kicking the ground with his toe.

Jihoon cackled. "You want me to tell you he thought your was huge or something? Well he didn't. I've told you what he told me." Jihoon stubbed his cigarette out on the wall. He turned around to go back inside.

"Oh," he said as if just remembering something, "he also said he kind of wished he'd had the guts to ask if he could you off."

Vernon coughed and spluttered, trying not to imagine anything, and followed Jihoon back through to the cafe main. He'd decided to ignore the last comment - it was probably just Jihoon trying to stir him up, anyway.

***

Christmas was in two days, and Vernon's mum was trying to figure out how much she had to cook for Christmas dinner. Vernon was in the loungeroom watching her as she wrote things down on a piece of paper.

"Sweetie, is Seungkwan coming over for dinner on Christmas?" she asked Vernon.

"Should he? I mean it's a family thi-"

His mum shot him a look. "Sweetie, he's your soulmate. He's a part of the family if he wants to be, and I want to know if he's coming around for dinner Christmas night."

Vernon noticed Joshua shift on the couch.

"He won't be busy so I'll invite him around," Vernon shrugged.

His mother's attention shifted to Joshua. "Are Junghan and Seungcheol coming around for Christmas?"

"Seungcheol is, yeah," the older man answered nonchalantly, as if he hadn't omitted Junghan.

"What about Junghan? Does he have a shift at the cafe or something?" Vernon's mum asked, sounding a little relieved at having one less person to cook for.

Vernon saw Joshua's Adam's apple bob. Joshua shrugged, "We broke up. Decided that even though we're soulmates we might not be what each other needs right now." Joshua's voice cracked. "We both have some growing to do before we'll be ready for a relationship with each other."

Vernon's mum's expression softened. "Oh, Joshua. Everything will be fine, maybe you two just have to talk about your issues?" she offered.

Joshua shook his head. "He doesn't want to talk about it, which was why we broke up. We're in really different places with some things."

Vernon's mum nodded understandingly. "Maybe you just need to give it some time."

Vernon tried not to roll his eyes - that was what Josh had said he and Junghan were doing at the start of the conversation.

Vernon's mother stood up, piece of paper in hand. "I'm going shopping so I can cook tomorrow and enjoy Christmas," she announced. "Either of you two want to come along?" Both boys shook their heads, and Vernon's mum left.

Vernon debated trying to talk to Joshua. He wanted to tell the older man everything would be alright, and that he and Junghan would sort everything out. Vernon was curious how long Josh and Junghan had been broken up for.

Vernon opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Joshua. "I don't want to talk about it." And Vernon let it be.

Christmas dinner was an interesting affair. Everyone was chattering away in Korean, except for Vernon's mum - who had Vernon's dad translating for her.

"Wait, why isn't Junghan here?" Sofia asked after everyone had finished laughing about one of Seungkwan's jokes.

Seungcheol cleared his throat. "That's a bit compl-"

"It's fine," Joshua patted Seungcheol's shoulder. "Junghan and I broke up."

"But why?" Sofia pressed.

Joshua shrugged. "Sometimes people disagree about things and have different values and opinions, so they split up until they can grow up more and match each other better."

Sofia nodded understandingly. "Like my teacher. She broke up with her soulmate earlier this year because they couldn't agree on getting married, then they got back together a few weeks ago and agreed they didn't have to, they could be engaged forever."

Joshua nodded, "Yeah, something like that."

Sofia went back to her meal, and Vernon watched as his dad tried to translate everything for his mum. His mum didn't seem satisfied with the translation. Vernon registered Seungkwan's hand on his thigh, breaking his concentration away from his parents.

"What are you doing, Hansol? You've barely eaten." Seungkwan asked, picking a piece of ham up off Vernon's plate and eating it.

"Hey! That's my ham, eat your own." Vernon shouldered Seungkwan playfully.

Seungkwan smiled cheekily. "I already have. I'll make you a deal - a kiss to pay you back?"

Vernon pretended to think it over before nodding excitedly. Seungkwan pressed his lips to Vernon's, and patted his cheek fondly when he pulled away. "There you go, Hansol."

Vernon pouted. He hadn't really expected anything more - he didn't want to use tongue in front of his family - but he found himself wishing for more.

Seungkwan's hand moved up Vernon's thigh and brushed against his crotch. "Later," Seungkwan leaned in and whispered, "you can walk me back to mine or something and we can do something more fun."

Sofia cleared , turning everyone's attention to her. "Joshua, what don't you and Junghan agree on?"

Joshua hesitated. "I think that might be a bit too grown up for you."

Sofia sighed. "Whenever grown ups say that it means it's about money or it."

Vernon quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean it, Sof?" His older brother senses were kicking in. If someone had taught her about -

"You know, 'when a man and a woman love each other very very much'." She rolled her eyes. Vernon though he was having heart palpitations - who taught her that?

Joshua coughed. "Yeah, Junghan and I broke up because he wants to do it and I don't."

Sofia wrinkled her nose. "I don't blame you, it sounds really gross. Wait - how do two guys even do it?"

The whole table went quiet. Vernon hoped nobody would answer her. He also noticed his father wasn't translating that.

Vernon cleared his throat. "That's also a grown up topic, Sof. Can we all get back to eating?"

Seungcheol cleared his throat. "I, uh, actually need to use the restroom." He stood up. "It's been a while since I was here last, and I've never needed to use it here before, so uh... Could Vernon show me the way?"

Joshua tapped Seungcheol's stomach a few times. "It's OK, I'll show you," he wiped off his mouth with a napkin.

Seungcheol looked panicked. "Jihoon asked me to pass along a message, actually, and I thought I'd take the opportunity now."

Joshua nodded and speared a baked potato with his fork.

Seungcheol looked at Vernon pointedly, and Vernon fumbled to stand up. He led the way to the bathroom.

"What was the message?" he asked nervously.

Seungcheol scoffed. "There was no message, and Joshua knows it." Vernon found himself impressed with how fluidly the older man had lied. "I just needed to get away so I could have a smoke; I've been with Junghan the last day and a half. He makes it super hard to quit and I think he's doing it out of spite for Joshua. Help me open the window so your bathroom doesn't smell like smoke."

Vernon went in and helped Seungcheol open the window. Seungcheol pulled a cigarette and a lighter out of his jacket's inner pocket. He lit it and took a drag, looking very relieved after he blew the smoke out of the window.

"Don't tell anyone, right?" Seungcheol asked. "I pulled up in my dented up box, and I look like a mess, and I'm pretty sure your parents saw me stuff something very illegal into the boot of my car after I realised it was there. I don't want them thinking I'm too to be allowed around here in case I make them look bad." Seungcheol punctuated his rant by taking another puff of his cigarette.

Vernon shook his head. "Nah, man. Don't worry, I won't tell. Can I ask what the very illegal thing was, though?"

Seungcheol snorted as he breathed out the smoke. "No." He held his smoke out the window and tapped it to let the ash fall outside.

Seungcheol took one last drag of his cigarette before running it under the tap to put it out and shoving it back into his pocket. Vernon pulled his dad's mouthwash out of the bathroom cabinet and passed it to Seungcheol. "Careful, it tastes like ."

Seungcheol laughed as he took a swig of mouthwash. He swished it around for a bit before spitting it out. "I've tasted before, and that's a lot nicer. More fresh," Seungcheol quipped.

Simultaneously, Vernon had to try not to snigger or grimace.

Seungcheol put the mouthwash where he'd seen Vernon get it from, and walked out the bathroom. Vernon walked with him back to the table.

When they sat back down, Vernon saw Joshua wrinkle his nose but pretend nothing was wrong. Seungkwan on the other hand leaned right in towards Vernon and sniffed, his nose wrinkled up, too. "Have you been smoking?" he accused in a whisper.

Vernon shook his head. "No, Seungcheol was." Vernon didn't ever plan on starting if that was the reaction he'd get.

Seungkwan narrowed his eyes. "I'll take your word for it, but if you do start smoking you absolutely can't ever smoke around me. It'll ruin my voice."

Vernon chuckled and kissed Seungkwan. Seungkwan along Vernon's lips demanding him to open them, so Vernon (begrudgingly - his family was right there!) obliged. Seungkwan slipped his tongue inside to around Vernon's mouth. It was the most uny kiss he'd ever had with Seungkwan.

Seungkwan pulled back, a satisfied smile on his face. "Ok, I believe you. No trace of smoke in there."

"That was so gross! Ew! I need to bleach my eyes," Sof shrieked.

Vernon's mum cleared pointedly. "Let's just end dinner here. Who wants to watch a Christmas movie with Korean subtitles?"

Vernon's dad translated, and everyone stood up and traipsed to the loungeroom. Vernon smuggled a couple pieces of ham, a baked potato, and a piece of roasted pumpkin into the loungeroom.

The movie was The Santa Clause, something Vernon had seen a million times. Seungkwan wanted to watch it, though, so he was stuck in the loungeroom cuddled up on a recliner with his boyfriend, sharing food they weren't even supposed to have on the carpet, while Joshua and Seungcheol were doing who knows what in Josh's room.

And Vernon and Seungkwan never got the chance to do something more fun because Vernon's mum dropped Seungkwan off in the car.

***

It was on Seungkwan's birthday that Vernon realised just how little time he had left until Seungkwan graduated.

They were laying on Vernon's bed, snuggling while Vernon was on his back, reading a book Joshua had suggested to him and Seungkwan was trying to decipher the English over his shoulder.

"You know," Seungkwan spoke up, "there's like, two weeks until I graduate."

Vernon put the book down. "Really? I feel really bad, I hadn't noticed."

Seungkwan rolled his eyes and shifted to straddle Vernon's waist. "I figured you hadn't, that's why I brought it up. How we going to spend the last fortnight until I graduate? I'm going back to Jeju for two months the day after the ceremony."

Vernon sighed, so little time until Seungkwan was gone. "After that you'll be overseas."

Seungkwan leaned down to kiss Vernon. "You know," Seungkwan said between kisses, "I'm straddling you. You're supposed to be focussing on that."

Vernon shook head. "Sorry, Kwannie. I just - it's going to be hard."

Seungkwan chuckled before attaching his lips to Vernon's throat. "That's the point - to get hard. Now, shut up and make out with me and let's see how far we can get without getting caught. It can be your birthday present to me."

Vernon shook his head. "I'm not in the mood right now. I already gave you your present - we went and watched that movie at the cinema and I got you two litres of orange juice from Jeju. Can't we just cuddle and read, or talk?"

Seungkwan rolled off Vernon to lay beside him. "Yeah, ok. We can just cuddle. That's nice, we haven't been doing much of that lately."

Vernon felt himself blush. They certainly hadn't. "But really, it feels so much better having someone else's hand jerking you off, I don't blame us," Vernon said.

Seungkwan nodded. "It sure does. Now shut up with that talk, I'm going to videocall my mother so she can tell me happy birthday."

***

Suddenly, buying low fat ice cream for Seungkwan, and making out on Vernon's bed, and each other off on Seungkwan's screeched to an end.

Vernon wouldn't be able to hang out with his friends on their staircase, or hang out at the cafe before school and walk to school together. No more Mingyu to style his hair when it looked gross, or Dokyeom to crack horse puns, or Minghao to help him with maths. No more tightly knit group.

No more best friends.

Being the youngest . Everyone else to gets to go off and graduate together, and Vernon had to stay behind. It'd been like that since primary school, when Mingyu went to middle school the year before Vernon and left him behind. Then again in middle school, it had been Mingyu and Seungkwan.

It was the day Seungkwan, Mingyu, Dokyeom, and Minghao were going to graduate. And now the four of them were doing it, leaving him behind.

They were all gathered in one of the school's males bathrooms, making sure each other's school uniforms and hair looked fine.

Vernon was with them, too, watching. And he felt like he was going to puke, and judging from his friends expressions they felt like it, too. But at least they'd leave with each other.

"I'm so nervous Jun actually offered to blow me in the car on the way here and I rejected him," Minghao bemoaned.

"You look so innocent, but you're the total opposite," Mingyu remarked, looking faintly amused. "You should have taken him up on it by he way, Wonwoo me off while I was doing my make up earlier and I feel great. The adrenaline does wonders."

Dokyeom moaned. "I'm so nervous I screwed up big time and won't be able to look Soonyoung in the face for years."

Seungkwan snorted. "What did you do, accidentally call him daddy while you two were pretending to be an old married couple or something?"

Dokyeom froze. "Or something."

Mingyu made an excited honking noise. "You have to tell us!" He started jumping up and down.

Dokyeom shook his head. "Nope, that's going to the grave with me."

Minghao chuckled. "Soonyoung already told me. It's hilarious. I can't believe you did that."

That raised everyone else's curiosity even more. "We'll weasel it out of you one day," Vernon promised. "It couldn't have been that bad, could it? You two aren't attracted to each other."

No one had paid attention to him, all of them too excited about leaving. Even his own damn soulmate.

After a few more minutes of goading DK and everyone checking and double checking they looked acceptable, Mingyu, Dokyeom, and Minghao filed out of the bathroom.

Seungkwan hesitated. "Tell me I look good. My family's going to be out there, and they'll take photos, which'll go up on the walls forever." Vernon could hear the desperation in Seungkwan's voice. Seungkwan needed to be reassured he looked fine.

Vernon forced a smile, trying to push the bitterness away. "You're gorgeous, Seungkwan. You look even better than you do when we make out, and you're weight is fine, and your going to look great in all the photos your family takes of you today."

Seungkwan blushed. "I look better than I do when we're making out? I call bull, I can't imagine you any better than that."

Vernon smiled, genuinely this time. "Well, you do. So let's get out there and get through your graduation ceremony."

Seungkwan shook his head. "Not yet, I want to make sure you're ok."

Vernon scoffed. "Why wouldn't I be ok? My best friends and a good friend I made over the last few months are graduating."

"And leaving you behind. I can tell something's up."

Vernon shrugged. "I don't even know. I'm happy for all of you, I really am. And I've been happy for all of you for ages now, but I just." Vernon took a deep breath.

"I feel like you're all leaving me behind. You're all graduating, and I have to stay here because I wasn't born a couple of weeks earlier. It doesn't feel fair, and I have to go through my last year of school alone. And I always have to, Mingyu's always left me early. And I should shut up now because I'm rambling and it's making me feel worse."

Seungkwan stood still, like he was thinking of something. "Can I give you a present that I hope makes up for me leaving you behind?" he asked suddenly.

Vernon nodded, confused. "I suppose, if you want to."

Seungkwan smirked, and pushed Vernon into one of the stalls. "It comes in two parts," he said, locking the stall door behind them. "One part now, and the second in a years time when you graduate."

Seungkwan took off his uniform jacket and hung it over the side of the stall. Vernon swallowed, words from over a month ago coming back to him.

"Oh," Jihoon had said, "he also said he kind of wished he'd had the guts to ask if he could you off."

Maybe Jihoon hadn't been stirring him up like he'd thought.

"If you want, I'm going to give you a now. Next year, when you graduate, I'll give you a . Do you like that idea?"

Vernon nodded. When a group of boys came in halfway through, Seungkwan didn't stop, just sped his hand up, and Vernon came with a broken moan and what felt like an audience. The boys in the bathroom cheered and congratulated the two in the stall with no idea of who they were.

And that's how Boo Seungkwan, the most single boy ever at the start of the year with little hope of his singledom ending, graduated high school with his soulmate's come rubbed into his white school shirt from where they'd tried to get it off.

Both Vernon and Seungkwan were glad he had the school uniform jacket to cover it up.

***

Seungkwan was leaving. Vernon's dad had driven Vernon to the airport so he could see him off.

Vernon watched as Seungkwan and his family went through the process of checking in and getting their luggage sorted, then walked with Seungkwan to the correct gate.

"I can't believe I won't be able to see you for the next couple of weeks," Seungkwan moaned once they got there and sat down, resting his head on Vernon's shoulder.

Vernon couldn't even force himself to smile to try make Seungkwan feel better. "Me either. It's gonna ."

There was a couple moments of silence before Seungkwan pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Should we take a couple pictures?"

Vernon nodded, and Seungkwan held up his phone, already on the camera app. They took a couple of silly pictures, with their tongues poked out, poking their cheeks, or opening their eyes as much as possible. Then, Vernon pressed his lips to Seungkwan's cheek.

"I like that," Seungkwan mused. "Let's take one where I'm kissing your cheek."

Vernon agreed, and offered to take the picture since Seungkwan wouldn't be able to see it.

"Please, I'm a better cameraman with my eyes closed," Seungkwan bragged. Seungkwan took the picture, his eyes closed as he pressed his puckered lips to Vernon's cheek. They looked at the picture and Seungkwan had been right.

"I adore you, Seungkwan," Vernon hummed, pressing his lips against Seungkwan's. There it was, that light, magical feeling in his lips that let him know the boy in front of him was his soulmate.

Seungkwan looked like he was glowing. "I know. But I love you."

(There they were, the prettiest words to ever grace Seungkwan's lips. The ones Seungkwan had muttered when Vernon had left Seungkwan's room after they'd cleaned up their mess from jerking each other off for the first time. Vernon had his back pressed against Seungkwan's door, collecting his thoughts, when Seungkwan had spoken them to an empty room.)

He pressed a finger to Vernon's lips. "I don't want you to say them to me, yet. Regardless of if you mean them, remember-"

"You want them to slip from my mouth the night we first get drunk. I remember. I didn't ask for no reason."

Seungkwan kissed him again, lightly, chastely, with more care than even the very first time they'd kissed.

"Do you feel that tingling?" Seungkwan asked. "And you're whole body feeling kind of like the sound of electricity?"

"Yes, of course. It's 'cause we're soulmates." Vernon cupped Seungkwan's face with his and rubbed the other boy's cheekbone with his thumb. It was the last time he'd do this for a long time.

Seungkwan closed his eyes and leaned into Vernon's touch.

"Hansol, that's the whole universe approving of us."

============

A/N:

Warning, super long.

Before you get bored, the jungcheolshua story will be called "Grey Smoke, Strange Stains, and Salty Faces" and I should have the first chapter up in two or three weeks. 

So, it's over. I've finished. This the longest thing I've ever written, and it wasn't ever supposed to get this long.

Thank you to every single person who's read this fic, given kudos/upvoted (depending on if you're an ao3 or aff reader), or commented. It just improved the whole experience.

I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, and that it was something you think fits with the rest of the story.

I feel kind of overwhelmed right now, sorry. This fic was more than I expected it to be, and I have that feeling you get when experience a really good story. Of course my fic isn't that good, but I still have that feeling. I don't know what to do next. This fic is the first thing I've written that I'm proud of. I don't look back and cringe and see major issues. I can see things I wish I'd done better, I can see a bazillion typos and omitted words, I can see where I can improve. But I'm proud of the story, and I'm happy with the way I characterised, and I'm happy with the way I tried playing with different tropes I love.

So, thank you for reading this story, and putting up with all the typos if you read this before I fixed them (note to self - fix them, please, sometime).

My tumblr if you ever wanna drop by is divaboo-t.tumblr.com