The group minus Dokyeom decided not to go to the cafe after school. It had rained after lunch and Seungkwan was wearing faux leather shoes he'd gotten from his mother months ago. He'd worn them a million times but didn't want to ruin them. Instead, they were going to Vernon's house, courtesy of his mum's car. Dokyeom wanted to go the cafe to chat with Junghan, so he bowed out.

"Thank you, Mrs Vernon's Mum," Mingyu said in English as he settled into the back seat.

"Very appreciate!" Seungkwan also spoke in English, beaming as he pushed Vernon into the car. Vernon sighed and climbed in.

Vernon's mum and younger sister both chuckled from the front seats. "Sweetie, tell the boys it's no problem and I'm happy to have them over," Vernon's mother requested as Seungkwan settled in next to Vernon.

"Or you could learn Korean, mum. You live in Korea."

Vernon's little sister giggled, this was a long standing disagreement between Mrs Chwe and her eldest child.

"I tried, Sweetie, it's too difficult."

"You gave up too easily, but fine, I'll tell them." Vernon rolled his eyes as he translated to the two boys.

The car ride was filled with conversation from the backseat, while Sofia interjected here and there. When they reached Vernon's house, they piled inside to the kitchen.

"Is Joshua here?" Vernon asked his mother while she readied after school snacks.

"I'm not sure, Sweetie, but I'd assume so. Where else would he be?"

Vernon shrugged. "Dunno, out?" He turned his attention to Mingyu and Seungkwan, who were trying to hold a conversation in English with his younger sister. They were able to get their point across without anything sounding too awkward; Vernon was impressed.

Vernon heard someone walking through the house, and assumed it must be Joshua.

"Snacks are ready. Sof, you leave the boys alone - you can eat in your bedroom if you want," Vernon's mum announced, shooing Sofia out of the kitchen as Joshua entered.

Joshua awkwardly stood in the doorway, eyes the size of saucepans.

"Joshua, these are my friends Seungkwan and Mingyu. They're English isn't great, so just speak Korean." Vernon turned to his friends, who had gotten up on the kitchen bench next to the snacks. "Seungkwan, Mingyu, that's Joshua," he introduced in an attempt to deflect Joshua's seemingly constant awkwardness. There was a chorus of hellos, and Joshua went over to the bench and grabbed a cracker with cheese.

"Joshua, Vernon tells us you're here studying?" Mingyu asked through a mouthful of crackers, cheese, and tiny pieces of sliced ham. Joshua bobbed his head in an awkward nod. Mingyu waited expectantly. When Joshua didn't say anything, he spoke again. "What are you studying?"

Joshua's eyes widened as he realised Mingyu had expected more of an answer. "Oh. Um, nutrition?" He turned to Vernon to check he'd gotten the right word. When Vernon nodded, he continued. "I want to be a nutritionist. I believe it's important to eat right and not enough people know how to do that, these days."

Seungkwan nodded enthusiastically. "Finally, somebody understands!" he cried dramatically. Vernon was definitely not leaving Seungkwan alone with this guy. A nutritionist, seriously?

Vernon's phone buzzed. He'd gotten a message from an unknown number. The message said it was from Chan and contained a photo of a flyer. He added the number to his contacts under "Chan" and slipped his phone back into his pocket.

"Who was that?" Seungkwan asked.

"Chan, he sent me a photo of a flyer for his showcase on Saturday," Vernon answered nonchalantly with a shrug.

"Have you found out if we can go?" Mingyu piped up.

"Not yet. I can do it now."

Seungkwan pulled Vernon so his lower back was against the bench in the space between Seungkwan's legs. Vernon pulled out his phone to ask Chan, and Seungkwan rested his head on Vernon's shoulder, his chest now touching Vernon's upper back.

"You reading over my shoulder, Kwannie?" Vernon asked after sending the message. Vernon felt Seungkwan nod. "Why?"

"I don't trust that kid," the other boy mumbled, his breath hitting Vernon's ear. Vernon shivered, Seungkwan's breath across his neck or in his ears was a weird feeling he thought he'd never get used to, despite experiencing it thousands of times since his friendship with Seungkwan had started in his first year of middle school.

"You didn't mind him when he swapped his orange juice for an apple," Vernon retorted. "Joshua," he redirected his attention, Seungkwan had started pouting, "do you wanna come watch a dance showcase Saturday if I can get enough tickets?"

"Sure? I guess, I don't mind watching people dance."

What was up with Joshua always sounding so unsure? Vernon hoped it was only because they didn't know each other well yet.

Vernon's phone buzzed again.

"He say's his dance instructor'll let six people in," Seungkwan read off. Vernon couldn't find it in himself to care that his best friend read his message before he himself had.

Mingyu whooped, spraying crackers and cheese chunks everywhere. "We all get to go!"

Joshua cleared his throat. "I'd hate to play the boring older person role here, but don't you all have to ask your parents?"

Mingyu pulled out his phone to check with his mum for him and Seungkwan. Seungkwan texted Dokyeom to let him know about the showcase tickets, while Vernon -

"Mum, can I go to a dance showcase on Saturday?" he called. He heard his mum reply a yes from the loungeroom.

"It's settled, we've got a group outing Saturday," Mingyu remarked coolly, cleaning up his chunks.

"That reminds me Josh, usually on weekday mornings our whole group meets up at a nearby cafe one of our friends work at. He's in uni, too, and he's pretty cool. You wanna join us tomorrow and meet the whole gang?" Vernon asked. It'd make sense for Joshua to at least be acquainted with his friends since they were over so often.

Joshua shrugged. "It couldn't hurt."

*

It turned out both Joshua and Vernon had been wrong. It did hurt, and the worst that could happen was Junghan having to ice his foot.

It started out a fairly usual morning. Vernon left home at half past seven for a fifteen minute walk to the cafe, joined by Joshua. The two held disjointed conversation before settling on a topic and reached the cafe not long after. Vernon led Joshua to their usual table, glad it was just Junghan working that morning. Jun was friendly, but was known to get overly friendly, and Jihoon would have definitely scared Joshua.

Vernon introduced the ginger haired male to Dokyeom and Junghan across the room, they were cleaning the counter around the register. Mingyu and Seungkwan greeted Joshua. He and Vernon sat down with them, and Junghan quickly came over to take their orders.

That's were it started turning sour.

Joshua said he was in the mood for some cake, and got up to have a look at what was in the display cases. Junghan didn't move quickly enough, and let out a creative combination of choice words. Joshua jumped back, knocking over the chair he'd been sitting in.

"I'm so sorry," Joshua apologised as Junghan brought up his foot so he could clutch it in his hands.

Joshua righted his chair and offered it to Junghan. Seungkwan and Mingyu burst out in laughter as they realised what had happened, and Vernon was trying to contain his own chuckles. Joshua had stepped on Junghan's foot. Ordinarily, it wouldn't be funny, but Joshua was profusely apologising while Junghan attempted to assure him it was ok, and both of them looked absolutely flustered.

Dokyeom appeared with an icepack, presumably from one of the freezers in the kitchen, and passed it to Junghan.

"Junghan, what happened?" Dokyeom asked worriedly as he crouched down next to Junghan.

"Joshua stepped on my foot, it isn't a big deal," Junghan explained as he pulled off his shoe and put the icepack on his still socked foot.

Dokyeom looked at Joshua's shoes. They had thick, heavy looking soles. "Are you sure you're fine? His soles look three centimetres thick!"

Junghan waved him off. "I'll be fine. If my foot starts feeling really bad I'll call Jihoon in and go home for the day." Dokyeom nodded, approving of Junghan's decision. Junghan sighed, "You really are my idiot, aren't you?"

"So, Joshua, where's your thumbprint?" Seungkwan asked, changing the subject. Vernon felt a flare of fire in his gut, then pushed it away. Seungkwan could be asking simply out of pure curiosity.

Joshua coughed. "I, um, I actually have two."

The whole group gasped in astonishment.

"Where?" Mingyu asked loudly.

Joshua shifted, and scratched the back of his neck. "One on the back of my knee... The other is um, actually on my heel, where I stepped on Junghan' foot."

"And you weren't going to ask where his was?" Seungkwan cried, horrified.

Joshua shrugged, "I've accidentally stepped on plenty of feet?" Vernon could hear the "why would I ask, people's feet get stepped on all the time. Sometimes I don't even know who's foot I've stepped on."

"Some people wait their whole lives for their soulmate, and you're going to not ask? You could've already accidentally stepped on your soulmate's foot and have no idea!" Seungkwan looked like he wanted to vault across the table and shake Joshua.

Vernon had to diffuse the situation, his best friend cared way too much about the whole soulmate business sometimes.

"Are we all forgetting Junghan has a thumbprint on his foot?" Mingyu asked, distracting everyone.

Joshua directed his attention to Junghan. "Really? Do you want to check if my actual thumbprint matches the one on your foot?"

Junghan shook his head and gave a disheartened smile. "Like you said, you step on plenty of feet - it probably doesn't."

"It'd be stupid not to check, knowing we both have a thumprint in the places we first made contact."

"Do we have any apples?" Seungkwan queried. "We could have Joshua do the thing and see if a set of the initials he gets matches Junghan's name!"

"Or, we could just look at their marks and see if they match each other's thumbprints!" Vernon suggested. Seungkwan could be a fool, sometimes,

At this, Mingyu and Dokyeom got up and raced over to the cafe counter where a case containing a tray of ink and a clear plastic card were kept. Most buildings of any sort, as well as trains, buses, and other forms of public transport, had at least one. They were used to check if someone's thumbprint matched the mark on another person's skin. Some people carried them around in case they met their soulmate while they were out and about.

The two brought the case over while Junghan removed his sock. Joshua brushed his right hand off on his jeans, and took the case from Dokyeom. The thumbprint your soulmate got a mark of was the one on your dominant hand. He opened it, pressed his thumb onto the inkpad, then pressed his thumb onto the clear plastic card. Junghan picked up the card and put it against his foot, inkside up, so he could look at the lines of the ink on the card and the mark on his foot.

"Mingyu, come over here and tell me if they match up. I can't bring myself to check."

Mingyu stepped forward and crouched down to examine the lines. "They match up fairly well, I'd say. I can't see a single bit of the marks underneath. You should probably switch and check if Junghan's thumbprint matches the mark on Joshua's heel." Mingyu got up out of the way so the two could do so.

Vernon rolled his eyes. Why couldn't they just go get it confirmed by people who were professionals and knew about fingerprints?

The two switched, and Mingyu soon stepped back towards them and checked. "Looks like a match."

Vernon checked his phone for the time. "Guys, if we don't hurry and leave now we'll be late." The four high schoolers got out of their chairs and hurried the door.

"Joshua, will you be alright with Junghan walking you home after his shift ends? I'm sure you'll want to get to know each other," Vernon hung back to ask.

Joshua nodded.

"Actually," Junghan grimaced, "now that Dokyeom's gone I'm going to call in Jihoon. My foot feels like something's broken."

Joshua placed a hand on Junghan's arm, his facial expression one of concern. "I'll go with you, we can get our prints looked at by professionals while we're there."

Junghan nodded. "That'd be nice."

"You two are already sickening," Vernon remarked as he turned around, readying himself to run and catch up with his friends heading to school. He heard Junghan's unmistakable chuckle as he left.

Vernon got to class just as the second bell signalling the start of the school day sounded. He was huffing, with his hair all stuck to face and the back of his neck. Class passed swiftly, since it was science then Korean literature, both subjects he enjoyed.

Before he knew it, it was lunch time.

"Vernon, I've got your tickets!" Chan exploded as soon as the lunch bell rang.

"Really? Cool, thanks."

Vernon couldn't help but notice Chan didn't have a disaster of lead pencil on his desk today. "No pencil marks?"

Chan shook his head. "I'm too nervous and excited about the showcase tomorrow. I've been focusing on the choreography, going through each step and cue in my mind since I woke up."

The two boys walked over to their bags. Chan pulled an envelope out of his and handed it to Vernon. "There's six there. I could only get one with a special pass to come backstage after the performances, though, sorry."

"It's fine, I'll just go and say hi by myself. You don't know anybody else the tickets are going to," Vernon told him as he opened the envelope to have a look at the tickets. He was curious what they looked like.

"Ooh, what's that?" Vernon heard Seungkwan ask from behind.

"Our tickets, Seungkwan," he replied lazily.

"Why does one look different?" Seungkwan asked Chan, his voice sounded slightly accusatory to Vernon.

"I could only get one, it's a pass that'll let someone backstage after the performances, to congratulate us and stuff."

"I was gonna use it, 'cause I'm the only one he actually knows," Vernon told Seungkwan. He felt Seungkwan stiffen.

"Well, I've got to go, one of the other guys in the showcase actually goes here - the bboy I told you about - and we arranged to practice together. So, I have to go."

"I told you he's weird," Seungkwan muttered as Chan scurried away.

"No, you said you didn't trust him."

Seungkwan started steering them through the school hallways towards their staircase.

"His haircut looks like a duck's ! What else am I supposed to think?"

"Try being more open minded," Vernon suggested as they reached Mingyu and Dokyeom. "I got the tickets," he then announced to the other boys while Seungkwan pouted. Mingyu and Dokyeom whooped and lunch conversation was filled with chatter about the next day.

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

A/N:

These chapters just keep getting longer and posted further apart. Gosh. Two things I want to know. I'm thinking of making every fourth or fifth chapter Seungkwan's POV, any opinions on this? I like writing from Seungkwan's POV, it's fun, so I'll definitely have some, but I was wondering if you guys wanted it a sort of more frequent thing or not? 

Also, what do you guys think of "Apple Initials and Thumbprint Soulmates" as the title? It's what I've been thinking of, but I'm not great at titles, so any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thank you guys so much for reading, I have over a hundred subscribers?! I thought I might get, like, 40 tops by the end of the fic. I can't believe so many people enjoy my story.