ahahahahahahaha I'm back.

Also holy this story broke 100 subs. You guys are all the best and I can't even begin to thank you! (as a thanks anyone who comments on this chapter is getting an upvote on their comment and a reply)

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Summer was a drag, Jongdae decided, at 1 pm on July 12th as he sat in the tiny 4’ by 4’ snow cone shack that he begrudgingly called his summer job. Kyungsoo and Minseok had both gotten internships for the summer—which was expected, given they were about to enter their junior year—but it left Jongdae a little lonely at the snow cone shake where they all used to work part time. As a result, Jongdae had found himself spending unhealthy amounts of time with Liyin and almost equally unhealthy amounts of time with his laptop over the past weeks. He also spent a lot of time texting Kris, swapping pictures of girls in bikinis that approached to buy snow cones in exchange for his Netflix password and the ability to watch Friends in the shack when there were no customers.

Then there were the odd times, between episodes and in the middle of the afternoon, when the sun sat hot and heavy and even the flies were too lazy to move that Jongdae thought about Yixing. He would stare at his phone, his finger hovering over the number while he tried to remember what time it was in China. Sometimes he thought about texting him. He wondered if Yixing would respond. He’d even begin to type a message—something like “Hey Xing,” or “What’s up?” before his thumb backspaced and the message line was empty again. He never sent anything.

Jongdae’s only other saving grace was his new apartment—or more accurately, Minseok’s apartment. Jongdae had been friends with the short red-head business major since before he was in diapers. The two had grown up together, with Kyungsoo appearing and completing their little trio in the second grade. Kyungsoo and Minseok had been living together, but then Kyungsoo found his soulmate—a breathtaking girl named Alice whose vibrant personality somehow managed to balance out his monochrome quiet existence—and he moved in with her. Apparently they were even talking about marriage. Anyway, his moving out had left Minseok with an empty room, and since Jongdae wasn’t a freshman anymore and didn’t have to live on campus it only made sense that he move-in with Minseok.

So now Jongdae spent most nights cooking dinner for an exhausted Minseok. Tonight he’d cooked fettucine alfredo, partly because it was good but mostly because it was easy and Jongdae was a lazy motherer. Of course, Minseok didn’t mind when he walked in the door. All he cared about was that there was food to be eaten as soon as he had changed out of his suit and into his sweats. Jongdae thought it was hilarious, the way his pretentious best friend could transform from a business professional to a college slob in 2.7 seconds.

“Noodles?”

Jongdae nodded. “Fancy sauce noodles.”

Minseok lifted the lid off the pot, taking a careful sniff before putting the lid back down, his face fixed with a look of careful deliberation. He opened his mouth to speak then closed it again. He took a deep breath. “I will ignore the fact that you just called fettucine alfredo made with sauce from a Ragú jar fancy if you promise to never insult me in such a way again.”

Jongdae rolled his eyes and snorted, handing a Minseok a spoon to serve himself with. “At least I cooked.”

Minseok snorted right back, “Of course you cooked. You know what happens when you don’t.”

Jongdae snorted, raising his fist to mock-punch Minseok. Minseok socked him on the arm. Jongdae pouted even though he knew Minseok wouldn’t buy it. It was a game they played, Jongdae acting like his hated their arrangement every time Minseok mentioned it. It was a simple deal: Jongdae cooked the dinners and Minseok bought the alcohol. The day Jongdae stopped cooking was the day Minseok stopped sharing the vodka in the fridge. Jongdae would never stop cooking—summer was boring enough as it was without a little liquid fun to lighten it up.

After a few seconds of false bitterness Jongdae broke the silence. “Hey Minseok, are you jealous that Kyungsoo found his soulmate as soon as he turned twenty?”

Minseok frowned, thoughts churning across his face. It took a while before he answered. Jongdae sat quietly beside him, stabbing at his noodles with a fork. “I’m not jealous,” Minseok replied, after a few minutes. “I think I’m wishful? Like, it would be really cool to have what Kyungsoo has, but at the same time okay with not knowing who my soulmate is right now. I’ll meet them eventually, right? Besides, not getting a tattoo right at twenty isn’t abnormal. Almost half of the population doesn’t find their soulmate until twenty-two or twenty-three years old. So I guess it would be nice knowing now because then I wouldn’t have to guess, but at the same time I don’t think I’ll be alone forever. I mean, I’m only twenty-one. I have time.” Jongdae was silent for a while, thinking. Minseok sat quietly next to him, occasionally clinking his fork against his bowl as he ate.

“Do you think Liyin is my soulmate?”

Minseok choked on his pasta. “What?”

“Do you think that Liyin might be my soulmate?”

Minseok swallowed his noodles. “What brought this on?”

“She turns twenty next week you know.” Jongdae frowned, pushing pasta around his plate. “I’m taking her out to dinner.”

“But why did you ask about her being your soulmate? You guys have been dating for years. If you aren’t soulmates wouldn’t you two have fallen apart by now?”

Jongdae shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess. Maybe it’s stupid to worry, but what if she’s not? What if her soulmate is someone else? What do I do?”

Minseok laughed. “You guys are perfect together. Don’t worry. You’ve got to be soulmates.” He wrapped his arms around Jongdae’s shoulders. “And besides,” he continued, “If you aren’t, that just means that there’s someone better out there, for both you and her. And you two are so great together. Can you imagine how amazing a relationship with someone better would be?”

Jongdae nodded along with Minseok, but no matter how he tried he couldn’t picture his life without Liyin in it.

One week later found Jongdae and Liyin together at Chen’s Alley, a shady-looking hole in the wall restaurant with the most amazing dumplings either of them had ever eaten. Liyin had asked for authentic Chinese food for her birthday—something strangely difficult to find in a city as large as theirs—but Jongdae had managed to find a restaurant after careful searching and one painfully stilted conversation with his landlady Mrs. Yin. Liyin was missing her grandmother’s cooking—the old woman had passed away in her sleep a few months ago—so Jongdae had tried to find the closest thing to authenticity he could. He’d picked her up at 3 pm and they’d gone to the zoo first, made terrible puns about the monkeys and “hanging in there”, stopped over at the mall for churros and then ended at Chen’s Alley for a little taste of home. So far Liyin had loved it and Jongdae couldn’t be happier with his success. He wanted her twentieth birthday to be special for her and he was certain that with the things he had planned it would be it would be a birthday she’d never forget, especially if the promise ring burning a hole in his pocket came into the equation.

Jongdae had bought the ring a year and a half ago but had never given it to Liyin, thanks to her request that they not give each other anything tangible until after they were certain they were each other’s soulmates. Instead the ring moved around with Jongdae, sitting on his dresser at his parent’s house before moving to his underwear drawer freshman year, then migrating back to his dresser once he moved in with Minseok. It was a pretty ring, something he’d picked out especially for Liyin. He knew she liked simplicity but hated solitaires so he picked a ring that was made of two thin bands with four diamond stones wedged in the gap.   

Of course looking back, Jongdae shouldn’t have been so certain about a few things—primarily his car. The dumb thing, a 2006 Subaru Impreza painted a painfully awkward burnt orange color, decided to give up as soon as they pulled into Chen’s Alley, offering a pitiful phut before dying completely. The next thing that died was Chen’s phone, though luckily he had a charger in his car and the waiter at Chen’s Alley was nice enough to point him towards an outlet. But bad things come in threes, and really, the worst part was what happened third.

It was at 7:33 pm. They’d just received their food and Liyin had bent over to eat. Her shirt, which was already low, gaped lower and what it revealed caught Jongdae’s eye. Jongdae stared. Hard. He stared until Liyin noticed.

“What?” She laughed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “Am I so tempting that you have to stare in public?” She leaned over just a little bit more, letting her shirt fall even lower. Jongdae grimaced. What he’d previously see as a tempting invitation tasted sour on his tongue. Liyin’s expression fell a bit, confusion misting in her eyes.

Jongdae rubbed his nose before asking, “Who’s Mark?”

The curl of Liyin’s lips flattened to a straight line. “What?”

“Mark,” Jongdae pressed, “who is Mark Hilliard?”

Liyin stared at Jongdae a bit, clearly try