Please excuse any spelling mistakes because I have unfortunately broken a finger hehe, anyways, this was a request so i hope you like it!

“Jin you don't mind if I bring my brother right?” Yunhyeong shouts from lane 3 and Jinhwan sighs from where he’s hanging against the edge of the pool, usually he’s all for ‘the more the merrier’ but bringing a kid to a party with alcohol and possibly drugs, what is yunhyeong thinking? “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jinhwan responds and he sees Yunhyeong remove his goggles, “I promise he’ll behave,” he practically begs and Jinhwan’s far too tired to actually think straight so he nods and returns to doing laps around the pool, it’s not like the kid is his responsibility anyway.

He swims swiftly through the water and when he pauses on the other side of the pool he can’t help but glance at the symbol on his wrist, one single wave. Does that mean his soulmate is a swimmer too? Only time will tell, Jinhwan grumbles and goes back to practicing.

_

It’s already 10 pm and the party’s just begun with no sign of yunhyeong nor his brother yet, “hey, where’s Yunhyeong?” Donghyuk greets him loudly to be heard above the loud music and jinhwan shakes his head and shrugs, “no idea,” he practically yell back as some idiot turns the volume up to the point where jinhwan’s sure he’ll be deaf before he’s 25.

Meanwhile yunhyeong’s standing outside of the house with a nervous looking teenager that’s hugging him tightly as if he’s afraid he’ll disappear, “come on Chanwoo we talked about this, you can stay out here if you want, but i’m going inside, call me if you need me, okay?” Chanwoo doesn’t even have the time to answer before yunhyeong’s leaving him and running inside to the party. It’s not that chanwoo doesn’t want his brother to have fun, it’s that he’s far too nervous to be alone. The only person he has is yunhyeong and it makes him nervous whenever the elder leaves, he’s not a child, he’s already seventeen, but a little comfort is always needed.

He sees more people arriving from down the street and knows that the safest place to stand isn’t in the doorway to the crowded house as drunk adults and teens pile inside, so he wonders if there is perhaps a bathroom he can hide in, or someone’s bedroom, it is a gigantic house after all, or maybe it even deserves the word mansion, he doesn’t know what the owner’s parents or themself work as, but it must be some real prestigious to afford a place like this.

He makes his way around the house to the back instead, forgetting the idea of entering the house as he sees more people pile inside. There’s a pool in the back and lots of women running around in bikinis with drinks in their hands and god this is awkward, Chanwoo doesn’t know where to look. Other than the s up to the girls’ chins there’s also the male bulges in the tight underwear or the swimwear and he’s not some horndog but he is a hormonal teenager. He’s about to turn away from the pool and head back to the car to sit there until yunhyeong comes back but just then the doors to the back entrance of the house flies open and a group of guys followed by some girls pile out with a large tank and bottles of vodka in their hands and this is so not chanwoo’s scene. But before he has any time to move it’s already too late and he’s being pushed into the pool too deep to stand in.

And he can’t swim. Great.

He struggles to stay on the surface but with the panic setting in and the weight of his clothes starts to drag him down he starts screaming to the best of his ability to alert someone of his situation, but out of the little he sees there’s only people drinking and laughing and no one seems to be noticing his struggle. He tries to scream again but this time his mouth is invaded by water and he tries to cough it up but that only makes more water enter his mouth and he swallows a large gulp of water that immediately settles uncomfortably in his stomach and he’s really afraid now. He’s really gonna die now, just because he can’t swim. It’s never been necessary before, he’s never been in a pool deeper than his height so he’s always been able to walk on the bottom. And his school has never had swimming as a requirement so he figured there was no use in learning.

His brother loves swimming, he’s on the national team and he’s really good at it, and that’s only one of the things separating Chanwoo from his hyung. There’s also the part where Yunhyeong has friends, where Yunhyeong has a goal with his life, everything that Chanwoo doesn’t have, he has.

If only he could have been blessed with swimming abilities, but no, instead he’s spending his last seconds alive drowning, and how ironic it is that his soulmate tattoo is a wave of all.

He’s losing conscious and he’s about to close his eyes and succumb when a hand grabs him tightly and pulls him up hastily, and suddenly he’s no longer surrounded by water but despite that he can’t seem to breathe nor open his eyes, in fact, he can’t move. Am i dead? He thinks and tries to move or do something but nothing happens and he toys with the thought of being a ghost for the rest of, well, everyone’s lives since his own is already over. But then there’s a heavy pressure in his chest and it hurts, but nothing hurts when you’re dead, right? The pressure falls away only to a second later reappear.

It feels like someone’s hitting him in the rhythm of his heartbeat and it hurts really badly, he feels his ribs cower under the pressure and he wonders if this is what death feels like, it’s not just a peaceful going, no, it’s a painful expansion of your body until your chest explodes and leaves you nothing but stardust. But then suddenly his eyes fly open and he turns to his side and heaves up his lungs, or so it feels like.

There’s a comforting hand rubbing his back as he coughs and vomits or whatever he’s doing, it hurts both the same anyways. He coughs and coughs until there’s nothing left and that’s when he falls back onto the ground (or perhaps he’s on a cloud in heaven), he feels so incredibly tired but there’s a hand on his cheek patting it consistently and he can’t fall asleep with that disturbance.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep on me kid,” the voice speaks and it’s unlike anything Chanwoo’s ever heard, it’s the sweetest most melodic voice to ever speak in his presence and he figures this must be one of the angels. If only he could see him. He cracks an eye open to try and get a glimpse of the angel and the first thing he notices is that it’s night in heaven because it’s pretty dark and he can’t really see anything clearly, the second thing he notices is the mop of blonde/orange hair that adorns his head and it’s a peculiar color but he makes it work.

“Hey, you’re alive!” the man exclaims Chanwoo frowns as best as he can, still getting used to moving his body, but is he alive? Is this not heaven and is he not dead? He tries to croak out an answer but his throat fails him and instead he coughs around the unspoken words and the man in front of him screams something that he can’t understand.

Suddenly there’s a mask around his mouth and nose and it helps his coughing slow down but not by much, “let’s get him up on the stretcher,” someone says above him and then suddenly the ground disappears from below and he panic as he feels the cloud move, and so he reaches out and grabs the first thing he gets a hold of and doesn’t let go. Well, not until he’s put to sleep at least.

__

He wakes up to a bright room and he has to close his eyes immediately as the light hits, far too bright for an early saturday morning, he wonders if he perhaps should go to sleep again but he clearly remembers Yunhyeong going to a party the night before and that usually means hangover soup and lots of painkillers, so chanwoo reluctantly sits up in his bed and stretches, not noticing the IV getting tangled in his bandage. He coughs and tries to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling in his chest but it doesn’t seem to want to go away and so he tries hitting his chest to loosen whatever it is that’s bothering him but the slight hit makes him lose his breath and pain radiate down to the bone. He yelps in pain and in a deep breath, mostly from the shock.

“Hey, hey, you’re okay,” a voice says and it sounds oddly familiar but familiar enough for him to place it together with a name or face, “just breathe,” the stranger repeats and rubs at his slowly and chanwoo follows his order and tries to breathe evenly, his chest hurts with every rise and fall of his chest  and he cracks his eyes open and sees the weird covers covering his legs, “what-” he mumbles and looks down at himself and sees his bare chest on display, bruised and covered in some sort of cream and connected to an IV line. “What is-” he doesn’t feel safe at all, did he accidentally sell his kidney or something?

“Kid, you’re okay, it’s okay,” the voice speaks again and this time Chanwoo gets a clear look of him. He’s beautiful, is the first thing he thinks. His strong jawline and pretty eyes and a small mole on his cheek, he can’t take his eyes off of him and the man seems to notice it because he waves in front of him, “kid? You with me?” he hurriedly speaks and Chanwoo nods slowly before looking down embarrassed.

It’s then that he remembers that he’s shirtless and that the man is still standing beside him so he grabs the covers and drags them up his body until only his head is visible, “who are you?” he timidly asks and the man ‘ah’s and smiles at him, “my name is Jinhwan, I’m your brother’s friend, we’re on the swimming team together,” he says and only then does Chanwoo remember him, well, not remember. But he’s heard the name on TV and from his brother before so he guesses he kind of knows him. But...why is he here with Chanwoo?

“What happened?” jinhwan takes a small seat on the edge of the bed and sighs, “you fell into the pool,” he mumbles and Chanwoo frowns, he doesn’t really remember anything except being trapped and unable to breathe, “you almost drowned and I pulled you out,” Jinhwan admits and Chanwoo’s hit with a wave of memories of large bodies of water and a burning sensation in his chest and he starts rubbing over his heart absentmindedly.

“Oh,” is the only thing he can say, too shocked to hear that he was seconds away from death. It’s not something you hear every day. Jinhwan reaches up to move his bangs away from his forehead when Chanwoo suddenly grabs his wrist seemingly out of nowhere, “kid-” jinhwan begins but chanwoo gives him no time to continue before he’s gasping out loud and rubbing over the elder’s wrist.

“A wave,” he mumbles quietly, knowing exactly the curve of the wave and the length, because it’s identical to his own. “My wave,” he adds and jinhwan’s confusion only lasts for a seconds before he takes sight of Chanwoo’s own wrist and his eyes widen as he sees his own wave on the boy’s wrist.

“What a dramatic way to meet,” jinhwan jokes to try and ease the awkwardness that’s begun to grow and chanwoo huffs a small smile, “I can’t believe I have my own superhero,” he mumbles and rubs over the wave and jinhwan smiles cutely at him, finding his words endearing. “Let’s not almost die again, okay?” he jokes but Chanwoo can see the underlying concern and he nods slowly before grinning. Showing off his small dimple.

“Teach me to swim?” he asks and jinhwan immediately nods and leans forward to lean his forehead against the younger’s, lacing their fingers in the process. “Of course, we can’t have the soulmate of one of the best swimmers in Korea not know how to swim,” Chanwoo smiles, before remembering one thing.

“If you’re my brother’s friend, how old are you?” Jinhwan’s smile seems to dim a bit before he answers, “23,” he mumbles and Chanwoo giggles, “six years isn’t that much of a difference.”

“Six years!”

thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed <3 <3

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