Jackson keeps fidgeting in his seat and Jinyoung's left eye can't help but to twitch in annoyance.

 

"Jackson, stop twitching in your seat like you were a dog in heat and eat your damn vegetables," Jaebum barks, reading Jinyoung's mind.

 

That's what soulmates do, apparently.

 

Or it's just a very specifically Jaebum and Jinyoung thing and Jackson is just so unlucky to be stuck with them.

 

But it doesn't stop him from feeling his best ever and still quietly rub his in the white plastic chair of their university's cafeteria.

 

He watches the clock on his wrist go down one second at a time with the most exciting look even Jinyoung

 

(though hell will freeze over before he ever admits it)

 

can't help but find endearing.

 

"I can't!" Jackson screeches, pushing up his wrist to Jaebum's eyes so he could see better.

 

Jaebum doesn't find the gesture all that appealing and he lets Jackson know that with a glare.

 

Jackson immediatly retreats his arm and wraps his fingers around his left wrist as if to protect the glowing sky blue clock, chopsticks laying by his salad plate, forgotten.

 

He can't stand not seeing the clock count down, so he unwraps his fingers and sreeches once more when he sees the time magically be a few seconds shorter than the last time he saw it.

 

It's practically time travel.

 

He keeps pulling his white sweater's sleeve up and down and up as if playing peek-a-boo with the glow, positively dazed by the counter of twelve minutes going down without stop.

 

How can he not be excited when his soulmate is twelve minutes away from him.

 

It's almost outrageous for Jaebum to propose otherwise.

 

Jaebum gives Jinyoung a side glance which definitely does not go unnoticed by Jackson.

 

"Oh please, as if you weren't like me before you met Jinyoung," He says and that, at least, makes Jinyoung smile and clearly force himself to not giggle like a little girl.

 

"I wasn't," Jaebum answers, voice calm and totally not defensive. "Really."

 

"You're right," Jackson agrees, easy. "You were even more excited," Jackson exlaims with a flail of his arms and Jinyoung does chuckle this time.

 

A smile of pure adoration on his face as he watches Jaebum glare daggers at Jackson with steadily reddening cheeks.

 

"Let me tell you, Jinyoung," Jackson points a finger at Jinyoung and Jinyoung sits up straighter, with a smile, anticipation bubbling inside to see his boyfriend look even more humiliated than a moment ago after he hears this.

 

"You were the first person to ever to see Jaebum like that," Jackson talks as if it were a big deal that Jaebum, for once, showed a different emotion than annoyance.

 

For a university student Jaebum did good not to make his primary emotion stress and only leave it at agitation.

 

Jinyoung looks at Jaebum with the tiniest smirk, teasing, and Jaebum shakes his head slightly at him, silently pleading him to stop.

 

When he takes time to think about it, at least for a moment, as if he had nothing better to think about but his friends being gay with one another, Jackson sees why the universe put Jaebum and Jinyoung together.

 

Which makes him look down at his wrist in anticipation to meet his own soulmate.

 

He's meet with a measly seven and a half minutes time and he slams his forehead on the table with a grunt.

 

"This is taking forever!" He shouts into a napkin placed under his nose.

 

"You'll live," Jaebum snarls, pissed at Jackson's poor atempt of a joke. Jackson groans once more.

 

"Less than eight minutes and we can forget this ever happened," Jinyoung says. "You're a pain, honestly." He taps lightly against the back of Jackson's head.

 

Of course ultimitely he'd side with Jaebum. He always does. Both of them.

 

Those hypocrites.

 

Jackson turns to lay on the side of his head and takes ahold of Jinyoung's hand, bringing it down to level with his eyes so he could inspect the navy bracelet of zeros coloring his thin wrist closer.

 

He lets go of it to turn to lay on his other ear to see Jaebum's hand placed on the table, iris purple zeros litering his own wrist.

 

Jackson groans, going back to hide his face in the napkin again.

 

 

 

"Why did you bring me here," Mark groans. "I have a thesis to write, and so do you two." He eyes Kunpimook and Yugyeom accusingly.

 

"Because, Mark," Kunpimook throws his bag down onto a chair besides the one in which Mark is forced to sit down by a needlessly friendly Youngjae.

 

Neither one of them deserve a friend like him, honestly.

 

The bag falls down with a thump, making Mark flinch with the knowledge that Kunpimook's laptop is in there.

 

"The western pancakes here are delectable," Kunpimook finishes as he watches Yugyeom go to the front of the cafeteria with two trays, ready to store plates among plates of arguably the best pancakes Mark has already tasted more than once.

 

"...They're not that good," He huffs, head leaning on his elbow, Youngjae by his side playing with his phone, tapping at the screen like he wanted to hurt it.

 

"How dare you," Kunpimook says, a look on his face as if Mark just insulted his whole family.

 

"We've had better," Youngjae tells him and Mark thanks Youngjae for being so amazing.

 

Because God knows there's no way in hell Mark ever has the energy to deal with Kunpimook alone.

 

"Sure, now suddenly everyone's a pancake expert," Kunpimook slumps in his chair with a pout, crossing his arms across his chest.

 

"Oh, by the way," He says right away, and Mark has to wonder if Kunpimook even breathes at all. "How's the timer?"

 

Mark looks at his wrist, a wide bracelet hiding something which is supposedly going to decide his future.

 

"Who knows." He shrugs, going back to look at the girl Youngjae's stalking on Instagram.

 

"Take it off." Kunpimook tips his chin in the direction of Mark's wrist.

 

"What?" Mark scoffs, looking at Kunpimook like he just asked for a .

 

"Take the bracelet off. I have a feeling it's about to go off,"

 

"Go off? Stop, you mean?" Mark asks and Kunpimook nods. "I haven't taken it off for, like, a year and today isn't anything special," He says and Kunpimook eyes him, expression suddenly too determined.

 

"I have a feeling today is special," He says, already leaning across the table to get ahold of Mark's fingers. "Just take it off."

 

Mark leans back in his chair, almost knocking into somebody walking behind it, and lifts his arm over his head so nobody would reach it.

 

"No," He growls, low, and it would make Kunpimook back away, because and angry Mark is a Mark which comes once every blue moon and Kunpimook hasn't found a way to deal with it yet.

 

But he feels as though Mark should really, for once, stop being afraid of his future and the definite love of his life.

 

That he should wave his insecurities goodbye and realize that the person who shares the time with Mark on their own wrist will unconditionally love him no matter how Mark imagines himself being unworthy.

 

Or be forced to love, who cares. Whichever it is, Mark will share the same fate, surely.

 

Mark and Kunpimook are still having a staring contest of sorts, one of them sprawled across the table and the other trying to make himself as tall as a tree while sitting down, when Youngjae notices Yugyeom waving him over to help him transport the trays filled with food.

 

Youngjae locks his phone and gets up, ignoring the line of silver zeros around his wrist and the lack of a soulmate, and takes ahold of Mark's wrist before Mark has an opportunity to react.

 

He leans down a little to bite into the few lines of string keeping the wooden bracelet together and tighly tied, and rips it with his front teeth, locking the bracelet inside his hand and going to Yugyeom.

 

Kunpimook looks at Mark and quickly adverts his gaze to Mark's wrist, still up above the damn sky.

 

"Just give it here," He snaps, standing up and setting down a knee on the unstable round table, reaching over Mark's head with a pit stain just by Mark's nose and he's forced to srunch up his nose and shut his eyes and hope this passes.

 

Kunpimook grabs his wrist and slips back down to sit on his chair, a comforting hand holding Mark from absolute self- destruction.

 

"What's up?" Yugyeom asks, setting a tray with two plates of pancakes and a couple of glasses in front of Mark, placing one set in front of him and the other in front of Kunpimook.

 

Mark eyes the working hand and flicking wrist, decorated with a line of bright pink zeros.

 

Kunpimook, who's been looking at Mark's watch like it were the single most interesting thing in the world, looks up at him, eyes wide.

 

Mark shifts his gaze to look at his own wrist in Kunpimook's soft grip, taking notice of the mint green zeros etched into the skin.

 

He sighs, recognizing that fighting Kunpimook now would be wasted effort and energy, and there's still a sixty page thesis waiting to be written for next week.

 

"Fourteen." Kunpimook says, voice so quiet Youngjae tips his head sideways in a cute fashion, not having heard what Kunpimook's said.

 

"Fourteen?" Yugyeom repeats, looking at Kunpimook for answers, but his face only holds bewilderment.

 

There's a giant question mark floating above Mark's head, probably.

 

"Fourteen of what?" Youngjae asks, voice curious and he sits down in his chair.

 

Kunpimook's eyes fall back on Mark's wrist, still sitting there in his palm.

 

"Two." He says and this time Mark's eyes go wide as well, to copy Yugyeom's. His heart sinks. "One."

 

Everyone at the table falls quiet, suddenly aware of Mark's mortified expression.

 

But for Mark the sound around him is amplified, suddenly knocking out all of his senses and all he hears is a crowd of voice speaking to him, staring and inviting Mark to talk over them.

 

Jackson, unheard, slams his palms on his table, pain stinging to replace the lack of feeling the stopping of his clock offered.

 

"Who here is my soulmate?!" Mark hears, a voice louder than the rest, and then the whole cafeteria goes silent like time was stopped.

 

He pulls back his wrist, Kunpimook doing nothing to stop him, and turns it around before his eyes, instead of an electronical clock on the inside of his wrist finding a honey yellow bracelet of zeros to replace it.

 

He lifts his arm up just like he did a minute ago, but this time more cautiously, and then turns to look for the owner of the voice shouting for him, feeling stares of people burning holes into his face.

 

For once they don't feel as heavy and Mark hopes, just for a second, that the voice of a male, who's now apparently his, will love Mark enough to fill all those holes up.

 

He spots a man standing on a chair at the opposite end of the room, frantic eyes scanning the crowds of students seated and not.

 

He notices Mark.

 

They lock eyes.

 

Time stops.

 

For the man it comes back faster than for Mark, so he hardly reacts once the man points a finger straight at him.

 

"It's you!" He screams, eyes glistening dangerously as if he were in a cartoon, and he jumps down the chair.

 

Mark watches him shake a person sitting by his table and still hears him screaming.

 

"It's him! That's him!"

 

Yugyeom watches intently as Mark's features get grazed by a soft smile.

 

It certainly is him.

 

Youngjae looks just as happy as Mark's feeling.

 

Though Mark hasn't registered the feeling yet.

 

"Oh, me," Kunpimook sighs, watching Mark's eyes follow the man's moving figure, sprinting towards their table. "It's that dude. What a twist of events, huh." He monologues and Mark finally snaps back into it all.

 

"It's that dude?" Mark repeats with a raise of an eyebrow, trying not to let the panic he's feeling surface up.

 

"Jackson, he's Jackson," Kunpimook says.

 

"That Jackson?" Yugyeom asks, surprised, the way someone talks about a person who's done something.

 

Mark is just a tiny bit alarmed with the way Yugyeom says it.

 

"Yup." Kunpimook nods and Mark ignores the almost pittying look shooting across Yugyeom's eyes because of Jackson who's about to literally go crashing into his life.

 

Which he does, seconds later.

 

He trips over someone's discarted backpack with a curse and faceplants into Youngjae's leg, just above his knee, succesfully not getting a broken nose.

 

Mark gets out of his chair to kneel in front of Jackson, to see if this person is okay, and he apologetically ignores the way Youngjae hisses, holding his thigh that's probably bruising.

 

"Are you okay?" Mark asks, voice worried, and Jackson lifts his hand up to show he's fine.

 

Mark's sure the laughter he hears is that of Jackson's friends seated at his table.

 

Jackson slowly sits up on his knees, trying his best not to accidentally hit his head against either a chair or the table.

 

"Peachy." He says once he's kneeling upright, and he turns his head to look at Mark, Youngjae sitting behind his back almost acting like support if Jackson felt like he wanted to pass out.

 

They look at each other and Jackson's first thought is if he deserves someone as beautiful as Mark.

 

Mark's first thought is of pure panic, wondering how he should stop Jackson's bleeding nose.

 

"Oh, crap, your nose," Mark says under his breath, staring at it to see if the bone didn't get broken.

 

Jackson brings up his hand to touch his nose - and surely - once he looks at it it's stained with blood.

 

"Oh, ," He says, pinching at his nose and tilting his head back to stop the flow of blood. "I busted my nose falling for you."

 

Mark definitely hears Kunpimook gag and he notices Youngjae turn his head away from the pair by his legs with slightly shaking shoulders, but Mark is worried enough not to take notice of his own warming cheeks.

 

Though Jackson's giddy smile alone now definitely outshines anyone else that might've caught Mark's attention before.

 

"Let's, uh, go to the restroom." Mark offers, standing up and slowly, slowly as if he were afraid to get an electrical shock if he touched too quickly, taking hold of Jackson's arm to help him stand up.

 

"Wait!" Jackson screeches, pulling on Mark's hand and tugging him back down on his knees besides Jackson.

 

"I don't know you," He says, looking straight past Mark's eyes and into his soul. "I've been told I have a bad habit of following people I don't know."

 

Mark would be lying if he said he didn't feel his heart quake for a beat and his brain melt.

 

He hears Yugyeom stop a string of curses slipping past Kunpimook's lips with sweet compliments.

 

Mark smiles, just to show how he already knows he'll be terribly smitten with Jackson.

 

The whole cafeteria, boring their eyes at them, as their witness.

 

"I'm Mark," He says, voice soft and nervous and he shudders so weakly he himself doesn't notice. "Your soulmate."

 

"Nice to meet you, Mark. I'm soulmate, your Jackson," Jackson asnwers, a lame try at a joke, but Mark still laughs.

 

Not becauses it's funny, Mark couldn't come up with a poorer joke even if he tried, but because it's his Jackson talking, it makes this whole situation so much more silly and endearing.

 

Mark loves.

 

Jackson's heart follows.

 

Youngjae offers Mark a tissue, which Mark takes and hands to Jackson.

 

Jackson rolls it up and stick it in his nose, this time letting himself be lifted up with Mark's help.

 

They go to the nearest restroom, Jackson talking and animating every word with his hands, words coming alive and going straight to Mark's head, and Mark listens, his eyes following the line of sky blue zeros imprinted in Jackson's wrist.

 

He watches as Jackson glances down at his wrist, ogling the honey yellow line of zeros.

 

"I can't believe the universe thought I'm a dirty yellow," Jackson complains with a pout.

 

"It's honey yellow. Or gold," Mark corrects. "As far as I know it's not a bad match," He tells Jackson, and Jackson glances at him, eyes shining just slightly.

 

Mark feels warm.

 

He's pretty sure love isn't supposed to work like this, all sudden and like a punch in the face.

 

But Jackson did, very much, fall for Mark, literally, so the idea of falling in love immediatly with someone like that isn't all that far fetched.

 

Now they're going to fall together.

 

Forever.

 

"Really?" Jackson asks, a little surprised. "Maybe I should bleach my hair, too. To fit it even better."

 

Mark eyes Jackson's black hair and pretends like it's not the nicest mop of messy strings he's seen all day.

 

"You could." Mark hums. "I, personally, like it the way it is," He says. "Suits you."

 

"Okay, then no bleaching," Jackson decides with a resolved nod, mind made up.

 

"You seem very easily swayed," Mark points out, voice teasing. "People are going to use you."

 

"I'm only like this with you," Jackson answers without any hesitation. "It's weird how much I already love you." And Mark chokes on his own spit. "Sorry."

 

"It's fine." Mark answers, happy that he isn't alone that's about ready to kill half of the population for this single person dragging his feet by his side.

 

"You know," Jackson starts. "When I saw my friend meeting his soulmate it seemed really funny to me. How he got so weird and just enticed with this one person so suddenly. It was ridiculious."

 

Mark nods, remembering Kunpimook and Yugyeom.

 

How Kunpimook found Yugyeom literally crashing in through a window, running from a professor, and Kunpimook helped hide him with the dumbest smile on his face.

 

How he, then, offered to pay half the price for the window, as it was the thing that brought them together.

 

Such a strange story.

 

He's reminded of Youngjae, whose clock stopped counting once, but Youngjae missed the person, not taking notice of his silver clock. He hadn't changed at all since then.

 

It took more than a month for anyone to notice the braided line of zeros, completely by accident, some Taehyung having a friendly wrestle with him and lifting up the sleeve of his sweater.

 

And even then Youngjae couldn't talk over his own sobs. Nobody ever approached the topic again, but Youngjae didn't change at all.

 

They're not sure if it's a good thing or not.

 

"It was really ridiculious," Jackson says, remembering."It was so weird." He shudders, succesfully making Mark chuckle.

 

"Yeah." Mark nods, stepping closer to Jackson so their shoulders would bump as they walked, ignoring Jackson's hand fingers searching to take ahold of Mark's sweaty hand. "Yeah."

 

Jackson, then, takes a step away from Mark, and back, and sneezes, the red tissue flying out of his nose with the speed and menace of a bullet.

 

Jackson laughs and Mark stands there, dumbstruck, an adoring smile on his face which has absolutely no business being there.

 

Yup.

 

That's Jackson's favorite smile.

 

At present, Jackson's in so deep for Mark already.

 

He laughs to mask his totally weak self, and kneels down to pick up the balled, bloodied tissue.

 

Mark, then, pushes Jackson into the restroom they have finally reached after a hundred year journey, and as Jackson's forced to bend over the sink so the blood could run past his nose and lips to wash the blood off and out, he throws the tissue into a trashcan and doesn't miss.

 

Yes.

 

This, here, is Mark's golden soulmate, here to love Mark unconditionally.

 

And they're both here, to spend an eternity together, with shining bracelets as a reminder of them they won't ever need.