Sanghyuk always knew when Taekwoon was hurt. No matter where they were, in the same room or in different countries, he always knew the second Taekwoon was in pain. As a child, he’d always been scared about this. He’d be playing with his friend one second and then be crying out in pain for no reason the next. His mother had explained it to him, but he didn’t understand at the time.

When he did start to understand, every time he felt his soul mate’s pain he became terrified. His soul mate seemed to get hurt a lot and it made him worry. To make it worse, even his parents were concerned about how often he felt his soul mate’s pain. If they didn’t think it was normal, then that meant something was very wrong, right?

Turned out, there was.

Sanghyuk had met Taekwoon in high school. He figured out Taekwoon was his soul mate a couple weeks into the semester. Taekwoon came to school with a nasty bruise on his left cheekbone and the night before Sanghyuk had felt pain originating from that same area. He told Taekwoon first chance he got that day. The other boy denied it, eyes wide with so much fear that Sanghyuk knew that his concerns had been justified. Something was very wrong in Taekwoon’s life, his injuries were not accidents.

It took a while before Taekwoon admitted anything. It took him tripping and Sanghyuk crying out in pain for it to happen. But when faced with the undeniable proof that Sanghyuk was his soul mate, he broke down and admitted that his parents were abusive. Sanghyuk’s heart broke as he held his sobbing soul mate, promising him that he wouldn’t let Taekwoon get hurt again.

He went to his parents with what he knew and they went to the cops. Taekwoon’s parents were arrested and Sanghyuk’s parents convinced the judge to allow Taekwoon to stay with them. The judge had been hesitant, but ended up agreeing since Sanghyuk and Taekwoon were soul mates and it would be beyond cruel to part them.

Sanghyuk didn’t feel Taekwoon’s pain very often after that. Sometimes accidents happened, like the time Taekwoon got hit in the face with a ball during gym, but that was fine. That was normal.

“Baby,” Sanghyuk sighed, wrapping his arms around Taekwoon, “please be careful.”

“I just burnt my hand,” Taekwoon smiled slightly, moving them over to the sink so he could run cold water over the heated skin, “it’s alright.”

It was alright.

A/N: poor Taekwoon. I really wish this kind of AU didn’t lend itself so easily to the idea of one soul mate being abused/bullied.