Out of This World

It wasn’t until Jinki literally collided into him that he met Jonghyun. A guy who wore oversized clothes and huge glasses that enlarged his pretty dark eyes, light hair, slightly overgrown, strands falling into his eyes, cheeks slightly yet adorably chubby, a smile a little toothy that made him almost seem like a soft puppy. He noticed when he apologized, that he had such a gentle, melodic voice as well. He noticed how kind and good-natured he was when someone came up to him and started a conversation amid his apologizing.

And the only Jinki could think as he watched him leave, clutching his books to his chest, was how God could have put so much charm in just a single existence.
 

~x~

Jinki saw him around a lot, it was almost uncanny, how Jonghyun was someone who he had not run into despite being in the same year with, for almost two years of college and now he saw him around him every other day. He was not complaining, he liked how Jonghyun greeted him, almost as if he was gushing. He liked how aberrant his fashion sense was, colorful and mismatched, yet so endearing on him. He liked how he always smiled so brightly when their eyes met. Jinki almost thought he was melting.

They collided again, this time in the elevator, and again, literally. Jinki had thought his floor had arrived and had walked out while Jonghyun just headed in, a little too focussed on the files he was carrying to have noticed someone in front of him. The folders were on the floor and while helping Jonghyun pick them up, Jinki realized he was getting off a couple of floors early. So he stepped back in awkwardly after Jonghyun had got in, murmuring, “Wrong floor.” when he felt Jonghyun look at him with a puzzled look on his face.

Jonghyun had just chuckled softly and it had barely faded when the elevator halted sharply, the lights in the buttons dimming. Jonghyun didn’t seem shocked, only a little anxious and Jinki pressed the alarm button, “Just a power outage, it should start running fine when they switch on the generators.”

Jonghyun just nodded and leaned against the elevator wall.

Jinki found the air too quiet so he started a conversation, just uttering something that was swimming closest to the surface in his mind, “Funny, I never saw you around until recently.”

“Because I wasn’t around until recently.”

Jinki looked at Jonghyun, a little confused at his soft words. He stared for a while, at how he was hiding half his face behind the folders he was holding.

“I am here for you.”

Jinki blinked, now totally losing track, “For me?”

Jonghyun sunk a little more, his face getting hidden a little more in those folders as he answered, “What if I say…we are soulmates?”

Jinki let those words sink in before he chuckled in amusement, “Soulmates?” He straightened up slightly, “Is that a new pickup line?”

“What’s a pickup line?”

Jinki pursed his lips, the innocence in Jonghyun’s eyes almost made his unawareness believable.

Seeing Jinki silent, Jonghyun lowered his head, “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.” He whispered and it was right then that the lights became brighter and the doors of the elevator opened. Jonghyun had stepped out but Jinki stopped the doors from closing, placing his arm in between the doors and they slid open again. He spoke before Jonghyun could take a step more away.

“Want to get a coffee with me sometime?” He asked, his words making Jonghyun turn to him with wide eyes, they seemed wider in those glasses, it was so adorable, “Let’s find out if we indeed are soulmates.”

“Is it like what it’s called…” Jonghyun paused thoughtfully, yet there was anticipation evident in his demeanor, “A date?”

People began pouring into the elevator, Jinki was pushed back and before the doors closed, he shouted, “Yes, it is!”

Before they had entirely shut, he had caught the bashful smile Jonghyun was wearing.
 

~x~

It took a couple of lattes, a dozen burgers and five movies for Jinki to ask what he had been always wanting to ask.

“How did you know I was your soulmate?”

“I just knew,” Jonghyun answered, closing his eyes to the breeze, his fingers entangling in Jinki’s as they walked home after the fifth movie they had watched together at the cinema. “And as if to prove my senses, it took this form,” he raised his other hand, twirling his wrist lightly and a glittery purple mist began to form in the middle of his palm, the glitter in them almost seemed like stars. “It’s how galaxies are picturized here, I find it so beautiful.” He whispered fondly before he realized what he had said, what he had done and turned to Jinki immediately, biting his lip, his eyes anxious, “Can you see it?” He asked, “I am sure you can. If you are truly my soulmate, you can.”

But Jinki’s gaze was blank, staring at his raised arm, trying to comprehend what Jonghyun had just said and done… and Jonghyun knew then… he couldn’t see it. He couldn’t see the beauty, the magic Jinki himself had sparked in him.

He must have seemed so devastated that Jinki had stopped walking, halting him too. He took his other hand as well, the purple mist dissipating at his touch. He entangled their fingers, his hold on both of Jonghyun’s hands grew firmer. He met Jonghyun’s quizzical eyes and smiled softly, “I see them. I always have. Galaxies… they are in your eyes, after all.”

Jonghyun couldn’t help but smile, couldn’t help but forget that he had fallen in love wrongly, because he was now surer, he loved Jinki beyond the boundaries of destiny.
 

~x~

They were lying under the stars one summer night in the middle of the soccer field, Jonghyun resting his head on Jinki’s arm. He was making patterns with his fingers, telling Jinki about the constellations, some which Jinki knew and some which he had never heard of. He spoke of stars so avidly, so knowingly, so fondly, as if he had visited them before. It was strange, yet so endearing.

The summer break was soon and Jinki did not have anywhere to return to for the holidays, but he was curious if Jonghyun did, “Do you plan to go home for the break?”

Jonghyun turned away from the stars and glanced at Jinki, a gentle yet sleepy smile on his face, “For us,” He said, “Home is where our soulmate is.”

Jinki was overwhelmed by his words, his face grew warm, “Then is it here, next to me?”

Jonghyun was fully awake at his question and he was silently thoughtful, his heart writhing at how apprehensive Jinki’s eyes were, waiting for an answer.

“It is,” He answered, though it was probably not, and he hid that little bitterness he felt by hugging Jinki, nuzzling into his chest and spoke it again, hoping it could become the truth if he repeated it enough. “It is.”

~x~

Jinki saw them. Literally. Galaxies.

They had kissed for the first time, it was on the last day of the summer break, it was under the stars they had been gazing at from Jinki’s balcony. Jonghyun was so bashful, biting his lip as he traced patterns on Jinki’s shoulders. He was so close, Jinki could hear both their heartbeats mingle. And it was then when a soft purple glittery mist spread around them, around Jonghyun, and when he met his gaze again, all Jinki could think that the brightest stars in those galaxies were his eyes.

But when he blinked, it was all gone, like it had been a hallucination, a fantasy his heart overwhelmed with love had construed just to make this moment more magical.

Within that moment, everything about Jonghyun’s existence made perfect sense– it had always did– but now it did in a way Jinki had only amused himself with, making a theory out of Jonghyun’s cute little aberrances. Like he was someone out of this world.

Jonghyun leaned in to kiss him again and Jinki smiled, kissing him, because Jonghyun indeed was out of this world, even if nothing of his theory was true.
 

~x~

Jinki saw it so many times now. A soft purple mist surrounding them when they walked the streets together, when they just laid side by side, conversing until they fell asleep, and whenever they kissed. It was brighter when they kissed, so ethereal that Jinki was awestruck. Or lovestruck. He didn’t even know anymore. He knew after a while that it wasn’t just him, it wasn’t just a hallucination because Jonghyun had once asked him if he could see it. Because he had caught him once, humming as he played with the purple mist while waiting for him.

His heart was beating wildly, he had been skeptical at first but now it was exhilarating, thinking that perhaps Jonghyun was like no other, and someone so special as him, so unique, loved him so dearly.

Something struck in him then, that devastation he had seen in Jonghyun eyes that one evening.

“Can you see it? I am sure you can. If you are truly my soulmate, you can.”

He had seen nothing then. He understood now what Jonghyun had realized then. They weren’t soulmates. This wasn’t home... and yet, yet he had stayed. He had loved him more, he had made him his home… and had become his own.

He couldn’t help but think just how God could have blessed him so greatly, blessed him with Jonghyun’s love.

Overwhelmed with everything, he finally walked closer to where Jonghyun stood, leaning at the gates. The mist Jonghyun was playing with again, had dispersed into the night when he noticed him approach and instead it spread softly around them as he greeted him.

Jinki smiled, kissing his cheek before he caressed the curve of it, his eyes meeting Jonghyun’s.

“How was the project presentation?” Jonghyun began to ask, “Did you–”

“I see them,” Jinki whispered, “The galaxies.”

Jonghyun stopped short, his lips parted as he stared at Jinki in confoundment. But he blinked a few moments after, smiling, “In my eyes, right?”

Jinki took his hand, “Yes… and around you.”

Jonghyun’s smile dimmed at his words, his confoundment returned, he could not shake off the gravity in Jinki’s demeanor and his eyes grew turbulent, the mist around him began to move, shaping into words instead, “What does it read?” He softly asked, his eyes now were boring into Jinki with so much hope, with so much yearning.

Jinki glanced at the words adrift above Jonghyun before he glanced back at him, a soft smile forming on his face as he spoke the words he had seen, “I love you.”

Jonghyun let out a breath on hearing those words, his eyes were now b with tears, he wiped them with his long sleeve before they flowed down, yet he was biting his lip, biting back a smile, a little caught up in awe. “How, how is this possible?” He finally spoke, “We… we were not destined.”

And somehow Jinki knew the answer to his question, “Maybe it’s because… you loved me so much that even destiny yielded to you.”

Jonghyun chuckled softly at his words before he wound his arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. Jinki returned the embrace, nuzzling into him, taking in his existence.

“Maybe, you are right.” He heard Jonghyun’s fond, muffled whisper.

And the galaxies that surrounded them, so beautiful, and Jonghyun’s ethereal existence, so warmly mingling with his own, was enough proof that he was.

– the end