"Hey, honey, you okay?" Myungsoo heard his teacher ask while tears were steadily streaming down his face, pain blatantly written across his young features. 

His arm felt as if it was on fire, almost as if someone had taken it and forced it into a boiling pot of hot water, letting the boiling heat of the water burn away at the layers of skin until it became red, raw, and bloody. Uniform shirt rubbing against the limb, the material felt as if it was trying to painfully fuse its way into his skin, trying to connect itself in ways it shouldn't. And if he even looked close enough at the sleeve of his blazer jacket, he could spot a few spots of blood lining the material, the blood making him feel even more sick to his stomach.

His body felt too hot, almost as if he was baking himself in a sauna, while his mind felt more than a bit hazy as he was unable to concentrate on anything but the pain that radiated from his arm for very long. The pain being too much for his young mind to handle and just being unable to voice how much he was hurting, he couldn't help but want to keep crying at the endless agony that seemed to go through him with every passing second.

He felt sweaty and gross and he definitely didn't want to be at school because of how bad he was feeling, but knowing how his father was, how the man was adamant about him getting his education, even if he was sick, Myungsoo knew that he needed to be strong and get throughout the day. 

Just like he did everyday.

His father didn't tolerate weakness and for him to be crying like this, to be huddling into himself in the corner of the room, and  to be breaking down over a little pain, he felt even more terrible and scared.

Scared that his father would be unhappy with him again, scared that his father would decide to punish him again for being so weak, the man unable to handle the weaknesses that Myungsoo already had, that Myungsoo couldn't help but try to contain his feelings as best as he could, especially since the sudden fear was so tangible that he was seconds away from breaking down even more. 

He felt terribly sick. 

But as his teacher continued to ask "Myungsoo-yah, why are you crying?" as she moved her hand to squeeze his shoulder in a comforting gesture, he didn't expect for her to touch the arm that was causing him pain, even if the pain was radiating from his elbow to wrist instead of edge of his shoulder, he couldn't help but silently cry out. Careening himself away from the woman, arm cradled across his chest as he did so, a fresh bout of tears cascading down his face while his breathing came out in harsh little puffs, his teacher grew even more worried than she already was.

Because seconds later, all Myungsoo could do was cry and shake his head, silently telling the woman with some shaky hand gestures that basically said "Please don't touch me there, please don't, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts," Myungsoo found himself subconsciously moving his body until he formed a little ball, trying to block out the outside world as best as he could.  

Feeling her blood run cold at the way Myungsoo was signing, at the way he cradled his arm to his chest, at the pink flush that overtook his cheeks, she quickly turned to one of the other children in the room, voice tinged with worry and anxiety, "Soohyun-ah, can you please go get the nurse? Hurry."

Nodding towards her question, the boy quickly left the room, while the teacher swiftly turned her attention back to Myungsoo who was still shaking like a leaf and was doing his best to disappear into the floor.

"Myungsoo-yah, honey, how is your arm? Is it broken? Can you move it at all?" 

Shakily nodding his head at one of her questions, not wanting to give anything away and force his dad to come, Myungsoo couldn't help but sign, 'Give me second, I'll be okay,' even though he felt anything but okay. But with the way his teacher sent one of his peers to get one of the nurses at school, Myungsoo just shook harder, fear running through him at the thought of being sent home, of the school calling his father to come and pick him up.

Fearing that thought so much, Myungsoo knew that he couldn't go home just yet, especially since the school day wasn't finished and that he still needed to get his education so that his father wouldn't be angry at him for trying to shirk out from doing his schoolwork.

He didn't really like it when his father got angry...

When he got violent.

Signing 'No nurse' to his teacher, body still trembling, he tried to show the woman that he was okay by shakily moving his injured arm. Only for him to groan silently in pain and double over, cradling his arm back to his chest, pain racing up his limb once again. Feeling even worse than he had seconds before when he tried to keep the limb as still as possible to keep himself from feeling too much pain. 

Heavily breathing at the agony that was overtaking him, too busy trying to get his breathing under control and keeping himself from passing out from the pain, he didn't notice his teacher move a couple of feet towards him until she was right in front of him, face filled with worry, as she quietly ordered, "Myungsoo-yah, please let me see your arm."

Shaking his head no so, hoping that she would take the hint and leave him alone, she could only ask again, her voice firm and filled with determination, "Myungsoo-yah, please let me see your arm." 

Looking up into her eyes and seeing how strong her gaze was, he couldn't help but let the tears fall even faster from his eyes as he realized that he wasn't going to get away with keeping the pain to himself. Especially since he was making a huge scene and his teacher was giving him looks that made him want to tell her everything that was going on, tell her about how much pain he was in and how much his whole body hurt. 

Lip trembling, he slowly began to remove his jacket, silently gasping in pain from the way his arm throbbed at the action, only to feel sick at the sight of blood and the way his shirt stuck to his arm.

Feeling bile rise to his throat, Myungsoo couldn't help but lean over to his side and vomit, crying as he did so. While the teacher silently got even closer to him to comfortingly rub his back, "Myungsoo-yah, we're going to have to take you the hospital... Even without the nurse being here just yet, we're going to have to call an ambulance okay, so don't be scared sweetie, okay?"

He could only shake his head no, no, no, no...

RING!

RING!

RING!

Gasping awake at the sound of the alarm on his phone, tears at the corners of his eyes, Myungsoo silently pressed dismiss on his phone as he blinked away his tears before looking up at his ceiling, left arm moving from his side until it was up in the air so that he could look at it. Skin pink and wrinkled, contracture scars lining the length of the middle of his palm to his forearm, black ink smeared and disfigured looking at the inside of his elbow, he couldn't help but frown. 

His arm looked positively ugly and gross looking, almost as if it was some type of prop out of a scary movie. It looked quite painful, even though it hadn't been painful for about two years now, his arm healed but scarred from the third degree burn marks that had reddened and dried his skin out, leaving splotches of white and black along his arm all those years ago. The tattoo along his forearm being ruined within a month of it appearing on his thirteenth birthday, telling him the first words his soulmate would say to him: 

Do you need help with that?

Written in chicken scratch, tiny but boyishly written, Myungsoo had been excited to see the marks show up on his body back then, to know that there was someone else out there for him, that would complete him, that would be able to understand him, despite the fact that he couldn't speak and would never be able to speak except in hand gestures and physical cues. It had almost seemed like a fairy tale at the time, almost as if he was some type of Cinderella or fairy tale hero that would get a prince or princess  in the end, despite the hardships life would throw at them. 

But now, studying his arm, the tattoo, and the ugly burn scars that made up his arm, something he did almost every day, he couldn't help but feel anything but happiness for something that had caused him complete joy for about a month. Only for everything to be ruined by his father in a fit of drunken anger that had almost left his arm in shambles.

The night leaving him terribly disfigured, despite the scars never touching reaching his face. Bruises being the only thing that would grace his features from time to time whenever his father would get annoyed whenever he couldn't do something right, while the rest of his body was a carving board for everything else. His body being tortured in ways that made him feel agony, fear, and many other negative emotions that made him want to cry and be alone, separated from other people in fear of being written off as nothing else but a nuisance. 

Silently sighing at his current train of thoughts, he slowly got himself out of bed, sluggish but ready to start to day. Ready to be away from home and his father, suffocated by the lack of love that would met him whenever he was home, only for it to be remedied by the books that he would read and the pictures that he would take.

Love being something of a foreign concept to him since his mother had died and his tattoo had been ruined until it was an illegible mess, possibly ruining any chances that he had of finding his soulmate. The thought of him ever receiving anything like love or friendship being something like a dream, impossible to get, especially since miracles and fairytales didn't exist, Myungsoo could only shake his head at his thoughts, pushing them aside.

Hastily grabbing his clothes, he quietly went to go shower and get dressed before his father would wake up, expecting him to have breakfast made and his chores done by the time the man was finished getting ready. 

His father would have his head if he didn't. 

∞

"Sungyeol! What the hell?" Sungyeol heard his friend yell, pissed off at the egg whites that were now dripping down his hair and dropping down onto his uniform, a yolk or two smooshed into his hair. Egg shells were falling out of his locker and onto the floor, some of it getting onto the boy's shoes, that he couldn't help but be pissed. Even if he probably deserved it in some way and that Sungyeol was in his right to do dirty pranks like that. 

While Sungyeol could only laugh at the situation of seeing his friend completely covered in egg, a huge toothy smile across his face at the sight. 

It wasn't often to see the other like this, completely pranked to the point that he had actually fallen for one of Sungyeol's tricks. Especially since the gold post it not should have gave something away with Better watch yourself scribbled across it, warning the other that he was going to get pranked that day. 

"Revenge Woohyun, it's revenge for the other day." Sungyeol gave while he laughed, remembering how pissed he had been when Woohyun had taken his clothes away form him the other day after gym and left him with the girl's uniform, modified to show a bit more leg than usual. Embarrassed but out of clothes, especially since his gym uniform had been snatched as well, Sungyeol had been forced to wear the girl's uniform for the rest of the day. Woohyun and a few of their other friends laughing at the sight of his somewhat hairy legs and too tight shirt that stretched awkwardly across his chest.

Even the teachers had found the whole thing hilarious and left him with a warning to have the correct clothes for the next day, causing him to blush angrily at the thought, while the rest of the class laughed.

And while his prank hadn't been ingenious or even outstanding, it was more than enough for him to get his friend back for that day. Especially since he and Woohyun still had a couple more days of their prank war to hash out while they could, exams coming up within the next couple of weeks, the two using this time as a de-stressor before they would be swamped with work for a few weeks.

Feeling a sudden 'Warning' alarm go off inside of his brain, Sungyeol couldn't help but let his laughter die down so that he could focus on Woohyun appropriately. Only to notice the other boy's hands formed into little fists at his side and head down, hair shielding his eyes.

Warning bells quickly going off inside his head, nice and loud, warning him of the potential danger that he could be in, Sungyeol couldn't help but suddenly let out a nervous laugh as he slowly started to back away from the shorter boy, getting about ten feet or so away from him before he knew that he needed to run. The sudden growl and Woohyun's yell of 'I'm going to get you back" sounding quite loud in his ears that Sungyeol suddenly found himself running in the other direction away from his best friend, afraid for his life and what the other might do to him. 

Even if Sungyeol was pretty positive that he hadn't overstepped any boundaries and that Woohyun was probably just pissed off at him for ruining his uniform for the day, even though the egg would be pretty easy to get out when he went to wash his clothes.

But not wanting to take any chances anyway, Sungyeol found himself picking up the pace, trying to outrun the other, his footfalls echoing as he went. The sound of them almost as loud as the conversations that were going on around him as he dodged various students and even pushed a student out of the way, calling out "Sorry" as he did so, hoping that he hadn't scared the poor student in the process. But counting himself lucky that he was faring as well as he was against Woohyun who was a football star that worked out quite a bit more that he did, despite being an athlete himself and on the varsity tennis team at school, Sungyeol almost thanked the gods when he noticed a sign to the school's library and a secret hiding place that he was sure that Woohyun would never think to look. 

Especially when Sungyeol wouldn't be caught dead in such a place as he was someone that usually cruised through his classes with minimal studying and effort. 

But smiling at the doors in front of him, he quickly pulled one open and pushed himself through the opening before quickly closing the door behind him and ducking beneath the window panes within the door so that he wouldn't be seen. Quickly walking in a crouch away from the doors until he was safe enough to stand up and walk normally again, he rapidly found himself standing up a moment later and briskly walking until he was behind a few bookcases and out of site. 

Leaning against one of the bookshelves, he couldn't help but let out a sigh in relief while he caught his breath, safe for the time being. At least until lunch time when he was sure Sunggyu would most likely scold him for doing what he did, Woohyun giving him smug looks in the process. Only for Haena to walk by their table with a small smile on her face as she would wave to Sunggyu and Dongwoo before finding her place at a nearby table a couple tables down. Woohyun's mouth going slack and jealousy flowing through him whenever she would do that, but never having the balls to actually go up and talk to her despite his obvious crush. 

Something that would easily make Sungyeol laugh despite the severity of Sunggyu's scolding, becuase despite how close Woohyun was with the two seniors, even sharing kisses and possible s with them during a few high school parties, Woohyun was pretty much done in by the senior girl. 

And while girls weren't exactly Sungyeol's thing, it didn't take half a brain to know that Kim Haena was one of the prettiest girls in their school. 

So letting out a small laugh thinking of the blush that would grace his best friend's features and the way he would suddenly get huffy with Sunggyu and Dongwoo, Sungyeol was able to calm his beating heart down and make him feel much safer from Woohyun's potential wrath. 

Silently looking around the library, taking in the smell of books and the new atmosphere that he had found himself in, not used to being in this part of the school, Sungyeol decided to at least take a look around for the time being as he kept himself away from his friend. More than a bit thankful that he had a study hall for his first period of classes, as well as having a teacher that didn't really give a if he missed a study hall or two as long as he was there for his second class of the day, Sungyeol decided to roam the room for a bit to see what he could find.

Or at least find out why some students actually liked this part of the school, Sunggyu and Sungjong being two people that he knew that liked to frequent this place quite a bit, even if the libraries in their city had more books and were better for their classes. 

Letting his hand trail across a few books as he walked, taking in the titles around him, frowning when he had noticed that he was in the more literature oriented section of the library, some of William Shakespeare's works staring out at him, he quickened his pace a bit. Not realizing where he was going, it didn't take him long to get to the other end of the library where the non-fiction books were before he noticed another student, the only student in the library at this time, standing on his tiptoes to get a book. 

Taking in the other's boyish face, blemish free with creamy skin, and the boy's thin body that was clad in the school's uniform, everything buttoned and worn accordingly, Sungyeol found his eyes wandering to the boy's tie, the royal blue stark against the dark gray of his blazer, showing what grade he was in.

Freshman.

And an obvious goody-two shoes at that with the way he was wearing his uniform, everything so pristine and in order, just as perfect as Sunggyu would wear his, Sungyeol couldn't help but groan at the sight. But feeling a bit of pity for the other, especially since the boy was actually quite good looking when Sungyeol took a closer look, the boy's dark, intense looking eyes being something that he didn't see everyday, Sungyeol decided to put on a small smile on his face before walking over.

Tapping the other on the shoulder, the boy jumping from shock, the boy's sudden reaction causing Sungyeol's features to soften just a bit, he quickly put his hands up in an 'I'm not going to hurt you' type gesture before moving his arm to grab the book that he was sure the other was trying to get, something on photography or was it painting (he didn't exactly give it a good enough look, he just knew the book was red), he cheerily asked, "Do you need help with that?"

The other boy's eyes could only widen at Sungyeol's words, heart going a thousand miles a minute, while his arm just proceeded to twinge in acute pain. 

[ A/N ] : So here is part one and I hope it doesn't seem too terribly rushed or anything like that, especially since I've never really written anything like this before and I'm trying to create my own little world for this soulmates AU, trying to give my own flair to it with how soulmates and their tattoos work. But alas, hopefully the darkness of the first scene didn't scare anyone off (And if any of you think I should take the rating up, just tell me.), and that you guys will stick with me until the next chapter at the very least. Please let me know what you all think. :) Comments are much appreciated.