Beep!

Beep!

"Ugh, shut up." Sungyeol groaned as he turned to press snooze, sleep still threatening to consume him, despite him being used to waking up at such a time.

But as the minutes passed with him doing nothing but his best to get another ten minutes in of sleep, only to toss and turn throughout that time, it was barely a couple of minutes later when he finally decided to wake up with a growl as he turned the alarm off his phone. Sleep still itching at the edges of consciousness, despite how much his body was telling him that he didn't need any more sleep, his body obviously hinting at something, Sungyeol could only do a couple of stretches to wake the rest of himself up. Only to notice the pain that he had been feeling for the past couple of days to be significantly reduced.  

Eyes widening at little at the lack of pain and throbbing that literally accompanied most of his arm's movements and basically had his coach giving him hell because of it, Sungyeol couldn't help but stop what he was doing to sit on his bed and pull all of his attention to looking at his wrist. The red heart that was inked along the inside of it was still a little bit puffy, but compared to the swelling that he had yesterday and the agony that his wrist had been undergoing was almost completely gone. All that was left was a slight pink wrapped around the edges of the tattoo and a dull, manageable throb. Something of which he had felt was completely different to what he had been feeling yesterday and the days before, and if he had to describe this pain compared to the pain before, he would liken it to the pain of a small bruise than anything else. 

He was healing, just like he was supposed to be doing once he had met his soulmate, cementing the fact that Myungsoo was indeed the very one. And because of that, all Sungyeol could do was stare at his wrist in shame, berating himself for being a complete idiot towards the other boy. 

Because even after all of the proof that Myungsoo had given him, there had still been a couple of doubts that had lined his thinking and the thought of 'Is he really my soulmate' had still plagued him despite everything telling him that Myungsoo hadn't been lying. But after a couple of hours with the freshman at lunch and the few minutes that he had been able to have with him after school, Myungsoo smiling up at him as if he was the greatest thing in the world and not just some slightly above-average high schooler most of the time, Sungyeol couldn't help but hit himself in the head. Palms hitting the side of his head and grasping painfully onto his hair in the process, he could only harshly mutter: 

"ing idiot... I'm so ing stupid. Who the am I? Like seriously, there is no excuse for how much of an idiot I am." 

Only for his voice to get louder with each word that by the end of his spiel, he was almost yelling the words and was loud enough to gain the attention of his brother who popped his head through his door a second later to ask: 

"Took you long enough to realize that hyung, but seriously, what's got your in a twist? Especially at six o'clock in the morning?"

Jumping at the sound of his little brother's voice, he could only look up at him a second later to see the other already dressed and ready for school. His shirt was open enough to show a snippet of the other boy's tattoo (his brother having already met his soulmate, a sweet and lively girl going by the name of Yein, who supposedly had her tattoo wrapped around her ankle), that Sungyeol couldn't help but scowl and reply with a cross-sounding, "Nothing, Daeyeol, everything's fine." 

Only for his words to easily cause his younger brother to laugh, "Doesn't sound like it, especially when you're beating yourself up in the process and yelling at yourself more than anything. You should be glad that mom hasn't come up hear yet with you yelling. So what's the deal? You finally find your soulmate, only to it up?" 

Hitting the nail completely across the head, despite Daeyeol treating it as a joke, not really realizing that Sungyeol had in fact met his soulmate or had messed things up, Daeyeol didn't expect his brother to flinch at his words. Especially when his brother had always been a little bit flippant towards having a soulmate in the first place, wanting to date and fool around and possibly becoming a bachelor for the rest of his life if he didn't find  his soulmate, that Daeyeol couldn't help but wide his eyes when he noticed the look that passed his brother's face. Something of which would have gone unnoticed by the people that didn't know Sungyeol that well, but to those that knew him and were close to him, was pretty obvious to see and with Daeyeol being quite close to the other, despite how much they liked to tease each other, Daeyeol couldn't help but divert his attention to his brother's arm. 

Only to see the skin around his brother's tattoo to be a little bit swelled and was a little bit of a pink color that Daeyeol couldn't help but make his way into the room, closing the door behind him so that he could keep whatever had happened between him and Sungyeol. Walking closer to the bed until he was close enough to almost touch his brother, he could only sofly ask, suddenly serious, "So who is it? What happened?"  

The What did you do? was left unsaid, but was painfully clear to Sungyeol's ears despite how much Daeyeol wasn't accusing him. 

His brother was smart, maybe even smarter than him, and while he clearly didn't mean to sound like that, Sungyeol couldn't help but hear it anyway. Especially since it was obvious that it was Sungyeol that had done something wrong, other than the way around. And if he hadn't have done anything wrong, then Sungyeol wouldn't be beating himself up in the first place or at least berating himself for being an idiot at that. So whatever had happened, Sungyeol had messed up. 

Daeyeol didn't even need to know about Myungsoo or who Sungyeol's soulmate was to know that. Because as smart, popular, and handsome as Sungyeol was, usually getting the longer end of the stick in life, Daeyeol knew that Sungyeol's overconfidence and stupidity when it came to feelings would be his own undoing, no matter how much he tried to stop it. His brother lacked tact and if his soulmate was even just a little bit sensitive, Sungyeol was obviously going to make mistakes. But to make a mistake already, his brother had to have ed up pretty badly, but not wanting to assume anything else, Daeyeol could only wait patiently for the other to say something to him. 

And while Daeyeol hoped that Sungyeol's mistake was an easy fix and that Sungyeol could make the other happy, it was still odd to see Sungyeol be so quiet about the other person. Because as much as Daeyeol liked to claim he wasn't like his brother, they were still similar enough that Daeyeol couldn't help but wonder why Sungyeol hadn't paraded around their house telling anyone and everyone who that person is. So unless Sungyeol ed things up within moments of meeting that person, Sungyeol should have been at least a little bit happy. He didn't even give that 'I know I'm good' smirk that he usually gave whenever something good happened in his life, and despite being the type of person that wasn't into the whole soulmate thing as some of his friends were, Sungyeol still would have been happy to know that he had someone out there just for him. 

So seeing him stay silent, beating himself up about what had happened, Dayeol couldn't help but realize that a couple of things woudl have to happen before Sungyeol could be happy about such things. He may have not known what Sungyeol had done, but if Sungyeol had truly did something stupid and hurtful to his soulmate, it woudl be a little while before he could actually correct it and be happy about meeting his significant other like he should. So unable to stop himself from softly asking his questions again, Daeyeol could only continue to wait for his brother to respond. 

Only for the older boy to sigh and run his hands through his hair, trying to get his bearing before he could actually answer with: "Yeah... I met him. I met my soulmate... Just like you... And I ed it up."   

Not knowing what to say to that, despite being the one that was better with their feelings out of the two and realizing that his thoughts were indeed right, Daeyeol continued to stay quiet until he could learn more. 

While Sungyeol could only sigh at the thought of telling his brother about what ha happened, it took a couple of minutes before Sungyeol could begin to explain to the other boy about what had actually happened. Only for Daeyeol to make the rest of the way to Sungyeol's bed to sit down as he listened, patiently waiting to hear everything his brother had to say. Silently taking notes throughout his brother's confession that when Sungyeol finished a couple of minutes later, almost out of breath, he could only pat his brother on the should and say:

"It could be worse and for this Myungsoo to still like you despite everything that you've done so far, it obviously means that he likes and still likes you enough that he wants this to work. But despite that, despite how good Myungsoo seems and probably has forgiven you for everything you've done, it's obvious that you are going to have to be careful hyung. You will have to be careful with his feelings, because it's quite apparent that Myungsoo isn't going to be like your previous lovers and he will be hurt when you do stupid things.

"And knowing you, you probably won't stop doing stupid things, but you're going to have to try and make sure you're not doing stupid things that could hurt him and you... You're going to have to be mature about this hyung, you know that right? You know you can't do what you've done in the past? You know that you're actually going to have to try to make things work, right?" 

Giving his brother a look to say that he understood and basically knew that already, Sungyeol could only give, "I know that Dae and I know how bad I ed up already and if Myungsoo was any less nice, I probably could have ruined things a lot worse. But Myungsoo is nice... He's beyond nice and sweet and I know I have to be careful with him, but I never expected to be this stupid about something like this... It okay and I feel like a complete idiot for doubting him as much as I did. Especially when he didn't seem like the type to lie about things in the first place... Ugh, I can't take this Daeyeol, I'm so ing stupid!"

Giving Sungyeol another pat on the shoulder, trying to calm him down enough to realize that while he may have been stupid, he still could make things right for the other boy. And going by how most of his friends had seen the other, already taking Myungsoo in as if he was a little brother or something, Sungyeol had more than enough people to call his bull and stupidity to make sure he didn't do anything worse in the future.

So opening his mouth to give the other a reply, Daeyeol could only say, "No one said soulmates are easy you know? Everyone messes up and does stupid things from time to time and while your mistakes were probably worse than most and so soon too, at least you're realizing it now and know that you're going to have to do something to make it up to this Myungsoo. So while you can be an idiot at times, one of the biggest idiots that I know, at least you'll be able to not be a bigger one than you already are, alright? And if anything, you probably have a good idea on what you need to do and if you don't, you'll probably realize that soon, alright?"

Deciding not to take offense to his brother calling him stupid, especially when Daeyeol was just telling him what he needed to hear, Sungyeol could only nod at his brother's words, knowing that the other was right and that while he may be an idiot, he definitely wasn't the biggest idiot. Taking a deep breath and trying to think things through a little bit more, to think about what his brother had said, what he had done, and everything that had happened the past couple of days, Sungyeol knew that he was going to have to do better than what he had been doing because Myungsoo deserved it.

And even though Sungyeol had been trying to rectify the situation, to make it up to the other boy, it wasn't enough.

Sungyeol had truly messed up and while he had apologized for his actions, feeling awful for what he had done to Myungsoo, he truly didn't realize how bad he had messed up until everything had finally clicked into place. There was no more doubting and no more denial or anything else like that. The facts were finally laid out before him and for him to have any of the sort would be similar to him committing a crime.

Looking at his tattoo once again, taking in how much it had healed and the lack of pain that came with it, Sungyeol could only renew his promises to make it up to Myungsoo again, but this time with a lot more vigor and confidence than the last time he had done so.

He was going to make things right no matter what.

Finally turning his attention back to his brother, he softly gave, "Thanks... I needed that." 

While his brother could only give him a small smile in return, "No problem hyung, I'll always be here if you need it," only to get a little bit softer as he changed the topic, "So when do we get to meet him?"

∞

"Class, this is Huang Zitao, he'll be with us for the rest of the year." 

The homeroom teacher gave before she was giving a quick explanation for why the other boy had been transferred to this class a week later than he should, only to end her spiel by turning to the tall boy and assigning him the only open seat in the room. A seat that was right next to Myungsoo, a place where most people didn't want to sit in the first place due to Myungsoo being quite the oddball and with him being unable to communicate that well with them in the first place, most people gave up with him before they even tried. But instead of being met with uneasy looks and silence, the tall boy could only give the other boy a small smile of his own, remembering him from the bathroom a couple of days, more than a little intrigued by the other and what had happened but not wanting to draw attention to it, that he decided to introduce himself instead:

My name's Tao, what's yours?

Stilling at the gesture, pain racing through him at the sudden clenching of his muscles, while he couldn't stop the flicker of surprise from revealing itself across his face, Myungsoo could only silently yet shakily respond to the other with a Kim Myungsoo.

While Tao's smile became even wider as he took a quick note of the other's sweet yet nervous mannerisms, Myungsoo obviously being a bit of a sweetheart compared to what he had heard, he quickly gestured, taking a quick liking to the other boy: 

Nice name.

Unable to stop this flood of happiness from going through him, at the thought of possibly gaining another friend, despite physically being in pain and remembering his father telling him how he didn't deserve people like that, Myungsoo could only give a small, barely-there, and polite smile in return, signing:

Thank you and you too.   

The rest of the class could only stare at the exchange, confused to what was going on. While Tao just ignored them and continued to his conversation, not caring what they thought or had to say. Myungsoo was interesting and for some odd reason, Tao couldn't help but want to be friends with him.

[ A/N ] :  So here is chapter ten and I hope you guys like. And for those wondering why I chose to add Tao in here, it's because he actually knows sign language. However, for the sake of the story, we're just going to assume that sign language in most countries is pretty much universal. Thanks for the reviews, subscriptions, and upvotes, I really appreciate it. If you like the story, please tell me what you think and if you can't comment, please subscribe and possibly upvote.