Kyungsoo rolls up his sleeve revealing his pale arm. A small tattoo wraps around from his wrist to mid-forearm. It’s a dandelion, seeds being blown away. At the end of the tattoo, the seeds become birds, flying freely away.

“Oh Soo,” Baekhyun breathes out. He makes his way even closer until he’s leaning against the counter with Kyungsoo’s arm in his hands.

“It’s beautiful,” he says, gently tracing the lines with his fingers. He was too mesmerized to see Kyungsoo subtly shudder from the touch.

“Minseok got so excited that he called us over to see,” Yifan comments from behind.

“Our Kyungsoo is all grown up now!” Minseok beams proudly, ruffling Kyungsoo’s hair.

“We need to celebrate!” Jongin declares, resting his head on Sehun’s slouched shoulder.

“That sounds like a brilliant idea!” Yixing gushes. “You can explain to us what prompted this tattoo to appear like this,” he adds with a wink.

Kyungsoo flushes.

--

Celebrating apparently means crowding into Yixing and Chanyeol’s shared condo unit with everyone that was willing to come last minute. It ends up being the same 12 people from the other night chowing down on pizza and drinking beer, conversations lighting up the entire room.

Kyungsoo was a popular man, everyone congratulating him and taking their time to examine the rather simple tattoo.

“So, what prompted the sudden appearance of this tattoo?” Joonmyun asks Kyungsoo with a  grin.

Baekhyun is too busy chomping down on his slice of pizza to notice the no-so-subtle glance Kyungsoo throws at him.

“I’m...not sure,” he admits, taking a sip of his beer. “There are many things that happened that could have made my tattoo. For all I know, seeing Sehun and Jongin find each other as soulmates could’ve triggered it.”

Joonmyun who, unlike Baekhyun, noticed Kyungsoo’s glance lets out a chuckle.

“Well, if you don’t know now, you’ll find out sooner or later.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t hear him add, “probably sooner than later. Much sooner.”

--

The impromptu party is going well when Jongin gets a call that sends him into a frenzy.

“Hello?”

“Jongin come to the hospital quick.”

“Hyung? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Jieun, she doesn’t have much time left. She’s in a lot of pain, I don’t know if she’ll make it through the night. Please come.”

“WHAT? I’ll be there right away.”

Sehun looks at his soul mate with concern. “What’s wrong Ni?"

“It’s Jieun, I’m sorry but I need to go right now-“

“We’re coming with you,” Baekhyun says firmly, coat already in one hand and Sehun’s wrist in another.

Too distraught to argue, Jongin hastily bids the others goodbye as he makes his way out the door.

Sehun and Baekhyun say goodbye too before hurrying after Jongin.

--

The walk to the hospital is dead silent, the three boys rushing as fast as they could to get to there faster. Once in the hospital, the ride up is filled with tension again, this time of a different origin.

Jongin practically runs to Jieun’s room once they get off on the second floor, Sehun and Baekhyun close behind.

Inside the room, Jieun looks like she’s drowning in her hospital gowns, the cloth too big to fit her small form. Her breath is labored and her face is scrunched up in pain.

Jonghyun’s standing beside her bed, his hand wrapped securely around hers and his other wiping tears that are spilling down his face.

“Hyung,” Jongin calls out, beside Jonghyun in a flash. The three of them line up beside Jieun’s bed beside Jonghyun, gazing down at Jieun’s sickly form.

“Jjong,” Jieun rasps out, “Jjong, don’t cry. Please…don’t cry. For me please,” she manages to get out as she intakes a shaky breath.

Jonghyun takes in a gulp of air as well, attempting to stop crying but failing as another sob wrenches its way out.

“I’m not ready,” Jonghyun cries, “I’m not ready to lose you Jieun.”

Jieun smiles, unshed tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.

“You’re…never going to lose me silly. I’ll always…always…be…here…watching…ove…r…you…”

Her breath stutters as her tattoos glow a vibrant golden colour. Then, her eyes close, and she lets out her last breath, hand still firmly wrapped in Jonghyun’s hand.

“JIEUN!!”

The colours in Jonghyun’s tattoos swirl, the blue washed out as it is replaced with a bloody red.

a/n wow kainstellations, what a fast update! hehe this is to make up for being MIA for like a month. I wanna add a few things here before I forget! I made a relationships page for all the characters a long time ago but it's lost somewhere so while I find that, I'll put this one here for now (I'd like to say this one is kinda similar but I'm not sure if I'm missing a few relations)

also, here is Baekhyun's tattoo (but on his neck!)

and here is Kyungsoo's!

thanks for reading!