Hakyeon grew up hearing about how having a soul mate was a wonderful thing. Nothing else on earth compared to being with your perfect match. His whole childhood, his mother would tell him and his older siblings the story of how she’s met their father, her soul mate.

Hakyeon was fascinated with how their marks had appeared on their first day of high school, yet neither knew the other was their soul mate at first. He loved hearing how they’d tried dating others who’s marks had appeared on the same day before finally finding each other. His mother told him how it felt like there was some unseen power pulling them together the whole time, that it was like deep in their souls they knew the other was their perfect match.

Hakyeon decided at the young age of four that he wanted that too.

Then came his first day of kindergarten.

Hakyeon wasn’t paying too much attention, more focused on all the new things that school had to give. When he got home, however, he noticed the black lines winding across his chest very fast. He ran into the kitchen, proudly showing off the mark to his family. They were all happy for him, but encouraged him not to become too focused on finding his soul mate just yet. he was, after all, only five.

Hakyeon didn’t listen and spent the next few days trying to find everyone who’s mark had appeared the same day as his. He tried to kiss all of them too, which got him into a little bit of trouble with the principal. The principal kindly told him the same thing his parents did, to not get focused on his soul mate just yet and to enjoy being a child for at least a few more years.

Hakyeon had reluctantly agreed to do exactly that, but he still kept an eye out for anyone with a mark.

When Hakyeon turned, sixteen, his parents decided that actively searching out his soul mate wouldn’t be too bad. Several of his friends already had found their soul mates, too. And they themselves had found each other at sixteen. Hakyeon was overjoyed to hear the news and immediately started his search for his soul mate.

Hakyeon didn’t find his soul mate.

He turned eighteen, and was still alone.

His parents and siblings all tried to encourage him, convince him that it would just take a bit more time. However he knew that they worried for him. They feared he would never find his soul mate and that in turn made him worry. Hakyeon didn’t want to be alone forever. He just wanted his soul mate.

Was that too much to ask for?

By the time Hakyeon graduated college, he’d become slightly depressed about the whole matter. A part of him was still hopeful, but another larger part had just about given up.

And then he became an employee at the V.I.X.X talent agency.

The agency was by no means a big company, but it wasn’t a small one either. It had a couple of well known names sighed as well, something Hakyeon hoped he could become himself. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could become as well known as the actor-singer Lee Jaehwan, the model-actor Lee Hongbin, or the singer Jung Taekwoon. Maybe even HR, a two member group comprised of singer Han Sanghyuk and rapper Kim Wonsik who when by the stage names Hyuk and Ravi respectively.

But before that, he had to get into the building.

“Ouch,” Hakyeon hissed as someone crashed into him seconds after he’d opened the front doors of the building.

“Huh?” the person who’d crashed into him looked up from the papers in his hands, “oh, crap. I’m sorry, are you alright?”

“Fine,” Hakyeon replied, fixing his shirt and tie, “nothing hurt but my pride.”

“You sure?” the other man asked, looking Hakyeon over himself.

“Very,” Hakyeon smiled, “but thank you for the concern.”

“No problem,” the man laughed slightly, “be careful, alright? Hate to think of you having another accident like this.”

“I will,” Hakyeon nodded, feeling the urge to laugh along with the other.

With that, the pair parted ways and Hakyeon headed up to the CEO’s office. They talked for a good couple of hours about Hakyeon’s future, the contract, and other stuff like that. The CEO stressed that Hakyeon might not make it, that he might never make it as an actor. Hakyeon simply nodded, very well aware of that fact. But he still wanted to do this.

The CEO just nodded before passing Hakyeon a pen so he could sign.

“Send Hongbin up here,” the CEO said over the intercom, “I want him to be Hakyeon’s guide for the next little while. Just until he finds his footing.”

“Yes, sir,” the secretary replied and a few minutes later Hongbin was entering the room.

“You wanted to see me, sir?” Hongbin asked, “something about guiding someone around?”

“Yes,” the CEO waved towards Hakyeon, “This is Hakyeon. He just joined us as an actor. I want you to help him out while he gets used to things around here.”

“Alright,” Hongbin smiled, offering Hakyeon his hand, “it’s nice to meet you, Hakyeon.”

“Like wise.”

Hongbin introduced Hakyeon to everyone. Jaehwan was just as funny off camera as he was on. Wonsik was a cool guy and Hakyeon had an instant friendship with him. Taekwoon was friendly enough, but Hongbin explained that was normal and the only one he was ever very friendly with was Sanghyuk, his sometimes boyfriend. Hongbin himself was very kind and could be pretty darn sassy, something Hakyeon found he quite liked in his new friend.

Sanghyuk was…….a different story.

He was kind and sweet and all around perfect. There wasn’t anything wrong with him. Well, Hakyeon would like it if he didn’t quite so much, but it wasn’t a big problem. The thing that made Sanghyuk a different story was that Hakyeon felt drawn to him. It wasn’t anything major, but…….it made him wonder just why on earth he was so drawn to the other when he’d never felt that way with anyone else.

“You’ve got your mark,” Jaehwan remarked several weeks later, catching sight of the black lines thanks to Hakyeon’s shirt being a little on the low cut side.

“Yeah,” Hakyeon forced a small smile, “had it for a while.”

“So has Sanghyuk,” Wonsik spoke up, “I think he said he was in grade…..three when he got it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sanghyuk huffed, suddenly getting up, “the whole soul mates thing is a load of garbage anyway.”

“That’s not true,” Jaehwan argued, “it’s very real. Just ask my parents.”

“One example,” Sanghyuk replied with a bitter smirk, “wow, such undisputable evidence.”

With that, Sanghyuk left the table the group had been eating their lunch at. Taekwoon followed closely after, probably hoping that this would be a chance for to talk Sanghyuk into dating again. Something Hakyeon had quickly learned was that Taekwoon very much wanted to be with Sanghyuk. At least, when they weren’t dating. He seemed to lose interest more each day when they were together.

“You know not to push him on this,” Hongbin sighed, “you know why, Jaehwan.”

“I know,” the other actor sighed, “it just…..slipped out. Sanghyuk always sounds so sad when he talks about soul mates not being real and I don’t like it.”

“Hmmm,” Wonsik and Hongbin both hummed in agreement.

Hakyeon almost asked for an explanation, but kept his mouth shut. He’d know what he wanted to know when he needed to know it. Assuming he ever needed to know it. Seemed like it would be more something Sanghyuk’s soul mate would need to know. Or a boyfriend. Hakyeon wasn’t either so……

“Anyway,” Wonsik smiled, “I should get to the studio and get some work done, see you all later.”

“Later,” Jaehwan smiled, “want to run some lines with me, Hakyeon?”

Hakyeon agreed and just like that the whole discussion vanished from his mind.

It didn’t come back up until almost a year later when Hakyeon got his first leading role in a pretty major movie.

“Congratulations!” Jaehwan cheered drunkenly, his drink sloshing around as he swung his arms around widely.

“Thanks,” Hakyeon giggled, finding the display much more funny then he should thanks to the amount of alcohol he’d already consumed.

“First big role!” Jaehwan cheered even louder, earning himself a light smack from Hongbin, “Hakyeonnie is gonna be a star!”

“We know,” Hongbin sighed, “Shut up, you drunkass. You’re too loud.”

“Bin is so mean to me,” Jaehwan cried, throwing his arms around Hongbin, “so mean.”

“Gross,” Hongbin huffed, “you smell like you live in a beer bottle.”

Hakyeon just laughed, taking another sip of his drink. He looked around, trying to take note of where everyone was and what they were doing. Taekwoon hadn’t come, telling Hongbin that he had work to do. “Better things to do” was the actual wording. Wonsik had told Hakyeon to forget about it, that Taekwoon would only come for something that celebrated Sanghyuk.

Speaking of Wonsik, he was already sleeping. But then again, he fell asleep pretty quickly anyway. Hakyeon chalked it up to Wonsik’s late nights working on his music. It was something both he and Sanghyuk would call Wonsik out on, but the rapper didn’t even attempt to change his ways.

And Sanghyuk?

Before Hakyeon could figure out where Sanghyuk was, he felt a mouth pressing against his. Hakyeon gasped and the owner of the mouth took that as the chance to explore Hakyeon’s mouth. It felt good, very good, and Hakyeon just kissed back, soft moans escaping him when the one kissing him let his hands wander. When they finally parted for air, Hakyeon realized that it was Sanghyuk he’d been kissing.

Sanghyuk didn’t give Hakyeon much time to think about it, though. He went right back to ravishing Hakyeon’s mouth and neck once he’d gotten enough air. Through the lustful haze that overtook Hakyeon’s mind, he came to the conclusion that he didn’t mind at all that Sanghyuk was kissing him. Heck, if Sanghyuk took him right then and there he’d be perfectly alright with that too.

Taekwoon wouldn’t like it, but Hakyeon really did not care. He’d been attracted to Sanghyuk since he met him and Sanghyuk was an amazing guy. And now that amazing guy was making his moan in pleasure thanks to his very talented mouth. Honestly, who cared what Taekwoon would think because Hakyeon thought this was perfect.

And when he woke up the next day, even his hangover couldn’t ruin the joy he felt at seeing the mark on his chest, now the same shade as Sanghyuk’s favorite colour.

He’d been looking for his soul mate for so long and now he had found him. And Sanghyuk was, well, Sanghyuk. He was wonderful and kind and perfect and Hakyeon kind of already had a crush on him.

And then Hakyeon recalled Sanghyuk’s words about soul mates.

“Oh god,” Hakyeon sighed, dropping to his knees as he realized the full situation.

Hakyeon still didn’t know what to do when he arrived at the company a few hours later.

To be honest, he kind of expected Taekwoon to be waiting out front to kick his for kissing Sanghyuk. But Taekwoon wasn’t there. Instead, Sanghyuk was waiting for him.

“We need to talk,” Sanghyuk sighed, waving for Hakyeon to follow him. Hakyeon did as told.

“So,” Hakyeon said when they finally came to a stop, “what, um, what do you want to talk about?”

“This,” Sanghyuk said, pulling up his shirt to show the mark sprawling across his abs.

“That,” Hakyeon nodded, trying not to sound too pleased that the mark was his favorite colour.

“This isn’t going to happen,” Sanghyuk told him, pointing between the two of them, “we will never happen.”

“Why?” Hakyeon frowned, not at all pleased to hear that. Sure he’d expected to hear that, but it still hurt.

“All that soul mate stuff is crap,” Sanghyuk sighed, clearly irritated over having to explain himself, “I don’t believe in any of it and neither should you. There are a bunch of people who don’t have their ‘soul mate’ and are perfectly happy in their relationships.”

Hakyeon wasn’t sure what to say to that. Sanghyuk was right about there being people perfectly happy in relationships with someone who wasn’t their soul mate. But did that mean that the soul mate mark was garbage? No, it couldn’t mean that.

Before Hakyeon could say as much, tell Sanghyuk he was wrong, the other was gone.

That only pissed Hakyeon off.

It also made him determined to change Sanghyuk’s mind.

It took all of three days for this to bite Hakyeon in the .

Taekwoon had been too busy working on his comeback to notice Hakyeon’s pursuit at first. However, all it took was one trip around the building to stretch his legs for Taekwoon to notice Hakyeon following Sanghyuk around. Taekwoon was a pretty smart guy and figured out really fast that Hakyeon had some kind of feelings for Sanghyuk.

As Sanghyuk’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, this did not sit well with him at all.

Taekwoon was determined to put an end to Hakyeon’s pursuit of Sanghyuk.

But he needed a plan of how to do that.

Someone else who quickly noticed Hakyeon’s feelings for Sanghyuk was Wonsik. Not that Hakyeon was surprised by that. Wonsik was, after all, his best friend at the company. Plus he and Sanghyuk were HR.

“You need to stop,” Wonsik sighed after pulling Hakyeon into his studio.

“Why?” Hakyeon scowled, “because Sanghyuk doesn’t believe in soul mates?”

“Right, he--,” Wonsik frowned slightly, “wait, soul mates? Hakyeon, how do you….is Sanghyuk…..?”

“My soul mate?” Hakyeon couldn’t suppress the small smile as he lifted his shirt slightly to show off the mark on his chest, “yeah.”

“,” Wonsik sighed, “then…..then I guess you should know.”

“Know?” Hakyeon frowned, “know what?”

“Sanghyuk’s parents were soul mates,” Wonsik explained with a sad sigh, “according to Sanghyuk’s sister, they met young, married young, and had kids shortly after.”

“Alright,” Hakyeon nodded, not knowing how this related to Sanghyuk’s dislike for soul mates.

“They constantly cheated on each other,” Wonsik kept going, “Sanghyuk can’t remember a time when they weren’t. Whenever family was around, like his grandparents or something, they’d play happy family and pretend it was fine. But the moment it was just them, Sanghyuk, and his sister? They went back to cheating. Pretty openly too. Sanghyuk once walked in on his mother in the living room with her boyfriend, half and no signs of stopping. He was about……..five or six.”

“Oh,” was all Hakyeon could think to say.

“Plus there’s his sister,” Wonsik shrugged, “she’s happily married with two kids. To a guy who isn’t her soul mate. She did fine her soul mate, but they’re just friends. Neither of them could ever see each other in a romantic way so…..ya know.” Wonsik shrugged, “there’s that.”

“I see,” Hakyeon nodded.

“Sanghyuk will find the one he wants to be with forever himself,” Wonsik finished, “he isn’t about to let a mark tell him who to be with.”

Hakyeon just remained silent, unsure of what to do.

Maybe…….maybe they would still be good together. Sanghyuk just had to give him a chance.

So Hakyeon decided to back off a little, but still pursue Sanghyuk. He’d fallen for Sanghyuk before they found out they were soul mates after all. Surely Sanghyuk could try to fall for him simply because Hakyeon was Hakyeon.

Something Hakyeon completely forgot about, however, was Taekwoon. He knew that Taekwoon was a wee bit possessive of Sanghyuk. He’d witnessed Taekwoon make a poor trainee girl cry because she flirted with Sanghyuk. But for some foolish reason, Hakyeon just did not seem to realize that Taekwoon would not like him trying to win Sanghyuk’s affections.

Even when Hakyeon received a request to star in the music video for Taekwoon’s comeback, he didn’t realize this very simple thing.

“What is wrong with you?” the director snapped as yet another thing went wrong.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Hakyeon bowed, feeling horrible and foolish for messing the filming up again that day, “I am so sorry.”

“Everyone take five while this mess gets fixed,” the director yelled, completely ignoring Hakyeon, “then we’ll resume and thing had better go right.” The director turned to glare at Hakyeon, “or we’ll have to find a new lead.”

Hakyeon said nothing. He just looked at the floor and tried to keep the tears welling up in his eyes from falling. He just kept messing everything up. It seemed that if it could go wrong, it did. And when things went wrong, it seemed to be all Hakyeon’s fault. He felt horrible. Sick to his stomach that he was ruining everything.

Across the room, Sanghyuk’s eyes hardened.

Slowly, careful not to get noticed, Sanghyuk started to film what Taekwoon was doing.

Sanghyuk realized rather quickly that Taekwoon was behind all of the accidents and mishaps. He’d noticed after Hakyeon’s third scolding that there was this evil glint in Taekwoon’s eyes when Hakyeon got blamed. Sanghyuk knew that glint. It appeared every time Taekwoon destroyed one of his rivals. It only took him a second to piece everything together after that.

Since then, Sanghyuk had been trying to catch Taekwoon in the act. Even just a simple video would do. But Taekwoon was sneaky and Sanghyuk had problems getting the evidence he needed. But now, for the first time all day, Taekwoon had gotten careless. Sanghyuk knew why too. Taekwoon heard what the director said about getting rid of Hakyeon and his excitement over succeeding had made him careless.

Not that Sanghyuk minded.

It just made clearing Hakyeon’s name easier.

Once Taekwoon was done, Sanghyuk saved the recording and waited.

Sanghyuk bit his lip, trying to suppress the look of disgust that wished to appear on his face when Taekwoon made his way over to him. It took all he had to keep his mouth shut as Taekwoon hugged his arm and rested his head on his shoulder. Sanghyuk was so focused on hiding his real feelings he almost missed the crash.

“Sir,” Sanghyuk said, pulling away from Taekwoon and rushing to the director’s side as he started yelling at Hakyeon, “this isn’t Hakyeon’s fault. I recorded Taekwoon tampering with things.”

“What?” the director frowned, taking Sanghyuk’s offered phone and watching the video that Sanghyuk showed him carefully.

“I believe that Taekwoon has been behind everything that’s been going wrong today as well,” Sanghyuk added, much to the surprise and horror of everyone in the room.

“Sanghyuk!” Taekwoon yelled, “How dare you accuse me of this. It’s not my fault Hakyeon keeps having accidents.”

“Cut the crap, Taekwoon,” Sanghyuk snapped, “I recorded video of your most recent sabotage. Plus, I took pictures. Pictures of you near equipment that broke. Pictures of you near set pieces that fell down soon after. Pictures of you in the area of everything that’s gone wrong today. All shortly before they went wrong.” Sanghyuk glared at Taekwoon, “just admit it, Taekwoon. You’ve been trying to ruin Hakyeon’s reputation.”

Taekwoon just glared, but his silence spoke volumes to all.

“Taekwoon,” the director finally said, “come with me to the CEO’s office. We’re going to talk about this. Sanghyuk, I’ll need you as a witness.”

“Yes, sir,” Sanghyuk nodded, taking his phone and heading out, Taekwoon reluctantly following.

“We’re going to shut down for the rest of the day,” the director added, looking more than a little sad about all the hard work about to go to waste, “once we know what the CEO wants to do about all of this, we’ll start filming again.”

“Yes, sir,” everyone bowed before starting to pack up.

Hakyeon just watched everything going on, trying to understand what had just happened.

“Wow,” Hongbin frowned slightly when Hakyeon told him, Jaehwan, and Wonsik what had happened, “just……wow.”

“I knew Taekwoon could be a ,” Jaehwan frowned, “but this? This could have killed your whole career. I mean, directors and staff talk. If they thought you were a trouble maker, they’d tell some people. And then those people would tell other people and pretty soon everyone would have heard that you’re a problem idol and no one would want to work with you. That…….that’s not cool.”

“,” Hakyeon breathed, “I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“Why would he do this?” Hongbin wondered, “I didn’t think Taekwoon hated you. Well, no more than anyone else.”

“It’s because of Sanghyuk, isn’t it?” Wonsik sighed, “You think he found out your soul mates?”

“Wait,” Jaehwan frowned, “soul mates? You and Sanghyuk?”

“Since when?” Hongbin demanded.

“Since we kissed at that party a few weeks ago,” Hakyeon sighed, “the one to celebrate my first big role. We were both pretty out of it and……well, we kissed. A lot. And I woke up the next day and my mark said we were soul mates and I just…….I was so happy because I really like him and….then he didn’t want me because we’re soul mates.”

“So then he started trying to win Sanghyuk over,” Wonsik sighed, “Taekwoon must have noticed.”

“Probably,” Hongbin nodded, “he’s not so focused on his comeback that he’d miss someone trying to make a move on Sanghyuk.”

“Think this means they’re done?” Jaehwan wondered, “I mean, Sanghyuk ratted him out. Not sure Taekwoon will forgive him. Even if he did, I don’t think Sanghyuk could ever date him after all pulling a stunt like that.”

“This wasn’t just making a trainee cry,” Sanghyuk nodded, taking a seat at the table beside Hakyeon, “this could have done very big, very real damage to Hakyeon’s career. Never mind the fact that he put his own comeback in danger just to do this.”

“So you’re one hundred percent done?” Hongbin clarified.

“More like fifty thousand percent,” Sanghyuk nodded.

“How much trouble is he in?” Wonsik questioned.

“The appropriate amount of trouble,” Sanghyuk shrugged, silently telling them that he couldn’t talk about it.

“Is the filming for the music video going to happen tomorrow?” Hakyeon asked, feeling worried for the staff who’d been working so hard on it.

“Yeah,” Sanghyuk nodded, “you’ll have to be there really early. There’s a lot of stuff that needs to get done and a lot more that needs to be fixed thanks to Taekwoon. Naturally, he’s not going to be anywhere near the set.”

“Right,” Hakyeon smiled, “good.”

“Hey,” Sanghyuk turned to the others, “can you give us a minute? I want to talk to Hakyeon alone about something.”

“Ok,” Hongbin smiled before grabbing Jaehwan and Wonsik and dragging them away.

“What’s wrong?” Hakyeon asked, “did I…..do something wrong?”

“No,” Sanghyuk assured him, “I just…..after everything…….I’ve decided one date. Just one.”

“Huh?” Hakyeon frowned slightly, wondering if Sanghyuk meant what he thought he meant.

“One date,” Sanghyuk repeated, “I take you on one date.”

“Just one?” Hakyeon frowned slightly, not liking the idea of it being just one date.

“Just one,” Sanghyuk nodded.

“Alright,” Hakyeon nodded after a moment of thought. If he was lucky, maybe this would be such a good date that Sanghyuk would ask him out on another one. And another after that.

But first, they had to get to the first date.

And that first date? Hakyeon thought it went pretty well.

They’d gone out for a simple dinner and movie. Nothing big, but that was fine. Hakyeon didn’t want something big anyway because that would distract him and Sanghyuk from getting to know each other. If he wanted a second or third date, then Sanghyuk had to get to know him a little bit better.

It seemed to work out that way too. All through dinner, the pair talked. Hakyeon learned things he hadn’t known about Sanghyuk and vice versa. And during the movie? They didn’t talk, but they did that whole ‘hands in the popcorn’ thing and Sanghyuk didn’t seem to mind all that much.

“Hey,” Sanghyuk said as he dropped Hakyeon off after their date was done, “do you want to hang out sometime. Just us?”

“Like a date?” Hakyeon asked, trying to sound teasing when he was really just hopeful.

“No,” Sanghyuk told him, “like friends hanging out together without all of their other friends.”

“I’d be up for that,” Hakyeon smiled. And he could always call these hangouts dates in his head.

For the next three months, the pair met up regularly at least once a week. When they could get away with it, they’d eat pizza or takeout from some fast food place on their way to one of their apartments. They’d always stay up late playing video games. Hakyeon sometimes regretted how late they stayed up because the next morning he was so tired that he just wanted to sleep but he had to work.

But then he’d never really regret spending time with Sanghyuk.

Sometimes, the others would question about their situation. Jaehwan couldn’t understand how they weren’t dating. Wonsik told Hakyeon that he needed to figure out exactly where they stood, convinced that a little pressure would get Sanghyuk to ask Hakyeon out on a real date. Hongbin was getting rather annoyed with Sanghyuk since he felt that Hakyeon was a perfect boyfriend and lover for his best friend and Sanghyuk was a fool for not seeing that.

“Hey,” Sanghyuk finally said one night as he helped Hakyeon clean up after their takeout meal, “I’m not doing this because of the mark.”

“Huh?” Hakyeon questioned, not at all following Sanghyuk’s train of thought.

“This,” Sanghyuk explained, waving around them, “this hanging out thing we’re doing. The dinners together. This dating thing were doing. It’s not because of the mark.”

“Dating thing?” Hakyeon really tried to keep the hopefulness out of his voice but the expression on Sanghyuk’s face said that he’d failed, “we’re dating?”

“Yea,” Sanghyuk nodded, “and it’s not because of the mark. It’s because I like you.”

“I like you as well,” Hakyeon smiled softly, “not because of the mark, but because you’re you.”

“Good,” Sanghyuk nodded, taking Hakyeon’s hand and leading him into the living room, “now let’s play.”

A/N: so this one is, like, the only of these soul mate stories that stayed pretty much the same as the original plan. Like, I added some stuff, like on-again-off-again bf Leo and some dialogue parts to make things flow nicer, but for the most part the plan and the end result are the same. Makes me feel all nice inside to actually stick to my plan so well for once (because that NEVER happens)