Hongbin had always loved taking photos, but people always complained that he never used colour. They wanted to see the bright colours and the dark colours and just……..just colour in general. But how exactly could Hongbin change that? He couldn’t see colour! And he wouldn’t until he met his soul mate. Even if…..if he met his soul mate, should the other die he would go back to seeing things in black and white.

He couldn’t start using colour when he could lose that ability. It would mess up his whole photography career!

He would not, could not, let that happen. He had worked too hard for what he had. And maybe that was why he didn’t want to meet his soul mate. If he met his soul mate, if he finally got to see the colours his parents had talked about so fondly, he wouldn’t be able to resist using colour. And if he did that and then lost his soul mate……….

He couldn’t do anything to risk his career.

“,” Hongbin hissed as he watched the guy in front of him trip, landing hard on the sidewalk, “hey, are you alright?”

“Fine,” the guy smiled slightly and Hongbin was struck by how brown the guy’s eyes were, “thanks. My ankle just gave out. I’m good, I……, I’m late. I’m so late. Um, thank you, bye.”

Hongbin stared as his……his soul mate ran away from him. As the head of fluffy blond hair vanished in the crowd, he felt a hollow feeling in his heart. He decided it was because he’d met his soul mate, done the thing he didn’t want to do. These colours he could now see…….

He’d only been able to see them for a few short minutes and he already wanted to use them in his photos. And it was all his soul mate’s fault! Had he not tripped, Hongbin would have never met him and never would have seen the colours of the world.

So Hongbin decided to just ignore the colours. He’d ignore all of them and he’d ignore his soul mate. That second one he felt was easy because he’d probably never see the guy again. A small part of him felt bad about that. This guy probably wanted his soul mate and would feel horrible about losing him once he was no longer in a rush.

But that wasn’t Hongbin’s problem.

At least, until it was.

Until those gorgeous brown eyes and fluffy blond hair showed up on his set.

His employer introduced the young man as Han Sanghyuk. Hongbin had taken a job photographing models for some big label and Sanghyuk was one of them. Another was a young man named Wonsik who smiled kindly at first. But then Wonsik noticed the way Hongbin looked at Sanghyuk and his gaze hardened and he moved closer to Sanghyuk, even taking the other’s hand in his and pressing a kiss to the taller man’s cheek as if to inform everyone that they were a couple.

Hongbin……wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

He especially didn’t know how to feel when Sanghyuk seemed to recognize him and just looked away.

But that shouldn’t matter, right? Hongbin didn’t want anything to do with the guy who’d messed up his career. Why should he feel upset that Sanghyuk wasn’t interested either?

It was especially painful when he had to watched Wonsik and Sanghyuk cuddle when they broke for lunch. And then when the next couple of models came in? Wonsik dragged Sanghyuk off, smirking slightly when he noticed Hongbin watching them, and Hongbin felt nothing but pain.

But Hongbin had no right to feel that way.

“Hey,” Sanghyuk said much later when the shoot had finished, “I’m Sanghyuk. Your soul mate.”

“I’m Hongbin,” Hongbin nodded in greeting, unsure if what Sanghyuk wanted out of this little meeting.

“I’m sorry,” Sanghyuk apologized, “I’ve probably messed you up big time with, ya know, showing up.”

“It’s fine,” Hongbin was quick to assure him, ignoring his earlier feelings about meeting his soul mate, “I don’t mind.”

“Lies,” Sanghyuk laughed, “I know your work. I’ve read interviews you’ve done where they asked about colour and soul mates. I know how you feel about it all.”

“Oh,” Hongbin frowned, deeply regretting saying any of that.

“Look,” Sanghyuk sighed, “the boss likes your work, he’ll probably bring you in again. He might even offer to hire you full time. Either way, we’ll see a lot of each other, so…..why don’t we make friends?”

“Friends?” Hongbin tried his best to ignore the hurt his heart felt.

“Wonsik suggested it,” Sanghyuk shrugged, “we’re kind of tied together anyway. Might as well, ya know, try to get along.”

“Yeah,” Hongbin sighed, “yeah. Friends. We…..we can try friends.”

“Good,” Sanghyuk smiled, holding out a hand for a handshake, “friends.”

“Hyukkie,” Wonsik called, “let’s go. We’re gonna be late for dinner with the guys and you know how Hakyeon gets when someone’s late.”

“Right,” Sanghyuk laughed, “see you around, Hongbin.”

Hongbin just nodded and the blond left, throwing an arm around Wonsik’s shoulders as the couple left.

Friends? Hongbin…….he could do that. Maybe. Sanghyuk seemed like a nice guy. The crew sure seemed to like him, all laughing and joking with him when not working.

And maybe…….maybe seeing the colour wasn’t such a bad thing either.

A/N: so, I think you can probably tell that the whole ‘see in black and white until you meet your soul mate’ idea isn’t really a favorite of mine. I mean, it’s a cool idea, I just…….don’t like it that much and I think it shows in my writing on this one. Regardless, I hope you like it. The end kind of reminds me of the Rahyuk one-shot ‘cuz of the openness of the end, but at the same time it’s also pretty different ‘cuz Sanghyuk has Wonsik and zero interest in a romance with Hongbin in this one.