“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.” 
― Plato, The Symposium

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“People are always in search of their soulmates. Loneliness is a terrible feeling and we all try to escape it. It’s in our nature. Even those who claim to prefer solitude turn out to have a soft spot for certain people. This is all still explainable and logical. One thing, however, that still leaves us in the dark, are the marks we all carry. Not only is it remarkable that we all have a mark like this, but there is also another person that carries the mark to complete our own. There are a lot of marks out there that are similar, but there is no guarantee that just because a mark seemingly completes yours, that you have found your soul mate. You still need to get to know each other first before things start clearing up.

And that brings us to the weird part. The so called soulmates are seemingly connected on more than a spiritual level. Extremely strong emotions sometimes affect their other half. One half can be fine one moment, and feel overwhelming sadness the next because of their soul mate. Pain is also sometimes somehow transferred. It also seems that the soulmates are drawn to each other. There have been stories of people travelling to the other side of the world because they felt they had to go there, and meeting their soulmate.

When one has actually found, and fallen in love with their soulmate, a red string of fate will appear and wrap around the wrist, forever marking the soulmates as connected.
Scientists still aren’t sure how the marks do what they do but…”

The teacher suddenly stopped the student reading out loud mid-sentence, loudly clearing his throat as he focused on a student resting their head on their arms, seemingly asleep.

“Can someone wake up mister Yoon? It seems th-“

Jeonghan looked up, his long locks covering half his face. “Don’t worry sir, I am awake.”

Shaking his head, he tried to get the hair out of the way. It gently swayed around, eventually framing his face like a soft lilac curtain.
Around him, several people held their breath in admiration. Another few just stared in jealousy. But he did not notice them, tucking a few strands behind his ear as he shifted his attention to the empty page in the notebook in front of him. Since when did he neglect to take notes?

“Since you claim to be awake, why not summarize what mr. Hong Jisoo here just said?”

The student that was reading the report made a face, muttering that his name was Joshua, not Jisoo.

Jeonghan heaved a sigh in a way that was rather uncharacteristic to him. He did not know why, but he was feeling incredibly annoyed and defiant for an unknown reason. He decided to give in. He was in trouble anyway, not having paid attention to the report his classmate read out aloud. Might as well go all the way. One snarky comment wouldn’t hurt his perfect reputation that much, right?

“Yoon Jeonghan?”

“I said I was awake, I didn’t say I was paying attention.”

“What did you just say there?”

“Oh sorry, I said I was awake, I didn’t say I was paying attention, sir.”

Several gasps arose from students in the classroom, and all expectantly turned their stares at the teacher. The man kept silent as he tried to take in the situation. This kind of behaviour from a model student was probably something he never experienced before and it was clear he did not know how to handle it. Especially not from someone who was normally such a gentle person.

Suddenly, in the front left corner of the classroom, a girl started laughing. Her giggles were followed by the scoffing of a male student. A few students behind them shared concerned glances. Since he was a few rows behind them, he could see all this clearly.

“Isn’t this priceless? The class prince finally steps out of line and old man Park does not know how to respond to this. Never thought I’d ever see this day.”

Hearing this comment, the girl stopped laughing, her big brown eyes widening even more as she realized her friend could get in trouble for his sarcastic remarks. She tried elbowing the boy to signal him to stop. He dodged the movement with ease

This seemed to snap the teacher out of his thoughts. “Kim Namjoon?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

He scoffed again. “Typical.”

“I was about to give mr. Yoon here detention. If you want to join him, please, continue.”

Jeonghan just blankly stared at the scene unfolding in front of him. The realisation of what he just did was finally starting to dawn on him and he suddenly started to wonder whatever prompted him to do something like this.

The girl that laughed put her hand on Namjoons arm, giving him a warning look. She seemed to be mouthing something to him, but her silver hair blocked the view in a way that he could not see what she was mouthing. All he saw was that Namjoon closed his mouth and suddenly all the attention was back on him.

“You heard it, right mr. Yoon? I want to talk to you after class and you’re in detention this afternoon.”

Jeonghan only nodded, not knowing how to react to the situation he found himself in.

All of a sudden the bell rang, signalling the end of class and the start of lunch break. Students around him began packing up their books, and he slowly did the same.

“Don’t forget to pick up the next book on the reading list in the library!” The teacher tried to remind them, but his voice was drowned out by the chatter of the students leaving the class to get lunch in the schools dining hall.

When he looked up, he found the silver haired girl next to his table, Namjoon patiently waiting at the door.

“Hey Jeonghan… Are you okay? I might have laughed but it was so out of character; it surprised me.”

He looked at her as she dug a beanie out of her bag. It was not allowed to wear hats and such during class but since it was lunch, it was technically not against the rules.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired. Thanks for worrying about me Jihye. Just go on ahead, Namjoon is waiting for you.”

She gave him one more worried glance but left with Namjoon anyway.

He just watched her leave the classroom. He and Jihye used to be best friends, but she changed when she started hanging out with Namjoon and his friends. They were still friends, it was just different.

Jeonghan gathered his bag and slowly made his way to the front of the class, where mr. Park sat, grading the post-break papers they turned in.

“You wanted to talk to me?”

The teacher looked up, seemingly examining him. He suddenly felt really self-conscious, knowing that he looked rather pale and had dark circles forming under his eyes. Usually, students didn’t look this tired after break, and he was well aware of that. Mr. Park opened his mouth and Jeonghan was afraid that he’d ask about his home situation, suspecting it to be the reason he looked like this.

His situation at home was exactly the reason why, but Jeonghan would rather avoid the subject. The less people knew about the drama at home, the better.

Expecting the worst, he was rather surprised by the words that did come out of his teachers mouth.

“You should really not stay up that late, kid. It’s showing, and honestly, it’s not a good look on you. Makes you cranky too.”

“Uh, I...” he stammered, not knowing how to react to this unexpected turn of events.

“Just promise me you’ll go to sleep on time tonight, okay?”

“Yes sir.”

“Okay. Then all is well. Detention is still on though. I can’t go around excusing students from punishment, that would be unfair to the rest of your class. Now off you go, I am trying to grade these papers and the friends you have waiting outside are distracting me.

Jeonghan nodded, bowing before leaving the classroom. Outside, his friends were indeed waiting. All but Jihye he noticed as he looked around the small group of people.

“If you’re looking for Jihye, she snuck off earlier with Namjoon. Something about medicine. I suspect they’re off to find a quiet place to kiss. Auch!”

The boy with wavy black hair rubbed his arm as he stared in disbelief at the girl who slapped him.

“Yah, Chanhee, that hurt!”

The girl with curly hair, dyed in soft pastel colors, put her hands on her hips.

“That’s what you get for making insensitive comments like that, Taekwoon. Jihye is our friend and if she explicitly tells us they are not dating, we should believe her. Besides, how do you think Jeonghan and Yejin feel? ”

Taekwoon lowered his head in shame, his black bangs hiding his face from sight.

“Sorry.”

A quiet brown haired girl suddenly hit Chanhee. “Yah, keep me out of this!”

“Stop hitting me Yejin!”

While watching this scene unfold, Jeonghan suddenly felt a tug at his sleeve and he looked sideways, only to be met with pink hair. It was so close, he could feel it tickle his nose. It actually smelled kind of good, like the candyfloss the hair resembled so much. Just as he opened his mouth to say something about it, Joshua worked his way between them, wrapping an arm around each of their shoulder.

“Let’s go get lunch Jeonghan, Jihoon. They’ll be be busy for a while anyway and I am getting hungry.”

Just like Jihoon, Jeonghan only nodded as they were ushered off by Joshua for lunch. It might have been a weird day, he was happy to be back at school.

He had missed his friends during break. Since they were all busy, they barely hung out, but back at school they could at least spend lunch together.

Just thinking of it was enough to make him smile. As long as he had his friends, everything would be alright.

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Lee Jihoon → Woozi
Hong Jisoo → Joshua
Jung Taekwoon → (VIXX) Leo
Kim Namjoon → (BTS) Rapmonster
Choi Yejin → OC
Lee Chanhee → OC
Boo Jihye → OC