Sungmin doesn’t notice that anything’s changed until well after he’s back to his city, after he told the General that he failed in his mission, after he’s taken half an hour to sit in a corner of his bunk and weep for Ryeowook , for Donghae and for the stupid waste of life at that small village.

Then he goes to take a shower, and it’s when he takes his shirt off that he sees it, on his left forearm: a small, clear imprint of his soulmate mark, every detail perfect and crisp.

He stands there staring at his own arm for a long time. A mrak? What…who?

He can’t think about this right now, not and keep his sanity intact, so he wraps a spare bit of cloth around his arm and ties it off so he can’t see the Mark anymore, and goes on about his life as normally as he can. He’s still the Black Leader team, he’s still the best fighter in his city, he’s got things to do, he can’t think about who might share his Mark, who might be his soul mate

He actually manages to put it so thoroughly out of his mind that it’s not until he looks up from his reunion with Ryeowook(miracle that it is, he’s never been happier to see the little guy in his life) to see Donghae – Donghae! Alive! – coming across the room, not until after he’s hugged the stuffing out of Donghae and thanked him for completing his mission, that he leans back and notices what Donghae has the same Mark on his right arm!!

“You have your mark?,” he says stupidly, and then, when Donghae starts covering it up, embarressed.he’s MINE..

But when he opend his mouth to tell him he couldn’t, because Donghae is worried about this guy Eunhyuk–and so Sungmin knows Donghae has other things to think about than the minor matter of whether they are soulmates. Sungmin figures he’ll bring it up once they’ve finished some of the little chores – rescuing Eunhyuk, killing the anemy ,you know, the small things.

Sungmin holds that thought until Leeteuk comes with Donghae’s limp form in his arms the next day. No, his mind screams, no, no, he’s mine, he can’t be dead, I only just found him – but the doctor is followingDonghae isn’t dead, just…just injured. Badly.

Sungmin follows them, because a debrief is suddenly far less important than learning, as quickly as possible, how badly injured his Marked soulmate is.

The doctor are unwilling to tell Sungmin anything – patient confidentiality, he insist – until Sungmin hauls up his sleeve and shows them the Mark; then they let him in, to stand beside the bed where Donghae lies still as death.. The medics are saying all sorts of things that Sungmin doesn’t understand, but what sticks out is: prognosis good. Recovery probable.

Sungmin steps back so the medics can do their work and stands with his hands clenched in the fabric of his suit so he won’t be tempted to touch, to get in the way, and stays there, staring at his soulmate’s still face, until he hears Wookie talking behind him.

He turns, and Ryeowook is with a young man – Eunhyuk, Sungmin realizes – as if herding him towards Sungmin and Donghae. Sungmin steps out of the way, closing the door behind him gently, and pats his Wookie on his shoulder.

“You must be Eunhyuk,” he says quietly, holding out a hand. “I’m Sungmin. They say he’s probably going to be alright.”

“Oh, thank God,” Eunhyuk replies, just as quietly, taking his hand briefly. “Ryeowook says you’re the best fighter in this city,” he adds, looking over Sungmin’s shoulder at Donghae. “You took out a lot of our anmies, didn’t you?”

“Only after you’d gotten me an opening,” Sungmin says instantly. “Thanks.”

“Thank you,” Eunhyuk says, then looks at him properly and quirks a smile. “Think they’ll let me in to see him?”

“I had to show my Mark to get in,” Sungmin confesses. “You might need to ask the General to pull rank.”

Eunhyuk blinks at him. “Mark?”

“Er,” Sungmin says, and pulls his sleeve up again. “He’s my soulmate.”

Eunhyuk reaches out to touch the Mark with gentle, curious fingers. “Is that what those mean,” he says softly. “I saw a few, on Kangin; always wondered what that was about. So the Mark means you’re…meant to be together?”

“Sort of,” Sungmin says, slightly astonished that he’s having this conversation in a corridor outside the med bay, still in his suit from what’s probably going to go on record as the most amazing mission of his career. His life, ladies and gentlemen: what the hell. “If he’s got a matching one, then yeah, pretty much. But he doesn’t know…” he shrugs. “We’ll see when he wakes up, I guess.”

“Huh,” Eunhyuk says, and then the General comes around the corner and they are both distracted by debriefing and the General intimidating the med droids into letting Eunhyuk in to see Donghae and then going and getting hot showers (eyes closed, leaning against the shower wall) and food (protein bar, because all of Sungmin’s energy is gone) and sleep, in whatever order feels best to them – or at least that’s what Sungmin does, and he assumes Eunhyuk is also taking the opportunity to crash.

He wakes up to someone knocking insistently on his door, and rolls groggily out of bed to open it, blinking blearily at whoever is interrupting his blissful slumber. “Eunhyuk?”

“What does it mean if you’ve got two?” he demands.

Sungmin blinks at him. He is honestly not at his best when he’s just woken up, and being asked weird questions is not helping. “Two…wha