Ten zeroes

... and I'm yours.

☄ ☄ ☄

"What was it like?"

"C'mon man, tell us!"

"Was she pretty? Ow! I'm sorry, but I really want to know!"

Jihoon withdrew his arm after having punched Seokmin's shoulder, bashfully hiding his cutely flushed cheeks from his classmates under the light brown curl of his bangs. 

"She is." He grumbled, quickly coughing into his hand to clear his voice. "She is pretty." The short male tried to intimidate his friends with a frown to keep them from humiliating him further, but his attempt failed by a long shot and Seokmin cooed happily while Soonyoung threw his arms around the soon loudly protesting Jihoon. 

"Aw, our Jihonnie is in love!" Seokmin gushed behind his perfectly straight rows of white teeth, his entire face shining with glee for their friend in a beaming grin. 

"I'm so happy for you man!" Soonyoung ruffled Jihoon's hair while the other seethed and tried to desperately wrestle out of his hold. 

"Stop — let me go you imbecile!"

Wonwoo watched the two struggle, Jihoon's attempts to get away only causing the dark haired male to tighten his arms around him and press him even closer against his chest. 

"Never!" Soonyoung shook his head fervently, petting Jihoon's head and nuzzling it with his cheek much to the other's very vocal displeasure. He made a somber expression, feigning wiping a tear from his eye while Seokmin laughed. "I can't believe our little Jihonnie has found his soulmate. They grow up so fast." Soonyoung pretended to sniff, Seokmin joining in on his shenanigans immediately, but Jihoon managed to drive his elbow into the dancer's abdomen and cut their skit short before it could get out of hand. (God knew the two troublemaking friends could drag things out if they got started.)

"I've always been more mature than you dickwads — shut up." He hissed and Soonyoung gasped indignantly, placing a hand to his chest. 

"I can't believe you'll be kissing your soulmate with a mouth like that!"

Jihoon's entire complexion became that of a cherry and he bristled in his seat beside Wonwoo while Seokmin burst into loud laughter with Soonyoung erupting into snickers shortly after. 

"We — k-kiss —!? There—there'll be n-nothing of that sort in the beginning! It's still too early for-for us to — to think about those kinds of things—!"

"Sooner or later you will be~" Soonyoung sing-sang with a giggle and dodged Jihoon's fists that tried to connect with his body. 

"I met her yesterday!!" Jihoon hissed and the other two laughed at his completely flustered complexion, joyful on the behalf of their friend's good fortune of being blessed by meeting his soulmate so early in his life. It wasn't an occurrence unheard of — to meet one's soulmate in high school — but it was unusual, and therefore, Jihoon was indeed someone socially considered very, very lucky. 

While the others grappled with one another, laughed with and teased Jihoon about his fortune, Wonwoo eyes slipped to the petite male's wrist to catch a glimpse of the red numbers etched into the skin just below the hand, an exact mirror of the permanent tattoo that he carried himself — that everyone carried in the same spot — and when the other's sleeve slipped up to reveal the mark, Wonwoo read the numbers quickly. 

00:00:00:00:00

Jihoon's clock had stopped. Yesterday, when he met his soulmate, his seconds had dropped down to zero. 

Appearing to momentarily be done with teasing Jihoon, Soonyoung and Seokmin finally took their seats in the desks in front of Jihoon and Wonwoo, and the latter of the aforementioned two sighed dreamily after he'd rested his arms on the edge of Wonwoo's desk and placed his head in his hands, looking at some point in the distance with a longing expression. 

"Ah~ I wish my clock would hurry up and count faster. I want to meet my soulmate too..."

Soonyoung patted his friend's shoulder with a sympathetic expression, the three of them aware of the big six at the start of Seokmin's digits, telling of the number of years remaining before he was to meet the one that was supposed to become his entire universe. 

"Don't think about it, man. When that day comes, it's going to be worth the wait."

"I know." Seokmin sighed once more before straightening up and turning to face his friend. "You never tell us how long you've got left, though, Mr. 'Soulmates are the best thing that will ever happen to us!' Why don’t you ever talk about your time?" He asked and Wonwoo briefly caught Soonyoung's stressed gaze when it quickly flickered to him, but then the charcoal haired male was all smiles and squinted eyes as he turned back to Seokmin, the exchange between him and Wonwoo going unnoticed by the other two. 

"It's just like yours man! Way too long to even be worrying about yet!" He laughed, and neither Jihoon nor Seokmin seemed to notice that his laughter was just slightly strained and that his smile wavered just a little bit. 

So far, Wonwoo was the only one out of the quartet that knew that Soonyoung's clock had stopped at the start of his eight year in school when their classes had been rearranged and he'd ended up sitting beside Lee Jihoon, the two boys meeting for the first time as desk mates. When the small male had turned to Soonyoung on that day and introduced himself, Soonyoung’s clock had stopped. But Jihoon's hadn't. 

"Come on, it's normal to not want others to know when you're going to bump into your significant other — it's already stressful enough to think about on your own." Jihoon added, taking out his textbooks as the bell rung, signalling that their time for gossip was about to end and that their teacher was sure to soon be joining them in the classroom. "Wonwoo won't let us look at his either."

At the mention of his name, Wonwoo's heart jumped uneasily in his chest and he subconsciously made to discretely cover his left wrist with his right hand, but Seokmin simply hummed, not at all seeming to be keen on turning his eyes to Wonwoo and question him about his reasons for hiding his remaining time from them. 

"Yeah. You're right as always, Jihonnie." Seokmin said instead, turning around and focusing his attention to the front with the rest of the students when the teacher opened the door and entered the classroom. Soonyoung and Jihoon did the same, none of Wonwoo's friend noticing his sudden discomfort as Mrs. Jung started to speak. 

Feeling on edge, Wonwoo's eyes flickered to his own wrist where the small, neat, red numbers displayed the countdown until he was to meet his own soulmate and swallowed around the lump slowly forming in his throat. 

00:00:03:53:19

In just under four hours, sometime after school on that very same day, Wonwoo was going to meet his soulmate. 

☄ ☄ ☄

Maybe Soonyoung had been able to tell from Wonwoo's face, because before the two boys had parted by the bike parking on the school ground that day, he'd looked at him strangely. 

"You okay?" He'd asked with concern, and even though Wonwoo had felt as if he was going to throw up, he had nodded and waved Soonyoung off without telling him that his countdown had reached mere minutes and that it was making him feel absolutely sick from anxiety. 

It wasn't that Wonwoo didn't want to meet his soulmate — honestly, that was the one thing that everyone dreamed of and looked forwards to until the happiest moment of their lives when it finally came true — but it just happened to be so that Wonwoo was afraid. Absolutely petrified, actually, because he couldn't help but think about what if his situation would turn out like Soonyoung's? What if he wasn't the one meant for his soulmate? Or what if his soulmate already had found the one they were to be happy with? What if his soulmate wouldn't fall in love with him?

Living so close to a tragedy such as Soonyoung's, Wonwoo knew that those types of scenarios wasn't just a silly travesty, a make-believe or horror-story that was nothing but tales that wouldn't ever come true, but that it was a true possibility, an ugly twist of fate that could happen in reality and which, in case it did, would doom him to suffer the agonising burden of unreciprocated feelings for the remainder of his life, and Wonwoo was almost certain that he wouldn't be able to bear a torture like that like Soonyoung did. He had never been as strong as his friend, and thinking about the foul possible outcomes of the numbers counting down on his wrist, Wonwoo felt like he would faint. 

However, seeing as he was in the subway, on his way home, surrounded by lots of people, he concluded that losing consciousness wasn't a very attractive option, and he forced himself to pull through. 

Making his way down the familiar tunnels, swiping his card, avoiding bumping into too many people as good as he could in the crowd, Wonwoo's heart kept beating a mile a minute in his chest as his eyes scanned over the heads of the strangers passing him by. 

He wondered if he would know as soon as he saw her. Would it be a feeling like in the movies when everything around the characters morphed into slow-motion and atmospheric music started playing and you just knew they were meant for each other? Would it be like that? Truthfully, Wonwoo had no idea, and he regretted now that he hadn't bothered to ask Jihoon more about how his meeting with his soulmate had felt and played out when he had had the chance. 

Glancing down at his wrist, Wonwoo's heart jumped nervously in his chest. 

00:00:00:12:37

In just twelve minutes they would meet at this station. 

Thousands of people passed through the subway on a daily basis and this made Wonwoo's mind wonder what type of person his soulmate would turn out to be. A grown up? Older than him? Younger? Tall? Short? Pretty? Beautiful? An adult, with a career, a house, an apartment? A student, like him? Maybe with a dream and a future and a soft heart ready to welcome Wonwoo and add him to their picture?

All the possibilities just made Wonwoo's head spin and his stomach churn anxiously, so he stopped his train of thought before it actually made him fold into a nervous mess. His heart was beating in anticipation in his chest and with every step he took, the more difficult it became for him to breathe. 

He was down by the track where the train that took him home usually rolled in. Looking at the time table on the screen hanging from the ceiling above his head, Wonwoo's breath hitched in his throat when he compared it to the numbers on his wrist. 

Train arriving in: 3 minutes. 

The time on his wrist read: 00:00:00:04:56

Wonwoo's heart leapt skywards in his chest. 

Did that mean he would meet his soulmate on the train?

In a way it made him feel relieved, because then it wouldn't be in the middle of a busy crowd on a station, but in a closed waggon with an opportunity to actually greet each other properly, and that thought was slightly reassuring to Wonwoo who was starting to suspect that he was internally freaking out at this point. 

What would he say? Did he just walk over and introduce himself? In what way? Which greeting was the most fitting and would leave the best impression on his soulmate for their first meeting? Again, how would he even know whom it was?

A distant memory of a lost him and a red-eyed Soonyoung in a small and locked bathroom stall back in eight grade flashed before his inner eyes. 

Soonyoung had come to Wonwoo's classroom (they hadn't ended up in the same class that year) and pulled him away, dragged him all the way to the boys bathroom and shoved him into a stall before pushing in after him and locking the door behind them. He had then promptly proceeded to cry himself empty into a very shaken and frightened Wonwoo's uniform jacket. When the — at that time — blonde had finally calmed down under Wonwoo's awkwardly attempted to be soothing whispers and poorly drawn circles into his back, Wonwoo had dared to ask him in a small voice trembling with uncertainty what was wrong. 

"I found him." Soonyoung had said. At that time, Wonwoo had been shocked about many things. That it was a ’him’, that Soonyoung had met his soulmate when they were still so young, that his friend hadn't told him he was running so short on time, but most of all he had been perturbed as to why his friend, after finding his soulmate, was looking so miserable. 

"Wonwoo. His — his clock didn't stop." Soonyoung's voice had broken and so had a piece of Wonwoo's heart as the empathy of his friend's heartache settled into him. In that moment, all Wonwoo had wanted to do was to ease Soonyoung's suffering, to help him in some way, whatever way he could, piece his friend right back together even as the other had practically been falling apart in front of his eyes. So he had his lips, and almost desperately searched for any solution to his friend's tragedy, his young eyes flickering over Soonyoung’s downturned face. 

"H-how do you know?" He had asked. "How do you know that it's him? Maybe —" Maybe Soonyoung had been mistaken. But he hadn't, and Wonwoo had been able to tell as much when Soonyoung had raised his head and met his eyes in that small, shadowed bathroom stall in the boys bathroom back in eight grade. Wonwoo had felt so incredibly small. "... How do you know that he's your soulmate?"

The broken, blonde boy had looked at Wonwoo and smiled the most tragic smile Wonwoo had ever seen to this day. 

"When I saw him, I just knew."

Those words from the past echoed in Wonwoo's head now and he considered them again, carefully. 

When you see them, you'll know. 

The sound of his train approaching had Wonwoo startle and his head shot up quickly so that he could watch it as it slid in over the tracks. His eyes tried to make out the blurry figures in the windows of the wagons that passes him, but the first few went by way too fast for him to make out anything and his nervousness increased immensely. He glanced down at his wrist again while the subway train slowed to a stop. 

00:00:00:01:48

Wonwoo's heart relocated to his throat and he made futile attempts at swallowing it back down into his chest as the doors opened to let the people inside the subway cart out. 

Wonwoo tried not to count the seconds in his head as he anxiously shifted from foot to foot on the spot. 

Since his train had arrived, that meant that his soulmate was bound to be somewhere on the subway, didn't it? It meant Wonwoo was supposed to get on, right? 

It had to. 

Wonwoo pressed his lips together and ignored the rapid flutter of his heart, mentally preparing himself for the most important moment of his life.

Along with the other passengers, he boarded the subway, his eyes quickly darting around across the faces of the people already occupying the seats in the wagon as soon as he was inside, but no face his eyes flickered over gave Wonwoo that feeling Soonyoung had described to him back then. 

Shaking, Wonwoo decided to check his wrist again. 

00:00:00:02:21

Wait, what?

In shocked horror, Wonwoo watched the seconds on his wrist count the wrong way, suddenly increasing instead of decreasing and a sharp, painful jab stabbed through his chest, panic quickly following and settling into his blood, chilling him to his very core and freezing him from within. 

0⫴:0⫴:⫴⫴:3⫴:2⫴

The numbers kept ticking. 

Only one word managed to tear through the numbing ice in Wonwoo's mind and pull him out of his shock. 

No!

Before giving his heavily confused mind a moment to gather itself and think about what was happening, Wonwoo's body acted on its own and sprung into action and before he knew it, just as the sound of the doors starting to close registered in Wonwoo's mind, he threw himself towards the wagon's exit. He could hear people react, gasps sounding and even some passengers calling out to him in alarm as he pressed through the narrow gap remaining between the doors, but Wonwoo managed to stumble back out onto the platform perfectly unscathed, without him, his bag, or his clothes getting stuck in-between the doors and ending his day by making the headlines of every newspaper in Korea. 

With his pulse thundering in his ears and his heart beating painfully against his ribcage Wonwoo spun around and stared back at the frightened and startled faces of the people in the subway before a soft whistle sounded and the train started to depart, slowly rolling away and picking up speed until the last wagons whipped past him with the mechanical hum of the tracks and a breeze of a wind. 

Feeling completely shocked and flabbergasted by his own actions, Wonwoo gasped for air as he looked after the end of the train quickly disappearing down the tunnel, his mind supplying him very many vivid examples of how badly his spontaneous exit could've ended that only served to make him more stressed than he already felt. 

Trembling and feeling completely shaken, Wonwoo swallowed around the lump in his throat and hastily lifted his arm to his face to check the countdown on his wrist, his eyes staring anxiously at the red digits as if his life depended on them. (Well, part of his life — a very important part — kind of did.)

00:00:00:00:08

Wonwoo's heart jumped with an entirely different type of thrill than the terrifying one he'd just experienced and his breathing lodged in his chest as his eyes stared at the numbers in disbelief. Whatever he’d done had actually worked?

With his pulse in his ears and his fingers trembling, Wonwoo could’t tear his eyes away from his wrist.

5,

4,

3,

2,

"Uhm, excuse me —"

Every muscle in Wonwoo's body tensed at the very gentle and pleasant sound of a man's voice, and even before he looked up and turned around his mind had already accepted the gender of his soulmate, even though Wonwoo had thought that he would've been more dejected to find out that his soulmate wasn't a woman, but when he turned around and his eyes fell onto the person that had addressed him, how could he have been anything but pleasantly surprised?

The boy across from him was beautiful. He was handsome too, but beautiful was the first descriptive word that popped into Wonwoo's mind and had his world burst into colours before his eyes. A nicely sculpted face, almost like a model’s, tall, broad shoulders, and with kind eyes, warm like a late summer’s eve, all of which described the looks of Wonwoo's soulmate, and even then no words could really describe how wonderful this person appeared in Wonwoo's eyes. 

"Are you o..kay......" The other boy's words died right on his tongue as he too stilled upon looking at Wonwoo, immediately eradicating any fears Wonwoo had had of his soulmate not being bound to him, and with a fire inside his blood he watched the very same ember light within his soulmate's eyes and the two boys stared at one another, standing a few steps apart. 

When you see them, you'll know. 

00:00:00:00:00

Wonwoo was experiencing a rush of endorphins like no other, and he had no idea how to communicate his utter excitement to finally meet his soulmate but he had to try, so he opened his mouth but not so surprisingly, no sound came out. He was left blinking at the male supposedly meant to be the person he would come to love above everything else in the entire world like a fool with his mouth stupidly hanging open. 

"It's you." The other guy — his soulmate. His freaking soulmate — beat him to the chase and the words left the boy's lips in a rush, his voice slightly frail and breathless and absolutely gorgeous to Wonwoo's ears and Wonwoo just stared at him in pure awe. His silence must've been unsettling, because the boy's cheeks flushed and he snapped out of his stand-still, taking a hesitant step closer to Wonwoo on the platform. "... R-right? I'm not — I'm not mistaken about this, am I? That you're... I mean..."

Upon hearing the sudden uncertainty and fear of being wrong in the other's voice Wonwoo started, jumping back into life and quickly waving his hands in front of his face while flushing. 

"N-no! No, no! I'm sorry, I just —" He couldn't describe what he was feeling still but he was glad when his fervent protest managed to erase the somber tone that had started to bleed into the other's dark eyes and Wonwoo took another moment to simply admire the guy that had appeared in front of him as his soulmate. 

Because this guy was it, wasn't he? Wonwoo's clock had hit zero. He was sure of it. But once again he was reminded of Soonyoung and in a moment of uncertainty he wrapped his hand around his left wrist and stared at the other with a inquisitive gaze. 

He had to check. Just to be sure. 

He his lips and swallowed. 

"Did... your clock stop just now?" Even as he asked, Wonwoo was terrified that the other would show him his wrist and that he would be wrong, that his clock had stopped for someone that wouldn't return his sentimentality or affections, but all off his worries were blown away when the boy immediately reached his arm out to show him.

"Of course." The guy said, displaying his wrist without fear and Wonwoo was able to make out the tiny row of ten red zeroes neatly aligned against the other's tan skin, and his heart soared sky-high with joy at the sight. "Did yours?" The guy asked after a second, his voice suddenly guarded and laced with worry and Wonwoo quickly nodded, returning the gesture as he could feel a grin bloom across his face, but he didn't fight it or hold it back at all, letting the utter exhilaration he was feeling show on his face as he looked at his soulmate. 

"Yeah." He almost felt like laughing, or maybe crying, or maybe both — no definitely both, because after studying Wonwoo's wrist, the guy who was Wonwoo's soulmate broke into a smile of his own, his lips turning slowly upwards in the corners at first, but as he raised his head and looked into Wonwoo's eyes, his smile too grew into a full-blow grin and it was absolutely blinding to Wonwoo with it's beauty. 

But then it struck him, suddenly and hard, like a heavy rock crashing down onto him from the skies, and Wonwoo's smile slipped from his face as a look of utter horror replaced it. He slapped a hand over his mouth and stared at his soulmate with wide eyes. The boy was confused by his reaction and searched Wonwoo's face for some sort of explanation. 

"I almost missed you." Wonwoo managed to whisper, realising why his clock had acted so strangely and started counting upwards when he had gotten on the subway. It had been because he was leaving, and if he hadn't gotten off, the two of them might've not come to meet for another three years, if not more, and the thought about how close he’d been to miss meeting his soulmate was absolutely terrifying. "I almost missed you." He repeated a little louder when it seemed like his soulmate hadn't understood him, and Wonwoo quickly went on to explain why he was suddenly so upset. "I thought you were on the train, because my time matched up with the scheduled subway, so I got on it, but then the clock started counting backwards, and I just panicked. I've never seen or heard of someone's clock counting backwards before, so I freaked out, and then before I knew it I was pushing my way out of the subway, and I was lucky I got out and didn't get stuck, because I could've died or gotten seriously hurt, but of course I only thought about that afterwards, and I almost didn't make it, but I did, but if I hadn't, I wouldn't have met you! I wouldn't have met you and I — I wouldn't have — We — I-I almost missed you. I almost missed you."

Wonwoo had been rambling, gesturing with his hands in front of himself as the words tumbled out of him without a single break for air and now he felt winded, a little dizzy, completely embarrassed, and overwhelmingly grateful that he had gotten off of the subway when he did, because otherwise he wouldn't have met his soulmate — at least not now, and who knew how many days, months, years it could've been before fate decided it was time for them to cross paths again. 

He was just... happy, and overjoyed, and shaken, and sad, and hopeful, and scared, and everything. He was overwhelmed, but in a good way, and it seemed like his soulmate understood exactly how he was feeling because he gave Wonwoo a small, soft smile. 

"Is that why you came stumbling out of the subway?" He asked gently and Wonwoo choked on something between a laugh and a sob, nodding his head as he tried to will away the burn behind his eyes. 

It had been so close that they wouldn't have met, and just thinking about it now was paralysing. 

"Yeah...!" He said thickly, and the other pressed his lips together as he stared at Wonwoo when he rubbed at his eyes before any tears could fall. 

"I — Can I hug you?"

"Uh?" Wonwoo was caught off guard by the question but quickly corrected his response. "I mean, y-yeah. Sure. No," he changed his phrasing, "Actually... I'd like that." Was his final reply and soon he was enveloped by two big, warm arms, and Wonwoo had never felt so secure and safe in anyone's embrace before. Slowly, shyly, carefully he slipped his own arms around the other's back and buried his face in the other’s chest, not daring to inhale his soulmate’s scent yet but desperately wanting to. They held onto each other tightly as if they were afraid the other would suddenly disappear if they let go. 

When they finally leant back from each other, although they remained close enough to sustain contact and keep their arms lazily wrapped around one another, Wonwoo looked up at his soulmate's face. The guy must be somewhat younger than him, he realised, but not by much. To his surprise, his soulmate laughed, and while the sound itself made Wonwoo's chest feel tight and had the warmth of his joy stain his cheeks, he found himself giving the other a wondering look. 

"What? What's so funny? Why are you laughing?" He asked and he couldn't help the smile sneaking onto his own face. His soulmate glanced down at him with glittering eyes, his smile wavering slightly as he tried to withhold his laughter. 

"I don't know — don't you find it strange? I mean, that your soulmate is a guy?" It could've been an offensive question, but his soulmate looked way too happy and harmless while saying it, what with the giant grin on his face and flushed cheeks, so Wonwoo assumed that the other wasn't being passively cruel or exactly against it, which made him feel comfortable enough to reply honestly. He scrunched his nose up slightly, shrugging listlessly in the other's arms as he met his gaze. 

"It's... a little strange. I never thought my soulmate would be a man, always thought it'd be a woman," He let his eyes run along his soulmate's face and body once more, feeling slightly embarrassed when he remembered that the other could very clearly see him assessing him since they were standing so close but deciding to roll with it and meet the other's eyes bravely after he was done. "... But I'm actually not that let down." He said and his soulmate snickered adorably. 

"You're not so bad yourself." He commented quite smugly and Wonwoo narrowed his eyes slightly, entertaining the idea of pinching the guy's arm to get him off his high horse, but at the same time he felt unfairly charmed as his soulmate had technically just underhandedly complimented him, and the feeling was nice. So Wonwoo settled for shuffling his feet and averting his eyes in hopes that the other wouldn't be able to see just how brightly his cheeks were burning at the moment. 

"Thanks." He mumbled.

Probably feeling mutually shy and embarrassed, the two awkwardly untangled from their embrace and stepped apart, looking at each other properly again. Wonwoo could feel his heart beat lightly but quickly within him and he had a feeling like his life was complete, how cliché or cheesy as that sounded. Like he was whole, and no matter what would ever happen to him or whatever he would come to face in his life, he would be okay. Because he had his soulmate, and that would be all that mattered. It was a strangely elevating sensation, and his small smile was mirrored by his soulmate. 

"So, what do I call you?" His soulmate asked, and only then did Wonwoo realise that they never exchanged names. 

"W-Wonwoo!" He said hurriedly, sticking out his hand like it was a ceremonial ritual they had to perform to officially meet or something. "Jeon Wonwoo." His cheeks burned and his soulmate's fingers were warm and comforting when they wrapped around Wonwoo's hand and gave it a firm squeeze. 

"I'm Mingyu. Kim Mingyu." He replied with a grin. "Nice to meet you, Jeon Wonwoo."

Wonwoo's heart fluttered and his soul sang a harmonious melody as he gazed into the eyes of Kim Mingyu, his very own soulmate, and Wonwoo's lips pulled into a smile of his own and he squeezed Mingyu's hand right back. 

"Nice to meet you too." He said, and the both of them knew that their story was only just beginning, the ten zeroes on both of their wrists sealing their fates together.

☄ ☄ ☄

A/N:

... It's something *does the meme thing*

And yes, yes, I'm sorry for the angsty Soonhoon in the background. It happened without my intention ;;;;

Leave an upvote or a comment if you liked it. I always love to hear thoughts and opinions on my work~