AN: I was sick this weekend, so I was able to do more than I thought since I was stuck in bed. This week I might get busy again, but I will try to update this ASAP. I really want to thank everyone for their comments and for the subscriptions! They mean a whole, whole lot to me! I'm glad that you are enjoying the developments. I always read through the comments, so feel free to speak freely there! I look forward to the response for this chapter! Minghao and Hansol keep moving in and out of the spotlight, but the main storyline is still about Mingyu and Joshua. I just had to set up some things before they could take center stage. I will still make sure to keep everyone updated on Hansol, Minghao, and Soonyoung though. Enjoy!

“Do you really like that guy?” Soonyoung asks, peering at the mirror-covered wall before him in order to read Minghao’s expression. Both of them are stretching with legs folded before they practice. Light music plays from Soonyoung’s iPod that is docked in the corner of the room. Just as Minghao seems to have found the answer to his question, he poses another one. “Did you really stop hearing your soulmate?” His voice sounds casual, but the soulmate business seems anything but casual to him. Out of all of them, he seems to be the most jittery when it came to the whole system. There is something in Soonyoung that makes him fear his soulmate as much as he wants to embrace the fact that he has a soulmate. If all else fails, he knows that he could manage to make someone happy. He can live like Jihoon and Seokmin with his soulmate. He has this conversation with his friends nearly every two weeks, making sure that he’s got everything nailed down well enough for when his soulmate comes around to meet him.

If he comes around to meet him.

Minghao nods. “I really haven’t heard from her. Junhui thinks she’s sick or was in an accident. We speculated it a lot. I think it’s funny, because I stopped hearing her when I met Junhui…” He covers his face with his hands when he catches Soonyoung’s knowing smile. There’s a shining in his eyes and Minghao knows exactly how he sounds right now. He knows he sounds exactly like a lovesick teenager. He finishes his thought with mumbles from behind his hands. “...I researched it and there have been times when people have stopped hearing their soulmates after meeting someone else, but there’s no depth in that research. I think it’s mad ramblings of people who just… fell in love with someone who wasn’t their soulmate.” He uncovers his face, leaning back to gaze up at the ceiling. “The system isn’t perfect. I mean Jihoon and Seokmin… they aren’t even in love… There’s room for us to fall in love with people who aren’t our soulmates. There’s a margin of error.”

Soonyoung runs his fingers through his blond hair. “You know what you sound like?” He gives Minghao no time to answer, but watches him closely through the mirror. “A mad rambler in love with someone who isn’t your soulmate... “ Minghao’s face changes as he looks anywhere except towards the mirrors. He looks unsure of himself, shy. It’s rare for Soonyoung to see him like this. Soonyoung pulls himself off of the floor, then heads over to help Minghao up as well. “How long have you even known him…? A week?”

“Three weeks,” he replies, looking indignant at the interrogation that he has to go through.

Soonyoung does not mean to speak ill of him in the slightest. He’s simply curious, especially because Minghao does not usually show any romantic interest in the slightest. “I’m going to go start the music,” he announces once he’s helped Minghao off the floor.

When he turns his back to him, Minghao speaks up again. “It isn’t even that I think I’m in love with him, Soonyoung. It’s that… it was so nice to be with someone like him. He saw me to the train station and kissed me goodbye, but… I don’t know what any of it means. I think I just have a crush on him, but it’s nothing… he doesn’t even live here. I can’t even see him regularly.”

“Not with that attitude,” Soonyoung shakes his hips, searching through his songs. “Call him up, Minghao. Ask him what he’s doing next weekend. I would love to meet him. It’ll give us an excuse to go to an actual restaurant instead of Seungkwan’s dive. We can send out a group text and see who is free. We don’t even have to tell them all about it, or we can say that we have a big dance recital up! It’ll be nice.”

Minghao nods to his friend. There’s hope in his heart, even if it’s faint.

--

Hansol shifts underneath the weight of Seungkwan’s arm. “You are heavy,” he huffs. In response, Seungkwan snores once, then moves dangerously close to the edge of the bed. If he falls off, so be it, Hansol rolls his eyes, trying to hide his smile as he continues rhythmically tapping his pencil against his single sheet of paper. His timeline is starting to come together.

Somewhat.

He knows that he was asleep from midnight to eight in the morning. From there, he cites orientation at ten, then comments on having lunch around twelve with his orientation group. He also went to dinner with his parents around five. The rest of the sheet is blank. He’s trying to fill them in, but instead he just lists extra memories about orientation onto the sheet. He remembers the servers who gave him food and his cashiers, but he had went back to all of them the day after to make sure that they weren’t his soulmates. None of it made any sense to him.

Seungkwan shifts when he sighs. “Morning,” Hansol says quietly, trying not to sound as dejected as he felt. At this point, it was almost painfully impossible to find his soulmate. He had spent time looking before for him, but because he had come up empty-handed, he had given up, but with his friends talking about their soulmates, he decides that he needs to try harder.

He folds his timeline up, opening the drawer beside him and sliding the paper into it. “Morn...ing…” Seungkwan says while yawning, then he snuggles closer to Hansol. “You didn’t make breakfast?” He doesn’t sound disappointed, just curious. When he spends the night, Hansol usually wakes up first to make food.

“No, I just woke up too,” he lies easily, looking away from Seungkwan as he pushes his hair back from his forehead. Seungkwan pulls himself away from Hansol, standing up. There’s a silent second where Hansol thinks that Seungkwan is going to leave, but then he notices his friend stretching. When he lifts his arms up, Hansol catches a glimpse at his stomach and he smiles to himself. There is some mercy within him, but none when it comes to Seungkwan. Before he can turn back around, Hansol pounces and begins tickling him.

“No, no… Hansol!” He gasps, trying to bat him away. “Get off of me! Stop this… stop tickling me!” He’s already breathless, trying to hold himself together between the giggles and light touches. He tries to push Hansol away, but fails every time. “Stop it, Hansol!” He whines, feeling very pouty as he sticks his lower lip out. “Please!” He tries to fold in on himself, but Hansol has him trapped. He ducks down as though he’s going to curl up on the floor.

That’s about the time that Joshua walks past, stopping briefly at Hansol’s open door.

“,” Hansol laughs. “Morning, Joshua.”

Seungkwan gasps, pulling completely away from Hansol. He doesn’t look towards Joshua and instead goes to hide himself near Hansol’s closet. “Good morning,” Joshua says, sounding seemingly unaffected by the scene that he had walked in upon. “Is it alright if I make breakfast?” He is so polite when he speaks. Hansol blinks dumbly at his question, mouth hanging slightly agape before he nods, slowly.

“Yeah,” he answers finally. “Thank you, but feel free to make this your house too… I mean, for the time being, it is.”

Joshua gives him a slow smile. It’s a careful expression, one that wanes with time. While the man appears to be freshly showered, Hansol can see the bags underneath his eyes. He hasn’t slept well or he’s been crying. Hansol decides that it is probably better if he doesn’t comment on it at all. However the boy wants to cope… so be it. If he wants to talk to Hansol, then he’ll be happy to be a shoulder to cry on, but for now, he prefers to stay out of his way. Joshua nods, then takes off towards the kitchen.

Once he’s gone, Seungkwan turns around to face Hansol, face still red. “He’s a quiet one.”

Hansol agrees, climbing out of bed and heading to his closet to get a fresh change of clothes. He throws a t-shirt at Seungkwan, who fumbles, but catches it. This won’t fit me, his expression seems to say, but Hansol just smiles at him. “That’s yours. I washed it. You left it here the last time you spent the night. I hope you don’t mind that I wore it around a little. I don’t have any pants for you though,” he informs him as he pulls out his own outfit.

Seungkwan shrugs, pulling on his pants from last night. Both of them get changed and follow the smell of food into the kitchen.

When Hansol enters, he immediately begins talking to fill the silence. “The rest of our roommates won’t be here until Friday. I haven’t received their info either, so I don’t know much about them, but one of them is coming from Korea. I hope you are happy with your room. I managed to finally move everything in. Minghao and Mingyu, my friends, weren’t available and they would have been a lot more helpful than Seungkwan here.” The jab makes Seungkwan pull a face, pushing Hansol roughly. He takes a seat at the table.

“That’s fine. Do you know how many more are moving in? I noticed four other bedrooms.” Joshua asks, not turning away from the stovetop. He’s concentrating too hard on the food; it is as though this is the only thing that is keeping him together for the moment. “Oh,” he whispers quietly.

Hansol quirks an eyebrow, but answers him. He doesn’t know how Joshua will respond to him prodding him about his odd interjection. Maybe he’s burnt the food. “I know two are definitely coming up. If no one else comes up, then I’m just going to sell out the other rooms to my friends or other students…”

Joshua doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t even nod in response.

His eyebrows are knitted together.

Seungkwan and Hansol exchange a confused look. Maybe some prodding will do. Joshua has frozen like a statue and Hansol, admittedly, fears for the quality of the food. “...uh, hey, what’s up? You still there?” Hansol asks, poking Joshua on the shoulder lightly, unable to predict his response.

Joshua shakes his head, mouth dropping open in surprise. He studies Hansol carefully and what he says surprises both Seungkwan and Hansol. “I think… my soulmate knows you?”

“Huh,” Hansol his lips, pushing his hair back. That isn’t a very narrow list.

--

“I have classes until, like, eight,” Minghao whines into the receiver. “It’s unfair.”

Mingyu cannot hear whoever he is talking to, but he does know that Minghao’s been talking to him since he woke up. It’d be annoying if this isn’t such a rare sight. “So, no dinner tonight?” Mingyu asks, trying not to eavesdrop too much into his conversation. Minghao shakes his head. “I’ll tell the group then.”

He pulls out his phone. 5 New Messages lights up his screen. He taps on the group messenger.

Seungkwan: Can someone bring me pants? I have to be in class by 11.

Minghao: Ask Hansol.

Seungkwan: I’m at his place with his new roommate right now and both of them are way too small for me.

Seokmin: I can drop them off on my way to campus.

Seungkwan: Thank you!

Hansol: I think that my roommate is somebody’s soulmate… Soonyoung? Mingyu? Up for lunch at two?

“Minghao…?” Mingyu’s hands are shaking as he reads Hansol’s message, then rereads it.

His palms feel sweaty and his throat feels tight. What are the chances? They are way too slim for this to be real. There’s… no way. He breathes in, counts to ten, exhales. “Minghao…?” He repeats, but more anxiously. His voice trembles and Minghao senses the change in the mood.

“Call you after class,” he says quickly. “Mingyu needs me.” He hangs up his phone and climbs down from his bed. “Hey, hey… what’s up?” He catches a glimpse of Mingyu’s phone screen before Mingyu is shoving it towards him.

He reads the messages, scrolling slowly, then… “Oh,” he his bottom lip into his mouth. “Could it be?”

“It couldn’t be,” Mingyu responds. “How could it be?”

Minghao shrugs, passing Mingyu’s phone back to him. “Man…”

“My soulmate was thinking about Hansol last night… I thought it was just… me being weird, but… what if…” Mingyu cannot finish his thought. Anxiety pools deep in his stomach. He feels restless suddenly, crossing the room to brew coffee with tremors in his hands. Minghao watches him closely, then lets out a laugh.

“This is good, Mingyu! You’ve wanted this for so long! There are people who never have met their soulmates; people that never will!” Minghao claps his hands against Mingyu’s shoulders supportingly.

He’s right, but the prospect of finally meeting his soulmate gives him an incredible form of anticipation and anxiety. It makes him feel as though he’s on autopilot, or that his body is not truly his own. There is too many factors that he has to consider. When it all comes down to it, Mingyu doesn’t know much about his soulmate. He knows pieces that he’s gathered throughout the many years that they’ve spent together, but apart. He wonders if he’ll even recognize him when he sees him, when he hears him. He exhales shakily. Minghao takes over the coffee making activity.

“So… lunch?” Minghao lifts an eyebrow.

Mingyu makes a strangled noise. “Class until three…”

“Hansol has class at three, oh man…” Minghao chews on his lip, trying to focus on both issues at hand. The coffee is coming together better than Mingyu is. “Maybe, huh. I know we can all have lunch together tomorrow. We always do on Thursday. If that falls through then… there’s the weekend… Junhui is coming up then too.”

This is news to Mingyu, who snaps out his stupor so that he can stare at his best friend. “What?” He says, sounding surprised, which is the wrong reaction to have because Minghao looks like he’s about to shut down. “I mean, I didn’t know about this. You didn’t tell me…”

“I didn’t want it to be a… thing, you know?” He shrugs, letting the coffee heat up, walking away from it for the moment. “I thought if I didn’t really talk about it, no one would really… get all hyped for it.”

“Damn, Minghao, it’s Wednesday. He’ll be up here soon enough.” Mingyu comments. “Doesn’t that terrify you?” It shocks Mingyu down to his core. All of his friends are meeting their soulmates. He feels strangely odd about it all. It feels like everything, yet nothing, is changing.

Minghao’s voice is quiet as it usually is when he talks about Junhui. “Nothing about him terrifies me. I can’t stop looking forward to seeing him again. Everyday is moving too slow.”

Oh, Mingyu thinks.

He feels his insides churn uncomfortable after he hears Minghao’s answer. The sureness of his voice and the honesty of it makes Mingyu feel hotheaded, resentful. He no longer can look at his friend, so he looks around the room. He looks at anything that isn’t Minghao, who he fears is the sole reason for this anger. It’s red hot, uncomfortable. In terms of anger, Mingyu is level-headed. Anger has never been his go to, instead it was annoyance, but his hands are still trembling and his teeth are clenched. He wants to silence Minghao, but it he was the one who had posed the question. Minghao had just been answering it, showing his true feelings towards a man who he’s met and he hopes to be with.

Oh, Mingyu thinks again.

He’s not angry. He’s jealous.

--

“Oh,” Joshua’s eyes open immediately from underneath the spray of hot water.

The thoughts belonging to his soulmate often were boring (in a sort of way). The other boy usually only thought back on good parts of the day. When he had bursts of other emotions, it was always in a spur-of-the-moment moment. The anger in his thoughts comes as a shock to Joshua, who pulls away from the hot water. He had burdened his soulmate with his dark thoughts, but his had tried to never weigh his shoulders down with any ill feelings. Why now? Joshua ponders, stepping out of the shower.

He gets dressed and meets Hansol in the hallway as he’s pulling on a cardigan. “Hey,” Hansol nods. “What’s up? When’s your first class…? Maybe we can walk together, I can show you around since you are new and everything.” The offer is delivered politely and Joshua doesn’t decline it. He doubts he could if he wanted to, simply because he has no idea what to expect once he leaves this place.

“I don’t have class until noon.” He answers lowly, trying to hide his anxiety by folding his hands.

Hansol nods, a grin overtaking his features. “Cool, awesome, we can walk together then.”

Just as Hansol is about to leave, Joshua reaches out to catch his shoulder, switching to English. “Can I speak to you about something? I figure since you’ve met your soulmate, you might be able to calm my nerves.” The look that Hansol responds with is full of confusion. His grin turns silly as he quirks his eyebrows, trying to disengage the awkward, lengthy eye contact between them.

“Sure…?” He sounds unsure, catching Joshua off-guard. “Did Seungkwan tell you about this?”

“Um…” Joshua chews on his lip, suddenly feeling nervous. “I just figured… this morning…” Hansol still isn’t catching on, so he just says it. “Seungkwan and you? I thought you might be soulmates. I have a friend back home who found his soulmate and they act that cheesy together, so I just… assumed, I’m so sorry.” He bows his head.

Hansol actually laughs. “Seungkwan? Nah,” he shakes his head. “He still hears his soulmate, but I have met mine. I just… can’t find them. I know they are on campus somewhere.” He makes an uncomfortable noise that sticks to the back of his throat. Joshua has just reminded him that he has thousands of voices to go through and a timeline to continue mapping. “It’s okay that you mistook us as soulmates though. It isn’t like it is the first time someone’s done that to us.”

Silence settles over them. Joshua appears as though he wishes he could melt through the floor and disappear from time forever. Hansol does not know how to remedy that expression. He shifts his weight, unsure and hesitant.

Then he realizes that Joshua’s never really asked him whatever he wanted to. “Oh, so… what was it that you wanted to know?” Hansol asks, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “I might not be loads of help anymore, but I could try.”

“Did you ever get anxious about meeting them? Like… so anxious you couldn’t calm down no matter how hard you tried?” He asks, tangling and untangling his fingers together. Hansol purses his lips in thought, gaze lifting up to the ceiling as he thinks. Joshua doesn’t know how he should feel, but he knows that his friend, Jeonghan had never been nervous about it. It’s inevitable, he had said. If you get to meet them, that is… it’s inevitable.

Hansol laughs, showing his teeth as he shakes his head. “I was a little, but it’s been a year since I’ve met my soulmate. The day I met him, I didn’t even realize it until the next morning when I wasn’t hearing his thoughts any longer. It’s really hard to chase back that day…” He rubs the back of his neck, turning away from Joshua to grab his backpack off the coat rack. “...anyways, I think it’s nervous to be anxious. I’m also not trying to say that I definitely know your soulmate, but I think I should introduce you to these two idiots who haven’t met their soulmates. It could just be someone in one of my classes and they caught on that you were thinking about me.”

A shrug.

Joshua wishes that he could shrug in this situation.

“Oh, but none of them can do lunch at two. So, how about dinner at five?”

--

Soonyoung: I have dance practice at five! Minghao and Chan too…

Mingyu: I’m free, but it might be awkward having the dinner without everyone.

Seungkwan: We oould just wait until tomorrow.

Hansol: Nope, Joshua’s got a class at our dinner time and a meeting at our lunch time.

“,” Mingyu curses.

Chan looks up at him, eyes wide. “What’s up?”

He shakes his head, trying to minimize the problem. “It’s nothing. We just can’t meet Joshua today or tomorrow. We’ll have to wait until Friday.”

“That’s only two days away,” Chan reasons. “...or you can just go meet him without all of us there holding your hands. You are an adult, Mingyu. Either he’s your soulmate or he’s not. I’d just say go for it. Minghao doesn’t have to be there to cheer you on.”

Chan’s not wrong.

This is his soulmate in question. Mingyu cuts out of his line, rushing towards the exit of the cafeteria. Chan waves to him, seemingly both confused and excited, but not hurt by his friend’s early departure. I owe him, Mingyu thinks, especially considering everyone else cancelled on him for breakfast since they either wanted to sleep in or had class.

When he leaves, he realizes that he has no clue what his soulmate looks like. Hansol never described him, but he was never required to do that. Mingyu sighs, running his hands through his hair as he tries to reason with himself where Hansol’s classes might be. There’s no building designated for film classes, so he moves on to wonder whether or not he might be in the telecommunications building. Do I have time to look for him? He glances at the clock tower. With twenty minutes to class and his building nearer to the cafeteria that Chan and he were eating within, it would not be a rational idea.

He runs his hands through his hair, watching the bustling of students going from building to building. There’s nothing he can do right now. He should have known that. He should not have just walked out of the cafeteria when he had no plan to back up his spontaneous, yet romantic, move. He continues glancing around, hoping to see a similar face within the crowd. Even if he found his soulmate, they still have to meet before he’ll know for sure.

He wishes that he had pamphlets to hand out. At least he wouldn’t seem so awkward.

With his height, he towers over the other students around him.

--

“Jeonghan, I’m telling you… I think my soulmate is here.” Joshua says into his cell phone. Hansol had left him, saying that his class was nestled within the rather large telecommunications building. Joshua had to go to the arts and humanities building in order to find his class. He walks around aimlessly, paying more attention to Jeonghan and using the library as a landmark that tells him where he’s located.

He hears Jeonghan inhale. It feels like forever has past before he’s exhaled. “Really?” He asks, voice skeptical. “What are the chances, Joshie? You move exactly where your soulmate lives?’

He shrugs in response. “Seungcheol did just that. He said there was a pull, or something.”

“Maybe,” Jeonghan chuckles. “Maybe he’s just trying to be an emotional, old romantic.”

Joshua laughs too. It is light and airy. He feels like he might suffocate if he keeps talking about possibly meeting his soulmate. “Maybe…” He says, “...but hey, I’m almost at my building, so I’ll switch to texting you.”

Jeonghan and him bid each other good days, hanging up the call.

--

Mingyu gives up. There’s no way of even knowing if his soulmate will take this path to his class.

Shaking his head, he decides to just head to class. It doesn’t matter if he gets there early with an empty stomach. He’ll just make a detour to the vending machine so that he doesn’t disturb his class with rumbling from his stomach. “Fine,” he agrees with the more rational part of himself. He pushes off of the tree that he was leaning on.

A book falls out of his backpack, plopping to the floor unceremoniously. He doesn’t even notice until there’s a hand at the back of his arm, “I think you dropped this.”

His heart falls through to his feet, then bounces back up to his chest. It pounds out a thunderous, painful beat. It feels as though it’s on its back-up generator now, but it’s overworking itself, so it’ll eventually die out. He gulps, turning around too slowly. He knows that his mind will echo later, void of his sweet voice, of his gentle humming, his melodious singing.

All of it will be given up for this moment.

Mingyu turns around. “Thanks,” he swallows.

Realization collects on his company’s face. “Thanks,” he echoes meaninglessly. Maybe it’s not even meant for Mingyu. Perhaps he’s thanking some higher power for allowing this meeting.

His chest rises and falls. He doesn’t let go of the book or Mingyu’s arm. Both of their mouths feel dry, like a desert plain. There are no words that either of them can come up with in order to move past this moment. Mingyu thinks that if it weren’t so awkward, then he’d live in this moment forever. His soulmate’s smooth, petite features are handsome and stupidly endearing.

“I’m Mingyu,” he his lips, trying to dry them to no avail.

“Joshua,” he confirms that he’s Hansol’s roommate. “It’s… so nice to meet you.”

Mingyu’s chest feels tight. He thinks that he might cry. It feels ridiculously silly. “It’s nice to meet you too.” He finally takes his book from Joshua, also finally looking away from him to take his backpack off in order to replace his book and successfully, fully zip his pack up. “It’s going to be lonely in class now… without you.” He says. It sounds absolutely embarrassing to say it aloud, but Joshua seems to think otherwise as his complexion slowly changes from pink to red.

“We’re going to be late,” Joshua whispers, hand removing itself from Mingyu’s arm. His fingertips brush against his skin, following the length of his arm down to his hand where Joshua seems to remember himself and snaps away from Mingyu. “It’s my… first day of classes.”

Mingyu quirks an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t officially start until next week?”

The air is thin around them, so thin that Joshua feels like he’s suffocating. He doesn’t understand how everyone else around him is breathing so easily. It seems impossible for him to draw in breath and hold it. Mingyu’s charming smile is hanging there.

Joshua doesn’t know what to say, but he knows what he wants to say. “So…?” He sounds winded, but he’s trying to seem charming.

Mingyu raises an eyebrow. “I can’t just walk away from you,” he admits, painfully shy in deliverance as the smug, flirtatious look is wiped off his face. He’s soft, too soft to try to flirt Joshua out of going to class. Honesty drips from his lips instead. “I’ve been waiting years for this.”

“Me too…” Joshua whispers, pulling his gaze away from him. “But we’re going to have to wait a couple more hours too. I can’t skip class after emailing all my professors to let them know I got in early.” It’s hard for him to say no to Mingyu, but not because he wants to say no, but because he knows that he has to say no. “It’s my only class today.”

“Lunch?” Mingyu asks and it almost sounds like a plea. “Does three work?”

Joshua nods, then he’s hurrying away from Mingyu without even setting up where to meet.

Mingyu cannot help but to smile to himself as he heads to class.