Minho sat beside Jinki at the study table, a heavy hoodie concealing most of his upper body, to the point where he was almost sweating. He knew he would have been fine in a long sleeved shirt for indoor wear, but with how crappy he was still feeling, he didn’t feel like anything less than bundling up. Jinki’s outfit, on the other hand, was a stark contrast, just a thin tshirt.

“Aren’t you cold?” Minho asked.

“What?” Jinki shifted slightly in his chair, running one hand through his hair. “Oh, uh, no, actually. I ran a lot, earlier, and I’m kinda naturally hot temperatured… I sweat pretty easily.

“Oh… do you work out?” The way Jinki’s biceps looked, they rivaled Minho’s own. He knew Jinki swam for his University, but he wasn’t sure that it would get the results he was currently looking at.

“Yeah. I swim already, which is pretty physical, you know, but I go to the gym, too. Probably a couple times a week.”

“Oh…”

“Why?”

Minho faultered. Good question. “No reason. I’ve just never really noticed your arms, I guess.”

Jinki smiled. “Oh, yeah, I usually wear long sleeves. Almost always, in fact.” He stretched his arms out in front of him, and then above his head before dropping them back to the table.

“Why aren’t you now?”

Jinki shrugged. “I don’t need to, anymore.”

A couple minutes pass quietly while they worked on a few math problems separately. Minho finishes a particularly annoying problem and slides it over for Jinki to check. He notices Jinki’s arm. Where his countdown should be was just the faintest glow of numbers.

Jinki spoke as he skimmed over the younger’s work, pencil in hand to mark the places that needed correction or extra work. “Hey, wasn’t your birthday the other day?”

Minho distractedly played with his pencil on the desk, a nervous habit he had acquired in the past few days. He’d spent a lot of time going over what he’d say if anyone brought up his birthday, or countdown. “What? Oh, yeah, it was Saturday. My family threw a little party. Just us and Kibum’s family. Pretty small and informal. There was cake. Ya know, just something little.” The words came out quietly, and a little too fast. Minho hoped they didn’t sound rehearsed.

“Didn’t you say a couple months ago that your family is really into countdowns? Right? It was your 18^th birthday, right?”

Minho swallowed thickly. “Well, yeah, usually. But I asked to keep it simple. It was no big deal.”

Jinki fell silent, the tension heavy in the air. Minho hoped that was it, that they were done talking about it and he could relax. But it was never that easy.

“So… you got your countdown now, huh?”

Minho glanced at him sideways and shrugged slightly. It was weird for him to be acting like this in front of Jinki. It was weird for him to be acting like this at all.

Since Minho didn’t really respond, JInki spoke again.

“I remember when I got my countdown. I remember looking at it exactly when it was supposed to show up, because….” He trailed off for a moment. “Anyway, it showed up and I’ll always remember the exact numbers it said that first moment. 1 day, 12 hours, 53 minutes and 27 seconds. I can’t really describe what I felt in that moment. A lot of stuff, I guess.” He leaned back in his chair, resting his head against the back and staring up at the ceiling. His hands casually fell into his lap, his forearm that held the countdown numbers facing up, and lightly played with his fingers. Minho’s eyes rested on those numbers, staring without meaning to, before he caught himself and hastily looked back to his book in front of him. He thought he saw JInki smile slightly to himself, but there was no way he was checking.

“I moved here the next day, and the day after that started school here.” He sighed, slightly overdramatically, and leaned forward again, placing his arms on the table, his left one touching Minho’s slightly. Minho stiffened, not expecting this sudden opening of of his friend, nor the close contact. He was pretty sure Jinki had been lying about being hot today. His arm was cold, but of course he was. It was the middle of December and he was wearing a t-shirt in a drafty study room.

Minho didn’t say anything. He pulled his book toward him and began working on more problems, ones he didn’t really need to be doing, just to occupy himself. Jinki’s arm touching him was really throwing him off. Jinki had never been one to be super touchy before. And all this talk about his countdown made him extremely nervous. What if he asked Minho to show him? It would be really out of character for Minho to not oblige, not that Minho noticed that he was already acting out of character. He was also ashamed. As much as the younger boy wanted to believe Kibum, he was terrified. How was he supposed to find his soulmate if they’d already met? Was he supposed to go around asking everyone in school if they had their countdowns yet and if they were his soulmate? What if they were younger than him and theirs hadn’t shown up yet? What if it were someone he’d known from elementary school? Not a lot of the kids he went to school with then had chosen the same high school as him. Why was this soulmate thing so complicated? And why was Jinki so insistent on talking about his like that? He was lucky his numbers had said anything at all! He probably just wanted to talk about it because he was excited that he’d just met his soulmate in the last 48 hours, judging by the fadi….

“Wait….” Minho’s voice was too loud, causing Jinki to jump beside him, almost knocking his pencil case to the floor. Jinki looked at him, confusion coloring his face.

“You said your countdown said… 1 day, 12 hours…. 33…”

“53 minutes, and 27 seconds, yeah.” Jinki continued to stare at him, now looking completely unperturbed.

“Then what is this?” Minho grabbed Jinki’s arm, holding it up at eye level, and pointed at the numbers, faded red, but still lightly glowing “00:00:00:00”

Jinki ran his eyes over his numbers, drifting back to meet Minho’s once more. “What about it?”

Jinki acting all cool was making Minho nervous again. He dropped both Jinki’s arm and his gaze simultaneously, and withdrew a little again. Maybe it was none of his business. But Jinki seemed to have caught on to his actions and spoke again.

“Why is it all zeros if my countdown ended 2 years ago? Well, apparently, and I didn’t know this would happen, but when your countdown ends before your soulmate’s appears, and when theirs does finally end, yours shows back up, the same way it did the first time it ended. But there wasn’t any of that burning feeling or anything that happens when they end at soulmate meetings. It just showed back up while I was in the shower.” Jinki held his own arm up to his face, examining the number and rubbing where they were marking his skin.

“Oh.” Minho spoke quietly. It must be nice to know who your soulmate is. He could feel himself being a little bitter internally and pushed that away. There was no reason to be rude, when it wasn’t Jinki’s fault he was just luckier. He his lips. “So have you seen them since…?”

“Yep.”

“How did they know it was you?”

“Oh, they don’t. Not yet, anyway. But they’ll know really soon.”

Minho felt a bit braver, now that it seemed like the conversation was steering away from himself. “What do they look like?”

“Really nice! I’m certainly please!”

“Do I know them?”

“I’m pretty sure everyone here knows them,” Jinki said with a chuckle.

Minho wasn’t sure if he was really trying to figure out who it was just out of curiosity or as a change of subject, but now that Jinki seemed to have made this into a puzzle for him to solve, he was invested. Nothing Jinki was saying was really giving Minho the necessary information, which was becoming frustrating. Minho poked the older boy in the side. “Just tell me who it is.”

“It’s not that hard. Ask the right questions.”

“How did I know you were going to say that?”

“Because I’ve been your tutor for the last year and a half.”

Minho bit his lip and thought, turning towards the window and staring out it absentmindedly. “How did you meet?”

Jinki smiled widely. “On my first day here, I tripped up the stairs outside and hit my shin really hard.”

“So, you met them when you went to the nurse’s office?”

“No, I met them right after it happened. They came over to check on me.”

Minho’s phone buzzed and as he picked it up to check the text, he said “That’s not fair, at least three people checked on you. I would know.” It was a text from Kibum. He said he’d picked up some coffee for him and to meet him outside. They were pretty much finished here and looking at the time, he realized they’d actually gone over time a bit. “Oh, hey, it’s Kibum. He must have been waiting for a while to actually text me. Do you mind if I go? My early morning class tomorrow was cancelled, so we can get back to this then, if that’s okay with you?”

Jinki looked up at him with a soft, almost amused expression. “Alright, yeah. I’ll see you in the morning, then. Get home safe.”

“Yeah, you too.” Minho smiled his usual warm smile back at his tutor-turned-friend and waved as he headed out the door and down to his best friend.

Kibum stood with his back against the building, two cups of to-go coffee in hand. He sipped one slowly and stared people down over the lid, challenging anyone to say anything to him. None would, of course, it was just a game he liked to play with himself. Most didn’t even notice him standing there. When Minho appeared beside him, he handed the second cup over without even looking.

“It’s still hot!” Minho exclaimed as he took the cup in both hands and inhaled the rich aroma.

“I knew you’d be late today, so I asked they heat it up a little bit more.”

“Thanks!” Minho took a big swig of it and his lips. Perfect, as always. Kibum paid attention to details and never got food or drink orders wrong after watching someone make them the first time. He fell into step beside his friend as they headed towards the bus stop.

“How did you know I was going to be late today?”

Kibum almost tripped, and he did choke on a gulp of his coffee. He came away hacking and trying to catch his breath as Minho whacked him heartily on the back a few times. Once his airway was clear and he could breathe again, he glanced awkwardly at Minho before continuing once more towards the bus stop.

“It just seemed like you would be today… You were with Jinki, right?”

Minho nodded and then said “Yeah. We studied for a little while, but it was really awkward. He was wearing this t-shirt. He has great arms, did you know that? I need to work out more.”

Kibum chuckled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

30 minutes later they were sat on Minho’s living room floor, deeply engrossed in the latest racing game. Minho practically always won, but he knew the only way to get Kibum to play with him was if he made him feel like he was doing well. So Minho had a habit of doing little side missions and such until he knew Kibum as nearly done and then jumping back in and stealing the win. It frustrated Kibum to no end, but it also brought out a rarely seen competitive side in him that Minho relished! Hardly anyone got to see this side of Kibum, as he typically just figured it was easier to drop something than worry about someone else too much. But there is always a plus to being best friends for 15 years; you know things and see sides of each other that no else may ever see.

“Were you guys studying the whole time?” Kibum just threw this out nonchalantly. Minho’s relationship with Jinki was a bit confusing to Kibum. Minho talked about it like it was just some casual friendship, but then would easily spend 3 hours in a study session if Jinki allowed it. They studied a couple times a week typically, so it wasn’t like they were seeing each other constantly, but also not infrequently. Minho had always been fairly guarded about when he liked a person, but he also had admitted to Kibum once that he just saw most people as friends and figured that he was young and would have plenty of time with relationships and stuff later. Kibum wondered if it was because of countdowns, that maybe Minho didn’t feel he had the freedom to pursue just anyone because the countdowns could easily ruin relationships, and often did.

He didn’t even have to mention who he was talking about, Minho responded accurately.

“Not the whole time. And we started late, too.”

“What else did you talk about?”

Minho kept his eyes glued to the screen, continuing to play as he answered.

“He asked about my countdown.”

“And what did you say?”

“Nothing really. I just made it out like it’s no big deal, which it isn’t.

“You’re gonna keep saying that until you believe it, aren’t you?”

Minho faltered, just in time for Kibum to cross the finish line and throw his hands up in the air, touchdown victory style. The older boy placed his controller back into the designated gaming drawer and shouldered his backpack, speaking to Minho without looking at him.

“Good. You should do that. The more you tell yourself something, the more you believe it.” With that, Kibum opened the door and left, heading to his own house and leaving Minho to ponder this new idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That evening, after finishing dinner with his family, Minho decided to text Jinki. He couldn’t stop thinking about Jinki’s arm, and he didn’t really want to wait until morning to figure it out.

                                         “are you busy?”

“No, what’s up?”

                                         “I didn’t wake you did i?”

“Minho, it’s 9:30pm, how old do you 

think I am?”

                                          “sorry”

“It was just a joke. J Did you want

something?”

Minho genuinely didn’t want to seem annoying or nosey. How was he supposed to ask Jinki who his soulmate is without seeming like either of those things? He sighed and scratched the back of his neck before typing again.

                                     “You were telling me about

how you met your soulmate

earlier…”

“Yep. It was 2 years ago.”

                                    “You never actually said if i

know them or not”

“You definitely know them.”

                                    “Are you trying to make me

guess?”

“It’s kind of fun, don’t you think?”

                                    “For who?”

“You don’t want to?”

                                    “No it’s okay. I’ll guess.”

                                    “What were they wearing?”

“… a coat…”

“You really think you could

remember what people were

wearing 2 years ago?”

Minho laughed. Good point, Jinki. That wasn’t a very useful question.

                                     “I remember what you were wearing”

“Oh, really?”

                                     “Yeah, a coat.”

“Ha! Touché!”

                                      “Alright so what happened exactly?”

“I fell and a few people came

to check on me.”

                                      “One of them being your soulmate”

“Yes.”

                                      “What did they do?”

Minho remembered that day, but vaguely. About a year ago, he and Jinki had talked about that day and so he’d gone home and wracked his brain, bringing up little details. Jinki had said he was glad he’d met Minho that day, as any less of a memorable meeting and Minho might not have realized he needed tutoring. Jinki had then laughed, the idea that Minho was only getting tutoring because of Jinki making them both chuckle. Truthfully, if it hadn’t been Jinki, Minho probably wouldn’t have done it, but he’d always felt this sort of soft spot and trust for the older boy. One day after school, Minho had seen Jinki in passing at a food cart and stopped to say hello. After exchanging a few words, he’d mentioned that he had to leave so he could work on extra homework, since he wasn’t doing well in one of his subjects. Jinki had offered to help and here they were today.

But Minho wondered if he could remember what other people had done that day in that moment. He could remember a girl shaking Jinki’s hand as she showed him where exactly his class was. And he had a vague idea that someone had asked Jinki if he was okay before Minho got there and helped him up, but he really wasn’t sure.

His phone dinged and he picked it up to read Jinki’s message.

“He helped me over to a bench and

checked my leg to make sure I

was okay.”

“And then he introduced himself,

pointed out where my homeroom

class would be and waved goodbye

as he walked away.”

“Honestly, it was probably the best

day of my life, up until that point.”

“What?” Minho spoke out loud. “But… I…” His phone dinged again, a new message appearing.

“Minho…”

“What happens to a soulmate whose

already met their partner before

their own countdown appears?”

                                       “It’s just zeros”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

                                       “You knew for 2 years…”

“I’m sorry.”

                                       “I just…”

                                       “Where are you?”

Twenty minutes later, Minho stepped off the bus and turned left, heading towards the convenience store where Jinki had said he had his part time job. He found the older boy outside the building, squatting, with his hands in his pockets, a thick yellow scarf wrapped around his neck. Around his wrist was looped the handles to a small shopping bag. When Minho arrived, Jinki glanced, but he didn’t really move.

“Hey,” Minho spoke, his warm breath visibly leaving his mouth in the cold night air.

Jinki didn’t speak, instead pulling his hand out of his pocket and offering the bag to Minho. He kept his eyes down, trying to avoid eye contact. Minho took the bag, squatting next to his friend. He looped it around his own wrist and pocketed his hands. If Jinki didn’t want to talk, that was fine.

This was the night that Minho learned that Jinki had a much stronger resolve than he himself did. They stayed in that position for 10 minutes before Minho could no longer feel his feet and had to rise. But Minho’s determination never waivered. Instead, he grabbed Jinki by the arm, pulling him to his feet and down the block to the bus stop. Here, part of the wind would be blocked and they could sit on the bench. Minho sat Jinki down before seating himself next to him. He opened the bag and fished out it’s contents. A choco pie. As he held it between his fingers, he asked the question that had been plaguing him since he’d left his house half an hour earlier.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have believed me? 2 years, Minho. You wouldn’t have had proof for 2 years.” Jinki didn’t even raise his head. He almost seemed ashamed.

“I wouldn’t have minded.”

“You didn’t even know me. I was just some new transfer kid. No one knew me.”

They were silent again for a time. Minho dropped the choco pie back into it’s bag, mulling over what the other had said. Jinki wasn’t exactly wrong. Minho hadn’t known him, and if some random guy came up to him one day claiming to be his soulmate when he was 16, he probably wouldn’t have believed him. He wanted to say that he wouldn’t have cared, that he would have tried, that they could have made it work. But that wasn’t how it happened. Instead, Jinki had quietly gotten to know and befriend Minho over the course of that time, proving again and again himself to be kind, compassionate, and dependable. Minho had come to expect time with Jinki, even though honestly the extent of their relationship hadn’t really ventured past tutoring sessions and a few odd rugby games of Minho’s that Jinki had attended. But every time Minho had seen Jinki, he had done better and achieved his goals easier. He really liked Jinki… but in what way?

“I’m glad it’s you.”

When Minho said that, Jinki’s head shot up. He looked at Minho, extreme confusion evident all over his features.

“What?”

Minho turned and smiled at him. “I’m glad it’s you.”

“Wait… you want to… you’d be willing… to have… THAT…. kind of relationship… with me???” Jinki was so far on the edge of his seat now that he was practically standing. His eyebrows were so high that they disappeared completely under his bangs, and Minho had to fight to not laugh at the expression.

“I mean, I’m not ready to jump into anything… romantic, I guess?? But, I already consider us friends. Don’t you?”

“Yesyesyesyes….” Jinki nodded his head furiously, obviously not wanting Minho to think he had any lesser ideas about them. It was kind of a relief to Minho. He thought maybe something was wrong with Jinki… or with himself.

Jinki sighed and thumped back against the wall behind them, running his fingers through his hair and shutting his eyes. His breath was heavy, wafting brightly across the night sky before them. It wasn’t even that late yet, but the traffic had died down a lot in that area already. The dull sound of the city vibrated around them, but generally it was very quiet and they sat that way for a few minutes before Jinki opened his eyes and spoke again.

“I don’t expect anything from you, you know? This whole soulmate meant-to-be thing. It doesn’t happen overnight. I don’t even ever expect it to… get beyond friendship, you know?”

Minho hadn’t expected that. He wasn’t ready for anything romantic yet, but he knew that from what he already knew of Jinki, he wouldn’t expect anything less than himself falling head over heels for this man beside him. Honestly, who wouldn’t?

“I expect it.”

“What?”

“I expect it. I expect the romantic dates and the ridiculously memorable proposal. I want the cute little house with the white picket fence. I want the two kids and the SUV. I want family beach trips and Disney sing-alongs. You got that?”

Jinki’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and his mouth hung open in shock. Minho hid his chuckle behind his hand and bumped his shoulder against the older man’s.

“I’m just kidding. You deserved it.” He stood up, looking down at Jinki and smiling. “But honestly, if we don’t at least try this out, I’ll hate myself forever. Give yourself some credit, you’re an awesome person.”

He offered his hand to Jinki to help him stand up. Jinki, in turn, took it and rose. They stood there for a moment like that, letting it sink in. This was real. Neither was alone. Then, the moment passed. The bus that would take Minho home pulled to a stop before them and they dropped each others hands.

As Minho stepped up to board the bus, he paused and turned to his friend, his soulmate.

“You’re gonna remember that, aren’t you? That stuff I said about the house and kids and stuff.”

Jinki broke out a wide grin, chuckling under his breath as he responded. “Until the day I die.”