“Hoseok…” Yoongi said carefully, his voice quivering a little. “Don’t with me.” He wasn’t sure what he was hoping for in response, but he knew that he needed clarification here. Why was Hoseok so sure they were soulmates? The two of them had barely spoken before, and he hadn’t said anything about not having a soulmate mark to the boy, either. Had he missed something? Secretly, he prayed this wasn’t some awful way of making fun of him for having no soulmate.

And if he’s telling the truth…? What does that mean? Things don’t automatically go perfect after finding your soulmate, after all.

“I’m not! I can prove it!” Hoseok leapt up, wobbling on his feet still as he dragged Yoongi out of the alcove. Yoongi’s lips parted in surprise as he felt the jolt of electricity that shot through him, the source being the very spot where Hoseok’s hand was around his. Yoongi, not drunk but definitely tipsy enough to not feel too secure of his footing, leaned heavily against the wall where Hoseok pushed him. The bathroom was tiny, and there was a large stained mirror over the sink where he could see Hoseok’s back and himself reflected. Hoseok’s face was drawn in tight lines that didn’t really suit the boy he’d been getting to know that evening. Why did his face look so different, depending on the emotions he was conveying? He almost looked like a different person entirely, now. Dark Hoseok and Light Hoseok. The realms of day and night. Two different worlds coming from two opposite poles…

“So?” Yoongi snapped, not accustomed to the intimacy that came with being in such a small toilet with someone else. Especially not someone staring down at him the way Dark Hoseok was.

He didn’t know what he expected. Coercion, blackmail, desperate pleas, lies. But the last thing he expected was for Hoseok to turn around and yank his jeans and boxers down, baring his to Yoongi. The grey-haired boy gave a shout of surprise, holding up his hands defensively, but Hoseok only glared at him, pointing. After a moment’s hesitation, Yoongi looked.

Right above Hoseok’s , written in curvy script and looking for all the world like the world’s trashiest tramp stamp, was the name Min Yoongi.

“No..” he breathed, his face flushing bright crimson. Dark Hoseok continued to give him a rebuking stare, walking over and indicating with one finger for Yoongi to turn around. He did so, his palms sweating as Hoseok pulled up his jacket and tugged down the hem of his pants to look. There was a moment of silence, and he heard Hoseok chuckle.

“I told you I could prove it.”

“No ing way.” Yoongi snapped, his voice a deep hiss. “There is no ing way.”

“See for yourself, hot-shot.” Hoseok stepped to the side, holding the clothing apart and letting Yoongi look at his reflection in the mirror. He had to twist around painfully to see it, but it was there, all the same, in those same lame-looking curved letters. Jung Hoseok. He had a tattoo of his soulmate’s name that had been hidden right above his for the last three years, and he’d never noticed it. He’d practically been sitting on his one sign of a soulmate.

“What the actual ?!” He cried out, groaning and leaning against the wall in disbelief.

“If you think that’s bad…” Hoseok chuckled, “Imagine finding out in the middle of losing your ity.” Yoongi looked up, and Hoseok shrugged. At least he wasn’t alone in his suffering, he supposed. But even then, it didn’t seem like much of a positive point. “He thought it was a turn-off. How did you not know?”

“I’m not exactly an -bearing kind of guy,” was the only excuse Yoongi could give, and he sighed. He looked up again at Hoseok to see a different expression on his face now, one that Yoongi couldn’t read. This didn’t seem to be Dark Hoseok, with his glares and embarrassing tramp stamp reveals, but it wasn’t the Light Hoseok who smiled at everyone at the table and burned of his own brightness. This was a third, and as of yet mysterious, Hoseok.

“So…?” Hoseok began.

“So?” The retort was given with an attempt at nonchalance.

A curious smile was playing at the edge of Hoseok’s lips. Yoongi felt his stomach drop quite suddenly, and he leaned back against the bathroom wall, swallowing. The closeness of Hoseok was overwhelming on its own, but mixed with the warmth of the alcohol still burning through him and the feel of Hoseok’s breath against his neck as the boy actually leaned down into the little space between Yoongi’s shoulder and his neck, and Yoongi felt his whole body tense up. His breath hitched, and it was as if he could no longer see straight, too distracted as he was by other sensations ripping through him.

“W-what..?” Yoongi tried to will his legs to stop shaking.

“So, we’re getting out of here.” It wasn’t a question, or even a suggestion, really. And before Yoongi knew it he was being dragged away again by the wrist. The fact that Hoseok’s steps were steady and not the faltering stumbles of a few minutes ago was not lost on Min Yoongi, who wondered just how fast a body could sober up.

The cold night air stung at his cheeks as they made their way across campus. They hadn’t stopped and gotten their jackets, so Yoongi was shivering pretty quickly. Hoseok asked him what dorm he was in, and before they knew it he was pulling his keys out of his pocket and shoving them into the door of his and Jin’s dorm room, his hands shaking and his skin very aware of the heat emanating off of Hoseok, who was leaning into his back.

What am I even doing? We practically just met. Yoongi’s mind was screaming at him, as they both stumbled over the threshold, kicking off their shoes in the entryway. Yoongi moved to step up into the main part of the house, when suddenly he was tackled to the ground from behind by warm arms, pushing a grunt of air out of his lungs. They were entangled on the entryway floor, and Hoseok had his hands in a death grip around Yoongi’s waist. The grey-haired boy jolted up into a sitting position, preparing to shove Hoseok away, when he noticed Hoseok was sniffling into his shirt.

“I was afraid you hated me.”

Yoongi sighed, staring down at the top of his head. “Look, Hoseok, I’m sorry, but... I’m just not good at this romance thing. It would probably be better if we didn’t.” Hoseok’s face turned up towards his, the boy giving a confused blink. “I...I mean, I’m just good at making music. That’s my thing. And I’d already given up hope for a soulmate, you know? So...I would just end up hurting you.”

“But we’re soulmates,” Hoseok pointed out.

“So? That doesn’t guarantee anything.”

“Perhaps…” Hoseok mused, pausing as if needed a moment to soak his words before speaking again. “With soulmates, there’s always a chance it won’t work out. I’m okay with that. But if you don’t even give me a chance to try, you’re guaranteeing it won’t work out.”

Yoongi paused. That sounded like a pretty good argument, all things considered. He flipped the idea over in his mind, then let out a sigh. He supposed he had nothing to lose. Even his expectations of what his soulmate might be had been completely vanquished over the years, so it could only be better than expected, right? “Okay...but if--”

His words were clipped off by Hoseok’s lips pressing to his own, hands planted on the ground on either side of Yoongi, forcing him to lean back. For the first few moments all Yoongi could think was about how weird it was, their faces squished up against each other awkwardly. Then, he could only think about how warm Hoseok felt, and the temperature difference between them a sharp contrast even though they had both just been outside. So that he wouldn’t fall, he reached up to take a hold of Hoseok’s shirt, and somehow ended up with his arm s around the boy’s shoulder. Hoseok continued moving forward, slowly lowering Yoongi until he was gently laid against the polished wood floor. When the back of his neck touched the cold tile, Yoongi let in a sharp inhale, making Hoseok deepen the kiss, and Yoongi gasped, pushing Hoseok back a little.

“Hey,” he snarled, breathless but putting as much bite into his voice as possible. “Don’t treat me like I'm the girl here.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Hoseok laughed. But somehow he took the hint anyways, not pushing for another kiss, but laying his cheek against Yoongi’s chest and staying very still. They didn’t move for a long time, just laying like that.

Yoongi blinked. This is weird, right? This isn’t normally how relationships start, lying in the entryway when we’re not even drunk anymore. He allowed several minutes to pass before he said anything. “Hoseok, my back hurts like this,” he complained.

“Okay,” Hoseok hummed, jumping up. Yoongi moved to follow, when suddenly he heard Hoseok give a grunt, and felt himself being lifted up.

“Holy ! What are you doing?” Yoongi cried, his hands clenching into fists around Hoseok’s shirt. The boy had lifted him up princess style, laughing as he carried him over to Yoongi’s bed. Having himself pushed up against Hoseok instead of the other way around, he felt suddenly much smaller in comparison. Hoseok’s chest was pretty wide and warm, but he was still skinny, and Yoongi could have sworn he could only feel muscle and bone against his shoulder. But Hoseok’s arms were steady, and when he chanced a look up, he felt his chest constrict with how unexpectedly close their faces were. Hoseok’s lips were parted in a smile, bright perfect teeth gleaming and the slight tilt of his nose seeming to hint demurely towards the playful, boyish nature of its owner. This is Light Hoseok.

“Hoseok, if you drop me I swear--” He almost choked on his own tongue as he was dropped unceremoniously on the mattress, Hoseok tumbling up after him and re-creating their previous position. Yoongi didn’t know what to do, so he just wriggled into a more comfortable position and let it happen. “You’re awful touchy, aren’t you?”

“Yes!” Hoseok gave a smirk, stretching out over Yoongi’s chest. His hands landed somewhere around his waistline, and Yoongi felt the boy’s fingers tapping at the fabric there in anticipation. “Well, I’m touchy enough on my own, but...to be honest, when I touch you it feels like some kind of electric shock, but nicer. So it’s kind of your fault.”

“Oh?” He had meant to sound more skeptical, but with the tone he gave Hoseok glanced up and arched an incredulous eyebrow at him.

“You can feel it too, can’t you?” Hoseok queried. Yoongi didn’t respond, just cleared his throat, and Hoseok beamed. His itchy fingers slipped underneath Yoongi’s T-shirt, brushing up against the skin there, and Yoongi jolted in surprise. Hoseok laughed, looking really pleased with himself as he nuzzled his face up underneath Yoongi’s chin. “That’s a relief.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound very confident, considering just a while ago you were telling me you’d be ‘the best damn loving soulmate I never had,’” Yoongi chuckled.

“I wasn’t lying when I said you were my soulmate, and I wasn’t lying when I said I’d be the best,” Hoseok pouted, giving a little whiny sound before tilting his face to kiss Yoongi’s neck.

~~

Seokjin sat alone in the restaurant, staring at the doorway in total shock. Just a few minutes before, he had been surrounded by friends and had been having a grand time. Now, he felt like someone had just jabbed a stake through his chest and he’d been left for dead by his closest friends.

What the hell?! Did he really just--?

Jungkook had bolted. They had touched and it had felt like the best, strangest feeling Jin had ever had, and he knew that that meant something. For a long moment, he had been confused as far as to what, but then at the look on Jungkook’s face, he had realized it with a start. The boy had been looking at him strangely all night. He had refused to remove his big hoodie, even after everyone else had taken off their jackets (Jin had worn a sweater, himself).

He had barely spoken the entire evening, and he had just showed up out of seemingly nowhere.Just like someone else I know.

Jungkook had known. And once Jin had found out, he had raced for the door, knocking things over and dropping his cell phone in the process. This isn’t the time to play Cinderella, kid. I’m not Chad Michael Murray.

Jin shoved the heels of his hands into his eyes, threw back his head and groaned. Jungkook was just a kid. He was still in high school, for God’s sakes.

“Jin?” came a voice. He looked up and blinked through the blotches of purple and green in his vision to see Jimin coming back into the alcove. Taehyung on his arm looked tired but considerably sobered up. “Where’s everybody else?”

In response, Jin just laughed. He threw his head back and just guffawed, and he felt like crying. “I just met my soulmate.”

Taehyung gasped, his eyes widening. “You what?! When? Who?”

Meanwhile, Jimin didn’t look surprised. He let out a sigh and smiled. “Well, finally. Where is he?”

That was when Jin’s face contorted into a strange grimace. “He ran away from me.”

They both stared at him for a beat, not quite comprehending. “He what?” Taehyung mumbled.

“He ran away from me! I finally get to meet him and the first thing he does is race out of here like I was throwing fireballs at him!” He fell back against the wall, slumping in his seat and allowing himself a childish whimper. “He hates me.”

“No, he doesn’t hate you,” Jimin promised, patting him on the shoulder. “Jungkook is just...shy, I guess?”

“Your soulmate is Jeon Jungkook?!” Taehyung screamed, making several heads in the restaurant glance their way. The boy’s face, though it was still pale from getting sick, instantly brightened as he laughed openly. “Oh my god! Jin, you’re a cougar!”

“I am not!” Jin snapped back, his voice breaking. He looked down at his hands on the table, trying to blink back tears. “But either way, it doesn’t matter… because he does hate me.” Jin pulled back his sweater sleeves, making the other two boys lean in to curiously stare at the plethora of drawings and notes him and Jungkook had shared. “He didn’t want to tell me about himself. I thought it was because he needed time, but… I guess he knew who I was and thought it would be creepy, and I should have taken the hint.” Jin sighed, trying to steady his quivering lip.

“I finally get a soulmate, and he doesn’t want me…”

“Jin…” Jimin murmured, his voice faltering as he tried to give him a reassuring touch on the shoulder.

The older boy merely brushed him off, standing up and giving Taehyung enough money to cover everyone’s food and drinks for the night. “I’m just gonna go home. Make sure you message me when you get back safe, alright?” He smiled down at their worried frowns, and ruffled their hair before pulling his jacket on and leaving.

It was freezing outside. The kind of chilly dampness that felt like there should have been snow falling, but none was forthcoming. He told himself he was only allowed to cry when he was hidden underneath the covers on his bed, and only then. The varying colors of the city illuminated his path, and the bustle of night vendors made his pace slow. He considered getting something to eat from one of the street vendors, but realized with a sinking heart that for once in his life, he wasn’t hungry at all.

It’ll be okay. Just a week or so ago I was sure I didn’t have a soulmate at all, so it should be easy to just accept that I might as well not have one. Even though I know he exists, and that it’s because it didn’t work out.

He was relieved when he finally came to the doorway to the dorm, turning his key in the lock but finding it was already open. Jin stepped into the entryway and kicked off his shoes, his head still fighting off his buzz and his emotional roller coaster of an evening. He reached to flick on the light, and then instantly jumped nearly a foot off the ground as he was met with the sight of both Hoseok and Yoongi on the boy’s bed. Hoseok was lying on top of Yoongi, whose shirt pulled up and tucked beneath his underarms. At Jin’s entry they both jumped, too, and scrambled into sitting positions, as if to somehow magically hide what they had just been doing.

“Jin!” Hoseok gasped, sitting up and immediately turning red.

“Oh my god,” Jin blinked, and felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head. “U-um...I’m sorry for interrupting, I had no idea you were here…” He paused, looking between the two of them. He thanked whatever powers that were above that both of them still seemed to be mostly clothed. But he needed to get out of there, and fast. “I’m… I’m just gonna go for now, then? Um. Don’t mind me.”

“No, wait, you don’t have to go,” Yoongi’s tone was full of apology, awkwardness, and (worst of all) pity.

Jin pasted on a smile for his best friend, letting out a little scoff sound as he slipped his shoes back on. “As if. But it looks like we need to come up with a warning system. For the future, of course. I’ll see you guys later.”

They both gave him little awkward waves, and Jin was back out in the cold again. Now that he was free of the embarrassing moment, he allowed himself to feel a little justifiably bitter. Where was he supposed to go now? He couldn’t go back to the restaurant, and he couldn’t go to Jimin’s. The library was closed. So he ended up on a bench near the river, huddled up in his jacket and feeling sorry for himself. Who even knew if Hoseok was going to stay the night? Would he have to find someplace else to sleep? This wasn’t something either him or Yoongi had prepared for, since it hadn’t been an issue. And Jin realized that, now that Yoongi had found his soulmate, it was going to happen again in the future. Looks like we won't need to deal with Yoongi's offer for us to 'hang out' in the case of us not having soulmates after all.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed. Then, he realized there was something shoved into his pocket. He pulled it out and realized he’d accidentally taken Jungkook’s abandoned phone with him. He would have to pass it along to Jimin tomorrow.

Jin stared at the phone for a long moment, smiling a little at the cracks all across the corners of the screen. It seemed it wasn’t the first time he’d dropped it, and the phone showed notable damages despite the Iron Man case it was in. A shaky breath escaped Jin as he placed a hand on his pained chest, swallowing down the feeling as much as he could. Out of temptation, he clicked the sleep button to see what the lock screen image would be, and it was a photo of a sunset. He wondered if Jungkook had taken the photo himself. He wanted to ask, but even just thinking about it was painful and made him feel guilty.

It’s not like I haven’t dealt with being rejected before, but it hurts a lot more this time, somehow. Buck up, Jin. It’s not cool to mope, and it’s not in your nature anyways.

The Mario theme started to sing out from his pocket, so he pulled out his phone, his brow furrowed at the caller id.

“Hello?”

“Where are you?” Jimin asked, and he sounded breathless.

“Um..” He didn’t want to worry the boy, so he decided to give a sort-of lie. “I’m on my way home?”

“Yeah, but where are you?”

“I’m at the river, down near the library…?” Why did Jimin sound like he was running? And he heard Jimin telling someone else where he was at - probably Taehyung.

“You have Jungkook’s phone, right?”

Jin winced, taking a slow breath before answering. “Um. Yeah. Do you want me to bring it to you tomorrow?”

“No need.” And Jimin hung up.

He stared at his phone for a long moment, confused. What an irritating dongsaeng.