-

“Did your timer ever stop for someone?”

    The soft sound of the girl’s breath hitching filled the silence between the two figures. The question was abrupt, but expected. Lungs filled with the brisk night air as she inhaled deeply. Cool breeze ruffling her hair as she looked over at her companion, a glint of sadness evident in her chestnut eyes.

“Yes.”

-

    Neatly displayed on the underside of every person’s wrist were a set of opaque black numbers that would tick away the time that one had left until their fated meeting with their soulmate.

    The timers were a constant reminder. That there was someone waiting for everyone. Someone who would look for you, and were meant for you and only you. But who ever said that if you found the one… that you were the one for them?

    Not every pair’s timers stopped mutually. There were those perfect few who got the happy ending everyone secretly craved. But there always exists those whose souls are slowly chipping away into an abyss of hurt and longing. Their sanity becoming void as they lock eyes with the person responsible for stopping their soulmate’s timer - crumbling as the realization that it wasn’t them erases them from reality. Smiling through the unbearable pain as their sleeve slips over their timer that had been stagnant since the day they had met the love of their life who was gazing lovingly at someone else.

-

“What happened?”

“Theirs kept going”

-

 Pain.

     Overwhelming numbness filling every limb as the brunette’s legs ached from running in the cold and her heart continued to shatter. Piece by piece, as her feelings became consumed by the overwhelming pain of a broken heart, she began to fall apart with it.

She knows.

     She needed to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Anywhere but here.

     Puffs of white formed in front of her frostbitten lips as she kept running. The night air bit at her tear streaked face as she blindly stumbled her way through the field.

Why me?

-

    “Can I know who it is?”

    The small brunette gave the taller girl a small smile, but anyone could tell she was breaking apart with each passing second, becoming a shell of her former self, “Why are you asking?”

    “Because I’m curious,” the soft spoken woman looked at her quizzically, the wind causing her ebony locks to fall in front of her face, the moonlight perfectly accenting the ethereal features that the smaller girl had come to love.

    “No, why ask when you already know?” The girl tilts her head downwards, her overgrown fringe falling into her eyes, she glanced at the other girl through her bangs with bitterness filling her expression, “why do you insist on asking when you know better than anyone else.”

-

    She stumbles past a fallen branch as she kept running relentlessly.

    “Seungwan!”

    No. She had not heard the other raise her voice many times in the years she had come to know her, but the husky voice that made her feel so safe (yet also caused thorns to suffocate her abused heart) would be recognizable to her everywhere.

    “Seungwan! I know you can hear me just stop running! Please!” desperation was obvious in her tone.

    Please. She just needed to make it to the road where her bike was. Just a little ways to go and she could get home and never have to face her again.

    “Please just hear me out!” her voice is coming closer. She needed to hurry. The other was taller and faster, she would catch up to the exhausted Wendy soon. Her breaths become more labored as she speeds up, attempting to get away from her, she cannot bear to look into the eyes that promised the world to someone other than her.

-

    “When?” her raven locks covered her face as she looked away, voice becoming small and weighed down with guilt.

    A broken laugh.

    “When else?” the other’s voice cracked with unshed tears, “Five years ago, a new family moved across the street. I met a girl who made my heart skip beats, my stomach fill with butterflies, and feel like I was the only other girl in the world,” she grinned slightly at the fond memory of meeting the woman for the first time, “Five years ago my timer stopped, and the timer that belonged to the girl whose eyes contained the stars didn’t,” her smile turned bitter as she continued, “It stopped the day I first met and locked eyes with you, Bae Joohyun,” she caresses the zeroes on the underside of her right wrist, “And it has been nothing but a reminder that I will never be good enough for you since.”

    Irene had agape for a second until she gathered herself and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”

    “I don’t want to hear it. Just forget this happened,” Wendy stood abruptly, turned and ran without looking back.

-

    She trips in her haste and falls to the ground with a thud.

    “Oh my god Seungwan are you alright?” Irene had caught up and kneels by her side trying to help her up.

    “Why…” Wendy whispers quietly without facing the woman next to her.

    “What?”

    “Why can’t you just leave me be,” she chokes back a sob, “I can’t take this overwhelming pain in my chest whenever I see you with someone else. I was finally starting to become numb to the constant heartbreak until you ruined it. Why couldn’t you just let me be,” a heart clenching sob wreaks through her entire body as the torrent of emotions she kept bottled up for years tore through the surface. It did not help that the one responsible for all of this was holding her so close in a warm embrace.

    Why?

    “I can’t leave you alone,” Irene looks at the broken girl in her arms and brushes the brunette strands covering Wendy’s tear stained face. She cups her cheek with the palm of her hand, the coldness of her skin contrasting greatly with the warmth of Wendy’s. She runs her thumb along Wendy’s cheek, wiping the remaining tears.

    “Why not,” Wendy looks at her with eyes filled with sadness and a spark of frustration, “why do you insist that I suffer.”

    Does my pain make you happy?

    “If you would listen,” the older flicks the girl’s forehead and chuckles at her pout, “I can’t leave you alone because I love you too.”

    Her eye smile is met with Wendy’s eyes as they widen in shock.

    “B-but your timer,” her surprise causes her to stutter, “It didn’t stop when mine did I saw it keep going myself,” her tears had stopped but she continues to question Irene’s statement, not completely convinced.

    “Everyone’s timers are different,” she pulls up her sleeve and lifts her right wrist in front of the younger’s face, neatly displaying a row of zeroes that matched her own, “ Mine stopped the day I saw you crying on your porch, at the time not knowing it was because of me,” her voice drips with regret as she realizes the reason for Wendy’s cries too late, “I sat down with you until you cried yourself to sleep and brought you inside your house. When I got home that night, I realized that my timer had reached zero, and it was because of you, Son Seungwan,” the raven-haired girl’s face flushes slightly at her sudden confession and the bewildered look she receives from the girl in her arms. She helps her sit up slightly, but continues to embrace her from behind.

    “Wait so that means…” she looks down at her hands as she leans against Irene, “We’re soulmates?”

     Irene’s hearty chuckle brings a blush to her face and she looks up, wishing to be stuck in this moment forever. Irene was smiling down at her with her eyes that held galaxies and warming her heart with the sound of her light laughter. She nods at her and reality finally begins to settle onto the petite girl’s shoulders.

    They stayed in that position for a few more moments until something dawned upon the brunette.

    “What you said earlier… Could you say it again?” She looks back up and meets a gaze filled with nothing but affection.

    Irene gives her a small smile in return, “I love you, Son Seungwan.”

-

    Neatly displayed on the underside of every person’s wrist were a set of numbers that would tick away the time that one had left until their fated meeting with their soulmate.

    Not everyone’s soulmate was romantic. And not everyone’s timers stopped mutually. There were those with perfect endings and those who gained nothing but tragedy.

    But there were those special cases that were more valuable than a mutual stopping of a couple’s timers. There were those who were fortunate enough to witness their partner’s timer come to a stop as they learned to love them, and only them.

-

(A/N) Hello! I'm actually flattered so many people subscribed to this with just the description and foreward haha. This is the first time I've written something for entertainment purposes in like 4 years (high school tends to ruin writing for fun) so my writing is a bit rusty. But this was originally a fic that my friend asked me to write as a graduation gift (it was a self insert for persona 5 even though I've never played it haha...) And I thought it could fit a wenrene fic really well so here we are! That being said, I'm sorry if there are any grammatical errors, I went through this like 10 times editing it relentlessly, but something always seems to make it past me so I apologize. But again thank you so much and I hope it lived up to your expectations! I guess my life as a silent reader of aff is over.

Also I'm really sorry about the weird indentation and spacing? AFF reacted weirdly to when I copied it from my original document :(