Joshua is acting really strange.

Jihoon uses Joshua’s voice for nearly every music assignment he had because Joshua is easygoing and focused, and his voice is soothing and melodic and almost always works with his songs. Seungkwan and Seokmin, while having phenomenal voices, are often too hyper and excited and easily distracted to use their voices too often. Jeonghan, despite being Joshua’s best friend and is not as much of a bother as Seungkwan and Seokmin, is a tease who never knows when to stop, and Jihoon can’t always handle him when he’s working.

Today, though, he’s a nervous wreck, messing up several times and taking longer to focus. For a brief moment, Jihoon wonders if he should’ve asked one of the others to record after all, but there’s no point now. Maybe Joshua’s having an off day, and he just needs more time than usual to get in the zone.

Finally, several takes later, Jihoon leans back in his chair, frustrated. “Joshua-hyung, are you okay?” He asks mostly because he knows that it’s expected of him, because they’re friends, but he is somewhat worried. If something’s shaking the ever calm and stable Joshua, then it must be something important. Hopefully more important than Jihoon’s project, if only to justify all of his frustrations and Joshua’s mistakes.

“Sorry Jihoon-ah,” Joshua apologizes first, because when does he not, “I’m just distracted.”

“That’s not an answer,” Jihoon replies. “Is everything okay, hyung?” Joshua still looks like he’s gonna hedge and avoid answering, so Jihoon adds, “I’m serious, Hong. There’s obviously something on your mind.”

Sighing, Joshua gives in. “I met my soulmate today. That’s all.”

Soulmates. “‘That’s all,’” he repeats, only the tiniest bit mocking. “Do you even hear yourself?”

“Um... yes?” Joshua says, hesitant, clearly unsure of the answer Jihoon’s looking for.

“Then you know that the idea of soulmates is a big thing for most people, and you’re most people, hyung,” Jihoon states. “Why the hell are you here when you could be getting to know your soulmate? My project’s not due until the end of the month, I have time to work on this, and you’re no help when you’re distracted. Go hang out with him, or her, or them, or whatever, and we’ll try this again later, okay?”

Joshua gives him a grateful smile as he pulls off the headphones and set them on the stand before leaving the studio. “Thanks, Jihoon-ah. Same time tomorrow?”

“Sounds good,” He nods. “I want some pictures of your soulmate and stories by then. I need proof of this guy.”

The older laughs, hiding his smile with his hand. “That sounds fair enough,” he agrees. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow, hyung” he replies distantly, not bothering to wave or look in Joshua’s direction, wanting to focus on his assignment. Maybe he could make some tweaks using the guide version, considering his voice and Joshua’s were somewhat similar in tone.

Soulmates though, huh. Unlike Jihoon, Joshua is more of a romantic, albeit a realistic romantic: he wants to find his soulmate and fall in love and fight and make up and grow together and all that stuff.

On the other hand, Jihoon doesn’t really care about soulmates. It wasn’t like he hates them like some people, or adores them like others, but he just has no opinion of them. If he met his soulmate, then he would get to know them, see where their relationship goes, but he wasn’t going to fall in love at first sight. That just seems stupid. And Jihoon is nothing if not practical. But damn if he lets his friends sacrifice something important to them for something as inconsequential (in the long run, probably) as a school project.

Speaking of hands...

Jihoon glances down at the palm of his right hand. His heart’s still there, glinting faintly in the fluorescent lights. When he turned eighteen and got his heart, he thought there had been a mistake. He had kept glancing at his palms, looking for his heart. He suffered through a ton of pain, he better have a heart or the universe would suffer the wrath of Lee Jihoon. It had taken a while, but when he found it, he felt gypped. Soulmate hearts were supposed to be pretty and intricate and meaningful, but the universe decided to cheat him out of that privilege and give him a white heart. Plain white, unadorned and almost translucent, seemingly an accident if it weren’t for the fact that Jihoon had scrubbed any unnatural markings off his hands the entire week before his birthday.

At the time, he had felt angry, but now, it didn’t bother him. He even feels a little grateful. The universe apparently knew that Jihoon wasn’t focused on soulmates, wasn’t focused on finding love or being a hopeless romantic, and didn’t want to give him a blaring, annoying reminder of his soulmate. He just hoped his soulmate felt the same way.

Shaking his head, Jihoon refocuses his attention back to his music.

The next day, Joshua is in much better spirits, and he’s definitely more focused. He easily makes up for the unproductive session yesterday, flawlessly recording most of the song, something Jihoon mentions as soon as they finish for the day.

“Yesterday really helped,” Joshua admits. “I was so unfocused until I hung out with Mingyu. Do you think that’s a normal soulmate thing?”

Jihoon snorts. “You’re asking the wrong guy.”

The older snorts gracefully in return, a contradiction Jihoon still doesn’t understand. “Maybe, but you always know what’s real life and what’s our imagination. You’re not afraid to call us out on our bull.”

“Well if you want my opinion so badly, then I guess you look in control of your senses and seem pretty sane, so I think you’re all good,” Jihoon jokes.

“Gee, thanks,” Joshua retorts. There’s a pause, and then he blurts out, “Doyoumaybewanttomeethim?”

Jihoon blinks, the word (words?) going in his ear and out the other without his brain processing a single bit of it. “What?” He asks.

“Do you want to meet Mingyu?” Joshua is unnecessarily nervous, wringing his hands and rocking back and forth slightly.

“Why are you so nervous? You’re acting like you’re asking me to pull my hair out, strand by strand, and then jump into an active volcano,” Jihoon snarks. “I absolutely need to meet the guy who made you an absolute ing mess yesterday.”

“Shut up,” Joshua shoves his shoulder lightheartedly. “I’m meeting him and some of his friends for lunch in an hour. You want to come?”

“Sure,” he shrugs. “I’m already ahead of schedule for this project, I can afford to hang out with you for lunch.”

His friend rolls his eyes as Jihoon packs up. “You’re actually the worst,” he informs the younger the moment he stands up. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go meet the love of your life,” Jihoon teases, earning another mild hit to his shoulder.

“I hate you.” There’s no bite or trace of malice to Joshua’s voice.

“You love me, hyung,” Jihoon retorts, because it’s true. Even though Joshua is hesitant as hell and polite to a fault, and Jihoon is a vicious, human-eating Venus flytrap wrapped in an adorable human body, they’re still friends, close friends if Jihoon would ever let himself admit it (he hasn’t quite yet--it feels too cheesy) and they do care for each other, albeit in [very] different ways. “Now let’s go, I wanna meet this Mingyu kid.”

He’s right in calling Mingyu a kid: despite the fact that he’s about two heads taller than Jihoon--completely and utterly unfair--and he has all the proportions of a model, the way his face lights up when he sees Joshua is so utterly childlike that for a moment Jihoon wonders if Mingyu is actually as old as he looks.

“Joshua-hyung!” He exclaims, leaping out of his seat (and knocking the chair over) and rushing to hug his soulmate. Almost everyone in the café is staring, from the customers at the tables to the staff. It’s embarrassing, and Jihoon predicts that Joshua will be experiencing a lot of second hand embarrassment in the near future.

Jihoon turns to his friend with the intention of mocking him about his soulmate (he’s literally a puppy) when Mingyu, in all his absurdly tall glory, accidentally bumps into Jihoon with enough force for him to stumble back, right onto a puddle.

Obviously, because luck is always on Jihoon’s side, he slips.

He lands on his back, one leg resting on the “Wet Floor” sign he knocked over, the other soaked in the puddle, and all the air gone from his lungs. He stares at the white ceiling

“Mingyu-ah!” Another voice scolds. “Are you crazy?”

“I’m sorry!” Mingyu almost wails (seriously, who is this kid?) “I just really missed hyung!”

“We met yesterday, Mingyu-ah,” Joshua reminds him softly.

A face appears in his vision, and it’s neither Joshua nor Mingyu. Suddenly, his lungs are empty, like he fell again.

He’s gorgeous. His features are youthful yet mature, dangerous yet innocent. He’s never encountered a face that clearly straddled the border of child and adult, but still comes off as beautiful as the face in front of him (on top of him? He is lying on a cold, dirty floor.)

“God, you’re beautiful.”

On second thought, maybe it’s not Joshua who needs to worry about embarrassment.

The beautiful guy laughs as Jihoon’s face flushes a deep, angry red. “I’ll make sure to tell God that. Unless you were referring to me, in which case, thank you, but I’m more worried about you. Are you okay? I’m sorry Mingyu knocked you over. He’s really bad at this thing called coordination.”

For a few moments, Jihoon doesn’t know what to say. What could he say after such an embarrassing fall? There’s nothing he could say that could rectify that, make it better, but there’s certainly things he could say to make it worse.

Finally, he croaks, “I’m okay. Just... winded.”

The beautiful guy laughs again. Weird, he’s so prone to laughter and smiles. It’s kind of... nice. “I’m Seungcheol, Mingyu’s hyung. You must be Joshua’s friend.”

“Yeah, I’m Jihoon,” he replies, still kind of startled, and now wondering why the hell he was still on the floor.

“Nice to meet you, let me help you up,” Seungcheol smiles widely as he holds out his hand for Jihoon.

Normally, he would’ve gotten angry and loudly proclaim that he was capable of getting up on his own, thank you, but he’s really not in the mood to advocate for himself right now, plus he should probably be polite for Joshua’s sake. So, he reaches out to grab Seungcheol’s hand.

Instantly, he’s surprised by the major shockwave that strikes him, coursing through his body, through his veins with an intensity Jihoon relates instantly to his work ethic surrounding music. His heart starts pounding faster than really should be healthy, and everything aches. There’s a sudden yearning as well, this desire for the man Jihoon found so beautiful. It’s overwhelming.

His first instinct is to pull back, force his hand away from Seungcheol’s in self-preservation, but apparently you can’t pull your hand away when you first make contact with your soulmate, so what happens instead is Jihoon pulls Seungcheol down on top of him.

His breath is knocked out of his lungs for the third time as Seungcheol fails to catch himself (can’t, with only one hand in such an awkward position) and lands squarely on top of his newly-found soulmate. That seems to be enough for the universe, and their hands finally detach themselves from each other. For a few moments, Seungcheol and Jihoon are just staring at each other, a very, very small distance between their faces. And then he feels the burning sensation of Seungcheol’s name being written on his wrist, and it’s enough to break the spell.

Seungcheol’s first move is to scramble away, looking very much like a frightened animal. “Oh my god I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to do... any of that.”

Jihoon manages to sit upright, panting like he ran a marathon (because of the soulmate thing, not because he’s a weakling, thank you very much) and say, “No, it’s my fault. I freaked out and pulled away first.”

Joshua finally comes to his aid, helping Jihoon up with a gentle hand. “Are you okay, Jihoon-ah?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jihoon says, realizing several things.

One, his clothes are absolutely soaked (did he inadvertently mop up the puddle?)

Two, Mingyu and Joshua look really awkward and confused.

Three, everyone in the café is staring, and the entire area has fallen silent.

“Let’s just sit,” Jihoon sighs.

The four of them scurry away to a very private booth near the back of the café, far away from all the prying eyes. “That was the most embarrassing thing in my entire life,” Jihoon says as soon as they sit down, burying his face in his hands. When he opens his eyes, he can make out the name Choi Seungcheol written on his wrist, and it makes him want to burying his face into the table instead.

“What was that?” Mingyu asks.

“They’re soulmates, Mingyu-ah,” Joshua informs him.

“Oh.”

“Um, Jihoon-ssi,” Seungcheol begins hesitantly, making Jihoon look up at him at last. Seungcheol’s face is bright red, and he looks just as embarrassed as he feels, but he makes no effort to hide, “I... uh... I’m sorry that us meeting... happened like this.”

He really doesn’t want to talk about it, but he doesn’t have it in him to be mean right now. “Don’t be. You couldn’t do anything to change it, I just have to deal with it.” Jihoon sighs. “But we can talk later. Right now, though, we’re here for Joshua and Mingyu, so I want to know this: Mingyu, did you knock Joshua over too when you realized you guys were soulmates?”

For a moment, he’s worried that Mingyu will think he’s mad. He knows Joshua will know it’s a joke, but Mingyu seems so much of a puppy that he’s not sure he’ll pick up on it. He sees Mingyu’s face fall, and for a moment Jihoon feels bad.

Suddenly, Seungcheol laughs, and Joshua joins in almost immediately. Realization covers Mingyu’s face when he figures out Jihoon’s joke, and he laughs as well.

“No, Joshua jumped backwards and fell into a bush,” Seungcheol informs Jihoon gleefully. “I think Mingyu’s clumsiness is contagious.”

“Hey!” Mingyu protests.

Joshua shoots his soulmate down calmly, stating, “You tripped and fell into a fountain when we went for a walk yesterday afternoon.”

“I-you, you can’t, I mean, you were, and--” In the midst of Mingyu’s defense, he knocks over the salt and pepper shakers, and scrambles to pick them up, while everyone at the table, even the gentle Joshua, laughs.

When their laughter quiets, Joshua turns to shoot Jihoon a shy smile. “It takes some getting used to,” he says, clearly referencing Mingyu’s clumsiness.

He snorts. “Of course it did, you came to the studio so unfocused, I thought you left your brain somewhere!”

Seungcheol perks up. “Studio?”

“Jihoon studies music,” Joshua explains. “He usually uses me for his assignments, even though he can sing better than me.”

“Debatable,” Jihoon says. “Besides, if I recorded myself, it would take me twice as long to finish because I’m so picky about my voice. It’s already bad enough that I’m picky about the music I produce.”

“That’s cool that you can produce music at all,” Seungcheol says. “Mingyu and I rap, and it’s pretty hard.”

“You rap?” Seungcheol nods. “That’s great. I’ve always wanted to incorporate raps in my pieces, but I never knew any rappers.”

Mingyu brightens, and he quickly adds, “Hyung is so good at rapping! He can do entire verses without breathing!”

“Impressive,” Jihoon comments. “You should show me some time.”

“Okay,” Seungcheol says, the tips of his ears just the tiniest bit red. Jihoon thinks it’s cute for a brief moment, then has to stop because did he really just admit that his soulmate was cute?

After the café-soulmate incident, Jihoon gets Seungcheol’s number, and they text. It starts off slowly, Jihoon being his normal reserved self, and Seungcheol gently yet eagerly getting him to open up (if Mingyu was a puppy, then Seungcheol was an even worse puppy when he was younger) and then snowballs quickly, to the point where they’re constantly texting in between classes and meeting up for study dates and calling each other almost every night. Seungkwan and Seokmin have no idea why Jihoon’s so mild nowadays, while Joshua just gives him a soft smile and occasionally an unobtrusive query.

Jihoon doesn’t understand why he likes talking to Seungcheol so much. They’re soulmates, yes, but Jihoon’s never been this open and talkative before. It usually takes him some time to get used to people and be comfortable enough to even give them his phone number, let alone be in such constant contact with them. It makes him nervous. Is this a soulmate thing? Why is he changing so much for one person?

It bothers him enough that the next time Joshua and him are in the recording studio, he asks during one of their breaks. “Hyung, why do I text Seungcheol-hyung so much?”

Joshua shoots him a bemused look. “Is that a rhetorical question?”

“No,” Jihoon says shortly. “You know me, I don’t like to talk a lot. But here I am,” he picks up his phone and shows his closest friend his conversation with Seungcheol, “texting him every free minute I have, even when I have work, and it’s just... not me.”

The older looks at him for a long time before his face becomes solemn. “You think that part of having a soulmate is changing to better fit your soulmate.”

“Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t even know anymore. I don’t know what’s real or not anymore, and that’s something you literally told me I could differentiate between the two like, two weeks ago!” Jihoon drops his head in his hands. His mind’s spinning, thoughts running through his head like the most crowded marathon in the world, bouncing off each other and giving him one of the worst headaches in his life.

“Jihoon-ah,” Joshua says in a low, soft voice that’s almost reminiscent of his mother, “You haven’t really changed.”

He looks at the older man, confused. “I haven’t?”

Joshua shakes his head. “When I look at you, I don’t really think ‘man, I don’t recognize who Jihoon is now’ or anything. If you had really changed, you would’ve started talking to Seungkwan and Seokmin the same way you do to Seungcheol.”

Jihoon wrinkles his nose. “Gross.”

“See?” Joshua points out, hiding his laugh under his hand. “I think, if you hadn’t known Seungcheol was your soulmate, or if soulmates weren’t a thing at all, you would’ve still started talking to him like you do now. It just might have taken longer.”

He hums and leans back in his chair, thinking over the elder’s words. “What makes you think that?”

“Because if I hadn’t known Mingyu was my soulmate when we met, it would have taken me longer to actually get to know him. Mingyu’s so outgoing and friendly and clumsy and handsome that I wouldn’t know how to respond to him and his crazy. I would’ve treated him like a dongsaeng, and maybe we wouldn’t have even fallen for each other. But because I knew he was my soulmate, I felt okay with opening up to him, because he’s meant to be my perfect match,” he explains calmly.

“Huh,” Jihoon breaths, startled by the logic. “I never thought of it that way.”

“Glad I can help,” Joshua smiles at him, a friendly, gentle smile that Jihoon usually does not want directed at him. Just then, the ding! of Seungcheol texting him interrupts the all-too-cheesy moment, and the two of them laugh. “Gonna answer that?”

“Yeah,” Jihoon grins, giving the older his rare sunshiny smile.

Thankfully, for their first date, Seungcheol doesn’t take them back to the café where they first met.

“I’m still dying from embarrassment, and I’d rather avoid it for the time being,” Seungcheol tells him bashfully as he picks at his takeout.

Jihoon would have mocked Seungcheol for his lack of effort in making food except 1) they’re currently having a picnic, so that’s probably where all the effort went and 2) Jihoon loves takeout, so all is forgiven. Seungcheol even chose the perfect spot for their picnic, a rather secluded spot so that he doesn’t feel the stares of any passerby.

“Let’s put that place on our list of ‘Places Never to Go to Ever Again,’ even if it’s where we first met,” Jihoon agrees before taking another huge bite of his food.

“Agreed,” Seungcheol says. “Is this okay, though? The park?”

He nods. “As long as my friends never hear about our mushy, cliché dates, I’m good.”

“Even Joshua?”

“No, Joshua can know,” Jihoon says. “He’s mature about it. But the rest of them?”

“Yeah, I can imagine how they would tease you,” Seungcheol grimaces. “My friends would never let me hear the end of it.”

“Glad we’re on the same boat,” Jihoon grins briefly, before he’s reminded of something that’s been bothering him since the beginning. “Hey Seungcheol-hyung?”

“Yeah?” he manages to say, having just stuffed his face with a mouthful of food. It’s endearing, and Jihoon suddenly realizes that he doesn’t get second hand embarrassment when he’s around Seungcheol. It’s actually... kind of nice.

“Do you mind that your heart--well, our heart technically--isn’t really visible?”

The older shrugs. “Not really,” he says. “I mean, I’m kind of a romantic, if you couldn’t tell from this,” he gestures to the picnic blanket he has out, “whole thing. But I don’t need a colorful heart on my hand to show everyone that I’ve found my soulmate. I don’t need the whole world to know that I found you. I just need you to know.”

Jihoon’s turning a bright red, but it’s nothing compared to the warmth that’s flooding through his body. Is this what having a soulmate was like? Was that why Joshua was such a mess when he first met Mingyu? Seungcheol was saying all the right things, and he acted like Jihoon was enough for him. The rush was exhilarating, to say the least.

“Sorry if that sounded all mushy,” Seungcheol interrupts, his own face red. “I, uh, just was just trying to be honest, and sometimes it comes out all... romantic and clichéd.”

“No, it’s okay,” Jihoon replies honestly. “I, uh,” he has to take a breath because he really needs to say it out loud, and make his point, “I don’t mind if it’s you.”

Seungcheol’s answering grin makes Jihoon feel strong emotions he’s never felt before.

Besides the constant second hand embarrassment he gets from his friends.

Somehow, though, he knows that Seungcheol’s the same way.

If I got a twitter, would you guys follow it?