Love is not as easy as you may think it is. You can love anyone you choose, you can fall in love as many times as you can. But in the end you will belong to one person, who is not chosen by you. You know it, you feel it when you meet with the person because that moment is something you never felt before, you missed it in your whole life.

Before you find your missing half you have to live without something: taste, sight, the feeling of pain, hearing and the list goes on. If you meet your soulmate before the age of nineteen you are capable of living a full life . But if you don't, you have to live without it, no matter if you find your love later, it's already late for you .

Minghao knew this feeling a little too well. The feeling of being alone, stressed and the received pressure from your family. They want you to have good grades, good behavior, they want you to find the love of your life as soon as possible. They want you to have a family and kids, basically everything at the same time.

And there he was, seventeen years old, sitting behind his desk and staring out of the window. The soft, warm spring breeze coming through the window ruffled his dark cherry hair. Looking back to his classmates he saw two of them messing around, giggling like schoolgirls and being sickeningly adorable. One of the boys squished the others cheek who just winned in response. The blonde boy slapped away the others hand. Judging by his face and the way his hands moved the light haired boy said some sassy remarks to the other. Laughing it off the boy pulled the blonde in his lap and kissed him. Minghao just rolled his eyes.

“Too much affection.” He yelled over to his friends with annoyance in his voice, a mocking smile displayed on his lips. “Hansol stop kissing and throw me a candy!” The said boy with blond hair and dark undercut laughed loudly while his lover huffed, completely done with Minghao. He grabbed a handful of candies and throw them at Minghao, aimed at his head. Letting out a painful yelp when the candies hit him right on his face, he threw his notebook at the sassy boy. The flying notebook hit the blond boy right in the face who also let out a loud yelp. Hansol just laughed almost fell out of his desk, trying to hold back his tears.

“Seungkwan! You idiot, these are hard candies, it hurt!” The chinese boy rubbed his forehed and picked up the sweets from the ground, still arguing with Seungkwan. He tried to seem mad but at the end of the sentence he started laughing. Trying to keep his offended face the boy with chubby cheeks yelled back. “Yeah? You know your notebook isn't soft at all! I would fight you but you know martial arts, it wouldn't be fair.” Seungkwan pouted and took one of Hansol's candies.

The bell rang and all of them sat back to their places. One of his friends walked to his desk and laced down his nootebook in front of him. When Minghao looked up he saw Seungkwan. The boy patted his back and whispered softly. “Stop lying, you can't feel pain. But don't worry, you will find your soul mate soon.” And with that he walked back to his seat, leaving Minghao with his thoughts.

Half way through the math class his mind was far from the equations. He was staring out of the window, thinking about his future. He never really felt love before. He had crushes, mainly boys but he had never been in a relationship. Most of his friends already found their soul mate. For example Hansol and Seungkwan. They've been together since the school year started and they've been best friends since the first grade. And there's Seungcheol and Jeonghan. They are in a relationship for years now. They are two grade upper than Minghao, close to graduation. They already have plans for their life together: house, jobs and having kids soon.

All of them got back their lost abilities too. Hansol got back his taste, he can't stop eating his candies since that. Seungkwan finally can speak and now he takes every chance to sing. He doesn't know what his other two friend got back, he hasn't been friends with them before they fell love.

Sighing, Minghao rested his head on his hands and continued watching the PE class on the football field, boys running laps for the grade upper than his. He knew a few familiar faces from here like one of his best friends and dancer teammate Soonyoung and his boyfriend, Jihoon from the singing club, he is also good friends with Seungkwan. He spotted one of the most famous kids in the school. He was popular because he was good looking, he was in the dancing club, has many friends from the soon graduating grade, he was flirting with everyone who has a pulse.

Minghao don't really liked him. They rarely talked, only a few words when they met at dance practice or when they spoke with Soonyoung in the school, but he always kept a few meters distance from the boy. He has to admit that the older boy is rather handsome, but his personality and the rumors still made Minghao stay away. Some rumors say that he has new partners every week. Others say that he is an actual dork and a nice guy under his cool appearance. Despite the tons of rumors nobody knows what is he lacking, he is still searching for his other part.

The boy jumped out of his thoughts and almost out of his seat when a massive math book landed on his desk, making a loud sound and a person stood next to his desk. “Xu Minghao! Why aren't you paying attention to my class? Wel, I guess you will have time to learn everything in the detention.” Minghao's eyes widened when he heard the word ‘detention’. “B-but...” The boy tried to get himself out of the trouble only to his teacher start to yell again. “No buts! You will go to detention after you last class, got it?” Sighing in defeat the boy muttered a quite “Yeah, got it.” The math teacher smiled sweetly and patted the boy's head. “That’s how I thought it.”

When the bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson everyone got out of the classroom, heading towards their next class. Carrying his bag on his right shoulder he walked in the direction of the door that leads to the football court. When he stepped outside he spotted a guy with bluish gray hair he jogged up to him. “Hey Soon. I have bad news.” The said boy, Soonyoung greeted him with a smile. He was sitting on a bench, looking like he did nothing in the past ten or more minutes. Minghao sat down beside him and continued. “I got detention, no dance practice today.” The older boy patted his back and laughed. “Don’t worry, I've got detention too.” When he saw the chinese boy's confused expression he shurged. “I don't feel like running today.” Minghao just shook his head and laughed at his friend.

For a few minutes they just sat here, chatting about small things. Something, or more like someone caught Minghao's attention. A black haired boy tripped in his own legs and fell face to the ground. The boy rolled over to his back and laughed loudly when a short boy with curly, light brown and dark brown undercut hair stopped beside him, panting from running. “I-I...” His words were cut in half by his own laughing and panting. “Jihoon, sorry for calling you a dwarf.” The black haired boy broke out in another fit of laughs. Jihoon just rolled his eyes and muttered a soft “Idiot.” He left the other on the ground and jogged up to Minghao and Soonyoung. The small boy leaned down and pressed a quick kiss on the grey haired boy's lips. “I have vocal lessons soon, see you two at lunch.” And with that he gave another quick kiss to Soonyoung and fastly walked off to the direction of his classroom.

The boy got up from the ground, still panting from the laughing fits and running. “Hey, Junhui!” Soonyoung yelled to the said boy. “Me and Hao can't attend the dance practice today. Detention.” He put and arm around Minghao's shoulder and pulled the boy closer, with a playful smirk on his lips. Junhui laughed and walked closer to the boys. “Finally a day when I don't have to go to detention and you mess it up? Unbelievable.” Soonyoung got up and shook hands with Junhui and then sat back next to Minghao, the other one sat in front of them on the grass. They chatted for a few minutes when Jun got up and dusted off his pants. “I have to go, my class is in the other half of the building. See you soon, Soon.” Laughing at his own joke he turned to Minghao and flashed a bright smile that was more like a smirk. “Be good at the detention. See you...when life brings us together again.” Jun walked past the other chinese boy while not so discretely checking out him. When he was right beside the younger one he let out an almost inaudible whisper. Minghao thought he was just imagining everything, along with the strange feeling in his chest.

“Ha ha ha. Very funny, Junhui.” Soonyoung fake laughed and talked to nobody in particular. “We should go to our class-” His sentence was left hanging in the middle of nowhere when he turned to the chinese boy. A grin appeared on his lips when he saw the other's face. “Minghao...are you blushing?” The said boy's wyes widened and Soonyoung's grin grew bigger. “You are blushing!” The older boy started laughing at the confused expression of the blushing boy. “Wha- I am not blushing!” Minghao stuttered out the words, not knowing what happened. Soonyoung fished out his phone from his pocket and took a picture of Minghao, showing him the photo. “Holy fu- my cheeks are red like Seungcheol's new hair!” This metaphor made Soonyoung laugh even harder. “Okay, we gotta talk about this in the detention room. Bye!” And with that he ran off, leaving a confused chinese behind.

Minghao walked to the next room where his literature class is going to be held. He entered the door and walked towards his place, next to Seungkwan. “Minghao, are you b-” The boy let out a flustered sigh. “Yes I am.” He sat down on his chair and rested his forehead against the desk. Seungkwan patted his back, or at least he guessed by the way his body moved out of his will. He couldn't just simply live without the ability of feeling pain, but couldn't feel a few more things and he missed them. The touches from others, the warmth of the sun, fire, water or other bodies. Every hug he received was like nothing, he saw it but felt nothing. He often burned himslef accidentally, babdages often decorating his forearms.

“Care to tell me what happened?” Seungkwan asked in a soft tone, lying his head on the desk beside Minghao. The other boy sighed. “After math I went out to tell Soonyoung that I got detention and I can’t go to dance practice. Then that idiot and Jihoon appeared, chasing each other. Jihoon gave a quick kiss to Soon and went off to his own classroom, and that dumb idiot was still lying on the ground laughing. Soon told him that we can’t go to the practice and they chatted about something. I can't remember what, I may or may not accidentally stared at him the whole time he was sitting in front fo us. And before he left he smirked at me, checked me out and whispered something like ‘cute’ or I don't know.” Minghao realised thag he said all of these with one breath, jabbering the words. “Am I blushing now?” He asked in a quite voice. Even though he wasn't able to feel the hotness of his cheeks, the strange feeling in his chest gave him the feeling that he was blushing badly at the moment.

Seungkwan let out a soft chuckle and started searching something in his bag, not facing Minghao. “Yes, you are red like a tomato.” The boy just let out a sigh. “I knew it. He is handsome thought...” This sentence came out as a soft whisper but Seungkwan still managed to catch it. “Who are you talking about, Hao?” After a few seconds of silence Minghao let out another soft whisper, only two words, together forming a well-known person’s name. “Wen Junhui.” The blond boy literally choked on his boxed orange juice, spilling some of it over their desk. God knows where he got that drink from. “What? I thought you don't like him. Like at all.” Minghao just shrugged and watched as Seungkwan cleaned up the drink from their table.

After a few minutes of silence the boy with chubby cheeks cleared his throat. “You shouldn't like him. You know the rumors about him...” Seungkwan's voice got lower with every word and in the end it was a soft whisper. “I know.” A sigh and these two words were the only answer he got. For the rest of the class they were sitting in silence which was unusual for them. They were always laughing and bickering about small nothings. Minghao was lying on the desk, deep in his thoughts while Seungkwan was actually paying attention and took notes from the lesson.

When the bell rang they got up without a word and left to their separate classes. A few hours later Minghao, Hansol, Seungkwan, Soonyoung and Jihoon were sitting at a table in the cafeteria, eating their lunch in peace. He was unusually quiet and Hansol noticed it. “Minghao, are you alright?” Seungkwan opened his mouth to answer but Minghao cut him off before he could tell anything. “Yes. I'm tired, that's all.” Hansol just shrugged and continued eating his lucnh while looking at his plate. Seungkwan shook his head and sent a disappointed look to the chinese for not telling about the events from earlier. Minghao stuck out hus tongue at his friend and continued his pizza. A few minutes later Hansol broke the silence. “Hey, Hao. Do you want to come with us and eat ice cream?” He started laughing while Minghao sent him death glares. Seungkwan chuckled and punched his boyfriend's shoulder. “That was evil!” “Oh sorry, I forgot about his detention.” The dark haired boy rolled his eyes and snapped at his friend. “Oh shut up!” “Make me!” “Guys stop it...” In the span of few seconds they were cutting into each others sentences, speaking loudly, almost yelling . “I swear to god I will ch-” “I can't believe that you s-” Don't you dare!” “Damn you all.” “One day I will kill you a-” “Oh yeah?” “Fight me!” Various statements and threats left their mouth, making tha small group's conversation loud. They were laughing and arguing like always, no trace left from their previous silence.

Two classes later he was sitting beside Soonyoung, legs on the table, eating his favorite lollipop. Soonyoung showed him that eating grin from a few hours before . “Soooooo. What's up blushy boy?” Minghao just rolled his eyes. “Don’t call me that.” The hamster boy chuckled.”But you are that.” No one talked for a few minutes, a comfortable silence settled between them. “Hey, can I ask something?” Soonyoung raised an eyebrow and nodded. “About what?” Minghao didn't answered immediately. He wanted to ask something so badly, but he can't bring himself to do it. “About the choreography.” The other's eyes started sparkling with excitement and passion, just like every time when the topic was dance related. For fifteen minutes they had a heated discussion about the choreography, corrected some moves and added a few new ones. “We should totally try out this next time!” Soonyoung exclaimed with a grin. Minghao nodded furiously and hummed in agreement. For about five minutes they were sitting in silence again, until Minghao broke it with another question.

“Soon, can I ask something?” His voice was thinner than he expected it to be. Probably it's not a good idea to bring it up anyways. Maybe he should just fake another question about the dance or maybe about Jihoon. His thoughts flew away when the other caught him off guard with a question. “About Jun, am I right?” This time he wasn't grinning, only a soft smile rested on his lips. Minghao blinked a few times in confusion. “How did you-” And again, he was cut off by Soonyoung. “You are blushing again.” The red boy grunted and pressed his forehead against the desk. The older boy let out a wholehearted laugh. “It's too easy to read you. You know that choreo like the back of your hand. It was obvious that you wanted to ask something else. So...what do you want to know?” Minghao sat up and looked at Soonyoung. “I was wondering. Since you are close friends with Jun I was curious that maybe you could tell me more about him. Like the rumors. Are they true?” Halfway through his request he looked away in embarrassment and started fiddling with his pen.

Soonyoung sighed. “Yes, he is the flirt in the school. Yes, he has new partners every week, maybe more during that time. But it's not because he likes to play with people, it's because he wants to find his soul mate.” Minghao scoffed. “And the best way to find his love is having a new partner after every Friday night party?” The older boy shook his head. “Hao, he is older than us. You still have more than a year to find your soul mate, but he has only a few weeks. He is almost nineteen, he is running out of time. Believe me, he is a great, loving person. Even though he is a bit of an egoist he has a warm heart.” The young boy remained silent. His friend is right. He still has time to find the missing person in his life, but Junhui is seriously running out time. “Can you tell me what is he lacking?” He let out a soft whisper, glancing at his friend. “He is kind of lucky. The only thing he doesn't have is the ability to-” He stopped in the middle of his sentence and took out thw lollipop from Minghao’s mouth. “The ability to taste sweet flavors.”And with that he put the candy back to his friend’s mouth.

Minghao let everything he heard sink in. “Yeah, he is pretty lucky...maybe he isn't a bad person after all. Maybe he is just trying hard to find his love.” A few seconds later he added. “I still don't like him.” Soonyoung laughed and shook his head in disbelief. “And I thought that you will have so empathy in you. But no, the old Hao is back.” Minghao punched him in the shoulder and laughed. “Shut up!” They both laughed and gossiped about recent things. Suddenly their topic took an one hundred and eighty percent turn with two sentence of the elder boy. “You know, you two have something in common. I don't know what but I can feel it.” The cherry haired boy choked on air and started coughing. “Wh-what? We are both chinese, do martial arts, go to the same dance class and we haven't found our soul mates yet. But that's all. Nothing else.” His voice was a bit shaky and his words were stuttering. “Uhummm, I see.” Soonyoung hummed and nodded, tapping on his chin. “You are still blushing though.” Minghao sighed and pressed his forehead against the table, for the God knows which time today.

Hours later he was lying on his back, blanket messily thrown over his body. His hands were under his head, functioning as a pillow. He was staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open and thoughts racing in his mind. He was thinking about what happened today, about Seungkwan's and Soonyoung's words, about Junhui and the rumors. He thought about what happened when he was sitting outside with Soon and Jun. He was confused and didn't know why he felt like that. That weird feeling appeared in his chest and it disturbed him. He could imagine the blush on his face, yet he still couldn't feel it. He was confused and nervous. Finally tiredness took over him and Minghao fell asleep, slipping into a deep slumber.

The next day he was exhausted, like if he didn't slept laat night. He was half alseep,making his way from one classroom to another, sweeping some of his hair out of his eyes. When looked around he found a person staring at his face and they made eye contact. The other boy smiled at him and Minghao looked away, embarrassed and flustered.

“I can't believe it!” He was pacing back and fort on the grass while Seungkwan watched him, eyes following every single movement. “Will you tell me what the fresh hell happened or you will talk to yourself and walk around till your legs give up?” Minghao looked at him with an unamused expression and sat down beside his best friend. “That idiot made eye contact every time we met in the corridors! I'm so done with him!” He ruffled his hair with both hands and layed flat on his back, letting the grass tickle him. They remained silent for a while until Seungkwan sighed. “Calm down. Why does this bother you that much?” The other boy thinked about it, searching for the right answer. “I don't know...” He let out a flustered sigh and stared at the tree above them. The blond boy hummed and started thinking. “I don't know either.” Seungkwan stood up, dusted off his pants and started walking away. “You have to figure this out by yourself.” Minghao was alone, lying in the grass with his wandering thoughts. His eyelids got heavier by every second he spent on the ground, in the end sleepiness became stronger than his will to go to class and he fell asleep.

He woke up when someone yelled his name, right in his ear. Minghao sat up in panic and hit the person who frightened him. Hansol yelled in pain and took a few steps back, holding his nose. “Minghao! What the hell?” The boy yelled in pain, still holding his aching part. “You slept through the history classes. You are lucky that the old lady still doesn't knows our name after almost two years.” He held out a hand to help up his chinese friend. Minghao accepted Hansol’s hand and got up from the grass. He shrugged while reaching out for his backpack. “I missed nothing, I always sleep on those classes. The granny is boring as hell.” They both laughed because it was true, the half of the class always sleeps in her classes. Both of them walked out of the school, Hansol going home with Seungkwan, holding hands and Minghao walking alone, music blasting in his ears, thinking about school and possible soul mate. He wonders how the person will look like, personality, interests, clothing style and other things. He is curious but all he can do is waiting.

Two hours later he was sitting above his math homework, chewing on the end of his pen, staring at the equation hopelessly. His phone started buzzing with message notifications. Picking up the device he typed in the password and opened the text message. The other person's nickname appeared on the top left corner of his screen, bright blue letters blinking, spelling out “H☆shi”. Minghao rolled his eyes and opened the conversation.

H☆shi: What's up sleepy boy?? H☆shi changed “Hao” nickname to “BlushyThug”
BlushyThug: What the hell???
BlushyThug: Struggling with math
H☆shi: Well I can't help with that xd
BlushyThug: I know. You are stupid -.-”
H☆shi: That hurts ;c

Soonyoung didn't said anything so he went back to do his math homework. For about five minutes later his phone buzzed again.

H☆shi: Hey, are you still alive???
BlushyThug: Nope. Math is killing me
H☆shi: Ow. I know a person who could help ;)
BlushyThug: Who? And pretty please, can you change my nick?
H☆shi: The one and only Junhui. He is surprisingly good in math. And no way :D
BlushyThug: Thanks no. I rather fail in math than ask for help from him.
H☆shi: I know you like him ;D
BlushyThug: No, I don't!
H☆shi changed “BlushyThug” nickname to “Jun’s Blushy”
Jun’s Blushy: WHAT THE HELL??????? SOONYOUNG ARE YOU DRUNK OR WHAT?

The boy let out a frustrated sigh and ruffled his hair. “What’s wrong with him?”

H☆shi: I'm totally fine :D I gtg, we will meet at dance practice tomorrow. Have fun with math :p
Jun’s Blushy: I. Will. Choke. You.

No reply came after that, probably Soonyoung went to annoy Jihoon. Minghao looked at the clock and realised that it's past eleven o'clock. He stood up and stretched, his back making popping sounds. Closing the math book he walked to his bed and flopped down on it. Muttering something about the “damn math homework” he fell asleep without bothering to pull the covers over himself.