Mingyu’s birthday party was well organized and luckily for him, it was on a Saturday. That meant that everyone could be there since it was their regular day to meet up with one another. They had all been asked to prepare something, just so that Mingyu didn’t have to go out of his way to prepare a load of snacks of his own birthday. And once everyone had arrived the dining table in the dorm had filled itself with snacks all too quickly. Some people had tried their best to make something from scratch, like Jihoon and Seungcheol who had worked together to bake a marble cake or Seungkwan who had made meringues with whipped cream and strawberries, meanwhile others were just lazy and bought snacks from the supermarket (in other words: anyone other than the three people mentioned earlier).

Apart from Wonwoo, because as the birthday boy’s boyfriend he had to make sure to impress Mingyu. So he had bought a chocolate cake and decorated it with whipped cream and candles. Which were lit as everyone had gathered to sing the most awkward version someone could imagine of the ‘Happy Birthday’ song, at the last ‘hooray’ that was shouted in a variety of tones that clashed with one another Mingyu blew out all the candles in one go. The room filled itself with the sound of hands clapping against one another. All before Chan, their youngest friend, pressed a hand covered with whipped cream against Mingyu’s face. Then the entire thing just escalated into a giant food fight.

The atmosphere was light and pleasant, even for Soonyoung – who would prefer to trade this day for any other in his life; since he knew what would be going down at the end of this day. Which, regardless of the good mood that everyone seemed to be in, forced him to realize that that all wouldn’t last long. There were only two hours left before midnight. Two hours for Mingyu to truthfully enjoy his relationship with Wonwoo because that all would change. Nothing would ever be the same, Soonyoung could know, since he hadn’t been the same either since he found out the truth. Why did fate have to be so cruel? Why couldn’t a happy couple just belong together?

While pacing back and forth in his mind, he hadn’t even noticed that Minghao found himself a spot beside him on the couch.

“You realize that you should tell Mingyu, right? Don’t you think he’d rather hear this from you than discover it on his own in two hours?”

“Why should I tell him? He’ll find out soon enough and finding out I have been hiding this from him for so long is basically inevitable. He will be mad either way, so why should I ruin it two hours earlier?”

Soonyoung could swear that he saw some kind of frustration form a wave over Minghao’s expression as the Chinese boy sighed in defeat and just patted his shoulder before getting up and continuing to enjoy the party.

Though he was more than aware what it meant, it was a supportive pat, it was more one that said ‘You do whatever you want but I don’t think it’s the right thing’-pat. And for just a second, he wondered if maybe Minghao was right. Perhaps it should have been this way the entire time, he should have just talked to Mingyu right away, would that have made all this better? Will it make it better if he would take the other aside now and tell him the truth? Those thoughts had occupied Soonyoung’s brain the remaining time of the party, while he pretended to just be relaxed and enjoy his time with his friends there was no way he could shake away from what was coming up. There was no way he could avoid it, even leaving now wouldn’t help anything.

“Everyone! It’s almost time,” Mingyu announced, his cheerful but rough voice filling the entire room causing everyone to naturally grow silent in excitement. But one person wasn’t all that excited, obviously anticipating the worst since he already knew what would end up on Mingyu’s wrist.

“Because this is such an important moment, I decided to take this moment to be alone and kind of live through the first surprise myself before I share it with all of you. And yes, that includes you.” That last part was addressed to Wonwoo, Mingyu’s boyfriend. Since the taller of the pair had talked his entire life about how he wanted to be the only one to find out his soulmate first, after that everyone else could know without any problem.

It seemed that everyone agreed, even Soonyoung – perhaps because he hoped that with some time alone right after the initial shock, his friend wouldn’t end up being too upset with him. With everyon’s approval Mingyu excused himself, since there were only five minutes left, and entered his bedroom closing the door behind him.

Five minutes felt like a century, to all of them for different reasons. Most because they were just too excited to find out, others just because they wanted this to be over already – convinced that Mingyu and Wonwoo were obvious soulmates, and one other because he was literally being eaten alive by fear and nerves.

Mingyu was sitting on the edge of his bed, the only light in the room provided by a night lamp beside his bed as he watched his left wrist with great concentration. A soft ticking sound could be heard coming from the clock that was hanging from his bedroom wall. One minute passed, then another. Mingyu knew because he had started counting the ticking sounds, each indicating one second. Soon enough five minutes had passed. Ever so slowly out of a scar-like white a grey engravement appeared on his wrist. Eyes widened themselves in shock as the sight was nothing but a shock and surprise to take in. Mixed feelings filled his mind, what was he supposed to do now? To check again he brought his wrist closer to his eyes to read once again.

Kwon Soonyoung.

The cracking sound that alarmed everyone that Mingyu’s bedroom door was opening made everyone grow silent once again, in anticipation of what the other was going to say. Though the taller didn’t say anything, instead he smiled – obviously emotional but no one could tell whether this was positive or negative, as he wandered over to his boyfriend. Soonyoung was watching him with hawk-eyes and Mingyu couldn’t fail but notice as he glanced over at him just once. Right before his arms wrapped themselves around his boyfriend.

“I know it would be you.”