The following morning was the absolute worst. Mingyu had woken up earlier than his boyfriend, a cold shower was what woke him up from his sleepy state. Though currently the worst part about washing up was that he had to undress himself. In his bare state he found his eyes wondering to the only occupied patch of his skin – his left inner wrist.

His pride has been greatly damaged by a large amount of things. First of all the fact that he spent the entire last two years thinking that he had met his soulmate ahead of time, and that all turned out to just be untrue. Besides from that there was also the knowledge that instead he was somehow bound to one of his closest friends, and because of the small detail that this person was over one year older than him made it awfully obvious that he had known all this time. Soonyoung had known, and never told him. With no explanation what so ever it had been Mingyu’s mind that began making up reasons, the taller had so many conclusions – maybe Soonyoung didn’t want to ruin his relationship with Wonwoo? Or, maybe he just didn’t want to be with Mingyu regardless of what the universe had bestowed upon them?

It sparked a new sense of fear within the taller, realizing that perhaps one day he would end up with no one. Because it was only a matter of time before Wonwoo would figure out they weren’t soulmates, at best he had a couple more months left until it was his boyfriend’s birthday, because his wrist would probably say someone else’s name too.

The cold water left him shivering under the shower, but it was exactly what he needed to realize that this entire situation wasn’t just some wicked nightmare that he got stuck in. The wash cloth he had taken into the shower was soaked with water before an overly large amount of soap was poured onto it. Scrubbing away some invisible dirt from his skin, Mingyu unconsciously found himself rubbing back and forth over the soulmate mark on his wrist – as if trying to wash it away. But it wouldn’t leave, he would be idiotic to think that it was that easy.

He was a lot of things, all kinds of emotions raced through his veins and he didn’t know which one to focus on first. He left angry (because Soonyoung hadn’t told him), he felt upset (because eventually Wonwoo would find out that he lied and would leave him), he felt like the biggest idiot on the entire planet (because his soulmate had been right in front of him for years and instead he spent two years of it together with someone he didn’t belong with), he felt lost.

Everyone had always told the pair that relationships are nothing but a waste if spent with someone that wasn’t your soulmate, though Mingyu could honestly say that he didn’t regret a thing, the two years he had spent with the other were surely worth it. But they seemed a lot more meaningless than he had convinced himself of before. He had always told everyone that he didn’t care and that he was happy with Wonwoo, so why should they wait? Why should they have to procrastinate being together just for the sake of some stupid engravement that would appear when they’re eighteen?

Well this was the exact reason why.

Because now Mingyu was stuck, he decided to lie to the person he loved and all he had to hope was that somehow he could find the courage to just be honest to Wonwoo. Though the boy had been so happy, hearing that they were soulmates. That’s literally the one dream the two of them had, Wonwoo had spent every falling star and birthday wish on this and it was all in vain. It wasn’t his smartest decision ever, maybe more like the most stupid one, but perhaps it would eventually be easier if Wonwoo would hate him.

Hate was a strong word, but it was closer to love than Mingyu could realize. With this new found information that always sparked his mind when he was in the shower, he realized that even though Soonyoung had kept this from him for such a long time he couldn’t bring himself to hate the older. Perhaps he could even understand at some point?

A knock on the door disturbed Mingyu from his thoughts. It was Wonwoo, who was woken up from his slumber and wanted to make sure that the running shower he could hear was meant for his boyfriend.

“Hey, I’m already late for class, so I’m just going to get dressed and run for it, alright?”

“Yeah, that’s alright. I don’t have classes until this afternoon.”

Mingyu was glad, in one way he found himself pleasantly surprised at this feeling washing over him. Just some quiet time alone to let all of this sink in, perhaps come to terms with his future – which wouldn’t be spent with the person he expected it to be spent with. But did that make it any better? Mingyu realized he never really looked at Soonyoung in that way, but what was really against him being a decent life partner? For all he knew Soonyoung was a fun-loving, hard-working person that would literally do anything for someone else if that would make them happy.

Weren’t the requirements for a good boyfriend?

That thought almost struck him by surprise as he wandered off into his bedroom after hearing the door close – indicating that Wonwoo had left. Mingyu’s hair was still wet and droplets of water were still falling down every few seconds as he pulled a white T-shirt over his head and put on a pair of jeans. He still had like four hours before class would start.

There was a knock on the door. Mingyu frowned in confusion as he moved through his messy dorm room, since he hadn’t started cleaning up after his birthday party two days ago. His hand reached for the doorknob and twisted it, by now concluding it must just be Wonwoo who forgot something.

“Wonie, did you forget somet—”

What was Soonyoung doing here?