“Uh oh... no way.” Jongin whispered to himself. He couldn't breathe. There was no way. It couldn't be! He prayed it wasn't. He was so not ready for this.

The mark on the middle of Sehun's forehead became clearer and clearer. A bright blue diamond, hovering slightly above his eyebrows.

“Uhm... so, you know that mark you were talking about, the one that was supposed to appear on your forehead when you met your soulmate...” Jongin began, his voice lined with panic. “You get those a lot, right? Also for other stuff, yeah? Like, there's many kinds of marks, aren't there? ..like one mark for when you're hungry, and another one when you're feeling happy... that kind of stuff, right? Different colors for different meanings, maybe? Like a mood ring!” Jongin was grasping at straws. He was low key freaking out.

“No.” Sehun shook his head, having no idea what he was talking about.

Crap.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

Jongin dug his phone out of his pocket and opened the camera, setting it on selfie-mode.

“Here. You might want to check yourself out real quick.” Jongin swallowed with difficulty and handed Sehun the phone.

At first Sehun just made faces at himself in the camera, giggling at himself, before he finally noticed it. Sehun's eyes tripled in size as he felt his forehead with his index finger, right where the mark was placed.

“My wish came true!!” he gasped.

“You're my soulmate!” Sehun exclaimed happily, his face turning into the sun itself.

Jongin felt as the biggest rock on the planet took up residence in his gut. No, not a rock, it felt more like half a mountain. It felt really heavy.

“You.. you can just find another one, yeah? Like, a replacement soulmate if the first one was a bust.” Jongin stammered, trying to find a way out of this mess. He was so stunned, his brain wasn't working properly.

“No. There's only one.” Sehun shook his head, not doubting any of this. Jongin wanted to see the written contract for himself, there had to be some way to get out of it, something in the small print, a special exception.

“Wait. That makes no sense. You were forbidden to come here, so if you hadn't crashed, you would have never found me! That means I can't be your soulmate. I'm not even an Exorian!” Jongin said in an a-ha! tone. He had found a loophole.

“Maybe that's why I crashed here. You brought me here. It was destiny.” Sehun beamed at him, amazed.

“No, I didn't!!” Jongin objected fiercely, doing everything he could to keep his heart from melting over how happy and excited Sehun was at the prospect of spending his life together with him. His life. His whole life. Jongin felt queasy. No. This had to be some kind of mistake.

“And why now? Shouldn't it have appeared the moment we met? If I was really your soulmate, you should have recognized me straight away, not two days later. It doesn't hold up. If the mark doesn't appear immediately, then the Exorian search system is useless, because you just meet people for a little while, you don't spend like days with each and every one of them!” Jongin debated, mostly with himself.

“Maybe it's broken? It could have malfunctioned and just showed up by accident.” Jongin suggested in desperation.

Sehun shrugged. “I don't know. Maybe it took longer because you are human and not Exorian?” he hypothesized. .

“So what's going to happen now then? If I refuse to be your soulmate, are you going to die?” Jongin asked, apprehensive.

“Mmm we haven't consummated the bond yet, so I don't think so...” Sehun said, unsure. “Not straight away, at least. But I won't live as long as a bonded Exorian. Bonding with our other half and living as one is vital to our heart's function and our well being, if we don't, we gradually die of loneliness.” Sehun explained, his ecstatic smile slowly fading into nothingness.

“Oh.” Jongin's heart sank.

“And there's like... nobody else you can maybe casually date then, like, even though it's not your soulmate... you might still be able to be happy with someone else, and less lonely?” Jongin asked, hopeful.

“No.” Sehun pouted.

Jongin felt like he had been slapped in the face. And then knocked out by a hard punch on the nose. And then driven over by a huge truck. This was a lot to spring on a person. He was still in high school. He didn't even know what he wanted to be when he grew up, let alone who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. That was a pretty big decision.

Sure, Sehun was the most gorgeous human being... no wait, scratch that... the most gorgeous being he had ever seen, and he really loved hanging out with him, and he did feel all fluttery around him... but it had only been two days. Two days! Committing to a lifetime with him, without even knowing him, seemed like they were rushing into things, especially when the price for changing his mind was death for Sehun. How was he going to guarantee that he would never fall out of love with him, as long as he lived? He wasn't even completely sure he was in love with him now. It was just a crush.

“But, uhm... do we have to do something about this right away? We can just wait and see, yeah?” Jongin wrinkled his forehead, completely lost.

“You don't want to be my soulmate?” Sehun frowned, hanging his head in disappointment.

“I just... need some time, okay?” Jongin attempted a soft smile. “Can you wait while I think about this some more?” he pleaded.

“Yeah, I guess...” Sehun nodded reluctantly.

“Are you done thinking about it?” Sehun asked impatiently, five minutes later.

Jongin snorted, shaking his head.

Apparently patience was not Sehun's strong suit.