“How about now?” Sehun asked for the umpteenth time, starting to get on Jongin's nerves. Maybe he should just reject Sehun right now, get it over with. There was no way Jongin could actually go through with this soulmate thing, it was too big of a promise. He didn't have the courage.

Jongin also had to factor in the possibility that everything he was feeling could simply be the result of Sehun's powers. Sehun might be controlling his feelings, bending them to trick him into thinking he was in love with him, tricking him into a lifetime of enslavement as his soulmate.

Although, if Sehun continued to use his powers on him forever, he would be in love with him forever. Was that any different from real love? Wasn't love just a mental disorder anyway? What did it matter whether it was caused by some invisible pheromones you couldn't control, or invisible alien powers? Either way, you never had a choice.

No. You always had a choice!

Jongin was going to make his own choice and he was making it now.

“Sehun-ah, come here, let's have a little chat.” Jongin waved Sehun over.

Sehun came running over to him, his face lighting up. Sehun probably thought he was calling him over to finally accept him as his soulmate. Poor guy. Jongin really did feel bad about leaving him in the lurch. If it was true what he said, that there was only one soulmate, would Sehun have to live the rest of his life alone? Jongin's heart ached at the thought. But he couldn't just give up his own life because he felt sorry for Sehun. And Sehun had a better chance at a decent life without him, at least that way there was no risk of him betraying him and condemning him to die from heartbreak.

Jongin sighed. There was no good solution.

“I.. I don't think I can... so ehm, yeah.. I don't want to...” Jongin started, but the words just refused to come out. He looked into Sehun's innocent eyes that were looking at him like he was the most beautiful person they had ever seen. They pierced Jongin's heart like two sharp pins, torturing it until Jongin gave up.

“You know what.. I think we should have a drink!” Jongin exclaimed, avoiding the issue altogether.

“I'm not thirsty. Exorians only need to fill their water supply in the morning, and some mornings it can be superfluous.” Sehun pointed out.

“I'm not talking about that kind of drink.” Jongin shook his head, going to the kitchen and returning with a bottle of soju from his dad's secret hiding place. He poured them both a shot.

Sehun sniffed the clear liquid, a frown disfiguring his face. “It's poison!!” he gasped. “I can smell it. There are chemicals in this that are poisonous to the body!”.

“Yeah, it's the good kind of poison.” Jongin smirked, chugging his shot. It had a kick to it. It was just what he needed.

“Exorians do not poison their bodies on purpose!” Sehun refused, shocked and outraged.

“Trust me, you're going to want this poison.” Jongin assured him. “Try it!” he urged him. Jongin got a faint pang of guilt for being such a bad influence on Sehun, but it was not strong enough for him to consider backing off.

“Okay, but only because you're my soulmate.” Sehun giggled, closing his eyes and taking a tiny little sip. “Agh! It's bitter!” he scrunched his nose.

“I don't think I'm your soulmate. Something went wrong.” Jongin gently confessed.

“It was the birthday wish! It made you my soulmate, because that's what I wished for!” Sehun grinned happily.

“I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but birthday wishes don't really work, they don't make things come true, they're just something we made up to give kids hope.” Jongin reluctantly tried to burst Sehun's happy bubble, but it was one resistant bubble.

“No, it worked! See!” Sehun pointed at his forehead. Ah, that ominous blue diamond. It just sat there on his forehead, refusing to leave, mocking him.

“See, I told you it wouldn't kill you!” Jongin pointed out after Sehun had taken a few tiny sips of soju. Jongin topped up his glass. The only way he was going to be able to do this was if they were both drunk. Their hearts had to be numb for this, else it would hurt way too bad.

“Poison is AMAZING!” Sehun screeched, falling backwards onto the floor, laughing uncontrollably. He had barely finished half a shot glass of soju. He really wasn't a very strong drinker.

“Awww, I wanted a fire cake memory to put on the shelf toooo...” Sehun complained as he looked at the shelf with the photos upside down from the floor.

“Oh, I actually did take a photo, hang on.” Jongin opened the gallery on his phone, pulling up one of the million pictures he had taken of him with the cake. Jongin had just wanted to document the occasion for him, but every moment had seemed so precious and Sehun had looked so cute, that he just kept taking more and more photos.

“See.” he handed Sehun his phone.

“Waaou!” Sehun sat up, jumped up on his feet and stumbled over to the shelf, placing the phone proudly next to Jongin's childhood birthday picture. Sehun beamed.

Jongin was going to explain that phones weren't really used as picture frames, but Sehun was so incredibly happy to have his photo next to Jongin's, that he couldn't do it. Oh well, who needed a phone anyway.

Sehun stumbled back, but instead of sitting down on the small one person couch on the opposite side of the table like before, he joined him on the sofa, sitting uncomfortably close to him.

“Wow, you have a beautiful body.” Sehun said, undressing Jongin with his drunk eyes.

“Eh... thanks?” Jongin awkwardly said, feeling uneasy and anxious.

“I wanna touch it.” Sehun grinned.

“What... no!” Jongin moved to the corner of the sofa, away from Sehun.

“I just want to see if it feels different to mine, different to an Exorian's body.” Sehun innocently said, but there was nothing innocent about the way he was looking at him. Jongin's stomach churned, his heart doing nervous jumping jacks.

“You've already touched it before, a lot. You slept hugging me the entire night last night.” Jongin objected, his voice cracking.

“So then it doesn't matter if I touch it one more time!” Sehun pointed out, curiously Jongin's upper arm. Jongin instinctively flexed his biceps. Agh, what was he doing? Why did he care so much what Sehun thought of his body? He had already decided to turn Sehun down, he shouldn't be trying to impress him.

It tickled. The butterflies all escaped again, it had taken him the better part of the day to cage them all up, but it had been no use. Jongin giggled.

“Oh! Did I use my powers again?” Sehun chuckled. “Oops.” he snickered, not feeling bad about it one bit.

Jongin started feeling careless, instead of resisting Sehun's advances, he caught himself yearning for more. Jongin's lips were begging for a kiss, and he was too drunk to talk some sense into them.

“Mmm, I like you. You smell good. Please be my soulmate, okay?” Sehun murmured into Jongin's ear, and fell onto his lap. He was out cold. This was the first time Jongin had seen a person black out from less than a shot of soju.

Jongin held his breath, watching Sehun sleep on his lap. He was so pretty. Ah, he was so much trouble when he was awake, but when he was sleeping, he looked so innocent and cute.