“Don't yell.” Sehun complained.

“I'm not yelling!” Jongin yelled.

Oh.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just really worked up and shocked, and trying to wrap my head around this.” Jongin apologized.

“I know it's not your fault.” he assured Sehun. “Even though you did encourage me to take your hand without warning me of what would happen if I did, but you were delirious and had no idea what you were doing.” he added, a teensy hint of bitterness lining the tone of his voice.

“It's nobody's fault, it was an accident.” Jongin concluded, determined.

“No. It was destiny!” Sehun protested, letting out a quiet giggle.

Jongin couldn't deny that it was super cute how pleased Sehun was to have him as his soulmate. Sehun was taking all of this surprisingly well. It couldn't be easy having a non-Exorian as his soulmate. Jongin had no idea what to do and was pretty much useless to Sehun. He had no clue what Sehun needed, nor what being a soulmate entailed, or how it worked, and he was a danger to Sehun's health, being a fickle barbarian and all.

And where would they live? Ah, he hadn't thought of that. Jongin couldn't leave his dad, no way. And he had no idea where Exor even was, how it looked like, whether humans could live there, or if he would even survive the trip over there.

It also sounded like Exorians had a longer lifespan than humans. Jongin vaguely remembered Sehun mentioning something about being 90 years old. Oh no, he was getting alien-married to a grandpa. At least Sehun looked really, really, really good for his age, or for any age, actually.

Sehun unexpectedly hugged him from behind, wrapping his arms tightly around him.

“Don't worry so much.” Sehun whispered into his ear, burying his face into his shoulder.

Jongin could feel his whole body deflate, all the stress just melting away. He leaned backwards into the hug, feeling a rush of happiness, fondness and calm as warmth spread through his entire body. It felt good. Almost too good. How could Jongin be so carefree and happy at a time like this. It was so not like him. It kind of felt like they weren't even his own feelings, like they were flowing in from the outside somehow.

Sehun released him and Jongin turned around. Sehun was beaming at him, practically glowing with happiness. Jongin wasn't sure why or how he had gotten the idea, but he got a strange hunch that he just had to test out. It was a farfetched theory, but for some reason he suspected it would be proven correct.

Hmm, he just had to figure out how to test it. He needed to find something that would irritate Sehun.

Ah! He made an educated guess of what would do the trick.

“I've decided I don't like chocolate anymore and I'm never going to eat it again, so since we're soulmates and what we do affects the other one, you have to stop eating it too. In fact, I've already thrown out every bit of chocolate that was left in this house.” Jongin tapped his food firmly on the floor to emphasize his determination, that his decision was final and there was nothing Sehun could do about it.

Sehun's smile disappeared instantly, and he started to protest profusely. Jongin could feel the irritation as it flooded his nervous system. He didn't just see that Sehun was disappointed and frustrated, he could feel it. And not in the imaginary ghost feeling kind of way, but almost as if they were his own feelings, except there was a slight difference so he could recognize that they weren't really his.

“I'm just kidding.” Jongin snorted. “Let's have some chocolate right now!” he suggested energetically, moving on to phase 2 of his experiment.

“Yay!! Chocolate!” Sehun instantly reclaimed his happy enthusiasm, leading the way to the kitchen, bouncing up and down excitedly. Jongin felt all bubbly and exhilarated for no reason. Jongin did like chocolate, but not enough to get this excited about it. They weren't his feelings he was feeling, they were Sehun's!

Jongin could not only sense what Sehun was feeling, but he actually felt it himself.

Did that mean... that Sehun could feel what Jongin was feeling?