What is the first thing one notices about another person?

Is it their eyes?

Their facial features?

Perhaps their skin?

Or maybe it’s their lips.

Maybe it’s their sense of fashion… or lack of it.

Possibly their hair.

Body proportions?

No matter what it is, there’s always something about others that people tend to zero in first.

They say that first impressions are important, and those are usually based on what people see on the outside. It’s hard to deny, because it’s true. Everyone tends to judge books by their covers. The only difference is if they’re open-minded to the fact that there’s so much more to people than the first impression.

Do Kyungsoo is not your typical person. He can see something else about people that others normally can’t, and it’s usually what he notices first about them. After all, it’s pretty hard to ignore when you can see the color of a person’s soul.

--

He has known this ability since he was aware of his sense of sight. He didn’t know what they were at first, a knowledge which only grew as he himself grew older.

He first encountered the fact that not everyone else can see the said colors when he was at an innocent age of 6 years. One day, he had offhandedly mentioned that his neighbor, Baekhyun, was looking particularly yellow that day.

“Excuse me?” then 7 year old Baekhyun gaped. “I do not have hepamatytitis!” He, of course, meant to say hepatitis.

Kyungsoo pouts. “I don’t mean your skin, Baek, I mean your…” he motioned around his torso.

Baekhyun’s eyes narrowed. “I’m wearing a white shirt, Soo.”

Chanyeol, the third and last member of their little band of misfits, looked between the two of them apprehensively. It was a well-known fact that Byun Baekhyun could get out of control when annoyed.

“Chanyeol, calm yourself down, you’re making my eyes and head hurt with your too shiny… thing.” Kyungsoo exclaims, shielding his eyes from the said boy.

Chanyeol frowned in confusion. “But I’m not doing anything.”

“Yes you are.” Kyungsoo retorted. “Stop it.”

“Ugh! Let’s go Yeollie, Soo’s acting all weird.” Baekhyun harrumphed and grabbed Chanyeol’s hand to drag him away.

When the boys saw each other the very next day, they didn’t talk about the incident.

It’s another few years later when the topic is again brought up and discussed between the three of them. They were more mature then for Kyungsoo to realize that indeed, other people don’t normally see what he could. It was also enough for Baekhyun and Chanyeol to realize that their friend really could perceive something that normal human sight cannot access. It was quite the revelation for all three to discover that none of them was toying with the others.

"Wait, so you don't see the colors?" 

Baekhyun shot him a funny look. "What are you talking about, Soo? Of course we can see colors. None of us are color blind, as far as I know. I for one, know that you're wearing a green shirt today..." 

Kyungsoo shook his head. "No. Not just colors, the colors. The colors each person has. Sort of like an... aura?" He trailed off, noticing the perplexed looks that his friends shared. "You don't see it, Baek?" 

Baekhyun fidgeted uncomfortably. "Uh, no?" he ventured.

"Yeol?" Kyungsoo turned to Chanyeol for affirmation.

Chanyeol didn't answer, and Kyungsoo laughed nervously. "C'mon guys, stop messing with me."

"But... we're not playing with you, Kyungsoo." Chanyeol said, looking surprised. "We really don't see anything like that. Like, at all." 

There was a moment of awkward silence at that revelation, which only ended when Chanyeol cleared his throat. “So. Uh… what colors do we have?”

Chanyeol ‘s soul is tangerine. Not a fiery orange, tangerine. Just the right amount between standing out too much and being too mundane. Chanyeol’s known to be the one who’s constantly happy, and is quite infectious in spreading his cheer at that. He tends to brighten up the atmosphere whenever he’s around. Whenever Kyungsoo sees anyone else with a soul remotely close to orange, it always fascinates him how Chanyeol’s always looks to be just the right shade while everyone else’s looks too bright, too light, too dark, or too dull.

Baekhyun has always been a stand out yellow. Witty, perky, sassy, and could outshine anyone else in the room if he wants to. On the occasions that he tones down to a paler hue, Kyungsoo knows that Baekhyun is also capable of being sensitive and subdued. Funnily enough, this happens whenever Chanyeol is not within proximity. Kyungsoo assumes it’s because the two are forces to reckon with when combined. Most of the time, however, Baekhyun’s soul color is just about the brightest thing that Kyungsoo sees. He likes it more than he cares to admit out loud, because heavens know Baekhyun’s enough of a star as it is. But it’s sunny, it’s earnest, it’s Baekhyun.

And Kyungsoo, what about Kyungsoo? Well, his soul color is of a light shade of parchment, somewhere between ivory and cream. At least, that’s what he sees when he looks at himself. And don’t people always perceive themselves differently from what they really look like? But Kyungsoo supposes that it’s just wishful thinking, because he knows that it’s pretty much accurate regarding whom he is, just as he knows that his friends fit exactly the colors of their own souls. He doesn’t mind, not really. It’s who he is: simple, can get along with anything or anyone.

Chanyeol thinks that parchment is classy, a quality that he also possesses, but Kyungsoo doesn’t buy it. Baekhyun believes that parchment is actually very fancy and exquisite despite its simple facade, which he quips Kyungsoo is as well. But that’s just according to Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

Kyungsoo’s long accepted the fact that no one else could see the colors the same way he does, and that no one could help him understand his strange ability. He seems to learn fine on his own, nevertheless, so he’s content. He doesn’t know everything, but just enough. And it’s not like the ability is any more practical than a dolphin that could headstand; uncommon and nearly impossible, yes, but a curious thing nonetheless.

Soul colors aren’t like a translucent filter that is imposed all over a person’s image, at least not in Kyungsoo’s eyes. Soul colors are most apparent approximately around the area of a person’s diaphragm, and sort of bleeds out in all directions from there. They’re a transparent soft glow, which is why he can still determine what colored clothes people are wearing, though some, like Chanyeol’s and Baekhyun’s, are more prominent; nonetheless transparent, but definitely more vivid and vibrant than most others’. Kyungsoo’s not sure what the difference is between those with what he considers ‘hi-def’ colors and those who don’t, or if there is any at all. At first he thought his perception varied depending on how well he knows the person, but then one day he encountered a couple he has never met at all with colors so vibrant Kyungsoo had to stop and stare, and his hypothesis was disproven. He also knows that said vividness could tone down, as earlier mentioned, like in Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s cases, interestingly obvious when they’re apart.

The colors are not stagnant, as Kyungsoo can see the colors shifting, especially when interacting with other souls. The colors can smudge onto other’s souls, Kyungsoo realizes early on. People who have touched others in great ways often leave a trace of their souls on those people’s souls, small touches of their soul color mixed with the other person’s own. Artists who pour out their efforts on their works end up leaving smudges of their soul colors on the finished product, invisible to the normal human eyes. Kyungsoo can always tell which artists feel genuinely for their works because of this. He thinks it’s beautiful.

But soul color transfers can be ugly as well, much like paint transfer on vehicular accidents. Some people have other people’s soul colors on them in harsh slashes, smothering blots, and overwhelming splatters. Kyungsoo can only imagine what kinds of interactions make such marks possible. 

Among the three of them, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol have reasonably sized soul transfers from each other. Colorful swirls of tangerine and yellow on parchment, whispers of parchment on otherwise brightly colored yellow and tangerine, and the vibrant exchanges of tangerine and yellow. They’ve all known each other since childhood, after all; so much so that Kyungsoo knows almost each and every color transfer on his friends’ souls, and why.

Baekhyun has harsh scratches from his parents’ distinct colors.  They only make Baekhyun’s own yellow stronger at the stark contrast. Even Chanyeol has one long gash from his drunkard father, one he left there before he left Chanyeol and his mother for good. Kyungsoo, whose parents own died in an accident when he was very young, has two barely there splotches of colors he’s never seen on anyone he remembers. They’re