Fated | Yoonmin

Chapter 18 - beautiful smile

"I'm so sorry", I whispered, as I pulled Jimin into my arms, hugging him tightly. I wasn't sure what I was apologising for; wether I was feeling sorry for his soulmates death or the fact that I never even realised this thing could happen - I was all caught up in the fact that I didn't have a mark, not aware that so many people who had soulmarks still didn't have a soulmate, because theirs had died already.

"Don't be. I never met him."

Not sure what to answer, I just tightened my arms around him, making him giggle and slightly punch my arm.

"You're suffocating me", Jimin mumbled, pushing me away gently, smiling at me widely - genuinely, which immediately made me smile as well. No matter how many times I had seen it already, his smile made me fall in love with him a little bit more every single time.

Shifting around a little to lean his head on my shoulder, Jimin started to tell me about how he had found out, how it had affected him and how he had decided to start wearing a watch when even so much as looking at his soulmark made him incredibly angry.

Near the end of his story he gently took my hand in his and looked down at my wrist.

"Why do you hide your mark?"

I couldn't help but laugh a little at the way he worded his question, when I untangled my hand from his and started to open the clasp of my watch.

"I'm not hiding my mark."

I wasn't sure why it felt so natural to show him, why I wasn't scared at all of something I would have never even thought of doing until a few minutes ago. Somehow, I didn't even have to contemplate wether to show him my wrist or not - I just took off my watch and presented it to him like I hadn't kept it a secret from everyone I had met in the past two and a half years.

"Oh", Jimin whispered, grabbing my wrist and brushing his thumb over the clean space where a soulmark was usually supposed to be, "you don't have one."

"Yeah."

"I heard that can happen. I've never seen it before, though."

I couldn't help but smile at the look of pure amazement on Jimin's face as he stared at my blank wrist. However, when he brought it closer to his face I had to let out a laugh, earning an affronted look from the boy.

"It's just skin", I defended my amusement, to which he only pouted and argued that it was still something he had never seen before, immediately going back to inspecting my wrist.

It felt good to not immediately be pitied - or worse, called names - for it, and suddenly I felt almost stupid for ever being so incredibly worried; for being so very scared of the feelings I was developing for Jimin, when I never had to. There was absolutely no reason for me to hold back, or to hide my feelings, and really, there never had been one.

"I'm in love with you."

The very moment those words left my mouth, Jimin's fingers around my wrist froze and he looked up at my face, eyes lit up and lips stretched into a beautiful smile.

"I know", he answered, "Me too."