two teenagers have lived most of their lives resenting the idea of having a soulmate, pushed so far back into the back of their minds, they almost forgot it was a thing.
so what happens when they actually show up?
➳ high school au with a hint of so...
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It had been a week since Donghyuck's greatest epiphany and he had avoided the café like it was the plague. He hadn't spoken to a single soul about it and he wasn't planning on it. He had found himself often forgetting that he had a soulmate, busy with the packed scehdule he set for himself as a senior. Of course, there were times like this where he would remember and every negative emotion known to make would rush through him and gag him, the thought of it disgusting him. It wasn't exactly settling in all too well.
He was angry, that he found his soulmate. He had always distanced himself from the idea of a soulmate, without ever having a fully convincing reason to do so but she had provided him with one and he didn't know whether to cuss her out for it or thank her. He was even more angry that this soulmate of his dropped him into a hole of some sort that he couldn't quite see the end of. His grades, the dynamic with his dad, his sanity, everything that needed to be in order seemed to have slipped from his grasp and it wasn't something he was having an easy time dealing with. Something had shifted between them that day, it was always suffocating being around the old man but for the first time in his life, he felt the pressure of not meeting Lee Kyungmin's standards. He was constantly on edge around him but was always balanced. Since then, it had felt like Donghyuck had been purposely pushed on a tightrope, tipping from side to side and the fear of actually falling was worse than looking down from the line and seeing how far down you could possibly fall. Donghyuck had spent the past few weeks avoiding his father as much as he could which was something he hadn't actually actively done before.
is this what mum feels like?
Now, this girl, who had never met him, never spoken to him before (not for anything other than a hot chocolate), never acknowledged him before had somehow managed to land the most catastrophic damage on him and was out there living her best, care-free life.
fuck her
He was fuming, silent as he sat in his seat, smoke out the ears, the whole lot. He didn't have a book in front of him or a pencil in his hand, that should've been the first warning sign but his friends hadn't yet picked up on that yet. They were a bit slow at time. It had been a week now since the great realisation and somehow his mind would often travel back to a conversation he had with friends about soulmates late last year, where one of them, namely Mark, had said that a soulmate would show up at the right time. That was absolute, utter bullshit because his soulmate did not enter his life at the right time, instead she happened to come in at the worst possible moment. Any time would have been bad but this, it couldn't get any worse than this.
right fucking time, my ass
It had been just three days since he put the pieces together and about a week and a half since she ruined his life. He had been dragged to the café by Jaemin because apparently he hadn't seen enough of him in the last week, which was honestly true given how Donghyuck had avoiding every person in sight. It was school, library and then home, more specifically, his room and repeat for the last seven days. Conveniently, he was seated directly in front of Mark. Whilst he was sitting there looking pretty, Donghyuck was fighting the most blood curdling, overwhelming urge to throw a punch right in the middle of his dumb-ass face.
right time, he said
The glaring continued and no one had actually noticed. Mark had bought everyone some hot drinks, hot chocolate for Donghyuck specifically and the glaring stopped, not that anyone noticed.
What angered him more than Mark's misleading words, was the sight of the smiley face that had appeared on his skin without fail every single day. Always in a different coloured ink, red in the morning, orange in the evening. Occasionally paired with hearts or a flower but the doodles were a reminder he didn't need. Their pairing had been so badly-timed; her doodles weren't any better. Only she would draw an animated mushroom walking onto her wrist the day he had a formal event at City Square with his family and other rich people. Jeno and Renjun had spent the entire evening two days ago, reminding Donghyuck to cover his wrist with the sleeve of his shirt every time they saw the red of the top of the coloured mushroom peek through. He found out that day that he couldn't wash her ink off either. Nothing had ever frustrated him so much, even the attempts the boys had made couldn't pull him out of it, sitting with the most blank stare and stone-like expression for the remainder of the event. He didn't think he could hold himself back if he ever saw her, he would definitely do some damage, land a punch even things got bad. He wasn't going to hit a girl a girl, no way but this girl.
no. shut up. stop thinking.
What he definitely knew despite the rush and the confusion was that he didn't want to hear her or see her, ever, which was ironic given how he was sat there sipping his hot chocolate, headphones in, peering over the cup to see if she was lurking in the café.
The first encounter and realisation was a lot different to what he had heard of and even occasionally imagined. Usually, both people knew they met their soulmate, the hints were either there right from the start or appeared after it was deemed right (usually eighteen years old), first words inked on the skin, matching tattoos, a touch, missing colours. For them, it was writing - writing soulmates couldn't communicate in any way shape or form, one writes, one receives, that's just the way it was. Once they figured the writing had started, it was up to them to figure out their soulmate, find them and build a relationship. Every other soulmate had a way to keep them physically connected whether it was the string or the 'touch once a week or you die' type thing but writing soulmates had absolutely nothing. It was almost all completely in their hands for it to work, or not to work. It kind of played out in his favour, she'd never know it's him and she'd never find out if he kept it to himself but there was a side to the argument that he didn't quite want to acknowledge.
It was a bothersome situation. The anger that subsided for a few minutes would bubble up again every time he thought of how quickly things went south the moment she was involved. She had messed things up. He was sure it was irrational to feel such hatred for someone he had never actually met. It wasn't entirely her fault, it was made clear to him every time he thought really deep into the situation, which wasn't that often. It'll settle in eventually but for now he needed someone to blame and more importantly he desperately needed things to go back to the way it was.
He finished up the last of his hot chocolate, the paper cup coming into contact with the table with more force than it should've, increasing the volume of his music knowing full well he would have a hard time trying to engage in the conversation in front of him. He needed to take his mind off all of this. He needed to take his mind off of her.
chapter eleven - right time, my *fucking* ass
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