Soulmarks | SVT OT13 soulmates AU

31

When lani woke up in seungcheol's arms she immediately panicked and stood from the bed, nearly waking him in the process. She still felt terrible about the events of yesterday and as she was forced to remember her mood once again became somber as she pulled wonwoo's hoodie over her head and made her way down the stairs. Despite her conversation with seungkwan the previous evening she still knew the impact that the messages had on the oldest, it made her feel disappointed that someone that is supposed to love her and was related to her by blood was the one to do that to her soulmate. It aggravated her that it happened and she was so unaware of it. How did she not see a shift in seungcheols behaviour?  Or hear her aunt bragging about it to her grandmother? She felt naive and disheartened that any of this had slipped past her.

As lani walked past the kitchen she picked up a glass of water and an apple before putting in her snow boots and walking toward the door with a mind clouded with many thoughts. Sliding the door open she felt the cold hit her like a million little daggers as she took a step out of the warmth of the house. Lani took a deep breath while closing the door before turning around and standing on the porch for a little, letting her body become accustomed to the cold. Soon Lani made her way further into the garden toward a little lake that was hidden by a few trees and walked onto an old wooden dock like structure taking a seat on a bench and taking in the sounds of running water and birds, paired with swaying trees and snow landing on the ground around her. The teenager sat replaying the events of the past in her head thinking of all the ways it could've gone and how she could've stopped it all happening in the first place.

After a while lani heard footsteps in the snow behind her, she didn't have to turn around to see who it was as he sat and grabbed her cheeks pulling her face towards him and inspecting every inch of it. 'Why were you crying nini? Hmm?' Lani didn't even realise she was crying until Jun pointed it out, but at just the mere mention of the action she felt small droplets stream down her cheeks and on to the olders gloved hands. 'I just feel so pathetic and naive! How could I not know that she sent something that bad to someone I love so dearly? I just don't get it!' Jun could sense the anger in the youngers words as she practically tore herself apart in his grasp.

He brought the younger closer to his chest before pulling back and looking straight into the youngers eyes. 'Cheol hyung has never been one to share feelings, he's always bottled them up no matter how hard we question him, so it's not your fault that you didn't know okay.' Jun smiled at the younger who sent a small smile back in his direction. 'Now how about we stop these tears huh?' Jun pulled lanis face closer to his and began to place small kisses all the way down all sights of tear streaks before finally placing a longer one on her glossy lips, he pulled away and chuckled as lani sat dumbfounded in front of him, her cheeks becoming a darker shade of pink with every passing second before snuggling herself in to his clothed torso to hide her blush from him

Jun smiled, from the look of things she seemed to be accepting the fact that it is not the first time that Seungcheol had kept something from the group but he still knew the younger well enough to know that lani was not the type of person to just forget something.

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By the time that the two had made their way back inside Lani's house, the rest of the boys were awake and sat on Lani's couches. Lani took of her snow boots and cringed as jun just walked through the house leaving a trail of snow behind him. But before jun made it to the living room he felt a hand grip his wrist, turning around he was greeted by a very angry looking Lani pointing at the floor. Jun tried his hardest to stifle a laugh as the younger whisper yelled at him to clean up his mess, but quickly raised his hands in defeat before she could hit him, chuckling as he walked to take his shoes of to mop up his mess.

Lani made her way into the living room looking around for a seat to take. Glancing around the room Lani saw seungcheol sat with his arms open awaiting her to sit next to him, but instead of sitting down Lani pulled out her phone scrolling through her contacts and deciding to call her mum about what her auntie had done. As Lani exited the room, it felt like someone was physically pulling the heart strings of everyone in the room as seungcheols mood visibly deflated. Jeonghan moved from his seat next to chan, who gladly let him go, and made his way toward the oldest taking him into his arms and looking around at the others.

'Anyone know what that was about?' despite the situation there was no angry undertone in jeonghan's voice, just genuine concern for both parties in the situation. After a few seconds of silence Jun spoke up from his place in the doorway from the kitchen, 'she's beating herself up for not realising that her aunt sent that message to seungcheol, we just spoke about it outside.' Jun walked toward chan and sat in the now vacant seat beside him before feeling a nudge on his shoulder. 'Well carry on then.' Chan urged, jun sighed looking around at the 11 faces filled with concern either looking at him of the heartbroken seungcheol in jeonghan's arms. 'She said she felt naive and pathetic that she didn't know her aunt had sent something like that to someone she loves so dearly, I calmed her down a bit but I think she needs to have a conversation with cheol hyung. Which will be hard since she's evidently avoiding him from fear of letting him down again.'

'Poor nini' jeonghan muttered barely above a whisper before turning toward the now crying soulmate in his arms. 'See it's not your fault cheollie.' The older male just nodded before nuzzling his head back into the youngers shirt, but the focus was quickly switched from him to a now standing vernon as he made his way toward the front door picking up his court and sliding on his shoes. 'What are you doing' seungkwan stood making his way to the younger and placing a hand on each of his shoulders, spinning the boy around. Vernon let a soft smile rise on to his face as he placed his one of his hands on top of seungkwans rubbing circles onto the back of it. 'I'm just going for a walk don't worry, I'll ask Lani if she wants to join me but if she doesn't then I suggest coming to get her in a bit. She'll be cold.' Vernon stated to his other soulmates before offering them another smile, putting his hat on his head and walking out of the door.

As soon as the door opened Lani turned her head to face it, finding vernon putting a headphone in his ear and walking to the end of the front porch of Lani's house before he stopped for long enough to face Lani and ask her, 'I'm going for a walk, wanna come with me?' The boy held his hand out toward Lani waiting for her to place hers onto it and sure enough after a few seconds, her hand wrapped around his and she was making her way down the street with him. 'You know I understand you pain, trust me I do but avoiding cheol hyung is not the way to go about healing it. And deep down you know that.' Lani sighed, he was right she did know this and what she did to the older earlier was tearing her apart, she hated that look on his face when he realised she was avoiding him, but by the time she realised her mother had already picked up the phone. Lani's thoughts were interrupted hen she heard vernons voice ring through her ears again.

'How did the phone call with your mum go?' He questioned still looking at the snow falling an the remaining branches on the leafless trees, 'it was fin- wait! How do you know that?' Lani's eyes yes we're wide open, did he see or was he just guessing? 'Well you were quite obviously not calling your aunt and I guessing uncle, you said your grandma doesn't like you, your brother is in America and it's currently still 2am there and you said your parents get up early so it could only be one of them. I was just guessing at the mum part.' Lani was utterly shocked, was she really that easy to read? Vernon turned around to look at Lani making the younger stop in her tracks and face him to. 'I know you don't wanna hear this-' vernon lifted his glover hands to the girls face wiping of any pieces of snow that had fallen onto her face. '-but when we get back you need to talk to cheol hyung. And I don't mean tomorrow or the day after, it needs to be done today okay.' He smiled as Lani softly nodded her head, before he leant forward placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

Lani looked up at the boy who was treating her so kindly even after everything that her family had done to him and his soulmates and realised that he didn't blame her for the situation at all, all of her fears were washed away as she stared into his eyes. She took in his slightly rosy nose due to the cold and giggled slightly as it twitched making the most times cold boy infront of her look, cute. She stood up on her tip toes and laced a light peck on his lips before walking back in the direction the two of them came, vernon felt a wide smile spread i Ross his face as he chuckled and shook his head playfully before following the girl,who was now ready to speak with her oldest soulmate, If he still wanted to speak to her.

A/n- wow this is a long chapter but I am here to say that this is the second to last chapter, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter and as usual it was not proof read so I apologise for any mistakes.