Soul Rings (x.mh + w.jh + j.ww + k.mg) ✓

10

Days passed. Tests failed. Minghao's hands hurt like never before, and he just wanted it to stop.

"Minghao," Jisoo spoke up from their shared table in one of their many shared classes. Minghao hummed and Jihoon looked up to listen as well, both boys waiting for Jisoo to finally speak. "You don't look so good."

Minghao slowly brought his head up and glanced at his rings before turning back to Jisoo. "I feel great."

Jihoon scoffed. "You look awful. You're so... thin, too. There's something going on."

Minghao was silenced. Jihoon never hesitated to comment out his weight. He knew that he could go from muscular to skinny quicker than someone on cocaine, but hearing it from Jihoon? Absolutely brutal.

"I'm fine, really. Just the typical weight fluctuations."

"Alright," Jihoon mumbled.

x

Mingyu watched the students pass by him, giggling and jumping with an unrealistic amount of energy. His hands stayed in his pockets and he was as quiet as a mouse. One squeak and someone would be after him.

His failed attempts of trying to keep his rings hidden were awful but no one did much. A girl from his PE class liked to poke fun at him, but it wasn't much. He had dealt with worse.

He was walking home from school when his hand had started aching again. He looked to see a different ring changing. The white dragon's scales turned black and the eyes turned to a dark red with the dragon somehow changing its position.

Instead of crawling against the band, it had changed to where it was sitting and the tail wrapped around the band. It was gorgeous, dare Mingyu say it. Dangerous yet calm. Scary but fascinating,

Someone bumped into Mingyu's shoulder and he yanked his hands out of his pockets to catch himself on the ground. He groaned from the pain that shot up the finger that held the ring with the eight made out of smoke and slowly turned around to see a boy with a black mullet leaning down to help him up.

"Why does my rose ring hurt," Minghao whispered under his breath as he extended his hand to the boy on the floor. The pain only got worse as their fingertips touched and once Mingyu had gripped the boy with the mullet's hair entirely, the pain had gone away.

Mingyu's rose ring had moved from the time Minghao had helped him up to where it stuck their hands together. The silver vines from Mingyu's ring gripped onto the rose ring Minghao had and they stared at each other.

And stared.

And stared.

And blinked.

Stared.

Then breathed.

"R-Rose?" Minghao whispered.

Mingyu kept his lips clamped shut.

Both of them continued to stare until Mingyu had gotten sick of it and pulled away from Minghao. He succeeded in getting Minghao to back away. The boy was confused. Mingyu wanted to laugh, wanted to cry, wanted to punch him in the face... his emotions were everywhere.

"I- I think you're my soulmate? Or at least, one of them?" Minghao awkwardly laughed.

"No, I think... I think you have the wrong person," Mingyu stated with newfound confidence. Why was he so confident, he'd never know.

"But the rings? You have the same ones I do."

"I think you're seeing things."

"No?"

Mingyu took a quick look behind him. A surge of happiness went through his body when he noticed that the street was empty. He took one last look at Minghao,

And sprinted down the street as fast as his long legs could take him.

x

Jeongin cringed at Junhui flinching in pain every few minutes during their after-school club. "You need to go to the nurse, Jun."

"I'm okay," He quietly groaned out, clutching onto his rings with his other hand. "We only have a few minutes left anyways.. I'll- I'll be fine."

"You do know that the second that bell rings, I'm dragging you to the nurse?"

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead."

"Of course. You're one of the best friends that I've ever had, Jun. If you die then I'm right behind you."

"God, why so dramatic?"

"Better now than never!"