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Chanhee should've known better.
He'd been telling his friends for months that he didn't want anything for his birthday. That, of course, also implied 'no party'.
Chanhee didn't like parties.
Kevin didn't care.
You're turning 18! That only happens once! How do you expect us to do nothing about this iconic moment of your mortal existence, Choi Chanhee?
But it hadn't been a question, not really.
Because it didn't really mattered what he answer, none would have been good enough for his friend.
So, instead, he'd pleaded to everyone else that wasn't Kevin. From Changmin and Juyeon to fucking Sunwoo, who had obviously laughed at his face when Chanhee had stepped the lowest he'd ever step and begged the little shit to convince his boyfriend to please not throw him a party.
Really, he should've known it was all in bane.
So, that was exactly how he'd ended up here, hiding on the balcony on his parent's bedroom, sweating and panting from running away from his best friend for the past 10 minutes. pHaknyeon had been sweet enough to not reveal his current location when they made eye contact in the hallways before he got in.
A guarding angel if Chanhee had ever seen one.
Trying to stay as quiet as possible was proving more complicated then initially thought but it was already 23.57 so it didn't matter much. He needed to manage another undiscovered 3 minutes, take a good look at his mark in peace and then pretend he'd been in the bathroom.
It wasn't going to be that easy.
The door clicked open and he contained his breath.
Well, it could've been worse.
Juyeon looked around before his dark eyes settled on him. Even if Chanhee hadn't been an expect at reading his emotion, he would've still been able to understand the very clear really? plastered on his face.
"If you don't rat me out, you're getting extra cake."
His friend laughed, that very Juyeon-laugh of his, a little quiet, small chuckles that lighted up his whole face and turned his eyes into half moons.
He was so pretty.
"Okay but if Kevin finds out, this was all your fault and I knew nothing about it."
"Hey!"
Without losing the smile, Juyeon kicked him affectionately before closing the glass door being him, crouching to inspect how clean the floor was and sitting down to his right.
Maybe this was that instant karma Changmin liked to talk about.
Him and Juyeon had been friends for almost three years at this point, since the beginning of 4th year when the other had moved and been automatically adopted — or abducted, depending who you asked — by Kevin and their friend group.
Chanhee had been the only one taking enough pity to tell him what he was getting himself into.
And maybe they'd never gotten as close and Chanhee and Kevin but no one would ever be as close as Chanhee and Kevin were — they'd known each other since the womb, there was no escaping that kind of friendship.
Juyeon was a close second though.
Or, well, had been.
Because the thing was, none of them had ever made it much of a secret that their feelings from each other had never been entirely platonic.
It was funny, really, because it hadn't even taken Chanhee ranting to Changmin about how gorgeous one Lee Juyeon was for his friend to know — or that's what he liked to say, anyways. Not to be a bitch, Chanhee, but I knew. We all knew. Even Eric.
Everyone seemed to know but, again, it was pretty obvious.
They weren’t dating, not really, but it was something similar enough.
Or, well, it had been.
They used to spend their free afternoons together, be it laying around in the deserted school hallways, at the café down the road of even their houses.
Weekends were almost always at each other’s company. Juyeon kept insisting on teaching him how to dance and Chanhee kept agreeing with the condition of getting to sing together as payment.
Group projects, assignments and preparation for exams were also just excuses to be together — with the addition of their other best friends to the mix too, of course.
And maybe Chanhee had also started to believe that all that meant they weren’t just friends. Kevin had laugh at him, telling to just ask Juyeon out and be done with it.
But the thing was, Chanhee was scared.
Scared of what bringing it up could mean for their dynamic. Scared of pulling the cat out the bad and ruining it all. Scared of being the only one that saw it as romantic. Scared of losing Juyeon in the process.
In the end, it hadn’t been him and his mouth that had put an end to… whatever they had going on.
It had been Juyeon’s 18th birthday.
Because the blessed bastard was born during summer vacation, he’d been lucky enough to avoid Kevin’s raft and his necessity for birthday parties.
He’d been spending two weeks with his family at his grandparent’s house down in the south (which Juyeon never stopped complaining about because what’s the point of going to a winter resort during the hottest months of the year?) and when he came back, his left arm had been wrapped around bandages.
And it had remained like that since, no matter who or how many time they asked.
Surprisingly, Kevin had been the first one to give up on trying to get an answer out of their friend. Chanhee had been a little disappointed about this because he really, really wanted to know what his soulmate mark said and if anyone was good at persuading people, that was Kevin.
It was stupid, he was aware, but he still wanted to know.
Most people’s soulmate marks were all the same (‘hi’, ‘hello’, ‘hey!’, ‘nice to meet you’) because, honestly, how many variants could there be to ‘the first sentence your soulmates says to you’?
Chanhee had always believed that his wouldn’t be that different to Kevin’s (‘Hi!’) or Jacob’s (‘it’s very nice to meet you, Jacob’) because, really, what were the chances?
And also, Chanhee had never exactly cared much about his mark at all. Most were useless, black words on people’s skins that would probably turn red and start disappearing before they even noticed they were sharing their life with the soulmate.
But then Juyeon had to be all mysterious about it, cut their dating–but–not–really and Chanhee had started to panic.
What if his wasn’t useless? What if it had given him an actual clue and that was why he’d cut his flirting with him?
Since that thought crossed his mind, Chanhee had been impatiently waiting for his own mark.
“You’re thinking out loud again, Choi Chanhee.”
Rolling his eyes, he huffed. “I’m not.”
“I can tell when you’re thinking too hard.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Because, why Juyeon?
“So, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” It took a simple look from his friends to know he didn’t believe him. “Just anxious about my mark, that’s it.”
The mention of it made Juyeon straighten his back, looking away from him.
And if it wasn’t something bad, then why had he been avoiding him?
It obviously wasn’t something that could connect the two of them or he’d have said something, right?
With a sigh, Chanhee dropped his head back, looking up the night sky.
What time even was it?
Would he feel anything? Kevin said no but it was Kevin so he wasn’t sure he should believe him. But then, how would he know? Would it show up immediately or would he have to wait? What if it didn’t eve–
“Happy birthday, Hee.”
“Oh.” He blinked at Juyeon’s laugh. “Thank you.”
Scratching his neck, he closed his eyes, pressing his lips before exhaling slowly.
Okay.
Here went nothing.
A gasp escaped him before he even realised it had.
The black worlds were pretty, uniform, same sized letters. They looked nothing like his friends’ but Chanhee liked them.
Even more because of what they meant.
“Chanhee?”
He couldn’t help but chuckle, rubbing his skin with his thumb, the shook so invigorating, he wanted to scream.
“Juyeon, show me your mark.”
And he knew Juyeon wasn’t going to say no.
It was the exact same font, small and delicate yet bold and eye catching.
Placing his own arm beneath it, Chanhee laughed at the stupidity.
Careful, he bites he’d said when Kevin had brought Juyeon, wide-eyes and lost, to their friendship cycle on the cafeteria table.
I’ll keep that in mind Juyeon had answered with a small smile.
And honestly, who’d have thought Chanhee would be thanking Kevin of all people for his 18th birthday?
Because those were no normal, mundane first words. They were easily recognisable, teasing words of introduction Chanhee would never forget.
“You—huge fucking idiot—I’m going to—kill you.” He said instead of anything romantic, punching Juyeon’s shoulder between words.
The other, however, simply laughed once more. “I was scared they wouldn’t match.”
A valid concern Chanhee had no time to be worrying about because Lee Juyeon was his fucking soulmates and why weren’t they kissing?
Chanhee didn’t know but he was sure to fix that very quickly.
It wasn’t magical like kisses in movies. The Earth didn’t stop, the sky didn’t shine brighter and Juyeon was still smiling when he’d launched forwards so it started a little awkward.
It was perfect.
Feeling Juyeon’s little breath against his lips made it up for the 3 months of uncertainty he’d been dealing with.
“Are we finally boyfriends or what?”
“Very classy way of asking me out, Chanhee.”
“So?”
Instead of words, Juyeon rolled his eyes and gave him another kiss just as breathtaking as the first one.
Kevin’s scream when they showed up hand in hand, 10 minutes later, with matching marks was almost as good as realising the boy he liked actually liked him back.