Archive of Our Own

1.

Jisung was assigned a new roommate at the beginning of his second semester at the university.

His last roommate had dropped out without saying a word to Jisung, leaving him with a shared dorm room all for himself. Or so he thought.

However, as soon as the president of their dormitory found out Jisung was living alone in the room he started searching for a new tenant; much to Jisung’s dislike.

He’d enjoyed the few weeks he’d had by himself and had found himself to be more productive this way, but who was he to argue with their dorm president? It wasn’t Jisung’s decision after all.  Lee Minho, a transfer student from Korea, would be moving in with him in a couple of days.

“I heard he’s a dance major,” Seungmin said, stuffing his face with his lunch, “Apparently Hyunjin got to know him when he was visiting their class a few days ago to check out his new courses. He said the guy’s hot.” The brunette wiggled his brows and then took another portion of his ramen.

Jisung scuffed, “I don’t care if he’s hot. I just wish I had the room to myself. Also, stop talking with a full mouth, it's disgusting.”

Seungmin rolled his eyes, “I’m just saying.”

“If he’s one of the dancers I probably won’t see him often anyway. Music- and Dance-majors schedules barely ever align,“ Jisung argued, finally unpacking his own lunch. He had managed to grab more than just a coffee this morning, which was usually very untypical for him. He was a chronic oversleeper.

“What are you two talking about?” another voice, Jeongin, the youngest in their friend group and also a first year, asked after sitting down next to Seungmin.

“Seungmin was telling me about Lee Minho. My new roommate,” Jisung replied swiftly, digging into his salad.

“Oh, he’s a total hottie! If I hadn’t found my soulmate already, I’d hope it was him,” Jeongin exclaimed almost hysterically.

“He can’t possibly be that hot. Seungmin said the same thing just a minute ago,” Jisung rolled his eyes as he munched on his lunch.

“Stop talking while you’re eating, hyung. It’s disgusting,” the brunette mocked him, “also, he totally is THAT hot. You will see soon enough for yourself.” He turned to Jeongin: “And what are you talking about saying ‘I’d hope it was him’? Am I not enough for you?”

At this point, Jisung decided to zone out their bickering. He was happy for the two of them finding each other last year and getting together so soon, but he really couldn’t stand their play-fights anymore. They were disgustingly in love while also being extremely low-key about their feelings for each other. For people who didn’t know about their soulmate ship, they often just looked like really close friends, but that’s how they liked it best; both not big fans of PDA. 

During an early Christmas party last December both Seungmin’s and Jisung’s extended friend groups were invited and Felix, one of Jisung’s friends, had brought Jeongin to the party, because he was new at uni and ‘needed some more friends’, to say it in Felix’ words.

Seungmin’s soulmate indicator had sat on the status “close” since the beginning of their semester, almost for so long that Seungmin had started to assume it was broken and something was wrong with him. But, no, nothing was wrong with him. His soulmate was just, well, close. More specifically, five rooms down the hall close.

At the party, they both got along well and started dancing after drinking a decent number of mixers. As it was bound to happen, their hands touched and later on, Seungmin had described the feeling on his skin in that moment as a tingly sensation, that slowly crept up his spine. The realization hit him seconds later when he looked down at his hand, still intertwined with Jeongin’s, and his skin appeared painted purple while the younger's appeared in a light green where they touched.

Ever since Jisung had witnessed his first real-life soulmate match-up he had been thinking how he would meet his soulmate.

Since he had gotten his soulmate indicator at the age of eight, its status has been sitting at ‘very far’, which usually meant your soulmate was expected to be from another continent, somewhere across the world.

It also had never changed once since then, which made Jisung cover it up with bracelets and other types of jewelry since he’d been 15. Being reminded that he possibly would never meet his soulmate every time he looked at his wrist had become a bit too depressing for him. He hadn’t checked it ever since either.

But it wasn’t like he was sitting and waiting around for his soulmate to find him and fall in love with him. He had dated his fair share of people during high school and has had a few partners during university already too. It just never worked out in the end. Most people were luckier with their soulmates than him and started meeting them around university – age.

°°°

His last class ended late in the afternoon and Jisung really just wanted to get back to his dorm to take a quick nap before he had a composing session with Chan and Changbin, two of Jisung’s closest friends since high school and also partners in music making every since, later tonight; but as he rounded the corner in his dormitory complex to reach his own room he found the door standing wide open and moving boxes outside.

Was it already D-day? Was today the day he lost his privilege of undisturbed mid-day naps? It sure as hell looked like it.

He stopped in front of the doorway, peeking inside his room quickly. He saw the back of his supposed new roommate moving his clothes into the provided closet space. On the bed, he spotted a drill and two shelves.

Minho seemed to have noticed someone standing at the door since he turned his head around and looked at Jisung.

“Oh hello, you must be Jisung? My roommate?” he asked, a polite smile spreading over his pretty lips.

Shit.

Lee Minho was super-hot, Jisung thought as his eyes wandered over Minho’s features. His nose sitting basically perfect on his face.

Ah shit, he’d noticed him staring.

He decided that turning on his heels and leaving was his best option at that moment.

He, for one, wasn’t ready yet to meet the infamous ‘super-hot’ Lee Minho yet, secondly, he really needed a nap right now and seeing how moving into a new space wasn’t a quiet process at all, his plan of catching some sleep in his dorm was probably going to be crashed due to that anyways, and thirdly, he didn’t want to feel like he needed to help the new guy move in. He didn’t have time for that anyway right now.

Walking back down the hallway of the dorm he stopped at the other side of the building in front of Felix’ room and nocked.

“Felix, I need a place to nap. Let me in please!”

He heard steps at the other side of the door and eventually, the door was opened and- Oh, this wasn’t Felix.

This was his roommate Woo.

“Felix isn’t back from class yet. His dance practice is probably running late again,” the older boy said.

“Oh, sorry for the trouble, then, hyung,” Jisung replied, a little taken aback. He hadn’t had many one-on-one situations with Woo yet.

“Don’t worry about it. You need a place to nap? Why can’t you sleep in your own dorm?” Woo quirked up an eyebrow in question.

“New guy moving in. It’s too loud. I need sleep though,” Jisung briefly explained, already ready to turn back around and accept defeat. Looks like he had to write songs half-asleep tonight.

“Ah yeah. I get the struggle. I’m sure Felix won’t mind if I let you in.”

Woo stepped aside, gesturing for Jisung to go inside. He did just that and 10 minutes later he was asleep on Felix’ bed at last.

°°°

“Okay guys, good work so far. Let’s take a quick break,” Chan announced an hour into their session.

“I’m going to get a coffee from the vending machine. Does anybody else want some?” Changbin asked after he stretched his arms over his head, being a bit stiff from sitting in the same position for too long.

“I’d take one too, thanks man,” Jisung replied, yawning. It was well past midnight at this point, “I hope the new guy is done moving in so I can sleep in peace when I get back.”

“Oh, did he move in today?” Chan asked, genuinely interested.

“Yes, he brought a drill and everything. I suppose he made proper noise today.”

“Is he nice otherwise?”
Jisung shrugged, “I guess.”

Confusion was painted across Chan’s face, “What do you mean, ‘I guess’?”

Jisung shrugged again, “I didn’t really talk to him. I needed to find a place to nap.”

Chan’s eyebrows furrowed further, “So you just ignored him?”

Warmth crept up Jisung’s neck, remembering staring at Minho before he just left.

“Yeah, actually, I might have, if you describe it like that.” Jisung nodded slightly embarrassed, yet too tired to catch Chan’s scolding face looking at him.

“Well, that’s off to a good start, huh.”

“It’s just a roommate. It’s not the end of the world. I’ll say sorry next time I see him and then it will be fine. He will understand that I was busy.”

°°°

After their conversation, Changbin came back with their coffee and they carried on working on lyrics for a little bit longer. Shortly before the clock hit 1 a.m. they decided to wrap up entirely for the day and go back to their dorms to get some sleep.

Jisung lazily dragged his feet along the carpeted floor in the hallway and yet again came to a stop in front of his, now-shared, dorm room.

He made sure to be quiet as he turned the key in the lock and opened the door, kicking his shoes off as he closed it again behind him.

As Jisung had figured, the other boy was already wrapped up in his bed on the right side of the room, asleep. He hadn’t closed the blinds in their room before going to bed, and the light of a streetlamp lazily illuminated the room. His face looked soft in the light, his features relaxed, and, damn – Jisung had to admit yet again that the boy was attractive; even while sleeping.

He shook his head. Staring at his sleeping roommate was probably considered weird and he should stop. However, before he could finally loosen his eyes from his roommate, Jisung noticed the cat pillow the other one was holding close to his body.

With a small smirk on his lips, Jisung finally got ready for bed too, quietly and laid down on his bed.

He would talk to Minho first thing in the morning and apologize for being an ass the other day.

°°°

Or so he had thought.

When Jisung woke up, bright and early, the next morning his roommate was nowhere to be found in their dorm room. It was only 6:30 in the morning.

Jisung furrowed his brows, his phone still in his hands from stopping his alarm just seconds prior. He looked at Minho’s bed. Already made and tidy. Cat pillow propped up against the headboard together with two other regular pillows.

So, Minho was an early early riser.

Well, he was a dance major. Maybe he wanted to be extra on time for a morning class. Make a good impression and all that.

Jisung decided to not overthink it too much. He had his own classes to go to this morning.

Maybe he would even see Minho around on campus. Their university wasn’t that big after all – since it specialized in the arts of music and dance mainly. He could talk to him then and apologize.

He got out of bed, took a shower, unfortunately, skipped breakfast, and left the dormitory building twenty minutes later for his morning class in music history.

He enjoyed that class a lot since it was the only one he shared with his hyung Chan. He had struggled with keeping up in this class last semester and had to retake the semester one time.

Jisung sat down next to him just in time for the bell to ring, signalizing the start of the day.

“Good morning, Jisung,” Chan said, taking out a notebook and a pen. He still preferred taking his notes on paper instead of most other students, who used laptops.

“Good morning,” Jisung replied, repressing a yawn. Chan didn’t look tired at all even though Jisung was sure he had gone to bed even later than Jisung last night. It really wasn’t fair.

“Did you talk to your roommate this morning?” the other asked turning his head towards the front of the class. Their professor had walked in just a minute ago and was getting ready to start his class for the day.

“No. He was already gone when I woke up. It’s crazy how early the dancers get up. Hyunjin does it too, sometimes,” Jisung answered the question quietly, his eyes fixed on his professor as well. He didn’t like when his students were talking during his class and would mercilessly throw out students who did. Jisung’s been there and didn’t want to go through the embarrassment again of being kicked out.

Chan hummed, acknowledging Jisung’s words, and kept quiet after that.

°°°

Lunchtime rolled around quickly after that. Jisung had not seen Minho on campus until then. Looking back at that idea – the music and dance building weren’t close at all, so Jisung wasn’t really sure why he thought he’d meet him during the day somehow.

Just like yesterday, he sat in their university’s cafeteria with Seungmin and Jeongin eating lunch.

“I saw Minho this morning in class,” Jeongin stated. He was one of the few students who had a double music and dance major. The younger boy wiggled his brows, “how do you like your new roommate thus far?”

Jisung shrugged. Why was everyone so invested in Lee Minho? It wasn’t like him being Jisung’s new roommate changed anything or was important for anything.

“He’s fine, I guess. I haven’t really been able to talk to him yet.”

That was a lie. He could have talked to him yesterday just fine but he had other priorities. The longer he thought about the situation from the previous day, the more he started to feel like a dick about it. God, he really should have just said hello and that he needed to get going again right away.

“What? Why not? You’re always lazing around in your dorm. How could you have missed him on his move-in day?” Seungmin asked.

“He didn’t miss him,” another voice chimed in from behind Jisung.

“He ignored his introduction and then ran off to sleep in my bed in the middle of the day,” Felix said and sat down next to Jisung, nudging him in the side.

Jisung rolled his eyes. He didn’t want his whole friend group to know that he was apparently a huge dick towards new students.

“Oh, come on man. What?” Jeongin said, a disappointed tone carried in his voice.

“I reacted badly, whatever, I will talk to him tonight and it will be fine. I’ll say that I am sorry and it will be the end of it,” Jisung answered, honestly a little annoyed at this point, “How do you even know about the first part, Felix?” Raising an eyebrow, he looked at the blue-haired boy.

“Chan told me earlier when we met up for our morning run,” a grin spread over Felix’ face.

Damn, Chan. He was truly a little gossip queen.

Jisung huffed out a short breath.

“But you did see him then?” Jeongin pressed the Lee Minho matter again.

Jisung nodded.

“He’s hot right?”

The grin on the other boys' faces after Jisung groaned and rolled his eyes in annoyance was huge. “Yeah, yeah. He’s hot. Are you guys done now?”

The rest of the table erupted in laughter. Jisung was just annoyed.

°°°

When his full day of classes finally ended Jisung was happy to head back to his room. Nothing would keep him from taking a nap this time before he had to start to work on a paper for his music philosophy class.

This time he found the door closed, no one moving in boxes, a quiet environment to be expected, as he approached his room. He turned his key in the lock and opened the door.

Oh. Minho was home. The other boys’ shoes stood next to the entrance. They hadn’t been here this morning.

Once he stepped into the main room of their room he saw Minho, sitting at his desk, with his back towards him, seemingly working on something.

Jisung cleared his throat to gain the other boy’s attention, “Hello, you must be Minho? My new roommate?”

Nothing.

Minho didn’t react.

Maybe he was wearing noise-cancelling earbuds?

He cleared his throat again, now a bit louder, “Hello?”

Nothing again.

Jisung reached out to tap Minho’s shoulder but before he could reach the boy flipped his head around.

“Seems like you don’t like being ignored. I wonder how other people might feel about that,” he said, his voice carrying a tiny bit of anger but mostly just annoyance.

Oh, yeah.

This situation didn’t need a mastermind for Jisung to figure out that Minho had ignored him on purpose. He chuckled out a laugh, a bit embarrassed, taken aback by Minho’s words.

“This is about yesterday, yeah?”

Minho’s eyebrows shot up, surprised annoyance now covering his whole face too, “Woah, the man can actually reply to something I say without running away. Amazing.” Then, “No way, you can think too. Put one and one together successfully.”

Minho turned back around, focusing on his laptop again.

“See, I am sorry about yesterday. I didn’t really think about what I was doing just running away like that. I had a long day and just needed to sleep. I really didn’t mean to upset you with the way I acted.” And Jisung meant that. He felt quite ashamed about the way he’d acted.

Minho let out a huff, turning back around to face Jisung again, “Let’s start over then. I’m Minho, your new roommate. You must be Jisung?”

A relieved huff of air left Jisung’s lips and a smile spread over them just a second later, “Yes that’s me. Nice to meet you, Minho.”

Minho smiled too.

“Now that that is settled, I really need to get back to my work,” he said and pointed at his laptop.

“Ah yeah of course! I actually have to write a paper too so...,” Jisung replied and pointed behind him towards his own desk.

Minho just nodded and got back to his own work.

Jisung could nap later. He didn’t want to look like a total loser immediately after just officially meeting his roommate for the first time. He would get on with his paper first, and seem like a productive, functioning human being.

°°°

They didn’t talk a lot the following week. Both their schedules didn’t align much. Often, they would just pass each other by briefly when one of them was entering and the other one was exiting their dorm. Most of the time when they were in the dorm together, after all, they both had a bunch of work to do.

This was good, though. Jisung didn’t lose much of the privacy he feared losing entirely when he found out about getting a new roommate. Also, Minho wasn’t totally nosy or overly interested in Jisung’s life; just as Jisung wasn’t interested in Minho’s life. They got along well, always being nice to each other.  

Today was Friday.

Most of the Friday evenings were spent as a group in someone’s dorm with some drinks.

And today was no different. Hyunjin had declared his dorm free tonight so everyone should come over and hang out. Exactly that was Jisung’s plan. He just needed to change clothes at his own dorm really quickly before leaving for Hyunjin’s after classes.

Once he stepped into his room he was already rummaging through his closet, trying to find something decent to wear for the occasion. Just something casual would be fine. I was just going to be his friend group there anyway. However, he stopped midway through pulling out a button-up to look to his right.

Minho sat at his desk, seemingly in thoughts.

“Oh hey, I didn’t know you were home already.”

The past few days Minho had stayed out longer to work out after classes and only came home way after Jisung.

“Ah yeah, I have a rest day today”, Minho said after snapping out of his thoughts.

Jisung acknowledged the boy’s words with a nod and kept pulling out the shirt.

“You know Hyunjin, right?” Minho asked, turning around in his chair now looking at Jisung.

“Ah yeah, I do. He’s one of my friends. Why?” Jisung replied, checking in the mirror if the shirt he chose looked good in combination with the jeans he was wearing, then deciding against it and putting it back in the closet.

“We share some classes and he invited me to some kind of get-together today. He said you were going too. Are you sure it’s alright if I go? I don’t really know anyone else.”

Jisung turned around now, facing Minho.

“Oh, for sure. Everyone is really nice. You should definitely go. I am actually just getting ready for it. Do you wanna go there together?” Jisung said with a smile on his lips.

“Yes, that sounds good.”

°°°

They knocked at Hyunjin’s door just about half an hour later and a slightly tipsy Hyunjin opened the door for them.

“Hello, come in!” he exclaimed, stepping aside to let the other two boys in, “I am happy you decided to come too, Minho. I thought it would be a good idea to have you here. Since you are Jisung’s roommate and all.”

“Thank you for inviting me,” Minho said politely and Hyunjin nudged him in the side playfully. He got touchy quickly when I touched alcohol.

He argued that if he were to find his soulmate at a party, like Seungmin and Jeongin did, being touchy like this came in handy to find them quicker.

“Of course. You are cool. Why would I not invite you? The others are excited to meet you as well.” Hyunjin grabbed the older boy by the arm and tugged him into the main room, leaving Jisung behind to close the door.

It wasn’t the first time Jisung was the last one to arrive at any of their get-togethers. Actually, it was the norm at this point. Being on time was a foreign concept to Jisung for the most part – unless, of course, an appointment was very important.

He followed Hyunjin and Minho after closing the door and taking his shoes off.

In the main room, Hyunjin had sat Minho down next to Felix. He took a moment to look at Minho for the first time since they left their own room.

He wore jeans and a fluffy-looking yellow cardigan. It looked kind of funny on him, making him look all soft and cuddly. Jisung knew better.

He had seen Minho in his skin-tight workout shirts a few times this week and could vouch for him being quite muscular and defined. Nothing about that look had appeared soft and cuddly; rather, it was pretty hot, if you were to ask Jisung.

He liked the cardigan on him as well, though. Not that his opinion mattered at all, of course. He just liked to observe a little.

His face looked a little tense. His smile seemed a bit forced. He was probably nervous about meeting so many new people all at once. Especially since all his friends had started asking him questions right away.

“So, you’re an exchange student from Korea, right?” Seungmin asked, sitting next to Jeongin, a bottle of beer in one hand and his boyfriend's in the other.

“Yeah, I’ve lived there all my life until a couple of weeks ago,” Minho nodded, “Everything is still a bit new for me.”

“Understandable. England and Korea are quite different socially and all over actually,” Chan chimed in. He was standing in the doorway to the little pantry kitchen, a glass of water in his hand. He didn’t like drinking a lot.

“How do you like it so far?” Felix asked. His blue hair had faded a bit. It always happened when he dyed his hair vibrant colours. He never found time to touch them up during the semester but he made it look good nonetheless.

“It is nice. Stressful, too, but nice. I like the dance team you have here. You guys are very talented,” the brunette said, his smile now a bit more genuine.

“Oh dang, I completely forgot my manners,” Hyunjin exclaimed then, “Do you want a drink or something? We got stuff in the kitchen.” He pointed towards where Chan stood.

“Ah yeah, if you have a beer for me I’ll take that.”

Hyunjin was about to get up.

“I will get it,” Jisung said, still standing around. He wanted to get a drink himself anyway.

He walked past Chan, flashing him a smile, and opened the fridge to grab two of the cooled beers. It was cheap stuff but they were also university students. They were all broke and had to make ends meet somehow.

“There you go,” Jisung said to Minho and reached out his hand towards the elder so he could grab the bottle, their hands almost touching.

Jisung didn’t give it much thought.

“Thank you,” Minho said, ever so politely.

Jisung just smiled at him in return and sat down next to Hyunjin on his bed, now opposite, face to face with Minho.

“You two are together, I assume?” Minho asked, pointing towards Seungmin’s and Jeongin’s intertwined hands, painted in purple and green where they touched.

Jeongin flashed a bright smile. For someone who didn’t like PDA he sure as hell liked it a lot when people pointed out his relationship with his soulmate.

“Yes, we are soulmates,” he beamed, “We found out last December.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet. You guys are a pretty fresh couple then.” Minho took a sip from his beer.

“About 5 months now, yeah,” Seungmin agreed, looking down at their hands, “What about you? Have you found your soulmate yet?”

Minho sighed, leaning back at the wall, “No, I think I am really unlucky in this aspect of my life. I never get upset about things not going well for me but my soulmate is the only exception.”

“Oh,” Felix said, his voice carrying a sad undertone, “why is that? Only if you want to tell us about it of course.”

For some people, soulmates were a very intimate and touchy construct in their lives. Not everybody liked to openly talk about it. For various reasons, that was.

Some people were just unlucky and they never found their soulmate until they were old and their Indicator went blank, which inherently meant their soulmate had passed away before they could meet.

Other people who had met their soulmate simply didn’t get along well and their dream of the perfect romance was shattered.

In Jisung’s opinion, a perfect romance didn’t actually exist. Not even in a world in which soulmates were a thing. He was sure some people had soulmates who were meant to be lifelong friends to them instead of romantic partners and it had proven itself to be true in a couple of cases in his life.

His brother found his soulmate while they were playing in their kindergarten's sandbox. The boy turned out to be his best friend to this day. Both of them were straight and happily in love with girls who were platonic soulmates as well.

And then there were people who had no soulmate, who had never gotten a soulmate Indicator on their wrist when they turned the required age. In their society, they were the odd ones out. Some people looked at them weirdly when they told others how they had no soulmate and felt ashamed about it afterward.

“It’s just that my Indicator has been stuck on ‘far away’ forever and never changed to something else. I think it's broken. Even when I traveled all across the world for my gap year last summer, it never changed once. Always just ‘far away’. I might start believing my soulmate is some alien from out of space soon,” Minho ranted and rolled his eyes in annoyance. He took another long gulp from his bottle and looked at Felix.

“Oh man, Jisung here has the same thing,” the blue-haired boy said and looked at Jisung at that moment, “don’t you?”

He nodded, “Yeah. I got so tired of it, I covered it up and didn’t look at it in years. Sometimes I forget the Indicator is even there most days. I am not really searching for my soulmate at the moment, anyway.”

“That’s one way to do it. I got it deactivated last year after my travel. I want to focus on school and not be reminded of my hopeless love life every time I look at my wrist.”

“Oh, Minho hyung, did that hurt?” Hyunjin asked then, but Minho shook his head no.

“Since it's just a chip under your skin they can use a very strong magnet to make it stop showing a status. It can be activated again using the negative pole of another very strong magnet and it will be back to normal.”

“Oh good, I was afraid you got it surgically removed or something,” Hyunjin laughed relieved. He then changed the topic, “Where is Changbin by the way? He’s never this late.”

“Maybe he finally found his own soulmate,” Seungmin said in a teasing tone.

“You need to stop teasing Changbin hyung about this. It’s not his fault his Indicator is showing ‘very close’ and therefore he made it his mission to talk to every pretty girl he sees on campus,” Jisung said, starting his scolding in a serious voice but then he started to laugh too.

Changbin was probably the craziest hopeless romantic Jisung had ever met. When he came to this university for his first year his indicator had immediately switched to its current status. At that moment he ‘had known his soulmate must have the same passion for music he has’. He had started talking to girls he met on campus that very first day but almost two full years into his study he still has had no luck with love. 

“It’s also not my fault that his flirting is as effective as a fork to eat soup with,” Seungmin returned and the room broke out in laughter for a minute.

Jisung looked at Minho, his eyes crinkled up a little at the sides and his nose looked all cute and scrunched up as he was laughing out loud at Seungmin’s comment.

“Not everyone can be as lucky as you, you know,” Chan said, he had settled down to sit on the floor. For some reason, he liked it a lot better to sit there instead of the bed.

“Yeah, I know,” Seungmin replied cheekily, then grinning at Jeongin who returned his smile.

At that moment someone knocked at the door. Chan got up to open it and surely not even a minute later Changbin stumbled into the room, his face flushed red and his eyes wide open.

“You will never guess what just happened to me,” he stated, a bit out of breath. He looked like he had run up the stairs as quickly as he could to get to Hyunjin’s dorm.

“Enlighten us, then,” Jisung chuckled.

“I went to get some more booze at the convenience store and on my way outside I bumped into this guy and my whole arm turned red.”

°°°

After that, the room was quiet for a long moment before everyone started to yell at Changbin to explain more and tell the whole story and what happened after.

Basically, after Changbin bumped into his soulmate his arm had turned a bright red while the other guy's arm had turned a shade of orange where they had touched.

Changbin was as subtle and caring as ever and uttered a well-articulated ‘For fucks sake you are not supposed to be a dude’, while the other man gasped and looked at Changbin wide-eyed, also just stuttering an ‘a man?’.

After their initial shock, they introduced each other and soon started laughing about the situation. They decided to exchange phone numbers and get to know each other over a cup of coffee soon since both of them had no time on that Friday evening.

After that, the topic changed completely and they talked about the upcoming exam season and dance competition.

Jisung completely forgot that Minho and him were in similar soulmate predicaments.

°°°

During the following weeks, he learned other things about Minho, though.

After that, Friday night was filled with laughs and overall just an incredibly positive energy, Minho and Jisung had become closer and a friendship, apart from them being roommates, started to sprout.

They would talk about their days when they got back from their last classes in the evening.

Often Minho would come along with him to hang out with his friends on Fridays and they had so much fun. They would sit together and Minho would listen to Jisung closely when he told stories. Jisung appreciated that he was naturally interested in what Jisung had to say.

Often, people were overwhelmed by the way Jisung told stories so energetically and would get carried away by his additions throughout the story, not being able to follow his string of thoughts, but Minho just seemed to get him; always quick to reply with a fitting addition to Jisung’s stories.

Jisung learned that Minho really liked to cook instead of eating out or ordering. He claimed he could monitor what he ate way better this way and could train accordingly to stay fit for dancing at any time, which, to be fair, made total sense to Jisung. He sometimes cooked too much ‘by accident’ when he saw Jisung leave without breakfast in a hurry on some mornings.

He was a good friend for that since Minho had to learn in return that Jisung didn’t know how to cook to save his life.

Sometimes Jisung got Minho out of the room anyway. He once told him about an amazing café just a few streets off campus, which was cheap enough so broke uni students could appreciate a nice cup of coffee every now and then as well.

Minho had accepted Jisung’s invitation without second thoughts but as Jisung was about to order two cups of coffee, Minho informed him that he didn’t really like coffee but still wanted to come with Jisung to spend more time with him.

He ordered a cup of tea instead.

They both got cheesecake as a side dish. This way they learned they had a shared love for baked goods that involved any type of cream cheese mixture.

They got along so well.

Another thing Jisung learned was that Minho had three cute pet cats back home in Korea.

His mother sent him weekly updates on his ‘siblings’, that’s what Minho called the cats, and every time Jisung had to listen Minho whine about how much he missed his cats and that he wanted to go home to visit them.

That’s when he told Minho about his pet dog that lived with his parents. Bbama was a cute fluffy white dog and he missed him a lot too.

He promised to introduce the two if Minho would join him for Christmas break later in the year and come home with him.  

They spent the afternoon showing each other pictures of each other’s pets and Jisung settled on the opinion that Dori was the cutest cat out of the bunch, but the other two were almost just as gorgeous.

Minho disagreed, declaring that all his cats were equally as cute as the other and that if Jisung didn’t change his mind soon he would never even get a slither of a chance to meet the cats.

Jisung had laughed, then blushed lightly at the implication of traveling to Korea with Minho, to meet his family.

Jisung also learned that Minho went for early morning runs most days to wake up and get in the right mindset for the day.

The younger didn’t really understand how Minho could be so disciplined with himself. He himself was far from a well-disciplined life but it he wasn’t a total disaster yet so he figured it was fine.

Minho impressed him a lot nonetheless. He almost felt inspired to work out again as well but quickly dropped the idea after he remembered how much he hated working out.

They co-existed comfortably in their dorm room.

Yet Jisung really couldn’t deny that Minho was attractive and he got himself into weird staring situations sometimes.

The other day Minho had showered and stepped out of the small bathroom in nothing but sweatpants, making Jisung gasp for air for a second. He knew Minho was hot, he and the group had established that weeks ago (much to Jisung’s displeasement) but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be shocked at just how hot the guy was, his hair still dripping water a little bit.

Jisung had blushed a lot and looked away, all of a sudden very interested in his phone's wallpaper.

“What?” Minho had asked, oblivious to his own appearance apparently.

“Nothing, it's nothing. Just didn’t expect you to be done so soon,” Jisung lied, eyes still glued to his phone screen.

“And why is your face all red then?” Jisung looked up now, being caught in his staring act, and saw the smug smile on Minho’s face.

“Stop with that face!” Jisung whined, covering his face with his hands in an attempt to cool down his cheeks with his palms, to no avail.

“What? You don’t like my face?” Minho faked being shocked and acted as if he was deeply hurt by the younger’s words, pulling his brows together tightly and pouting slightly.

Jisung let out an annoyed half scream, “Put on a shirt, hyung.”

“Alright, I will babe.”

That was another thing that had snuck its way into their daily lives slowly but surely.

This stupid pet name both of them used to mock the other as if it was nothing.

The thing was, Jisung didn’t even hate the condescending way Minho said it to him. If any other person would talk to him like that after only knowing each other so shortly, he’d probably put them in their place. But with Minho? He kind of liked it.

It was fun and they were so comfortable with each other, so he didn’t mind.

Jisung was flirty by nature anyway – not to a creepy extent but sometimes he would go out of his way to lightly flirt with a waiter at a restaurant or someone in class. Even though these situations were usually short-lived and not like his and Minho’s situation prolonged by living together.

He figured if any of the two ever got uncomfortable about the way they talked to each other they would talk about it and stop, so he tried not to overthink this too much.

°°°

Two and a half months of living together led them to this. Possibly their worst idea yet.

They both hated scary movies. Jisung was easily scared by the jump-cuts and loud noises and Minho just found them boring. But upon learning how scary movies made Jisung feel he had insisted on the two of them having a scary movie night during the weekend at midnight.

‘It’s summer. It needs to be dark outside to watch scary movies’ Jisung heard Minho’s reasoning for the set time echo in his mind as they were setting up one of their beds to substitute as a couch for the movie night.

The younger didn’t know why he let Minho talk him into this. Maybe Minho wanted to prove that he really didn’t get scared watching these types of movies; this or the older wanted to see Jisung get scared by the tiniest jump-scare for his own sadistic pleasures.

Jisung sat down a bowl of popcorn on top of the comforter and got on the bed, leaning his back against the cushions they had put against the wall previously.

“What are we watching then?” Minho asked, two drinks in his hands, which he put down on the nightstand before also taking a seat on the bed, a bit of a gap between the two boys.

“The orphan. It is apparently not too bad to watch,” Jisung replied, already starting up the Laptop and opening the browser to search for the movie.

Minho read the description briefly,” sounds more like a real ugly splasher but okay, let's go then.”

Jisung started the movie without having more to say and got comfy against the wall, after leaning over Minho’s lap to grab his drink from the bedside table, almost losing his balance and falling into his lap. A swift blush ran over his cheeks, as he caught a whiff of Minho’s perfume in the act.

Okay Jisung, calm down.

Nothing happened. How did this small situation coax such a reaction out of him? It was probably just him being young and being unlaid for too long. Nothing to worry about. Maybe he just needed to start hooking up with people again.

He started focusing on the movie.

It was pretty typical. An oblivious family adopts a creepy-looking child and then, well, it kills a bunch of the family members.

However, there were some intense jump-scares that had Jisung jumping a bit, slowly scooting closer towards Minho. The only light illuminating the room was the display of the laptop which didn’t make this better at all.

During a pretty intense scene, Jisung ended up clutching at Minho’s arm.

“What is that monster doing?” Jisung asked, his eyes half hiding behind Minho’s shoulder, a tingle arose in his hand that was clutching Minho’s arm, but he didn’t pay much mind to it. It was probably because Minho’s skin was colder than Jisung had expected.

“Oh, you big baby,” Minho said fondly into the dark room, wrapping his arm around Jisung’s shoulder and drawing him in closer.

For the remaining part of the movie, they stayed like that, cuddling each other.

They hadn’t done this before but it felt so nice; Jisung wasn’t sure why they hadn’t done this sooner. Minho’s warmth sought right into his skin, making his eyes feel droopy. He nuzzled his nose into the collar of Minho’s shirt. Another tingle swept right over his whole body and gave Jisung a set of goose bumps on his forearms, that weren’t covered by the blanket. He could stay like this forever, even while watching scary movies for the duration of that.

°°°

Apparently cuddling Minho was so nice that Jisung fell asleep somewhere near the end of the movie. No one could blame him, though. Jisung basically had been a lost cause when he was lulled in by Minho’s perfume and the warmth his torso radiated.

He was just a weak, touch-starved man after all.

The next morning, he found himself alone in Minho’s bed. The older one had probably gone for a run again. He assumed Minho had fallen asleep as well since he didn’t wake up Jisung after the movie had ended, so he could sleep in his own bed.

Jisung slowly got up from the bed.

Sunday mornings weren’t meant for a productive routine.

He slowly dragged himself towards their tiny kitchen to get breakfast. He really craved the chocolate chip crunch cereal Minho called ‘disgusting’ and 'a sad excuse for a breakfast’ all the time.

It was an amazing amount of sugar to start the day with and also, who was there allowed to scold Jisung for his eating habits but himself (And maybe his mother every time she called him and asked if he was eating healthy and well).

He poured some milk into his bowl on top of the cereal, grabbed a spoon, and started eating.

Mid crunch the front door was unlocked and opened by Minho. Jisung was right, Minho had gone for a run first thing in the morning if he could count the elder’s gym clothes as any indication of that. Though, he looked a little more shaken than usual. Actually, Minho never looked shaken or fazed by anything.

Jisung’s eyebrow rose up in question, “Good morning, Minho. You good?” he asked, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost even though the scary movie from yesterday wasn’t even supernatural.”

Minho looked at Jisung briefly, then looked back down to his feet, shuffling off his shoes at the door.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t expect you to be up by now.”

He didn’t look at Jisung again after that.

“Oh, yeah. I am kind of up early for a Sunday, that’s true,” he chuckled, taking another spoonful of cereal, “Probably because I didn’t change into my bed last night. Yours is harder than mine. Sorry about that by the way. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”

Minho visibly gulped, “Don’t worry about it. I fell asleep too. I’m going to take a shower.”

He left for their bathroom without another look towards Jisung.

Mhh, that was odd.

Maybe something happened on his run that got him all shaken up. Jisung figured that if Minho wanted to talk about he would without Jisung pressing the matter further, so he let it slide.

He finished up breakfast quickly and got dressed in fresh clothes. He was supposed to meet up with Felix and Hyunjin today to help them figure out a song to perform a passionate dance to. He had told them a couple of weeks ago that they could make a melody together that fit their choreography specifically so that was happening today.

“Hey Minho,” he exclaimed, knocking at the bathroom door, “I’ll be going now. I am meeting up with Felix and Hyunjin for their project. I’ll be back later.”

He could hear a muffled ‘alright, see you then’ over the water stream and was satisfied with that.

This also had become a thing. Announcing that they were leaving and also telling the other where they were going. It was a nice habit.

He put on his shoes and went for the quick walk across campus to Felix’ dorm room. Woo wasn’t there on Sundays since he worked extra shifts at his job on the weekend, so they could work on the project undisturbed today.

As soon as he knocked at the door he was led in and they began to chat and work.

Jisung was first told to watch the rough choreography Felix and Hyunjin had already figured out to see what vibe they were going for.

“It is more energetic than I thought,” Jisung noted, booting up his laptop that he had taken with him to start searching through the mixes he’s made since he started producing a few years back. Maybe one of them would fit the dance already. That would make his work here a whole lot easier.

“Is that bad?” Felix asked genuinely as always.

“No, not at all. I have more mixes that carry an energetic vibe than any other, really, so this is actually quite fortunate,” Jisung replied, already clicking on tracks to listen to them shortly.

They kept working together like that. Jisung played a few seconds of each track so Felix and Hyunjin could decide if the songs were what they had in mind for their project. After a while, they had a decent selection of mixes that fit well with what the dancers had envisioned for their choreography.

“I will leave you with these five songs,” Jisung explained as he grabbed a USB stick from his backpack to copy the songs on it, “You can have those and keep working with them. They are all yours. If you need me to make any adjustments just tell me and I will see what I can do.”

Felix breathed through, relieved.

“Thank you, Jisungie,” the boy wrapped his arms around his friend and pulled him into a hug, “I swear this whole music thing was on my mind for the past week. It stressed me out so much.” He let go of him after squeezing Jisung one more time.

“Don’t worry about it. I love helping out whenever I can,” Jisung replied with a big smile, his hand resting on Felix’ side.

Hyunjin also thanked him and put away the USB stick in his backpack, claiming that Felix would manage to lose it somehow.

“So, how are things going with your roommate?” Hyunjin changed the topic. He liked gossiping way too much.

“Good, we get along. Why?” Jisung replied truthfully while stuffing his laptop back into his backpack.

“Just asking. Also, every time we do things as a group he looks at you as if you hung the stars in the sky,” he said nonchalantly

Jisung furrowed his brows, “He does not. What are you talking about!?”

“Ah come on, Lixie, back me up here. He looks at Jisung super fondly sometimes, right?” Hyunjin gave Felix a light shove.

“Well, he does look at you differently than he looks at us but I wouldn’t describe it in such a dramatic way,” Felix offered as a middle ground, but Jisung still disagreed. He had never noticed such behavior from Minho before.

“Nah, you are on to nothing. He doesn’t. I would have noticed, don’t you think?”

Felix and Hyunjin both raised an eyebrow at that.

“Do you even know how you act with each other when others are around?” Hyunjin asked, deadpanned.

“’Oh, look at these new pictures of my cats, babe.’ this, and ‘Let’s cook dinner together tonight, honey.’ that. It’s genuinely hard to look at you two sometimes.” The taller kept mocking Jisung, breaking out in a laugh, “You think that is normal ‘bro- behavior’? ‘Cause it is not.”

Jisung shook his head, “No, you get it all wrong. It’s just for fun. The pet names, I mean. We are just really good friends. Maybe he just looks at me differently because we live together and he knows me best out of everyone in the group.”

Felix and Hyunjin agreed half-heartedly with a dull ‘hmpf’.

Jisung kept thinking about Hyunjin’s words for a little bit longer, though. Today Minho definitely had looked at him differently, but not as if Jisung hung up the stars in his night sky. More, as if he took them all away from him. His eyes had looked so sparkless earlier.

“Why are you sulking now?” Hyunjin kept pressing.

“While we are talking about Minho. He did look at me weird this morning.”

He started telling them about yesterday how they had fallen asleep together during the movie and how he had woken up alone.

“And then, when he came back from his run, he acted all weird and almost didn’t talk to me at first,” Jisung finished his story, biting down on the inside of his cheek, a habit he’s had since he was little whenever he was a bit stressed.

“Was that the first time you two cuddled?” Felix asked, thinking.

“Yeah, actually, now that you mention it, it was,” Jisung said.

“Maybe he was just surprised about that. He doesn’t seem like a super touchy person with anyone,” Hyunjin offered as a possible explanation and that did make sense.

Minho never really initiated body contact with anyone.

“Or maybe you kicked him during your sleep and he thinks you are weird,” Hyunjin teased him just a second later.

Jisung scoffed, offended by the comment, “I don’t kick during my sleep. Also, he wouldn’t react like that if it was the case.”

Then, after some more thinking, he said, “Maybe he just didn’t like cuddling me.”

“Did you like cuddling him?” Felix shot back and Jisung’s cheeks heated up instantly.

“I like physical contact. Cuddles are nice,” Jisung stammered, hiding his reddening face behind his hands again.

“Your crush on Minho hyung is unbearable,” Hyunjin groaned, annoyed, he threw a pillow at the younger boy.

Jisung barely caught it before it could hit him in the face.

“I do not have a crush on him. He is just a good friend,” he exclaimed weakly and threw the pillow back at Hyunjin.

“’Just a good friend’ my ass. Stop lying to yourself.”

°°°

That conversation didn’t leave his mind for days after it happened, plaguing Jisung with second-guessing and over-analyzation of any minor situation he’d had with Minho over the couple weeks he had known the boy.

He had already addressed that their flirty behavior was a joke, at least to him, but it certainly was a funny inside joke for Minho too, right?

The pet names were nothing serious and just silly banter between good friends.

They had never been touchy before with each other until their scary movie night a few days ago, nor had any of them made any move to embrace the other in a hug or just casual bodily contact.

Surely, if Minho had any interest in him he would have tried to initiate anything in the past two months of living together – but he hadn’t.

Maybe his friends were just delusional and saw things that weren’t there at all.

Anyhow he couldn’t deny that he really liked Minho. He had become a really good friend to Jisung in the past weeks and maybe, just maybe, Jisung was just a little infatuated with the older boy. Not a lot, really.
He just couldn’t help himself for finding him attractive, he was just human, who had working eyes, after all. (And also, he was really, really gay.) 

None of that meant anything anyway. He could comfortably call his roommate hot and attractive without having an ulterior motive about it.

He was an adult who was comfortable enough around Minho to admit he looked good. That was all there was to it. End of story.

Only, it wasn’t the end of the story.

Minho had kept on acting weird even a few days after the weekend, just briefly talking to him and not being able to hold eye contact for more than a few blinks at a time.

The younger had to admit, that he started to get very worried. This situation just spurred on his overthinking nature and Jisung really hated that all that was on his mind since Saturday had been Minho. It consumed him so much, that he had started writing lyrics the other night and realized only halfway into his idea that he was technically writing about Minho.

He had crumpled up the piece of paper and thrown it away.

Their days were all the same during that week.

They would both be home in the evening and have a forced small talk conversation about their day, acting like this was normal and ignoring how obviously weird the situation really was.

Then They would silently agree that they had talked enough for a day and move on to their individual tasks they had to get done that day.

It was more than just a little awkward and Jisung really just wanted all of this to stop and go back to normal. At the same time, he didn’t know how to address this problem with Minho.

How was he supposed to talk to him about this? How was he supposed to ask him whether them cuddling each other was overstepping an imaginary line they had apparently drawn at some point, without making a fool of himself?

Minho would laugh at him.

No, Minho wouldn’t laugh at him. He wasn’t like that. He would ask Jisung if he was okay and why he was being an overthinker again.

But what if he would actually do laugh at him? Jisung really didn’t want to find out. So, he brushed off talking to the older boy for as long as possible.

Today was Friday, however. Fridays meant going out with their friends. Maybe he could talk to Minho after a few drinks and it wouldn’t be that bad anymore to be laughed in the face by his roommate/ friend/ maybe, somewhat of a crush? (God, he really hated to admit Hyunjin was maybe right)

°°°

“Are you coming with me to Seungmin’s place tonight?” he asked the older.

Minho was sitting on his bed. He had been watching cat videos for at least thirty minutes now – a habit Jisung had noticed Minho indulged in often. He looked up from his phone. Jisung stood in front of him already dressed and ready to go. He looked at Minho expectantly.

“Yeah.”

That was all. Minho got up without another word and grabbed a pair of jeans from his closet and walked into the bathroom to get changed.

God, Jisung really hoped a little alcohol would loosen this situation up.

°°°

Let’s say his plan had gone semi-well.

After they walked to Seungmin’s dorm in silence, just shortly broken by small talk, someone pushed drinks in their hands upon seeing their seemingly sad faces.

Seungmin was known for throwing good parties every now and then and his dorm was packed to the brim with people from campus. The music was loud and the overall mood was energetic.

Jisung looked around and eyed a boy in their age range sitting next to Changbin, talking animatedly to him. He assumed it must have been his soulmate. Changbin had told Jisung about hanging out with him a handful of times over the course of a couple of weeks, though, he didn’t want his friends to meet him yet.

He just hadn’t been sure where their connection was going yet but it seemed like they got on well enough that the older was comfortable to bring him to the party. Jisung was happy for Changbin.

He also saw Seungmin and Jeongin making out on the ‘dancefloor’ (which was literally just any free space the dorm had to offer). But well, of course, they didn’t like PDA…

Jisung shook his head with a smile.

He noticed that Minho had gone off to talk to Felix and Hyunjin, who were standing in the kitchen. It was better that way. He needed to get a few more drinks in his system before talking to Minho. (And he also hoped Minho would get a few more drinks down as well).

The younger decided to find Chan in the small crowd and talk to him for a while, while also drinking a few shots.

“How have you been,” Jisung asked the older man. He sat on one of the beds, a glass of what looked like Coke in his hands. Jisung took place next to him.

“Good. I’ve just been chilling for a bit last week. Also, been working on a few new songs but nothing too crazy,” Chan replied. Jisung nodded but he didn’t really register what the other had said.

His eyes were still going back to Minho every few seconds. It was hard to concentrate under these conditions. He felt like he was sitting on hot coals.

Chan nudged him in the side, “I asked, what about you? Where is your head?” His tone was a bit startled. He smiled at Jisung anyway. That was just the way Chan acted.

“Oh sorry, I got distracted,” the other apologized, now focusing on his conversation with Chan.

“I could see that. Felix told me that you and Minho had somewhat of an argument. Is everything okay?”

Chan was always so genuinely caring with his friends. Maybe that was the case because he was the oldest in their group and he saw himself in the position of a big brother, or he was like this with everybody he met. Anyhow, Jisung was really thankful for a friend like him.

It felt like the music volume had been turned up even higher or it was just Jisung becoming hyper-aware of his surroundings as he tried to find the right words to explain the situation to Chan.

In itself, there wasn’t much to explain. Nothing much had actually happened and yet things had changed so drastically.

To all honesty, Jisung wasn’t even sure anymore if things had actually changed or if he was just imagining things. He was a chronicle overthinker after all.

“Well, Minho and I didn’t fight at all.” Jisung looked down at his drink.

Chan stayed quiet, waiting for Jisung to continue.

“While we had a movie night we ended up cuddling and we fell asleep together. The next thing I know, Minho isn’t talking to me in the way he used to. That was last week.”

“Well, have you talked to him about that?” Chan said it as if it was the most obvious thing to do in this situation. And it was; it was the most obvious thing to do. But Jisung just couldn’t.

He cringed a bit, “No.” Chan almost started to talk again but Jisung interrupted him quickly, “I know I should have. I will talk to him. I wanted to talk to him tonight. I just wanted to get some drinks down first to make it easier.”

And somehow, this idea now outspoken, it sounded just as ridiculous as waiting almost a whole week to talk to him.

Chan just looked at him, one eyebrow raised, “What are you afraid of?”

“What if he thinks me asking about it is weird? Or what if I am making this problem way bigger than it actually is?” Jisung looked down again, then to the side.

Minho was laughing about something Felix said, his eyes all sparkly and his mouth spread into that astonishingly cute smile that made his eyes crinkle a bit at the sides.

“That won’t happen. I think I know him well enough already to know he won’t react like an idiot if you talk to him about the way you feel,” Chan reassuringly petted Jisung’s shoulder a few times and then took his drink into his own hand, “Go, talk to him and talk it out. I don’t want to see you like this anymore.”

Jisung nodded and got up. He was going to talk to Minho about this right now before his heart would give out again and he would be stuck sulking again.

He approached the other group quickly, making his way through a few dancing people.

“Minho,” he yelled over the music, still a few steps away from the boy.

Said boy turned his head in his direction. He seemed taken by surprise to see Jisung approach him like that.

“Minho,” he said again, now in front of him, “Can I talk to you? No, I need to talk to you, now.”

Not waiting for an answer, he grabbed him by the hem of his hoodie to guide him through the room and outside to talk where it was a bit less noisy.

When he turned back around to face Minho again, the older looked a bit scared. Or maybe just taken aback?

“Things have been a bit weird,” Jisung started. Minho swallowed hard, knowing where this conversation was going.

“Ever since we cuddled during our movie night last week you aren’t talking to me like we normally would.”

Minho’s eyebrows quirked together. Maybe he didn’t know where this was going after all.

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about it.”

What? Now Jisung was the one pulling his brows together tightly.

“What? Why wouldn’t I wanna talk about it?”

Minho shuffled around a bit, trying to get less awkward, “Well, it is a heavy topic.”

Slight irritation washed over the younger.

“No, it is not. Cuddling is not a heavy topic. Why would I not wanna talk about cuddling?”

“I am not talking about the cuddling. Why are you acting like you don’t know what I mean?”

Minho sounded angry and Jisung didn’t like where this conversation was going. This was not what he thought about when Chan said ‘Talk it out’.

Jisung felt at a loss for words. He really didn’t understand Minho.

“What?” he dumbly repeated and Minho audibly scuffed and rolled his eyes, now annoyed.

This wasn’t fair at all.

“I am talking about the marks? Since you talked about how you weren’t searching for your soulmate at the moment I thought I’d leave it up to you to come to me and talk about this and here I thought you were but-“

“What?!” Jisung interrupted Minho, “What marks are you talking about? I haven’t found my soulmate yet. What are you even on about? Why would me finding my soulmate be a big deal to you?” He just felt overwhelmed at this point.

The face with which Minho looked at him was full of disbelief and shock but Jisung didn’t doubt he looked any different at the moment.

Though, his facial expression softened a bit.

“You really have no idea what I am talking about, don’t you?”

Jisung let out a whine, “Yeah, no shit. That’s what I’ve been trying to explain to you.”

Minho said nothing else, just reached out for Jisung’s hand and took it in his. His dark eyes fixed on Jisung’s own.

His hand felt cold against his, but he felt a slightly familiar tingle scurry up his arm and down his spine, giving him goosebumps again.

“I am talking about this,” Minho said and let go of Jisung’s hand just to hold up his own in front of the other's face.

It almost glowed in a bright shade of yellowish gold. Just like the skin of someone who had just touched their soulmate would change colour.

Soulmates…

His eyes opened wide and suddenly out of breath, he held up his own hand.

His eyes were met with a glittery silver colour that spread from his fingers over his palm to his wrist, cut off by the many bracelets that hid his Indicator.

With a swift motion, he pulled them off and looked at the Indicator’s status for the first time in years.

“Very close,” he read out loud, still in disbelief.

He looked up to Minho who had a shy smile sitting tightly on his lips.

“How did you know?” Jisung asked and Minho huffed, apparently amused by the question.

“The cuddling? When I woke up in the morning my whole body was basically gold. That’s why I left for a run, to get some fresh air and think about everything.

“I assumed when I got back you would be awake and would confront me about it. But you didn’t. So, I assumed you didn’t want to talk about it and I took a step back to give you space to think. I didn’t want to hurt you with that, though.”

Jisung looked to his feet, suddenly feeling dumb, “I didn’t even notice the marks. I am sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, please, maybe they already faded when you woke up,” he took Jisung’s hand in his, and at that moment the younger hoped, that the tingle that went through his whole body every time, would never fade away.

“I really like you Jisung and if you feel the same maybe we can figure out together where this is going. I will give you all the time you need to think,” Minho’s eyes were soft and he looked at the other as if Jisung had hung the stars for him.

Jisung saw it now, too. Maybe Felix and Hyunjin had been right all along.

He didn’t need much time to think. If anything, he had thought enough over the past week to never want to think again.

The fact that he was so anxious because of this situation the past few days, was enough proof to himself that Minho meant a lot to him. And if it helped his case even a bit more, he had long stopped pretending to find Minho attractive in a normal, platonic way.

“I really like you too,” was all he said before grabbing Minho by the neck and pulling him down a little to bring his face close to his.

Their first kiss was eventually initiated by Minho. His lips pressed firmly against Jisung’s and Jisung was more than ready to kiss the taller boy back.

Minho grabbed him by the waist to pull him just that much closer.

Jisung never thought that kissing your soulmate felt different from kissing other people but he was proven wrong in that moment. Again, that tingle almost swept him off his feet, making him sag against Minho slightly. He was glad the other was holding him tightly, so he wouldn’t just fall right then and there.

After a few seconds Minho pulled back, “I really didn’t expect that to happen tonight.”

Jisung smiled, “Trust me, me neither.”

°°°

Not much changed after that.

The days were basically the same as before their movie night, Jisung just got to kiss Minho a lot more.

His friends said they were basically glued together by the hip from then on.

And they probably weren’t wrong about that. Jisung and Minho didn’t argue with them about it. They were happy and maybe a little tiny bit in love, so they had all the right to be glued together.  

Seungmin and Jeongin kept talking about how unrealistic it was that all four of them had found their soulmates at a party and Chan prided himself as the ultimate matchmaker, since ‘he was the one to get Jisung to talk to Minho’.

And maybe Jisung gave him a tiny bit of credit for that but he would never actually say that out loud.