Chapter Text
Changbin arrived at Hyunjin’s doorstep at quarter past 7am and let himself in with the spare key under the flower pot. He knew very well that Hyunjin’s parents had left for work at 6:30 that morning, meaning that Hyunjin was likely still asleep. His three alarms really were quite useless. Slipping his shoes off, Changbin made his way up the narrow staircase to his boyfriend’s bedroom. He didn’t bother with being quiet, knowing that Hyunjin would sleep through any noise he made.
Once in the room, Changbin dropped his backpack on the floor and crawled up onto the bed. He groped at the unidentifiable mess of blankets and limbs, trying to discern Hyunjin’s head from the rest of the tangle. His hands finally found their way into a soft mop of hair and Changbin pushed the blankets aside, leaning down to plant a loud, wet kiss on each of Hyunjin’s cheeks. He laughed softly at the grumble Hyunjin let out as the younger boy tried to burrow deeper into his nest and pulled gently on his arms.
“Come on, we’ve got school in 45 minutes and I’m not letting you be late for the first day.”
Hyunjin replied with more unintelligible mumbling, but allowed Changbin to haul him up and shove him towards the bathroom, uniform in hand. When Changbin had confirmed that the boy was in the bathroom, and not lying unconscious on the hallway carpet, he returned to Hyunjin’s bed and began scrolling through his phone.
Hyunjin emerged from the bathroom a little under twenty minutes later, looking more alive than before, but hardly awake. Changbin laughed as he brushed the younger’s hair into place with his fingers, smoothing out the bedhead and straightening his jacket before tossing Hyunjin both of their backpacks and running downstairs. Hyunjin caught up to him at the door and shoved his feet into sneakers before accepting the yogurt drink and convenience store bread Changbin offered him. They left the house together, Changbin locking up as Hyunjin sipped on his yogurt.
Humming in contentment at the sweet custard bun, Hyunjin draped himself over Changbin’s back as they walked. Luckily, their high school was a short 15 minute walk, so if they didn’t dawdle, they’d still be on time. Changbin pulled a sleepy Hyunjin along with him, ignoring his boyfriend’s protests as he forced them into an awkward speed-walk. Awkward, mainly because Hyunjin seemed to be non-verbally trying to convince Changbin to piggyback him.
They made it to school with less than five minutes to spare and Changbin pressed a quick kiss onto Hyunjin’s pouting lips before shouting a goodbye and speeding off, his class being on the top floor of the three story building. Hyunjin, resigning himself to a fate of boring lectures and introduction speeches, trudged to his own classroom on the second floor.
The morning passed rather uneventfully. As it was the first day of school not many teachers actually made an effort to teach anything, focusing primarily on reviewing the class syllabi and going through introductions. In some ways this was even more boring than actual classwork, and by lunchtime Hyunjin found himself dozing off on his desk. He trudged back down to the cafeteria on the first floor, finding his way to the table he and his friends had claimed as their own in the previous years. Slumping down into a seat, Hyunjin ignored the questioning look that his friend, Seungmin, sent his way, opting instead to put his head down on his arms and try to catch a few minutes of sleep before the others showed up.
“Aren’t you going to get your food?” Seungmin asked, rudely interrupting Hyunjin’s much needed nap. Hyunjin glared at the younger boy and yawned, turning his face back into his sleeves before he answered.
“Changbin hyung always gets my tray too.”
“Right,” Seungmin said, “I forgot how codependent you two are.” Hyunjin laughed at the disgust in the other boys voice and finally moved to sit up.
“Don’t be so mean just cause you’ve never been in a relationship.” Hyunjin quipped back. He stretched languidly, long arms nearly smacking into the kid sitting at the table behind him.
“Hey watch it!” A voice growled from beside the gangly boy, and Hyunjin grinned as he turned around.
“Binniiiieeeeeee” He whined, pouting when Changbin avoided his attempt to hug the shorter male. “I’m sleepy.”
“At least let me put down the trays.” Changbin sighed. Once he had ensured both lunch trays were safely on the table, Changbin slipped into the seat on Hyunjin’s left and allowed the younger boy to koala up to him. Seungmin watched on in disgust as Changbin began spooning rice into his mouth with one hand while the other combed through Hyunjin’s hair. When Changbin began feeding Hyunjin bites off his own tray, Seungmin made a gagging noise. Changbin just laughed at the younger boys misery, well accustomed to this daily ritual.
Hyunjin and Changbin were the golden couple of their friend group, having been dating since they were in middle school. They were essentially attached at the hip. It wasn’t a perfect relationship though, they had no disillusion about that. They fought, sometimes over petty things, but they always apologized. Once, when Changbin was in grade 10 and Hyunjin had been left behind at middle school, they had even broken up. Neither could remember what the fight had been over, or even who had broken it off. The break up had lasted a grand total of six days before they both realized they were being stupid and ran outside into the freezing rain to apologize. They had very nearly ran past each other in their haste to get to the other’s house, would have actually if not for Hyunjin tripping at that moment and lending face first in a muddy puddle. They had cried and held each other, both apologizing for wrong-doings neither had been able to recall. And they wondered why their friends called them dramatic.
Seungmin was still pretending to throw up when the last of their little group arrived. Han Jisung was a squirrely looking boy who, together with Changbin and an older boy named Bang Chan, had created a sort of “rap group” sometime last year. Changbin had met Chan when the older boy had been a senior and Changbin had just started high school, and it was through Chan that he had met Jisung when the youngest was still in middle school. The trio had quickly bonded over their love of music and sometime along the way had begun to write their own music as well. It had started out a joke, calling themselves a silly name Jisung had come up with (3racha) and playing around with the music equipment Chan’s uncle let them borrow. But well… now they had a successful spotify page and Chan was in his second year at university majoring in music production. After Chan had graduated, Minho had found his way into their group, having known Hyunjin from dance and integrating himself into the groups friendly banter with ease.
But now it was just Changbin, Hyunjin, Jisung, and Seungmin left at the school. And a boy Jisung was towing behind him. Changbin blinked, watching as Jisung pulled on the arm of a very cute, very uncomfortable looking student. When Jisung finally made it to their table, Changbin could tell that the other boy was around the same height as the younger rapper, and that he had light freckles scattered across his cheeks. The boy looked at the group of friends nervously and glanced at Jisung for help.
“Everyone, meet Felix! Felix, this is everyone!”
“How very descriptive of you Jisung.”
Jisung stuck his tongue out at Seungmin, pushing Felix down into a seat beside Changbin before taking his own seat across the table. Changbin felt Hyunjin shift in his arms in order to see Felix better from Changbin’s other side.
“Chan hyung’s cousin, right?” He asked. Ah, that’s where Changbin knew his name from. Chan had told them his cousin was moving from Australia and would be transferring to their school starting this year. He guessed Jisung had spent the holidays at Chan’s house, given how close he already seemed with Felix.
The freckled boy nodded in response, mumbling something that was too quiet for Changbin to make out. Hyunjin asked a few more questions, with Felix either stuttering out a couple words in answer or, more often than not, looking desperately at Jisung for help. Unfortunately for Felix, Jisung was too preoccupied trying to steal the fruit cup off of Seungmin’s tray to notice. Eventually, Hyunjin became more interested in his food and whined for Changbin to feed him again, which Changbin did as Felix watched them with his mouth half open.
Changbin smiled at Felix, taking in how the boy’s blond hair contrasted starkly with his navy uniform jacket. He could tell from before that the younger seemed to be at the very least unconfident with his Korean and he wished he could somehow make him more comfortable within their friend group. He knew both Jisung and Seungmin were good at english and Felix would probably be able to converse easily with them, but Changbin wanted the younger to know that he could be at ease around him and Hyunjin as well.
“You are from Australia?” Changbin asked hesitantly, hoping he had pronounced that right. Felix looked up from his lunch tray and stared at Changbin with wide eyes. When Changbin gave him what he hoped was an encouraging smile, Felix nodded.
“Ya, I only got to Korea a few days ago.”
“Oh,” Changbin started, not really sure where to go from there, “that must be… big change.” Changbin knew he didn’t sound fluent, but Felix smiled and responded with something Changbin could only half-understand so he counted it as a win.
Their conversation went on for a few minutes with Changbin putting every ounce of his Grade 11 English class knowledge to use before the others joined in. Changbin knew his english was mediocre at best, and both Jisung and Seungmin have zero problems pointing that out as they laughed at was Changbin had thought was a proper answer to something Felix had asked. But Felix looked a lot more comfortable now, so Changbin decided that the lunch period had been successful.
Felix had gotten his marks when he was young, barely five years old. He had grown up with two loving parents and a pair of evil, but adorable sisters, and had never had to wonder what it felt like to be loved unconditionally. However, when Felix’s marks appeared he had, not one, but two little animals inked onto his skin. The first was a little puppy that seemed to enjoy racing across Felix’s feet and up his calves. The other was a tiny falcon who’s favorite perch seemed to be just behind Felix’s ear.
Felix had grown up watching these two small animals playing on his skin. When he was around eleven, Felix noticed that the two tattoos seemed to be together nearly all the time. His mother had told him that this likely meant his soulmates had already met each other and formed a relationship. Felix hadn’t known what to feel about this. On one hand, he was happy that the two people he was fated to love were happy together, but on the other hand he found himself worrying about what would happen when he finally joined them. If they had already developed such a strong relationship, was Felix even needed?
Then, when Felix was thirteen, the animals had abruptly separated themselves and retreated to the polar opposites of his body. The falcon once more hidden behind the curve of Felix’s ear. Felix had spent an agonizing year wondering what could have happened between the two to drive them apart so drastically. And this led to even more anxiety around what would happen should the two never reconcile. Apparently, Felix had nothing to worry about though, as before his fourteenth birthday the animals were back to cuddling at the bend of his elbow, or chasing each other across his belly.
Felix had grown up watching his two tattoos, but aside from his family, he had never told anyone about them. It’s not that he was ashamed of them, but rather Felix had always been a shy child, and he got self-conscious easily. Having two marks was rare, and Felix prefered to not draw any extra attention to himself. He hadn’t even told his cousin about his marks, though he supposed the elder would likely find out about them soon enough now that they were in the same country.
Now that he was in Korea, Felix found himself being more cautious about covering the tattoos up, uncertain as to how people in this new country would react to him having two soulmates. It wasn’t difficult, the Falcon still liked to spend most of its time behind Felix’s ear, and the puppy was more often than not running across Felix’s legs or stomach. So as long as he never wore shorts and didn’t take off his shirt, he should be fine.
Despite his apprehensions, and his awkward first lunch period, Felix made friends quickly with the four boys. He was delighted to learn how fluent Seungmin was in english, comforting himself with having at least two friends at school he could fall back on should he need help, or just get overwhelmed. He also learned that he and Hyunjin were in the same dance elective together, something the older of the two was particularly excited about. Changbin was the only member of the group Felix didn’t have classes with, seeing as Changbin was in a different grade, but Felix enjoyed the conversations he had with the older during lunch time. It was sweet how hard the eldest tried to make Felix as comfortable as possible, and Felix felt his heart swell when Changbin went out of his way to make sure Felix wasn’t lost when the group conversed.
He also learned more about the strange dynamic between Changbin and Hyunjin. Felix had been shocked to say the least when he had watched Changbin feeding the younger on his first day. By the end of his first week he had accepted that this was a normal occurrence, as Hyunjin never seemed to fully wake up until sometime around 2pm. Felix thought it was endearing how Changbin babied his boyfriend, and giggled a little when Hyunjin would wrap his long limbs around Changbin’s waist. Felix found it adorable, Seungmin called it unpleasant.
Slowly, Felix found himself fitting into the little group, feeling more at ease with every day. Hyunjin, especially, Felix found himself opening up to. Something that wa both a blessing and a curse because, well, Hyunjin was very pretty. And Felix would be lying if he said he hadn’t caught himself looking at those plush lips once or twice. Felix got along well with all of his new friends, but he found he had a soft spot for Hyunjin, even agreeing to be the tallers partner for a project in dance.
The project was to choreograph a minute long performance as a duet to a song of their choice. Felix was nervous, as he had only been in the class for two weeks at this point and he was well aware that Hyunjin was both a talented dancer and a widely popular classmate whom other students would have fought to have as a partner. Hyunjin, however, was either too oblivious to realize this, or didn’t care as he loudly proclaimed that he was going to be partnering up with Felix. He had put both of their names down on the instructor’s paper before grabbing his water bottle and tugging Felix by his bag strap out of the room.
“Where are we going?” Felix asked as he hurried to keep up with Hyunjin’s unnecessarily long strides.
“I wanted to snatch one of the better practice rooms before they were all taken!” Hyunjin replied, sending Felix a bright smile. “Duet projects are hard to choreograph if everyone is in the same room so they let us use the extra practice rooms.” One thing Felix had noted over the past week was that all four of his new friends seemed to slow down when they spoke to him. Ensuring that he had understood what they said before moving on to their next sentence. It was something Felix was very thankful for, and would have to find some way to repay them when his Korean had improved.
Hyunjin stopped in front of an frosted glass door, throwing it open to reveal a smaller dance studio lit up with a soft glow from the floor to ceiling windows that lined one of the walls. There was a skip to Hyunjin’s step as he walked into the empty room, and Felix had a feeling this was Hyunjin’s usual studio from the way the boy made his way over to the stereo and connected his phone to it with practiced ease.
“Alright!” Hyunjin turned back to Felix, “Let’s get started!”
The two quickly decided on a song for the duet, having similar tastes in both music and dance styles. Afterwards they stretched for a few minutes before diving right in to their choreography. It was the last period of the day, so they didn’t feel the need to rush as the clock hand edged towards three o’clock, knowing they could continue into the afternoon should they choose to. Especially since Hyunjin apparently had this same studio room booked out most days after school.
“Changbin hyung and I spend a lot of time in here” Hyunjin gasped from his place on the floor. They had just finished running through a rough outline of their choreography for what was probably the twentieth time. They had finalized the first 15 seconds and mapped out the rest, but had decided to take a 15 minute water break. A water break that consisted of both of them staying in their prone positions and neither making even the slightest effort to move for water.
“He works on his music while I dance, the sunset is really pretty.”
Felix hummed, he could imagine what the room would look like bathed in the warm orange glow of the dying sun. It was quiet here, like he could almost forget the rest of the world existed.
“Changbin-hyung does music with Jisung and Chan-hyung right?” Felix asked. He knew very well that the trio was a group, he had all their tracks downloaded already, but he wanted to keep the conversation going.”
“Ya,” Hyunjin replied, “He’s hoping to go into music production like Chan-hyung after he graduates. He’s really talented.” Felix could hear how proud Hyunjin was of Changbin and he found himself smiling, the older boy’s happiness was infectious. He really admired the older couple. They seemed so confident in their relationship, so comfortable. Felix hoped to some day have that as well.
After another minute, felix heard Hyunjin push himself off the ground, groaning as his limbs protested the movement. He made his was over to Felix, who was still lost in thought, and stuck out a hand to help the younger up. Hyunjin hauled the blond boy to his feet, and was about to turn around and restart the music when Felix’s grip tightened.
Felix could hear Hyunjin asking him what was wrong, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from their linked hands. A familiar puppy ran across Felix’s wrist, moving to circle around what looked to be a lynx on Hyunjin’s knuckles. He heard Hyunjin gasp, and then Felix’s hand was being held in both of Hyunjin’s larger ones.
“Felix…” Hyunjin breathed
Felix heard the blood pounding in his ears. He had imagined meeting his soulmate so many times. Imagined how happy they would both be, imagined the dates and cuddles and kisses to follow. But now all he could think of was whether or not Hyunjin wanted him. Hyunjin and Changbin. They were the overly affectionate couple whose relationship he had watched develop through his tattoos. The overly affectionate couple who Felix had been watching over lunch for nearly two weeks now. They were the perfect couple, would they want Felix intruding in that?
He was so caught up in his own mind that he almost didn’t hear Hyunjin asking him something, and even when he focused back in on Hyunjin’s voice, he wasn’t sure he had understood the Korean words. It seemed like it didn’t matter though, because the next thing he knew Hyunjin was pulling away from Felix and rolling up his sleeve to show Felix a little falcon tattoo at the crook of his elbow. Felix gasped, recognizing the falcon as the one that was most likely perched behind his own ear at that very moment. He nodded, turning around and pointing to the back of his ear. Felix shivered a little as Hyunjin’s fingers carded through his hair, combing the blond strands back in order to see the little tattoo better. Hyunjin must have found it, because the older boy let out a noise not unlike an appeased seagull and spun Felix around to pull him into a bone-crushing hug.
Felix melted into Hyunjin’s arms, but was pulled back to reality when Hyunjin abruptly pushed away, grabbing Felix’s hand and dragging him out of the studio. Felix tried to ask Hyunjin where they were going, but Hyunjin seemed to be ignoring him as he sprinted down the hall and around a corner. He skidded to a stop so abruptly that Felix crashed into the taller’s back, gripping Hyunjin’s shirt to steady himself. Hyunjin, oblivious to Felix’s near accident, threw open a door with a loud bang and took long strides into the classroom. Felix looked around as Hyunjin pulled him along, noticing that it was some sort of music class. There were instruments lined up along the walls, and music stands arranged in a semi-circle facing the front of the room. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be a teacher there at the moment, and the students seemed to be working in groups of two or three so Felix hoped they weren’t interrupting anything. Hyunjin was still panting as he dragged Felix across the room and shoved the shorter boy into someone’s arms. Felix turned to meet Changbin’s wide eyes and he suddenly realized what Hyunjin was doing. He glanced behind him to see Hyunjin grinning from ear to ear and gulped, reaching out to take Changbin’s hand in his own.
“Hyunjin what-” Changbin’s voice cut off as he stared down at his and Felix’s interlocked fingers, and the two small animals weaving around each other. Felix could feel his face heating up the longer Changbin starred. It didn’t help that the entire classroom had turned to watch the interaction. Felix cleared his throat, hoping to get Changbin’s attention off their hands. It worked. Changbin looked up with something close to absolute panic on his face, which did nothing to calm the rising panic attack Felix was combating as well. He didn’t have time to dwell on what this meant, however, as Changbin grabbed Hyunjin and dragged both boys out of the classroom, ignoring Jisung’s loud catcalls from behind them. As soon as they made it to the hallway, Changbin broke into a run, dragging them back to the dance studio Hyunjin and Felix had abandoned not ten minutes prior.
The next 30 minutes were a blur to Felix. They talked. A lot. They talked about what it meant that they had three soulmates, and they talked about how their relationship would work. At some point Felix found himself crying, though he’s not entirely sure why. But Hyunjin wiped his tears away with gentle fingers, and Changbin squished his cheeks and pulled Felix in to cuddle between the two and maybe, Felix had nothing to worry about after all.
Sunday afternoon found all three boys curled on the couch in Hyunjin’s living room. It was one of the rare weekends that all three of them had the day off, and they were using it to their advantage. That is, doing nothing and cuddling for hours at a time.
Despite Felix’s worries about how he would fit into their relationship, Changbin and Hyunjin had been more than welcoming. Both boys ensured that Felix never felt left out, and they let him open up to them at his own pace. Despite Changbin and Hyunjin being comfortable with kissing, and despite their burning desire to kiss their youngest boyfriend senseless, they knew it was up to Felix to determine when he was ready. They had allowed their relationship to develop slowly, taking their time and truly enjoying what every new day brought them. And eventually, Felix had stopped feeling like he was an extra.
Things had changed again when Changbin had graduated. He had been accepted into the same university as Chan, meaning he could continue to live at home and commute the short 20 min by bus every day to his classes on music theory and production. But it left Hyunjin and Felix on their own at school. Seungmin argued that the two of them were even worse than Changbin and Hyunjin were at lunch, as Felix was equally as whiny as Hyunjin and demanded to be shown as much affection as he dished out. Changbin, for his part, annoyed Jisung and Seungmin to no end. Demanding that the two send him pictures and videos of these interactions, lest the eldest in the relationship feel left out. Jisung was more than happy to oblige the older, Seungmin not so much.
What really changed the most after Changbin graduated was how often they were all able to spend time together. More and more often it would be two of them hanging out together at one time, the third having some project or meeting or family event that forced them to be left out. So on the rare days that all three of them could be together, they would congregate at one of their houses and just enjoy each other’s presence.
Today, Changbin had fallen asleep almost as soon as he had arrived, wrapping his arms around Hyunjin’s neck and burying his face into the taller’s shoulder. Hyunjin had hoisted the older boy up, wrapping Changbin’s legs around his waist and waddling over to the couch. Once Hyunjin was sitting on the couch, Changbin still hugged against his chest like a baby monkey, Felix tucked himself against their sides. Felix reached out to card his fingers through Changbin’s black strands, smiling when Changbin leaned into his touch.
He looked up to see Hyunjin watching him, a smile on his face. Hyunjin leaned down, slowly, giving Felix time to move away if he wanted to. Felix didn’t though, and instead he turned his face upward to meet Hyunjin’s lips halfway. Felix could feel Hyunjin’s giggles bubbling between their lips. It was intoxicating and Felix pushed forward to join their mouths again. He could have melted at the look of love in Hyunjin’s eyes when they pulled apart. They’d been officially dating for over eight months now, and Felix still sometimes forgot to breath around the two older boys.
“You know, when I was little I used to be really self-conscious about having two soulmates.” Felix confided, his voice hushed so as not to wake Changbin. “I was worried about how I would fit into the relationship, or if I would meet one soulmate and they wouldn’t have two marks.”
A hand found its way to Felix’s cheek, guiding his face back to Hyunjin’s. There was sadness in Hyunjin’s eyes at hearing Felix’s concerns, but also understanding. Felix realized that his worries had probably been shared by both Changbin and Hyunjin at some point in their lives as well.
“Sweetheart,” Hyunjin whispered. Felix shivered at the name, and the way Hyunjin’s breath ghosted over his skin as the older boy leaned in once more.
“You have two soulmates because you’re just that lovable. One heart could not hold all the love you deserve.”