Chapter Text
TAEHYUNG
Kim Taehyung hated his life.
Rationally, he knew that this was likely the result of him probably being the most selfish, famous douchebag on the face of the planet.
Didn’t change the fact that he hated his life.
“This is bullshit!” Taehyung shouted, tearing the beanie off of his head and chucking it across the room in favor of running his fingers through his hair in frustration. “I thought this was my album, Sejin. Why are these prats making all of the decisions?!”
Taehyung’s manager, Sejin, took a deep breath. Taehyung was prone to outbursts as of late, but he knew that the young singer’s anger simply came from a place of frustration, not cruelty. He’d been working for Taehyung for over three years now, he knew the young man better than most.
“Taehyung, it’s just two songs. The rest of the album is all yours, but the company needs you to play nice so that—”
“I don’t care what the company wants,” Taehyung snapped, hands on his hips as he turned to face Sejin. “They don’t ever seem to care what I want in my music these days, so why should I listen to them?”
“Tae—”
“No, no! They would be a no-name recording label drowning in debt if I hadn’t signed with them and this is how they treat me! I’m done, I’m fucking done.”
Taehyung slammed his hand against the wall beside him, and only felt slightly bad when he saw Sejin jump out of the corner of his eye. His broad chest heaved with breaths as he leaned his forehead against the wall and tried to calm down.
“It’s not my music anymore,” he finally murmured. “It’s not … me.” He looked up, meeting Sejin’s eye. “I’m sick of doing the same damn formula for every song. The same chord progressions, the same shitty beat drops that sound like every other song, the same stupid ass lyrics that don’t mean anything. That’s not me, man. It’s not the fans either, I just feel … I feel like I’m lying to them every time I release a new shitty song that can be played in clubs, but doesn’t really mean anything.”
“The songs are doing well though.”
“Of course they are, the fans will support me no matter what I release, but if it’s not really from my heart then I’m just taking advantage of them!” Taehyung retorted, throwing his hands up in the air. “I’m sick of this! It’s been over a year since the company let me release anything that I wrote myself, and they won’t even give Scenery a chance!”
“You just have to be patient, Taehyung.”
“But I—”
“No, Taehyung, you have to be patient,” Sejin urged, cutting the singer off in a rare display of authority. “Your contract is up in a year. Just one year, and then you’ll have to resign for another four years, or …”
Sejin trailed off, letting Taehyung connect the dots. He would never tell his young friend what to do, but he had seen the toll that lack of creative freedom was taking on the singer. Taehyung had lost weight, his voice didn’t have that same vibrancy that it did when he was singing his own music, and he had been avoiding any sort of outings that might put him in the paths of paparazzi or his fans.
“Or I can choose not to re-sign with them,” Taehyung finished the thought in a quiet voice. He lifted his head to the ceiling, releasing a long breath. “Just one year. One more year. I can do that. I can do that, right?”
“Of course you can,” Sejin said quickly. “One year will fly by.”
Taehyung huffed, flopping down on the couch of the green room connected to the studio of the shitty, obnoxious American producer that he was being forced to work with.
“I’m not even twenty years old and I’m this tired of everything,” he said with a humorless laugh, rubbing his eyes.
“Actually, you are twenty years old.”
Taehyung looked at Sejin incredulously. “No I’m not. My birthday isn't until tomorrow.”
“You were born in Korea, and your birthday started there an hour ago. Because of the time difference here in America you—”
“Well why didn’t you say something?!” Taehyung shouted, jumping up to his feet and muttering under his breath as he tried to take off the thick, clunky bracelet over his left wrist.
Because of the occasional stalker and obsessive fan, the majority of celebrities who hadn’t found their soulmate yet had taken to keeping their soulmark area constantly covered — Taehyung had wanted to get in the habit of such even before his twentieth birthday.
“I didn’t think you wanted me to bring up your soulmark in front of those assholes back there,” Sejin muttered under his breath. Taehyung smirked. It was rare that Sejin cursed, so it was clear that Taehyung wasn’t the only one who was sick of the jerks that the company had been forcing him to work with lately.
“What’s it say?” the manager asked as Taehyung finally got the bracelet off of his left wrist.
“It says … ‘It’s you.’”
“Oh.” Sejin cleared his throat. “Well … I guess she’ll be a fan?”
Taehyung let out a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t wait to meet his soulmate, sure, but a part of him had always romanticized the idea of someone falling for him first and then V, famous singer, second.
That was a pipe dream and you know it, he rationalized to himself.
The money, the fame, the countless opportunities that had been thrown Taehyung’s way since he was just barely seventeen were amazing, and he was thankful every day for them.
But the way that things were going lately, between having to make music that wasn’t from his heart at all and countless rumors and scandals that were always being blown way out of proportion, Taehyung just wanted to feel normal — at least for a little while. To get his head back on straight.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Taehyung muttered, not really thinking about his soulmate much at all in that moment. Even though if she was a fan, which it seemed like she was given her first words to him, she was probably thinking about him often.
Guilt struck him immediately. He loved his fans, it wasn’t their fault at all that he wasn’t content.
The inauthenticity of the situation was just getting to be too damn much. Being twenty years old was when he was supposed to really be discovering himself, and yet his company wasn’t allowing him that opportunity. No matter the privileges he had, that was enough to drive anyone crazy.
“Just one year,” Taehyung muttered to himself, glancing up as Sejin clapped a hand on his shoulder. “One year.”
***
“Honey are you sure you don’t want to celebrate with us?”
“Mom I am going to celebrate with you and Dad,” you reassured your mother with a smile as you shrugged on your coat. “We’re having a birthday party tomorrow!”
“Yes, but I don’t know how I feel about you being alone for your soulmark appearance.”
“Mom I’ll be fine.” You leaned over and kissed your mother’s cheek swiftly. “I just want this moment to myself. Besides, I was born at 2 AM, nobody is going to want to stay awake that late just to see some words appear on my wrist.”
“I would!”
“Mom, you can’t stay up past 10:30 PM and we both know it,” you laughed. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning to help set up for the party. Bye, love you!”
You practically ran out the front door before your mother could say anything else, pulling your coat tighter to you. You picked a few pieces of stray dog hair that had attached itself to the material as you walked to your car. You weren’t sure if the dog hair was from your own dog at home, or if it was from one of the sweet little guys from the animal shelter you volunteered at.
After taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of the night sky, you unlocked your car and hopped in, going through the motions of starting up your car and pulling out onto the main highway.
The coast was about a three and a half hour drive away, which would put you sitting on the beach listening to the waves under a starry night sky right as your soulmark was set to appear. Just how you had always imagined it.
The drive was a familiar one, and you put on your favorite driving playlist to pass the time. The playlist mostly consisted of oldies that your dad had listened to with you when you were a child, a few rap songs, and some movie soundtracks that you liked. Nothing too current, honestly. You were so busy with taking online courses, waitressing, and volunteering at the animal shelter that you didn’t put much time into listening to the latest hits on Top 40.
Not that you really liked current pop music. There was this annoying trend going on for the last couple years of songs only about partying and having crazy sex with annoying beat drops in the background that all kind of sounded the same.
Not that there was anything wrong with that kind of music, of course, it just wasn’t really your scene.
Soon enough, your mind started wandering. Your thoughts jumped between ideas of what your soulmark might be, to the apartments you were looking at moving into soon (if you could ever find a roommate, that is), to one of the cats at the shelter that needed to find a home ASAP.
You needed to call the shelter’s photographer on call tomorrow to help with that last one. The young woman was an amazing photographer that, like you, had a soft spot for animals. She’d started offering free shoots for the animals at the shelter that needed to be adopted sooner rather than later, hoping that by having professional photos of them to post on social media people might be more inclined to take them in.
You and the photographer got along well. You’d even talked about soulmarks recently when she heard that your twentieth birthday was coming up.
(The photographer had yet to meet her soulmate, but her mark read, ‘Wait, please!’)
Realizing that you were thinking about work and responsibilities instead of just enjoying a peaceful drive to the beach, you decided you needed a change of pace. Not taking your eyes off the road, you turned off your driving playlist that had started to repeat and switched on the radio instead.
The song that was playing was …
Utter crap, honestly.
“Ugh,” you muttered to yourself, wincing at the overuse of bass and a chord progression that sounded suspiciously exactly like that recent Chainsmokers song one of the guys at the shelter had played for you the other day.
The male vocals were nice, you guessed. Even if the lyrics were about dicking down some random girl at a club.
Like you’d never heard that song before.
Fortunately, you only had to listen to about a minute of the song before it was over.
“Alright that was the one and only V on his brand new collaboration with Elia!” the radio announcer said as soon as the song was over. “Hey, did you hear the latest news about our dear heartthrob V?” he asked his cohost.
“No,” the female announcer responded with an overdramatic gasp. You rolled your eyes. “What is it?”
“Paparazzi caught sight of his soulmark the other day.”
That time, you gasped alongside the female announcer. A celebrity soulmark sighting was awful, everyone ought to agree on that. There were countless horror stories of fans knowing their idol’s soulmark and saying the words to them and even faking their own soulmarks to try and trick them into a relationship. It was a nightmare scenario.
“No way!” the female announcer said even more dramatically. “I can’t believe it, poor V. But also, like … what’s his mark say? Just out of curiosity of course.”
While you curled your lip in disgust, the two announcers laughed together. You felt gross just listening to them discuss the celebrity’s soulmark like this, they had no respect for the sanctity of the marks.
You didn’t even know the celebrity (V, or something? Who names themselves a letter?), but no one deserved to have their mark discussed so flippantly. It was just plain disrespectful.
“According to the picture, his mark says—”
You turned the radio off.
“Assholes,” you muttered under your breath.
You decided to take the last twenty minutes of the drive in silence, thinking of your soulmark and who your soulmate might be.
Honestly, you weren’t picky at all. You trusted the soulmark system, and believed with all your heart that the person that had your first words to them tattooed on their wrist was going to be just right for you. You didn’t care what they looked like or did for a living, you knew they would be enough no matter what.
The thought made you smile softly. You had a person out there designed just for you. It was unbelievable, but in the best kind of way.
Finally you arrived at the secluded beach, parking close to the sand under a streetlight. You stretched as you stepped out of your car, grabbing your blanket and a flashlight and taking off your shoes before running towards the water.
You didn’t care that you probably looked crazy running onto the beach at almost 2 AM by yourself — not that there was anyone around to see, anyways. You were excited. This was the moment you’d been waiting for for twenty years.
In just minutes you were situated at the edge of the water, just close enough to feel the sea spray as the tide rolled in. You checked the time on your phone.
Just a few seconds to go. You held the flashlight up to focus on the inside of your left wrist, cheeks hurting from grinning so much.
And then it was appearing. Black lines slowly came into view and then suddenly … it was there.
The first words your soulmate would ever say to you.
‘Do you even know who I am, you psycho?’
You blinked.
“Well then,” you muttered to yourself, looking back out to the sea again, but this time with a decidedly not so ecstatic expression. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
***
A YEAR AND A HALF LATER
“Dude, you know you can go out and actually do stuff, right? Not sure how you’re getting ‘inspiration’ by being holed up in my apartment all day.”
Taehyung narrowed his eyes as Jimin searched for his keys. He’d been staying at his best friend’s apartment for the past few weeks after finally calling it quits with the company that had treated him like shit for so long. He'd stayed in his own lavish home for a while, but paparazzi knew where he lived and acted like damn vultures those first few months after the news broke.
Taehyung wanted to actually disappear and go off the grid, and his friendship with Jimin had stayed off the radar for the past few years, so his friend had gladly offered to let him stay at his place until he figured out his next move.
Not that Taehyung had any idea what his next move was. He knew he had to keep making music or he’d go crazy, but he just wasn’t ready to sign his creativity over to someone else again.
“You know I can’t do that,” Taehyung retorted, scratching Jimin’s dog Chim behind the ears as the little mutt lounged on his lap. “I can’t risk being recognized.”
Jimin rolled his eyes, turning to face his friend head on. “They make things called masks, genius.”
“Hey you’re the one who said I could come stay with you as long as I needed to.”
“And I meant it,” Jimin affirmed, checking his pink hair in the mirror by the front door. Being a hairdresser, Jimin did this annoyingly often. “You can. But you’ve got to get out and do something, Tae. Come with me to the salon, or go to the movies, or busk at the subway station. Do something, man.”
“While busking at the dirty subway station does sound appealing,” Taehyung deadpanned, “I’m just … I’m nervous, Jimin. I don’t know how to be … normal anymore.”
Jimin turned back to his friend sympathetically. He didn’t understand Taehyung’s dilemma at all, but he could recognize fear and pain when he saw it. Subconsciously, he rubbed at the thick leather bracelet covering his left wrist.
(Jimin hadn’t met his soulmate yet, but his mark read, ‘Stop right there!’ and he already hated himself for the way he was apparently going to inspire fear in the person he was supposed to love and cherish.)
“Well if it makes you feel any better,” Jimin finally said, making an excited noise as he finally found his keys, “You were never really normal. But,” he held up his finger when Taehyung started to protest childishly, “I think that’s part of your charm. Now put on a face mask and go on a walk with Chim. My house, my rules, go do it.”
“Jiminie, I—”
“Nope! No arguments! There’s a really nice dog park two blocks down! Bye!”
Jimin slipped out the door before Taehyung could say another word.
“Jackass,” Taehyung murmured without any real bite. Chim looked up at him with his adorable big brown eyes. “Not you,” he assured the dog. “Just your dumb owner.”
Chim whined, cocking his head to the side. One of his ears stuck up, while the other flopped down. It was ridiculous how cute the mutt was.
“Ack, fine. You want to go on a walk, Chimmy? Not like I’m exactly stewing in song-writing inspiration now, right?”
Chim barked.
“Gee thanks, bud.”
And that was how Taehyung started his daily walks to the dog park with Chim.
***
“I’m going to murder him,” you seethed.
The shelter's photographer just laughed, not even taking her eye away from her camera as she took shots of the pitbull puppy that had just been brought to the shelter last week.
“You’re not going to murder anyone,” your friend said.
“Oh yes I am. I’ve tried to catch him three times now, but I keep missing him by just minutes!”
“How do you know that?”
“The poop is still warm when I get there.”
“Ew!” Your friend did look away from her camera at that comment, scrunching up her nose. “That’s disgusting, Y/N.”
“Yeah I know!” you retorted, walking over and picking up the puppy, holding him tight to your chest. “There’s signs everywhere in the dog park. ‘Clean up after your dog,’ ‘Please dispose of your dog’s waste here,’ ‘Dog waste bags available at the entrance of the park.’ And yet does this person clean up after their dog? No!”
“How do you know it’s the same person doing it?” your friend asked, letting her camera hang from the strap around her neck as she scratched the top of the puppy’s head.
“I can tell,” you said matter-of-factly. “It’s the same poop pattern.”
Your friend cackled at that, which stirred the puppy in your arms. “That’s so gross.”
“I’ve stepped in it like five times already,” you told her, gritting your teeth. “Everyone around here respects the rule, so whoever has been letting their dog poop in the park and then not clean it up for the past couple weeks is a newbie. And I’m going to track him down and give him a piece of my mind!”
“How do you know it’s a he?” your friend asked, taking the puppy from you and repositioning him in her makeshift photoshoot set once again.
“Oh I just know.”
“Don’t tell me you saw his poop pattern, too?”
“Aish, shut up and take the pictures!”
***
Taehyung hummed under his breath as he led Chim down the street towards the dog park.
Even though Taehyung would never admit it to Jimin, his friend’s suggestion of walking Chim had been really, really good for him. It had helped him to realize that three years of fame and concerts and tours and events and press had left Taehyung with little to no schedule or routine in his life.
And Taehyung liked routine, he was discovering. He liked being able to know or at least have an idea of what the next day held. He liked going on walks and not having to make an event of it, or care what he looked like or what brands of clothes or shoes he was wearing because paparazzi photos would imply that he was promoting them, and so on, and so on.
He liked normalcy. At least small pieces of it.
And he liked Chim. Taehyung and the dog had become the best of friends in the past three weeks of daily walks together, a fact which Jimin was only slightly jealous of.
It was nice. And oddly enough, it was giving Taehyung inspiration for all sorts of new sounds and songs.
For three years Taehyung had gone on expensive retreats to try and find song-writing inspiration (not that his company had ever listened to any of his ideas after the success of his first EP), and now he was finding loads of it just walking his friend’s dog down the street for free.
Such a simple task was giving Taehyung an entirely new perspective. It was his favorite thing to do, which was absolutely mind boggling considering he was a literal millionaire that could do just about anything he wanted.
He liked this change of pace though.
“Ah-ah, no, Chim,” he said as the dog started to tug at his leash. “Come on bud, we go over this every day.”
At the halfway point to the dog park, they passed a local animal shelter. It was close to the road, so Chim always heard dogs barking or saw someone in the parking lot with their animal. He rarely barked himself, but always tugged on his leash to try and get closer.
“Come on, Chimmie, let’s go.”
With a huff, Taehyung did what he usually ended up doing and just reached down and picked up the dog, tucking him under his arm to walk him away from the sight of the shelter.
But as he stood back up, he glanced over to the shelter and froze.
As you stepped out of the building leading a medium sized golden retriever puppy, talking to it softly, Taehyung found himself unable to look away.
You were smiling, talking with the clearly skittish dog in a soothing voice. Your skin seemed to glow as the sun shone down on you and you were objectively stunning, even in plain jeans and a purple tee.
As if sensing that you were being watched, you glanced up from the dog you were working with to look up at Taehyung standing on the sidewalk.
Taehyung stiffened, looking away and walking with Chim down the street once more. It had been an instinct reaction, fearing that he had been recognized.
Then he remembered that he was wearing a mask and felt like an idiot for not looking at you for another moment more.
***
“Hey, hey!”
Your friend jumped as you came flying around the corner, almost dropping her camera in the process.
“You scared me!” she said with a hand on her chest to catch her breath. “What is it? What’s wrong”
“Can you get this sweet guy back into his crate? I have to go catch him!”
“Catch who?” your friend asked, taking the leash of the golden retriever you handed over to her.
“The dog poop guy!” you shouted, voice fading as you took off back out the door. “I’m finally gonna catch the dog poop guy!”
***
“Alright Chim,” Taehyung muttered, voice slightly muffled beneath his mask. “Go ahead, do your business.”
Chim looked up at him with those adorable puppy dog eyes of his.
“Seriously? We go over this everyday. I’m not watching. And there’s no one else even here!” Taehyung gestured around to the empty park. It was a Monday around 10 o’clock in the morning, which meant the park was empty save for the two of them.
“Fine,” he muttered after a few more seconds of Chim staring at him. He leaned down and unclicked Chim's leash since there were no other dogs around, to which Chim yipped excitedly about. “Go ahead bud, the world is your poop yard.”
Chim took off in a run around the fence as Tae sat atop the wooden picnic table and looked around.
It was a beautiful day. The weather was mild enough to wear short sleeves, the sun was shining but not overbearing, and it was a quiet area.
This was the normalcy he had been craving. After years of being on the road and constantly working with no real fulfillment, this was the contentment he had actually been striving for.
He let out a deep breath, leaning back on his palms and looking up at the clouds. He began humming a new melody under his breath, the words to a song that was almost finished just lacking … something.
He managed to hum for just a few more seconds when he heard the gate open.
Taehyung snapped his head up to make sure Chim hadn’t run out, but the person coming in had already closed it behind them.
And it was … you. The girl from the shelter. Except this time you didn’t have the golden retriever with you.
Out of habit, Taehyung lifted a hand to make sure his mask was still in place.
Chim barked excitedly, running to greet the stranger.
“Easy, buddy,” Taehyung called out to the dog as he ran around your legs. You kept walking towards Taehyung, making sure not to step on Chim in the meantime.
Taehyung hopped off of the picnic table and opened his mouth to say hello or … something, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say honestly, he hadn’t spoken to anyone but Jimin in almost a month.
But before he could speak, you beat him to the punch.
“It’s you!”
Taehyung froze as you marched up and pointed in his face.
He’d heard those words from countless crazed fans since his soulmark had leaked. The words that were supposed to fill him with joy at finding his soulmate now filled him with dread.
How the hell had you recognized him with a mask on and his hair a different color than his last paparazzi sighting?
“You are the poop guy!”
Taehyung blinked.
What the hell? he thought to himself. He tried to speak, but you didn't give him the chance.
“For three weeks I’ve been bringing the shelter dogs here to play and do you know how many times I have stepped in your dog’s poop?”
Taehyung opened his mouth.
“Seven times!” you shrieked. “Seven times and now two of my favorite pairs of shoes are ruined because they are cloth and I can’t get rid of the poop smell. Can you read?”
Once again, Taehyung tried to speak.
“There are signs!” you yelled, gesturing around the park. “Three signs as a matter of fact! The park even has bags for you to use! It takes five seconds to clean up after your dog! It’s common courtesy!”
Your voice was as shrieky as ever, and your shoulders heaved as you caught your breath.
“Well?” you asked, throwing your hands up in the air. “Aren’t you going to say anything? An apology will suffice, but I prefer a promise to start being polite and cleaning up after your dog.”
Taehyung swallowed thickly and you tracked the movement. You couldn’t see the majority of his face because he was wearing a mask over his mouth, but he was built well and had cute fluffy brown hair hanging over his forehead.
Doesn’t matter if he’s cute, he’s not following common dog-owner courtesy, you scolded yourself.
Slowly, he reached up and tugged off his mask.
Aw crap, you thought. He’s not just cute, he’s model level hot.
And he was. His facial features were striking, you’d honestly never seen anyone as attractive as him. But you stood your ground, focusing on the fact that he had ruined two pairs of your favorite shoes and made you give four of the shelter dogs a bath because they had rolled around in his dog’s poop. Hot or not, that was unacceptable.
Finally, he spoke (not that you had given him much opportunity to until now).
“Do you even know who I am,” Taehyung asked softly, genuinely curious.
But before he finished speaking, he remembered that you had just yelled at him like a crazy person without even letting him defend himself.
“—you psycho?”
Your jaw dropped as the now annoyingly attractive man leveled up in his own irritation.
You briefly registered in the back of your mind that oh shit, this is my soulmate, but quite frankly your soulmate was being a dick!
“It’s a dog park!” Taehyung shouted. “Dogs poop! How hard is it to look down and see where you’re stepping?”
“I shouldn’t have to look down where I’m stepping!” you shot back. “If all dogs pooped here without their owners cleaning up after them, it would be anarchy!”
“Poop is biodegradable!”
“What?! It takes dog poop like three months to decompose!”
“Well that’s … longer than I thought!” he admitted, still yelling. “It doesn’t matter, you shouldn’t be screaming at strangers!”
“You’re not a stranger, you’re my soulmate!”
Taehyung blinked, mouth slightly agape. You realized your mistake.
“I mean, I-I don’t know who you are,” you muttered. “But you said the words, so — oh and by the way, rude first words to say to your other half!”
You held up your left wrist, showing your soulmate your mark.
‘Do you even know who I am, you psycho?’
Taehyung winced.
After the shouting match, the quiet between the two of you seemed oddly profound.
“Do you … do you actually know who I am though?” he asked quietly.
You raised your eyebrow. “Other than my soulmate and the guy who lets his dog poop freely in a public place? Uh, no, I don’t.”
Taehyung let out a deep breath, laughing softly.
“Good, that’s … good,” he said quietly, his striking eyes looking up at you from beneath his eyelashes. “Sorry about the dog poop.”
“No you’re not.”
“No, I’m really not. If it makes you feel any better, it’s not my dog.”
“That has nothing to do with it!”
“Do you always yell so much?!”
“No I’m usually very pleasant!”
“Well you could’ve fooled me!”
“Well ask me on a date and I’ll prove it to you!”
“Fine, do you want to have dinner tonight?!”
“Yes, there’s a good restaurant next to my apartment we can go to!”
“That sounds great! By the way you’re really pretty, I hope you know that!”
“You’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen!”
“I hope it doesn’t freak you out, but I’m actually a famous musician and my stage name is V!”
“Wait, what?”
You stepped back in shock at his declaration and right into a big, fresh pile of —
“Ack! For fuck’s sake, clean up after your damn dog!”
You wanted to hate him for laughing so hard, but after looking at his boxy smile and the way his dog (okay not his dog, but still) was running around his feet yipping excitedly … you just couldn’t do it.
Your soulmark wasn’t exactly the most flattering, but … you had a feeling the man on the other side of it was going to turn out to be perfect for you.
Even if he did continue to laugh as you scraped the dog poop off the bottom of yet another new pair of shoes.