Chapter Text
The first time Jeongguk saw Park Jimin, he was crying on the staircase after school, unaware that the sophomore, or anyone rather, could see him. He was crying so hard that it almost broke Jeongguk’s heart. The younger didn’t hesitate to rush up to the stranger and wrap an arm around him, not saying a word. The other boy just continued to cry without looking up at all. Jeongguk didn’t know why, but all he wanted to do was take all of the sobbing boy’s pain away. He knew that it probably wouldn’t work, you can only take away someone else’s pain if they are your soulmate, and even then, the pain would go to you instead. However, he seemed really upset, so Jeongguk was willing to try. He tried to remember what his mom had told him when he was young whenever he asked how she was able to just take away his dad’s headache.
-
“Well, Gukkie, when two people are meant to be, they can sort of...trade their pain,” she began, “you know, since they are of the same soul. Didn’t they tell you this in school? I thought it was standard for kids your age.”
“Yeah they told us all that, but they don’t tell us how it works. How will I know what to do? If I touch my soulmate and he’s in pain, will I automatically take it? What if I don’t want to?” Jeongguk wondered.
His mom rolled her eyes, “Of course they would leave that part out for the parents to explain. Alright, let’s do this Gukkie. You won’t know who she is when you first see her, but you’ll know for certain once you first try to take away her pain. Make sure it’s worth it though, if you’re successful, then you’ll get all the pain you took away from her.”
“I know that already,” he whined, “I just wanna know how to do it when the time comes.”
Mrs. Jeon sighed, “You just have to be touching them in some way and want as hard as you can to take their pain away and be fully willing to take it upon yourself. But Jeonggukkie, don’t do this lightly. Sometimes, people don’t show how badly they’re hurting, or they have different pain tolerances. Soulmates have been know to die from the pain that their partner could easily handle. I don’t want that to happen to you, Gukkie.”
Jeongguk nodded eagerly, “I get it. Thanks mom!”
-
Jeongguk rubbed the boy’s arm, repeating in his head that he wanted to take on his pain, no matter how great it was. Suddenly, Jeongguk started to feel a weight in his chest, but he couldn’t focus on the new sensation for long. Did this mean that the crying boy was his soulmate? In his excitement, he tried to take even more from the boy. Slowly, the boy beside him stopped crying and even fell asleep. He felt a tickling behind his eyes and an impending feeling of dread, but he knew it would probably just go away after a good workout. Jeongguk suddenly started to panic a little, but not from his newfound realization. There was a strange boy who he was evidently soulmates with asleep in his arms, and he knew he couldn’t wake him. He awkwardly fished around in his pockets until he found his wallet, being careful to not let him fall. He opened the wallet to find his name and address.
Excitement flowed through him as he read the name, Park Jimin . He was suddenly overwhelmed by the prospect of spending the rest of his life with this boy, so instead of dealing with all of that immediately, he picked Jimin up gently and took him to his car as quickly as he could and drove him home. He didn’t even plan ahead for the awkward conversation that would ensue between him and Jimin’s mother until she answered the door and demanded to know why her son was unconscious in his arms. Quickly, he muttered out an excuse that oh-so-conveniently left out the part that her son was his newly discovered soulmate and hurried home for his much needed workout so he didn’t burst into tears.
-
Jeongguk didn’t know why he made the decision to not tell anyone about his newfound soulmate, but he was determined nonetheless. He tried to push it out of his mind, half hoping that he would never see Park Jimin ever again. He went through his motions of getting ready for school and rushed there with little time to spare. His friend, Taehyung, was waiting for him at his locker and Jeongguk was almost worried that he knew what had happened the previous day.
“Dude, what the fuck? What took you so long? Do you really want to make us both late for Music Theory?” Taehyung scolded with no actual bite to his words.
“Sorry hyung,” Jeongguk muttered, following Taehyung to class. Music Theory was the only class that Jeongguk and Taehyung had together, seeing as Taehyung, being two years older, had already taken all of the rest of the classes that Jeongguk was taking. Luckily for him, Music Theory was also Jeongguk’s favorite class, so he had double the reason for never wanting to be late to school. The day flew by and suddenly, Jeongguk was waiting by Taehyung’s locker so they could meet up for lunch.
To TaeTae-hyung 11:43 a.m.:
bro wtf is taking so long
i’m starving
are you trying to actually kill me now
is this how i die
kim taehyung abandoning me at lunch
From TaeTae-hyung 11:47 a.m.:
woah dude chill
it hasn’t been too long
i was just making a new friend
To TaeTae-hyung 11:48 a.m.:
wow making new friends
am i not enough for you hyung
i just want food
From TaeTae-hyung 11:51 a.m.:
oh right
jsyk
he’s gonna join us
so play nice
To TaeTae-hyung 11:52 a.m.:
what
hyung
when am i ever not nice
From TaeTae-hyung 11:54 a.m.:
jeongguk
it took me five months before you let me eat with you
b/c you thought i was weird
so hurry up and pretend to be nice
we’ll be there in a sec
To TaeTae-hyung 11:55 a.m.:
fuck you
you are weird
wait
hyung
what’s his name??
While rolling his eyes at his annoying hyung, he spotted him at the end of the hallway and waved him over. He felt his stomach grumble in protest as Taehyung was still taking too long to get to him. He quickly regretted his decision to hurry Taehyung as he saw who was walking with him and silently prayed to every possible god that that wasn’t who Taehyung had just befriended. Jeongguk was forced to accept his fate the closer they got. Of course, his best friend had to choose the absolute worst person for Jeongguk to have to be around right now.
Park fucking Jimin.