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“Your soulmate might be a boy, a girl, older than you, younger than you, but they are meant for you—a special person perfectly matched to you.”
Or that’s at least how Asahi’s mother had worded it, her young son having come to her in a fit of tears, the five-year-old clutching his arm as he sniffled, chubby cheeks flushed and nose runny.
The searing pain in his arm gradually fading into nothing more than a dull ache as she explained this to him, a certain fondness to her voice as she did so, the crow’s feet etched around her eyes crinkling, her lips quirked upwards in a small but genuine smile.
But since Asahi’s only a mere five-year-old, he’s left with more confusion rather than the understanding that he so desperately craved. Simply nodding as he absentmindedly rubbed at where the pain used to be, or rather where his soulmate’s pain was currently still residing. A shiver running down his spine when he realizes this, because, well, how could it not? Sure, Asahi may be young, but even he is able to grasp that such a concept is equally both parts terrifying and exciting.
Though in retrospect, he supposes that’s how it was always meant to be, because after all, soulmates are the physical embodiment of true love—terrifying and exciting and wholly yours.
---
Sometimes Asahi’s grateful that the others don’t ask him about his soulmate, but sometimes doesn’t always mean always.
Because other times he does want to gush about the other who’s owned his heart since he was nothing more than a twinkle in his mother’s eye.
But since asking to be listened to has never been one of Asahi’s strong suits, he doesn’t go to the others, instead letting them come to him no matter how conveniently inconvenient the time or place might be-
The blonde frowning when a sudden knock pulls him from his thoughts, muttering something about jinxing himself as he goes to open his door, though not before casting a wary glance back at his alarm clock, and he groans, but still allows Haruto into his room regardless. Who, much to Asahi’s surprise, sniffles quietly, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.
“Ruto?” Asahi being sure to keep his voice at a low whisper, as moments like these were ones of incredible vulnerability on the younger boy's behalf, the bitter aftertaste of worry fresh on the older’s tongue. “You okay?” Asking the question even though they both know that he’s anything but that, and Haruto just makes a strangled sort of noise in the back of his throat in response.
And Asahi frowns, running a hand through his hair as he contemplates what to say next, but the words that normally come so easy to him are nowhere to be found. “Do you want to-”
“Jeongwoo’s my soulmate.” Haruto finally voices, interrupting Asahi in the process, “He’s my soulmate hyung.”
“Oh,” And Asahi won’t lie, it’s not like he didn’t see that coming, but what he didn’t expect was for Haruto to realize this so soon. Because, well, he’s Haruto. Emotionally constipated Watanabe Haruto.
“Isn’t that,” Haruto pauses, blinking rapidly as to not let his tears fall, “Isn’t that weird?”
“Weird?” Asahi presses his lips together, not quite liking what Haruto was alluding to. “Why would that be weird?”
“Because...well, because he’s Jeongwoo!” Haruto’s eyes going wide when he says this, slapping a hand over his mouth as he nervously looks around the room, and Asahi feels a pang of sympathy for the boy because it’s clear that this revelation terrifies him more than it excites him.
“And?” Dragging Haruto over to his bunk, “He’s your soulmate Ruto, even if he is the Park Jeongwoo.” The tension in the room lifting as Haruto manages a small laugh, leaning his head on Asahi’s shoulder, who for once actually lets him. “And for what it’s worth, I think we all kinda knew it was you.”
“Huh?” Asahi just barely resisting an eye roll at this prime example of why the two 04’ liners were unironically destined for each other, “You guys knew?”
Asahi nods, “You know how sunflowers always follow the sun? Well, Jeongwoo’s a sunflower and you’re his sun.”
(Haruto had blushed then, but Asahi would later come to find out that Jeongwoo’s soulmate tattoo just so happened to be none other than the Japanese kanji for “sun” which was inked just below his ribcage in handwriting that so obviously belonged to Haruto.)
---
“Hey, soulmate,” Jihoon calls out from where he’s helping Hyunsuk prepare snacks for their weekly movie night, “Get off your lazy ass and come and help me!” Asahi snorting as Junkyu whined childishly, cuddling up closer to a half-asleep Doyoung in what Asahi suspects is an attempt to piss his soulmate off further. But even if that’s not what Junkyu intended to do, it still works like a charm, as Jihoon comes storming over in a huff, his cheeks puffed out, arms crossed over his chest until he yanks Junkyu up.
“You big meanie!” Junkyu cries, ripping his arm away from Jihoon’s grasp as though he’d been burned, “You know that I just wasted a good hour scrubbing them off!” And Doyoung just sighs, deciding that Asahi’s his next best bet at a cuddle buddy, latching onto him despite the blonde’s protests for otherwise.
“And? That sounds like a you problem if you ask me.” The Japanese boy able to perfectly envision Jihoon’s smug smirk and Junkyu’s flabbergasted look of shock without even looking, as pretty much everyone was accustomed to their antics by now.
“Park Jihoon!”
“Just how annoyingly in love can they be?” Asahi thinks with a yawn, his eyelids slowly beginning to droop all thanks to the human heater (Doyoung) currently clinging to him, the sounds of the two’s bickering gradually fading into nothing more than background noise when Hyunsuk laughs his hyena laugh, pulling Asahi from what could have been the depths of sleep had his leader just simply not.
“Not trying to judge, but I still don’t see why you guys try to hide whatever your soulmate deal is,” Jihoon hiding his hands behind his back upon hearing Hyunsuk’s words, even though both soulmates knew that they had already seen the splatterings of color that painted both Jihoon’s palms and Junkyu’s wrist. “Because you do know that we’ve seen them, right?”
“Yeah, we know,” Junkyu answers after a beat or two of silence, “It’s just,” He casts a nervous glance at Jihoon, “It’s just that we’re us.”
“Which matters because?” Doyoung says, unintentionally (or maybe intentionally, Asahi wouldn’t know) sassy, “You can still be you even if you are grossly in love with each other while you’re at it.”
“Why you little shit-”
“He’s right you know,” Asahi interrupts before Doyoung faces his untimely demise at the hands of his hyung, “We don’t view you guys any differently just because you’re soulmates.” If anything Asahi envied what the two older boys had, but then again who wouldn’t? They completed each other perfectly after all, something that probably sent Zeus rolling atop Mount Olympus when he found out that the two chaotic halves of one whole had reunited with one another.
“Really?”
“Really.” Hyunsuk says with a nod, “Now kiss and make up so that we can start movie night.”
(Lilac. Junkyu’s color on Jihoon’s skin is lilac, the pale purple blooming just like the flower for which it was named every time that the two soulmates touched. Whether it be the simplistic brushing of their pinky fingers or something much more intimate, something that's meant only for their eyes to see. Either way, lilacs bloomed on Jihoon...but if Junkyu truly was Jihoon’s soulmate, then why does Asahi occasionally spot a lone daffodil among the sea of lilacs?)
---
Kanemoto Yoshinori is an anomaly.
Because for the past twenty years he’s never shown any indication of having a soulmate, which hurt yes, but what could Yoshi do about that? Yeah, nothing.
Or rather he was an anomaly, past tense.
“Asahi!” Yoshi bursting into Asahi’s room with a smile so wide that it makes his cheeks hurt, but he doesn’t care, he has a soulmate! He, Kanemoto Yoshinori, the boy who’d lived his entire life in the shadow of a fate comparable to death itself suddenly had been given a second chance at love. “Look!” The older boy rolling up his sleeve to display the words scrawled across what was once his unmarked wrist, Asahi’s eyes widening for a fraction of a millisecond before he too breaks into a smile, genuinely happy for his hyung, as it was Yoshi of all people who deserved that special kind of love that only a soulmate could offer.
“I love you.” Is what Yoshi’s mark says, which Asahi finds aptly fitting because his hyung just tends to have that sort of effect on people, so it’s really no surprise that his soulmate’s first words to him would be as such.
“Cute,” Asahi replies, ignoring the throbbing pain in his lower abdomen that happened like clockwork as he watched Yoshi turn red, his usual shyness returning as he did so. “It’s cute hyung.”
Yoshi hums, “Yeah, but it’s so,” He pauses, nervously licking his lips, “So direct.” The “and that terrifies me” still heard even without the use of his voice, the rapper’s gaze downcast as he fiddled with his sweater sleeve.
“Okay?” Asahi asks with a tinge of annoyance, jealous that Yoshi’s soulmate would undoubtedly be an easier find than his own, who so far only proved good for providing him with monthly scheduled aches and pains. “They’re obviously going to love you hyung, I think that they’ve already made that quite clear.”
“Yes, but that still doesn’t make me any less scared,” Brushing his fingertips over the mark as he shoots the younger a wry smile, “I just...I just don’t know.”
“And that’s perfectly okay hyung,” Asahi’s envy leaving just as quickly as it’d come, “Even I’m scared to meet my soulmate hyung, and I’ve been bonded to them since birth—so I can’t even begin to imagine how you must feel.”
“Like, don’t get me wrong, I promise you that I’m excited to finally have my other half,” Looking down at his wrist to read the words resting there for the umpteenth time that day, “It’s just that I’m so scared that I’ll somehow lose them before I’ll even have the chance to meet them.”
“You won’t.” The words slipping past Asahi’s lips without so much as a second thought, “Trust me, there’s no way your soulmate will want to miss out on loving someone like you.”
---
“Did you know?” Asahi murmurs, Jaehyuk’s arms wrapped around his waist as they spooned, the taller boy’s warm puffs of breath tickling at the back of his neck.
“No,” Jaehyuk says, his voice soft, “I didn’t.” And even though Asahi can’t see his soulmate’s face, he knows that Jaehyuk’s blushing, heart fluttering like the lovestruck teenager that he is.
It’s almost laughable how Asahi didn’t realize that Jaehyuk was his soulmate despite knowing him like the back of his hand, though that’s love for you he supposes.
“Did you?”
“Not in the slightest,” Asahi answers after a moment’s hesitation, debating if now was the appropriate time to bring that up, before ultimately deciding that no, it wasn’t. Not that it mattered though, it wasn’t like they didn’t have the rest of their lives to do so.
And Jaehyuk laughs, a sound so sweet and soft that Asahi wishes he could catch it in a bottle and hold onto it for forever and a day.
I’m so glad that it's you.