Work Text:
“Dude, you need to confess to them already.”
“I told you I can’t, Sejun!”
“And why can’t you?”
“They don’t feel the same way!”
“How would you know if you don’t tell them hmm? Even if they do not feel the same way, you still need to tell them eventually! They need to know sooner or later!”
“Shut up Sejun, I just can’t, okay? I don’t want to jeopardise our friendship and make things awkward among us. And they have been in a relationship together for over two years now too, I can’t just push my way in especially when they don’t feel the same way!”
“You’re being ridiculous. You of all people knows that they would never push you away just because you like them both and they maybe won’t too! You’re fated with them too, they would less likely want to push you away.”
“…”
Sejun’s right. They’re the sweetest people they know and they would never break their friendship just because they don’t feel the same way and especially with him being part of their fate, it’s less likely they would ever think of cutting off ties with him. Despite that, he just couldn’t tell them because he was still scared. An irrational part of him is still scared that if he does confess his feelings and a truth he never told them, they would never call him friend ever again.
———
Chan was born with a special ability. The ability to see who was fated to whom by the red strings of fate tied around their left ring finger. It was something he never told anyone about it except for his parents and Sejun, his childhood best friend, and they were the only people who would believe him too and he would never tell that to anybody else. Until he met his soulmates.
Chan first met Seungwoo and Seungsik when he just started high school. Seungwoo was in the year above him, so he hadn’t had a chance to get to know him yet. Seungsik however, was in his class and his assigned seat mate too and he was also the one who initiated a conversation with Chan.
They immediately clicked and wanting to know each other better, they decided to have lunch together. They went to their school’s rooftop to have lunch and there was where they met Seungwoo. The rooftop was where Seungwoo likes to hang around to avoid people as most wouldn’t dare to go up there because of some school legend about a ghost haunting it, so he was rather surprised to see them both there. It was Seungsik who had first approached Seungwoo too, asking him if he would like to have lunch with them and despite his better judgement to not eat with strangers, Seungwoo agreed to, and that was the start of their friendship.
Chan at that moment, could not believe his eyes! He knew from the beginning he would have two soulmates when his finger showed two strings wrapped around it but he did not expect to find either of them in high school, let alone both at the same time on his first day of school. He did not tell them about it however as it was their first day knowing each other and it was also rather unbelievable to believe too. He was not going to tell them about it at all lest it causes him to lose his friends and he did not tell them about his little secret until Seungwoo was about to graduate.
A year into their friendship, Seungwoo and Seungsik started to fell for each other. With constant blatant flirting in front of each other to getting jealous over each other whenever they are acting close with others, it was obvious to everyone and their pets that they have a thing for it. All except for themselves. They would always whine to Chan about the other and say how they would not reciprocate their feelings back and poor, poor Chan had to endure that for most of the year until it was time for Seungwoo to take his college entrance exams where he finally blurted out his secret.
Seungsik and Chan were studying for their own final exams and they decided to study together in Chan’s room. Taking a break, Seungsik thought it would be a good time to whine to Chan about Seungwoo again.
“Chan, Seungwoo hyung is going to leave us soon and he will find a pretty girlfriend when he attends college and get married and have kids!” Seungsik cried out, dramatically draping one arm over his eyes while lying on Chan’s bed.
“He’s only going to college, not going off to war! And aren’t you thinking way too far ahead? Seriously, if you like him this much, why won’t you confess to him already?” Chan rolled his eyes at Seungsik, rolling the chair he was on towards him, flicking Seungsik on the forehead.
“Hey! That hurts! And no! He doesn’t like me the same way!”
“How many times must I tell you that the man is madly in love with you? It’s so obvious to everyone he likes you back. Even our teachers know about you two!”
“He does not! There is no way he would!”
Chan groaned, smacking a hand onto his face, “Ugh, why are you always being so stubborn? Must I knock you on the head with leek stalks to knock in the fact he likes you back!” Desperate to convince Seungsik that Seungwoo likes him back and frustrated with being the main witness to their antics, he blurted out, “Listen to me, he does like you and both of you are fated soulmates too!”
They both froze at that, Seungsik not believing what he just heard and Chan at how he was about to reveal his secret to his best friend. “What do you mean, soulmates? Don’t joke about this Heo Chan, this is not funny. Do not play with my feelings.” Seungsik frowned, getting upset that Chan was telling jokes even at this moment.
Although he hadn’t want to, he decided to tell Seungsik the secret he always hold. “I have no reason to lie or joke about this, okay? It is true you two are fated soulmates and you both are meant to be together! I know this because I can see it!”
“See it?”
“I have a secret I never told anyone except for my parents and my childhood best friend Sejun. You do know about the red strings of fate story yes? Well, my secret is that I can see the red strings of fate and yours and Seungwoo are connected together!” Chan finally blurted out the secret he had kept from his best friends, feeling a weight lifting off his chest.
“I- wow” Seungsik gaped at him, trying to process what he had just heard.
“I know. I know it is kinda hard to believe, which was why I choose not to tell either of you or just anyone for that matter.”
“I- I just. No, I do believe you.”
“Wait, what? You do?” Chan asked, surprised at how quick Seungsik was already believing him for it.
“I’m not gonna lie, it is rather unbelievable, sorry about that. But I guess, since it is such a big secret to you that you wouldn’t want to tell either of us, and while still rather absurd, I don’t see why I shouldn’t believe you.”
Chan gaped at Seungsik, not believing how easily he had believed him about his secret. “Wait. WHAT THE FUCK?”
“What? What did I say?”
“WHAT THE FUCK KANG SEUNGSIK? THAT ONLY TOOK YOU A SECOND TO BELIEVE BUT SOMETHING I HAVE BEEN TELLING YOU FOR HALF A YEAR, AKA SEUNGWOO HYUNG LIKING YOU BACK, YOU WON’T BELIEVE ME FOR IT?!” Chan screamed at Seungsik.
“I TOLD YOU, HE DOESN’T LIKE ME BACK! AS MUCH AS I WOULD BELIEVE YOU ABOUT YOUR SECRET, IT ALSO DOESN’T NECESSARILY MEANS HE WOULD LIKE ME BACK TOO!” Seungsik screamed back, flinging a pillow at Chan’s face.
“...Maybe you’re right but I still think you should just confess to Seungwoo hyung, even if you still think he doesn’t like you back. Isn’t it better to just get it off your chest already?”
“…Fine! I’ll do it! But when he rejects me, you’re buying me food to make up for my heart break!”
“Ya ya, whatever.” Chan pulled a face at Seungsik but still, he agreed. But I don’t need to, he thought, gleeful he didn’t have to go through that anymore. However, it also made his heart ache.
With what he had told Seungsik, he decided to confess his secret to Seungwoo too, few days after his study session with Seungsik. Seungwoo, like Seungsik, had believed him surprisingly well and still not believe him about the other liking him back too. He decided to confess nonetheless after Chan told him the same thing he had told Seungsik too. With that, both had decided to confess on the day of Seungwoo’s graduation ceremony.
On the day of the ceremony, Chan watched Seungsik approaching Seungwoo after the ceremony, asking to talk to him privately, and they walked away to somewhere more secluded. Chan knew they had finally gotten together as after a while, they came back holding hands with big cheesy smiles on their faces despite the tears in their eyes. Jumping into his arms, Seungsik whispered a small “Thank you” in Chan’s ear. Chan jokingly whined to them about paying him back for having to go through them crying over each other for a year before congratulating them on their relationship and Seungwoo for graduating high school. Chan decided to leave them alone, walking away proud he finally told his best friends his secret and happy he got his friends together too, but also with his heart heavy with jealously, envy and guilt.
———
Chan has another secret. He is in love with Seungwoo and Seungsik. Ever since he got to know them, Chan had taken a liking to them both and he quickly fell in love with his fated soulmates. However, he never told either of them about his feelings, with the two constantly flirting with each other and only each other, never showing such interest in Chan too. He fell in love with his soulmates, his best friends who are only in love with each other, so not wanting to go through a double heart break and getting in the way of the older two, he decided to keep his feelings in and lock them away in his heart.
So he had his feelings locked up in his heart and he locked them all the way to his own graduation ceremony and to college where he and Seungsik currently are attending the same university as Seungwoo. The only person he ever told about his feelings was to his childhood best friend, Sejun. Chan and Sejun have been friends since they were young kids and even though they ended up going to different high schools, they were still close as ever as when they were younger. Now attending the same school, they had been hanging out a lot again and Chan had even introduced Sejun to Seungwoo and Seungsik. And ever since they started school, Chan had been going over to sulk over his other two best friends and his feelings all the way to the beginning of their second year.
Chan has been living with Seungwoo and Seungsik in the same apartment as Seungwoo had asked them both if they wanted when they graduated from high school, so they could share rent and currently the couple are out on a date, so Chan had Sejun over. Just as always, he was whining to Sejun about the older two again. Annoyed, Sejun said, “Dude, you need to confess to them already.” Which brings us back to where we left off from in the beginning.
Confessing was never something he thought of doing. All he could think of was rejection and heart break and he did not want to go through any part of it. The thought of it alone already broke his heart, he would not be able to actually go through it.
“No matter what you say, Sejun, I won’t confess to Woo hyung and Sik. They don’t need any burden to their relationship.”
“Ugh, you’re just as stubborn as how you described them to be, it’s a no wonder why the three of you are fated together. Suit yourself and suffer I guess, I don’t care.” Sejun huffed at Chan,
annoyed at his stubbornness.
———
For some reason, after he hanged out with Sejun that day, Seungwoo and Seungsik had been acting really weirdly with Chan. One example was that one day when he was home alone after his last class, he was cutting up some fruits when suddenly, a pair of strong arms wrapped around his body, startling him.
“Hey baby, what are you doing?” The owner of the arms whispered in his ears.
“Woo hyung? You’re back already? Where’s Seungsik?” Chan turned his head to look at the person and gasped when he realised who it was.
“Mmm, he went out with a couple friends after his last class, so he won’t be back any time soon. So, it will be just us two for a while.” Seungwoo nuzzled into Chan’s neck.
“Oh, oh I see.” Chan turned red from the sudden act of affection and he quickly turned back to his fruits, so that Seungwoo wouldn’t notice and question his red face. Seungwoo let go of Chan, so he could properly cut his fruits finish, leaning against the kitchen table to look at Chan.
When he was done cutting and placing them in a bowl, he was suddenly lifted up into the air by Seungwoo. “HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
“Just bringing you out to the living room. Isn’t that where you’re heading towards?” Seungwoo said nonchalantly, carrying Chan out and sat him down on the couch. Chan turned even redder at that, mumbling a “Thank you.”
Seungwoo latched himself onto Chan, snuggling into his arms, “Let’s watch a movie, baby.”
“Okay.” They started a movie they had never watch before and Seungwoo snuggled closer to Chan and kissed Chan’s neck softly, making him froze and his heart pound loudly against his chest.
Seungsik had came home halfway through the movie and he joined them, clinging onto Chan’s other side, and kissing him all over his face, causing Chan to just blush more and his heart pound harder.
-
That had continued for months since. The non stop kissing, teasing and bounds of pet names and affections making him blush so much and Chan was getting really confused and overwhelmed by it.
One day when he was hanging out with Sejun at his apartment again, he told Sejun about it.
“They’re confusing me so much with how they had been acting lately. They’ve always been really touchy and affectionate but they’re doing it a lot more, like how they would with each other.” Chan stared at his ceiling while lying on his bed, thinking back to how the couple had been acting with him lately.
“Hmm, sounds to me they like you too.” Sejun commented, but he knew what Chan would say next.
“God damn it Sejun, no they don’t!” Chan huffed at Sejun, “Ugh, I wish they would stop doing whatever they are doing right now! It has been messing with my head and heart so much, I don’t know what to do right now.” Chan turned around onto his stomach, hitting his bed with his fists and kicking his feet like a little child would.
“If you won’t confess and get yourself your men, why not go on a blind date with someone else to take your mind off them already? It’s how I met my darling baby Subin too. Also, I swear if I have to hear you complain about, oh how much you want them and how much you like them but yet you won’t confess to them, I WILL HIT YOU.” Sejun retorted. Almost two years of his best friend whining to him about his soulmates was wearing his patience thin.
“Oi! Hmph! Fine, fine, just one date.” Chan hit Sejun with his pillow, already regretting to it.
—-
Now, on the day when they were hanging out and another day of Sejun telling Chan to confess, unbeknownst to the both of them, the couple had already returned home and was just standing outside Chan’s room where they were in, listening on to their current conversation. They had heard some commotions from Chan’s room and wanted to ask what was going on until they both heard their names.
“…I won’t confess to Woo hyung and Sik.” Confess?
“…the three of you are fated together.” Fated together?
Seungwoo dragged Seungsik back into their own room to avoid getting noticed by the other two. He stared at Seungsik with wide eyes, who stared back at him, when the words finally clicked in his head. “Sik… Chan’s our soulmate… And he likes us back too…”
Wait. Too? They like Chan too? Well, you see, Seungwoo and Seungsik had always liked Chan back too but they both held back because they had thought he liked another fellow schoolmate then and he had never shown any obvious signs that he was in interested in either of them too. (Even if he did, would they even notice with how oblivious they were to each other’s feelings before.) However, now they know of Chan’s real feelings, they decided to devise a plan to show that they return his feelings too.
They decided to subtly hint to Chan first, to not get him overwhelmed. They did so by being more affectionate to him, be a bit more touchy and using more pet names with him. However, it seemed it had not work because they had overheard Chan and Sejun again about the blind date. They were mad that Sejun had suggested such a thing but they were even more heart broken when Chan agreed to it. They had wanted to go in and confess it out to him already but they held back, wanting to let Chan to do, in case he did want to move on already.
———
His blind date was just awful. Even before they introduced themselves to the other, the minute he saw Chan, his date commented on how cheap his outfit looked and how tacky his hairstyle was. After introductions and ordering their food at the restaurant their date was set up at, all his date did was talk and brag about himself and he also had stolen food off Chan’s plate without asking. Why was Sejun even friends with him?
As they were about to leave the restaurant, his blind date accidentally hit another customer in his stomach. Instead of apologising to the other person, his date retorted, “Watch where you’re going, chub!”
“What did just you call me, punk?!”
“I called you a chub! Chubby! Fat! Not surprising that you wouldn’t know. With all that fat in you, your brain must’ve been clogged in that fat head of yours too!” He sneered at the other. The other’s face turned purple and he landed a punch onto Chan’s date, causing a fight to break out among them. A few other customers whilst trying to break them apart, got hurt and started fighting too.
Scared, Chan tried to crawl away from them, hiding under one of the tables to call Sejun to come rescue him. “Sejun, Sejun, please come save me. There’s a fight going on and I’m too scared to leave.”
“Chanie? What fight? Where are you right now?”
“Woo hyung? Help me hyung, please.” Chan cried out. He had accidentally called Seungwoo instead of Sejun, but as he was desperate to leave, he told him where he was. “Please come quick! A fight broke out in the restaurant I’m at right now and they’ve blocked the entrance and I’m too scared to leave.”
“Stay put where you are right now, okay? Send me the location and I’ll be there soon.” Seungwoo hanged up the phone, and quickly went to put on his shoes so he could go fetch Chan.
“Where are you going?” Seungsik poked his head out of the kitchen after hearing Seungwoo coming out of the room and putting on his shoes.
“I’m fetching Chan from where his blind date is currently.” Seeing Seungsik getting worried, Seungwoo quickly said, “Don’t worry, okay? Just stay put and I’ll explain to you when we come home.” Seungwoo kissed Seungsik on the cheek before leaving to fetch Chan.
At the restaurant, the fight was still going on strong and Chan was getting even more afraid. He was still hiding under the table and had his eyes closed when he heard new voices. However, in the commotions, he couldn’t hear clearly what they were saying before everything died down. Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders and he was about to punch that person until he turned and saw that it was his Seungwoo hyung.
“Seungwoo hyung, you’re here. Oh thank god, you’re here.” Chan threw himself at Seungwoo, the worry and fear leaving him, relief replacing them.
“Come on, baby, let’s go home. Called the police on my way here and they’ve arrested everybody involved in the fight, so you don’t have to worry about them anymore.” Seungwoo gently pulled Chan out from under the table before taking him to his car and driving him home.
When they entered their apartment, Seungsik ran up to them, hugging Chan tightly. “Oh, thank goodness you’re back safely.” Seungwoo had told him what happened on the way home, causing him to be very worried, so seeing them back home safely, he breathed out a sigh of relief.
He dragged them both to the couch, sitting them down, before saying, “I wish you hadn’t went on that date before. You could’ve gotten hurt!”
“Heh, sorry Sik, just desperate for love,” He grinned cheekily at him, “And it wasn’t like I knew that would happen! Also, how did you know I was on a date? I know I didn’t tell either of yoy where I was going.”
Seungsik gulped, not realising what he had said. He exchanged a look with Seungwoo, before saying, “Well, we heard you say you would be going on a blind date.”
“Heard me? When?”
“That day you were hanging out with Sejun, when you decided to take up on Sejun’s idea for going on a blind date.”
Chan’s eyes widened at that, realising what that might mean. “Wait, did you hear everything we said?”
“Everything, my dear. And yes, we know.” The older two smiled at Chan, happy to be able to confess to Chan soon. “We know that you’re our soulmate, our fated third. And we like you too.”
Chan gasped, not believing what he was hearing right then. “You knew about that too... Wait. Too? You like me too?”
“We’re sorry for eavesdropping but we had heard everything, even before the day you planned your blind date and yes, we like you too. Romantically, not just as friends. We’ve been in love with you since high school.”
“High school? In love? Why didn’t I know about this?” Chan looked at them confused and a bit overwhelmed from all that were being revealed to him. Getting embarrassed, Seungsik rubbed his neck, “Well, we thought you liked sweet little Byungchan from class 1-3 when we were in our second year. If we had known about your true feelings, we would’ve ask you out by now. We also had been trying to show how we felt about you the past few months but to no avail it seems.”
“Byungchan was dating Hanse then! And I was never interested in him, only in you two!” Chan exclaimed, “And so that was why you two were acting so weirdly too. Gods, we’re idiots.”
“So we are, and now we know too. Seungwoo and Seungsik held Chan’s hands, softly caressing the back of them and looked at him lovingly, before Seungwoo said, “We now know about how you are our third soulmate and also about our feelings for each other. Just so you know, even if we don’t like you romantically, you’re still our best friend and our soulmate, we would never break our friendship with you over that. But we would like to ask if, you would like to be our boyfriend?”
“Oh gods, is this for real?” Chan looked back and forth at them, mouth agape, before launching himself on the older two, hugging them tightly, saying, “YES! FUCK, YES, I’LL BE YOUR BOYFRIEND!”
Chan got off them, but Seungwoo pulled Him towards him, kissing him on the lips, their lips fitting together like two jigsaw puzzle pieces. Seungsik pulled Seungwoo off Chan, making the oldest glare at him playfully. Giggling, he ignored him and placed a soft peck on Chan’s lips, before deepening it, giving him a proper kiss before pulling off from Chan. The three hugged together tightly, big smiles on their faces, happy that they finally got their happily ever after.