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“You’re nervous.”
“I’m not.”
“It’s okay to be nervous,” Mark says. His voice is steady and reassuring if a little sleepy.
“Sorry if I woke you,” Donghyuck says, avoiding Mark’s earlier implications to curl closer to his boyfriend. “I was just trying to check the time.”
The bed in Mark’s room isn’t really meant for two people, the company is unwilling to pay for beds that might promote the sort of activities that you would want room for. But they’ve made it work for that before, in comparison this is nothing, could be completely platonic bed-sharing were it not for the fact that they’ve been dating for years. Were it not for the very reason why Donghyuck had crawled into Mark’s bed hours before unwilling to sleep on his own on what might be the most important night of his life.
As a kid, it had been an abstract concept, a distant birthday that would come and pass, and would reveal to him the most important person in his life yet to come.
The moment the name of his soulmate appeared on his arm was meant to be one that he looked forward to with hopeful anticipation.
But now… Donghyuck already knows who the most important person in his life is.
It’s the person he’s currently sharing a twin bed with.
Whether or not the universe is about to agree with him was yet to be seen.
The relief that Donghyuck had felt last year when Mark’s birthday had come to pass without a soulmate mark appearing has long since faded into nervousness the closer they got to his own birthday. The fact that Mark is able to sleep easily and isn’t restless with nervousness over this is a miracle in itself.
“We’ve still got a few hours left,” Mark says, turning on his phone screen, a photo of the two of them together lighting up the darkness of Mark’s room for a brief moment as he checks the time. “You should try and sleep.”
“I can’t,” Donghyuck admits, resting his head against Mark’s shoulder.
Normally Mark’s not the cuddly type, something Donghyuck has long since accepted will be a point of disagreement in their relationship, but he’s made an exception tonight. More physically affectionate than ever before, as if trying to cuddle all of the nervousness out of him.
It’s only partly working.
“Let’s say I am nervous,” Donghyuck says, cautiously, “I’m not saying, I am but like hypothetically, if I was…”
“Hypothetically, that’s a big work, Hyuck.”
Donghyuck shoves at Mark lightly, “I’m serious, I mean, what if you’re not my soulmate?”
“Impossible,” Mark says, without any hint of hesitation.
Maybe that’s why Mark’s been able to sleep so easily, unable to or unwilling to consider a universe in which they aren’t meant for each other.
“It’s not impossible,” Donghyuck insists. “I read this article the other day about this couple that was dating since they were in middle school and then they suddenly found out that they weren’t soulmates and everything changed and what if… What if everything changes?”
“Well, since we’re speaking hypothetically,” Mark says, after a moment’s pause. “I guess if that's what you wanted I would love and support you and help you find your soulmate so that the two of you could be happy together.” Mark punctuates his words by pressing a kiss to Donghyuck’s cheek. “But that won’t happen, because we’re soulmates.”
Donghyuck sighs softly, “No, no, you’re supposed to say that you’ll fight for me, that you’d duel my hypothetical soulmate to the death to win me back.”
“Hyuck, I’m really bad at fighting,” Mark replies. “What if this hypothetical person is big and buff and goes to the gym every day like Johnny-hyung?”
“You think my soulmate could be Johnny-hyung?”
“God no,” Mark says, laughing. “Could you even imagine?”
“I don’t know,” Donghyuck muses, his brain latching onto the idea. “We’ve been roommates forever, that’s soulmate material right there. What if you had to fight Johnny-hyung? You’d do it right for me?”
Mark presses another kiss to his cheek, and then closer right next to the edge of his lips, and, “I’d fight the whole universe for you, Hyuck, but I won’t have to, you know why?”
“Why?”
“Because we’re soulmates,” Mark says.
“I just... How can you be so sure?”
It’s hard to see Mark in the dark, but he feels when Mark shift to sit up and follows in turn. The moonlight coming in through Mark’s curtains cast shadows over their faces, but Donghyuck can’t miss the sincerity in his gaze. Finally seeming to take this more seriously for a moment.
“I know you’re worried, but it’s never felt like a question to me,” Mark admits. “Ever since we were kids it was always you and me, Donghyuck and Mark, and then Mark and Haechan, even when we couldn’t stand the fact that we were always paired together. Even when you made me cry and wish I could leave all this behind and go home, I couldn’t do it, couldn’t fathom my life without you in it,” Mark says. “And sure it took us a few years to figure out that all that pent-up aggression was actually something else entirely, but we did.”
“Once someone stopped ignoring his feelings,” Donghyuck mutters under his breath pointedly.
Mark smiles sheepishly at that. “You know, for me, it’s not a question of if we’re soulmates, because we are, it’s just a question of when the universe is going to confirm what we both already know.”
Donghyuck’s eyes dart to the clock, “Soon, I guess, I figured sometime after midnight, but it’s been a while now and…”
“4:06.”
“What?”
“I called you mom,” Mark confessions, “To ask her what time you were born, you know, just so we could be ready. I even set an alarm and everything in case we managed to get some sleep.”
Somehow at the admission of that, all the nervousness, Donghyuck had been feeling all night, and all day, and to be honest for the last few days if not weeks leading up to his birthday, slips away for a brief moment.
He looks at Mark and everything clicks into place.
As if the whole universe is agreeing with them.
Donghyuck moves to kiss Mark, a sleepy sort of kiss because it’s late and he’s spent too much time worrying about everything single possible alternative of what could happen today. Mark kisses back, in turn, hand gentle and reassuring as he runs his fingers through Donghyuck’s hair.
He loses himself in those kisses.
Soft and gentle.
They move back under the blankets after a moment, legs tangled together, bodies pressed too closely to really be comfortable. Mark’s fingers lace with his, holding Donghyuck steady and sure, before kissing him again.
Kissing him over and over again, until all of his worries slip away, long forgotten.
Until somewhere between kissing Mark the sound of an alarm goes off, and Donghyuck arm burns from where it’s pressed between their bodies.
He doesn’t need to watch Mark turn off his phone’s alarm to know what time it is.
He’d worn short sleeves into bed, to combat Mark’s body heat, he regrets that now as he slams his hand down over the part of his arm that had burned. Hiding his soulmate mark from view, unwilling to see whether this was the happiest or saddest birthday of his life.
“I’m nervous,” Donghyuck admits freely now.
“It’s okay to be nervous,” Mark reassures him once more.
“Promise me,” Donghyuck says, “That you’ll still love me, even if we aren’t soulmates, and that we’ll find a way to make this work.”
“I promise,” Mark replies, easily.
“Okay, then,” Donghyuck takes a deep breath and lifts up his hand.
He gasps seeing the name.
Even though it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
It’s Mark’s name, there written on his arm, for the entire world to see.
“I - Did, did you,” Donghyuck asks, unable to find the right words to say what he means,
But Mark knows what Donghyuck can’t manage.
Of course, he does they’re soulmates .
He watches as Mark rolls up the sleeve of his sweatshirt, to reveal the characters of Donghukc’s name there clear as day standing out dark against the skin of his forearm.
And oh -
“ Oh .”
That confirms it then.
Confirms what they’ve really both known all along.
“Happy Birthday, soulmate.”