Work Text:
1
Felix has seen 20,000 people approximately in his 21 years of living on Earth. But nothing can compare to when he met his first boyfriend. How the slopes of his wide shoulders looked like they could harbor flowers and his hair, where butterflies would rest, his eyes holding small infinities of the dark space that exists between celestial bodies and dying stars. He was taller and his bony hands were long and warm around Felix. But they weren’t soulmates. They weren’t meant to be together. That happened when his boyfriend found his own soulmate. Felix saw his boyfriend getting roped in feelings and desire for someone else. He saw how his boyfriend fell out of love with him. Why did he have to fall in love with someone who wasn’t ever going to be his soulmate? Losing hope in the existence of his soulmate, bridled him.
2
Love hurts harder the second time. Because this time love comes in the form of a best friend, he’s too scared to lose. He pines from corners in his mind, thinking about how his friend’s curly hair would feel between his fingers and how his hugs felt like basking in fire, allowing it to completely embrace him and burn him whole. And it kills him, because his lips are at the perfect height to kiss his best friend’s nose. His dimpled smile and big arms juggled Felix’s heart, handling it carelessly. His heart would fall down and break into uncountable pieces and each time Felix would pick up the pieces and tape them together, a small piece somewhere would be missing. His best friend had the most beautiful smile, the kind that could bring world peace and yet break Felix completely. Because that smile would never ever be for Felix.
3
Third time would be the charm…Felix thought. The third time love is a stranger who sits near the window at the cafe Felix works at. His coffee order is duly remembered, the complimentary biscuit is on the house, there’s a heart drawn on the cup beside the stranger’s name because this time Felix feels his cheeks warm despite the winter, and an electric zap through his body when their fingers brush. Felix admires the stranger’s voice, how it’s sharp and sweeter than the coffee the stranger drinks, how his eyes are elongated and shining despite how quiet he is. The stranger always asks him about how he’s doing, asking about his day and thanking him with crinkling eyes and a wide smile that tugs at Felix’s heart. The hope that blooms into a beautiful blush pink flower in Felix’s chest withers into gray embers when the stranger walks in the cafe one day with another person, red thread tied on their ring fingers.
+1
Seemingly everyone’s found their soulmate and Felix is the only person without one..at least it feels like so. He stops hoping anymore…he doesn’t expect love to come knocking on his door anymore. But the universe has something else planned for him on a rainy day, in brimming monsoon. Felix stands stranded in the middle of nowhere. No car would stop by. Felix sobs in the pelting rain, the tears mixing with raindrops on his face. No one could see how miserable he was. He could probably disappear and maybe no one would even notice. He's lonelier than ever. Felix drops down on the sidewalk. But before his head touches the ground, a pair of arms hold him, his head falls back in someone’s lap.
A man looks down at him, eyes wide and breath heavy. He looks like he’s been running for some time, the frown between his eyebrows worried. Felix feels his heart pulse all of a sudden. Blood rushes in his body and when he looks into the eyes of the man, the collapsing world around Felix just barely holds itself and rain quietens down to a drizzle. Everything feels better at once such that Felix can’t comprehend why. “I’ve been searching for you. For so, so, so long. Where were you all this time? Hmm?” The man tells him, tears running down his handsome face. Felix feels like he’s tied, like there’s a force in the space between him and the man. He wants to get closer to him. Impossibly so… forever and even after that. His heart sews itself up and buds sprout at the cracks here and there. “I- Are you my- my soulmate?” Felix chokes out, he gets up abruptly. Anticipation draws cursive on his skin, playing with the feelings that make up his heart. “Yours.” Felix can't believe it. He cries, falling into the arms of the man he’s been seeing dreams of and feeling every single thing he’s feeling. It’s like they’re tied, sewn up together so entangled, that Felix doesn’t understand how they’ve been apart from each other all this time. Tears of happiness run down their cheeks, over having found each other at last. The man pulls Felix away, laughing lightly. “No more crying now, okay?” His tender hands wipe the tears on Felix’s face. His small fingers run through Felix’s hair to fix it, smoothening it down. “You look like an angry baby chick.” “Do you say that to people you meet for the first time?” Felix laughs.
The man’s laugh flies in the air like music and Felix falls in love with it instantly. "But it feels like I've known you forever." The man says softly. They're silent for a long time after that because Felix doesn't know what to say. Until he does. “Ahjussi, can you drop me home? I’m soaking wet.” “Ya! My name is Minho not Ahjussi” Felix forgets about everything when Minho laughs again, sees how his eyes are the size of smaller planets and shine like blooming nebulas. His touch leaves stardust on Felix’s cheeks that hurt from smiling so much. “I’m Felix…nice to meet you.” he replies back. Minho pulls him closer as they stand, his hands lingering on Felix’s waist. Their foreheads touch and Felix opens his eyes to see Minho once again to convince himself that the man in front of him is real. Their fingers intertwine, warm as a thread binds their fingers. Red, like the crimson resting in his cheeks. They don’t let go of each other’s hands when they walk to Minho’s car, even when they sit, even when they reach Felix’s apartment. Because Felix likes how perfect and small Minho’s hands are, just like his own. A tension rests between them…a foreign ground about how they don’t know each other. Minho cuts him off from his intrusive thoughts, reassuring him that they'll get to know each other slowly.
And sure enough, Minho makes up for each day he was missing from Felix’s life. Felix does, too. It’s almost like they can’t be separated from each other anymore. It’s almost like Minho was a part of his life from before. It’s how Felix fits perfectly in the space between Minho’s arms. It’s how Minho’s cats love Felix already. The way Minho leaves food for him in the kitchen in the morning, is like how he leaves kisses on Felix in the night. The way Minho skims his thumb on the back of Felix’s hand and erases any and every thought from his head. There's love in the way Minho grumbles when Felix annoys him when he's sleeping, how he knows Minho's feet are ticklish. There's love in how Minho drops his entire weight on Felix when he hugs him and leaves silent words about how he's tired when he returns from work. And somehow Minho loves mint chocolate too, he plays footsies under the table and eats Felix's cookies even when they don't taste right.
This time love is a stranger, a best friend, a boyfriend combined and yet more than that. Love is looking into Minho's eyes and feeling like it's the first time ever.