Archive of Our Own ^beta

The first time Minho meets his soulmate, Minho finds the universe staring back at him from his eyes.

It’s a cloudy day like any other, a grayness that covers the world as it always has for as long as Minho can remember. The wind is still cold and harsh against Minho’s skin as he trudges along down the sidewalk, stopping once in a while to tug his white wool knit hat back down over his ears and rub his hands together for warmth.

He stops at the intersection, waiting for the bottom light of the pedestrian signal to light up when he strangely finds his eyes drawn towards a person standing on the other side of the street. His shoulders are hunched over from the cold, body buried beneath a large black parka, completely unremarkable as a person who blends right into the crowd of people waiting to cross the street, but Minho can’t help but stare anyways, watching as the stranger types away on his phone, head bopping up and down just slightly to the music that must be blasting from the black headphones over his ears.

Maybe it’s Minho’s sixth sense again, telling him he’s about to see a very handsome man. Minho chuckles to himself at the thought. The pedestrian signal lights up, and Minho steps into the intersection, pushed along by the swarm of people behind him, all eager to cross the street and continue onward to their next destination. The stranger also moves forward, his steps brisk yet confident, as he puts away his phone and heads in Minho’s direction.

The distance between them closes quickly, and soon Minho is practically face to face with this stranger. They both step aside to the right to avoid bumping into each other, and in doing so, Minho looks up towards the stranger’s face, fully intending to offer a polite smile and continue on with his day, satisfied with a glimpse of a handsome face.

Instead, Minho meets the stranger’s eyes, and he freezes in his step.

The universe blinks back at him.

For a brief moment, the eyes staring back at him are a rich, dark blue that sparkles under the filtered sunlight like millions of stars winking back at Minho from an expansive galaxy. They’re so dark that they’re almost black, but instinctively, Minho knows that must be the color blue, that the stars within them are shades of yellow and red that shine through from the glimmering speckles of light scattered in the universe of those eyes.

For the first time in Minho’s life, Minho can see color, and there’s only one reason why this is possible.

Minho holds his breath, bracing for what would happen next, but the moment never comes.

The world remains stubbornly gray around him, and those beautiful eyes glance away just as quickly, passing over Minho with nothing but a fleeting look. The stranger continues to walk past Minho across the crosswalk, not even casting Minho a backward glance, as if it’s never occurred to him that he’s snatched a glimpse of Minho’s universe away from him.

Minho is running before he can stop himself, footsteps pounding on the pavement, pushing through the swarm of people that have come between him and the stranger like relentless waves trying to pull Minho away, and he leaps forward to grab the stranger by the wrist.

The stranger spins around, alarmed and defensive at first, simply confused in the next as he meets Minho’s eyes with his eyebrows raised slightly. Minho doesn’t even know what he wants to say, eyes focused only on the universe shining back at him again from those eyes, and it’s the stranger who has to speak up to break Minho out of his trance.

“Uh, sorry, can I help you?”

It’s a boyish voice, light-hearted and whimsical, that fits almost perfectly with the befuddled yet bemused look on his face. Minho can barely process what’s been said. There’s too many thoughts racing through his head, too many things he wants to ask of this complete stranger, but only one sentence ends up making it out of Minho’s mouth, perhaps the only thing Minho can think of that might keep this stranger from slipping out of his grasp forever.

“I want your number!”

The universe stares blankly back at Minho, before the stranger’s eyes crease slightly at the corners and his mouth curls up into a confused smile.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Give me your number.”

He would’ve begged, but Minho has too much pride to do such a thing, so he demands it instead. There’s still desperation in Minho’s voice, as much as he tries to mask it as an unyielding sense of confidence, as Minho continues, “I’d ask you out for a drink, but I’m already running late for something, so I need your number so I can ask you out on a date later.”

The stranger raises an eyebrow at Minho, his mouth half open, looking baffled by how bold Minho is acting, but despite it all, he doesn’t walk away from Minho just yet.

A normal person would’ve shaken Minho off by now, would’ve turned his insane request down and walked away.

But perhaps, just as Minho can’t help but be drawn in by the universe he’s found in this stranger’s eyes, this stranger too might possibly be feeling a pull towards Minho, even though he clearly doesn’t know who Minho is, even though he clearly can’t tell that Minho can see the colors in his eyes, the colors of the universe that are the world’s only way of telling Minho that this stranger here…

This is his soulmate.

“All right, since you look so desperate, I’ll give it to you,” Minho’s soulmate laughs, holding a hand out. Minho stares at his outstretched hand for a while before he realizes he’s asking for Minho’s phone. Minho hands his phone to his soulmate, his mind still numbingly blank as he drinks in the sight of the universe in his soulmate’s eyes, the light bouncing off his pale skin and dancing with the shadows that carve out his large nose and slightly downturned eyes. There’s an eyebrow slit on his left eyebrow, stray strands of his black hair framing his exposed forehead, silver hoop earrings dangling from both his ears, a black shirt underneath his unzipped parka.

Each and every detail of his soulmate’s face and body etches itself into the memory of Minho’s brain, and he’s so busy staring that he almost doesn’t notice his soulmate handing his phone back to him until it’s been pressed firmly back into the palm of his hand.

“Well, I’m also in a rush to be somewhere, but maybe we’ll meet again,” Minho’s soulmate says, offering Minho a bright smile that feels brighter than even the sunlight from a cloudless summer’s day before he walks away, taking the universe with him once again.

Minho watches his soulmate disappear into the crowds of people walking past on the sidewalk. He finally snaps out of the million thoughts racing through his head and looks down at his phone, realizing he hadn’t even checked if this stranger, his soulmate, has actually saved his number on Minho’s phone or not.

As it turns out, his soulmate has only entered his phone number to send himself a text. Minho wants to believe it’s actually his number, since he just barely remembers hearing his soulmate’s phone ping before Minho had been given his phone back, but it’s hard know for sure when all Minho has is a number and a text message sent from his phone to his soulmate’s that reads, The crazy (beautiful) stranger who wanted my number.

Minho’s stomach does a funny little flip as he reads the text his soulmate has sent to himself. It’s strange, how giddy he feels, to be called beautiful, and crazy, by a person he’s only known for a few minutes. Maybe that’s what it means to be soulmates, to feel electrified by every little interaction, even if they’re still effectively strangers.

As Minho goes through the effort to save this stranger’s number as a contact, he pauses before typing out Soulmate in the field where he’s supposed to put his name. The sight of it spelled out makes Minho laugh out loud suddenly, startling the people passing him by, as the absurdity of the situation hits him with full force.

Minho has finally found his soulmate, the person he’s destined to spend the rest of his life together with, and his soulmate hasn’t noticed at all.

They’re soulmates, but they’re still just strangers.

And Minho doesn’t even know his soulmate’s name.

Almost a week passes after Minho’s fateful encounter with his soulmate, and still Minho hasn’t found the courage to text him. He makes up excuses in his head, that he needs time to figure out why only Minho could see the soulmate bond between them, that he has time to get his thoughts together because he can text his soulmate anytime, but if he’s being honest, Minho doesn’t know what to say.

He’s already made a fool of himself in front of his soulmate, after desperately asking for his number, and the last thing he wants to do is make himself look even sillier to his soulmate the next time they meet.

So instead, Minho buries himself back into his schoolwork. He has dance evaluations he needs to prepare for, and that requires time that Minho doesn’t have nearly enough of, so the issue of his soulmate is left gathering dust in the back of his mind, as Minho hurries out of the dorm building towards the gymnasium to start work on a project for his dance class.

Minho’s wearing a baby blue fur coat today. It was a birthday gift from his best friend, Jisung, who had wrapped it around Minho’s shoulders and told him, “Minho, trust me, you’re going to love this color when you can finally see it!”

Minho trusts his best friend’s sense of fashion of course, but he can only shrug and tease Jisung as he pulls the coat that looks a pale whitish gray around him. The wind picks up again, nipping at Minho’s cold cheeks and forcing him to bury deeper into his coat. When he finally gets to the gymnasium, a familiar figure waves enthusiastically as Minho approaches, waiting on the front steps with someone Minho doesn’t know by his side.

“Hey, Hyunjin. Hope you weren’t waiting too long,” Minho calls out, waving back at Hyunjin, a younger classmate and a good friend, before glancing towards the figure beside him. “And you must be Changbin. Thanks for agreeing to help us out with our dance final.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Changbin replies, offering a hand out to Minho, who takes it and gives it a good shake.

Minho’s heard of Changbin before today. He’s one of Jisung’s music friends, but the main reason Minho knows about Changbin is because he’s Hyunjin’s soulmate. It was one of the first things Minho had learned about Hyunjin, after hearing his professors praise Hyunjin for his use of color in a piece he’d submitted to the college art gallery and realizing that Hyunjin was one of the lucky few who’d met his soulmate before he’d even started college. Even after Minho had become close friends with Hyunjin, thanks to their shared passion for dancing, Minho’s never gotten the chance to meet Hyunjin’s soulmate until today, though he’s heard plenty from Hyunjin about him.

Changbin’s grip is firm, fitting for someone so muscular with such an dominating aura, but Minho watches some of that sharpness soften as Changbin looks towards Hyunjin, like the younger student is the center of his universe. Changbin adds, “It’s rare enough for Hyunjin to ask me for help, so of course I had to agree.”

Hyunjin rolls his eyes at Changbin’s comment, claiming that Changbin was the one who insisted on helping, but the adoring tone to his voice betrays him as Changbin’s gaze only grows fonder. Minho supposes it only makes sense for Changbin to look at Hyunjin in such a way, given that they’re soulmates, but Minho still can’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy at the sight.

He lets it go with a huff, pretending like he’s shivering from the cold. Minho says, “Shall we head in then?”

“Oh, wait, we’re still waiting for someone!” Hyunjin interrupts, turning back to scan the various paths leading up to the college gymnasium. “You know Chan, right? He’s normally super busy but Changbin got him to agree to help us with making a song for our final.”

Minho shrugs in response. He does know of Chan, but he’s never met the man before. In the same way that Minho knew of Changbin too, Chan is another of Jisung’s music friends, and one that Jisung has had nothing but high praise for every time this mysterious Chan comes up in conversation. Minho finds it funny, that after years of his best friend complaining that Changbin and Chan are always too busy whenever Jisung tries to introduce them, Minho is now meeting both of Jisung’s closest friends for the first time without Jisung being present.

“Speaking of which, I think I see Chan,” Changbin says, craning his neck out to peer at something to his left.

“Where?” Minho asks, turning his head to follow Changbin’s line of sight.

“Over there, that person with the black hair and black jacket who’s passing by those red bikes. Do you see him?”

Minho stares out over the pathways leading up to the gymnasium. There’s several dozen bikes parked along either side of the path, and a handful of people with dark hair passing by them. Minho’s gotten quite good at picking out the difference between what’s been described to him as light and dark colors, but all the bikes just look a similar shade of gray to him from this distance.

He turns to Changbin with a raised eyebrow and says, “Okay, you’ve got to be way more specific than that.”

“What do you mean? There’s literally only one red bike over there—”

Hyunjin nudges Changbin in the side as hard as he can, but it’s too late. Changbin doesn’t notice the thin smile Minho offers him as he twists his head towards Hyunjin and huffs, “What was that for?”

“Chan’s walked past the red bike already anyways. That’s him over there walking past the nearest lamppost on the right towards us.”

Minho finds Chan easily thanks to Hyunjin’s clearer directions. Something about the figure walking towards them looks strangely familiar, almost like Minho’s seen that brisk yet confident gait with hunched shoulders buried under a large black parka before.

He’s distracted though by the hushed argument hiding behind his back, before the gears finally start to turn in Changbin’s head as he looks to Minho bewilderedly and blurts out, “Wait, can you not see color yet?”

Minho flashes Changbin a cryptic smile.

“What gave you the impression that I did?”

Changbin keeps his mouth shut, but his eyes give him away as he glances at Minho’s coat.

Minho grins at the confused look on Changbin’s face. He’d asked Jisung to buy him a coat in a pretty color for this specific reason, to give people the impression that he’s capable of picking out nice outfits that aren’t just different shades of gray. It’s fun for Minho to play these mind games with those who are lucky enough to be able to see color, but the real reason Minho does it is to keep them from giving him that look of pity that everyone always gives towards all the others who can only dress drably in different shades of gray. Minho’s hates being treated like he’s unfortunate for still living in a world without color, and so, by asking his friends who can see color to pick out his coats, Minho finds that it’s easy to hide that underneath it all is just another person who has to buy his clothes from the grayscale section of the clothing store, just another person who can’t color-coordinate his outfits because he hasn’t found his soulmate.

“I’m sorry for being rude about it earlier,” Changbin apologizes, and Minho waves him off with a shrug.

“It’s fine, it’s not your fault for not knowing I haven’t found my soulmate yet,” Minho says, though as the words fall from his mouth, Minho realizes those words aren’t entirely true anymore.

Minho has found his soulmate. He just doesn’t know his soulmate’s name, and his soulmate also doesn’t know that Minho’s his soulmate yet. The vivid colors Minho had seen in his soulmate’s eyes seem like nothing but a faint dream at this point, but Minho clings to that memory, the scattered colors of those stars in his soulmate’s eyes, the only proof he has that he’s actually found his soulmate.

One day, those faint colors would become his entire world, and when that day comes…

“Hey, Changbin, Hyunjin! Sorry I’m late!”

A voice cuts through Minho’s thoughts, an awfully familiar voice, as someone hurries up the steps of the gymnasium to come to a stop before the group. Minho’s jaw drops open as everything clicks into place in his mind, as the person in the black jacket glances towards him and adds, “And you must be Minho…”

The person turns to fully face Minho, and immediately, the world around Minho stumbles to a halt.

The universe stares back at Minho, curious, dazzling, like the light of a lamppost waiting for Minho at the end of a dark road.

For a moment, all Minho can do is stare back into those eyes, a single thought taking over his mind.

My soulmate’s name is Chan.

His trance is broken apart by a cheerful laugh that echoes in Minho’s head like sweet melody he can’t get enough of.

“Oh, it’s you, the crazy stranger from the other day,” his soulmate, Chan, says, smiling brightly at Minho as he feels a rush of embarrassment run through his body.

“Wait, you two have met before?” Hyunjin asks.

“We bumped into each other a while back,” Minho says tartly. Chan’s lips quirk upwards as he raises an eyebrow up at Minho from behind Changbin and Hyunjin’s back, and Minho clears his throat and adds, “Also, I believe you called me beautiful too, or do you say that to everyone?”

The tips of Chan’s ears slowly begin to deepen in shade, though Minho supposes it could just be the cold. Chan clears his throat loudly and says, “Oh, I forgot about that text. You didn’t respond, so I thought you weren’t interested anymore.”

I’m interested, Minho almost blurts out, but he bites his tongue. He told himself he wasn’t going to make a fool of himself in front of his soulmate again, and he definitely wasn’t going to do that in front of his friends.

“I was just busy,” Minho huffs. “I would’ve texted you sooner if I knew you were the famous Chan that I keep hearing about, especially if I knew you were going to be helping me with our final project.”

“Well, I’m glad we got to be introduced to each other properly this time then,” Chan smiles. His eyes shimmer like a gold haze cast over the dark expanse of the universe, and Minho feels his stomach do a funny little flip.

The feeling makes him shudder, unfamiliar yet welcome. Chan must have mistaken it for the cold though, because he quickly says to Hyunjin and Changbin, “Let’s go inside then, shall we? I’d hate for any of you to catch frostbite just because you were waiting for me.”

Minho drags his feet as they head into the gymnasium, staring at the back of Chan’s head of messy black curls. Chan turns, as if waiting expectantly for Minho to keep up, and Minho watches the golden haze in Chan’s eyes shift into a mellow purple fading into a dark blue sky.

“Is something wrong?” Chan asks.

Minho doesn’t mean to answer, but the words tumble out before he can stop them.

“You have beautiful eyes.”

The hint of a smile creeps onto Chan’s lips, when all of a sudden, Chan’s irises turn black. There’s a bitterness to Chan’s expression, barely hidden behind the carefree smile that’s been carefully crafted onto Chan’s lips, as Chan laughs, “Really? It’s a shame they only look black to me then.”

Minho feels his heart drop. He doesn’t know what the sudden darkness in Chan’s eyes means, only that he’s giving Chan the impression that Minho can already see the world in color. Minho can’t see it though, not until the man before him realizes that his soulmate is standing right in front of him, and there’s a dreadful feeling building Minho’s chest that tells him if he doesn’t fix this misunderstanding now, he might lose the chance to make Chan realize they’re soulmates forever.

“They’re still beautiful even if they look dark,” Minho says, his voice filled with so much conviction that even Chan looks taken aback. “I wish I could see them in color too, but I can’t do that till I find my soulmate.”

They’re lies, all of it, but Minho’s heart swells with relief when the glimmer of hope returns to Chan’s eyes.

“Oh, so that makes the both of us then,” Chan smiles, genuinely this time, even it barely shows through on his lips. “I was worried you were flirting with me despite already having a soulmate.”

That soulmate is you, Minho so desperately wants to say, but he can’t, not until he learns more about Chan, not until he knows why the world didn’t burst into color for them both when they first caught each other’s eyes.

So instead, Minho puts on his best show of indifference, crossing his arms and huffing, “I was not flirting with you. I was just stating a fact.”

“Really? That sounds like flirting to me,” Chan teases, leaning in closer to Minho, until the shimmering stars in his eyes are so clear that it’s hard to pretend that they don’t leave Minho breathless.

Thankfully, they’re interrupted by Hyunjin’s voice, as he shouts at them from down the hallway.

“Hey, you two! Hurry up! I’ve only got the dance studio booked for two hours!”

Minho straightens up, glad for an excuse to put a little distance between him and the beautiful eyes that keep leaving him mesmerized. After a beat of silence, he casts a glance at Chan and suddenly grins.

“Last one to the dance studio pays for the first date,” Minho smirks, and he breaks into a run, laughing at the shout of indignation Chan lets out behind him.

He just manages to reach the dance studio before Chan barrels into him and crushes him in a bear hug. They bicker loudly about whether it was fair for Minho to make such a bet, then bicker with Changbin when he accuses them of acting like an old married couple even though they’ve only just met, until finally Hyunjin manages to get them back on track to brainstorm the type of music they want with their dance choreography.

The study session goes smoothly after that. After Hyunjin and Minho go over the kind of dance choreography they want to prepare for their final showcase, Minho can’t help but marvel at the speed in which Chan and Changbin begin to discuss the music composition that would match what they are looking for. It’s not long before Chan’s pulled up a song he had lying around on his laptop, made a few changes with Changbin’s help, and then played what already seems to the perfect song for Minho and Hyunjin’s dance piece. Minho and Hyunjin immediately get to work on creating a choreography, and they finish up so quickly that there’s more than half an hour left in Hyunjin’s booked time slot.

Hyunjin takes the chance to pull Changbin out of his seat and try to teach his soulmate the choreography. As Changbin goes along, Minho flops down into a seat next to Chan, who continues to fiddle around with his laptop, presumably already working on another musical masterpiece.

“You really are a musical genius,” Minho compliments, and he feels pleased with himself when it draws Chan’s attention to him.

Chan’s cheeks darken a few shades, a sign that he’s clearly embarrassed, and he deflects, “I’m no genius. Plus I couldn’t have come up with the tune without Changbin’s help. It’s a shame Jisung’s not here too. He could’ve come up with something quicker than me.”

Minho’s smile only grows wider.

“Well, Jisung thinks you’re a genius, and after watching you work, I have to say I agree with him.”

Chan opens his mouth like he wants to rebut Minho’s words again, but Minho doesn’t let him.

“He also warned me that you’re allergic to compliments, and I guess he was right about that too,” Minho laughs, watching Chan finally break into laugh too despite the growing embarrassment on his cheeks.

“It sounds like he’s told you all about me,” Chan says, a fond smile growing on his face.

“He sure has. Though now I’m curious what he’s told you about me.”

A thoughtful look crosses Chan’s face. Minho holds his breath in anticipation. He’d meant his words half-jokingly, curious if Jisung has talked Chan’s ear off about Minho in the same way that Minho has heard all about Chan, but at the same time, he finds himself overly concerned about what Chan actually knows about him.

“Well, for starters, I already knew you were an amazing dancer, but getting to watch you dance was even better than I could have imagined,” Chan starts, and Minho feels his ears grow warm. Chan continues on as if he doesn’t notice Minho’s embarrassment, listing off his fingers all the various facts about Minho that Jisung had no business sharing, like how he’s a great cook, how he likes anime (and as it turns out Chan does too). Chan knows that Minho’s family comes from Gimpo, that Minho’s fluent in Japanese, and that there’s a hilarious (cringey in Minho’s opinion) video floating around the internet of Minho getting interviewed by National Geographic as a child.

“All right, all right, I get it, Jisung talks way too much about me,” Minho mutters into his hands, wishing he could melt into the floor out of embarrassment when Chan pulls up a screenshot he took of a poem Minho wrote in grade school about potatoes that somehow Jisung had dug up and saved.

“You’re his favorite person in the world. I think he doesn’t talk about you enough,” Chan laughs, as he pauses like he’s still searching for facts he knows about Minho even though Minho feels like he’s already read Minho like an open book.

All of a sudden a brilliantly happy smile blooms across Chan’s face as he looks at Minho, eyes shining bright like a dazzling meteor shower, like he’s just remembered the most important fact of them all.

“Oh, and you have three cats, and their names are Soonie, Doongie, and Dori.”

Minho’s heart swoons, and he wants to cringe at the sudden rush of adoration that wells up in his chest for this man who already knew the names of all his cats before they’d even met. Minho thinks he would’ve fallen in love with Chan right then, even without the soulmate bond, so it takes his everything not to sound sincere when he laughs, “Ooh, a man after my own heart. Jisung’s soulmate doesn’t even know that I have two cats, much less three.”

“So that means I’m doing well in the ranking of Minho’s favorite people, huh?” Chan teases, and Minho shoves Chan to the side for that.

“Yes, you’re pretty high up for someone I only just met,” Minho grumbles, irritated by how his heart flutters at the sight of Chan grinning so hard that his eyes even close shut above his raised cheeks.

“Hey, we technically met last week,” Chan quips, and Minho buries his face into his hands again.

“Don’t remind me. I so wish this could’ve been our first meeting instead.”

“Well, I for one am glad we met like that,” Chan says, and Minho is taken aback by the sincere gaze Chan’s looking at him with. “It’s a funny story that made me realize you’re an adorable little guy and not just someone so beautiful that I’d be too nervous to talk with.”

Minho freezes, overwhelmed by the strange amalgamation of disgust, embarrassment, intense joy that rushes through his head at being called adorable and little and beautiful by someone who doesn’t even know he’s his soulmate. Chan breaks into another laughing fit at the strange expression that must have floated up onto Minho’s face, as Minho’s heart pounds louder in his chest. Minho can’t even see Chan’s eyes now, the only part of Chan that’s in color, but already Minho can’t take his eyes off his soulmate as Chan’s entire body shakes with joy.

He’s barely spent two hours with Chan, and it’s almost terrifying how much Minho loves him already.

“Hey, sorry to intrude on your fun, but Hyunjin says we have to get out of the studio now.”

Minho’s eyes snaps up to Changbin, who’s watching them with an amused look on his face as Hyunjin begins shutting down the speaker system behind him. He’d almost forgotten they were there, or that time could pass so quickly, but he packs up his stuff quietly as Chan too breaks out of his laughter. It’s fascinating how quickly Chan snaps back into work mode, packing his bags with a serious look on his face, but as they leave the studio and bid Hyunjin and Changbin goodbye, they stand there for a moment in the hallways to watch the soulmates head to their next class, hand in hand, Hyunjin’s eyes filled with adoration even as he tries to fight off Changbin’s attempts to get even closer to him.

“They make a nice couple, don’t they?” Chan comments, and Minho nods, a strange feeling stirring in his chest when he looks at Chan, at the dark blue universe in his eyes filled with longing. He wants to say something, to have an excuse to talk to Chan longer, but he’s surprised when it’s Chan who turns to Minho with a smile first.

“Actually, I’m about to head out to my next music making session. Do you want to come?”

Minho’s chest fills with hope. He steels his expression into one of slight interest, because he doesn’t want Chan to know how excited he is, and replies, “Sounds fun. You sure I’m allowed to come with you though?”

“Yeah, it’s just me today, and I like getting feedback from people who don’t study music. Makes it easier to come up with new ideas, and if it’s enough fun then maybe it’ll convince you to start making music too.”

Minho quirks an eyebrow up at Chan and offers him a bemused smirk.

“Me? Making music? You’re just as crazy as I am if you think I have any music sense.”

“Hey, I’m sure you’re not as bad as you’re claiming to be. Besides, even if you are, everyone has to start somewhere when they learn something new, right?”

Chan’s eyes are shining as he speaks, and this time, if Minho really focuses, he thinks he can see the color of his own eyes reflected in Chan’s.

“All right,” Minho says, “I’ll come along, but only because you owe me a drink.”

“I owe you? You haven’t even bought me a drink from when you got my number,” Chan teases back, and Minho feels the heat rush to his ears at the memory.

He manages to keep up a calm facade though. “Fine, I’ll pay for your drink, and you’ll pay for mine.”

“So it’s a date then?” Chan grins, and Minho rolls his eyes back.

“It is so not a date.”

They go on more dates that aren’t dates after that, just two people with a growing friendship hanging out and getting to know each other like normal friends. Minho learns more about Chan each time they hang out, and the more he learns, the more he thinks he understands why the world has made them soulmates.

Chan turns out to be right when he insists that Minho isn’t entirely hopeless when it comes to making music. He visits Chan in his music studio more often after that, sometimes to test out his growing confidence in making a tune, sometimes just to sit and watch Chan in his element, laser focused on the sounds playing in his headphones before occasionally turning to Minho with a bright smile when he think he’s made something great.

They go out for coffee afterwards more times than Minho would like to admit before Minho realizes that Chan doesn’t actually like coffee. Chan still insists on going to cafes though, always researching the best places that have fun coffee creations that Minho might want to try, and so Minho puts in the effort too, finding cafes that have fancy juices and smoothies that Chan can enjoy.

It’s nothing special, just casual hang outs that shouldn’t take too much time to plan, slipped into the scarce free times in their busy schedules, but then the coffee dates that aren’t dates turn into full meals, an hour taken here and there for lunch, and then dinner, dinner dates that turn into study sessions that last for hours, studying together for an excuse to talk and talk until late into the night, when their conversations continue on in text messages that keep Minho awake long after the sun has set and the moon is high in the sky.

Just once, they plan something formal, a whole day spent with just each other when they decide to go to the amusement park together in the early spring, after Chan learns that Minho likes going on roller coasters. They spend the entire day chatting as they take the train to the amusement park, chatting as they wait in line to get tickets and in even longer lines to get on the rides, taking turns standing in each other’s shadows to try to hide from the blistering sun. Minho stares into Chan’s eyes almost the entire time, his heart racing as the stars in Chan’s eyes twinkle back at him, and he’s so enraptured by Chan’s voice that it’s only when they finally reach the front of the line and get strapped into the ride that Minho remembers he’s also scared of heights.

Chan notices immediately when Minho goes quiet, his hands gripping the safety bar so tightly that his knuckles turn white. When Chan asks what’s wrong in a soft, soothing voice, Minho can’t help but laugh despite his fear, at how much he wishes he could wrap the sound of Chan’s voice around him and live the rest of his life sinking into comfort it brings him.

“I’m actually terrified of heights,” Minho admits, as the roller coaster jerks forwards and begins the long climb up to the first drop.

Chan looks even more panicked than Minho does at his admission, as he looks back behind them worriedly before rounding on Minho.

“Wait, I thought you said you liked roller coasters?”

“I do,” Minho sheepishly says, trying to look into Chan’s eyes for as long as he can before he finally has to shut them tight as the fear in his chest fights with the warmth blooming in his heart. “They’re terrifying but fun. I’ll be fine once we’re past this part.”

Minho wonders what kind of expression Chan must be making at him right now, but other than the winds rushing past his ears and the darkness behind his shut eyelids, Minho is unable to focus on anything else. As the roller coaster gets closer and closer to the top, Minho feels like his chest is about to explode with anticipation. The fear he feels when he’s high up still isn’t something he’ll ever get used to, no matter how much he enjoys everything that comes after the first drop.

Suddenly, something warm wraps around the top of Minho’s left hand.

Even with his eyes closed, Minho knows that must be Chan’s hand over his, his grip strong but reassuring over the top of Minho’s hand.

The roller coaster slows and hovers for a brief moment at the top of the first big drop before it rushes downwards, wind ripping past Minho’s ears as the cart rattles along the rails. Chan’s voice hollers with excitement beside him with each up and down that the roller coaster goes through, but all Minho can feel is the warmth of Chan’s hand still over his, a warmth that takes over his senses like a floodlight casting away the darkness.

Minho forgets to even scream.

When he opens his eyes as the roller coaster levels out and begins to pull back into the loading area, Chan has already let go of Minho’s hand. His hands are resting innocuously over the safety bars, as if that’s where they’d been the entire time, and they say nothing to each other as they get out of the roller coaster and follow the swarm of people out back into the sun.

As they stop to stretch out their legs, Chan says cheerfully, “Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?”

The phantom warmth of Chan’s hand over his hasn’t left Minho’s hand yet. He keeps it stubbornly by his side, making dramatic arm circles with his other arm as Minho replies, “Yeah, it was. Want to go again?”

“And wait another hour in line?” Chan teases, already shaking his head. “Come on, let’s go check out the log flume ride. I bet there’s not that many people there in this weather.”

Chan turns away so confidently, like he knows Minho will be right behind him. Minho hastens his steps to match Chan’s pace, walking with just a few inches between them, so close that their hands occasionally brush against each other as they walk down the winding paths in the amusement park, hoping to beat the crowds at the next ride.

It takes everything Minho has to not reach out and slip his hand into Chan’s again. Neither of them mention what happened on the roller coaster, and Chan doesn’t reach out to grab Minho’s hand again when they go on the log flume ride, though he lets Minho nearly fling himself into his lap in an attempt to avoid a particularly large splash. They’re left chattering in the cold after the ride, and spend the rest of the day warming up in the food court, playing arcade games and enjoying each other’s company.

At the end of the day, they pass by the ferris wheel on the way out of the amusement park. Chan turns to Minho suddenly with a playful smile on his face.

“You know, the ferris wheel is a classic end of the day ride,” Chan teases, hands in his pockets, bouncing in his step as they pause briefly in front of the ferris wheel.

Minho knows Chan is just teasing him, because Minho would never willingly go on a ferris wheel due to his fear of heights, and Chan would never let him go now that he knows about Minho’s fear. Minho can’t help but consider it for a moment though. He’s never gone that high up before, but he can’t imagine that the view looks good in black and white. He has heard that the colors of a sunset are supposed to be beautiful though, and it leaves him feeling a twinge of jealousy at the many couples in line, who are probably there looking forward to seeing a beautiful view in full color.

Must be nice to have a soulmate, Minho thinks, as he glances back towards Chan, at the colors of the universe in his eyes and the grays clinging to the world all around them.

There’s no point in being bitter though, so Minho just casts the ferris wheel a look of disdain instead, pleased that it makes Chan laugh even harder.

Pretending to be annoyed, Minho groans, “Absolutely not. If you want to go, go by yourself. I’ll wait here.”

“Ey, there’s no point if you’re not there,” Chan laughs, throwing an arm around Minho’s shoulder and cheerfully dragging Minho away from the ferris wheel and leading the way back to the exit.

Minho casts another glance back at the ferris wheel behind them.

For the briefest of moments, Minho wishes he hadn’t told Chan so early on that he was afraid of heights. If he’d just endured and went along with Chan’s whims, would he be getting on the ferris wheel right now, fear pressing his heart to his throat, blocked only by the overwhelmingly powerful emotions Minho feels for the man who doesn’t even know he’s his soulmate? Would Chan grab his hand too then, if he learned Minho was actually afraid? Would he have gotten to sit longer with Chan’s hands around his, maybe even side by side, the warmth of Chan’s body pressed against his as Minho lets himself forget the terrifyingly high up view of the world below and get lost in the universe in Chan’s eyes?

Minho can’t help but laugh at such a fantasy, twisting his head away from the ferris wheel and reaching round Chan’s waist, squeezing him tightly until Chan finally lets go of Minho with a yelp. Minho takes off immediately like a cat running from its owner, shouting at Chan that the last person to the exit pays for dinner, and begins running as fast as he can to the exit, grinning from ear to ear knowing that Chan is right on Minho’s heels chasing after him.

Minho wishes these times could continue on like this forever, as their hang outs become more like dates, even if neither of them acknowledge how the distance between them continues to shrink each time they meet, but the longer they spend time together, the more Minho’s heart aches.

He loves spending time with Chan, maybe even loves him just a little bit too.

But it doesn’t change the fact that every time Minho stares into Chan’s eyes, he’s reminded that Chan is his soulmate.

That Chan doesn’t know Minho is his soulmate.

He debates constantly in his head, whether today will be the day he comes out and says it. Would it really be that bad, if he just told Chan that Minho can see the color in his eyes, that the world is destined to bloom with color because of his bond with Chan?

Minho doesn’t know why, but each time he thinks about telling the truth, his heart fills with dread. It’s like the world itself is warning Minho about what will happen, and so Minho keeps quiet, biding his time, waiting for the day Chan will see that Minho is his soulmate as he falls further and further in love.

An opportunity provides itself to Minho sooner than he expects though, when they go out to a cafe on a hazy spring morning, flowers blooming in the trees lining the streets, pale white against a warm gray backdrop. All sorts of people are out and about thanks to the warm weather, but it’s the couples walking around that draws Minho’s eye, as he watches them walk, hand in hand, chatting about the pretty flowers that have been described to him as various shades of pink.

Minho has an idea of what pink looks like now. It’s the color that flits through Chan’s eyes whenever Minho teases him, soft and full of warmth, but try as he might, Minho still can’t imagine what the flowers would actually look like in color. It’s a reality that still weighs down heavily upon him, and Chan too seems to be deep in thought, as he observes the couples looking up at the flowers. They don’t say much as they reach the cafe, only to place their orders, but as they sit down in a corner of the cafe and set their drinks down on the table, Chan suddenly speaks up.

“There’s something that’s been on my mind lately.”

Chan’s expression is oddly serious, enough to leave Minho on edge as he asks, “What is it?”

“Why did you come up to talk to me that day we first met?”

Minho’s heartbeat begins to race. He plays with the straw sticking out of his iced americano, letting the ice clink against the glass once, and twice, before he finds the courage to say what he’s always wanted to ask.

“What if I said it was because we’re soulmates?”

Minho infuses his words with as teasing of a tone he can muster, but deep inside his chest, his heart swells with hope.

Chan immediately laughs in response.

It’s a cold laugh, sarcastic, and it bursts the bubble of hope in Minho’s chest with a loud pop.

“Well, I can only say I really hope we aren’t, because you deserve someone so much better than me as your soulmate.”

Minho stares into Chan’s eyes, at the darkness that grows and threatens to swallow up the beautiful universe within them that only Minho can see. The world around Minho and Chan remains stubbornly gray, and Minho realizes now why the soulmate bond refuses to reveal itself to Chan.

If Chan were to learn the truth now, it would crush Chan’s soul.

“Hmph, I wouldn’t want to be soulmates with you anyways,” Minho huffs, burying the growing hurt in his heart beneath several more layers of feigned indifference. “As for why I went and talked to you, well, I don’t know. You’re handsome, and I like good-looking guys, and turns out you’ve got a great personality too. Plus, you’re one of Jisung’s favorite people in the world, and that’d get you a 10 out of 10 in my book. Do I really need any more of a reason than that?”

Chan laughs again, and this time it’s genuine, like a spring breeze that soothes the worries in Minho’s heart and whisks his thoughts away to a better place.

“Well, I think you’re very good-looking too, Minho, and I know you’re Jisung’s favorite, so I guess that makes two of us,” Chan grins, sending Minho a cheeky wink that immediately makes Minho cringe even as his chest fills up with a giddy sense of delight. Their conversation continues on like normal, onto casual topics and cheerful bantering, and their brief conversation about soulmates seems to be quickly forgotten like a pebble left behind on the long winding journey of their conversation.

Minho doesn’t forget about that pebble though. He keeps that moment vivid in his memories, long after he’s said goodbye to Chan for the day and even after he’s spent the bus ride home daydreaming about the next time they’ll meet.

Chan won’t know that they’re soulmates for a very long time, Minho realizes, as he winds down for the day and stares up at the shadows covering his bedroom ceiling with a heavy heart.

It’s no good to dwell on negativity though, so Minho tries to conjure up a positive thought, hoping to set the mood for the next day.

At least we get to be friends for now, Minho thinks. At least I have Chan as a friend.

But as he drifts off to sleep, his weariness finally overtaking him, a different thought sneaks its way into Minho’s mind, like a drop of poison tainting the well of Minho’s thoughts.

And how long will it be, before being just friends is no longer enough?

Minho spends way too long trying to come up with a plan to make Chan realize he’s his soulmate, before finally he gives up.

If he can’t think of a plan himself, then maybe it was time to ask for help, and who better to ask for help from than his best friend, Jisung, the one person who probably knew Chan even better than Minho did.

So Minho heads to Jisung’s dorm room in the evening, when the sun has set and left behind a cool evening breeze. He bursts through the door and shouts, “Jisung, I found my soulmate!”

He freezes in the doorway, when someone who is definitely not his best friend turns slowly to look at Minho like he’s crazy.

“If you’re looking for Jisung, he just left to go to the bathroom,” Seungmin says, his judging look turning into a confused smile when Minho rolls his eyes and sits down on Jisung’s bed with a groan.

“You are not the person I was hoping to tell that to,” Minho grumbles, crossing his arms tightly across his chest.

“Well, you shouldn’t burst in like that then,” Seungmin just shrugs, as he leans back in his seat to return Minho’s glare with a smirk. “You know I’m usually in Jisung’s room, so I’m really surprised you haven’t learned to knock yet.”

“You’re practically an extension of Jisung, so what’s the point in being polite?” Minho bickers back.

“By that logic, Jisung’s an extension of me, so you should be treating him politely instead,” Seungmin laughs, and unable to counter Seungmin’s logic, Minho chooses the childish response of grabbing Seungmin’s favorite dog plushie from Jisung’s bed and chucking it at his head.

Seungmin is Jisung’s soulmate. They’d met on the first day of college, when Jisung was moving into the dorms, and Minho had been there to witness the moment when they ran into each other in the stairwell, where Jisung had immediately blurted out, “Oh my god, you’re my soulmate.”

It had taken a while for Minho to get used to the fact that his best friend now had an other half who spent just as much time with Jisung as Minho used to. Seungmin had given the impression that he was a straight-laced, studious person who kept a polite distance from Minho at first, but Minho was quick to learn that Seungmin hid a playful, almost crazed sense of humor behind his composed personality, and bickering like this with Seungmin quickly became their preferred form of conversation despite the growing respect Minho had for Seungmin as someone who had filled his best friend’s world with color, both literally and figuratively.

Seungmin doesn’t often show his affection for Minho so plainly either, but he’s openly admitted to enjoying the tense banter he keeps up with Minho, just for an excuse to stress Jisung out as he watches his best friend and soulmate pretend to not get along. There are moments though, when Seungmin is much more honest about how much he likes Minho, like in moments like this, when he catches the dog plush Minho had thrown at him with ease and plops it adorably onto his left shoulder.

He offers Minho a genuine smile and says, “Anyways, I know you didn’t mean to tell me, but congrats on finding your soulmate, Minho. I’m happy for you, really.”

Minho holds Seungmin’s kind gaze for a long time, before he finally lets out a small smile, unable to keep up his guise of dislike any longer.

“Thanks, Seungmin, it means a lot.”

Seungmin grins back, but before he can reply, the door burst open as Jisung tumbles into the room, wiping his wet hands off on his pants as he exclaims, “Minho! I thought I heard you from the bathroom! What’s this about your soulmate?”

Minho has to repeat himself again, and Jisung tackles Minho immediately, radiating with pure joy as he grips Minho by the shoulders and shouts, “Oh my god! That’s amazing! Who is it? Do I know them?”

Minho presses a hand to Jisung’s mouth to stop his best friend’s excited rambling, before he takes a moment to compose himself.

He’s here to ask Jisung for help, but it’s still strange, to finally put into words something he’s known for so long.

“It’s Chan,” Minho says, feeling a small weight lifting from his shoulders as he speaks. “Chan’s my soulmate.”

Jisung’s eyes grow so wide that Minho almost worries they’ll fall right out of his head. He exclaims, “Wait, what? Chan? No way! I knew I should’ve introduced the two of you sooner! Now that I think about it, you’re like perfect for each other, so of course you’d be soulmates! Oh, and I can’t believe I missed your first meeting too!”

Minho thinks back on his actual first meeting with Chan and silently thanks the universe that no one he knew was there to witness him desperately asking Chan for his number. In the time it takes Minho to reminisce on his first meeting with Chan though, Jisung’s thoughts have already jumped forward several topics, as he suddenly sits up straight, his eyes flaring with disbelief.

“Hold up. It’s been months since the first time you met Chan, and you’re only telling me you two are soulmates now?” Jisung exclaims with an indignant huff. “I can’t believe the two of you. How could you keep this a secret from your best friend?”

Minho’s carefree attitude stumbles to a halt as he remembers the real reason why he’s here telling Jisung about his soulmate. His eyes dart around Jisung’s dorm room nervously, before he quietly admits, “Oh, uh, actually, there’s a reason for that. I still can’t see color yet.”

Jisung freezes, his excitement washing away into confusion. “Wait, what do you mean?”

“Chan doesn’t know I’m his soulmate,” Minho says frankly, not oblivious to the way Jisung’s expression falls, “so that’s why I kept it a secret. I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t tell Chan either.”

Jisung groans, flopping down on his bed next to Minho. He pats Minho on the back sympathetically, as he shakes his head and sighs, “Ugh, of course Chan doesn’t know. I guess I could’ve predicted that.”

Minho frowns at Jisung’s response.

“Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve told you before, right? Chan’s like the nicest, most talented person I’ve ever met, and I know he knows it too, but it’s like he’s completely allergic to the idea that anyone actually thinks he’s the amazing person he is,” Jisung sighs with the shake of his head. “He can’t take a compliment, and he barely seems to believe that I think he’s one of my closest friends, so it actually makes perfect sense that Chan would be the kind of person who wouldn’t believe someone is his soulmate even if he met them.”

“But that’s got nothing to do with the soulmate bond, right? The world is supposed to burst into color when you meet your soulmate. It’s the one irrefutable proof we receive from the world about who our soulmate is. Surely even Chan wouldn’t deny that if that happened when I first met him, so I just don’t understand why it didn’t.”

“Have you tried telling him that you’re his soulmate then?” Jisung suggests.

Minho shakes his head. “I thought I should wait to learn why Chan can’t see our soulmate bond before I tried doing that. I mean, if the world isn’t going to tell Chan that he’s my soulmate, then it’d make less sense for me to be the one telling him about it, right? But now that I’ve spend so much time with him…”

Minho hesitates, staring down at his hands as he tries to find the right words to express all the feelings inside him. He lets out a deep sigh and admits, “This is going to sound so stupid, but I love him, Jisung. I fall more in love with Chan every moment I spend with him, and yet the other day he told me he hopes he’s not my soulmate because I deserve better than him. What am I supposed to say to that?”

Jisung doesn’t have an answer for Minho. Instead, he pulls Minho into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around Minho’s body to comfort him with his warmth.

Minho doesn’t cry, but he lets himself deflate in Jisung’s arms as all his emotions come crashing down on him at once. He buries his face into Jisung’s shoulder and mumbles, “I don’t know anymore. I want Chan to know that we’re soulmates, but I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do to make him realize that.”

The silence that follows wraps tightly around Minho, giving him space to let his emotions be as Jisung rubs comforting circles on his back. When Minho finally feels his heart settle, he’s able to sit up again and offer Jisung a thankful smile.

Behind them, Seungmin clears his throat, drawing Minho’s attention as he remains practically glued to Jisung’s body. There’s a bemused look in his eyes, and it’s moments like these that remind Minho why he does actually like Seungmin despite their clashing personalities. Despite being Jisung’s soulmate and thus boyfriend, Seungmin’s always been comfortable with the close bond that Jisung shares with Minho, and he’s always treated Minho like a close friend too despite their usual bickering.

Even now, Seungmin offers his support, as he says, “I know you aren’t here for my advice, but I think it’s probably good that you haven’t told Chan you’re his soulmate yet.”

“And why’s that?”

“There’s a lot of research out there about the science behind soulmate bonds. The general consensus is that the soulmate bond is a connection that’s revealed to the two soulmates for the purpose of forming a lasting relationship between them. That’s why we almost always see color immediately upon meeting our soulmate, though there’s also many cases where two soulmates only get their soulmate bond revealed to them at a momentous point in their relationship, like when they start dating or get married. What’s really rare is when only one person realizes who their soulmate is, like what happened to you, Minho, and the ones who went on and told their soulmate who they were… well, let’s just say none of those relationships ended up well.”

“Wait, really?” Jisung says, his eyes growing wide. “Why?”

“Well, it’s just like Minho said earlier. When the world is supposed to show you color the moment you meet your soulmate, would you believe someone if they said they were your soulmate and you still couldn’t see color?”

“Probably not,” Minho sighs.

“But there’s a chance Chan might believe you, if you told him seriously,” Jisung tries to argue, but Seungmin just shakes his head.

“You’re right, there’s a chance he’d believe Minho, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re putting your hopes in the fact that the world might reveal your soulmate bond to him when you tell him. In the studies that have been done in the past about soulmate bonds that were only revealed to one person, about eighty percent of the participants reported that their soulmate hadn’t believed them when they told them about the soulmate bond between them and that it destroyed any relationship they had with their soulmate after that. Even the ones that still saw their soulmate from time to time reported that eventually, they lost the ability to even see the colors of their soulmate’s eyes, and they spend the rest of their lives never knowing what it’s like to see color.”

“Well that’s depressing,” Jisung grumbles, slumping forward where he’s sitting as Minho shakes his head.

“Wow, Seungmin, you’re seriously the only person I know who talks about soulmates through scientific studies,” Minho scoffs, and Seungmin rolls his eyes back at him.

“The science behind soulmates is interesting stuff! Did you know that for visually impaired people, the world will find other ways to reveal who their soulmate is instead? There’s soulmates out there who share a sense of taste or hear music playing in their ears around their soulmate instead. From the way you and Chan both see the world in black and white though, I think it’s safe to say you still have to wait for the world to become colorful before Chan will realize you’re soulmates, but the fact that you can still see colors in Chan’s eyes means there’s still a chance for you to establish your soulmate bond with Chan.”

“All right, I’m glad you don’t think it’s completely hopeless, but that sounds like you have an idea on what the solution is,” Minho comments, and for once, he feels a glimmer of hope as Seungmin nods reassuringly back.

“In theory, the solution is actually pretty simple. In the studies I’ve read about, they sometimes went and interviewed the people who couldn’t see the soulmate bond despite having met their soulmate, and when they asked them how they felt about soulmates in general, most of them had some sort of negative opinion or experience with soulmates. Some of them disliked the idea of being destined to fall in love with a person, and others were worried about falling in love with someone who might not be their soulmate. They all had concerns one way or another about the kind of relationship they might have with their soulmate, and about ninety-eight percent of the time, when they worked through those issues, they would be able to see color the next time they met their soulmate.”

“So you’re saying that I have to find out what Chan has against the idea of soulmates, and once he gets over it, we’ll finally be soulmates for real?” Minho summarizes, raising an eyebrow at Seungmin who simply shrugs back.

“Yep. Easy in theory. Not so easy in practice,” Seungmin says, offering Minho a sympathetic smile. “You’d have to try to learn how Chan feels about soulmates in general, and it sounds like it’s not something Chan’s going to be willing to talk about, but it’s still a start, don’t you think?”

Seungmin’s words leave Minho’s heart feeling complicated, like too many threads tangled into a ball that he can’t unravel. It won’t be easy, trying to press Chan for answers without revealing the intentions behind them, but maybe there’s another way to find out how Chan really feels about soulmates, about love in general. Minho’s not sure what that method is though, and no amount of further discussion with Jisung and Seungmin seems to bring him any closer to a conclusion, and so, Minho leaves Jisung’s dorm feeling more dejected than when he’d arrived, though grateful for their help.

As he walks through the darkness back to his dorm room, Minho stares up at the clear skies above him, where the faint light of the stars glimmer back down at him.

He’d thought that if he’d just kept waiting, maybe one day Chan would open his eyes and see the colors of the universe reflected in Minho’s, that by just being in love he’d get the happy ending he’s always dreamed of.

It had been easy to fall in love with Chan because of that, almost too easy, and if Minho hadn’t known Chan was his soulmate, if he didn’t see the universe shining back at him each time he lost himself in Chan’s eyes, Minho would’ve forced himself to back off, scared of being pulled into orbit around the beautiful, charming music student who had so quickly occupied the center of Minho’s every waking thought.

But Minho knows that Chan is his soulmate, and so he lets himself fall in love, lets himself get lost in the universe in Chan’s eyes and the enrapturing melodies of Chan’s voice and music.

Perhaps that was why the soulmate bond had revealed itself so easily to Minho. Some cosmic force in the universe had known that Minho needed this reassurance to continue his pursuit of Chan and had entrusted Minho with the task of convincing Chan that they are soulmates.

And yet a part of Chan remains closed off from Minho, showing no sign of realizing that Minho is his soulmate, or that he even has a soulmate at all. The darkness lurking in Chan’s eyes keeps the core of who Chan is hidden away from Minho, a coldness that keeps Minho from get too close. The darkness remains no matter how much progress Minho thinks he’s made in getting to know Chan, and Minho doesn’t know what else he can do about it other than to wait and hope that one day, the light will reach even the depths of Chan’s heart that still remain unknown to Minho and expose the brilliance of the world to both of them together.

Minho sighs as he returns to his dorm room and gets ready for bed. As he turns off the lights and lies down in his bed, Minho closes his eyes. In the darkness, he can imagine the sight of Chan’s eyes again, shining back at him with the colors of a miraculous universe. Each time he sees Chan, he seems to find something new hidden within the vast expanse of Chan’s eyes. A new star, a new color, a new planet. It used to leave Minho breathless each time he saw something new, but at some point, Chan’s eyes simply became a reflection of all that Minho found beautiful about Chan himself.

If he could just show Chan what he sees, if Chan could just see that his soul itself was a beautiful universe that rivaled even the real stars in the night sky, then maybe Chan would finally see how much he is loved.

But how is Minho supposed to ask Chan about soulmates, about love, when Chan can’t even see that he’s so loved by everyone around him?

The answer comes to Minho, sooner than he might’ve liked, when one day, while on one of their many cafe dates, Chan bumps into a freckled young man, and Minho watches Chan’s facial expression go through all five stages of grief in the blink of an eye.

“Oh hey, Felix! Long time no see,” Chan says, his tone upbeat, his lips smiling, and the universe in his eyes shaking like it’s on the verge of collapse.

“Hi Chan. How have you been?”

The man named Felix has a deep voice that’s soothing to the ear, and it eases the pain away from Chan’s eyes as they fall into a casual exchange of pleasantries. Minho’s not sure why his chest feels uneasy, but the feeling only grows when Felix turns his big, innocent eyes towards Minho and smiles.

“Who’s this?”

“Oh, this is Minho,” Chan quickly replies, his eyes turning to Minho, the worries hidden in his eyes disappearing behind a big smile. “He’s a… a good friend.”

Minho has to admit it hurts a little to hear Chan hesitate, but he maintains a polite smile on his face as he nods in greeting.

Felix observes this little interaction quietly, his thoughts hidden behind his bright and cheerful expression, and Minho doesn’t know what to feel when Felix quickly says, “Oh, that’s nice. Well, I’ll leave the two of you be. Enjoy the rest of your date!”

Chan’s cheeks darken in color as Felix leaves, and Minho hopes Chan can’t see that his own ears are burning too. Neither of them have yet to acknowledge that what they’ve been going on are more like dates than just meetups with friends, and the issue of asking Chan about his opinion on soulmates has left Minho wary of insinuating that he feels something more than friendship between him and Chan, but Minho’s heart flutters all the same upon hearing someone so plainly call this situation a date.

That feeling doesn’t last long however, as Minho watches Chan’s eyes follow Felix, who disappears through the cafe door. Against his better judgment, Minho shifts in place and asks, “So who was that? A friend?”

Chan hesitates for only a single moment, but it’s a moment that seems to last an eternity as the galaxy in Chan’s eyes dims.

“Yeah, he’s an old friend,” Chan says quietly, the silence of the words he doesn’t say hanging heavily over his head. He’s quick to shake his emotional burden off though, as he grabs Minho by the wrist and says, “Hey, look, a table just freed up!”

Minho lets Chan lead the way, watching the sunlight filtering in through the windows cast light and shadow over the outlines of Chan’s face and body. He lets Chan take the lead in the conversation, directing his thoughts to other, more pleasant things, like the song Chan’s currently writing, the cute dog he met in the park last week, but in the back of Minho’s mind, he can’t help but replay the images in Chan’s eyes, of a universe threatening to fall apart at just the sight of a person who must have a history with Chan, a shared past with a Chan that Minho had yet to know.

The image haunts Minho for days, until one day, when Minho takes up a spot in the corner of the same cafe, his homework spread all out on the table in front of him, a familiar voice interrupts to his thoughts.

“Hey, you’re Minho, right? Mind if I sit with you for a bit? The person I’m waiting for is running a bit late.”

Minho looks up to find Felix staring down at him with a kind, innocent smile, a cup of coffee in each hand and a shoulder bag balanced precariously in the crook of his elbow. Minho smiles thinly in response and gestures to one of the empty seats at the table with his head.

“Sure, feel free to take a seat. You’re Felix, right? Chan’s friend from the other day.”

Minho knows this very well of course. He hasn’t forgotten about Felix since the day Chan ran into him, his eyes full of love and hurt. He asks anyways though and lets Felix smile and politely reintroduce himself as he takes a seat at Minho’s table, and they exchange pleasantries that mean nothing before their chatter dwindles into silence, and Minho pretends to turn back to the work he was doing before Felix had interrupted him.

They sit without speaking for a while, as Minho continues to read the words in his textbook without understanding a word. He flips mindlessly through the pages, as Felix drinks aimlessly from his coffee and checks his messages. Minho watches the frown on Felix’s face deepen as he begins to type hastily on his phone, until finally Minho can’t hold back his curiosity any longer as he asks, “Is everything all right?”

“Hmm?” Felix looks up, as if he’d forgotten Minho was even there, before a sheepish look crosses his face. “Oh, sorry, I was just texting the person I’m meeting up with. He got lost again, so I might be stuck here waiting for a bit longer.”

“Does your friend get lost often?” Minho asks, raising an eyebrow.

“He’s clumsy,” Felix shrugs, his tone fond despite his best effort to look annoyed. “Guess that’s what makes him adorable though.”

Minho smiles despite himself at the innocent way Felix compliments his friend. He doesn’t have much else to say to Felix after that though, so Minho pretends to go back to his studies again, but this time Felix doesn’t let the silence linger.

“Actually, is it all right if I ask you a question?”

Minho debates briefly whether to decline Felix’s request. He stares down at the sentence on his textbook that he’s just read multiple times without processing any of the words, and finally shuts his textbook with a sigh.

“Sure, go for it. I’m not getting any work done anyways, and I’d like to get to know a friend of Chan’s better.”

Felix offers Minho a grateful smile that makes Minho feel bad for being in such a bad mood, before Felix’s face suddenly shifts into a serious stare that unnerves Minho even before he speaks.

“Are you dating Chan?”

Minho’s brain screeches to a halt. He stares blankly at Felix for several moments too long, before he remembers to scowl and scoff, “What makes you think that?”

“Ah, so not dating yet,” Felix continues on, oblivious to the glare Minho shoots him when his comment is ignored. “Chan looked so content around you the other day that I thought maybe he’d finally decided to give dating a chance again.”

Minho frowns at Felix’s comment, the word “again” having not been lost on Minho’s ears. He battles with the various degrees of suspicion, anticipation, and embarrassment in his chest, and settles for a simple response.

“Why do you even care?”

Minho must not have done a good job keeping the venom from out of his voice, because Felix takes it all in and lets out such a joyous laugh that Minho almost forgets to be annoyed.

“You really must love Chan so much,” Felix says, wiping away the tears forming in his eyes as he finally stops laughing.

Minho opens his mouth to deny, but somehow, he can’t find the heart to do so. It’s true, he is madly in love with Chan, and when everyone, even a mere stranger like Felix, seems to have read Minho like an open book, it only seems to hurt more than Chan alone can’t see it.

“All right, you asked me a question, so let me ask you one too,” Minho decides to say instead, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “What are you to Chan? He called you an old friend, but I can see that you’re clearly not just that.”

Felix laughs again, and somehow the deepness in his voice seemingly soothes Minho’s worries like magic.

“No wonder you’re feeling hostile.  I wonder if that’s what you’d call a lover’s instinct,” Felix says. “You don’t have to worry though, I’m not here to try to steal Chan from you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Felix shrugs.

“I’m Chan’s ex,” Felix says simply, and every word is like a punch to Minho’s gut. “We dated for several years in high school, and I thought I would spend the rest of my life in love with Chan, that maybe one day we’d get married and the world would burst into color like a wedding gift from the universe itself. We broke up several years ago though, and I’ve long moved past my feelings for Chan, but I still care about him a lot even if we don’t see each other often anymore, so I’m glad he has someone like you looking out for him now.”

“If you cared that much, then why did you stop dating?” Minho finds himself asking, even as his chest grows tight, already fearful of the answer he’s about to hear.

“Because I know what the world looks like in color,” Felix says, a clarity in his eyes as he stares back at Minho, like he needs Minho to see and understand everything Felix is trying to tell him, “and Chan’s world is still gray.”

Minho’s expression grows steely. He clenches his jaw and stares back at the dark eyes that can see a world completely foreign to Minho, and he doesn’t know what to do with the sudden hurt bleeding from his heart.

“So you dumped Chan when you found your actual soulmate,” Minho says bitterly, but the words are barely out of his mouth before Minho already realizes that it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Felix’s eyes shift down to his tightly clenched hands, and Minho realizes the hurt he feels is mirrored in Felix’s eyes, like it’s still painful to bring such memories back up to the surface, but Felix persists, meeting Minho’s eyes again with an even more determined look.

“No, Chan dumped me,” Felix answers, the truth weighing heavily in the air between them. “Chan was with me when I met my soulmate, and he broke up with me the next day because he thought I would be better off dating my soulmate rather than him. No matter how much I tried to convince him that I still loved him, Chan insisted on letting me go, and eventually, I gave up. I let him break up with me, though I guess you could argue that because of that, we both broke each other’s heart that day, so I shoulder part of that blame too.”

“You’re being a little harsh on yourself, don’t you think?” Minho says. “If anything, it’s the world’s fault for not making you and Chan soulmates then.”

“That’s a kind thing to say for someone who’s currently in love with Chan,” Felix smiles, and Minho feels his heart soften at Felix’s tone, already starting to feel himself be won over by Felix’s kindness. “Though I guess I’m glad that you love him enough to want the best of him. I’m sure you’ve noticed already, but Chan doesn’t have a lot of love to spare for himself.”

“Oh, I know,” Minho sighs, thinking back on the many discussions he’s had with Jisung and Seungmin since, each time concluding that maybe Chan didn’t love himself enough to see that he had a soulmate.

“Then as someone who cares about Chan, I want to give you some advice,” Felix says. “I hope you don’t take this in a bad way, but unless you’re his literal soulmate, Chan won’t be opening up to you for a very long time.”

Minho stares back at Felix, taking in the incredibly serious look in his eyes, before he leans back in his seat, arms crossed in front of his chest, unable to hide the increasing smugness showing through on his face.

“Well,” Minho can’t help but smirk, “it’s a good thing I am his soulmate then.”

It’s Felix’s turn to stare at Minho with a dumbfounded look on his face. His mouth opens slightly, like he’s struggling to find the right words to say, before Felix suddenly lets out a short breath of air, his disbelief blossoming into pure, unfiltered joy.

“You’re his soulmate? Really?”

Minho nods, and somehow, the smile on Felix’s face grows even wider. He looks happier than even Jisung did when Minho told him Chan was his soulmate, and the sight of Felix’s smile leaves Minho strangely warm inside, as any residual grudge Minho might’ve had about Felix being Chan’s past lover melts away altogether.

The joy on Felix’s face is cut short just as quickly though, as a sudden thought seems to strike him like a clap of thunder on a clear sunny day.

“Wait. If you’re Chan’s soulmate, then why aren’t you dating already?”

Felix’s words wipe the smugness from Minho’s face as quickly as Felix’s joy had turned to heartbreak. Minho looks away, sinking back in his seat, searching for the right words to make up an answer, but Felix once again figures everything out faster than Minho can.

“Chan doesn’t know, does he?” Felix says, a question despite so obviously knowing the answer as Minho matches Felix’s gaze with a deep sigh. “He can’t see the soulmate bond between you yet.”

Minho presses his lips together into a thin line, unable to refute Felix’s words. As the silence between them festers, Minho can’t help but let out a bitter snort.

“I’m starting to think you’re just here to mock me for not being able to date Chan despite being his soulmate.”

“I’m not,” Felix immediately says, his deep voice quiet, steady, weary, and Minho knows Felix means it. “I just… I always thought Chan would finally find the happiness he deserves when he finds his soulmate. I know he wants it too, but I guess the world isn’t that simple.”

Minho takes in Felix’s concerned expression and suddenly sits up a little straighter in his seat. “Wait, you’re someone who knows how Chan feels about soulmates.”

Felix frowns a little, as if taken aback by Minho’s sudden enthusiasm, but he nods and says, “Yeah, I guess I do. Chan and I used to think we must have been each other’s soulmates, just because we were in love, but after what happened with me, I have the feeling that Chan must feel like he needs to find his soulmate before he can fall in love again. That’s why it confuses me though, that your connection with Chan didn’t show itself to him at all.”

“Well, apparently, that can happen when a person isn’t prepared to have a soulmate yet,” Minho explains, feeling hopeful as he watches the gears turn in Felix’s head. “I’ve been trying to think of ways to make Chan realize that we’re soulmates, and that involves trying to solve any misgivings he has about soulmates, so if you have any advice on that, I’d appreciate it.”

Felix sinks into deep thought for a few moments, before he casts Minho with a curious look.

“Well, I think that depends on what kind of relationship you want with Chan.”

Minho frowns back. “What do you mean? I said I’m trying to make him realize we’re soulmates, didn’t I?”

“Right, you are soulmates, but Chan can’t see it. That means that world has left the decision in your hands, Minho. It’s up to you to decide if Chan will be your soulmate, if he will be your lover, if he will be just a friend, or if he’ll go back to being just a stranger.”

“Come on, he’ll at least always be my friend,” Minho scoffs.

It doesn’t ease the serious look on Felix’s face like Minho had hoped it would. Felix just nods and says, “Right, and I’m sure you know perfectly well already, whether you’re okay with Chan being nothing more than a friend to you.”

Minho scowls at how easily Felix has clearly read Minho’s emotions, and Felix smiles despite himself.

“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to provoke you, but I think this is something you should think about carefully, before you try to make Chan see the soulmate bond between you. A soulmate bond is a connection to the person we’re destined to spend the rest of our lives with, but while it’s nice that this world gives us such immediate proof of who our soulmate is, I think it’s easy to forget that the world doesn’t get to choose what our soulmate means to us.”

Minho raises an eyebrow at Felix’s words as Felix smiles cryptically back. He wants to ask Felix more questions, but Felix’s eyes instead flit towards the entrance of the cafe as the door opens and a tall, lanky young man bursts through, scanning the room before his eyes look in their direction.

“Felix! Finally! Do you know how many different cafes I went to before I finally found this place?”

A young man nearly bumps into the table as he rushes to Felix and grips the sides of Felix’s face with his large hands. He shakes Felix’s head gently and groans, “Why do you always insist on meeting up at some new cafe in a new location?”

“I think you just need to work on your sense of direction,” Felix laughs, letting his friend shake his head around for a bit before he taps the sides of his friend’s hands lightly. His friend lets go immediately, a grin appearing on his face even as he rolls his eyes and plops down into the empty seat beside Felix. It’s only then that he seems to notice Minho, who’d been watching this interaction with a confused yet entertained look, and the young man immediately looks to Felix with a raised eyebrow.

“Who’s this?”

Felix glances towards Minho, a smile steady on his lips, as he replies, “This is Minho. I’d like to think we’ll be friends one day.”

“But you’re not friends yet?” the young man counters, twisting his head to study Minho with a calculating look that’d be unnerving if Minho hadn’t just seen the adorable smile on his face when he greeted Felix. “Felix is literally the sweetest person in the world. How are you not friends with him yet?”

“Jeongin, stop it, that’s rude,” Felix chides, smacking his friend lightly on the back of his head before he wraps an arm around the young man’s back and traps him against his side. “Minho, let me introduce you. This is Jeongin. He’s my soulmate.”

Minho’s eyes widen slightly, but he’s caught off guard when Jeongin lets out an audible groan, twisting to pout at Felix despite making no effort to get out of Felix’s hold on him.

“Felix, I thought we agreed not to introduce each other like that,” Jeongin grumbles. “It keeps giving people the wrong idea about us.”

“The wrong idea?” Minho asks.

“Yeah, whenever people hear that two people are soulmates, they always assume they must be a couple, right?” Jeongin says. “We’re not dating though, so it’s a pain to have to explain every time.”

“Wait, you’re soulmates, but you’re not a couple?” Minho blurts out.

Felix smiles knowingly at the dawning realization in Minho’s eyes, as he explains, “Yes, the world decided that Jeongin and I are soulmates, but we’re the ones who decided to just be friends. Part of it has to do with the fact that we were both in a relationship already when we first met, but after what happened between me and Chan, I didn’t want our soulmate bond to get in the way of Jeongin’s relationship, so we decided to become friends instead.”

“Please, you’re saying that like you didn’t come to me the day your ex broke your heart, crying and screaming about how much you hated me for being your soulmate,” Jeongin mutters under his breath, though his eyes twinkle with bemusement as Felix’s face turns several shades darker. “Of course we weren’t going to end up dating each other after that.”

“All right, I admit, I didn’t react well to learning Jeongin was my soulmate and that also played a part in why we decided to just be friends, but I also remember having to stop you from threatening to murder Chan after we talked it out just because you thought that’s what a soulmate was supposed to do, so I don’t think either of us were well equipped to deal with what it actually meant to be soulmates.”

Minho watches Felix and Jeongin take light hearted jabs at each other as they reminisce on the rocky start to their friendship. It feels strange to see a pair of soulmates so openly and yet comfortably talk about how their soulmate bond had not been a welcome experience. His previous experience with soulmates mainly came from Hyunjin and Changbin, with Hyunjin describing the day he met Changbin and saw color as the most magical day of his life, and from Jisung and Seungmin, who had seemingly sped-run the entire strangers to lovers experience in a week thanks to how well their personalities meshed together.

It’s obvious to him now, but Minho hadn’t considered the fact that being soulmates didn’t necessarily mean the same as being in love. He’d just assumed that he’d fallen in love with Chan because they were soulmates, but would he have even fallen in love with Chan the way he did, if he hadn’t called out to Chan that one winter’s day, so convinced that his entire world lived in those eyes?

Perhaps this is what Felix meant, when he said that a soulmate bond was just a connection. In the same way that Minho had became best friends with Jisung through their connection of being childhood friends, the way that Seungmin was now connected to Minho through Jisung, the way that dance had connected him to Hyunjin and to Changbin through Hyunjin, perhaps Minho’s soulmate bond with Chan was just a connection that offered him an insight into a soul that would’ve otherwise remained hidden from him. It was a connection that left him a more immediate, intimate knowledge about Chan that Minho might not have grasped as quickly as he did, and Minho had seen the image of Chan’s soul and fallen in love.

Minho realizes that it’s fallen quiet around him. He looks up at Felix, who’s been watching Minho with a knowing look on his face, as if he can see the gears turning in Minho’s head, and at Jeongin, who just shakes his head, like he’s figured out why Felix is talking so much about soulmates in front of him.

“We’re going to head out now, but I’ll see you around, Minho,” Felix says, picking up his bag from the ground and taking the cups of coffee with him. “I hope the next time we meet, you’ll have made a decision that makes you happy.”

Minho stares after them, watching the two soulmates leave with affection in their eyes but a line clearly drawn in the sand that defined the borders of their relationship.

For some reason, it leaves Minho’s heart feeling heavy in his chest. He casts his unfinished homework a glance and sighs, packing everything up into his bag and heading out the cafe, his feet already knowing where to go before his thoughts can fully settle.

Chan welcomes Minho into his music studio like always, with a bright smile that matches the dazzling stars shining excitedly back at Minho through his eyes. Minho manages to smile back, a thin layer of disguise over the complicated feelings in his chest, and he lets the love that still beats steadily in his heart take over, falling into the comfortable rhythm of conversation with Chan as he shows Minho his latest song.

The longer Minho sits there beside Chan though, staring at his cheerful side profile, watching the shadows dance across his skin as his computer screen flashes with black and white lights visualizing the sounds of Chan’s songs, the more Minho thinks back to the conversion he shared with Felix.

Minho realizes maybe he’s got this all wrong.

He wants Chan to realize that they’re soulmates, but there’s something he wants even more than that.

Minho wants to be Chan’s boyfriend.

He wants to snuggle up to Chan on the sofa when watching a movie together, not awkwardly seated on the other end with only the arm of the sofa for support. He wants to hold Chan’s hand and see how well his smaller hands fit in Chan’s. He wants to run his fingers through the curls in Chan’s black hair, to press light kisses against his skin and to learn the taste of Chan’s lips on his.

He wants to be Chan’s everything.

A part of him wants to believe that he already is. That Chan does love Minho as fervently and as passionately as Minho does, that he too has fallen into orbit around Minho in the same way that Minho has been pulled into his, even if he can’t see the soulmate bond between them, even if the world has remained stubbornly dull for Chan, who can’t see the universe smiling back at him like Minho does each time he stares into Chan’s eyes.

It doesn’t matter in the end though.

It won’t ever matter, not until Chan admits it himself, that Minho means the world to him even if Chan doesn’t think they’re soulmates.

Minho doesn’t want to live like that anymore. So convinced that Chan loves him back, so sure that Chan won’t ever say it.

He can’t stand it.

Minho gets up suddenly from the sofa and grabs his bag from where he’d left it in the corner of the room. Chan gets up with him, confused, concerned, as he asks, “Is everything okay?”

“Sorry, I forgot I had class later,” Minho lies, as he throws the strap of his bag over his shoulder and pulls open the door of Chan’s music studio. Chan says nothing behind him, as if wary of Minho’s sudden shift in mood, but when Minho turns in the doorway, staring at Chan with a dark expression on his face, the worry on Chan’s face is clear as day.

“Minho?” Chan asks quietly, his voice hesitant. “What’s wrong?”

Minho takes in the concerned look in Chan’s eyes, the dark blue universe that shifts into hues of dark purples and pinks, as the stars and planets in Chan’s eyes shine bright, more desperately, as if somehow they know that they might not get another chance to show their colors after this.

There’s a chance this will all go wrong, that it could very well be the last time he’ll see Chan, his soulmate, the person he loves so much, but Minho isn’t going to run from his fate.

Even if he has to spend the rest of his life in a grayscale world, with only the promise of color trapped deep within Chan’s eyes, Minho would rather risk everything than live the rest of his life smothering the love burning in his chest.

“I love you, Chan.”

Minho’s surprised by how easily the words come out of his mouth, how simple they sound in comparison to the raging turmoil inside him, and yet these words are more than enough to leave a shell-shocked expression on Chan’s face. Chan opens his mouth like he wants to respond, but Minho cuts him off, taking a deep breath as the words he’s held back for so long come pouring out.

“I love you, more than anything in this world, and I’m done trying to hide it from you any longer. I don’t care whether you believe me or not, but I love you so much, and I’m telling you this now because I want an answer from you, a serious answer about what I mean to you. You mean a lot to me, Chan, but I’m going to draw the line on our friendship right here. I don’t want to be just friends with you anymore. I want to be your lover.”

“Minho, I…”

“You don’t have to give me an answer right now,” Minho says, watching the stars dim in Chan’s eyes, watching them flicker anxiously against the dark canvas of Chan’s soul. “I know you’re waiting to find your soulmate, that you think only your soulmate could love you unconditionally back. I thought I should wait too, but I’m tired to wasting time thinking about the things I should do. I’m not going to wait for this world to show itself in color to me, because it’s not going to change the fact that I love you right now.”

Chan remains quiet as Minho speaks, his eyes so dark that Minho’s almost afraid that they’ll turn black and that he’ll lose sight of the colors in them forever.

“I’m sorry,” Chan finally says, unable to met Minho’s eyes, “but I’m going to need some time to think about this.”

“I know,” Minho says simply, trying to keep his tone level, despite the cracks forming in his heart. “Just… let me know when you’re ready, okay?”

Chan nods, still hiding his eyes, Minho’s universe, from Minho’s gaze. Minho steps back, out of Chan’s studio, and lets Chan shut the door quietly behind him, until all that’s left for Minho is the unbearable silence of what he’s just done.

The walk back to his dorm is dark. The night seems to be darker than normal, and even the faint lights of the stars seem to have been blotted out by the black expanse of sky that bears down on Minho like a heavy weight over his head. 

When Minho gets back to his dorm, he shuts the door behind him. The black and white colors of the world have never looked so cold to him before, and as Minho sinks down onto the floor, his face buried in his hands, he lets himself cry for the first time in years, burdened by the love that threatens to drown him.

For almost two weeks, Minho hears nothing from Chan. Not a single text or call, not even second hand information from any of his friends, who all shake their heads when he asks about Chan, saying they haven’t heard from him. The only reason he knows Chan’s still alive at all is thanks to Jeongin, who turns out to be an intern in the music department and sends Minho regular updates on how long Chan’s spent in his music studio that day.

It’s not like Minho to dwell too long in negativity though. With still no sign of getting an answer from Chan, Minho decides it’s time to put some effort into himself. As the spring semester comes to an end and people begin to leave for a well deserved summer break, Minho decides to book himself a train ticket to go on a solo holiday to the beach. He wants to have some peace and quiet to himself, a chance to stare up at the night sky, at the stars that continue to shine down him, a reminder of the sight he once saw in someone’s eyes, before he has to return to the reality of a soulmate who might never tell him he loves him.

Minho gets to the train station bright and early on the day of his departure, his suitcase packed lightly, already too full with the heavy emotions weighing down his heart.

As Minho searches for the platform for his train though, a familiar voice calls out behind him that makes him stop in his tracks.

“Minho!”

Minho doesn’t turn around to look back at Chan, whose footsteps come to a stop some distance behind him. He stares straight ahead of him instead, focused on the flickering lights on the departure board hanging from the wall.

Chan is breathing heavily behind him, like he’d run up to Minho without taking a break. Minho lets Chan take a moment to catch his breath, before he hears Chan’s voice says, “I heard from Jisung that you were going on a trip, and I wanted to catch you before you left.”

“Really? You came just in time then,” Minho says, surprised at how calm and collected he manages to sound, while still staring stubbornly ahead of him. “You could’ve just texted me, though I guess it’s not like you’ve bothered to do that these past few weeks either.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have turned you away like that and left you hanging for so long,” Chan apologizes immediately. “I wanted to sort out my thoughts before I talked to you again, but when I heard you were leaving for a trip, I knew I had to come talk to you before you slipped out of my grasp forever.“

Minho’s heart leaps to his throat at the phrasing of Chan’s words, but he keeps his voice light-hearted as he says, “It’s only a trip, Chan. It’s not like I wasn’t going to come back.”

“But then I’d miss my chance to give you an answer, and I realized I couldn’t leave you in the dark again for so long.”

Minho gulps. “So you have an answer then, to what I told you?”

“I do,” Chan replies, and Minho’s heart clenches tight with anticipation at the sound of longing in Chan’s voice. “I was scared, Minho, of the feelings I was developing for you, and I know you’ve talked to Felix, about how I learned he wasn’t my soulmate, about how I broke things off with him because of that. I was scared that I would get too close to you only for you to wake up one day in a world of color that I couldn’t see, and I was scared that once again I’d be left alone in this black and white world, proven once again that the people I love won’t ever truly love me back.

“But when I’m with you, Minho, even this gray world we live in feels warm. I thought I could try going back to how my life used to be before I met you, but I couldn’t. I missed spending time with you. I missed the way your face lights up when you listen to my music, I missed watching the intense concentration on your face when you dance and the way you move your body, I missed getting to talk with you about all sorts of things each time we went to a cafe or sat down for a meal. And when I thought about what you said to me, about how you found the courage to tell me how you felt despite knowing how bad I am with things like love, I realized you were right.

“I don’t care about this whole soulmate thing anymore, Minho. I don’t care if you’re not my soulmate, if I have to live every day wondering if we’re aren’t destined to be each other’s half. All that matters is how much I love you, Minho, how much I want to spend the rest of my life working to be the person you love, and no matter what happens, I don’t want to let you go.”

Minho lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He takes in another breath to compose him, and finally, he turns around to face Chan. His eyes lock onto Chan’s eyes, at the love pouring out of them, and before Minho can even say anything, the universe in Chan’s eyes flicker one last time before the world explodes with color.

The first thing Minho notices is the beautiful brown color of Chan’s eyes, rich like a decadent dark chocolate, pulling Minho in just like the universe he once saw within them.

The universe continues to spill out into the world around them, vivid colors Minho had only seen glimpses of in Chan’s eyes, before Chan lets out a breathless whisper.

“Minho, you’re my soulmate.”

Chan says it so quietly, in so much disbelief, like he’s afraid the words will be swept away, lost in the unrelentingly colorful and bright world that now surrounds them. It’s the words Minho has been wanting to hear for so long, yet Minho too feels his breath caught in his throat, frozen in the whirlwind of colors dyeing the world around them, until finally, his eyes adjust to the new reality.

Minho’s looked forward to this moment when he’ll finally see the world in color, and now that’s it’s finally happened, Minho realizes it didn’t matter in the end.

In a world full of color, Chan remains the most beautiful sight he’ll ever lay his eyes on, even if he’s dressed head to toe in black and the only color that seems to have changed is the rosy color of his cheeks.

“You idiot. It took you long enough to realize,” Minho says, as he finally lets out a short laugh.

Chan’s cheeks turn a deeper shade of red, which Minho thinks is a pretty color that suits an adorable person like Chan. He looks sheepish now as he glances away, eyes still caught up by the myriad of colors now visible to them, before he looks back at Minho shyly.

“Have you known this whole time?” Chan asks, still quiet but more confident now, as he adjusts to the sights around them and grounds himself to the reality of what it means to now be able to see color.

“I have,” Minho replies curtly back, maintaining the distance between him and Chan, leaving Chan with the option to take a step back, to reevaluate their relationship up until this point now that he knows the truth.

Chan takes a step forward instead, closer and closer, until he’s just within Minho’s reach.

“Is that the real reason why you asked for my number when we first met?”

Minho gulps. He nods, unable to trust that his voice won’t betray the anticipation in his chest, as Chan takes another step forward and gently pulls Minho’s hands into his.

“It must have been hard then, waiting for me to realize.”

Minho tries to scoff, but it catches in his throat as he stares down at his hands resting in Chan’s. After a moment of silence, Minho finally finds the strength to look up into Chan’s eyes, a warm, inviting brown, just as beautiful as he’s always imagined them.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Minho says. “I got to take my time getting to know you, Chan, and falling in love with you was the easiest thing I’ve ever done. You’re so kind and hard-working, and I love listening to your music and watching you work on your songs. I loved getting to know you and spending time together, and at some point I fell in love with you too. Just because I knew you were my soulmate first doesn’t change the fact that I love who you are, Chan. You’re beautiful, just the way you are, and I would’ve gladly lived my entire life in a grayscale world if it meant I could love you for the rest of my life.”

Chan grips onto Minho’s more tightly, his lips trembling slightly as he visibly gulps.

“It’s a bit late to be saying this, but thank you for waiting for me, Minho,” Chan says, and Minho feels his chest swell with warmth, until it spreads throughout his entire body and leaves him breathless under the loving gaze of Chan’s eyes.

It’s not like Minho to just let himself get swept up by the emotions in his heart though, so he settles back with a teasing grin on his face.

“Is that really all you have to say to me?”

Chan smiles knowingly back.

“All right, I know you’re my soulmate, Minho, but let me ask you anyways then,” Chan whispers, leaving just enough distance between their faces so that his brown eyes are still visible, sparkling like gems beneath the light. “I love you, Minho. Will you be my boyfriend?”

Minho doesn’t reply. Instead, he pulls Chan towards him by the collar of his shirt, and lets his mouth answer for him as he kisses Chan. The heavy vanilla scent of Chan’s perfume mixing with his fills Minho’s nose as he moves his lips against Chan’s, a shudder running down his spine as he feels Chan’s tongue graze against the top of his lips. They kiss for what feels like an eternity, heat rushing through Minho’s body as Chan pulls Minho in closer with a hand behind his neck, and when they finally break apart for air, Chan’s eyes are filled with so much love that Minho feels like he might melt underneath his gaze.

“I could get used to that,” Chan laughs, pulling Minho in close again, until their foreheads are almost touching.

Minho scoffs, though he lets Chan continue to hold him in his arms, as he mutters, “Well don’t. I’m not kissing you again until you make up for all the time I’ve spent worrying about how much I love you.”

“What? But that would take the rest of my life,” Chan teases, his eyes sparkling with the reflection of the lights above them, just like the stars Minho once saw shimmering in the universe in Chan’s eyes.

Minho suddenly leans in again, pressing a light kiss on Chan’s lips, the taste of vanilla still heavy on his tongue.

“I’ll loan you some kisses then,” Minho smiles, his heart light on a cloud of euphoria as Chan pulls in him closer, “so spend the rest of your life making it up to me.”

Chan smiles back, but the moment is interrupted by the voice on the intercom, announcing the platform for the departing trains.

“Oh crap, that’s my train,” Minho says, breaking out of Chan’s embrace to grab his suitcase from where he’d left it.

“You’re still going on that trip?” Chan asks bemusedly, watching Minho double check that he has everything he needs.

Minho’s about to huff back that of course he’s still going on the trip he planned for some well deserved personal time, when a thought suddenly strikes him.

“You know, I’m sure they’ve still got train tickets available,” Minho says, letting the hopeful feeling in his chest come through in his voice.

Chan grins back, and Minho realizes now that Chan’s had a backpack on this whole time, like he’s planned it all out long before Minho has.

“Where were you planning on going?” Chan asks, like he hasn’t already decided that he’s coming with Minho on the trip.

“The beach. I heard you can see the stars of the universe at night really well there.”

“I do love star gazing,” Chan hums thoughtfully, before he steps forward and pulls Minho back into his arms, “and I think I’d love it even more if I could spend that time with you.”

Minho stares into Chan’s eyes. They’re no longer shining with the colors of the universe, just a simple brown now that their entire world has filled with color, but the memory of those eyes persist, even as Chan, his soulmate, his boyfriend, cheerfully heads off to buy a ticket.

Minho thinks he’ll love star gazing too.

Because from now on, he’ll always have his universe with him.