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Alpha Han Dongmin and omega Myung Jaehyun. Best friends. It might seem unlikely, but not completely impossible, to have a platonic relationship between an alpha and an omega, as proven by Dongmin and Jaehyun themselves. At least that’s as far as their relationship go in their friends's eyes. Because behind the safety of their shared apartment, their rut and heat period in the past three years were actually spent with each other.
Yes, they’re more than just best friends. They also happened to be heat and rut partners.
But that’s it.
Despite Jaehyun’s wish to be someone more special to Dongmin, to be his lover, his mate, he knows those wishes will never come true.
Why?
Because he is not Dongmin’s soulmate. He’s not someone who’s destined for him.
In their world, soulmate mark appear in a form of a tattoo of the meeting date between two soulmates in any part of their body. Dongmin has his mark below his left collarbone, a date from the future, years after he met Jaehyun. The small, black ink of 251020 always seemed to be mocking him from his position below or above Dongmin during their heated time together.
And as for Jaehyun himself… he didn’t have any on his body. People said it’s because the soulmate of markless people isn’t born in the same time period as them. They can still get married to someone despite not having any soulmate mark, because having a mark doesn’t always mean that they’ll meet their soulmate or fated pair.
So it’s really no wonder that their friends never really had any suspicion regarding their relationship, despite how much PDA they usually display. Because what’s there to be suspicious about anyway? Markless Jaehyun is definitely not Dongmin’s soulmate.
It fills Jaehyun with dread, when 20th of October slowly but surely approaching.
There are still some weeks left for Jaehyun to delude myself into thinking that maybe, he still has a chance to be with Dongmin.
But the more he thinks about it, the more it becomes clear that the best solution is to end things as it is now, before everything is too late.
(But who is he kidding anyway. He knew that everything is already fucked up since the first time he realized his feeling for Dongmin.)
Or maybe later. When his hole is not being stuffed full by Dongmin’s cock that keeps hitting his prostate in the best way possible. He’ll worry about that when his mind is not filled by chants of Dongmin’s name and the sound of his heart being broken up into pieces.
But despite his determination, Jaehyun ended up keeps delaying the inevitable, until suddenly it’s already three nights before Dongmin meeting date with his soulmate.
That same night, Jaehyun peeled himself away from Dongmin’s warm body with a heavy heart. He spent a minute (or an hour) too long just staring at Dongmin’s serene sleeping face, touching Dongmin’s lips with his own for one last time before retreating back to his own room.
That night, Jaehyun couldn’t sleep. And if he ended up wetting his pillow with his tears, nobody bear witness except for the silence of his room.
–
He didn’t see Dongmin at all the next day. And the day after that.
But on the evening of October 20th, he is being introduced to Dongmin’s soulmate by the man himself.
And Dongmin’s soulmate is… very breathtaking. That’s the first thought that came to Jaehyun’s mind when Dongmin introduces the beta to him. His energy matches Dongmin’s well, as if they’re really destined for each other, born to be together in this lifetime.
And in Jaehyun’s eyes, Dongmin’s smile is even more blinding than usual. Dongmin that night is more glowing than Dongmin the day before, the Dongmin that Jaehyun knows. Knew. The Dongmin that stands in front of him now is… kinda feels distant and like a stranger to him.
Is that how meeting your soulmate change you?
Jaehyun will never know, and he still try to convinces himself that it’s fine, that it’s okay with him.
–
After that meeting, Jaehyun started to actively avoids Dongmin.
It pains him to be away from Dongmin, but if he wants to spare his heart, he knows that it’s something he has to do.
Until one late night (or is it early morning?) when he finally stumbles upon Dongmin who is currently seated on the couch in their living room. The last few weeks, Jaehyun has gone out of their shared apartment early in the morning and only comes back late into the night, when he’s sure Dongmin is already asleep or is still out with Donghyun.
“Oh, I thought you’re hanging out with Donghyun tonight? Sorry, it’ll just be a minute, I only need to take some clothes before going back to Sungho’s place.”
Dongmin just stares passively at him. “Do you have something important to do with him tonight?”
Jaehyun is taken aback by this question. “Um, not really. Just thinking that maybe you’ll want some space alone with Donghyun,” he mumbles while looking away at any other direction beside Dongmin.
“I’m not, and Donghyun has gone back to his place already.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Why don’t you join me? It’s been a while since the last time we drink together, no? I think Sungho hyung wouldn’t mind you ditching him just for once tonight,” asks Dongmin while scooting over, leaving some space for Jaehyun to sit beside him on the beige sofa.
Jaehyun wants to refuse. Because if he happened to get drunk, there’s a big, fat chance that his mouth might run loose and ended up with him confessing his undying love to Dongmin.
Definitely a big no.
But when he looks up and finally makes eye contact with Dongmin… he knows immediately that he’s already losing the battle of will. In the end, he just nods his agreement to Dongmin’s invitation, finding himself unable to refuse those beautiful pleading eyes.
Dongmin really has him wrapped around his pretty fingers, no?
They take turn drinking the beers that Jaehyun finally noticed are already on the table in front of them. No conversation exchanged, only silence that pressed down on Jaehyun’s shoulders heavily.
The time when they’ll laugh at basically everything feels like a faraway dream now. Can they ever go back to those moments when it feels as if the world is theirs? Or will Jaehyun be left alone by himself, only being able to look at the old and forgotten memories of their times together?
That’s it, until Dongmin finally breaks it, words a little bit slurring but with eyes still focusing completely on Jaehyun. With his pair of dark orbs that never failed to make Jaehyun feel bare and weak at the knees.
“I really miss you, you know.”
Jaehyun is surely taken aback by Dongmin’s words, but chooses to keep his silence.
‘Me too.’
“It feels empty without you.”
‘I feel the same way too.’
“Don’t you miss me?”
‘I miss you so much it nearly kills me every single minute I was away from you.’
“How’s your relationship with Donghyun?” is what Jaehyun ended up asking as an answer to Dongmin’s question.
“It’s fine, we’re good. It’s as if I have found my missing piece. It seems like someone up there really got it right for us.”
Ouch.
“Good for you then,” Jaehyun says bitterly, lips shaking. He didn’t even realize when a stray tear already made it’s way down his cheek. Jaehyun swiftly ducks his head to try to hide his tears, successfully hiding his face from Dongmin’s view.
“Jaehyun…”
“Congratulations, for finding your missing piece,” he continues through gritted teeth, despite the way his sight gets blurred from the damned tears that just refuses to stop. He definitely didn’t want Dongmin to see him crying like this. “Good for you that they got it right for the two of you.”
Dongmin is just stares silently at him with an unreadable look in his eyes.
“But he’s not the one that I want.”
Jaehyun jerks his head upward at this. “What do you mean?” he asks shakily.
“All this time, all along, since the first time we met, it’s always been you. There’s no one else.”
Jaehyun's bottom lips tremble harder at this. “No you’re not. What you feel towards me is just lust. Desire. It’s just a temporary feeling you have before you meet your soulmate.”
Dongmin shakes his head. “But how do you explain the way my heart beats crazily right now then? It’s always like this every time you near me, and it didn’t change at all even after Donghyun’s arrival in my life.”
“But why don’t you say something sooner?” he asked again, still so doubtful.
How can he not? Because if all of this is only a dream, Jaehyun is not sure his heart will be able to take being broken once again. It already shatter beyond recognition, and only Dongmin is able to mend it.
Dongmin just smiles bitterly. “Because I at least owe you this much. I don’t want to give you false hope because I’m still uncertain at that time. Because what if I had a change of heart when my soulmate appear? You definitely don’t deserve that heartbreak. And I’ve had enough people telling me that what I feel towards you will mean nothing once I meet my soulmate. So I wait. I want to make sure first that what I feel for you is real. I wait so I can prove that what they say is wrong. That no matter what happens, my feeling for you will never change.”
Jaehyun couldn’t help but feel a sliver of hope starts to bloom in his heart.
“I know it will take time for you to believe it. But platonic soulmates do exist, just like me and Donghyun. And I hope you’ll let me show just how much you mean to me from now on, until the time you can finally see that my heart only belongs to you, that it’s always been yours since the beginning.”
A true, sincere smile finally make it’s appearance on Jaehyun’s lips. It feels foreign, he can’t even remember when’s the last time he showed it to the world.
“I’ll take your offer on that.”
That night they ended up confessing their feelings and have a desperate kind of sex to make up for the confusion and heartbreak they have to endure all this time, and finally marking each other as mates. The marks might not last, but they know they can always redo it. They might not have matching soulmate tattoos, but their mate marks is already more than enough.
–
“But can’t you see the way he looks at Donghyun? He has stars in his eyes.”
“Fuck the way he looks at Donghyun. Dongmin looks at you as if you hung the stars on the sky, as if you’re his only light in the dark. And fuck this soulmate bullshit. If there’s someone who’s destined for Dongmin, it’s definitely you.”
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