Stigma Love's Algorithm [ A BTS x Reader Poly ]

Chapter 91: The Weight of Fate

I let out a sob and buried my face in my hands.

"But something changed. It wasn't a big thing. It was slow. Quiet. Watching our friends find their soulmates. Watching you, when you thought I wasn't looking. The way you stared at the app sometimes-like you were wondering. Like you were afraid of what it might say. Like maybe part of you needed to know."

The memory stabbed at me.

He never said it out loud, but I saw the ache in his eyes.

The curiosity.
The same one I tried to smother.

"And then-after that last esports win-" My voice cracked again.

"Everyone was cheering. Cameras flashing. I was holding the trophy in my hands. And I felt nothing. I felt empty. And then I looked for you in the crowd and you were there, smiling that big, beautiful smile-and I felt complete, full. I thought there's no way he's not my soulmate."

He inhaled sharply.
The sound made my chest pull tighter.

"That next morning, I activated it."

My words came out like a confession in church.

"Half hope. Half fear. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely type in my name. I kept thinking-the app for sure will say it's you. Because how can I feel that with anyone else that Maybe it'll confirm what I've always known. But..."

I paused, letting the silence wrap around us again.

"I have seven soulmates, Hyung."

His breath caught.

I wiped my face, looking straight at him.

"Seven."

He looked like he'd been punched.

"But I rejected the bond. Not because I didn't feel it. But because I didn't want to lose you. I didn't want fate to tell me you weren't enough. That what we've built-ten years of love, of laughter, of life-wasn't meant to last."

I moved toward him slowly.
Kneeling.

"I couldn't bear losing you-not even to fate."

He looked down. His eyes finally let go. One tear, then another.
I wanted to catch them all.

At first, he didn't speak.
The silence stretched out like a wound.
But then, softly-his voice cracked.

"I've been scared too."

My breath hitched.

He raised his gaze to mine.

"I never told you, but I was afraid of what the app would say too. I kept looking at it. But I've never activated it. Because I knew-if it said we weren't soulmates, I'd never believe in anything again."

His mouth trembled.

"What we have... it's always felt like forever. But I worried maybe forever isn't the same thing to the world as it is to us."

I reached for his hand.
This time, he let me take it.

"And when I saw that notification," he whispered,

"I didn't feel anger. I felt... loss. Like I'd already lost you to something I couldn't fight. To something bigger than us."

Tears fell freely down both our cheeks now.

We were just two boys again.

Just us. No cameras. No fame. No rules. Just hearts breaking and trying to heal at the same time.