𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤 - 𝕐𝕦𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕜

t w o

Two years later

Yuta smiled to himself; he could remember these events like they were yesterday. He had finally reached his goal and managed to debut (since he was currently sleeping in a dorm room which he shared with the other members), now it was a matter of continuing to work hard. He closed his eyes and pulled the duvet up to his chin. The air was chilly and after a gruelling day of dance practice, all he wanted to do was fall asleep, but the absence of a body next to him felt more and more obvious as the days went by. It was now the 26th of November and he briefly notes how it had been exactly one month since the best day of his life, his eighteenth birthday.

He remembers how he woke up to rush to the bathroom. His heart had burned. That was more than fine to him though, because he got to see Mark's name appear on his chest. He could've cried, and he'd be lying if he said his eyes didn't water. It wasn't that much of a surprise because the inexplicable attachment towards the smaller boy was kind of a massive clue. However, he had still breathed a sigh of relief, the little voice in the back of his head had been making him doubt himself in the weeks leading up to his birthday. A huge weight was lifted off his shoulders, he certainly wouldn't be satisfied with anyone else. After had his private moment of excitement, he put a shirt on and went into the kitchen.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUTA!" exclaimed his nine other members. He was thrilled that his friends had remembered.

Body cold, but heart warmed, Yuta continues to grin because the memory of his members all wearing party hats and standing there with a large cake is wonderful. Of course, Mark was the cutest. He had been stood there in a slightly oversized hoodie and looked uncharacteristically nervous, fiddling with his sleeves. So the only logical action was to hug Mark first, and then thank the other members second. Priorities.

"Come on, blow out the candles, we woke up early for this" Johnny huffed.

Broken out of his trance, Yuta had let go of Mark tentatively and blew out the candles and made a wish:

I hope Mark accepts me when he turns eighteen.

"What did you wish for?"

"I can't tell you, I want it to come true"

"Oh, okay"

The group had spent the rest of the morning eating cake, talking and watching Yuta open his gifts. He received quite a lot: a card from his parents, clothes from Johnny and Taeyong, football gloves from Jungwoo, the cake was baked by Jaehyun, tickets to see one of his favourite bands live from Doyoung and Haechan, tickets to watch a national football game and Winwin got him every Studio Ghibli DVD with the promise to watch all of them with him. Yuta had been so pleased with all of his gifts but still had to try and hide his disappointment, Mark didn't get him anything.

"Hey, hyung?"

"Mark? What do you want?" Oh no that sounded mean.

Mark's eyes had widened a little in disbelief and then looked a little put out but he continued anyway.

"I need to show you something, its for your birthday."

"Sure."

"Come with me, okay?" he said with a small smile.

Mark grabbed Yuta's wrist and led the older boy to his room and presented him with three small boxes wrapped in delicate yellow tissue paper.

"Happy birthday, Hyung! Go on, open them!"

At the time, Yuta had gaped at the poor boy, he really thought Mark had forgotten. That would make anyone nervous, so Mark lost his confidence and stared at the ground, fiddling with his sleeves again. Yuta carefully tore the tissue paper on the first present to find a ceramic mug. There were small fingerprints on the side, clearly handmade and dipped.

"I made it, hyung, do you like it? I'm sorry it's not perfect but I put a lot of effort in, going to a class and everything. It's also the fourth version, the first three, uh, blew up in the kiln. The teacher was actually reluctant to ket me have another go, can you believe it?" Mark huffed.

Oh. My. God.

Mark couldn't get any cuter if he tried. Yuta had wanted to cry. He opened the second and third presents at the same time, it was a pair of earrings and a candle.

"My cousin has a jewellery shop, I saw these and thought of you, hyung. The story behind the candle isn't as interesting, I was at the shop, the smell reminded me of you so I bought it. I did have to fight a middle aged woman for it though, but I won!"

That was more precious than life itself; Yuta briefly wondered if he could just... steal Mark? He didn't want the boy to be corrupted by all the awful people on the outside world. Ultimately, Yuta decided against this because this bleak reality could really use some hope.

"Thank you, I don't know what to say. I love them, you really couldn't have picked anything better!"

"I'm so happy to hear that, op-hyung! I was really nervous to give these to you because I thought you'd hate them"

"I could never." Yuta grinned.

"Good." Mark grinned back. "I had to give them to you while we were alone though, I didn't want the others to make fun of me or something"

"I don't mind"

"Sooooo, I was just wondering, do you have your soulmate mark yet? You turned eighteen right, because that is what I wrote in your card. Sorry, hyung"

"No, I did turn eighteen, don't worry so yes, I did get my soulmate mark"

"COOL! CAN I SEE?"

Yuta had frozen, he couldn't let Mark know, the younger boy would hate him; he likes girls, not guys.

"Um, no, sorry"

"Why not?"

"It's personal"

"Do I know them?"

"Yes actually, really well"

"I know! It's Winwin, isn't it? I knew you always had a crush on him!" Yuta failed to detect the thinly veiled jealousy in Mark's voice, Mark just didn't want to be forgotten.

"Hahah no, not Winwin"

"Oh" Mark looked down, his feet looked really interesting at that moment and his ears burned in embarrassment. "You won't leave me, will you? We will still be able to hang out and stuff, right? I don't want to lose my best friend."

Poor Markie. Yuta had done the only thing he could think to do, he wrapped his arms around Mark in a hug. He had squeezed tightly.

"I could never, Markie"

With the end of that memory, Yuta was blushing but he was completely content. He was so lucky, he must been the most selfless person in his previous life to deserve someone like Mark. His slender fingers delicately traced the name on his chest as he drifted off to sleep.

A/N: lets pretend that NCT 127 debuted in 2015, okay? Suspension of disbelief is truly a wonderful thing.