Hannah's POV
I was surrounded by trees, each a different vibrant shade of green laid carefully over brown feet rooted into the ground beneath me. The sun just barely peeked through the tiny openings above me like sprinkles of light shining just bright enough for me to be able to experience my surroundings.
I could tell that it had just rained, revealed by the small delicate drops of water rolling down from branches and leaves as I made my way through the forest, but also coming from how it seemed like the forest around me was full of life, eager to drink all the water nature had provided it with. It was as if they talked to each other, in the middle of a feast.
Briefly the wonder of how I had ended up here brushed against my mind, but it was quickly forgotten as I spotted what looked like a path, camouflaged by vegetation but still somewhat visible. I knew I was looking for someone, that much was clear to me, and as I turned past another big tree I saw a split in my path and I burrowed my brows in thought as I fumbled over which path to take.
"My gut says that way" Spoke a voice from beside me and as if he had always been there I looked to my right and saw Taehyung in all his glory standing tall next to me, pointing down one of the paths.
I nodded and started walking, blindly trusting Taehyung's intuition, he usually got choices like these right, right?
I turned on my feet when I felt he wasn't following me. Twisting my head in wonder as to why he's not coming with me.
"You'll find him if you follow that one!" He called out to me and smiled brightly, giving the small beams of sunlight a run for their money.
He disappeared from my sight before I could say anything and I stood there mindless for a moment, worried that I'd have to walk alone.
I felt my left hand wrapped between warm fingers, sending my sight immediately to where the warm touch came from.
"I'll walk with you" Namjoon said, his dimpled cheeks a breath of fresh air on each side of the gorgeous smile and his eyes warmly staring into mine, telling me it's okay to keep walking down to find him.
I comfortably let my hand sit in his as we turned and began down the path chosen by our soulmate, no words were spoken, no thoughts shared, just silence and the soft feeling of his hand in mine as we took in the view of the vividly alive forest around us.
Without really noticing the change, we stepped onto a warm bed of sand, unaware I'd been looking down to my feet I lifted my eyes along the beach now apparently in front of us.
The sun finally had reign over my surroundings, the sky hitting the water somewhere far away in front of me and the beach stretching out to meet a man standing where the water and the sand meets, looking out.
His posture was tight, his legs were strong, arms resting on each side in the nook of his waist and his blonde hair was waving in the warm breeze.
"There you are" I called before I ran towards him at full speed, an excited giggle escaping my throat as I threw myself against his back in a hug
"I've been looking everywhere for you, Jimin"
He turned around, locking eyes with mine, a kind smile facing me that sent shivers through my body.
"Hannah, wake up" He spoke and every emotion was replaced with confusion.
"We're here, wake up, Hannah!" Escaped his mouth this time, almost animated as the sound of his words were sharp but his mouth a blurred mismatch trying to say something else, and on top of that, the voice escaping him wasn't his.
I looked around me to see if Namjoon had noticed this as well but when I turned he was gone, my hand cold from his absence. Then the entire world started spinning, I spun myself once more to face Jimin but noticed he was gone as well and then everything started spinning.
Then I woke up.
The hard feeling of a badly angled seat up against my back was the first sensation to hit me as I slowly opened my eyes, bright lights from the ceiling forcing me to shut them again was the second. It took me several moments of disappointment from not being asleep anymore until I realised where I was. Snapping my eyes open in an instant to collect the data of my surroundings.
"You're not easy to wake up. Did you sleep well?" Jin whispered from next to me, making me jump in my seat.
Sitting up straight to look at Jin I noticed how one of my hands was not as easy to stretch out as the other, following the unusual sensation I found a sleeping Namjoon on the other side of me, his arm stretched long across his seat to meet my hand on my side. It didn't look comfortable at all but he did look as if he was in the middle of the most peaceful sleep nonetheless.
Taking two seconds to contemplate whether or not to let go of his hand I decided I valued the ability to stretch my arms more than this hand holding right now and carefully reclaimed my hand. Stretching both arms into the air to properly wake myself up I heard a squeal from where Namjoon slept and saw his eyes were now halfway open, a frown present on his mouth.
We made eye contact and at the same time as I smiled at him, he smiled back, the frown forgotten.
"I'll take that as a yes" Jin giggled from the other side and I couldn't help but chuckle with him, my eyes still lost in the sea of Namjoon.
"I tried waking you to make your seat into a bed, but you wouldn't budge" He explained, his voice deep and groggy with sleep while he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
I nodded, that did sound like me. To be fair I felt like I hadn't slept that well in ages. I was most likely intentionally not waking up when they tried to wake me.
Turning to Jin my heart skipped a beat meeting the warm gaze already following mine before I found it. Was it always going to be like that? Whenever I look at them, any of them, I feel like my heart is about to burst. Every single time like my body had forgotten I had someone who made me feel like that and got surprised by the sensation of eye contact, or physical contact.
"I swear when I fell asleep, Jimin was sitting there"
"He's sleeping on yoongi" Jin said nonchalantly, packing his book into a bag on the floor.
"On Yoongi?"
He chuckled, the sound enough to brew joy in my own body when he leaned over the aisle grabbing the closed screen on the seat on the same row as ours and pulled it down. Revealed were two sleeping bodies comfortably laying on a bed slightly short for their long legs, forcing them to tangle their legs together. Jimin was indeed sleeping on Yoongi, his chest was resting fully on top of the older soulmate and his face was buried in the pillow on the opposite side of his head. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight but I also almost envied them for the closeness. They seemed completely content in each others proximity and I realised that sort of trust and love was something I also wanted to achieve one day.
Sure I knew I had seven soulmates who on several occasions have let me know they'll be there for me and keep me safe. But the pull I feel towards them, the ache to be near them, to hear them, see them, touch them. All that is like my body and soul wants me to just let go of everything else in life and as if they're they answers to every question I've ever had.
But I can't help but listen to my mind telling me that I have yet to get to know these men, in the whirlwind that is feeling their presence I almost let myself forget that they are strangers to me in every sense of the word. The last couple of weeks I have acted outside of habit, shown affection towards someone immediately after meeting them the first time, and I can't let my soul tell me that that's normal. My entire being is telling me that I am now to spend the rest of my life with these seven men because we are literally meant for each other, but all I can think when I get the clarity to is that I shouldn't be thinking that way now. Maybe some time in the future, when we're well aquatinted, maybe even in love, then that should be a topic. The urgency within me is slowly freaking me out while also slowly changing my stubborn mind.
Because the truth is I do picture these seven men being my eternity.
Glancing over at Yoongi and Jimin sleeping only enhanced that.
How quickly I was able to recover from my ended relationship with Martin spoke the same thing.
But the fear of letting go of what I knew, hung over me, a cloud on a sunny day, staying in place almost touching my hair.
Shaking my head to rid my mind of the overwhelming thoughts of a reality I wasn't sure if I was facing or not. I started packing my stuff into my bag as well. It was a borrowed one from Namjoon. I had no belongings obviously, my passport a mere piece of paper printed from a picture Taehyung had taken, but Namjoon had packed a small leather bag for me with a book, some snacks, a blank notebook and a pencil full of pencils and colours. He had remembered the time Taehyung had told them we were painting and thought I might want to draw something to make the time pass. A very kind gesture, and I felt warm just from the fact that he had remembered that about me, but to no use as I slept through the entire flight, only barely touching a couple of the snacks before dreamland caught me.
"We shouldn't exit together. People might draw conclusions as to who we are if we're a group exiting the airport." Namjoon mumbled as silently as possible while still making sure we could hear him.
My first thought was 'why don't you just talk through the connection if we don't want anyone to hear'
But then I recalled Taehyung telling me it didn't work in the air and it suddenly dawned upon me that it indeed had been completely silent all through the flight, but I had previous to this realisation chucked it down to being Yoongi blocking me once again.
"Good idea, let's split up. How do you wanna do it?" Jin asked, leaning over next to me to be closer to Namjoon to keep his voice low.
"How about, Hannah, you take Jin with you first. You speak the language and blend in so you'll most likely be able to make an anonymous man out of the loud, brightly dressed..." He paused, looking over at Jin who was giving him a look of disapproval from the descriptions "Beautiful, and kind man who I adore so much" He finished and I giggled as Jin nodded, happy with Namjoon's save.
"Then I'll go with the sleepyheads. After a sleep like this they're just going to cling to each other anyway so I'll just drag them with me through the airport"
I nodded, no complaints or notes about the plan. It still baffled me that a plan was needed for simply exiting a plane and getting to the car, but I guess to them this wasn't new.
As the plane finally landed and we began to make our way out I felt this insane rush within me. It was more than a pull, it was as if it came from the core of my body and shone through everything else to make itself known. The expression on Jin's face as we walked down the hallway after exiting the plane told me something similar was happening to him.
"This feeling" I said, clutching one hand to my chest trying to explain what I meant without words, unable to properly describe was I was feeling through them.
Jin nodded and smiled down to me. "I feel it too. It's new, I don't know what it is"
"We all feel it" a voice spoke in my mind and I almost cried upon hearing it.
"Hoseok" I called out, my voice definitely showing the excitement from finally hearing his voice again.
Yoongi had kept my mind blocked while in Korea upon my request because my mind was so full of the new encounters I couldn't make my self let everything in at once.
But now, hearing his voice again after a full day of him being nowhere to be found I realised how used I had gotten to him popping in and holding conversations whenever and wherever.
"Hey sunshine, I missed you, are you alright?"
Before I had time to answer Namjoon chimed in.
"We're all in the same place, I think our souls can feel it"
It made sense. And that would make it a new sensation for all of us, because it's never been all of us at the same time, in the same place.
Giggling I walked through the busy airport with Jin by my side, all worries replaced with the giddy excitement of seeing the soulmates I had somehow left.
We stopped by the baggage claim to wait for our suitcases, Jin's full of his clothes and mine full of Taehyung, Jungkook and Hoseok's clothes.
I felt Jin's presence next to me even if we weren't saying anything. The comfort and safety of him being near me wrapped around me even without the vocal assurance. But as I looked up to see his beautiful face he was already looking down to me, a content smile resting on his lips.
"Your happiness...it feels nice" He whispered. And I shied away from the comment, feeling almost naked before his eyes in the realisation of how my emotions are like an open book to him.
His arm snaked down to mine and I quickly and confidently took his hand in mine and braided our fingers together. The first ever feeling of skin to skin contact and I felt the tingles running up from where we were connected.
But then his face changed, almost glitched out as a blank expressionless look met me. I burrowed my brows in confusion but didn't have time to ask what was going on before Namjoon was talking to us.
"Hannah, Jin, you gotta move, the girl to your left is literally wearing an RJ t-shirt" My eyes shot open and I carefully turned to see the proof of Namjoon's statement. Jin however, hadn't moved. He didn't say anything through the connection and he didn't start walking away when I did, our wrapped hands acted like a tug-o-war between us when I walked.
Without using his name I tried to wake him from his daze and get him to start walking but it wasn't working. It was as if he was stuck, frozen to the spot. And if the girl to the left of him turns just slightly, she will see who he is.
Then it hit me, our hands. He froze when I took his hand in mine. Maybe he didn't like skin to skin contact, maybe he was shocked? Either way I found no other logical explanation and it was just further proven when I shook my hand loose from his grip and his face immediately showed he was out of the daze.
"What just happened" I asked him but he shook his head and finally started walking with me to a different spot to wait for our luggage. When we finally found a spot far enough away from the fan and still not near Namjoon and the sleepy boys he seemed to calm down and with a heavy breath his shoulders sank.
"You blocked me" He said simply, eyeing up a familiar suitcase coming our way.
"I what now?"
"When I touched you.." Jin started, but was cut off as my suitcase neared us and he had to step to the front to grab it. "I couldn't feel the others anymore.. Their feelings.. It was just me"
Taking my suitcase from him I was lost for words once again as he seemed almost matter-of-factly over the situation.
"I did that to you?"
Jin pulled the second suitcase off of the band and turned to face me. He nodded and made sure to keep eye contact.
"I'm sorry" I apologised, looking down to the ground, embarrassed almost over my lack of knowledge of this whole soulmate thing, while also sad my touch took that away from him.
"Don't apologise, I was just caught off guard. You didn't do anything wrong" He told me assuringly and wrapped his free arm around my shoulders and hugged me to his side as we started walking towards the exit with our suitcases.
I could rest in the mindset of "now I have to start thinking about when I touch my soulmates in case something bad happens because my soulmate enhancements are apparently all over the place" which was a tempting road to take in this current atmosphere hanging around me.
But I shook it off to focus on where we were going, because I couldn't help but feel the excitement run through every millimetre of my body when I remembered reuniting with Taehyung, Jungkook and Hoseok was right around the corner.