hyerim ran her hands through her hair as she waited for jeno to arrive. they agreed beforehand to meet at her classroom and go to lunch together.
the girl convinced her friends to go ahead without her, explaining that she had a question for mr. hong. when they left, she asked her teacher what animal he would be, then ran out of the class as he stared at her, dumbfounded. now, the brunette was seated outside of the classroom, mindlessly picking at the ends of the bandaids on her fingers.
the soft sound of footsteps made her look up, and a small smile pulled at her lips when she spotted a familiar blue-haired hockey player.
pushing herself up and quickly brushing off her pants, hyerim sent her soulmate a quick wink and reached a hand out to him. jeno took it, tilting his head in an attempt to hide his shy grin.
"i asked the guys to meet me in the gym." the girl nodded, "okay. i texted soobin the same. he kept asking why so i had to lure him with video games. know how to play?"
the boy shrugged as he gently pulled the brunette in the direction of the gymnasium. "enough. we used to play a lot of call of duty and battleground together."
hyerim's eyes drilled into the side of his face, causing the elder to stare back at her. "what? what games do you play?"
"minecraft, dude. and animal crossing."
after a brief moment of silence following their very different gaming preferences, the pair chuckled. "wow, i didn't know minecraft was still a thing." "oh, you have no idea."
within two minutes, jeno and hyerim stood in front of the gym doors, no longer hand in hand. the boy with blue hair glanced over at the shorter's face, tempted to brush a stray wave out of her face. "nervous?"
she looked up at him, doe eyes sparkling adamantly. "nope. let's do this. for shinee."
caught off guard with her ending words, jeno failed to bite back his loud, shocked laugh. he nodded his head as he calmed himself, "okay, okay. for shinee."
side by side, the soulmates entered the gymnasium, instantly getting flooded by the annoyed voices of their friends. when spotting his blue-haired captain, haechan dragged himself to his feet with an overdramatic groan.
"jenooo, i'm hungry," he made sure to elongate the last word, causing the said boy to huff. "shut up, this won't take long."
yangyang, who previously stood beside his best friend, pouted alongside haechan as they plopped back onto the bench like children throwing a tantrum.
on the other side of the hockey team spectrum, felix pulled an awkwardly standing sungchan down next to him and proceeded to show him something on his phone, while mark and soobin sat with disappointed stares as yanghyuck decided to start bothering a bored seungmin.
hyerim and jeno shared a look before facing the group once again and taking deep breaths. then, they intertwined fingers, waiting silently for the boys to calm down or notice.
within the next eight seconds, sungchan looked up from felix's phone and widened his eyes. "holy..." smacking the australian on the shoulder, the blond looked up. when he saw the two holding hands, he gasped and jumped so high hyerim thought he'd trip on his way down.
"oh my gosh!" he squealed, grabbing and shaking his detective buddy, along with grabbing the attention of everyone else in the gym. following felix's excited pointing, the other boys jumped up with giant grins of surprise for some and joy for others.
"they connected!"
"they figured it out!"
"yo wait, hyerim and jeno are soulmates?"
"i call being a bridesmaid!"
to say hyerim was a bit overwhelmed would be an understatement. suddenly she was surrounded by people she'd only seen a few times, getting lovingly smothered and welcomed to the team.
she let out a small laugh when haechan and yangyang hugged her and dramatically began fake sobbing as they patted her back and head. "welcome to the hockey family, shin!" "we've been waiting to meet you for so long!"
a few feet away from the girl was her soulmate, who was getting lectured by the horsemen.
"she's allergic to bees and carries an epipen in her backpack in case of emergencies. i keep one too since she forgets a lot. make sure you have an extra and don't let her eat too many sweets before bed or she'll be up all night..."
the other boys added on and continued filling jeno in on the 'necessities' that just left him standing still. the poor boy felt like he was meeting the parents, who just so happened to be his age.
he tried shooting 'save me' looks at the brunette, but she was too busy getting measured for her very own team jacket.
once he was freed from his pep talk, jeno nodded a quick thanks and subtly rushed towards his soulmate. "okay, okay, as much as we'd love to stay, lunch is almost over." he was met with whines as he successfully pulled the girl out of his affectionate teammates grasps.
hyerim caught on quick and nodded, agreeing with the boy holding her waist. "it was really nice seeing you guys again. i promise to go to your next game."
"you better! we always get food after, so you're now eternally invited."
the brunette smiled sweetly and slowly leaned into jeno's forearm against her back. "thanks. i'll be sure to make time for it."
waving goodbye to the hockey team and horsemen, the pair of soulmates left the gym.
── 🩹 ──
"well that was... fun?" hyerim giggled at the boy's uncertainty, swiftly scooping her hand in her own. school was over and the pair decided to go home together. "it was nice. i'm officially a member of the gators now."
jeno ruffled his hair with his free hand and scrunched his nose. "and i'm officially allergic to bees."
they were almost at the car, hyerim's bell-like laugh flowing around them as her head fell back. "sorry about them. they can be a bit protective sometimes."
the boy understood—if anything he agreed with them. if he were in their position, he'd do everything in his power to make sure hyerim was always safe and happy.
"wanna get out of here?" her gentle voice cut his thoughts off, and jeno nodded. he gave her hand a little squeeze, unsure of how soulmates were supposed to act around each other.
"sure. i'll take you anywhere."
sorry for the late updates :( it's finals week so i've been busy with reviews :/