They both rushed me at once, but Jungkook was the first to get to me. He picked me up and spun me around in the small aisle between the chairs. He must be stronger than he looked, because I wasn't exactly tiny.
I smacked his shoulder lightly. "Put me down!" I told him in Korean.
"Kook, set her down before you make her dizzy," Hoseok told him. "You're going to scare her off."
Jungkook sat me down and shot Hoseok a glare. "Would you stop telling me that I'm going to scare her off? She's my soul mate, too."
"He's not scaring me," I told them. "He's just...really sweaty."
Jungkook ducked his head and blushed. "I'm sorry. I just got so excited that we found you."
I looked from one of them to the other, then around us. A few people were staring. "Umm...could we possibly take this somewhere else? I work here, remember?"
They both nodded and apologized, then quietly followed behind me as I left the theater. I had no idea where to take them, though. My cabin seemed like a bad idea. It was messy and small. So, instead, I led them down an empty corridor towards my classroom, letting them go inside first, then followed them in and turned on the light after shutting the door.
They were both staring at me, and it made me a little uncomfortable. "Why are you staring at me like that?"
"I don't know about him," Hoseok said, gesturing to Jungkook. "But I just can't believe that you're here. That you're real."
Jungkook nodded his head to everything that Hoseok was saying. "I am same." He told me in English, which was kind of adorable.
"Why do you both think that you're my soul mates?" I asked them. "Nobody has ever had two soul mates before. It doesn't make sense."
Hoseok took a tentative step towards me and held out his hand. "Can I have your hand?" He asked me. I knew which one he wanted, so I gave him the one with the markings on my wrist. He turned it over and pushed my sleeve up, then ran his long, thin fingers over my wrist, making me shiver. "Nobody has ever had a double marking, either, but here it is."
"But why do you think that you two are my soul mates?" I asked.
"You answered the phone call, didn't you?" Jungkook asked, switching back to Korean.
I decided to do the same. Hoseok seemed like he had a good grasp on English, but I could tell that Jungkook was struggling, and I wanted to make it easier for him.
"I did answer it, but..." I said, taking a deep breath. "But I got my markings nine years ago. Why is this the first phone call that I've ever gotten?"
"Nine years ago?" Jungkook asked, then looked up at the ceiling. I could tell that he was doing the math in his head. "So you're....33?"
I nodded my head. "Yeah...I'll be 34 in a couple of months. Why? How old are you guys?"
Hoseok still had a hold of my hand, and he used it to pull me over to sit down on the top of my desk. He sat next to me, not letting go of my hand. He moved his left arm so that I could see his soul mate marking. It was my phone number, but...not quite.
"I got mine 3 years ago," he told me. "It was missing numbers, and I could never figure out why. I tried everything I could think of to figure it out. I wanted to find you so badly. Nobody....Not doctors, not scientists, not even the great-granddaughter of the man who created the original elixir could explain it to me."
"His great-granddaughter?" I asked in surprise. Wow. He really had tried to find me.
"There wasn't anything I wasn't willing to do to find you," he told me with a small smile. "Short of becoming a science experiment, which they expected me to do."
I shook my head. "No, I wouldn't have wanted you to do that, either."
He smiled at me, and ran his thumb over my markings again, making me shiver a little.
I looked up at him. "But then how did you figure out the missing numbers?"
Hoseok looked up to Jungkook who stepped forwards from where he was still standing back by the student desks, and showed me his wrist, where there was the 8 and 1 that completed my phone number. I blinked, then grabbed his wrist with my free hand and pulled him closer so that I could see it better. He gasped lightly when I touched his mark.
I looked up at him, completely confused. "H-...How?"
Jungkook shook his head, his eyes on where I was touching his wrist. "We don't know. As far as my parents have ever told me, I never received the elixir. I was born in the back of my dad's car, on the way to the hospital. Even though they went straight there, since I wasn't actually born there, they refused to give it to me. There was a shortage at that time, or something."
"Well that's stupid," I said and he shrugged at me. "But then how is this possible?"
"We really don't know," Hoseok told me. "We had the same questions for the first couple of weeks, but then we decided that it must just be fate."
"Fate?" I asked him. "I don't really believe in fate."
"You got the Elixir, but you don't believe in fate?" Jungkook asked me. "Isn't the whole point of it to help fate along?"
I shrugged, looking up at his big, beautiful doe eyes. "I guess. And I used to...but I've had my markings for nine years, and nothing ever came of them. I thought maybe I was glitched. Who gets two markings?"
"Somebody with two soul mates," Hoseok told me with a smile. "Surely you have to be coming around to fate a bit after today, Yeobo. How else do you explain all of us being on this ship at the same time?"
"Umm...an essay contest?" I asked. "And what did you just call me?"
"Yeobo?" Hoseok asked me and I nodded. He switched to English for a moment. "In English, I think that it's umm...like 'honey' or 'darling'. It's just a term of endearment." He ducked his head and blushed. "Mostly because when you introduced yourself earlier, I was distracted by your markings, and I missed your name."
I looked up at Jungkook and he just nodded in agreement.
I got up off the desk and smiled at them, then held out my hand to Hoseok, switching back to Korean. "I'm Mairette Carter. It's nice to officially meet you."
"Jung Hoseok," he said, taking my hand with a smile. "Ummm....to be clear, in Korea, we say our given names last."
I smiled at him. "I know, it's okay, Hoseok. I understood. It's not like I don't know your names already, anyway. I've been with your group all day, and I just saw you give a really amazing concert."
Still, I turned to face Jungkook and offered him my hand as well. He shook it, but didn't let go. "Jeon Jungkook." He looked at our hands for a moment, then he tugged and pulled me into a hug again. This time, I hugged him back. Jungkook reached out for Hoseok's arm and pulled him into our hug, making us both laugh.
After a couple moments of enjoying the hug, I pulled back to look up at Jungkook. Both guys weren't much taller than me, but just a little bit.
Jungkook was blushing again. "Sorry..." he told me.
I shook my head and smiled at him. "It's okay, Jungkook. I'm excited to meet you, too." He gave me the beautiful bunny smile that he was famous for, and this close, it was just about enough to drop me to my knees. Good Lord, this man was insanely attractive. They both were.
Jungkook continued to smile at me as he tilted his head to the side a little. "Now who's staring?" He asked me, making me blush this time.
"I'm sorry?" I asked, the look on my face clearly stating that I really wasn't sorry at all.
Jungkook laughed at me and looked at Hoseok. "Hyung, I like her. She's cheeky."
"Well I should hope that you like me," I told him. "Since you think that I'm your soulmate."
Jungkook shook his head and reached for my wrist, then ran his long fingers across my markings. "Not think, Aegiya. You are my soulmate."
I shivered at his touch. Was I always going to have that reaction when one of them touched my markings? Was this a soul mate thing that I wasn't aware of? Hmm...Maybe I should experiment a little?
I turned my hand over so that I could grab Jungkook's wrist, then I looked up at him to watch his reaction as I slid my fingers across the two numbers on his wrist. I could clearly see the full body shiver that ran through him. I reached for Hoseok's wrist and he raised his eyebrows at me, but when I ran my thumb over the numbers on his wrist, he had the exact same reaction.
"Woah..." I said, looking from one of them to the other.
"What did you just figure out, Yeobo?" Hoseok asked me.
"Watch," I told them. I grabbed both of their left wrists and ran my thumbs over their markings. They both had the same reaction, looking like a shiver was running down their spines. "I had the exact same reaction when you both touched my marks, too."
"I've never heard of that," Hoseok said. "Weird. Wonder what would happen if we both touched yours at the same time?"
I laughed and held up my hands. "Another day, please. Today has already been a lot."
They both smiled at me and nodded.
"We understand," Jungkook told me with a smile. "It's been a lot for us, too."
I looked from one of them to the other. "This might seem like a dumb question, but now what do we do?"
Hoseok shook his head. "It's not a dumb question. I don't know, either." He looked at Jungkook. "Kook? Any ideas?"
Jungkook's doe eyes got even wider. "What? I'm supposed to know?" I could tell that being put on the spot was making him nervous, and it made me giggle, causing him to look at me. "This is funny to you? I'm the youngest here. You tell us, Noona."
I groaned at how oddly hot it sounded when he called me that, and shook my head. "Why should it be put on me just because I'm the oldest? We're in your country here."
Jungkook poked me in the side, making me jump. "Come on. Tell us, Noona."
I giggled as I reached out and poked him back while trying to keep my body away from his hands. "Nope! Tag! You're it!" Jungkook laughed and tried to get me again, but I jumped out of his way, laughing too.
Hoseok groaned and put his face in his hands. "Oh good God. There are two of you."
Jungkook and I both stopped and looked at him, then at each other and busted up laughing. He leaned his head down on my shoulder and I leaned into his side a little. I'm surprised at how comfortable I was around the two of them, already. It usually takes me a while to warm up to people.
"Hobi-Hyung, don't be like that," Jungkook said, turning his head on my shoulder so that he could look at Hoseok without really moving it. "You're just the same, and you know it. Worse, sometimes, even."
Hoseok cocked his head to the side, watching us. He looked like an adorable puppy, and it made me giggle again.
"What now?" Hoseok asked. He was trying to act annoyed, but the upturn at both corners of his mouth wasn't hiding how he really felt while watching us.
"Nothing," I told him, shrugging the shoulder that Jungkook's head wasn't currently occupying. "It's just that when you cock your head to the side like that, you look like a puppy."
"A puppy?"
"Yeah," I told him with a smile. "A cute, little red-headed puppy."
He pointed to his hair. "Oh. You like the color? JK said he hated it."
Jungkook stood up straight and crossed his arms, giving Hoseok a playful glare. "That's not what I said, Hyung. I said that you look like both a fire and a fire truck."
I turned my head towards him, while raising one of my eyebrows. "Aren't fires orange, Jungkook?"
His mouth made a perfect circle. "Ohhh....Yep."
This time it was Hoseok who started laughing with me, and I turned to smile at him. "I do really like the color," I told him. "It suits you somehow."
Hoseok reached for my hand and smiled at me. And wow, that man's smile could rival the sun.
"Thank you, Yeobo," he told me. "I'm glad that you like it."
Next to me, Jungkook poked out his bottom lip in a pout. "What about mine?"
I looked up at him. "Dude, your hair is black."
"So? It's dyed."
I looked at him a little confused. "That's not your normal hair color?"
"Okay, I'm not sure that any of us remember what our normal hair color is at this point," Hoseok said with a chuckle.
"My hair is brown, dummy," Jungkook said, sticking his tongue out at Hoseok.
I was still looking up at Jungkook. "What color was your hair before black?"
"Umm...kind of like a mint green color."
"Shame," I told him.
"Why?" he asked with a frown.
"That's my favorite color."
Jungkook shrugged his shoulder and frowned. "It didn't really look right. Yoongi-Hyung had this really cool mint green color a while ago. That's what I was going for. But I think I've dyed my hair too many times lately. It ended up looking weirdly faded out and kind of fried."
I lifted my hand with the intention of comforting the pout on his face, then hesitated for a moment with it in mid-air. I had just met them. Sure, they were apparently my soulmates, but it still seemed like a weird thing to do, and I didn't want to make him feel awkward.
Jungkook, however, didn't seem to have any of my hesitancy. He saw my hand stuck in mid-air and reached for it, pulling it up to his cheek while giving me a soft smile and blushing a little. "If that's not what you were meaning to do, then I just made this really weird, didn't I?"
I smiled back at him and stroked my thumb across his cheek. "It's what I was going to do, but I didn't know if I could."
"May-...Mar-..." He frowned and squinted his eyes. "I don't want to say your name wrong, but you've only said it once, and it's different. Can you tell me how to pronounce it?"
I giggled softly and nodded, still moving my hand over his cheek. "Mairette. Like 'My' and "ret," I told him. "Mairette."
"Mairette," Jungkook said. I nodded and I could tell by the look on his face, that he was proud of himself for pronouncing it correctly. "Mairette. It's pretty."
"Thank you," I told him. "It's Hispanic, I think? My mom was a teacher, too. She said that it was the name of one of her favorite students her first year of teaching, and she fell in love with the name."
I dropped my hand, but Jungkook grabbed it and brought it back to his face. "What I was going to say when I was trying to pronounce your name, was that you can touch me any time you want to. You don't have to ask or anything."
God this man was adorable.
"Same with me," Hoseok said from behind me. I hadn't even noticed him stand up and move over to us. "We're your soulmates, Mairette. We were literally made to be yours."
I groaned slightly and dropped my hand, stepping back from both of them to walk a few feet away.
"I..." Hoseok started. I couldn't see his face, but I could hear the frown in his voice. "Did we say something wrong?"
I shook my head and ran a hand through my hair, pushing most of it over to one side before turning to look at them. "No. You didn't say anything wrong, Hoseok. You two are just going to kill me with your sweetness. And it's just...it's a lot. A few hours ago, I thought that I was glitched. That my soulmate didn't even exist. Or that he had married somebody else. And now I have two?"
Both of the beautiful men in front of me bowed their heads.
"I'm sorry," Jungkook said. His voice sounded...small. It was breaking my heart a little. "We didn't mean to overwhelm you."
"If you need us to leave you be, we can," Hobi added. "We understand if you need some time."
"Yeah..." Jungkook agreed, though the tone in his voice was anything but agreeable. "I..." He took a deep breath and looked up at me through his dark lashes. "I know that I keep saying it, but we were just so excited to find you."
His words made a realization hit me, and I gasped, putting my hand over my mouth. I quickly walked over to stand in front of them both. "Do you think that I'm not excited to find you? It's been nine years, you guys. I'm excited. But God, Jungkook, you're almost ten years younger than I am. It doesn't bother you?"
He finally raised his head to fully look at me, a frown on his beautiful mouth. "Does it seem like it's bothering me, sweetheart? It's not. Not even a little bit. It might be weird to other people, but you're my damn soulmate, Mairette. That's all that matters to me."
"Oh..." Was all that I could say. For some reason, I really expected how old I was to bother him.
"I understand that it bothers you, though," He said. He sighed and rubbed at his eyes with the fingers of both hands. "I'm...ummm....I understand. I'm...I don't want to make this hard for you. So I'm going to go."
I watched as he stepped around me and headed for the door, closing it softly behind him.
What in the hell had just happened?
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A/N: Hello, my loves. This is a long-ass chapter for me, but I still have Covid. I can barely move. But I can lay in bed in type, so here you go. I hope that you enjoyed it. Stay happy and healthy, my friends.