Rae Lee Bang thinks she is destined to be alone, especially right now as she watches her best friend and her soulmate cuddling it up on the train, their soulmarks sticking out against their forearms. Jade and Han had found each other two years ago, when he showed up in their first semester of university, and Rae swears that they have been in the honeymoon phase ever since. Jade says that she'll understand one day when she gets her own soulmate, but at age 22, she is starting to doubt it will ever happen. She just wanted to enjoy the concert tonight without feeling lonely. Which was going to be difficult, considering her seat mates are almost always on each other.
She shouldn't be too mean to Han though - he was perfect for Jade, literally made for her. And he was a good friend to her too - who else would accompany the two all the way to Japan just to see BTS because they couldn't get tickets for the shows in Seoul? As a surprise no less? He really was a good guy, Rae was just bitter and lonely. He was practically her older brother when her older brother wasn't around - which was often. But that wasn't his fault, it was his job's.
"I can't wait to see the show tonight!" Jade said, shaking Rae in her seat and smiling at her. Her and Han had turned over to her, realizing that the girl had been quiet almost the whole ride. They knew their friend was... touchy about them being too 'soulmatey' since she hadn't found hers, and they tried to be respectful. Jade ached for her friend to find her soulmate, and soon.
"Please, just try to control your thoughts when Jimin performs Filter." Han said to his soulmate. Jade let out a laugh and Rae couldn't help but let out one too. She knew that wouldn't happen - her best friend was Jimin biased hardcore. All she's been talking about for weeks was seeing Filter live.
"As long as you control yours!" Jade said to her soulmate. Han blushed slightly at the accusation but knew that his soulmate was right. Han's bias was also Jimin - though Rae couldn't tell if it was of his own accord or if it was Jade's bond influencing him.
"All men love Jimin. Let the man live for a night." Rae said to her. The train announced their stop for the Tokyo Dome and they all got out, Han and Jade holding hands. Jade snatched Rae's hand so she wouldn't get lost or feel left out. They did try hard to include her. Rae really needed to stop being bitter - her soulmate would come, maybe. Most people find theirs by the time they're 21 according to the scientists that research soulmates.
Sometimes, depending on how strong the connection is, the person feels a pull towards their soulmate and that causes them to connect. They will feel like their heart is about to beat out of their chest, when it's really just the connection between soulmates finally finding each other and trying to connect. But once you did connect by touch, it opened up a world of abilities between the two. Two soulmates are able to connect through each other's minds and speak mentally, hearing each others thoughts. Not only that, but you can feel the other persons emotions - scientists suspect these abilities are formed so that the soulmates can help each other when they need to, regardless of where they are. Rae remembered a day where Han suddenly just showed up at their apartment asking for Jade, and come to find out that her pain projected to Han and they had to take her to the hospital.
"Oh my god, look at the ARMY here already." Jade said, starting to bounce on her feet a little. Rae laughed at her friend - always excitable. Complete opposite of her, but she supposed they balanced each other out. That wasn't saying that Rae couldn't match her if she wanted to, but Jade was like the j-hope of the three, and Rae was probably more like the SUGA. Han was the Jin of the group for sure.
But Jade was right, it was packed trying to get into the stadium. ARMY were all over the place giving out freebies and handing out signs to put up during the finale song to support the boys. It was the last show of the tour so ARMY were trying to go big or go home.
And then Rae had the realization that she was going to be in the same room as BTS for a whole two hours. Holy shit, I'm seeing BTS. She had been following them since debut but never had gotten the chance to see them due to her university schedule and shitty ticketing luck - but Han surprised both her and Jade with tickets to the final Tokyo Dome show and to say she was excited was an absolute understatement. Rae swears that Love Yourself was what got her through high school and her depression and that Map of the Soul is what is helping her finish her undergrad. In short, like many ARMY across the globe, Rae owes her happiness to BTS.
And now she was finally going to see them in person.
Han had pulled out all the stops with the tickets - they had barricade seats, right at the main stage. Rae didn't know how she was going to be able to make it out of this show alive. She and Jade were now feeling their excitement to the extreme as more and more people sat down, the group conversing with the AMRY around them.
"Is it bad that the delusional fan in me wants to feel a soulmate connection when they come on stage?" one of the girls they were talking to joked. Jade and Rae started laughing, along with Han and the other girls friend.
"Soolin, you already have a soulmate!" her friend said, smacking her arm. Rae felt a pang in her heart - these girls were younger than her.
"I know, but it's fun to imagine!" she fought back. Han turned to Rae with a shit-eating grin, a tease on the tip of his tongue. Oh god, I know where this is going...
"Hey Rae, maybe that can be you instead." he said with a smirk.
"Don't give Jade any ideas!" Rae shouted at her friend's soulmate. Jade's eyes lit up as she turned to her friend and smiled, the two girls they had made friends with giggling behind them.
"Oh my god - wait - Han you're a genius! That's why you don't have a soulmate yet Rae - your soul is waiting for BTS!" Jade screeched, earning glares from some other people.
"Look what you did. You got her going!" Rae said, giving a shove to Han over her friend.
"Sorry, but it is entertaining to see you flustered and to see her going." Just as she was about to retort, the stadium lights went out and the crowd screamed as the show was about to start. Jade and Rae had their ARMY bombs synced up and ready and were now part of the screaming crowd. And suddenly, Rae's heart was beating a mile a minute. She had to grip onto Jade as support as the first VCR ended and BTS appeared on stage. When she saw them her heart really went into overdrive and she held Jade tighter, who in turn did the same thing as she just assumed her friend was excited.
That had to be it. She was excited to finally see BTS live for the first time. Right?
———
Do you guys feel that?
My heart...
Do you think... the last soulmate is here?
Focus! We can talk while we change before Black Swan.
The seven boys' heads all felt like they were going to explode and their chests ached. It was normal for their chests to ache during a concert since they worked so hard, but this was different. This was just like when they all first bonded back when they were trainees. They could hardly think straight as they performed - why did it have to happen like this? There was no way for them to be able to figure out who their last soulmate was. The boys ran off stage just as the VCR started and as soon as they were clear, the questions started.
"Our last soulmate is here!" Jungkook shouted, tearing off his clothes to quickly change into the next set.
"Hyung, what do we do?!" Jimin asked Namjoon - looking to the leader for help. Namjoon sighed as he changed. This was something he didn't have the answer to, unfortunately.
"There isn't much we can do. We're in the middle of a show and it could be any one of the 55,000 people here. We need to finish this last show and then think with clear heads later." Yoongi said. Namjoon nodded in agreement - leave it to his hyung to have a clear head about things.
He didn't want to get everyone excited, but he maybe had a sense of where their soulmate could be sitting. His attraction has been to the front row of the main stage - Namjoon thinks the bond is trying to pull him closer to someone over there. As the leader and sort of the 'head' of the bond, he was able to feel a stronger pull. He knew better than to doubt his instincts, so he was going to have to hang around that side of the stage more. Namjoon got up first and headed to security.
"Over on this side of the stage, can you watch for anyone maybe who might look like they're not doing well? Get their name if you can?" he asked. The head security guard nodded just as the rest of the guys finished and their manager appeared.
"To stage guys! Let's go! Fighting!" their manager shouted at them. All 7 boys ran back to the stage, hearts beating fast once again, a different excitement in their blood knowing their last soulmate was in the audience.
———
Rae felt like she was panicking almost the whole show. Her heart never stopped racing and she almost passed out at one point. Han left the show to get her food and water during one of the last VCRs, then come back to practically force feed her. After that Jade and Han, plus the two girls that they had met, were practically helicoptering Rae the whole show. Security noticed and came over as well, keeping an eye on her. As a precautionary measure, they took down her information just incase she had to get transported at any point. In the end, it was the best night of her life, but she felt guilty that Jade and Han had to babysit her the rest of the show.
"Don't even start with me, Rae Lee Bang! We all just wanted to make sure you were okay - plus we all still had fun." Han scolded her. Han didn't often get all 'big brother' with Rae, but when he did he meant it for sure. They were now walking to another train stop and getting something to eat - the one they took in was way to crowded. Plus, this route had what was supposed to be a really good boba and ice cream joint. As soon as they left the stadium Rae's heart went back to normal, somewhat. Her heart was still beating quickly, but not as bad as in the show.
"What happened, exactly?" Jade asked her. Rae slightly shrugged her shoulders, trying to recount the exact moment in her head.
"I don't know, one minute the opening VCR was playing and I was fine, and the next second the boys came out and my heart started beating a mile a minute. Whenever all of them went backstage at the same time it would die down a little, but then it would start again. Regardless of the member." Rae said to her friends. Jade stopped dead in her tracks, Han looking at her with wide eyes. Whatever occurred to Jade, Han agreed.
"Rae... that sounds a lot like what happens when a soulmate bond interacts for the first time." Jade said to her friend. Han echoed the sentiment as Rae's mind went into overdrive. She was thinking a million things and she didn't even start to notice her heart rate going up.
"No. No way - I know what you're thinking, and no! Plus, isn't that super rare? And with all of them?! Nope." Rae ranted. There was no way what Jade was implying was actually real - more than one soulmate is extremely rare, this type of bond pull is rare. That would be literally impossible for Rae - 22 years of being alone and that would just so happen to have this happen to her? She isn't buying it. It had to be someone else if it was anyone there at all.
Rae dipped into the boba shop, desperate to escape the conversation she was going to have when her heart started to race again. She needed to sit - the world was starting to spin. This proves Jade was wrong, right? There's no way they would be here. In her rush, Rae quite literally ran into two bodies, about to send her onto the floor.
"Aish - you two watch where you're going! Look what you did!" A familiar voice started as two sets of hands grabbed her and then suddenly, her world was black.
2,261 words.
***
when i tell yall that i am SO NERVOUS sharing this it aint even funny how nervous i am. this is my first story published on here, but not my first time writing bts. i have a couple of one shots on AO3 (where this is cross posted). i have a couple of chapters prewritten rn (i am working on chapter 5 at the moment) and the lengths vary i'll be real cause like i start to write and then i just can't stop
couple things:
the panini never happened in this timeline so everyone who had MOTS tickets got to go in this book. your welcome. i wasn't an army then (only been an army since august 21) but damn if MOTS aint the best shit.
also everything that happens after the MOTS tour ends in this book will be the 'break' that they're doing now just when it was supposed to happen and i will 100% be winging the shit out of that part of the plot.
at some point there WILL be smut bc that is primarily what i write but i just wanted to do a soulmate fic bc i'm lonely and this stuff makes me happy okay.