Saeran could always tell which couples were and weren't soulmates.
Take Saeyoung and MC, for example. A single glance at the pair was enough to know. Because no matter what, no matter when, no matter where: they would be touching.
But then that girl and guy over there, having coffee? There was no question that they were dating—the twinkle in the girl's laugh and the blush and the boy's face was too prominent for their relationship to be anything less. But their blatant refusal to allow even the slightest physical contact was a blaring, neon sign that though they were together, fate hadn't planned for it to be that way. Lovers they might be, but soulmates they were not.
Saeran let his eyes further wander around the cafe, flitting from couple to couple until he found another prime example: a girl and a boy.
The girl couldn't have been aged past thirteen, the boy scarcely older than her, but their fingers were intertwined tightly together in a quiet display of pride.
Lucky, Saeran thought as he watched the normally black ink on their arms shine a soft baby pink as the designs moved up and down in a neverending motion that passed back and forth from arm to arm. The movement was truly mesmerizing, starting the at exposed skin peeking out of the girl's T-shirt and climbing its way down to the boy's muscular arm, where both sets of tattoos seemed to dance on the skin.
It was rare to see soulmates find each other at such a young age, but endearing too. People said that the way your soulmate tattoos move would change as you age, and Saeran couldn't bring himself to look away as he watched the marks waltz back and forth, slow but steady, from girl to boy.
It was different from how Saeyoung and MC's tattoos moved.
More innocent.
Saeran preferred it.
Though that was just his jealousy speaking, he knew. Still, the knowledge of his envy didn't make dealing with it any easier. He'd seen more than enough of his brother and his girlfriend. Those two never stopped touching each other, obsessed with how their tattoos would pulsate in rhythm with their hearts, triggered only by the revered touch of the soulmate.
Saeran sighed.
A touch he would never feel.
"Ray?" A voice called, forcing the boy's eyes away from the young lovers. He stood up to retrieve the coffee he'd ordered, mumbling a quiet 'thank-you' to the server.
In truth, he'd left the bunker mainly to get away from Saeyoung and MC.
It wasn't their fault, he knew. Fate had spelled out their romance for them when it inked their soulmate tattoos onto them in the womb, that was just how they were meant to be.
So why did looking at them always deepen the void Saeran felt inside of him?
The redhead sighed as he took a sip of his coffee, pulling down the sleeves of his jacket as if someone would notice the lack of any markings on his left hand. As if someone would notice that he was one of the few born without a destined soulmate.
I should be thankful, he thought bitterly. If I had a soulmate, she would be miserable with me.
That much was true, at the very least. Saeran was damaged, he knew. Years of following the Savior's orders and taking Elixirs had ravaged his mental state, and he still woke from nightmares daily.
It wasn't just that Saeran didn't deserve anyone.
No one was bad enough to deserve him.
He sat himself down on a bench outside, opting to watch the world go by. Doing that always helped him whenever his brain felt like it was tied into knots. There was so much to see: couples kids running after each other, parents chasing close behind, stray couples wandering up and down the streets of Seoul. It was therapeutic.
It made Saeran forget about the fact that he was destined to live a life of pain.
That he was to live a loveless life.
That his was the life of someone born without a soulmate tattoo.
"Ho-Syun, get back here!" A teenage girl called, chasing gleefully after a boy who was running away from her and laughing. Despite himself, Saeran felt a light smile form on his face as he watched them in their merriment.
"Chua! Mr. Chua! It's me! How could you forget?" Saeran followed his eyes to a new set of people, a young boy crossing his arms in front of a confused looking elder man. A part of Saeran wanted to pay closer attention but he found himself distracted by yet another call.
"Applications out! Applications are out! BC-Sonic is hiring! Get your application today!" The boy relaxed in the sea of voices, the neverending conversations, the seemingly infinite activities that people all had going on at once.
"Sir! Sir!" The boy took another long sip of his beverage. The voices around him made it easy to ignore even the incessant whispers inside his head, the noisy street giving him a temporary refuge from his mind as he just existed. "SIR!"
At the sudden increase in volume, Saeran opened his eyes. One can imagine his shock when his mint-green eyes caught sight of you, dashing after a cat that was escaping you with every fiber of its being.
Wait, was the cat really running away from you? Or was it specifically running toward him?
Saeran tried to stand up and eject himself from the cat's trajectory, but before he could even move, the little black creature had pounced into his lap.
The boy could only blink.
"I am so sorry about that," He heard you say, as you tried to coo the cat out of Saeran's lap. You wouldn't meet his eyes in your embarrassment, he noted with mild amusement, as you brought a hand to pet the creature before it hissed at you.
"Is this your cat?" He inquired, wondering why the little devil seemed to be so averse to you.
"No, ah—" You scratched the back of your head sheepishly. "My best friend asked me to take care of it. It's hers. The damn fuzzbutt hates me though, so..."
Saeran had to suppress a smile at that, placing his coffee down on the ground. He pried the cat off his lap, awkwardly holding it in midair so that you could take it from its hands. "Here," He murmured softly. The cat was cute, without a doubt, but he didn't want to keep it from the person responsible for taking care of it any longer.
The cat, on the other hand, seemed very much opposed to leaving Saeran.
The second your hands approached it, the thing wriggled furiously in Saeran's grasp. When it found itself unable to squirm out of the boy's strong hands, it settled for biting your approaching fingers with all its strength.
Ouch.
Saeran tried not to wince as the cat bit down, immediately causing you to recoil backward.
"Are you...okay?" He asked when he saw blood begin to drip from your hand. It wasn't much at all, practically nothing compared to what he'd seen at his time in the Mint Eye, but the pained look in your eyes brought an unfamiliar sense of worry to the boy.
"Y-yeah, here, I'll take her from the bottom so she can't bite me this time."
You moved your hands forward to take the cat from Saeran, but he only chuckled, lowing the animal into his lap. "Let's see the bite, first," He muttered softly taking your smaller hand into his own. He was about to tilt the injured finger toward him to get a better look at it when he felt a searing pain in his right arm.
"Ow!"
He flinched when he heard your voice, suddenly realizing that in his pain he'd tightened his grip around your finger.
"M-my arm—" He sputtered out, doubling over in pain while trying not to make a noise. He grabbed the rim of the bench he was sitting on and the world around him was suddenly forgotten, even the innocent meow of the cat on his lap.
He vaguely heard you curse before you jumped to your feet, tearing the leather jacket he was wearing off his body to check for injuries. But the increased contact only worsened the agony in his arm.
Saeran forced an eye open to see what was going on. Had he been shot? Was his arm on fire? What was that light?
Both Saeran and your eyes widened in shock when you both saw the dull glow emanating around Saeran's tattoos. My tattoos from the Mint Eye, Saeran thought numbly through the pain, wondering why they were acting up. Had they been tattooed in poisonous ink? Why did it feel like the tattoo was on fire, being branded even deeper into his skin?
It was only when the tension in his arm had faded that Saeran saw that you were in the same pain next to him, clutching your arm.
"Are you alright?" He managed to stutter out, pulling you to your feet.
The sudden contact caused another strange sensation to flood down Saeran's arm, though this time it brought no agony. His arm tingled lightly, with the same soft yellow glow as before. Eyes wide open in bewilderment, he looked at you to realize that the same thing was happening on your arm.
Shocked, you both pulled back, and the warm feeling Saeran had been experiencing vanished as soon as your hand left his. Then, hesitantly, this time, Saeran reached a delicate finger forward to graze yours and the feeling bloomed inside him once more.
You leaned into him ever-so-slightly, reciprocating his gesture and his touch, and the moment you did the tattoos on your bodies lit up and began to move toward each other, linking and dancing together with no signs of stopping.
The cat on his lap meowed in delight.
"The touch of a soulmate," He whispered, baffled by the fact that he was feeling it. He was born without any markings, cursed to lead a life devoid of love...so how?
"I didn't think I had someone," He heard you whisper, watching the designs intertwine with each other. "My tattoo was fake."
"Mine too," He responded, his face fresh with a smile that—for the first time—wasn't forced in any way. "My name is Saeran," He finally introduced himself after he'd recovered from the initial shock of seeing his tattoo, the fake tattoo he'd acquired after birth, respond to someone.
"I'm (Y/N)," You responded, before taking a step toward him, intertwining your fingers with his. The simple movement brought so much warmth, the sort that spread from within him—and at that moment, Saeran understood.
He understood why MC and Saeyoung were always joined at the hip, why that girl and boy in the cafe had held each other's hands so tightly, why the touch of a soulmate seemed to intoxicate everyone who felt it.
Whether he'd realized it or not, his entire life had been building up to this moment: to meeting you. The tight squeeze he gave your palm felt like a blessing from heaven itself, as if meeting you was the work of an angel who had finally decided to give Saeran the happiness he'd spent his whole life searching for.
His touch was a delicate reminder of everything to come: from the first kisses to the inside jokes to the eventual future he realized he would get to share with you.
The touch was a promise, from one soulmate to the other, to eternally bask in each other's warmth, to love each other and become one as the tattoos already had.
The touch was everything.
Word count: 2.0k
Notes: Saeran is PRECIOUS~ he deserves so much happiness
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