words: 1840//
10. Kim Taehyung is his soulmate.
He stands in the empty hallway, his fingers hovering above the screen as he waits for Soha's response, and watches the little three dots dance together until they stop. He frowns, wondering if she was too busy to text him back right away, and then he realises that everything has stopped.
The entire world has gone silent.
He pockets his phone and looks at the first door, which leads to Hall 5. No sound is coming from behind it, but Namjoon can swear that—
Has he gone deaf?
He runs towards the next door — Hall 6 — because it's the most familiar place in this entire building, and he opens it. He's not deaf, because the door creaks painfully and he can hear it, but he doesn't feel relieved. It's loud—
It's loud enough to echo through the deserted hallway behind him and the frozen hall before him. The lights are on and there are people — but they aren't people. Namjoon's eyes widen and he hesitantly walks inside. They're frozen, all these people. They're mannequins. Artists with paint brushes held mid-air, models who have probably been frozen since before whatever the fuck has just happened, and—
There's a boy with a scared expression on his face; his eyebrow furrowed together, his eyes bulging out, his mouth hanging open in a gasp. Namjoon circles him; he's squeezing a paint tube a little too hard, and there's paint. In the air. There's an actual lumpy string of red paint hanging in the air, shooting from the tube clenched between his fingers.
Namjoon reaches out his hand slowly and touches it. It is paint. It feels cold, and it gets stuck on his fingers. He wipes it on the first dirty cloth he sees, but his fingertips are still stained red.
Namjoon stares at his hand. He can move.
"Hello?" He says experimentally. Nothing happens, but he can hear his voice, and he can hear its echo in the hall. He can move, he can breathe, and he can make sounds. He pulls out his phone, tries to unlock it, but the screen remains black. He tries again, but it's to no avail and — that's confusing.
It should work, but it won't. It's supposed to work — he has just used it, and it was still on when this — this happened.
"What the fuck?" He voices, then looks around. He doesn't know what to think. When he was a child, he dreamt of this — he wanted to wake up someday and find the entire world empty so he could just hit the road and live entirely on chocolate bars stolen from empty grocery stores, but this is not what his dreams had once entailed. The world isn't empty. The world is frozen, and for some reason, he isn't.
Maybe he's dreaming. He has decided to tell his mother that he's dropping out of med school and she took it fairly well, so, maybe he is dreaming?
He runs out of the studio and through the hallway, stopping only whenever he comes across someone frozen. He's about to leave the building — he needs to leave, he needs to see his friends, he needs to see if the entire world has frozen, he needs to wake up — when he hears something.
It's a sound he doesn't own.
Someone — someone — is banging on the doors while yelling incomprehensibly and — it hits Namjoon. The entire world is frozen except for him and this person and—
It's the universe intervening. He has a soulmate, and his soulmate is someone who has constantly avoided him. Or someone he has constantly avoided. The universe has personally gotten sick of this bullshit and decided to set them up together by freezing time.
Namjoon runs towards the sound. He runs towards his soulmate.
The banging gets louder as he gets closer, and eventually he finds a bathroom and — someone is stuck inside. And the voice is familiar, it's so familiar—
"Taehyung?" He says quietly. Taehyung doesn't hear him over the sound of his own yelling, so Namjoon calls out his name again, and the banging stops.
"Namjoon?" He asks, his voice muffled behind the door. "Fuck, thank god. Please help, I'm trapped here."
Namjoon swallows a lump in his throat and looks down. He wraps his hand around the door handle and pushes it down and — the door opens. "Thank you," Taehyung says, his voice breathless and face flushed, "thank you. What are you—"
"You're my soulmate."
Taehyung freezes for a moment, and it's just for a moment, but dread instantly takes over Namjoon's mind with thoughts like, what if he's not? What if he's not my soulmate? But then Taehyung opens his mouth and closes it, and Namjoon's heart flutters in his chest.
"I am?"
Namjoon doesn't know what to say, but it's okay, because Taehyung wraps his fingers around his wrists and tugs him inside the bathroom, towards the sink. "Look."
The water is hanging in the air. He points at his watch, too. "Everything's frozen here. Is it like this outside?"
Namjoon nods.
"Is that... us?" Taehyung asks softly.
"I think so."
"I thought my water-bending powers finally came to life," Taehyung says, his eyes moving from the water to Namjoon.
"I thought my childhood fantasy of humankind disappearing from the surface of earth finally came to life," Namjoon tells him, and smiles when Taehyung barks out a laugh.
"That's morbid but relatable," Taehyung admits, still grinning as he paces. He sucks the inside of his cheek, and says, "So, we're soulmates? You're my soulmate?"
Namjoon shrugs.
"Is that... okay?"
"Is it okay with you?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" Taehyung asks. "I... I'm not a hopeless romantic—"
"You're not. I'm sorry about that—"
Taehyung goes on, "But you were right and — I don't know. I didn't think it would be okay with you. You hate me."
"I don't hate you," Namjoon tells him. "You were right, too, you know. At debate class. About almost everything you said."
"I didn't want to be," Taehyung frowns. "I wish you were happy. I think you'll make a great doctor if you actually want to be one."
"But you knew I don't."
"I know you don't," Taehyung tells him. "What do you mean, though? Almost right?"
"I'm as brave as you are," Namjoon grins. "I decided to drop out. I want to study music. I know it's a little late but—"
"It's not late!" Taehyung says, and moves closer to Namjoon. "It's — are you for real?!"
"Better late than never."
"Better late than never," Taehyung repeats, and his voice drops. "Joonie. I wanted to talk to you about debate class."
"It's fine—"
"It's not, and I'm sorry about it," he says earnestly. Something swells up inside Namjoon's chest. His heart, probably. "I could've talked to you in private—"
"I wouldn't have talked to you in private," Namjoon admits. "Hell, you didn't have to talk, but—"
"I couldn't not say something," Taehyung says. "I don't know why, but I've always cared about you too much to... pretend I don't care."
"I guess we know why now, huh?"
Taehyung hums. "The universe knows it, too. This isn't the first time this happened, you know?"
"You mean the times when we'd get locked up together?" Taehyung nods. "Those might've been coincidences."
"Three times," Taehyung points out. "And at debate class? Time stopped, too. Jungkook doesn't recall anything that happened after you told him to shut up—" Namjoon winces at that "—and I promised to tell him later. It was fucking weird but I didn't care, I was busy thinking about you?"
Namjoon blinks as realisation hits him. "You're right. How did we not notice?"
"When you focus your camera on one object and everything else gets blurry," Taehyung says. "I did that with you. I always do that with you."
Oh.
"I can't believe you're my soulmate," he says, voice barely above a whisper.
"I can't believe you dropped out of med school," Taehyung says, eyes widening. "Holy fuck. You did that."
"I did that," Namjoon agrees, and his eyes fall on Taehyung's lips. "And I want to do this, if you want to, too."
"I do," Taehyung whispers, still in shock. "I think it's cool that we're soulmates. Um. What you said that day..."
"Yeah?"
"About passion and attention instead of love and hate," Taehyung recalls. "I never hated you, you know. And I never — I never thought I had a crush on you but, uh, you were always on my mind, and in the past two year, I missed you. A lot. And I guess... I'm not surprised? Like, I'm not really surprised we're soulmates because—"
"We've always had a spark, yes," Namjoon says, his words rushed. "Can we kiss, now?"
"What a gentleman," Taehyung grins, "asking for—"
Namjoon pulls him close and kisses him. Their teeth clash, and Taehyung lets out a giggle that echos in the bathroom and forces Namjoon to smile back so hard he can almost feel his dimples dig inside his cheeks, so he moves back for a breath and—
"I'm trying to kiss you, here," Namjoon tells him, and he says it like it's a secret. "And I usually love your voice, but you won't shut the fuck—"
"Why are you so rude?" Taehyung interrupts, "even while kissing me. Are we enemies? Is this a 'keep your enemies closer' thing?"
Namjoon pretends to think for a second. "That's exactly what it is. So, can I?"
"Yes," Taehyung whispers. "You can keep me close."
"This is ridiculously sappy, and I refuse—"
Taehyung kisses him. It's different, this time, because they keep kissing until they physically can't breathe. When they pull away, Namjoon notices that the water is running down the sink. Time has started moving forward again. Namjoon looks forward to spending as much of it as he can with Taehyung.
His phone vibrates in his pocket.
'i just did the craziest thing ever.'
'u missed a quiz that's 15% of ur final grade. what can top that?'
He grins and texts her back, 'i'm dropping out of med school. also, gravity is fake and i found my soulmate.'
"So, you usually love my voice?" Taehyung asks. His voice is breathy and deeper than ever. And his eyes are glassy and his lips are red and glistening and his cheeks are flushed with colour and his hair is a fucking feathery mess and Namjoon can't believe this.
He's having cardiac arrest.
"I mean, I usually love hearing your voice because I know I'll be hearing something really fucking sexy smart or just plain stupid but—"
Taehyung huffs, but he's grinning. "Oh, fuck you—"
"We'll get there," he presses a quick kiss to Taehyung's lips. "But, yeah. I do. I love your voice."
"I love yours, too, but I'm sure you knew this already," Taehyung admits. "I want to paint you a new song."
Namjoon's phone vibrates again and continues to vibrate, but he ignores it. "Do you wanna get out of here?"
—
this is officially the end & only one last part (a sequel) is left :( if u've stuck around this far, thank you! i hope you enjoyed reading this & will enjoy the sequel too!!
please please please tell me what you think? <3