Bangtan Soulmate AUs

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Jin woke up from the searing pain in his wrist. The pain was just too much, as if someone was cutting through his skin, yet there was no sign of blood or cut marks or anything at all. Tears sprung up in his eyes as he clutched his wrist and willed the pain to go away.

It took him some more time to finally notice the angry gashes just above his veins. His guesses turned out to be right. His soulmate gene turned out to be that he could feel the pain of his soulmate and right now they were cutting themselves. A fresh batch of tears made their way down his cheeks, although this time they were there for a totally different reason altogether.

The boys had never seen their eldest being so down on his spirits. He stopped cooking for them and resorted to ordering take-outs, no dad-jokes left his mouth anymore. It was as if he morphed into someone who was not quite the Kim Seokjin everyone knew overnight. Jin thought he was hiding it well, but he gave less credit to his brothers. They could see right through him.

It was Hoseok who finally decided to take action. As bandmates, friends, brothers, they wanted him to rely on them when things got hard. That's what Jin does anyway, when the others feel down.

Hoseok was about to knock when his hand stopped midway abruptly. The muffled sobbing sounds coming from the other side of the room shook him completely. Their hyung, their Jin hyung had been crying under their nose and nobody even noticed?

He softly knocked on the wooden door, "Hyung, it's me, Hoseok."

A little shuffling was heard before the door opened, "What did you need Hobi?"

Hoseok took in the elder's appearance. He was looking totally drained even though he knew that the said person took a nap a few hours ago. His eyes were puffy and his cheeks were flushed with the crying and wiping off of his tears. 

"Can I come in?" Hoseok asked softly, thankful that his voice didn't break.

"Uh, sure," Hoseok stepped in and Jin shut the door. Before he could think better of it, Hoseok had wrapped his arms around the elder pulling him into his embrace. Jin froze for a moment, being deprived of human interaction for a much longer period than he would like, but responded to the hug soon after.

"You are hurting hyung, and we see it. Why won't you let us help you? You being sad makes all of us feel sad. We feel bad knowing we can't do anything to make you feel better. Open up to us hyung, talk with us," Hoseok mumbled into the elder's chest who, in turn, sighed.

"It's not your fault, not anyone's fault. You can't do anything even if you want to. I am not okay, but I will be eventually," They say you can lie to everyone else but not to yourself and Jin had never related to something more.

"What happened hyung?" Hoseok asked softly, already knowing the response. Silence. So he was more than surprised when Jin carded his fingers through the younger's hair and replied.

"I discovered my soulmate gene."

"Ah, wow hyung! And you didn't even tell us," Hoseok pouted playfully, "What is it?"

"Pain. We are bonded by pain," Jin's voice cracked, "A-and t-they... they... cut themselves Hobi." 

Hoseok's grip on the elder tightened. At a time when all of their songs were focusing on loving yourself before loving someone else, the fact that the soulmate of one of their members was indulged in self-harm was sure a blow to him. He didn't want to imagine what Jin must be going through all this while. Hoseok sneaked a glance at the elder's hand that was almost covered with angry red marks. But there were no scars whatsoever. Hoseok remembered seeing his hyung in full sleeved clothes these few days even when the weather was warm enough for just tank tops and shorts and now he realized as to why.