Soul Vine | m.yg

13: Morning Sickness༄

Eden awoke the next day feeling like absolute garbage.

              One look in her bathroom mirror, and she immediately knew she was sick. Her eyes were puffed up with a series of bags under them and she looked pale; her usually caramel skin was now pasty with a twinge of green.

              She knew staying outside in the cold was a bad idea. After staring at the stars with Jungkook she even dozed off a bit. It wasn't until Jimin came outside and chewed them out for being out there without proper jackets that they went inside. She barely warmed up before she climbed into bed and knocked out.

             Eden sighed and reached for her toothbrush, brushing her teeth to get the taste of sickness out of her mouth. It was already seeming like it would be a long day, and she just woke up.

              Once she was done in the bathroom, she made her way out to the front of the house to see which of the boys were awake. Hoseok and Namjoon were seated in the dining area, each of them with a cup of coffee in their hands. She started to cough as she turned the corner, making both of them turn around to look at her.

             "Oh— are you alright?"

               Hoseok shot from his seat and went to get a bottle of water from the fridge, guiding Eden to an empty chair at the table. Namjoon peered over his cup, concern settling in on his features.

               "Sorry," she sniffled. "I'm alright. Just woke up kind of sick."

               Hoseok shook his head. "It's probably because you were outside in the cold so late," he tsked.

                 She groaned. "I already got yelled at by Jimin, not you too Hobi."

                 The brunette grinned slightly at the sound of his nickname, before shaking his head again.

                  "Didn't Yoongi say he was sick too?"

                   Namjoon sipped his coffee with his eyebrow perched. "Maybe he really was sick," He continued.

                   "But I felt fine last night?"

                   Hoseok sipped his coffee and sighed. "I wish we knew more about the soultie bond. We all left way too young to have found ours."

                    "Is there no, like... Sirid Google you can use to look it up?"

                      Namjoon snorted, nearly spilling his coffee. Hoseok grinned too, sliding a paper towel over to his counterpart. "There's a big library in Iphorus full of old sacred texts, but all the texts on soulties were burned."

                   "Burned?! For what?"

                    The two men looked at each other, neither of them wanting to be the one to explain. After a few seconds, Namjoon blinked, losing their unspoken staring contest. With a sigh, he sipped his coffee and turned to tell Eden the story.

                   "Sometime before we left, the leader of Iphorus at the time got exposed for killing his wife's actual soultie and stealing his name so he could marry into power. A lot of people gave up on them after that— thinking that they were just fairytale nonsense. People gave up their searches and stopped socializing to avoid meeting them." He paused for another sip of coffee. "If they don't know, then they can marry for love instead of obligation."

                "So, are soulties just not a thing anymore?"

               "No they're very much a thing. But it's really considered a bad thing— almost a curse, if you've met your soultie. They'll stop you moving up in the clan freely, from training, all of that. You're basically stuck with them by your side for the rest of both of your eternities."