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"why haven't i met you yet?" jaemin grumbled to himself as he inspected the royal purple eye, watching how it became a deeper and richer colour at certain angles.
call him a hopeless romantic, but jaemin had been brought up believing in soulmates, and everyone seemed to have met theirs but him.
with a defeated sigh, the ravenette carefully picked out his contact from its casing and blinked it into place with a bit of effort. a momentary burn lingered, but soon enough he was fully ready to go to the basketball final.
"jaem?" his heart skipped a beat at the sound of mark's cheerful tone chime from downstairs.
he lunged at the door and threw it open with ease before stumbling down the stairs to charge at mark with open arms.
"thank you so much for coming," he mumbled into the older's neck, his arms wrapped around the shorter's waist securely, afraid of ever letting mark go.
"someone's on edge," the foreigner joked, ruffling his best friend's hair adoringly. "but remember that you'll be fine, hmm?"
jaemin nodded again, his gaze still glued to the ground, afraid mark may notice his irritated, reddening eye.
"and besides, i'm in the crowd if the worst thing possible happens to occur."
the brunette dryly chuckled at that, raising his head slightly to see the gorgeous smile that adorned mark's face.
so handsome.
na jaemin was torn. his heart told him to let himself become weak to his long-term crush, yet his mind told him to wait for his soulmate to come for him...if that would ever happen.
the nervous younger fiddled with the string from mark's hoodie, attempting to relieve the heavy pressure he felt on his heart at that moment. "mum!" he yelled out, still not looking up, but instead sinking further into the warmth of his friend's embrace.
the patter of excited footsteps approached the pair who stood by the door. "my baby!" she exclaimed, her eyes creasing as she smiled. "are you ready to go?"
jaemin nodded into mark's chest, then, once he was sure his eye had calmed a little, he pulled back, already missing his touch. "i don't think i need to bring anything."
"let's go then, shall we?"
• • •
"captains!" the referee yelled out to the two opposing teams, watching as the group huddle broke away to let their leaders go.
"good luck jaem," yuta whispered to the shorter, patting his shoulder comfortingly. jaemin sucked in a deep breath, his heart pounding erratically in his chest as he approached a much taller and very angry-looking teenager.
"this is jang jinhyuk," the referee introduced, pointing to the other captain while looking at jaemin. "and this is na jaemin."
the two boys leaned over to shake hands. the younger couldn't help but squirm when jinhyuk tightened his grip, crushing his hand painfully.
"let's flip the coin then."
jaemin returned to his team, telling them the details of the match, and after finishing their warm-up, the shrill sound of the whistle shot through the air, grabbing the attention of all the spectators and the players.
as they stood in their starting positions, jaemin's being in the centre for the jump-ball, he let his gaze flick over to mark who wore the widest and proudest smile.
i can do this...
only minutes later did he feel like an idiot for thinking that way. jinhyuk and his teammates ran rings around them, leaving the poor boys run-ragged with only one basket scored against the other teams' four.
"jaemin!" one of his teammates yelled out, tossing the ball across the court and into the said boy's arms.
with his breathing uneven and his legs feeling like jelly, jaemin stumbled up to the hoop, stopping dead in his tracks to shoot. the moment his feet lifted from the ground, a player aggressively pushed him through the air, knocking him to the ground harshly with a deafening thud.
"jaem?" mark shouted out with great concern. he stood from his seat, leaning over the bar to get a better look at the boy who was curled up on the ground, unmoving.
yuta rushed to his friend's side, pulling him into a sitting position where he first noticed it...the contact lens that lay on the floor. he tilted jaemin's lowered head up slightly, and let out a shocked gasp, his eyes widening exponentially at the glowing purple eye that was now on show.
"don't let them see," he croaked out, leaning his head onto the taller's shoulder to hide his 'monstrous' eye.
jaemin could faintly hear his team arguing with the others about it being a foul or not, but he really didn't care at that moment. not at all.
"jaemin?" mark whispered as he crouched down beside the embarrassed boy. "are you hurt?" he quietly asked, his hand slowly rubbing comforting circles onto the younger's shoulder, trying to find out why he wasn't back up and running around like he usually would be.
mark's eyes drifted to yuta who avoided his gaze at all costs. then, finally it settling on the contact lens on the floor. "i didn't know you used contacts," he muttered, more-so to himself.
without warning, mark pulled jaemin towards him, forcing his chin up.
"j-jaemin?"
with nothing else said, the brunette pulled himself up, ignoring the startled and disgusted glares he received from the spectators. his mother stood up with a saddened expression, but when she noticed mark chasing after him, she knew that her words of consolation wouldn't have helped much.
"jaemin!" he yelled through the empty hallways, the faint buzzing of the hall fading and fading until only the two boys and their heavy breaths were heard. "just look at me, goddammit!" he yelled to the retreating boy, his eyes filling with tears as his reality finally sunk in.
"no. you weren't supposed to find out. now you're just like them. are you going to go gossip about the 'monster' or the 'freak'?" he angrily groaned.
his fate was out of his hands, and it made him feel so damn hopeless. he'd known mark long enough to understand that the boy wasn't like that, but the defensive mechanism was tightly wound inside him and only allowed him to spit untrusting comments.
"na jaemin. you know me better than that. i am so fucking in love with you, but you're too damn blind to see that. look," he agitatedly said, his patience running out at the lack of compliance. "look at me."
he took out the brown contact that once cover his eye, and let his hands fall to his side again.
with reluctance, jaemin turned around, too afraid of the look he would receive if he raised his head.
"look at me jaemin."
and slowly, the younger raised his head, his vision slightly blurred by the welling tears "y-you're eye?" he whispered, collapsing to his knees. "you're my-"
