heart hits the floor

Chapter 3: the finding

"jimin, this is useless," the younger stopped to catch his breath, feet starting to hurt. they had been walking through the whole campus for two hours, the books in his backpack making it even worse, as well as his empty stomach.

"c'mon, kook, have some faith," his friend exclaimed, but it was obvious he wasn't as excited as an hour ago, dragging jungkook into every classroom to awkwardly scan the people inside to see if he could find his soulmate.

but the blond was nowhere to be found, what made jimin ask his friend numerous times if he had already seen him and was just lying to avoid talking to him. the younger had to pinky promise to tell his friend if he ever saw the other boy.

"what time is it, anyway?" jungkook asked as he checked the hour on his phone and moaned. "two thirty-five, already! jimin, i'm hungry, let's go!"

"two thirty-five? shit, i have to go pick up my new id tag before the office closes, the other already expired," the older ran his fingers through his hair and turned to jungkook. "look, i'll run to the office and i'll meet you over there," he pointed to a bench near the arts building. "i'll let you go once i'm back."

jungkook sighed, but nodded anyway, watching as his friend literally ran to the administration building. he headed to the bench, setting his bag on his knees and scrolling on his phone absentmindedly.

the cold was really something else today, chills running through jungkook's body, making his ears turn red and his cheeks flushed. after some minutes passed, he tried to look for jimin between the crowd of students, but the brunet wasn't back yet. he huffed and blew air on his hands to warm them up, but the biting cold was relentless.

rests of anxiety kept the boy on edge still, even when there was nothing to avoid now, nothing to be afraid of. he found his soulmate, it was done; the other boy was somewhere out there, feeling... how?

sad, disappointed?

angry?

he already had to go through a whole lecture from jimin for not thinking about other people's feelings and how irresponsible, as a dom and as the boy's soulmate, was of him to leave him like that.

"he's probably having the worst of a headache or even running a fever because he didn't even get to talk to you or even touch you," his friend has said.

he knew soulmates needed to establish some kind of contact at the moment of their meeting for them to be fully capable of being apart without any kind of struggle or physical retaliation; this mostly affected subs, who could get emotional or physically unstable if they didn't get some kind of comfort from his dominant partner.

so jimin might be right. his soulmate could be in some kind of pain or not feeling well, since it has been almost a day without contact with jungkook; he's never done anything to hurt anyone, and now his soulmate was probably suffering because of him? just the thought of it made him sick to his stomach.

"hey."

jungkook looked up, startled. he needed some seconds to recognize the guy he met the day before, the one who fell to his knees before he went to the library.

the guy was looking at him warily, which made jungkook not that happy to encounter him again. he fumbled on his seat, grabbing his bag tightly. "hey," he mumbled simply.

"i'm hoseok," he extended his hand. jungkook hesitated for a second but took his hand and shook it anyway. "i know this may be weird, but my friend has been looking for you..."