Don't lie, you're an angel

Chapter 1

He traced the dark ink ending with a swirl under his ribcage.

It appeared right after his 8th birthday. If you could call the sentence etched by fate into his skin a mark, then so be it. 'You're an angel, darling.' Seungmin would say the full stop at the end was the cherry on top.

"Seungmin, are you coming?" Jisung peeked his head inside his room. "Felix is on his way down, Changbin brought his car."

Seungmin silently nodded his head, and let the shirt fall down and cover his midriff again. Jisung's giggles of glee ricocheted off the walls of the empty apartment and Seungmin couldn't help a chuckle of his own. The door shut, leaving him to gather his phone and wallet and check around the house one last time before leaving for the night.

Felix was already buckled in the front seat of the car, his excitement radiating right out the window, with Jisung hanging halfway through one in the back. He rolled his eyes (Jisung says he saw a smile) and got in through the other side.

"Oh, Seungmin's joining us?" Changbin threw a slightly surprised smile at him, and Seungmin waved awkwardly in return. Felix laughed loudly.

"I know right! Jisung and I convinced him finally and honestly, I still can't believe he's coming with us!" Seungmin ran a hand through his neatly styled messy hair (Felix's courtesy).

"I turn down you and Jisung, because unlike you I am not a party animal."

Jisung slapped his arm. "Nonsense. Felix and I aren't party animals!"

"Actually Jisung...." Changbin looked at him through the mirror, and his small sound of agreement in the end was enough to send the Sunshine twins scrambling to defend themselves. Seungmin drowned out the squabbling threesome and instead turned his attention to the shuttered shops and other small tidbits of the city they resided in.

Even though most of the big shops were closed and shut down for the night, the small businesses still lit up the roads.

There was an old kimchi place, where a man in his 70s stood outside with his hands on his hips, and another 17 year old was running around the nearly empty place with a towel thrown on his shoulder. The boy wanted to pursue law, and get his uncle a suitable place where he could actually get his business booming, he was sure about it when he told Seungmin that. Another place, a small second hand book stall, run by a lady in her 60s. A small compartment in the table where she writes down the names of the books borrowed, is dedicated to her late daughter and son-in-law. Sometimes, Seungmin takes some time out of his schedule to sit and talk and tutor her 13 year old granddaughter. A small hostel of sorts. A divorcee ran it for people who required help, or a stay in general. The man was pretty young if you asked him, '37 is the new 25' he had proudly told him with a flick of his chin. Seungmin didn't mind going there, and sitting in their lounge area, reading out the newspaper to the people there.

Seungmin knew people.

He spent enough time with people.

He was happy. He was content. He had friends. No relatives, but that's fine. He had made relations. The old man and his nephew, the lady and her granddaughter, the people at the hostel, he had all made connections with them.

But there was no person.

Seungmin had no person.

No person that he could sit and talk with. No one that he could wake up with at 1:32 am, and have cups of tea with. No one to discuss his thesis with. No one to order take out at midnight after a failed attempt at cooking dinner.

And worst of all, Seungmin knew he didn't need someone else to make him do it. All he had to do was push himself out in the 'dating scene' but goddamnit, not everyone gets a soulmate mark. Seungmin was one of the only few.