Soulmate? Oh, soulmateS?

16

"Fucking hell my head hurts.." Lani groans, finding herself alone with only her soulmates. She covers her eyes from the light, trying to lessen the pain. "Damn the brightness..."

Chan, although emotional, was the most calm out of the group and sat close to her. "Laelani." He says gently, hesitantly putting a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. 

She looks over to him. Why, out of everything, he seemed to be the realest thing around her. "Chan...What's happening?" She looks over to the others, shivering from the uneasy feeling she got when she realized all they were doing was staring at her with the same expression they had minutes ago.

"Laelani." Chan repeated his words and actions, his face unchanging. 

The woman freezes upon the realization. "Chan, stop it. All of you. Stop." She says, desperation in her voice. "You're scaring me!" Tears stung her eyes as she ripped herself away from Chan.

"Laelani." Voices in sync, movements slow. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.! What the fuck is this shit?!" She scoots back, tears stinging her eyes as she hugged herself. 

"Laelani."

"Stop...go away..." She whimpered. "I don't like this..."

"Laelani." 

She covered her ears, shutting her eyes tightly. "Stop.."

"Laelani..." 

A hand touched her shoulder. A single voice sounded. A warm sensation.

"Hey, Laelani...I need you to open your eyes and look at me, please?" Chan whispered gently, kneeling down beside her, his warmth pulling her out of the cold.

With hesitation, Lani peeked at him, making sure it's not one of the clones. Much to her relief, it wasn't. It was Chan. Just Chan.

"That's a pretty bad nightmare you got here." He says, smiling softly, bringing her into a small embrace. Silence filled her mind.

Not the usual uneasy silence she always had.

Not the silence she heard whenever she was alone.

Not the cold silence of when she isolated herself.

Not the silence before her panic attacks.

This was a silence that helped clear her mind and comforted her. 

One where she had the warmth of someone else protecting her from her thoughts.

One where she felt no uneasiness.

One where she wasn't alone.

One where she wasn't isolated.

One without panic.

"You're the real Chan, right? No tricks..?" She asked softly, her body still tense and braced for any possible threats.

Chan could only hold her a little tighter. "Why don't you tell me? I'm sure you'll be able to tell.." He says gently, a soft tone as he tried to reassure her in a way she could trust him more. He knew that if he answered her straight, she wouldn't believe him and continue to doubt what was real and what wasn't. She was cautious, overly cautious, and Chan had never seen someone else like this before. 

Lani took a deep breath. It was a terrible idea. She looked up and saw two shining eyes staring right back at her. 

Creepy.

She let out a sigh of relief. No one could mistake Chan's affectionate eyes for something else. The way they shine admiringly at her as he held a gentle smile. She knew he was the real one because the clones wouldn't look at her that way. Not in that disgustingly affectionate way that she secretly liked.

"Yeah. It's you.." She sighs.

.

Chan sat deep in thought. He had questions running around in circles in his mind. Why did she have that dream? What surgery? When did she start having them? Is she okay?

Around him were his other soul mates, all sitting in a circle thinking.

"What are we thinking about?" Jeongin asked, a bit lost on the topic. All he heard was that they needed to talk about the godde-- Laelani because Chan found her in a disturbing situation during the connection.

"Shhh!" Hyunjin placed a finger on the youngest's lips, moving close to his face too. "Nobody actually knows."

"Wow. How convenient -" Seungmin rolled his eyes, only for Hyunjin to kiss the boy before he could continue.

"Shuddup."

Changbin let out a sigh, leaving the three to flirt and mess around as he looked at the eldest. "Chan, honey, what's happening?" He asked. "We can't exactly help when we have no clue what we're thinking about."

"Right, sorry." The man says, letting out a deep breath and scratching his head. "Lani... had a nightmare. It was weird and confusing..."
He says while still trying to think.
"I'm not sure how long it went on for, but when I got there, her friend was yelling at her, and she ended up passing out. Then, when she woke up, there were clones of us. It was really creepy -"

Realising that it wasn't something that could be easily explained, Han began to think. It wasn't much to think on, but theories and scenarios ran through his mind, trying to work things out.

Then it hit him.

Never mind, it was Felix who bumped heads with him while the sunshine was messing with the first three flirting.

Then it actually hit him. "She's scared." He says.

"Han, we already established that--"

"No! I mean, she's scared. She's not used to the idea of soulmates." Han smiles in realisation. "Remember? Her friends always talked about how she was always talking about being pro single and how she never had a connection - my theory is that since this is a whole new environment for her, she's struggling to adapt!"

"How the fuck did you get that?"

Everyone turned to the door and saw Lani staring at Han like he had just eaten her pet fish. She wore some shorts and a big shirt, a towel wrapped around her neck, catching droplets of water falling from her hair.

That's right, she stayed the night -