There is a name on his wrist, stark against his skin.
The black characters are clear and unmistakable: Choi Yeonjun.
Soobin swears.
All idols wear soulbands around their wrists to hide their soulmate's name: as idols there's an expectation to be sin...
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It goes about as well as expected.
Soobin's seen Yeonjun and Beomgyu go over this particular dance many times over the last few weeks in between other dance practices so he knows all the moves and how they're put together, but there's a difference between knowing and doing. His body just. Will not. Bend. In those directions.
At first Yeonjun is hesitant, not pushing himself as far as his abilities go, until Soobin mutters, "You're slacking," at which something in Yeonjun bares its teeth and he shifts and —
It's intoxicating, of course it is, Yeonjun's always intoxicating when he dances, but usually Soobin is in the back, watching Yeonjun's profile, or seeing his reflection in the practice mirror. He never has all of Yeonjun's dance focus on him.
(And it's — a lot. Something's buzzing just under the surface of his skin, unfamiliar and insistent, refusing to be ignored.)
It's too late to back out, though. So he just sort of ignores the looks Yeonjun sends at him, the bedroom eyes, the fuck me glances, the looks he reserves for their fans and the cameras.
None of it is real, it's all an act, and Yeonjun is extremely good at it.
The hardest bit comes at the end, when they're meant to grab hold of each other's wrists whilst facing opposite directions. Soobin keeps over- or under-reaching and his fingertips keep skimming over Yeonjun's storm-grey soulband to the inside of his forearm or his open palm.
And Soobin can't stop making mistakes.
It's so uncommon to actually touch someone else's soulband that he can't ignore how forbidden it feels, how dangerous to be flirting with something so taboo in their industry (which is, of course, why management devised this particular move in the routine). Every time his fingers graze the grey fabric, he feels like he should be apologising and snatching his hand back.
As a group, they'd all decided they'd wear their soulbands at all times early on, even when back at the dorms. The topic of soulmates comes up in conversation, of course it does, they spend a large part of their time singing about them, but they've never asked each other outright if anyone's name has appeared on their wrist. Soulmates are a personal thing and impossible to have as idols.
He's never allowed himself to think about it before, but here, in the dance studio, just the two of them and no one else, Soobin's thoughts drift. What would Yeonjun's soulmate even be like? What kind of person would they be? How could anyone be enough for what their fans have dubbed the 4th generation It boy?
Soobin steps forward and throws his arm back, catching Yeonjun's arm by instinct now but missing his wrist by a few inches. Again. He swears.
There's laughter in Yeonjun's eyes as he says, "Wow, Soobinnie, what are you gonna do when you actually want to hold your soulmate's hand?"
