Color Me Rainbow || MEANIE ✔

-bonus pt. 3 || seungkwan-

Seungkwan found Hansol at a table in the front of the cafe. He was sipping at some sort of pink beverage in front of him, scrolling through his phone. 

His pain squeezed his heart. It was weird seeing Hansol there, so comfortable, like nothing ever happened. 

Sucking in a harsh, deep breath, he made his way over to the table and sat down. 

Hansol looked up instantly. Seungkwan wanted to say his eyes brightened, but that would make him sound hopeful. 

The younger male grinned. Seungkwan didn't return it. Nor did he let Hansol take his hand when he reached for it only seconds later. The grin quickly disappeared. 

"How have you been?" Hansol asked. His voice was careful, considerate. 

"I'm dying inside," was Seungkwan's first thought but he couldn't say that, so instead, he said, "I'm good. I started working with Chan at his restaurant. Did you hear he's trying to buy it and become the owner?" 

"I did hear that. I was going to lend him some money to buy it, but the current owner isn't quite ready to let it go yet."

Seungkwan tried to keep his composure. Of course, the man he loves is still so kind and thoughtful. He'd hoped, if anything, he'd changed. At least, he'd be easier to forget that way. 

"That's . . . nice of you," he managed to say. 

Hansol gave him a kind, gentle smile. "I'm sure you want to know why I wanted to talk to you today."

"That'd be nice to know, yeah." It'd come out a little harsher than expected, but there was no taking it back now. 

"I want us to start over," the other male said. "I want us to go back to what we were."

"Why come back now? Your soulmate didn't work out?" This was purposefully meant to sound rude. 

"I was never interested in her," Hansol said. It was clear in his face that he was hurt but the other male just did not care. Now, he was mad. 

"You don't get to do that," he spat. "You're the one who decided to cut me off because we weren't soulmates."

Yes, Seungkwan missed this male. But suddenly Hansol's absence after all this time and the agony it caused turned into anger. Anger that filled every single cell that made up his being. He was pissed and was going to explode. 

"I've missed you," he continued, his voice rising. "I loved you, and unfortunately, I still do. I have. This. Entire. Fucking. Time." 

Hansol kept his composure. His voice calm, he said, "You never tried to reach out either. Was I just supposed to be okay that you found your soulmate in less than 24 hours after we found our truth?"

"You told me that you needed space and you don't think we should see each other anymore. You said that you wanted to see if you could find your soulmate before we decided what we want to do." He was yelling now, but he couldn't. "And guess FUCKING what? You did. Congratulations." He was standing, having slammed his hands on the table in anger. People were definitely staring but he just did not care. 

"Okay, I admit this isn't the most ideal situation, but Seungkwan, will you just sit down and hear me out?" His voice broke ever so slightly. 

With gritted teeth, the smaller male sat down. He folded his arms, gripping the sleeves tightly, hit fingers turning white. 

This isn't fair. It hurts. It hurts so much. Why does it hurt so much? he thought. His mind was spiraling. 

"I was afraid," the baker began, his voice quiet. "I loved you too, yet we're always told that you will only ever truly love your soulmate. When I saw that we weren't soulmates . . . well, I doubted my love. If it was an illusion, that wouldn't be fair to you."

This wasn't making Seungkwan feel any better, but he continued to listen anyway. He couldn't help being intrigued. 

"And then I heard the news, literally. I read a goddamn article about how you found your soulmate. I heard the story you and Jeonghan told, and pieced it together. It'd been two hours since our kiss deadline was up. I couldn't understand why you'd immediately go and kiss Jeonghan."

"It wasn't my idea," Seunkwan heard himself say. "It was his. From the start, we had a bet. Whoever found their soulmate last would have some sort of punishment." Saying it now, the entire thing seemed ridiculous. All of this started with a stupid bet. All this heartbreak. At least Mingyu and Wonwoo would have a happy ending. 

But there were smiles. There were laughs. Not everything was bad. It just seemed that way. 

It was like the other male hadn't heard him at all. "But you're right. I did want to find my soulmate, so I did and succeeded. It wasn't all that it turned out to be. Our eyes changed as soon as our lips connected, but we didn't feel connected. Days went by and it was awkward. We tried to play our roles as soulmates, but neither of us felt anything."

It was hard to hear all of this, but surprisingly, it did help deplete the aching. Seungkwan spent so much time assuming Hansol wanted nothing to do with him. He believed that his old love was happy with another this entire time. 

"Finally, we decided to go back to being only friends. Everything was right back in its place. We were comfortable again. That was my sign that maybe soulmates are just people meant to be in your life." Hansol paused to sip at his drink and assessed  Seungkwan's reaction. He must have been satisfied, because he proceeded to continue. 

"If a soulmate can simply be a friend, then maybe the universe isn't as organized as we think it really is. There's a lot of people, and it'd be pretty damn difficult to keep track of everyone, so there'll be mistakes. As bad as it sounds, maybe we're just defects within that system."

Seungkwan was reminded of the conversation he'd had with Jeonghan so long ago. Maybe the explanation really was just that there was a glitch in the system. Still, he didn't want to accept that so easily. 

"So, you want to start over?" Seungkwan asked finally. 

"I would like to start over," Hansol said. "As friends. For Now."

The other male nodded. He was still unsure, and didn't know where they were going to end up. There were obviously things that could cause issues in the future, but for now, they could start over. 

As friends. Just friends. For Now. 

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a/n: ngl, originally Hansol was supposed to say "Fuck the system" instead of "As friends". in fact I legit typed out "Fuck the system. I'd rather fuck you." 🤡

it was so out of context, I couldn't keep it, but I thought it was funny 😭😂