Mid Summer

seventeen,

"This is absurd," Jaemin cries, all but ungracefully falling into Jeno when he finally sees him for that dinner plan. "I wanna cry."

Jeno rolls his eyes at how overdramatic Jaemin was being, but he still pats his back in comfort nonetheless.

"It's not that bad," Jeno murmurs, pulling Jaemin off of him and lacing their hands together. "You'll live."

Jaemin doesn't seem to like what Jeno said.

"Of course you think it's fine!" The younger defends. "Mark isn't your roommate!"

After rolling his eyes again, Jeno continues walking with a sulky and glaring Jaemin following him.

"Yeah, but Donghyuck is."

This makes Jaemin freeze, going completely still to the point where Jeno has to stop walking to see that Jaemin is just standing behind him.

"And you didn't tell me!" The younger finally yells, stomping back in tow with Jeno. "This is ridiculous."

"Sorry, mister 'Nono you won't believe that Mark is my roommate'," Jeno scoffs. "You didn't really give me time to breathe while you were ranting, let alone let me share who my roommate is!"

Jaemin glares at Jeno before his resolves breaks, and he's back to pouting.

"This sucks."

Jeno rolls his eyes.

"No it doesn't," he says, grabbing the younger's hand again. "It's a sign."

Jaemin scowls.

"Bullshit."

"Okay, you're awfully negative right now," Jeno scoffs, swinging their intertwined hands between them.

"Sorry, I just think that Donghyuck made it pretty clear that I'm not supposed to be anywhere near his Mark hyung," Jaemin says sarcastically, an airy laugh leaving his pink lips.

"Mark isn't his," Jeno protests. "We're all soulmates."

Jaemin sighs, and Jeno can see the bitter smile on his features.

"That's where you're wrong Nono," the younger starts. "You're my only soulmate."

It dawns on Jeno that Jaemin is right.

It takes him a moment to clear it up in his head, because this entire soulmate ordeal really is a mess.

Donghyuck's soulmate is Jeno, and Mark. He has two.

Jaemin's soulmate is Jeno. He only has one.

Mark has all three of their names, he's destined for all three of them, if the frequencies of their names on each other is anything to go by.

Meanwhile Jeno himself, well, the only tattoo he has is Donghyuck's.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that Donghyuck and Jeno are fated, and that Donghyuck and Mark are fated.

But Jeno wants Jaemin in that too.

He wants all four of them to get along, and he wants all of them to realize their feelings for each other.

Because it's weird, and it's probably some odd soulmate fate thing, but Jeno can feel the bond between all four of them. Even if currently the atmosphere and tension around them is always thick and uncomfortable, a lot of unspoken words mingling in the air between the four of them, Jeno knows there's a bond.

So Jeno does the only thing he can think of in this moment, and squeezes Jaemin's hand comfortingly as the latter looks anywhere but his boyfriend.

"Get along with Mark," he says, voice soft, almost like a request.

It was a request, a request for Jaemin to realize that the four of them are more than just a mess of tattoos and lost hearts.

Smiling hesitantly, because sharing Jeno was still something new to him, Jaemin weakly squeezes the elder's hand back.

"Try and get Donghyuck to get along with you."

"Buffoonery," Donghyuck spits, glaring at Jaemin's side of the dorm room before flopping onto Mark's bed. "Absolute buffoonery."

Mark gulps, suddenly very nervous that Donghyuck was in his room.

Mark hadn't gotten over the fact that Jaemin suddenly looked ten times prettier than the last time he saw the latter. His hair was now some strawberry pink blonde colour instead of the light brown shade he had been previously sporting. Also, his face suddenly appealed to Mark way more than it did the first time.

He doesn't know what it is, but he knows that Donghyuck is gonna beat his ass if he ever found out that he's been fawning over Na Jaemin.

"No it's not," Mark says, trying to keep the middle ground. That's what he's known for anyways, always finding and keeping an equilibrium. "It's a chance."

Now, Donghyuck thinks Mark is a lot of things. But he never thought Mark was stupid.

"What do you mean?" Donghyuck asks with a groan. "We don't need them in our lives!"

It's out of character for Mark to get mad, and it's also out of character for Mark to get mad at Donghyuck.

But Donghyuck is already open minded about Jeno, so Mark would really appreciate it if he could also be open minded about Jaemin.

"Hyuck," Mark starts in a mumble, turning to face Donghyuck who's laying on his bed. "I want them both in my life."

He didn't know how the younger would react to his words, but he most certainly didn't expect to hear what came out of the other's mouth.

"Don't let your tattoos fool you, sometimes it isn't meant to be."

And sometimes it truly isn't meant to be.

And Mark doesn't know what to call it, but he feels a connection.

If it wasn't meant to be, Mark's chest wouldn't ache at the thought of switching dorms so that he wouldn't be with Jaemin.

"I think I like him," Mark whispers, keeping his eyes trained on Donghyuck, watching as he goes from being livid to crumbling. "I'm sorry."