congratulations || jeongchan

- 22 - Rebuilding -

I don't even need to ask

Jeongin's gaze moves around the room but I all can see is him.

It feels like this might the beginning of us fixing this, of us trying to put all our pieces back together.

"Chan?" I turn and instinctively start walking towards Minho's voice, not sure where I'm going.

It turns out Minho is in the kitchen, washing dishes. I raise an eyebrow and he just rolls his eyes.

"Hyunjin, it seems, does not know the meaning of soap and I refuse to drink out of a cup with coffee stains all down the side."

"Ah. Of course. What do you need?"

"Could you possibly do some drying? I would have asked someone else so you and Jeongin could catch up but everyone else seems to have their own problems to sort through and I could do with another pair of hands."

"Oh yeah sure." I grab a towel from the drawer under the sink and start drying the plates and mugs Minho passes to me every couple of seconds.

I reach out for the next one, a white mug with 'Worlds number 1 head master' on it in black caps but with the master scribbled out - I'll have to ask Jeongin about it later.

As I take it from Minho's hand my eyes catch on something below the water. Minho's left hand has bandage wrapped around the middle of it. And you can just about see a smudge of red blossoming beneath the material.

"Have trouble with a knife did you?"

Minho looks at me in confusion before following my eyes and letting out a tight laugh I don't quite believe.

"Something like that."

I let the weird laugh slide and go back to drying my dishes and cups. That is until I hear Minho hiss in pain as he drops a fork into the water.

"Oh bro."
"Shut up Chan." He laughs, a little more convincingly but I can still see the tears falling from his eyes.

"Your sleeve is getting wet." I reach over and start tugging it up and out of the water.

"No Chan- please... don't."

"But this is your favourite hoodie..."

I've already seen the bandage around his wrist now.

I pull Minho by his arm around to face me and carefully pull the sleeve back from his arm. He's crying harder now.

"Minho..." what happened? He knows what I mean without me having to say it.

He holds his arm out to me, it's shaking as I unravel the bandages. First the one on his hand, the blood obscuring what lies beneath it and second the one stretching all the way up his arm to his elbow.

Beneath the blood I can almost see words. Black writing.

Is it soulmate writing? Why is it bleeding?

My hands are shaking now too as I use my cloth to wipe away the blood, revealing beneath it familiar handwriting that looks to be etched centimetres deep into Minho's skin.

The cloth falls to the floor as I reach out and take Minho's hand, staring at the question mark, dotted with a heart and an arrow leading to nothing.

Tears blur my vision as I take in the horrific mess that is the wound all the way up his arm, 'it's my birthday today. did you forget?'

"I don't... Minho I don't-"

"Understand?"

It's my writing. The things I wrote to Jeongin. On Minho's arm.

I look up at him. At the pain in his eyes.

"It's fine Chan. They go eventually."

The longer I look at his arm the more I see; all over his body the slightly raised red marks are scattered.

Some aren't bleeding or healing any more but are more like a slightly raised vein on his skin.

"When?"

Minho turns his arm over and it's all I can do to stay standing.

"Since the day he died. That was the first mark to appear."

He gestures to a very faint silver scar of small flower on the inside of his wrist.

It cuts straight through Minho's other scar.

The one from his soulmate.

The flower cuts it in half.

"That's the only one that hasn't disappeared."

"I- what?" I feel my knees go weak.

"Chan?" Minho reaches out and concern hitches his voice.

"Are you my soulmate then?" I ask quietly. I feel almost afraid of the answer.

"I don't know Chan. It feels like my heart is lying to me. It feels like it's telling me to love you. But I don't. Not like that. The day that flower appeared I was excited I think, that I had gotten another soulmate. But I don't think I was sure I wanted one. It was too soon.

"Then I started recognising the hand writing. As yours. But you never responded to what I wrote. And it hurt every time I put a pen to my skin. It hadn't done that before. Then you met Jeongin and I understood.

"It was just a mistake." He sighs and shakes his arm in pain. The air must be making his cuts sting like hell.

"But you were just a child Minho. Did you have anyone to tell?"

"They don't bleed every time Chan.  Don't worry. They just come as red marks and disappeared a couple of days later... usually."

"You should have...."

"Told you? I think you both know I never would have done that Chan. Not when you were just beginning to get to know Jeongin. To love him."

"When did they start bleeding?"

"When you two broke up."

And yet Minho had made sure I was happy, always. Had encouraged me to move on. Never pushing me back into the relationship that hadn't worked out even though my every word when me and Jeongin were apart cut deep into his skin.

I pull him into a tight hug. Being careful of his arm.

It takes all my strength to not shiver as I feel his blood soaking into the back of my shirt.

"I could never make you feel guilty for it Chan, for loving Jeongin."

I step back and feel a light tap on my back.

I turn and Jeongin hands me a first aid kit.

He must have heard at least most of the conversation.

His hand slips into mine as I sit down and begin cleaning the cuts. He doesn't let go until I've finished.

A/N - I'm sorry ik this is kinda shitty but my brain is broken