ɪ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ ɪ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ | ᴍᴀʀᴋʜʏᴜᴄᴋ

sᴜɴɴʏ sɪᴅᴇ ᴜᴘ!

"So who is it?" Was the first question Jaemin asked, grabbing onto Mark's arm and dragging him straight for their lockers, which were conveniently right next to each other (it wasn't a coincidence but actually the result of bribing the teacher they personally knew who managed the numbers). "Is it Donghyuck?"

"Why does everyone think it's Donghyuck?" Mark groaned, tapping in the number to his locker and then pulling it open, ignoring the way Jaemin eyed the picture he had taped on the door - and to be honest, Jaemin always pointed them out, talking about how cute Mark and Donghyuck looked, holding each others cheeks and making a dumb face at the camera.

"Who is everyone?" Jaemin cocked his eyebrows, leaning against his locker and crossing his arms. 

"You," Mark held a finger to Jaemin's chest, before making a gesture, "And Johnny hyung."

"If Johnny hyung said it, then it must be true." Jaemin nodded, closing his eyes and acting as if he had just heard words from a wise person. 

It was weird. Jaemin was somehow as close to Johnny as Mark was with him. And that might've been because they had grown up together, Jaemin staying over at their house the majority of the time, since his parents were out of the country, or attending an important meeting. It never affected Jaemin, in fact he was proud of his parents, proud that they worked so hard for him, proud that they made sure nothing bad ever happened, and proud because of how they always showed their love for Jaemin in over a million ways.

Mark never understood how they did it, regarding the lack of time the family had with each other, but figured it was something they were used to.

"What must be true?" Donghyuck interrupted, poking his head in between Mark and Jaemin, casually throwing an arm around the oldest and flashing a smile. The wiggling eyebrows he received from Jaemin weren't exactly helpful, since Donghyuck then turned to Mark with a confused expression. "Come on Mark hyung, what must be true?"

"The fact that…" Mark paused, his eyes travelled down Donghyuck's face and to his shoulder, down along his arm, round the elbow, before landing at his hand. The glowing red ring shining from underneath his gloves caused Mark to feel the air in his lungs knock out in the spam of a second. The sound of the students around them tuned out, and Mark could no longer pay attention to anything. He froze in his spot, and Donghyuck couldn't help but panic at the sudden change of mood. 

"What happened?" Donghyuck pulled his arm back, worried that perhaps he was the reason Mark suddenly become so cold, enveloping Mark's hand and holding it in his. But the warmth only made Mark more conscious of what had just happened. The string connected to Mark's pinky got smaller and smaller as Donghyuck shortened the distance between them. A sense of relief washed over Mark, and he was half thankful that it was his best friend was his soulmate, but a wave of worry and fear overcame the happiness. His best friend was his soulmate. His best friend who was not into guys, his best friend who didn't even believe in love, his best friend who didn't agree with the red string of fate, calling it fake and unnecessarily binding him to someone he didn't want to be with. 

They had argued about it once, and that was a horrible fight. Insults were thrown to each other, constant mocking and the worst thing was that their points were all valid. Mark believed that the strings of fate give people hope and make them happy to know that they have someone out there for them, yet Donghyuck believed that the strings of fate were stupid and a curse instead of a gift. If someone were to fall in love with someone other than their soulmate, they would have to spend the rest of their life thinking about how they might be ruined another person's life, someone who could've been searching for them the whole time, all because of their own selfish wants. At the end, they agreed to disagree, and the topic of soulmates was never brought up again.

"Mark hyung, what happened?" Donghyuck repeated, shaking Mark lightly, concern plastered over his face, and Mark felt his heart drop. The way Donghyuck stared at him, his wide eyes, parted lips, red cheeks, and fluffy hair. It wasn't going to be hard for Mark to fall in love with him. But Donghyuck would never. Donghyuck couldn't fall in love. He refused to accept the idea of cherishing someone to the point they could experience heartbreaks and other painful things. 

This was it. After years of waiting, reading, asking, wondering, Mark was going to have to live with the knowledge that although his soulmate is someone he loves (platonic or not), he could never go to another level with them. At this point, he practically had no soulmate.

"Mark!" Donghyuck yelled, finally making the elder regain his sense, and he let out a sigh, the coldness in Mark's eyes dispersed, and the warmth returned. 

"Dude, you just blanked out for a good minute." Jaemin nudged his elbow, shooting him a we-will-talk-later look, before pushing himself off the lockers. "The bell rang, so I'm gonna get to class, you guys should as well."

Before they could point out that they were all in the same class, Jaemin rushed down the corridor, intertwining his fingers with Jeno, before turning the corner and disappearing from their line of sight. The number of students around them started to decrease, and Mark then let out a long sigh. 

"Let's get going then, yeah?" Mark held the straps of his bags, a cute habit he still had from when he was younger, and he turned to face Donghyuck. The smile on the younger's face made his stomach twist in a way it hadn't before, but he pushed it aside, not letting it fully surface just yet. 

"Yeah, let's go!"