colors [seungjin]

two🖍

When you live in a world where your soulmate's marks appear on your skin, people result to the most simplistic measures to confirm whether or not someone else was their soulmate. The first time Seungmin met Ryujin, the younger had marched up to him and grabbed his arm, looking it over. On her right arm was a squiggle of a marker she had made herself, and when the mark did not reflect on his own arm, she had let out a sigh of relief and Seungmin didn't know if he should have felt offended or not.

So it was common for people to either draw on themselves then go up to somebody else, or for the person to mark another's skin and wait to see if it would appear on them as well or not. The boldest students would walk up to another person in the same manner Ryujin had, others would tentatively ask, and the rest would just quietly wonder and not make a move. Seungmin was among the last group of people. He liked to think that whenever he's supposed to meet his soulmate, he will. The meeting would be much more meaningful then, more romantic to him.

"Imagine if your soulmate was some rich, snobby jerk," Ryujin had commented one day during a study session that consisted of barely any studying. Ryujin was too busy drawing on the back of her hand and smiling every so often.

"Do you think your soulmate is like that?" Seungmin asked, looking up from his textbook.

"No, but we can never tell, can we?"

Seungmin had a feeling she was trying to hint at the other day when he ran into that guy.

"What if your soulmate thinks of you like that?" She asked.

"Why would they?"

"Because you still haven't done anything to your arm. They might think you're stuck-up and snobby because you won't humor them with your stick figures."

As if on cue, a black line was being drawn on Seungmin's forearm. Seungmin watched it for a moment, taking in what Ryujin said. Was that how his soulmate thought of him? Was Seungmin making a mistake by withholding from drawing on himself?

"If you keep doing that, your soulmate might give up and just...stop."

"You're trying to guilt me into doing it."

"Is it working?" Ryujin grinned up from her spot on the floor.

It was, but he wasn't going to verbally admit it. Instead, he watched as a house appeared on his arm, detailed with bricks and a chimney with a small cloud coming from it. A sun was in the makeshift sky along with clouds, and lines of grass was drawn below. An odd circle was to the right of the house, just...existing. And his soulmate did nothing to complete whatever it was. Seungmin waited for a few minutes, but nothing was done to the circle. The thought that something might have happened to his soulmate flashed through his mind, but he quickly shook it off. His soulmate must've gotten busy, or just forgot to do something with the shape.

So he simply went back to studying. Or at least he tried to. His eyes kept flitting back to his arm to see if his soulmate would continue, only for nothing to happen.

What if his soulmate was waiting for him? What if Seungmin should 'humor' them with his stick figures, like Ryujin just said not even five minutes ago?

Seungmin looked to his right, where his sharpie sat on his nightstand, as if waiting to be used. And who was Seungmin to deny such an offer when it concerned just future significant other?

Ryujin giggled at the palm of her hand, but Seungmin was too focused to even register the sound and remark that 'Ryujin doesn't giggle'. He uncapped the mark and hovered the tip over his arm in hesitance. Him hesitating proved to be a mistake when a flood of questions rushed through his mind.

What if he was wrong? What if his soulmate wasn't waiting for him? What if his soulmate simply forgot what he was doing and had to do something else? What if his soulmate got mad because Seungmin ruined his picture? What if his soulmate never drew on his skin again because of that? Then what? Would Seungmin ever see this unknown person? Or would he continue living the rest of his life sad and lonely because he wasn't an art prodigy and his drawings sucked and—

"You're useless."

Ryujin was by his side within a second. She gripped his hand and pushed forward, so the marker would touch his arm, then went downwards before removing her hand from his. A triumphant smirk appeared on her face at her handiwork, the complete opposite of Seungmin's look of horror.

"What did you do?"

"I helped you make a move. Now finish it."

Again, Seungmin hesitated. He watched his arm, and when nothing appeared nor disappeared, he deemed that perhaps it was safe to do as Ryujin said. He drew four more lines that protruded from the line connecting to the circle with a shaky hand. Then he stopped, because he was too afraid to add anything else.

"There. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Ryujin asked, patting Seungmin's shoulder.

Seungmin eyed the doodles running up and down Ryujin's arms. "Speak for yourself."

When he looked back down at his own arm, there was a little smiley face completing the stick person Seungmin drew.

i've done seungjin so dirty in 'summoned', so i have to cancel that out with uploading this🤠