Engraved

Prologue

Hyunjin awoke to drops of rain hitting his window sill. Sunlight struggled through the cloudy sky, bathing the room in gray light. He could hear 3 other people breathing contently around him, still wrapped in the warm blanket of sleep. Usually he was the last awake, but today was an anomaly, evidently. He checked his phone. It was 9 am, so the other members would get up soon to start the day. He closed his eyes for a moment, wishing the silence could last even longer. Not for eternity, just until he could gather his thoughts for the day.

His heart felt particularly heavy today, as he had hoped it wouldn't. He was MCing tonight, and practicing with the members for the new debut they were going to be presenting in a week. It wasn't the time to be slacking. He has to be out there, doing his very best or they won't love him anymore. The fans will leave, and after that, the other members of Stray Kids. But it's not like anyone loves me now, he thinks to himself. Sure, he knows the members care about him and would do anything for him, and the fans adore him, but love? He knows no person out there loves him. If they did, his skin would be painted with black lines and shapes, creating an image reflecting that person.

And Hyunjin had never had one of those. He was alone, his skin bare and without meaning. And he was beginning to feel like that was never going to change. People only saw him for his exquisite facial features and expressions. They saw the star he was on the outside, the charismatic, funny Hyunjin. Only the members truly knew him, the real him, who cried at t.v. dramas and comic books and on particularly bad days, just spent the night with tears in his eyes and wishing he had someone who could hold him.

The other members have all had at least one of these tattoos, with Changbin having only one from a girl in high school and Felix having had six so far. No one knows exactly when a love can compel a tattoo to appear, but it is pretty standard that the darker the ink and the more it hurts as it is etched into your skin, the stronger the love on the other end. Some say that the tattoos are a symbol of soulmates, especially if the tattoos on a couple are the same.

But Hyunjin had seen so many appear on his bandmates' bodies he doubted that belief. He had watched Felix, on his third tattoo, be stalked endlessly by the person who had put it there. The girl had come to many fansigns and concerts before it had been painfully stuck into Felix's skin. Hyunjin remembered only being able to watch as the boy clutched his arm and screamed in pain for hours, the depiction of a tiger lying in wait finally setting onto his forearm. It had been the worst any of them had seen. After a fansite had snapped a photo of it, the fan tried to break into their dorm and touch her skin to the tattoo-- as that was the most accurate way to find out if it was caused by you. Touching the tattoo your love made causes feelings of euphoria and intense happiness if you love the person back, but can cause pain if you feel the opposite. She managed to escape staff after being caught, only to show up again outside the JYP building. After scrambling past all the guards, she managed to rip through Felix's shirt and wrapped her hand around the marking. They all watched as their bandmate cried in agony as she was pulled off of him by security guards. A later brief by their managers told them that the girl believed she was his soulmate, and had drawn a matching tiger on her forearm in an attempt to prove it.

Another reason Hyunjin refuses to believe the whole soulmate thing.

But he wishes he had one all the same.

Okay so this is my first fic posting on here... tell me if you guys like it, I just had this idea and wanted to see if my writing is still marginal so here you go. I'll work on updates as fast as I can but I get busy so please wait for me! I apologize in advance.

Thanks for reading!

Kat