#((woo))

this has been in my drafts for a little while......

Your mom always liked to tell you the story of when your first soulmark appeared.

You hadn’t been born with a soulmark, which wasn’t uncommon by any means. Not only were there plenty of soulmarks that weren’t visible, but soulmarks didn’t appear until both people were alive. This meant if you had a soulmate who was younger than you, you wouldn’t get the mark until they were born.

You’d been less than a year old and she’d been giving you a bubble bath when she noticed something on your waist. Google translate wasn’t readily available at that age, but she was able to recognize it as an asian script.

You’d find out later that it was Korean, but she didn’t know that at the time.

That story was always paired with the shock your mother experienced when you got two more soulmarks, nearly back to back, two years later. There was the timer on your left wrist, and the date and time of someone's birth on your right.

The final mark came the following year when one of your eyes switched colors.

At least, that was the last physical mark. The others had been harder to figure out, but, by your count, you had a total of 8 soulmates.

You knew it was a large number. Sure, polysoulmates were a thing, but they were largely uncommon. Looking back, you were just grateful that your aunt was part of a four-way bond. She was someone who understood and normalized it, which passed to your parents, too. 

Your parents always told you it was a blessing to have so much love in your future, though they warned you of some who might be mad at you for having so many.

“Don't let them get to you,” your father told you, “They're just jealous and don't understand the blessing you have.” 

Your blessing included the fact that you were able to semi-communicate with 3 of your soulmates. One of them through your dreams, one by writing on your skin, and the last by looking in the mirror. 

The first time you'd gone into the bathroom as a kid and saw a young boy staring back at you had been quite a fright. You'd been convinced you somehow turned into a boy, but when your mother assured you she didn't see anyone, you eventually concluded it must be your soulmate. 

The second of the three that you found out about was the soulmate you shared your skin with. You'd decided to doodle on your hands one day while playing with markers and eventually felt a tingling sensation as you watched someone else write back. The two of you mostly communicated with drawings and colors, once you realized you didn't share a native tongue, but as you grew older you communicated better, too.

It was through your dreams that you finally pushed to learn another language. You were in elementary school when you first met the other boy. Once again, you didn't share a language, but it was still fun playing with him. When you told your mom about it, she determined that you needed a language tutor to help you out.

“The universe is giving you a heads up, it's okay to take this into your own hands so you can speak with your soulmates plainly,” she told you. She'd always been a big proponent of letting the universe do its thing, sharing stories of how she and your father met through happenstance. Their mark was one where their skin changed color the first time they touched. 

“I wouldn't trade that moment for the world,” she told you with a fond smile on her face.

It wasn't uncommon for schools to have connections with language tutors. This was primarily to help those children who had soulmates that spoke a different language than them. You were lucky to find a tutor that not only was able to teach you Korean, but helped you learn sign language, too.

That had been your idea when trying to think of ways to communicate with your mirror soulmate. The two of you had slowly discovered that you couldn't see anything the other person was holding, only the person and whatever clothes were on their body. Since you couldn’t hear each other, either, the only option left was sign language.

The soulmate that took you the longest to figure out had been your pain soulmate. 

Your mom said that as a kid you'd sometimes cry out or clutch onto different body parts despite not having any visible injuries. Most of it had been brushed off as growing pains, or you simply being unable to articulate what had happened to get you hurt.

You honestly hadn't even considered it could be soulmate related until one day you woke up clutching your leg in pain. It felt like you'd just slid across asphalt on your bare legs, but you'd been lying in bed, so that surely wasn't the case. Your friends asked you about it at school when they noticed you being ginger with your leg.

“Can't some soulmates feel each others’ pain?” One of your friends asked. 

So… 8 soulmates it was: reflection, first words, dreams, shared skin, date of birth, timer, pain, and switched eyes.

As you grew up, so did they. There were times when you'd been tempted to try and figure out exactly who they were, but you ultimately didn't want to. You and your boys had agreed early on that you wouldn't share any details that could let you find each other sooner.

“It's supposed to be fate, right? I don't wanna force this to happen. I want to meet when we're supposed to,” you'd explained to Changbin in a dream one night. 

He nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He smiled. “I'm sure fate will bring us together at the best time.”

Though, you'd all agreed that if you didn't meet before age 30, perhaps you could give fate a nudge.

You'd also been open and honest with them about having multiple soulmates. Turns out, all three of the boys you could talk with did, too. It made you feel better that they understood and weren't upset with you for it.

Plus, if you were lucky… maybe you were all connected. 

When you were in high school, though, something shifted. Chris, Changbin, and Hyunjin all admitted to having found some of their other soulmates. 

It was too close together to be a coincidence, but you didn't ask for more details, and they didn't offer them. 

It was what you agreed on. 

You knew Chris had talked about going abroad to try pursuing music, and he mentioned having to learn another language, too. 

You were happy for them all, you truly were, but as a teen it niggled at your brain.

Why did they get to meet their other soulmates first? Why did you have to wait? 

There were times when it ate at your self esteem. You weren't good enough yet. You didn't deserve them. All these thoughts swirled around in your head.

Hyunjin didn't write as much. You and Changbin rarely got to share dreams as it was but now it seemed even more sporadic. 

And you hadn't seen Chris in months. 

This was what fate wanted, clearly. 

Hyunjin suddenly asking you not to write in visible places anymore was what broke you.

“Are you trying to hide me from your other soulmates?” You wrote back furiously. 

“What? No! I promise,” he scribbled back.

“Then if you don't want to talk to me anymore you can just say so.”

“Y/N, I always want to talk to you.”

Before you could respond you felt the familiar tingle of more writing being added.

“I'm sorry I've been so busy. You told me you didn't want too many details but )): it's a big opportunity. I don't want to hide you, but I also need to be discreet now.”

You sighed. He was right, even though you'd both agreed upon it, it still hurt a little. 

“Okay, I'm sorry too. I miss you.”

“Miss you too )): I promise to write more, okay? You're my soulmate, too.”

And that had been the tipping point. Next time you saw Chris and Changbin respectively, you talked about it with them, too. They also apologized and swore they didn't mean to make you feel excluded.

“I'm sure there's a reason we haven't met yet,” Changbin said as the two of you sat in a park in your dreams. His hand was holding yours, thumb brushing over your skin soothingly. “I… I wish I knew why, but it's not either of our faults, ok? We're supposed to meet, so we will.”

You nodded, resting your head on his shoulder. “I guess I'm just jealous. You and two of my other soulmates have now met some of your other soulmates and I'm just… here.”

You could practically feel Changbin thinking, but he didn't voice it. You didn't know the names of his other soulmates, and he didn't know yours. 

At this rate you didn't want to know. Not if they might all be together without you. 

Things got better after that. You focused on finishing high school, doing martial arts, and applying to colleges. Sometimes you felt bad that you did such a physical sport, considering your soulmate bond, but he definitely did a sport, too, if the pain was anything to go by.

You hoped it was a sport and not something worse. It had to be a sport.

When applying for colleges, a part of you had considered looking at Korea. You were fluent in the language, and it could bring you closer to your soulmates. But after much consideration and multiple applications, you ended up getting accepted into UCLA in their film program. 

Your parents were so proud, and even though you would be moving away from home, they were excited for the new adventure you'd be going on.

Your soulmates were also proud. They didn't know the specific school, but they knew how hard you'd worked to get into it.

As you continued with school, your focus ended up shifting into acting - specifically stunt acting. One of your professors found out you did martial arts and asked you if you'd ever thought about stunt work. It ended up being right up your alley, and you quickly fell in love with the career. It gave you everything you wanted. You loved film making, acting, and doing creative projects with others. Plus you got to feel like a badass the whole time you did it. 

School kept you busy, but you and your boys still talked when you could. It was nice, honestly. You found friends and were following your passions, and you knew it would lead you to them one day.

Of course, what you didn’t expect was that you’d end up finding out about your soulmates through an innocent music recommendation from a friend.

“Have you heard of Stray Kids before?” Lance had asked as he slid into the seat beside you in the mess hall.

You shook your head as you finished chewing your bite of your lunch. “No, but I have a feeling I’m about to.”

He laughed. “Come on, they’re this up and coming K-Pop group. Just check this out.” He passes you an airpod, which you dutifully slip into your ear as he opens up Spotify.

The song starts off slow, talking about being at rock bottom and walking alone through a dark tunnel. You find yourself bobbing your head along with it as it picks up. The group had great vocals.

As the chorus hits and they shift into English, “I’m on a Hellevator,” singing in your ears, Lance leans forward to interrupt your field of view. He has a big grin on his face as he nods excitedly.

“They’re good right? This is their recent compilation album, so it has some of their best hits on it.” He looks excited.

You laugh. “Alright, alright, I promise I’ll check them out more when I get home. Ya know, after I study for finals?”

Lance waves at hand at you dismissively. “Half of that is portfolio stuff, and you've already been getting onto sets. You’re fine. You don’t need to study.”

You stood up, pointing at him as you scooped up your trash from lunch. “I didn’t go to this school for nearly 4 years to flunk out right before the finish line, alright? So I’m gonna study.”

“Just make sure you check them out, too, okay?” He called behind you as you walked away.

You had one more class that day, and then an evening shoot that only lasted a couple hours. But with LA traffic, you still didn't make it home til late that night, the thought of Stray Kids far from your mind as you hurriedly showered and plopped down in your bed to study before crashing for the night.

You didn't have classes the next day, and as you were making your breakfast you found yourself humming Hellevator. You shrugged, typing in the band name on YouTube and deciding to see what you could find.

You were prepared to see some cute boys doing fun dances, what you weren't prepared for was recognizing two of the boys. 

You nearly choked on your cereal as you tried to calm yourself. You looked at the screen again and even decided to google the band, just to be sure.

Chris and Changbin were, indeed, a part of Stray Kids. One of the members was also named Hyunjin, which you knew, at this point, couldn't be a coincidence.

While you and the boys had agreed to not reveal anything directly to each other, this certainly was fate sliding the cards your way. Grabbing one of your skin safe markers, you hurriedly wrote a message to Hyunjin before you could talk yourself out of it.

“Are you in Stray Kids?” 

You knew it was fairly late in Korea. Since you'd realized a few of your soulmates were from there, you'd always been conscious of the time difference. Despite the time, you felt a tingling sensation as you got a reply.

“o_o yes. How did you find out?”

You snorted. “I'd say Fate but his actual name is Lance.”

You wrote more before he could reply. “He recommended Hellevator to me and then I looked up videos.”

“But wait, you haven't seen my face..??”

You hesitated for a moment before replying. “Chris and Changbin are also my soulmates. I've seen them before.” 

“!!!!”

You laughed at Hyunjin's excited response. He was quickly writing something else.

“Can I tell Chris and Bin?”

You were gonna tell them anyway, and you knew it'd be a while before you and Changbin crossed paths (since you'd just woken up). Chris was also hard to catch since it was just happenstance when you'd both be at a mirror at the same time.

“Sure :)” you wrote back before you could overthink it. 

He didn't reply again for a bit. You honestly assumed Chris and Changbin were asleep. You continued with your breakfast, the paused YouTube video staring you down.

Were the rest of them your soulmates, too? The numbers certainly added up.

Should you google it?? You could figure out who's birthday was on your wrist probably-

“Chan says go to the mirror?” Hyunjin wrote, interrupting your train of thought. You snorted at his confusion and just sent back a smiley face before heading to your bathroom.

The second you stepped into the sight of the mirror, Chris's gaze was on you. His hands moved rapidly as he signed to you.

“You know about Stray Kids?”

You nodded. “A friend recommended a song to me and I looked you all up. If that's not fate I'm not sure what is.”

He grinned. “So Changbin and Hyunjin too?”

You nodded again, matching his smile. “I recognized you, obviously, and then Changbin. Bin and I share dreams. Hyunjin and I share skin - we can write to each other. It was an educated guess because of you two and him having the right name.”

“Do you think…” he suddenly stopped, furrowing his eyebrows. “How many other soulmates do you have?”

“I have 8 total, so 5 I don't have names for.”

His eyes widened. “Is it…”

You knew what he was thinking. You shrugged. “I mean, honestly, probably, but I just figured this out so I haven't exactly thought about it much.” You glanced at your wrist, frowning slightly. “My timer for one of them still says like 2.5 years, so.”

Chris frowned too. “It just feels like you're so close.”

“You guys are literally across the Pacific.” You pointed out with a smirk. 

He scoffed. “Yeah, but… you know us now.”

You shrugged. “I mean, I still want to find you guys organically, as much as I can. I know, I want to meet you guys, too, but if it's supposed to be a few years from now…”

You saw him sigh. “I know. It's not like we aren't busy, too, but…”

“It still sucks,” you finished. “But we'll find each other when it's right.”

He gave you a small smile. “Yeah, you're right. I'm glad you know, though.” His grin grew. “Now I can tell you more about the boys and what we do next time.”

After talking with Chris before he had to go to bed for the night, you returned to your breakfast with a sigh.

You were graduating this year, and you already had some films you'd been helping on with more lined up in the future. There was so much you were excited for but glancing at your timer, the 2.5 years felt further away than ever.