#sprite!au

A young boy bounces into his parents bedroom. “Mum! Dad!” he shouts, leaping onto the bed like it's Christmas morning and there're piles of presents under the tree.

Before he burst in, his parent’s soul songs were soft and slow, timed to match up with their breathing as they slept. In contrast, his was fast and strong, matching perfectly with his accelerated heart rate.

His mother, incredulous at his antics, is the first to put her head up. “What the fuck,” the father mutters, probably not as quietly as he should have. However, the boy is too excited to notice. He bounds up to his mother as she sits up, and the father follows suit, their songs becoming more active in kind.

“I'm! So! Happy!” their son squeals, his words falling between his jumps.

“Not at three forty-two in the morning you're not,” says the father as he squints at the clock.

“What's going on, Chanyeol?” his mother queries sleepily, and looks to his father to request that he be patient.

“I just think something amazing is gonna happen!” Chanyeol blurts, and the father's eyes widen in recognition. He smiles. He grins.

“What kind of thing, Chanyeol?” he asks.

“Like I have a new best friend!” Of course, how would a little boy recognize the feeling of true love?

“I see! Can you hear beautiful music?”

Chanyeol cocks his head to the side, “No? Should I?”

His father’s grin falls.

~~~~~~~~~

Chanyeol, now nineteen, stares down at his bowl. His mother made bibimbap, and it looks delicious, but he’s not sure if he’s too upset to eat it.  

He rests his chin on his hand as he props his elbow on the table, and uses a spoon to poke the yolk of the egg laying on his rice. The soft yolk bursts, and he watches as it slowly oozes over the egg white and disappears into the spaces between the rice and vegetables.

His mother clears her throat subtly at him, making him glance up at her. She looks with raised eyebrows and a small smile, asking him to be a good host to his sister’s mate, whom the family are meeting for the first time tonight.

“Please try,” she mouths to him. He sighs, but straightens up and takes a sip of water.

Really he just doesn’t want to have to look at the lovers across from him making heart eyes at one another. It’s just a reminder of what Chanyeol doesn’t have, and that he’s not sure he ever will.

All his friends have found their mates. All of them could hear their mates’ songs either from the moment they were born, or the moment their mates were born, but Chanyeol has never heard your song.  

It’s customary in modern sprite culture to find your mate after high school graduation by following their soul song. Chanyeol’s sister actually made the decision to wait so she could pursue college education as quickly as possible, which is becoming more common among the younger generation. It was a difficult and slightly painful decision for her, so Chanyeol never told her that he was glad she decided to wait. It was nice to have his sibling also be without her mate; it felt like he wasn’t so alone.

But now, here he was: her mate. As much as part of him was happy for her, he was also envious of their happy smiles, their affectionate hand-holding, and their bright soul songs melding together so perfectly they may as well be one melody.

“I need to use the bathroom,” Chanyeol says abruptly.

He blankly turns and leaves the dining room, and heads for his bedroom once he is in the hallway.

He wanted to be alone, but the silence is deafening.  

He can’t hear your song. He can’t hear his mate’s song.  

Chanyeol sinks to the floor, leaning against the wall, tears beginning to prick at his eyes. He is immersed in his own sorrowful thoughts for some time, until his mother comes to find him.

“Sweetheart? Your dinner is getting cold, and I’m serving dessert soon. Are you coming back through?” she asks softly.

Chanyeol looks up to his mother in the doorway. Her shoulders fall, and her suspicions upon hearing the drop in his soul song are confirmed. She knows exactly what the issue is, as Chanyeol has expressed his anxiety on the issue of mates to her before. She closes the door, drops to the floor, and wraps her teenage son in her arms, trying to reassure him, “It will be okay. She’s out there. You can feel her can’t you? Even if you can’t hear her?”

“I know, I know she’s somewhere, but I don’t know where, and I don’t know where to find her,” he pulls away from his mother, frustration mixing with the sadness in his chest. He stands, taking himself completely out of his mother’s embrace. “Why can’t I be normal? Why have I been matched with a human. I mean, what the fuck?!” he gestures widley with his arms to make his point.

“There’s a whole fucking world out there. There’s billions of people. I don’t know if I’ll ever meet her. If anything, I need to go out there and look for her!”

“Yuanfen,” is the only word his mother utters in response.

“What?” Chanyeol is mystified and slightly annoyed that his mother is now speaking in Mandarin. That’s not exactly what he’s after right now.  

“Yuanfen,” his mother repeats. “I heard it recently from a Chinese light sprite. It means a relationship which is destined to occur. A relationship where two people are tied by fate. That’s what you get when you have a soul bond.”

She stands and steps closer to him, gripping his face, very serious, “Don’t try to look for her, because when one is lost they should stay in the same place and wait to be found.” Her gaze softens, and she speaks again, “Trust me, you will find her. Be patient, you will be brought together. It just needs time.”  

~~~~~~~~

“Chanyeol!” Sehun’s voice carries in the open air, and he jogs toward the two other men. Chanyeol’s turns around at the sound of his name, smiling as he recognizes his friend, a light sprite.

Next to Chanyeol, Baekhyun can’t resist a pun. “You seem spritely today, Sehun!”  

“Lame,” Sehun monotones, rolling his eyes and curling his upper lip. Baekhyun doesn’t care what Sehun thinks of his jokes, and laughs anyway. Chanyeol giggles.  

“Why didn’t you call my name, too, Sehun?” Baekhyun bats his eyelashes jokingly at Sehun.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there, muggle,” Sehun responds.

“Not very original.”

“But accurate.”  

“Are we eating together?” Chanyeol turns to walk backwards as he interrupts his friends’ mock bickering.

“I’m down to do that,” Baekhyun replies brightly.

“Fine with me- Fuck,” Sehun stops in his tracks. “I have a meeting with my advisor.” He grimaces slightly, “I guess I can’t.”

A slightly disappointed half-smile appears on Chanyeol’s face, “That’s okay. Next time!”

“Sure thing,” Sehun waves as he turns around and jogs off.

“You still got me!” Baekhyun chirps.

Chanyeol claps hind hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder. “And it’s appreciated.”

They walk to the dining hall, making conversation about classes, complaining about professors, and cracking jokes. Once there, Chanyeol and Baekhyun scan the screens on the walls listing what’s available to eat at each station.

“Not especially appealing today. The school doesn’t really know how to cook most of this well,” Baekhyun remarks, wincing a bit.

“Well pizza’s hard to fuck up completely, I’ll probably just go for that,” Chanyeol responds as he begins to walk.

As he begins to move through the crowd of students, faculty, and staff also getting lunch, his hand brushes against an anonymous arm, and Chanyeol stumbles, almost bumping into someone in front of him. He freezes, eyes wide, mouth in a surprised “oh” shape. Baekhyun darts around to face him, and his eyes go wide as well.

“Dude, your eyes are blue!” he whispers frantickly.

Right now, Chanyeol doesn’t care. In fact, he barely registers Baekhyun’s words. Instead, he whirls around, searching for whoever he just accidentally touched, because Chanyeol hears music, the music he’s been hoping to hear for ages.

He hears you.

People around him give him confused and slightly worried glances, a product of both his antics and suddenly ice-blue eyes.

Those eyes settle finally on you. “That’s her,” Chanyeol says breathlessly.

Baekhyun, confused, follows his gaze, then looks back to Chanyeol’s awestruck expression.

Baekhyun is becoming more confused by the second, then it clicks.

“Wait, like her her? Like your soulmate?”

Chanyeol vaguely nods, his eyes now fading back to their normal brown shade.

“Well go talk to her you dumbass!”

Chanyeol balks at the thought, “How the fuck am I supposed to do that? What would I say? She’s a human she has no clue what just happened!” He gestures to his own manic-looking face, explaining further, “Look at me, I’m hysterical. I’m in no state to make a good first impression on my mate.”

Baekhyun’s eyebrows furrow, and he sighs through his nose as he purses his lips, then he has an idea. He whips out his phone and snaps a picture of you.

“I’ll send this to Sehun. He knows, like, everyone on campus. Or at least he’ll know someone who knows her,” he says, stuffing his phone back in his pocket.

“I thought you would know more people than him?” Chanyeol asks, eyes still following you as you finish getting food and move to sit down.

“Well, I do, but I’ve never seen her before. She doesn’t look like a freshman. She’s probably a foreign student.” He pauses, “So uhhhhh...What are we doing now, if you’re not talking to her?”  

Chanyeol finally looks back to his friend, “Honestly I feel too excited to eat right now, but I definitely don’t want to leave! I’ve waited so long for this.” Chanyeol thinks for a moment with a spaced-out expression while Baekhyun waits, allowing the events of the past few minutes to sink in. Then he grins, jumping a bit on the balls of his feet and grabbing Baekhyun’s arm, “I found her I found her I found her!” he stops, eyes wide, “I need to call my parents!”

His eyes travel again to where you are, and he smiles dopily, “I’ll do it later,” he says, giggling a bit.

Baekhyun feels very out of his depth, but he tries to help his friend think straight. “Let’s go get food, so you don’t look like a weirdo who’s only gone into the dining hall to stare at a girl, okay?”

Chanyeol nods, and they get their pizza, and Chanyeol is happy to find a seat from where he can see you.

~~~~~~

You sit down at lunch with your japchae. The pizza was temptingly familiar to you, since you’re so far from home, but you’re studying abroad to experience more culture, so you’re pushing yourself to remain outside your comfort zone, at least for now. You’ll save stuff like pizza for when you’re homesick.

You scroll through texts from your parents asking how you are, and how your classes are going, plus texts from friends asking how South Korea is.

You tell your parents that you’re adjusting, and that it’s too early to tell on the classes. You then tell your friends that so far South Korea is fun, interesting, and very different. There's too much going on to say in individual texts. You'll make a Facebook post later and tag some people or something.

In the middle of a mouthful, you look up and to your left, in the direction of a window, and see a pair of male eyes on you.

You awkwardly look away, not wanting to make eye contact with a stranger.

Part-way across the room to your left, Chanyeol panickedly thinks “Fuck.”

As you finish your lunch, you clear away your dishes and leave for your dorm to grab what you need for your next class. You notice that guy is staring at you again. What's his problem? You think, a bit anxious, but you chalk it up to him being just a bit strange, and decide to not think much about it for now.

Chanyeol’s mouth turns down as his eyebrows raise.

“Oh my gosh dude, you’re throwing me off. Is this what you’re gonna be like from now on?” Baekhyun questions pointedly, looking slightly discomforted.

“Uh, maybe. I don't really know,” Chanyeol is clearly a bit spacy, and shrugs contentedly. He's on a love high.

“Oh, Sehun texted me back.” Baekhyun reports what their friend says, “He doesn't know her.”

Chanyeol's mouths twists to the side, disappointed.

Baekhyun tries to cheer him up. “It'll sort itself out. We'll see her again!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Once you make it to your next class, Ancient Philosophy, you quickly take a seat and organize your things for class, then play around on your phone while you wait for the professor to start class.

While playing on your phone, you fail to notice the blond haired boy who stops in the doorway once he catches sight of you. Moving into the room, he pulls out his phone and taps away on it. He looks at you, back to his phone, then at you again. He smirks and starts nodding to himself, and takes a seat in the same row as yours, with one seat between the two of you. As he does so, he drops his backpack in the seat inhabiting the space between your desks.

You looks up at the sound, and he just slightly bows to you, and introduces himself.

“I’m Oh Sehun. I’m saving this seat for a friend of mine.”

You nod and respond with a bow yourself, saying, “I’m L/N F/N.”

He smiles at you, you smile back, and you go back to your phone, neither of you pushing for a conversation.

A couple of minutes later, a very tall male student enters the room. His line of sight first lands on Sehun, who waves, then gestures to you.

The tall man’s face morphs from an expression of joy to one of shock and awkwardness.

Sehun points at the seat next to yours.

“Hyung, I saved you a seat!” Sehun calls out.

You look up, and make eye contact with the student at the front of the room, who awkwardly waves and smiles slightly at you.

You smile slightly back, but you recognize him as the guy from lunch. Okay it’s this guy. Hopefully he’s not as weird as he seemed...

He takes a hesitant step forward, and Sehun encourages him to come over.

He makes his way across the room, and sits down after Sehun moves his bag.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” you hear this new man whisper harshly to Sehun.

“I wanted to see your face,” Sehun says back, clearly amused. “You’re a fucking mess dude.”

You hear Sehun’s friend sigh heavily, then breathe in again before he turns to face you quickly.

You turn to him with wide eyes, not sure what to expect.

“Hi” is all he says.

“...Hi”

He turns back to his friend, who seems to encourage him, and he turns back to you.

What the fuck is going on? You think

“Um, I’m Park Chanyeol.” Chanyeol bows quickly, and you bow as well.

“I’m L/N F/N” you respond.

Chanyeol smiles widely at you, then seems to realize something, probably the fact that you’re finding him worryingly strange.

“Oh, I, uh, noticed you at lunch. I thought you were really pretty.” He looks away, blushing.

Oh, he’s just really awkward. You smile slightly, blushing as well. Oh, he’s handsome though. Really fucking handsome.

“Do you want to go get coffee after class? Are you free?”

You think back to your class schedule, and remember this is your last class.

I shouldn’t get involved with someone while I’m studying abroad the rational part of your mind protests, but something about him felt so right. The longer you sat with him, the more you realized how safe, content, and warm he made you feel. A smile spreads over your face.

“I’d love to.”