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Between Our Souls

NCT Mark x female reader, university au, soulmate au, angst and fluff, slow burn, oneshot, featuring Jeno, Jaemin and Jisung

A/N - I got carried away again and this took so long to write! I’m also not over (and probably never will be) SpiderMark and NCIT

Disclaimer: this does not represent any of the members in real life, it is purely for entertainment purposes. Explicit language used at times!

Soulmates. The word makes your shoulders tense and your lips falter into an uneasy grimace. Not because you don’t like the idea of soulmates or anything, but because you dread the day you meet yours.

Your parents have always told you that from birth your soul is intertwined with another’s, your hearts beating in sync and your minds alike; it’s a connection like no other. And you believed them wholeheartedly, spending most of your childhood dreaming of spending your life with someone who truly understands you.

Your parents were soulmates, so you’d only ever heard good things about the divine union between them, hoping that yours would one day be the same. That is until you turned 18.

On your 18th birthday you get your first mark from your soulmate. It’s usually in the form of a birthmark, scar or pre-existing bruise they have somewhere on their body. It’s a symbol of hope, a mark that your soulmate is somewhere out there in the world. And, most importantly, the initial blemish is painless regardless of how your soulmate acquired it.

From then onwards though, it’s not such a serene or exciting ordeal. No, every bruise or scrape is just as painful for you as it is for the one receiving it. You wince and whine in pain, shuddering as you feel a kick to the gut or a bash to the head. And that’s the very reason you’ve come to dread finding out who your soulmate is.

By the age of 21, you’ve spent the past three years studying at university and you’re now in your final year. During your time studying for your degree, you’ve become incredibly gifted at covering up the bruises your soulmate has so lovingly gifted you. Occasionally returning the favour by walking into a corner of a table or stubbing your toe, as a thank you of course.

But right now you’re livid. With your head in your hands, elbows leaning on the table to keep you steady, you let out little whimpers. A shooting pain spikes through your leg from the base of your foot and your only thought is a beg for it to stop. All you’d wanted to do was spend some time studying in the library with your friends, but no, you’re soulmate can’t give you that can he?

“Maybe you’re soulmate stepped on a Lego?” Jaemin snickers, a pout replacing his amused grin with seconds as Renjun whacks his arm.

“Shut up. Can’t you see she’s in pain?” Renjun sarcastically retorts.

“No, it’s ok.” You manage out through a clenched jaw, raising your head enough for them to see your face.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to hunt down whoever this dickhead is?” Renjun leans towards you, watching you in concern as you begin to try and shake away the pain.

“He’s just clumsy.” You excuse, the same answer you give every time. But reality is you’re just trying to convince yourself of that fact. Rather him be clumsy than anything else, because it’s endearing, right?

“If you say so.” Renjun gives in to your reasoning for what feels like the millionth time. Although, his sigh reveals how he truly feels. You send him a thankful smile in hopes that it’s enough to settle his worry.

“Oh my god! Come see this!” Jaemin bursts, turning his phone screen so you and Renjun are able to see the video that his soulmate Jeno had sent to him.

You’ve always admired Jaemin and Jeno’s connection, they just compliment eachother so well; Jaemin being the loveable fluff ball, a caring soul right to the core and his perfect other half Jeno, the athletic jock type, but with a heart of gold.

Then there’s Renjun who, like you, hasn’t met his soulmate yet. You met Renjun on your first week of university, at some welcome week event you’d stumbled upon. He’d approached you to ask if you knew where the restrooms were, which you didn’t, but the second you laid eyes on him and had taken notice of the strawberry smoothie that had been spilt down his front, you offered to help him. Renjun still won’t admit it to this day, but he’s one of the clumsiest people you’ve come across - which surprises most people because he just has such a put together look about him, like he is too focused and sensible.

Renjun nudges your elbow, giving you a side glance as you cringe, watching the events unfold. It shows a fellow student from your university, you presume on his way to class. His head is bowed low, watching the path beneath him as he steadily walks and his hands clutch onto the straps of his backpack. He’s wearing a navy blue cap, obscuring his identity from being revealed in the video so far and you wait in suspense with the knowledge that something is going to be happening to this unsuspecting guy.

Out of no where a ball flies into frame, hitting him on the head with a harsh bounce. Startled, he looses his balance, tripping up over his unsteady feet and catching on his shoelace which sends him flying down to the ground with a thud. It’s a mean video, the camera panning to capture the culprit, wearing a red cap, laughing away with his group of friends.

Although, your distaste for the video and sympathy for the victim vanishes when he reappears. Everyone’s laughing falters as the guy approaches the one that threw the ball at him, shoving him forcefully back by the shoulders. Red cap, stumbles back a little but retaliates just as hard once he’s regained his footing.

Next thing you know, blue cap has been backed into the wooden picnic tables in the centre of the grass verge. You can’t properly see what happens, but your eyes widen as you see blue cap fall to the floor. He wails in pain, silent onlookers frozen as they watch him clutch his foot. Red cap and his friends begin tormenting him by kicking his wound before walking away in laughter.

Then the video cuts off.

“Oof I wouldn’t want to be his soulmate.” Renjun shakes his head, tight-lipped smile on his face.

“Same, luckily Jeno doesn’t get into fights like that.” Jaemin jokes back, and the two of them share a laugh as they reminisce on the many times Jeno has bashed or hurt himself while playing football with your Universities team.

Both turn to you when you fail to add anything, their brows furrowing when they see your wide-eyed, mouth slightly agape expression etched onto your face.

“(Y/N), you ok?” Jaemin lightly shakes your shoulder, making you blink out of your daze.

“Huh- oh yeah. I’m fine.” You mumble, instantly turning to pull some books out of your bag while Renjun and Jaemin continue to watch you silently.

“How long ago did that happen?” You blurt out after a few minutes of silence. You’d tried to distract yourself from replaying the video in your head by reading but it was no use.

“About 10 minutes ago, Jeno recorded it and sent it through right away.” Jaemin informs, unknowingly confirming a thought that had settled into your mind.

“That’s outside the East building right?” You scramble your books away, standing up from the table in a rush. Jaemin nods, sending a quick, unsure gaze over to Renjun, who seems to be just as confused as him by your hurry to leave. “Great, see you later!” You quickly smile before rushing out of the library.

You arrive in front of the East building’s entrance a few minutes later, completely out of breath from running across campus as fast as you could. Scanning the area of picnic tables, you let out a defeated sigh when you find them completely empty.

“Damn it.” You mutter under your breath before turning back on yourself and beginning to walk the way you’d just come from.

You were stupid to have thought that blue cap would still be here, and even more so for running when you’d had terrible shooting pains in your foot not long before.

A bash to your shoulder snaps you out of your thoughts, your hand flying up to hold onto the spot that’s just been hit into.

“Watch where you’re going.” The agitated voice spits towards you. And you’re about to fire a comment back at your rude encounter when you look up and see the aggressive eyes glaring at you and the dishevelled, messy hair of the guy; he’s clearly not having a good day. “Well? Aren’t you going to apologise?” He stares you down expectantly.

You narrow your eyes at him in distain. Normally, yes, you would apologise, even if it wasn’t your fault; which in this instance it isn’t. But there’s something about the way he looks at you, something in his demanding stature; an arrogance that infuriates you.

“No.” You simply reply before turning and walking away from him. You don’t dare to look back to see his reaction because if you did you’d seen the scour that you can feel burning into your back.

The guy watches as you walk away from him, enraged further by how stuck up you seem to be, but he smirks to himself when he notices you limping, snickering under his breath at the spiteful remarks that float around his head as he reaches into his bag to pull out his blue cap.

Karma is a bitch after all.

It’s Monday, the worst day of the week. Well, for you it is. But as Renjun likes to remind you every time, it’s your fault for choosing a 9am class, so don’t complain about it.

You arrive just in time for your regular seat to still be free and smile to yourself as you approach the back of the lecture room. Maybe today won’t be as bad as you thought.

When your lecturer arrives everyone settles down, ready to take notes and you begin typing away on your laptop, feeling organised and ready to get the class over and done with.

10 minutes in the doors obnoxiously swing open and everyone’s focus is drawn onto the latecomer. You pause your typing to watch as he swiftly enters and, with his head bowed low, begins walking towards the back of the class. The closer he gets to where you are sat, the more nervousness bubbles in your stomach and you don’t know why. It feels instinctive, like your gut is trying to tell you something. And you realise exactly what that is when its already too late.

It had taken you a little longer to notice the way he walks, his arm casually gripping onto his backpack which is slung over his shoulder. It’s the guy you’d bumped into when you’d gone looking for blue cap.

He slides into the empty seat beside you without acknowledging your presence. Normally you’d think it was rude, but basing off how bitter he was towards you, you assume it’s probably normal for him. In fact, you’re relieved he hasn’t acknowledged you. And you resume your typing away in order to shift your focus back onto your lecturer instead of thinking about how good he looks with his messy hair.

“Hey, have you got a pen I can borrow?” You feel his elbow lightly nudge your arm before you hear him whisper. It irritates you slightly that he’s disturbing you when it’s clear that you want to work.

You don’t respond to him verbally, instead choosing to simply scoot your pen towards him without even glancing in his direction. You’re typing anyway, the pink glittery pen and matching notebook you’d gotten out wasn’t really necessary. You hear him whisper a “thanks.” through a snicker, but you purposefully make a point of typing faster to show that you’re not interested.

“I’m Mark, by the way.” You huff when you hear him whisper to you again, finally tearing your eyes away from your laptop screen to look at him. Maybe an unimpressed stare will send him the message. But when your eyes meet his gaze, it makes all of the annoyance drain from you.

“(Y/N).” You mumble, your expression more less blank of any expression.

It’s hard to explain what comes over you, the rude guy that bumped into you seemingly a different person from the one that is sat next to you now. It’s undeniably him though, you’d recognise his voice anywhere. Although, you definitely like it a lot more when he’s not being arrogant. You wonder if he recognises you too?

“Thanks for the pen (Y/N).” You return Mark’s soft smile with one of your own before once again resuming your work.

Maybe he’s not so bad…

“Ah shit!” You bite down on your bottom lip, trying to control the pain in your shoulder. What has your soulmate done now, deliberately run into a brick wall or something?

“It’s ok. Take a seat.” Renjun coerces you, his hand on your back as he guides you into the safety of the worn leather of the café’s chair. He only relaxes once he can see that you’re safe, but he still watches in worry as you wince.

“I’m ok, I’m ok.” You chant to yourself, relaxing your shoulders as you recline back into your chair.

“This has seriously got to stop, your soulmate is gonna kill you before you meet at this rate.” You lightly snicker at Renjun’s statement.

“Don’t be so dramatic.” You flippantly roll your eyes. It’s just typical overdramatic Renjun. Sometimes you’re sure he worries just for the sake of worrying.

“Hey!” He scolds, his tone conveying his lightheartedness.

“Besides, you’re one to talk when you get a migraine every other day thanks to your soulmate.” You teasingly raise an accusatory brow towards him.

“Yeah well, that’s different.” Renjun defensively crosses his arms.

“How so?”

“Because migraines can’t be helped so easily, getting into fights, however, can.” Renjun sasses. Although, he does make a good point. One of which you hadn’t properly thought through before.

Yes, you’re fully aware that your soulmate is selfish in how they treat their body, and subsequently, you. But it hadn’t really crossed your mind that they most likely make the active choice to put themselves through that sort of pain, in comparison to Renjun and his soulmates issues with terrible headaches…

“Sorry.” Renjun sends you a tight lipped smile, feeling guilt shoot through him the second he sees the frown grow more prominent on your face.

“No. You’re right.” Your sorrow filled eyes lock with his.

“Hey guys!” Jeno, too in a hurry to notice what he’s just interrupted, rushes over to your table. “(Y/N), you got a pen I can borrow real quick?” He turns to you. You lean down to your bag by your feet, rummaging through.

“Damn it.” You mutter when you are unable to find one. “I gave my last one to Mark this morning.” You apologetically glance up at Jeno.

“Here, take mine.” Renjun hands over a pen to Jeno who quickly thanks Renjun before rushing back out of the café.

You laugh to yourself in amusement at that completely random encounter. Jeno never ceases to amaze you.

“Who’s Mark?” Renjun’s question brings you back into the present, his furrowed brows and slight tilt to his head giving him a very soft, endearing look.

“Just some friend from my class this morning.” You shrug.

You’re not sure why you called Mark your friend. Acquaintance or annoying pen stealing guy would have been more appropriate, but friend seemed like the least complicated term out of them all somehow.

“And why have you never mentioned Mark before?” A teasing smirk spreads across Renjun’s face and you just know what he’s thinking, he’s likes to tease you over every guy you’re friends with (outside of Jeno, Jaemin and himself of course).

“He turned up late to class this morning and ended up sitting next to me. That’s about it.” You shrug your shoulders, hoping to come across as nonchalant. You don’t want to tell Renjun about your rude encounter with Mark on the same day of the video for the very reason that you’ve resolved in your mind that you’d caught Mark in a bad moment, on a bad day, when you’d first bumped into each other. It seems irrelevant for now.

Mark holds his shoulder as a dull pain shoots through him, gritting his teeth as he moves to find a comfortable way to lay back and rest against the headboard of his bed.

“Are you sure you don’t want any ice?” Jisung offers for the third time, to which Mark shakes his head.

Why’d he have to get caught up in another fight? It’s not like he had any intentions to, he just always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sometimes, when things like this happen, he finds himself thinking about his soulmate, wondering if they can feel his pain too. He knows for sure they must do to some extent because he’s been subjected to the occasional bruise on the knee or elbow from them bashing into something. He assumes they probably think he doesn’t care about them, or, in a best case scenario, that he’s just incredibly clumsy. And most of the time he assumes that his soulmate must hate him by now. Even he hates himself sometimes…

Mark allows his eyes to flutter shut as he rests on his bed, the pain in his shoulder very slowly becoming less and less. He tries to think about anything to take his mind off of it and finds himself thinking about you. He’s not sure why you pop into his mind, but he can’t stop picturing your subtle smile and the way your eyes seemed to have a little sparkle to them. It made him feel a little breathless the first time you’d locked gazes with him. It was familiar and yet completely unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.

“Crap.” Mark whispers the second realisation strikes him; he’d forgotten to return your pen to you earlier. Jisung lifts his gaze from his phone when he hears his friend randomly curse. He thought Mark was asleep already. “I forgot to give (Y/N)’s pen back.” Mark informs when he notices Jisung’s confusion.

“So? It’s just a pen.” Jisung shrugs, completely oblivious to the reasons Mark has for finding it such a big deal in his head.

It’s bigger than just a pen to him, it’s about having a reason to speak to you again.

It’s a few days later when you next see Mark. It was a funny coincidence bumping into him again as you’re walking past the East building; although thankfully this time you don’t physically bump into each other.

“(Y/N)!” You hear the familiar voice call your name, turning to look in the direction behind you to spot Mark perched at one of the picnic tables, his hand waving in the air to you.

You smile, giggling a little at how he doesn’t seem to have any embarrassment from his actions, nor does he care about the other students passing by that seem to give him a judgemental look.

“Hey Mark, studying outside?” You warmly greet him, noticing the open books laid out on the table in front of him.

“I’m procrastinating actually.” He unashamedly admits. “What about you?”

You’re not sure why it’s so easy to talk to Mark when you barely know him. But there seems to be this comforting feeling that he gives you, one that makes you want to sit with him and get to know him more.

“I’m heading off to class.” You show a reluctant smile. “Not that I want to go really…”

“Skip it then.” Mark suggests like it not a big deal. Maybe it isn’t to him, but to you it definitely is. You’ve never purposefully skipped a class in your life and the thought alone makes you feel anxious. “You can join me…”

The way Mark quirks a brow at you, his lazy smirk making your stomach twist a little at his offer. You know this is what you want to do, you’ve been hoping to spend more time with the scruffy haired guy you’d met only a few days ago.

So you nod your head in acceptance, placing your bag down onto the table as you take a seat. You can see the delight in his eyes as he watches you and that’s enough to know that the decision you’ve made it worth it.

Walking through the campus with Mark beside you is like a daydream. The conversation hasn’t once stopped, it’s easy and light with him. And everything seems to be going so well as you form this new friendship. You’d spent the last few hours hanging out together, but now the sun is beginning to set and the air turns to have a slight evening chill, you decide that it’s time to head home.

But life never likes to make things too easy and you feel stupid for letting yourself indulge in this dream-like afternoon with Mark.

It all happens so fast. From the group of guys walking your way, to one of them making a crude offhand comment about you. You don’t quite catch his words exactly, but Mark does. Next you’re stumbling backwards to get out of the way as the guy takes a lunge towards Mark. And then you can no longer see them, a crowd of students circling around them as they throw punches at each other.

A voice shouts over the noise to alert of campus security and everyone quickly disperses, a breathlessly beaten blue Mark left laying on the hard concrete of the pathway.

“Mark, can you hear me?” You rush over to him, kneeling down beside him as his half lidded eyes tiredly try to focus on you. You sigh in relief when a hazy smile stretches across his lips. He doesn’t seem like he’s in much pain, just dazed more than anything. “Let’s get you somewhere more comfortable.”

Not knowing where Mark lives, and him being too out of it to give coherent directions, you somehow manage to drag him back to your dorm. It takes a couple hours for you to patch him up before he finally drifts to sleep, but you sit at your desk patiently for him to wake.

To say you’re still in shock is an understatement, you can’t get the ordeal out of your head. You wreck your brain to try and make sense of what happened. But, in the end, you realise that there’s too many gaps in the narrative that you’re unaware of. Clearly there’s some history between Mark and the guy. You just hope he’s willing to explain it to you.

“How long have I been asleep?” Marks voice snaps you out of your daze and you spring up from your chair to approach the side of your bed.

“A couple hours. How’re you feeling?” You softly speak. Mark watches you intently, staring at you so deeply it makes you a little nervous.

“I’ve been far worse, don’t worry.” He chuckles.

“So you get into fights a lot then.” You state rather than question, his answer having more so confirmed your suspicions.

Instinctively, you find yourself reaching your hand out to gently rub the pad of your thumb across the darkening bruise that’s on his jaw.

“Not intentionally.” Mark eyes screw shut as your hand brushes near his eye and you instantly retract your hand, mumbling a light apology.

When Mark opens his eyes once again, you notice how they seem to fixate onto your face, morphing through multiple emotions before widening in shock. He sits up abruptly, heavy breaths escaping him as he messily slips on his shoes.

“I-I uh, need to go.”

You’re confused at best, feeling a little hurt at his sudden need to leave. Without a thank you too. Had you done something wrong?

Before you know it, Monday has rolled back around, and you find yourself struggling to get out of bed. You’ve been desperately trying to find Mark, hoping that you’d bump into him, because you really need to talk.

You’d figured out what sent him running away a little too late. But when you did, you understood exactly why he responded the way he did; he’s your soulmate.

You have the exact bruises on your body to the ones Mark acquired from the fight, you know because you had been the one to tend to his wounds. It gave you quite a shock when you first caught a glance of them in the mirror. But once you’d taken a little time to process the realisation, you knew more than ever that you needed to find Mark as soon as possible. You have so many questions.

One thing that confused you the most was why none of the bruises hurt you, they always did before. The more you thought about it, the more you realised that Mark didn’t seem to be in as much pain as what you would have expected him to be in either.

Over the past week, despite not actually having seen him, you feel like he’s been present without physically being there and it’s so irritating, like fate has just been purposefully trying to torment you. For example, on Saturday you had been hanging out with Jeno and you were joined by one of his football teammates, Jisung.

Jisung seemed like a really sweet guy, a little quiet at first but once he’d gotten to know you a little he began to reveal little hints of the crazy and fun person his is underneath.

As it turns out, Jisung is really close friends with Mark, which you’d found out through him asking about how you’d acquired the dark purple bruise along your jaw; even putting on extra makeup couldn’t cover it…

“Hey, (Y/N)?” Jisung was a little timid in his approach. “How did you hurt your jaw like that?”

“Oh don’t even get her started!” Jeno throws his head back in laughter, knowing the impending rant from you that Jisung had just unknowingly started. What he doesn’t know, however, is that you now know who your soulmate is and that you no longer feel so angry about the bruises because you know that this one in particular was because he was standing up for you.

“My soulmate.” Is all you respond with, hoping to get the point across to your new friend without the need to go into details. And it seems that Jisung understands, nodding his head upon your answer.

“It’s funny, my friend Mark has one just like that.”

Your eyes had gone so wide they could have almost popped out of your head, the sheer mention of the name Mark had your heart beating just that little bit faster and a rush of adrenaline pumping through you.

You remember joking with Jisung about it, saying something about how his friend must know how tiring it is to have a clumsy soulmate.

But ever since that moment, you’ve not been able to shake the thought that what if Jisung’s friend Mark is your soulmate Mark. The only way to find out is to see him again.

So you find yourself waiting anxiously in class, sat in the same seat you were in the previous week, hoping that Mark will turn up.

When the lecture begins and there’s no sign of him, you try not to make a big deal out of it in your head. He was late last time, and you know he isn’t bothered about missing class, you just hope he isn’t skipping today. By the half way point, however, your hope is quickly diminishing. Until, finally, class is over and there was never any sign of him.

When Jisung had next seen Mark, he’d relayed all the information about how he thought he had just met Mark’s soulmate. It made him nervous to hear his friend say your name. Had you told him what happened between you? How did you seem about it? Were you doing ok? They are just a few of the questions that fill Mark’s head.

“Jeno joked that it’s not a good idea to bring up her soulmate, but (Y/N) seemed fine with it really.” Jisung reassures.

Mark didn’t know you were friends with Jeno. And he assumes that means you’re also friends with Jaemin. The fact that you both have close mutual friends surprises him.

It’s ironic really, Mark wants nothing more than to see you, but he doesn’t know how after rushing away with no explanation. But it’s his rushing away that made him freak out even more because it confirmed the very thing he’d been panicking about.

You see, never before has he been able to move so painlessly after getting into a fight like that. The fact that he was able to spring up from your bed and rush all the way back to his, with only minor aches from his muscles, was proof that you are his soulmate.

When two souls are separated, the pain they feel is intensified. But when they are together, no matter how horrible the pain, they barely feel a thing. Mark has this echoing around like a mantra in his head all week.

He’s not sure if you know this or not, or even if you’re aware of the fact that you are destined to be with him. But he wouldn’t be surprised if you hated him even if you did know. He feels terrible for leaving you the way he did, especially after all you did to help him.

Maybe Jeno would be able to help him out, because, right now, all Mark wants is to see you.

“Sorry, but no.” Jeno shrugs his shoulders at Mark. He’d heard all about what had happened from you a few days ago and he wasn’t very pleased with Mark when he found out; he still isn’t. Why should he help him when all he did was hurt you, one of his closest friends.

“Come on Jeno. You know what it’s like to find your soulmate and almost lose them.” Jeno pauses upon hearing Mark’s words. He’s right, Jeno knows that feeling all too well, and he wishes he didn’t.

He’d made the football team and met Jaemin at pretty much the same time. Being part of the university football team bought with it a level of fame. Everyone knew who he was, not just from your university, but from rivalling ones too.

Jeno hadn’t known Jaemin for long, but he’d asked him to watch the final game of the semester for support; which Jaemin of course accepted.

The evening started off strong, with the game going in Jeno’s favour. That was until he got targeted by the opposing team and tackled to the ground. While he was knocked out, Jaemin had rushed onto the pitch to make sure he was ok, and the second he saw Jeno’s state, he lost it, picking a fight with the player that had caused his soulmate to fall unconscious.

It pains Jeno to think about even now, so many years later. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get the picture out of his head of waking in the locker room to find Jaemin’s battered body, limp as he was attended to by paramedics. Thinking about Mark getting himself into fights so often worried him. So your situation is sometimes a little too close to his for comfort.

“That’s exactly why I’m not gonna help you.” Jeno is able to control his emotions enough to answer Mark before he has to walk away.

If Mark really cares about you then he’ll keep away from you. He’s already caused enough damage as it is.

“Maybe you should have helped.” Jaemin, ever the sympathetic, hopeless romantic states. “There’s always a risk with true love, but the safety you find in each other will always outweigh that.” He takes Jeno’s hand, sending him the most convincing pleading look he can. Damn Jaemin and his ability to be so persuasive.

“I just don’t want (Y/N) to be hurt anymore. She’s been through enough.” Jeno sulkily mumbles.

“Jaemin’s right though.” Renjun sighs. “And, either way, it’s not our choice to make.”

You feel hopeless, defeated and drained. Yes Mark was a bit of an asshole and, yes, he shouldn’t have hurt you the way he has. But, without him, you feel like there’s a part of you missing.

You woke up this morning with no new bruises. In fact, it’s been so long, you can’t remember the last time you saw a fresh bruise appear. It’s honestly a little worrying because, despite hating the condition of feeling your soulmates pain and attaining their battle scars, it provided an assurance that they are still out there, waiting for you. Of all those times in the past when you’d wished for the pain to stop, why did Mark have to fall silent on you now!

The bruise on your jaw is almost completely faded, your hand reaching up to delicately trail along the faint purple on your skin as you look in the mirror. It’s the last one you received…

Before you have time to finish tracing it, however, a knock on your door sounds.

You open your bedroom door to and empty hallway, confused as you look around for any sign of movement. It’s probably just one of your dorm mates playing a trick. You take a step to lean a little further and freeze as you hear a crunch and look down to see you’d stepped on a pen. Your eyes go wide. That’s not any pen, it’s the pink glittery one you’d given to Mark all that time ago.

You pick up the pen to examine it, before retracting back into your room and shutting your door.

You need to find Mark.

After rushing around campus unable to find Mark, you begin to admit defeat and search for somewhere to take a seat. Central campus feels like it’s busier than normal, students crammed into every free space, rushing to and from classes or gathering in the cafés. It’s manic.

But then you spot a free seat over by the fountain, situated on the green space between the centre and the pathway that leads to the East part of campus.

You shut your eyes and let out a contented sigh in relief, your legs happy to be able to rest for a little. The sounds of the water are soothing as you try to clear your mind and simply allow yourself to be present in this moment.

“(Y/N)?” The voice that sounds from beside you is unmistakably him, your eyes shooting open to find Mark sat beside you.

“Mark?” You gasp. You hadn’t recognised him at first, the navy blue cap he has on shielding his face. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” You playfully scold him, your heart skipping a beat, elated from hearing his laugh again.

“You have?” He smiles brightly. There it is, your hope coming back. “I didn’t think you’d want to see me after everything…”

The seriousness that replaces his smile makes you feel a tightness in your chest. You can tell the distance between you has been just as difficult for him as it has for you.

“Of course. You’re my soulmate.” Your voice comes out as more of a whisper now, leaning closer into him as you speak. “Although, I was mad at first. I realised just how lost I felt without you around.”

“I feel the same.” Mark reciprocates your smile. “The thought of loosing you made me want to be a better person. I haven’t been getting in any fights recently.”

“I thought it was strange when I wasn’t waking up with new bruises every day.” You tease, laughing harder when Mark rolls his eyes. His cheesy grin gives away that he’s not really mad though.

“Well I think the last one we got was enough to last a lifetime.” Mark sends you a guilty smile and you return one of sympathy back, watching as he raises his hand to caress you cheek as his thumb lightly brushes over the almost faded one on your jaw.

His action makes everything more intimate, the way he stares at you with such concentration taking your breath away. He slowly leans in, closing off some more space between you.

“But I promise to never put you through anything like that again.” His breath fans across your face, lips practically brushing against each other’s as he pauses. For what exactly you’re not sure. But it has your patience growing thin alarmingly quick.

Just as you’re about to give in, Mark smirks and presses his lips to yours.

It’s a feeling like no other, his kiss gentle and tender, conveying his every emotion as his lips repeatedly capture yours in a gentle caress. After a few minutes you reluctantly pull away, but if it wasn’t for the need to breathe you would have insisted on kissing him forever.

No more words are needed to be exchanged between you to know how you really feel and it’s liberating to know you’ve finally met the one for you. This is the first time you been with Mark since you realised he was your soulmate, and it feels even better than you’d imagined to finally be able to take it all in properly.

You guess you’re parents were right all along. The waiting and painful bruises were worth every second because it led your soul to Mark’s. And you’d always choose him over everyone.

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