#i forgot to throw out my nametag/ID thing from my work trip a few weeks ago

[karnalesbian]

Ah fuck dude not like this. My day did not need to get worse in any way and certainly not this way man

[xhaotixaesthetica]

The Shooting Stars of N.City (Soulmate Au! Jaemin Fluff)

Starlink Intergalactic Navigator 

Author’s Note: YAY, a request for one of my ult groups! And one of my biases! It’s a win for me, ladies and gays! I accidentally deleted the original request, so I can’t post an answer to it. (It’s really lucky I screenshotted it before that happened.) Also, keep in mind that I’ve never been to a concert before, so this might not be entirely accurate, but I tried to just use my common sense. This imagine honestly has just as much Jisung X Felix as Reader X Jaemin, I’m sorry I got carried away. Hope you enjoy!

Trigger warning: none 

Genre: fluff and slight angst 

Word-count: 4.2K+ 

You are in: The Luck of Fate Star System 

“And what’s the name for that?” the barista asked, the bored lilt to his monotoned voice offset by the heady scent of vanilla and coffee in the air.

“Y/N.” you said softly.

The boy didn’t bother to respond, not even nodding as he tapped your name into the register and told you your total.

“Eight dollars and twenty-one cents.” he drawled.

If it wasn’t so early, you would have groaned about the absurd prices — were you ever going to buy that coffee maker? — but as it was still so early, and you were incredibly sluggish, you only nodded, pulling the money out and handing it toward him.

The boy’s brow furrowed at the ink on your arm, suddenly looking a bit more awake as he craned his neck to see it better, like all nosy people did.

You will meet at: N.City.

The boy startled when you yanked your sleeve down over the words, glaring fiercely as he took the money, stammering and dropping change all over the corner.

You had seen the words on your arm for the longest, and you were beyond sick of being ogled at like a zoo attraction for a soulmate link that you had come to hate anyway.

As if you hadn’t looked at every website, in every almanac and encyclopedia, on every map and globe, trying in vain to find N.City.

Only, no matter how hard you looked it up, you couldn’t find the place on your arm.

N.City was not a real place.

But that didn’t matter, you reminded yourself.

Because this, right now, was a real place. The current moment is what you should be focusing on. Not some distant person that might not even exist in the first place.

“Y/N!” another barista called.

This barista, a pretty girl whose nametag read Yeji, gave you an airy smile as you shuffled up to the counter and took your drink. It made you feel a bit better.

The hot drink in your hands warmed from the inside out, a comforting brace against the sharp November breeze.

Despite the resentment for the words on your arm, you couldn’t help the old childhood habit of brushing your thumb lovingly against the words as you walked into your lecture hall and took your seat.

While your soulmate link wasn’t particularly common, it wasn’t particularly rare either. It wasn’t hard to find other people who had it and they all said the same thing: while seemingly helpful, it acted more like a puzzle than a hint.

Many times, soulmates would have different pieces of the location on their arm, like one soulmate having a street name and the other having the city and state its in. Some soulmates had vague locations like ‘bus’ or ‘river.’

And some, most likely in your case, had emotional locations. This could mean somewhere that’s really important to one of the soulmates, but isn’t actually a place with a name, so the soulmate link had to make one.

This was most likely what you had.

At least, that was what you hoped.

This was much easier to accept than the thought that the soulmate system just screwed you over.

“‘Sup N.City,” Felix’s low baritone, still scratchy with sleep startled you out of your pre-lecture stupor.

You gave him a sour look, too tired and too fond of him to have any real malice behind it.

“Stop calling me that,” you said, like you did twenty times a day whenever he used that nickname. If it had been anyone else, you probably would have body-slammed them.

But Felix, with his deep voice and big pretty eyes and heart way too big for his body, was an extremely hard person to get mad at.

When the years went by and you started to resent the writing on your arm, he was the one who distracted you with Mario Kart and the detentions his stupid ideas brought.

When everyone kept asking what N.City was and what it meant and where it was and your stomach dropped when you saw their faces twist with pity when you said you didn’t know, he was the one who told them to back off and mind their business.

And when people started trying to use your confusion toward your soulmate link to their advantage, trying to trick you into believing they were your soulmate, he was the one who protected you. The one who stood by you when you started isolating everyone in the interest of your safety.

The lecture passed by as it always did, your professor’s incredibly boring voice sliding in one and ear and out the other, without a word of his speech actually sticking in your brain.

If it hadn’t been for the notes Felix took in this class, you probably would have failed weeks ago.

“You really need to start paying attention,” Felix admonished, sounding more amused than disapproving.

You pouted, crossing your arms over your chest as you two packed up. Well, Felix packed up, you didn’t have anything out to begin with except your iced coffee.

“Come on, Lix. Statistics make me sad, you know this.”

Felix rolled his eyes as you two left the lecture hall, on the way to get some actual food in when his phone buzzed in the middle of the walk.

You weren’t paying attention to him until you noticed he wasn’t beside you anymore.

You glanced around, confused, before seeing him a few paces back, an upset and pensive look on his face.

“Lix? What are you doing? What’s wrong?”

The moment he heard your voice, the look broke and he grinned.

“Felix, I don’t like that look. That’s the same look you got on your face in sophomore year when you—”

“Oh? Oh, we bring up stuff from the past, are we?” Felix’s brow rose and your eyes narrowed. “Because if that’s the case, then we can always talk about that time when—”

“Don’t you dare bring that up,” you hissed, cheeks already flaming as he smirked.

“That’s what I thought,” he said sliding his phone back into his pocket and catching up to you, throwing a jovial arm over your shoulder.

You really didn’t like that grin on his face.

“So you know what concert I was going to in June?”

“Yeah,” you said warily, swiping your student ID at the entrance to the dining hall.

“Well, the concert’s in Korea and I don’t like going by myself, so I was going to have Chris-hyung come with me.”

“I don’t like where this is going.”

“But he’s going on a family vacation with Lucas and their mom.”

“I really don’t like where this is going.”

“So I want you to come instead.”

“Oh, Felix,” you whined as you two moved down the line.

“No, listen! It won’t be like that time in LA! My Korean is pretty good now and I’ve been to Seoul loads of times before so I can get us around! And Chan already paid for you, so all you have to do is come!”

Your eyes widened, almost dropping your plate as you looked for an empty table to sit at.

“Chan paid for me?”

“Well, he already paid for his stay in the hotel and his concert ticket and his flight and everything so he’s just giving it to you.” Felix smiled brightly, as if he wasn’t asking me to go with him to a country where I couldn’t speak the language and had never been there before to see a band that I didn’t even know the name of.

Felix was an avid K-Pop fan, but I think it was only because of the name that appeared on his collarbone a day before he turned eighteen.

Han Jisung.

A Korean name if I’d ever seen one. Since then, Felix had been to Korea like six times and was very near fluent in the language. Despite always going there “strictly for concerts and conventions,” he always stayed for, like, a week to “take in the sights.”

Normally, any mention of soulmates irked you. You tried to forget about it as time went on, but it kept being thrown in your face. Couples everywhere, your parents and family constantly harassing you about N.City and your potentially nonexistent soulmate.

But you found his dedication to his soulmate so cute and genuine and innocent, that you just couldn’t fault him for it. This Han Jisung was a very lucky person. 

And, no matter how much you didn’t really want to give up a week of your hard-earned summer downtime to go frolicking in a foreign country, you had to admit that the idea of Felix being alone there didn’t sit well with you either.

“Ugh, fine. But you better not turn me into Nancy Drew looking for Han Jisung.”

Felix blushed, ducking his head down as he grumbled, “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

~

The next two months passed by uneventfully. Exams, homework, and copious amounts of finals stress came and went. And though you and Felix were worn and tired, the thought of having another year under your belt and being one step closer to your degree lifted your spirits considerably.

Because you were petty, you didn’t admit to Felix how excited you actually were about the upcoming trip. But he’d known you for years and the grin wouldn’t leave his face as he watched you run around your room, stuffing clothes and toiletries in a suitcase as you babbled nearly incoherently to him, practicing the little phrases of Korean that you had had time to learn.

Something you knew from experience was that traveling with Felix was . . . stressful. At least, at the beginning.

You had both worked out a plan two days earlier to keep everything relaxed and smooth.

However, the day of the flight, that entire plan went out the window.

You both woke up an hour and a half after the alarm went off, had to go back to his house three times for things you forgot (one of which being his passport and ticket), the bus you were on broke down, Felix cause a hold up at TSA cause of all the snacks in his carry-on, you very nearly got questioned by the police when Felix yelled, “This concert is going to be the bomb!” at the top of his lungs, and then you nearly fought a man at the terminal who you were pretty sure was trying to kidnap you and Felix.

“This happens every time!” you complained to him as you both finally boarded the plane, putting your carryon in the overhead compartment.

Felix got the window seat — due to all his whining — but at this point, you didn’t even care, just settled down in your seat with your earbuds, head leaning back, and drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

At least that’s what was about to happen until Felix tapped your shoulder.

“I have to pee, you have to move.”

“Oh, for FUCK’S SAKE!”

~

You wondered if other people had this same experience, the feeling that everywhere they went, soulmates were all people seemed to want to talk about. But maybe it was just because you were trying to avoid the topic that it kept coming up.

Either way, you were pretty sure that hearing Felix talk about the etymology of the name Han Jisung for the past ninety minutes would have been too much for anyone.

“We’re here!” you said gratefully, nearly crying tears of relief as you practically threw yourself out of the Uber you were sharing with Felix.

The venue was large, and you were elated to see there weren’t too many people in line yet so Felix, hopefully, wouldn’t have time to start talking about Jisung again.

You really hoped they met soon, because, as much as you loved Felix, you didn’t know how much more of this you could take.

“What’s the name of the group again?” you asked as you and Felix walked in, stopping at a merch stand so Felix could buy a shirt and lightstick.

“NCT,” he replied, holding a shirt and lightstick out to you as well as if asking if you wanted one as well.

You shook your head. “Nah, those things are way too expensive to buy one for someone who isn’t even a fan.”

Felix only smirked, buying the extra shirt and lightstick anyway.

“You will be after this, trust me.”

You shrugged, putting the shirt on over your clothes and turning the lightstick around in your hands, examining it curiously. It wasn’t the prettiest thing, but it wasn’t that ugly.

Maybe you could use it to light the way when you go to the bathroom at night.

It was Felix’s money, he could spend it how he pleased. Well, more likely it was Chan and Woojin’s money, but that’s beside the point.

For the next hours, you and Felix spent a generous amount of time talking, beating each other up with lightsticks, and conversing with other fans until finally the lights die down and the music starts up . . .

~

The summer air was cool, gently ticking your face as you gazed up at the sky. The night was quiet, quiet as it could be in a big city like Seoul, and the only other thing that filled your ears was the sound of NCT’s songs on shuffle.

You’d been impressed by the concert, to say the least.

The way they all performed with such passion and precision made you feel electric and, even though you didn’t know the words to the songs, you almost forgot you weren’t a fan as you waved the lightstick and hummed along with Felix beside you.

When you got back to the hotel, you were still wired, unlike Felix, who fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow.

You decided to go to the nearest park, only a couple minutes' walk away. Even though you didn’t wake Felix up and disturb him, you made sure to text him the location of the place you were going ahead of time just in case something bad happened.

So far, nothing had happened though. There were other people in the park, but none of them paid much attention to you. It seemed they were all just people who couldn’t sleep either.

At least, that was what you thought until some random guy appeared beside you, pointing at the spot on the bench next to you. “Can I sit here?” his voice was smooth and pleasant, and you nodded before you even realized what you’d agreed to.

The boy — who seemed to be about your age — had a black mask on, but you could see his eyes crinkle cutely so you were pretty sure he smiled as he sat beside you.

“Are you here for the shooting stars?” he asked.

Your face contorted in confusion.

“The what?”

“There’s supposed to be shooting stars tonight,” the boy said. “That’s what most of these people are doing here.”

“I didn’t know that. I just couldn’t sleep. I went to a concert, so I guess the adrenaline still hasn’t worn off.”

The boy rose an eyebrow. “The NCT 127 concert? You went?”

You nodded, a ghost of a smile curving your lips. “Yeah, I went with a friend. He’s an NCT friend. I guess I am too, after what I saw at their concert.”

“Do you recognize me?” the stranger suddenly asks.

You stared at him for a moment, bewildered. It was kind of hard to see past the black hoodie, mask, and sweatpants that covered nearly every inch of him, but even so, you pretty sure you’d never met this person before.

“Uh, should I?”

The boy’s eyes changed and you were pretty sure he was smirking.

“NCT has another sub-unit, NCT Dream. Are you and your friend going to see them perform tomorrow?”

You racked your brain for anything Felix might have said about it and slowly nodded. “Yeah, I think he did say we’re going to see them to— oh. Wow . . .”

At that moment, the shooting stars appeared, brilliants streaks of white painting the sky, enrapturing you so much that you failed to see the boy staring in awe at you, a realization seeming to dawn upon him as he watched your face light up at the sight of the shooting stars.

“Holy shit, it's you,” he breathed.

Your brow furrowed as you looked at him. Before you could ask any questions, he just held a hand out to you. You were even more confused at first, before you saw the words on his palm. They were in Korean at first, but they shifted before your eyes, reforming into an English sentence.

You will meet: under the shooting stars.

Your eyes widened, glancing back up at the shootings tars, now long-gone, leaving behind only the brilliants trails where they once were.

“I....but I don’t understand.”

You yanked your sleeve up showing the sentence inscribed onto your arm, but it only made the boy’s eyes crinkle more.

“NCT 127 is called that because they’re based in Seoul. That’s what 127 is, it’s the coordinates for the city. NCT? N.City? You came to Seoul for their concert and now we met under the stars. We’re—”

“Soulmates,” you whisper in disbelief, your eyes widened to the point of saucers.

The boy grinned, nodding as he finally pulled his mask under his chin, revealing the face of what was probably the most gorgeous boy you’d ever seen in your life, a few strands of soft-looking pink hair falling into his sparkly eyes, curved with happiness.

You let out a choked sob as you flung your arms around his neck, hugging him close without even really being conscious of what you were doing, but your soulmate didn’t seem to mind. He just laughed, arms circling around your waist just as tight, rocking you back and forth, hand rubbing your back comfortingly as he nuzzled his face into your hair.

“I thought you weren’t real, I thought the system screwed up,” you blubbered, hands clenching fistfuls of his hoodie. “I tried to look for N.City and I couldn’t find anything, so I thought . . .”

You trailed off, trying to pull yourself together as you buried your head in his chest, the scent of his sweet-smelling cologne filling your senses and calming you slightly.

Your soulmate nodded in understanding, hugging you a little bit closer.

“I’m real. I’m real and I’m here and I’m yours,” he whispered.

“I can’t believe all those years of being obsessed with astronomy actually paid off,” he said and you scoffed.

“I can’t believe letting Felix drag me to a foreign country actually paid off,” you chuckled.

Your soulmate stiffened, pulling back to look at you. “Felix? Lee Felix? His Korean name is Yongbok?”

Your jaw dropped, brows furrowing as you nodded slowly. “Yeah, how did—”

“I’m friends with Han Jisung.”

~

“FELIX!”

A loud bang echoed through the hotel room as Felix shot up in the bed, an anguished cry escaping him when his forehead collided with the headboard.

“What? Are we being robbed? Where’s the fire? Fuck, that hurt!”

Felix groaned, clutching his head, only to yelp when he strayed too close to the edge of the bed and tumbled to the floor in a heap of aching limbs.

You barely even noticed, throwing him clothes and speaking so fast that Felix wouldn’t even be able to understand what you said if you hadn’t just woken him up and given him two concussions and a bone fracture in the span of eight seconds.

“Y/N, slow down, what the hell are you talking about, I— DON’T TOUCH THAT, I CAN GET DRESSED BY MYSELF!”

“Hurry up then!” you groaned, shoving a jacket onto him as he put a pair of jeans and a sneaker on at the same time.

You finally made it out of the hotel room, arguing incoherently the entire time as you pulled Felix along to the destination that you and your soulmate had agreed upon before racing to go fetch your respective friends.

Your soulmate had obviously been more adept at explaining the situation as he stood beside an intensely good-looking boy with long-ish messy blonde hair that looked nervous beyond all belief, but otherwise pretty well pout-together for being woken up at three in the morning.

Meanwhile, you and Felix were still arguing loudly as you entered the already-loud restaurant, his shirt on backward, jeans inside out, mismatched socks on, one shoe missing, and hair sticking up at every angle as he shouted at you, the both of you somehow not bumping into anything as you approached the pair.

“— could have died for Christ’s sake Y/N, you don’t even know Hangul, not to mention I have a headache the size of Germany now and—”

“Germany is a small country and headaches don’t have sizes you moron—”

“YOU KNOW WHAT—”

“DO YOU WANT TO MEET JISUNG OR NOT?”

That made him shut up, eyes wide as he gaped at you, still not noticing the two boys now directly in front of you.

“I— wha— Jisung?” he finally stuttered out.

You wordlessly waved a hand toward the boy, who you could now clearly see had Felix Lee/Lee Yongbok written on the back of his hand.

“That’s him. He’s apparently one of my soulmate’s friends so I thought you’d like to finally meet him.”

Felix looked back and forth between you and Jisung, mouth flapping open and closed like a fish as he tried to find the words to say.

Jisung finally found his voice, squeaking out a, “You’re very pretty.” in a timid shaky voice.

That seemed to shake Felix back to his senses as he flung himself onto the boy. They were the same height but Felix still found a way to comfortably nestle his head in the crook of his neck.

Jisung looked surprised but absolutely elated and you could already tell that he was even more whipped for Felix than Felix was for him. You could see Felix’s ears flushing red as Jisung whispered things in his ear in Korean that you probably didn’t even want to know.

“They’re cute together,” you whispered as your soulmate came over to you, putting an arm around your shoulder and pulling you into his side.

“Not as cute as you,” he said, grinning as you groaned.

“Ugh, way too cheesy,” you said in mock disgust as you two sat in a booth, no longer focused on Jisung and Felix at all.

“Get used to it, prince(ss). You’re stuck with me for now. For a long time, hopefully.”

You smiled, anticipation thrumming in your veins as his face advanced closer to yours. You had always thought it was stupid that soulmates got so comfortable with each other, and especially with physical affection, so early on in the relationship, but now you understood perfectly.

You didn’t even care about the fact that you and your soulmate hadn’t even exchanged names or numbers yet as his lips met yours. All you cared about right now was him and the rest could come later.

And if the way he held you so delicately and adoringly was anything to go by, he felt the same.

~

“Wait, so you’re telling me that my soulmate is an idol?” you gaped, turning to look at Jaemin who smiled sheepishly.

Felix snorted, shoving twelve fries into his mouth at once, as he cuddled into Jisung’s side, much like you were doing with Jaemin in the booth seat across from theirs.

Jisung and Felix were an incredibly good-looking couple. You’d grown somewhat used to how pretty Felix was, but Jisung looked like a prince from another direction and it startled you every time you glanced in his direction.

Still, biased though you might be, you didn’t really think anyone was in the same league as Jaemin, whose name you just found out three minutes ago.

“You’d know what if you actually asked his name before you decided to shove your tongue down his throat.” Felix sassed.

You narrowed your eyes at him.

“You really want to go there, Felix? You really want to bring that up when I saw Jisung squeeze your ass right in front of my salad two seconds ago?”

Jaemin guffawed loudly as Felix choked on his water. Jisung just gave a tiny smile, not looking the least bit ashamed or sorry.

“Touche,” Felix squeaked.

“Isn’t a relationship going to be complicated for you?” you whispered worriedly to Jaemin as Felix and Jisung talked amongst themselves.

Jaemin’s smile dropped and he looked completely serious now, scaring you a bit as he took your hands in his.

“No matter how hard or complicated it gets, I won’t let that get in the way, Y/N. I’ve waited for you way too long to let my work get in the way. I want you to know I’m serious about this, Y/n, serious about you. I can’t guarantee that we’ll last forever, but I’ll do my part in trying.”

You stared, speechless, for a moment, trying very hard to keep your tears at bay.

The moment was ruined when Felix and Jisung groaned.

“You guys are disgusting.”

“WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?!”

The Luck of Fate Star System 

Starlink Intergalactic Navigator