Work Text:
1
One would think that Mark would be used to it by now.
The way his arm tingles a bit, a telltale sign, before his soulmate mark appears. The Google search bar appears first, followed by whatever it is exactly that his soulmate is searching for. Of all the things to have for a soulmate mark, well… the universe hadn’t made it easy for them.
It worked out in the end.
Just took a little bit longer than he would have liked.
No longer is he keeping a journal of everything that his soulmate searches for, in hopes of finding some hint to who they are. Instead, Mark just pauses what he’s watching to turn and wait, with a fond smile on his face, as he waits to see what it is that Dejun is looking for.
The words appear soon enough, black arial font against the inside of his arm, and the words:
can people eat cat food?
Followed immediately by an equally concerning:
dangers of people eating cat food
And:
is cat food poisonous to humans?
The fond smile is replaced all too quickly with a concerned one, given the line of questioning. Mark almost digs his phone out to do that exact same search, with a follow up probably being directions to the nearest clinic, but instead he does the rational thing and calls Dejun.
It takes two rings before Dejun picks up.
As soon as he does, as if sensing through their soulmate bond the exact reason for his call, in lieu of a greeting, he just says - “Yangyang ate the cat food, not me.”
This is not actually that surprising of a turn of events. Dejun’s friends can be a lot, and well, Mark’s are a lot too, so he supposes that’s just another thing they have in common (though in very different ways). Accidentally (or not accidentally) eating cat food isn’t actually the weirdest thing he’s seen them do since Mark and Dejun found each other.
Mark lets out a light laugh, “And the verdict is?”
“Well, he won’t die.”
2
There are times when the soulmate mark really comes in handy.
Like when he’s grabbing flowers at the store before date night.
(A dinner date, at Dejun’s place, because his roommates are all out of town and he wants to impress Mark with a home cooked meal.)
And the search bar starts to appear, just as he is trying to remember what his brother Taeyong had told him about the meanings of various flowers, and asks:
how to get a wine stain out of carpet
Mark doesn’t need to google this one. He’s already run into this misfortune before.
So skipping out on the plan to grab flowers, and instead buying a bottle of peroxide and dishwashing soap, just so he can show up at his soulmate’s door like the knight in shining armor to save his wine crisis, is all too easy.
3
Mark’s supposed to be writing an essay.
‘Supposed to’ being the keyword here, because he’s been here in the library on a study date with his soulmate for the last three hours, and all Mark has managed to write so far is an introduction that is half-decent at best, and at worst, well...he’s definitely going to be lucky if he gets a passing grade on his essay.
Mark glances up over the top of his laptop screen to where Dejun is, typing away with ease, not seeming to have any trouble at all, as he works on his e-commerce assignment.
Dejun looks good, his glasses on, squinting still just a little as he focuses on the screen, eyebrows furrowed just a little, as he flips between his notes and his assignment.
Definitely far too in the zone for Mark to be able to convince him to bail on the study date before the studying has even finished.
Mark lets out a small sigh before turning back to his essay, hoping that staring at his blinking cursor will somehow make his writer’s block go away.
It doesn’t.
But a moment later, the tingling in his arm that foretells the appearance of his soulmate mark begins, followed by the words:
you okay?
When Mark glances up at Dejun, he still appears to be focused on his school work, and Mark can’t help but feel a rush of something warm and wonderful at the little concerned question still there on his arm.
For a second he gets a flash of something (a side effect of their soulmate connection that only appears in his happiest of moments) of a future version of them curled up on a couch, laptops forgotten on the coffee table, as they’re focused instead on each other.
The vision is gone as quick as it appears, but the smile and feeling of happiness lingers.
“You know,” Mark whispers. “Talking is allowed in the library, you just have to be quiet.”
Dejun doesn’t answer with words, he chooses instead to type out his reply, and Mark waits as the letters appear on his arm:
this is more fun
They’ve never used their connection like this before, but Mark has to admit that it is kind of fun.
A moment later, a second search result appears:
wanna bail on studying and go get ice cream ?
4
It’s his fault for wearing short sleeves out to lunch with his brother, and his brother’s newly discovered soulmate.
He’s supposed to be giving Doyoung the shovel talk, or whatever the equivalent was when you are the non-threatening younger brother, and for the most part, it’s going well. He’s really just echoing the same threats that Taeyong had made when Mark introduced him to Dejun.
A shovel talk that is only slightly less impactful, thanks to the words that appear on his arm halfway through the talk.
He can see when both Taeyong and Doyoung’s eyes shift downwards to his arm, and Mark intends to ignore it, until Taeyong lets out a light laugh under his breath and -
edible underpants
“I suppose,” Taeyong says, the light laugh still in his voice, “I don’t have to ask how things are going with you and Dejun-ah?”
Mark’s cheeks flush, “That’s not - we’re - we do normal things, hyung, I-”
He’s looking at his arm already, so it’s easy to see when Dejun makes a correction to his search:
edible underpants, for men
“What was that you were saying about not doing anything you wouldn’t do?” Doyoung asks.
Which causes Taeyong to lose his composure and finally give in to actually laughing.
And well, point to Taeyong’s soulmate for being able to make him laugh, but did it really have to come at his expense?
“This isn’t what it looks like!”
5
He’s supposed to be going out with friends, there’s a party to celebrate something or another. Mark hadn’t been really paying attention, because Dejun should have been here with him. Only his soulmate had bailed last minute, citing too much school work to get out of, a perfectly normal excuse.
Or it would be.
If he swore their soulmate connection wasn’t all but screaming at him that Dejun wasn’t telling the whole truth.
Still, with no evidence to prove his instinct, he had decided to go out.
They’re pregaming at Jaehyun and Jungwoo’s place, when he realizes that his impulse wasn’t wrong, as a google search appears on his arm:
Breaking Dawn Wedding Scene Compilation
To anyone else, this would mean nothing other than an urge to rewatch an iconic movie scene, but Mark knows his soulmate well enough to know that this is a call out for help. Only Dejun would have the Twilight saga as his comfort movies, and if it’s already at the Breaking Dawn stage, then well…
The partying would have to wait.
“Hey, I’m actually going to have to take a rain check on tonight.”
“Dude, what?”
“Soulmate emergency,” he says, already slipping on his jacket.
(Forty minutes later, after a disastrous slightly tipsy bus ride, he uses his key to slip into Dejun’s apartment, following the telltale sounds of Twilight, to find his soulmate curled up in blankets on the couch.
“I thought you were going out.”
“Something told me that you needed me more.”)
+1
When he wakes up, the space in the bed next to him is empty.
Not all that concerning, since he knows that Dejun has classes early in the morning, and probably just wanted to let him sleep, especially considering they had stayed up late last night.
Mark had lost track of time, somewhere around the first Breaking Dawn movie.
More content to just cuddle up with his soulmate than actually focus on the movie.
But now, as he stirs to wakefulness, it is not the sun light shining through the curtains, or his phone buzzing that wakes him up, but instead, an all too familiar tingle that settles across his arms, and the words:
i love you