Golden Hour
₊ ⁺ pairing: Jay x reader
₊ ⁺ genre: soulmate au, angst, slight miscommunication and teeth rotting fluff that’ll make your heart hurt because you’ve never been loved like this
₊ ⁺ wordcount: 3.9k
₊ ⁺ note: ugh i love these two so much as always let me know if you wanna be added to thr taglist
₊ ⁺ Jake ₊ ⁺ Jungwon ₊ ⁺ Jay ₊ ⁺ Sunoo ₊ ⁺ Heeseung ₊ ⁺ Niki ₊ ⁺ Sunghoon ₊ ⁺ Masterlist
When Jay discovered his mark, he didn’t even realize what it was at first. But by the stroke of midnight on his 13th birthday, his dream changed.
Instead of battling Pokémon’s he was suddenly in school. He had groaned and tried to go back, there was no way in hell he’d be staying in this class. He however quickly realized that he was indeed stuck here.
When he had looked around he noticed that the classroom wasn’t his, nor was his friends anywhere to be found and even the teacher was one he didn’t know. No one even acknowledged his existence, it was as if he was invisible. But most importantly of all, no one even spoke korean.
In his bones he knew what this meant, and the girl he was currently sitting right behind could only be one person. You.
He followed you throughout your day, learned your name, your likes and dislikes in the cafeteria, the name of your friends and teachers, and he clung to every bit of information.
And when he woke up, it was as if the most important parts had slipped his mind, and that unfortunately included both your face and your name.
He had with one of his pillows trying to force the information out by slamming it against his head. But after a conversation with his father, he was told that that was just how the mark worked. It couldn’t and shouldn't be that easy to find one’s other half.
The next couple of days he could’ve sworn someone was watching him, but whenever he looked over his shoulder, no one was there. He did however feel a presence there.
It took him a couple of days, or nights he supposed, of you to continuously looking over your own shoulder. Looking at him, but not really, until he realized that that presence was you, following him around while you slept.
He was happier than ever, and he swore that he would do all he could to be the best version of himself. He did his best to be a good friend, to listen and be kind to those around him. He started joining his parents in the kitchen, just as he had done when he was a child, wanting to be able to take care of you one day, by cooking you food.
It didn’t take more than a few weeks until the emotional maturity and overall kindness was second nature to the teenage boy, and you were so proud of him being yours.
Jay had always enjoyed dancing, and now he had an audience, and knowing you were watching along made him wanna be even better. He danced and he sang, and in the end that took him all the way to BigHit, a company you could never remember the name of when you woke up.
His overall passion inspired you, and even though you didn’t really have the voice for it, music had always been dear to you, so it seemed like the obvious thing to follow in that direction when it became your time to pick schools. Hopefully the love for music would bring the two of you together in the end.
One afternoon on your way home from your classes you had fallen asleep on the train, and as you slipped into the dreams that was his world, he never showed. All that was there was a mist of grey all around you.
You were in complete denial, and refused to accept that he was gone, but after a few minutes the constant flow of no’s you muttered to yourself became sobs and in the end you were nothing more than a ball on the ground as you screamed into the grey abyss.
Was this how it felt? To lose your soulmate before the bond was really sealed? An empty ever stretching room of nothingness?
When your breathing stilled and you finally removed your hands from your mouth, you heard an almost muffled sound coming from somewhere within the mist.
He had just like you panicked when everything around him had slowly disappeared, when he was no longer next to you. The train cart had become what to him almost looked like grey clouds.
Instead of panicking he tried easing his mind, his breath was faster, and all he heard was his heartbeat, but he knew he needed to calm for him to be in any kind of position to figure out what had happened.
A small voice inside his head told him to run, to hurry, to yell out for you, and he had nothing to lose so he listened.
No more than a few minutes later he heard you scream and he had thought he already ran as fast as humanly possible, he was wrong.
He called out for you, called your name because as long as he slept he could remember it.
In the distance he saw a figure and he knew in his heart it was you. “Darling!” He yelled out, breathless and tired, but it didn’t matter, you needed him, you thought he was gone.
“Jay?” You whispered in shock as he was finally close enough for you to see through your teary eyes.
He flew the last few steps and dropped to his knees without really stopping, and therefore crashed right into you. And for the first time, he was able to hold you.
His arms snaked around you, pulled you as close to him as humanly possible, all while he kept repeating two words “I’m here”
The two of you had cried together, finally able to touch and hold one another and to ask and answer questions. It didn’t matter to the two of you that you’d forget the most important parts, because he could finally take a walk with you through the grey clouds. He couldn’t care less about the lack of view, because to him you were the most beautiful view he had ever laid his eyes on.
His arm was snaked around the small of your back, always pulling you back to him in a polite but somehow possessive nature, and it made your heart flutter.
He was almost gone as quickly as he had arrived, and as you woke up in the train cart, you still felt him right there by your sides and your heart had never been fuller.
After having finally held you, Jay made it a part of his routine to nap whenever he could. It didn’t matter where he was, if it was possible he was asleep in seconds.
The two of you had started to talk out loud whenever you were alone, you both knew that the only person who really mattered was right there listening.
And every now and then you were lucky and fell asleep at the same time, and those minutes and sometimes hours were the most presious to you both.
When Jay joined I-land your interactions changed, you knew he was doing something different than usual, the background had changed from his usual training room, and instead of him training with the same few people, others had now joined.
You could feel how stressed he was, how afraid, and you hoped your presence helped him just a little.
You did your absolute best to scour the internet for whatever this place was, and then one day at twitter you stumbled upon it.
Kpop was nothing new to you, you had a few friends in your circle that were ARMY’s and when BTS joined for an episode on I-land, clips of those oh so familiar backgrounds were everywhere on your feed. And that’s when you found him.
You started the first episode and when he popped up on screen it was as if every memory you had forgotten whenever you woke came rushing back. It was almost as if you had opened a door in your mind that held the rest of information you knew about him.
He had told you about him being a trainee, of him wanting to debut, how he hoped it would lead you to him one way or another. He had sung to you in the grey clouds, and you had complimented him every time, you were in fact his biggest cheerleader and number one fan.
You cheered him on, voted for him and did your absolute best to make sure he succeeded with his dream.
That didn’t however stop you from having fun once in a while. You and your best friend had been wheezing when your presence was noticed not only by him but by the remaining boys, and you were suddenly not just his soulmate, but also the ghost of I-land.
After Jay debuted his whole world was turned on it’s head and he was from one day to another no longer just Jay, but Jay of Enhypen.
As proud as you were it also stung. You saw and heard how every woman around him talked about him, how people much more beautiful and successful than you all wished for him to be theirs.
He felt how you had distanced yourself, and he begged on his hands and knees that you would open up, but you never did.
There was a constant fear that he would find your jealousy and possessiveness of him off putting. But what you feared the most was that he would rather have you as a platonic friend instead of a romantic partner in his life.
You hated the feelings, hated that it all got to you. But how could it not? There was no guarantee with soulmates, you could choose to work on a relationship, but it wasn’t a given that it lasted. Some would turn out to be better friends with one another than they ever were partners.
Despite him showing you affection, despite him paying attention you couldn’t shut down those thoughts, they were all consuming.
What you didn’t know was that he too hated seeing how people around you reacted to your beauty and overall presence.
He knew you didn’t notice, you were just walking through the world blind to those who gawked after you on the street. Blind to the boys in the back of your classes as they fought one another to be the one to ask you as their date for a school dance.
There was no way in hell you would say yes if they asked, he had thought to himself.
So when one of them finally did muster up the courage, he smugly watched as you stumbled for the right words to let him down easy. Or so he thought.
You had looked over your shoulder and sighed, as you finally had said that one word: yes.
When Jay woke up he was fuming, and it was clear to everyone who lived with him that something had gone terribly wrong that night.
“Soooo…” Niki said as he took a sip of water in the kitchen, all while Jay was throwing around pots and pans, making enough noise to wake the entire block.
“Don’t poke the bear you idiot!” Sunghoon said before hiding behind a chair dramatically.
“What happened?” Sunoo asked as he gently rubbed his friends back in a soothing manner.
Jay had gone still at the motion, and they all watched him as his shoulders started to move. He was crying.
It lead to a chain reaction as they all formed a protective circle around him, a safe space for him to express his emotions.
“She’s going on a fucking date” he spat out the last word as if it had been poisonous.
“Wow, wow, wow… a date?” Heeseung said as he looked to the others for any kind of explanation. But they were all a mirrored image of his own surprise.
Jay took a deep breath. “Yeah, this low life of a so called ‘man’ asked her to a dance, and she said yes” he ran his hands through his hair a few times as he tried to steady his breathing.
“Dude that’s messed up” Jake said as he plopped down on a chair. Jay nodded in response.
“You have to talk to her” Jungwon said in that stern leader voice.
Jay smiled a sinister smile. “I honestly don’t even wanna see her”
Jungwon shrugged. “I don’t care, you’re not letting this misunderstanding ruin what the two of you have build”
“Who says it’s even a misunderstanding?” He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back on the kitchen counter.
“Uhhhh mom and dad are fighting” Niki said in an unserious and teasing tone. He was instantly shut up by the look his two hyungs sent his way. He raised his hands in surrender, earning a laugh from Sunghoon.
“The two of you have known each other for close to ten years, you know each other better than anyone. And from what you’ve told us about her, she is not one who hurts people for sport” Jungwon had too crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“He’s right Jay, you two are lucky you can even communicate, the rest of us have no idea who’s waiting for us, what they’re doing, if they’ve dated people or not. When it comes down to it, none of us have any claim on them” Heeseung echoed.
The rest of the boys both nodded and sighed at the oldest words. It was a harsh truth, one that hurt them all.
“Talk to her, stay up or take a nap or whatever it is that you do” Jake said with a somewhat reassuring smile.
Jay rolled his eyes. “Fine” he said before he skammer the door to his room.
He had stayed up all night until he felt you were finally there. He had been so tired he had fallen asleep within seconds.
“What the hell was that?!” He yelled as soon as you were in front of him.
You had stumbled back in shock. “W-what?” You asked with surprise over his anger.
“Why the hell did you agree to go out with that douche?”
He watched as you rolled your eyes in annoyance, and he had never been more annoyed, disappointed or mad at you.
“How are you surprised? We’re nothing to each other Jay! We’re basically stalkers appointed by the universe itself, we’re nowhere near one another for fuck sake!” You yelled at him, up until now you had never done that.
“I don’t understand any of this… how could…” he ran his hand over his face as he felt how his voice was close to breaking. He was heartbroken, and it was your fault.
“I know who you are okay, I’ve known since I-land. I follow you everywhere, I see the people who thirst over you, I see the young women who would die to be in my place, and honestly? I’m pretty sure you’d much rather be with one of them than with me…”
He saw your tears stream down your face as you admitted everything to him. He didn’t know you knew, he had seen no indicators whenever he was with you. But what he failed to understand was how you would think so little of yourself.
His hand grabbed yours and he pulled you into his chest. His other laid on your cheek as he forced your eyes to meet his.
“Listen to me carefully when I tell you this darling. I want no one, but you. Every moment I’m not here with you, a part of my soul, my heart, is missing. Don’t ever think that you’re not good enough, not beautiful enough. There is no one but you. I scan every crowd, every concert, every fanmeet for your face. It’s you or no one else”
You stared at him as the tears fell, he had managed to wipe away every insecurity in a matter of seconds.
He sent you a shy smile. “I love you darling, you and you alone . And trust me when I say I will continue to love you until the day I die”
You had pulled him into an embrace. “I love you too” you had whispered.
He still smiled when he woke up. You loved him, and he loved you.
“So, I’m taking everything went well?” Sunoo said as he stood in the door.
Jay sat up in the bed with a grin. “Yeah it did”
“Good” Sunoo said before he opened the door wide and his room was suddenly flooded with his brothers.
“She loves me” he said and was instantly knocked over as they all screamed and tackled him into the mattress.
“Of course she does” Jungwon said as he ruffled his hair.
“Thank you Won” he said as he pulled the younger one in for a hug.
“Any time”
“I’m coming” you said as your head was in his lap. You felt him freeze beneath you.
It had been almost a year since the two of you had said those three little words to one another, and hearing about both Jake and Jungwon finding their other half’s had been the last push you had needed to buy the plane ticket without a return date.
“Don’t lie to me” he whispered.
“I’m not, I’m currently on my way” you said with a small smile as your hand came into contact with his cheek.
“How am I going to find you?” Jay said as he leaned into your touch.
“I don’t know… I can’t tell you where to be, or even where I’ll be but don’t stay too much in the dorm or at work okay? Go out and search for me”
“Darling as I’ve said, I always search for you”
You smiled, you knew he was. Instead of telling him you had considered surprising him, and had he been any other man that might’ve been possible.
“I can’t wait” you said.
He took your hand and kissed your knuckles. “Me too”
Jay did exactly as he had promised, he walked around the city, ate every meal outside the comforts of his home. He even attended some of their own lucky draws just to see if you were there.
As the days went by he became more and more desperate. It helped that you were now on the same sleeping schedule, the two of you had never spent this much time together. But he wanted you with him.
He sat by the Han river on a bench, as he tried to calm himself. Usually bodies of water had that effect on him, but it seemed that that wasn’t the case today.
He ran a hand through his hair as he sighed. He closed his eyes as he let the sun warm his face. It was getting late, and soon it would be pitch black, but the golden hour was so beautiful from here.
In the corner of his eye he saw someone sit on the other end of the bench. Whoever they were, they too seemed smitten with the view and the golden colors.
“It’s beautiful” you said as you looked at him.
Jay gave you a small nod and polite smile in return, never taking the time to actually look your way. You laughed. “My love, look at me” you said and the sound of that laugh, of that voice finally made something click inside of his very soul.
He whipped his head your way so fast that he fell from the bench and onto the ground. You laughed, unable to figure out how to process all of these emotions.
“You… you’re here” he said in disbelief. Instead of pulling him up you sat down on the ground next to him.
His breaths were quick and shallow, his eyes were big in chok and despite the warm colors of the sun it almost looked like he had gone completely pale.
“Is this a dream?” He asked between breaths, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to hear your answer by the frantic beating of his own heart.
He saw you smile at him, that wonderful wonderful smile. He took you in, all of you, he knew every little part of your face, of your hands of your body. But up until this exact second it was as if he couldn’t remember, as if the precise details had been lost in his memory. But now everything came back to him.
You reached out with your hand and he hesitantly took it, almost as if he was afraid that you would disappear if he made any sudden moves.
“You’re actually here?” He asked, and you nodded in response.
“Yeah. I’m actually here”
“Oh darling” he said as he pulled you as close to him as he physically could. The interaction reminded him of that first time he had had you in his arms. When the two of you had finally met in those grey clouds that were your mind. But this time you were actually here.
He could smell your shampoo and that sweet scent of vanilla from your perfume, he felt the heat from your hands where there usually were none, and the fast beating of your heart that matched his own so beautifully.
“I love you” three words he kept repeating, three words you repeated back to him over and over again.
He had both of his hands in your hair pulling you away from him to really look at you. “Gosh you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. How did I get this lucky?”
“Just kiss me already you fool” you said with a flicker of your eye. God you would be the death of him.
He closed the distance between the two of you, and finally his lips met yours. He was gentle but you could feel the desperation, the need to claim you right then and there.
He groaned into your mouth as his hands snaked around your waist and pulled you into his lap. Your hands flew up into his hair as you combed through the soft locks, earning small whimpers from him.
You smiled at his reaction. Smiled into the kiss and felt how he did the same. “You’re never leaving my side ever again” he said before losing himself in you once more.
“Never” you echoed.
He rested his forehead against yours with closed eyes and you saw how a tear slid down his cheek. You made a little hum, and he looked at you with such love you thought you’d be able to write love songs about this, about him for the rest of your life.
You started to stand but he pulled you back to him. “Where do you think you’re going?” He said in a teasing tone.
“I was thinking now might be a good time to go home.”
Home, home with you. You did not have to tell him twice. The two of you stood and he pulled you close to him, a hand resting on the small of your back as you walked back to his car.
Everything around you looked as if it had been dipped in gold, even that bond inside your chest seemed to be the color that the sun painted the world in. It was singing, humming a tune more beautiful than anything you had ever heard, with exception of your soulmate's voice of course.
Your walk finally had a view, and you had never been happier than in this moment. But you knew there was much more happiness to come as the two of you embarked on this journey that would be the rest of your lives.
And when you fell asleep in each other's arms, only to meet each other in your dreams once more, the grey clouds had been substituted for golden ones. Just as they had been when you had met.
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