Minghao fucking hated his soulmate. He and that bastard shared a simple bond, a red string tied around their pinkie fingers. It wasn't like his parents, who had matching tattoos, or like some of his friends, Soonyoung and Jihoon, who fucking glowed if they got closer to each other, or Seokmin and Joshua, who could literally hear each other’s thoughts, no. Having the red string was an absolute nightmare. The closer they got to one another, the shorter the string became, which meant sometimes, Minghao was just getting tugged around by the clearly stronger person on the other end.
Half of him wanted to meet his soulmate for the sole purpose of punching them in the face, the other half wanted to meet him because, well, despite Minghao's best efforts, he was a hopeless romantic.
“Come on, it’s not that bad, once you guys meet. It'll be fine.” Jeonghan explains, patting his friend on the back. Minghao was now nursing a black eye, thanks to accidentally smacking some jock when his hand got yanked, and earning a punch to the face for his efforts.
“When I meet them, I will use whatever is left of our string to fucking strangle them.” He groans. Jeonghan glances at Seungcheol, his soulmate, trying to make him say something.
“No, you won't.” Cheol begins, not even setting his chopsticks down, “I was angry with Jeonghan before I met him, and now we're great. You guys will love each other.” He smiles, patting the younger boy's head with his free hand.
“I'd like to graduate without getting hit again if it’s anything,” Minghao tells his friends bitterly.
“Oh, shit, did you get hit?” Vernon asks as he plops next to them with his bag lunch.
“No, I tripped climbing out your mom’s window.” Hao fires back, “Did she pack her baby a lunch after I left?”
“Don’t talk about my mom like that, dick.” Vernon defends, “And Seungkwan made me this.”
“Fuck you guys.” Hao groans, dropping his head into his arms. Vernon and Seungkwan, or Verkwan as literally every girl in school referred to them, had the best soulmate mark in his opinion, each other's initials inscribed in their wrists.
“Aww, come on, buddy, you’ll meet your person one day.”
“Fuck off.”
“Aren't you supposed to be at drama club?” Seungcheol interrupts, trying to change the subject.
“I am, however, I thought Minghao might like to know that another Chinese kid just got transferred to the school.” Minghao waves one finger in the air in a circle.
“Woo.” His sarcasm makes Vernon roll his eyes.
“Just thought I'd let you know. See you fucks later.” Vernon waved as he left.
“Stop swearing so much.” Cheol calls after him, “I have to go, too. I promised I’d try Mingyu’s new recipe.” He glances at Jeonghan, who shakes his head, motioning to Minghao. “Try not to get punched again, Hao.” He teases, trying to lighten the mood before scurrying out of arm’s reach.
“Eat a dick!”
~~
The last two classes of the day were bullshit in Hao's opinion. Everyone kept talking about his black eye, about how he, Xu Minghao, a supposed badass, got decked. The final straw happened just as the day was ending. As per usual, Hao’s headphones landed on his ears within seconds of the final bell ringing, and while he was picking his music, someone walked right into him.
Hard.
The pair land on their butt in the middle of the hall, and Hao’s glare immediately turns on the person. It doesn’t help that this person is super pretty, like ethereal, almost. For a second, Hao thought that this guy couldn’t have been real, but then he remembered that he was sitting on the floor cause of this beautiful dickhead.
Who the fuck was this kid?
“What the fuck, watch where you're going.” He snapped, collecting his things. “Stay out of my fucking way.”
“No need to be so angry. You're the one who wasn't looking where he was going.” His voice was soft and floaty, and Hao had to restrain himself from trying to make out with him on the floor.
“Just fuck off,” Hao growls. They pick themselves off the floor, and for a second have a silent staring contest before Hao tries to brush past him to his locker.
Emphasis on “tries”.
He doesn’t get more than two feet away before he’s being yanked backwards. Now back to back with the very pretty person he just ran into, Hao raises his hand slowly, finding the red string now subtly glowing.
“Oh, no.”
“Anyone but him.” They turn to face each other at the same time, Hao’s free fist clenched tightly, ready to swing. “Goddammit.” He finally groans after a long, silent moment of staring into this guy’s beautiful eyes.”
“What's wrong, soulmate? Not who you were expecting?”
“I've been wanting to sock you in the face for years. You got me punched this morning,” Hao explains angrily, pointing to his bruised face.
“So why don't you?”
“Because,” Hao sighs, ducking his head as his cheeks heat up, “I- You’re just so fucking pretty.” The other guy grins at the compliment, chest puffing slightly.
“I'm Wen Junhui.” He introduces, “I just transferred here from China.”
“Xu Minghao.”
“You’re Chinese too?”
“Uh, yeah. So how do we get this-” Hao lifts his hand, where the string was still glowing and unrelenting. “To go away so I can go home?”
“That's easy,” Jun shrugs. “Like this.” He grabs the sides of Minghao’s face softly, making the shorter man’s heart stop for a second, and softly presses their lips together. Junhui tastes like cucumber Chapstick and mint toothpaste, nothing exceptional, but still somehow shattering any thought that tried to form in Hao’s gay little brain. When Jun finally pulls away, Hao is breathing heavily, kinda shocked, and very much in love.
“Was that really necessary?” Hao manages to ask, his hand immediately moving up to touch his lips.
