Cherries
✦ pairing: Seungcheol x reader
✦ genre: soulmate au, fluff, found family
✦ word count: 3k
✦ note: i told you the series would continue as soon as ‘sunstorm and eclipse’ was out (also please go read that she is my baby, and if enough of you like it I will make a prequel)
✦ reading order: Hoshi ✦ Jun ✦ Jeonghan ✦ Woozi ✦ Minghao ✦ Dino ✦ Wonwoo ✦ Dokyeom ✦ Seungkwan ✦ The article ✦ Scoups ✦ Joshua ✦ Vernon ✦ Mingyu ✦
When Seungcheol was little he liked to fantasize about his other half, he liked to picture how you would look and sound. To him you were the most beautiful person in the entire world, he knew you would be, even back then when the two of you hadn’t even met yet.
And because of that it was even more devastating when he woke up on his thirteenth birthday and there was no mark. There was nothing. No feelings, no pain, no voices nor music. There were in fact no mark.
It devastated him, to a degree that he could feel his heart actively break more and more in his chest as the days went by.
He kept waiting, but nothing appeared, and little by little, the young boy started to give up on ever meeting his other half.
When he became a trainee in Pledis, he kept the info to himself, there was no need to let the strangers know that he was missing his most important part.
Until they one day sat down and shared it all, every single one of the 12 boys and men around him had offered him support, everyone certain that he did in fact have a mark, it was just hidden more than most.
He never told any of them, but he prayed that they were right.
Like Seungcheol you were just as excited for your mark, and you were equally as devastated when it didn’t appear. It was like a literal knife in your heart, one that kept twisting whenever one of your friends finally found theirs.
You still smiled of course, you had been raised to be polite and kind, but it was nothing short of bitterness that coated your tongue. Pure jealousy and heartbreak.
One day in class one of the girls had arrived with a little tattoo on her wrist, she had then marched up to one of the boys in your class, all to present him the little star, one that matched his own so perfectly. That had been a tough pill to swallow.
So instead of showing the world the frown and the tears that threatened to spill, you had instead drawn it on the back of your hand.
Seungcheol had been sitting somewhere in the Pledis building when he felt a warmth on the back of his hand, one he had never felt before. And when he had looked, a tiny little :´( had appeared.
He had jumped from the chair, heart beating out of his chest as he tried to communicate with those of his members that were close.
His voice was unable to speak, his mouth was dry and his brain was malfunctioning. So instead of actually speaking, he just stood there and shook his other hand.
It had taken Wonwoo a few seconds to decipher what it was their leader so desperately was trying to tell them. But as soon as he gave the desperate man a pen, he calmed down.
He sat there and stared at the back of his hand, wondering what to write, what to draw, and in the end he ended up with something as simple as a heart. To show that his belonged to you, and that he was there by your side.
It had taken the two of you a while to figure out that you couldn’t use words to communicate, it had to be drawings and symbols. But you had still managed to figure out that he was from Korea, which of course meant you had tried learning the language straight away.
Seungcheol would send a little drawing of a flag your way whenever he was travelling, letting you know what he was up to. When he injured his leg he had managed to draw a stick figure on his arm with a broken leg to convey the message that he was out of business.
That day was the first time you had kissed your wrist with lipstick on, and he had seen the imprint there, and had kissed it back. His heart was breaking a little, because it had been years, and the two of you were nowhere near figuring out who you were, or how you were to find one another.
And then it happened, the article came out. Now he only needed to figure out how he got you to read it.
“How do I tell her which article to read?” He said as he sat there looking more like a giant question mark than a man.
Jeonghan rolled his eyes. They had been at this for hours, and they were nowhere closer to figuring out just how to communicate the name of the article to you.
So far all they had come up with was a newspaper and a flower, but when they had tried googling themselves, nothing even slightly familiar had come up.
Seungcheol laid his cheek on the table in front of him. You had to find it now, the article was trending and twitter was collectively losing its mind. This was his chance.
Joshua stood up from the couch. “You two are so impossible to be around” he said as he took the little brush from his friend's grasp.
He drew a newspaper, a microphone, a small seventeen and a flower.
“There, it should not be that hard if she googles article, singer, seventeen and flower”
Joshua smiled at the older man before he returned to his spot on the couch. A hangout session with the three eldest was nothing new.
They loved spending time with one another, there was an understanding between those three, that the other ten didn’t always understand. And they didn’t need to.
Seungcheol nodded. “Okay. I mean, yeah. She’ll get it. Of course she will”
“Of course she will,” Jeonghan echoed.
There was excitement brewing in his chest, but also nerves, because there was still a chance that this just wouldn’t work.
“What the hell does that mean?” You said as you stretched out your arm to your best friend.
She laughed in response. “Why are you asking me? He’s your soulmate” she bit down on a dumpling, before she made a dramatic gesture of complete and utter satisfaction.
“Is that a book or a paper… Hell it might even be a magazine?” You crooked your head to the side.
“The 17 and the flower is easy enough” You pulled out your phone and typed “17 flower” into your search engine. Nothing popped up.
“Maybe it’s ‘singer’? The microphone I mean”
You pointed her way before adding it to the search, and as if you had said the magic word, there it was; an article about the group Seventeen and their soulmates.
“Holy shit” you said before you stood up from your seat. “Holy shit!” you yelled a little louder.
“Dude we’re in public” was all you got in response.
Your eyes welled with tears as you felt your hands starting to shake. You read the whole thing while you were still standing up. There was no time to sit down, no time to collect yourself, all you could do was read.
Your friend rose from her seat and came to plop you down in your chair, luckily for her it worked, because people had started to stare.
As soon as you finished the story you forwarded it to her.
“Aw, I like that, flowers… That must be such a beautiful mark!” she said.
The two of you had moved on to twitter, the home of fangirls and fandoms.
“Okay… So there’s four of them left on the market apparently”
“The man market” Your friend said as she stuffed Japchae into her mouth with a satisfied groan. You sent her a look, and all she did was smirk in return.
“So who’s left?” she asked as she leaned forward over the table, desperate to take a look at the four men available.
“There’s Joshua, Vernon, Mingyu…” you said as you scrolled through the pictures.
“Oh, wow!” Your friend said as she snatched the phone from you. “I would not mind sinking my teeth into that man”
You rolled your eyes as you scrolled to the last person on the list. “And then there’s the leader, Seungcheol”
Your cheeks heated up, and your mouth went completely dry as you looked at the man on your phone.
There was no doubt in your mind that it had to be him, none of the others made your heart beat out of your chest, nor did they make your hands clammy.
“I think…” you said as you looked at your bestie, she only reached out for your arm.
“Yeah, so do I!”
He was beautiful, tall and wide, with a smile that would make any woman forget what she was thinking.
But the beauty and the fame would definitely be an obstacle, you needed to figure out how to get to him.
First you needed to let him know that you had received his message
Seungcheol had been sitting and staring at his arm for about an hour, and nothing had happened. There had been no response from you.
It killed his spirits, and he had ended up sending the guys home, so that he could just wallow in his own self pity.
His friends had patted him on the back, and told him to keep his head held high, that he at one point would be able to crack the code.
He had dropped down on the couch hiding his face in his hands when that well known warmth spread on the back of his hand.
He was prepared for a question mark, or any other indicator that you in fact hadn’t been able to figure out who you were.
After a few minutes he had decided he might as well get it over with, sooner rather than later. He slowly sat up and looked at the back of his hand, then he shot up from the couch with a roar.
Because right there on the back of his hands were two cherries, and around it was drawn a heart. It was his symbol, which could only mean one thing, you had finally found him.
You had done your research about your man, where he liked to hang out, and where he frequented. It was a little weird, and deep down you felt a little bit like a stalker.
Yet you had no idea how else you were meant to stumble upon him. It was impossible to get a meeting with him, and to get inside of the Hybe building had proven absolutely impossible.
Nothing had worked. So instead you had just been roaming the city.
You were currently sitting in a small café not far from your airbnb, cozying up to yet another coffee in your soulmates city.
The last few days had been nothing short of amazing.
You had made it clear to him that you would be there, that you would be looking for him and you hoped that he too would be out and about, looking for you as well.
When you had sat down at the cafe you had pulled out the little pen you always carried and drawn a little coffee mug on the inside of your wrist.
Hoping that he would go out and get a cup himself, hopefully at the little shop where you had been cooped up for the last hour or so.
But he had not come. There was a little bit of disappointment in your heart, even though you knew that it would most likely take more than that for the two of you to meet.
You slowly got up from your seat, and went to thank the kind lady for a wonderful cup of coffee.
You didn’t notice the man who entered, so instead you walked straight past him and out the door.
Like most of his brothers Seungcheol had taken a few days off as soon as he had gotten the memo that you would be in town.
He visited all the places that he loved, that he knew carats knew as well, yet you were nowhere to be found.
Tomorrow was his first day back, preparing for their comeback, and he hated that he might have to return empty-handed, without a beauty on his arm.
The little coffee mark on his wrist had sent him on one last adventure, but the café he had chosen was empty, except for the woman who had walked straight past him.
Whoever the woman was she had smelled of cherries, and for some reason the smell alone reminded him of you.
Just as he was about to follow her out the door, the lady behind the counter asked him what he would want, and the thought of the cherry smelling woman was quickly out of his mind once again.
You had just exited the shop when the sky above opened and the rain started pouring.
A curse left your lips as you made a mental note to remember to pack your umbrella.
Luckily there was an awning outside the shop to keep you dry while you tried to call a taxi to take you back to your little apartment.
It did feel like kind of a waste to pay someone to drive you, when it would only take you ten minutes to walk.
But you also refused to spend the last few days of your trip being sick and therefore make it even more diffucult to meet that other half of yours.
You pulled out the pen once again and drew an umbrella with a cross over followed by a sad smiley, hoping that he would get the memo.
Seungcheol felt the warmth spread on the inside of his wrist once again, and he couldnt help but smirk at the little drawings.
He had been smart enough to check the weather forecast before he left his apartment, so as soon as he had secured his coffee he pulled his own umbrella from his jacket pocket, ready to enter the now wet world of Seoul.
Maybe he just needed to walk around and look for a woman who had forgotten her umbrella?
He smiled before quickly drawing a heart and a smiley, urging you to go on.
As Seungcheol excited the shop the familiar smell of cherries washed over him, and the woman who had just been inside of the cafe, now lingered outside.
He was just about to ask what she was waiting for, when he spotted her looking at her right wrist.
And on her skin in ink, was the exact conversation of little figurines that was mirrored on his own.
Seungcheol felt how his heart started beating, how his mouth went dry, and how he for the life of him suddenly became unable to speak.
Instead he just stood there, opening and closing his mouth again and again, hopeful that the words would come to him.
They didn’t, instead he looked down to the umbrella he had in his hand, and decided to utilize it.
The man had stopped much like you had, and had no doubt decided that staying put would be better than going out into the rain and getting wet.
You stood there and admired the little encouragement your soulmate had decided to send your way, a small smile on your lips.
Then you felt a small push, and as you looked out of the corner of your eye, you saw an umbrella.
You turned towards the man with a puzzled look.
And there he was.
His smile was awkward and nervous, and if you looked closely it was clear for anyone to see that the legendary leader of Seventeen was shaking like a leaf in a storm.
You stood there and just stared at him, as your heart was beating out of your chest and as you could feel your entire being warm up.
He was here, he had found you, umbrella in his hand and everything.
A tear fell from your eyes, and before you had the chance to even blink, the man had closed the distance between the two of you and pulled you into his chest.
And there, in the warm embrace of your soulmate, you had finally found your place in the world.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you” he whispered into the crook of your neck.
You laughed a little as you pulled yourself closer to him, as close as physically possible. It led to him releasing a hum that managed to ease your anxiety straight away.
“You are a hard man to find, Seungcheol” you said with a small laugh that he quickly returned.
He pulled away from you and finally took you in, the beauty of you. You were perfect, beautiful and fierce. He couldn’t wait to get to know you better.
One of his hands snaked up around the back of your neck. It was firm, yet gentle enough that you could get away if you wanted to. He squeezed gently and saw how your eyes sparkled as you smirked at him.
"Want to get out of here?” He asked as he raised a brow, and you quickly nodded.
His arm snaked around your shoulder as he pulled you as close to his side as humanly possible.
He was never letting go of you.
Seungcheol had spend all night getting to know you, talking until the two of you fell asleep in each other's arms.
He had woken you up with a peck on your nose, then on your forehead, on your cheeks and in the end he just kissed you all over.
You had laughed before finally giving him one, so intimate and passionate it would end up making him late.
The leader was excited when he told security that you would need a badge for the building. He was happy when you pulled him a little closer when you got close to the practice room.
And he was proud when he finally pulled open the door to meet his members, only to be scolded by each and every one of them for being late.
He didn’t care one bit. He just stood there and smiled, until he pulled you in after him, and the room erupted into the well-known chaos that was the boys introducing the group to their soulmate
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✦ as always; please comment, like, share, reblog all of that. It what's keeps me going and keeps me writing. My asks are always open for feedback or if you just wanna give me a little praise.