☆ genre: fluff
☆ pairing: jeon wonwoo x reader
☆ summary: in a world where anything you write on your skin is copied onto your soulmate’s skin, you meet a man who feeds stray cats
☆ word count: 2k
☆ merry christmas @februaryflowers ! i was your tct secret santa. i apologize for the late upload, i’ve been editing this to all hell to make sure it was absolutely perfect for you. i hope you enjoy it, cause i know i had an absolute ball writing this. love you lots <3
Feed stray cats.
You woke up to that sentence etched onto the skin of your forearm in black ink, the same black ink that was etched onto the palm of your hands, your thighs, even your bicep when your soulmate began to write on you.
You couldn’t really complain. In the grand scheme of things, your soulmate was pretty tame when it came to the things that he scribbled onto himself. They more often than not were reminders for little things throughout the day or week, and you honestly found it kind of endearing. You liked staring at his handwriting as you ran a thumb over it, memorizing the way he wrote every single letter.
You tore your attention away from the sentence, forcing yourself to get out of bed and get ready for class. Whoever was on the other end of this connection was presumably going through the same struggle, considering you had more than once had a reminder about homework or a study group on your arm, though any details that might reveal his identity were carefully smudged out. You know, because the universe hates making things easy.
An hour later you were sliding into your seat in the lecture hall, eyes barely open as you sipped your coffee and hoped that your teacher wouldn’t put you to sleep with his monotonous voice.
“You got stray cats now?” You looked up quickly at the voice of your friend, Mingyu. You rolled your eyes at his joke, pointing at the writing on your forearm.
“Does that look like my handwriting to you?” He leaned forward, examining the sentence with almost comical focus, before pulling back and crossing his arms.
“You’re right. Your handwriting is at least ten times worse than that.” You shoved him, letting yourself smile at his laugh as you pulled out a pen and your notebook.
“Any closer to finding who’s writing all those reminders?” Mingyu asked once he stopped laughing. You sighed and shook your head, letting your chin drop into your palm.
“Not even a little bit. They are so generic, it could be literally anyone on campus!” you exclaimed. Mingyu rolled his eyes at your dramatics, before leaning back in his own seat.
“Well, you’re bound to find out about it one day, right? That’s kind of how the whole soulmate thing works?” You grumbled his own words back to him mockingly, joining in when he began to chuckle at you.
“Alright class, let’s get started!” You inwardly groaned as your teacher began to lecture, already losing your attention within the first few minutes. It didn’t take long before your pen was brought to your skin, tracing small flowers and patterns in an attempt to keep yourself occupied. When the lecture was finally over, you looked at your masterpiece and smiled to yourself. You hoped your soulmate liked flowers.
Wonwoo had to admit that he hadn’t always been the biggest fan of flowers. Sure, they were pretty, but it never saw the appeal in them. That was until his soulmate marking appeared and he found out that the person on the other end loved drawing flowers. He would look down and watch as his forearm or thigh came to life with different flowers, from roses to tulips, all filled in with various shapes and patterns. Since then, he found himself smiling whenever he passed a flower shop, hoping that one day he would be able to give his soulmate real flowers that matched the drawings she gifted him every day.
“I see your soulmate was bored today,” Jihoon commented as Wonwoo plopped onto the couch in their apartment. Wonwoo looked at today’s drawing and smiled.
“I guess so. I just can’t believe that with a large piece of work like this, I still can’t find her. How hard is it to find someone with something like this on their forearm?”
“Pretty hard, I guess. What’s that on your other arm?” Jihoon asked, tilting his head so he could read it. Wonwoo sat up quickly at Jihoon’s comment, remembering that he needed to go outside and feed the cats that lived on their street.
“I’ll be right back.” Wonwoo walked out of their apartment and down the stairs, before turning to walk out the back and into the alley behind their building. Sure enough, the two kittens that he had named Mac and Kili were lurking by the door, waiting for him.
“Sorry for the wait, guys. It’s been a busy week,” Wonwoo explained, though he knew the cats probably didn’t understand him. Regardless of their comprehension, the two animals came up to him and rubbed against his ankles, causing him to grin as he bent down and lightly scratched behind their ears.
“Here you go.” Wonwoo placed the food down in the alleyway, watching as the two scrawny cats began to immediately eat up the leftover fish that he had saved from dinner last night. He watched them eat for a moment, before heading back inside with content in his heart. He was halfway up the stairs when his phone vibrated in his back pocket.
Mingyu: Is it okay if my friend joins us for dinner tonight?
Wonwoo stared at the text for a moment, internally debating, before finally replying that, yes it would be alright. Usually, he would have said no, but Mingyu and Jihoon had been on his case about meeting some new people and he figured there was no better time to start than now.
Wonwoo chuckled to himself as he joked that maybe this friend might even be his soulmate.
“I really don’t want to intrude,” you said as Mingyu led you up the stairs towards the apartment. You don’t know why you were still arguing with him at this point, but you couldn’t quell the anxiousness that was beginning to bubble in your chest. These were Mingyu’s friends, and you really didn’t want to be the awkward fourth wheel.
“You’re not intruding. Now stop trying to get out of this and act like you're not so nervous,” Mingyu teased. You frowned at him as you pulled your sweatshirt closer to your body, hoping to make yourself as small as possible while Mingyu knocked on the door.
The door creaked open and you were greeted with a man, who you recognized as Jihoon, smiling at you kindly.
“Hey. You must be Y/N. Come on in, dinners almost ready,” Jihoon said, before stepping aside and allowing Mingyu and you to enter. The apartment was cozy, but the first thing that caught your eye when you walked in wasn’t the crowded living room, but the tall man that stood in the kitchen, taking some fried chicken and sides out of a plastic bag.
“Oh, hey. Hope you like chicken, Jihoon and I were too lazy to cook so we went with the easy option,” he joked. You assumed this must have been Wonwoo, Jihoon’s roommate, so you just smiled and nodded. He smiled back at you, before continuing to pull things out and place them on the breakfast bar, along with some plates and utensils.
“Alright, help yourselves. We can eat in the living room, since we have no dining area,” Jihoon laughed. You and Mingyu chuckled, grabbing and fixing your own plates before heading to the living room and getting comfortable.
As the four of you sat and ate, you found yourself relaxing bit by bit. Jihoon and Wonwoo were both nice and made sure to include you in conversation so you wouldn’t feel left out. They told you some stories about Mingyu that had you snorting in laughter, much to Mingyu’s displeasure. You kept talking even when your plates were empty and your stomachs full.
“Hey, Wonwoo, where you going?” Mingyu asked as Wonwoo stood up and put two pieces of chicken on a paper towel. Wonwoo grabbed his key off the hook by the door, waving Mingyu off.
“Don’t worry about it. Just keep talking.”
“Oh, you going to say hi to Mac and Kili?” You looked at Wonwoo with an eyebrow raised, your interest piqued at the names that were brought up. Wonwoo smiled and nodded, and for some reason you found yourself standing up and shuffling your way over to him.
“Mind if I come with you? Anyone with names like that I’ve got to meet,” you said. Wonwoo looked at you for a moment, before nodding and holding the door open to you. You gave him a bashful smile as you stepped out into the hallway and waited for him to lock the door, before leading you down the few flights of stairs until they were on the ground floor. You watched curiously as, instead of heading out the front, Wonwoo turned the opposite direction and headed towards a large metal door at the back of the building.
He opened it and stepped out, taking in the fresh air as you slipped out after him. He held the chicken in his hand, before calling out for Mac and Kili. You looked around, wondering what was going to pop out before your heart melted at the sight of two cats bounding down the alleyway and towards you both. One was black and the other one was a calico, but both were scrawny and sweet enough that they came up to the two of you and rubbed against your ankles.
“I see you just rub against anyone nowadays,” Wonwoo teased the kittens, before bending down and setting the chicken down. The kittens immediately walked over, mewling happily as they began to sink their small fangs into the food and gulp it down. Wonwoo stood back up and you smiled at him.
“So, you feed strays in your spare time?” you teased lightly. You saw a small bit of red dusted on his cheeks as he nodded, sticking his hands in his hoodie pocket.
“I’ve been feeding them at least twice a day for about a year now. Honestly, I should just adopt them at this point.”
“How do you remember to feed them? I can’t imagine it’s easy to remember with school and whatnot,” you asked. Wonwoo shrugged, before rolling up his left hoodie sleeve.
“I write it down when I think I might be too busy to remember. I do that with a lot of things, actually.” As soon as you saw the writing on his forearm, in blank ink and neat handwriting, your heart stopped. You felt your lungs stop functioning and your mind short-circuited. Wonwoo noticed your silence, looking over at you with a worried expression as you rolled up your own sleeve to reveal identical writing.
It was Wonwoo’s turn to be awestruck, as he moved his arm closer to yours to observe the writing. It was undeniably the same, and you and Wonwoo just slowly looked up at each other, before bursting into laughter.
“So, you’re the one who’s been leaving flower drawings all over my arms and legs,” Wonwoo jokingly accused. You let out a loud laugh, before pointing a finger at him.
“And you’re the one who keeps writing reminders all over!” Wonwoo laughs as he nodded, his eyes glittering with happiness. You both just stood there, looking at each other, hearts racing and minds running as you both tried to comprehend that your soulmate, the one you were forever meant to be with, was standing in front of you right now.
“Well, now I will know which stray cats are getting fed.”
“Now I will know who makes such beautiful drawings when she gets bored.” It was your turn to get embarrassed, but you didn’t have much time to revel in it as Wonwoo pulled you in for a hesitant hug. You wrapped your arms around him instantly and melted into his grasp. It felt so good to be hugged by him, like coming home after a long time.
You pulled away when you felt the kittens begin to rub against you both again. You leaned down to pet the kittens and thanked them for bringing Wonwoo to you, for being the reason you had found him. You promised them at that moment that, as repayment for finding your forever love, you would find them a forever home. Which is why, when you and Wonwoo finally moved in with each other months later, you were joined by the two very kittens who had given you everything.
