Time
✦ pairing: Minghao x reader
✦ genre: soulmate au, fluff, angst, found family
✦ word count: 4.3k
✦ note: thank you for being so wonderfull and patient! I've been suffering from a severe case of post concert depression. But it's here! I really hope you all enjoy it!
✦ reading order: Hoshi ✦ Jun ✦ Jeonghan ✦ Woozi ✦ Minghao ✦ Dino ✦ Wonwoo ✦ Dokyeom ✦ Seungkwan ✦ The article ✦ Scoups ✦ Joshua ✦ Vernon ✦ Mingyu ✦
Minghao had always been a pretty chill dude. He had been dancing, having fun and overall enjoying life. He was calm as the waves but with as much passion as a wildfire.
It wasn’t that he had been disappointed when he turned thirteen. But he kind of wished that he had a cool mark. Something with music, maybe visiting each other in your dreams? So when he woke up to the clock counting down on his wrist, he had rolled his eyes and covered it up.
He wouldn’t meet you anytime soon, so why would he need to look at it?
As he grew older, as he grew more mature, as he spoke to friends and family, he had come to appreciate it. Especially after joining the training for Pledis. Because some of the boys had marks that were so difficult he wondered if they would ever be able to find their other half.
He had felt happy for Jun and sorry for Vernon. He had aw’ed at Jihoon’s and he had to pull himself together not to wince at Chan’s. Veiled emotions; as if your own emotions weren't enough to deal with as a human, but having to feel theirs too? No thanks.
So he had come to love those small numbers, often stroking his wrist before he went to sleep, now knowing that the clock was one day closer to reach 00:00
Unlike Minghao you had cherished the tattoo from the very start. It had been a reminder that he was out there somewhere, waiting for you.
You absolutely adored that you had nothing to worry about as long as the clock kept counting down. He was alive, hopefully safe and living his best life like you were yourself.
The mark was not something too special, it was one of the more common ones, your parent had the exact same one and you had always loved hearing the story of how they had both been so out of their minds when there was 30 minutes until they met, that they had just walked through the city, trying to think of anything but the watch on their wrists.
They had bumped into each other in the park. Nothing short of divine timing.
Nothing made you more excited about finally getting to meet him. Whoever or wherever he was.
“Thanks for cooking dinner” Minghao said again as he looked at Mingyu, currently in the kitchen mouth full of food.
His friend smiled at him. “Any time!” It’s always nice I get to practice my chinese cuisine with someone who knows how it should taste”
Mingyu looked to his own wrist where the word that had been there an hour ago slowly faded away.
“Do you ever wonder if you’ll find her?” Minghao asked with a small smile, as his hands toyed with the bracelet around his wrist.
Mingyu just shrugged. “I hope so, but if I’m being honest I’m not really counting on it” He smiled, but it didn’t seem genuine, and those usually broad shoulders seemed to shrink a little.
Minghao sighed as well, running a hand through his long locks. “Yeah, I know mine is rather easy, but there’s a bit of anxiety tied to it. Knowing when I meet her is not always as… easy as it sounds”
The tall man turned towards his friend and crossed his arms in front of his chest, nodding, urging him to explain further.
“In the beginning I didn’t really think about it, like yay I’m gonna meet her in my late 20’s, okay, I’ll just build a life for myself before that. But the older I got, the more I came to realize that even that isn’t promised. I have no idea what she’s doing, what her life is like. I have no idea if she’s safe, healthy, happy…”
A small smile spread on his lips. “I envy you guys a lot, most of you have some sort of indicator of who they are and how they’re doing. All I have is this fucking clock, and if I one day look down and it has stopped… What do I do then?”
To Minghao it looked like Mingyu had never had the thought, as if he suddenly reminded the man that they in fact could lose them before they ever met, this part of their soul.
He sighed. “Never thought about it like that, I think mine is okay, I don’t think anyone would crave so much food as she is if they weren’t. I think it’s worst when she doom scrolls, damn the mark is flashing as quickly as her thumb can touch the screen”
They both smiled.
“I’m sure you’ll find her at some point” Minghao said as he stood from the chair, ready to help his friend with the dishes after their shared dinner.
“You too, too bad it wasn’t Tan’s friend” Mingyu said as he pushed his friend lightly with his shoulder.
Minghao leaned back his head as he laughed. “Yeah, it was worth a shot, but I did say from the get go that would be a little too easy”
“Ugh I don’t know if it even makes sense” You said into the phone, talking to your older brother.
The two of you had been talking to one another for the last hour or so, him trying to convince you to fly out to see him.
“Dude, you can work from anywhere, so you don’t even need time off, and I could show you the city when you had a break. Just imagine all the food”
You had always been close, and even after he moved across the world you had made sure to speak on the phone or facetime a few times a week.
You took a deep breath. “It’s just… two trips in a year, we’re all coming for christmas after all”
If it had been possible to hear when a person rolled your eyes, you knew you would have heard it right then.
“Just get here okay?!” he said before he hung up.
Which now meant you had a decision to make.
He was laying in bed, somewhat beat after a long day. He rubbed his collarbone as he had gotten a habit of doing after his injury. And like always, right before he turned off the light in his room, he looked down at his clock, but that night it didn’t just count down. It flickered. It lacked.
In a split second he was sitting, staring down at the ticking time, that flashed from the time that was still a few months away to a time that was literal days away. Back and forth, back and forth.
His heart was beating out of his chest, and before he could even think too hard about it, he was out the door wearing nothing but shorts and a tanktop. He didn’t even put on his shoes, but it didn’t matter, he was running instantly.
Seungcheol didn’t live far, and he was knocking on his leader's door frantically, not really caring that it was in the middle of the night. He would most likely be up gaming anyway.
When his brother opened the door Minghao flew right past him into the living room frantically pacing until he was able to catch up.
“Hao…” Seungcheol said, testing the waters. But the blond only held that infamous wrist of his, covering the clock that he usually flashed to everyone proudly.
He moved closer, and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Minghao?” He said, finally able to catch his eyes. He stopped pacing and exhaled.
With the exhale he lost all ability to stand upright, it was as if his legs started working all together, and he fell to the couch that stood behind him.
Minghao buried his head in his hands as he shook it, silently whispering something beneath that the older one had trouble deciphering.
Seungcheol slowly pulled his hands from his face. “What’s wrong?” his eyes were kind, as was his smile.
“Please tell me she’s okay…” his voice trembled as the tears welled up in his eyes. It was a prayer on his lips, one of pure desperation.
Minghao held out his wrist for the leader to see and for a few seconds he just stared at the clock, ticking away as usual. Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask what it exactly was he was looking for, the numbers shifted for a split second.
It looked as if it was lacking, as if something was wrong and Seungcheol took a deep breath before he looked to his brother who had winced the second the numbers changed.
“Hyung, what's wrong with her?” he asked with pleading eyes. But he had no idea so he shook his head.
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out okay? I promise we’ll figure it out” and with that he pulled Minghao close, allowing him to totally lose it, and break down in his arms.
It was known in Seventeen that if Seungcheol promised them something, it was a promise he would never break. Every time he had a chance the following days he was researching, talking to mark researchers, but most of them had never really encountered something like it.
“I got something!” Jun had yelled out in the restaurant they were occupying one night.
All the eyes around the table were at him as he stood up, reading from his phone: “the glitch of the clock is usually seen in moments where a single decision can impact the meeting of the two soulmates in question. If a decision is made where the clock speeds up the time, a light heat will blossom around it, if more time is added it will cool the numbers down”
Jun looked from his phone to his best friend, who leaned back into his chair, arms hugging himself as he released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding all these days.
The guys erupted in ecstatic screams and claps while they surrounded their friend. A single tear escaped Minghao’s eye, grateful that you were in fact, okay.
You were seated on the plane to Seoul, sending a text to your brother that he better come pick you up, or you would be turning back home in a second.
There was an excitement blossoming in your chest, you had missed him a lot. You had made the decision when he had finally explained just why he needed you to fly out. He had met his soulmate, and he wanted the two of you to meet before he was introduced to the whole family this upcoming Christmas.
What you hadn’t told him was as soon as you had booked the flight, a heat blossomed on your wrist, and suddenly the clock had changed. 4 days and 22h.
Not only were you meeting your brother's soulmate on this trip, but you would meet your own as well.
You took a deep breath as you rubbed the numbers on your wrist. You had made a promise to yourself to cover the numbers while you were there, you wanted the meeting to be a natural occurrence of events. You kissed them once and then slipped the black band over them.
When you arrived at the airport, your brother stood with flowers and a huge smile, ready to greet you. He had you in a tight embrace soon after.
The two of you had quickly moved from the airport to dump your suitcase back at his apartment, luckily he hadn’t commented on the sheer size of it.
You spend the rides catching up, and he told you in somewhat rough terms how he had met his other half. He didn’t want to spoil too much, but of course your workaholic brother would meet his soulmate while literally working.
You met him when the three of you were out for dinner that very evening. And the two of them made perfect sense. He was the cold and calm to your brother's fire and passion.
They moved around one another almost as if it was a dance.
“No, so I just stepped into the practice room and that string just led straight to him,” your brother's soulmate laughed as he pulled his other half close by the neck. Slightly tucking at the long strands of hair.
“Speaking of the practice room” your brother said as he looked at you with a raised brow.
You stuffed the kimchi into your mouth, as you stared back at him in defiance. “Don’t even think about it”
Just like your brother you had danced, but unlike him you had never had the guts to actually pursue it as a career, especially after he did.
“You dance?” The man before you asked as he looked at your brother.
“She does, and she’s really fucking good at it” he answered wile pointing to you with his chopsticks.
“What kind of dance?”
“Oh she does it all… ballet, ballroom, b-boying, contemporary. She’s better than me”
You rolled your eyes at the praise.
“Maybe we should bring her tomorrow, I’m sure Chan would love a little ballroom lesson” your brother leaned back in his chair as he laughed, genuinely and absolutely contagiously.
“Oh I love that; yeah… you know what? Hell yeah, let’s bring her on of these days”
“I’ll call the managers for an NDA”
The man stood up to make a call and you looked at your brother.
“He seems good for you,” you said and he responded with a smile.
“He’s too good for me” the both of you laughed. “Are you okay though, it seems like your mind is somewhere else?” He took your hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Don’t worry about me, worry about me beating your ass if you force me to dance in front of your crew”
“Oh I would never make you dance in front of them. I want you to dance with them”
The two hadn’t lied when they said they wanted to bring you along for a day's work.
The building was big, so big you wondered how anyone could find their way in the corridors, because to you they made absolutely no sense.
A signed NDA and a visitor pass later and you were on your way to the practice room. And that too was huge.
“Who the hell needs this much space?” You asked as you looked around.
Your brother laughed. “Well there’s 13 of them, and then all the dancers go balance it out. We take up quite a bit of space”
You nodded as you looked around. You had chosen comfortable clothes that still somewhat showed off your personal style.
The two soulmates introduced you to all their coworkers, and before you knew it, you were dancing along beside them, learning the choreography for some of the dances.
It almost felt like coming home. Your muscles loosened straight away to make it possible for you to do all the twists and turns.
A door opened and a few loud cheers broke out. And in stepped 6 people you had only heard stories of. The guys all went around, greeting every single dancer, asking questions or telling jokes that made no sense to an outsider.
One of them stopped before you and raised a brow. “And who might you be?” Chan said in a language you didn’t really know much of.
“Chan, say hello to my sister” your brother said as he gestured between the two of you.
The man almost did a little jump from pure excitement, and then went off in a rant your broken Korean couldn’t quite follow.
And before you knew it, music was blasting from the speakers and he had taken your hand, leading you to the middle of the room, and before you knew it, you were leading a dance class in ballroom dance.
“No but she literally moved like the ocean. I’ve never seen anything like it” Chan said later that day, when the dancing around with the background dancers had stopped to make room for learning the new choreography for their upcoming comeback.
“It was pretty god damn smooth” Mingyu noted and looked at Minghao who just sat and stared at the clock that slowly counted down.
“You guys should come tomorrow, meet her” Hoshi said before drowning half a bottle of water in what seemed to be one sip.
“She better stay for a while, this could end up being fucking hillarious” Chan said with a smile right before he grabbed Hoshi’s waist and spun him around just as you had taught him earlier that day.
The room broke out in absolute laughter.
“Yeah, maybe” Minghao said as he rubbed the numbers once, twice.
“Dude, you do know you won’t meet her if you keep isolating yourself right?” Vernon said with serious eyes.
He knew his friend was right so he took a breath. “Fine, I’ll join you guys”
He could hear the music and the cheers on the other side of the door. His heart was hammering away in his chest. Two minutes was what was left, which meant when he entered he would either open the door to see you, or you would follow right behind him.
A deep breath later and he stepped through the door, leaving the numbers behind, ready to meet you.
Some of his brothers and all of their dancers were all cheering for Chan and the woman he was currently spinning around within the circle of people.
It had somewhat been an understatement when he had said that the woman moved like water, whoever she was, she was a natural.
Minghao smiled to himself. And then the pieces clicked into place. He looked around the room, and sure enough, the woman, you, was the only new addition to the people in the room.
He moved through a few people and stood in the very front, desperate to capture your eyes. Because you had to be his, you had to.
Chan pulled you close to his chest and he couldn’t help his grimace and the small gasp he made when he saw how his friend's hand came into contact with the small of your back.
That small sound was enough for your eyes to shoot up over the shoulder of your dance partner, and then they met his.
Your wrist almost buzzed with warmth as your eyes met, and the two of you knew instantly what it meant. There was no need to do a double take, all you needed was to be in his arms.
Chan spun you around and as soon as only his fingertips held you, you broke free from his grasp, did an extra spin and ran to him.
Minghao, as if he knew exactly what you planned, took two steps forward and opened his arms. And in the next second you flew directly into them.
His arms were around you in an instant, lifting you from the ground as you flung your legs around him.
Gasps broke out around the two of you, but he didn’t care. They had all had you for longer than he had. So without letting you down, he left the room with you in his arms, leaving everyone behind to either wonder what had just happened, or celebrate it.
He walked out of the room with you still in his arms, a giant smile painted on his lips.
“Did that just happen?” you kept repeating, more to yourself than to him.
You pulled away to actually look at him, and he loosened one of his arms, gently tucking your hair behind your ear as he kept walking.
“Thank you for finding me sooner” he said, eyes sparkling as he looked at you as if you were his whole world.
You hugged him once again, not really knowing what to say as the tears threatened to spill if you talked.
You nuzzled into him, allowing yourself to feel small in his arms as he took you to who knows where.
A door opened, and then it closed, and everything fell silent. He sat you down on a couch, and sat between your legs at the coffee table directly in front of it.
Nothing could’ve stopped the whine you released as he pulled away from you. He laughed, and you couldn’t quite figure out if it was because he was a little embarrassed, or because he didn’t really know what to say.
“I’m not good at english” he managed to say as he intertwined his fingers with yours.
“I’m not good at korean” You said with a sheepish smile.
He nodded. “We’ll figure it out” he gave your hands a gentle squeeze, and you nodded in response.
“And mandarin might be too big of a stretch” he mumbled in the language, but you on the other hand, perked at it and answered him in his mother tongue.
“Maybe not too big of a stretch” You said with a smile.
Minghao fell to his knees in front of you, as he laughed quietly. “Maybe not, you are a part of my soul, so I guess it makes sense we would be able to communicate”
He looked up at you with those beautiful eyes, they almost shone like little stars in the light of the room. You had never seen happiness like this, pure bliss, unconditional love. And to know that he was looking at you with such affection melted your heart.
“So, you’re a dancer?” he asked. He had to bite his tongue to not ask you every question that ran through his mind.
You laughed. “Actually I work in marketing and product development, hence the mandarin, but I’ve danced my whole life”
Minghao made a grimace. “Then how exactly did you end up in our practice room?” He asked before moving closer to you.
You slid your hand from his hands and felt how it felt like your heart tripled in size at the way he pouted at the loss of contact to your skin. Instead you slid them up his broad shoulders, intertwining your hands behind his head and pulling him even closer to you.
The action had left him on his literal knees before you, and Minghao didn’t mind it one bit.
“My brother is one of your dancers, came to meet his soulmate, and somehow stumbled upon it”
His arms snaked around your waist as he leaned forward, slowly, teasing and testing every movement.
“Did you now?” he said with a low tone.
Your eyes looked from his, to his mouth and that devilish smirk he had on full display. You nodded.
“Just promise me one thing love, don’t let my members hands run up your body like that again”
Your head leaned back a little as you laughed, and for a second he almost lost all control over himself and kissed you up the neck.
“Oh? Are you the jealous type?” You asked with a raised brow.
Now he looked to your mouth, but unlike you, his eyes never left your lips, not even when he answered: “Usually no, but apparently that’s just the kind of feelings you evoke in me”
“Yeah?” you asked as his nose came into contact with your own, sending sparks up and down your spine.
“Yeah” he whispered with an exhale. He took a jagged breath in.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked as he searched your eyes for any kind of hesitation or indication that what he was currently doing overstepped any kind of boundary.
A small nod from you and he dived into your mouth as a man who had been starving his entire life.
He was gentle and firm, teasing and generous all at the same time. You could live here for the rest of his life, breathing only when he allowed you to come up for air, warmed by his embrace. Yes, there was no doubt in your mind that the universe had managed to pick the perfect partner for you.
The two of you had stayed in the room for about an hour, kissing, catching up and getting to know one another as well as one could in a short amount of time.
But at one point the two of your phones refused to stop buzzing which meant it was time for the two of you to face the music.
Which meant your brother and all of his.
The two of you stepped back into the practice room and were met by cheers and screams, leaving the two of you somewhat embarrassed by being the center of attention.
Your brother was there in a second pulling the both of you close to him. “Well you’re fucking welcome for dragging your ass here” he said with a smirk as he kissed your forehead.
Minghao didn’t really mean to make a face, but he did. And he did his very best in hiding it, but you looked straight through it, so in response you leaned into him, and felt how his shoulders seemed less tense after you did so.
He pulled you closer by the hip and snaked his arm around you possessively.
Your brother looked between the two of you and lifted his hands. “Hey I’ll back off” he then looked to his own soulmate. “Trust me I get it. It gets better after a little while”
Minghao sent him a thankful smile, and sheepishly whispered “sorry”.
As your brother backed off, it meant it was his brother's turn to say hello and introduce themselves.
Minghao couldn’t help the pride that filled his chest as he watched them all excitedly say hello and introduce himself.
And as you looked at him with those sparks in your eyes all he could think about was how lucky he was to spend the rest of his life by your side.
✦ taglist: @ijustwannareadstuff20 @zaycie @lveegsoi @hellaboredd @loudpeachdetective @why4anne @why-did-i-just-do-this @ramyeonzwithspam @floating-moon-dust @skyearby @acourtofmoonlightandstars @stormy1408 @tunafishyfishylike @sol3chu @blvengene @fics-lovebot @fangirl125reader @fabulousarepo4 @acopenhagenarmy @tunafishyfishylike @meowstake @chaseyui @ateez-atiny380 @reiofsuns2001 @dcrlingyou @dy-kyeom @unusuallyshy @littlemoonfairy02 @melovehao @kwonhs96 @juju-227592 @strwberrymuffins
✦ as always let me know what you think! Don't be a silent reader please! Your responses is what keeps me writing. Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!
