2.01

                                    

                                          
"Are you alright?" Jeno asked as Jaemin came out of his room.
Sleep didn't come easy for Jaemin the previous night. He couldn't stop thinking about Dami's words and what she said about him. If it was true that the two of them used to like each other, then Jaemin couldn't remember. 
The bags under Jaemin's eyes were more evident than usual and judging by how Jaemin was squinting while making his way to the kitchen, he couldn't quite see through how puffy his eyes were.
"Take a wild guess," Jaemin said through a yawn. When he reached the kitchen, he made his way over to Renjun and placed his head on his friend's shoulder, watching as he made breakfast. 
"Get off, you're heavy," Renjun tried to shrug Jaemin off but Jaemin wrapped his arms around Renjun's waist and held on tightly. Eventually Renjun gave up on trying to get Jaemin off and chose to ignore him instead.
"Did you get any sleep?" Jeno asked from where he sat at the kitchen table.
"Eventually," Jaemin yawned as he let go of Renjun and went to get a glass of water.
Renjun looked closely at Jaemin's face. As Jaemin passed by Renjun, he stopped him and swept his hair out of his eyes. "Did you cry?" Jaemin let Renjun continue to move his cheeks around as he examined his face.
"Probably," Jaemin shrugged as he took a sip of the water, "I have no idea,"
"Is something bothering you?" Jeno asked. He had been fast asleep when Jaemin arrived home last night.
Jaemin shook his head as he put some of the food Renjun made on a plate and went to sit next to Jeno, "I feel fine. Like nothing is wrong. I just started crying randomly last night. It was really annoying,"
Jeno sighed as Jaemin came to sit next to him. "Maybe it has to do with your soulmate,"
Jaemin groaned as he took a bite of food, "Great, now she's even ruining my life without even seeing me,"
Renjun raised his eyebrow in confusion. "You're talking like you already know her. Did you find out who your soulmate was?"
Jaemin cursed to himself in his mind. Because he spoke to Jeno about Dami being his soulmate it had slipped his mind that he hadn't told anyone else that he and Dami were bonded.
Jeno looked at Jaemin curiously, wondering what his response would be.
Eventually Jaemin sighed, "Yeah."
Renjun's eyes widened a bit, "Wait? Seriously? And you haven't told anyone?"
"Well, I don't really like her," Jaemin shrugged, "And just a few weeks ago shaving my head would have been better than being her soulmate,"
"Intense," a new voice said. 
Jaemin, Renjun and Jeno all looked toward the living room where Mark was walking in. Jisung and Chenle trailed in behind him, a snacks in hand as they came to join the rest of the boys in the kitchen. 
"So, who is your soulmate?" Mark asked curiously.
Jaemin rubbed his eyes tiredly, "It's Dami,"
Mark, Chenle, and Jisung's eyes widened, standing straighter at the news. Renjun looked at Jeno, his mouth slightly open in shock. Jeno nodded his head, confirming that Jaemin wasn't just pulling some sort of elaborate prank on the boys.
"You mean Ahn Dami from Solstice?" Renjun asked.
"The same girl that you've hated since we debuted?" Chenle let out a laugh in disbelief, "Wow, I never would have seen that coming,"
Mark continued to stare at Jaemin with a look of disbelief but seeing how calm Jaemin was as he announced this quickly snapped him back to reality, "Wait, what? How long have you known?"
"We bonded at the party a few nights ago," Jaemin said, "But there's no way I could ever be soulmates with her,"
"Why not?" Renjun asked, "She's your soulmate, it's not like you can change that,"
"She's annoying," Jaemin grumbled.
"She's been trying to be nicer," Jeno said through a mouthful of food.
"She's doing a really bad job at it," Jaemin grumbled back.
"It would probably help if you weren't so mean to her," Mark said softly. "I remember when you guys used to be really close,"
"Well, I don't," Jaemin snapped.
Silence followed after his words. Jeno, Jisung, and Mark exchanged looks. They knew it was a bit of a touchy subject for Jaemin. The car accident he was in was years ago, but Jaemin had lost quite a few memories due to it. They never really spoke about that time.
"Wasn't she trying to talk to you during the New Year party?" Jisung tries to steer the conversation away from the past, "Have you seen her since then?"
"She was drunk out of her mind that night," Jaemin rolled his eyes as he stared down at his breakfast. It suddenly was unappetizing in every way possible. "And to answer your second question, yes, I saw her last night,"
"Wait, really?" Jeno asked.
"I ran into her during my walk," Jaemin waved his hand, "It was nothing. We just chatted. But we're not on speaking terms,"
The other boys exchanged concerned looks but Jaemin chose to ignore them. Considering Mark and Jisung's history with soulmates, Jaemin wasn't sure if anything they said would be of any help to him.
"Have you at least checked up on her?" Jisung asked. "If you were crying, that means she was too,"
"You can't live off of soulmate pills forever," Mark said with genuine concern.
"Right, this coming from the guy who made his soulmate move to the other side of the world," Jaemin gave a pointed look at Mark, "And the other who is currently not on speaking terms with his," he said while waving a hand toward Jisung.
"And the rest of you don't even have soulmates. I'm sorry if I'm not really inclined to take soulmate advice from any of you," Jaemin sighed as he rubbed his eyes. He was honestly just extremely tired despite the day only beginning.
He just wanted to finish his breakfast so that he could go back and enjoy his day off in bed.
Mark and Jisung exchanged looks. They couldn't disagree with Jaemin. Mark didn't have a good relationship with Serin when he first bonded with her and Jisung was struggling to navigate his own relationship with Naerin. But despite that, they were still worried for their friend.
"If you were crying last night, though, it means that she was probably feeling a lot worse than you," Mark said, trying not to take offense to what Jaemin said because there was truth to it.
Jaemin stared off into space for a moment. In his mind, he truly believed that he had no feelings for Dami. This was the girl that he had hated since he could remember. But after hearing what Dami had to say last night, Jaemin didn't know which feelings were genuine anymore. Jaemin knew that something was changing. 
Whatever the soulmate bond was doing was slowly starting to pull him toward her whether he wanted it to or not.