PAPER CUTS .. ljn（✓）

→ two

"ow!" jeno winced, glaring at his pointer finger as a sudden sharp pain flared.

mark's head lifted to the side at his teammate's pained noise, leaning back to follow where the blue-haired boy was looking.

"woah, is that blood?!" the elder cried, reaching forward and grabbing jeno's hand to get a better look. "dude, how did you manage to cut yourself without moving? are you, like, secretly a wizard or something?"

the younger's eyes widened as he showed a very overdramatic smile, voice thick with sarcasm. "a wizard? i never knew!"

mark lightly pushed the now laughing boy away. "whatever." he grumbled, earning their tanned teammate's attention.

"what's up, babe?" haechan called, tossing an arm over the canadian. mark simply shoved the younger's head away with the roll of his eyes.

jeno turned his attention back to his finger, which had stopped bleeding. the boy scanned his hands, taking in the abundance of little cuts now littering his fingers. the annoying injuries started a bit less than a week ago, and jeno assumed his soulmate had finally turned 17.

why oh why, did i have to be paired with someone so careless?

a light pat on his shoulder pulled him from his thoughts, and jeno looked up to see their newest recruit, sungchan, standing next to him with a bright smile. "hey jen, did your soulmate hurt you again?"

the blue-haired elder snickered at the way the boy phrased it, but he nodded.

"wow, you should find them soon."

according to the soulmate handbook, or whatever it was called, when a pair found each other romantically, their bond dulled. it was still there, and jeno would still have to feel her pain, but it wouldn't be as extreme. the catch was that if one died, the other passed away as well.

that last note was the reason a careless soulmate worried jeno. he was the hockey captain, and hockey wasn't necessarily the kindest sport to be a part of. he was afraid to get himself hurt because that meant someone else would receive his pain as well.

that and if she suddenly stubbed her toe or something while he was in a match... yeah, no thanks.

as if he could guess what the older was thinking, haechan scoffed and nudged the blue-haired boy with his skate. "imagine meeting your soulmate in the infirmity for matching wounds. that'd be some... well, some soulmate shit right there."

jeno ruffled his hair out with his hockey glove and huffed. "hilarious."

"jeez, you're usually dense as hell but what the fuck, bro?" the elder shot a glare at the tanned boy next to him, who remained unfazed. jeno sighed once again and dropped his chin into his hands.

"my soulmate is already a mess... now i'll have to be extra careful not to get injured on the ice and the semi-finals are about to start. we have to be ready to make sacrifices, and now i have some random girl to watch out for."

"you don't want to find her?" the younger boy suddenly asked, causing jeno's head to snap up in surprise. "i never said that. in fact, if we don't find each other before i turn 18..." he trailed off but hyuck understood instantly.

another fact in the soulmate-bible-whatever, is that if the pair (or more, some had multiple matches) was born within the same 365 day period, once the elder partner turns 18, the bond will turn violent. in jeno's case, since he could already feel her pain, he'd start to feel her emotions and think her thoughts.

most of the time, people with their type of bond who never find their soulmate go insane and... well, eventually you just fade away. not your body, but your soul. the things that make you you just... disappear.

the blue-haired boy shivered at the thought.

a soft hand on his shoulder woke him from his trance, and jeno looked up to see haechan giving him an uncharacteristically comforting smile.

"don't worry, bro. she's probably much closer than we think. who knows? maybe she goes to this school."

── 🩹 ──

hyerim dropped her head into her folded arms with a dramatic groan.

"what is it this time?" soobin sighed, clearly uninterested in the girl's antics. hyerim flipped her head back up, wearing a very visible pout on her pretty pink lips.

"my feet and ankles hurt. i blame my soulmate." the cute drawl in her voice didn't faze the boy with pale blue hair, but felix on the other hand...

"awh no hyerimmie!" the blond cried, quickly poking the girl's cheeks. "do you want us to piggyback you to your next class?"

seungmin released a sudden, annoyed groan and placed his book onto the desk. "how? how did i manage to get stuck in not two, but three classes with these airheads?"

hyerim frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "ha. jokes on you, i love airheads." she was referring to the candy, but seungmin and soobin both stared at her with blank, unamused expressions.

someone behind the quartet suddenly cleared their throat, and all four students looked back to see a now extremely flustered boy.

"u-uh, the t-teacher is staring." he whispered, words going unheard to some of the little group, but they were able to read his lips and understand.

the boys of the group quickly faced forward and began working while hyerim instead flashed the boy a gummy smile. "thanks!" she mouthed, and the boy smiled back.

the girl with wavy hair finally turned back to do her own work, but her thoughts were still on their little 'savior'. if she remembered correctly, his name was jung sungchan. but wasn't he supposed to be with the hockey team? why would he care if we get in trouble or not?

hyerim shook her head and decided to actually focus on taking notes... which quickly turned into a picture of what she thought bakugo would look like as an angry bird.

she quietly hummed soft indie songs to herself. yeah, that earned her an elbow to the ribs from an agitated choi soobin. when the girl went to elbow him back, she pulled her arm into position, and her funny bone slammed right into the corner of her chair.

hyerim gasped, pinching her lips between her teeth to keep her pained cry to herself. all she felt were pins and needles. soobin and seungmin covered their mouths with their hands to silence their evil snickers, but the girl ignored them and sorrowfully turned back to her baku-bird drawing.

sorry soulmate.

jeno perspective! this book will switch
between jeno and hyerim, so hopefully
it doesn't get too confusing later on <3