Chapter Text
Hi Soulmate!
My name is Park Jimin, (soon to be 18) from Busan. I sure hope you can read Korean! If not, then Taehyungie is staying the night to help you out, and he’s pretty good at Japanese. Maybe you’d get some English out of him if you tried hard enough… well, I suppose if you can’t read Korean you’d have no idea what this is saying anyway. Sorry! Oh man, I hope this all works out… I don’t want there to be any trouble.
My phone is on the bedside table. The passcode is 8120. Please call me as soon as you can! I can’t wait to meet you!
(I hope Taehyungie behaves)
Lots of love xxx
Jimin wiped his hands down his face, finger tips pulling at his lips, cheeks, lower eyelids. He was ready for this. He was ready.
His breaths were evenly spaced, but ragged as he glanced around his room for what he told himself would be the last time. His aimless pacing had finally stopped, but his heartbeat was still hopelessly erratic, pounding in time with the tinny BTS track playing on his phone’s speaker. Jimin’s eyes darted frantically to every corner of the room – was it presentable enough? clean enough? Was it too clean?
Taehyung occupied his bed, limbs haphazardly spread across the duvet. Jimin’s teddy bear sat on his lower chest as he fiddled and fussed over its paws.
“Jimin, you need to calm down,” his friend’s low voice sounded, almost at deadpan level, above the chorus of Satoori Rap.
“You can’t say things like that!” Jimin groaned, “you have literal weeks until your eighteenth. I’ve barely got my own life together and when I wake up tomorrow I’ve got to share it with someone else.”
“You don’t know that, Jiminie. They might be younger.”
“It’s a fifty-fifty chance, Tae!”
The older of the two watched helplessly as his friend did nothing in reply but give a shrug. It was alright, he knew he was tired – he himself maybe even more so. The stress was eating him from the inside out; what had started out when he’d woke up as a buzzing rush of warmth on his skin had descended into outright dread. How was he supposed to get to sleep like this? What if he never slept again….? Dying in slow agony from sleep deprivation while his soulmate spent the rest of their lives alone… the thought as much as lanced him through the heart and he forced himself to sit down on his bed, narrowly missing Taehyung’s foot.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Taehyung said, sitting up and grabbing Jimin by the shoulders. His voice was solid. “And I promise that you’re going to get to sleep tonight. With all this stress you’ll probably just end up worrying yourself to bed. And then magic might – might happen, and you’ll wake up in the body of your soulmate, wherever they are, and you’re going to be nice to their friends or family, and then wait for them to call you, or message you. I’ll help them, and then before you know it you’d have met up, done the kissy-kissy, returned to your own bodies and have got ready to start the rest of your life. Okay?”
“Why do you have to make it sound so simple?” Jimin murmured.
Taehyung gave him a smile, “because it is simple, you idiot. It’s human nature. It happens to practically one hundred percent of the population!”
“…holy f*cking sh*t Taehyung why did you say that now I’m going to start thinking they’re already dead or-“
A hand practically buried itself in his mouth, and Jimin moaned helplessly.
“This is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing.”
Jimin’s arms flew up in the air when his friend pulled away, “what, having perfectly plausible second thoughts?”
“Exactly. Look at yourself. Stop it.”
They stared at each other for a while, enough time for the music track to switch to Intro: the most beautiful moment in life. Jimin reached to turn it off, pushing himself up off of his bed.
“Don’t start pacing around on me agai-“
“I wonder if I should take this down,” Jimin whispered. He was picking at the corner of his Suga poster, exposing a lump of sticky tack that had now partly worked into his finger nails.
“Oh my God, you can’t be serio- Jimin, they’re your soulmate. They’ll love you regardless. They’re not going to care about your Min Yoongi obsession. I promise.”
Usually, Taehyung was just not like this. He wasn’t supposed to be the sensible one. Jimin was supposed to have this whole thing under control.
Tomorrow he might be meeting his life partner, and his only thought was whether or not he’d be able to move on from his stupid idol rapper crush?
Okay. He mentally corrected himself. Not stupid. Suga – Min Yoongi – was the most beautiful, talented man he’d ever have the pleasure of not-meeting-beyond-the-veil-of-the-BTS-YouTube-channel. The songs he produced, the feeling in his voice, the expressions he made in their music videos… it made him feel so… happy. He didn’t need anything complicated to describe what he felt.
Jimin’s posture slumped, and he picked his way over Taehyung’s air bed to reach his desk. His fingers came to rest on the note he’d written for his soulmate to read when they woke up, eyes tracing over his handwriting for the hundredth time. He wished he was as confident as this letter was making him seem. He’d even stuck some stickers around the edge to act as some sort of pseudo-border, and signed his name with stars floating around it.
“I’m too tired for this,” he sighed.
Taehyung laughed quietly, “now that is what I’ve been waiting to hear all evening. Come and sleep; it’s almost midnight.”
Jimin knew that the bed he was lying in was not his.
The way he had been woken up was beyond surreal. It felt like being slowly coaxed into the morning reality by songbirds. Except the songbirds were in the process of pouring cold water over his body at the same time.
He let out a strangled gasp, and he was awake all at once. Drowsiness was practically non-existent.
He forced himself to keep his eyes closed for the moment, thoughts temporarily lighting up in a quiet wonder that outshined his anxiety.
This was his soulmate’s body. His soulmate, who was older than him, and alive, and really… real.
Jimin could hear other voices breathing in the room.
He tensed instantly, jaw clenching. He felt his heart – no, his soulmate’s heart rapidly begin to pick up speed.
This was really happening. My soulmate even has friends that can help me. I’ll call them with their phone… damn, it’s going to be weird as hell hearing my own voice answer- and my voice isn’t going to be mine either. God, what does my soulmate sound like? If I tried I might end up waking these people… maybe-
He curled his fingers into the sheets, letting out open-mouth breaths into the room. So many thoughts whipped circles in his mind. It was hastily becoming almost too much to process.
Before he could push himself into a panic attack, he forced himself to calm down. Start from the beginning.
Male was the first thing that came to the top of his “things-about-the-one-I’m-gonna-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-list”. That was pretty much confirmed. Of course he knew what a male body felt like, and it came as no surprise that his soulmate and he were the same sex, especially since he’d been so attracted to Suga.
Ah, that’s right, he swallowed and wiggled his exposed toes. The draft coming from the door tickled them with cold. Suga’s not really someone I can dwell on anymore.
The thought did cause his anxious mood to sober slightly, as the situation slowly began to settle around him. There was so much to do, and he knew as well that today was his birthday rather than his soulmate’s, so there would be almost no chance he’d left Jimin any post-it notes with phone passcodes or email addresses, unless these people could help out. It would all be on him. Whoever he was.
And finally, Jimin gained the nerve to sit up. He did so slowly, the muscles of this body shuddering as the uncanny feeling he was well-warned of truly settled in. It was so strange. His soulmate was the same with his hands and his legs and knees and fingers, but his mind just knew it was off. It was a cold sensation just below his ribs.
(As curious as he was, Jimin really was desperate to return to being himself as soon as possible).
(He couldn’t wait for that first kiss).
The duvet pooled at his waist, and Jimin saw in the hazy dawn light the simple black tank top and boxers his soulmate had dressed himself for bed in. No Taehyung-style duck feet-print shorts.
So, he glanced at the layout of the room, this has to be a hotel right? No one actually has their bedroom like this… there was a pile of clothes under the table, and a suitcase peeking out from under the neighbouring bed. Jimin’s desire to know where he was was growing almost as rapidly as his desire to know who his soulmate was. But he had to take it slow. That was how all health professionals talked about the Switch. Take it slow. Keep as relaxed as possible.
“Hey,” a sleepy voice said across from him, far too startling, and Jimin’s pulse spiked because beneath the sluggish tone, it rang familiar, “what are you doing awake? Couldn’t sleep again?” the figure shuffled off of his bed with a sigh and rested a limp but warm hand on Jimin’s soulmate’s knee. His skin bristled.
Jimin honestly had no idea how to reply. He sat, hands buried under his thighs, trying his best to make out the face of the man in the semi-darkness.
“Are you okay?” he eventually said, and Jimin swallowed, shaking his head. Come on, out with it, you’re just making things harder for yourself. They won’t think you’re weird. This is human nature.
“Sorry,” he replied. “I’m not…” he motioned to himself, “I’m not… I’m his soulmate.” This voice, too… it definitely didn’t sound right coming out of his mouth. He could tell straight away that his soulmate didn’t use this pitch as he talked.
The man retreated his arm back instantly with a sharp breath. It was almost a whistle.
“Wow…” he breathed out after a brief pause. Jimin could see the whites of his teeth, “that’s two out of three. We’ve definitely been waiting for you... what’s your name?”
“Park Jimin,” he whispered, trying to avoid the squeak.
“Ahhh,” the man offered his hand again, but this time for Jimin to shake, “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise, uh-“
“Trust me,” he thought he could distinguish the man’s smile from the shadows, “I’ve already met my soulmate. I know what this is like. It’s weird, I know, but we’ll fix this problem.”
“Uh, I wouldn’t really call it a prob-“
“You really did keep Yoongi-hyung waiting. How long has it been? Four years?” he turned his head away “…more?” the man wondered, “and just before our comeback, of all the days of the year.”
The bed creaked as he got up, and Jimin’s eyes widened with every step he took towards the light switch. That voice… he listened to it on a daily basis. Verses on buses to school. Shared in lunch hours with Taehyung. Playing as he studied for exams. He knew it.
The room was illuminated, and standing before him, hair mussed from sleep but taking nothing away from the friendly, calm and dimple-filled smile, was Kim Namjoon. The Rap Monster.
Jimin’s mouth fell open. His eyes barely had time to focus before they darted to the figure that had been woken up by the fidgeting. He watched wordlessly as the second man sat up, and within seconds he was able to recognise him as none other than f*cking J-Hope, rubbing his eyes, yawning and blinking and glancing over at him with a curious expression.
Blood thundered through Jimin’s ears, a scolding pool of water filling hislungs.
“No…no way ” he could barely get the words out, and this time, this time, he’d spoken low enough. It was undeniable.
He stood up fast –too fast. All health and safety sh*t about adjusting to his soulmate’s body forgotten as he hurried into the bathroom. The force of him turning the light on in there almost yanked the pull-switch off of the ceiling, but there was absolutely nothing at this moment that could bring him to care.
No, he was far too busy gripping the cool porcelain of the sink, pale knuckles becoming even whiter with the force. Maybe he would end up snapping a bit off.
He knew what was coming before he looked, which was why he took the moment to brace himself, to inhale deeply and trying to breathe away the utterly overwhelming sense of everything. All he had to do was look.
Swallowing again, Jimin slowly lifted his head.
And he locked eyes with the Min Yoongi in the mirror.
