Chapter 4

Summary:

What are the chances you’d ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? The math seemed impossible.

“I’m starting to think this place is anti-Aussie.”

Namjoon looked up to see Taehyung, Yoongi’s soulmate, standing inside of his studio. He would ask why the kid came in without knocking, but Taehyung seemed to think that because he was soulmates with Yoongi he had free reign of their entire building.

“What?” Namjoon turned his chair around to face Taehyung as the younger got comfortable on his couch, looking like he had zero intentions of leaving anytime soon.

“There was a sign on the cabinet in the kitchen that said anyone who says bickkie will be hanged by order of the king.” Taehyung held up one of the cookies in his hand before taking a bite.

“You know Sean did that,” Namjoon said with a shake of his head. He turned back to his computer. He was currently trying to do an arrangement for a song from one of the artists the company had just signed. He was working on the bridge, but the transition was awkward and he couldn’t figure out how to get everything to blend together like it was supposed to

“He would never,” Taehyung gasped, hand pressed to his chest indignantly.

“He would and did. He also said if you called another one of his producers a cunt or a bastard he was gonna strangle you with his bare hands.”

Taehyung paused for a moment before shrugging, popping another cookie into his mouth. “I’ve been trying to adjust, but all this censorship is a lot. How do you bastards deal with this?”

“Don’t call me a bastard or a cunt or a fucker. And you've been in America for almost five years,” Namjoon said without looking at Taehyung again.

“Then what am I supposed to call you?” Taehyung asked, ignoring the second part.

“Nate. My name. And not to make you feel unwelcome but get out,” Namjoon finally said. He spun around in his chair and stared at Taehyung.

“Agro…” Taehyung muttered to himself as he sat up on the couch but didn’t stand.

“You know, there is a very convincing theory that Australia doesn’t actually exist. I think knowing you has only strengthened my belief in this theory.”

Taehyung stared at Namjoon for only a moment before finishing his last cookie and shrugging. “I just came down to give you a suggestion about the gift for your soulmate.”

Namjoon had whined to Yoongi a while ago about how he wanted to send Jungkook something for his twenty first birthday, but the other man had been zero help stating that he didn’t get Taehyung anything for his twenty first, but a bottle of Jameson and Namjoon couldn’t really send a bottle of alcohol through the mail especially not overseas.

Yoongi and Taehyung were a bit of an anomaly in the soulmate world as the two of them, though matched and obviously interested in one another, had yet to actually physically touch. Taehyung had moved to the US for school at 18 with a promise from Yoongi to help him find a place to stay that was near his school. The two had decided that they would wait until they had imprinted on one another or Taehyung graduated before they would touch, whichever came first. The two had found that being close to one another even without touching helped to significantly alleviate the body aches so that they were only a minor nuisance in their lives. Looking at the two of them Namjoon often wondered about how the universe really worked because how it decided that Taehyung and Yoongi were a perfect match was far beyond him. The two constantly fought and it was probably only the prospect of having the nightmares that stopped Yoongi from actually strangling Taehyung with his bare hands.

“There’s this blanket that you can send that’s supposed to get rid of all of the body aches for at least eight hours. Since he’s a dancer that means he’ll be able to keep going for a little longer.” Taehyung bounced in his seat.

“Is it the same one your brother wanted to get for his soulmate, but it was the price of a small house?” Namjoon asked annoyed. He had plenty of savings and he knew that whatever he sent needed to be really nice, but dropping almost a month’s worth of rent on a blanket seemed absurd.

“It’s only 800 dollars. I mean it’s a lot for a blanket, but just think about how your soulmate will be able to dance without hurting. You said his aches are really bad already, right?”

Namjoon nodded at Tae’s words. He did want Jungkook to be able to keep dancing for as long as possible, but he didn’t know if he should waste his money on a blanket that Jungkook might reject as soon as he saw the return address. Even as he thought about sending a gift he was also trying to prepare himself for the inevitable rejection from Jungkook.

“That's still a lot of money for a blanket.” Namjoon rubbed the back of his neck in thought. He hated listening to Jungkook in pain, but he also didn't want to spend a tenth of his life savings on a ******* giant heating pad.

“It was just a suggestion.” Taehyung dusted the crumbs from his fingers on to Namjoon's couch before practically bouncing out of the room shouting for his soulmate who he'd spotted down the hall.

“Shut the **** up, we're indoors.” Namjoon heard Yoongi yell before his door was finally, thankfully, shut.

~~

“You really spent a small fortune on a blanket?” Yoongi’s deadpan stare was only mildly unsettling given that Namjoon had already spent most of the last two days calling himself a dumbass for actually buying the blanket and having it gift shipped to Jungkook, making sure that it would arrive before the younger’s birthday. It was almost 900 dollars and Namjoon thought he'd actually bite through his lip every time he checked his bank account.

“I'm not proud of myself.” That was mostly true, but he was a little bit proud of the fact that Jungkook had used the blanket on his birthday and woken up pain free. He’d noticed the younger boy worrying about where the blanket had come from, but he figured that he’d just accept the gift soon enough.

“You shouldn't be, you're ******* stupid. I don't think I've ever seen a dumber *** than you. What the **** is wrong with you? You don't even have one of those blankets, but you sent one to that chump *** kid? He's not even nice to you.”

Namjoon stared at Yoongi in silence, trying to reign in the flare of anger that he felt in his chest. Yeah, Namjoon knew that Jungkook was an asshole, but no one had ever actually talked shit about him to Namjoon's face like this. He didn't like it at all.

Yoongi didn’t seem to notice the change in Namjoon's face as he continued on his rant about Jungkook. He’d, seemingly, been waiting for an opportunity to attack the younger’s soulmate.

“Why the **** are you always being so nice to him? Nate, I love you and everything and I know you love him or whatever, but he’s a ******* ****. The shit he says to you just because he thinks you don’t understand is fucked. You’re supposed to be soulmates, but you’re just sitting there getting shitted on constantly.”

Namjoon closed his eyes and took down a few deep breaths trying not to get angry at Yoongi because he wasn’t wrong. Jungkook was awful to him. If the younger wasn’t ignoring Namjoon then he was ranting at him about how much soulmates sucked and how much easier his life would be if he didn’t have to be tethered to Namjoon. But what gave Yoongi the right to say that Jungkook sucked?

“Let’s just work on the ******* track,” Namjoon muttered after several moments of deep breathing while Yoongi finished his diatribe.

Yoongi stared at Namjoon for a bit clearly surprised that there was no rebuttal. Normally Namjoon laughed off anything bad he said about Jungkook, but normally he wasn’t ranting for almost a full two minutes. “Yeah. Let’s work on the track.”

~~

It was four o’clock in the morning when Namjoon’s phone started ringing loudly. On any other night he would have been at home with his phone on silent while it was charging, but he’d fallen asleep at the studio while working on arrangements with Yoongi so his ringer was blasting at full volume.

“What the ****? Turn it off,” Yoongi mumbled, slapping Namjoon’s arm from his place curled up in a chair beside the couch which Namjoon had passed out on facedown only twenty minutes earlier.

“What?” Namjoon whined into the phone. The line was silent and he pulled it away from his face to check the number, but whoever had called had already hung up. Now he was tired and pissed because who the **** calls at four AM only to hang up?

“Who was that? Is someone dead?” Yoongi asked sleepily, rubbing his eye and standing up to stretch.

“I don’t know they hung up as soon as I said hello.”

“Call them the **** back so I can tell them I’m gonna piss on their grave,” Yoongi said.

Namjoon chuckled lightly and swiped through his phone, realizing that the call was from some unknown contact on line. He’d only downloaded the app so that his mother could call him whenever she and his father went to Korea. The only other thing he’d used it for was ordering Jungkook’s blanket. He sat up suddenly, worried that Jungkook had sent the blanket back to the company and they were calling him about a refund. Why couldn’t Jungkook just accept the expensive *** gift and be happy?

Namjoon quickly called the number back and waited.

“Uhm...Hello?”

Namjoon felt as if his brain short circuited for a moment when he heard what was clearly Jungkook on the other end of the line.

“Who is this?”

The question seemed to snap Namjoon out of his shock. “Ah...Uh...Hi,” Namjoon responded intelligently.

“I-Who is this?” Namjoon could tell that Jungkook recognized his voice, but he didn’t want him to hang up because just hearing Jungkook’s voice, even though it was just over the phone, was making the tension that permanently permeated Namjoon’s shoulders ease slightly.

“Ah...uh...Nate.” He wasn’t really sure what else to respond with. Jungkook had no idea what his American name was.

“Do you speak Korean? I can’t understand you.”

Namjoon tried to think of any Korean that he knew, but his mind was coming up empty. He started a few half hearted attempts at saying hi, but he kept getting tongue tied. Suddenly, Yoongi reached out and grabbed the phone from his hand, staring at the contact for only a moment before pressing it to his ear and speaking Korean.

He could only hear Yoongi’s side of the conversation, but he could hear Jungkook’s panic at hearing how upset Yoongi sounded. The younger man retreated into their mind for a moment to conjure up picture of cute puppies. Namjoon almost thought he was in the clear before he realized that Jungkook was aware of his presence and now he was panicking harder as he realized that he’d just spoke to Namjoon.

The only thing that Namjoon could think of was asking if Jungkook was okay, but the other had already gone into fear overdrive and was trying to put up a wall between the two of them. The younger started focusing his thoughts on basic functions like breathing and then blinking. It was an obvious attempt to block out Namjoon. Jungkook had tried the same tactic when his frustration at never really being alone had hit its peak on his eighteenth birthday.

Namjoon felt tears prick in his eyes as he listened to Jungkook’s thoughts. The few seconds he’d spent on the phone with Jungkook were the happiest he’d felt since he was sixteen and realized he even had a soulmate. He tried to swallow around the lump in his throat, but instead found himself gasping for air. The tears were flowing freely now as he pressed a hand to his chest. It felt like something was trapped in his throat and he wasn’t sure how to get it out.

“That was Jungkook like your soulmate Jungkook?” Namjoon had forgotten Yoongi was even in the room with him. Yoongi ran a hand through his hair before sitting down beside Namjoon on the couch. He tossed the phone on the table and pulled Namjoon into a hug. Under normal circumstances Yoongi wasn’t a very affectionate person, but Namjoon was literally vibrating from how hard he was crying.

All Namjoon could do was cry and nod as Yoongi ran a hand down his back soothingly.

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