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Kim Taerae is not jealous that his boyfriends are soulmates.
Really, he isn’t.
When he walks into the living room to find Hanbin and Gyuvin cuddled in an indistinguishable tangle of limbs on the couch, he knows that all he has to do is walk within arm’s reach to get pulled into the fray. Even if he squawks and puts up a bit of a fight to pretend like he doesn’t have time and doesn’t like to cuddle, a silent part of him loves to be covered in kisses and swaddled in the warmth of his two furnace boyfriends.
When he wakes up to find them already awake and sharing fond whispers and kisses, all he has to do is exaggeratedly stretch and yawn for them to shift their attention to him.
Taerae loves his boyfriends and knows they love him, which is why their souls being connected by a bond forged by the universe is no big deal.
But sometimes, when he opens the cupboard to a puff of flour in his face and hears a twin set of giggles coming from the other room, he wishes they weren’t always on the exact same wavelength.
If they were all harmless pranks like flour in his face or salt in his coffee, Taerae could live with it. But Taerae’s boyfriends are witches, which means sometimes he wakes up and his hair is purple for no reason other than Gyuvin thought he’d look cute. And he did, but that was beside the point.
Sometimes the magical pranks leave Taerae a little… Traumatized. He always turns on the shower before he steps in now, because of the time his boyfriends enchanted it so that snakes would come out of the showerhead instead of water.
One day, Taerae opened his mouth to greet his boyfriends and nothing would come out but little duck-like quacks. It took his boyfriends an hour to reverse the spell because they kept laughing at Taerae quacking at them angrily.
His best friends, Hao and Matthew, always tease him for falling for his boyfriends’ pranks every time.
“No but Taerae,” Matthew had giggled once, so full of mirth his elbow nearly dipped into Hao’s pasta. “How do you never notice them scheming? Isn’t it obvious when they’re planning a prank?”
“They’re always scheming,” Taerae had whined. “How am I supposed to tell when they’re planning a date and when they’re planning a prank? It all looks the same! Besides, they’re so in sync I think they could plan pranks in their heads by now.”
“Why don’t you prank them back?” Hao had pointed out. “You’re a witch too, can’t you like, magically glue them together or something?”
“I could, but it’s always gonna be two against one. They’d simply team up on me and get back at me twice as worse.”
Taerae’s tried to prank them back. He’d painstakingly picked all of the marshmallows out of Gyuvin’s Lucky Charms, only for the younger boy to pull him into a hug and thank him, because apparently he preferred the cereal without the marshmallows anyway.
After they had cast a spell to dye his hair purple, Taerae dyed Hanbin’s hair pink in retaliation. But Hanbin had only given him a kiss and said, “Thank you, my Taerae-yah. You know hyungie’s been meaning to dye his hair.”
Taerae’s boyfriends drive him crazy.
But still, he loves them. He loves when they wake him up with kisses and a cup of coffee, or when they lie with him while he stays up late working on a new spell for his business.
Yes, Taerae’s boyfriends are soulmates. They’re practically attached at the hip and they share a love for teasing him. But they also dote on him so much, spoiling him with gifts and smothering him in so much attention and affection it makes him want to scream sometimes.
Hanbin and Gyuvin are planning something again, and Taerae doesn’t know whether he should be scared or excited.
This morning he woke up to a pile of whipped cream smeared on his face by his own traitorous hand and a pair of giggles coming from the foot of the bed, so he’s leaning more towards scared.
His boyfriends have to be planning some sort of massive prank. Whenever Taerae walks into a room they’re in, they instantly shut up and shoot each other warning looks. More often than not these days, he wakes up to an empty bed, something he hasn’t been used to over the last two years.
Taerae often has pretty late nights, preferring to stay up late to work on spells for his business as opposed to getting up early to do them, but lately he’s been going to bed before his two boyfriends. This is odd, particularly because Hanbin tends to work early mornings as a potion barista, and he usually starts yawning around 10pm.
Whatever prank his boyfriends are planning, he’s certain it’s going to outdo every prank they’ve ever pulled on him.
Taerae pours himself a cup of coffee from the pot that Hanbin had probably brewed earlier that morning, topping it off with an energy potion from Hanbin’s work. As he sips on the hot drink, he stares idly at the calendar they have stuck to the fridge, multicoloured scrawls indicating each of their schedules.
It’s late October, so Taerae has a lot of glamour spells to craft for his clients who want to go all out for their Halloween costumes.
He’s musing about how to split his time since he got a last-minute order when he pauses. Late October? That means… Their anniversary. The two-year anniversary of when Gyuvin joined the relationship is coming up, and neither of his boyfriends have said anything about it.
Hanbin is too much of a romantic not to have noticed. Ever since he and Taerae started dating, he’s made them celebrate anniversaries every hundred days, and even silly ones like the first time Taerae let Hanbin hold hands with him, or the first time Taerae told Gyuvin he loved him.
Most of the anniversaries they celebrate with a few extra kisses and maybe a nicer than normal dinner, but yearly anniversaries are big events. There’s supposed to be gifts, and a big date night, and everything.
Taerae knows he can take the initiative to plan these things, but, well… Hanbin’s the planner in the relationship.
Taerae’s good at planning things, there’s no doubt about that. Taerae’s schedules have schedules, and he’s pretty good at managing his time to complete his tasks by his self-imposed deadlines, unless his giant puppy of a boyfriend decides to interfere and demand attention.
But Hanbin’s the romantic. So not only does he keep a calendar of every possible anniversary and momentous occasion they could be celebrating, he also has a list of date ideas, sorted by which boyfriend would prefer them and how much. He has all of their favourite restaurants saved on his delivery app, and Taerae’s certain he keeps a list of everything they’ve ever mentioned wanting in passing, because his gifts are always oddly specific, but Hanbin’s never let him see the list or even confirmed its existence.
There’s no way Hanbin forgot their anniversary. Just a few weeks ago, they got takeout from the restaurant they went to on their first date to celebrate the anniversary of the first time they met Gyuvin. There’s no way Hanbin, or Gyuvin for that matter, forgot the actual anniversary of Gyuvin joining the relationship.
A pang of guilt hits Taerae’s chest. He was so busy with spell orders, he forgot. He still has enough time to get gifts, but… An uneasy feeling has started gnawing at the base of his subconscious. Did they really forget? Or has Taerae been misinterpreting all of their secretiveness as scheming instead of planning?
The next time Taerae and his boyfriends are in the same room, curled up on the couch sharing Chinese takeout and watching a drama, Taerae decides to bring it up.
“What are we doing for our anniversary?”
“Our anniversary?”
Hanbin looks like a deer in the headlights, and a quick glance at Gyuvin reveals a matching expression on his face.
“Do you mean, like, you and me? Our anniversary isn’t until December, Taerae-yah, isn’t it a little early to start planning?”
“No— Hanbin-hyung, are you joking with me right now?”
“Why would I joke about that, my love, it’s been in December this whole time?”
“No, I mean— Our anniversary! With all three of us! It’s next week, the first week of November!”
Twin “Ohhhhhh”s echo from opposite sides of the couch, Taerae’s head swivelling back and forth to gauge his boyfriends’ reactions.
“Did you two seriously forget?”
Gyuvin rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry, hyung. You know I’ve been busy with midterms and final projects.”
Taerae sighs. Of course he can’t be mad at Gyuvin for not remembering, he only remembered that morning. And he’s in his last year of university, every test and assignment pushes him closer to graduation.
He turns to Hanbin. Surely his meticulous boyfriend hadn’t forgotten.
“Taerae-yah… It’s not that I forgot, it just… Slipped my mind. Got mixed up with the anniversary we celebrated a few weeks ago.”
A pillow goes flying past Taerae’s head and would have landed squarely in the tray in Hanbin’s lap if the older witch hadn’t caught it telekinetically.
“Yah, Ssong Hambim,” comes Gyuvin’s teasing voice. “That was the anniversary of the day you met me, how could you forget such a momentous day?”
Hanbin’s cheeks and ears redden as he clears his throat. “I, uh, I’ve been doing more morning shifts lately so I’m not at the top of my game, I’m sorry my loves. It’s not too late, we can go to dinner or something, yeah?”
“Sure, hyung.”
Satisfied with that answer, and a tiny bit relieved that he wasn’t the only one that forgot their anniversary, Taerae leans forward to steal a spring roll from Hanbin’s tray and they go back to watching their show like nothing happened.
When Gyuvin had first come into their lives, Taerae wasn’t sure he’d survive the change.
Hanbin and Taerae had been dating for three years at that point, with no sign of a soulmate for either.
Soulmates aren’t guaranteed, they’re just something that happens to those particularly blessed by fate. They aren’t always romantic, either, the bond between souls can manifest in many different ways.
Taerae wishes he could say Gyuvin fell into place immediately like a missing puzzle piece, but truthfully there was a lot of tension in the beginning.
Taerae and Hanbin had been perfect, they’d never felt like there was anything missing from their relationship. And then they met Gyuvin, and everything had changed.
They hadn’t noticed the soulmate mark, at first. It was only when Taerae had been desperately trying to rid Hanbin of his shirt one night that he saw the multicoloured handprint stretched across Hanbin’s shoulder.
“Maybe it was you?” Hanbin had asked hopefully.
“Hyung, I’ve been touching you for years, it can’t have been me,” Taerae had answered, lining his hand up with the mark. “Besides, whoever touched your shoulder must be a freak of nature if their hands are even bigger than mine.”
They had found the owner of the handprint a few days later, when a tall lanky boy had sat across from them at the library and started unpacking his backpack with an abnormally large, abnormally multicoloured hand.
Taerae had slapped Hanbin’s shoulder then, the one with the soulmate mark, and had pulled the collar of his shirt down just in time to see the handprint start to fade in tandem with the vibrant splotches on the boy’s palm.
The adjustment had been good, all things considered. Gyuvin was okay with the idea of being platonic soulmates once he found out about Taerae, and Taerae would always be grateful that breaking up with him did not cross Hanbin’s mind for one second. But Hanbin wanted more, and Taerae knew that. He knew Hanbin wouldn’t dream of leaving him, but he was too much of a romantic to not immediately fall in love with his soulmate.
Taerae will always deny it, but he fell in love with Gyuvin quickly too. Even faster than he did with Hanbin. They were so alike, his two Bins, that he had no chance against Gyuvin’s kind heart and mischievous charms.
Now, Taerae can’t imagine his life without Gyuvin. Without lazy mornings curled together, just the two of them, when Hanbin has an early shift at the potions cafe. Without the bouquets of flowers that mysteriously appear at Taerae’s desk with little love letters attached, as if Gyuvin doesn’t tell Taerae he loves him at least a hundred times a day.
Gyuvin and Hanbin have never made Taerae feel left out, per se. Of course they go on dates with just the two of them, but Taerae has dates with each of them individually too. He’ll even admit that sometimes it’s nice to have a night to himself.
It’s just that sometimes Taerae walks into the kitchen to find them huddled around the kitchen table together, matching brunet heads pushed together as they whisper and giggle between each other. Or when he asks them a question and they share a look and answer simultaneously, which always creeps him out because he knows soulmates can’t literally share thoughts, so how do they do that?
It’s moments like those that make Taerae wonder what it’d be like to have a soulmate.
Taerae wakes up in his bathtub.
He’s certain he didn’t fall asleep there, and it’s not like he can blame alcohol or too many sleep potions, because he didn’t have either the previous night.
Taerae fell asleep cuddled between his two boyfriends as he always does, Hanbin drooling on his right shoulder and Gyuvin mumbling sleep-addled nothings into his left.
Yet here he is, pillow and blanket in the tub, with— More rubber duckies than he’s ever seen in one place piled on top of his blanket.
The rubber duckies are all wearing different outfits, like they have different jobs. There’s an astronaut duck, a doctor duck, a spy duck.
Taerae sits up, and a rubber duck falls from his head and lands atop the pile. He rolls his eyes. It’s a witch duck, or at least it’s supposed to be. It has a conical hat, which witches only wear at graduation these days, and a broom, which is a far less efficient mode of transportation than teleportation.
Taerae stands up, his back and knees complaining from being crammed into a bathtub for who knows how long, and a wave of rubber duckies cascades into the tub as he displaces the blanket they were resting on.
Of course Taerae’s boyfriends have already started their days, so he has no one to complain about his aching back to as he makes his breakfast. He’ll scold them later, if he’s still annoyed about waking up in the bathtub by the time they get home.
When he goes to take his shower, the rubber duckies are gone, save for the witch one, lying lonely at the bottom of the tub. The rest must have been illusions, then, and the witch duck was the only real one. Taerae puts the duck in the soap dish and continues his shower like normal.
He’s halfway through his shower when his eyes snap open with a realization. A poorly timed realization, because he immediately gets shampoo in his eyes and has to spend the next minute rinsing it out. All of the technology and magic in the world and no one has invented a shampoo that doesn’t sting when it gets in your eyes. Perhaps Taerae has something to do when he finishes all of his Halloween orders.
Taerae’s mind jolts back to his realization with a start. If his boyfriends both forgot their anniversary, what have they been planning? Have they seriously been planning a prank this whole time?
Taerae shudders at the thought. There’s no way a prank as simple as waking up in the bathtub covered in rubber ducks took that complex of a plan, so whatever prank they’re planning he has yet to encounter.
“They’re totally planning your demise, I’ll start organizing your funeral now,” Hao tells him later, after Taerae has spilled his worries to Hao and Matthew over mugs of cider at a cafe, notably a non-magical one unlike the one Hanbin works at.
Taerae groans.
“I can’t believe you all forgot your anniversary,” Matthew laughs. “You guys seem like you’re celebrating the anniversary of something like every other month.”
“Look, our anniversary is in a notoriously busy time of year. Plus, November is like, the least romantic month out there. It’s bleak and grey and it doesn’t have pretty fall leaves like October or cozy holiday things like December. There’s just nothing to do that’s romantic.”
“What did you do last year?”
“Recreated our first date, but there’s no way we can do that again this year, we just did that to celebrate the anniversary of the day we met Gyuvin. I have no idea what we’re doing this year.”
“Well, doesn’t Hanbin-hyung always handle it?” Matthew inquires. “Just let him take care of it.”
“Yeah, but I feel bad. He’s busy too, he shouldn’t have to plan it all.”
“I’d like to circle back to the more pressing matter,” Hao interjects. “If they’re not planning your anniversary, what are they planning? I think you need to retaliate, Taerae.”
“Ugh, hyung, we’ve been over this. I’m terrible at pranking them.”
“What if we help you?”
“I can’t outsource my pranks, that’s cheating.”
“No offence, Tae-yah, but you’re getting pummeled here,” Matthew points out. “You just told us you woke up in a bathtub full of rubber ducks.”
Hao snorts like he did the first time Taerae said it. “I doubt we’d be able to top that anyway, it’s genius. You have to give it to them, they’re evil geniuses.”
“I should be focusing on planning our anniversary date, not planning a prank as revenge.”
“Have you gotten them gifts yet?”
“Fuck, no,” Taerae groans, his head falling into his hands. “I’m fucked.”
“On the bright side, you’re all equally fucked if you only just remembered your anniversary yesterday,” Hao chirps. “Besides, we’ll help you shop. That, we can help with.”
“Thanks, hyung.” Taerae gives the older boy a weak smile.
“No problem. I’m only doing this because if you get them a terrible gift it reflects poorly on me as your best friend and voice of reason.”
“Sure, hyung. Matt?”
“I’ll be the moral support.”
In the days leading up to their anniversary, Taerae sees his boyfriends less and less. His work keeps him cooped up in their apartment, and when he wakes up they’re usually already gone. They come home for dinner, but lately with all of them being so busy, dinner has just been getting takeout and watching TV. At least they’re all together, but it’s not like they’re talking much.
Taerae’s boyfriends go to bed before him most nights, because he’s been pushing himself to stay up late to complete his orders on time. And some nights they go to bed after him, which never used to happen. A few nights Gyuvin gives him puppy eyes and asks him to join them in bed, but Taerae just ruffles his hair and says he’ll join them when this batch of orders is done.
It’s not like Taerae is ignoring his boyfriends, and they’re probably not ignoring him either, they’re just all busy.
Halloween passes, and Taerae starts to wonder if his boyfriends still remember the conversation they had, if they remember their anniversary at all.
He has to assume they do, but they haven’t talked about it again.
He goes shopping with Hao and Matthew, who reassure him that he’s not going insane and his boyfriends are probably planning a big anniversary surprise, and help him pick a gift sentimental enough for a two-year anniversary. Or so they say. Taerae doesn’t consider himself particularly sentimental, but he knows the gift is something his boyfriends will find sweet. Hopefully.
The morning of their anniversary, Taerae wakes up alone. Again.
The bed is cold, so his boyfriends must have left a long time ago. It’s not like he’s waking up particularly late, either. He’s no longer swamped in orders so he’s been going to bed earlier and waking up earlier simply because he’s not exhausted.
When Taerae sits up, a piece of paper flutters into his lap from where it had been resting on his forehead. Why Hanbin always insists on leaving notes on his sleeping body instead of his nightstand, Taerae will never know, but he reads the note with a fond smile regardless.
“Good morning sunshine,” in Hanbin’s delicate cursive. “Left breakfast for you in the kitchen. Love you ♥️”
Taerae’s heart flutters as he peels back the blankets and sticks his feet into his fluffy duck slippers.
This must be the start of the anniversary surprise.
When Taerae walks into the kitchen, what he expects to see is an elaborate breakfast setup with fresh fruit and flowers.
What he sees instead is a single plate on the counter, covered with a bowl to protect whatever it is inside.
Taerae lifts the bowl, and his heart drops. He lets out a little laugh. While he was expecting something much fancier, the end result is so… Hanbin. It makes his heart hurt with how fond he is.
Hanbin loves to make them pancakes. Except he’s not particularly good at it, even after all these years. They sometimes end up burnt, or more often, misshapen. When he fails to flip a pancake, he turns it into what Gyuvin has affectionately dubbed “pancake scramble.”
Taerae knows that the mess of pancake bits on the plate may look bad, but it’ll probably still taste good. Unless Hanbin mixed up the salt and sugar again.
Regardless, he appreciates the effort and puts the plate in the microwave while he pours himself a cup of coffee from the pot Hanbin brewed.
The pancake scramble isn’t terrible. Probably would’ve been better fresh, but there’s nothing a little bit of the maple syrup Matthew brought them from Canada can’t fix. It’s how he survives the burnt monstrosities Matthew calls pancakes too.
Taerae has a few weeks before his next deadline, so he decides to take a rest day. He parks himself in front of the TV with his second cup of coffee, and gets cozy while he waits for his boyfriends to return.
It’s a Friday, so Gyuvin only has one class in the morning, and Hanbin’s shift ends in early afternoon. Gyuvin usually goes to Hanbin’s cafe after his class to study, so they should be arriving together.
The day creeps away slowly, and it’s only as his stomach rumbles does Taerae realize that darkness has taken over the apartment and early afternoon has turned into early evening.
He checks the time on his phone. It’s not that late, the shortening near-winter days just make it seem like it is. Still, it’s already a couple of hours past when Hanbin and Gyuvin are usually home.
Taerae could send a magical message, but by the time he’s found a piece of paper and a pen, written his message, folded it into a paper airplane, and enchanted it to find Hanbin or Gyuvin, he could have just texted or called.
Frowning, Taerae pulls up his group chat with the two of them. The last message was four days ago. He sends a quick message.
“Where are you guys???”
After a few minutes pass, he calls Hanbin.
When he gets no answer, he calls Gyuvin. Gyuvin doesn’t answer either.
Taerae throws his phone against the couch, and stands up and starts to pace around the apartment.
They’re probably fine. They’re probably still at the cafe, just distracted by studying or talking. Maybe Hanbin got asked to pick up someone’s shift and didn’t have time to message him.
Or maybe they’re still getting their anniversary surprise ready.
Only… They haven’t said anything to acknowledge their anniversary since Taerae asked.
If they’d made dinner reservations, they’d be home by now, pushing him into the shower and giving him a vague description of the kind of outfit he should put together.
Now that Taerae thinks about it… Why would they be planning an anniversary surprise for him? It’s not like it’s the anniversary of the day he joined the relationship. Shouldn’t he and Hanbin be planning something for Gyuvin?
Taerae slumps back onto the couch. Hanbin and Gyuvin probably forgot about their anniversary, and Taerae’s home alone moping about it because he didn’t have the guts to ask if they had a plan.
Tears sting at the back of Taerae’s eyes, but he wipes away the first droplets before they can even touch his cheeks. He is not going to cry over this.
His boyfriends are probably just running late, stuck in traffic or something. Only… They can both teleport. They wouldn’t need to take a taxi or transit when they could be home in seconds.
It doesn’t make sense. They should be home by now.
Or maybe they decided to spend their anniversary together, just the two of them. After all, they are soulmates.
And Taerae’s just… The spare.
Why would they need him to celebrate the day Gyuvin joined the relationship?
Taerae’s throat tightens as an ugly sob fights its way out of his body. He slumps forward with his elbows on his knees, taking jagged breaths as he tries to calm himself down. Tears well up in his eyes and fall to the floor just as quickly.
Taerae hates crying. He hates the way he loses control of his body and emotions like a train running off the rails. He so rarely cries, choosing instead to push his feelings down and ignore them.
Now they’re all pouring out of him like lava from a volcano, burning and viscous.
A warm hand on his back snaps him out of his meltdown.
“Taerae, my love, why are you crying?”
Taerae sits up, blinking through tears to look at Hanbin’s concerned face. Another hand rests on his thigh, almost enveloping it completely. Gyuvin’s.
“I thought—” His voice breaks, his hands scrambling to find purchase on Hanbin’s sweater, to make sure he’s not hallucinating him. “I thought you forgot about me.”
“Oh, Taerae…” Hanbin pulls him onto his chest, rubbing his back to calm down his hiccupped breathing. “We could never forget about you. Never.”
“Hyung…” Gyuvin sounds heartbroken as he drapes himself over Taerae’s back, but Taerae can’t tell if he’s addressing him or Hanbin.
His next words are definitely meant for Hanbin. “I told you we shouldn’t have been so secretive!”
Hanbin sounds choked up himself as his hand comes up to gently cradle Taerae’s head. “I didn’t think… Oh, jagiya… I’m so sorry. Gyuvin and I haven’t been avoiding you, we were planning a surprise for you. For our anniversary.”
Taerae shifts to look up at him, tears still welling in his eyes. He probably looks like a mess, with a red nose and a damp face and messy hair from where he’s tugged at the strands.
“You… You were?”
“Of course, hyungie.” Gyuvin sounds sad, and Taerae’s heart breaks a little more. Gyuvin only calls him “hyungie” when he’s feeling affectionate or guilty. “We love you and we wanted to get you something special, something you’d always remember.”
Hanbin wipes at Taerae’s tears, placing a delicate kiss to each of his cheeks, and one to his lips. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry we spent so much time away from you over the last few weeks, and I’m sorry we made you think we forgot our anniversary. We love you so much, Kim Taerae. We wanted our gift to you to be as special as you deserve.”
“Hyung… Gyuvin-ah…”
Tears threaten to fall from Taerae’s eyes again, but they’re out of overwhelming love for his boyfriends this time.
Gyuvin tugs insistently on Taerae’s sleeve until he turns to face him, and Taerae’s met with Gyuvin’s lips on his, capturing him in a sweet and gentle kiss. It’s salty with the taste of tears, but Gyuvin doesn’t seem to mind.
When Gyuvin pulls away, he grabs Taerae’s hands as an excited smile overtakes his face. “Now can we show you our present?”
Taerae lets out a soft laugh at his boyfriend’s endearing enthusiasm. “Can I at least get a tissue first, Gyuvin-ah?”
Gyuvin’s face falls into a pout, but Hanbin pats Taerae’s knee. “Good idea, Taerae-yah. You should go to the bathroom and freshen up while we set up your present.”
Taerae stands from the couch and is almost at their bedroom door when he turns back to face them. His boyfriends are watching him with matching expressions of guilt and adoration.
“You two aren’t pranking me… Right?”
“God, Taerae.” Hanbin looks pained. “We’re not that mean.”
Satisfied with that answer, Taerae heads to the bathroom to splash his face with some cold water and pull himself together.
In retrospect it’s laughable, honestly. Of course his boyfriends didn’t forget about him, or leave him out on purpose. Of course they weren’t planning a prank, but a surprise for him instead. The dark thoughts slowly get cleared out of Taerae’s mind like cobwebs.
His boyfriends love him. They planned a surprise for him. Even though it didn’t start out as planned, Taerae will appreciate whatever it is regardless.
On his way back into the living room, Taerae stops to pull the gifts he got his boyfriends out of his sock drawer and tuck them into his pocket.
The sight he’s met with in the living room is not one he was expecting, to be honest. He was expecting to see his boyfriends with a physical gift of some kind, or maybe a cake and some balloons.
Instead what he walks in to is Hanbin and Gyuvin huddled around one of his spellcrafting cauldrons, a magical fire lit underneath it on their coffee table as his boyfriends add ingredients into the bubbling smoky mixture.
“Umm… What’s all this?”
His boyfriends look up at him with twin startled expressions, clearly having been so focused on… whatever they’re doing, that they didn’t hear him come back.
Hanbin reaches his hand out to Taerae, beckoning him closer. “Come here, baby. You’ll see in a minute.”
Taerae approaches, trying to scan the ingredients to see what kind of spell they’re crafting. Maybe it’ll be a magical bouquet of flowers or something.
But Taerae doesn’t recognize some of the ingredients, which is beyond perplexing. Taerae crafts spells for a living, surely he should know what all of the ingredients are, even if he may not know what their combination would create?
Taerae finds himself at a loss for words as Gyuvin lights a rolled up spellpaper in the magical fire, dropping it into the cauldron.
Hanbin is muddling something together with a mortar and pestle, mumbling words to a spell that’s unfamiliar to Taerae.
Whatever spell this is, it’s not a method Taerae has ever seen before. And it’s certainly far more advanced than Taerae expects of his boyfriends. Hanbin, who specializes in potions, and Gyuvin who’s still in university and studying illusions.
Taerae is slightly apprehensive of whatever spell they could possibly be crafting, but he decides to trust his boyfriends.
The resulting concoction is an iridescent liquid, mostly periwinkle with rainbow swirls and bubbles. Hanbin ladles some into a cup, so it must be a potion, though the method is so unlike any potion Hanbin’s ever given him. It’s still emitting a bit of fog as he hands the cup to Taerae.
“Drink this, my love.”
Taerae frowns, sniffing the strange potion. “What… is this?”
“We’ll explain in a little bit, baby, but please drink it,” Hanbin says, ladling glasses for himself and Gyuvin too. “Just trust me. I’ve never fed you a potion that ended badly, right?”
Taerae raises an eyebrow at that, recalling at least a few prank potions in their five years of dating.
Hanbin flushes pink. “Okay, mostly. But it’s never been terrible! Please just trust me on this.”
Taerae sighs, bringing the cup to his lips and downing it like a shot, not that he has much experience drinking those.
He’s expecting it to taste strange, but it’s oddly pleasant. It tastes like… Hanbin’s blueberry pancakes, for some reason. With apples, and cinnamon. And just a bit of mango, which he doesn’t normally enjoy but admittedly ties it all together. The amount of flavours doesn’t seem like it would work, but the aftertaste in Taerae’s mouth is pleasant.
They sit on the couch at Hanbin’s insistence, but Taerae notices that his boyfriends are sitting further from him than they normally do. He’s still in the middle, but they look as if they’re taking specific care not to touch him, which is odd. Even their knees are angled away from his.
Gyuvin reaches for his hand but pulls back at the last second with a sharp inhale from Hanbin. This is all too weird for Taerae, but he supposes his boyfriends have acted weirder. He’ll just have to keep trusting them.
“Hyung…” Gyuvin rubs his palms down the front of his jeans. “It’s been two years since I joined you and Hanbin-hyung and I want to tell you how grateful I am for you. If you hadn’t encouraged Hanbin-hyung to pursue something romantic with me, we wouldn’t be here. And I’m glad Hanbin ended up being my soulmate, because it means I got you, hyung. I’m sorry I’m such a menace sometimes, you’re just too cute when you’re all flustered and annoyed. I love you so much, Taerae-hyung.”
“Gyuvin-ah…” Taerae’s eyes well up with fresh tears, but he will not cry. “That’s so sweet, baby.”
“Taerae-yah,” comes Hanbin’s soft voice from Taerae’s left side, making him turn his head to face his other boyfriend. “I’m sorry you felt left out these past few weeks. Gyuvin and I got a little… Carried away preparing your gift. We didn’t forget our anniversary. You know I could never do that. We just acted like we did so you wouldn’t suspect we were up to something. I’m sorry, it was my idea. Don’t blame Gyuvin, he wanted to tell you.”
“Hyung,” is Gyuvin’s pouted response, but both Hanbin and Taerae ignore it.
“I know you’re curious about our gift to you, and the spell we worked so hard to craft. Why don’t you let Gyuvin show you?”
Gyuvin carefully takes Taerae’s wrist in his hand and guides Taerae’s hand to cup his face. Taerae furrows his brow in confusion, but his expression changes to one of shock when Gyuvin drops his hand and an iridescent handprint the same colour as the potion is left on Taerae’s wrist.
Taerae moves his hand then, and a matching handprint is stretched across Gyuvin’s right cheek. Gyuvin smiles at him, and Taerae’s mouth drops open as the shimmering marks start to fade.
“What…”
Hanbin reaches for his hand then, and Taerae looks down to find both of their hands in his lap, palms covered in swirling iridescent marks.
“Hanbin, what… What’s this?”
“I know you’d never admit it, but I know it bothers you that Gyuvin and I are soulmates, that we share something that you don’t. It bothers me too. I’ve always known you were meant to be my soulmate. Sure, we’re different in a lot of ways, but we understand each other in ways that no one else could. Fate may have brought me and Gyuvin together, but you and I chose each other, and that alone is stronger than fate.
So I decided to create a potion, a spell that would bond us together. Soulmate bonds aren’t meant to be shared between three people, but we make our own fate. Now it’s not just Gyuvin and I that are soulmates, but all three of us. No one’s going to be left out ever again.”
Taerae sits there in stunned silence, his mouth never having fully closed after the initial shock of seeing the soulmate marks.
“Hyung,” Gyuvin pleads, tugging on the sleeve of Taerae’s hoodie. “Please say something. If you hate the idea, we can work on a reversal spell, just please tell us how you’re feeling.”
Taerae’s never been great at talking about his feelings. Overall, he’d consider himself a fairly eloquent person, but having to talk about his feelings? To pick apart why he’s feeling a certain way instead of just admitting he’s upset and moving on? It’s like pulling teeth for him.
So instead, he puts his hand where the soulmate mark had been a minute ago, and gives Gyuvin a kiss.
He can feel the relief in the way Gyuvin’s whole body sags, melting into him and kissing him with a passion that Taerae’s never felt before.
The kiss is electric. Taerae knows that soulmates don’t share thoughts, but he swears he can feel the need coursing through Gyuvin’s body as he pushes closer to him, forcing Taerae back until he’s leaning against the warm firmness of Hanbin’s chest.
If he thinks about it, he can even feel Hanbin’s amusement as the older boy tangles his fingers in Gyuvin’s hair to separate the two, eliciting a pitiful groan from their youngest boyfriend.
“Can I have my turn now, or do you two plan on kissing until you run out of oxygen?”
Taerae’s still too dazed to answer, but Gyuvin turns his puppy eyes on Hanbin. They don’t work in his favour, because Hanbin ignores him in favour of tilting Taerae’s head up to look at him and capturing his lips in a kiss.
The position strains Taerae’s neck, but the discomfort fades away when Hanbin reaches up to cradle the back of his head and deepens the kiss.
Every nerve in Taerae’s body lights up. His skin feels like it’s blanketed in stars. He’s already impossibly close to Hanbin, but he wants to get closer.
Gyuvin’s hands snake around his body, and a pleased hum rumbles through Taerae’s throat. However close his boyfriends are, he needs them closer. He feels more connected to them than he ever has before, but for the first time he feels like it’s not enough. He wants more of them, more closeness, more touch, more everything.
There’s a void in Taerae’s soul that he didn’t know existed, but now that he does, he wants to fill it with as much Hanbin and Gyuvin as he can.
Whatever magic was in that spell, Taerae can feel it coursing through his veins.
Hanbin pulls away all too quickly for Taerae, but he doesn’t go far, not that Taerae’s grip on his sweater would let him.
“I take it you like your gift, baby?” Hanbin smiles down at him, whisker dimples in full effect.
“Hyung, you have no idea. I can’t believe you two pulled this off without me figuring it out. And the spellcrafting? All by yourselves?”
“Well, we had a bit of help,” Hanbin smiles sheepishly. “I know how to craft potions, but we needed help on the actual crafting of the spells…”
“Hao-hyung helped,” Gyuvin answers simply.
Taerae’s eyes widen with the realization. “That fucking bitch! He knew all along! Oh, I’ll kill him. He let me rant about it for weeks and— Did Matthew know?”
Hanbin laughs, pressing a kiss to Taerae’s forehead. Even the small peck feels electric.
“We’re not stupid, Taerae-yah. We all know Matthew can’t keep a secret to save his life.”
“That’s true,” Taerae snorts.
Taerae sits up with a start, shifting to rummage through the pocket of his sweatpants. “That just reminds me! I got you two something too. It’s not nearly as impressive or romantic as a soulmate bond, but… I hope you like it.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll love it because hyungie got it for us,” Gyuvin grins, pressing an exaggerated kiss to Taerae’s cheek.
Taerae ignores the blush rising on his cheeks in favour of pulling two matching jewellery boxes out of his pocket and handing one each to his boyfriends.
Their faces wear matching expressions of amazement as they open the boxes to find nearly identical rings, different only in the gemstones that are inlaid in the centre.
Hanbin’s features one large pearl flanked by two smaller ones, and Gyuvin’s has the same design with peridot, their birthstones.
Gyuvin is the first to take the ring out of the box, and lets out a gasp when he spies the inscription on the inside. Their initials, along with the date their little home went from two to three.
“Taerae, this is gorgeous…” Hanbin sounds choked up, which brings some panic to Taerae’s chest until he remembers that Hanbin is a happy crier.
Gyuvin already has his ring on his left ring finger, while Hanbin hasn’t even taken his out of the box yet.
Taerae takes the ring out and gently slips it onto Hanbin’s finger for him, reaching up to wipe the tear that falls from the older boy’s eye. Hanbin’s always been such a beautiful crier, a point of contention for Taerae and Gyuvin who both turn into red-nosed snotty messes.
“Hyung… Where’s yours?” Gyuvin asks, grabbing Taerae’s hands to examine them, as if Taerae would be stupid enough to wear something that would spoil his gift to them.
“I… Didn’t get myself one? They’re gifts for you two, why would I?”
“That won’t do,” Hanbin hums, pressing a kiss to Taerae’s temple. “We’ll simply have to get you yours for our anniversary next month.”
“Ugh, hyung,” Taerae groans. “Don’t tell me you’re already planning that.”
Hanbin only laughs, pulling Taerae closer into his embrace. “You underestimate me if you think I haven’t been planning our five-year anniversary since last December, Kim Taerae.”
Taerae rolls his eyes fondly and surges forward to give Hanbin a kiss.
They’re interrupted by a tapping at the window, and Taerae pulls back to make eye contact with an owl perched on their balcony, a cloth bag in its talons.
“Oh right, I ordered food while you were in the bathroom.” Hanbin stands up, opening the balcony door to collect the bag of food and attach a pouch of magical currency to the owl’s leg.
Taerae shakes his head incredulously, turning to look at Gyuvin. “That man thinks of everything.”
Gyuvin only hums, stealing a quick kiss from Taerae. “He planned a fancier dinner but cancelled the reservation and ordered food when we saw how upset you were.”
Taerae frowns, looking up at Hanbin as he returns with the food. “I’m sorry. I ruined your plan.”
Hanbin pauses midway through moving spell components off of the coffee table to cup Taerae’s face in his hands and give him a reassuring kiss. “Don’t be sorry. You didn’t ruin anything. It’s our fault for leaving you in the dark.”
“At least it was a memorable anniversary,” Gyuvin adds, pouting when Hanbin shoots him a look. “What, too soon?”
“No, you’re right Gyubi, we can laugh about it now.” Taerae takes Gyuvin’s hand in his, giving it a squeeze. “I was stupid to doubt your love for me, and you two can continue to remind me of that for however long you want.”
“Oh, we will,” Hanbin assures him. “Every day, in fact.”
Taerae sighs, but he’s willing to accept his fate of being teased mercilessly for being so caught in his own insecurities that he didn’t even notice his boyfriends planning the most romantic surprise for him. It’s far better than the source of his anxieties coming true.
As Hanbin sets up their dinner, Gyuvin cuddles up to Taerae, admiring his new ring. “I can’t believe you thought this wouldn’t be impressive or romantic. It’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever done.”
“Hao helped,” Taerae grumbles.
“Should we be dating Hao?” Gyuvin muses, earning him a slap on the shoulder from Taerae. “Ow, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! But seriously we should all take him out to dinner as a thank you for helping us with our gifts.”
“He’d love that too much, he already has too much power over us,” Hanbin sighs, joining them on the couch. “Besides, the soulmate spell was my idea, hyung just helped with the crafting. We did all the hard work, Gyuvin-ah.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Gyuvin admits.
“You two are so…” Taerae sighs. “What will I do with you?”
“You’re stuck with us now,” Gyuvin teases, poking at Taerae’s ribs and making him squeal with laughter. “Bonded for life, we don’t even need to get married at this point.”
“Oh my stars,” Taerae laughs, trying to squirm away from Gyuvin’s tickling. “You’re such a menace!”
“You love me.”
“I do.”
Contrary to his words, Taerae pushes Gyuvin’s face away from his as the younger boy makes kissy faces at him.
“Will you two stop bickering? The food is going to get cold. Besides, no one said marriage was off the table.”
“Slow down, Sung Hanbin. We only just became soulmates.”
Kim Taerae is not jealous that his boyfriends are soulmates.
He’s their soulmate too. Not by fate, but by choice. And their bond, forged by choice and by magic, is stronger than any chance connection fate could possibly have in store.