[Oliver]
He could hear the clock, ticking softly in the background.
Whenever Oliver heard the ominous ticks of the clock, it meant that he was afraid of what was yet to come. For the clock was not just a symbol of time, it was also a record of the horrible, horrible things that could potentially happen in the very next second.
Oliver had lived most of his childhood in an orphanage and the clock had been his friend, his companion and his only constant.
The orphanage was mentally damaging in its ever-changing nature. His 'siblings'—the orphans—and his 'parents'—the caretakers —never lasted long. They came and went like the water in the river, like the wind in his hair, or like sand, they flowed through his fingers over time.
They never stayed for him. And in those times of disconnection, his only understanding of the concept of a family was in the objects that decorated his room and made him feel at home.
Oliver was the rock, the pebbles in a river. And like those pebbles, he eroded with time from the force of the stream. Oliver was never adopted despite the countless inspections, the hundreds of meetings and the smile that he sewed onto his face while he cried tears of blood. Over time, hope left him. It escaped him like the sand that poured through the crevices of his fingers.
He was unwanted.
Some reckoned that it was probably because he was too old, maybe because he wasn't talented enough, or perhaps because he was never the prettiest or the smartest. But the truth was, Oliver remembered a time before the orphanage. And that was what stopped him from opening up to the families that tried to adopt him.
That time was what made him just a little too detached, just a little too awkward, just a little less loving. It was a memory that had confused him as a child, horrified him as a youth and later came to light when he became an adult and understood the concept.
The concept of a soul violation.
Amber was shaking, trembling before him. Her fear was radiating from her body in waves and waves. Like the crash of the ocean on the rocks, it pushed and pulled at him and his feet stumbled to follow.
It was so strong that he could almost taste it in the air, smell its sour tang. It was a poison that made his chest feel like a broken hourglass without any sand. It made him feel empty, broken and more importantly afraid.
Her fear held him. It held him and he was frozen in place, a chess piece on the board of black and white. It choked him. Its fingers wrapped around his throat, throttling him as if it were saying, 'you should do something before it's too late!'
He knew he needed to. He wanted to. From the beginning, all he had ever wanted was to hold her in his arms and shield her from everything. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to stand tall above her, like an oak tree that took the force of the storm for all the plants beneath it.
But he knew that like the oak tree that stood too tall and too strong, such actions may end up destroying her instead. He could kill her if she didn't have her sunshine, and her sunshine at this moment were the five stupid best friends that he had standing before him.
So while his chest ached and screamed at him to make his move to bring her to safety. He didn't listen to his heart for her expression was what stopped him. Despite her fear, despite her suffering and sorrow, she was strong in ways he couldn't describe.
The resolution, the determination could be seen in the sharpness of her beautiful buttercream coloured eyes. She was eager to speak her mind and he could see that she did not want any help, and his actions would simply destroy whatever resolve she had left.
So he stood, silent and unmoving. The clock was yet again his companion, his reminder. It reminded him that while he stood aside, watching, there was a risk that he might be making the biggest mistake of his life. That he might be potentially throwing her to the wolves in the night.
Oliver swallowed down the lump in his throat, his nose stinging a little from the burn of tears. From the start, everything was his fault, his actions had been the tiny little disturbance in the sand that led to a storm. Oliver would never forgive himself for that. Just as he would never forgive himself for letting her stand alone like this.
He hated it. He hated watching her carve out her heart and present it to them like this in her weakest, most timid state. It hurt him even more because she stood in that one place he could proudly call the safest in his universe, and yet it wasn't the safest in hers.
He hated it.
"You're lying," Ezra said.
His voice sounded off, a little too high, a tad too airy from his surprise. Oliver exploited his talent in reading his best friends and his findings confused him. On one hand, there was a certain sort of elation in Ezra's disbelief. An odd wicked sense of glee, of relief and of happiness. On the other hand, he seemed to be on guard, his disbelief filled with his pessimism and Oliver could almost see his best friend shaking his head. No. Ezra was saying. There's no way someone like me could have her. Self-deprecating as always.
Oliver inhaled sharply, surveying the room, his eyes taking in the expressions of each of his best friends. Sieon was confused, but in the furrow of his brow, he detected an acceptance in his face. There was an almost knowing look in his eyes, even though the surprise flooded his features and buzzed over his skin.
Sieon would do fine. Oliver knew that the boy was more than eager for a soulmate. He wouldn't care about the little details, the additional payments, the extra information. He was the kind of person to sign a contract without reading the fine print, if something was worth it. He would give it his all without a care in the world.
Hikaru looked torn. Oliver could see the worry he had for Amber. It spilt from his face and flooded his body, burning him inside and he could tell that the man was genuinely besotted with his girl. Hikaru fell in love much quicker than anyone else and such a beautiful person who loved so easily would never, ever let the love of his life get away.
He was conveniently also that one member, who had been deprived of a soulmate for the longest. A dying dehydrated man wouldn't mind sharing a cup of water as long as he had a taste.
Oliver knew these emotions and that need would triumph whatever bitterness Hikaru had. Because at the end of the day, Amber as their soulmate was written in the stars. It was fate, and fate had always loved to play games with the people it held in its palm. The only way to escape was to accept and try to make the best of every situation.
JieMi was surprisingly quiet, the usually more vocal and emotionally charged member was sullen and he looked a little sour. Just a little. His emotions were battling within his frame. Guilt, jealousy, anger, worry, fear, sadness.
It was a bitter cocktail of a hundred different emotions that Oliver struggled to understand. But in hindsight, he knew JieMi had resigned to his fate as one of the soulmate-less, giving his everything to Ha-Eun. He had given up far too early and now he was suffering with the consequences of his decisions. Oliver couldn't care less as long as JieMi's decisions did not hurt Amber.
MinJae was possibly the biggest problem in the group. Oliver didn't blame him. MinJae had suffered under the mind-set that his soulmate had passed for so long, and he cried every night from just the thought.
Right now, MinJae was angry in the way one would be angry if someone told you that a loved one who passed was actually alive. He was angry at her words because to him, they were attacks on his person, attacks on the dead soulmate he had never met. To MinJae, she was shitting on the memory of his lover, defacing her with her words.
All these problems, all these obstacles, but Oliver knew that with better communication they could get through this. That his best friends could eventually be convinced. After all, they had a common goal. A common purpose and a common belief that a soulmate should be cherished and loved, and once they saw the truth. They would come along, as nature made it so.
The way the sunflowers turned to face their sun, the way the rain kissed the Earth. The way two souls, or perhaps eight souls could join together to form one. It was in their nature to love her and he believed in the abilities of their souls to bring them together.
"I'm not lying," she said softly.
Her voice. It had always been pretty to Oliver's ears, like strawberries dipped in chocolate, like the deep rouge of roses. It was sexual, sweet and smooth, it dipped and flowed in ways that lit the nerves all over his body. But he did not have the heart to pay attention to his waking cock.
The hurt in her voice made his chest clench and twist painfully. The way it trembled just a little more whenever Ezra was the one who asked the questions. Oliver could see the way the two of them longed for one another. The way Ezra's eyes melted and lingered on her even though every word out of his dirty mouth was poison to her wellbeing.
She continued. "I'm serious. I'm more serious than I could ever be." She inhaled and exhaled heavily, and Oliver was thankful that the boys were giving her the time to speak. "As I was saying, I exchanged bodies with JieMi on the day of the concert."
She nodded towards the man whose expression faltered for a moment. A twisted pinch that confused Oliver on what exactly JieMi wanted. When she had revealed the truth to them, the jealousy and the anger had been stark on his face. His youth made him obvious and JieMi wasn't the kind of person to be really capable of hiding the strongest of his emotions. Yet, while his eyes looked at her as if she were the most delicious candy in the world. His body moved as if he wanted to run away forever.
She glanced down at her feet. "Everything went haywire when I was in his body, I just started seeing our soul bonds, but you guys weren't seeing them on me in JieMi's body. I have Soul Melt."
She licked her lips, her eyes shifting. "JieMi and I have Body Exchange." She glanced at Ezra. "We have Soul Beam." She gestured to Sieon. "Rose Rings of Fate." She inhaled, listing down on her fingers. "Liv, Words of Love."
Her words made his breath hitch, such an obvious and blatantly flashy soul mark should have made spotting her in the crowd an easy feat. He should have lingered just a little longer on that damn stage that day.
"Hikaru, Midas Touch. Casper, Soul Slime." Her eyes shifted to peek at MinJae nervously. "Flower Crowns of the Soul."
The minute those words left her lips, something flashed within MinJae's eyes and defiance reared its ugly head within him. He pulled away from Casper's grasp to glare at her, his eyes glowing with his detest and hatred.
Oliver knew MinJae was speaking and thinking on behalf of the girl he had in his mind. But what MinJae didn't know was that all along she was right before him and that made Oliver want to laugh at his idiocy and cry for his pain at the same time.
"Where is your proof?" MinJae snapped, his plump lips pursed into a thin line. "Soul bond, this soul bond that. Who fucking cares?" He growled, rolling his eyes.