Sieon
The youngest was trembling, something that was unlike the proud alpha male that Sieon knew him to be.
The industry had changed the child that Sieon had first met in the training room—a room that reeked of sweat and body odour, teemed with passion and desire, and was filled with struggling dreams. He'd been just a boy—too young to be working, too young to be thinking about surviving, too young to be allowed to pursue his dreams. JieMi had achieved goals in life that many would never accomplish at a price.
A price that robbed him of his innocence, his freedom and his family.
Not that Sieon was one to talk. Sieon too had exchanged treasures for a gamble dipped in stardom and drenched in money. It would be a fucking lie to say that he didn't miss his grandparents or his baby sister, who had grown up with a brother she would only see on TV.
And it hurt him to see her hiding behind his granny's legs with eyes that didn't remember when he went home. It hurt to see her shy and bashful when his grandparents told her to give him a hug. She would give one unwillingly, a stiff fleeting contact of skin that made his heart cold and his smiles stiff. To Kim Hye-Won, Sieon was only a stranger she saw on a flickering 2D plane, someone who sent back money every month and heaps of presents on her birthday.
Sieon was her Santa Claus, and maybe her pseudo Sugar Daddy. And sure, she did react enthusiastically to him whenever he pulled out another extravagant, over the top toy that shouldn't be given to a kid her age. But that was pretty much it when it came to their non-existent relationship. A relationship that Sieon wasn't sure if he could ever hope to save.
It was sad, but at least he remembered bits and pieces of his parents. Of him riding his father's shoulders as they played in the forest, and of his mother's special homemade sweets and warm hugs. Brief memories that he clung on to, determined to never forget, desperate to keep. They were memories that pulled him through during the toughest of times, memories that reminded him that no matter what he did, he was loved and cherished.
And for what his parents could not give him, his grandparents provided.
His teenage years were filled with memories of coming home, soaked with sweat after a day in the farm to a table filled with his granny's best cooking, and to the sight of his grandpa bouncing his baby sister on his knee.
They couldn't afford any meat and he'd grumbled about that as a growing boy, but the food was good and the company was even better. He didn't appreciate it then, but he did now. And sometimes he would find himself longing for a plate of his granny's grilled corn over the best wagyu in the city.
Oh, he didn't have a perfect, completed family as the rest of his peers did, but he had one that was loving and enough.
And unlike JieMi, Sieon understood the importance of soulmates.
His grandparents told him stories of his parents. Of how they'd met, of how they'd been in love, of the soulbond dreams they had of him, of how much happier their daughter had been when she'd met his father.
And then they'd talked about themselves, of how they'd been happy even with a dwindling supply of potatoes and salted vegetables. How happy they'd been even with nothing to their names but each other. It wasn't difficult to understand when he could see the love in their eyes.
JieMi didn't understand.
Sure, his parents tried to make him understand, they were good, loving people who only wanted the best for their son. There had definitely been a point in his life when JieMi had probably declared that he would have a hundred babies with his soulmate. And that they would play cars for the rest of their lives. Children would always try to mimic their role models after all.
But JieMi had left home at an age when he thought girls had diseases and love was something to gag at. He'd left before puberty had kicked in, and before he could fully understand the love his parents had for one another. And so JieMi had learnt about romance in an industry seeded with people searching for quick and easy pleasure. And when one learnt about love in the form of drugs and prostitution, it really was a no brainer that JieMi didn't believe in soulmates as much as the rest of the guys did.
And to the JieMi months back, there was no fucking point in caring about the topic. The industry had transformed his innocence into a hard-jawed stubbornness, converted the fear into courage, altered the scrawny kid into a man that wouldn't back down without a fight. Puberty gave him a bigger dick and while that was purely physical, the JieMi Sieon knew was a dick who survived by acting, by hiding, by pretending.
There was no place for pretending in the face of their soulmate. And whatever JieMi didn't understand, would be understood in the form of the biggest bitch slap fate would ever give him in his life.
Sieon knew that JieMi was battling with himself, his eyes were shifty as they meandered over the small space, everywhere but nowhere. The stubborn JieMi would have ran right now, but the need was too great for him to resist the offer that Amber had dangled before his nose. A carrot to a starving donkey.
The need for his soulmate.
His brother-from-another-mother moved, stepping into the laundry room with nervous shuffles of his feet with his heart laid out on his sleeve, open and vulnerable. It was strange watching him like this, with eyes swollen and puffy from tears that he rarely shed, and an innocence clouding his aura. The love of his life had broken through many barriers, and now JieMi was left, weak and vulnerable, fresh and reborn to a world he did not know.
A world of destined, fated love.
Sieon glanced back at his girl, noting the plea in her eyes for him to understand, for him to trust her. Beautiful eyes that took his breath away and made his body heat beyond his skin, melting deep into his bones. She didn't have to, Sieon would do anything for her.
And this…this was easy to do. Sieon did love JieMi after all, and it was a relief to see his best friend stepping into the light after months in the shadows. But it was awkward in the laundry room, with his dick hard and wrapped in a used condom, and his body pressed against the vibrating machine. It was awkward having to share with someone who didn't want to share the experience, judging from the shifty downcast of doe-shaped eyes.
But he wouldn't complain as long as he got another taste of his love.
"How are you feeling?"
His Amber slipped off the washing machine, and the shirt that loosely clad her sexy body slid down to shield her naked bottom half. Sieon gulped, pursing his lips together as his cock grew instantly harder at just the thought of her swollen pussy. Shit. One would think that he would grow immune to the attraction he had for his soulmate, but it never did change, growing stronger over time as they grew closer. That and he hadn't quite had his fill of her warm, sweet pussy.
"I didn't want to wake you because you needed the sleep," Amber explained, biting her bottom lip nervously. Sieon wouldn't mind nibbling on that lip for her. He bit down a grin, lazing back as he watched the scene unfold. It was an odd sort of icebreaker session despite the sexual tension that filled the room, but Sieon didn't mind. It was fun to watch JieMi break out of all his comfort zones.
"Better," JieMi breathed, his eyes lost and dazed as he stared back at her.
His lashes were fluttering lazily as he seemed to melt, holding himself as he watched her with a look on his face that alerted all of Sieon's senses. Sieon knew that look, oh he knew it because he was well acquainted to it. It was the same look that spilled across his face whenever he thought of Amber. The same look that drenched MinJae's features whenever he kissed her. The same look that grazed everyone's faces when they stared at Amber. It was a look that was common in their household.
Sieon bit back a grin.
It wouldn't take long to sway JieMi over, and maybe, maybe it wouldn't be too long before their family would be completed. And Sieon liked that idea, but someone as idiotic as JieMi would need more than a sweet, warm feeling to bring him to his knees. What JieMi needed was something that pierced into his chest and made his throat tight. What he needed was something that took over his senses and drove him fucking mad.
JieMi needed a push.