Requested by MangaAnimeGirl

Pairing: Seonghwa x Hongjoong

Genre: Soulmate AU, Fluff, Romance

Warnings: None

Scenario: Hongjoong and Seonghwa are very close friends, however neither of them realise that it runs deeper than that. That is, until one of them comes to that startling realisation and refuses to tell the other out of the fear of being rejected...

:::

Out of all the members ATEEZ, there were really only two of the members that Hongjoong could honestly say he was closest to, and that was Mingi and Seonghwa. Mingi and Hongjoong worked together on songs and lyrics, and Seonghwa and Hongjoong were the closest in age and they hung out a lot as well as the fact that they've been roommates for the longest time.

Hongjoong's always admired Seonghwa's looks and charisma on stage, and Seonghwa has even outright said that he admires the younger's hard-working nature. Though, sometimes Seonghwa had to be the one to drag him away from that godforsaken laptop when Hongjoong spent too long working on a project, but that didn't happen all that often.

However, this close friendship between Seonghwa and Hongjoong was about to change, and once it had, Seonghwa was the first one to notice.

In this world, Soulmates existed that were connected by an invisible force, and there were signs that would come out of absolutely nowhere. All of a sudden, you would crave the feeling of the other beside you almost all the time, your heart would race just a little faster, you'd feel a fluttering in your stomach whenever they would do anything really and every touch and glance would have you wanting to cuddle and kiss the person uncaring of whatever was going in around you.

It was a slow process, but Seonghwa soon found that his previous brotherly type feelings were growing into something else, and it may have taken a couple of months but it hit the eldest hyung like a ton of bricks. It was during a practice session when it happened. Seonghwa and Hongjoong were messing around with the WooSan pair when Seonghwa's hand accidentally touched Hongjoong's.

Seonghwa quickly pulled his hand away as if it were on fire, trying to collect himself and make sure he wasn't showing any physical signs that he'd felt something that he never thought would happen to him. Though Seonghwa mostly seems to articulate his feelings well, he usually needed a lot of time to figure out in his head how to say the right words. With this current situation however, he didn't tell anyone; he completely pushed the subject aside and mostly avoided Hongjoong.

It took a good week for the members to figure out that there was something off about Seonghwa's attitude, the final straw being when the eldest hyung flat out refused to allow Hongjoong to initiate any sort of skinship with him; not even to form something as simple as a heart with their hands. They played it off as just joking around, but the other members and even Hongjoong could tell something was wrong.

A couple of nights later, whilst Seonghwa was helping Jongho cook dinner, Yeosang decided to approach the eldest hyung and ask him about the whole situation with him avoiding Hongjoong.

"Hey hyung, is everything okay with you and Hongjoong hyung?" Yeosang asks.

"Yeah, everything's good. Why do you ask?" Seonghwa sounds a little confused, but at the back of his mind, he already knows the reason why Yeosang would ask him that.

Was he that obvious?

"It seems like you're kinda avoiding him and he's really upset about it" Yeosang answers honestly.

Seonghwa glances at Yeosang, not fully believing the younger as he raises an eyebrow in confusion. Yeosang sees the look of confusion on the older's face, nodding in confirmation as he says "it's true! He's being all pouty about it and it's really starting to get on my nerves because he keeps complaining to me about it for whatever reason" Yeosang huffs.

'Well...maybe I could just...spend a bit of time around him...but then again-' his train of thought is interrupted by Hongjoong walking into the room with Minho beside him.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong make eye contact for the split second, and within that second Seonghwa feels everything crash down onto him all at once; the feelings he's tried to keep hidden for the past week, and he couldn't even stop himself from doing what he did next. His feelings clouded his better judgement as he stopped what he was doing and walked over to Hongjoong with a blank expression. The leader looked a little concerned with Seonghwa's sudden change in behaviour.

"Seonghwa hyung, what're you-" Hongjoong was cut off by Seonghwa grabbing the front of his shirt and kissing him hard on the lips.

The kiss was so quick that Hongjoong didn't have time to respond, because it only took a couple of short moments for Seonghwa to realise what he just did, the older quickly pulling away and slapping a hand over his mouth.

'Fuck, what have I done!?' Seonghwa thought to himself, slowly backing away before turning around and power walking towards his and Hongjoong's room.

"Hyung, wait!' Hongjoong winces as he hears the door to his and Seonghwa's room slam shut.

Hongjoong just stands there, still in shock and very confused but his confusion slowly disappears as he begins to understand the reason why Seonghwa has been avoiding him lately.

'Does Seonghwa hyung have feelings for me? Or maybe it's more than that?' Hongjoong thought, his head swirling with a thousand similar thoughts all at once.

He then goes to walk towards his and Seonghwa's shared room, ignoring Mingi and Yeosang's words of 'leave him alone' and 'he needs time to think hyung'. Hongjoong doesn't even bother to knock, opening the door and coming face to face with the sight of a crying Seonghwa sitting on the floor with his head in his hands.

Seonghwa's head snaps up, his eyes red and puffy from crying so much. Seonghwa aggressively wipes his eyes, sniffling.

"Hyung-" "go away Hongjoong. I don't wanna be around you right now" Seonghwa snaps, turning away from the younger.

Hongjoong huffed, "you've been avoiding me for a week now Hwa! I wanna know why!" Hongjoong exclaims.

"You wouldn't understand! Now go away...please" Seonghwa whimpers, "don't make this more difficult than it needs to be"

"Make what difficult? What's so difficult that you feel the need to avoid me huh? Have I done something wrong, because as far as I know I haven't. Was it something I might have said?" Now Hongjoong was beginning to get upset because he was trying to figure out why Seonghwa hd been so distant.

Seonghwa suddenly turns to Hongjoong, a fierce glare on his face, "fine, you wanna know so badly? It's because you're my Soulmate, Hongjoong! You're my other half and I had no fucking idea until a week ago. I-it hit me out of nowhere, and I know it's probably just a one sided thing and-fuck, just forget I said that. I shouldn't have said that. Why did I say that?" Seonghwa mutters to himself, once again burying his face in his hands.

Hongjoong just stands there, not really knowing what else to do. Hongjoong gulped , slowly shuffling forward until he was standing in front of Seonghwa. Hongjoong kneels on the ground, his hands coming up to rest on Seonghwa's bent knees. Seonghwa looks up, his expression one of heart break. The older expected the worst to happen; for him to be rejected and quite possibly kicked from the group. However, what Hongjoong did next was the complete opposite of what Seonghwa was expecting.

Hongjoong leaned forward and kissed Seonghwa so softly and hesitantly that Seonghwa would have thought it was his first real kiss. Seonghwa was in shock and didn't respond at first, but a few seconds later he ended up kissing back, taking control over the situation. Hongjoong let the older pull him into his lap, Seonghwa's legs stretched out as they continued to kiss. It wasn't enough; it was sweet and filled with live and affection and way too short for their liking.

"Fucking finally" Yeosang's voice interrupted them, "I was honestly waiting for you two to finally admit your feelings. So, Joongie hyung, have you told him then?"

"Told me what?" Seonghwa asks as he pulls away.

Hongjoong blushes, turning away from Seonghwa.

"I...I've kinda known that you're my Soulmate for about a month now. I didn't say anything because I didn't think that the feeling would be mutual" Hongjoong admits, feeling embarrassed and guilty for not saying anything earlier.

Seonghwa chuckles, hooking his fingers underneath Hongjoong's chin and gently turning Hongjoong's face back to look at him.

"Baby, it's okay. I don't blame you for not saying anything. If anything, I'm sorry for not saying anything at first. We could have avoided a lot of drama if I'd said something earlier" Seonghwa sighed.

Hongjoong smiles, shaking his head, "it's okay Hwa, I don't blame you either"

The two share one last soft kiss, Hongjoong shuffling off of Seonghwa to allow the older to stand up. Hongjoong stands up as well, the two walking out of the room hand in hand with a smirking and satisfied Yeosang walking behind them.

At least they finally admitted their feelings to each other...

I suck at Soulmate AU's, I'm sorry. This was shit.

I'm sorry this took me so long to write baby MangaAnimeGirl :( I know it sucks but I tried my best