I reached out, my fingers hovering just above his skin. "Can I?"
"Always." Hwan breathed, his warm brown eyes fluttering closed as my fingertips brushed the teal flower, his whole body shuddering slightly at the contact. The touch sent something electric through me — I could feel him through it, his joy and want and love pulsing against my fingers.
"Oh." I whispered, my grey eyes widening, my heart racing.
"That's the bond. Incomplete, but there." Hwan's voice was rough, his warm brown eyes opening to meet mine, dark with emotion. "When it's finished, that feeling will be constant. A thread between us that never breaks."
"Me next." Tae-min said eagerly, extending his left arm, his dark chocolate eyes bright with nervous energy. His mark was on his inner left wrist too — the same teal flower on a branch, identical to Hwan's. The color was filled in completely, but like Hwan's, it lacked the fine lines that would make it complete. I traced it with trembling fingers, feeling his youth and hope and desperate desire to be enough pulse through the bond.
"They're all the same." I said softly, looking between their wrists. "The same flower."
"Same mark. Same place. All of us connected to you." Tae-min said quietly, his dark chocolate eyes vulnerable, his cherry-red hair falling across his forehead. "But yours is different. Yours shows all of us."
Jin-ho came next, kneeling beside me with quiet grace. He extended his arm, turning his inner left wrist up to show me. The same teal flower bloomed there, beautiful even without the fine details.
When I touched it, I felt depth and longing and music — so much music, all of it about me.
"You write songs about us." I said, not a question, my grey eyes lifting to meet his amber ones.
"Every song I've ever written was trying to find you." Jin-ho admitted, his amber eyes burning with quiet intensity, his silver-grey hair catching the light. "I just didn't know it until now."
Min-jun showed me his next, his inner left wrist turned up to reveal the same teal flower on a branch. Soft and waiting for completion.
When I touched it, I felt warmth and care and a desperate need to be needed.
"You give so much." I whispered. "Let me give back to you too."
"You already do. Just by letting me in." Min-jun's hazel eyes were wet, his dimples deep with his trembling smile, his vanilla scent warm and sweet.
Finally, Jae-won. He extended his left arm slowly, his nearly-black eyes watching my face. The same teal flower marked his inner wrist — but somehow, on him, it seemed to carry more weight. The pack alpha's bond.
When I pressed my fingers against it, I felt everything. His loneliness. His responsibility. His fear of failing them. His desperate love for his pack. And underneath it all, a fierce, protective devotion that took my breath away.
"Jae-won." I whispered, tears spilling down my cheeks, my grey eyes wide with everything I was feeling.
"You feel that?" Jae-won's voice was rough, cracked, his nearly-black eyes wet. "That's what you do to me. That's what you are to me. Everything."
"I want to show you mine." I said, my fingers moving to the collar of my shirt, pulling it aside, tilting my head to expose the left side of my neck. "Can someone...?"
"I've got it." Hwan pulled out his phone, angling it carefully, his warm brown eyes soft. Then he turned the screen so I could see.
My breath caught.
Starting just below my left ear and trailing down my neck, across my collarbone, ending near my heart — five flowers on a branch. But unlike their identical teal blooms, each of my flowers was a different color.
The first flower, nearest my ear, was crimson red. Tae-min.
The second was soft rose pink. Min-jun.
The third, at the curve of my neck, was deep indigo. Jae-won.
The fourth sat right at my pulse point, golden amber. Hwan.
And the fifth, the one closest to my heart, was violet. Jin-ho.
Five flowers. Five colors. Five soulmates. All of them connected by a single branch that wound across my skin like it had always belonged there. The colors were filled in, rich and vibrant, but like theirs, the marks lacked the fine lines that would come with completion.
"It's beautiful." I breathed, my grey eyes tracing the pattern, seeing each of them represented in the flowers on my skin.
