Rayne swipes again, and there’s another photo where he’s kissing my cheek as fog steams the mirror behind us. My chest softens instantly, my smile aching my cheeks at this rate, and it only worsens when I swipe to the next image.
I slap a hand over my mouth when I see Rayne’s horror-filled face as he finally finds the tramp stamp on my lower back. The drunken regret that holds third place in my list of my life’s regrets. I honestly don’t know how we managed to go this long without him ever seeing it. I mean, he’s had me naked more times than the shower has, and yet it was only at that very moment that he finally caught sight of the lightning bolt that looks suspiciously like a sperm etched into my skin.
Just the sight of Rayne’s wide eyes and parted mouth makes me laugh so suddenly and violently that I startle myself.
Well, myself and Caiden, who almost falls off the bed as he yells, “What? What is it?”
I can barely breathe, tears blurring my eyes as I shove my phone at the guys. I’m laughing so hard that I can’t see anything, so it’s only when I hear Baxter laugh, Ryan face-palm, and Caid wheezing so hard that I worry for his lungs that I know they’ve seen the photo.
When I wipe my eyes and look down at Rayne, I find a look of exhaustion on his face that makes me laugh again. With a flat tone, he grumbles, “You told me it was small.”
“It is small, in the grand scheme of things,” I argue through lingering chuckles.
“Whoever put that on you should be charged with a felony of some sort,” he tells me, sighing as he zooms in on the blurry photo of my little sperm bolt.
Snickering still, I quip, “It has personality, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, the personality of a crackhead who sells ketamine behind a 7-Eleven dumpster,” he responds, only making me laugh harder. He points a finger at the offending ink and promises, “I’m fixing it.”
“With what?” I wonder, genuinely curious.
“Literally anything, mayhem,” he answers, blowing out a harsh breath. “Anything is better than that shit.”
Caid wipes tears from his eyes, finding just as much humor in it as I do, before he says, “Bro. Your face. You’re looking at it like it personally offended your ancestors and their ancestors before them.”
“That’s because it did,” Rayne says seriously, glaring at us all as we continue to laugh.
Jesus Christ, I love these guys.
Not for the first time do my thoughts flitter back to that reminder, and I finally calm down enough to relax against Baxter. I’m still smiling when Ryan brushes my blue hair back from my face with visible adoration, and I smile back at him, wondering once again how the hell I got so lucky to have found these four men who have stolen my heart so thoroughly that I’m sure they possess a piece each.
With those thoughts filling my mind, I peer outside the hotel windows, seeing Seoul as it glows under the endless skyof stars. Inside the hotel, all five of us end up tangled beneath the blankets while Caiden starts trying to decipher exactly what the tattoo is supposed to be. He’ll be guessing for a long time, because even though I think it’s supposed to be a lightning bolt, I can’t actually be sure. I don’t even remember asking for a tattoo, let alone what it was meant to look like.
“You have to admit, it’s kind of iconic,” he argues, nodding like he’s impressed.
“If you say so,” Rayne grumbles, nuzzling his face into my stomach.
“It definitely builds character,” Bax snickers, kissing the top of my head sweetly.
“You pronounced concern wrong,” Ryan injects, and I rest my head on his shoulder with a sleepy grin, squeezing the hand he’s slid into mine.
Somewhere between the laughter, the teasing, and the warmth of all four of them surrounding me, I realize something important. Something vital and life-changing.
All it would have taken was different neighbors for my life to look much different from the chaos, warmth, and comfort it’s filled with now. From the home it now feels like. I used to think soulmates were a movie concept not meant for the real world, the only thing I’ve ever seen as close to it coming from my parents. Suddenly, four men moved into the apartment below mine, flipped my whole life inside out, and turned an idea into a reality. Looking back, I guess I should have known my life was about to derail like an unstable train the moment they found me squeezed into the tub like someone tried to origami a human woman. It’s definitely a ride I never want to step off, though.
Because where some people find love stories in fate and destiny and grand gestures, I found mine in a bottle of spicy lube, a penis-shaped bottle opener, and a morning that will forever go down as the best regret of my life.
And that’s how I met my neighbors.
Wait, no. That’s how I found the four pieces of my heart and soul.
Yeah, that’s more like it.
Epilogue
Maddie
One Year Later
