A surprise story!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Also, story warnings: there will at times be gruesome details of bullying shown in the form of flashbacks and dreams, so please be careful if you're uncomfortable with that. Overuse of the word archive, I have tried to reduce it to a minimum but... it's what the story is based on so bear with me.

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In a working soul bond, every soulmates have access to their bond's archives, which allows them to share present memories between each other without having to deal with the inconvenience of distance.

It can be of yourself staring into the mirror, a moment that makes you happy, of you achieving something special, it can be of you reciting a poem, a drawing you feel particularly proud of, or even the first meeting with your soulmate to show them the beautiful smile on their face as they realize who you are.

It makes meeting so much easier when you can share your vision thanks to the soul shutter, no need for tough guessing games, though some people like to do it anyway for the thrill it brings them.

While speaking directly to the soulmate through a memory is not possible for unknown reasons, there are so many other ways to go at it.

A memory of you staring at your city's name, a clear sight of your home, a letter that recently came in with your address written over it, it can even be the one you wrote yourself - you can put pieces of information into the archive until the puzzle is complete and the next thing you know, your soulmate is waiting at your door.

Such is the wonders of a soul bond's archive, if it were to be shared with every soulmates.

Mine is not like that.

The archive of my soul bond... I'm the only one in it.

Is it because I'm broken, or because I have no soulmates to begin with? I don't know, there's no way to know for sure.

I bear no marks on my skin, no names or initials, no weird coloration in my hair or eyes, my nails are as normal as they can be, there's nothing to let me know if my fate is meant to be shared with someone and while I can get used to that reality, it's sadly the kind of information that spreads like wildfire when you're young and in school.

Before you know it, you become the child with no soulmate, the abandoned archive, the unwanted soul, and so you begin to be picked on by the others who have it all.

Small insults shared with laughter eventually become pushes and legs tripping you in the most importunate times, and when you start thinking that things can't get worse, they somehow find a way to activate the shutter that sends a memory into the archives, even when you don't want to do it.

The problem with a soul bond's archive is that anything that makes its way inside... forever remains inside, and when you're alone in yours, your nice dreams often ditch you for memories instead - and never the good kind.

In that sense, while everything began because I don't have a soulmate, I've grown to feel glad now that no one can see what's in my archive, it's become a pretty pitiful space that I'd rather keep to myself.

Memories of being bullied must make for a total of... seventy percent of the entirety of the memories currently shared in the soul bond.

Yeah. Not the kind of thing you want your soulmate to see.

Hwasa dangles a few documents before my eyes until I snap back into the present time and I sigh before accepting them, chair pushed back so that I can head to the printer to make copies, it must be the school principal who needs them for a meeting since she mentioned it earlier.

It's quite the irony that after suffering so much at the hands of children for most of my life, I would end up working at a school as a secretary, but you don't always choose where life leads you and... it's a good job, it pays well.

Kim Seon-ho is a good boss and Hwasa, the senior secretary takes good care of me, so all in all, despite this place holding some pretty bad memories for me, the two of them make me like this place, if only a little.

It's just awkward sometimes when I cross paths with some of the teachers, a few of them being teachers who witnessed my being bullied all those years ago, teachers who did nothing to stop it because rich brats often have even worse parents.

Now that I'm working here, I understand better why they never dared put themselves under the parents' fury but... it still makes me mad when I find them smiling at me as if they didn't allow their students to send me to the hospital countless times.

At least ignore me if you feel the slightest bit of shame, but don't smile at me like that.

"Y/N, did you hear about the new clinic that specializes in soul sickness? I heard that in some cases, they can repair soul bonds that have never managed to reach out to soulmates, I've heard only good things about it so far, you could give it a try" Hwasa speaks up after a moment of silence as she too takes care of some copies at the second printer.

I don't respond right away, her words hitting against my resolution of not having to share my archive with a fated one, if I have any. This is so sudden.

A clinic that could repair a soul bond... is such a thing even possible? I guess it's more common than I thought if they went as far as to research the matter until they could bring a way to solve the problem, so... what if I do have a soulmate?

What if that clinic manages to heal what's wrong with my bond? What then? Do I swarm them with terrible memories of me crying and bleeding? Do I let them see images of a child holding her limp arm to her chest because a group of kids kicked it until it would break?

I'm supposed to just... let them know that my entire childhood is a pitiful mess of bullying and tears?

"I don't know, unnie. I don't think that's a good idea for me" I finally let out and she groans into her hands, fingers pulling at her hair before she walks over to hold me by the shoulders, face to face.

"Because of your past? Please, Y/N, you're getting the worst of it because you're alone in your soul's archive, but if you do have a soulmate, or soulmates, those memories won't be the only ones anymore. Don't you want a good night sleep for once? It's not like your past is all they're going to see when they sleep" she tries but I brush her hands off me before facing the printer again to keep an eye on the papers being printed out.

"But they will get them occasionally, and nothing will keep them from digging deeper willingly. They'll have access to everything, unnie, every memories that I don't want to share with them, they will be made fully available" I counter firmly, lips pinched tightly in discomfort at the possibility.

What if they think I'm weird for having put such memories in there? They don't know that some smart, rich asshole kids learned how to trigger the shutter against someone's will, they'll more likely be mad at me for staining the archives with such terrible memories and forcing them to witness my pain.

I don't want that for them.

"Babe... I hate to break it to you like this, but if you really have soulmates who are aware of your existence thanks to a mark, or even someone stuck in the same situation as you, if they head to a soul clinic by themselves to see how this can be fixed, the bond will be repaired anyway. That kind of clinic is new, everyone's taking an appointment to try and reach out to their missing half, maybe you won't even have a choice in the matter".

I grab the warm documents once the print over before heading to my desk with a deep sigh.

"Yeah, well it wouldn't be the first time that my opinion goes ignored. If they really want me, I'll take the repaired bond but I won't take that appointment myself. I can't do that to them, unnie, whoever they are, if they exist, that would be incredibly selfish of me".

Hwasa's shoulders droop as she stares at my back while I staple the documents neatly, and I can feel her gaze burning into my skin with disappointment, but what else can I do? What more to say?

She knows about my years of being bullied, she stopped a few herself, she knows how far the other kids went just to see me scream in pain, how can I give that kind of memory to people who deserve smiles and sunshines and rainbows?

Hell, I don't even know why my having no soulmates deserved that kind of treatment to begin with, is it because it made me pitiful in their eyes? Because someone with no fated can only be some sort of mistake?

If I could meet my bullies today... I'd really like to know what the hell pushed them to be such assholes when they could've just ignored me instead.

"These are for Seon-ho, right? I'll bring them up to him, let me know if there's anything else you need from me when I'm back" is the last thing I say before leaving the reception, and the phone rings right before Hwasa can reply to me, a resolved sigh past her lips before she takes the call with her usual work-mode cheerfulness.

I stop walking after having made it a few meters away from the door, eyes frowning at the papers in my hands.

A soul clinic, huh...

Hoseok's POV

"Name please?".

"Jung Hoseok. I have an appointment for a soul bond reparation" I answer quietly, nerves making my hands sweaty as I wipe them on my jeans, it's terrifying to know that this is my only chance of knowing if I have a soulmate or not, that if this doesn't work, then I have nothing, no one.

"Alright, you can have a seat in the waiting room, Mr. Jung, someone will get you in a few minutes".

I thank the employee behind the desk and listen to the directives, eyes falling on all the other people sat in the room, some of them with a similar expression as me on their face - hope, fear, expectations.

Some of us have spent years stuck on our own in our soul's archive, memories that we want to share going nowhere because there's no one to receive them.

It's... painful.

I want to believe that I have someone waiting for me, that someone feels the same pain of not being able to share their memories with me, I really want to believe, and that makes everything a thousand times scarier.

If nothing comes out of this... gosh... I'll probably cry.

I really want to connect with my soulmate and this is it, this is my only hope.

Jungkook's POV

"Jeon Jungkook, you can follow me".

I jump to my feet as soon as my name is called, the empty waiting room of the clinic where I took my appointment so silent that I feel like my heartbeat is echoing against every walls around me.

This is it, right? This is the moment of truth, the moment where I find out if I'm meant to live my life alone or if I have a soulmate waiting for me.

I follow the doctor down a few hallways until he makes us enter his office and once sat at his desk, he grabs a sheet holding my information, probably the answers to what I was asked on the phone when I called last week.

"Hm. I see, so your soul bond never opened to your soulmate, no marks of any kind on your body, you want to know if you have anyone, is that right?" he asks as he reads quickly over every lines and I nod my head, body jittery on my chair.

"We've received many cases like you and in most of them, our patients ended up having more than one soulmate. We have yet to know for certain, but it's possible that the soul's archive doesn't know yet how to deal with multiple bonds as it's pretty new in this day and age.

Some have reported having two or three soulmates, but we've had some rare cases where there were ten soulmates as well" the doctor states while grabbing another sheet of paper that he hands to me, the information he just spoke written on it in more details.

My eyes widen at what this implies, that my fate could be shared with not only one but multiple people, and just as he said, it's pretty new.

Just two years ago, most soulmates reported into the Soulmate Bond Archives Registry, SBAR, were groups of two, three at most, but this year alone, the percentage of people with over four soulmates has risen to thirty percent, a rise of... twenty-nine percent.

"So... you're saying that I might be one of those ending up with a group of soulmates?" I ask in disbelief, and the doctor hums with a warm smile on his face.

"Why don't we find out, young man?".

Seokjin's POV

I carefully put the daisy flowers in a vase on the front desk by the door, orange ones this time, I find that they soften the room they're in each times and this is what I need today as I work in the flower shop.

I make sure to put all my best emotions into this moment before sending it to the archives, a small sigh leaving me as it falls into the sea of snippets of my life like a marble forever stuck in time.

I have made so many of them, yet I don't even know if anyone will ever receive them one day. It's a mix of hopelessness and hope that makes me continue to do so anyway, those little memories all I have to offer as I wait for fate to give me its verdict.

To live life alone, or to be accompanied by the one meant for me, if it ever deems me worthy.

It's getting tiring to always look all over my body every morning to see if anything changed, eyes looking over every inch of skin to see if a mark could have made its appearance, and giving up is slowly, very slowly making its entrance into my mind, into my heart.

What if I have no one? What do I do if I have no one waiting for me?

That thought hurts me like a twisting knife into my chest, the simple thought of spending my entire life alone not something I wish for myself, heck, it's not something I wish for anyone. Isn't that how villains are made?

I might have flowers by my side but they don't speak, they don't share their memories, they don't love the way I need to feel loved.

I bring my gaze back to the pamphlet that came in today about the new soul clinic that opened around the corner, my last hope.

Maybe I should take an appointment and see what they have to say about my soul bond...

Yoongi's POV

I water my tangerine tree before heading to the kitchen to have a look at what I could harvest from it this time, pretty little tangerines that will be sweet and sour, just the way I love them.

A handful of the fruit is what I got and it's a delight to see that it's already more than the last harvest, which means that my tree is growing well, though the opposite would surprise me. I'm treating it like it's my precious baby.

I grab the flour before working on the bread recipe that I wanted to try as soon as I woke up this morning, one that includes - badum tsss - tangerines.

My obsession might go a little too far sometimes, but as my mother used to say, it's not drugs so who cares?

Tangerines are good for the health anyway so I've made a habit of incorporating them into my baking when it fits well, that and when my tree has any to give, though I can always buy them in bulks when it's not time for harvesting yet.

I send little snippets of memories as I begin the process of baking, my own way of sharing my recipes to my soulmate, if I even have one that is, but it's also a great way of keeping them secret when I make up my own things - I don't like writing my creations down on paper.

Sure, dreaming of baking when it's my job might be a bit much sometimes, I'd much prefer to see memories of my soulmate instead but for now... I can only focus on honing my skills with the hopes that one day, I could have my own bakery to be able to provide for my other half.

I can't help it, I would love to be able to make my soulmate happy by taking care of them, it's always been a dream of mine.

I want to bake them snacks, it doesn't even have to do anything with tangerines, I just want to be someone who they can rely on, someone who can give them happy memories to look back to when they have a bad day, I want to do everything in my power to show them that I am a good soulmate, a good partner for life.

If that were only possible.

I smile sadly to myself at the thought.

It would be such a shame if this dream never sees the light of day.

Taehyung's POV

Strawberries.

What should I bake with the strawberries today?

I lean over the cold counter before resting my cheek on it, exhaustion making it hard to even use my brain right now. It's a good thing that today's my free day because I would've messed up constantly at work, but that's entirely on me.

This morning, I woke up extra early to head to the meadow near my home because I wanted to share the sunrise in my archive, something I like to do whenever I have some free time, I must have a hundreds such memories in there by now.

Those sights are always so peaceful, they work hard to look different from the previous day each times, a new gift given to us tiny little humans every morning, so I like to make it a point to take in as much of the moment, always with my soulmate in mind.

Wouldn't that make them smile when we do end up finally joining our archives as one?

Everyone around me keeps saying that I don't have soulmates because I don't have a soul mark, my skin bare of any hopeful sign, but I don't believe that.

Everyone has a soulmate, that's a known fact and those who have a bond like mine, one that struggles to connect with their fated, they all end up meeting their soulmate one day or another so I want to hope, I want to believe.

People who die all alone are very few and rare, I'm not one of those, I know it.

No matter how crazy people think I am, I will keep believing, I won't give up on my soulmate. I can feel it deep within my soul that we'll be together one day, it's just a matter of time, and when that day comes, I will welcome them into my life with arms wide open.

I smile to myself as an idea flashes in my mind. Strawberry cupcakes, I haven't done that one in a while now and suddenly, I find myself craving the sweet treat.

I could maybe even add some tangerines in there for a change, I'm sure that would be delicious.

Strawberry, tangerines... and a little sprinkle of love.

Jimin's POV

"Alright, I'm going to ask you to close your eyes, Mr. Park. The sensors on your head will begin to receive sparks so that will be uncomfortable, but do try to bear with it, it's necessary to activate the different paths of your soul bond's archive. Think about your soulmates and try to reach out to any opening that you may feel in the process".

I nod at the doctor's directives and close my eyes, my heartbeat all over the place as I do. I can't believe that this is finally happening, this new clinic an answer to a plea that I begged to the sky for most of my life.

After waiting for many long, lonely years in which I could only dream of happy times with my other half, it's truly a dream come true that a soul clinic would finally open to the public to help people like us.

Sure, the process is expensive but... to finally have a clear idea of what's awaiting me in the future? It's worth it. I would pay that amount a thousand times if doing so could give me a bigger chance of finally meeting my soulmates.

The sparks mentioned eventually begin tingling at my skin, and while it's bearable in the beginning, nothing quite as bad as I had imagined, I realize that with every passing seconds, the pace becomes faster and the tingling a little bit more intense, to a point that I come to understand the warning when I wince in pain, but when I remind myself of why I'm doing this, I breathe through my teeth and clench my fists, I can do this.

I try to ignore the pain, as hard as it may be and instead begin searching through my soul's archive to find the paths she talked about, they have to be somewhere, right? I just need to find them.

I search and I wait and I search again for anything new, the sparks steadily becoming worse and worse as they send shockwaves right into my brain, and just as I begin losing hope, that maybe I truly am without soulmates after all, an echo touches my soul, a ripple into a dying ocean that brings with it light and warmth.

It begins with one, then two, three ripples, four, five, six, seven-

I open my eyes wide just as the shocks come to a stop, heart stumping away in my chest as memories come flooding into the soul bond's archives without warning, memories of all sorts coming in like a storm, ready to wreak havoc should anything stand in their way.

There are so many of them and they keep pushing at each other like hyenas on a hunt as they're finally given a chance to go where they belong, in the shared archives, but thankfully, the flood eventually comes to settle and calm down when everything has found its rightful place, and I release a breath of relief.

And at the exact moment, when it feels like everything has finally reached the peace that was always meant to be there... a new memory appears into the archives.

"I... it worked" I gasp as I turn to stare at the doctor.

"I have seven soulmates!".

Namjoon's POV

My voice locks in my throat, knees buckling under my weight at the sudden burst that floods my soul, the archive coming alive without any sort of warning to merge thousands of memories together like it's a gumball machine, colours and shapes of all kind settling into my soul where they were always meant to be.

I need a moment to find my breathing, the unexpected connection throwing so many different emotions at me that I need a moment to process it all, my shock also coming with immense joy and delight, because it finally happened!

Could it be that one of my soulmates went to the new soul clinic? I always knew that this moment would come, the seven marks resting underneath my collarbones proof that there were people meant for me, but I sure didn't expect today to be the day!

Before I can begin celebrating this wonderful event, a new memory takes place into the archives and I immediately reach out to it, a smile appearing on my face when my mind fills with the image of a beautiful woman staring at a bathroom's mirror in surprise, but when the breaking noise of a cup as it falls out of her grasp follows, her emotions entirely shock and maybe even fear as it crawls up my guts, I tense up, soul thrown aback by how unnatural this felt as it ends.

This... isn't the kind of memory one would purposefully send to the archives, it felt more like the shutter of a camera that goes off without warning, the flash taking you by surprise and forcing you to close your eyes because you weren't expecting it.

Uncaring that I'm still on the cold floor, my instincts urging me to make sense of this, a dread coming alive in the pit of my stomach because her fear was directly linked with the connection finally taking place, I carefully inch closer to her section of the archives to have a better look at her own memories, unaware that six other soulmates are also doing the same thing.

What was she so afraid of? Did she not want her soulmates? Is so many of us too much for her? Or is it something else entirely?

My only wish is to understand so that I can react accordingly to her concerns, but when the first memory that I come across begins to play before my eyes, I bring a hand to my mouth, head shaking when going for another one brings me the same kind of scenario but in worse.

"Oh my god".

Pain, so much pain.

Her cries all merge together, the occasional sound of bones snapping loud and clear as the memories seek respite after being left alone for too long, and it's while feeling incredibly sick in the stomach that I notice that the laughter always comes from the same children, a timespan that follows as they become teenagers, then young adults, their smiles vile and malicious as she always somehow bathes in her own blood and tears.

I lean my back against the wall behind me, sleeve used to wipe my face as I feel sweat drip down my skin, stomach churning when I try to process that one of my soulmates was abused her whole life and I didn't even know about it.

Are those memories all that she has in her archive?

There's no way that was purposeful, no one would want to keep remembering those moments willingly, and so it does bring me to wonder if something is wrong with her shutter, the memory that came in just now of the same nature - she doesn't want to share the moment, it just happens, something that I know only intense trauma can cause.

I drop my head into my hands, eyes closing as I try to calm my breathing, nose flaring with so much anger that it feels like fire boiling my blood as I shake on the floor.

Here I was, trying to live my best life while someone so dear to me was suffering on her own. I should've tried harder to find my soulmates, I should've tried harder a long time ago, maybe this could've been avoided then.

If I ever find any of those assholes...

There will be hell to pay.

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Are you guys surprised? This story wasn't really planned but it just happened anyway! I hope we all get to enjoy this new universe together~