"Stop biting your nails, Y/N. You always end up regretting it at the end of the day".

I ignore San from my desk as my feet continually tap on the marble floor, my gaze locked on the shut door and my teeth chewing on my nails in a bad habit, the tingling that hasn't stopped in my mark since I saw two of my soulmates earlier keeping me on edge, tensed and nervous.

I obviously let the test's supervisor know to send them to me once they'd be done, and here I am, waiting anxiously until they would finally knock on the door of my office.

What were the odds of me ever meeting new soulmates here? How easily could I have missed them had I not personally insisted to hire them upon seeing their presentation letter, or if I hadn't accepted to give a speech?

To be honest, there wasn't much to see concerning their work experience prior to here, not by lack of efforts but by lack of opportunities, but that didn't really matter to me, though everyone else on board seemed uncertain.

I didn't know why I was so intent on hiring them, but the character of who they appeared to be as they wrote about themselves really convinced me of giving them a try. I found in their words a strong desire to be part of a positive change in the world, and their trust in me had made me feel incredibly warm.

But for them to be my soulmates? It indeed shows that fate is always knowing and calculated, this was no accident.

When a knock finally resounds onto the door, I'm on my feet before I can take my next breath, and San smoothly opens it to reveal the two men who clearly look just as nervous as I am, seeing as they're both a little pale and rigid in their posture.

The dog hybrid allows them inside, and we share a silent gaze before he nods his head, his own way of encouraging me before he exits my office to leave us alone, knowing that I wouldn't have it any other way.

It's overwhelmingly quiet when the door closes on him, and my heart doubles in speed when it finally understands that I'm left alone to deal with two people who are obviously part of a bond that I had to reject so long ago.

My soulmark reacts to their presence, but the connection is blocked, resulting in a thrumming pain, as if something is trying to push through a closed wall, a window so dirty that the sun cannot seep through it anymore.

I rejected the bond when I had no other choice, and now I have to accept it back into my life, starting with these two. Motioning for the couches before my desk, I try a small smile before inviting them to have a seat.

"Hoseok, Seokjin, thank you for coming here despite how busy you must be this morning. Please, make yourselves comfortable. Can I offer you anything to drink? Coffee? Tea, maybe? How... how was the test? I trust it was easy to answer?" I ask them nervously as they sit down, the two of them side by side while I move to stand at the front of my desk, my marked and gloved hand resting over my other elbow as it keeps burning with the glow of a soul blockage.

"Erm... no, but thank you, I'll be fine. As for the test, it went well. The questions were clear and with purpose so I'm sure we'll end up in a department that suits us well" the human, Hoseok, answers with a small voice, his hazelnut eyes searching into mine with a purpose of their own, as does the eagle with the golden eyes, Seokjin.

The latter nods to confirm Hoseok's points, and I take it as permission to go sit in front of them empty-handed, at the other side of the coffee table so I can face the two of them and see them properly.

I make a light hum, heart thumping away in my chest. I don't know what to say, how to react, or how to behave. It's been so long since I was last so close to another piece of my soul and it now feels like unknown territory.

"That's good... just know that if you're ever unhappy with where you end up, there's nothing wrong with asking to switch to another department. Trying different things until you find where you belong is something we encourage, as long as it's well thought through" I let them know, it's stronger than me to talk about work since it's all I know to talk about, and the awkward silence resumes, enough to make me squirm on my couch.

I twist my fingers tightly as I try to calm my heartbeat, but my clammy hands have started to cause my glove to stick to my skin in an annoying manner and the idea of removing it for all to see has me breaking into a more intense cold sweat. It's been years since I last allowed anyone to look at it.

What a pitiful sight I must be showing them right now... not anything like the cool persona that I wanted to show them were I able to hold myself proudly.

I rather feel like a child who needs to explain why she destroyed the garden when it was still beautiful.

"Is this what you wanted to talk about? You wanted to talk about our tests?" Seokjin finally speaks up with a light bite to his tone that speaks of his disappointment, and I feel smaller than ever under his sharp staring, he's not happy, is he?

Of course not... they're finding out that the CEO they're to work for is their soulmate and that there's a problem with our bond, of which I am the cause, whether they can feel it or not yet to be seen.

Still, my glove speaks for itself, it's easy to tell that I'm hiding something.

"No... no. That's not what I wanted to talk about, not why I called you here" I sigh softly before staring at my covered hand, and after one long exhale, I pinch on one finger to pull the glove off, which reveals the pulsating red skin that covers my sensitive palm.

I caress the tender skin softly, eyes burning and blurring over once I see the flowers that once linked me to the men of my childhood staring back at me lifelessly. The mark looks so different from when I first got it, achingly so.

"Something happened before us, right?" his voice is gentle this time, and I clench my jaw to keep it from trembling as a lump takes place in my throat.

I sniffle before looking up at them with a forced smile, but it doesn't reach my eyes, I can see on their faces that they don't believe it.

It feels like they can read through me too easily this morning, and it makes me wonder just how much of an open book I've become, or if they're simply too observant, like San.

Jungkook could always read me easily too, but my mask was far better built back then, it felt easier to show him what I wanted him to know, rather than now where these two can see what I don't want them to know.

It feels like I've gotten bad at hiding my emotions when it really matters, and it makes me feel terrible, because I still wish I could show them only my smile and not my problems, to keep them from worrying.

But now isn't about that, is it? It's not about me, or them, it's about telling the truth about the real state of our incomplete bond, for they deserve an explanation to the state of our imperfect soulmarks.

"I met four of our soulmates when I was younger. Very kind men, so kind" I finally whisper out an answer, and they both remain silent, though their eyes speak for themselves.

They can hear the pain and longing in my voice, and they don't understand why it hurts so much already.

"Jungkook was my first. He went to the same school as me and we were... inseparable. We were sixteen at the time, if I remember right. Gosh, I can't believe that was fourteen years ago... time goes by so fast when you keep yourself busy".

I chuckle drily, no humor in the sound that leaves me. I've given him love for two years, then hurt him for the next twelve? It might not have been within my control, but it still makes me feel like the worst soulmate on earth.

"What happened... Y/N? Can I call you by name?" Hoseok asks softly as he leans over, needing to know more about our other pieces, and I nod my head quickly, a finger catching a few stray tears before they fall down my cheeks.

"Yes, yes of course, the both of you can call me anything you want. And it's... complicated. When I was in high school, I took the pill to get my soulmark early, and my parents... well, let's say that they had their flaws. Very ugly flaws that I couldn't accept to see in my own reflection.

"Before leaving home for school that day, my mother made sure to tell me to pray so I wouldn't get a hybrid soulmate. I didn't listen to her. I wasn't going to reject the other half of my soul, so even after learning that I had hybrid soulmates, I held my ground. That didn't go so well".

I sigh deeply, not liking to reminisce about that time of my life. It makes me feel angry, so much anger. Hoseok and Seokjin aren't breathing, unable to fill their lungs when what they hear keeps them on edge, heart pounding at the pain that they can see etched onto my face.

"They got really angry at me and decided to stop treating me like their daughter from then on. I honestly lost count of how many times they beat me up for liking these men so strongly, as if throwing me against a wall was ever going to change my mind. I was supposed to choose the people that hurt me the most over the people that loved me so tenderly, just because they had animal attributes? How ridiculous, right?".

I hear the way Seokjin's wings flutter uncomfortably behind him, the ruffling of his feathers loud in the air that surrounds us, and he speaks up next, his questions leading me straight to the center of my misery, punches to my guts is what they are.

"If you all loved each other so much... if you fought for them to that extent, why is your flower dead, Y/N? Why are you not still with them? Why didn't you leave your parents behind to stay with them instead? Didn't they try to help you?".

I close my eyes and breathe in deeply. I can hear the confusion in his voice, it makes no sense that I would reject the bond after all, if I really wanted to fight for it.

I understand why they would think that way, I would've been no different in their shoes.

"They didn't know what it was like at home for me. I didn't want to worry them, I felt like it was my battle to fight, not theirs. We'd talked about moving in together, all of us. Jungkook and I were too young at first so the others asked us to be patient, and I did, however hard it was. Then we turned eighteen. We got so close... but it was already too late".

I hesitate for a moment longer before letting them know about the very thing that made my soul into ruins of itself.

"Something bad happened one day as I got home from work, some trouble my parents had gotten into without my knowledge, and they left before it got worse. I ended up having to deal with it on my own just like everything else, and I was taken away by strangers without my consent. My parents fled with my brother and his soulmate, and I knew right away that they'd abandoned me".

I frown as I remember the way I'd felt. Like I was expecting that day to come eventually. It had been disappointing, but not surprising.

"I later overheard a conversation from my captors that I wasn't meant to hear. Since they couldn't find my parents, they were going to have to keep me to get what they were owed, and that meant they couldn't have people look for me.

"They said something about whether they should kill my soulmates or not, to get them out of the way, or something like that anyway. I don't remember in details, it was so long ago. I just remember that I got really scared for their safety".

I swallow a thick lump in my throat, then stare up at the two men who are staring at me with parted lips and disbelief all over their faces, shock engraved into every one of their expressions.

"The outcome was simple. I either had to reject the bond or they would kill the four men whom I'd grown to love so deeply, and I couldn't accept that my messed up life could take the lives of the only people who truly cared for me. I did the only thing that made sense. I rejected them at a park, and then I disappeared from the picture".

There, I said it, finally.

It's bitter, thick and pungent, a truth that I've hidden for so long, but I could finally let it out and... it feels good, if only a little.

"I rejected the bond to protect them, it was all I could do at the time, and even if I wish I could've done differently, I don't regret it. It kept them alive, and that's all that really matters" I continue as they process my admission with round eyes, lips pressing thinly in dismay.

They weren't expecting death to come up in that conversation, that and my kidnapping - because that's what it was, isn't it? I was kidnapped - and to know that I had to go through so much because of my parents makes them hate them more than they can put into words.

They have so many questions still, but none of them feel right to ask right now.

There's so much to process, but the shock makes it hard to think properly.

"I honestly wasn't supposed to see any of my soulmates again after that day, wasn't supposed to allow anyone back into my life because of how dangerous it had gotten but... things happened and I earned my freedom anew, without all the danger that followed me for so long, hence why I called you here today. I'm sure it's hard to believe but... I truly had only the best intentions when I rejected them that day".

And it was, still to this day, the hardest thing I ever did.

I don't know what I'm expecting of them as I wait for an answer, anything.

Will they get angry at me because of what I did? Maybe they'll feel so bad for our other soulmates that they'll reject me too, cut me off the bond entirely so that I never get a chance to hurt anyone ever again.

I wouldn't be mad if that's what they choose to do, I more than deserve it. I hurt the men I love, the men bound to me by fate.

I hurt not only them, but the bond as well. There's very little I can do to fix the past, but as uncertain as the future seems, I want to hope for a chance to repair the impacts of what I was forced to do.

"That must have been so hard".

I slowly raise my head to stare at them dumbly at those words, my mask cracking at the edges as I hear something that I never hoped to hear from any of my soulmates.

I don't know how much of my deepest darkness seeps through, a forgotten waterfall that flowed without end in the loneliest part of my soul, one that never saw the light no matter how much I longed for it, still to this day cold like ice.

I don't know how much of it manages to seep out onto my face during that short moment, nor if they even understand the complexity of what they're currently offering me.

I did not believe compassion was possible towards me, or maybe it was my fear speaking, that I might be fed the same betrayal that I offered the four men of my younger years, yet here he is, offering me exactly what I needed.

Hoseok slowly and carefully stands up from his couch, then walks around the coffee table to sit by my side, and after a short hesitation that feels like an eternity to me, time slowed down as I stare at him, he pulls me into a hug.

Such a simple act and he stuns me into emotions that I had to push as far back as possible to avoid breaking down when I was still with Hae-in and his men, barriers that held strong even after I left.

So gentle in the way he holds me, his flowery perfume cradling my senses into an embrace that I had missed so dearly, and I suddenly crumble so fast in his hug that none of us could've seen it coming were it not for their sharp eyes taking in my every moves.

"I didn't want to hurt them, I loved them so much" I manage to utter before breaking into teary sobs, and Hoseok hugs me tighter with tears flowing from his eyes, little pearly drops that also find place on Seokjin's face, the eagle still on the other couch and staring with a broken heart.

They didn't understand everything that I said, not much of it made sense, not to them.

They can't possibly imagine how it could've felt to face a situation where rejecting the people they loved the most was the only way to save their lives, could never have been pushed into such a situation to begin with, but what they can see is that doing so isolated me into a spiny cage that continues hurting me today, and it hurts them too.

Can't they open the door to that cage now that they're here? Haven't I suffered enough?

A soft wing curls around my side gently and I startle a little, only to then truly bawl my eyes out when Seokjin eventually presses himself onto my back to join the hug.

This has got to be safest cocoon I've ever been granted in all of my life, because it feels like the young me is finally opening her eyes for the very first time in too long.

She'd been shivering in the water of that dark waterfall for so long, and now there's finally a warm hand pulling her out of it, while another one holding a towel gently dries her skin and tears.

I hadn't realized how much I needed this until they gave it to me, and I already know that I can't live like that anymore.

I can't stay away from my soulmates anymore, not when I finally got their touch back into my life. My soul longed for this so dearly that it would definitely shatter and die if my soul pieces were to be taken away a second time.

"There, there. It's going to be okay, now. Everything will be okay" Seokjin murmurs gently with his cheek resting over my head and a hand patting over my arm, brows knitted together in anger for what was lived and done, so much pain that went uncared for.

They felt pain too, during the long years of being alone, but they didn't have to live with an intense guilt and regret. They were impatient, nearly on the verge of giving up, but they didn't have to live with such a terrible past.

Fate truly can be mean sometimes.

"It's going to be okay, now... I'm sure everything will get fixed. Shhh... it's okay".

---

It takes me what feels like an hour just to calm down, the tears that streamed down my cheeks often caressed by soft and warm fingers and enough to push me into more sobs and tears, as if there was no way out of it anymore.

As if years of suffering had finally seen the light and needed to push their way out as fast as possible before the doors would close again. The waterfall finally lost of its water, and the suffering didn't want to have to go back when they could finally be freed.

It takes me a long while before I can find the strength to calm down, or maybe it only happens when my soul deems that I have cried enough.

The way that my sobs slowly turn into hiccups and sniffles, and then into silence, everything following a pace out of any of our control.

It felt natural at first, to be between them like this, and yet, I now find myself burning with embarrassment as I slowly come to process that I kept my face in Hoseok's neck all along, body pressed into his own as Seokjin covered the expense of my back with his broad chest, wings closed around us to keep us safe and warm.

I sniffle softly, lips pinched together as I begin to wonder how to bring an end to this form of cuddling without messing anything up. I don't want them to believe that I am uncomfortable with them, but I am indeed uncomfortable, if only emotionally.

I showed them much more than I was willing to, for I don't believe I have ever cried in front of anyone before. Admitting that I was in pain was... hard to begin with, so this? No, I am definitely out of my comfort zone.

I shift a little to wipe my burning face with a hand, and they both take it as a sign to move back slightly, themselves a little awkward now that it's over. Their brain just had to take that moment to remember that they're holding their boss.

Not quite the best thing to think of when holding their soulmate so closely.

I look down at my feet as we all move and sit properly on the same couch, eyes avoiding each other as if cringe is our new body language. Goodness... what a situation we find ourselves in.

I clear my throat, quickly glance at the two of them, then suddenly find myself snorting at the ridiculousness of what we look like right now.

Still, it's a relief to see that my soulmark is already looking better, though it's not fully healed.

Two of the once pale flowers have gained in darkness, and it makes a comforting warmth bloom in my chest, my lips stretching in a way that hadn't happened in a long time.

They both look up at the sound of my small laugh, and their lips immediately stretch into pretty smiles, bodies relaxing upon seeing that I look like I'm feeling better.

"There you go, a real smile, finally" Hoseok muses as he gazes at me, eyes creased as he takes in my more relaxed form, and he raises a hand to wipe the remnant of tears on my skin as if the most natural thing he's ever done.

I feel myself blush like a young girl, and I cover a part of my face with an exasperated sigh that makes Seokjin grin.

"Gosh, I don't know if I should be embarrassed or thankful for what just happened. I'm so sorry for crying like a baby, that's not like me to do something like that" I ultimately apologize with a low bow that none of them accepts when they shake their head just as fast.

"No need to be sorry for anything, I'm sure you needed it. Besides, it seemed to do something to the bond as well. Look".

I bring my gaze to the hand that Seokjin shows me, and the relief I feel upon seeing that my flower on his hand has also gained back in colour is indescribable. I show them my own palm so they can see how my mark was impacted too, and they lean over with sparkling eyes at seeing the change.

"The bond is healing" I say with a bubbly feeling in the pit of my stomach that expresses itself by coming out into a small gleeful laugh, a sound that makes their guts flutter and their souls feel all sweet.

"It's not all of them, obviously, but your flowers already look better and it's a lot more than I thought possible".

Hoseok hums softly, hands taking my fingers gently to observe my mark from closer, though I have a doubt it's only an excuse to get to touch me again. That makes me smile a little, that's something Jimin would have done.

"That means you can heal the bond with the others as well, isn't that great? All hope is not lost" he comments with a happy tone that matches the joy spread all over his face, and I nod my head despite the worry that comes back to gnaw at me about the successfulness of such a project.

"They might not want me back, though" I inform them, smile falling as I observe my mark from where he's holding my hand. And if they don't want me back, my soulmark will never fully heal, will it?

"There's only one way to find out".

With a frown, I stare at the gorgeous eagle. He looks too confident right now as he says those words, as he holds my gaze, and I don't know what to make of it. I wish I could be that confident too.

He taps his mark with a finger, wings still and at ease behind him.

"The group chat for soul bonds. Hoseok and I will register our marks into the system, and once we've received the link for the chat, we'll tell them about you and that you're with us. That ought to work, no?".

Oh, right. The chat, of course. Their access won't be locked like mine.

I wilt a bit as I let my thoughts wander further than necessary, because what if they do hate me and want nothing with me again? What if hearing about me only makes them shut the door tight? "What will you do if they reject me?".

My voice sounds weaker than intended, but Hoseok and Seokjin reach out to hold my hands with reassuring smiles that remind me of the others, such kind smiles they have.

"No matter what happens, Y/N, we'll fix the soulbond so we can all be together".

"You're not going to be left behind, not if we have a say about this".