[FIC] Soulmates: Selene

Title: Soulmates: Selene
Characters: Eunhyuk, Jo Kwon, SJ, 2AM, OC
Rating: PG
Chaptercount: 21/22
Summary: One unexpected yet scheduled meeting brings with it the start of so much more.
A/N: The first story I wrote with Super Junior in it lol. I was a bit of a fan at that time and Hyukjae was the first member of Super Junior I knew. I gradually learned more about them as I wrote this story so if some things don't add up at all, don't blame me lol.

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“You don’t know how much I want to hold her right now, because I know how tensed she is, but the company forbade me to do so.” he said softly, showing an obvious care for her and a surprising honesty about the involvement of the company in the conference. Selene herself hadn’t even known of this little detail that the company had included. It was probably better that way, because if Hyukjae had told her she might just have gone to that company boss and released her infamous temper on him.

“And sure they should!” another fan exclaimed. Even though she didn’t hold a microphone, Selene could hear her from all the way across the conference hall. “You don’t want to do this, Eunhyuk!” The words were spoken in a very rude and disrespectful way, but Hyukjae didn’t even care. He managed to keep his calm and smile as he looked down at the ground, while slowly passing the microphone from one hand to the other and back. After doing that three or four times, he finally raised the thing to his mouth again.

“Actually I do.” he said, lifting his head to look at the fan who had called out so rudely. “And I hoped E.L.F would support me. Have you not always supported us? Do you not want the best for us? Do you not want us to be happy?” His questions followed each other one by one, not leaving any space for the fan to answer. “I promised to always be honest, but now that I am you hate me for it? I wish I could make all of you E.L.F happy, but I can’t, can I? Even if I would have fallen in love with one of you, there still would be thousands of others left behind as well. There are so many of you and only fifteen of us, so what do you want us to do? I had hoped you would all be happy that I was happy and wish us the best of luck, but I guess somehow I knew that wouldn’t be possible.” Even though he didn’t cry, Selene knew he was close to it and the silence that followed his words was more meaningful than ever. Screw every company and every fan in the world. She would not let him be like this when she was sitting right next to him.

Without giving one more thought to the fans, the reporters or the consequences of her actions, she pushed the microphone in the hands of the person sitting on her right and turned to Hyukjae. Without hesitation, she put one hand on his and let one arm slide around his shoulders. His reaction was almost immediate. The tensed muscles in his back relaxed and he loosened his grip on the microphone as he looked up at her with a slight smile. She smiled back, gave him a short hug and sat back down. As she accepted the microphone that was handed back to her, she softly intertwined her fingers with his, resting both their hands on the arms of the chairs. It was only when she looked up at the hall full of staring people, that she realized what exactly she had just done. Fearing the worst, she simply looked at their hands again and softly stroked his hand with her thumb. The silence lasted a while, before someone suddenly spoke very clearly.

“I am happy that you are happy, Eunhyuk-ssi, and I hope all of you will soon become just as happy.” It sounded. Selene dared to glance up from under her eyelashes to see one of the fans in the front row standing there with a smile on her face. “Because I care about all of you and that means I want to see you happy, no matter how or with who you manage that. That’s why I support you in your decision and I will protest against the company if they even try to kick you out of the group or force you to break up.” The girl nodded after those words as if to mark the end, but she didn’t sit back down. She just smiled as she looked at the couple and the other fourteen members. Another short silence followed her words, before another fan stood up as well.

“I am happy too.” he said. Selene was surprised to see a male fan, but she didn’t even get much time to wonder about it, because suddenly lots of fans started standing up, all saying ‘So am I.’ or ‘Please be happy.’ In the end, it was again more than half of the present fans who were standing up and smiling. Yet, that was not the end of it. After a short hesitation, more fans began to stand up, but they did not voice their opinion.

“How do I know this girl will not make you change? How will I know she will not take you away from your fans?” The one fan who had made the rude comment spoke again, but her tone was less sharp then before. She still didn’t sound very positive, however. Hyukjae raised his microphone again and smiled a little.

“Have I changed in the last year? Have I been taken away from you E.L.F?” he asked kindly, using formal speech even though the fan was younger than him. She seemed to be taken aback by his friendly tone and formal words, because her answer was nothing more than a very short shake of her head. “Yet Selene already was my girlfriend then as well. Nothing will change, just that you now know about her and you didn’t before. Will it make such a big difference?”

“I do not intend to take Hyukjae away from his fans, from all of you. I do not plan on changing anything about the situation. You should also not be afraid that you will lose the love of the members, because if ever they should forget about E.L.F, which is not likely, I will make sure to refresh their memories.” Selene added to his words when no one responded for a while. “All I ask of you is to accept me. You do not have to like me or something like that, but don’t hate me either.” Even though she felt like she was begging, she kept her straight position and did not even flinch once under the piercing stares of the thousands of fans.

Her words were followed by a new outburst of noise, only this time the fans started chanting her and Hyukjae’s name. It was such an amazing feeling, that Selene was unable to stop the tears from running over her cheeks. Immediately there were caring fingers wiping them with a tissue, but she pushed away the hand and took the tissue to do it herself. She didn’t want to look too weak in front of the still chanting fans. Even though she saw a bunch of fans not chanting along, it still was a wonderful thing. She had known from the beginning that not everyone would be happy with it, but the fact that there were so many really was a miracle on its own.

She stared out into the audience until their chanting died away. The silence was full of expectations and Selene felt a knot in her stomach because of the tension.

“Thank you.” she managed to choke out into the microphone. Her vision once again became blurry and the helpful hands were back with another tissue. She let the person wipe away her tears this time and tried to make out who it was. To her great surprise, the member leaning closer to her was Kangin, who was gently cleaning her face. He smiled encouragingly when he noticed her looking at him. As she calmed down a little, she also slowly became aware of how her left hand was being held tightly by Hyukjae.

“I appreciate this so much.” He meanwhile said to his fans. “This means a lot to me. I hope you will all keep supporting us and show our next album lots of love. Saranghae E.L.F.” Again people cheered, but they became silent when Leeteuk picked up his microphone. He told them to ask any question they wanted to ask and that every member would answer. After that, there were all kinds of questions being asked by the fans, but after a few more, they hardly asked about Selene again, so the rest of the conference, she silently sat next to Hyukjae, holding his hand the whole time.

When she finally returned backstage after two more hours of listening to the questions and the boys’ answers, she was immediately hugged by her five friends, who seemed to have become hyperactively happy in the time she had been gone. With big smiles they hugged her, bounced around her and hugged her again. As they happily let out shrieks of joy, Selene just stood there, overwhelmed by the total of it all.

“You did great!” Afreya exclaimed. It was a little weird to hear Japanese after three hours of listening to nothing but Korean, yet it also felt very familiar.

“They totally loved you!” Chinatsu added happily. Kana, Kasumi and Sakura only smiled, but they did join in on the fun of group hugging and stuff like that.

Next up was her mother, who stroke her hair and gave her a reassuring squeeze in her shoulder.

“You were very good, musume.” she spoke, before giving her a hug. “Now at least properly introduce me to this Casanova of yours who’s got more than a thousand girls at his feet.” Selene laughed, even though the tears had started to run over her cheeks again. The emotions and tension of the last three hours had been too much for her to handle and she was now suffering from an outburst of all those emotions.

“Oh mom, I love you so much. I hope you know that.” she sniffed.

“Of course I know, musume.” her mother replied calmly, but Selene could see how surprised and touched her mother was upon hearing those words. It was not often that she spoke out her feelings that bluntly, without having a real reason to. Feeling a little unsure about that, she hugged her mother and closed her eyes. When she let go again, there was no trace left of the sudden outburst of emotions. A slight smile played with the corners of her mouth and she turned to look at the others.

“Let’s go. I’ll introduce you to the boys.” she said. Even though the girls had arrived in the morning and it was way past six in the evening now, there had never been time to introduce them to the boys properly. In fact, they hadn’t even seen the boys up close yet. Just like her mother, who hadn’t even met her daughter’s boyfriend before the whole world knew about it. Selene had thought that sad, but there was nothing she could have done about it. The boys’ schedule had been too busy. They would have a free week without schedule after the conference, however, to let the fans calm down.

Upon arriving at the boys’ backstage room, they were confronted with the view of the fifteen members changing into different T-shirts. Selene, who had gotten used to seeing them quickly change clothes out of hygienic consideration, simply entered the room, but the others behind her stopped and stared or quickly looked away. Her mother was the only one who simply walked through with her, looking back at the other five girls with a smile.

“Well girls, have you never seen another person’s body before?”she asked jokingly, turning to the fifteen boys. “Although I must say that these are exceptionally nice to look at. Do you think they would mind walking around without T-shirt for a bit, musume?” Selene turned to look at her mother with a shocked expression. She was lucky her mother didn’t know any Korean and had therefore spoken Japanese, because otherwise the boys would have understood it as well.

“Mom!” she exclaimed in shock. That’s when two arms were put around her middle and she was pulled into a hug-squeeze by Hyukjae. To her surprise he was laughing, as if he had understood her, and he turned to her mother with a smile on his face.

“I don’t really mind walking around without my T-shirt for a while, but I’m afraid I would feel very uncomfortable and awkward being checked out by the mother of my girlfriend.” he said with an amused voice. It took a few moments for Selene to realize he was speaking Japanese. His accent was almost non-existent and even the grammar was close to perfect.

“Oh.. That’s true..” her mother replied, like it was not at all something extraordinary that Hyukjae gave her such an answer in her own language. “How about your manager? Do you think he would mind going shirtless?”

Selene stared at her mother, too shocked to get out another word. Hyukjae wasn’t much of a help either, because he simply laughed. Sungmin, the only other member who knew Japanese well, as far as she knew, had walked over to the five girls still standing at the door and invited them in. Always the gentleman, of course. Selene looked from her mother at her boyfriend and back, before shaking her head in defeat.

“Well mom, this is my boyfriend. Hyukjae, this is my mother.” she mumbled, quickly introducing the two to each other before they could blurt out more nonsense. “And you never told me you knew how to speak Japanese.” she then continued, turning to Hyukjae and poking a finger in his stomach. He jumped a little because it tickled and smiled at her.

“I learned it in the last few months. K’Ae taught me.” he replied, catching her hands in his so that she couldn’t poke him anymore and pressing a soft kiss on her lips. When he went on talking, he had switched back to Korean. “You did a great job, Lene. I’m very proud of you.” His words made her smile and she felt a little proud inside.

“Selene-ssi.” someone else called her. She turned to see who it was. Heechul, still not wearing a T-shirt, walked up to them. “You totally owned those people out there!” he exclaimed, giving her a high five. He then surprised her by giving her a very tight hug, even lifting her from the ground a little. When he put her down, he turned to her mother with his big smile. “Hello, Selene’s mom. Great daughter you got here. Really great. Wonderful personality. Too bad she’s already taken by my dongseng.” He shook her mother’s hand, before walking away again.

“He said hi and added some nonsense.” Selene said upon seeing her mother’s confused look, waving Heechul away as if he was no big deal. She then took a step towards the guys. “Ya, listen up.” she called out, making them all turn to face her. “I want to introduce you all to my friends. Can you form a line or something? It would be very appreciated.” There came a lot of protest about them not being little kids anymore and them seeing no reason to form a line, but she cut it off by saying: “Those who don’t form a line can get a punch in the face.” Immediately, every single one of them went to stand in a line, excluding Hyukjae who stayed at her side with his arm around her middle. She smiled sweetly. “Thank you very much.”

First of all, she of course introduced Hyukjae to her four friends who hadn’t seen him yet. Even though the three youngest seemed to be a little nervous meeting these famous people, some of them being their idols, Sakura showed no sign of that. She smiled, bowed and shook Hyukjae’s hand. He bowed back, reaching out for the other three girls’ hand as well. The rest of the boys had obviously decided to move up from youngest to oldest, so next up was Henry. The rest of the guys went back to doing other things, but kept an eye on her to see when they should come up and say hello. Selene smiled on the inside about their discipline.

Afreya, who already knew all the boys, had left the group of people being introduced to the boys. That’s why, during the little conversations the girls had with the boys, Selene tried to look around to find her friend, but didn’t see her anywhere. A little surprised because of Afreya’s sudden disappearance, she felt a little worried, yet she decided there was nothing that could happen as long as she stayed in the building, so she concentrated on the introductions again.

When Heechul had been introduced, finally wearing a shirt as well, it was Leeteuk’s turn. At least, it was supposed to be, yet Leeteuk had disappeared. Surprised, both her and Hyukjae looked around the room, but he was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t even sleeping on the couch. Suddenly, Selene grasped the whole situation, linking Afreya’s disappearance to Leeteuk’s in her mind and immediately coming up with a bunch of possible outcomes.

“Stay here for a second, I’m going to find Afreya.” she mumbled to Hyukjae, immediately leaving the room. She didn’t really have an idea where her friend, or possibly both of her friends, could be, but she set off anyway. The moment she was in the hallway, however, K’Ae suddenly appeared by her side, making her jump aside in surprise. When she saw who it was, she put a hand over her heart as she calmed down.

“I’m sorry. I did not mean to scare you. It’s just that I know who you’re looking for and I know where they are.” the older girl said, seeming very serious.

“Is everything alright with them, unni?” Selene immediately asked, worried about her friend. At the same time, she wondered why the two of them would have gone off on their own. Okay, Leeteuk was still into Afreya, but Afreya had never shown any wish to get closer to him than she was, nor did she have any reason to sneak away and talk to him in private. Selene felt a little awkward, however, not knowing if she should disturb the two in case they were really talking about something.

“Well, I’m not quite sure. They disappeared into a room together and I could hear them discussing something from two rooms away.” K’Ae replied. Immediately every doubt in Selene’s head was cleared. When Afreya yelled at someone, that meant things were bad. Very bad. Bad enough to reach them as fast as possible and get in between before she would start fighting. Afreya had not taken her Ninjutsu classes in vain and even though it showed much less often, the girl’s temper was just as bad as Selene’s at times.

“Take me to them, please.” she said anxiously. K’Ae immediately started leading the way and Selene followed as quickly as she could. After walking through two hallways, she could hear the sound of screaming voices and unconsciously started running. Once she reached the right door, she grabbed the handle and pushed it open. The moment the door slid open, however, the noise suddenly stopped, and what Selene saw made her stare a moment in shock, before pulling the door closed again and walking away.