I rose from the floor once a buzzing sound rang through the elevator, an alert for anyone outside the machine that it was out of service. It stopped when I pulled the release for the emergency stop, the button to my floor glowing orange as I hit it with my knuckle. On the way up I wiped my eyes on the back of my hand, leaving behind a smear of mascara.

The apartment was completely silent, my clutch making a small clattering sound as I dropped it on the coffee table. I cracked the door to my dad's bedroom, the quiet only a momentary lull until he breathed out with a snore.

In the mirror's reflection as I stood in the bathroom, still in my dress and with my shoes laid on their side by the door, I appeared starkly different from the last look before departing for the wedding that afternoon. My lipstick lightened a hue and eye makeup bled beneath my lashes, the corners smudged from rubbing at my tears.

Even so, I had to tilt my head at the woman staring back at me when I'd removed it all, my fresh face glowing with the rush from his profession of love.

I'd bother with my hair later, digging through to loosen some of the product and deciding to postpone washing. I opted to stay awake until sunrise with a cheesy, predictable movie and Seokjin on my mind.

By dawn my head lolled onto the arm of the couch, eyes sore from lack of sleep and the emotional night. I'd just finished watching my third happily ever after when my dad's bed creaked as he woke.

I was familiar with the sounds of him grunting as he stretched, house shoes scuffing across the floor until he reached the bathroom. I flipped the TV to a sitcom, waiting for him to finish with his morning routine to figure out breakfast.

He pressed his hands together so that they created a single clap as he entered the living room. He'd gotten a bit thinner since starting treatment, his belt pulled tighter to keep his jeans up.

He wasted no time, an anticipatory glee behind his question. "How was the wedding?"

"The ceremony and everything was beautiful. I was by myself for a lot of it but I had a good time." I chuckled at his immediate signals of impatience, scoffing and crossing his arms.

"No disrespect to the bride and groom but I want to know about you and Jin." He retorted.

I couldn't help but laugh, his lips puckered in a small pout. "He's my soulmate dad, of course we had a good time." I kept it short but he could see right through me, settling in on the couch so that I automatially snuggled into him like when I was a kid. "Being with him feels so incredible, but I feel like I'm on the edge of shattering. I'm already constantly worried about you and your health. I don't know how to do this without letting that take over."

"Stop fighting it. It's okay for you to feel both. If you keep trying to hold it all in it'll bubble up and be too much." His insights were always on par with what I needed.

We stopped by a cafe for breakfast and took a walk along Douglas Trail, my arm hooked through his while I recanted every detail of the night before to his great approval.

After a quick lunch provided by a food truck we spotted along the way he didn't have much room for a heavy dinner. Still, once we were back home and tucked into our usual seats in front of the TV, he pinched at the bowl of popcorn I made to satisfy my need to make sure he ate.

He dozed on the couch with the glow from changing scenes illuminating his tilted head while I prepared for the next day. I ensured our bags were packed and ready by the door, prepping snacks to be grabbed from the refrigerator and ingredients to combine for a slow cooker meal to be left on, and I continued thinking of Seokjin.

For the first time I let my mind wander without resistance. There was so much I didn't know about him and I wondered, about the ways we'd spend time together, his favorites things, and all of it in between.

Anticipation lurked in my gut when I woke that Monday morning, five minutes before my alarm was set to ring. I felt refreshed from the long shower, pampering, and walk the day before, finishing up in the bathroom quicker than usual. I was rushing unnecessarily, waking my dad and running through my morning duties so quickly that I ended up waiting by the door for him with my bags draped over my shoulders ten minutes before we were set to leave.

"You're excited to see him." My dad observed on our elevator ride to the first floor.

I'd been fidgeting with the strap of my tote bag, pinching my fingers together over the rough fabric. "I'm nervous. I don't know if everything will be exactly the same or completely different." I replied, catching my dad's smirk before we exited for the short walk to the clinic.

They were another set of two truths to exist together and be accepted that week, my dad eager to fulfill the latter. Seokjin was already there, my dad walking ahead of me after we checked in to claim the seat I'd been using for the past two and a half months. He and Seokjin gave a nod of greeting and understanding to each other, waiting for me to take the spot between them.

It took all of two minutes for them to lean forward, craning their heads to talk to each other about the weekend while Julia set up my dad's port and medicine. I fished through my bag for a notebook and pen, adding a few items to my to-do list that popped into my mind at our arrival, feeling Seokjin glance at me when he spoke about the wedding.

He waited until Julia started on her usual round of questions for my dad to pull my attention to him, leaning over the arm of his chair so that we were only a few inches apart.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked. I noticed that as soon as we started to speak my dad and Julia went silent, surely listening to our interaction.

I kept my voice low, letting my our fingers lace together as he took my hand just as he had when we were in his car. "Yeah, are you?"

He mimicked me, looking down at our hands. "Yeah, are we?"

I giggled and he joined me as we overheard Julia return to the nurse's station, announcing to her coworkers that she'd officially won the bet they'd apparently placed on Seokjin and I's affection for each other.

"Yeah." I answered simply, watching the look at filled his eyes switch from one of concerned questioning to satisfaction. He pulled my hand up so that his lips pressed into the side where our thumbs crossed over each other, sitting back until my dad spoke up again with a story we were both familiar with but always open to hear.

Once my dad finished his retelling of the night he met my mom, emphasizing that they were soulmates despite Seokjin's limited understanding of the more concrete meaning behind the label, he let out an exaggerated yawn.

He declared that it was time for a nap, his feet springing up to rest as he reclined with a pillow tucked under his neck.

"He's told me that story five times." Seokjin chuckled.

I didn't doubt him, continuing to talk low so that we didn't disturb my dad. "It's my favorite. I used to have my mom tell it to me constantly. It was my real life fairy tale."

"Tell me about yours." He tipped his head to the side the same way he did when he requested a storytime of the books I read.

"About my real life fairy tale?" I asked, tucking one leg under the other so that it was more comfortable to turn to him.

He shrugged, clarifying. "Yeah, your first love."

It felt like an opening to tell him about the entire soulmate dynamic, but I resisted. It wasn't the right setting, in this room filled with people fighting for their lives and slews of others providing support. I wanted his full understanding to come in a moment where we were free of restraint and right now, with my dad's buzz saw snoring on the other side of me and the privacy curtain pulled open, I knew it wasn't the time.

"My love life's kind of a long story, but I'll tell you all about it soon." I replied, my non-answer creating a lull in the conversation. "What about yours?" I wondered, already imagining him as an attractive student who girls fawned over and maybe with a lover who longed for his return from the military.

His bottom lip pulled under his teeth, the tips of his ears turning pink with his answer. "There isn't anyone else. Just you."

Though I tried to hide the initial shock at the difference in our romantic histories he caught on to the slight widening of my eyes.

He loosened his grip on my hand as if he were giving clearance to let it go. "Hopefully that isn't a deal breaker."

"It's not." My reply and the tightening of my hand in his was immediate. "I just didn't expect it. I mean, you know you're really attractive right?" I made an attempt at lightening the mood.

"Am I?" He responded, his snarky tone absent of any humility when it came to his looks. "Honestly I never thought anyone wanted me."

It was hard to believe, every discovery of him bringing me toward the fullness and firmness of my feelings for him. He deserved them, wholly and unabridged.

"I guess I'm lucky that every woman you've met let you get away." There was a small thrill in seeing the way his face lit with the compliment.

After my dad woke they adjusted their chairs to have a better view of each other, talking and laughing on either side of me until I complained that we should have kept our prior seating arrangement. They both refused, my dad insisting that Seokjin needed to be next to me to hold my hand.

The following day Seokjin was quieter, reaching for me between scribbling down the answers to a crossword puzzle with a line between his eyes that appeared every time he was stumped on a clue. He pressed the eraser to his pencil against his bottom lip, finally looking up when my dad scooched from his chair for a bathroom break.

He closed his book with the pencil holding the page, interrupting my reading while I was in the middle of a sentence.

"Come here." He requested, an urgency to his voice that told me he'd been waiting for a moment alone.

I finished my sentence, letting my thumb rest between the pages to look over at him. Our chairs had been moved so that the pleather arms stuck together, squeaking whenever one of us adjusted our position. "Seokjin, I'm literally less than a foot away from you."

"I know, but I want you closer. I need to kiss you again." He sounded close to pleading.

My eyes naturally shifted to the privacy curtain, checking for any movement before standing and sitting sideways on his lap. His hand curled around my thigh, being careful of the tubing that streamed medicine into his veins to put the other on my waist. We wasted no more time with words and he kissed me slowly as if every second was treasure, the weight of his fingertips pressing into a grip doused in need.

"I don't know what I'm doing, how to do this." I sighed against his mouth. It felt so vulnerable to be with him, like I was made of porcealin and he held onto me as if I were, pulling his hands further around me so that I was covered in his arms.

My hands met over the width of his back and he smelt just as fresh as he tasted in the morning, of minty toothpaste and laundry detergent that hadn't worn off with the day. His lips puckered against my neck, as soft as his voice of reassurance.

"Come to my appointment tomorrow. We'll figure it out together." There was a small emphasis on the last word, a reminder that I didn't carry my worry and fear alone.