A/N: So I wanted to expand more on this soulmate AU I have going. Much like the last story in the series these chapters will be short and more drabble-like than anything. You guys enjoyed that well enough so I hope you like this too. If you read the last story than you're well aware of who Yoosung's soulmate is.

I haven't yet decided what kind of relationship the two of them will have, so we'll see where this takes us. I may even leave it ambiguous. We'll see.

Enjoy!

When he had been a child Yoosung had hated his soulmate. He had been in pain on a daily basis. He felt like no matter what he did he was being punished. His parents would cry about it each time Yoosung ran into their bedroom with new bruises crying for them to make the pain stop. There had been nothing they could do, though.

Injuries would appear all over his skin as paintings of the agony his soulmate was going through. Yoosung didn't understand why he had to suffer too. Wasn't he a good child? He wasn't religious like his cousin Rika was, but did that really mean God hated him so much? It was his soulmate's fault. They must be doing something bad to deserve all of that punishment. Maybe they were the bad child. But didn't that mean Yoosung was as well? After all, they were two halves of the same soul.

It wasn't until Yoosung was older and understood more words did he grasp the concept of "abuse". There was no way of knowing how old his soulmate was, but if they were a child like Yoosung then that meant they were experiencing abuse. It was the only explanation for the scars and the noticeable rope burn on his ankles. There had been days where Yoosung had fallen to his knees and curled up sobbing against the blows to his back by some unseen force.

He had never felt more connected to his soulmate than he did in those times.

Yoosung was in and out of the hospital a lot as a child as his parents begged for the doctors to do something to relieve their child of the pain. Yoosung got used to taking pain medications. He would put cooling pads on the worst of his wounds knowing that it should soothe both himself and his soulmate.

One day when Yoosung had been twelve the beatings became worse. His eyes ached from crying even when he hadn't been the one to cry. They always hurt. He was sure they were because of his soulmate. Yoosung had been in the hospital almost that entire time until one days the daily beatings and injuries just . . . stopped.

That terrified him more than anything else. Because as much as Yoosung had hated his soulmate, he couldn't bear the thought that they might die. That would be worse than the beatings. He could feel it from somewhere deep inside of him that something would absolutely shatter and never heal if his soulmate was gone. It was only by that instinct alone that he knew his soulmate was still alive.

But then what had changed? Had they managed to escape their situation? Did they . . . kill the person who had been abusing them for years? Were they safe now? Were they in more danger? Yoosung had been twitchy about it for a long time following.

Everyone who knew him in school knew about his situation with his soulmate. It wasn't like the beatings had been reserved to a specific time of the day. It was horrible how the school had to adjust to the terror that Yoosung had to go through. That was why it was good to be normal for at least a little while. It was bad enough that most people didn't hang out with him.

It was why Yoosung focused instead on his studies. He threw himself into his schoolwork and focused on his relationship with his cousin Rika. Rika who was so mature and perfect in his eyes. She had nursed him and his health a number of times in the past. She had soothed his tears and held him through the worst moments. She was his best friend. His only real friend because nobody wanted to be around an abuse victim.

"It's horrible what happened to you, Yoosung." Rika had murmured as she pressed a hand to his cheek. Yoosung couldn't help his flinch. None of his family had ever hurt him -in fact they went out of their way to coddle him in an effort to fend off any possible mental and emotional effects the soulmate beatings might cause- but it was an automatic response to touch. It made Yoosung feel a little bitter. Would he ever be normal?

"I just . . . don't understand why it had to be me." He had confessed to her. "What did I do to deserve such a horrible soulmate?"

"I'm sure it's not their fault. They can't possibly be a bad person if they share your soul, Yoosung. They must be in a very unfortunate circumstance."

If Rika believed that, then she must be right. He couldn't hate someone who was just as much of a victim as he was. Yoosung had swallowed. "How can I help them?" He had asked softly -desperately.

"I don't know." She had responded, quiet and contemplative. Her eyes had been sympathetic as they had gazed into his. Something had swirled in those depths. There had been some emotion there that he couldn't understand. "The pain in this world is so terrible . . ."

Yoosung could only agree.