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The implications of soulmates were relatively a new thing. The first known case was 100 years ago when a group of newborn babies had markings on their arm. No one knew what it meant, and it wasn’t until years later when two of the newborns, now children, first met. Both children had the same marking on their wrists. Still, no one knew what this meant until years later when the children were old enough to marry. This started happening to other people who discovered people with the same marking. There was an invisible pull, every couple would describe, and they somehow knew that their significant other would be important in their lives. Soulmates started becoming a constant in everyone’s lives. They were seen as a pure and innocent love that you could only ever have with your special someone.
The thing was, no one ever told you about the downsides of having a soulmate. The stress it gave some people, the fear that they may never find their soulmates. There were people that never found their soulmate and lived their lives without anybody because they were so hopelessly in love with the idea of soulmates. Some people didn’t have any markings on their wrist and were already destined since birth to be alone. The concept of soulmates made people go mad, crazy even. But no one wants to tell you that. Why should they? Who really wants to know the evil side of soulmates.
There was one thing that they never told you about soulmates—they weren’t always permanent.
You had met your soulmate on a sunny day in spring. You remembered because the flowers were blooming so brightly that day. Everything seemed more intensified ever since you woke up. You just felt like it was going to be a good day. You had just gotten your score back from your professor, successfully getting a high grade. Your job let you take three days off, which was a much needed break. The only thing that could finish such a great day was to grab a cup of tea at your local café. It was a quaint little shop, one that was always calm and peaceful. It was your favorite place to just sit and relax on days like today. Your eyes brightened at the sight of an empty line, you practically raced to the front of the counter. You patiently waited for the worker behind the counter to turn around, seeing as they were cleaning up and everything. You were in no rush and instead looked at the menu board to see if anything new caught your eye.
“Okay!” the worker finally said, “Sorry for the wait, what can I get for y—” As soon as you two caught each other’s eyes, the worker let out a breathy gasp. You stared, clearly flustered at his gob smacked expression, not really knowing what to do or say. It took a couple of seconds before the male realized where he was. He shook his head, as if trying to get rid of a fly on his hair.
Coughing once, he let out an airy laugh—could a laugh sound so angelic?—and began to speak once more, “Sorry about that, I just-um, haha yeah. What can I get for you on this fantastic day?” His boxy smile was enough to turn your legs into mush.
“Hello! It’s alright, I was just looking at the menu anyway.” Once you ordered and paid, the cute worker motioned for you to sit down, claiming that your drink would be ready soon. You didn’t notice the wider his smile was once you turned around. You also didn’t notice the slight shake in his hands or the twinkle in his eyes. You found a spot in front of the window, looking over the slow passing of cars and people walking ever so often. It was serene and calming, a sense of peace washed over you. You were brought out of your trance when your tea was placed almost delicately on your table. Your eyes wandered up the arm that held your drink. His smile radiated so bright while he stared at you.
“One green tea for the pretty customer.” A blush spread across your face at his words; you weren’t used to random strangers giving you compliment. But you had to admit, you didn’t really mind it when he said it. Your heart sped up as you quietly thanked your server, wanting to go drink your beverage, but noticed that he wasn’t moving. A few more seconds passed before you slowly lifted your head to meet his gaze.
“I-can I help you?” you asked. This seemed to pull the man out of his trance. He swept his hair away from his eyes. He nodded his head and motioned to your arm, his smile never leaving his face. Your own eyes widened and hastily pulled your arm to your view. The mark was still there, still present as always. Your heart sped up as you looked over at his arm. The same mark appeared; it was the same design, the same everything.
You stuttered; sputtered out incoherent nonsense in your state of euphoria. The man before you simply chuckled. He made a swift check around the café to make sure no customers needed to be attended to before sitting on the seat across from yours.
“My name’s Kim Taehyung, and I think we’re soulmates.”
The rest was history.
You spent the next few years in love with the man named Kim Taehyung. He was the sweetest, funniest, most loving person you’ve ever known. It was a complete miracle to have someone like him. Upon dating him, you also were well acquainted with his friends. Were they ever friends at this point? They all treated each other as brothers, and you adored their special bond with one another. Everyone took care of everyone and lifted their brother up. Since you had begun dating, that care was also shifted towards you. They were truly family and you loved every second of it.
They were there when you and Taehyung graduated, each in different years. They were there when Taehyung first got his permanent job. They were there for all your birthdays. They were there when you had your first argument with Taehyung. They were always there for you.
But where were they now, when you were broken? You were tired of it; you felt your soul being ripped out of your body. It’s been seven years since you’ve been with Taehyung. It’s been three since you’ve noticed a change in his behavior. It’s been one since you’ve come to realize that he wasn’t yours anymore. You’ve shed so many tears in the past few months; why did it have to be you? You had such a happy life and it was all shattering before your eyes.
Your bags were already packed and by the foot of the door. All you had to do was wait for him. It was already half past 2 am and here you were: on the couch with one leg over the other. Your heart was beating as though you had just run a marathon. Your thoughts were consuming you; maybe you should just go. It would save the trouble of talking and you wouldn’t have to wait any longer. Though, just as you were about to get up and just leave, the door leading out jiggled. Within the next second there stood Taehyung, obviously drunk and much too happy to be coming home at such an hour.
He was in his own little world, kicking off his shoes and loosening his tie before his eyes reached your own. He jumped a little seeing you and his grin seemed to waver. There was confusion in his eyes as we walked closer to you, “(Y/n)? What are you doing up, babe? You have work in the morning. I told you I’d be home late.” He went to reach for you hand, hoping to drag both of you to bed in order to sleep.
Once his hand reached yours, you flinched and quickly pulled it back. Your nose flared and you found yourself standing up and glaring at your soulmate, “We need to talk, and it’s been long overdue, Taehyung.”
“What…what are you talking about? Can’t this wait until tomorrow, we’re both tired and—”
“No,” you muttered, “We can’t talk about this later. Like you said, I have work tomorrow and you will either be gone by the time I wake up or you won’t be here when I come back. It’s been like that for what, the past year or so now. I am so sick of this; I can’t bear it anymore.” Your eyes watered and you so desperately wanted to be held in his embrace, but you couldn’t.
“You don’t understand what you’ve been doing is hurting me; it’s killing me Taehyung, and I have had enough of it. I…I have to leave you.”
Your words seemed to have sobered him up a bit. His quickly shook his head, blinking his eyes a bit, and looked at you in disbelief, “W-What are you saying? We’re soulmates, we’re meant for each other. I love you. We can fix this, (Y/n).”
He thought this was some cruel joke. Maybe you’ll laugh it off the next few seconds, tell him you were only just trying to scare him. And it worked. It’s working too well right now.
You sighed, “No, we can’t. I thought we could, I’ve tried, believe me, I’ve tried. But I just can’t do this anymore.”
“No, no, no, no. Baby, baby, we can fix this. Tell me what’s wrong, I’ll listen.” He held on to your hands then. Feeling a hint of callouses forming. He held on tight to your hands, trying to show you how much he needed you to stay.
“Taehyung, don’t you understand?” You pulled your hand away, swiftly walking towards the door, “I’ve tried talking to you about this. At first, I thought this was my fault. I thought something was wrong with me. You don’t know how many months I looked at myself in the mirror, thinking I wasn’t good enough; that something was wrong with me. But I know now, it’s not me that’s the problem: it’s you.
You know when this started? Maybe a couple months after your new promotion. I was so happy for you; god, I’m still so happy for all your accomplishments. But then you started spending most of your time at work than you did with me. And when you were here, you slept, or you wanted to hang out with your friends instead.”
“They’re my friends, I can’t just abandon them,” Taehyung replied.
“I know, I know. And I would never have you choose who to spend time with. You’ve known them longer than you’ve known me. But every date I planned, isn’t it funny? I was the one planning them out, you never once offered to spend time with me. All the dates I started planning, you would miss. I’d make sure you had time, but then something would come up. I stopped planning them a year ago. You never even noticed.
Then you started coming home late. I don’t even know why, you tell me it’s either for work or for your friends, but how am I supposed to know? I’ve been so alone. I shouldn’t have felt so alone when I’m lucky enough to have a soulmate. But why do I feel like this?” By now, tears started to stream down your face. Taehyung froze, his mind not computing what exactly was going on. His emotions were in a craze at the moment and all he wanted to do was not deal with this anymore.
“(Y/n),” he said, “You’re just saying things. Stop being irrational, we can talk about this later.” Again, he made a motion to lead you both to the bedroom, where ultimately, your resolve will diminish, and you’ll go back to the lull of things.
You weren’t going to let this happen again. “No, Taehyung! We’re talking now. I’ve poured my heart and soul out and you don’t even want to handle this. Do you even care about this relationship? Do you even care about me anymore?”
“Of course I do! It’s not my fault that I’ve just been busy! I can’t just quit work just to spend all of my time with you!”
“I know you can’t! But I shouldn’t be feeling so lonely. I feel like I don’t even have a soulmate anymore. And I can’t…I can’t live with you knowing that my love for you is 100% yet yours isn’t. I need to leave.” You moved to pick up the bags off of the floor. Taehyung was muttering protests but now did nothing to stop you. Tears welled in his eyes and a sob threatened to leave his mouth. You took one last glance around the room, the place you used to call home. Now it felt like a stranger’s home. It no longer held the same comfort it once did.
“Can’t you,” Taehyung’s voice croaked out, “Can’t you rethink this? We’re supposed to be together forever. Our symbols say so.”
You shook your head. The door was already slightly ajar, your heart still beating fast, “I can’t…I don’t care. Our symbols may say we’re soulmates, but I’ve lost you years ago.” You gave Taehyung one more look. How you so desperately wanted to go back into his arms; how you wished that all this was one horrible dream.
“Goodbye Kim Taehyung. I’ll always love you.” And you shut the door.
Teahyung would then fall asleep on the couch that night, his drunken brain not able to keep up anymore. It would be three in the afternoon once he’d finally come to. He would immediately notice how cold and barren the apartment was. He’d cry that day, cry out to the world for making him like this. He’d cry out that he should’ve treated you better. He stayed too comfortable, thinking that you’d stay with him just because of that mark on your arms. He should’ve tried harder once he realized that he was taking advantage of your love.
He should have realized, but he realized it too late.