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Some people, "the lucky ones", they say, gets a timer on their wrist when the date of their third birthday comes.
Mary's parents were delighted when they saw hers appeared when Mary turned three. Her timer says: 14 years. This means it will take approximately 14 years for Mary to meet her soulmate. They were relieved to know that their baby girl will have someone certain in her life and that by the time she meets them, she is already a person capable of deciding for herself.
//
Through the years, Mary's timer was a thing of fascination for her and the people around her. But as she grew up, her feelings towards it started to change. When she realized what she actually wants with her life, her fascination with meeting her other half starts to morph into dread.
There's a lot of anxieties this timer system brings.
What if the person she's supposed to be tied with forever is a horrible one? What if they're a lot older or younger than her? What if Mary won't like them? Worse, what if they're too good for her? What if they won't like her?
Before she entered high school she decided that this timer thing is a huge headache and therefore something she should just get rid of, but since having it removed is a very expensive feat she just opted to buying a bracelet that will hide it.
//
It's been more than two years after that, when on a normal day this ticking sound hums inside Mary's head. It was not there when she woke up this morning and there are no objects that can produce such annoying noise anywhere near her seat in the classroom, so it confused her a lot.
Frustrated, she frowns and wills the sound to go away, but of no avail.
Then an idea suddenly clicked within her. She looks at her left wrist, specifically at the bracelet that adorns it. She have never set her eyes on what is beneath it for a long while that she now can't remember what was written on it.
A lot of things had happened to her so she totally forgot that this is actually a part of her life.
Mary gulps loudly, her shaking right hand slowly takes off the black band, that is almost second skin for her now, to reveal her wrist. The numbers on it are blinking and Mary couldn't stop the gasp that was ripped out of her lips at the sight of them. Her eyes widened and her heart went on beating erratically, making it hard for her to breath.
Her mind caught up to what she is seeing. The timer reads 11 seconds.
'What the actual fu-' her thoughts were disrupted by their teacher's abrupt and loud entrance.
Mary tries to act normal while pulling her attention away from her timer, her right hand absentmindedly touching the changing digits on her wrist.
When their sensei announced that their class will have a transfer student, Mary feels panic laced with excitement runs through her. It can't be merely a coincidence that the day her timer is scheduled to go off is also the day this transfer student arrives.
She tunes out the man's blabbing, her eyes tracing her timer once again.
4... the door opens
3... heels click
2... Mary freezes, her heart hammering loud
1... she blinks before unconciously taking her eyes off her wrist
0... Yellow meets red
Mary's world shifts. She knew, in that moment, it no longer revolves around her but around the mysterious girl staring back at her.
How horrifyingly absurd...
~*~*~*~*
Yumeko's first clear memory of her sister is the time the older girl woke her up on her third birthday and sang a sweet song for her before showering her with kisses; this made young Yumeko giggle. Then her nee-chan gently took hold of Yumeko's tiny hand, a delighted gasp rang out inside her room as her sister saw the numbers on her wrist. The teenager explained to Yumeko that she is one of the lucky ones who have their soulmate.
When she asked what a soulmate is, her sister replied with a tender smile and says, "They're your prince, my little hime." before tickling Yumeko and later cajoled her to opening some of her gifts.
//
She was 8 years old when her world started falling apart. Their parents' death didn't affect her as much as it did to her sister; who, despite being busy, still does her best to spend time with Yumeko.
Then a year after that, Yumeko was sent to a boarding school where she was bored most of the time.
The prissy young heiresses around her fawned over the numbers on her wrist, saying that she's lucky to have a soulmate. Save for that one girl, and her lackeys who were hostile to Yumeko, for no reason. She would go on about how Yumeko is actually cursed because someone like her will definitely have an awful soulmate or that her soulmate will surely hate her because she's a freak.
Little Yumeko would just give one of her fake smiles and answered, "Maybe, but you will never find out." with the faux sweet tone that her sister taught her to use against bully wannabes.
It was when she almost completely lose her sister that eleven-year-old Yumeko's world did, in fact, went crashing down.
Her salvation came in the form of gambling. Ironically, the one that caused her sister's demise is also the one who made Yumeko understand just what on earth it is that's been missing from her life this whole time.
The thrill, the surge of emotions, the connections and the devastations that gambing brings is what made Yumeko feel truly alive.
//
She was fourteen when the matter of her timer was addressed again.
The business partner that agreed to gamble with her caught a glimpse of the numbers on her wrist despite of Yumeko's attempt in keeping it discreet with make up and thin bangles.
They both didn't want money to be the payment required in this gamble so the woman demanded that Yumeko should have her timer removed if she lose; Yumeko agreed.
Ever since she had gambling, she didn't mind her timer that much. But the little girl who craves for a companion, residing somewhere inside Yumeko, still clings to it; to the thought that someone is out there, someone meant for her.
And that little girl pushed Yumeko to win that day, unfortunately, luck was not on her side and she was defeated.
It did ached, but Yumeko shrugged it off back then. She figured that if she failed her soulmate even before meeting them, then there's no use knowing that person and dragging them to her unconventional world.
It's okay, gambling is all that she needs, anyway.
//
The girl staring at Yumeko is so hot.
And as she gaze back at golden orbs, it comes to her, this strange notion; that the bits of her fallen world are starting to piece theirselves back together because of this girl.
How utterly intriguing...