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It’s said that the song of your soulmate can only be felt in your heart when the time is right. When you ask others who already found their soulmate what the song is like, the only answer you ever get is usually something along the lines of, You’ll find out.
They say that the song is different for everybody. For some, steady like a drum. For others, playful like a babbling brook. You are left wondering when you’ll hear a song that will be yours. You wonder if it’ll be a tune and pace that is harmonious. Yours and also another’s.
You have been to so many places, seen so many stories. You’re on a journey, searching and wandering. Sometimes you are longing, but you’re still doing alright going about your own merry way. There are days you think that you won’t need a soulmate if you’re happy on your own. You are most definitely content, but there are also moments when you see a beautiful scene and think about what it would be like to share the sunset with someone who hears the same song as you.
This time, your journey leads you to the beach. At this place where the ocean meets shore, you close your eyes and take a deep breath. You can smell the ocean air with the salt in the top notes. Right beneath it is the fresh smell of baked goods from a bakery nearby. Accompanying, are the gentle cries of seagulls and rippling waves. It’s dusk and the last of the sun’s rays are vanishing into the horizon line, leaving the center stage to the twinkling stars above.
“Woah there!” A panicked voice and a horse’s neigh cut into your meditation.
You open your eyes and see a young man on a galloping horse coming full-speed your way. The man’s white hair flutters in the wind. Although his expression is both nervous and tight, you can’t help but notice his eyes. Bright, gleaming, and beautiful.
“Get out of the way!” Hoshiumi yells, trying to get your attention. You’re frozen in your spot as the man and horse come closer and closer. It feels so surreal and absurd at the same time.
“Stop, stop, stop!” Hoshiumi pleads, tugging on the reins in vain. He’s both scared of hurting the horse, but all the more terrified that he’ll run over the random person standing on the beach alone, that is you.
Suddenly, the horse slows to a trot and comes to a stop right in front of you, avoiding disaster altogether. Dark eyes observe you as if they are trying to decipher if you are the one they are looking for. The horse drags his hooves through the sand once and shakes his mane of some loose sand. He grunts, as if saying, “My work is done”.
Hoshiumi lets out a sigh of relief. Earlier, he really was at wits end thinking he had lost control over the horse. All he wanted was to have some fun in-between volleyball season, not veer on the edge of being responsible for a terrible accident.
You hesitantly take a step closer to caress the horse and whisper a few calming words of affirmation. Hoshiumi watches in awe at how you handle the horse so effortlessly. A few scratches on the ridge between the horse’s shoulder blades seem to have the horse in a good mood.
“Thank goodness, I’m so sorry,” Hoshiumi apologizes. “I really didn’t expect this guy to just take off on his own.”
“That’s alright! No one got hurt,” you tell him with a smile.
Hoshiumi awkwardly tries to get off of the horse. You can tell that he doesn’t ride very often from the funny way he can’t seem to make up his mind from which side of the horse he should get off from.
“Don’t worry,” you reassure him after stifling a laugh. You grip the horse reins to steady the animal, and extend a hand out to Hoshiumi. “Here take my hand. I got you.”
Hoshiumi raises an eyebrow at your waiting hand, swallows his pride, and puts his hand in yours, allowing you to help him out.
The glimmer of starlights dotting the night sky reflect in his eyes. Dilated pupils meet with yours, as Hoshiumi stares at you, eyes wide and mouth open in wonder. He hears the fleeting skips of firework beats, an exciting tale that has always been stitched into the fabrics of time.
It’s a moment of realization that those eyes you gaze into are a lot more familiar than they seem. Something like a page out of a really old fairytale. You hear the whispers of a melody, erupting from a spark from your palm where his palms also meet. From the depths of your heart, the song then rumbles loud and true. You know him. He knows you.
If in the future someone asks you what the song of a soulmate is like, you’ll also have a difficult time putting all those feelings into words. You can certainly try, but everyone’s song is different. If you and Hoshiumi have to describe this song…it must be one that soars free. It’s a song about 1 AM in a new city; getting lost in the maze of neon lights, but feeling at home because home is you and home is him. It’s a song about lazy days under blankets with takeout and video games. It’s a song about a whole lot of experiences—countless like the stars.