The word soulmate has a different meaning for many people. For some, it means to find that one person that they were meant to be together. Their one true love. Others, however, think that a soulmate is a very very good friend. A friend you can trust, someone who will always be there for you and who can understand you even when you don't use words.
Some people, however, understands something completely different when they hear this word. They see a bright future. A well paid job. Then those who find their soulmate will receive the gift of seeing the world through different eyes. A world of colour.

Since agent times people weren't able to see the world in its full glory. For them the world seemed like nothing more then an old black and white movie. Only if you were lucky enough to meet your soulmate, a completely different world would open up to you. As if the first word, that is exchange with your soulmate at your first meeting, would press some kind of an invisible button, the world you knew will be transformed into a colourful wonderland.

HyukJae was one of those who had never been particularly interested in the issue of spiritual kinship. He had friends. Very good friends at that. He was sure that they would walk through fire for him. Just as he would do for them.
He wasn't interested in love either. He knew enough couples (all of them were not soulmates) and he'd seen more then plenty soap operas on television to know that love brings nothing more than problems and concerns with it.
The thought of being able to see colours didn't excite him either. He was satisfied with what he had. Why change something if you were happy with what you've got?

HyukJae's friends, however, thought differently on this matter. Especially the oldest of the group seemed to be totally obsessed with the idea of finding his soulmate - his one true love, as he lovingly refers to that person he hasn't even met yet.
 

~~\\~~//~~

"I found him! I found my one true love!", JeongSu slobbered over that one guy he met only a few hour ago.
With a deep sight put HyukJae his cool Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino on the thin wooden plate in front of him while closing his eyes theatrically. Slowly but surely he had enough of these stories. This was the third time this month that JeongSu, the oldest of the group, announced that he 'had found the love of his life'. Just like he did many times before but in the end it turned out that this never really was the case. Most of those guys and girls who were considered as 'the one', weren't looking for something serious while JeongSu did.

"Your 'one true love'. Really? Tell me how did it work out with your last 'one true love'? Oh! Right! He cheated on you!", HyukJae sneered while defiantly looking at the older. The other smiled gently at the incredulous fair-haired young man before he continued telling his story.

"This time he really is the one! I'm 100% sure of it", JeongSu said in a very optimistic tone of voice while grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"Not that I wouldn't believe you but why are you so sure of it, Hyung?" RyeoWook, the youngest of the bunch, asked before gleefully sipping on his iced coffee. The other two friend on the table, HeeChul and SungMin, also curiously looked up from their drinks and eagerly waited for the elder to continue.

JeongSu began to grin even wider - if that was even possible - before he pointed with his right index finger at HyukJae. HeeChul, SungMin and RyeoWook turned their attention immediately to HyukJae. The fair-haired man look at the outstretched finger with interest and waited for the other to explain his crazy claim. Luckily he knew his lovesick friend well enough to know, that he wouldn't have to wait for long to get his answer.
"I know that he is the one, because I see that HyukJae's hair is not light brown - as it had assured us so often - but yellow", the elder proudly announced.

The group of friends remained silent as they still tired to figure out what his words were supposed to mean. HyukJae on the other hand immediately began to complain loudly about the other's statement. He knew very well that he didn't have yellow hair! The hairdresser had assured him, that the colour was a light brown after they had found out that something between washing and cutting had gone completely wrong.
JeongSu simply shook his head happily and asked the blond to speak more quietly, as his loud complaint calls have already drawn the attention of some of the other guests of the coffee shop where they were currently at.

SungMin was the first one of the group, who recognized the importance of the elders previous words. Startled, he opened his mouth and immediately closed it again just to open it once again a few seconds later. Finally he managed to utter the words that he wanted to say.
"You mean... You really have...? Oh my God!", he joyfully cried out and began to hug the elder happily. HeeChul was the next person who realized what JeongSu was talking about and began to congratulate him with a wide grin on his face. Only RyeoWook and HyukJae seemed to not quite understand what the true meaning of this conversation was. While HyukJae was still upset about his friends statement about his hair, RyeoWook began to correct his oldest friend and told everyone who wanted to hear it, that HyukJae's hair colour was called blonde and not yellow.

"Who cares about the name of that colour, Wook. Our friend here can see colours. You do know what that means, don't you? Our brother here has found his soulmate!", HeeChul said with a slight mocking tone in his voice.
RyeoWook seemed now to comprehend what was going on. His mouth formed a silent 'oh' while his eyes rested on his oldest brother, who was happily sipping on his iced Americano now.

"My hair is not yellow or blond! I was assured that..."
HyukJae stopped speaking in the middle of the sentence as suddenly his eyes started to behave extremely... weird. Next to the usual greys he realized something foreign in his field of vision. It was weak but yet he recognized a distinct difference to what he has gotten so used to over his 20 years of life. Irritated began the fair-haired to blink rapidly in hope that the weird thing that he saw would disappear, but the opposite was rather the case. The foreign thing quickly gained the upper hand so that soon the familiar grey tones were nowhere to be seen anymore.

With scared wide eyes took HyukJae a look around. Even after a while the familiar grey tones didn't reappeared in front of his eyes. Hastily, he rubbed his eyes as if he hoped to gain his old sight back again through that but when he opened his eyes the world around him was still... strange.

The friends of the fair-haired man didn't miss his sudden weird behaviour. With concern the watched as he repeatedly rubbed his eyes and blinked rapidly. Several times they tried to ask him if he was OK, but they weren't able to get an answer from him.
Only after a while HyukJae began to calm down. It was then when he realized what exactly he saw in front of his eyes. Colours. His soulmate... he or she had to be somewhere nearby.

"That can't be...", he muttered to himself and looked up into the worried faces of his friends.
"What can't be?", SungMin asked worriedly and inclined his head in confusion. HyukJae wanted to answer the slightly older young man, but paused when he noticed that his sight was starting to change again.

Unlike before, the colours began to weaken and soon the so familiar greys began to appear again. Before long, there was no hint of colour visible anymore. HyukJae had only seen the colours for good five minutes, and yet his usual view seemed somehow... cold. As if he'd already missed the colours he was living without all his life.

Confused looked HyukJae up to his friends. He let his gaze wander over each one of them until he met JeongSu's eyes. As soon as their eyes met, seemed his good friend to know what just had happened. A soft smile appeared on his face while he was proudly putting his left arm around the younger man and happily announced the news to the others.

"It seems to me, as if HyukJae will soon meet his soulmate too. You did see colours just now, didn't you? Do you think that your soulmate is close by? What am I talking about? He or she must be near by when you can see colours", JeongSu spoke without interruption until he noticed the somewhat puzzled facial expression of the fair-haired man next to him.
Everyone kept silent and stared expectantly at the second youngest of the group. Finally shook HyukJae his head and looked up at his friends.

"It's... gone", he said in a low tone while looking directly at JeongSu.
"The person... my soulmate... I think he or she is no longer in the area"
JeongSu looked with a puzzled expression at his blond friend. The truth slowly began to dawn on him. HyukJae appeared to have been rejected by his soulmate.
 

~~\\~~//~~

A few years ago had HyukJae read articles about cases like his. Back then he thought of it as some kind of joke. Who in their right mind would reject his or her soulmate? He never met anyone who had actually rejected his soulmate either.
Although HyukJae had never given much thought about how he would react if he met his soulmate, he had not expected that he would be one of the few people that were chosen to be left behind. On the outside he acted as if this whole situation wasn't bothering him much. On the inside, however, he felt terrible. It hurt him to know that there is someone out there who probably had eyed him briefly and finally decided to now want to get to know him.

Never had he felt so happy when he realized that only a few days later the new semester at his college would begin. The start of the semester would mean that he could busy himself with his studies. Soon he had become so busy with his studies and his additional college clubs, that he almost forgot the incident at the coffee shop. Almost...

It was in the second week after the beginning of the semester when it happened again.
The last lecture in this Tuesday morning had just ended. HyukJae had stayed a few minutes longer to discuss one or two of his questions with the professor and therefore left the study hall a bit latter then the others to get to the cafeteria. Hastily he went towards the building in which the cafeteria was located at, knowing that his four friends would be waiting there for him.

Halfway to the cafeteria he noticed the change. Once again, a slight hint of colour was mixed into the usual grey landscape. Unlike the last time the colour was not getting stronger.
Carefully took HyukJae a step forward. Instantly he notice that the slight hint of colour was gone. Confused he stopped dead in his tracks and tore his fair hair shortly. Did the other person run away from him again? He had to look into it. He needed to know why his so called soulmate didn't want to meet him. He immediately took a step backwards and to his utter surprise he saw it again. The slight hint of colour.

HyukJae turned his head and saw at once that the colour was getting slightly stronger on his right hand side. For a moment HyukJae hesitated but then he decided to follow the 'trail' which would lead him to his soulmate. With each step the world around him became more colourful and soon he found himself in a world that was familiar, yet absolutely foreign to him.

The 'trail' led him to a small restaurant not far away from the campus. Although he knew the area he was in pretty well, he couldn't remember ever seeing this restaurant before. This was probably due to its modest exterior. Even the sign with it's name on it didn't stand out that much.

As he was looking through a large glass pane HyukJae realized that not many guests were currently eating in this restaurant. Most of these guests seemed to be a bit older too. HyukJae couldn't see all the guests while still standing outside on the street but while he let his gaze wander over the interior of the restaurant his eyes got stuck on one person.
The heart of the blonde made a little jump as he realized that he could see this person clearer than anyone else in this restaurant. Was this a sign that this person was his soulmate?

Curious looked HyukJae at the person. It was a man. Unfortunately he couldn't see his face from where he was standing at, as the man's back was facing the glass pane. Determined to not give up that easily he craned his neck and tried to get a better look at the man while standing in different angles to the restaurant. Sadly everything seemed in vain. He knew if he didn't step into the restaurant he probably would never get a good look at his soulmate.

Spontaneously he walked toward the door of the restaurant. A quiet sounding bell told the serving waiter that a new guest had arrived. Politely bowed the waiter and showed HyukJae a table which was luckily located near his soulmate's table. Now that he was in the restaurant, there was no longer any doubt about it. A quick glance at the man had been enough to let him know that this man was his soul mate.
With a loud beating heart he walked past the man and sat down at the table he was assigned to. The waiter handed him a menu card and started telling him which specials they had that day. With a light nod he let the waiter know that he had understood what he was telling him, even through he hadn't been listening to a single word the other had said. HyukJae was more than happy when he noticed that the waiter left his table to