XVI. 

“What’s up Broadway dot com, this is Henry,” Henry grins as he adjusts the camera, making sure that he’s at the center of the frame. “And I play Guy, in the musical, Once. Welcome to the first episode of the Falling Slowly Vlogs.”

“They told me that there’d be a total of ten episodes so you’ll be seeing me in your subscription lists for ten weeks.” He continues, shifting a bit on his seat to find a comfortable position. “I promise this is going to be fun.”

“Anyways, I asked you guys to send in your questions using #AskHenryTheGuy but before I get to those, let me show you around my dressing room for a bit.” Henry grabs his camera from the tripod, carrying it so he can show the expanse of the room. “Right here on my mirror are pictures of my family - that’s my mom and my dad,” he zooms into the picture of his parents. “And this is me with my big brother and little sister.” he pans to the right and shows a picture of him with his siblings, all of them wearing identical grins. “Also pictures of my friends. I also have fanarts and stuff. You guys are amazing.”

He pans the camera again to show the opposite wall. “The other side of the room is where my instruments are. I have my guitar, which I actually use in the show,” he runs his hand gently against the neck of the guitar, plucking a few strings. “And my keyboard.” He plays a short improvised tune and there’s a faint sound of foot tapping against the floor in the background.

“Aaaand here’s my couch, where you could see the lovely Miss Amber Liu in her natural habitat.” Henry teases as he moves the camera closer to Amber who is busy on her phone.

“Shut up.” Amber says, not taking her eyes off her phone screen.

“Broadway dot com, Miss Amber is a bit cranky today because she hadn’t had her milk tea yet.” Henry says from behind the camera, continuing to zoom in on her face.

Amber says nothing and flicks him on the forehead.

“If you all don’t know, Amber plays Girl in the show and she has an incredible voice.”

Amber finally looks up just to roll her eyes at the camera, her lips curling into a small smile. “Broadway dot com, you’re going to have to put up with this guy for ten weeks? Good luck.”

“They love me.”

“Ah, the mysteries of this world are neverending.”

Henry glares at her behind the camera and reaches out to poke her side which causes her to jump away and shriek.

“Don’t you have a vlog to finish?!”

“Oh, right.”

XVII.

Amber had spent 23 years of her life cursing her bad luck. While everyone around her has distinct soulmate marks (the first words they’ll say to you) inscripted on their skins, resulting to them finding their soulmates a whole lot easier, she’s cursed with a painfully generic one.

Um, excuse me.

That was it. A small Um, excuse me written around her wrist. Whoever created this soulmate marks thing clearly has something against her.

That phrase had been said to her a million of ing times but she knows that none of them is her soulmate. And she’s embarrassed to even admit that she dated a few of those who had said the right words but quickly broke it off when she saw that their soulmate marks were not the first words she said to them.

There must be some other way to find your soulmate, right? Why can’t they just be given a tracker or something? Frankly, she’s getting tired of all this .

“Maybe you should stop looking for him,” Soojung says as they walk to their class, both of them nestling a cup of coffee in their hands. “Like, just let the universe do its work. Maybe if you stop looking, your soulmate would show up.”

“Easy for you to say, you have your soulmate’s name in yours.” Amber says with a scowl, remembering the Hi. I’m Kim Jongin and I promise I’m a good dancer written on Soojung’s back.

Soojung rolls her eyes. “Not my point.”

“Um, excuse me.”

Amber’s ears perk up, as it do when she hears those words, and even though she’d told herself not to get her hopes up a billion of times already, she still turns her head so fast, she’s worried she might have gotten a whiplash. She hadn’t estimated the sheer force that she used when she turned around, causing her to wobble and accidentally spill her coffee on who she hopes is her soulmate.

“Oh my god. . I’m so sorry. .” Amber mumbles as she tries to remove the coffee stain on the white shirt. She finally looks up and sees a guy who looks just about her age, dark hair parted to the side, red lips open in shock, small eyes blinking at her.

“Are you okay?” she asks but the guy continues gaping at her like she had sprouted two heads. “Wait, are those your --”

The guy nods and Amber can hardly believe it. She found her soulmate. Holy . She needs to lie down.

“Amber, we’re gonna be late to class.” Soojung says beside her and Amber finally snaps out of her thoughts, taking a deep breath and trying to compose herself.

She takes a sharpie out of her bag and grabs the guy’s arm. “Call me and we’ll talk about this later, okay?” She quickly scribbles her name and number on his forearm, blushing as she does so.

“Yeah, okay, sure.” The guy says with a nervous smile and a hint of blush on his cheeks.

Amber chuckles nervously before saying goodbye and running of to class with Soojung.

It’s halfway through history class does she realize that she had completely forgotten to ask for his name.