Her arm embedded a long trail of words down her arm, waking her to read the bits and pieces of scrambled thoughts from Mark’s anxious thinking. She read the whole paragraph, word by word, taking in the fact that he opened up to her, telling her all of the important aspects in his life and the worries he often had. She felt joy through this, a smile breaking from her face as she realized the similar strange happiness she felt as her heart would pound, itching for her to grab her pen to reply as fast as she could with every efforts to comfort and tell him that she would always be there for him, adding in some light humor to ease the Mark’s nerves.

Throughout the couple months, the two could only share surface level doubts, thoughts, jokes, till now. The broken barrier of “comfort zone” was no more. Instead, knowing each other more and more on a personal and deeper level meant much more for the two. With Mark’s courage to take initiative, the wall was smashed through and created a bridge towards her, his soulmate. He was relieved from his anxious state once she replied with a long reply to soothe his heart and mind. Mark laid his head back and let out a deep sigh with his ear to ear smile, he had enjoyed her company even when they had never met, he had smiled and laughed with every conversation they shared, he was in adoration of her as well as anticipating the day they would meet. But for now, he was happy, grateful with the things as they were now because she was here to listen to him and care.

Her eyes were glued onto the ceiling, just pondering, he was a trainee, debuting soon. She didn’t want to say anything of so because he was going through a tough time so he needed comfort not fascination and being questioned. She understood his heart, but deep inside she was jealous but proud. Someone she knew, her own soulmate was living her dream. She was shocked yet understood why he said he didn’t have a phone, trainees weren’t allowed such so she could finally understand his circumstances. Although, he did not mention what company he had been in, she had not bothered to ask, the information was supposed to be kept as a secret. She could only smile because truly she was filled with joy from his actions and sincerity. Her eyes came to a slow shut as did Mark’s once the day came to a heartwarming end.

The next morning kept the two busy with their school life and tired in many aspects of practicing and studies in general. They would squeeze in time when they saw another message from the other asking about their day and continuing their conversations with satire embedded in their words, they enjoyed each other’s company even though they weren’t ever there physically. She did want to meet him as well as he did too, but were they willing for the awkward encounter they were both thinking? What if they were both extremely awkward and their relationship would just end there? What if-? The doubts would only cloud both minds and stay cautious of the question of meeting. Shying away at an opportunity to fall only deeper for each other.

Mark got back to the dorms, considerably early due to being too fatigued to practice any longer. He laid on his bed and rested while reviewing the dance moves, he had been learning for the span of a month for his debut, in his head. It was difficult and the stress was really tiring. His comfort for family to lean on was not there, which only dampened his mood even more for the time being. He missed his family, friends, and the freedom of lots but this was his dream and nothing would stand in his way from his lifelong dream, not even his own wants.

Her eyes wandered into the city lights, admiring each key feature of neon there was. She loved the lights that flickered and glowed every night, a sense of security and comfort was immediate each time she could see those lights. She hadn’t heard from Mark all day so she just assumed he was busy, considering he was getting ready for his debut as so. It was pretty strange and felt slightly empty as this had been the one day out of the couple months they had spent sharing conversations and thoughts everyday, to not be there at all. But what could she do with such disheartened manner? She couldn’t help that he was making his dreams come true while she could only sit and practice in hopes of auditioning soon. She was fairly nervous but fairly confident in herself. Presumably, many said she would not make it in, she didn’t have the potential as someone magnificent and hardworking as an idol suffers. Although, these slanders had instead given her a brighter outlook and a more ambitious overturn to make her dreams to goals in life. She reached for the rumored most harsh company to be, SM Entertainment. Her chances were about 1/1,000,000 but they was still that small possibility of her making it into the dream company she had always in mind. So, she had set out for practicing at a karaoke room, late as usual, once her mother was asleep.

Mark couldn’t get rest for the time being, he felt too stuffy and just needed to get some air, some freedom while it lasted. He grabbed his hoodie and made his way to the city as he would not get the chance to after he were to debut. His hands were freezing from the autumn air, reaching for a hot pack in his jean pockets, his attention was averted from the street he was crossing and right as he looked up was the moment he saw her once again.

She walked out of the house, making her usual route to the same karaoke room she found to be cheap and allowing underaged students in for late nights, win-win. Her worn out sneakers made her feet cold from the wind that blew viciously against her. Her arms were crossed in efforts for blocking some cold from her but did no help with the cool air. From the corner of her eye, she could feel someone’s gaze on her and when found those pair of eyes, they were none but the one’s of the handsome guy she had seen before. Their eyes met for a seemingly long time until she noticed that she had not moved away from the cold. She didn’t know what to do, should she just look away and ignore him or should she approach him? What was to be done?

Mark couldn’t help but stare, from her pale pink sweater and leggings with worn out sneakers held his eyes captive, she was adorable, just as she had been from the first time they had seen each other in a rather accidental form. He didn’t know what it exactly was but something urged him to know who she was, something made him drawn by her, as if some spell was casted upon him, he was taking interest with just a glimpse of her eyes. He walked towards her, with no such plan or thought of a conversation starter, all he knew was he wanted to know her, who she was and how her voice sounded. His footsteps soon were facing hers, his eyes locked onto her and her nervous eyes staring back.

“Hi.” Mark said blatantly, this was beyond him, he was never this confident and able to just walk up to any stranger on the street but he did for this one, which was quite strange.

“Uh h-hello.” She replied back in a amused yet curious tone. As he expected, her voice was smooth like a melody. A smile seemed to crawl onto Mark’s face as he saw her tilt her head in confusion with Mark’s actions.

“I’m-” he paused for a second, he should tell her his korean name, he thought, “my name is Minhyung. I believe you were the one who bumped into me yesterday?” He asked and stuck out his hand for her to shake.

“Oh yes, uh I did. I’m sorry about that.” She said awkwardly and took his hand to shake. She didn’t tell him her name, strange, he thought once more. Her hand was cold but soft, small tingles his back as her hand was on his, strange, very strange.

“Um. was there something you needed?” She asked with confusion laced in her voice, right then and there, Mark broke away from his little trance and once he realized what he had done, he had become the usual clumsy, shy 17 year old as he had always been.

“Oh uh I uh - hah - I was uh wondering um if you knew uh where - uh - um well…” He started to stutter rather profusely bringing a laugh from the girl in front of him.

“You’re cute, take your time.” She said with a smile as she looked into his eyes once more with a red tint fading into her face. Mark coughed, thinking, “she called me cute when she’s the cute one here.” He let out a timid laugh and bit the corner of his lips as his usual nervous antic.

“Sorry - I um actually have to go back to my dorms, I wasn’t even supposed to be out here but do you come around here often?” He asked with his nerves all on edge, did he sound creepy when he said that? He thought to himself, only bringing himself more anxious feelings.

“Yeah, I actually come out here every night,” She said while nodding, “if you need to leave, by all means!” She finished with a thumbs up sign to show it was okay for him to leave.

“I’ll tell you the reasoning another day, I’ll see you around?” He questioned with hopes she would reply to the strange request. She nodded and smiled to reassure Mark.

To these both, they found this instance very out of the blue but they enjoyed each other’s company, amusement was drawing the two together to continue to talk, curiosity too. Quite the experience for the two yet these two felt something, a connection some may say, it was rather intriguing so without disagreement, the two created something. It was only up to them to make what this “something” could potentially be, without knowing the fact that these two soulmates who wanted to meet, had already met within coincidence and of course, small cities.