Despite what her older sister had told her, Sooyoung was very much excited for university life. When graduating, a lot of her friends talked about freedom and partying and all that good stuff. Although Sooyoung was looking forward to being independent and meeting her roommate for the year, she was certain that she was going to miss her family. She started to resent herself a little for choosing a university that was so far from home. A two hour car ride to be exact.

Her mother wasn’t so happy about it either. After her family helped her move her things, her mother had held onto her tightly for about fifteen minutes before her older sister had to drag her off her. With teary eyes the family separated, leaving Sooyoung alone with her things.

As she folded her clothes into her small closet and drawers, Sooyoung waited patiently for her roommate to show up. The online profile provided no picture but it said that she was small both vertically and horizontally. It said they had similar hobbies and that she wasn`t a huge fan of partying so Sooyoung wouldn`t be disturbed when she wanted to study.

In all honesty, Sooyoung wasn`t a huge fan of parties either. She enjoyed being social and hanging out and being noisy, but the horror stories she heard from her older sister indicated that dorm parties were just a bad idea, especially freshman dorm parties.

Within the next hour she had finished putting away her stuff and so she just lied comfortably in her small bed. She stared at the ceiling and frowned, her patience for her roommate growing thin.

And that`s when she heard the click of the door. As she sat up straight quickly, she felt a strange sensation rush to her head and she fell over.

The small figure that appeared at the door rushed over to Sooyoung who gracefully fell on her bottom.

“Are you okay?” a voice asked. Sooyoung looked up slightly humiliated into round brown concerned eyes.

“Ah yeah, sorry,” she apologized, gaining her composure and standing back up.

As they stood in front of each other, Sooyoung smirked at her one head advantage. She thoroughly enjoyed height differences such as this.

“You must be Kim Taeyeon, yes?” Sooyoung asked, bending over a little to peer into the other girl’s eyes. She meant to a little with her having to bend over, she hoped it wasn’t too mean.

“Yeah,” Taeyeon replied simply with a small nod, “I don’t understand why they put me in here with a freshman but what can you do?” She thought out loud.

“Oh, you’re in your second year?” Sooyoung was surprised that the other girl happened to be older.

Taeyeon just nodded before proceeding to unpack her things.

An hour passed as Taeyeon carefully put away her things. Sooyoung watched her shorter but older roommate move around their small shared room. Taeyeon could feel her eyes watching her but she did her best to focus on the task at hand.

She couldn’t bear it for another ten minutes however.

“Aish, stop staring at me!” she yelled, turning to face Sooyoung, “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Yah, why are you so hostile Taeyeon unnie?” Sooyoung replied simply, not fazed at all by Taeyeon’s slight anger.

The shorter girl didn’t respond and finished putting away her things. Sooyoung grew bored eventually of watching her and switched to making an agenda for the week. As soon as Taeyeon finished her tasks she jumped onto her bed and lied flat on her stomach.

“So what’s your name?” she asked, her voice muffled by the pillow below her.

Sooyoung was a little surprised at being addressed first, but delighted at the same time. She looked up from her current task and responded, “Choi Sooyoung! 19 years old, majoring in English and History!”

“I didn’t ask you for that extra information,” Taeyeon laughed, finally turning her head to face her junior, “I guess I’ll tell you my majors too then? Kim Taeyeon, 20 years old, majoring in Fine Arts and Classics.”

“Oh, sounds like you have fun classes,” Sooyoung commented, never having a friend who was incredibly into the arts.

Taeyeon nodded and shrugged at the same time, sending Sooyoung a mixed signal, “My arts program is joint with the neighbouring college just half an hour from here and it’s a pain in my to travel back and forth sometimes.”

Sooyoung nodded slowly in understanding, already dreading the walks from one building to another for classes. But having to transfer campuses? That must have been a drag.

“Do you live far from here?” Sooyoung then asked, wondering why a second year was dorming again, let alone with a first year.

“Kind of,” Taeyeon responded, the girl now rolling over to face the ceiling, “My mom is a professor here so I get discounts on the dorms. My friend wanted me to live with her this year but I knew I wouldn’t be able to focus if I lived with her.” Taeyeon laughed to herself at the thought of her friend. It would have been a great adventure and risk if she lived with her.

“You’ll enjoy being my roommate,” Sooyoung commented, “I promise you.”

“You’re pretty interesting so far,” Taeyeon replied, raising her arm to give a thumbs up.

And that’s when Sooyoung took her chance to spy on Taeyeon’s Fertility Stone. It was a bad habit because a person’s gem was their business, but Sooyoung couldn’t help herself. Taeyeon was wearing a hoodie but as her arm went up for that thumbs up, a part of her sleeve went down as well.

Sooyoung’s eyes widened in amazement and disbelief. Her roommate, this Kim Taeyeon of 20 years had a crimson fertility stone! She stood up immediately and kneeled next to Taeyeon’s bed and stared at her roommate with curiousity.

“No way!” she yelped, grabbing Taeyeon’s arm and admiring the beautiful colour.

Taeyeon wasn’t sure what was happening and frantically twitched in bed. When Sooyoung grabbed her wrist she immediately knew what she spotted.

“Aigoo, I thought I covered that up,” she mumbled to herself, raising her eyebrow at Sooyoung who was staring at her gem with wide eyes.

“Y-You?” Sooyoung stuttered, looking between the sacred stone and Taeyeon then back again, “Y-You?”

Taeyeon sat up from her bed, “Yes,” she said simply, a blush creeping onto her face, “Most people don’t know this but…”

Sooyoung stared at Taeyeon longingly, begging her for answers, for explanations and for stories of romance and desire.

“You can trust me,” Sooyoung urged the shorter girl to share her story, “I promise to take good care of you.”

Taeyeon sighed before smiling softly at Sooyoung, “It happened during the summer of graduation.”

“What’s his name?” Sooyoung demanded, her voice raising a little with her excitement.

“Her name,” Taeyeon corrected, “Is Jessica.”

---

Sunny wished her best friend hadn’t rejected her offer but at the same time she was a little thankful. Having both of her best friends live with her might have been a disaster or at the very least incredibly unproductive.

Her new apartment was filled with half unpacked boxes but at least all the furniture had finally been in place. She had to move all of the furniture herself due to her roommate being deep in some sort of coma after just bringing the pieces upstairs via elevator. It didn’t matter much since she didn’t really expect her to help out this time around with how tired she looked. Maybe she shouldn’t have insisted to make the move so early in the morning, but the earlier the better, right? Their apartment building was only a few blocks away from residence and by the time all their stuff was inside, the new students came rushing getting ready for the new school year.

Ugh, school. Sunny loathed the word but she did enjoy most of her classes. It was just the responsibility and the continuous stress that bothered her. Her first year went by way too fast and now she just felt like school and her work were taking over her life. The only real substance she had was her own personal art work and her friends. Her family? Let’s not talk about them now.

Sunny was relaxing on one of their small couches as she stared at the small and cozy area that was her new living space. It would surely do. It was much better than living within the dorms like she had done the previous year. As bright of a personality she sometimes had, she just didn’t click that well with too many people. Sunny was incredibly selective with her friends and a building filled with new faces who always tried to interact with her just wasn’t her scene.

She changed her position on the couch and she glanced at her covered up wrist. It angered her to look at the damn thing but her mind always drifted to it when she was alone. Oh how she wished that she could just destroy the damn thing or take it out. Unfortunately, that meant her life.

Sunny shook her head and decided to forget about the stupid object that was constantly a topic of discussion wherever she went and headed to her bedroom. As she walked in the hallway she could hear the soft snoring of her friend and she shook her head.

“At least it’s not as noisy as it could have been,” she muttered to herself, shuddering at the thought of her two best friends getting it on in the very room. It was after all the best result to have only one of them move in.

“Sleep well, Sica,” she continued to speak to herself as she entered her own room for a nap.

---

Taeyeon couldn’t believe she was convinced to bring a complete stranger to her best friends’ apartment. They probably wouldn’t mind meeting someone new but she didn’t think she’d be so easily persuaded to expose herself so much. First she spilled the story of how she found her soul mate or more realized who her soul mate was and then she spilled how she was only living 15 minutes away by car. This Sooyoung character was someone else. She wanted to meet Jessica and get her side of the story as well. She was also holding onto Taeyeon’s hand extremely tight.

“Why are you so excited?” Taeyeon asked as the two rode the elevator together. She could feel Sooyoung’s hands getting sweaty and wondered what the big idea was. Only a few of her other friends knew about the crimson colour but they never showed this much interest.

“You’re the first couple I know besides my family who have crimson stones!!” Sooyoung exclaimed excitedly, still slightly amazed at finding the miracle within her roommate and on the first day. “Not to mention you’re the first same couple I know! Is the process different for you guys?”

She shook her head as a simple response, it always bothered her how there were constantly rumours of tainted or different processes when the soul mates were of the same gender. But Taeyeon was amazed at how quickly Sooyoung had changed. When she started the story, Sooyoung seemed incredibly skeptic of how they were the same . However, when the story was done it was like it didn’t matter anymore suddenly. Perhaps Sooyoung was simple minded?

As the two started walking towards Taeyeon’s friends’ apartment, Sooyoung started to feel a little light headed. She thought maybe it was because she didn’t have a snack since she arrived and since she was so caught up in Taeyeon’s story, but the sensation grew as they approached the apartment. She could feel her body become engulfed in some foreign warmth. Her heart started racing as Taeyeon got ready to knock. She could feel her breathing increase in pace and then she looked down to see her gem glowing. It flashed a bright light, on and off, on and off. She felt like she was going crazy.

Sooyoung’s eyes widened in shock and Taeyeon couldn’t help but notice the bright flashing colour as well. Her eyes squinted and her mind tried to process what was happening. She was the only person there was she was taken, what could the gem be reacting to?

That was when Sunny opened the door, “Oy, Taengoo you should call before...Hello?”

Sooyoung and Sunny made eye contact for a brief second before Sooyoung fainted on the spot.