One

“This is so romantic,” Donghae sighs dreamily at the television, his chin propped up on his two open palms. An envious pout tugs at the corners of his mouth when the interview shifts from the scientist to a newly-bonded couple, who apparently met a few years back on a lucky encounter in South America. The two of them are soulmates, and not only matches, which makes their story seem even more perfect. “I hope I’ll get bonded with someone soon too.”

Next to him, Ryeowook laughs a little and lowers the volume of the on-going documentary. “You’d be lucky if you made any connection at all, hyung,” he says distractedly. “It’s hard enough for two matches to meet up; bonding with a soulmate takes even more time.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” the other exclaims with a half-whine, half-huff. He straightens up slightly and grabs a dust-cloth, then goes to wipe a few tables of the coffee shop clean. “You met Yesung-hyung two years ago.”

Donghae believes he isn’t being too bitter about it; not really. He knows, he really does, that stumbling upon a match isn’t an episode that would happen every few days, let alone getting into an actual relationship with them—or even Bonding with one’s soulmate.

Not having experienced at least a Sharing of thoughts isn’t too uncommon, especially at his age. In fact, Ryeowook is only one of those rare, lucky persons who get to meet one of their matches early on in their life, instead of in their early thirties like most other people. Donghae, on the other hand—barely thirty years old and still painfully single—, has yet to feel any connection at all, whether it be with a match or his soulmate. He still doesn’t know what it feels like to hear the thoughts of someone else; to be as close to another human-being as realistically possible and share a bit of himself with them.

Or, at least, that’s what he thinks it would be like.

Donghae knows—he swears he does!—that there’s nothing to be truly worried about. Yet, he can’t help but be immensely impatient about it. He supposes that his strong liking for romance has something big to do with that. Truthfully, between his soulmate or just matches, he would be happy to come across any of them.

“It’s a good thing you’re still realistic and not too naïve about it,” his mother would laugh sometimes. “I’d be worried about you otherwise.”

Sharing thoughts, much as what it implies—originality isn’t the best trait of scientists, obviously—, is the act of hearing and being able to answer thoughts of another person. It first happens when someone gets in their matches’ or soulmate’s close proximity; they would know then that they’ve made a connection.

The thoughts are usually weak and a little incoherent, scattered at first, which is truer with matches than with soulmates. It’s because the connection between them isn’t too strong yet, Ryeowook once explained to him, it takes time. Only small bits of what sounds like a random rambling would seem to be mumbled in their minds, such as a broken radio that can’t be turned off, unless they would distance themselves physically.

From what Donghae’s heard, upon making a connection, those two persons need to be as close to each other as possible—mostly on a physical and then on an emotional level—to hear clear, coherent thoughts. The stronger it becomes, the farther away from each other they will be able to hear them.

Except that with the ridiculous number of people who live on earth nowadays, it’s quite difficult to find and make a connection so easily.

However, as luck would have it, more than only one sort of connection exists. In fact, there’s the Matching, and then there’s also the Bonding. The first is made with matches—people Donghae would be more compatible with than others—, while the latter is built with a soulmate, whom is the person he’s the most compatible with. They’re someone who has been made to fit with him perfectly, and he with them.

This is so romantic, Donghae thinks yet once again. He pouts a little at the shiny surface of the table he has been wiping for at least ten minutes already.

Just as his younger friend turns to him and is about to speak up, the door of the coffee shop opens and a few customers come in. It’s yet to be nine o’clock in the morning, but Donghae knows that the staff crew that works in the hospital nearby begins their shifts much earlier than that. As expected, he sees a couple of weary faces and white blouses among other cheerful ones—more or less—, ready to grab their first cups of coffee before going on with the day. It prom