Further down the dim aisle were thicker, much older, and dusty books. Jimin walked down, gazing, fingers tracing past each book as he walked, until his palm stopped at one of the last few books, his gaze landing on the strangely, thin book. He pulled it out, the sound of the book leaving the woody creaky bookshelf as he examined the front of the book.

In golden, italic cursive words, ‘The Book of Soulmates: History of Mankind’.

Stupid name. Jimin thought, and he looked back at his wrist, where a new message was scribbled on it.

‘Hey hyunggg :)’

Jimin glanced at it once, before turning back to the book, hands gently cradling it as he headed out to the light, right beside the gigantic window, and sat on the table.

He flipped open the cover, onto the first page, as his finger grazed every line he read.

‘...by the age of eighteen, the adult would find a counting down timing across his left wrist, in black. It is the countdown for which the adult would meet his soulmate. Soulmate is the term for…”

Jimin felt his right wrist warming up slightly again, and saw that the previous message was gone, and was replaced with a long line.

‘Hyung, I know you can read this. Please talk to me. We're soulmates. We can't avoid each other because one of us isn't ready…’

Jimin sighed audibly, looking at his left wrist, the skin along the same side as the back of his palm, horizontally, black and blunt timing ticking down, making no sound.

00:20:12:40

00:20:12:39

00:20:12:38

00:20:12:37

Jimin gulped. He remembered when he first panicked when he turned eighteen, the timing on his wrist was nothing but eight lines and three colons.

--:--:--:--

That's how Jimin stumbled upon this book. He had heard of it before, and took some time before easily managing to grab a hold of it, thanks to Namjoon’s help.

‘When the newly turned eighteen year old has yet to seen the timing, but faced with a --:--:--:-- , it means that their soulmate has yet to reach adulthood. However, if they turned eighteen and sees a white version of --:--:--:-- and extreme pain (mentally and maybe physically), a feeling of lost and overwhelming sadness, it means that their soulmate (whether or not they reached adulthood or not) became deceased. The timing of their partner’s death is unknown to them, but…’

And Jimin found out his soulmate was two years younger than him, a little over a month ago, on September 1st, when his left wrist heated up slightly, and the timing on his wrist changed from the dull symbols to actual moving numerical.

He got excited, and picked up the pen meant for communicating with their soulmate (apparently the adult’s parents or guardian would gift it to them when they reached adulthood, and Jimin kept his by the nightstand or the study table all the time) and started scribbling on it.

Well the pen wasn't very special. You could purchase it easily, and they come in different colors and thickness too, in the soulmates item stores. The pen was basically a pen which ink could be erased easily from the person's skin, for easy communication. You see, soulmates can communicate through writing on their skin. Normal pens work too, it's just annoying and hard to get rid of the ink.

Two months ago…

As usual, Jimin picked up his bag and headed back to his dorm in the campus, when all of a sudden, his left and right wrist started heating up, and he felt like a huge surge of energy run through him.

Surprised, he gazed at both of his hands, the left first, as it started glowing a bright green, the eight digits starting rolling different digits for a few seconds, before they settled down on the ticking down timing.

‘Hello?’

Jimin blinked, staring at his other wrist.

He gasped, before rushing straight back to his dorm. The moment he got in, he slammed the door shut, and fumbled around to look for his pen.

‘Hi!’

Jimin wrote, adding a smiley face, face reflecting the emoji he wrote down on his wrist.

‘What's your name?’

‘I'm Jiminnn, twenty this year’

‘Should I call you noona or baby then? ;)’

Jimin frowned.

‘...I'm a guy.’

--:--:--:--

Jimin avoided the younger when Jungkook replied. Jimin never asked for his information, and hoped that Jungkook would give up, but the younger never did, always finding a chance to talk to him, talking about his day and all, every conversation ending with a sad note. Jimin could feel the younger in hurt, getting rejected by Jimin all the time, but Jimin continued being stubborn. As much as he wanted to meet the younger, he held himself back.

Yet today, Jimin gazed at his wrist more than the normal few times, the burning and bubbly feeling in the pit of his stomach never subsiding, and he couldn't help it.

‘Jungkook…’

He didn’t have to wait long, because a few seconds later, he felt the light heating sensation on his wrist.

‘HYUNG!!!’

‘Where will you be at later?’

‘Hmm idk...wbu hyung? Should we find a place where we could...meet?’

Jimin could sense the younger being careful with every word he wrote, and it made Jimin happy inside.

‘Sure. How bout the shopping centre? The one with the cinema and arcade, we could have late night supper at one of the shops nearby. I know a good one :)’

‘OKAY’

And with that, Jimin went back home and stayed in bed all day, drawing patterns along his skin,  decorating the fancy words ‘Jungkook’ with flowers and leaves and spirals. Jungkook, with very good drawing skills, drew Jimin’s name next to his and decorated it with heart shapes, doodling cute pictures of animals and doing some typography, and both of their arms were filled with drawings by dinner time, both of their hearts filled with warmth…

...and love.