Seungwan is five when she first notices the marks. There’s a pretty lady with a spiral of red around her ankle, an eye-smiling older gentleman with speckles of green on the back of his hand, the boy next door with gold stripes on his shins. She likes the pretty patterns on her mother’s wrist the most: the dark lines are bold, striking against pale skin, and she adores the way her mother’s eyes shine when she traces the lines with small fingers. Little Seungwan thinks it’s the prettiest thing she’s ever seen.

Her mother tells her they are soulmarks and that one day she’ll have her own. It’s going to help her find someone special; someone Seungwan will fall in love with.

Her cousin occasionally comes over to babysit and it’s a stunning spring day, so they end up going to the park. The grass is lush and the flowers are blooming and Tiffany teaches her to make flower crowns by chaining daisies together. She tries with all her five year old might but Seungwan’s fingers are clumsy and Seungwan’s fingers are unsure and the circlet of flowers falls apart in her hands. So she pouts and turns her attention to her cousin instead. She wonders if her cousin has a soulmark and if it’s pretty. She asks in the way only children can: somehow demanding, naive and thoughtless at the same time.

Pink steals across Tiffany’s cheeks and the edges of her lips twitch. She fiddles with the crown of flowers in her hand and looks down. There’s an amused huff and Seungwan feels a weight settle over her hair and Tiffany isn’t holding flowers anymore. Her cousin tells her she that she doesn’t have a soul mark yet but she’s already found her person. Little Seungwan doesn’t understand how her cousin can find someone special to fall in love with if she doesn’t have the mark to help her. Tiffany tells her that you just know but Seungwan isn’t convinced.

A little over a week later, Tiffany comes over to show Seungwan her mark. The characters are silver and elegant, resting at the base of her neck and her cousin leaves her hair up the entire day. Little Seungwan thinks it’s quite pretty. Tiffany giggles when she shows her a picture of her soulmate’s mark, pastel pink and nestled between delicate collarbones. She thinks it’s a little too bland for Tiffany's personality but her cousin doesn’t need to know.
 

Seungwan is ten when the boy next door moves away and a new family moves in. She’s pouting because she misses him and his cute dog when there’s a sharp knock at the door. She goes to open it and on the other side there’s a girl with pale skin and large eyes, hiding behind a stuffed bunny almost as large as she is. There’s a purple bow and a card with incredibly neat writing. It tells Seungwan that the girl is Joohyun, that she’s very shy and that she wants to be friends. Seungwan throws lanky arms around around both the girl and the bunny and when Joohyun shyly hugs back, eyes curving into crescents, Seungwan thinks she’s the prettiest thing she’s ever seen.

Joohyun is older and wiser by a few years but Seungwan still thinks she is very, very cute and makes sure to remind her all the time. She’s a new friend and Seungwan wants to know all about her. She learns that Joohyun likes reading, laundry and quiet places and that she really hates surprises. She learns things about herself, too. Seungwan finds out that she  enjoys it when Joohyun leans into her or runs fingers through her hair and she thinks that she might know now, but she’s still not quite sure.

Seungwan spends the summer making flower crowns, fingers deft and sure, and crowning Joohyun princess of the park and pretty things.

Year after year, they grow closer and summer after summer, Seungwan puts daisies into Joohyun’s hair.
 

Seungwan is fifteen when she receives her mark. She wakes up and her left hand is sore and there is a band of lavender around her ring finger. She knows what it’s going to say and who it’s going to be. She should be relived and ecstatic but instead she just feels numb. ‘Bae Joohyun’, it’s a beautiful shade of purple and wraps perfectly around her finger, but Seungwan thinks it’s the ugliest thing she’s ever seen.

She wraps her hand in bandages and fabricates a lie involving 'high tension in her guitar neck and faulty strings’ and rushes out. She needs to hide her mark before Joohyun comes over. She buys a comprehensive collection of rings for every possible occasion, make up that’s waterproof and long lasting and plans on making sure that nobody ever lays eyes on her mark.

They’re walking though the park, streetlights making the snow glow in the winter dark, and Seungwan laces their fingers together. Joohyun’s fingers are warm and Seungwan tries not to flinch when rub against her shiny new ring.

She’d seen Joohyun’s mark years ago, a vivid scrawl of blue in a foreign tongue, it’s around her right ring finger and now Seungwan could weep at the sheer poetic cruelty of it all. She’s Joohyun’s but Joohyun isn’t hers.

Seungwan knows Joohyun best. She understands that sometimes people with incompatible soul marks fall in love and live happily ever after and that Joohyun isn’t one of them. Joohyun is going to fall in love with her marked one, or she won’t love at all. She knows this because she knows Joohyun best.

Her mother taught her that soulmarks will help her fall in love with someone special. She never said anything about them loving her back.

Seungwan is eighteen when she meets a girl with mournful eyes and a sleeve of crawling vines; who sings about lost love and strums until her fingers bleed. They sit beneath the dappled light, painted red and gold by the setting sun, and Seungwan listens. She learns about chords and songs and souls and that falling in love with someone doesn’t mean that they’ll catch you. She teaches Seungwan that soulmates are fractions and wholes and that sometimes people are left over.

Seungwan calls out her in the middle of the night when she takes her rings off; scrubs her fingers clean and sees purple lines and decides to show someone her marks for the first time. They huddle together in the cramped backseat of Seungwan’s car, listening to sad songs and making future plans. She shows Seungwan her mark, it’s elegant silver characters on her fingertips, calloused and worn but still legible.

She takes Seungwan on tours of insidious streets and painted alleys and kisses her in a pile of golden leaves where they first met. She wants to go together with Seungwan to places she’s never been to do things she’s only read about and all she has to do is agree. They’re incompatible, incomplete and they understand that this is the closest they’ll ever be to being whole.

Seungwan is eighteen when she agrees to fly to other countries  and try living other lives. She’ll always love Joohyun and she understands that Joohyun can’t love her back. When she returns she'll be someone new, but she'll love Joohyun the same.