The first thing Seungwan noticed immediately after she was introduced to Bae Joohyun were the tops of older woman’s delicate hands. They seemed to be completely adorned with extremely elaborate patterns penned in black ink, the swirling designs disappearing into the cuff of the woman’s long sleeve button down shirt. The Canadian had hardly finished her respectful bow to the older woman before she opened and blurted out, “Are those tattoos, Joohyun-ssi?”

A blush bloomed, cherry blossom pink, across Joohyun’s angelic features, and Seungwan found it hard to look away from the sight. The second thing Seungwan noticed was the woman’s sheer beauty. The older woman led the two of them through the hallways of Seungwan’s new university, hands clasped behind her back. This would be a habit Seungwan would come to familiarize herself with in time. The gesture often meant Joohyun was lost in thought, trying to find the right words to say. For a moment, Seungwan wonders if she had overstepped her boundaries.

She was only a transfer student after all, shouldn’t she be gracious to the student assistant who offered to take her around rather than question her so bluntly about such a personal affair? It was Seungwan’s first day after moving back to Seoul from Canada, and she was already being rude to one of her elders. She opened to apologize for her Western behavior when the older woman chuckles lowly, “My soulmate has a fondness for doodling, don’t you think?”

A shiver ran up Seungwan’s spine at the older woman’s nonchalant response. She’d heard tales about soulmates being able to connect like this over the years, but she’d always taken these stories with a grain of salt. Most of the time, she heard them from her grandma, and had always chalked her grandma’s insistence up to her old age. That didn’t necessarily mean that Seungwan never considered the possibilities of soulmates being a reality. She can recall dreaming about her soulmate writing something out to her, even doodling on her own hand from time to time in grade school. Some of her friends in Canada had found their soulmates, but she’d never met someone who had marks like Joohyun’s before.

‘They’re beautiful,” is all Seungwan can think to say. And they are, but they’re more than that, they’re indescribable. Seungwan has a thought that Joohyun should document every detail of the marks that appear on her, then set them up in a museum as an art installation for others to marvel at. However, she thinks she’s already said too much already. Joohyun bows her head, trying to hide her face as another rush of red sweeps over her features, “Thank you, Senguwan-ssi.”

Joohyun drops Seungwan off at the younger woman’s first class, promising to see her in a couple hours at their shared geography class, before spinning out of the room. Joohyun rounds the corner of the now empty hallway on her way back to Seoul National University’s office. When she’s sure she’s alone, she stops and takes a moment to marvel at the markings on the tops of her hands, a lazy smile tugging at her lips at the sight. She’s never told anyone this, but watching the soul marks appear on her skin is her favorite part of the day.

                                                            ****

The drawings had begun to show up a few months ago, right as Joohyun had finished presenting a large project proposal in one of her business classes. In all her twenty-one years of life, that moment had been one of the scariest she’d experienced. Perhaps this is also how the first person reacted when they witnessed the act of marking occur. There had been gasps from everyone in the audience the moment she finished speaking, and Joohyun initially thought it was because of how well she did. The junior in college had remained still, standing there expectantly, a small smile on her face, until her professor eventually spoke up in a hushed whisper, “Joohyun…y-your hands.”

When she first glanced down at her open palms, her confusion quickly turned into shock as she overturned them. She watched as her right hand slowly become covered with black geometric designs. “What the...?” Joohyun felt panic creeping up her chest with each new appearing on her skin, adding to the design. It was as if a phantom pen had taken to her as its new canvas, Joohyun was powerless against it. Silence surrounded her, suffocated her, as her classmates merely stared in shock along with her.

A moment later, and her left hand began to be decorated just like her right had been. She looked up at her professor, at her classmates, for any sort of explanation, “Sunsaengnim…what’s happening to me?” Joohyun called out. The old man walked up to her slowly, as if he were afraid she was going to run out of the room. He placed a comforting hand on her shaking shoulder and murmurs, “It’s your soulmate, Joohyun. They’re reaching out to you.”

A boy in the first row pipes up in an awestruck whisper, “I thought that was all just a myth.” His remark triggers the rest of the class, and soon the room is steadily growing louder and louder with her class’s comments. “I heard about soul marks, but I never thought to try it.” “What if my girlfriend and I aren’t even soulmates