“Coffee or dessert, anyone?” Seulgi offers as the three other women chatter together excitedly, clapping her hands together softly to garner their attention. She wasn’t at all hurt that she was being left out on the conversation, and they were in a bakery after all, Seulgi was half starved. Besides, Yeri and Sooyoung had known Eunji for years and Seulgi had always been a clumsy with meeting new people. Seulgi could use some sort of distraction from her lingering thoughts. She’d long past looked at every tweet on her Twitter feed while they were waiting in line to get into Amorous, and it wasn’t calming her nerves to hear Yeri and Sooyoung gossiping about Eunji’s soulmate.

Waiting around for their orders and chatting with the cashier seemed like the perfect thing to do to get her mind off of things for a second, to allow herself think about anything that wasn’t soulmate related. Plus, she’d bet a thousand won that the three other women probably wouldn’t even notice if Seulgi slipped out the door right now. Sooyoung promptly nods her head, “I think that’s the first good idea you’ve had in a while, unnie!” The taller woman jokes, making the whole table smile at her antics. “I’ll have a mocha, extra whipped cream, with a cherry on top if they have one, please.” Yeri waves a hand at Seulgi when the older woman meets her waiting gaze, “No thanks unnie, I’ll probably pick up a pastry before we leave.”

Eunji smiles up at Seulgi, who feels her face flush once more at the sight of the beautiful woman, “I’d like a caramel latte, if you don’t mind.” Seulgi grins and nods her head, getting up from her seat to head towards the front counter, leaving the trio to their gossiping. The cashier smiles at her sweetly, waiting for her to order patiently. After a second, Seulgi quickly regurgitates Sooyoung’s and Eunji’s requests and the cashier leaps into action, turning around to begin making the orders. Seulgi hears the bells chime faintly once more, announcing another person’s entrance into the store.

For a moment, she’s tempted to turn around and look at the newcomer, but she’s too busy looking at the bakery’s menu and contemplating what to order for herself to turn around and look. “I’d like a slice of the coffee cake and a coffee with two creams and two sugars as well, please,” Seulgi finally says, leafing through her wallet for her card. The cashier swipes Seulgi’s card and it’s then, when she’s tucking the flimsy piece of plastic back into the safety of her wallet, that Seulgi notices the absolute silence that’s taken hold of the bakery. It was more than odd because a moment ago, she could have sworn that her three friends were still giggling to themselves quite loudly in their booth.

Seulgi looks over her shoulder to find the Aphrodite’s lighter-haired companion standing right beside Eunji, and for a second, she’s confused. I thought that her and the beautiful stranger were soulmates? Eunji was looking up at the woman with such a paralyzing joyful face, Seulgi didn’t even realize that the cashier had been calling her name. Seulgi whips around and hastily collects the beverages waiting for her on the counter, “Oh. I’m sorry about that.” The hostess shrugs, “That’s alright, the meeting of two soulmates is always quite a sight.” Seulgi agrees, nodding slowly, eyeing Eunji and her newfound soulmate. Wait, where’s Aphrodite, then? “Love is a beautiful thing,” the hostess whistles, “Always popping up in places when you least expect it.”

Seulgi gives the woman standing behind the cash register a slight nod, and begins to turn away. “I’ll bring your coffee cake over to you guys!” The cashier calls out, causing Seulgi to turn around and half-bow her thanks. She flashes a grateful smile and turns around with the coffees balanced in both hands triumphantly, only to knock into someone who had been standing right behind her the second she does, sending the cups flying sideways through the air. “!” The architecture major whispers when the cups hit the floor. Sooyoung was going to be pissed.

 Seulgi scrambles to mop up the spilled beverages with a wad of napkins from the counter, hardly noticing the person she’d walked into had frozen beside her, staring down at her. In fact, Seulgi’s so engrossed in cleaning up the mess she’s made that she doesn’t even bother to look up at the stranger in the first place. Just as she finishes sopping up the rest, Seulgi thinks she hears the soft pop of the capping of a pen. A moment later, there’s a gentle, pale hand covering her own, and it’s her turn for the world to stop revolving. Seulgi takes in the porcelain skin of the hand, marked with a jagged line and a new mark. The words Found You in black ink.

At the sight, Seugli feels her heart catching in , and feels her body heating up all over. It can’t be, Seulgi thinks to herself, finding it hard to believe that the moment has come. Aphrodite?  She wills herself to look up, to see who her soulmate finally is, but she’s paralyzed. Perhaps it was fear that her soulmate wasn’t Aphrodite after all, or perhaps it was because Seulgi knew she looked like she was two seconds away from losing her in front of her soulmate. For a moment longer, she allows herself to ingrain this image of their first meeting in her head.

She was holding a small pile of soiled brown recycled napkins, sopping up the spilled liquid on the tile floor, and there was a soft, warm hand atop of hers with the same marks, fingers brushing over Seulgi’s marks. She counts the seconds passing by timing her rapid heartbeats. She feels her soulmate kneeling down to the floor next to her, balancing on the balls of their feet, but she’s still too shocked to even give them a passing glance. When Seulgi at last braves enough courage to tilt her head over, she has to remember to breathe. The beautiful stranger, Aphrodite, is just mere inches away from her, shooting her a dazzling smile. Oh. .

 If Seulgi thought that she was gorgeous from afar, she was struggling to describe just how alluring the other woman was up close. The woman’s chestnut colored eyes radiated with an impish gleam, seeming to glow with a soft playfulness that made Seulgi want to break out in a smile. Her black hair was parted to the side, falling over her shoulders like a waterfall of cascading ink, shrouding the sides of her face. Even with the black sweater and black wool coat Seulgi’s soulmate was donning, Seulgi could tell that the other woman was in impeccable shape. I guess I really do need to join a gym, then, Seulgi thinks to herself.

“Jesus Christ,” Seulgi murmurs underneath her breath after another beat of silence between them as the pair studied each other. How could I have gotten so lucky? Is my soulmate some kind of celebrity? The woman giggles to herself at Seugli’s star-struck reaction, “Not quite.” Seulgi watches in awe as she straightens up and holds out a hand to Seulgi to help her up. With the light hitting her slender figure in all the right places, Seugli finds dropping open slightly. “I’m Bae Joohyun.” She has a sense of humor, Seulgi notes mentally, before grinning up at her soulmate. Love always keeps you on your toes, Seulgi thinks, taking Joohyun’s outstretched ha