The One with the Bus, Roses, and Sleepy Flirting

Jongdae stared at the grey city hall, people loitered on the steps, in conversation with either another a person or on the phone, eating lunch or reading their phone. He pulled his headphones off, the faint sounds of piano suddenly stopping as he paused the music, entering the building.

He waited in the waiting room that barely was filled with people. A radio was being played softly as the top music of the week repeated itself, and magazines of various covers in various stages of use were thrown around. He sat in a cold plastic chair and started to bounce his leg, staring at his wrist. The numbers constantly jumped around, and he began to wonder if he could change his cheat. He would love to have a warming necklace like his cousin.

When his name was called, he thought of his best friend, and walked up to a typing man who had red glasses and a sour pout. Jongdae answered all the basic questions, watching the man type vigorously.

“Why did you wait until now to get it fixed?”

“Um…” he blushed, suddenly finding his reason embarrassing to explain. “I’m getting irritated that I’m twenty and I haven’t found my soulmate?”

The typing man stopped and stared at Jongdae, who gave a nervous smile. The typing man shook his head, “Y’all keep getting younger and younger. Why can’t y’all just enjoy life a bit before finding the one?” He sighed heavily before asking to see Jongdae’s wrist and exaimining it. “Hmm… have you tried to swipe on it?”

Jongdae gave him an odd look before shaking his head, “I didn’t even know it could do that.” He swiped, and the numbers changed to letters, still changing and constant.

The typing man took notes and looked around again for any thing else before he sighed, “Seems like it’s a class B issue. Go out those doors, to your right, go down the hall, look for room five, then to booth fifteen. Whoever’s in there will take care of your watch for you. Any questions?”

“Yeah, is it possible to change my cheat?”

“No.”

“Is it possible to check to see if someone has a cheat?”

“No.”

“Is it possible to get rid of my cheat?”

“Not until your soulmate has been found. Anything else?” The typing man asked with a bored expression, not even looking at the man.

“No,” Jongdae chimed as he left the area. He followed the instructions and appeared in front of an old woman with white hair in a tall bun on her head and pink lipstick. She smiled at him and told him to take a seat, taking a careful look at the watch before she grabbed a magnetic stripper, swiping it over the watch and watching it fall on the counter.

Jongdae touched his skin he hadn’t felt in years, surprised to see he had a slight tan line.

“Ah, I see think I problem,” the old woman sang as she placed the watch on a dish and looked at computer screen, the reflection bouncing off her large glasses. “Your birthday was recently changed on here. Someone must’ve originally put you born February nineteenth, and then today it was changed to September twenty-first.”

“So…. What does that have to with my watch?”

The old woman took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes, before setting her hands on the watch the top of the counter and smiled. “The external cheats are specifically designed for the wearer and is filled with the correct information to ensure the correctness of soulmate cheating. However, there will be at least one person whose information was put in wrong. Unluckily, you were born before nineteen-ninety-nine when we transferred all our files digitally, so someone wrote your birthdate wrong.”

Jongdae looked at the floor, taking in all the info. “So… someone wrote my birthday wrong…. When files were handwritten, and because of that… my cheat has never worked properly?”

“Correct,” the old woman nodded before holding the watch up and pointing out a certain detail. “With this model, it’s supposed to tell you the time you would meet your soulmate, and if you swiped it, then it will tell you the date, but not the year. However, since there was a file error, you’ll be getting a new model with your updated information. It should take about six to eight weeks since they’ll have to go back to find the model that corresponds to your original birthday, or, if your extremely lucky, you might get a brand new model that not only tells you what time and date, but even the first words of what they’ll say to you It even has a tapping game in case you get bored.”

Blinking, the man rubbed his fingers over the bare spot again. “How would I know when it’s ready?”

“We’ll call you and you can come pick it up since it needs to be magnetized back on your skin,” she answered, nodding her head. “Any other questions?”

“Can I have a different cheat?” he tried again.

She shook her head, “Sorry, sweetheart.”

“Could you look up to see if a specific person has a cheat?”

“Why? Have a crush on someone?” she giggled. “Sorry hun, but policy states that I cannot do that unless that person is physically in front of me.”

He nodded before thanking the old woman and left city hall, finding the whole situation to be surreal. All this time he was given the wrong watch? He was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t have a warming necklace, but it made perfect sense now as to why it never worked. Though, now he couldn’t help but feel nervous as he walked to the bus stop; this new watch-this proper watch would now allow the man to find his soulmate.

What if it wasn’t Wendy? He couldn’t stop thinking it. He was really hoping that life would treat him well this once because he was convinced the woman was his. He was convinced ever since he first kissed her, and the few times after that, that bit of spark he felt, was just enough proof that he didn’t believe the watch couldn’t tell him anything else.

He let out a sigh as he remembered in the spur of the moment when he asked Wendy to marry him. Technically it was his second time, however it was his first time sober, but he just wanted to already prove to everyone and show the world that his soulmate was