Everyone had a soulmate, whether they liked it or not. It was imprinted in every person’s body since birth. The line that connected the two soulmates was through a tattoo. A tattoo of their soulmate’s first words spoken to them.

 

Ong Seongwoo, in his second last year of highschool, when people started to date or meet their soulmates, started becoming concerned with his looks more. ‘Was this hairstyle boring? What’s the trendiest hairstyle? What about these clothes? Do I look good?’ were the thoughts always going through his head at all times. It was only because the first words his soulmate said to him surrounded the way he looked:

 

I’m so so sorry- Wait- Oh my god, you’re good looking.

 

Of course, Seongwoo got the glow-up he’d prayed for, and was known as one of the most attractive people when he reached university. He had the looks and the humour. Many girls always stopped by to stare at him or giggle to their friends about how handsome he looked, but none of the words he heard matched the words on his tattoo. He was clearly disappointed, but still kept his hopes up because he knew one day and just one day, he’ll meet his soulmate.

 

It was on a particular busy Tuesday morning, on July 25th, 2017 (And yes, Seongwoo memorized this date). Seongwoo woke up way earlier than usual and so he decided to head out to his favourite cafe to grab breakfast since he was in no rush. He opened the door to the cafe, only to be met with a girl who was in a rush. The girl was supposedly running out of the cafe, her laptop and books in one hand, and the cup of coffee in the other. When the two people crashed, her coffee had spilled all over his white shirt. In horror, they both froze.

 

Originally, Seongwoo’s thoughts were ‘Oh god no, what if my soulmate saw me in this state? This isn’t attractive at all.’ But they were immediately altered from the next words that came out of the girl’s mouth.

 

“I’m so so sorry-” The girl apologized immediately, bowing quickly on instinct. After she straightened herself she muttered on impulse without thinking, “Wait- Oh my god, you’re good looking.”

 

Seongwoo did not expect that. Not only did the girl admit he was attractive even with coffee all over his shirt, but she had said the exact words that were printed on his lower abdomen. He short-circuited, not being able to process the scene that unfolded right in front of him. Seongwoo was still absorbing everything, so he had a shocked face the whole time and didn’t move a single bit. All he could focus on, was how her eyes sparkled, how her cheeks looked so squishy and how soft her lips were.

 

This earned the girl some time to react, who definitely processed everything that happened faster than the boy standing like a mannequin in front of her. She gasped and clasped , shocked at the words that she unconsciously said. The girl was too embarrassed to face Seongwoo, and she was running late as well, so she decided to run away before Seongwoo could even say or do anything.

 

Seeing the girl run away right in front of his eyes gave Seongwoo a wake-up call. He met his soulmate. His pretty soulmate thought he was attractive even with a huge coffee stain. But, he let his soulmate go just like that and he didn’t get to say anything back to her.

 

He immediately went back to his dorm, running with his coffee-painted shirt. He went up to his roommate, Kang Daniel, and shook his shoulders, shouting, “I FOUND MY SOULMATE, WHAT DO I DO, OH MY GOD.”

 

Daniel, who was just eating his cereal, but soon accompanied Seongwoo’s stained shirt with a milk-stained pajama shirt from all the shaking.

 

“Hyung, chill, my shirt- Wait, what happened to your shirt?”

 

“She bumped into me! With coffee in her hands! It went all over my shirt! Then she said the magic words, the same ones as my tattoo!”

 

“Congrats, hyung! Did you get her name? Her number?”

 

Silence spread across the room.

 

Daniel’s sigh broke the silence. “Don’t tell me you froze and she ran away.”

Seongwoo moved his hands to facepalm himself. He really did let that happen.

 

“What did she look like at least?”

 

“She had chestnut hair and foxy eyes? Yea. That’s all I can remember. But, she was really pretty.”

 

“I don’t even know why I bothered asking you, hyung. How can we find her? She might not even go to the same University we do.”

 

Seongwoo sighed, “You’re right, Niel. God, I’m stupid.” He shook his head in disappointment and went back into his room to change his clothes.

 

Ever since that day, Seongwoo kept that coffee-stained shirt for memories. Luckily, even after washing it, the stain didn’t want to leave the shirt (Just like how the memory of his soulmate never left his mind for the next few weeks).

 

A few months passed by since that day, and Seongwoo slowly went back from focusing on finding the girl to finding his way through his studies. A new semester started, which meant a whole bunch of different classes and a whole new schedule. At the back of his mind, he wished his soulmate would be at least in one of his classes, but he knew better than to constantly keep his hopes up too high.

 

Leaves were falling by the time the semester started. He approached his first morning class of the week with a dash of tardiness. Okay, that was a big white lie. He was extremely late because he was not used to such early morning classes. He ran in with deep, heavy breaths, barely making it on time before the professor started teaching. Quickly running to the nearest empty seat, he put down his bag and immediately opened his laptop to type up the notes.

 

At the end of class, the professor announced, “You will be given a group assignment that will be due the day before midterms. The assignment will be posted online. For now, please make groups of 2 or 3, and it cannot be any more than 3 people.”

 

Seongwoo had no friends who shared this class with him and the people beside him already ran off to partner up with their own friends. So, he turned around to see if there was anyone available. That’s when he saw her, in all beauty and grace, she’s Miss United States. Kidding, this isn’t in the U.S. It was his soulmate, searching for a partner as well. She had her hair in a neat bun and Seongwoo definitely felt blown away by the sight of how pretty she looked even if it was one of those ugly early morning classes. He wondered if he looked as good as she did.

As if on cue, they locked eye contact with each other. He could see her eyes widen immediately and without knowing, Seongwoo’s jaw dropped in awe as well. ‘We’re going to be partners, we’re going to be partners, I can ask for her name, and we can date and fall in love and get married and then have kids then-’

 

His daydreaming was interrupted by a sudden stranger coming up to his soulmate, asking her to be her partner before Seongwoo could even get out of his seat. The girl nodded with a small smile and Seongwoo’s dreams were crushed once again.

 

Fortunately, he remembered the professor’s words and thought of joining the 2 girls to become a group of 3 at least. That did not turn out well. His hopes were ruined after a third person joined the 2 girls. (Seongwoo eventually did find a partner though, who happened to be Hwang Minhyun, but was absent that day).

 

He was determined to get her name or her number before she escaped the room but, with no surprise, the girl ran away as fast as she could out of that class. Seongwoo was devastated, running out the door only to see a huge crowd of students with no glimpse of his soulmate anywhere.

 

He had missed out on 2 whole chances to get to know his soulmate.

 

On the other hand, the runaway soulmate, also known as Jung Chaeyeon, was in constant panic. Constant panic as in running away from that one attractive guy she bumped into months ago. However, Chaeyeon was also in constant panic due to a fear she’s gained ever since she was a child.

 

Her tattoo, placed on her shoulder blade, were the words, What did you just say?

 

Growing up, she thought her tattoo meant that her soulmate didn’t hear her properly and just wanted her to repeat it.

 

That was what she believed, until she reached middle school. Her friend, Baek Yebin, was getting picked on by some older students.

 

“You guys are really stupid for not picking on someone your age.” Chaeyeon retaliated at the older students. Everyone, including Yebin, was shocked at how confident Chaeyeon was. With that thought, the elders tried to break her wall of confidence.

 

The leader of the group scoffed, “You think you sound smart and cool by saying those words? What did you say? Us, being stupid? Says you, for involving yourself in this.”

 

Another older student added, “You’ll get in trouble for calling your sunbaes stupid. Don’t you have any respect?”

 

With those words being said, and especially when one of the sunbaes saying words similar to the ones on her tattoo, Chaeyeon had completely lost the confidence she had when she defended Yebin. She ended up getting picked on as well, for trying to become a ‘wannabe scholar with her words.’ The two were thankfully saved by Chaeyeon’s older cousin, Hwang Minhyun.

Ever since that day, Chaeyeon was very careful with her words and seemed to be quieter than she was when she was younger. She was still a cheerful and bright girl who talked nonsense with people she was close to, though. She was just afraid of saying the wrong words to her, or about her soulmate that they might react angrily.

 

Moving forward, that day she met Seongwoo was one of her rare slip-ups on her words. She was such in a rush, her mind running as fast as her body was, that the words flew out of faster than her brain processed her thoughts. She ran away in panic (and also because she was going to be late for class), in disbelief that she would let herself say that. Chaeyeon was always so cautious with her words, but how did one guy cause her to easily ruin her streak like that?

 

She admitted, the way he wore a simple white t-shirt and a bomber jacket and managed to make a coffee stain look aesthetic, definitely made Chaeyeon have every reason to say what she had said.

 

However, she swore to never come across that guy ever again. Or so she hoped to.

 

When she saw him run in late into that one morning class, Chaeyeon wanted the ground to swallow her whole. Luckily, she wasn’t spotted by him at the beginning of class. She kept her fingers crossed that he wouldn’t turn around, or else he would have spotted her, with her being 4 rows directly behind him.

 

Her luck ran out when the professor announced the group project assignment. She saw Seongwoo look like a lost puppy, trying to find a partner, and she was almost tempted to partner up with him. Keyword, almost. It was until his eyes landed on her that she immediately went into panic mode and wanted to hide. Chaeyeon saw how Seongwoo opened his mouth in shock as if he was saying ‘It’s that creepy girl who told me I looked handsome after she completely butchered my shirt!’

 

(As you can see, Seongwoo had completely different thoughts.)

 

Luckily, Yebin was in the same class and approached her.

 

“Who are you looking at?”

 

“Oh, no one. I just zoned out, sorry.” Chaeyeon replied, saving herself from any more teasing. She had told Yebin about that day, only to get teased for days about how she unusual it was for her to say words like that.

 

“Let’s be partners, Chae babe!”

 

“Sounds good!”

 

A few moments later, Cathy approached the two girls as well. “Can I join your group?”

 

“Of course!” “Join us!” The two girls chorused.

 

Chaeyeon felt like she had just prevented a grenade from exploding. She indeed was noticed by the cafe boy, but at least she didn’t have to partner up with him for the project. She did feel a little sorry when the boy had to walk around the class, asking if they would accept him into their group, with a dejected face on him. (She wanted to kiss that little pout off his face).

 

As soon as the class was dismissed, she packed her bag as quickly as possible, trying to escape any possible interactions with the boy. She successfully ran out of the class, slipping her way through all the bodies of students. She nearly tripped over her own feet, but that was not the main concern here. Chaeyeon exited the building, huffing and puffing, trying to catch her own breath. (Guess he left her breathless).

 

‘I can’t keep avoiding him forever, but I’ll try to delay it as much as possible. I really hope he doesn’t remember me or have a grudge on me for that day,’ she thought to herself.

 

When she got home that night, she looked over her schedule for the week, to check her classes for tomorrow. She looked over the schedule, until she realized she came to the wrong class in the morning. No wonder Chaeyeon felt so lost with the topic, and it was because she went to the wrong class in the wrong building. She never felt so relieved that she was clumsy enough to make this mistake. Pulling out her phone, she texted the two girls of the news, devastated that she was no longer in their class and group (and also SLIGHTLY disappointed she wouldn’t share the class with the handsome guy anymore).

 

The next day, Chaeyeon went to her business class and decided to sit beside a guy who seemed to be laidback. What stood out most about him was his pink hair and the pack of gummies sticking out of his bag. She didn’t tell him that, though.

 

“Hi, is anyone sitting here?” She asked.

 

“Nope! Feel free to sit here.”

 

“I’m Jung Chaeyeon, nice to meet you.”

“Hi Chaeyeon-ssi, I’m Kang Daniel. Nice to meet you too! Let’s be seat buddies. I’m feeling a little lonely in this class anyways.”

 

Little did she know that her seatmate was the roommate of the guy she wished to avoid. Meanwhile, Daniel felt a sense of familiarity when seeing the girl, but he wasn’t sure how or why.