The eye color of my soulmate is very pretty.

That was always the first thing that crossed my mind when I wake up in the morning. I didn’t know what color it was though. All I knew was that it was my soulmate’s and that it was pretty.

How did I know?

Well, it was the only color I saw the world with. You see, when one hasn’t met his or her soulmate yet, they were to see the world in their soulmate’s eyecolor. The only eyecolor I know was mine and that was because of my two co-workers slash best friends.

Anyway, enough daydreaming. I got up from my bed and went straight for the bathroom. It was a Monday, which meant that I had to go work early, since most employees would be going to their workplaces as well. A number of them would stop by my shop first though to get breakfast.

I brushed my teeth and then took a quick shower. When I was done, I went to my room and put on a simple shirt and a pair of jeans. As I looked at myself on the mirror, my vision started changing. Well not really my vision but the color I was seeing. My soulmate probably had put on contact lenses. I also liked the color he always used, [I don’t really know his gender, I just have a feeling that he was a he] too bad I didn’t know what the color was called.

Oh and yes, I, 25-year-old Kim Seokjin, have still not found my soulmate. And my friends often teased me for it.

When I deemed myself presentable for the day, I took my backpack from a chair beside the mirror and checked if all my necessities were there.

They were. Good.

I grabbed my cellphone from the bed and went out of the room. I was about to make myself a cup of coffee when I glanced at the clock on the wall in the living room and saw that it was already six in the morning. I guess the cup of coffee would have to wait.

I grabbed my keys and put them inside my bag. I took one last look around the house to make sure that I didn’t forget to do anything before I left. When I was sure that I didn’t, I took my earphones and plugged it into my phone.

I went out of my apartment unit and headed for the elevator. As the doors opened when it reached my floor I entered the lift, pressing the button for the basement parking. I arrived a few moments later and immediately went over to where my bicycle was parked. After another few moments I was riding my bike, en route to what I called my ‘second home’.

Twenty minutes later I was already kneading dough in the kitchen of ‘EatJin’. It only took me around fifteen minutes to get here since there weren’t a lot of cars on the road in this time of day so there wasn’t any traffic jams. My house wasn’t that far from EatJin too so that was a plus.

 EatJin was my bakery slash pastry shop. I called it my second home because I spend most of my time here and I was able to establish this with my own money four months ago. At first this was only a bakery as baking was a hobby of mine but my best friend Hoseok decided that we should add drinks as well since it would enable us to earn more money. And so coffee, milk and tea were added to the menu. We still specialized in pastries and bread though so we weren’t really a café.

“You should really stop squeezing the dough if you want to bake them on time, Jinnie hyung.” I blinked as I realized that I wasn’t alone in the kitchen anymore. I turned to my left and saw my two best friends entering the kitchen from the back door. The one that spoke was Hoseok, and the one with him that was now putting his things in his locker was Hoseok’s soulmate, Taehyung. They were a perfect match in my opinion; I just didn’t like it when they gang up on me.

“Whatever Hoseok,” I retorted, finally stopping whatever I was doing with the dough to give the two newcomers a hug. “Now get to work you two.”

“Have you had your morning coffee, hyung?” Taehyung asked as he put on his apron and grabbed his mug off of the cupboard.

That was when I realized that I haven’t. “Actually, no, not yet.” When I arrived I proceeded to make the dough, forgetting to make myself a cup of coffee.

“I’ll make you one as well then.”

“Thanks, Tae.” He smiled as he took my mug as well and plugged in the coffee maker we had in the kitchen.

Hoseok started looking through the cupboard where we usually kept the ingredients for making bread. As I was dividing the dough into smaller pieces he said: “Hyung, we’re almost out of flour, sugar and milk. What we have here will only be enough for a few bagels and cinnamon rolls for this morning.”

I took a pen from my back pocket and wrote the ingredients on my forearm. “Alright. I’ll go to the grocery store near here when they open to get them. In the meantime work with what we have so we can bake already. People will start coming in soon.”

7 o’clock in the morning came accompanied by people rushing in to get their breakfast before going to work. It was a good thing we managed to bake at least 20 pastries while there were a few more in the oven with the ingredients left. A few regulars had asked why there weren’t a lot of bread on display with which I answered that we were running low on ingredients and that I would be getting them when the supermarket near here opened.

“Hyung!” Hoseok called out, his head peeping out of the kitchen door. “We can also use some butter and yeast. We just ran out.”

“Alright!” I replied, finishing up an order of a customer. I took the pen I had in my back pocket and was about to write on my left forearm when I saw that it was clean. What? I was pretty sure I wrote a list here this morning. I asked Taehyung to take over the counter for a bit so that I could ask Hoseok for the list.

I entered the kitchen and asked, “Hobi what’s the stuff I need to get again?”

Hoseok looked at me from the where he was standing by the oven in confusion. “I thought you already had them listed, hyung?”

“I know and I had,” I answered. I went over to where he was standing, took the tray of baguettes he just pulled out of the oven and put it on the table. “I wrote them on my forearm but now they’re gone.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just wash them?” Hoseok asked in a teasing manner.

“No. Why would I wash it off?” I retorted.

Hoseok shrugged. “Milk, flour, sugar, butter and yeast.”

After writing the items down on my forearm - this was a habit of mine; I found it very helpful to jot down on my forearms and palms for me to remember stuff – I put the cap of the pen back and placed the pen in my back pocket. “I’ll run by the supermarket in an hour when it opens.”

An hour and a half passed and I found myself removing my apron and heading for the back door. “I’ll be back in a few!” I called. I went out the back and headed for my parked bike. I got on it and left EatJin, heading for the supermarket a couple of blocks away.

Just as I was securing my bike to its parking space, my left forearm started stinging a bit; it was as if someone was trying so hard to rub something off of it. When I looked at it, it was pinkish and my list of items was gone. Again. What the hell?

I frowned as I slowly walked to the entrance of the supermarket. Now I’m very sure that I didn’t wash my forearm nor did I rub it for it to turn a slight red color and remove my list. But who could have done it? I was pretty sure only I had access to my forearm.

I almost bumped into the door because I was so lost in thought. Good thing I snapped back into reality before that happened. But now I don’t have the list of items that I have to get. Although they weren’t a lot, I just couldn’t seem to remember most of them. I grabbed a cart as I entered. Heading to the aisle that had baking needs, I tried to remember what I was supposed to be getting. There was milk, flour of course… I gave up. I took out my phone from my left back pocket and texted Hoseok for the list. While I was waiting for his reply, I grabbed about ten boxes of flour. These would last us enough for today. My phone dinged just as I was putting the last of the boxes in the cart.

‘I thought I already gave you the list hyung’, was what Hoseok sent me. I was about to send him a sarcastic reply when a text notification appeared. ‘Milk, flour, sugar, yeast and butter. Don’t forget hyung!’ It read. I sent him a ‘Thanks’ and proceeded to get the items.

After a quick trip to the dairy section to get milk and butter I was already putting the grocery items onto the counter of the cashier. There weren’t a lot of people yet since the supermarket just opened and so there weren’t any lines to the cashiers.

The cashier lady sent me a confused look when she saw the amount of baking needs I was about to purchase. “Our suppliers haven’t delivered these for my bakery and we just ran out of stock so…” I explained.

“That’s a very long tattoo you have,” she noted. At my confused look she elaborated, “the one on your left forearm.”

I looked at my left forearm and true enough there was writing on it. Only it wasn’t my handwriting. And I swear this was clean earlier. I just laughed what she said off and paid for the items I purchased. I made my way outside and headed for my bike. When the groceries were secured I hopped on and left.

While I was riding, I carefully lifted my hand to see if the writing was still there. It was, only it was starting to fade. It was like whoever wrote it was starting to erase it. To avoid getting into an accident, I pulled over to the side and read what was written.

‘I don’t really know if this will work but to whoever is writing baking needs on my forearm please stop. I will be having a presentation in a bit and I don’t really want them seeing a list of ingredients on me,’ it read. I was beyond creeped out when I saw it actually disappearing.

What in the world?

The day passed by in a blur. I was able to work properly after the forearm incident but that didn’t mean that it didn’t bug me. There were times that I spaced out because of it but when Hoseok or Taehyung pointed it out I would just laugh it off. I didn’t tell them about it because I didn’t think that it was a big deal.

We closed the shop at around five thirty, and I arrived home at six in the evening. I have been lying on my bed thinking about what happened. I racked my brain for anything that might explain the writings on my forearm but came up with nothing.

I lifted my arm so that my left forearm was in view. I stared at it, thinking that maybe if I stared at it long enough something would happen.

Something did.

Words started appearing again. I blinked repeatedly; maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me because I didn’t feel anything. The longer I blinked and stared though, the more words appeared. I decided to just read them.

‘I’m just trying this out of curiosity. I don’t really know if this will work. If does could you-whoever you are- …could you tell me? I already feel like an idiot for doing this so… yeah.’

I smiled unconsciously. I guess I’m not the only one intrigued by this. I got up and went to the bathroom. Grabbing a bar of soap and turning the faucet on I started washing the writing off of my skin.

When that was done I returned to my room, went over to my desk and rummaged through my drawers to find a washable pen. Before I got to write anything, my phone dinged. I picked it up and turned it on. The new message was from Taehyung, saying that he and Hoseok were coming over for dinner. I was about to tell him that I didn’t have food when he texted again, saying that they were coming with food and that I didn’t have to worry. I smiled. I sent an ‘okay’ and went back to what I was going to do a few moments earlier.

Grabbing the washable pen, I pondered on what to write. I just couldn’t say my name yet since I don’t even know who this person was or what was happening. I couldn’t really not write anything either since I didn’t want him to feel bad about himself or something. As I was thinking, the doorbell suddenly rang. Huh, they’re early, I thought. I headed for the front door but not before settling on writing two words as an answer to the mysterious person who was using their – and a bit indirectly mine – forearm. I opened the door and welcomed the couple, careful not to let them see what I had written on my skin.

It works.