Mina woke up to a start, her alarm clock buzzing away. She took a deep breath in and climbed out of her bed, preparing herself for another long day. Tiredly, she got dressed, packed her bag and brushed her teeth, all with her eyes still closed.

She washed her face and wiped the remaining water off before finally looking at herself in the mirror. Her dark black hair had grown quite a bit, she noticed and was just about to leave the bathroom and head down for breakfast when her eyes darted at the small timer above her head.

"WHAT TH-"

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"Mina are you alright, you look like your about to- oh."

Jihyo walked hesitantly to the Mina, whose face was buried in her hands and sitting on one of the empty chairs in the classroom.

"JIHYO-UNNIE I'M NOT READY FOR THIS, DO I LOOK ALRIGHT, WHAT IF I SCREW IT UP, WHA-" Her panicked shouting died down.

"What if they don't want me as their soulmate," she mumbled quietly.

Jihyo approached the girl, dragging a chair from the desk across and sat down.

"Mina, no one can not like you. You guys are soulmates for a reason right?"

"I guess"

"Besides, our Mina always looks pretty, like, have you SEEN how many guys and girls alike are chasing after you as we speak?"

"Hey, that's not true, Name one ti-"

"The stalker-boy incident"

The room was silent for a few seconds.

"Fine. But I'm not ready, I-I thought I still had at least 2 weeks, the last time I checked I still had a month and a half."

"You probably got caught up with our end-of-year examinations. Well, there's nothing we can do now, you have exactly," She shot a look back up her timer. "2 hours and 37 minutes. What do you have in period 2?"

"Biology"

"Can you think of any way you might be meeting someone new?"

"No, there's nothing happening today from what I recall."

Jihyo cast Mina a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure whoever your soulmate is will love you. And even if they don't I'll beat them up for you."

Mina laughed.

Jihyo was just about to head out of the classroom when she heard her name.

"Jihyo?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think people will, I guess, notice? Or care?"

"I think so, I mean you do have one of the shortest timers that are within our schooling years so maybe they'd find it interesting?"

Ever since Mina was young, she'd noticed something. While most of the kids she's played with had timers that read at around 20 years till or higher, hers had a mere 12. She remembers the day she had asked her mum about it and what they meant. Young, 4-year old Mina had run into her mother's arm crying as she was asked what was wrong. The silly girl had come to the only logical conclusion a four-year-old could have and tearfully proclaimed that she knew she was going to die in 12 years and that they don't have to hide it from her anymore and that she was a big girl who could handle such news. Her mother laughed, wiping the tears off her daughter's face. ‘Oh, Mina,' she had said ‘You're not dying. In fact, that will be the best day of your life! It's the day you'll meet your soulmate and the two of you will be very happy together. You're very lucky to meet your soulmate at such a nice age, some people have their timers finish at the age of two when they can't even remember anything, or at the age of 40 which they had to wait so long and hard for. Some people don't have soulmates, and they're usually very very upset about that, so make sure if you see nothing above their head, don't point it okay, Mina?'

Mina had met Jihyo when she was 6, having just gotten to school all shy and quiet. Jihyo took Mina right under her wing as she found Mina very cute ‘like a little sister' even though they were the same age. Mina had noticed that Jihyo didn't have a timer on her head and at first she felt sad for her, the emotion heightened as the girl was always so happy and chipper. Then, one day, Jihyo had found Mina crying by herself behind a tree far away from the rest of the playground. She tried to comfort the girl, but this only made her cry more. She asked Mina what was wrong and being so distraught, Mina had told Jihyo what the lack of timer on her head meant and that she was very very sad that such a caring girl could not have something so special. This had just made Jihyo laugh, which confused Mina greatly. She engulfed her in a giant hug. ‘Mina, don't cry. I don't not have a soulmate, it's just I've already met mine. Her name is Sana and she lives next door to me. Don't cry, Mina-ah.'

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For the next two hours, just as Jihyo had said, Mina had noticed an increase in the number of whispers and glances in her direction. This made her a bit jittery, especially since she herself was nervous about the incident itself.

The bell rang, and all the students rushed to pack away their textbooks and pens, leaving the teacher stunned in the middle of explaining the French Revolution. As much as Mina enjoyed modern history, today has just been a little too different for her liking. She left the classroom quickly, entering the hallways as she quickly made it to the lockers.

She opened hers up, greeted by a few letters that had been stuck in by probable admirers. She pushed them to the side as she placed the textbooks back into the allocated space. Her eyes darted at the timer above her head. 51 minutes left. Mina felt her heart pound, taking a deep breath in to help calm herself down.

She made her way past the students, pretending she hadn