A faint light escapes through the blinds of an otherwise dark room that gives a trifling amount of illumination in the cozy space.

Birds chirping outside can be heard faintly from the room. Signs of life finally surfacing on this new and wonderful sunny day. 

Or at least, that is what this girl standing in front of her mirror thinks. Her face numb from the wide smile she has maintained since the moment she woke up, which was 30 minutes ago, but she could not be bothered, not even the slightest.

Today is Kim Dahyun’s big day. Her 17th birthday.

To most people, this might be just another annual tradition to celebrate your birth but today means so much more to Dahyun.

It is her 17th birthday. The year she will have her soul mark. 

She has read dozens of stories about soul marks. She has seen movies depicting it. She has listened to stories and documentaries from people who has had it. 

You can name any activity that has to do with learning more about soul marks and she has probably done it.

A soul mark is a super rare recessive genetic mutation that, for some unknown reason, it only occurs one year in a lifetime: on your 17th year, to only a few select people.

What makes it harder is that you won't be able to feel it happening. You must be in physical contact with your soulmate for it to "activate". Moreover, you will have no indication whatsoever of it activating.

Other than your soulmate and everyone around you seeing the glowing in your eyes and the change in its shade, you're pretty much left not knowing if it's happening or not.

Which makes it the more exciting for Dahyun.

She is, however, anything but blind to the fact that soul marks are incredibly rare.

The fact is, soul marks appear in 1 in 2 million people in the world. This statistic makes it look like it is impossible to have a soul mark but not for Dahyun. As long as the 0.0000005% chance that she has a soulmark still stands, she will believe she is a part of that category in the statistics.

Today is the start of something new and incredible.

Dahyun lightly slaps both sides of her cheeks to wake herself up.

“I got this!” She cheers herself in front of the mirror before starting the day.

~

The muffled sounds of the waking streets and the music playing in her wireless earphones are the only sounds she hears as she continues to jog along the sidewalk.

The subtle increase in the heat coming from the rising sun creeps its way into Chaeyoung’s neck, indicating the start of the day.

She has been jogging for at least an hour now, a routine she maintains daily.

As she approaches close to her destination, she makes a sharp detour left of her intended stop to get her daily dose of caffeine from her favourite coffee shop.

When she finally arrives home, she is greeted with silence. She sighs and proceeds to her room to get ready for the day. 

Her room is wide. Too wide for her. The surplus of space is littered with weights, dirty laundry and towels scattered on the floor, a medicine ball, a pull up bar, a treadmill and of course, a soccer ball.

It's like a mini gym in her room alone. 

Chaeyoung makes her way to her closet to pick out her outfit for today. A leather jacket over a casual black ACDC shirt and ripped jeans the usual for her.

She closes her closet door and makes her way to the bed to get her gym bag when she catches a glimpse of a framed photo and a circled date on the calendar beside it.

She spares a quick glance at the photo before making her way back to the bag and scurrying out of her room.

When she finished, she grabbed the keys to her bike and drove away early to the school. 

The words of her father echoing in her head,

"Distance yourself from distractions. Stay away from things that can hinder you from achieving your goal. More importantly, stay away from that girl."

~

Dahyun skips her way downstairs to the living room, the sweet scent of freshly cooked bacon, eggs and toasted bread greeting her early, making her mood better.

“Looks like someone’s in a good mood.” states a woman in her mid 40s, preparing the breakfast.

Dahyun makes her way to her seat, a huge smile plastered all over her face. Her mother is ever so amused to see that smile reaching her daughter’s eyes and reached out to kiss her daughter's forehead along with a birthday greeting.

“It’s too early for that ty squinty eyes smile you make.”  groaned someone across her.

Ignoring the blatant insult, Dahyun addresses the offender from across the table with a larger smile, if that’s even possible, “Look who's up early. Are you turning over a new leaf or are you just excited to see someone in the early morning soccer practice today, sis?” 

The girl on the other side of the table was about to retaliate when their mom spoke again with a stern tone, “Jennie, it’s your sister’s birthday today, be nice.” 

“I would be if she hadn’t kept me up all night rambling about meeting her “soulmate”, as if there’s any chance of that happening.” Jennie responded, annoyed.

“There IS a chance! And it will happen for sure! Just look at Jisoo unnie!” Dahyun quickly replied.

“Jisoo and Irene are exceptions. They’re aliens.” Jennie responds with a straight face.

Dahyun snorts, “Jisoo is literally our first cousin”.

Their banter continues as they eat breakfast. 

As Dahyun is finishing up, she receives a text message from Tzuyu:

ChewyUWU: I’m on my way to school, you better hurry your up cuz I’m not waiting more than 2 minutes for you there <3.

Dahyun quickly got up and kissed her mother and sister, much to Jennie’s disgust, goodbye.

She, Tzuyu, Sana and Jihyo made plans to meet early at the school today to test if any one of them is Dahyun’s soulmate. 

At first, it sounded ridiculous as they’re pretty sure they would never be able to see each other past the best friends label but who knows what could happen.

The school is only a couple blocks away from her house so it should not take her long to get there, especially if she runs, although she’s the most unathletic person she knows.

She sort of regrets wearing a knee-length breezy dress today as she feels the wind blowing her dress up revealing her underwear. 

I should've just wore a denim short or a short underneath my dress. She thought, annoyed.

She decides to enter through the back of the school where the school's parking lot is as a shortcut.

She's not surprised to see some parking spaces occupied early in the day as she's aware of the soccer practice happening early.

Before Dahyun's thoughts could travel deeper, she shook her head and made her way to the school when a loud motorcycle horn cut her from her trance, leaving her frozen in shock.

"ARE YOU ING CRAZY?!" she heard someone screaming as they unmount their vehicle.

Dahyun's back is facing the driver as she is still frozen in her spot.

"What were you thinking running across without looking?! You could've been hit!" The driver continues despite not getting any replies.

Annoyed, the driver makes their way closer to the girl, "Are you deaf or are you just ignoring me on purpose?!"

As the driver stretches her arms to grab the girl's shoulder, Dahyun squeezes her eyes shut before she abruptly turning to face them.

She quickly bows her head before the driver could even get a glimpse of her face and mumbled an apology before hurriedly scurrying away.

She needs to hurry up and get out of there. She can recognize that voice from miles away. 

Nothing could ruin her mood today and if she has to avoid her at all costs for her mood to remain bright, she will do it.

Before she could even take ten steps away though, she stumbles forward after accidentally kicking herself on the shin.

'Oh great! Just when I need to not be clumsy, I get clumsy'

Dahyun was about to get up when she noticed the scrape on her knees. Head low to her knees, she mutters a curse before attempting to stand up again.

Before she could do anything, the driver runs up to help her.

"Are you okay?" The driver's voice is more concerned than venomous now and despite the driver evidently holding back her laughter, Dahyun can still feel the softness and delicacy in the driver’s tone.

Dahyun holds back her tears. Not so much because of her wound but because of something else. Something deeper.

"I'm fine" she replies, voice cracking and barely audible.

The driver doesn't push, hearing the distraught in the girl's voice. She thinks it's weird for a girl her size to be crying about a scraped knee but she doesn't say anything about it.

Instead, she tries to help her b