Of course, attending Hayer U actually meant going to class and getting a degree instead of just focusing solely on soulmates and all the complications involved with that, so it took Jinyoung until the end of the first week of classes to single Aron out for the first time. He’d never thought he’d be able to push the matter into the slot of being a secondary priority, but then again, he hadn’t really properly contended with the scope of coursework that would be involved in majoring in literature in his second language on top of not getting lost in an entirely unfamiliar area.

But when he saw Aron scribbling away in a notebook in the common area after making it back from his last class on Friday, his priorities rearranged themselves again. Peniel was also in the lounge looking at his Physics textbook with an amusingly pissed look on his face, but it was still as good a time as any to get the ball rolling.

“Hey, Aron,” Jinyoung said, plopping down next to him on the sofa. “I know you’re in Journalism, but did you ever take any lit classes while you were at it?”

“A few,” Aron said. “Are you concerned about the professors?”

“I’m a little bit more concerned about the reading. We’re going to be doing a few things in Old English for British Literature, and…” he shrugged helplessly. “It’s like gibberish to me.”

“Oh, you mean like Beowulf?”

“Right.”

“Don’t worry, they make a lot of useful guides to books like that. Ever heard of SparkNotes? The professors may whine about students using them, but it’s useful to have resources if you’re struggling. I never took British Literature, but if you’re taking the lecture on Short Fiction, I’ve still got my notes from Freshmen year, if that would help.”

“Really? That would be great.”

“Dude, while you’re at it, could you explain Physics to me?” Peniel asked, looking up eagerly. “Nothing makes sense.”

“Sorry, but I’m in liberal arts, not the sciences,” Aron said innocently. “Ask someone else.”

“Who? BM? Because hate to break it to you, he’s on the phone with his soulmate 24/7 and I can’t get a word in edgewise.”

“Jealous?”

“Totally jealous. I’ve still got 3 years to go on my clock.”

“Well, that will help you focus on your studies.”

“Don’t wanna.” Peniel slammed his textbook shut. “It’s Friday, so I’m going to see if Vernon knows about any campus parties. Wanna come?”

“Nah, thanks,” Aron said. “You know me, I’d rather just stay home.”

“Same,” Jinyoung said, pleased for another commonality. “Minki might be interested, though.”

“Got it!” Peniel saluted to them and left the room.

“Right, you’re friends with Minki,” Aron said after a moment. “He’s really a unique one, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he sure is,” Jinyoung answered. “He’s really sorry about the Mosaic incident by the way.”

“Tell him it’s OK. I survived. He had his heart in the right place, so I’m not about to hold it against him.” Aron paused. “Actually, before the whole incident, Minki was telling me a little bit about Asian soulmate practices. It sounded pretty interesting. I think it’s great that you guys don’t have to get implants. It would be so cool to have my red string read.”

God, this guy is already so much better than Mark, Jinyoung thought. “It’s really amazing. A soulmater can actually make the thread visible, and it’s so beautiful to see it with your own eyes.”

“Really? So you and Minki have had your strings read professionally?”

“Yeah, back when we were thirteen, and a few times since for coordinate updates. My sister is a licensed soulmater, so when she’s feeling generous, she’ll do it free of charge.”

“Wow. So you guys know when you’ll meet your person and around where they’ll be? Are you allowed to spill the details?”

“Umm…” Jinyoung bit his lip. “Well, it’s kind of a secret at the moment. Our reading left some unanswered questions my sister is sorting out.”

“I see. Well, it’s really interesting. And very shady of the US to treat the whole thing like a superstition when it seems like an even better alternative than the implants. But that’s as expected for the US. Huh.” He tapped his pen against his lips.

“I can see the reporter gears turning in your brain,” Jinyoung teased.

“Do you? Huh, I thought I’d gotten better at hiding those. I don’t want to give it away when I’m on a subtle investigation.”

“What made you interested in investigative reporting, anyways?”

“What, are you investigating me for something?” Aron asked innocently. Jinyoung just laughed. “Honestly, there’s just crazy stuff going down in our country and around the world which needs exposing. And I like how the exposing is done in a professional sense—peeling back the layers while still maintaining journalistic integrity and getting down to the facts. And then using those facts to punish the evildoers. ‘Slinging their own right back at them,’ as one of my professors likes to say.” Aron laughed. “It’s fascinating.”

You’re the fascinating one, Jinyoung thought with a smile. How amazing would it be to get to be with someone so put together and driven?

"So, anyways," Aron said, "if you don't mind me asking, what brought you all the way out here to LA?"

“My soul pretty much tugged me here,” Jinyoung said, straying on the side of honesty. As long as he kept it vague like he had with Mark, it would be fine.

“Oh, so your soulmate is in the US?” Aron paused. “Minki’s, too?”

“Seems so.”

“Huh…” Aron massaged his pinkie. “Well. I hope you both find happiness when you find them.”

“I hope so, too,” Jinyoung said sincerely. “I think it will be an amazing thing when it all sorts itself out.”

“Regardless, it’s impressive that you two mastered English and came all the way out here. That takes bravery. I’m not sure if I could do that. Especially since I’m not even brave enough to get a clock implant.” He laughed lightly. “Seriously, I’d love to talk to you guys about Korea sometime. I’ve been a few times, but it always feels very foreign, you know? I’ve been raised too American to fully get it, maybe. But I think it would be different to hear about it from people who love it.”

“I’d love to,” Jinyoung said, realizing this was a chance he should absolutely jump upon. “Maybe we could go out some time? You could show me around LA, and I could pay you back by telling you about Korea?”

“Sure! I’m not sure how much of a tour guide I’d be, but I’d be willing to try.”

Right then, as Jinyoung was experiencing a burst of giddiness at this successful “date” attempt, Mark Tuan waltzed into the room carrying his laptop. “Hey guys,” he said. “Mind if I join you in here? The Wi-Fi router in my room keeps blipping.”

Jinyoung practically rocketed to his feet. “I was just leaving,” he said. “Let’s arrange that outing soon, Aron. Talk to you later?”

“Yeah, sure,” Aron said with a wave.

Jinyoung brushed past Mark, avoiding eye contact. “What outing?” he heard Mark ask, but he didn’t stay long enough to listen to the answer. Mark Tuan was up there with Aron on the top of his priority list, but his action item was ‘avoid at all costs.’

Minki and Mark apparently lived their lives like ships passing in the night, because they never seemed to run into each other. Minki supposed they had opposite class schedules or something, but after close to two weeks, he was getting curious enough about his supposed soulmate to put the effort in to hunt him down. He tried knocking on his door first, then poked his head into the kitchen—and quickly poked it back out when he saw Aron-the-poisoning-victim inside. Finally, he went into the common area. It was surprisingly empty for once, so Minki flopped down on the couch and pulled out his phone. Maybe he could text Jinyoung and ask if he’d seen Mark around—Jinyoung probably knew Mark’s schedule by heart based on all the effort he put into avoiding him.

Just as he was about to start firing out a text message, Minki heard a creaky groan issuing from the corner of the room, and suddenly a black hooded figure was rising to its feet. “HOLY CRAP, DEMON!” Minki shrieked, flinging a nearby cushion at it with all his strength. Said demon caught the pillow and stared down at it in bewilderment. It took Minki a few seconds to realize that it was not, in fact, a demon, but a fellow student instead. As luck would have it, it was the exact student he’d been looking for.

“Holy , Mark, you scared the crap out of me,” Minki gasped, clapping a hand over his heart. “What were you doing back there?”

“Working. Dying. All of the above?”

“You have a killer homework assignment already?”

“Not exactly. I’m in the middle of starting up an online business with my cousin at the moment, and it’s a very involved process. I’d go into it, but if I have to think about it for another second, I might scream.” He joined Minki on the couch. “I don’t know if we’ve been properly introduced, but you seem to know my name, and I know yours, so…hey.”

“Hey,” Minki said back. “Although it’s been long time no see.”

“Any second I haven’t been in class, I’ve been wherever the internet’s best to get the site ready for launch. You’re one of the Freshmen, right? Are you holding up, OK?”

Minki shrugged. “It’s not so bad. I’m not getting lost so much anymore.”

“What are you majoring in?”

“Social work. I want to help the elderly.”

“That’s sweet of you. Here, or in Korea?”

Minki hadn’t really considered. He supposed it kind of hinged on his soulmate’s plans as well, which was kind of weird to think about. “I’m not sure,” he said frankly. “Depends.”

“Well. You never know which way the wind will blow. It’s good to keep your options open.” Mark stretched out his limbs. “Hey, Minki, are you bored? I need to get out of this dorm, but everyone here is super studious and is probably busy with homework. You’re free, right?”

“Sure. Where are you thinking of going?”

“Arcade.”

This sounded right up Minki’s alley. “Count me in. Let’s go.” He thought it would be fun to do something spontaneous. He loved Jinyoung to death, but he wasn’t particularly known for his spontaneity.

The arcade was in walking distance, according to Mark, so they headed off on foot. “Still hard to get used to the palm trees,” Minki commented as they hit the main road. “Feels like another planet sometimes.”

“I get it. I don’t know much about Korea, but the vibe’s pretty different, right?”

“Quite. It’s charming in its own way. But here feels a lot freer. I feel like I could walk out in the city in Lady Gaga’s meat dress and no one would bat an eye.”

“Probably. We’re used to crazy. Us and New York are the capitals of that, I think…and Florida.” He chuckled. “So, you’re best friends with Jinyoung, right?”

“Right.”

“What’s his deal?”

“Ahh, you guys didn’t hit it off so great, right? Seriously, please don’t hold it against him. He’s going through a stressful time in his life, and he just wants everything to work out perfectly so much. He may get a little snappish about certain things, but he’s a great guy, I swear.”

“So, I just ran into his hot button issue, huh? Soulmates?”

“Yeah. That would be it. It’s very, very serious for him.”

“Why?”

“Why? It’s serious for a lot of people, isn’t it? Especially for the romantics among us. It’s like the realization of an epic love novel with fewer chances of terrible screw-ups and heartbreaks.”

“Frankly, I find it less romantic. Destiny is great and all, but it’s still nice to feel like you’re the one moving along your own story rather than having the and conclusion handed right to you.”

“I tend to agree,” Minki admitted. “But to Jinyoung, the whole thought of it is really beautiful, you know? It’s the moment he’s been waiting his whole life for, and the thought of it not going to plan stresses him out. And if you try to argue with him about it, that stresses him out even more. Especially if he thinks you’re making fun of him for it.”

“Well, that might be why he leaves a room whenever I enter it,” Mark said lightly. “I wasn’t actually attempting to make fun of him for it. Although in hindsight, he’s somewhat fun to tease, though I’m sorry if I’m stressing him out. I’ll try to hold back in the future. I can respect someone for wanting to find their other half so much that they’ll use any tool they can to do it. But for me, I’d like to find that person mostly on my own. How about you?”

“Well, the decision’s kind of out of my hands at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I’m about to fork myself over to anyone. I want to be thoroughly won over.”

“Right? That’s half the fun.”

The arcade Mark brought him to was a nice blend of fun for children and adults, the perfect way to unwind for the evening. “I wanna whack something,” Minki said, pointing to Whack-a-Mole. “How about I set a high score and you try to beat it?”

“You’re on!”

Minki wound up nailing a credible 35 moles, fueled by the desire to release his managing-university-in-a-foreign-country stress. It was a pretty satisfying feeling, and even though Mark was competing against him, he was still the type to cheer him on and high five him when it was over. Bit of a shame, he thought to himself. I think Jinyoung brushed him off as a jerk way too soon. He’s a really nice guy, the kind who could do wonders for someone who needs a bright spirit in his life like Jinyoung.

Still, Mark wound up defeating him with 45 moles, and even though Mark was good natured about it, Minki still hated to lose. He pointed to another game in the arcade. “I challenge you to that game, whatever it is.”

“Skee-ball?” Mark asked. “Are you sure? I’m pretty good at that one, and it seems like you don’t even know the rules.”

“So teach me,” Minki said. It would make for a nice old movie moment, he thought—couples in movies were always hitting it off over teaching each other the rules to physical games where there was touching and body adjustments involved.

“All right. Think of it like darts meets bowling, almost. You want to score the most points by landing difficult shots when you bowl the ball down the lane. The outer hole is easiest to land, so it’s worth the least amount of points. The tiny holes in the corner are really hard to get, so they’re worth 100 points.”

“Right. I’ll aim for those.”

“Did I mention they’re really hard to get?”

“Yes. I like challenges. And doing things the hard way.”

“Then go right ahead. Let’s see if you can do it.”

He aimed for the 100 point holes with every shot, and missed them each time, his ball rolling stubbornly back to the lowest scoring 10 point hole. He got a little closer to the 100 points each time, but could never quite reach it. Consequently, he wound up with an embarrassingly low score, but Mark was optimistic about it (in spite of never stepping up to offer the romantic movie-type body adjustments Minki had been banking on). “Keep working on that shot, and you’ll get it eventually. Doing things the hard way sometimes pays off, even if it takes time.”

Mark aimed around the 50 point hole and nailed his shots every time, then with his last two shots made attempts at the 100s, landing one out of two and blowing Minki’s score out of the water. “I know my sweet spots,” Mark said with a shrug. “Works like a charm every time.”

“Hmph,” Minki says. “We’re not leaving here until I win something. I’m making that racing game over there my next challenge. And I’m warning you beforehand, I’m going to wreck you so badly that even the computer system won’t be able to refresh your car.”

“I’d love to see you try.”

This time, however, Minki did deliver. The arcade steering wheel was hard to manage, which allowed Mark to pass him quite quickly, but that put Minki in good position to bump him just right in the tail to knock his car off balance and send him careening into a wall. Minki took 1^st place by a huge margin and was not at all a graceful winner about it. He called upon the moves of Beyoncé circa Single Ladies for his celebratory dance.

Mark just laughed. “I still have one victory over you.”

“Let’s even the score with Street Fighter.”

“Deal. If you win, I’ll buy you an ice cream. If I win, you have to buy me one.”

“Prepare to be crushed.”

Minki didn’t know anything about Street Fighter and just gleefully mashed buttons whenever Mark’s character came near him. It probably wouldn’t have worked normally, but Mark was used to playing the game on his PS4 and couldn’t figure out the arcade controls in comparison and wound up repeatedly mixing up the block and jump buttons. By time he’d gotten the hang of it, his health bar was completely drained and Minki’s button mashing extravaganza ended with his character delivering a fatal knee to the groin of Mark’s character.

“Well, a win is a win,” Mark said. “Looks like I owe you an ice cream.”

He bought Minki a cookies and cream cone and the two of them went over to the dining area which was filled with kids devouring B-grade arcade pizza. “Thanks for tagging along with me,” Mark said while Minki ate. “I needed to do something like this. And I remembered that you and Jinyoung were anxious about making friends on your first day…seems I struck out with Jinyoung for now, but if you ever need a friend to hang out with when Jinyoung is busy, I’ll be around. Probably. Well, whenever I’m not looking into my computer and phone.”

“Thank you,” Minki said genuinely. “It’s a nice thought.”

“And Aron, too,” Mark said quickly. “I heard that you two had an, um, incident on move in day, but he’s fine, OK? You really don’t have to worry that he hates you because of that.”

“Did he say something?” Minki asked curiously.

“Not exactly. He just seemed a little sad that you didn’t show up the night he cooked dinner for the dorm. He said he wanted you to try his homemade curry.”

“So he could show me how a real cook does it?”

“Not exactly. He said something like, ‘Minki made me a sandwich, and I still owe him something in return.’”

“Wait, so he’s going to make me poisoned curry out of revenge?”

Mark burst out laughing. “Is this a Korean thing, or is it just a you-and-Jinyoung thing? Always assuming the worst of people.” He shook his head. “I saw the plate he’d set aside for you, and that was some pristine looking curry. I really think it would make him happy if you came the next time he cooked something.”

Minki’s heart gave a tiny little ping at that. But a moment later, he shook it off. So what if Aron’s a nice, forgiving guy?, he reminded himself. So is Mark. There is no way I am going to infringe on Jinyoung’s soulmate territory. He’s already anxious enough about how things stand as it is, and I don’t see him changing his mind about Mark anytime soon.

“Who knows?” Minki said vaguely. “Anyways, thanks for inviting me out. I wouldn’t mind doing this again sometime, if you’re up for it.”

“Sure. You’ve got a promising skee-ball shot that deserves working on. And I apparently have to master my Street Fighter arcade version.”

Now this is a nice beginning, Minki thought to himself as he polished off his ice cream. A promising companionable slow burn that will one day erupt into a fiery passion, right?

The food poisoning beginning was more interesting, though, wasn’t it?, the devil on his shoulder reminded him. You weren’t born for slow burns, kid. Don’t fool yourself. Making something good from a good beginning is boring. Bad beginnings—now that’s the true start to your kind of love story, isn’t it?

Jinyoung was having the time of his life. He and Aron had finally gotten around to scheduling their LA outing, and had been spending their Saturday touring the local attractions. Thus far, Jinyoung had gotten to see the handprints of some of his favorite stars on the Walk of Fame, posed with the Hollywood sign, taken a stroll down Universal CityWalk, and eaten lunch at In-N-Out Burger. Right now, they were in the middle of a tour of the Museum of Art, and had stopped for a brief drink at the LACMA café to catch their breath and rest their legs.

“I feel like we’ve walked for years today, but we’ve only just scratched the surface, haven’t we?” Jinyoung asked, massaging his legs. “There’s so much more to do here.”

“Sure is, but I don’t recommend seeing it all in one day,” Aron said. “Plus, you’d probably benefit from trying different tour guides. Kevin can take you around to more historical areas—although that’s relatively speaking, considering America is a baby country compared to Korea—and BM and Vernon know a lot of local venues and street performances. And Mark knows all the best gaming hubs and all the best nature spots.”

“He’s into nature?” Jinyoung asked skeptically. “He’s always so plugged in that I thought the only nature he sees is on his desktop background.”

“I think it’s actually because Mark’s online all the time that he likes to go out for hikes to clear his mind from all his work on the web.”

“Work? I thought he was just gaming.”

“Oh, didn’t you know about the store he runs? It only just launched this year, but he and a handful of his cousins built this urban wear webstore together—hoodies, sneakers, shoulder bags, beanies, things like that. Mark’s the youngest member of the team, but he pretty much handles the website side of things on his own, while his cousins manage design, production, and sales. He’s pretty much a tech prodigy, considering he’s been part of the inception and planning of this business since even before he started university. The gaming is just a side hobby.”

Jinyoung blinked. This information shattered nearly all of his initial assumptions of Mark being a carefree slacker who’d wasted his time at university waffling about his major. In fact, this revelation pretty much showed that he didn’t have a slacker bone in his body, and had essentially already established a career for himself before even coming close to graduating. If he’d waffled about his major, it had probably just been the effect of having to choose between business or tech, or else choosing an entirely different field to supplement the business and tech skills he already had. Even the distractedness Jinyoung had written off as rudeness when they’d met in the laundry room had probably been because Jinyoung had walked in on him in the middle of doing business and had been like an annoying coworker yammering on about trivialities while he was trying to get work done.

So looking at him that way, the only minus point Jinyoung could still fairly strike against him was that he hated the soulmate system. Which was hard for Jinyoung to accept, but didn’t necessarily make Mark a heartless jerk. Although he had seemed to be mocking Jinyoung about his absolute faith in soulmates which had been a kind of condescending thing to do, but Jinyoung had pretty much mocked him right back for his lack of faith in the system and his recent breakup, which in hindsight was a pretty horrendous low blow. Mark had at least been willing to acknowledge his side of things, but Jinyoung had refused to acknowledge his view of love in return.

Jinyoung felt an uncomfortable hollowness in his stomach, the one he often got when he lept into a judgement or decision only to be proven terribly wrong. You’re always picking out the flaws in others without realizing the bad guy is sometimes you. He’d gone out of his way to avoid Mark like the plague on top of it, so it wasn’t something that could be brushed away without having to offer an explanation. If Minki started dating him, Jinyoung couldn’t just continue to avoid him to get out of giving that explanation.

“Hey, Jinyoung, are you OK?” Aron asked, noticing his silence.

Jinyoung shook his thoughts off, pushing them to the back of his mind. He was here to enjoy a date with his probably-soulmate, after all, and that wasn’t the kind of moment he could neglect being 100% present for. “It’s nothing,” he said in a bright voice. “I was just thinking that it might be nice one day if I could give you a tour around my hometown like you’ve just done for me today.”

“I bet that would be fun.” Aron’s smile grew suddenly serious. “Minki actually offered to do the same thing, but I’m going to assume the offer is retracted now since I haven’t gotten to talk to him for more than two seconds since he made me the Rainbow Mosaic in the Desert.”

“Ah,” Jinyoung said, clearing his throat. “Well…Minki has a lot of pride, you know? If he messes up, he has a hard time subjecting himself to being around the person who witnessed it. He thinks the mistake will be all you’ll be able to remember about him.”

“Seriously? It wasn’t even that big of a thing. It was actually pretty funny, in hindsight. The kind of misadventure that has no lasting damage but makes for a good story or inside joke.”

Jinyoung shrugged. “I’m sure if you find a way to tell him that without making him feel embarrassed, he’ll get over it.”

“Is he into Mark, or something?” Aron asked suddenly.

“W-What?” Jinyoung stammered, caught off guard.

“I was just wondering. They’ve been hanging out a lot together recently, and Mark’s in the market now that Jaebum’s out of the picture, so…I kind of thought…”

Jaebum. A name to go along with the guy who had found his soulmate while dating Mark. The heartache Mark had brought upon himself. Jaebum must have been quite a guy to get someone to do that, even someone as willing to flout the system as Mark. Jinyoung could only imagine what someone like that would be like.

“It might be heading in that direction,” Jinyoung said vaguely in response to Aron’s question. He’d asked Minki for the details of his outings with Mark, but Minki had thus far been uncharacteristically unforthcoming. He was far more curious about Jinyoung’s conversations with Aron, which he pumped him for information about regularly.

“Ah.” Aron chewed his lip. “Well. I guess that makes sense. Mark’s a special guy. Of course he’d attract someone else really special, like Minki. And…well…you said Minki had his string read. Could it be that Mark’s his soulmate?”

Jinyoung shifted in his seat. “I…I can’t really say.”

“I know it’s not my business,” Aron said quickly. “Just, I wouldn’t want Mark to fall for someone else who already had a soulmate, right? And I really wouldn’t want to wish that on Minki either.” He massaged his pinkie—now that Jinyoung thought about it, Aron tended to do that a lot. “I don’t know. I guess the situation just makes me a little anxious for both of them.”

He did seem genuinely worried, so Jinyoung wanted to say something to put his mind at ease, even if he didn’t delve into the whole truth. “You know how most soulmate tech has flaws, right? Especially in regards to encountering a soulmate when a lot of people are around? That’s kind of the case with Minki. He’s just doing his best to figure out…”

Jinyoung trailed off as he watched Aron’s eyes light up right in front of him. “Oh! Oooooooh, so that’s how it is! I get it now! So that may mean….OK, wow, that’s a huge relief. Thank you for telling me.”

“It’s not exactly what I would call a ‘relief’,” Jinyoung said in confusion.

“Oh, no, no, I don’t mean the fact that there’s some confusion is a relief. At least not for Minki. But that means I still have a-” He stopped himself short. “Actually, let’s just say this is all part of an ongoing investigation, and you just cleared some details up. So thank you.”

“OK…” Jinyoung didn’t really get it, but shrugged it off. “Anyways, are you ready to resume our tour?”

“Yup!” Aron said with a fresh burst of energy. “There’s still a lot more to see. It really is a magical city, after all.”

Jinyoung had a great time. He really did. It was a fun day filled with amazing sights, and he really enjoyed talking to Aron, who was full of incredible knowledge and infectious spirit. He was the kind of person Jinyoung really admired and wanted to be more like himself. And Jinyoung was definitely looking forward to spending more time with him and getting to know him better.

But. When the day was over and they started heading back to Baldwin Hall, there was this small, nagging sense of dissatisfaction. It had been fun, but it hadn’t really fit into all of his expectations of what his first date with his soulmate would be like. The activities had all been enjoyable, but the atmosphere hadn’t been quite right. In a way, it was almost like the times he went out to do something with Minki—a total blast, but without any aftershocks of flustered joy, heart pounding happiness, or a delightful shiver to the pulse. LA did indeed feel like a magical place, but it kept all of its magic to itself, not letting any of it leak into him so he would feel the sense that this day had been something that would be imprinted forever in his mind and heart in a way nothing would be able to touch.

I guess even with soulmates, it just doesn’t all hit you at once?, Jinyoung guessed. Maybe that kind of feeling would be something that built over time. And maybe that was something worth being excited about, the prospect of turning that faint spark into a flame that would overcome him little by little rather than in the blink of an eye.

But still, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. He’d only have this one single love story in his life. He wanted every single second of it to feel special and different from anything else. He wanted a page turner that just kept on fascinating and fascinating endlessly. Not a commonplace tale that anyone could tell with a basic plot and an uninspired happily ever after.

Still, when he and Aron made it back to the dorm, Jinyoung flashed his best winning smile. “Thanks for today,” he said gently. “You taking your time to do that meant a lot to me.”

“Any time, Jinyoung,” Aron said with a smile. “I hope you’ll feel at home here, OK?”

Aron headed towards the common room, and Jinyoung walked down the hallway towards his room, still wrestling with the incomplete sensations inside him. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he almost had a heart attack when one of the doors flew open and Mark Tuan came out.

Instinctively, Jinyoung swerved to avoid him and tried to brush past him so they wouldn’t have to talk, but before he could get far enough away, Mark latched on to the sleeve of his shirt. Jinyoung snapped his head back around, staring at him in surprise and making a half-hearted attempt to shake him off. What the hell is he doing?

“It’s not working,” Mark said.

“Excuse me?” Jinyoung asked blankly.

“Your little ‘keep away’ act. It’s not working for me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah, you do. You've been putting even more effort into avoiding me than you've put into your studies, which is saying something since you study a lot. And I just wanted to tell you that if you're trying to keep any tension from forming between us by staying away, it's not working. It only makes me want to make you like me more." Mark smiled at him, that troublesome smile again.

"Well, that shouldn't be hard," Jinyoung said sarcastically. "Since I don't like you at all." He really didn't know what made him say it. He wasn't normally a mean person, and after the revelations he'd learned from Aron about Mark, he knew well enough to he didn't have any reason to hate him. There was just something about him that boiled him up and made him act irrationally, something that couldn't be explained as simply as 'he's a soulmate-anti.' Maybe it was that he was so contrary to everything Jinyoung had always thought he'd wanted that his mere status as the potential love of his life made him want to do something that would make it officially impossible. 

"Really? For someone who hates me so much you sure seem to be putting quite a lot of effort into me. And I know you're really into committment, so..."

"This has nothing to do with committment. And don't even pretend like you're into me or anything. I know you're just toying with me right now, like Aron said. You like a good joke, right? Well, I'm not something you can mess around with for your own entertainment. I'm not interested in being your next ex-boyfriend just so you can prove to yourself that you can make someone who doesn't want you fall in love with you." 

"What if I'm not joking?" Mark asked.

"Just stop."

"No, seriously. What if I'm not interested in having you as an ex-boyfriend, either?"

"Of course it's a joke! Why would you like me? You've done nothing but make fun of me since we met!"

"Or maybe I'm just trying to shake up your thinking and get you to see things with new eyes?" He looked at Jinyoung with surprising seriousness. "I felt something when I saw you for the first time, you know, something I didn't feel as immediately with Jaebum. Something like-"

"Don't put me in the same sentence as your ex-boyfriend!" Jinyoung yelled, jerking away from Mark. "Don't you get it? I hate it! I don't want to be the middle chapter of someone's love story! I want to be the beginning! I want to be the first!"

For some reason, he felt like he might start crying, so he turned away and started walking down the hallway to his room as fast as he could.

"You know, sometimes the middle chapters are the best part of a book," Mark called after him. "And sometimes it makes the love story sweeter when the characters find something that works out from something that doesn't. All I know is that a story's already begun between us, whether you wanted it to or not. So stop putting up a front and let’s start talking sometime, OK? Such a romantic at heart shouldn’t just completely reject the idea of second chances. I’ll be waiting.” Jinyoung heard him walk away and turn the corner, leaving Jinyoung in the hallway alone.

What…what the hell was that?!?

Jinyoung didn’t really know. But he was feeling it now, the thing he hadn’t been feeling before: a shiver to the pulse. It was for all the wrong reasons, caused by the entirely wrong person, but suddenly it felt like the day was being imprinted on him after all, made distinct and unforgettable by this one single moment he hadn’t been expecting.

Minki wasn’t particularly good at math, which made it all the worse that he was being haunted by percentages. Jinyoung had been crystal clear with his insistence that he was 99.9% sure Mark wasn’t his soulmate. That was a good, clear number. It communicated a high degree of certainty, while still allowing for that infinitesimal chance that probably wouldn’t happen.

His own percentage was growing incredibly fuzzy. He wasn’t sure how convinced he was that Mark was his soulmate and Aron wasn’t. He and Mark had been spending a lot of time together recently, and he was finding that he liked Mark quite a bit. Mark was proving to be a fun partner in crime in livening up Baldwin Hall. He encouraged Joshua and Peniel to hold guitar recitals in the common room. He egged Vernon and BM on into hysterical rap battles against each other. He arranged for Overwatch, Mariokart, and Street Fighter gaming matches in his room. He could calm down everyone’s homework and exam related panic attacks with a gentle talking over and a supportive cookie bought and hand-delivered from the local bakery. He was the perfect combination of a fun-loving, occasionally devilish spirt and a caring, sympathetic angel, so Minki couldn’t help but mesh well with him.

The sparks still weren’t happening, though, and Minki was struggling to see him as anything more than a friend. He knew this could change if Mark truly was his soulmate, and that it wasn’t impossible for friendships to slowly blossom into love. But he also knew that he wasn’t 100% sure Mark was his soulmate. Jinyoung seemed convinced, but Minki lived to question. What if…? What if Jinyoung could have liked Mark if he’d just calmed down a little and talked to him without his temper getting in the way? What if Aron and I could have had sparks if I’d put the Rainbow Mosaic in the Desert incident behind us and tried again? What if Jinyoung’s infinitesimal .1% chance leaves an opening for the situation to change?

Still, it seemed like Jinyoung and Aron were getting along pretty great without him, and he wasn’t about to throw a wrench in his best friend’s happiness. He was still willing to give it a shot with Mark, if that was the direction his fate was pushing him. “Maybe I’m 60% sure Aron isn’t my soulmate,” he mused. But that meant he was also 60% sure Mark was the right guy, but that felt like far too high a number at this point. Which pretty much brought him back down to 50/50, the exact figure they’d started with based on the clear cut, unemotional evidence.

“Aaaaaaah, this !” Minki yelled suddenly, picking up one of the pillows on the common area sofa and chucking it across the room. Instead of sailing to the ground (or hitting one of the highly breakable lamps, thank god), it wound up hitting someone walking into the room right in the face.

“Ow!” The pillow dropped, revealing Aron’s wincing expression. “What was that for, Minki?”

“Oh, god, I’m sorry,” Minki said. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to be coming in just then. It wasn’t personal.”

“Are you sure about that?” Aron dropped down into the armchair. “It feels like you and I have beef.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I don’t have beef. If I did, I would be eating it because I’m rather hungry.”

Aron looked confused for a moment, then burst out laughing. “It’s an expression, Minki. Two people having beef means there’s a conflict between them.”

“Oh. How odd.”

“Yeah, I guess it is, now that I think of it.” His expression turned serious. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while now, but you’ve been hard to come by. I hope that wasn’t you outright avoiding me, or anything.”

Minki shrugged, feigning innocence. He really hadn’t been going out of his way to avoid Aron like Jinyoung had with Mark. Still, he hadn’t really gone out of his way to be alone with him either.

“If you’re uncomfortable with me because of the Rainbow Mosaic thing, please don’t be,” Aron said firmly. “If anything, that only made me like you more.”

“Huh?” Minki asked, staring at him in confusion. “Are you crazy?”

“That’s debatable.”

“Or highly likely. I can be charming, I know, but even I don’t think making you puke is a positive point on my part.”

“Well…maybe saying the puking is a positive point is a bit of a stretch. But all the effort you put into your sandwich concept and how excited you got over it…that was fun. And completely charming. I wish I could have given it a better finale, but…” He grimaced. “My stomach was not feeling the orange and M&M and eggplant combo.”

“I’ll remember to avoid that particular mix in the future.”

“Or maybe you’d be better off leaving your food as art instead of actually following through with the eating part. It’s good to do the things you love even if the results get a bit wonky…as long as no one gets hurt.” He grinned. “So, can we call a truce and be friends again, Minki? I missed talking to you.”

“You didn’t really talk to me all that long in the first place enough to miss it, I would think.”

“And yet I did. I’ve never met anyone in the world quite like you, after all. I want to know what else is in that brain of yours other than Rainbow Mosaics in the Desert.”

“Mainly lyrics to catchy pop songs, excuses for getting out of things I don’t want to do, and ways to make everything more exciting. Oh, and skincare. Can’t forget that.”

“And it’s the ways you have of making everything more exciting I like in particular.” Aron leaned back in his chair. “I’m going to cook you dinner one night this evening.”

“Oh? Are you going to invite me or just announce it like that?”

“Tell me what night you want me to do it, and I’ll do it. Or are you too busy with plans with other residents?”

“What about you? Aren’t you rather busy with plans with other residents these days?” It felt odd to call him out for spending time with Jinyoung considering that this was once something Minki had endorsed when Jinyoung had first proposed it.

“Not if you’ll tell me you’ll come. Then my schedule will be a complete open book for you.”

Minki liked the way that sounded. Perhaps a little too much. He didn’t want to give into his selfish side when he knew giving in to it in this case might make Jinyoung unhappy. He didn’t want to be that guy, especially not where his best friend was concerned.

But somehow, I’m suddenly feeling 60% convinced that Aron might actually be my soulmate, Minki thought. And the possibility that we got it wrong the first time is something worth exploring…right? And it’s just one evening. I already know how going out with Mark makes me feel, so shouldn’t I figure out if it feels different with Aron?

He took a deep breath. “Tuesday evening,” he said. “You’ve got one chance to wow me, Aron Ramsay. Better make it count.”