If you could describe Lee Chaeyeon’s life in one word, it would be “messy”.

Like, literally messy.

When Nako, Chaeyeon’s roommate, first entered her room, she had run to safety, reaching her own room, closing then the door. Chaeyeon had then found her on her bed, rocking her body and clutching her head as if trying to wake herself from a very bad nightmare.

They had come a long way since then, so now when Nako woke her up to go to work at the local diner, she didn’t spare a second glance at the obscene disaster that was Chaeyeon’s room.

“Chaeyeon!”

“Chaeyeon!”

“Wake the up, lazy ! You gotta go to work!”

“Hmm? Oh, good afternoon, Nako.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re gonna be late.”

And with that, Chaeyeon rushed off to the shower, knowing that she had but few minutes to make it on time. If her manager caught her again running late, she would be fired, and she could not afford that anymore.

Grabbing the shampoo that she managed to buy yesterday on her way home, she squeezed it into her hand, water now running into her body. She smoothed her hair with the shampoo, making small circles with her fingertips.

I hope I can come back sooner today, or else my teammates will have my head.

“Augh,” she groaned, as she felt the sting of the shampoo entering her eye. “Oh, .”

She put her face onto the running stream, hoping to get rid of the sting that was hurting her more each second. Rubbing her eye with her left hand, she groaned again.

“, I’m an idiot.”

All thoughts stopped when she felt a distinct feeling in her right arm. She froze for a moment, barely registering the situation. It took her a minute until she finally looked at her arm.

My mark…

The small tattoo-like mark was glowing, new lines appearing, completing the design that had existed in Chaeyeon’s arm ever since she had a memory. At first, when she was a child, she had not understood the design, as it seemed like two simple lines. However, as she grew up, she finally identified it as a leafless tree, waiting to flourish.

Branches. Small, thin branches were appearing on her arm, making the trunk look more appealing.

Does this mean I’m going to meet my soulmate?

“.”

It was then and there that she wanted to run, the shower and everything, but she knew better. She hadn’t showered during the weekend, so she knew she couldn’t skip today. Also, she had to go to work.

After her shower ended, she tumbled to Nako’s room, her thoughts still in a jumble. Slamming the door open, she screamed the younger girl’s name. The said girl cringed as she took her earphones off and put her notebook away.

“Jeez, you don’t have to scream like that. Besides, aren’t you running late?” Nako inquired, raising an eyebrow at how out of it she looked.

“Look at my arm.”

“Yeah, yeah, you finally showered. Congrat…” the brunette stopped when she saw the design on Chaeyeon’s arm. “What the …?” she whispered disbelievingly.

“Does this mean what I think it means?”

“I don’t know what the are you thinking in that twisted head of yours, so tell me.”

“Am I going to meet her soon?” Nako bit the inside of her cheek, as in deep thought.

“Well,” she sighed, “perhaps you will.”

“Yay!” Chaeyeon cheered, her face brightening at the thought of meeting the one she had dreamed of every night ever since she was a teen.

“I seriously pity whoever that person is…” Nako mumbled, though she clearly intended for the raven-haired girl to hear it.

“Yah, I’m not that bad!”

“Yeah, evaluate your room for a moment and you’ll understand what I’m feeling.”

“It’s not bad! It’s a little… Okay, it’s bad. But who cares? I’m about to meet her!” Chaeyeon sighed happily. “I have been dreaming this for a long time. Falling in love at our first meeting. Having that perfect love that your soulmate can give.” Nako made a face, but commented no more about the topic, instead choosing to look at the clock.

“Well, whatever the case is, you should try to be on time to work.” That woke up Chaeyeon from her happy thoughts.

“You’re right! I’ll see you later!”

--

Chaeyeon grumbled under her breath as she grabbed yet another plate table 6 had requested to have cleared up. Anyone knowing that she worked at a diner would think that it would be normal that Chaeyeon felt her arms aching and her back sore, but that was not the case, at least not most of the times.

One of the reasons Chaeyeon chose to work to apply to this particular diner was the fact that it was on the outskirts of town. It made it harder to reach on time, but it usually meant that the ambience would be calm, the customers that frequent the place being either old men or people who generally looked for a tranquil place that was on their route. Surprisingly, people who lived by here were very nice, and not rambunctious at all. Thus, most of her work was stand around and smile as prettily as she could.

Today, though. Today.

A family of four had just found this small place, and, instead of being nice and leaving it alone so Chaeyeon could continue with her stress-free routine, they decided to enter and order a mountain of food meant for a ing crowd.

They had her coming back and forth from the kitchen to the table, bringing plate after plate after plate, not to mention having to clear those plates as well. Refilling their glasses with more lemonade was also a given. She would flinch whenever she got close to the table, their obnoxious banter resonating in her ear drums. It made her feel grateful she didn’t have to deal with this kind of for much more than half a day, being able to return to the safety of her room to recharge her energy by playing with her friends.

The other clients also seemed uncomfortable, judging by their pained expressions. It seems that they, just like her, expected a standard quiet day.

Well, not today.

Thankfully, her boss sent her to a new table of perhaps two young women, who sat almost next to the door. Before doing so, she tied her hair with a hair band. The hot suffocation inside the diner was becoming unbearable.

Taking out her pad and her pen, she walked briskly to the assigned table, thanking her lucky stars the people on this table seemed more quiet.

“Welcome to Grandpa’s Diner. Are you ready to order?”

Immediately one of the girls turned her head away, making Chaeyeon feel flabbergasted at the rudeness. With , still open, she noticed the other girl shot her an apologetic smile.

“C’mon, Eunbi. Don’t be rude to the waitress.”

“I told you I didn’t want to come to this trashy place.” Chaeyeon’s eye twitched, feeling plain insulted.

“You need to get out more. You only get out to go see Jaebum.”

“And why here? Couldn’t we go to, I don’t know, somewhere with more class?”

“Uhm… If you want to, I’ll come back later,” she said. She was insulted, but not stupid. Unless she wanted Miss snotty girl and her friend to leave, she had to continue acting with self-control. Actually, she wanted them to leave, but she knew boss wouldn’t forgive her if he perceived she had chased them away.

“I’m sorry. Can you give us a few minutes?” the other girl said apologetically, making her nod and leave quickly. God, that girl was such a , she could almost singlehandedly ruin her day. Almost.

Continuing with her routine, bringing more dishes to patrons, refilling glasses, and exchanging some banter with the cook, who would often call her a freak and have a different kind of ‘ you’ every time in exchange, it wasn’t after sometime later, perhaps ten minutes, that Chaeyeon returned to the table at the prompt of the nice one of the duo sitting next to the window.

Not wanting to make much contact with the girls, she took her pad as she reached the table. If it was in her power, their contact would be short.

“Are you ready to…”

Her eyes had met with the rude girl’s ones, and she couldn’t hold her surprise as she choked on her own spit. The other girl was equally surprised, her eyes widening as saucers and a squeak coming out of at the sight of the brown eyes that looked back at her. It was the small girl, at first weirded out by both their behaviors, but then adopting a shocked countenance as the gears seemingly turned in her head, the first to break the frozen atmosphere.

“Yes, we’re ready to order,” she said, clearing after.

The blonde jumped a little as she was reminded that she was working, and staring at her soulmate was not on her job description.

She is the one, isn’t she?

“Ah, yes,” she looked dutifully at her pad, wanting to avoid eye contact with the other girl. She knew if she looked at her again, she would not be able to ignore the warmth spreading in her chest and arm that she had, thankfully, covered today.

The girls ordered successfully, not bothered by Chaeyeon’s displays of nervousness.

“So… I suppose that’s all.” And without letting the women answer, she talked again. “Okay, then. Please wait a minute.”

Never had she run so fast back to the bathroom as she did… Okay, if she was honest she had once run to the bathroom like that. Damn Yeonjeong and her weird challenges.

Locking the door as soon as she entered, she pulled her shirt sleeve up her arm, revealing the before leafless tree. It wasn’t as plentiful as Chaeyeon had imagined, just a few inklings of green at the base of the branches, but it still made her shake. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she found the eyes of a terrified person. No wonder she had heard someone laugh on her way to the bathroom. Her face resembled that of a character in a horror movie who knew was about to be killed.

Why was she so scared? She knew. She knew since that same morning that their meeting was inevitable, that fate had chosen to bring them together just today.

And it was only Monday.

Without any answers, she left the bathroom stealthily, hoping to not attract the attention of her soulmate, who was now talking to her friend.

“Ey, Lee, why were you in a hurry? Have you been caught in hurricane diarrhea?” the cook said, laughing almost mockingly at her.

“Shut the up!” she said before realizing several things. One, she does not understand how much playing WoW has affected her life. Two, she is used to screaming profanities at her computer screen without any language or volume censor. Three, that habit just made her yell hard enough to have all patrons, including her soulmate and her friend, listen to her embarrassment-induced words.

Heat filled her face up to her ears when she felt all eyes upon her, thus, making her run to the kitchen, where the idiot was laughing his off. He yelped as she slapped his arm.

“, Lee, is your arm made of bricks?”

“My arm is made of bodily tissue, unlike your brain.” She interrupted him before he could say anything else. “So, what about table six’s order?”

“An order from table six?”

“Yeah, they just ord…” the blonde stopped. No, she didn’t give Jongshin the order before going to the bathroom to spazz. “Oh,” she just mumbled as she gave him the small page with the women’s orders. The man tsk’ed at her.

“For how long have they been waiting, you bloke?”

“Not for long, that’s for sure.” He just snorted and started working on the order.

“Just make sure they are still there, else this is coming out of your pocket.”

Not wanting to make be seen after the screaming fiasco, she hid behind the wall, looking out for her soulmate and her friend. A huge pang of disappointment filled her when she could not see them. Coming out of her not-so-conspicuous hiding place, she looked out for them, but to no avail. Perhaps they went to the bathroom? Nah, they both wouldn’t leave the table like that at the same time. They were not schoolgirls that needed to go everywhere together.

“They left,” she deadpanned as she reached the kitchen again. Despite her earlier panic at the thought of having to serve the same person she was destined to be with, she could not help but feel angry at herself for being a coward.

Now how am I supposed to find her?

“Woo, free food on your account,” he said as he continued preparing the meal, making her hit her head on the wall.

“Cheers on your stupidity.”

Cheers.

-----

Relieving herself after work while Nako watched YouTube videos at a distance, making commentaries at Chaeyeon’s playing skills, was a common occurrence at the Yabuki-Lee household. Although they had their differences, they had found ways to connect to each other, one of them being like this, as Nako wouldn’t be a second more than necessary in her room. However, this time was not the case.

Having encountered a note from Nako (“Going out. You should try and make friends too.”) made her day even more ty, as now she was completely alone for the rest of the evening. When Nako made plans, they would usually end up until the wee hours of the morning. Chaeyeon would be up for talking, of course, as she would typically still be playing, but the former would be rather cross. Groaning at any question she made and immediately slamming her door shut after she crossed it.

Well, she still had things to do, so she turned her computer on. Grabbing the pile of clothes on her chair, she threw them back onto the floor next to the other pile of clothes she would wash next week... probably. She scrounged her nose as soon as they hit their designed spot. , she forgot changing out of her waitress uniform.

She knelt in front the pile she had thrown moments before, and started sniffing some of the shirts in the pile, looking for the one that smelt like fries. A smile filled with satisfaction reached her face as she took the shirt she wanted out of the pile. In days like these, she liked wearing the ones that smelled like food, especially now that she was too lazy to even think about going out for dinner. Augh, why didn’t restaurants deliver to her neighborhood? Whatever, she needed both of her hands free to play.

Changing her clothes quickly, she sat on the chair, promptly clicking the icon for World of War. She put her headphones on and submerged herself in the world she had come to love. Her teammates were already online, barraging her with insults. She flipped them off as fast as she could, since the first round was about to start.

“Alright, Feather, move to B.”

“Hmm.”

Her soulmate had left by the time she got out of the bathroom. So either she left while she was on the verge of murdering Jongshin because of his outburst, or she left even before, which would mean that she didn’t see her make a fool of herself in front of everyone, which would also mean that her mortification would have been for nothing, if she wasn’t...

“!”

“Feather, what the are you doing?!”

“Shut up, I ed up a little.”

“Then pay attention you , you got Elfen killed.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Idiot.”

In her heart she wanted to believe that her soulmate didn’t hear her idiotic screams at the restaurant, so her mind wandered to the next worry. How the was she going to find her again? She didn’t even get her name, much less any other kind of information that would have helped her find her girl.

But why worry? That’s right. Fate had everything in its hands. If they had managed to meet in a not-so-known restaurant in town, wouldn’t they meet again?

She knew they would get their happy ending.

“! Are you blind, ?!”

“Not as much as you, jackass.”

---

The next day her neck was sore and her body was aching. It was always a terrible idea to fall asleep on her keyboard, and she knew it. But that didn’t stop her from doing it time and time again. She stretched, groaning as she did it. It was 3 pm, she realized by looking at her barely visible digital clock. Time was on her hands, so she decided she would probably eat some chocolates out of her strictly-prohibited-to-Nako stash in the freezer. Her teeth would always hurt when she bit into her frozen treats, but the flavor was worth it.

She walked to the kitchen while rubbing the back of her hand against , trying to erase the traces of saliva that she felt extended to her chin.

It surprised her greatly to see pijama-less Nako sleeping on their couch, her arms hugging a pillow Chaeyeon remembered she had brought a few weeks ago with her. It would look adorable if it wasn’t for Nako being... well, Nako. She shrugged off the strange view and opened the freezer, taking some of her kit-kats and the carton of normal milk with her. She shuddered at the thought of grabbing by accident her roommate’s soy milk carton.

She calmly ate her meal, making little sounds with every bite she took. She had woken up early, had actually taken the correct carton of milk to her room, and Nako was uncharacteristically lying on their couch. This was definitely meant to be a good day, she could feel it.

However, out of all the good things she could have expected today, she didn’t expect to see her soulmate’s friend sitting on a table, alone, and seemingly waiting for someone. She almost ran to the kitchen in an attempt to organize her thoughts. What was she doing here?

“Lee, the lady on table 3 requested for your presence,” Jongshin announced as soon as he saw her.

“Kim?” Chaeyeon asked, looking for a fresh out-of-sick-leave Kim Nayoung.

“The customer requested specifically for your presence.”

“Really? What did she say?”

“That she wanted a lazy that looked like a chipmunk.”

“ you.”

“Hey, you are asking the wrong person. Kim is the one who talked to her.” Jongshin threw at her face the small notebook and the all too recognizable blue pen. “Now go.”

Chaeyeon grumbled all the way to the table her soulmate’s friend was sitting on, begrudging having to work with someone like him. As she got closer, the other girl sensed her, or so it seemed, as she turned to face her with an indulgent smile. She pulled the corner of her lips upwards, though she suspected that her nervousness made her look like she was grimacing.

“Hi,” Chaeyeon squeaked out, mentally slapping herself by her inability to even do her job well.

“Hi,” the other girl said, not caring about Chaeyeon’s nervousness.

“Uhm, are you going to order?” she asked nervously, her insides divided between hoping for the girl to just dictate her order, letting her leave quickly and expecting her to mention her soulmate.

“Yeah, in a minute. I need to talk to you.”

“Oh, but I don’t think my boss would like it.” The girl smiled again, patting the chair next to hers.

“Don’t worry, I already told them.”

“Oh, okay,” she answered simplistically as she sat down. “So, what’s up?”

“Look, I know you’re Eunbi’s soulmate.” her breath caught in at the brunette’s words. “And precisely because of this I thought that it was necessary for me to get to know you.”

“U-uh. Sure. What do you want to know?”

“First things first. I’m Lee Sian, Eunbi’s friend,” the girl said, extending her hand for Chaeyeon to shake it.

“Lee Chaeyeon,” she answered, awkwardly grabbing Sian’s hand and shaking it. “So her name is Eunbi.”

Sian hummed. “Kwon Eunbi.”

Chaeyeon choked on her spit. “K-Kwon?”

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

“N-no. I just didn’t expect it. I mean...”

“Mr and Mrs Kwon have tried to maintain Eunbi out of the spotlight as much as possible.” Sian grabbed a napkin and started folding the edges, waiting a moment before answering, “but still, she has been at some gala events. You’d have to have seen her, no?”

“No, sorry. I don’t really follow anything like that.”

“And what does ‘like that’ mean?”

Chaeyeon blushed a little. “You know, the glitz of celebrities or stuff... like that.”

“Hmm. That’s interesting. And how long have you been working here?” the brunette asked as she continued folding the napkin, giving her a small encouraging smile. Chaeyeon guessed she was trying to make a figure of it.

“Uh,” she scratched her head. “For over two years.”

Sian arched an eyebrow, indicating her surprise, and making Chaeyeon feel small. So what if she had been working here for a long time? So what if she couldn’t go to college?

“You’re our same age, right?”

“Born in 97?” Sian hummed.

“Right. So you have been working here since you graduated highschool?”

“Yeah.”

“And your parents? Are they in financial need?”

Chaeyeon’s face hardened. “I’m an orphan, and I think my financial status is not your business.” Sian opened to say who knows what, but closed it. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, she spoke.

“I’m sorry. You’re right, I overstepped my boundaries. After all, you’re still a stranger,” she cleared . “What I meant by asking you these questions was that I’m worried about Eunbi, you know. I know that you’re probably not an axe-wielding murderer,” Sian smiled when she saw Chaeyeon’s lips twitching, trying to contain an involuntary smile. “But I still wanted to know a little about who Eunbi’s soulmate was. I know getting to know you for real would take longer than a single session at a restaurant, though I think with Eunbi as your soulmate it would take you two longer.”

While Chaeyeon was still peeved by the other girl’s intrusiveness, she decided to let the matter go in favor of voicing out her thoughts. “Why? What do you mean?”

Sian fumbled with the folded napkin. “Ah, how should I put it? Eunbi is a little... difficult. A cinnamon roll if you are someone she trusts, but outside of that...” Chaeyeon nodded, going along with what Sian was saying. “Not to mention, and I don’t really want to make you feel bad by saying this, but Eunbi is a little special. She really doesn’t believe in soulmates.”

“What?”

“She is a little of a rebel. Prefers loving who she wants to love, or so she says.” Sian looked at her sympathetically as she deflated, barely understanding the brunettes words. “But between the two of us, I think you still have an opportunity.”

“How? You told me...”

“I know, but I do believe that soulmates exist for a reason. You can win her over. As I said, she can be a little closed off, but if you show her your... charm, it could happen.” Chaeyeon just nodded, still processing Sian’s words. “Here,” the girl said, passing her another napkin and a pen. “Give me your phone number, and we’ll probably chat about it later.”

Chaeyeon did as told, trying to straighten her writing the most she could. After all, she was always known at the school as the person with the tiest writing the professor could barely understand her handwritten assignments.

“Okay, good. So I have to go now,” the brunette said crisply as she looked at her watch. “Got stuff to do. We’ll talk about it later.” And with that she left, leaving a still quiet Chaeyeon, who stomped her face onto the table.