Arin took a deep breath, pressing down the wrinkles on her dress. She stood across the street from the massive building that had the words TBZ CORPORATION plastered across the top.

It had taken months for her to pass through the preliminary interviews and background checks to be accepted into such a prestigious company as an intern and nerves settled in the pits of her stomach now that her first day of work had finally arrived.

“You can do this Choi Arin!” She said firmly under her breath and she took her first step across the crosswalk towards her new workplace.

When she entered the elevator, anticipation slowly replaced the initial nervousness and she felt excited to begin her new career. She was only an intern but she was determined to prove her worth and become a full time employee.

The elevator brought her to the fifth floor and she stepped out, looking around for her team lead who was supposed to meet her there.

“Arin? Is that you?”

Her breath lodged in at the familiar voice and she felt her hands tremble though she fisted them quickly to control the shaking. She turned to see Lee Sangyeon staring back at her with a wide smile on his face.

He walked over and grabbed her into a hug and she gasped. “It’s been so long! I saw your name on the new intern list but I wasn’t sure if it was you or someone else with the same name. This is great though, from college classmates to work colleagues.”

“Y-You’re the marketing team lead?” Arin stammered and Sangyeon nodded with a smile and offered her a handshake. That’s when she noticed the shiny gold band on his ring finger and her heart cracked. Putting on a brave face, she returned his handshake and smiled weakly as he began to run through the dynamics of their team as well as her daily tasks.

What kind of cruel fate was this?

How could he be her team lead?

“Watch your step!” Sangyeon called out to Arin, her nose buried in a book. Arin’s head snapped up with a confused expression before she tripped on the uneven pavement and fell flat on the sidewalk.

Sangyeon quickly rushed over and gave a small chuckle after making sure she wasn’t seriously injured. “That book must be really entertaining. You haven’t lifted your eyes from it the entire time you were walking.”

A dark blush bloomed across her cheeks and she quickly stood, dusting the dirt off her pants. When she finally lifted her gaze to meet his, her heart thumped and the words that sat on the tip of her tongue dissolved.

It was love at first sight.

But…

The words etched on her back shoulder burned strongly as she stared at Sangyeon.

Life’s too short to worry.

It was the words she’d learned and carved into her heart ever since she could read. The first words her soulmate would speak to her—as strange as they were for first words exchanged.

Disappointment flooded her when she realized her soulmate wasn’t Sangyeon. But she was determined to fight fate, to fight the words on her back with every fiber in her body and to find love on her own without an external force pushing her towards one person in the universe.

She would decide her own fate.

So she said, “I’m Arin.”

He grinned and her soul mark sat on her skin, each word feeling heavy like an invisible weight on her shoulders.

“I’m Sangyeon.”

“… and that’s where you’ll be sitting.”

When Arin broke out of her daydream, she found herself standing near a small desk close to the window. Guilt came over her when she realized she hadn’t listened to a single word Sangyeon said but she nodded her thanks anyways.

The other team members came over to introduce themselves and Arin quickly attached their names to their faces: Son Youngjae, energetic and passionate; Moon Hyungseo, soft spoken and gentle; Kim Younghoon, quiet and mysterious; and Joo Haknyeon, talkative with a smile that could light up the sun.

“And that over there,” Haknyeon continued to chatter as he nudged his head towards a handsome man talking to Sangyeon. “That’s the CCO, our Chief Commercial Officer, Lee Hyunjae. He works directly with our CEO and is basically the co-president of TBZ Corporations.”

Arin nodded, branding his face to her memories. “Who’s the CEO then?” She asked and Haknyeon gaped at her.

“You seriously joined TBZ Corporations without knowing who the CEO is?”

She let out a small huff. “I wouldn’t be asking if I knew.”

“That’s our CEO,” Haknyeon said, suddenly turning to where the elevator opened. Arin turned and saw an equally handsome man walk out. He made his way to Hyunjae with long strides and began conversing with him as Sangyeon excused himself.

Arin had to admit that she was surprised at how young he was. He had a clean cut hairstyle paired with a sleek suit that literally screamed young, rich and successful. When he turned his head, he locked his eyes directly to hers and she quickly ducked her head, embarrassed at being caught staring.

Youngjae and Haknyeon let out laughs. “Don’t be ashamed. All the ladies in the office have checked out Juyeon at least once,” Youngjae teased.

“I was not checking him out!” Arin replied quickly, absolutely mortified.

“Whatever you say,” Youngjae shrugged with an amused grin. “Now let’s get you to work, intern.”

Arin quickly abandoned any thoughts of the handsome CEO in her mind and nodded with vigor.

Work was a distraction she could sorely use right about now.

“How are the new interns looking?” Juyeon asked Hyunjae as they entered the CEO office room.

Hyunjae plopped onto the sofa, while Juyeon took up his place near his desk, leaning against the edge of the mahogany wood.

“Promising,” Hyunjae replied before he leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “But there is one thing…”

With a raised brow, Juyeon stared at Hyunjae, motioning for him to continue.

“I heard from one of the guys on the finance team who went to Seoul University with one of the new interns that her first love was Lee Sangyeon.”

“And?”

Hyunjae looked at Juyeon with a small frown. “She’s been assigned to the marketing team. His team.”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Juyeon questioned and Hyunjae shrugged.

“Doesn’t seem like it. Sangyeon’s engaged, remember?”

Juyeon pushed off his desk with a sigh. “As long as it doesn’t cause a problem then I don’t need to worry about it.”

“Must be rough though,” Hyunjae mused with sympathy. “Sangyeon’s fiancé was his soulmate. I wonder if Sangyeon’s words were on her soul mark. I heard its heart wrenching, earth shattering even, when your soulmate has someone else’s words on their skin.”

“Soul marks are just that,” Juyeon said firmly. “They’re just words we’re born with. They don’t determine who we end up with.”

Hyunjae didn’t look convinced but he didn’t say anything else. He knew Juyeon’s girlfriend didn’t have her words etched on his skin and neither did he on hers. They weren’t soulmates and Juyeon hated the fact that people depended so heavily on their soul marks to find love.

The dark ink, written in immaculate cursive, tainting the underside of his chest made him angry.

His girlfriend had cried the first time she’d seen it, knowing that she wasn’t the one fate had chosen for him. Even after he consoled her time after time that he had chosen her and that it didn’t matter what fate said, he knew she still had doubts about his love for her no matter how hard he tried to prove her otherwise and he hated the mark for it.

“Let’s have a company outing today to welcome the new interns. I’ll ask Chanhee and Changmin if they’ll reserve a space for us at their restaurant bar,” Juyeon said suddenly. He didn’t want his thoughts to linger over to that dark corner in his mind.

Besides, it would do well for the interns to get to know everyone in the company.

Hyunjae nodded before standing. “I’ll let them know.”

Then he was gone.

Juyeon stood in his office alone and felt the acute sting of the words on his skin. He grit his teeth and ignored them.

He’d done it for the past 25 years, after all.

She had purposefully taken the furthest seat away from Sangyeon but even that didn’t seem far enough. The cozy restaurant bar, The B, was suffocating her and all the alcohol in the world wasn’t enough for her to un-see the glint of his engagement ring every time he moved his hand.

With a small sigh, she reached for her cup—a strong mixture of soju and beer, courtesy of the bartender whose name she had learned was Changmin—and downed the contents in a flash.

“Wow, you must be good at holding your alcohol,” Youngjae said, amazed at the sheer amount that she had drunken already.

Arin wiped with the back of her hand, her cheeks tinging pink from the heat that rose in her body due to the alcohol. “Not really,” she mumbled.

Her cup was instantly refilled and she looked up to see Changmin holding up a pitcher with an easy smile. “At this rate, you might just drink us dry,” he laughed.

She nodded in thanks and clutched the cup in her hands.

“Your new intern certainly doesn’t lose out to your pig pen of men,” Chanhee commented from the bar and Juyeon spared a glance to the young girl surrounded by her male colleagues. It was true that TBZ Corporation didn’t have many female employees due to the technical nature of their company that usually deterred girls from applying.

Maybe that’s why she stood out so much. He hadn’t been able to pinpoint why exactly his eyes kept roaming to her until Chanhee pointed it out. “Hopefully the boys don’t intimidate her into quitting. We’re aiming for gender equality in our workplace.”

“She doesn’t look intimidated. A little uncomfortable, but not intimidated,” Chanhee observed.

That’s when Juyeon slid his eyes to Sangyeon, who sat at the opposite end of Arin. He wondered if she’d purposefully picked the furthest seat from him.

Hyunjae slipped into the seat next to Juyeon and gave Chanhee a grin when a cup of whiskey was set in front of him without asking. “You still think it’s not going to be a problem?”

Juyeon just shook his head with a sigh. He had bigger issues to deal with than a girl who had personal boy problems. And as if on cue, his phone lit up with an incoming call.

“I have to take this,” he murmured before grabbing his coat and phone and heading outside.

Chanhee merely watched him go before raising a brow to Hyunjae. “His girlfriend still doesn’t trust him?”

“I don’t think she ever will,” Hyunjae replied honestly. “It’s hard knowing your partner has a soulmate somewhere out there that isn’t you. Honestly, their relationship is toxic. She’s afraid that he’ll meet his soulmate and leave her, which makes her clingy and paranoid, while he tries to ease her concerns by listening to her every demand. One day, someone’s going to break and it’s not going to end well.”

Chanhee didn’t say anything and they were suddenly distracted by the rowdy, loud noise coming from the tables.

“Should we play a game?” Hyungseo asked and the others nodded in agreement.

After minutes of bickering, they settled on spin the bottle. Arin zoned out throughout half the game until she felt Haknyeon nudge her from the side. She blinked rapidly to see the bottle pointed straight at her and she snapped her head up.

“I have a question!” A boy named Sunwoo exclaimed and Arin leaned forward nervously. The alcohol was making her mind hazy but she was still alert enough to know Sangyeon was looking at her.

“There’s quite a few Seoul Univeristy alumni that work at TBZ Corporation. Have you ever had a crush on any of them?” He asked and the rest of the tables broke out into hollers and teasing.

She was sure her ears were burning red and she knew she could lie but her tongue was tied, the alcohol acting like a truth potion. Sangyeon seemed to notice her discomfort and he motioned for someone to pass him a glass of the soju-beer mixture. “You goons are making her uncomfortable. I’ll be her black knight. Pass me the drink.”

Sunwoo moved to give Sangyeon the cup when Arin stood abruptly and snatched the cup out of his hands, chugging the entire thing before slamming it down on the table.

She teetered slightly and gave a terse smile. “I can be my own knight.”

The boys hollered again in appreciation for her bold move and they quickly moved on with their game. Arin felt like she couldn’t breathe under Sangyeon’s scrutinizing gaze and before she could be dragged back in the game, she quickly slipped out of the restaurant bar for some fresh air.

Stumbling with each step, the chilly air hit her face as she burst through the doors. Everything was blurring together but she was able to walk towards a lamp post without falling over. She leaned her head on the cool metal before closing her eyes and letting out a deep sigh.

“Stupid…” She muttered to herself. “It’s already been 4 years. Get over it. He’s not even your soulmate. Why is it so hard to leave it in the past?”

Juyeon had been on the phone when he saw Arin come crashing outside. He quickly ended his phone call with his girlfriend, already frustrated and not in the mood to argue any further when Arin began to slump against the lamp post.

He stepped closer and took in her expression under the dim light of the lamp post. She looked so sad. Typically he wouldn’t interfere but as he neared her and heard her harsh sigh followed with a despondent, “He’s not even your soulmate. Why is it so hard to leave it in the past?”, he couldn’t turn a blind eye.

She began thumping her head against the lamp post lightly, hoping the pain would make her thoughts fly out of her head when she felt someone lean in close to her, placing their hand on the lamp post so her head would hit their hand rather than the hard metal.

Her eyes snapped open and when she whipped around, she came face to face with Juyeon.

He stared at her with deep brown eyes, a small frown etched on his lips. Then—

“Life’s too short to worry.”

And with those five words, he his heels, heading back into The B.

Arin recoiled as if she’d been slapped. The words that she could never forget even if she tried had finally been thrown in the open and it felt like she’d finally taken a breath after drowning for so long.

Is this what it felt like to recognize your soulmate?

As if suddenly, everything in the world was right. As if her heart could never beat for anyone else as it did for this man, who was no more than stranger to her, yet could capture her breath in one gaze.

The temperature rose around her as her breath quickened. It left her breathless, the exhilaration nearly buckling her knees beneath her.

She grabbed at her shoulder where the words lay hidden under the layers of clothes. She had always wondered what kind of man would offer such words to her as his first and now that she knew, dread filled her as realization dawned her that this was a love that couldn’t exist.

She was an intern—the bottom of the corporate chain—and he was a CEO.

Her boss.

Arin sunk to the ground and let out a shriek. And from that day, she vowed she would never speak her first words to Juyeon.

Her soulmate.

The word felt bitter as she said it.

How hard could it be?

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