Yuqi starts to suspect that Minnie is her soulmate because clearly Soyeon could not see colors even if she wanted to and Minnie is the only person left. She secretly notices that Minnie can differentiate colours without fail, how she instructs the makeup artist to put brighter lipstick on to Soojin. But at the same time, she reminds herself that Minnie already has a soulmate, which doesn’t make any sense to her at all.  Even though Google says dogs can be your soulmate but dogs are colourblind! Google also said you can’t have more than one soulmate in a lifetime. Yuqi decides to investigate further.

“Your plan is to follow Minnie? Are you crazy? And you drag me into this!” Shuhua hides her face under the steering wheel, fishing out her sunglasses to put on. 

“You said Tzuyu could borrow us her car when she is back in Taiwan for a week. We should totally make full use of it.” Yuqi pulls out a pair of binoculars from her bag much to Shuhua’s dismay.

“Yeah, she said we can do shopping and not stalking! We might get caught, you know.”

“Assuming Minnie is my soulmate and she has a soulmate who is not me, then I shall find out about her ‘soulmate’.” Shuhua is worried as she looked at Yuqi’s determined eyes but she follows her anyway, just to make sure her friend didn’t do anything stupid or illegal. 

Minnie brings flowers for her, every time if she musters up her courage to visit her. She stares at the picture of a girl, smiling peacefully as if nothing bad has ever happened to her, as if she has never experienced pain. 

“Hey…” Minnie finds herself lost in words everytime, watching her name engraved in the memorial. She couldn’t forget the pain she had gone through when the girl left her forever. She still couldn’t let go. 

“I’m not sure if I should be happy that I can finally see colors now, so this is how beautiful the world is. But, it doesn’t matter anymore. The day you left me, my life became dull. It feels empty without you. I’m sorry. I promised that I won’t cry anymore but every night I found myself crying to sleep. How can I live my life without you?” Minnie’s vision becomes blurry as tears start to flood her dreamy eyes. Her heart aches for her, her body relies for her touch, her words always find herself back to her. 

Minnie tries to pick herself up, saying goodbye even though she knows she wouldn’t get a response back. Yuqi and Shuhua watch Minnie walk towards her car and drive away. Yuqi unbuckles her seatbelt, wanting to have a closer look at the memorial. 

“Come back here, Yuqi. You shouldn’t invade someone’s privacy.” Shuhua panics and chooses to stay in the car instead of following her friend. When Yuqi is up to something, nobody can stop her. 

That girl is out of her mind. Shuhua wants to get help but she has no one to talk to. Not Tzuyu, when she finds out they used her car for this. Not Soyeon, when she finds out that both of them followed Minnie. The girl hits the dashboard out of frustration, knowing that there is nothing that she can do. 

Yuqi approaches slowly with careful footsteps, as if she is afraid of getting caught even though Minnie just left. Which one was it? The hard headed girl sees a bouquet of flowers lying at a certain memorial and walks towards the direction. She hesitates but there is no way of backing out right now. Go big or go home.

Her eyes squinted as she tried to read the words engraved in Korean. 

Cho...Mi...Yeon…

No way, it can’t be her. 

--------------------

Yuqi stares at her room ceiling, watching the fan spin over and over again, just like how she is running circles in her mind. She sits up furiously, reaching out to her phone and goes onto the internet. When in doubt, ask Mr Google. Her number one philosophy. 

“Can you still see colors when your soulmate is… dead?” The girl mumbles as she types out the question, hoping to find the answer. She sees several posts about dying soulmates and clicks onto the one with the most likes. 

“I don’t wanna be somebody, just wanna be me, be me!” Shuhua sings her favorite motivational song while changing into her pajamas, getting ready for bed. Suddenly, the door swings open and a flustered Yuqi appears. 

“Yeh Shuhua, I found something-” Yuqi didn’t get to finish her words because a punch went flying over her face. 

Yuqi’s groans fill the living room as she places a cold ice pack over her right eye. The throbbing sensation is not going away and she is 100% that she will get a black eye tomorrow. 

“I can’t believe that you just punched me in the eye.”

“I can’t believe you barged into my room, when I am still half . Well, you deserve it. You should learn how to knock.”

“I am in extreme pain and you are acting like this. Fine! It was my fault, I just wanted to tell you something.”

Shuhua pulls a chair next to her friend and volunteers to hold the ice pack for her, feeling slightly guilty for punching her friend’s eye. “Okay, Song Yuqi. Spill the tea now.”

“I am 90% sure that Minnie is the one.” 

“So, what did Google say this time?” 

“I read up about soulmates. You see color for the first time you met, but it fades away when they die.”

“Okay and what are you trying to prove?” Shuhua presses the ice pack harder, earning complaints from the elder girl.

“Ah... ah not too hard. My theory is if Minnie does have a soulmate, who happens to be a girl who is not around anymore, then she shouldn’t be able to see colors. But I am pretty sure she can. She doesn’t seem to have problems editing at all.” Yuqi voices her opinion confidently, after today’s investigation. 

“Also, I called Soyeon to double check if she knows that the girl has passed away and she said yes. But she got so mad suddenly and warned me to not mention Miyeon’s name in front of Minnie.” Shuhua feels uneasy about this. Ever since Yuqi’s world turned colorful, she has been dying to discover her soulmate’s identity and would do anything to get into her way. She worries that she may go overboard and ends up hurting herself. 

“Yuqi-yah, I know I am not in position to say this but I feel like you should stop holding onto this whole soulmate thingy. I feel like if Minnie is really the one, then why would she hide the fact that she is your soulmate? Maybe she has her own reasons.” Shuhua advises Yuqi not to be so engrossed into this whole thing and cross the line by stalking Minnie’s privacy. Little did she know, her words hurt her to her core. 

“Me? Harassing my soulmate? That is very funny, coming from you Yeh Shuhua. You don’t understand because you found our soulmate easily and I have to go through the hard way. I couldn’t even talk to her, I don’t even know who she is until today and I can’t do anything about it. Aren’t you my best friend, who will support whatever decision I’ve made? You changed the day you met Tzuyu, am I not important in your life anymore?”

“Look Yuqi, that is not what I meant. I’m sorry.” Shuhua tries to calm Yuqi down but to no avail.

“I don’t want to see you anymore. Go away Shuhua.” Yuqi snatches the ice pack over her hand and locks herself in her room. Deep down Yuqi realises she has no one to talk to other than Shuhua. When she is mad at someone else, she tells Shuhua. But who can she talk to when she is mad at Shuhua? For the first time, she feels super lonely. 

--------------------

Yuqi goes to work with the stupid black eye on her face. She gets giggles from Soyeon once in a while but she tries her best to ignore it, because what’s troubling her mind is to find out Minnie’s secret. She attempts to start a conversation with Minnie several times that day but she realises the Thai girl is really hard to approach. She seems to be very good at shutting herself out, which is a really bad thing for Yuqi. 

The Chinese girl couldn’t stand it anymore. She wants answers now. She couldn’t wait for another day to come, another chance to talk to her. She approaches Minnie slowly and as the elder is busy editing some of her the photos she took last week. Watching how she adjusts the background colour with ease further confirms her assumption that Minnie, indeed might be her soulmate after all.

“Minnie, I think the background looks nicer if you change it to blue.” Yuqi suggests.

“It does look better now that you mentioned it. Not bad, Yuqi.” Minnie agrees to the younger.

“So, how long has it been for you to be able to see colours? I mean, when did you meet your soulmate?” Yuqi manages to pull herself to ask this sensitive question to Minnie when Soyeon is busy working on something on her laptop. She gulps, not ready for the consequences she is about to face.

“Why do you want to know? That is none of your business.” Heat starts to rise in Minnie’s head because Yuqi’s curiosity reminds her of the bittersweet memories she shares with Miyeon. 

“That is because you can see colours obviously but you don’t have a soulmate, as far as I know.” Minnie swears that every single word that escaped from the younger girl’s lips is getting onto her nerves. 

“Who told you that I don’t have a soulmate?” That’s it. One last blow to get Minnie to throw a punch on her working table, drawing Soyeon’s attention. 

“Calm down, Minnie. Yuqi is just joking, right Yuqi?” Soyeon tries to step in between the girls, hoping it will solve the rising tension between them. 

“Well, is it because you cannot accept the fact that I am actually your soulmate? That you saw colors the same time I did when I first met you? Don’t lie to me, Minnie. I know everything. I heard your so-called soulmate is dead, isn’t she?”

A sharp punch flew across Soyeon’s face, hitting Yuqi hard on her left eye. It happened so quickly and Soyeon wasn’t able to register what’s right in front of her. She hears loud groans from the Chinese girl, holding onto her face in severe pain. 

Silence fills the studio. A tear rolls down onto Minnie’s cheek. Soyeon never expects to see her cry, the strong yet so vulnerable girl. Her walls are being attacked. The walls that hold her up each time she thinks of Miyeon, reminding her not to show her weaker side, reminding her not to shed a single tear in front of others. 

Minnie leaves abruptly, leaving the door behind her. Disbelief fills Soyeon’s eyes as she worries about both of them, the frustration in Yuqi’s eyes and the anger in Minnie’s voice, not forgetting her sharp glares onto Yuqi that can bore a hole straight out of her face. 

--------------------

Shuhua rushes to their apartment after Soyeon told her that Yuqi got hurt and gave her sick leaves to take a break from work. The girl comes home after leaving Yuqi alone after their fight. Seeing Yuqi’s bloated eyes brings a chuckle from the younger girl. Her friend just can’t live a day without making her worry after all.

“Guess you couldn’t live without me. I left for a night and this happened. So tell me what you did this time. I won’t judge. Also, you looked like a panda.” Shuhua crosses her arm, looking at the bruised child sulking and talking about her incident she caused at work, that she feels regretful at her actions, that she might have crossed the line. Let’s just say she screwed up big time. Not the first time for troublemaker Yuqi. Shuhua thought.

“I’m not surprised at what you did, knowing you after all. But my concern is, how are you going to solve this? You know you just put everyone in a difficult place.” The wise maknae voices her honest opinion, knowing that she shouldn’t side with Yuqi this time. It’s her fault after all.

“I owe her an apology. I know I crossed the line but she needs to face the reality. I’m okay with not being soulmates with her, or friends or whatever. Destiny is a funny thing after all. You never know how things are going to work out.” Yuqi sighes, still holding the warm towel to soothe the pain in her eyes.

“If you are trying to quote Uncle Iroh from Avatar then you literally missed the whole part of his advice to Zuko. He said if you keep an open mind and an open heart, I promise you will find your own destiny someday.”

“What is my destiny? Will you still be part of it, Shuhua?” Yuqi realises she needs Shuhua more than anyone, she is the one who she can count on all the time. She knows no matter how bad she screws up, no matter how bad their argument was, Shuhua always comes back to her. She is like her soulmate, or a little sister she wishes she has. Coming to a foreign country without her family has always been difficult for Yuqi but she has Shuhua with her. 

“I hope so and I will stay by your side whenever you need me. So are we good now?  Plus I miss the puppy. Come here baby.” Shuhua cuddles with Mata, missing her little companion even though she was gone just for a day. Yuqi’s eyes soften as she is relieved. Watching Shuhua play with Mata happily, everything seems to fall back to place. But, there is one thing she needs to solve. Minnie. 

--------------------

A/N: Are you guys going to watch their online concert, I-LAND? I CAN'T WAIT XD