Gemini: The Twins

“There is a Japanese Myth about twins being star-crossed lovers in their previous lives. Have you heard of that one?” A rather eccentric-looking man on the platform spoke languidly waving his hand about, the other on his round belly. “I especially love this myth although it is often used as an excuse for stories... it is sort of inevitable.”

This eccentric-looking man was one of my favorite professors on the campus. He was about thirty-something probably, round, and had a huge round belly but his dramatic flair was also as round and huge making him a student's favorite.

Besides, his fashion sense made almost all the other professors quiver with fear. Despite his not-so-typically loved by the society figure, he flaunts clothes like any other model, and we, as the literature department couldn’t be more proud that we had someone like him in our department.

“ is not something I enjoy,” He says twirling his mustache, “so our main focus will obviously be on the past life.”

He looks around the class at that and everyone follows his eyes. He really had a commanding presence and everyone just paid him attention.

“Right, Miss Jo! Just the person I was looking for,” He grins at me and I internally groan. I knew this was coming. Whenever the subject of twins comes about… it was always me.

“You have a twin, yes?”

I nod as the ladies in my class grin at me. It was no secret that Minseok was sort of a playboy around the campus and that a lot of ladies crushed on him.

“I’ll bet you two are not exactly identical?” He bopped his shoulders at that and a lot of people snicker.

I shook my head at that lowering my face a little. Minseok and I probably have the genes of the north and south poles respectively.

“What do you think of this myth?”

I cringe knowing that I have to speak.

“Um…” I began standing up awkwardly while pulling the non-existence loose thread in my dress. “I am not really in favor of it.”

The class erupts in laughter at that. He waits for the class to quiet down and when they did, he swished his hands for me to continue.

“I mean I like myths and everything but… as a person who has a twin… We’re not exactly… that close?”

“Ah!” He exclaims dramatically as usual. “We, single born people always tend to put extra masala on twins.” The class titters again. “But then again there is always something incredibly different being in one womb, am I right?”

I chewed my lips wanting to sit down but I nod. “We’re… close but then so are every other sibling. It’s not anything grand.”

He nods indicating that I could sit down which I do with a relieved sigh. Darn! I hate whenever that happens. I mean I don’t really mind standing in front of other people when I am all prepared and I know exactly what I am going to say down to a pause but when it is a sudden thing, all my mind just blanks out.

“Twins have been attributed with many superhuman abilities such as telekinesis and sharing energy between two different humans. Of course, with modernity and sciences, all of these just seem meaningless but there are myths and believes for a reason.”

He continues explaining as we all listened. “There have been a lot of cases, although scientifically not proven, on how if one twin becomes sick the other also naturally falls sick. There are also other claims such as twins, if and when separated becomes fatally sick unless they are bought together again… of course, this is also seemingly… stupid but it has been seen on some twins, a pattern seen in a few of many twins.”

Minseok and I have always been together all our lives. From attending the same nursery to the same high school to even college, we have been together making me suddenly wonder what would happen if we really separated for real.

“There is also the famous one where one twin can know whether the other twin is well or not… like a telekinetic thing. Jo, can you confirm that for us?”

The whole class turns to me again as he calls on to me.

Ah. Damn it.

“We’re both normal human beings, sir,” I reply with a touch of sarcasm making our professor laugh out loud along with the class.

“Of course, you are.” He winks cheekily. “But here in creative writing we love romanticizing everything, don’t we?”

He asks as we all nod, some rather enthusiastically.

“So for our next assignment, we will be taking up a myth of our choice, like the one we discussed today, and write a short story on it. There is no word limit. It could be a drabble for all I care, as long as the story has a myth in it and has a proper storyline to it. Heck, it can even be a novel.”

The class, all excited began murmuring and gasping.

“Okay. I lied. Please don’t write a novel.” The class laughs again as our professor went into details about what and how and where’s making everyone write or type it down.

I yawned as our time comes to an end and everyone had filed out. As always, I was the last one. I hated rushing with the crowd so I slowly pack my things to walk out when it is all clear.

But regarding the myth thing… what should I do? The twins' thing was too strange for me to take on as thinking about being with Minseok romantically makes me want to hurl out all my breakfast.

But then there are thousands of myths out there and I could always choose one out of there. No problem at all.

I yawned again as I checked my watch. I had class during the normal lunch hour and free period in between. Should I go get a cup of coffee or get an hour of sleep?

Debating between the two, I lazily dragged my legs towards the café knowing that I had an assignment to complete that I had to submit this week.

I yawned and regretted staying awake the entire night thinking about a boy washed in golden light. My yawn stopped the moment my mind got filled with him and instead, I blushed.

Oh boy. I really did get bitten by the crush bug yesterday.

Yesterday, I couldn’t believe that I had spent almost an hour seated there talking with him like the world had stopped just for us two until of course, my phone rang with Minseok threatening to take off unless I show up in the parking lot in two minutes so I ran.

I should have got his phone number at least.

Drat, that rat Minseok. I should have not given him my share of money to get that car. It was supposed to be for both of us but the patriarchal that was Minseok decided to hog it for himself.

Baekhyun… I smiled involuntarily again. His name was Baekhyun and he was getting a Ph.D. in literature here at our university. I jiggled a little at the information I had about him but pouts immediately knowing that there had been almost nothing on the internet ab