, their forms were inherently different than the humans that we know today. Rather than having a pair of limbs each, they were two persons combined in one body, with four arms, four legs, and a single head with both halves having different faces.

These humans used to be powerful creatures. Brave and strong, and so fearless that they dare to threaten the Gods. They wanted to rule the world, conquer Olympus, and take everything for themselves.

But the Gods did not want to be threatened. Did not want to feel even an ounce of fear for the creatures that they themselves made, therefore they had come to a decision: the humans needed to be punished.

And so Zeus, the king of the Gods, came down from the heavens and split the humans into two separate parts. As punishment, they were condemned to spend the rest of their lives to search for their other half, yearning for their significant other to feel complete.

Eons after, a poet named Samuel Taylor Coleridge named this phenomena as soulmate; two souls are meant to unite, and one could only feel complete if they have found their twin flame, their other half.

Years and years later, Jeon Jeongguk meets his.

SOULMATES.

What comes into your mind when you hear the word soulmates?

For Jeon Jeongguk, he thinks of intertwined fingers under cherry marmalade skies, drinking in each other's warmth and having a moment of solace in between each other's arms. He thinks of low murmurings of love passing by in a gentle wind, he thinks of laughter that spills like sunshine over the land.

He thinks it's wonderful. Magical.

Almost impossible.

There are many ways to meet your soulmate. For one, his parents met because they both had the red strings of fate tied on both of their pinky fingers. They naturally gravitated towards each other, and found one another standing on either side of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway in the summer of 1980.

His childhood friend Sungwan met his by hearing his soulmate's thoughts. At night, he said he used to hear him reading different passages from a pharmacology book, and it was so damn annoying. He didn't make a move at first, until he finally had the courage to go and meet him on his own at SNU months later.

His older brother Junghyun, on the other hand, was born color blind. Jeongguk remembers what happened very clearly: it was his brother's 20th birthday and they had decided to celebrate it at a nearby park. Junghyun suddenly stood up mid-birthday song, and when he turned around, he saw her. The only words that left his mouth were, "Yellow. She's wearing yellow."

And Jeongguk learns to love the idea so much that he becomes invested with it.

He's thinks about it, day and night. He imagines the way he'd meet his soulmate. Would they have matching tattoos like the others, too? Would they have a timer on their wrist that would tell them when they were going to meet?

Gosh, there's a whole lot of possibilities. So many, that Jeongguk couldn't wait.

Well, that is, until the night of his 20th birthday arrives.

He's at his dorm room at The Hannam in Seoul now, he's moved here permanently after debuting in a boy group called Piece of Peace with his six other members. It's quite a busy night; he's trying to write new songs and create new melodies for their upcoming album. It's the usual.

Halfway into his work, an unusual itch in his wrist starts to bother him. Jeongguk only scratches his outer wrist with the thought that it'll go away once he does it aggressively... but it doesn't.

With a sigh, he lets go of the pen he was holding and stands up. He's about to head to the bathroom to wash it when his eyes landed on the stark words imprinted on his skin.

You fucking dickwad!

"What the fuck," he mutters, looking at the sentence written in pure black ink that he can only describe as a tattoo. A permanent one at that. "What does this mean?"

Jeongguk rubs it. It doesn't budge. He rubs it again, and again and again... and again, but still, the results remain the same.

What. The. Fuck.

How...?

"Shit," he curses loudly as he stumbles back into his desk. Without wasting any time, he quickly goes to Naver and starts to search for a remedy for a tattoo that mysteriously appeared on my wrist. He types in more and more keywords, but his eyes land on a particular blog post talking about... soulmates.

Soulmates?

No, that's impossible. Surely...

As he scrolls down and reads the blog post, the more his annoyance grows. There are many ways to meet one's soulmate, yes, and that means that there are almost infinite ways to do that. Tattoos are the most common, and aging is the rarest.

His, however...

"Tattoed soul marks may vary. For some, they may sport a tattoo that is identical to their other half, and for others, they may have the person's name written in the chest, near the heart where the soul bond is the strongest. There are also instances wherein the tattoo would already be there right before you meet your twin flame.

As for my experience, the morning I turned 20 was when I saw the tattoo on my arm. I was confused at first, because I never recalled having a tattoo. It simply said, "Hi, let me guess, it's your birthday?" I never told anyone about the tattoo because I had a lot of errands to run that day, but I'm glad I didn't.

[PHOTO ATTACHMENT]

But then at the very same day, when I went to pick up the cake that I ordered at a café near my house, I was greeted by a new cashier. I told him, "Hi, I'm here to pick up a chocolate cake." And! And, oh my god, that was when he replied, "Hi, let me guess, it's your birthday?"

LIKE? Holy fuck. His words matched the tattoo on my arm! I was so surprised that I stopped and just stared at him, and he did the same thing too. Slowly, I felt something familiar in my chest. Something warm, and I had this urge to touch this guy but I stopped myself because it would be really weird.

I lifted up my tshirt sleeve and he looked at it, and then he lifted up his sleeve as well and!!!!!!! The same thing that I said was on his skin!

It was later that I found out that there are times where your soulmate's first words to you would appear on your skin before you meet them, and that's how I met mine. We're now happily married for two years, and we're expecting a baby.

Hopefully this helps!"

Jeongguk almost drops his phone.

This... this tattoo was the first thing his soulmate is going to say to him? You fucking dickwad?

WHAT THE HELL.

He wants to bury himself alive.

The sound of having a soulmate doesn't seem so magical now.

!

♡ you will be able to get your

Soul Mark (the indication of

how you will meet your soulmate)

when you turn 20 years old.

from then on, the search for

you true love begins!

the SMFOTD is a small segment to

develop your knowledge in the

world of soulmates, true love, and

destiny. a soulmate fact will be

added at the end of each chapter

to help you find your own soulmate.

stay tuned!