Chapter 1

-Lee Hana-

I vividly remember my 13th birthday. September 3, 2010. My alarm clock buzzed aggressively on my nightstand. 6:30 AM. Up early, just for this special occasion. I jumped out of bed as soon as I opened my eyes, turning off the alarm. I had purposely dressed in a hoodie and leggings the night before so that my parents and I can see it at the same time. Rushing across the hall, I knocked on their door, bouncing on my heels. My father opened the door, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Happy Birthday, baby," he said. "Let's see what you got. He led me into the room, where my mother was already sitting up in bed. I rolled up the sleeve of my hoodie, revealing my now fully opaque tattoo.

The tattoo covered my forearm, from my wrist to the inside of my elbow.

My mom examined my tattoo. She has a lot of experience in this sort of thing, as she is a relationship therapist. "Wow," Mom exclaimed after examining it for a few minutes.

"Wow what?" I asked.

"You will truly find your other half," she stated. "You see how the image is incomplete and the other half is gone?"

"Yea."

"This means that your soul is incomplete without your soulmate. Once you meet them, it would be difficult to be away from each other. People usually find their soulmate based on the similarity of their souls, allowing them to connect easier. This way some could have more than one soulmate, such as friends. However, you will have an incredibly deep connection with this one soulmate, and weaker with the others."

"Does that mean I would never be able to be separated from them?" I worried.

"Not exactly. Once you spend enough time with this person, you will be able to complete your soul and live how you want to."

-

Now that I'm 21, I'm beginning to feel lonely, incomplete, empty. My skin is irritated around my mating tattoo and nothing is working. The only medication that is tailored for this is too expensive, and I'm still a broke college student.

It's a new semester now. I drive back to my apartment after spending the summer with my parents in Busan. They've decided to live there for a couple of years, to reconnect with their culture.

I share my apartment with my roommates Lisa, Irene, and Mia. Lisa is a cute Thai major. I met her working at a small local coffee shop sophomore year. We bonded easily, and we fit together well. She then introduced me to Irene, a child education major. Irene is motherly and extremely kind, making us food and helping us through tough times. She is a senior, so she would be graduating soon, which makes all of us a little sad. Mia is a sophomore physics major that I've decided to take under my wing. I met her in a yoga class, as crazy as that sounds.

I drag up my three heavy suitcases up the three flights of stairs. Apparently the apartment complex thought that making a tiny elevator was a good idea, and I could never fit all the stuff in there. My boyfriend, Felix, runs up behind me and helped me pull everything up.

Felix and I are only together because we're scared to be lonely. We just need somebody so we don't lose our minds. We don't love each other romantically, but it's nice to have someone just to have someone. He's a really nice boy, and he is also having trouble with finding his mate, so I think we're really lucky to have each other while waiting for our soulmates to come around.

Felix and I stumbled into my apartment, filled with the stuff of my roommates. We start to unpack and organize my stuff, waiting for the girls to come.

-

"MIA! COME HERE!" Lisa yelled from the living room, her voice echoing throughout the apartment. They ran to the laptop and started smiling all over.

"BTS is coming to New Jersey!" Mia exclaimed happily.

"HANNAAAA!" Lisa called.

"What," I say grumpily, sauntering into the room where they were all congregated.

"How long would it take to get to East Rutherford? You know the area the best," Lisa wondered.

"I think about 40 minutes."

"I'M BUYING THE TICKETS!" Lisa took out her credit card, ready to spend all the money she had for BTS. "Mia, can you each give me 500 dollars to cover the cost of your tickets?"

"Hannaaa, can you pleaaaasseee drive us to New Jersey?" Mia asked her pouty lips and puppy dog eyes in full capacity.

"Why me?"

"Because you know the area," she stated.

"Fine, but I'm not paying for the tolls."

"Yay!" they cheered.

"I might as well join in; gotta make sure none of you get into any trouble," Irene offered.

-

"HANNNAAAAA," a loud, screeching voice pierces through my slumber.

What the fuck?

"What do you want?" I ask, my voice hoarse from not using it. I rub the sleep from my eyes and squint through the bright light.

"Come on let's go to New Jersey," Mia says.

"Bitch what the fuck it's 1 am."

"We need to get there and wait on line," she whines.

The next thing I know I'm in the driver's seat of my car. I immediately drove to a shitty 24-hour coffee shop to get an extreme dose of caffeine so that I don't fall asleep on the road. I order a dark roast with two espresso shots. It tastes like shit, but you get what you get, and I need energy now.

-

Once we arrived at the venue, I kicked my roommates out of the car and drove around 20 minutes to my old friend Amber's house. There was light in her room, so I rang the doorbell. I heard footsteps cascading down the stairs, and she opened the door.

"Hana!" she gasped.

"Amber! Hi, um my college friends wanted to go to the BTS concert so can I stay here tonight and for like… the rest of the day…"

"Ok, umm, sure… you can sleep on that couch. And-"

"Babe? Who's there? Oh! Hana, hi. I've missed you," Jason smiles. "We were kind of in the middle of something, but you're welcome to stay here if you want, just don't come upstairs," he reassures me. I shoot Amber a look, and she looks back at me. We speak in a way, just like old times, and I retreat to the couch, and they go upstairs

-

"Wow, these eggs are so nice! Jason, you're such a good cook," I say, my mouth full.

"Thanks," he blushes.

"Wait, Hana, what happened?"

"So basically at 1 am my roommates woke me up asking me to drive them to New Jersey, so I got myself 4 cups of coffee since I am running on an hour of sleep-"

"YOU DRANK COFFEE?!"

"I know right, what a rarity. Anyway, I drove them to the BTS stadium, drove back here and you know the rest."

"Woah," Amber says, "You can spend the day with us, and we could pick them up when the show ends and crash at my place again."

"Thank you so much," I say, "For helping me out so much with everything."

"That's what best friends do," she smiles.

-

After spending the whole day with Jason and Amber, we drive to pick up the girls from the concert. We park a couple of blocks from the venue, where the parking wasn't so full. I text the girls to tell them where we were and started waiting patiently, chatting with Jason and Amber.

My roommates come soon, dressed up in their BTS gear, smiling, sweating, laughing, their voices hoarse from screaming for three hours. We drive back to Amber's house, and we all go to sleep.

-

The next morning, I go to grab some tea from a nearby cafe. It was small and remote, which I liked. There would be little people, which made my introvert heart happy. I buy a chocolate croissant as well, and sit down at a small table to drink my tea and eat my pastry.

Unknown's perspective

We're driving to one of Namjoon's friend's cafe's. It's a small place, and the workers are trusted.

Once we walk in, I feel a sort of pain, intense, overwhelming pain in my soulmate tattoo.

It was like an imaginary string was pulling me towards a table in the corner of the store. There was a young, pretty girl there. She had long, silky black hair, a sharp jawline, and pretty eyes. I couldn't resist myself.

"Jeongguk, what the fuck are you doing," I hear Seokjin say.

I don't care.

"Jeongguk stop! What if she's an army? We need to be careful," Namjoon continues.

It doesn't matter. Why am I so drawn to her?

And then, I see it.

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