8. FOUND

Theory: Soulos are considered anomalies in the Soulmate World. Their existence is due to the absence of their other piece. It could be because of death before their eighteenth year, or simply the other hasn't been born yet. Due to incompletion, one Soulo may feel Soul ache or Soul numb. The first can cause unexplainable pain leading to death.

**********

"This is pointless." His voice is grumpy and irritated from all the papers that he has been reading. The other six have been reading them too. They have been in the living room of their dorm for hours now.

"Hyunjoon?" He looks over to the younger. He could see that he is desperately trying to see any clues from the different profiles that the detectives that the seven of them hired.

They are so close on finding her. Now that they have the physical evidence of her existence, their souls were yearning for her more and more. The excitement is so palpable.

Since that evening, seeing the golden flicker of Hyunjoon's soul mark, they contacted detectives and tried to profile all of the girls that were there, even their sasaengs. They have to find her.

The doorbell rings and the youngest answers the door immediately. It must be one of the detectives. The man sits in front of them ready for any interrogation of his clients. 

"I'm sorry, most of the girls have found their soulmates already. None of the women even the guests have any indication of the same soul marks as yours. I'm sorry. "He says as he sips his coffee - a necessity from all of his sleepless nights. He's been awake for how many days just to find their unknown soulmate.

Everyone sighs helplessly.

"I mean, beside the absence of soul marks?" Muyeol asks. He refuses to believe that there is no lead after the glowing of Hyunjoon's soul mark.

"If you can really tell me why you insist that your soulmate is there. How sure are you?" This time the detective asks. He is confused why the seven insists of him focusing to the fiasco that happened a week ago. He was busy asking anyone who can find him the lead and even read all the guests names and illegally profiled them one by one. He only has one in mind, the soul mark, a soul ink in the form of a tiger Lilly.

"You didn't tell him, bro?" Kyuhyun confusedly asks their leader.

"I can't believe he missed the most important thing." Dae-ho mutters in exasperation.

"Did something happen?" The detective takes out his notes and becomes serious as he listens to the two men as they share the information on the change of the soul mark of their leader.

"In my experience, it doesn't glow when there is no direct contact. There should be someone who touched your soul mark or has a direct skin to skin contact to it." He mumbles to himself.

Then, something clicks.

They all watch as the detective takes out his phone containing the video footage of the security camera of the basement parking of the venue. Everyone is so curious when he shows the part when Hyunjoon trips over to a lady.

Everyone gasps. It clearly shows how clumsily Hyunjoon bumped unto her... her, holding on him as the two of them fell down, and the way her skirt hiked up. With the HD footage, they can clearly see her confused frozen state as their leader then hurriedly ran. The way she embarrassingly stood up and gripped her leg for pain and limped her way out from the area made them sweat so uneasily.

"I forgot about her." Hyunjoon exclaims, his eyes bright as he looks carefully at her face.

Five pairs of eyes looks at him in disbelief. How could he forget squishing a woman probably to her death? He's definitely more than dangerous. He is a walking disaster!  They can only shake their heads and collectively sigh.

Then, together, they watch the footage again in silence.

"Wait. I know her!" Everyone is surprised by the gleeful outburst of the youngest. Hanjae hurriedly went to his room and took his camera. He cannot be wrong. He's been looking at the same lady ever since. He feels different whenever he looks at her on the camera screen.

The investigator confirmed that the woman in the footage and the girl filmed by Hanjae is one. It's very obvious, especially with the yellow sun dress. Only in the footage, she was wearing an overcoat.

Everyone is breathless when they see the 4K quality of Jungkook's video of her. They cannot believe how was Hanjae able to get it.

"But… it would be impossible for her to be your soulmate." The detective says hesitatingly. Everyone snaps their head towards him. They furrow. A big question mark is obvious on their head.

"She is the best friend of the Artist's daughter. I talked with the daughter herself. She was furious when I informed her about you Hyunjoon-ssi. She wanted an apology for her friend. When I asked about soulmates, she refused to say anything."

"And? Surely, you have researched about her?" Hyunjoon inquires.

"Yes, I researched on her. Apparently, she has been healthy in all her twenty-one years. I could not find anything more on her. She's a bit mysterious since I cannot trace her family. She's leaving alone and she is an artist herself. She has been running her own Artist site with all her paintings available for sale. It has been popular lately with how unique her paintings are. My wife is a fan." He says as he hands Daun's profile out. Hyunjoon takes the envelope containing all the additional information.

"Whoahhh…." Minki gasps with one of the pictures that the detective hands in. A printed screenshot of her site showing one of her latest painting. It is a very colorful painting of a back profile of a child with his head sideways as if peeking towards his back. The child is a boy with a pink tiger lily at his upper back right below his nape. The same placement of the soul mark of the eldest, Sujin. The child in the framed drawing even has the same pouty lips of the eldest. It's like an illustration of the child Sujin with a crinkled eye and laugh line that is unmistakably his.

"I think we found her." Sujin says as chills of excitement creep on his bones.

"We need to meet her." Minki excitedly suggests.

"Ummm…" The detective hesitates. "I don't think you can directly tell her about the possibility of seven of you being her soulmates. We are not sure of it yet."

"Is there anything you want to tell us? Why have you hidden her from us, if you just included her among these profiles delivered a while ago, it would be easy." Muyeol asks. His voice is laced with irritation. He is afraid to be hopeful of what they have just found out. He is nervous on the detective's hesitation.

"You see… The woman is constantly visiting a therapist."

Everyone is confused.

"She is a Soulo." He continues handing them a copy of a confirmed diagnosis of the therapist.

"That can't be." Everyone simultaneously gasps.

Could they be still wrong, couldn't they?

**********