「 only the rain 」 • TAKA

「 f o u r 」

Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.

Taka never really understood what his father meant. But when the day he turned eighteen at exactly 2:34PM, a white line appeared on his right shoulder, spreading into two lines and slowly forming into alphabet letters. Taka had showed it to his grandmother, and she had gasped upon reading it.

Taka could read and understand English but from his point of view, it was hard to make out the words. He had his grandmother read it to him but she insisted that the most important thing was that he respect women and never even think about hurting them.

Taka had been very confused why his grandmother said that so he went to his neighbor Itami who was a teacher. He had asked Itami to read it out loud once he saw it and that Itami did. Taka didn't believe him at first, insisted that Itami must have been joking him. But Taka had gotten nervous and ran to the nearest mirror in Itami's apartment.

The ice white color of the mark burned itself into his mind when he read the words. What unsettled him the most was the seventeen written in bold as if reminding him that his soulmate is an unusual case.

He was fine with it at first, when the mark finally made him realize what his father had meant. He became excited at the idea of meeting his soulmate but as the older he got, the idea of meeting his seventeen year old soulmate became taboo the longer he had to wait.

At 22 he realized that his soulmate wouldn't come so he had the mark tattooed on with the sun o' clock. Symbolizing his dedication to the band and his hatred of his mark.

Taka secretly never believed his friends' successful soulmate stories because his is a sick joke. His father was right; believe none of what you hear.

And Taka never really saw anyone with a white mark like his before, every mark since their discovery is black. Will always be black and never ice white.

So maybe, believe none of what you see either.