What is love? (Mina's Story | Michaeng)

13. Soulmate

"Ah yes yes.... close your eyes" he said.

I close my eyes and anticipated what he was gonna give. I felt his breathe on my face, that's when I realised our proximity, then I felt his lips on mine. He broke the 4 seconds long peck and said, "Best of luck for the exam, Mina see you tomorrow."

I couldn't respond anything because I was caught off guard. He smiled at me, turned about and left without expecting an answer from me, leaving me blushing there.

The next day I texted Bambam and Jihyo early in the morning wishing them luck for exam. The Triplet were waiting for me at the school gate. They wanted to wish me luck. How sweet! Chaeyoung and I didn't forget to tell each other 'alaba moo'. Ever since I learned that it means 'see you later' in her childhood's made up language we had been using it. It was kind of fun in fact. And every time I said it her giddy smile was so adorable.

I did well in my exams. I went to Japan with my parents during the holidays. Besides ocassionally exchanges of texts, I was pretty much distant from everyone. I missed my friends.

I returned Korea a day before school starts again. The first thing I did when I reached home was get in bed and sleep the whole day.

I was so happy to see Jihyo at school, I crushed her in a tight hug.

"What about me?" Bambam said from behind and I gave him a hug too. They asked me about my trip to Japan and I told them what I did and how much I missed them.

I looked out of the classroom, by habit, as the bell which indicated 3rd period rang. Realisation hit me: I wouldn't see Chaeyoung at that time anymore because I was in 3rd year now and Chaeyoung was sophomore; she would have new class schedules.

Few days into school, classes were getting regular. I was in the library with Jihyo, sitting beside her doing nothing. She had to do an assignment that had to be presented in their Reading club. I signed in it last year with her but I was no longer a part of it ever since I joined the dance club.

"I'm really bored, Jihyo" I whispered to her.

"This is a library. Choose a book and read it!" she hissed back in whisper.

"I'm not in the mood of reading. Can I help with anything in what you're doing?"

"No. What do you know about this? You didn't even attend any reading session. Just play with the computer." She pointed to the library's computed next to me.

I booted the computer on. It was password protected. "What's the password?"

"LIBRARY1234. All the letters in uppercase."

I typed in the password and I was logged in the system. "Hmm what should I do?" I kept staring at the screen for 2 solid minutes.

Finally Jihyo noticed me, "Find your soulmate" she said.

"Soulmate?" I asked.

"It's just for fun. Check the information of the books lent. They record which student borrowed which books. You can see all the books you borrowed. Then find who else borrowed the same books you did. The person with the most number of same books borrowed as you is your soulmate."

I laughed silently, "Then I know who my soulmate is. I don't even need to look here to tell that."

"Who?"

"Obviously you! Because we recommend books to each other."

"Right hehe."

"I'm gonna count the number of books we read together. So how I do this?"

Jihyo then took control over the mouse. "Click this folder.... you can sort out the books by their names in alphabetical order or date of publication or by author.... see? If you click on a book you can see who borrowed them and when. Once a student borrows a book, the student's information is automatically saved so if you click on a student it also display the list of books he or she borrowed."

"Ooo you sound very smart explaining those."

"Of course, I'm smart. What do you think I've been doing in the reading club?" she struck a pose and we giggled in minimum volume as humanly possible so as not to disturb the others reading in the library.

Jihyo resumed doing her assignment and I quietly browsed the folders in the records. I was glued to the computer for 15 minutes.

"Jihyo?"

"Hmm?"

"You're not my soulmate. Since our freshman year I have borrowed 42 books and you 74 books. Gosh how much do you read? We read only 26 books in common."

"Who's it then?" She opened her mouth, surprised it wasn't her and then smiled. "Bambam? I know he reads a lot. We often come together to borrow when you go for dance practise. I even recommend him books that you recommended to me."

"It's not Bambam."

"Then?"

"Son Chaeyoung."