The year someone turns 18 they have the opportunity to be injected with a serum that will produce a soulmate mark somewhere on their body. This serum is costly and the procedure to get the injection is not covered by insurance.
A rare illness cropp...
Pants end up being the hardest part of the outfit. I really want to wear jeans, but I don't want to make it difficult to lift up my pant leg. It takes me three hours and six stores to find something that will truly work. I don't even know what had me walking into the store that specializes in yoga apparel but I was glad I did. The black pair of pants don't even look like yoga pants to me. They look like dressy cargo pants with buttoned pockets on the rump and at the side near the knee. The legs are tight above the side pockets and loosen to a flared fit throughout the rest.
For shoes I had already decided on a pair of slip on vans that were in the bottom of my closet. Not for the purpose of being fashion forward, but easy to remove to show Jin his mark. Plus, the pair I owned were pastel tie dye so they sort of matched my outfit.
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I stop at the diner to order lunch and show off my purchases to Rebecca, the only person close to me besides Candace that knows the full story. She oohs and aahs over my purchases before exclaiming, "I'm really excited for you!"
I try not to focus on the sadness surrounding Rebecca's life, but I can't help but feel a tad guilty. Rebecca's soulmate mark appeared on her skin just like it should have, but a few days later it faded as if it was never there. She never got to meet that other half of her soul. There were a couple of possibilities for that to happen. The first was that her soulmate had suffered an illness or tragic accident that took his life before they had the chance to meet. If they had met the mark would have solidified on her skin and stayed there even after he passed. The second possibility, and least likely of the two, was that he went back to the clinic and had the serum cleansed from his veins. Losing her soulmate had marked her life with such loneliness for years. For awhile she had lost herself in copious amounts of alcohol and club hopping where she danced her cares away. Those careless actions however resulted in her pregnancy. Her son, Joshua, was a byproduct of a drunken one-night stand. When she found out she was pregnant was when she turned her life around and let herself start to be happy again.
"Will you call me after? To let me know what happens?" She asks me.
I frown slightly. "How about I text you? I am not sure what time it will be, and I would hate to wake up Joshua."
I finish my lunch and say my goodbyes to my former coworkers. The action leaves a slight pang in my chest. It quickly evaporates when I think of my men, however. It's only a couple of hours until I get to see them. That thought replaces my ill-time sympathy for Rebecca's life with excitement for my own.
A couple hours later Candace comes over to my apartment, and we pamper ourselves with a spa day. I pull up Youtube and select to play the BTS list I made for myself.
First we apply clay masks to our faces. We take silly selfies of our faces covered in goop and have our own personal karaoke concert. I am still crap at trying to pronounce the Korean lyrics, but that doesn't stop me from making my sad attempts at it.
After the masks are washed away Candace pulls out a large kaboodle tote she brought with her. Inside I find every color of nail polish imaginable. I, at first, consider painting my nails each color of their personalized microphones but I change my mind quickly when I realize that I have no clue what I would do with the remaining three nails. Instead I decide on one of the many Opi bottles of pink nail polish I glance at the label on the bottom and begin cracking up. It's called 'V-I-Pink Passes.'
"No shit!" I exclaim between hiccuping bouts of laughter.
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We order in pizza. Pick at it while talking about what's ahead of me tonight. "I've felt strangely light on my feet all day. I could probably chalk it up to the excitement of seeing them tonight, but I can't help but wonder if it's more than that. What if I am feeling this way because they are now in the same city? What if the serum in my body is telling me that they are here, and to go find them?"
"Hmm. If that's the case my soulmate is most definitely not in Chicago." Candace snorts. It's not a conversation we have had before, and I honestly didn't even know if she had gotten the injection herself or not.
Because she brought it up I can't keep myself from asking, "You haven't talked about it before. When did you get the injection? Receive the mark?"
"I got the injection when I turned 21. I could have gotten it when I was 18, but I didn't feel emotionally ready for a soulmate at that time so I waited. The mark appeared like it was supposed to."
Candace seems so sad that I pull her in a hug. She hasn't really had her mark that long. Her 22nd birthday was only six months ago. "You'll find him. I'm sure of it."
"Honestly, I got my mark to prove to myself that Brighton was my soulmate. We have known each other since high school, and a part of me has loved him since we first met. We dated for a bit before I just decided to have the procedure done. When my mark appeared and his didn't a part of me was devastated. I found out when I looked him up a couple months ago that his mark finally appeared. It shocked me when he introduced me to his lawyer, Asher, as his soulmate. I had no inkling he was attracted to men. But, having to seek him out in order to help you and discover this on my own gave me a sense of closure." Tears begin welling in my eyes, and I hug her close once more. "Enough of this sappy sad shit! Time to put your face on and get our asses to the stadium!"
We make our way to our seats, and I am shocked at how close I am. I could probably reach out and touch them if I had the nerve to try. The butterflies are fiercely fluttering in my stomach. I'm so fucking excited I can't stand it! I have decided to not put my badge on until after their last performance. I don't want to get any hate from the Army that are currently surrounding me. Although there is a part of me that wonders how they would react if they saw that badge wrapped around my neck. It can wait. I tell myself.
The concert is more electrifying than I anticipated. Army chanting their names in a set pattern that I can't quite make out has me smiling. I'm happy that they have gained this kind of popularity. They are exceptionally talented and definitely deserve it.
They close the show with 'DNA', and I can't help but wonder if that is a recent change. If it's purposefully left to last because of the way things have changed for them in the past two months. After they line up single file in their routine and turn their backs I take a deep breath. It's time.
"I'm going to wait right here for you to come back and tell me what happens." Her eyes tell me to go get my men which is exactly what I intend to do.
I show my badge to a member of security, asking him where I need to go. He points me in the right direction. Once I get closer to the green room where I can only assume they must be I see a line of girls all with the same badge. They all are claiming to be Jimin's soulmate. It makes me uneasy to end up being the last. They must have made their way over here before 'DNA' had even started. I don't regret my decision to watch it, but I find myself shaking while I await my turn to be interviewed.
