I saw a guy with ginger hair and green eyes like mine sitting by a table, sipping on a smoothie. He matched Van's description, so I walked towards him. And- I don't know, I guess all the anger that I had just bubbled up and I slapped him, hard.
"What the hell?!" He exclaimed.
Yeah, what the hell? How could I slap someone I barely know like that? What if he doesn't want to be with me now? Why did I slap him!?
"I-I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?" I stuttered.
He looked at me, raising an eyebrow.
"W-what?" I asked.
"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not," he said, cocking his head sideways, "I mean, I don't even know you in the first place and then you just-" He looked at my hand.
"Oh. Wait, no! Can you please tell me who exactly you are? Please?"
"I'm your soulmate, I think," I said.
"But your sister-" he gasped. "She lied to me! What the-"
"Let's do a proper introduction and forget about Van. I'm Amara Swift. Nice to meet you," I put my hand forward, a sudden surge of confidence filling me.
"Uh- yeah, you too. I'm Mark. Mark Park."
I had to bite my lips to keep myself from laughing.
"It's okay, you can laugh, it's a funny name," he said, touching the back of his neck.
I sat down. No drink for me, I guess. "So... I guess we're kinda stuck with eachother, huh? By the way, nice eyes." I said.
"That's a bit conceited, don't think?" He asked. Soulmates had exactly the same irises, after all.
I shrugged, rolling my eyes. I was surprised by how comfortable I felt around him. I wasn't a stuttering mess anymore. I looked at his freckles, they were really cute.
I looked down and avoided eye contact at the right moment and was saved from an embarrassing remark from him accusing me of staring. Having a crush for as many years as me kinda made you an expert in that field. Wait a second, I couldn't see his string!
"Um. Mark, could you explain why I can't see your string right now? Are you actually even my soulmate..?"
A small bot came flying to our table. There were generally two types of bots: iris scanners and thermal sensors. The string had a slightly lower temperature than its surroundings and could be spotted with thermal sensors. They were cheaper than iris scanners, hence they were much more common. This one was a thermal bot.
Mark pointed the bot at his hands, and showed its screen to me.
"See? I have a broken string too." I saw the broken string on the screen and sat back.
"But why can't I see it?" I asked.
"I think it's because you lost the ability to see your soulmate's string when it broke," he said.
The bot scanned us, but all it could see were the broken strings. It shifted in confusion, its program debating whether to consider us soulmates or not. Suddenly and to my surprise, Mark picked up his string! Like, actually touched it! But how?!
He picked up the broken end and held it joined in his fingers with mine. The bot whirred, scanning again and finally zooming away.
"Whew! Scared me..." I mumbled.
"Well technically, we are soulmates, right? Even if it reported us, iris scanners could prove it," he said.
"But wait! How did you even..."
"Yeah..I can touch strings. I can see everyone's too," he said.
"You're kidding," I said.
"No, really! See?" He picked up our string.
"Wow... I didn't know there were people who could do that... Is that how you broke our-"
"I don't know anyone else, either. So, Amara, what's your favourite- I don't know, um... Hobby?" He cut me off. He obviously didn't want to touch upon the subject.
"Uh. I like reading books."
I noticed how hard he was trying not to roll his eyes.
"But only fiction! Like fantasy and romance ones. Also, never call me Amara. It's Ara," I said.
"Yeah, Ara sounds better. Have you read that book by Akane Mei?" He asked.
"Yeah! I really liked the concept of a world without strings! Ha, I wonder what that'd be like," I sighed.
"Have you ever wished.. that you know, we didn't have strings?"
"Of course! Until yesterday I was still in love with my crush."
"Damn. Did you date anyone?"
"I wouldn't have the guts to," I shrugged
"I guess it is risky. I have though," he whispered.
"Really?" I looked at him.
"What?" He asked.
"You just look so honest and innocent... No one would ever doubt you."
"Looks aren't everything," he said.
"Yeah, they're not." I looked down. Okay, introduction over. He still hadn't apologized.
"Have we- met before? Your face just seems familiar to me," he asked.
"I don't think we have..? Maybe it's just a soulmate thing. Speaking of that, what the heck happened to you three years back? My whole body hurt like hell!" I snapped. I always hated that soulmates could feel each other's pain. It was such a bother.
"Really? I don't remember getting any injuries though... I didn't feel your pain either, maybe I just forgot."
"Damnit, I always wanted to take revenge for that," I mumbled.
"Are you wishing you'd slapped me harder?" He smirked. Still no apology?
"Again, I'm sorry for that. But I'm beginning to think I should have.." I grinned. He seemed nice, he would be apologizing for cutting my string any moment now.
"Uh huh. Yours was actually my second slap this week, haha." Not surprising, really.
"Let's just say you have a ve~ry slappable face." I clenched my fist.
"C'mon, let's go for a walk," he said, getting up and holding out his hand.
Dude, what the hell? This guy cut my string without a second thought! Sure, he was cute, but this was the same guy who broke my heart- and he wanted to act like nothing had happened? I never had been good at holding grudges, but this was outrageous. He hadn't even apologized!
"My hand is getting kinda tired, you know," he said.
I slapped his hand away, getting up. He flinched, holding his hand. He looked at me with those damn puppy eyes of his.
"I'm sorr- I mean goodbye, jerk!" I turned around, storming out of the cafe.
"Hey, wait! What did I say wrong?" He ran after me.
"Th- that's exactly the problem! Y- you didn't say it!"
"What? Hey, we can make this work! I can even adjust to your mood swings!"
I stopped in my tracks and turned around, glaring at him.
"Oh, we've moved onto insulting me, have we, Mister I Can't Even Say Sorry?"
"What did I do wrong!?"
Was he really that dense? I turned around and walked towards the park. Someone was on the stage, giving a speech. I slipped into the audience and looked around me. Looked like he'd lost me. Good.
I listened to what the guy was saying.
"...how many people who are not soulmates are still dating? And it's outrageous! How can they be so selfish? They're not even giving their kids a choice if they want to have the string or not. Fifty years ago, before the strings appeared, there were so many problems! Divorces, pressure on the children, domestic abuse! So many court discussions over such silly matters! But just look. Now people are happier, and so much more productive! Which is exactly why we must prevent the strings from disappearing. And to do that, we have to make more bots, make sure only soulmates are together! Join my..."
Why!? Why did I have to be stuck with him? I'd had so many expectations! I thought my soulmate would be perfect for me but instead he was just... And now my string was gone... God knows how many problems that'd bring. I still hadn't told mom it was broken. I was just so down that day...
I went around the auditorium and sat on a chair left there. Why couldn't something go right for once!? I buried my face in my hands. Just then I heard footsteps.
"Ara..? Is that you?" Someone asked.
I looked up to see the last person I wanted to see then - Case.
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