theres a lot of swearing, just so you know
also who doesnt love soulmate aus amirite
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    Mina can’t wait for the day she meets her soulmate. Firstly, so she can finally get those stupid words off her arm, and secondly, so she can maybe wash out their mouth with soap. It’s ridiculous. This is the third time she’s been rejected from a job, and she’s getting desperate. Why can’t the interviewers understand that she never wanted those words on her arm in the first place? Do they even understand how hard she’s worked to get so far in her life, despite being constantly frowned upon by everyone, because of those goddamn words on her arm? But maybe it’s her fault that she didn’t wear sleeves long enough to cover up the words, maybe, considering how many times this has happened before, she should have taken extra care. 

    She looks down at her arm and wants to rip the skin off, just wants the giant bold lettering to disappear, because there’s only so much disappointment one can take for twenty years. She wants to cry.
“Walk into the club like wADDUP I GOT A BIG—” Jihyo bursts into Mina’s apartment for one of her surprise visits, stopping short when she sees Mina lying on the couch, picking at her skin while staring at the ceiling, “rejected again?”
And that’s all Mina needs to launch into an angry tirade.
“Yes, I got rejected,” she seethes, “and do you know why?”
Jihyo sighs, “here we go again,” she mutters.
Mina isn’t really looking for an answer so she continues regardless of Jihyo’s reaction, “if you were thinking “hmm probably because of Mina’s mark” well you’re goddamn right,” she spits.
She continues, “why did I have to be “blessed” with this—this abomination? Why me? Why?” she laments.
Jihyo pats her sympathetically on the back, “I don’t know man, but you never really know with soulmates, right?”
Mina scoffs, “That’s easy for you to say, your mark disappeared when we were like, four, and you guys were neighbours, it’s unfair.”
“Okay, I was five, and Sana wasn’t my neighbour, she lived two houses down,” Jihyo argues.
“Why are you here? Did you just come to all over my pathetic love life and eat all my food? Where’s Sana? I want Sana, not you. Sana gives nice hugs,” she casts a disdainful look at Jihyo, “…your hugs are subpar at best.”
“I come all the way over here to annoy you and this is what I get?”
“Please leave.”
“Hold on, I gotta finish this.”
“If I had a time machine, I would go back to when we were in preschool and punch four year old me for deciding that we would be best friends for the next 16 years.”
“That’s rude. And not to mention probably illegal.”
“Maybe I’ll just punch 20 year old me right now.”

    Jihyo leaves a few hours later, leaving behind a small pile of dirty dishes in the sink and a crudely drawn note, which makes Mina smile. Mina places the note carefully in a box she has dedicated to all the cards and other crudely drawn notes that Jihyo’s ever given her (Jihyo doesn’t need to know about it though). Her mood starts to go down with every dish she has to wash, and when she sees the pile of paper next to her laptop on the table she remembers that she’s still jobless, and something in her almost snaps. Almost. Maybe a nap would make things better.

    Unfortunately, a nap doesn’t make things better. She grabs her phone to check the time. It’s 11pm and she’s in that weird place, a sort of limbo, where she’s tired but doesn’t want to sleep.  Still sour from her rejection, Mina throws on a hoodie and stalks down to the convenience. Too angry to watch where she’s going, she slams rather painfully into a passerby, and she stops and looks up to glare at them. That’s when she hears it. The three words that have been plaguing her for her entire life.
“HOLY ING BALLS!”
She twitches, looks at the words that are beginning to fade on her arm, looks back at the stranger in front of her, and feels her anger pour out from in the form of words that she didn’t know she knew.
“Are you ing kidding me? It was you? You’re the er who cost me three interviews, five jobs and countless birthday parties? Are you ing kidding me? And you’re the asswipe some celestial designated as my soulmate? WHOOP DEE ING DOO!! What now?? Am I supposed to kiss your filthy mouth and prance off with you into the sunset?? Well sign me the up, because I can’t wait to spend the rest of my days with someone who cost me one of the best opportunities of my goddamn mothering life I just—I just can’t grasp this?? What the hell?? Isn’t there anything else you could have said besides “holy ing balls”?? I have lived for 20 years with your stain on my arm, 20 years of seeing my mother and everyone elses’ mothers wince at me whenever I wear anything shorter than long sleeves, and all you can do is—is look at your hand?? Hey! HEY!! STOP LOOKING AT YOUR ING HAND YOU PIECE OF SH—”
“Whoa,” says the stranger in awe.
“‘Whoa’? Just—‘whoa’?” Mina twitches, “is that all you can say?”
The stranger holds out her arm and Mina almost rips it out of its socket, before she sees that the stranger's arm is almost fully covered in black lettering, forming words that look suspiciously like Mina’s speech.
Mina freezes, “oh. OH.”
The stranger remains wide eyed, “whoa.”
There’s really no way to express the embarrassment, the shame, the horror Mina feels right now, other than that she wants to punch herself in the face as many times as it takes for her to shatter into tiny pieces.
“I am so so sorry oh my god,” Mina says as she raises her hands to , backing away slowly. Once she’s retreated about one and a half metres away from her soulmate, she turns and breaks into a sprint, running as fast as she can back home. In the lift back up to her apartment, she heads to one of the back corners and leans against the wall, banging her head against the cold metal while regretting her entire life.
​She looks at the spot where her mark used to be, “well, I guess I could always become a nun, right?” she sobs.

    “So you just, yelled at her for five minutes in the middle of the night, on the streets?” Jihyo asks over the phone.
“It was supposed to happen, okay, why else would she have had my entire monologue on her arm?” Mina groans.
“Okay, but just think. If you had such a hard time getting jobs and just being functional in society with just those three words on your arm, how do you think she’s been doing, with your entire angry speech on her arm like she was cursed or something?”
“Don’t do this, I already feel bad enough, I don’t need your constant reminders.”
“Anyway, you can’t just stay at home all day.”
“Yes I can.”
“No you can’t because I’m at your door and if you don’t open out and agree to come get coffee with us I’m breaking down the door and dragging your out.”
Mina sits up, “alright satan, just calm down.”
When she opens the door she greeted with the most wonderful sight of her favourite person in the whole world, the light of her life, her back up soulmate. Oh, and Jihyo.
“Sana!!” Mina feels less crappy now.
“What is this? This is wrong, you should be the third wheel, not me!” Jihyo whines.
Mina looks at Jihyo.
Jihyo looks at Mina.
Sana looks at her watch because her precious time is being wasted.
“Why are you drinking coffee?” Mina asks.
“Because I’m thirsty,” Jihyo shrugs.
“Then what’s the point of us going to get coffee if you already have some?”
“I need more.”
“Why can’t you just go by your—”
“OKAY KIDS,” Sana interrupts, “IT’S TIME TO STOP FIGHTING.”
Mina glares at Jihyo, “get in.”

    Mina sinks back as far as she can go into her chair. She just wants to go home and sleep and then wake up and cry over her unemployment and then go back to sleep.
“It’s okay Mina, I’m sure you’ll find a job soon, your mark is gone anyway! Things will be okay!” Sana says chirpily and Mina manages a smile.
“Yeah, and if all else fails, you can deliver pizzas or something,” Jihyo says, placing a hand on Mina’s own.
Mina glares at her and snatches her hand away, “don’t touch me.”
“I think Mina is looking for something a little more…dignified…than that, honey,” Sana says.
“Sana, please date me instead of Jihyo.”
Sana laughs, “sometimes I wish I could.”
“I’m still here, if anyone cares,” Jihyo pouts.
They spend the next twenty minutes bickering, and only stop when the waitress comes with their orders.
“Okay, here are your—holy ing balls.”
Jihyo and Sana look at Mina, who isn’t really paying attention, “we didn’t order any holy ing balls,” they say, slowly, unsure if they should be offended.
They’re just confused. Jihyo notices that the waitress is staring wide eyed at Mina, who’s staring at her phone. Jihyo kicks her.
“Ow!” Mina glares at her, “What?!”
She notices the waitress and drops. Well of course it’s her wide eyed, foul mouthed soulmate. Of course. 

    “Do you know her?” Jihyo decides to ask as Mina slams her head on the table, groaning quietly.
Mina groans more, “she—that’s my…soul…mate…”
Jihyo grins. It’s one of those grins that makes Mina want to punch her in the face. Jihyo grins and looks around the cafe, locking her gaze on the waitress that served them earlier.
“Hey! Sana, what do you think?”
Sana follows her gaze and nods in approval, “you really did well for yourself.”
Mina squints at the two of them, “hey, that’s my soulmate.”
“Really? Because for a second there you didn’t seem very happy about that,” Jihyo smirks.
“I—that’s—shut up,” Mina blushes.
“But she really is pretty, if not cute—no, she’s really cute, look at her! She’s so happy!” Sana squeals giddily.
“Control her, Jihyo.”
Jihyo shakes her head, and then ducks, “she’s looking over here! She’s looking at you Mina! It’s true love! JUST GET MARRIED ALREADY.”
Mina wants to slap Jihyo across the face, but she sees that her soulmate really is looking at her, and when their eyes meet goes dry, and so do her lips. Her body is burning up but she feels so cold. Suddenly the air is electric, but only for a moment, because her soulmate turns away to wipe a table. Before that happens though, Mina catches a hint of pink cheeks and a name tag. ‘Momo’. That’s cute—‘Momo’ is cute.

She really shouldn’t have shouted.