"Come in and have a seat," the producer said to us.

I looked at where she was indicating, and saw that there were three chairs, and three cameras, all separated by walls.

"I thought they said that we could do our interviews together?" Hobi asked her. "Since we've already completed our bond."

"Ummm...You three are going to do your interviews a couple of different ways," she told us. "We aren't sure what direction we want to go with. You are the original bond that this show was made for, right?"

"I guess so?" Jungkook said it like a question, then looked at me and Hobi. "Were we first?"

"Yeah, baby," I remind him. "Everybody else met because of us."

"Correction," Hobi says, holding up one of his long, slender fingers. "Everybody else met because they had to force you to come and see us, because you couldn't read anymore, and Kook and I completely lost our voices, because you got scared, ran away, and gave all three of us soulmate sickness."

"Okay, damn," I said, frowning a little. "Just throw me under the bus, why don't you?"

"Did I say anything wrong?" he asked me.

"Technically, no, but..."

"Didn't we agree that we were going to let this go?" Jungkook asks, glaring at Hobi.

"No. We agreed that we weren't going to talk about it anymore," Hobi clarifies.

"I'm just gonna...yeah...give you three a minute," the producer said, bowing as she backed out of the room and shut the door behind her.

"Either way, is that what you're doing right now, Hyung?" Jungkook asks him. "You already know how bad she feels about it. Why do you keep trying to make her feel worse, Hoseok? Leave her alone about it already."

"Look, Maknae, there might be times that I let you tell me what to do, but none of those times are in front of other people or outside of our bedroom," Hoseok told him with a glare. "I'm allowed to feel how I feel about this. And the longer that I think about it, the more that I feel like maybe she doesn't even want to be with us, but has no choice, because we've already completed our bond."

I gasped at him. I couldn't help it.

"Please tell me that you don't really think that I feel that way," I said to him, my voice barely above a whisper.

Hoseok crossed his arms and shrugged one of his shoulders. "Maybe I do."

I felt my lip and my chin start to tremble, so I turned away from him.

"Mairette..." Jungkook said, reaching for me.

I moved before he could touch me. "Don't."

"But I didn't-" he started, but I cut him off.

"I know you didn't. I just...I need a minute."

I turned and walked out the door, slamming it shut behind me. I was hurt, pissed, and upset. I didn't care how childish slamming it was. I looked around for the producer, finding her standing a few feet down the hallway.

"Is there another room that we can do my interview in?" I asked her. "I'd like to not have to see him right now."

"S-sure," she stuttered out, clearly surprised. "Follow me."

She took me farther down the hallway to a smaller room with just one chair and one camera set up in it.

"So they way that this interview is going to work, and the show, too, I guess," she started, sitting down next to the camera but not turning it on yet as I sat down in front of it. "Nobody is going to know who has found their soulmates and who hasn't, yet. The viewers will get to vote on who they want to see go on a date. They can then vote at the end of each episode, who they think the soulmates are, and if they get it right, then the people in your bond just kinda get to chill and help the others. But with these interviews, we want you to be completely honest about you, your mark, your soulmates, and then they will be spread out throughout the episodes, kind of as hints of who the right pairings are, or for a final interview to let the viewers know that they've chosen correctly. Does that make sense?"

"Umm...I think so," I told her. "So I just answer whatever you ask me honestly, but it won't all be used at once?"

"Correct," she told me. "Are you ready to start?"

When I nodded, she hit the record button on the camera.

"Let's start easy. Tell me your name, your age, where you're from, and what you do for a living."

"Ok...My name is Mairette Carter. I'm from Salem, Massachusetts, and I'm a teacher."

"Do you have a soulmate marking?"

"I do," I said, pushing up my sleeve to show my wrist to the camera. "I have two actually, because I have two soulmates."

"Have you already found your soulmates, then?"

"I have. I had my markings for nine years before I found them. Or...before they found me, because that's what really happened. They're...kind of incredible, actually. They're both kind and generous and maybe the two happiest people that I've ever met. They both love me and care for me, and each other. When I met them, they had already known each other for a long time, but they didn't find out that they were a part of the same soulmate bond until about a month before we met."

"Did that make you jealous? That they already had this bond before you?"

"No, actually...It's kind of amazing to watch. They really love each other. Before they found out that they were a part of the same bond, they loved each other in a completely different way. As brothers. It was awkward for both of them when it started to change, and they were scared to admit it to each other. By the time they found me, I think that they had finally started to come around to it, and I've loved getting to watch them together as they figure it out."

"And that doesn't make you feel jealous? Or...left out?"

"Not even a little. They never exclude me. All three of us are an equal part of our soulmate bond, and there are never any feelings like that."

"Can you tell me who your soulmates are?"

"My soulmates are Jung Hoseok and Jeon Jungkook."

"So your soulmates are..."

"J-Hope and JK from BTS. Yeah. I won the fucking soulmate lottery, didn't I?"

The producer paused her questions for a moment to laugh at what I said, then composed herself to pick back up again.

"Have there been any issues in your bond at all?"

"Not issues in our bond, per say...More a personal issue that caused a problem."

"Can you tell me about it?"

I took a deep breath and gestured at myself. "I'm not exactly what people would expect a K-Pop Idol to be with. And while my soulmates have assured me, and shown me in every possible way, that they love me and how I look, the thought of their fans making fun of me and hating on me because of it was a lot for me to take. So...I left them. I didn't want them to lose fans because of me, and I thought that they would be better off without me."

"Were they?"

"No. We had already completed our bond at that point, and we all ended up with soulmate sickness."

"We have doctors that will explain it from the medical side, but could you please explain soulmate sickness to us on a more personal level?"

"Soulmate sickness is when you have fully bonded with your soulmate, or soulmates in my case, and you go for an extended period of time without being near them. It's like your soul is mad that the thing they love the most has been taken away from them, so they take something that you love. For me...I'm a teacher, and it was being able to read. For my soulmates, they both completely lost their voices, so it took away their music. It started to get bad after a week apart, but after two weeks, it was unbearable for any of us. Though, at the time, I had no idea what they were going through."

"Once you were all back together, did the symptoms go away?"

"Umm...not right away. It seemed like our souls wanted us to prove that we loved each other and wanted to be together. The more small acts of love that we showed each other, the better it got. Like one of them brought me my favorite strawberry-pineapple smoothie. And the other one brushed my hair out for me after I took a shower. Just...little things. With a couple of big things tossed in."

"Can you tell us what the 'big things' were?"

"Uhhh...no. No I can't."

She nodded her head, then looked at the notebook she was holding to see what other questions she had. 

"Will you be jealous to see your soulmates go on dates with somebody else if the viewers vote that way?"

"Of course. Who wants to see their soulmates with other people? But I understand why it's necessary, and I trust both of them completely."

"That must be a good feeling. To have that much faith and trust in another person. Especially in your soulmates."

"You know...It doesn't suck," I told her with a laugh. "Hoseok and I are kind of in a fight right now. But at the end of the day, I know that he loves me. I know that he would do anything for me or for Jungkook. And the same goes all the way around in our bond. I am only ⅓ of this bond, and I need those other two idiots to feel complete. I thought that I liked my life before I met them, but I really just had no idea how good life could be. We always joke about how sappy the three of us are with each other, but I can't help it. I just love them both so much. And I know that they love me just as much, more sometimes, I think. I am so, so lucky that Fate chose these two men for me. They're just..." I shrugged and smiled at the camera. "They're perfect."

I thanked the producer and left my mic pack on the chair, then walked back out into the hallway. I was prepared to go and find Hoseok so that we could talk this out. What I said was true...at the end of the day, I loved him, and I knew that he felt the same.

Before I could even close the door, a body slammed into mine and arms wrapped tight around me.

"I am so sorry," Hoseok said as he pressed his face into my neck. "I love you so much, Yeobo. So fucking much."

I pulled back to look at him. "Hobi, if I've done anything to make you feel like I don't really want to be with you, I'm sorry. That's not the case. I love you, too, and I couldn't imagine not being with you and Jungkook. I need you, handsome. I can't live without you. I'm so sorry that I've made you feel anything less than that."

Hoseok was shaking his head before I even got half-way through what I was trying to say.

"No, Mairette. " He moved his hands to cup my face and hold me still while he stared into my eyes. "You haven't done anything. My own insecurities have been getting to me lately. It's not you. I promise. I know that you love me. And even if I didn't before...I came to look for you and I heard your interview."

"Is that why you...?"

He shook his head again. "No, my love. No. I had already come to look for you. To tell you that I love you and to apologize. The interview just reiterated what I already knew."

"I hope so, because I love you, Jung Hoseok. You can't get rid of me now."

He shook his head, then kissed me.

"I don't want to. This shit is for life." 

********************************************

A/N: So...the next few chapters are going to be interviews with some of the main characters. There are some things that you may have forgotten in the course of this book, or that weren't fully clarified, so this is how we're going to go about reminding/explaining it. I know that I've said it before, but this book has become so much more than what I originally intended, and some things have fallen through the cracks, because my brain thinks that if I've thought of them, then I wrote it, but that's just not the case. So buckle up, and please let me know if you have questions you need answered. -------Kat

Please enjoy some beautiful, sunshine smiles from my bias.