"Two weeks? Where to?" My voice rose and I checked myself. I needed to be happy for him.

"I'll be in Seoul for a couple of months to rehearse. There's dates in Asia, then Europe and some in South America." He clarified. Suddenly it was all crumbling, the plans I'd already adjusted in my mind as I imagined the next year with me home and him in New York. I wouldn't actually get to see him for holiday breaks or when he came to visit. He was going to be thousands of miles away and all over the world.

I wasn't aware of the tear that fell down my cheek until he reached out, wiping it away with his thumb. I pulled his hand down, shaking my head. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm crying. I'm really happy for you. You deserve this." I smiled through the tears that spilled from my eyes, reaching out to wrap my arms around his waist.

"Just say the word and I'll stay for you." His response took me off guard.

I tilted my head to look up at him, my lips feathering his jaw. "I would never ask you to do that. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, Hobe." I smiled.

"It is, but I thought we'd have a little more time." He closed his eyes, his lips still against my forehead.

He'd been such a comfort for me this past month and since we'd known each other that I wanted to be a source of positivity for him. "We have two weeks. We can do a lot with two weeks, as long as you're okay with sleeping a little less."

Over the next couple of weeks we filled every sliver of available time with one another, living off of the short naps we took together after watching movies and in the earliest hours of morning. I think he kissed me enough to make up for the backlog of potential kisses we would miss until we saw each other again.

We ate at our favorite spots around town and had ice cream every night before bed. I made him the subject of the photos I took, capturing every expression held in his face from his sunshine smile to his wide-eyed fear as we watched an obscure horror film and the flat, slightly parted view of his mouth when he slept.

We talked for hours while he packed his things to leave and sometimes through the night, as if we hadn't spent the past eleven years of friendship getting to know everything about each other. I convinced him to give me his Jason Voorhees Funko Pop and my favorite blanket he kept on his bed, snagging my favorite of his hoodies before he officially closed his last suitcase.

On the night before his flight we slept in a tent set up between our backyards, keeping each other awake as we looked up at the sky, one more night of sharing our favorite gas station snacks and letting the forest fire roar.

"I don't know if I ever said it, but I'm in love with you too." I breathed, something about the vastness of the galaxy reminding me that we'd soon be skies away.

His hands were tucked behind his head and he looked over, reaching one down to clasp mine. "I'll wait for you." He offered with the purest sincerity behind his eyes.

He was so selfless when it came to me and I kissed him with gratitude for everything, for protecting me, for being my comfort and my hope.

"I can't let you. I don't know what's next with this whole soulmate thing but you can't wait around for me to get through the rest of them. You should get to feel love again after this too." I moved my arm across his chest, snuggling onto his shoulder. "But whoever the next guy is, sure will have a lot to live up to."

The following morning we went through a drawn out, tear-filled goodbye, refusing to part ways until his mom scolded him for running behind. When I got back to my room after watching them pull away, I never felt more empty.

My dad and I started going to therapy individually two months after losing my mom. I suggested it, thinking it would be important to process our grief and needing some way to cope with the hollow feeling that I was never able to fill with working overtime at the restaurant.

We started off talking about my mom, the day she died, our relationship, and the feelings that haunted me. I eventually caved, disclosing the soulmate prophecy after deciding that the worst thing my therapist, Cathy, could do was write that I was delusional on the little notepad she kept on her lap.

I told her everything, about Hobi and Jimin, even about the five dates that were left. She was pensive after my confession, pressing the tip of her pen against her chin.

"But the way you describe it makes it seem like you loved Hobi more. Is that right?" She pondered.

I leaned forward on the couch in her office that'd become a comfort zone over the past month. "Not necessarily. It was different, but also the same in a way." I watched as she scribbled something down on her notebook, curious about her thoughts on my contradicting statements. I took a moment to think and she didn't rush me, letting the room fall silent as I processed my feelings for them.

"I think I loved them the same, from the same place. With both of them our connection was instant, but Hobi and I spent so much time as friends, avoiding the inevitable that it felt so big when we finally gave into the feelings. Jimin and I had more of a typical, natural progression into a relationship, but it was still just as incredible with him." I attempted to explain.

"Do you think it'll be the same with the next?" She asked, matching my body language by leaning up in her chair.

My shoulders drooped with the sigh that moved past my lips. "I don't see why not, but I also can't imagine it yet. I still have close to a year before the next date."

"And is that what you're waiting for?" She was always quick with her responses, almost always formed as a question.

"What do you mean by that?" My brow pulled together.

She adjusted in her seat. "Let me rephrase that. Is your next soulmate the thing you think about when you imagine what's next for yourself?"

My lips pressed together in thought. "In a way, yes. Since losing my mom my entire life changed. I had everything planned out before that, what I wanted to do with my life, who I wanted to be. I even had an idea about who I wanted to be with, but now the next date is the only thing I feel sure of."

I could have kept talking but she interrupted, steering the conversation to get to her point. "So you knew who you wanted to be with before your mom died?" She wondered.

In the way she intended, her question made me think more. "Maybe not up until she died, but I was sure I'd spend forever with Jimin before prom night." I answered.

"And you found out about the dates on prom night." Her forehead wrinkled with her raised eyebrows. I nodded and she seemed to be putting something together. "So before then, you had a lot of answers about your life and what would happen, but you lost control of most of that when the prophecy was confirmed. Seline, I think the prophecy is the one thing you're sure of, which has made you feel out of control of everything else."

I didn't respond, reflecting on her revelation. She wasn't wrong and upon realizing I wasn't going to reply, she continued. "I want you to feel power over some parts of your life. As you know, everything can't be controlled and the soulmate prophecy might be one of those things," she waved her hand through the air in a way that let me know she still wasn't sure that it was real, though I appreciated her for going along with me anyway, "but I want you to spend this time you have focusing on the things you can. You deserve to make decisions for your life and not have them revolve around waiting for your next soulmate." She closed her notebook, leaving me with a final question to think about for the next week.

"So what's next?"