"I still think you're an idiot." I teased when we pulled away. "You could have told me that you love me a long time ago."

He shook his head. "I couldn't, Sel." His response only confused me more.

"Why?" I asked. "Don't tell me you didn't want to ruin the friendship." I rolled my eyes, even though I was projecting, that reason summing my own resistance to disclosing that I also had feelings for him.

He wore a solemn expression as he retrieved the same velcro Avengers wallet he'd been using since he was nine. He was so serious that I couldn't even laugh at the sound of him ripping it open like I usually did. I watched with anticipation as he reached inside one of the slots that would usually hold a credit card, carefully removing a small slip of paper. He unfolded it with a sigh, handing it over to me.

The first thing I noticed was my mother's handwriting and then the worn pattern along the edges, a perfect match to the tear in the note my mom had written on a page from the box we'd found so long ago. I never really thought about the page being torn, but as I held onto the other half I realized it was the missing piece to everything. Though it was a little faded, I could make out seven dates.

July 11, 2003
January 1, 2011
September 7, 2013
August 23, 2014
April 3, 2020
April 3, 2020
November 30, 2024

I blinked, my brow pulled together as I read over the dates a second time, standing to read them a third. "What is this, Hobi?" I asked the question I already knew the answer to. Though it'd been so long that I couldn't be entirely sure of the exact date we met, I remembered that we moved into our neighborhood in 2003, right at the end of June. I ran into Hobi at the ice cream truck for the first time a couple of weeks later. Even if I couldn't be sure about the exact date with Hobi, it was unmistakable that I'd met Jimin on the first day of last year.

My mind and body were completely flooded, and I started to pace back and forth on the sidewalk. I didn't know where to begin or how to process what he'd just revealed to me.

"How could you keep this from me?" My voice cracked, overwhelmed with the secret he'd been holding on to for over seven years.

He stood across from me, trying to step closer to provide comfort amid the panic I was experiencing. I held my hand up to stop him, unable to accept any comfort when he was turning everything upside down.

"Because it's too much, even now, it's too much." He explained, stepping forward and putting his hands on my shoulders to stop me from pacing. "Sel," he sighed.

He wasn't exactly wrong, but I still didn't understand. "But the day I met you is on that list too Hobi. That's means that we're—"

He cut me off. "Soulmates, I know Sel." He dropped his hands from holding on to me, seemingly exasperated.

"I don't get how you could keep something like that from me. We're supposed to be together." I replied. At that moment, I hated that feeling inside of me, knowing now that it existed because we were soulmates. Right now, I wanted that feeling to disappear so that I could just be mad at him without the cloudiness. I wasn't surprised when I laughed, buried in a mix of emotions as I tried to make light of the situation with a joking tone. "You must really not want to be with me."

Hobi's brow furrowed, surely wondering how I could laugh. "That's all I've ever wanted," he grabbed the paper from my hand, starting to ramble, "but there's six other dates on this. What am I supposed to do with that? If we were together, what would've happened last year when Jimin moved in? I couldn't just fall more in love with you knowing that there's six other me's out there."

I reached out slowly, taking the paper back from him, a tear falling from my eye when I closed my eyes for a second. "I need to go. Please don't follow me yet." I turned around, starting the walk to my house at the front of the neighborhood.

It was late enough that I knew my parents would be asleep, having left the porch light on for me. I took off my shoes at the door so that my return would go unheard, walking to my bedroom while reaching around my back to try to grab the zipper at the back of my dress. For a moment I focused all of my attention on trying to get out of the dress, becoming so frustrated that I fell to my knees, one hand covering my mouth as the other finally caught onto the zipper, a pained sob moving past my lips as soon as the fabric slipped down from my chest.

After catching my breath I moved to the side of my bed, pulling a t-shirt that was draped over the desk chair over my head and reaching into my nightstand drawer for my journal.

I kneeled at my bedside, using the mattress to write on as I tried to organize my thoughts.

    Things I Know
Jimin said he loves me
We can't be together
Hobi is in love with me
Hobi kept the dates from me for seven years
We can't be together
The soulmate thing is real
Two of the dates are the same

There was more but I closed my eyes, resisting the urge to scream into the mattress. I'd started the evening perfectly with Hobi's words at the top of the page, You'll be the most beautiful girl there tonight. Five hours later the two most important people in my life had confessed their love for me, those relationships damaged at least partially by the soulmate thing, leaving me confused and betrayed.

I needed more answers, to know if this was just my fate or if I had any control over my love life at all. Knowing that it wouldn't do any good to wake my mother in the middle of the night with the interrogation that played out in my head, I tucked my journal away and myself into bed, my eyes cast on the view outside the window.

"Seline." My mom's voice woke me the next morning, her fingers running through my knotted hair.

I rolled over, groaning when I tried to open my eyes, the makeup I'd been too upset to fully clean off clumping together. It hadn't left my mind all night, the words leaving my mouth in a groggy request as soon as I sat up in the bed. "I need to know about the soulmate thing."

Once I'd rubbed my eyes enough to see, I saw her expression, not giving away a thing as she asked. "What soulmate thing?"

"Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. I found the box when I was ten, ma." I fired back at her.

She sighed, running a hand over her face before replying. "The Soulmate Prophecy." She corrected me. "It started in 1567. One of your ancestors, Margaret Adams, provided protection to a group of witches who were being hunted by the community. She previously befriended one without knowing and saw her kindness, hiding them in her basement that they covered with a spell for a month until they could escape. They rewarded her by casting a spell based on one wish, that every person who came from her would be divinely blessed with a love stronger than any, that would allow her to live on through generations. The witch she befriended was regarded with the powers of a seer, so she took the hand of Margaret's daughter, calling out the date that she would meet her soulmate, the connection that would lead to her wish being fulfilled. That's the story your grandmother told me."

"You know that sounds ridiculous right?" I put my face in my hands.

"I'm guessing it doesn't sound as ridiculous when you have the documents from the box." She raised a brow at me. "What happened to make you ask me about it now?" She questioned.

I sat up again, images from the night flashing behind my eyes. "So what, I'm the one who ruins the prophecy right, the one with seven soulmates?" I asked, ignoring her question for the moment.

"I don't know." She put her hand on mine. "It was the first time anything like that happened. None of us knew what to do and we had no history to draw from." She described.

"Is that why you didn't tell me?" The list of questions in my head should have been getting shorter, but it seemed that another one popped in to replace every one that was answered.

She nodded. "I guess. I don't know what it'll mean for you to have seven soulmates. Believe me, I only have one and your dad is already a handful. I would be terrified at the idea of seven."

"I am terrified," I admitted, "and it would have meant a lot to feel like you would be there for me through that, but there were times where you made it seem like I needed to avoid love." I could barely look at her, the tear that fell down my cheek surprising me as I was sure I'd cried myself dry the night before.

"You're right." I was surprised at her response. "I took the easy way out because I knew it would be complicated. I'm not good with not knowing, and there's a lot I don't know about this." She confessed.

I let out a shaky laugh. "Believe me, it's already complicated."

"What happened last night?" She hadn't forgotten her earlier question. Despite so many of my own still being unanswered, I started to recant the night from the initial moment of joy to my walk home with blistered feet and a double broken heart.