"I don't understand," I whisper, placing my hand over my heart. "My soulmate's not...here." 

"Well, it's not me," the woman replies, smiling bitterly. "The doctors determined I was a Loner when I turned six."

I know I should comfort her, but my body feels numb.

"It can't be my boss," she continues, nodding her head to the room adjacent to ours. "He has a soulmate already. And there's no one else in the shop beside..."

"Stop!" I say, my voice hitching. "Stop acting like you know who my soulmate is!"

"It's obviously-"

"No!" I tell her, voice rising. "You don't understand! It can't be..him...My soulmate probably passed by the shop-"

The short-haired girl's gaze darkened. "If your soulmate 'passed by,' your heart would stop glowing. Stop denying it. The young man can't be that bad-"

"He has a soulmate already," I hiss. My eyes burn and I do nothing to hold back my tears.

"Put on your clothes," the woman says, brushing past me and slipping out of the room.

~ ~ ~

When I rejoin the two shopkeepers and Jellal in the main room, they are talking in hushed voices. Did Jellal realize his heart was still glowing? If he knows, he doesn't say anything.

The female shopkeeper approaches me discreetly. "Removing a heart patch," the woman murmurs. "against someone's will is illegal. It's considered intimate."

"Then why-"

Her dark eyes cloud with guilt. "I saw the way you guys stood together- like...like...a pair. I wanted to...see.."

"So he doesn't know?" I breathe, the knot in my chest unraveling. It will be much better knowing I bear the burden alone. 

"Not yet."

"Erza. Here's the list," Jellal says, making me jump. I nod seriously, trying to cover my embarrassment as I take the piece of printer paper from him. Three names have been typed in small lettering at the top left corner of the page.

Yoriko Yoshizaki 
Spriggan Tuerebu
Chiyeko Sasada 

"Memorize the names," the male shopkeeper says gruffly. "We'll have to burn the paper when you're finished. And get your payment ready."

"You memorize the first name, I'll memorize the other two," I tell Jellal as I hand the list back.

Jellal receives the paper, but he is distracted. "Payment? There was no talk of payment before."

The girl speaks up. "Arcadios-"

"Yukino- you're not favoring these peoples are you?" the man snaps. "And how many times have I told you to stop calling me by my real name!"

"We didn't know that was your real name until you said so," I point out.

Arcadios grits his teeth. "Payment. Everything has a price, girl. Those three names cost twenty thousand Jewels."

"And if we don't pay you?" Jellal challenged. He is already at the door.

The man shakes his head grimly and pulls out a gun. Fear rushes through my veins as the weapon is aimed at my head.

"Fine!" Jellal shouts, his voice an octave higher than normal. He holds his hands up and moves away from the door.

"These are worth a fortune," I realize, unhooking first my left, then my right earring. "They were a family heirloom. They cost five thousand apiece."

"That's still not enough," he says, enunciating each syllable as if I am an idiot. Despite his words, he accepts the jewelry.

We turn to leave, but the door remains locked. Arcadios is still waiting for the payment. 

"Then take this," Jellal blurts out, holding out his arm. He fumbles with the silver band of his wristwatch for a moment before successfully unclasping it. "Here." He drops the watch into the palm of Arcadios' hand. It makes a tinkling sound as it falls beside the pair of diamond earrings.

"I apologize if I sounded rude," Arcadios murmurs as he tucks the items away. "Our boss wouldn't like it if we lowered the price. Names are precious things."

Jellal nods but says nothing. On our way out, I search for Yukino, but she is nowhere to be seen. She must have left during our exchange.

 ~ ~ ~

"They were a family heirloom?"

"I lost my family. Now they're just an heirloom."

~ ~ ~

"I'm going to forget!" I shriek, jumping up and down as Jellal hurriedly writes down the first name on the list Arcadios had burned. 

We had been unable to hail a cab so we ended up walking a good distance to get back on campus. It was late and we were both exhausted- but our friends wanted answers- instantly.

"Where the hell have you been?" Natsu exclaims. Lucy and Ultear glare at us from behind him.

"Here, write your names down," Jellal says. "I'll explain to them."

Our hands meet briefly as he passes me the pen and my heart flutters. It's not necessarily from love, though. It's simply my heart's way of telling me my soulmate, my other half, is nearby.

~ ~ ~

Are there such things as one-sided soulmate bonds?

According to Makarov Dreyar's book, The Firefly Effect, there are only mutual soulmate bonds. Either that or nothing. 

1 in 100 are Loners, according to a recent count done in Fiore. 

99.99% of soulmate bonds end in successful marriages. 

.045% non-soulmate marriages are successful (98% of them last for only one year.)

My head swims with statistics- useless ones at that. It's past midnight and I have a lecture in the morning tomorrow, but I know I will never be able to sleep peacefully without finding something, anything, that can make sense of this mess I'm in.

I find it at the back of The Firefly Effect in the margin, two hours later. Lucy is asleep, and I'm sure I could easily be mistaken as a zombie, but at last! An answer I've been looking for.

"A soulmate bond's glow is similar to the wings of a ladybug- each and every bond is a unique color. Though some bonds may appear similar, the person in which the heart resides in knows very well whether another human is their soulmate. There is no such thing as an error- every human has a soulmate, even Loners, though they may not find it during their life on Earth."

"No such thing as an error, huh?" I whispered to myself.

Then someone was lying.