«The truth is rarely pure but never simple.»

Lost in thought, you pushed the strap of your backpack, which had slipped down, back onto your shoulder. You searched for the familiar bunch of black hair, but it wasn't easy among the many groups of people standing in front of the library.

A waving arm ended your search and with a little smile, you headed in the direction of your best friend. No sooner had you reached her than you were pulled into a tight embrace. Your laughter was muffled by the body in front of you as you returned the hug.

"We last saw each other two days ago, Liv," you laughed as she released her grip around your body and smiled at you.

She shrugged as you walked towards the entrance of the building. "I hardly have anyone else but you," she said softly and you could only hear her because it was so quiet in the library. "Besides, I've missed you."

"We really should have studied the same subject," you muttered.

The three years of university would probably be a lot more fun and more exciting if the two of you sat next to each other in the lecture hall. But you knew that your passions and interests were in different areas.

Liv would probably go insane if she had to listen to daily seminars about the salinity of the sea or hear the word ‛photosynthesis' one more time. On the other hand, you would probably lose it if you had to hear the names Nietzsche, Sartre or Aristotle more than once a week.

You were aware that you shouldn't make compromises when it comes to your future. And it wasn't as if you never saw Liv; on the contrary, you saw each other practically every day at lunchtime or after your lectures.

"Are you going to the lab later?" Liv asked as you sat down at an empty table.

You let yourself sink onto the chair, exhausted from the long day and took your papers out of your backpack. "I don't think so," you replied and brushed a few strands of hair aside that had fallen into your face when you shook your head.

"Jin will be disappointed," Liv teased but you ignored her ambiguous undertone.

"I don't know what you're talking about," you said and tried to concentrate on the text you were supposed to read. However, your concentration was immediately interrupted when a hand placed itself on yours. Surprised, you looked up.

"Honestly, Y/N," Liv started and you had the feeling that you didn't want to hear the next part of her question. "What is going on between you and Jin?"

You pulled your hand out of her grip and dropped both hands in your lap as you leaned back against the chair. "Nothing," you said, but Liv raised her eyebrows. "He's a good friend, and he knows I want nothing more than that. A good friendship."

"If you say so," Liv said in conclusion, but not without giving you a quick examining look.

The silence around you tempted your thoughts to buzz all the louder in your head and from minute to minute it became more difficult to concentrate on the text in front of you. You knew that the relationship between you and Jin was purely platonic. But you were afraid that it wasn't as clear to him. Even though you made it more than clear to him after he asked you out for coffee a few weeks ago.

You gave Liv a belated angry look and cursed her for even bringing the topic up. Your eyes fell again on the text in front of you and with a sigh you turned to the next page. You were just about to look at the different types of sponges when you heard Liv gasp.

You looked up in wonder, but her gaze was directed at something behind you. You suppressed the impulse to turn around and look to see what had made her lose her voice.

"What?" you asked and couldn't prevent the annoyed undertone. You had come to the library because you wanted to be well prepared for your homework and the laboratory work that went with it.

"Oh my God," Liv croaked out. She was still staring intently at something behind you. "He looks so good," you heard her whisper and you knew exactly who it was about.

With an eye roll, you grabbed the pencil you had dropped on the table and continued to underline important passages in the text. "You'd better concentrate on your studies, Liv," you said and watched out of the corner of your eye as her head snapped towards you.

"How?" she said a bit too loud and got some angry glances from the students around her. "How can I concentrate if a man like Min Yoongi exists?" With a sigh, she let her head fall into her hands and stared in the direction of the man she was talking about.

"If you keep staring like that, he will notice it," you stated, but a little smile played around the corners of your mouth as you remembered a situation from a few weeks ago.

"Hopefully," Liv said and the same situation seemed to have entered her head as well.

"How long has he looked at you last time?" you asked, thinking pretentiously. You knew the answer only too well, Liv had told you often enough. "One second? Or was it even two?"

"Make fun of me," she replied and lowered her hands. "But the one second he looked at me was the best in my life."

"Wow, then the rest of your life must be very sad," you muttered and laughed when you had to dodge the pen that flew in your direction. "You're not even sure if he was looking at you."

"So what? He looked in my direction, which is more than some girls on this campus can dream of."

You shook your head in disbelief. You didn't understand how you could be so attracted to someone you had never spoken to before. Especially to someone like Min Yoongi. Your thoughts spat out the name and you had to control yourself not to pull a face when the image of the man came into your head.

Objectively speaking, he was handsome. Even you could see that. But what was the point of all those good looks when the character was nothing? In Min Yoongi's case, his personality took on the dimensions of a whole garbage dump.

Unfortunately, most girls on campus had a different opinion than you and they made it all too clear should they ever cross paths with him in the hallways or the cafeteria. You imagined that this only confirmed Min Yoongi in his ego even more. 

And it was well known that Yoongi rarely ever said no to a beautiful girl; at least if you could believe the rumours. He and his small group of friends had made a name for themselves, by living up to those rumours.

Your thoughts were interrupted when you noticed how Liv held her breath. A second later you saw the reason for her behavior when none other than Min Yoongi himself walked past your table. You watched him for a moment as he buried his hands in the pocket of his black torn jeans and disappeared behind one of the many shelves.

"Please don't start to freak out," you said, with a mixture of joke and seriousness in your voice.

"Why is he here?", Liv asked instead, stretching her neck, to get another look at the man. "He never comes in the library."

"You sound like a stalker," was the only thing you replied and returned to your homework.

"Y/N," Liv tried to whisper, but her voice was louder than she had planned so she was almost shouting your name. Again you felt the annoyed looks of the students around you. 

One boy even clicked his tongue in irritation and groaned before turning his gaze away from you to bury his nose back in his book. "He's coming here," she finished her sentence, and you were glad that she had the volume of her voice under control this time.

When you looked up, you knew that Liv was not exaggerating this time. Your gaze met that of Min Yoongi and for a moment it seemed as if the few noises of the quiet library around you were blurring into a loud humming. You felt your heartbeat pounding in your throat as you looked into the dark eyes of the man who wore an indefinable expression.

He had drawn his eyebrows together in confusion and turned his gaze towards the floor for a moment as he continued to walk towards your table. Your table was the last one in the row and was therefore closest to the aisle he had just come from. Before you could get your thoughts in order, or calm Liv down who was shifting nervously in her chair, Min Yoongi stopped in front of you.

"Hi," he greeted you and his deep voice was what made you avert your gaze from him and release you from your rigidity. He cleared his throat briefly and pointed with his thumb over his shoulder towards the aisle behind him. 

"I'm looking for a book on composers of the 20th century. Do you know where I can find the music section? I'm not here that often," he added the last part, and if you didn't know better, he seemed almost embarrassed as he rubbed his hand over his neck.

Your eyes fell on Liv for a moment and you realised immediately that she was beyond help. Her eyes were two big hearts and her mouth hung slightly open as she looked up at the man in front of her. You suppressed an eye roll and turned your gaze back to the man in front of you who looked at you.

With the pen in your hand, you pointed to the other end of the library. "If you go down this corridor, almost to the end, you'll find everything about music," you explained to him and he looked in the direction you were pointing.

"I think that what you're looking for is in the aisle next to contemporary art. But I'm not entirely sure about that." 

Yoongi turned his gaze back to you and a grin spread across his face; he was back to his old, arrogant self. Too bad, he had been very nice until now. Almost too nice...

"Thank you," he said and mustered you once from head to toe. You had to suppress the urge to make yourself smaller in your chair.

"If there's nothing else," you said as an invitation for him to leave and tried to get him to look away from you as quickly as possible. But he raised an eyebrow when he heard the tone of your voice and the distinct disinterest when you turned back to the papers in front of you.

"Sorry," said Liv, and her voice was an octave too high when she spoke. "She doesn't mean it like that," she tried to explain and you flinched as her foot came into contact with your shin.

"No problem," he replied and took a look at the text you tried to read. "Well, I'd better let you two get back to work. We don't want Mommy and Daddy to be disappointed," he added and you raised your eyes briefly to shoot him an angry look. Asshole...

He gave you another smug grin before he went in the direction you pointed. You already regretted having helped him at all. Although he had been so nice for the first few seconds. It was probably all part of his tactics to get girls into bed.

The next minutes you had to listen to the whispered, excited monologue of Liv, who told you over and over again what had just happened. As if you hadn't been there yourself. Sighing, you stowed your folders in your backpack when you were sure you wouldn't be able to do anything productive today. 

Especially not with your hyperactive best friend, who seemed to be vibrating with excitement in her chair. You, and probably all the students around you, were happy when you both left the library and headed to the dorms.

Unlike you, Liv lived in her apartment not far from campus. So you gave her credit for taking you to the building where you had your apartment, which you shared with two other girls. Then again, she had much to make up for after the last two hours. 

After you two said your goodbyes and you climbed up the stairs to the fourth floor, your thoughts inevitably drifted to the incident a few minutes earlier.

You still saw the briefly confused look on his face as he approached you. The black hair had fallen into his face, so you hardly noticed how he pulled his eyebrows together. Something had been strange at the moment your eyes met. You had never experienced anything like it; that feeling as if everything around you was disappearing and your focus was only on one person for a split second.

You snorted when you noticed how much this thought reminded you of romantic love stories. A woman met a man and it was like love at first sight. Everything except for the other person became meaningless. 

You would describe yourself as not a particularly romantic person. Sure, you wouldn't mind if a man gave you flowers or some other small gift. But for that, you would have to have a man who would find you interesting enough to go out with you in the first place.

Yet you were strictly against the romanticizing that took place in so many movies, books, music and real life. Your stomach almost turned when a term came into your mind which you tried to erase from your thoughts as soon as it entered your head.

Soulmates.

With a little more force than necessary, you yanked open the zipper of your backpack to look for the key card of your apartment. Soulmates were an invention of a cruel god or higher power who had grown bored and wanted to see people suffer. There was no other way you could explain what the whole thing was for. There was nothing worse for you than the thought that your future and your life partner were predetermined.

And even worse was that it could hit you any day. There was no particular age at which soulmates found each other. You could find them when you were two, playing with them in the playground. Or you could find them at 92, sitting in your rocking chair at the retirement home.

Many people never found them either and died without ever having a name on their skin. What a disappointment so many people went through, just because they never found their soulmate. Did that make other relationships less valuable? Did it make life less worth living? Not in your eyes. 

You couldn't understand how many people cared that much about a tattoo that put more pressure on you than it helped. You hoped that you would never have that problem and that the spot on your skin right over your heart would remain empty forever.

This thought had just crossed your mind when you suddenly felt a hot sting in your chest. The key card to your apartment slipped out of your grasp as your hand shot up to the spot right under your left breast. 

"Fuck," you mumbled and tried to apply some pressure on the spot, hoping to take away some of the pain. But, in vain.

It felt like the burning was working its way into your chest until it finally enveloped you completely and for a second you felt like you were on fire. 

As fast as it had come, the feeling ebbed away and a moment later you stood breathless in the hallway in front of your door. 

You leaned against the wall next to it and tried to get your breath under control. Was that a heart attack? Or a stroke?

With shaking fingers, you picked up the key card from the floor. It took you three attempts until the door finally opened and you were able to enter the apartment. 

As you brushed off your shoes, you ran your hand over the spot under your breast. Your eyes widened and you froze completely in your movement when a thought occurred to you.

No. No, it could not be. 

Not at that very moment, when you were upset about soulmates...

You shook your head, you didn't want to think for a second about what might be on your skin. A name that would turn your life upside down. You ignored the warmth that seemed to radiate from your chest as you stepped into the kitchen of the small apartment. 

You had never been happier than now that your two roommates weren't home yet. A few minutes alone was exactly what you needed. You didn't feel ready to answer the questions of the two curious girls when they noticed that something was wrong with you. It wouldn't take them five minutes to figure out what was wrong with you.

You had lost your appetite since the incident, so you left the kitchen and went straight to your room. While you were sitting at your desk, hoping to finally be able to get some homework done, your thoughts recalled the past day. You tried to remember all the faces that you had met for the first time today. Was there anyone that you spoke to for the first time? 

Another thing that indicated the cruelty of the gods or spirits that invented soulmates. It could happen that you were sitting next to your soulmate day in, and day out on the way to work on the same train. You would see each other every day, maybe for years. The name on your chest, however, only appeared after you had exchanged your first words with the person. That was one of the many reason why plenty of people never knew who their soulmate was.

Your eyes fell on your phone, which was lying next to you on the desk and your fingers twitched in that direction. For a moment you toyed with the idea of calling your father, but with another thought you let your hand fall back into your lap.

Instead, you tried again to remember the day and to recall the conversations that took place. In your chemistry class, you had a short conversation with another student who asked if he could borrow a pen from you. 

At the cash desk at the cafeteria, there was a new temp, a young man, probably in his mid-twenties. He handed you your food and asked you if that was all or if there was anything else you wanted to get. On the way to the library, you had not met another person.

It took you a moment to stretch the timeline further and your heart skipped a beat when you thought about the conversation at the library. For the third time today, you froze and sat on your chair as if you were glued to the spot. You were sure that any colour had disappeared from your face as your thumb subconsciously ran across the slight burning in your chest.

A moment later, you jumped up in anger. The chair slammed against the desk with a loud thud and out of the corner of your eye you saw some of the little collection figures you had placed on it fall over.

You ran to the mirror at the back of the door to your room and came to a halt in front of it, breathing loudly. It had only been a few steps, your room was not that big, and yet you were out of breath as if you had run a marathon.

That could not... no... that would not be true. You weren't even sure if it wasn't a heart attack you had had after all. You would lift your shirt and see nothing but your skin underneath. Everything would be the same. 

With clammy fingers, you grabbed the hem of your shirt and slowly pulled it up. You could see more and more of your skin in the mirror and you swallowed hard as you worked your way up inch by inch.

With a choked scream, you let the material of the fabric fall. Have you just seen something black? Or was it a shadow of the low, setting sun? You didn't want to try again, but you knew that sooner or later you would have to look.

You took one more deep breath before closing your eyes, grabbing the hem and pulling the shirt over your head with a jerk. You held on to the thin fabric for a moment before it fell to the ground and landed by your feet. You heard your heartbeat rushing in your ears and were torn between opening your eyes or squeezing them even tighter.

Okay, it was gonna be okay. You probably didn't even know the name, if there was one. If those were the only conversations you had with strangers today, the chances were one in three that it would be him. That isn't too bad, is it?

You pulled yourself together and opened your eyes. Right away, you wish you hadn't. You wished you could close your eyes forever to this name that would be engraved on your skin for the rest of your life. 

You stroked over it, at first lightly, then more firmly, until the skin around the black fine lines turned red, so vigorously you tried to wipe the name away.

The name you heard people whispering in the corridors. The name belonged to the man who immediately attracted attention as soon as he entered a room. 

Any other name would be better than the one you were staring at in the mirror. And even though it was mirrored, it didn't take you a millisecond to read it.

Min Yoongi.

[A/N] Unedited.

Aaaaaand (drum roll please) your author is back with a new book. I had come up with many new thing in my head to execute.

You guys have always given me so much encouragement and supported me in all my decision that I just had to make this book! You all are so amazing that i just want to give my best.

I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this little story! Do leave your thoughts about it.

Please make sure to rest well and staying safe out there. See you soon!!

Love you. BORAHAE!!