As every morning Mei felt the bitter taste of coffee in her mouth. She made a face, why that dork had to be like that? She couldn't believe they were soulmates. Other people were lucky, like her friend Feliciano who knew his soulmate, Ludwig, since they were in kindergarten. Both had each other's name written in the wrist.
Mei and her soulmate share four of their senses. Probably her last favorite part was the taste. When she was in college she knew that her soulmate smoked, and so her sense of smell was used to tobacco too. That person drank too much coffee and ate a lot of chocolate and pastries, because she could taste it quite often, at least he ate tasty stuff.
The hearing wasn't that bad. Her soulmate really liked love songs, and she enjoyed to spend some afternoons listening to that music. However the most especial part of it was that one song she knew by heart. It was a song she had listened in her head all her childhood before falling asleep. It was in Dutch, and even if she didn't understand what it said, it made her happy.
The touch was sometimes difficult to explain. On purpose she pinched her arm to take revenge of her soulmate for smoke, and he paid her back doing the same. But sometimes, when she was sad, she could feel as if someone was hugging her. It was very comforting.
On the other hand, her soulmate, Lars, could smell some sweets and food very different from the ones he was eating. He thought that his soulmate liked to eat a lot. He stopped smoking because he didn't like to feel a pinch every time he did it.
The smell was great. There was always a sweet perfume following him. He wanted to know the person who smelled like that. But also there was the smell of food, probably his soulmate cooked really well.
He used to write a couple of Chinese characters on his notebooks; he didn't know what they meant because he didn't speak the language, so he decided to study it, then he knew that one of them meant dawn and the other plum. He didn't know what the relation between him and those characters was.
The hearing wasn't bad either; sometimes he could listen to a very beautiful voice singing in his head. He hoped that whoever was his soulmate at least enjoyed his music, because he enjoyed her voice.
And like her, in occasions he felt sad or worried without reason, he thought that maybe his soulmate was passing through a difficult moment. He embraced himself; maybe she would feel it too. Sometimes, he received the same comfort when he had a bad day. They didn't know each other, but they couldn't stand the fact that the other was miserable.
"If only I could have you in my arms" they thought when that happened.
The truly worst part was that with the touch, they shared the physical pain too. It was harder for Lars because every month, he suffered of a terrible pain in the abdomen, it lasted one day or two.
"For the way you describe that pain, I'd think that you got her cramps" his sister told him once.
He was very confused the first time it happened, but later he got used to it and tried to help with something, maybe more hugs and some chocolate.
However the biggest proof of their connection had its origin in an accident she had in her childhood. Mei climbed a tree and the branch broke. She got a hit in the head and it let her unconscious for several hours. The strangest thing was that she didn't get a scar. It was supposed to be above her right eyebrow.
Lars remembered the frightened face of his mother when she saw the blood in his forehead. And then he got that scar that marked his face forever. He didn't remember the pain, but he could feel panic and horror. He tried to be strong and thanks to that, she could wake up.
Mei wasn't too curious to meet her soulmate until her friends started finding their own. For them it was easier. Even for her parents have been so fast, they had the same mark in the right hand.
"How I am going to know who my soulmate is?" she asked her grandma.
"You know every pair is different. Your grandpa and I shared three senses and we met in the right moment" she said.
"But how did you know that he was your soulmate?"
"My heart told me. Your heart will tell you too" her grandma replied.
"What if it makes a mistake?" Mei asked.
"The heart never makes mistakes"
Mei was confused. She wondered where her soulmate was, how he looked, if he was a nice person. Then she remembered the accident. Yes, if they shared the physical pain, then he might have a scar above the right eyebrow. She could recognize him. That gave her hope.
Meanwhile, Lars was thinking the same. Sometimes, when he woke up in the middle of the night, he wondered where his soulmate was. Somehow because of her, he never felt alone, but it wasn't the same. He wanted to see her in the eyes and know how it was to be loved.
The city where they lived wasn't that big, but they never ran into each other even if they frequented the same places. They imagined their first encounter as in a romantic movie, if one of those days, they could finally meet in a café or in a garden or in the book shop. But they went at different hours.
So they didn't expect to meet in a very bad moment. She was on the bus, looking out the window, and then she saw him in the street. He looked at her too. And they knew they had found each other. Their hearts were beating so fast that they thought it was about to explode. She got off of the bus; she didn't care if she arrived late to her house. She needed to be with him.
He ran after her too, and then they finally were in front of each other. They didn't know what to say, but words couldn't tell what a tender embrace could. It was as if they belonged there. Each other's warmth was so familiar and comforting. They could recognize the smell of their perfume, the sound of their voices and then the taste of their lips.
She cried, because she finally saw his face. The scar was there, and she apologized for her clumsiness. He told her she didn't need to be sorry. They couldn't stop looking at each other. They realized they didn't know each other's name, both laughed nervously and shyly.
"I'm Xiao-Mei Wang. Nice to meet you" she said, happily.
"I am Lars Govert Janssen. Nice to meet you too" he said.
She was crying of joy. He wiped her tears away and kissed her on the forehead. They had so many things to tell each other that they didn't know where to start, but they still have a lot of time to be together and a lot more to share.
Note: as you know English isn't my frist language but I tried my best.
** Also the two Chinese characters are 曉 - xiao = dawn and 梅 - mei = plum