~ Soul Stains ~
Nana Osaki does not like the fact that soul stains only appear for the wrong people. She doesn't have a single one. Her first love is her soulmate.
She is forever having to explain that the red flower on her shoulder is a tattoo, inked into her flesh by an artist, because it is god damn not fair for all the so-called 'mistakes' to be permanently displayed on peoples' bodies, but then for their one true love to leave no visible mark.
Nana Komatsu falls and falls and falls, always for the wrong person. Her skin is blanketed in a multitude of soul stains by the time she falls for Nobu, and she searches frantically among the marks for one that wasn't there before. She doesn't find it.
That doesn't stop her from falling in love with Takumi, just as noticing the new mark immediately doesn't stop her from throwing her previous relationship away for a shiny new one with the rock star.
Nobu has a few marks of his own already. (One of which, ironically, is from his high school crush on Nana Osaki - who he knows has only ever thought of him as a friend, and has already met her own soulmate.)
He immediately notices the new one when it appears. It's an image of the famous statue of Hachiko. It's obvious who the soul stain belongs to. It's always obvious with him, isn't it?
Whatever, he tells himself when she moves on to someone else without even putting a proper end to their relationship. It's not like she was 'the one' anyway. I knew it wouldn't last.
"Maybe you're my soulmate," he tells his guitar.
Music, at least, has never betrayed him.
The moment Hiroyuki falls in love with Miwako, a pink bunny mark shows up on his forearm.
When Miwako and Arashi start dating, Hiroyuki asks them if they have any soul stains yet. Miwako seems confused about why he thinks they might, but Arashi asks sharply if he has one. Hiro admits it, but refuses to show the mark to his friends. Arashi gives him a knowing look, which swiftly morphs into one of pity.
The pink bunny is the only mark on his skin until the year he graduates from high school. It is joined by a blue rose the day he asks Yukari Hayasaka about her new haircut.
Isabella wishes there was some way to know for certain who your soulmate was. It is entirely preposterous that two people who didn't actually fall in love with each other might end up thinking they are each other's soulmates just because they went on a few dates and no soul stains appeared on their skin.
She thinks her soulmate is probably George, but she can't be entirely sure. There is no metaphysical indication that you've fallen in love with the correct partner. The marks only appear when the universe wants to let you know that you've given your heart to the wrong person. And that makes her wonder if she's really in love with George at all, or if her feelings are something more... platonic.
But it isn't the same as the kind of feelings she has for the rest of the Paradise Kiss group. Even if she chalks it up to him being her oldest friend who has known her since childhood... no. She's certain. She fell in love with him the moment he gave her that dress, when they were both children, and she has loved him ever since. She's watched him date other people - a lot of other people - and he has the marks to show for every single one of them. (The most recent, Caroline's blue rose on his jawline, is particularly difficult to hide.)
Isabella doesn't have a single soul stain on her skin.
It takes George entirely too long to figure out that his soulmate has been right by his side the entire time. When he finally does, he asks her, "Can you forgive me?"
She smiles and pulls him into a hug and says, "There's nothing to forgive."
"But... all this time, I didn't realize... I've been such an idiot..."
Which is something she knows he wouldn't admit lightly. George has his pride, after all.
"We've both been idiots, then," she says, hugging him tighter. "Even if I did figure it out a while ago, I've been second-guessing myself the whole time since then, because how do we know for certain?"
Twirling a lock of her hair around his finger, he says, "We know for certain because we know how we feel about each other... and because there's no mark telling us we're wrong."
"But what if we are?"
"Would you happily spend the rest of your life with me?" he asks slowly.
"Yes, but-"
He puts a finger to her lips.
"Then what does it matter whether we're soulmates or not?"
Reira has two soul stains. One belongs to Yasu, the other to Takumi. Yasu only has one - one she has seen, that she knows does not belong to her - which means that he was never in love with her.
For the number of women he's been with, Takumi has surprisingly few marks on him. One of them is Reira's. Somehow that hurts worse than if he'd never fallen for her at all.
Yukari and Takumi meet each other through work. At first, neither is particularly interested in the other. She's an actress, formerly a model, and has a reputation for her frosty personality. He's an actor, formerly the bassist of a popular band which broke up a couple years ago.
She doesn't know what happened to the rest of the band, except that the guitarist left Trapnest to join his soulmate's band instead, which was all over the news at the time, and she'd heard all about from Miwako, who talked about it because the news really bothered Arashi for some reason. Whatever, Yukari didn't really understand all that drama on the music scene.
Takumi has a child with a woman who is neither soulmate nor wife to him. Yukari does not intend to become a step-parent.
Somehow the two of them keep getting thrown together on the same projects, even though some of the shows never really get off the ground and are cancelled before a full season is even filmed. Familiarity breeds interest, or at least a wary sort of friendship. Eventually, after knowing each other for nearly an entire year and slowly deciding that maybe they don't hate each other, they start hanging out together outside of work.
... and discover that they can really only tolerate each other in small doses after all.
No new marks appear on either of them.
Why would they? Yukari thinks bitterly to herself after checking her reflection again to see if she has any new soul stains. We don't even like each other, much less love, even if we did go on a few dates.
~end~