"Dylan I do love you, but I'm not sure if it's platonic or romantic cause I've never dated before or fallen in love, let's wait and see if we receive our soul marks then we can discuss this" You are exasperated.

You both know it's impossible to date now. It's illegal if you are not registered as part of the Tarnished community. 

Dylan's eyes started to tear up. He jolts up from the bench and looks down at your shocked expression.

"I don't care...you are mine Yunru since I confessed when we've been 11 years old. " With that said, he pulls you up and takes you into his arms. You look into his eyes, unsure of what exactly is happening. Dylan gazes intensely into your eyes with renewed determination, and he kisses you softly on the lips.

You gasp in surprise, and that allows him to capture your lips once again. You don't know what comes over you, but you kiss him back.

Dylan embraces you tightly around your waist. You don't know what it was, but aren't you supposed to feel sparks?

You awkwardly remove yourselves from the embrace and look at each other. Dylan's smile grows, and you giggle. You hit him on the chest.

"Don't get weird on me now...it wasn't the first time we kissed Yun?" Dylan laughs, raising an eyebrow. You groan at that. "Augh Dylan ..this will complicate things further."

Dylan just shrugs. "Ok let's wait until we receive our soul marks, if we match I'll be the happiest guy in the world but-" then his eyes sadden. You nod your head in understanding.

"-If we are not destined for each other we will always love each other but as best friends, because soul bounding makes sure that you'll never have any romantic feelings for another," You tell him.

"You do know there are three soul-bounding degrees," He looks at you.

"There are more types!!!" You shout in surprise. As if there weren't enough. This soulmate topic is really like a compulsory subject.

"Yes, Yunru...you never went to the  Soulbound classes. It's the passionate love with a red-gold string - romantic love,  The protector- loves blue string -you'll only want to be your soulmate's protector and look after him/her well-being,  Than the platonic love a yellow string which indicates that you'll never be more than friends.  In the latter two types, you must prove to the System that you can live without each other, and after evaluation, you can only date a Tarnished member, not another person's soulmate. " Dylan explained with a nod.

You pull a face "So if we have the red gold string, you destined to have passionate feelings for your soulmates," Dylan shrugs. "More or less, we are more in tune with our feelings, our moods. We can feel what they are feeling emotionally. We literally can not love anyone else. It will always be them," You wince at the thought of being controlled by your emotions. No freedom.

"That's why I hate this soulmate stuff! Can you take me home now please" After hearing that, your wish now more than ever is to be classified as a Tarnished or just be mated to Dylan which you can't even comprehend.

They take their stuff and walk silently to the exit.
Dylan stands in front of you, which you overlook as you are deep in thought. "Yunru promise me that if we are not soulmates and we have the blue or yellow string with our soulmates, we would marry each other?"

Your face turns solemn "The system controls everything, will we even be allowed, would they pair us themselves with other members of the Tarnished? I hate this so much," you start crying "I want to be in control of my happiness. What if I have the red gold string with him and he hates me at first sight?"

"Then we reject them and be there for each other, but a red gold string is more complicated cause your emotions are bound to his. You literally cannot get away from each other, you might die or wither away in heartache," Dylan says with seriousness. He hugs you in comfort when he saw you widen your eyes.

...

The ride back was silent both of you thinking about what conspired tonight. You can't deal with it now.  Lui Mei's birthday will be in two weeks and then Dylan's another week later. Your birthday will be after the finals in a month. That is the only thing that makes you happy, no stress during exam time.

Luckily it was before 10 pm. The dorms are still open. You wave goodbye to Dylan and rush into your dorm's hallway. Lui Mei is always on her laptop,

She looks up when you push the door open. "Hi, Yunru ...how was the date... I love your plush panda can I sleep with it for tonight? It's so cute!" She runs over to your bed where you placed your panda plushie.

"Very eventful," You laugh. With that, you tell Lui Mei everything that happens except when you kissed  Dylan. You can't deal with a crazy friend right now.

Thank you for all the reads, votes, and comments. Please stay safe and healthy. I💜you