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The young boy stumbled into bed, yanked the sheets over his body and stared at the ceiling. He laid there while letting random thoughts cloud his head. Who thought that popcorn ceiling was a good idea? Minghao laid there till his eyes started to close, sleep washing over him, but suddenly a rectangular box popped up right in front of his face. It flashed brightly like the big screens you see in major cities around the world, momentarily blinding him in the dark of his bedroom. It had a light pink border with a pale green background and it looked like a textbox straight out of a video game.
“What the heck..?” he mumbled.
The text box reads: “You’ve been given the option to meet your soulmate. Would you like to meet them? Are you ready?”
His eyes squint as they adjust to the bright screen. As he read the text, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He read the text over and over again. Maybe he stayed up too late painting, because he can’t wrap his head around the words on the screen.
“Soulmate? My soulmate? I have one? How interesting..” he muses, eyes sparkling.
With a too curious brain, he reaches his hand up and touches the “YES” box thinking it all to be a fun dream. The world turns black and Minghao can’t see. It’s all black and his eyes won’t open. It’s all black.
_
Minghao wakes up in what seems like a very realistic dream, but his dreams have never been this clear before. He sits up and notices that he’s sitting on the ground: it's light brown hardwood flooring. His eyes wander up from the floor and look around with slightly wide eyes. He seems to be in a living room. Or is it just a forest? It looks like both. The ceiling is very tall, 30ft at least and it’s made of tree trunks and smooth beige clay: there are vines with pink flowers winding all up the walls and onto the gable roof. It’s a big room with many large green couches that compliment the colour of the trees beautifully. There's a glass coffee table too, and even a staircase against the wall right in front of him that leads up to a loft area. The staircase is made out of the same beige clay with long rectangular divots in the wall that makes a bookshelf, same as the rest of the walls. There are decrepit books placed in these divots, as well as more piles of ancient looking books on the coffee table and on the floor. The architecture is indescribable though, really. Behind Minghao there's a huge window as tall as the ceiling and it leads straight to an old growth forest with yellowy-gold rays of sun streaming into the room. Minghao finally stands up and does a 360, just taking it all in.
He creeps over to the staircase and peers at the many books but they're all in a language he’s never seen before. He's about to go up the stairs, but he gasps suddenly and takes a step back. The staircase is covered in a green-blue cloth but there are white, black, and orange koi fish swimming up the stairs. He lends down and touches the material and feels fuzzy cloth underneath his finger tips. Nodding to himself, he stands back up and hesitantly walks up the stairs and watches the fish swim around his feet like he’s in their way.
He reaches the top of the stairs and looks around quickly, it looks mostly the same safe for some different chairs and more plants. The loft looks like an attic and has many slanted windows that show off of the forest and let in more sunlight. He walked over to the slanted windows and stretched his arm out to touch a vine.
“You aren’t supposed to be here.” a deep voice says, breaking the calm silence.
Minghao whips his head around quickly with wide eyes.
“Ah, hah, umm you see, well i-.” Minghao replies, stumbling over his words. Minghao's eyebrows pinch together trying to find the right words, but his mind drifts off and focuses on the man who's standing in front of him.
The man is tall and lean, similarly to himself, but this man has much border shoulders and he looks just a bit taller. His eyes are double lidded but they’re hooded and they almost resemble a cat. His cheekbones are defined and strong, and he’s quite.. Handsome. Oh.
Why does this man feel so achingly familiar? I can feel it in my soul.
“Why are you here? People don’t usually just show up in my house.” the tall man says in a monotone voice, clearly not wanting to waste any time.
Minghao is a bit speechless and racks his brain for some kind of answer to satisfy this man, but the more he thinks, the more confused he becomes.
“Sorry. Umm, I'm just super confused at the moment. I don’t know how I got into your house? This is just a crazy dream! Right?” Minghao stampers out, a hand unconsciously coming up to run through his short jet black hair nervously. The man doesn’t say anything for a while, just stares at Minghao, his eyes watching him with a silent question on his face. He has this look in his eyes that Minghao can’t find the right words for. The man looks almost sad with somber eyes that seem to be analyzing him.
“This is a dream right..?” Minghao prompted.
“Junhui.” the man replied.
“This is a dream right Junhui? I have no idea where I am!” Minghao yells out. Minghao doesn’t think this is a dream anymore.
“It’s certainly not a dream, ..?” Junhui prompts back.
Minghao blushes at his own line being used on him. “My name is Minghao.”
Junhui’s eyes widened the smallest bit in what looks like surprise and disbelief before his expression settles into neutrality again. “Well Minghao, I can assure you that this is no dream regardless of what you may or may not believe.” Junhui responds in the same monotone voice as before.
“Listen man, all I know is that before I fell asleep, what, last night? Before I fell asleep last night I had this weird dream where I was asked if I wanted to meet my soulmate and I said yes! Now I'm here. I don’t know what kind of witchery this is!” Minghao retorts.
“So it is true then. What you experienced wasn’t a dream.” Junhui explains with his eyes trained on the ground.
Huh? It wasn’t a dream? None of it? Then..?
“You’re my soulmate.” Minghao states without hesitance and with wide eyes staring right at the stranger. Junhui doesn’t reply but his facial expression was enough of an answer.
“I- I don’t want to say too much, but yes, we are soulmates. There are a lot of things that won’t make sense to you right now, but we’ve been destined for longer than you can comprehend. For hundreds of millennia.” Junhui replies nervously.
Minghao hasn’t said anything, but he slowly walks up to Junhui and pulls him into a hug. “You’re right, I don’t understand anything yet, but you’ve been waiting for me for a long time, haven’t you?” Minghao whispers.
Junhui just nods while silent tears slide down his face. “For so long, Minghao. For so long.” he replies as he wraps his arms around Minghao tightly and buries his face in his neck.
“Thank you for coming back to me.” Junhui says.
“Thank you for letting me.” Minghao replies.