In this parallel world, everyone will get a curse. An inevitable curse. Women will get their curse on their debut when they turned 18, and Men will get theirs when they turned 21. Every curse is different from one another, some are simple, some are moderate, but others are deadly. In some circumstances, there are few who will get a boon or blessed curse, but most will get the grievous one.

I'm Shein Andrea Callie, 17 turning 18 next week. I'm nervous about my debut because of my forthcoming curse. I don't want it to be formidable. I don't want it to be as grievous as my mom's curse.

My mom's curse is heinous, every son of her will suffer from a deadly disease. That's why I'm the only one who survived, because of my sexual orientation. My two brothers died because of that hellish curse.

[ A day before my debut ]

"Shein?" my mom called me as she saw my unpaintedface.

"Hmm?" i coldly replied.

"What's wrong? Tomorrow is your debut, you should be happy" she stated, hoping she can cheer me up.

"Yes. But that's also the arrival of my curse, and I'm afraid of that" i tremulously said.

"Don't be afraid about your curse, we're here for you. You will never be alone, Shein, I promise you that" she pledged.

And without a doubt, my 18th birthday comes at an instant. I'm so nervous, my whole body is shaking, my knees are becoming weak as I continuously think about my jinx.

I got my curse, and it was hellacious, it was indeed, a murderous jinx.

"A person who will romantically fall in love with me will die"

Thats the curse I will face for the rest of my life.

After I knew about it, I helplessly cried. I cried a lot knowing that my future is now awful.

My mom just hugged me, knowing the pain and burden I'm carrying on my back.

And after awhile, we started the party for my debut. I pretended normal, like everything is usual. Everything has their own world on the party, and here I am, sitting on the corner, not knowing what to do.

Unexpectedly, someone heads toward my destination. It was Rhys, my childhood friend. He's 1 year older than me. He was my nonage comrade. My ultimate crush right from the start.

"Shein, are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine I just have something in my mind" I lied.

Yes, it's true that I'm minding something, but I'm not fine. I will never be fine with this jinx of mine.

"Are you still thinking about your curse? Don't worry about it much, everything will be fine." he said.

"How did you know? Did mom told you?" I peevishly asked.

"Yeah, tita told me about that matter. She said that you're constantly thinking about your curse for the past few weeks."

"Ughh! Just forget it"

The reality is that I want him to be my future even when we're just a kid. I want him to be the father of my children, but now, I don't know. I should stop fantasizing my future with him, or with anybody else, because they will just suffer.

After a week, I started to accept the jinx I have. I started to move on. I kept my distance to others, especially on men. Everything is going smoothly, not until another problem popped out of the blue.

"Hey, can we hangout?" Rhys asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked him back.

"Hangout like going out. Something like that." he replied.

"No. You've got the wrong girl, Rhys."

"No, no. You're perfect, that's why I like you. And to be honest I did like you right from the start, Shein. I'm just waiting for the perfect time, and now you're 18, I thought it's the right time for me to confess my grown feelings for you." He sincerely uttered.

Is this real? The person that I like when we were just young, also likes me? My ultimate crush and I, have a mutual feelings towards each other?

However, this has to end. As soon as possible. I need to stop right now, or else the person that I like the most will be gone.

"I don't like the idea of you liking me, Rhys. You will just suffer, so please, just listen to me." I plead while preventing these tears of mine from going out of my teary eyes.

"But, why?" He confusedly asked. You can hear the sadness in his tone after he hears those lines I stated.

"I've got my curse, and..." at this moment, I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to lose him yet I also don’t want him to suffer simple because of me.

"And?"

And I don’t I don’t want you to die. I love you, Rhys. I just want you yo be happy, so please, let me go. Let me endure the pain so you don’t have to. Please.

"The person who will romantically fall in love with me will face death" i stated leaving him on shock. I can no longer prevent those tears from falling, me eyes were already tired, so it just burst down onto my cheeks.

After I spill those words, I then ran away from him. I ran away from the person I truly love. It hurts, it indeed hurts, running away from the person you've liked for almost half of your lifetime only because of this damn curse.

After that meetup, I started to depart from him. I avoided him on purpose. I avoided him because that's what I think is the best for the both of us, especially for him. I evade him because I don't want the person I love suffer simply because of me. I want him to be happy even with another woman, even it hurts me badly, I will endure all of it. This is what you do when you truly love the person, right?

I flew to France to take my studies there, wishing that I could forget everything, hoping that Rhys's feelings may fade away when I departed from him.

After 5 years of departure, I decided to flew back to my Mom's house to continue my living there. But I was astonished for what I've seen, Rhys was there, sitting on the couch with my mother, looking at me.

My mother heads towards the door to help me with my belongings. She then hugged me. As I hugged him back, I can't help my self to look at Rhys's destination, still wondering what is he doing here.

He helped me and my mother on settling my belongings up to my room. After everything was emplaced, I decided to have a discourse with my Mom to curate my curiosity. Rhys wasn't here so I got a chance to ask her.

"Mom, what's Rhys doing here?" I seriously asked, hoping that it could answer the question murmuring on my mind.

"What do you mean what is he doing here? He's always here even when you two are just young. And when you flew to France, he keeps on visiting here asking when will you get back." Mom replied in a veracious yet doleful tone.

That leaves me in shock.

"What? But why?"

"I don't know, I just know that he misses you. Why don't you ask him?"

"Why would I?"

Why would I ask him that question? I departed from him so that his feelings for me will begone. So there’s no need for me to ask a silly question like that.

After that conversation, we ate dinner. With Rhys. I can't neglect the fact that there's still awkwardness between us. 5 years of departure without a conversation with my closes childhood friend, that surely leave in this state— awkwardness.

As we ate, I can’t help the fact that He keeps on looking at me, and whenever I met his gaze, he keeps on smiling. Why? Like why? Is the 5 years of departure isn't sufficient for his feelings to vanish? Do I need to go back to France to spend my lifetime there just for your feelings to depart? Tell me.

I just rather lose your feelings for me, than to lose a special someone…

I don’t want to lose you, Rhys.

After a week or so, the awkwardness between us faded away. Rhys asked me again, for the second time.

"Hey, can we hangout?" that's the same question he asked me 5 years ago.

Why is he asking me into a date with a full confidence? It looks like he's not minding the consequence of his actions.

"You know I can't"

"Just as friends?"

"For real?"

"For real"

"Okay then"

After a month, we get attached to each other. This isn't like before, it's more likely, a higher version of attachment.

"Shein, I got you a bunch of flowers. I know you don't want the real ones because they die, so I got you these instead. They were sparkling, just like your eyes." Rhys stated holding the artificial yet beautiful bouquet of porcelain-like glass flowers.

The flowers he gave me was glass flowers, embedded with stars and galaxies that shines every time you take a gaze on it. It’s like the Milky way shining upon the darkness, giving light to its neighboring objects. And to be honest, I loved it.

"No, I think this isn't a good idea, Rhys. We need to stop, you're just gonna get hurt." I worriedly said.

"No, I love you, Shein. My feelings for you never vanished, and in fact, it grew bigger and stronger. I fell in love with you since the day I met you when we were just young. I loved you knowing the fact that I will gonna get hurt. And that day, when you told me about your curse, yes I was shocked at first but I didn't lose my feelings for you. My heart tells me that he can sacrifice his life in exchange for your love. However, I didn't stand a chance to tell you that I genuinely love you and I will give everything it takes just to be loved back, because you ran away. You flew to France without a word. I constantly ask myself how I'm gonna talk to you when the distance that separates us is over a thousand miles. Yet I didn't lose my hope. I waited for my curse to come, wishing that it was a boon, that maybe, can give me another life so that I can continue loving you for the second time. And my two years of waiting was worth it. I've got the best present on my 21th birthday. The curse that I've got wasn't afterlife nor anything else, but immortality." he uttered.

"Immortality? For real?"

That's the only words that emerge from my mouth after I heard those utterances. My heart beats faster and faster. My mind constantly thinks about him and my future with him. On that very moment, it was the only thought present on my head.

With this boon, we can now be together without any hesitation. I can now be with him, the person I admire right from the very beginning.

"Yes. My curse isn’t a curse after all. It’s a blessing. And now, you don't need to be afraid of loving me back, Shein. Because I will love you for the rest of my lifetime." he pledged.

It's funny to think how destiny plays erratically. But now, there's only one thing that I'm sure about, Rhys and I, we were soulmates from the start.

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Note from the author;

Good day everyone! This is BrokeWriter on your screen, I hope you enjoyed reading my short story entitled "Soulmate". I'm currently converting this short story into novel but I don't know if people or readers will appreciate it. So, if you have something in mind about the story, feel free to share it with me on the comment section.