daomingsi, dongshancai.

love is literal: magnetic attraction, part 1

It is the year 2250, and love is literal.

Love is literal, and this means that when they are born, each person is fitted with an unremovable electromagnetic bracelet on their wrist, which, they claim, will pull one to the wrist of their soulmate.

Some of the rare ones in this new world are lucky: they know from a young age who they will end up with, because of the proximity of their soulmate.

The majority of others never seem to find who is the one for them, instead opting for loveless marriages or not even marrying at all.

And a small few dismiss the concept of 'soulmates' entirely, and spend every waking minute of their day trying to pull those freaking annoying bracelets off of where they are stitched onto their skin.

Dong Shancai is currently one of those few.

She is 19 years old and lives in the underground, suburban city of what used to be Shanghai, but has now taken on a different name, Cíxìng chéngshì 32, or Magnetic City 32.

She lives with her parents, and they aren't hugely rich, but they make just enough for themselves. Her mother runs a cyborg cafe, and her father works at a failing bio-factory. She attends an elite institution in the inner city which she really shouldn't be allowed to go to, except for the fact that she's there on a full scholarship.

And as of right now, she is stuck for the fiftieth time, trying to pry off the bracelet. It hurts, but she's done it so many times she's gotten used to the pain.

Now, normally she wouldn't care so much. The bracelet has always been a minor annoyance for her, one who has never believed in the government's pervasive propaganda of 'soulmates'. . . but to be honest, she's never really minded it that much. The girls at her university all love the decades-old concept of being tugged or literally 'attracted' to your soulmates, and she usually doesn't see what is the point in ruining their fun.

Key word being 'usually': now things are different. And it is all because of just a few hours ago, something happening that has changed all that.

It was a normal sort of day, with nothing very strange happening or out of the ordinary. She had just finished with another monotonous lecture of finance tips for cyborg cafe management.

She was walking into the cafetorium with her friends XiaoYu, LiZhen and QingHe, and all of a sudden, on her wrist, she felt a tug!

Her face turned deathly pale. She forced herself to remain calm. Maybe. . . maybe she had just imagined it. Yes, she told herself, it was just something her mind had done to rejuvenate her from the draining effects of sitting through hours long of lectures–

Tug.

Her mind instantly went into overdrive. This could not be happening. Just. . . what. What. There was absolutely no possible way she was one of the lucky few! And at the same university, let alone the same city as her!

She gasped as soon as it happened again and then immediately shoved a hand over mouth to stifle her reaction. It didn't go unnoticed by the hawklike eyes of LiZhen, however, who immediately exclaimed in excitement, pointing at her wrist:

"Shancai! Your bracelet! It just gave you a tug!"

"Are you being serious, LiZhen?" XiaoYu exclaimed, and QingHe stared in horror at Shancai's hand for some reason, his eyes wide.

A large crowd started gathering around them, as a magnetic attraction to someone this early in life was an extremely rare occurrence to happen in one's life, if it ever did.

She struggled to maintain her composure, although her heart was beating wildly in her chest for some reason. "What! No, of course not! See, it–"

And a seemingly invisible force suddenly tugged her wrist up again, and started pulling her fiercely in the way towards a group of tall seniors at the university, and she was so surprised, she didn't resist.

When she figured out that she was being literally pulled by something she could not see, even though she knew it was just magnetism, she tried in vain to resist it, frightened, but the force was relentless, and almost the entire populace in the cafetorium followed her, as she glided(smoothly, now that she couldn't resist it) towards the group of boys.

The speed was at a frighteningly fast pace by now, and to add to her horror, some tall being was being rushed on air to her as well. He looked confused and surprised and, she realized later, probably exactly how she must've looked at the time as well.

They slammed against each other in an ungainly bump as their wrists connected finally, and his arms went automatically around her as she fell awkwardly on top of him. 

Closing her eyes to not be part of reality for a moment, she smelt a unique scent, of which she could not describe with any more words except that it smelled of 'boy'. His shirt was soft, but it was the good, expensive feeling kind of soft and she opened her eyes in surprise at this.

His eyes met hers.

She saw him, her soulmate. . .

. . . and he was beautiful, staring back at her with dark eyes of curiosity and wonder, on a face that she'd felt she'd seen before, but knew she hadn't, not ever.

And then he had to open his mouth and ruin it all.

"I can't believe my soulmate is you."

_____

Author's Note: Another multichap! Yay!!

Also I need prompts to write as I am not a very creative person, so I got this online:

"In the future, romantic attraction is literal: each person is fitted with an electromagnetic bracelet which, they claim; will pull you to your soulmate. It's the day they turn the magnets on, and you're waiting."

I changed some stuff, because I didn't want to make it too complex, and I usually don't write stuff with a sci-fi futuristic premise like this, but I hope you liked it anyway.

Send me prompts you would like to see as one shots. 

Because I must defeat writing block once and for all.

- coexistantLilli :D