"Fated Touch" Soulmate AU

Prologue

I always thought soulmates were just some fairytale nonsense made up by desperate people who couldn't handle being single. At least, that's what I told myself whenever my friends wouldn't shut up about it during cheer practice. But deep down... I wanted mine. No-scratch that-I needed mine.

And if fate had any sense of humor, it would make my soulmate Nam Joo-hyuk. Tall, athletic, the kind of smile that makes girls trip on their shoelaces... and yes, I may or may not have doodled "Mrs. Nam Hasina" in the corner of my notebook during math class. Don't judge me. A girl can dream, okay?

The universe, however, has always loved making me look like a clown. Like the time I tripped in front of the entire football team while holding a tray of sodas. Or when my skirt got stuck in the car door and I dragged it across the parking lot. Oh, and let's not forget the time Cha Eun-woo-the actual devil in disguise-looked at me like I was a mosquito buzzing around his ear.

Cha Eun-woo, captain of the football team, genius, ridiculously good-looking like some prince carved out of marble... and yet he treats me like I stole his Wi-Fi password and never gave it back. If looks could kill, I'd have been buried three times already.

So imagine my shock when, on the night of my eighteenth birthday-the night everything was supposed to be glitter and cake and the possibility of Nam Joo-hyuk finally noticing me-my chest started burning. Not like "too much spicy ramen" burning, but like someone lit a fire under my ribs.

And then it happened.

The music at my party faded into a distant hum, the laughter, the clinking glasses, the chaos of friends and enemies all blurred into nothing. Because in that moment, across the room, I locked eyes with him.

My soulmate.

My heart stuttered. My breath caught. My entire world tilted sideways.

But here's the thing-

It wasn't Nam Joo-hyuk.

And if the way Cha Eun-woo's jaw clenched was any indication, he was just as horrified as I was.