Love Is More Than Just A Game For Two | Mike Chang x Tina Cohen Chang

Past, Present and Pain

They were together while he waited, she sat on the end of his bed as he was preparing himself for the last moments of his teen years.

"I'm nervous." She didn't have to say it for him to know, he could see her picking at her nails from where he sat on the floor, biting his lip in anticipation. "What if it's not me? What if it's some random girl you don't even know yet?" She started rambling on, the anxiety getting to her. "What if I'm not your soulmate?"

"Then we'll figure it out, but all I know now is that I love you, and no Mark will change that." He could see the small sense of relief in her breathing, but that didn't stop his heart from beating a bit too fast for his liking.

"It's 12, do you feel anything?" And he didn't, shaking his head in response. Nothing, no searing pain, no ticklish sensation. Nothing was happening.

"Maybe it will happen the exact time you were born, do you know when that is?" And he thought about it for a moment, "I remember it was late in the night, so maybe it'll be here in the morning." Mike stood up and started climbing into bed, but Tina didn't seem as she intended to do so. "I don't think I can sleep." She said frowning, those little creases in between her eyebrows making him smile.

"Then just lay with me, sing something." So she made her way under the covers, grabbing on of Mike's arms and wrapping it around herself, humming a sweet melody as the man besides her fell asleep.

...

2 days later and he still didn't have a mark, and it wasn't just him getting worried. His parents immediately scheduled an appointment with a soul mark specialist for the day.

The whole school knew that he didn't have his mark, it's a bit hard to hide it, especially when his closest group of friends were the gossips of the school. He himself didn't feel that bad about it, but seeing Tina's puffy eyes and dark circles made him hate himself for it. Pitying looks we're given to her in the halls, and the football team wouldn't stop making jokes about him being a freeloader.

Later that day, the soul mark specialist said nothing could be diagnosed, there's no way to speed up the process, if he even had a process to speed up. Apparently there were a few hundred cases of late markers, but there was never a specific time frame they all got it, it was all random. So maybe he and Tina still had a chance.

...

They broke up 9 months later.

It wasn't a surprise to either of them, neither was it a surprise to their friends. Everyone was so sure that they were soulmates, the perfect couple. But as everyone saw the love in Tina's eyes fading as she smiled sadly at Mike, they all knew it was coming.

He thinks long distance was just an excuse. That they could stay together if they tried, but they didn't see the point in trying, so they didn't.

Then three months later, he came back for Christmas break - and saw her. The last time they spoke was when he sent her happy birthday a month ago. He smiled at her from a distance as she sat across from Artie at the LimaBean, her hair up in a bun. He walked over to her, giving both his friends greeting when he saw it when she turned around.

The words Artie Abrams carved into her neck, small and slanted, and he excused himself and drove aimlessly away.

...

They saw each other once in a while, either at reunions or large gatherings. He saw the smile on her face when talking to her soulmate. He knew what she looked like when she was happy, and that's all he wanted.

But he was 25 and markless, working as a part-time choreographer for upcoming artists, [collaborating with old friends like Mercedes (The Newly Mrs Evans) and the one and only Brittany S Lopez] with a doctorate on Physical Therapy from the New York Medical College.