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WHAT IS A SOULMATE? The answer to that question depended on 2 things: who you asked, and how old they were. The soulmate process was complicated, and to this day no one fully understood how it worked. The bond, or "the spark" as it was often called, didn't happen until at least one half of the pair laid eyes on the other.
Before that, people simply felt no romantic interest towards anyone else.
The spark was described as a warm happy feeling.
But back to the question. To those in the capital, those who came from wealthy families or those whose last name meant something, a soulmate was often no more than a recommendation. If it turned out their soulmate was someone from a poor district, it was common to sever the bond. When that happened, both halves would feel like something was missing for the rest of their lives. It was described as a sense of longing, or a dull ache that all you could do was ignore.
Once the severing happened, those in the capital would simply find another with a severed bond since the goal was still to secure a (wealthy) future.
Because at least one person in the pair has to lay eyes on their other half, some people go nearly their whole lives before meeting their soulmate. Some of them would tell you that this was worse than meeting them early on and having the bond severed.
One of the oldest couples in District 12 was a couple in their mid-80's. Despite their old age, they'd been together less than 10 years. Having lived in complete opposite sides of the district, it was just a sad coincidence that they'd never been in the same place at the same time.
And for some, the opposite rings true. There was a 2-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl who had their spark occur when they moved next door to each other. For now they were the best of friends, romantic feelings will come much much later.
Some people got really unlucky and went their whole lives without ever meeting their soulmate. If you hadn't yet met your soulmate and they died, you'd simply get that same aching feeling that came if a living soulmate chose to sever the bond.
