* * *

"Happy 18th Birthday Yuuta!" 

Yuuta blew out the candles of his cake. Everyone cheered and they threw confetti at him. Yuuta smiled widely.

"Thank you everyone, it really means a lot to me!" He beamed.

Every other person in the area was at Yuuta's birthday party. He was loved by almost everyone in the town. They had to rent a fancy dining hall just so they could fit everyone. And even most of the food costs were covered by Yuuta's friends and supporters, although it wasn't needed since Yuuta's family were rich. 

But Yuuta felt a bit down. Because one particular person that he was most looking forward to see wasn't here.

Then he walked in through the door. It was Megumi. He was dressed up nicely for the occasion, and he carried a box wrapped in yellow ribbon with him, presumably Yuuta's birthday present. 

As he walked closer to Yuuta though, people stopped to stare at him. After they broke up and he got back together with Yuuji, people really wanted nothing to do with him. He got some weird looks and groans and some people whispered to themselves, "Why's he here? Isn't he cursed again?

Megumi appeared beside Yuuta and patted him on the shoulder. "Sorry I'm late. Happy Birthday Yuuta," he greeted.

Yuuta lit up. "I thought you wouldn't come! But you really showed up! I'm so happy." He exclaimed.

Megumi scratched his head. "Yeah well, I was debating not to since me being here might spoil your birthday party. But you're a dear friend of mine, and it's your 18th birthday, so I had to come." 

"Here," Megumi handed him the box he was holding. "It's your birthday present."

But before Yuuta could accept it, his mom stormed up to them and yelled, "Don't touch that Yuuta! You might end up cursed!" She swatted away the present out of Megumi's hand. "Why did you come in the first place!? Are you happy that you ruined Yuuta's happiness?" She screamed at him.

"Mom!" Yuuta got angry. "I asked him to come. I invited him. How could you just throw away Megumi's present like that?" 

She slammed her fist on the table. "Because he betrayed you!" She argued. "He left you, his soulmate, for someone else and now he has the audacity to come here like he did nothing wrong!" Then she pointed to the people standing at the door posts. "Guards, somebody, get him out! He's going to get us all cursed!"

People around Megumi started yelling at him. "Get him out!" They yelled. "He's going to curse us!" They kept chanting, telling Megumi to leave. The bodyguards started walking towards him, their arms outstretched so they could pick him up and throw him out.

"Get him out!" They yelled, some even throwing food at him. "Get him out! Get him out! Get him out-" 

"STOP!" Yuuta bellowed out. The people stopped chanting. 

"Everyone stop!" Yuuta yelled again. He turned towards his mom but also addressed the people around him. "Megumi did nothing wrong. He found someone he loves, so I want him to be happy no matter what. Even if it's not with me. Because Megumi is special to me."

"Besides, Megumi didn't actually betray me," Yuuta started. He took a deep breath. 

"Because he isn't actually my soulmate."

The people around Yuuta gasped. Megumi stood there in shock. What? What did he say? Megumi wasn't processing what he had just heard. Yuuta wasn't his soulmate?

"How are you not my real soulmate?" Megumi asked, confused. "But the soul mark! We have matching, identical soul marks in the same place."

Yuuta, just looked down, guilty. "I have some explaining to do. Me and my family have been lying to you." 

He took another breath. "The soul mark is fake. We got it illegal done. When we played in the park that day and my parents saw yours at the bottom of your foot, they made me get one to match yours." He explained. "We're not actually soulmates."

Megumi couldn't believe what he was hearing. And he was still confused. "But why did you go through all that trouble? I thought your parents were big believers in the goddess, don't they know that it's taboo to get a fake soul mark?" 

Yuuta explained again. "You see, everyone in my family line is special. There's no one in both my family lines that don't have a soul mark. My mom and dad were soulmates, their parents were soulmates, and so on. But I didn't have one..." Yuuta trailed off. "So because they were scared to be seen as unlucky now, like the goddess didn't have favor on our family anymore, they faked it. So we could continue the tradition."

Yuuta's mom slapped Yuuta in the side of his face. "Why are you telling him this!? You were supposed to keep this secret until death Yuuta!" She stomped her feet. "How could you go against me? I did all this for your happiness you know!" She cried out.

Yuuta shook his head. "Mom, you didn't do this for my happiness. You did this for yours. You did this so our family line wouldn't get ruined. But in doing so, you ruined someone else's happiness. And I won't let that happen anymore."

Then he turned towards Megumi and smiled apologetically at him. "Because Megumi's important to me."

Before Megumi could respond, people started to crowd Yuuta and his parents, overwhelming them with curses and smites. "So you lied!?" They cried out. "The goddess will punish you!" "You will be cursed!" 

When the screams started to get too overwhelming, Megumi grabbed Yuuta's hand. "Come on, let's go." They started running out of the hall.

"Wait!" Yuuta stopped him. He quickly went back in through the crowd to get the birthday present that Megumi had given him. Then he grabbed Megumi's hand again and they ran out of the hall together.

Once they were outside, they sat down on the grass. Yuuta was still clutching his birthday present from Megumi in his hand. 

"Are you mad at me?" Yuuta asked. "That I lied to you all these years? And that I forced myself onto you even though we're not really soulmates?" He asked.

To his surprise, Megumi gave him a small smile. "Nah," he said. "I mean it was shocking for sure, but in the end you were pressured by your parents and you had to do what you had to do. So I don't blame you." 

He got up, dusting the grass away from his pants. "Besides, having you as my fake soulmate just meant that I had a best friend to stick by me all these years. So it wasn't all bad." He grabbed Yuuta's hand to help him up. helped Yuuta up.

And then he gave Yuuta's hand one final squeeze. "No matter what, I'm glad that you were my friend. Thank you, Yuuta." He said.

Yuuta could feel himself getting emotional. "Me too, Megumi. I'm glad that we could be friends too."

Megumi looked onwards to the bus stop. He saw the bus coming. "Well, I only came here so I could give you your present. I better go before people start mobbing me too. Do you want to come with me?" He offered.

Yuuta shook his head. "Nah, I better stay so I can do damage control with my parents, since it's also my responsibility for lying." Megumi nodded. And then he turned around. 

But before Megumi could leave, Yuuta called out one final time, "I hope you can find your real soulmate Megumi."

Megumi smiled at him. "Thanks Yuuta. I hope that you can find your happiness too." Then he ran to the bus stop. Yuuta watched as he boarded the bus and left just like that. 

Yuuta sunk down to the ground, his knees getting weak. He let out a sigh and held his face in his hands. Then he reached over to open the birthday present Megumi had gotten for him.

He unwrapped the ribbon and opened the box. Yuuta was surprised. It was a photo album, of all their memories they had together, up until Yuuta was 18 years old. He looked through it. There were pictures of them going to the pool, hugging, baking together, and graduating elementary school. It was more like a scrapbook, with Megumi writing little notes beside each photo and commenting what he liked about each memory. It meant a lot to Yuuta, since Megumi wasn't the sentimental type. 

After he flipped through it, a piece of paper slipped out. Megumi held it up to the sunlight so he could read it. It read:

Don't worry, I still have my own copy of all these photos, and I think you have some of them at home already too. But I realized that I've pushed you away a lot these past few years, so I wanted to share all the positive things I thought about while being with you. 

Happy Birthday Yuuta, I hope you'll always be happy no matter what you do. And that you can make even more happy memories from now on.

From Megumi.

"Pfff," Yuuta giggled.  Even when Megumi was trying to be all artistic, the photo book was really as bland as you could get, even with Megumi's weird drawings on the front cover and on the sides. 

Yuuta was overcome with emotion. He was incredibly happy, but also pretty sad. 

"Even if you weren't my real soulmate, the love I felt for you was real." He said to himself. He ripped some grass out and let it scatter in the wind. He felt tears well up in his eyes again, but he wiped it with his sleeve. 

"Goodbye Megumi. You'll always be my first love."

⤜-------⤛

Note:

Tattoos are illegal and nobody gets them because they could be mistaken as soul marks, and people don't get them because it's seen as taboo/blasphemy and they don't want to go against the goddess. There's even a tale that says if you fake a soul mark, you'll never have happiness for the rest of your life. But, like Yuuta's parents have shown, some people are willing to do it, for things like their reputation.