La Douleur Exquise

one

"Okay, first things first. The colours."

"Mhmm," I said, taking a bite from my PB&J doughnut. I mean, not really PB&J, but I got a strawberry-filled one and put some peanut butter in it. Absolute divine.

Gabriel snapped his fingers in front of me. "Keira! Are you even listening?"

"I am! Now, go on with your lecture." I said, making a shooing motion with my hands.

For the Operation: Match Hearts to be successful (I'm such a genius for thinking that name, if I do say so myself), we had to cover the basics. Just the colours and what my task entails.

I still need a little more time to fully adjust with what happened. But before that, I had to convince him to buy brunch. I mean, he has to eat as well and I literally can't function without food in my stomach.

"In matching people with their soulmates, Eros has devised a method to aid him: the strings. When a human is born, a red string is attached to his or her ring finger. The string then connects to the person's soulmate."

"So, a red one. But I saw Mrs. Anderson's string. It was gold!"

"Patience." He paused a bit. "Now, there are only five known colours of the strings; red, gold, black, brown, and pink.

The red one signifies that in this world, there is someone created for each person. The gold one indicates you finding that person and being able to build a life with them."

"So is it possible that my string remains red if I'm not able to be with the person I'm supposed to be with?"

"Well, yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"If you are going to be with a person forever and that person isn't the one you're destined with, your string turns black. But it remains red if you still haven't found your soulmate."

"Are there a lot of black strings?"

"There have been cases. Sometimes, us love angels can only do as much. We can't really interfere with how a human decides. We can only give signs and well, hope that the human is perceptive enough."

Well, that was interesting. I wonder how many signs I've ignored? If there were even signs that were given to me. "So, the brown one?"

"That's simple really. And quite sad. That's for someone who thought they could not find their soulmate anymore. Someone who gave up on love.

The pink one on the other hand means that the person has completely and genuinely moved on from the person who caused them heartache."

"So why turn into pink? Why not revert to red?"

He smiled. "Pink meant having moved on from heartbreak. A tangible acknowledgement that they're finally ready to move on. Red means believing in love again. And as that person comes closer in believing, the pink gets darker and turns into red."

"Wow, who knew that there was so much thought put into this. I only knew the red one!"

He nodded. "Right. And it is our duty as love angels to lead our humans to the right person. The strings serve as our guide."

"About that. We can't just, you know, spot a person, look at their ring finger and follow the end of the string, yeah? That's pretty tedious."

He nodded again. And I waited. When there was no reply, I gestured irritatedly with my hands. "So? The task? How are we going to do that?"

His eyes widened. "You're helping me?"

Really, after he comes in demanding that I match people with him, you'd think that he was actually giving me a choice with this matter.

"Yeah, might as well. You went to the trouble of explaining all this and convincing me. Besides, you kept me company when I was a kid. Even though I thought you were just an imaginary friend then. And who knows what would happen to you if I didn’t help you."

He grinned. "Knew you couldn't resist me."

I was about to hit him with his teasing when I realised it was his way of saying his thanks.

"You know, with the technology now, we don't solely rely on the strings anymore. Don't get us wrong, the strings are useful and still our primary guide, but we adapt with the advancements of the modern world."

With this, and out of thin air, a tablet the size of a notebook materialised in his hands. "When humans are born, their names and their soulmate are written in The Book. This is where the strings come in."

"How so? To be honest, if there is The Book, I don't really see the point of the strings anymore."

"Sometimes, a person is born but his or her soulmate isn't yet. When the other half is welcomed in your world, the strings in each of their ring fingers will connect. Then, their names will glow with a bright red light in The Book indicating that a match has been made."

"Okay, I think I pretty much got it. Strings serve as a notification of some sort to The Book. So what's with that gadget?"

"When the time is right, Eros delegates these people to us love angels. We are notified through this. It's basically our cheat sheet. It shows when and where the two people will meet, and it's up to us to give signs for them to establish a connection."

"Anything else I need to know about it?"

"Aside from showing who these people are, obviously, it shows us their basic information and interests for us to know what buttons to push. Other than that, well, that's pretty much it."

"That's not at all helpful, was it?"

"As I've said, us love angels can only do as much."

"How many are we supposed to match again?"

"Six people."

Six. I let that sink in. It's not that much, but it's still daunting. And it dawned on me... "How do we know that we successfully matched people?"

"Their string turns into a faint gold. Which, as I've said, meant that they are with the person they're supposed to be with. Their soulmate."

I was about to say "aww" when he added: "And of course Eros would know and will notify us through this." He said, waving the tablet.

I heaved a sigh. "Right. So, who are the people--" I was cut off with a ding. "What was that?"

"Our notif. That tells us that we have a new set of people to match. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," I replied.

"Let's see. The guy's name is Daemon Hunt."

I did not hear what he said next, too preoccupied at the two pictures shown in the tablet. "That's not possible."

"What do you mean? Eros makes no mistakes. The Book makes no mistakes."

I was still staring at the picture of Daemon. "He's my best friend."

And what's breaking my heart even further is finding out that I wasn't his soulmate. Because I wasn't the girl in the picture next to him.