Once upon a time, I met a male witch.

It was a fascinating set of circumstances that led me to him.

He had dark, knowing eyes and when he looked at me, it felt like he was stripping my walls away. Once or twice, I cringed away from his gaze and looked down at my lap (as if it helped).

"Your soulmate is somewhere in your life," he told me. I didn't (and still don't) believe in the concept of soulmates - there's something about the idea that one person was made to completely fit who I am or who I am meant to be that rubs against my thought patterns like a hostile cat darting away from pets, and it reeks too much of fate and destiny and the whole shebang that things that happened had been meant to happen instead of merely being cruel human nature.

Regardless, it was intriguing.

He told me a few things about my supposed soulmate:

1. He (yes, very specifically a male) was born in the morning, between 8 AM and 12 PM (even more specifically he told me that this soulmate was born between sunrise and noon), and he was around my age.
2. He was a happy-go-lucky person who enjoyed making people laugh and smile. Oh god, an optimist, I thought with an inward groan. I can't stand optimists.
3. He and I had not met yet, but we would inevitably cross paths as we were peripherally in each other's social circles.
4. He was even prettier than I am (I took to this particularly badly), and he was a bona fide pretty boy. Not good not good not good.
5. Our paths would intersect within two years.

The last point was of interest to me. This was in July last year, and more than a year has passed. It's obviously just a matter of months till he's proven right or wrong. Of course, being me, I came up with a list of counter-arguments in the event I do meet someone I fall uncharacteristically in love with, the first being:

It's highly possible that I meet someone who meets the criteria within this span of time and this causes a demand characteristic in which I adjust my behaviour and fall in love with this person purely because he ticks every box on the checklist, and then I date him and in the event we have a happily-ever-after because he can actually put up with my issues, I then believe oh my god, he is my soulmate.

I mean, it's not a terrible situation but still. I'm only a closet hopeless romantic because I'm much too sensible and logical and practical to toss everything to the wind and dash away into the sunset (forreals, that's a terrible thing to do because what about responsibilities). I lack spontaneity and you'll never find me kissing in the rain because guys, that's a really unhealthy thing to do considering the levels of acidity in our rains. 

What I'm trying to say is that the idea of a soulmate is one that scares my very practical and self-sufficient soul. Besides that, research has shown that invoking/believing in the concept of soulmates often results in higher dissatisfaction in a relationship and less working through problems. Of course, I'm being negative on purpose, and there is something or the other I'm missing out here (like the greater levels of satisfaction reported by the soulmate group after recalling conflict they'd overcome or whatever) in view of expressing my own personal opinion.

Anyway, the clock is ticking and I wonder.