Like most of the other girls, on her 16th birthday, Galinda's momsie and popsicle gave her a Soulmate Notebook as a gift. It was a magical notebook. You touched it to unlock the magic seal and mark it as your own. Then once a year, you could write any description on each page, and the notebook would give you the answer as Yes or No to reveal how your soulmate was.

In Oz, owing to a Soulmate Notebook was the biggest desire for any girl. Just like how people love to follow a secret map to find a huge treasure, that magic notebook was the guide to help them explore their soulmate.

So, right after the sweet sixteen birthday party was over, Galinda rushed to her princess bedroom with the gift in her hand.

She sat on her desk, put the notebook on the desk, and slowly put her palm on its cover. The notebook beamed with pink light. It was unsealed.

Galinda happily opened the first page and held her pink glitter pen.

Now, an innocent 16-years-old Galinda knew that her soulmate would be perfect. Perfect and handsome and maybe could ride a horse too. How wonderful he was! Galinda knew she didn't have to worry about his look. What she was really worried about was:

"Tall?"

Galinda wrote the word on the first page painstakingly. The pink ink on the page was just as bright as the dress she was wearing. Then she gently put the pen back on the desk and thrilly watched the black ink slowly appear on the page.

"Not just taller than me, my dear Soulmate Notebook. I'm 4 feet 11. Anyone is taller than me. I wanna know if he is really tall. Tall and handsome and perfect. Oh~"

Galinda signed happily. She looked out the window, her eyes lost in the middle of a pink and dreamy cloud. She once again imagined her prince. Tall, handsome, sweet, perfect.

After the dreaming seconds passed by, she looked down to the page again. Under her pink word, there was a scribbled "Yes". She happily jumped on her foot.

"Yes! YES! He would be so perfect. Just like me!"

But that piece of information was only enough to content Glinda for three short days. And she had to wait a whole year to ask the next question. So, since the fourth day after her sixteen birthday, she had started to consider what she should ask next.

Good-kisser? Good dancer? Strong? Smart? Talented?

Every day, Galinda would spend a few hours to wonder about it.

-

After asking all of her friends, Galinda realized that most of their first word was "prince".

Of course, all of them got a negative answer. But Galinda believed that she could have everything. Because she was tried so hard to be the most perfect girl in Oz. So it was only fair that her soulmate would be just as perfect.

"Prince is it. I will ask if he is a prince."

She decided it would be her next question.

So, the morning of her seventeenth birthday, when the first ray of sunshine shone through her bedroom, Galinda immediately woke up and rushed to her desk.

The notebook on the desk beamed with the pink light. She touched it, and it was unsealed once again. She opened the first page and smiled at her word last year. Tall.

She turned to the next, held her pink glitter pen, and her face was thoughtful.

She suddenly didn't want to ask about the prince thing anymore. All of her friends got a no, which made her concerned. As much as she knew she deserves a prince for her own, she also understood she had never met any prince.

It would be wasted, she thought.

Toying her pen for a while, she thought about all the adjectives she could write, but she got nothing.

And she thought about what momsie once told her.

"Remember to find you a rich husband. Then he could give you a fulfilling life."

Galinda bit her lower lip, then wrote painstakingly on the page.

"Rich?"

She stared at the page, watched the black ink slowly appear into a "No".

Galinda felt so disappointed. She angrily closed the notebook. It was sealed for another year.

She stood up and went to her closet to choose the pinkest, most beautiful dress for her seventeenth birthday party.

For the first time in her life, Galinda couldn't find any joy when looking at her gorgeous closet.

-

But Galinda quickly got over that piece of information she got on her seventeenth birthday. That night after her birthday party, she burst out crying and told her momsie and popsicle that her soulmate wasn't a rich man. Her parents comforted her. They said that they only had one precious daughter and promised that all of the Arduenna Upland estates would belong to her eventually. Her momsie even said that she didn't have to marry her soulmate.

Galinda strongly disagreed with the idea of not marry your soulmate. She promised herself that before she decided to marry anyone, she must check to make sure that person was her soulmate. Galina Arduenna Upland would marry her soulmate, no other option.

But her parents' promise did make her felt much better.

"Don't worry, my prince. We would be rich still." Galinda thought to herself.

And as her eighteenth birthday was coming closer and closer, she started to count down every single day to ask the third question.

Galinda's eighteenth birthday was just a few days before she went to study at Shiz University.

Therefore she easily knew what she should ask.

Just a few more minutes. Galinda sat on her desk, excitedly wait for every second passed by.

Until finally, the notebook beamed with pink light once again. She touched to unsealed it.

Galinda quickly turned to the third page and wrote.

"Study at Shiz?"

The black ink slowly appeared once again. She felt like it was slower than both the last time combine. Galinda's heart beat faster and faster inside her chest.

On the page, another "Yes" appeared.

Galinda happily kissed the word.

Finally. Finally, she was about to meet her soulmate.

A tall, handsome, smart, talented, perfect prince.

-

Galinda didn't really understand her true feeling when she saw Elphaba for the first time.

The truth was, she wasn't scared of Elphaba's strange skin.

She just didn't understand how could that raw imperfection can exist. An unhideable imperfection that exploded to anybody to see.

It made Galinda felt insecure. Because Galinda knew, deep down, she wasn't perfect. But she was taught to be perfect and flawless all her life. That was why she carefully hid her imperfection inside her, so no one knows.

All the forbidden feelings.

Elphaba wasn't perfect. But she dared to accept her imperfect self.

It made Galinda scared.

It also attracted Galinda.

Which made Galinda even scarer.

So Galinda decided that she loathed Elphaba.

But they quickly became friends. As naturally as a touch of destiny, even though Galinda was tried to resist it.

Now, Galinda's nineteenth birthday was just a few minutes apart.

Galinda lay on her comfortable bed. Her lips couldn't stop smiling. She was about to have her first birthday with Elphaba. She felt so happy she couldn't even explain.

"Elphie... Hey, Elphie," Galinda whispered. "Are you still awake?"

Of course, Elphaba was still awake. But she didn't tell Galinda that she was counting down to her birthday too.

"Just one minute more to my birthday."

Elphaba knew it. But she still flatly responded.

"Is it?"

"Yes. My nineteenth birthday. First birthday far away from home."

"You must miss your home a lot, don't you?"

"A little."

Galinda didn't tell Elphaba that she was so happy that Elphaba was here with her for her birthday.

They stopped talking. The tick-tock sound of the clock was so clear. Elphaba and Galinda counted down in their own head.

"6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

"Happy birthday, Galinda."

Galinda quietly wiped her tears. Why just a simple "happy birthday" could make her that emotion?

She quickly cheered herself up, stood up, and sat on her desk, lit up a candle.

Elphaba sat up on her bed and looked at Galinda. She already got used to the fact that her tiny blonde friend always does weird things that she couldn't understand.

Galinda took a wooden chest out of her drawer and opened it. Inside the chest, pink light beamed out. Glinda took out a thin notebook and unsealed it.

Galinda excitedly held her pink glitter pen. Elphaba raised an eyebrow.

"What is that? Is a notebook full of things that you actually learned over 19 years?"

Elphaba teased.

"Silly Elphie. This is the Soulmate Notebook."

"Soulmate what?"

Galinda put down her pen and looked at Elphaba surprisingly.

"You don't have one? But all the girls got one on their 16 birthday."

Elphaba shrugged.

"Well, I'm no other girl. You haven't realized it yet?"

Her bitter voice made Galinda's heart sting. She took the notebook and stepped to sat next to Elphaba. Elphaba's bed was hard but also really warm.

Galinda pointed at the notebook.

"This is the Soulmate Notebook. Every girl must own one. On each page, you write a description, and the notebook will give you a yes/no answer as if how your soulmate is?"

"Oh."

"Look." Galinda slowly opened the notebook. "The first page, I asked on my sixteenth birthday, my soulmate is a tall person. The second one on my seventeenth birthday, he isn't rich, but it's okay because my momsie and popsicle will leave me their estates, so I will not live a poor life. The third on my eighteenth birthday, he studies at Shiz too."

Galinda closed the notebook and hugged it in her chest.

"I already found my soulmate. I know it for sure."

Elphaba raised a little hope inside her. She turned to look at Galinda, who was lost in dreaming thoughts. She was always so beautiful that Elphaba's heart couldn't stop beating so fast when she looked at her.

"Did you? And who is that?"

"Fiyero, of course, duh."

Elphaba's heart fell down. She should have known that would be the answer.

"But your soulmate isn't rich, right? Fiyero is a prince."

"I know! I had wondered too. But I asked him, he a prince of a small something in Vinkus. Long story short, his family is royal blood, but they only have the power, not a rich family. Still, he is a prince."

Galinda happily went to her desk and opened the notebook, and held her pen.

"I can ask his name directly, but I wanna try another information first. You know, for sure. Hmm, what can describe him?"

Galinda thought for a solid minute. She realized that Fiyero was just a blurring picture inside her mind. Weird. Galinda looked at Elphaba thoughtfully.

"Hmm..."

Galinda tapped her pen on her cheek.

Elphaba shyly turned away.

"What if you wrote a person's name on it?"

"If that person isn't your soulmate, that page will tear apart. But if they are, then a magical thing will happen."

"What magical thing?"

"I don't know, Elphie. My momsie doesn't, either. I think my momsie couldn't find her soulmate."

Elphaba didn't know how to continue the conversation. She stroked her long black hair.

"Oh, right, black hair."

"It's a common thing."

But Galinda already wrote it on the page. And that time, not like those 3 times before, the answer "Yes" appeared almost immediately.

Galinda ran to hold Elphaba's hands and pulled her stand up. Galinda happily jumped up and down.

"Black hair. Elphie, my soulmate has black hair. Yay! Fiyero is the one!"

Elphaba just stood there and looked at the happy Galinda with a smile on her lips.

Galinda let go of Elphaba's hands and fell to her comfortable bed.

"Black hair..."

Galinda said and closed her eyes, a smile on her lips.

Elphaba stroked her long black hair again, out of habit.

-

Elphaba was alone in her dorm room. She was packing for her upcoming trip to the Emerald City.

It was almost midnight, but Galinda hadn't come back. She said she had to go do something and had disappeared since around 8 pm. Elphaba worriedly looked at the clock.

Should I go find her? Should I go find her?

Elphaba decided that she should and ran to the door. But when she swung the door open, Galinda was standing right outside the room. She held a cake in one hand and a present in the other.

"Elphie!"

Galinda said more cheerfully than her normal self and stepped in. Elphaba closed the door.

"Where have you been?"

"Shh..."

Glinda looked at the clock. Her lips opened and closed as she was counting mentally.

"What are you doing?"

All of a sudden, the small candle on the cake lit up. Its warm light shone on Galinda's face, who was looking at Elphaba with the sweetest smile. Her face was sparkling, more beautiful than a million stars in the sky.

"Happy birthday, Elphie."

Elphaba felt a warming feeling. A strange feeling that long long time after she realized it was happiness.

"Thanks... Thank you."

"Now blow the candle."

"No way I'm gonna do that."

Galinda just pouted, and Elphaba simply obeyed.

Galinda smiled and gave Elphaba the cake, then pulled her to sit at her bed.

"Eat the cake, Elphie. And open the gift too. I got one for you."

"Wow, one thing at a time, Galinda."

"Quick, eat it now. So I can give you your present, and you can open it."

Elphaba smiled and shook her head. She took a spoon full of cake and brought the spoon to Galinda's mouth.

Galinda glazed at Elphaba and ate it. Elphaba ate a small piece of cake too and put the cake down on the bed.

The small piece of cake melted in her mouth, sweetness all over.

"Time for the present!"

Galinda said enthusiastically and gave Elphaba the present.

Elphaba carefully opened it. Galinda sat next to her, waited for her reaction.

Inside the box was a notebook.

"Soulmate Notebook?"

"Exactly!"

Since she knew Elphaba didn't have a Soulmate Notebook, Galinda decided she would buy one for her. But she quickly realized that it wasn't easy to buy it. They didn't sell it in any store. To buy it, you would have to find a sorcerer who could make one then come to their magic place to talk about whom you want to give it to for 4 hours straight. And not to mention, the price wasn't cheap.

But if Galinda Upland wants something, she will have it.

So she got the notebook as a birthday present for Elphaba.

"Put your hand on it to unsealed it, mark it as yours."

Elphaba sat motionlessly. Galinda touched her hand. Elphaba's hand shook a little. Her hand was so soft and warm.

Galinda led Elphaba's palm to touch the notebook's cover. The notebook beamed with the green light. It was unsealed.

Elphaba opened it and looked at all the blank pages. Galinda gave Elphaba a pen.

Elphaba looked at Galinda for a long while. She only wanted to write one name. But she couldn't do it now.

So she closed the notebook.

"I don't want to write anything. I'm sure I don't have a soulmate anyway."

"Elphie..."

Elphaba stood up and put the notebook in her suitcase, then came back. Galinda was looking at her with sad eyes.

Elphaba brought another spoon full of cake to Galinda's mouth.

"I don't like sweet cake."

Galinda pouted.

"I baked this cake by myself. If you don't eat all of it, then we won't be friends anymore."

Galinda angrily went to her bed. Just a few steps, but she made sure to stamp her foot as loud as possible, so Elphaba knew unmistakeable that she was angry.

Always so adorable. Elphaba beamed a rarely smile.

Galinda lay on her bed, her back to Elphaba.

Elphaba slowly ate the cake.

It was really sweet.

-

Elphaba flew on her broom to the Crage Hall's campus. She knew that she was putting her in so much danger, but today was Glinda's twenty birthday. She couldn't miss it. Even though she couldn't be right next to Glinda.

She sat in a branch of a big tree near their dorm room's window, hid in crowns. It used to be their room. Now Glinda was alone in it.

Elphaba stared at the window.

The new day had come, but the room was still completely in darkness. Elphaba sighed, whispered.

"Happy birthday, my sweet Glinda."

Elphaba took the Soulmate Notebook out of her bosom.

On the first page, the upper line was Elphaba's scribble writing the name "Glinda Upland", and underneath it was a long line "Glinda Arduenna Upland is your soulmate" wrote in unmistaken beautiful writing of Glinda.

All the other pages, each was a picture of Glinda. Sometimes, the notebook would add another page, another picture of Glinda. Elphaba felt grateful. Thanks to the notebook, she could still see Glinda every day.

Although she could only see.

But it was enough.

Inside the room, Glinda sat in darkness, opened her notebook.

Soulmate? There was only one person in Glinda's mind. Why did she feel like that person was so close to her right at the moment?

How to describe that person?

Stubborn? Bookworm? Green?

But in the end, Glinda chose a safe choice.

"Brown eyes?"

The positive answer quickly appeared on the page.

Still could be Fiyero, right?

Glinda closed the notebook. Her tears fell down unstoppable.

-

Today was Glinda's thirty birthday, but she got no party, no present, no nothing.

It had been like that for 10 years already. Ten birthdays since her twenty birthday were ten lonely birthdays. Alone. Noone was beside her.

Though she was busy prepare a party today. The engagement party of her and Fiyero.

That was why she came back to her room late at night.

Her body was exhausted. Still, she stepped to her desk. She opened her drawer and took the notebook out, slowly turned pages one by one.

Tall? - Yes

Rich? - No

Study at Shiz? - Yes

Black hair? - Yes

Brown eyes? - Yes

Thin - Yes

High cheekbone - Yes

Jutting chin - Yes

Man? - No

Beautiful soul - Yes

Will come back? - No

Still care about me? - Yes

Safe? - Yes

Alive?! - Yes

Glinda turned to a blank page.

She promised herself that she would only marry her soulmate. She had dreamt about a perfect wedding with her soulmate since she was a kid.

This year's birthday was her last chance to check.

Even though she had no doubt about the answer, she still wrote Fiyero's name on it.

The page immediately tore apart. Glinda's lips quivered, tears fell down uncontrollably.

She held the pen tight and wrote the name of the person she missed the most on the next page.

The person she loved the most.

Elphaba.

But there wasn't any ink on the page, no matter how hard she tried. Her tears fell on the page was magically disappear too.

Glinda used all her strength to write Elphaba's name over and over again, felt like her pen could penetrate the thin paper.

The notebook was shaking, then a pink light from it pushed Glinda fell to the back of the chair. Then it was sealed.

Glinda threw the notebook on the wall. It fell on the ground.

Glinda burnt out crying.

"Elphaba, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

Glinda suddenly realized she never told Elphaba she loved her.

It tore Glinda's heart into pieces.

-

Glinda held the black point hat. She stepped into her room. Her face was emotionless.

It was over.

Everything was over.

No more Madame Morrible. No more The Wizard.

And on top of all, no more Elphaba either.

Elphaba was dead. Dead.

Glinda swung shut the door and leaned on it and slid down. She held Elphaba's hat so tight it hurt. She could smell Elphaba's scent on the hat. Her oil fragrance.

All of a sudden, Glinda saw the notebook on the ground, thin dust over it.

She bit her lower lip, put the hat on her bed, and picked the notebook up.

She used all of her strength, physically and magically, to open it.

"Open! Open now!"

Glinda screamed desperately. She screamed until she lost her voice and her face was full of tears.

The notebook opened a little, pink light beamed out. Then strong energy burst out, and it was opened. Glinda ran to her desk and held her pen. Her hand was shaking. She sat on the chair, wiped clear her tears, and carefully wrote on a blank page.

"Elphaba."

Pink light covered the notebook, and then it magically transformed into a photo book with a pink and green cover. On the first page, beneath the name "Elphaba" that Glinda just wrote in it was a new scribble line "Elphaba Thropp is your soulmate". Elphaba's writing.

Glinda slowly turned page after page. Each of them is a picture. Elphaba's picture.

In some of them, she was smiling, but mostly she was frowning.

Glinda looked at each with all the love, her lips curved to a happy smile that hadn't appeared on her face for a long time.

The last picture was Elphaba kissed Glinda.

A bitter-sweet kiss.

Their first and last kiss, before she surrendered and melted.

Looked at that picture, Glinda realized Elphaba was crying too.

Glinda gently wiped the tears on Elphaba's face, but she couldn't clear the tears on a picture.

She couldn't clear the tears on her face either.