The statue of a young woman in the grand central plaza always drew so much attention from everyone. Tourists would come from far off places to take pictures of it. To take selfies with it. But most importantly, to hold hands with it. After all, everyone wanted to see if the rumours were true. Legend had it that if the statue’s soulmate touched her hand, she would turn human.

To Evelynn though, it was all just very annoying. Every day on her way to work, she would pass that statue, and she had to dodge the hordes of people trying to photograph themselves with the statue. Why couldn’t that damn statue stand somewhere else?! She figured that it was all just a ploy for people to sell statue merchandise.

That is until one particular day. Her boss had asked her to come into work earlier than usual, for it was going to be a busy day. As such, Evelynn left her home at 5 AM. She went along her normal route across the plaza, but to her surprise, and honestly relief as well, the plaza was mostly empty. There were only a handful of other early birds. The postman was doing his rounds. There was a young man stroking a cat that had wandered into the place. An older woman was sitting on a bench, feeding the birds. For the first time since she had come to live here, there wasn’t a huge circle of people around the statue.

Feeling a lot more relaxed now, Evelynn calmly walked across the plaza, feeling a smile form on her face as she approached the statue. She was about to pass by it when she noticed how... pretty the young woman really was. She had long hair that was sculpted as if it was blowing in the wind. She was sitting on a rock and looked over to the right, wearing a sundress and a hat. Her right hand leaned on the rock while her left hand was outstretched, as if reaching out to someone. She had a... rather mysterious look on her face. On the one hand, it looked like a face of longing. As if the person she was reaching out for was her lover. At the same time, she looked quite sad... as if her lover was just out of reach, unable to truly reach out to them.

Only now did Evelynn realized that she had never actually been able to look at the statue up close. Not that she cared of course, but at least she finally understood the reason for why this statue attracted so much attention. That look in her eyes was truly puzzling. She guessed that many men were just smitten by it and the legend surrounding it. Looking down at the pedestal, she saw that the title of the artwork was displayed in gold letters. ‘Longing’. There wasn’t even an artist listed. It did make Evelynn a little bit curious alright.

‘Ack, what am I doing?! I’m going to be late!’ Evelynn thought to herself when she realized what she was doing. She couldn’t waste her time looking at the bane of her existence! Hurriedly, she turned away again, off to her work.



Ever since that morning, the look on the statue’s face simply kept coming back to Evelynn. Whenever she found herself daydreaming, her thoughts would inevitably return to that damn statue! How could she have let this happen?! How could she have let herself become so enchanted by the very thing that caused so many annoyances every morning?!

She started thinking about what she should do. perhaps she should start taking a different route to work, but then that would mean she had an extra 20 minutes worth of travelling every day. Perhaps she should move or work elsewhere? But that was way too much of a hassle just because of a stupid statue. Eventually though, she figured that she just had to face the statue one more time. Whether to admire it for its beauty or to shout her frustrations at it, it didn’t matter. She just had to return.

The next friday, Evelynn told her boss she would be in early for work again. She told him it was due to a dentist’s appointment in the afternoon, but that was obviously a lie. Once more, she entered a relatively abandoned plaza. There was only the same elderly woman feeding the birds from before. Why couldn’t this place be this calm all the time, she wondered?

Resolutely, she walked up to the statue. The saddened look of longing was still there. As Evelynn approached the statue, whereas before she just gave it a few quick glances, she was now seeing more and more details. The dress she wore seemed as if it came straight out of the 80s. Her features were surprisingly detailed, as if the sculptor had carved each individual hair on her head. Whoever made it was truly a master of the arts.

Now that Evelynn was finally facing the statue, she looked at the outstretched hand. Every day, thousands of people grabbed it, just to see if the legends were true. The same amount of people were disappointed every day when she statue simply remained stone.

‘Of course it would’ Evelynn thought to herself. A statue is just that: a statue. A piece of art. However, even as she thought that to herself, she felt something within her stir. Something within her... started compelling her to grab its hand. It started out as just a nagging thought in the back of her mind, but as she stood there, the thought just grew stronger and stronger. She frowned and her lower lip trembled slightly. Why did she want to do this? She was a woman, just like the statue. Not only that, but she never really believed any of the rumours and legends, did she?

And yet... Evelynn realized that her hand was reaching for the statue’s hand right as she had these conflicted thoughts. She couldn’t really stop herself anymore as she gently placed her hand in that of the statue, string deeply into the woman’s eyes. Her hand, though solid rock, felt surprisingly smooth and almost soft. Evelynn’s heart started thumping as she held its hand for what felt like a full hour... but nothing really seemed to happen.

‘I knew it,’ Evelynn thought to herself. She then let go of the statue’s hand and turned around again. A part of her felt a little disappointed. This was it? This was what people have been swooning over all this time?

Over to the left, Evelynn could see that the elderly woman was looking her way. How long had she been staring? Come to think of it, she had seen that same old lady here quite often. Perhaps she, too, was just curious to see if the legends were true. Perhaps she too was disappointed every day.

Evelynn just shrugged to herself and she was about to move off towards her work when she heard something stirring behind her. Raising an eyebrow, she turned around again. What she saw gave her the shock of her life. Where there was just a statue mere moments ago, there was now a living and very much human young woman. She was looking at herself with the same stare of disbelief as Evelynn’s.

“n-no... no way...” Evelynn stammered, taking a small step backwards.

“I’m... back...?” the woman asked, her voice sounding rather weak. She then looked up, right at Evelynn. She eyed her curiously, as if trying to piece things together.

Panic started rushing through evelynn. This couldn’t be happening. This was all a dream or something! She wanted to just run away from here but she found that she couldn’t really move. She was just nailed to the ground. As if she herself had become a statue in that moment.

The mysterious woman nodded and then blushed madly. “It’s... it’s you. You are the one...” she said, a meek smile appearing on her face. She then tried standing up, but her legs simply buckled underneath her, causing her to fall.

“C-careful!” Evelynn instantly jumped into action and caught her before she made a nasty fall.

“T-thank you,” the woman stammered as she tried to get her bearing again. Looking up, she stared into Evelynn’s eyes again. And then, for a moment, it seemed as if the whole world stood still. Evelynn’s heart was thumping even more now than it was before as she stared into the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen.

“I... I’m Caroline,” the woman eventually said, breaking the silence again.

“... Evelynn,” Evelynn replied, not quite sure on what else to say.

“You... are really the one,” Caroline said, starting to smile softly again and brushing a few of her blonde hairs to the side.

“You... really are the statue...” Evelynn finally stammered, finding her voice again.

Caroline nodded sadly. “I am...” she said.

“Let’s... get you seated somewhere,” Evelynn proposed, looking around. That’s when she noticed that the elderly woman from before was gone. Though that was quite odd, it did mean that there was now an empty bench there. Thus, Evelynn helped Caroline reach the bench and sat her down.

“Thank you,” Caroline smiled.

Evelynn just sat next to her, quite dumbfounded. “Who... did this to you?” she asked eventually.

Caroline’s lower lip trembled then. “... I did,” she admitted.

“W-what?” Evelynn asked.

“Well... I asked someone to do it to me,” Caroline specified.

“Why?” Evelynn raised an eyebrow.

Caroline looked to the paved ground. “I... was looking. Looking for the one for me. My soulmate. My love. But... I simply couldn’t find them. I started wondering if my soulmate was even out there. I turned to this witch and she confirmed my fear. My fear that... you weren’t born yet. I wanted to be with you so badly, but I couldn’t. Not yet. I asked her to help out. I was willing to do anything. She helped me, but not in the way I was expecting...”

“... she turned you into this statue...” Evelynn finished, to which Caroline silently nodded.

“Since then, I was stuck up there. A frozen statue. A piece of art. Milions of men have reached for my hand every day... but I never expected that the one to break my curse would be another woman,” Caroline said, blushing.

“I thought... I thought that the rumours were just that. Rumours. A legend. I... just... I walked past you every day, ignoring you. Feeling annoyed by you even for attracting so many people here. I...” Evelynn said.
Caroline then placed a hand on Evelynn’s cheek. “Then what made you reach out for me?” she asked.

Evelynn’s eyes turned wide. She started blushing madly then. “I... felt compelled to” she admitted honestly.

Caroline smiled. "Because we are soulmates,” she said. She then started leaning forwards.
Evelynn panicked slightly, but then... why would she? Why would she panic? Caroline was strangely calming. As if nothing else really mattered anymore. As if a weight was finally being lifted off her shoulders. Closing her eyes, she leaned forwards too and kissed her soulmate.