Re: If someone was truly a soul mate..
A "soulmate" cld be any soul w/whom you have a close bond. These bonds are formed over lifetimes and beyond lifetimes. Your mom/dad cld be a soulmate, your brothers/sister, best friends, co-workers, neighbords, the guy who sold you your car, the girl who cashes out your food, and so on. You are more likely to be attracted to a "soulmate", but one shld realize that each of us usually has many "soulmates". Highly charismatic people (often old souls) have hundreds of thousands :) So, even if you do not meet this particular soulmate again, feel confident that you will meet others w/whom you will feel a special bond.
On the other hand, a "twin soul" may be the kind of "soulmate" to which you are referring. For a "sensitive" person, meeting a "twinsoul" can be an intense experience. It wld be difficult to not feel an "attraction" for that soul because essentially you and that soul together make up a complete unit. (You also make up larger units w/soulmates but the duality of this system requires "one" soul to split in two (has to do w/polarity).
My experience/acquired knowledge has been -- bottom line -- no, there is no rule of fate saying you have to run into that person again (whether twinsoul or soulmate). However, if you both desire to see each other again -- depending upon each of your own individual paradigms regarding whether or not you let yourself get what you want -- IF you both put out the "intent" that you want to meet again it is possible, perhaps even probable, that you will meet again.
Keep in mind, however -- that meeting and bonding physically and emotionally w/one's twinsoul does not, by any means, guarantee happiness. If you are unhappy w/yourself -- you are likely to be unhappy w/your twinsoul once you get past the intense attraction part. You might not even have bodies that are physically/chemically attracted to one another.
Keep in mind that you are essentially meeting yourself (tho in a different body shaped by different circumstances). At the core you will share many of the same values and characteristics. If you havent learned how to love and forgive yourself, you are likely to become just as unhappy w/your twinsoul as yourself While this is true in any relationship, the intenseness of a "twinsoul" experience seems to up the ante a bit. If you are both "drowning" it can be a bad time to try to be together.
Usually, the best way to meet the best people for you to meet in life is to go about doing what makes you - you. Keep yourself calm, do the best at being your own true self, and allow your energies to flow together again.
Probably not the answer you are hoping for -- but i hope it helps.