Friends and family must have united and ganged up against him in order to be standing in front of an unfamiliar building somewhere in Japan. He understood he needed some time off from work and just about everything but...was it really necessary to send him far away and alone? But he guessed that’s what they meant by ‘me-time’. Either that or they just wanted him to get lost in a foreign place he wasn’t familiar with.

Thankfully, he made it safely with the help of a friendly taxi driver. Which Jinwoo later suspected Seungyoon, or Taehyun hired the driver so he could arrive to his destination safely with a few tips and recommendations. He wanted to argue with them for not trusting him enough, but thought against it since he was at his temporary home faster than expected and just wanted to settle down to rest a bit.

It wasn’t long when he was laying down on his very own luxurious bed when his stomach started to sing it’s song. It was time to eat and that meant to look for a nice place with yummy food.

He was walking in the small village near the hotel when one certain place caught his eye. The Red String of Fate. It was an interesting concept and was curious of the place but he figured he should follow the itinerary he was given, maybe he could stop by on his way back to the hotel to look at it.

He wasn’t sure when it all wrong, he followed every direction as instructed, so he wasn’t sure how he kept ending up right in front of the said captivating restaurant. He had spent most of his time wandering around, it was almost getting dark and his stomach was making even more sounds. He wasn’t sure if The Red String of Fate was a restaurant but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. All the other restaurants seemed to be over capacity and Jinwoo didn’t want to deal more than what he was going through already.

He noticed a few signs and recognized a few words and felt relief to know that it was indeed a restaurant. Hopefully the person serving him would be helpful by his choice of dish. On the way, he noticed one sign that said in various languages. ‘Soul Mates who come to meet with the red string of fate eat for free’. Jinwoo figured that would be a rare occasion and wondered how many tried to create such scenario in order to get the free food...have they’ve been fooled? His answer was given when he saw the next sign that followed. 'We are not to be taken as fools.'

Maybe it was just a thing to scare people.

He was just coming into view to the tables and the greeting person when he somehow stumbled by thin air and fell forward. This wasn’t the first time, he was stumbling all day, but this was the first he actually fell with no object in the way.

He was just getting back on his feet when a lady came up and started to speak in a rapid pace, Jinwoo was not able to comprehend what she was saying. However, he was grateful for the rapid service of accommodating him to a table and taking his drink order. He figured they would return with the menu once they brought the drink. But soon two sets of people had entered and both were given a table, a little tardy compared to him, but still a table with menus. Was it because he was tripped? Or because he was alone?

Soon his drink arrived but no menu. He was about to call the attention of a waiter when he heard a pair of people speaking in Korean. He was near the entrance so it was easy to hear when someone was coming in.

“Oh no, not today. Not anymore. We are coming here to get things fix.” Jinwoo heard a female voice.

“But what does my clumsiness have to do with this? It’s been an odd day, don’t we all have one of those days where you’re just out of it?” He heard a velvet deep voice.

“Maybe a few occurrences, but not…” the female voice was interrupted by a big thud and Jinwoo saw a man face down on the floor. Jinwoo couldn’t help but chuckle, gladly going unnoticed.

“Again! This is is the nth time. I’m just glad I wasn’t part of the effect of it right now. This is our second day here and you’ve managed to pour any kind of liquid on me 5 times!” She tried to help him up as she continued, “I heard that the red string of fate shortens when your soulmate is near, causing you to be so clumsy. I read this was a good place to come to about these things sooo...oh look.” The lady who had seated Jinwoo had once again made an appearance and started to speak to the new customer in Japanese.

The man seemed uninterested to their conversation and his eyes wandered around landing right on Jinwoo. The single man, flustered all of a sudden, went back to his task to retrieve a menu. The two ladies seemed to stop talking because next thing he knew, the tall tan man was being directed towards Jinwoo.

“I’ll see you later big bro! Have fun!” The now known sister yelled while walking away and the handsome tan man was seated right across Jinwoo.

“Soulmates! Food will come soon.” The lady announced in Japanese. Luckily, Jinwoo caught what she said and knew but it only got him even more puzzled. Did he understand correctly? He didn’t think much until the lady took one hand of each man and joined them together conntecting their pinkies. Something unexpected seem to occurred because both men looked up, made eye contact and both couldn’t drift their eyesight away. It felt warm and fuzzy and Jinwoo could have sworn he saw gold sparks fly around the slightly taller man. The stranger, on the other hand, swore he just saw tiny hearts fluttering and floating while popping into thin air.

Contact was soon broken when they both were startled by a flash of light. Both turning to the direction, now aware that a photo had been just taken. Awareness expanded to of their intertwined fingers, and they abruptly let go, instantly placing them under the table and wondering what to do next.

Food was soon served and Jinwoo had enough of waiting and wondering around. The food looked delicious and his stomach was constantly reminding him to feed him so he remained put. The other couldn’t refuse when given food so he stayed as well.

“Enjoy. Have a beautiful night now and forever.” The deep voiced man seemed to shrug off what the lady said while Jinwoo thought for it for a few seconds before letting the phrase go from one ear to the other and digged in.

It was awkward at first, the handsome stranger kept trying to make conversation with Jinwoo with his broken Japanese while Jinwoo kept on staring, trying not to lose his self control. He figured what he was trying to say but he was having fun seeing the other man struggle to communicate with him, so he remained silent. This wasn’t the first time he was confused as a Japanese individual.

It wasn’t until the 'soulmate' remembered to introduce himself when Jinwoo thought it was time to put the poor man out of his misery.

“Ah, right. My name is Song Minho.” He was able to speak in a complete sentence.

“I’m Kim Jinwoo, I’m also from Korea.” Mino’s face was priceless and he finally was able to laugh out loud.

Things soon became comfortable and the conversations started to flow smoothly. They’d talk in between bites and started to enjoy their company.

“So are you busy tomorrow?” Mino asked the deer eyed hyung. Jinwoo thought of his itinerary but…

“Not really. Just roam around I guess.” He answered.

“Would you like to spend your stay here with me? My sister is with her boyfriend and I’m just a third wheel. Plus I’m pretty sure she wants to make up the time I took away from my clumsiness.”

“Well...yeah, that sounds like fun.” Jinwoo felt no danger, actually more on the contrary, he felt safe with Mino.

“Here’s your photo. I hope you enjoyed the free meal and have a happy life.” The waiter made an appearance, leaving a polaroid photo and stepping away.

Jinwoo was the first to reach for it and his eyes widened. Mino leaned over to take a look and had the same reaction. They saw how they looked at each other dreamingly but what shocked them the most was that there was a very visible red string attached on their pinkies.

So I was feeling angsty cause usually I am when my birthday is near but I had a nice weekend and spent a good time yesterday (June 5) with my friends for my birthday so this came out. I didn’t get to post cause internet is stupid and it was really late and things got in the way (curse you internet). SORRY!

As always, please excuse the errors. I am posting this before I delay even more and I’m sleepy. T.T

Also, if you’re in the US and want to join a group order for the Better than Better photobook, my friend is managing one! There’s 2 managers so you can choose either or but I can only vouch for Lore since I haven’t joined any group orders with the other person.

Here’s her master list with all her info: *click click*

And the Jinwoo form: *click click*

Thanks for reading, comments, and the upvotes!!! Hope you enjoyed this short thing.  I hope to update WG soon so please be patient and an advance apology, excuse my fail attempt in doing the naught.