Disclaimer: Since I got asked about more HanChul scenes, here's at least a bit of stuff that crossed my mind that could be added for some more HanChul love. Whenever there's a lot of space between two paragraphs, there's a completely new set starting that is bascially unrelated to the preceding one.

Also, I decided to talk about two topics that seem important to me and that I wanted to talk about. The first one being ualities and the other one being the video that is mentioned in the first chapter, the video with the white ribbon. Since people kept on referring to that one, I figured I'd make it completely clear where I got that from.

Now please enjoy reading~

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Tell me more about China.”

It is late in the evening, but the sun is only now slowly nearing the horizon. We sit on a blanket by the riverbank of our small village’s river. When I was younger, I would often meet with friends and then we took the bike and followed the river for about half an hour until we arrived at the beach. But no matter how beautiful those times had been and how beautiful the ocean was, none of it can compare to this moment.

I glance to my side and watch the warm rays of the sun illuminate Hangeng’s features, making me smile while I take in his beauty. My gaze goes down almost on its own and I look back a bit to where the thread connects our right wrists behind his back, emitting the softest glimmer that nevertheless fills me with pure happiness. The remainders of our picknick that Hangeng surprised me with earlier are still scattered behind us on the blanket.

“I grew up in a wealthy family,” Hangeng starts speaking and I look up at him again. His lips are curved up in a smile and I’m pretty sure that he noticed me looking at our thread again, but his eyes are locked on the horizon as if he’s trying to make out China in the distance. “Since my family lineage goes back to a very old Chinese dynasty, I was rather active in the community and the chances had been good for me to become a representative someday.” I move my hand to lie on top of his, hoping to give him some comfort through this small gesture, and he glances over at me, his smile deepening momentarily before he looks ahead again. “I learned all of China’s traditional dances – mind you, there are 56 of them.”

“56?” I repeat, unsure if I heard correctly.

Hangeng nods lightly in confirmation. “Yes, 56. There are 56 ethnic groups in China, those are at least the officially acknowledged ones by the government. All of them have their own folk dance.”

“And you learned all of them?”

“Yes.”

“That’s incredible!”

Hangeng laughs softly at that. “Thank you. Thinking about it, especially in comparison to the past few years, it seems to me like it hasn’t even been all that difficult to learn them. It was definitely easier than learning how to walk again and somehow getting back into shape and having to master everyday life in Korean all of a sudden!”

“If you put it in perspective like that, 56 kinds of dances indeed don’t sound as bad anymore,” I admit and lean forward a bit, pulling my legs up a little and hugging them while I turn back to the horizon.

“Yes. I’ve also always enjoyed dancing, so it was more of an extension of my hobby and learning more about it than anything else. But we’re getting off topic.” From the corners of my eyes I can see him shake his head lightly. “Money has never been an issue for my family back then. I’ve tried to figure out what happened to everything that we’ve owned. It seems like everything has become state property in the meantime, though, because it was assumed that there was no one left to take care of the heritage.”

“So it’s really a completely new start. Nothing to fall back on, nothing to help…” I mumble, trying to understand what he has to be feeling. Lonely maybe? Sad? Upset? Does he blame himself for surviving when everyone else died? Does he wish he would have woken up earlier? “Hangeng?”

“Yes?”

“Maybe I can’t offer you much, but I want you to know that I’ll always listen.”

“I seem to get that offer a lot whenever I say that.”

I look at him in surprise. I had expected him to thank me or simply hum or something along those lines, but certainly not this. “What do you mean?”

“I managed to get back in contact with one of my friends from China recently and he told me the same thing.”

I smile and think back to the conversation I overheard, the one where I learned Hangeng’s name. “That must be nice. To have someone from your former life whom you can still be in contact with.”

“It definitely is! It was also the first time that I could really speak Chinese again. Even bómǔ and bófù said that they have never heard me speak that much before!”

I laugh at that. “Oh come on, you seem pretty talkative to me!”

“Who knows, maybe I just have a good day?” he opts and when I feel his eyes on me, I turn to face him as well, grinning.

“Nah, I think it’s rather the good company,” I deadpan, making him laugh.

“By the way, I should introduce you to bómǔ and bófù sometime. I told them that I had met someone new around and they’re excited to meet you.”

I think about meeting my soulmate’s legal guardians and suddenly, I feel like a teenager who’s about to be invited over to his girlfriend’s (or boyfriend’s, for that matter) house to meet the parents. It doesn’t matter that I’m already a grown-up, the thought of meeting the people who have so lovingly taken care of Hangeng and helped him get accustomed to South Korea makes me incredibly nervous.

“Can we maybe wait with that for another while?”

“What? Were you thinking that I’d just take you over to their place right now?”

I quickly shake my head and my hands in denial. “No, no, not that! But… I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of step just yet. I’d like to get to know you better first.”

Hangeng nods, flashing me a soft smile. “That’s understandable.”

We remain quiet for a while and I watch the last rays of sun disappear beyond the horizon. The sky is still bright there, changing colors quickly until darkness settles. The path a few meters behind us is still scarcely lit, but not much of the light makes it through to us. The soft gurgling and the occasional reflections of light are the main prove that the river is still in front of us.

After a few minutes, I turn around and pull the cookies Hangeng picked out a bit closer. I take two out of the bag and hand one to Hangeng, then I scoot a bit closer to him and carefully lay my head on his shoulder, waiting for him to protest or push me away – but he doesn’t. If anything, it even seems like he leans a bit closer to me and I smile, happy that he won’t turn down my silent request for skinship.

“You know, there’s something that crossed my mind. Regarding the golden threads, I mean,” Hangeng starts slowly when both of us have stopped eating and I hum softly, encouraging him to continue. “I happened to talk about this kind of topic with a friend from university. She’s not in the medical field, but we often meet at the cafeteria. We basically do tandem meet-ups because she wants to learn more Chinese while she also helps me with my Korean.” I hum again, wondering what he actually wants to ask me and how this friend of his is relevant for the story. “Anyway, somehow we got to talk about… Wait, is this too private?”

I can’t help but laugh at that. “We’re talking about my most hidden secret that I told you about within one hour of our first meeting right after you told me that you can see souls and that you only noticed me because I almost died. I think you have to try very hard to find a topic now that I will consider too private to talk about with you!”

“But… this is something that Koreans – and Chinese people as well, to be honest – don’t seem to be really aware of. I mean… well… ualities.”

“All of my friends ask me when I’ll introduce my boyfriend to them. I don’t think any of them ever imagined me dating a girl even though I always tell them I’m into either. Plus, most of my friends seem to be gay, at least they’re in a gay-passing relationship, and I always tell people that I can tell them about their ‘significant other’ without ever mentioning that person’s gender. So I don’t think you’re on thin ice here.”

“Thin ice?”

“A saying. You’re not about to overstep any boundaries.”

“Alright,” Hangeng agrees and I wonder for a moment if I shouldn’t have told him that I identify as bi, but then I realize that I don’t really care because he’s my soulmate and the man of my dreams. And HE asked me out on a date first! “Anyway, she also mentioned that she thinks that other ualities other than homouality are very much underrepresented and she told me about having read a lot about auality and… I actually forgot the word, but the thing where you like several people at once?”

“Polyual,” I help out. This is a topic that I read up on when I started to figure out what the threads meant in order for me to understand them better.

“Yes, exactly. What happens in those cases? I mean, especially people who identify as polyual can’t just have one thread, can they?”

I sit up again to think about how I can best answer his questions. It’s not like I haven’t thought about this before, but there are answers in my mind that I’m not sure I can really voice out and if they’ll still make sense to someone else once I’ve explained myself. “You see… Since being aual doesn’t exactly mean that the person can’t have any love-interests, I don’t see a problem there. Of course there are also the people who simply don’t want to be in a relationship or maybe identify as ace and aromantic. This case is something that I’ve thought about a lot. But I’ve never seen anyone without a thread before, so… I don’t know? Maybe in this case the threads will point to a best friend? And regarding polyual… I’ve never seen that either, but I would assume that those people would have more than one thread.”

Hangeng nods, seemingly understanding my train of thoughts even though he keeps on asking. “But then why are you so sure that those threads have to connect lovers? Why can’t they just be best friends? Or just people who are destined to meet and where the chances are higher that they’ll stay together for a long time, whether that be in friendship or in love? Isn’t that possible as well?”

I stay quiet. Somehow, that’s something that never really crossed my mind. What if it’s true? Am I just forcing my interpretation of those golden threads on everyone else then? I’m not, am I?

I frown at myself as I think about Jungsu and Kyuhyun and I can’t help but wonder if I’m not maybe pushing my best friend too much. Do I expect the wrong thing? Do the golden threads not only mean love? But then why does it seem like the only people I know who are connected with that thread are deeply in love with each other?

My abstinence from anything love-related comes back to my mind as well and with the new perspective, I suddenly feel stupid. Of course it made sense not to start anything if the golden thread of the other person was still intact, but if those threads can also connect friends..? But no, that isn’t what I have seen so far, is it?

“Heechul?” Hangeng asks in a low voice and I realize that I haven’t said anything since he stopped speaking.

“I don’t know, to be honest,” I admit quietly before a different thought crosses my mind and I quickly say it aloud, “Maybe it’s a combination, though.” I turn back to Hangeng, my good mood back again. “What if those threads connect us to the person we love the most – no matter whether that’s platonic love or the relationship kind of love? Couldn’t that be true?” And maybe then there are even people connected to two people even if they aren’t polyual: someone who doesn’t feel the need for a relationship could be connected to their best friend who in turn is connected to that friend as well as their own partner. Is that logical?" I think about the theory again, trying to put it into perspective and find any further loopholes about it, but it seems like this time my idea of the golden threads is even more solid than before! Though the part with the two threads per person is still a bit strange, but I'll think about that more if I ever see that kind of situation.

Hangeng nods slowly as well. “That could make sense,” he agrees and we’re both quiet for another bit until he groans and pulls the bag with cookies closer to us. “This is giving me a headache.”

I laugh and snatch the first cookie he pulls out, taking the first bite cheerfully. Maybe to him it’s difficult to wrap his mind around it, but for me it seems like everything suddenly makes even more sense than before!

I look ahead into the darkness of the night while I happily munch on my cookie, smiling to myself. Maybe back in my small town, there are a lot of problems waiting for me. But for the time being, I was able to figure something out that gives me more clarity about myself, so just for tonight, I decide that Seoul can wait with bothering me any further.

I glance over at Hangeng again and flash him a bright smile that he answers with slight confusion before he smiles back at me, shaking his head lightly and I think I can even see amusement on his face, brightening my mood up even more.

“An important job just came in. You’re expected in studio three in half an hour.”

I groan, but it is already too late to protest – all I can hear is the beeping that signals that my manager has already hung up. I scramble out of bed and try to hurry with my morning routine, hoping I’ll still have some time to eat breakfast, but in the end I barely even have enough time to hurry into the café located next to the building I live in to get coffee before I have to grab a taxi to still make it at least kind of in time for my schedule. I still live in my own apartment which is nice on the one hand because it means having more freedom but on the other hand it also means that I have a longer way to work which in cases like this one is a big disadvantage.

“You’re late. By exactly four minutes and twenty-three seconds,” my manager greets me the moment I enter the studio.

“I’m sorry,” I apologize and bow low, but at the same time I’m glad that I’m only late by less than five minutes – I had expected my time to be worse.

My manager nods in approval and motions for me to follow him. “There’s a big project that’s been planned for a long time, the so-called ‘Twin Project’. One of the models happened to fall too sick for the shooting, though, and it is not sure yet when he will recover, so it was decided that the models will be switched,” he explained curtly and I nod, suddenly having a bad feeling about all this. Hangeng will come over tonight. We made plans to go out to eat and I wanted to take him to the Han River because it’s very beautiful there at night…

“How long will we shoot today?” I ask hesitantly, knowing that this is not the right question to ask, especially not when I am the one who arrived late.

My manager shoots me a sharp look just as we arrive in the changing room. “I’ll speak to the photographers to see what they think. Until then, please meet Jun of Seventeen. He will be your ‘twin’ for this photo shooting.”

I nod in understanding and turn towards the person who just gets up from his makeup chair. We both bow as a greeting, but when I straighten again, I suddenly recognize him. “You’re one of the two kids who were doing that dance with the white ribbon!”

Jun stares at me for a few seconds, then he bursts out laughing at my description. “Yes, that would be me. And the other one is Minghao, one of my band members.”

I nod lightly in understanding. “Wow. It’s really cool to meet you.”

“You’re Heechul, aren’t you?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“You haven’t been in the business for too long, have you?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Then I’ll be your sunbae now and not a kid,” Jun declares with a challenging sparkle in his eyes, then he turns to sit back down in the chair to let the young women work on his styling. “By the way, if your appointment tonight is urgent, I’d recommend you to sit down as well so we can get started soon.”

I force myself to stop staring at him like an idiot and instead finish my coffee. I dispose of the cup and then sit down in the vacant chair to allow our makeup-noonas to get to work with my makeup and my hair styling.

The shooting itself works really well. Though Jun and I need a while to become as comfortable with each other as we have to be – at least in front of the camera – things work out quite smoothly afterwards, yet it’s obvious that I won’t get the chance to pick Hangeng up at central station like I had initially planned to. I text him at some point and use a break we get to run downstairs and tell the doorman to let Hangeng in when he arrives, then I text my boyfriend the exact directions of how to get to studio three and apologize for not being able to meet him at the station like I promised I would. I’m glad the directors at least gave me permission to invite him up here.

We’re nearing the end of the photo shooting when I notice that my thread moves stronger than before and I know that Hangeng is nearby. I try to keep my facial expression y just like the photographer says it should be and I remind myself to look towards the camera and not towards the door that I know will open soon.

“Heechul, turn a bit more to the side, Jun, look up a little more. Yes, that’s good! A little more! Don’t forget you’re supposed to be twins!” the photographer continues his instructions and I wonder how he can talk so much without drinking anything in between, but I continue to follow his orders.

I’m just told to turn towards my other side and wrap my arm around Jun’s shoulders when I notice movement somewhere behind the bright lights. My thread points right towards the movement and it takes all of my self-control to keep on looking towards the camera, to keep my attention on the photographer.

“Relax,” Jun mumbles next to and turns a little to give the camera a different angle and I try to do as he says. I can almost feel Hangeng’s eyes on me while the rest of the pictures is taken and I suddenly feel a little self-conscious due to the dress shirt I’m wearing that only has half of its buttons closed, exposing part of my chest. Hangeng has never seen me like this! In my prior photo shoots, the shirts have been buttoned up all the way and I’m pretty sure he has seen pictures of those shootings. But this one here is different. It’s much bigger and wouldn’t usually be given to a newbie like me. I guess I’m just lucky that Jun and I look so much alike.

They have us strike a few more poses until the photographer takes a break to look at the pictures he’s just taken, then he nods.

“Good job, everyone. We’ll meet here at 6AM tomorrow since we’ll finish early today.”

“There’s a live show scheduled for Seventeen tomorrow,” someone throws in from somewhere in the darkness.

“We’ll work around that. There are single shots scheduled anyway, we’ll just do Heechul’s tomorrow then,” the photographer replies and I hold back a groan. So much for spending time with my boyfriend… “Are there any other schedules we’ll have to work around?” I bite my lip to keep myself from saying anything I might regret sooner. When no one else speaks up either, the photographer nods. “Great, then we’ll meet again here tomorrow. 6AM sharp,” he instructs and then those annoying bright lights are turned off.

“Good job everyone,” someone else from the crew calls out and the others give a round of applause, so Jun and I do the same.

“Don’t be late tomorrow,” Jun teases me and pats my shoulder, then he leaves into the direction of two men, one seems to be about Jun’s age and the other one is a little older than that, probably Seventeen’s manager.

I also leave the shooting area, but instead of going to my manager like I know I probably should, I hurry to Hangeng first. He stays by the wall, most likely having been told not to move from that spot, but he does approach me on my last few steps before I can fling myself into his arms. He hugs me and I lean up to peck his cheek. It doesn’t matter what everyone else will say, Hangeng is my boyfriend. Unless it can hurt him, I won’t hide this from the world – and my career is not at a point where it could hurt him, not yet at least.

“Kim Heechul!” I roll my eyes and take a step back, letting one of my hands drop while the other reaches down to intertwine its finger’s with Hangeng’s while I turn around.

“Yes?”

“6AM tomorrow morning, you heard it. And no scandals, you know that!”

“Yes, I know,” I reply, but I’m giddy to get going. We’re probably running late for our restaurant appointment already anyway. “May I leave now?”

“Heechul-”

“I won’t forget what you said,” I promise and make pleading eyes. No matter how strict my manager is, I know he usually can’t deny me anything like that.

He sighs and I know I have won before he even has to say that. “If you’re late, you’re going to die.”

“I can live with that,” I reply with a grin and hurry into the changing room. I change quickly, unbothered by the fact that Jun and that other guy his age are also in the room. “See you tomorrow, Jun-ah,” I call over my shoulder as I leave.

“Yah!” he protests right away at my use of informal speech, but I just laugh as I leave the room. My mood is way too good to be brought down by that kid who seems to have an attitude too similar to mine for his own good!

“You were fast,” Hangeng comments when I leave the room and I shrug while taking his hand.

“I didn’t have the chance to pick out fancy clothing, so what else should I have done? Of course I’ll hurry. Plus, it means you get to spend more time with me~”

Hangeng laughs at that comment. “Shouldn’t you say that the other way around?”

I laugh as well at that. “Nope~ I’m so fabulous, I’ll keep it this way!”

“Whatever.”

I lead the way outside again, ignoring the fans since they’re not around for me anyway. One day, they will be here for me, though. I hear people taking pictures, but since Hangeng doesn’t pull his hand away from mine, I don’t care.

“No waiting for a taxi?” he asks after a few meters of just walking.

“No, the place I picked isn’t far from here. I sometimes eat there with Jungsu and Kyuhyun or just one of them, depending on who’s available. Sometimes Saeun will also eat with us.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It is.” I look to my side and smile at him. “What about you? How are your studies going?”

“They’re fine. I’m glad to be on a break right now, but it’s crazy to think that I only have one week off before I’ll start the internship…” Hangeng sighs and I can see how stressful all of that is.

“Then I’m honored to know that you’re willing to spend that week with me.”

“There’s no one whom I’d rather spend my week with.”

I sigh and look ahead again. “I’m sorry that I have to work… I got the call this morning… Apparently one of the guys who was supposed to model for this project is sick and they just decided that Jun and I should do it instead. I really thought I’d be off for a few days at least…”

“It’s fine. If I can watch you those other days, too, I’m sure I’ll manage.”

I glance over to see Hangeng grin and can’t help but shake my head. “Seriously, how is that worth watching?”

“Oh come on! Other people go on YouTube to watch those ‘behind the scenes’ videos, I get to be around while you do it! How is that not worth it?”

I laugh at that and have to admit that he’s kind of right – but only kind of. “It might still get boring.”

“I want to be near you, though.”

I nod in defeat. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do.” I’ll have to call my manager about that to check with him if it’ll be alright for me to bring Hangeng to the set. It might not be alright for someone there, but I definitely hope that it will be! “Seriously, when word about me spreads, they’ll probably get to know me as the one who bends the rules,” I comment eventually and can’t help but laugh.

“How so?”

“Well, I’m not straight and even openly walk around with my boyfriend instead of trying to hide that I have you, though I might have to start that someday since I’m not sure how fans will react to our relationship. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt by them… And then I’m taking you to our photo shoots…”

“If that’s all you got so far, that’s not really something to build a reputation with.”

“You’re right, I still have a lot to work for!”

Hangeng laughs and I grin at him. Hearing him laugh still makes me feel tingly on the inside and it reminds me that he’s really here, he’s with me, he’s alive. If that is not the best thing ever, then I don’t know what is.

I gently nudge him to turn left and to the restaurant. It’s nothing all too special from the outside, but their Korean cuisine is the best!

______________________________________________________________________________________________

That's it with the extra sweetness~ I hope you enjoyed reading a little more about these two?

Please let me know what you think and if there are any questions still left open :) Also, please let me know if anything was too confusing and I'll try to work on that again~

Thank you again to everyone who supported me with this story! <3