week 1. connected by the string

The moment Sunggyu dies, everything goes black. He suddenly doesn’t feel anything but a weird tingle on the back of his… what? He doesn’t feel his arms anymore, doesn’t feel his legs nor the throbbing pain in his heart that caused his death in the first place. He just feels… calm, as if Sunggyu was now this floating smoke, finally at ease.

The fear he had for dying seemed ridiculous now, and he didn’t really believe in reincarnation. So, what was this? Is he already on the other side? Is this how is he going to be the next centuries? A conscious smoke?

He thinks about Woohyun, his beautiful Woohyun who was clenching on his hand when he passed away. His last memory of his lover was the vague smile on his lips with a few teardrops on his cheeks, and the comforting ‘i love you’ he whispered to his ear.

He remembers looking down to their connected hands and focusing on the thin red string connecting their little fingers together. He remembers the day his mom explained the meaning of the string to him, that only he’ll get to see his when he has finally met his true love. Sunggyu, as the average 9 years old boy, had made vomiting sounds right away.

“I won’t ever fall in love.” the boy assures, munching on his cereal.

But one does not decide when to fall in love, and he learned that after seeing Woohyun across the room on a party a decade later. The string suddenly appeared on his pinky, and Sunggyu’s eyes followed it until the end. Until Woohyun’s finger.

Sunggyu couldn’t imagine the pain the younger must’ve felt when he parted away, and it somehow left him anguished. If only he could have another chance to ends things better, he would take it. He would keep his promise on growing old with him, probably dying together in their bed, holding each other with the only love they came to know when they were together.

But he doesn’t regret his life. Dying at the age of 40 was considered early, but not too much. He lived his life fully devoted to his lover and he was satisfied with his experiences, mostly because of Woohyun.

He was the love of his life, and Sunggyu -