All he got was a gaped face Jongdae after he finished his little story.

"Really?" Jongdae bit his lip nervously. 

"Yeah, it was whatever. They went to court, fought it out, my Mom agreed to be on the offender's registry for three years for my Dad's amusement in exchange for a year in prison. I stayed with my aunt that year and I was returned back to my Mom. No one really fought over me, honestly, they were both trying to dispose of me. I was a bad reminder of their unsuccessful marriage," Jongin said simply while they waited at a red light. 

"That's-that's horrible," Jongdae shook his head. "Where's your parents now?"

"My mom is living with her fourth husband in a apartment up in New York, quite the druggie. My dad is happily married to his new wife with a pair of twins in Washington. It's quite the thrill," he said with no humour. "How about you, where's your dad?"

"In New York too, he got a job offer there and we really needed the money so I stayed with my grandparents here," he looked puzzled. "Haven't seen my dad in awhile. Our family's not the richest on the block."

Jongin nodded in response as they headed into the parking lot of the sandy beach. The squawks of hungry seagulls overlapped the excitied energy of children running along the water.

"There's a lot of people here," Jongdae said softly. Jongin laughed in response.

"You should see it when it's summer," he replied. 

Jongdae had a lot of fun playing in the water. Cold currents splashed his ankles as he kicked and leaped in the air, looking plenty more enthusiastic than the young toddlers and children roaming around. It was pleasurable watching Jongdae play as he would run up closely to the currents and as a wave pulled in, he sprinted back to shore with joy on his face. 

"He your boyfriend?" Jongin heard a voice speak and he turned to find an aged man leaning against a yellowing beach chair. Even though the weather was chilly. His tanned leathery skin was hidden under a thin layer of a soft cream tunic. He looked serene, at peace almost, but a hint of melancholy danced in his eyes. They looked tired though, as they seemed to be have dancing for awhile now. 

Shaking his head, the old man replied with a silken and slight smile. 

"You love him don't you?" he sighed. 

"How did you know?" Jongin questioned. The old man exhaled deeply. 

"That was the way I used to look at my husband, that exact look," he smiled a grin that appeared to large on his aging face, and it made Jongin surpress a smile as well.

"He's got your red thread lassoed huh?" Jongin stared at the man with curiousity. 

"What red thread?" 

"The red thread all lovers have I suppose. I know it's not really something that most people believe in, but soulmates. Everyone who is walking on this planet has a red thread knotted on their smallest finger, and the other end of the thread is connected to someone else's. Not everyone finds their other half, but it's there." The old man simpered with a touch of sadness coated over the words.

"Is this a hypothetical theory?" Jongin inquired as the man nodded. "Well, I've heard people say you don't find someone who completes you, because you are your own person. You just need to find someone who accepts you."

"I've heard that too, and I've once believed it. But to the few including me," he pointed to himself. "This person, they just make you feel like everything's going to be okay. When you're in your biggest troubles and you find yourself drowning in the sixteen foot depth of cold reality, this person will jump in along to swim back to shore with you. I know it's corny, other half but, if your heartstrings realy pull, they got ya good."  

Jongin considers the idea. Is Jongdae really my other half? Or is this old man pulling some really sentimental bull on me? 

"I know, what can an old hag like me know about the romance of these days? But if it's there, it's there," he used his leathery hands to open Jongin's palm and he dropped something in it. "Love is something that not everyone can find, make sure this one doesn't get away."

With that as his final word, he calmly picked up his beach chair and walked off. Weirded out by the eerie conversation, he opened his palm to reveal a necklace. It was a golden chain with a rose gold  heart as the pendant. A mircoscopical crimson line dashed the rose gold heart into two. On the back of it, it read

Connected by the remarkable red thread.

Mark Tuan and Jackson Wang 092197