Seungcheol's Little Matchmaker

Word Count: 6225

I can’t really explain it. However, from the moment I first saw Jihoon, I knew that there was something special between us. I thought we were just destined to be the best of friends, but these feelings weren’t the kind you would have for someone who was only a friend. For the entire duration of my first sighting of Jihoon, my eyes were glued to him. I was mesmerised. He looked fragile, despite all the guards he seemed to have up. His expression was almost robotic, as if emotions were foreign to him, but I would soon learn that Lee Jihoon was the most emotional person to exist, even if he could not show it.

It was my third time seeing Jihoon, when I finally managed to gather the courage to ask his mother, who he was. She was over the moon to introduce me to her pride and joy.

“Seungcheolie meet my little Jihoonie!” I watched Jihoon tense as his mother slid an arm around him and pulled him towards her. I wanted to erase that tension. I wanted Jihoon to openly embrace another, without being tense.

“Hi Jihoon!” I beamed, trying as hard as possible to get him to smile back. “I’m Seungcheol, but you can call me S.Coups!” I laughed, emphasising the final syllable as much as possible. I don’t know what I was thinking. Who the heck creates nicknames for themselves? Jihoon has never let me live it down, either. I noticed that in his contacts list, he still has me under S.Coups.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Jihoon’s tone was plain and blank, devoid of life. I wanted to change that. I wanted him to be so loud that his neighbours would forever be telling him off. I wanted him to be confident in who he was. I didn't want him to be scared. I wanted him to be comfortably awkward.

“I’m going to call you Woozi!” I stated. I remember that despite being a relatively chubby kid, Jihoon looked incredibly frail, as if he would snap the moment he moved. He looked as if his legs would give out from underneath him because he couldn’t handle everything and the world.

“Why?” I could have sworn that Jihoon sounded slightly flustered and it made me ecstatic to hear emotion in Jihoon. I craved his smile, his frown, his confusion, his happiness, his sadness, his excitement, his anger, his disappointment, his praise and most of all, I craved him, only as a friend, of course.

“Because you look like you’d struggle to stand with those weak legs.” I laughed. He threw all his crayons at me after that and I had to run away to my father. It was nice; seeing his anger.

I interacted with Jihoon more after that and we grew closer. It got to the point where we would see each other on a daily basis and I loved it. I loved the brief time we spent together in that cafe as kids and I will cherish those times forever. As we got older and more independent, our meetings became longer and at more random times. It was easy for us to meet up as I only lived down the road. Before we knew it, we were best friends and I thought I was satisfied.

At the age of 10, Jihoon told me about his ability. I listened to him, feeling more alive with every word that came out of his mouth.

“I can see stuff that other people can’t see.” Jihoon stated, one night. He was tired and his guard was slightly lower than usual. Of course, he would never admit that.

“What do you mean?” I rolled his desk chair over to where he was laid on his bed.

“I can see the red strings of fate that bind people together.” Jihoon explained, looking at his ceiling. I remember that 10 year old Jihoon was obsessed with stars and we had spent a whole day, with his mother, painting the galaxy on Jihoon’s ceiling. I loved the way his mother had blended the different shades of purple, blue and pinky, with the occasional tint of yellow to give it a glowing effect. I loved how Jihoon and I had painted the sun around his light.

“Really? Who am I binded to, then?” Being the curious child I was, I didn’t hesitate to ask him. If your best friend could see the red string of fate, wouldn’t you ask them?

“You don’t have a string.” Jihoon stated.

“What?!” I remember being horribly confused by how it was possible for someone to not have a string. I also dreaded the idea of being alone in life. I craved the company of another. I didn’t like being alone., “What does that mean?!”

“It could mean multiple things.” Jihoon was always straight forward in his explanation. “It could mean you are aual. It could mean your soulmate isn’t born yet,” Jihoon hesitated, “Or, you could be the one who is unfortunate to be my soulmate.”

“What? So I could not have a soulmate? Or I could be 10 years older than mine? Isn’t that weird? I mean I don’t think we’re soulmates! We’re just the best of friends!” I responded. I didn’t realise how wrong I could be and 10 year old me, ended up unintentionally hurting Jihoon, even if Jihoon didn’t care.

It was a couple years after that when Jihoon finally told me about his parents situation. I dreaded the idea of Jihoon keeping that secret all his life. I wished he would have told me sooner.

“My mum and dad don’t really love each other.” Jihoon stated after a long period of silence had settled between us. Jihoon’s parents weren’t home and the two of us were both just lying on Jihoon’s bed, looking up at the ceiling. The galaxy was still there.

“What do you mean? Are they not soulmates?” I looked at Jihoon. I remember have the urge to squish his cheeks that were more swollen up than usual, due to having to have a tooth removed recently. Now was not the right time.

“No. My dad’s soulmate must have passed away and I’ve never seen my mum’s soulmate, but I know they exist.” Jihoon still didn’t show any emotion on the outside, but I knew that it affected Jihoon, even if he didn’t admit it. I slowly held Jihoon’s hand and squeezed it once. It was my way of reassuring Jihoon with the smallest amount of physical interaction possible.

“What do you think is going to happen?” I tentatively asked. I dreaded the idea of Jihoon being split between two parents. Jihoon deserved the world and more, not this.

“Maybe they’ll meet and I’ll end up with split parents or they’ll never meet and my parents may manage to stay together.” Jihoon shrugged it off as casually as possible.

However, they met. One day, about a year later, his mother’s soulmate walked into the cafe, looking for job opportunities. His mother ended up hiring her and from there, their marriage began to fall apart. Jihoon had never looked so broken before then. Even if Jihoon looked the same, there were subtle differences. His eating patterns changed. His sleeping habits became more random and shorter. The tension when he was touched was stronger. He was closing in on himself again and I couldn’t let that happen.

Jihoon’s parents separated when he was 14 and I remember hearing Jihoon knock on my door at about 10pm. Despite my mother’s slight annoyance at the timing, Jihoon winded up staying over for a sleepover. I remember seeing Jihoon tremble in his sleep and I learnt why this was our first ever sleepover. Jihoon let his guard down completely when he slept.

It wasn’t long after that when we began making friends with other people. Jihoon was initially against the idea, but I guess that he wanted to make sure he had a safety net for if I ever ditched him. We ended up making friends with Soonyoung and I noticed that Jihoon would occasionally speak with this guy that I would later know as Wonwoo. However, I noticed Soonyoung was always a little too close to Jihoon and I decided to make sure I kept a tight grip on Jihoon, which meant joining dance club with Jihoon, even though I wasn’t a great dancer.

“Ah! So you must be Jihoon! I’m Seungkwan!” Seungkwan introduced himself almost immediately. His voice was loud and echoed around the hall. He seemed nice though and I thought it would be good for Jihoon to get used to noisier people.

“It’s nice to meet you, Seungkwan.” Jihoon bows and I don’t miss the way Seungkwan seemed to tremble for an instant when he notices Jihoon staring at his pinky, which was a habit Jihoon has. Whatever Seungkwan was thinking about, he quickly snapped out of it, before bowing back to Jihoon, then turning to face me.

“And you are?” Seungkwan smiled.

“Choi Seungcheol, this guy’s best friend.” I smiled back, bowing to Seungkwan before also shaking his hand. I exchanged a quick glance  with Jihoon, then released Seungkwan’s hand. The look we exchanged wasn’t much; it was just me checking whether it was ok with Jihoon for us to befriend him.

“I see. It’s nice to meet you, Seungcheol and you too Jihoon.” Seungkwan seemed to be struggling to hold back a grin and it worried me slightly.

“Ok, go away now you creep.” Soonyoung pushed Seungkwan away, before he could say anything else to us.  “Go play with Chan or something.”

“Fine.” Seungkwan whined, wondering over to Chan and Junhui to moan about how annoying Soonyoung is.

Junhui was another problem for Jihoon. I had never seen Jihoon tense up so fast. The moment Jihoon laid eyes on Junhui, he froze. It was quite a shock for me to see, but I noticed Jihoon’s eyes were stuck on Junhui’s hands. Jihoon started avoiding Junhui after that and it made me laugh, seeing the boy’s antics. I had never seen Jihoon so confused and bewildered. At one point, I ended up having to take Jihoon to another room to talk about it, as it was getting slightly off putting.

“So why are you scared of Junhui, Woozi?” I interrogated him.

“He’s got two soulmates!” Jihoon exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” It can be hard sometimes, not seeing what Jihoon can.

“He’s got two red strings of fate.” He explained.

“Ok. So what do we do?”

“I don't know, but one’s very far away, maybe even in another country. Maybe we should just leave him to sort it out. I mean, I’ve got my Dad to worry about.” Jihoon’s father was still struggling to deal with the divorce. Apparently, it had gotten so bad at one point that his father’s tried to commit suicide. I never got the full details, but Jihoon somehow managed to convince him not to. Things were improving now, but Jihoon still couldn’t relax.

“Sure, but if you're ever planning anything, let me know.” There was no point in stressing Jihoon out any further. He already had a crack in him from his parent’s divorce, there was no point in enlarging the crack, until he broke. However, what I didn’t realise was that, every person I dated only made the crack was. I, myself, was hurting Jihoon.

I don’t know when I became a love counsellor for Soonyoung, but eventually, I found Soonyoung coming to me for advice on how to confess to Jihoon and how to get Jihoon to love him. It was ridiculous and none of it worked in the end, as unlike me, who was constantly holding back someone from their soulmate, Jihoon would never date someone else’s soulmate. He claimed, he didn’t see the point, but he still felt guilty when he turned down Soonyoung. It hurt me to see Jihoon upset, even if it wasn’t really noticeable, so I later agreed to assist in getting Soonyoung with Seokmin, when Seokmin finally began high school. It helped, that due to a lack of interest in childcare, my class consisted of 1st and 2nd years. It allowed me to talk to Seokmin easily and we found ourselves becoming friends, so it was quite easy to introduce him to Soonyoung. The two quickly became friends as well and our lunch table got even noisier. It didn’t help that I had also befriended Mingyu at the beginning of our 2nd year. Jihoon and Mingyu’s first interactions were quite funny.

“Hey, Seungcheol!” Mingyu waved at me. “Who’s this?” It was Mingyu’s first day at highschool and I had agreed to show the freshman around. I didn’t intend to end up befriending the giant.

“This is my best friend, Woozi.” I draped an arm over Jihoon, resting my head on Jihoon’s, which earned me a swollen foot from Jihoon, who, of course, stomped on my foot to get me off.

“Ignore him.” Jihoon moved away from me, “He’s just a nuisance. I’m Jihoon.” He stuck a hand towards Mingyu and gave him a small smile. I knew Jihoon was just joking.

“So cute.” Mingyu was about to receive the handshake, when he heard a small tsk sound from Jihoon. The next minute, Jihoon was about a metre away from hitting Mingyu with a guitar and the giant was borderline tears in the corner. Thankfully, I stopped Jihoon before anything bad happened. After that incident, Mingyu was a lot more careful around Jihoon and he seemed to have gained a fear of guitars and Jihoon. However, that did not stop Mingyu from becoming friends with Jihoon. It was probably a good thing, as I heard that Jihoon assisted in the meeting of Mingyu and Wonwoo. It was annoying as Mingyu and Wonwoo were constantly flirting alongside Soonyoung and Seokmin. However, both pairs were oblivious to the other’s feelings. Soonyoung was extra annoying as he kept coming to me for advice again, this time about Seokmin. He did appreciate that this time, Jihoon was there to help him, so he didn’t do much and just let Jihoon sort it out.

“He’s just got such a nice smile. Literally, every time he smiles, it’s like the universe lights up. He’s like the sun.” Soonyoung rolled around Jihoon’s bed, messing it up.

“You’ve already said that.” Jihoon sighed for about the 5th time.

“Yeah, but you just don’t get it. He’s just so amazing and his voice is like an angel has descended.” Soonyoung continued. He was swinging his arms about, as if he hoped to make snow angels with Jihoon’s bed.

“If you like him so much, why don’t just confess?” Jihoon lightly kicked Soonyoung with his right foot.

“You don’t understand. It’s not easy to confess. I might get rejected again. He might not even like me in that way.” Soonyoung defended himself.

“Soonyoung, you’ve basically been eye ing for the last few weeks. I’m pretty sure you two love each other.” Jihoon tensed slightly at the mention of rejection. He still hadn’t entirely forgiven himself. It was so like Jihoon; he’s always saying he could have done better and that he can do better. Before you know it, Jihoon’s overexerting himself far too much. Despite all the meetings, no one really got together until our third year.

It was in our third year that Jeonghan transferred to our school. He gave off angelic vibes and his voice was holy and gentle. His eyes were gentle and kind, but despite all of that, he wasn’t angelic. He was constantly teasing us and pulling pranks on us. I love the happy, laughing expression he would pull after a prank was successful. I thought I loved him. However before Jeonghan confessed, another duo finally got their act together.

It was a regular school day, except today, Wonwoo had called Mingyu up to the rooftop. They hadn’t managed to sneak away unnoticed though and Jihoon and I were hiding nearby. When I asked him, why we had to watch, he told me it was research. What was he even researching?

“So what do you need?” Mingyu asked, grinning like a child.

“Well,” Wonwoo was unable to meet Mingyu’s eyes. “We’ve been friends for a quite some time, but I was kind of hoping we could be more than that. You know?” Wonwoo glanced at Mingyu’s face.

“You want to be best friends?” Mingyu asked, “Sure.”

“No, something more than that. I like you a lot.” Wonwoo groaned slightly. I could feel Jihoon faceplam, next to me.

“Best friends forever?” Mingyu raised, “I mean, won’t Junhui be jealous? You’re pretty close with him afterall.” Jihoon had taken to headbutting me in the shoulder now.

Wonwoo sighed. “Yeah best friends forever. I’m sure Junhui won’t mind. He has a friend in China he talks to a lot.”

“Well, sure! I’ll be your best friend forever!” Mingyu beamed. “I can’t wait to tell Jihoon and the others!” Mingyu turned to the exit, “Come on! Let’s go eat l