The red strings of fate, do you know about them? 

According to Japanese legend, it is said that a red string is tied to the  small finger and connects two people who are destined to be lovers, no matter the time, place, or circumstance. It's a beautiful legend that can make people's hearts flutter just by the mention of it. 

Have you ever seen these mythical strings before? 

If you're like Choi Youngjae, then I suppose you never stop seeing them. You see, he's one of those rare people who can actually see the strings. Everywhere he looks, there'll be at least a few strings laying around, connecting those to their lovers. Some are tangled, some are stretched, but none ever seem to be broken. 

Youngjae isn't the only one with this ability, for there are very few others who have this, too. Along with being able to see these red strings, there are various things that they are able to do as well. People with the ability to see them can further manipulate others' strings. For instance, they can create more tangles, stretch the strings out even more, break the strings, or even tie them together.

You can imagine what kind of power these people have, and depending on the people, they'll either let the strings do their jobs or they'll bring chaos to destined lovers. Unfortunately, there are people out there in the world, who actually seek to create this disorder in the world by cutting strings and connecting them to other random people. What they're essentially doing is preventing those from being with the lover that the gods themselves chose for them and haphazardly changing their destinies to be with people that they are not supposed to be with. 

This is the hideous reality of how some use the power. 

Now, these chosen ones don't exactly have the ultimate capability of playing cupid or anti-cupid for everyone. The only string that they absolutely can not alter is their own string, which also spills into them not being able to alter their destined lover's string as well, since they are connected to the same one.

It's a fair trade for being able to change others' fates, right? At least this way, they're not cutting their string to match themselves up with whoever they want. 

Youngjae, who was mentioned to have this special ability, doesn't care about any of this, because he's a apart of an even rarer group of people, who don't seek to create any kind mayhem in the world. In his eyes, he believes that people's destinies shouldn't be toyed with and that there's a reason why certain people are meant to be together. 

The only good thing that comes out of having the ability for Youngjae is being able to see where the strings lead to. He loves watching people and being able to witness when the strings are shortened to the point where the people on the opposite ends are practically standing in front of each other. He loves seeing the lovers smiling at each other, as if they already knew that they were their destined partner, and he especially loves when the string matches up with their assumption. 

There were definitely times when Youngjae would think about getting people together, but he would always deny the desire, for he knew that it was straight out wrong to dictate who a person should be with. This is the belief that Youngjae had always stuck to for all his of life, and he didn't ever plan on changing that.

Not even when his best friend came running to him to ask that he cut his string.

"Youngjae, please," Mark begged him, his hand grasping Youngjae's. Mark's current lover, Jinyoung, was standing next to Mark with one hand holding Mark's other hand and seemed to be pleading for the same thing with his eyes.

Youngjae could only stare at the two in front of him, his eyebrows furrowing and his palms getting sweatier by the second. They were all at the cathedral for Jinyoung's marriage to someone his parents had arranged for him, and minutes before the wedding ceremony could begin, Mark had brought the both of them to Youngjae, so that he could cut both of their strings and tie them together. It was a request that Mark had always asked of Youngjae ever since he came to the conclusion that Jinyoung was for sure the only one for him, but as you all know, Youngjae's morals wouldn't allow himself to do it, even for a best friend. 

"Mark hyung, you know I can't." 

"I know you're against touching other people's strings, and I know that asking you to go against your beliefs makes me a terrible best friend, but I'm begging you. Please, cut our strings, so that we can be together."

"I-I can't...," Youngjae denied softly, letting go of Mark's hand. 

"But why? It's just cutting two strings and tying them together. Can't you--"

"No!" Youngjae snapped, catching Mark off guard. "No, I can't change who you're meant to be with, Mark hyung. I can't play with people's destinies like that. I can't cut the very string that leads to your true lover."

"That's the point! I don't want some silly red string telling me who I'm supposed to love!" 

Ouch. That's quite the hit to someone like Youngjae, who is a full believer of the string of fate.  

"If you think it's silly, then why the hell are you so bent on getting me to cut yours? I already told you that I can't cut the strings, so just accept it! Why don't you just run off and take Jinyoung hyung with you, huh?" Youngjae's fists were clenched, and it was taking all of him to keep himself from storming off. Even if his clenched fists expressed anger, Youngjae's eyes were expressing an entirely different emotion. Sadness? Hurt? Both?

"Because if you can't bind our destinies together, then I swore that I would go through with the marriage."

Jinyoung's composed voice startled Youngjae. He had forgotten that Jinyoung was right in front of him the whole time. Just looking at the handsome man in front of him and his strained smile made Youngjae's chest feel tight. 

"If you really can't, then I understand, Youngjae-ah. I won't force you to do something that you don't want to."

"Wait, Jinyoung. We still have some time. We can always just run away or...or." Mark was shushed with a kiss on the forehead from the Jinyoung, who only smiled sadly at him.

"I'm sorry, Mark. I guess it's my destiny to do this," Jinyoung chuckled. The dry joke did nothing but cause tears to start to form in Mark's eyes, and Youngjae could do nothing but look away.

"Hey, don't cry." Jinyoung reached over to wipe the tear that escaped and slid down Mark's cheek. 

"Your lover is out there, you know. Go find him. Forget about me, and be happy with whoever he may be. You never know; he may be the love of your life."

Mark couldn't object to anything Jinyoung was telling him, since his choked sobs were the only sounds that he could manage at the moment. 

The sight of his best friend crying triggered something in Youngjae, and he began to cry, too. He couldn't help but feel guilty for all of this, but he couldn't do anything about it, and that's what really got to him, the fact that he really couldn't do anything to prevent any of this.

With the help of Jinyoung's comfort, Mark's sobbing deduced to quiet sniffling. "Tell me if he breaks your heart, okay?" 

Jinyoung wiped a tear of his own as he gave Mark one of his brightest smiles. "I will." 

Mark left after that, claiming that although he would try to be happy for Jinyoung, he did not want to see him get married off to some stranger. He even jokingly said that he'd much rather be crying into his pillow, which probably wasn't a joke, now that Jinyoung and Youngjae think about.

"I'm sorry, Jinyoung hyung," Youngjae said after a moment of silence between the two.

"Don't be sorry, Youngjae-ah. It was wrong of us to ask you something like that in the first place. I'm sure Mark feels the same way and will be begging for your forgiveness soon."

"You think so?"

"Positive."

Soon, one of the wedding coordinators was rushing to Jinyoung's side and telling him that the ceremony was just about to start. He politely told her that he'd be there, and she left in a hurry to get everyone else in place.

"Before I go, can you confirm something for me, Youngjae-ah?"

Jinyoung pointed to the name printed on the sign, Im Jaebum, and proceeded to ask, "My fiancé, does my string lead to him?"

Youngjae glanced down at Jinyoung's red string and allowed his eyes to follow where it went. He took a few steps towards the cathedral doors and peeked his head inside. His eyes followed the string until it ended with it being tied to the pinkie finger of the man, who was standing next to the priest and looking like a nervous wreck. From where he was, Youngjae could make out the man asking the others beside him if he looked good and if his breath smelled okay.

Youngjae smiled then as he realized that the two really were destined lovers, and that smile was all Jinyoung needed as his answer. 

"Your lover on the other end of the red string," Jinyoung started suddenly, quickly grabbing Youngjae's attention. "You've already found him, haven't you?"

The question itself made the blood go to Youngjae's cheeks and ears, and he managed to stumble back a few steps, almost tripping if it hadn't been for Jinyoung catching and steadying him. His flustered state made Jinyoung chuckle.

Youngjae opened his mouth to reply, but no words wanted to come out at the moment. 

"It all makes sense now. With the way you look at him, I'm surprised he hasn't figured it out yet." 

Youngjae hung his head at his words, the shame of being found out resting on his shoulders. Jinyoung ruffled his hair and lifted his head by the chin to look at him. 

"Take care of him for me."

Without another word or any chance for Youngjae to say anything back, Jinyoung threw open the double doors and began to walk down the aisle that led to his lover. Youngjae was left speechless as he watched Jinyoung's retreating figure. 

How did he know? 

Even if Jinyoung found out about who he loved, he wouldn't be able to tell that it was the destined lover on the other end. 

There was no way he could've guessed who the destined one was, unless--

Oh, right.

Jinyoung must've known about it.

He must've known that Youngjae can't cut his own string.