"I'm telling you, Seokmin!" Jeonghan exclaimed, a hint of worry and panic in his voice as he regarded his laughing friend, who was practically about to keel over from how much he was doing so. The people walking around them were beginning to give them strange looks, but he clearly didn’t mind. Jeonghan was too preoccupied with telling him off to notice, too. ”The crystal ball never lies. What that lady said must be true, I mean—"

"If it were true for Hansol and Seungkwan, why not you, right?" 

Jeonghan nodded furiously, eliciting only more laughs from his friend. He sighed in frustration; there was no helping it if the younger boy refused to believe. He can't force him or anything, but Jeonghan has always been a rather superstitious boy. Tales from his grandparents and parents stuck with him as he grew up. He believed all the myths and folklore and was always, always careful to do the right thing especially in areas where spirits could be involved— which was, well, everywhere. 

He never walked between couples, too, worried that he'll tangle the red string of fate in between them, if ever. 

Anything could be possible.

The crystal ball thing that mystical old ladies had though, that was definitely real, especially the ones over at Insadong. Jeonghan brought Hansol there only months before; he was told that he was going to fall in love and get together with someone who had the initials BSK. A few weeks later, he gets together with Boo Seungkwan; coincidence? Jeonghan thinks not. It wasn't long before he wanted his own fortune told to him, too. Seokmin had volunteered to go with him, which the blonde boy now regretted agreeing to.

Now they stood just a few blocks away from the mystic’s store, in their present situation.

"Jeonghan, Hansol's been in love with Seungkwan way before the crystal ball thing. Pretty sure Seungkwan’s always been into him, too,” the younger boy pointed out. That much was true. Everybody knew that. Still.

"Yes, but the lady had no idea who Hansol was! Let alone Seungkwan! How could she have known his initials, right?" 

Seokmin shook his head, still skeptical, ”did Hansol have his phone out during the thing?" 

Jeonghan tried to remember that particular detail, wondering why the other had decided to ask. Hansol did have his phone out for a bit until the old lady had scolded him for disrupting the aura of the room and also for disrespecting the crystal ball by not paying attention to it. Apparently, it got very touchy when not given proper attention. It made sense. Jeonghan remembered what happened because he made it a point to take note of that the next time he visited. Wouldn't want to disrespect anything, right? 

When he nodded, Seokmin continued. 

"She probably saw that he was texting Seungkwan. It's not hard to notice they communicate 24/7."

"She wouldn't do that," Jeonghan defended, although for a second a picture of Hansol's phone flashing a new text from Seungkwan as it rested on the table crossed his mind. It wasn't hard to miss. He shook the thought out of his head, "I still believe her. Don't insult the practitioners, Seokmin. They worked very hard for this.” 

Seokmin rolled his eyes, "alright, alright. Guess there's no stopping you. Tell me how your day goes, then. I’m heading back to the dorm. Say hi to Jisoo for me!” 

"You bet I will so I can prove you wrong!"

/ 

According to the lady, today was the day Yoon Jeonghan was meeting his soulmate, his fated one, the one his red string of fate led to. It was a boy— that much was obvious since about 1995, but still good to know— and his name was Jisoo. When Jeonghan had asked for more specifics, the mystic said that she couldn’t see any more than that. The fact that he was given a clear name was already something to be thankful for. 

Now all he had to do was meet Jisoo.

Jeonghan wasn’t sure what to do about it, at this point.

“Seokmin shouldn’t have left me alone,” he mumbled to himself as he walked along the streets aimlessly. Normally, he would have protested a lot to being left alone— especially in such a crowded area like Insadong— but he also can’t blame the guy. He would leave too if staying around meant being a thirdwheel to your friend and their soulmate. Then again, it’s not like Seokmin believed in what the mystic said; maybe Jeonghan should have argued that he didn’t leave, after all. 

He was in the process of mentally debating with himself whether he should stay in Insadong or walk back home when he heard a familiar voice call his name.

“Jeonghan! Yoon Jeonghan! Hey!”

Jeonghan turned around and squinted at the distance, spotting a patch of dirty blonde hair.

“Hansol?”

Sure enough, the younger boy walked up to him quickly soon after Jeonghan stopped. It took the latter a few seconds to notice that Hansol wasn’t alone— there was someone trailing behind him, who most definitely wasn’t Seungkwan in any way. Jeonghan greeted his friend with a quick high five, before setting his sights back on the stranger with a questioning look. The drop dead handsome and gorgeous stranger with the shy smile whom Jeonghan would very much like to get to know. 

“This here is my friend from America,” Hansol explained. “His name is Joshua. You’re the same age, actually. Josh, this was the friend I mentioned, Jeonghan.”

“Nice to finally meet you,” Joshua spoke, offering his hand, which Jeonghan took with a smile of his own. 

“Hansol has mentioned me?”

Turning to the younger boy, Jeonghan was mentally trying to communicate something along the lines of why haven’t you mentioned Joshua to me though— clearly the boy was his type, Hansol should have known better— which didn’t seem to work because all he got was a bit of an embarrassed chuckle, followed by a