"According to the police department a meddling from outside sources can't be excluded. The victim has been a long and good friend to a famous string medium. The medium is currently in custody to investigate if the medium was involved in this tragedy or not.

This case shows, once again, how important it is to create regulations for mediums to ensure issues like this can’t happen again in the future. The senate is currently discussing a possible law that prevents mediums to intervene in the lives of others. However, as it's still unclear how the meddling is done by the mediums, critics fear that a law itself won't find much ground to act on future illegal meddlings. Nevertheless, they agree that some kind of controlling system should be put into place.

Mediums are extremely rare. It is believed that they only consist of 0.0001% of our countries population. We kindly urge you to contact your nearest police station should you notice..."

JaeBeom turned the TV off and stared blankly at the dark square in front of him. A sigh escaped his lips while he closed his eyes tiredly. With a soft 'thump' he let himself fall back on his sofa. His thoughts were running wild in his head. This was not the first time that this had happened lately... Since one of Korea’s most famous actors of the current generation committed suicide, everyone kept on looking for someone else to blame for it. Not long, however, and people found out about his messed up relationships with various men and women and the connection to someone who's supposed to be able to meddle with peoples soulmate strings. And this was what the media kept on focusing on ever since.

Most people barely knew anything about the old practice of soulmate string meddling. However, everyone knew that the strings should not be messed with in the first place as it can lead to confusion, heartache and loneliness. JaeBeom, of all people knew about this all too well. Especially since he is one of those people with that rare ability.

That the young Korean man was a medium was a well kept secret that only a handful of people knew about. He had only told the ones he trusted to keep quiet about it. Three people in total knew of it and so far they’ve all kept their mouths shut. This hopefully will be the case in the future as well.

JaeBeom opened his eyes again. Everything looked like it has always been. The soft fragrant of flowers lay in the air. A scent that came from a freshly picked bouquet on his dinner room table. The small living room lay in deep darkness. Only the lights from outside brightened the room a tiny bit.

The young Korean turned his head slightly to the left. The corner he was staring at lay in complete darkness. Nevertheless, he kept his eyes on that corner. He slightly shifted his sight and suddenly a bright red string was glimmering through the darkness in that corner.
That string had been there since JaeBeom moved into this flat a few weeks ago. Over that short time he got to know that this particular string belonged to his next door neighbour. A married man with two kids... who's string is attached to someone else. Someone outside of this building.

JaeBeom has never dared to touch it as he knew how delicate those thin strings can be. Luckily, he was able to blend them out of his view most of the time. By blending the strings out he also avoids the risk of tearing strings apart or accidental meddling with them. He's only able to do something with the strings when he truly sees them. It's like a Natural safety mechanism. Or the nature playing hide and seek like a three year old. Not that JaeBeom would ever complain about that.
Shifting his eyesight back to the one normal people have usually made him feel more at ease, as he didn't have to worry too much about messing things up. He rarely changes his sight, however, sometimes it's nice to do so and just... look at them. Seeing them shine in the dark was one of the most beautiful sights he’s been allowed to witness so far. It was like seeing strings of red diamonds glitter in the darkness and that all around him. The mere sight, however, made him feel anxious despite him being awestruck by thim time and time again. It was incredible that this small little thing had such a huge impact on other people's lives. It made him also happy to know that most people out there were destined for someone. Most people call it soulmates or faith or even destiny.
Unfortunately, it's very rare that those people ever find a way to each other. JaeBeom himself had only seen one couple in this short life time that was truly meant for each other.

In ancient times mediums were actually used to find someone's destined soulmates. However, as with most things people don't see or understand they soon lost their faith in the old methods and practices. They called the mediums crazy or even worse, scammers. Some might have been all that. Some might have pretended to be mediums or led people to any random stranger and claimed them to be soulmates just to get a coin or two. However, not all of them were like this.

JaeBeom bit his lips and stared at his own hands. Most people are connected by a string that loosely clings on each others ring fingers. Everyone's connected. Only he isn’t.
JaeBeom wasn't sure if the reason for this might have been because he was able to see the strings. However, he rarely saw normal people without strings too. People without soulmates. People like him. Well... not exactly like him but also destined to be alone. Forever

Longingly, he reached out his hand as if he wanted to touch the string. A soft warmth was radiating from it. It felt blissful, joyous even, and JaeBeom wanted to do nothing more than to touch the string. However, he kept his hands in a safe distance from it. A simple intentional touch could change his neighbours life forever. That's what he's been told when he talked with his parents about his gift when he was very very young. He wasn't sure if it was true but he wasn't that keen to find out about it either. Especially after the most recent events.

Another sigh left his lips. He just wanted to turn towards his bedroom to get a good portion of well deserved sleep, when he hear the high pitched tones of his door look. Five keys were pressed before a melody told the person on the other side that the combination was wrong. Again a set of numbers were entered. Those numbers, however, must have been wrong too as the same melody from before emerged from the small device on the door.

JaeBeom had instantly stopped in his movement when he heard the first tone. He stared at the door for a few seconds until he gathered up all his courage to stand right in front of it to peak through the peephole. Even while he was doing that, entered the person on the other side their third code into the device but still was not successful to get it unlocked. A soft smile formed on JaeBeom's face when he finally recognised the person on the other side. He instantly opened his door.

The well lit corridor made bright light stream into JaeBeom’s dark flat. The brightness of it momentarily blinded JaeBeom but soon his eyes adjusted to the light and he was able to see the two people in front of him without having to squeeze his eyes close.

"Your password isn't my birthday! Why isn't it my birthday? It has to be my birthday! I'm your best friend. Your BFF. Your homie. Your buddy," Jackson instantly started to complain and went on and on and on about this matter before JaeBeom even had the chance to say 'Hi'. Jackson has always been the most talkative one in their small group of friends. He was fun and energetic... which was also the reason why JaeBeom hasn’t revealed his password to his friend as he needed at least one calm place where he could come back to without having to fear sudden unannounced visits from Jackson or any of his friends. Today, the younger seemed a bit more... him than usual and JaeBeom instinctively knew that something must have happened. He braced himself for the worst to come.

Behind the slightly short but muscular man stood a taller man. JaeBeom has only seen this man a couple of times before but he recognised the elder instantly. It was Mark. Jackson’s boyfriend.
When Jackson noticed JaeBeom's eyes on the elder he quietly pushed Mark to the front. Mark smiled and lowered his head to great JaeBeom. It was an awkward move. It didn’t make it better that it slightly resembled a bow as well.

Jackson, who had watched the awkward interaction, quietly shook his head at that but tried to hide his annoyance with the elder by looking JaeBeom in the eyes and giving the other the brightest smile he could offer.

"Can we come in?" the younger asked while already pushing passed JaeBeom to get into the cosy flat. Jackson rushed to the light switches and illuminated the open living room. The younger's feet basically flew over the recently polished floor and headed towards the sofa without hesitation. Once he reached the castle of pillows and comfort, he let himself fall into the soft cushions.

"Have I ever told you how much I like your sofa?" the younger asked which made JaeBeom rise his eyebrows while closing the door behind Mark, who quietly snuck passed JaeBeom as well and hastily joined Jackson on the sofa. Both of them definitely acted weird today.

Mark snuggled a bit deeper into the cushions while also pulling Jackson closer to himself. A few more remarks are made about JaeBeom's sofa until the young Korean decided that it's been enough small talk for the night and that his friends needed to finally start spilling the beans.

With crossed arms he leaned on a nearby wall and stared at his friend with a stern expression on his face. This instantly made Mark feel uncomfortable, which lead to him becoming even quieter than before. Jackson on the other hand didn't seem to care the slightest bit. Nevertheless, he fell quiet once he heard JaeBeom speak to them.
"Have you been kicked out?" JaeBeom asked as this was the only logical explanation he could find for the strange behaviour of his friends and their late appearance in his flat.

Jackson stayed quiet for a while before he finally grabbed Mark's hand. Softly he patted the elder's knuckles before he completely covered the elders hand with his. A gentle smile appeared on his face. As if he was looking for reassura