If in the off chance that there was possibly a past, alternate life, do people ever wonder what or who they might have been? Sana had wondered why she had even thought about this that day, but the idea had been amusing to her at the time. Perhaps in her past life she thought, she had been an animal like a Shiba Inu, or maybe in some alternate universe where maybe magic had existed, she would have been a witch, attending one of those special magic schools one would see in the movies. The more she thought about it, the more outlandish her ideas about the past had become. But regardless of whether there was one or not, nothing would prepare Sana for the encounter that is to come, that is, if there truly was a past life.

Sana’s Saturday plan involved going to the frat party to blow off steam from what was a long week of assignments, exams and classes. She wouldn’t say that she was a party animal, no, not like her other friends who went to parties and clubs any opportunity that they had got, but she couldn’t pass off the chance to let loose once in a while when her friends had asked her to come along with them.

The majority of the party had been largely uneventful; it was an excuse to have a few too many drinks, and a time where boys would lurk around and look for the opportunity to get a girl to spend the night with them. Navigating the spaces where strangers would make out, and others grinding on each other on the dancefloor, Sana stuck closely to her clique until she called them an uber at the end of the night. Upon opening the door to their uber, she was greeted by a surprisingly young and beautiful driver, who if she had to guess was around her age.

Before the driver could say a word, she had stopped dead in her tracks upon meeting gaze with Sana. Sana, who was just as dazed and confused, had also stood wide-eyed like a deer stuck in the headlights staring at her driver. She couldn’t tell if it was the alcohol she had been drinking, or whether it was completely something else, but she got the feeling, that somehow, they knew each other. It was somewhat absurd to Sana after all, it was the first time Sana had met this person. Yet she somehow couldn’t stop feeling like this was déjà vu. And Sana was certain in the way that the driver had looked at her that she felt the same.

Time stopped for what felt like an eternity before Sana’s friends had motioned her into the vehicle so they could leave. The driver, after being snapped out of her enchantment, finally worded what she was initially going to ask.

“O-Oh uh right, y-you’re Minatozaki Sana?”, the driver had asked nervously.

“Y-yes and you’re…Yoo Jeongyeon?”, Sana replied after seconds of opening the uber app to see the name of her driver.

“Yepp that’s me, just to confirm we’re heading to 230 Bern Street was it?”, Jeongyeon had said after regaining some sense of her composure.

With her friends being drunk and asleep in the back seat, Sana was much more awake than she had ever been. Shaking off the nervousness, she struck a conversation with the driver not understanding why she had felt the need to, but Jeongyeon didn’t seem to mind. She had learnt that Jeongyeon was a music major at what happened to be the same university that they were attending, that she worked part time as a barista at a local coffee shop during the weekdays when she didn’t have class, while working as an uber driver on weekends, attending to the various drunk and young clients like herself who needed a ride home safely. And in reverse, Jeongyeon had learnt that like any other student, Sana was attending the party as a way to relieve the stress of university, that Sana had come to study international studies, majoring in a foreign language, from Japan and so she had decided to share a place with her friends downtown.

Soon upon arriving at destination and with Sana’s permission, Jeongyeon had helped her to get her friends into their apartment. She thanked the driver for her help and the driver left promptly after, not wanting to cross her boundaries. Sana, exhausted from the long night out had fallen asleep on the couch, yet that night she had a peculiar dream about the stranger she had just met.

Sana wasn’t much of a committal type, sure she had been in relationships before but they didn’t last very long; she loved the chase, the games and being with someone, but long-term relationships had just not been for her. It wasn’t more so when she chose to go overseas to study, deciding that if anything it would be just flings at best. She also wasn’t an easy person, after all, she was always given a lot of attention from various guys and girls who were attracted to her friendly and charismatic demeanour. So, imagine said Sana, frantically realising she had forgotten to ask Jeongyeon for her number. Their conversation had mostly been casual but something had urged her to want to get to know more about Jeongyeon. While saddened by the thought that it was the only chance she would get to see Jeongyeon, Sana recalled something from their conversation the previous night, that Jeongyeon had worked at the local coffee shop by the name of A Bittersweet Love Affair. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sana hurriedly left the apartment to the location of the person who occupied her thoughts.

The peculiar choice of name for a coffee shop was in turn matched by a somewhat surprisingly modern and homely establishment. It had been Sana’s first time visiting and it had taken her aback how beautiful the place had looked; taking a seat at the corner to really take in a good glance at the place. She rather hoped that she would run into Jeongyeon on one of her days working, and much to her excitement and nervousness, there she was holding Americano in her hand, as Sana looked on with a blazing intensity that made her ears turn red.

Sana didn’t understand why she had felt this way, why Jeongyeon had shook her to the core, why she’s out chasing after a girl who she only met briefly as her uber driver, why she was here fixated on said girl. She could have sworn that this may have amounted to stalking by some definition. But Sana felt it in the first time they made eye contact with each other, in the way Jeongyeon sneaked a look at her when she thought Sana wasn’t looking, the way Jeongyeon lingered hoping to ask for Sana’s number before giving up and leaving altogether, that it was by some force of magnetism that pulled them together and Sana wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by.

It was like any day of work for Jeongyeon, except today Jeongyeon had been moping around and kicking herself for the fact she gave up on the opportunity to ask the cute girl from yesterday for her number. It was the usual random encounter on what was her many rides, but there was something about her that Jeongyeon couldn’t quite put her finger on, it was like their worlds had collided. She for one, knew she had never felt that way about anyone upon meeting them for the first time.

While Jeongyeon was lost in her thoughts she hadn’t noticed that the said girl was quietly watching her in the corner, that the said girl had gone up to the counter, ordered an Americano, and when Jeongyeon read out the name sprawled onto the coffee cup by her co-worker, was she flabbergasted to find that the said girl, Minatozaki Sana, was right in front of her.

 “There’s a myth in Japan called the Red String of Fate, have you heard of it Jeongyeon?”, slipping Jeongyeon a piece of paper with a smirk on her face.