A/N: Hi guys! Time for a brand new story!!

As many of you may know, along with being a huge GOT7 stan, I am a huge NU'EST stan, so here I am writing a story to satisfy my love of both. Why? Because I can can can (well, also it fit my LA setting the best since both Mark and Aron are LA boys~)

For GOT7 and Markjin fans reading this, I hope you'll show the ARen parts some love, too, they're a lot of fun :D

For NU'EST and ARen fans reading this, even though I'm predominantly a Markjin writer, I LOVE these two and put a lot of love into their sections! I hope you enjoy!

PROLOGUE

Today, Jinyoung thought to himself as he knocked on the door to his sister’s dormitory, is going to be a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. This moment is the start of my life’s unforgettable love story. From now on, my journey to find the one tied to the other end of my string of fate begins.

His sister opened the door while he was still basking in this knowledge, grinning down at his pinkie finger like a fool and twitching it as if that would tug his soulmate just the tiniest bit closer. She rolled her eyes, then glanced over at Minki, who was toying with the strings of his sweatshirt, tightening and loosening the hood around his head without a care in the world. Jinyoung hadn’t told her that he’d be bringing Minki along, but his presence was probably still a given. They’d been inseparable from the day they’d met. Perhaps there was another string of fate involved in that, a string of friendship that kept them closely tied together.

“Come on in, then,” she said, waving them inside her dorm room. It was massive, much bigger than any student studying under a normal profession like a teacher or businessperson would receive. But his sister was a soulmater-in-training, a position which came with a great amount of dignity and respect attached in the East given its importance and rarity.

Jinyoung and Minki shared an excited glance as they followed her inside. At just thirteen, getting to have a session with a soulmater (even just an in-training version) was a luxury beyond comprehension. Usually people had to fork over millions of won to have the path of their red string of fate traced. The popular overseas options—countdown clock implants in North America and touch activated sensors in Europe—were equally steep in price, so the only teenagers that had them were generally from rich families. Jinyoung had truly hit the jackpot by being related to someone with the right attunement to read the complex weave of fate, especially since his noona couldn’t graduate without proving she could give successful readings to customers. Jinyoung had been beside himself with joy when she’d informed him that he had been one of the people she’d selected to give a practice fate reading to before her final examination with an officially licensed fate reader.

And now here it was: the moment of truth. Jinyoung had been obsessed with all things soulmate related ever since he was little, and now he was just mere minutes away from receiving the very first clue of his soulmate’s identity.

“All right, all right, calm down Jinyoung,” his sister said, shepherding him into an arm chair. “Don’t have a heart attack before we even start.”

“I haven’t even said anything yet, noona,” Jinyoung protested.

“Yeah, but you look like you’re about to explode at any second. Take a deep breath. Steady yourself. You won’t be able to meet your soulmate if you keel over from excitement now.”

“What if your soulmate lives in a remote village in Alaska?” Minki asked, plopping down on the footstool in front of Jinyoung’s chair. Minki loved doing ‘What if’ games when it came to soulmates—probably because he loved making things harder than they needed to be in every aspect of life. What if your soulmate can only speak an obscure language? What if your soulmate is ten years older than you and you meet them now and it feels creepy because right now they’re 23 when you’re only 13? What if your soulmate smells like garlic and never showers? Minki was also fascinated by soulmates, but more so in the oddities of the entire concept of it. Jinyoung put 100% faith into the mechanics and principles behind the whole thing, but Minki enjoyed questioning everything.

“Then I will move to a remote village in Alaska, and I will definitely find them,” Jinyoung said confidently. “It’s destiny, so it will happen no matter what.”

“I bet it would be easier if you had one of those wrist chip implants they use in some Western countries where they give you an exact time down to the last second when you’ll meet your soulmate. That way you'd know at any time just by looking at your wrist how much time you have left until the big moment.”

“Those are faulty,” Jinyoung’s sister immediately protested. “Threads of fate are attached to your finger, not your wrist, and computers don’t even have the correct attunement for processing fate energies, so there’s a margin for error. And this is way too important of a thing to have a single margin of error on.” She elbowed Jinyoung. “Pinkie up.”

Jinyoung obediently lifted up his pinkie. It was a comfortable position for it—he was constantly lifting it up just like this, as if he could glean all of its secrets from staring at it over and over again.

His noona wiped down his pinkie with a wet wipe to remove any of the dirt and grease of day-to-day life, then sprayed it with an acrid smelling chemical. When she was finished, she flicked off the overhead lights and switched on a handheld light that emitted a purplish glow and directed it at Jinyoung’s finger. Immediately, spots of red began to appear until they formed a thread around Jinyoung’s pinkie. She followed the path of the thread with her light down to the floor and up to where it s under the crack in the door, where it would continue to trail on and on and on until it ended at the pinkie finger of the person who was Jinyoung’s soulmate.

“Well,” his noona said, smiling. “Your soulmate isn’t Minki.”

“I wasn’t expecting him to be.” Jinyoung wasn’t even bothered by her little joke. He was outright mesmerized at the sight of his visible red string of fate. He couldn’t feel its physical presence on him, but its existence had loomed so large in his life that he still somehow felt the weight of it. He thought it was breathtakingly beautiful.

“Let’s take a closer look, then.” She reached out and trailed her finger down the thread, closing her eyes. After a few seconds, her forehead furrowed, and she started nibbling on her lip in concentration. His soulmate probably wasn’t in the immediate area, which would have given him a short and easy reading. He tried to wait as patiently as he could, but his body felt like it was on pins and needles.

She stood there focusing on his string of fate for a good seven minutes before her eyes finally snapped back open. She grabbed a notepad from her pocket and began scribbling down numbers rapidfire.

“Well…?” Jinyoung asked, heart pounding.

“North America,” she said confidently. “That amount of distance is sure to be North America. West Coast. California or Mexico? I’m thinking one of the Channel Islands, San Diego, Tijuana, or LA.”

“W-What?” Jinyoung stammered.

Minki’s mouth fell open. “Wow, your soulmate is all the way in North America? That’s crazy! Your parents totally aren’t going to let you just drop out of high school and run off there.”

Jinyoung’s noona was punching something into her computer. “Bingo! Los Angeles. The coordinates for the end of your thread are in LA.”

“M-Maybe it’s a Korean on vacation with their family who will be coming back soon?” Jinyoung tried. “Or maybe this person will come to Korea for vacation soon, and that’s how we’ll meet?”

“The fateweave of a thread doesn’t reveal that kind of information,” his noona reminded him. “The details I can confirm from my reading are that your soulmate is in LA right this moment. Your fated encounter will be realized six years from now, in the fall-”

“SIX?” It wasn’t terrible, since he would still be fairly young at nineteen then, but it was still six long years Jinyoung would have to spend waiting.

“-and the weave of your thread is thick and strong, which signifies a deep and passionate bond. You and your soulmate will be soulmates in the truest sense of the word.”

That immediately dispelled Jinyoung’s sense of disappointment. What was waiting six years in the face of a lifetime together with the person who would love him with all the strength of their soul? In any case, he was a lot better off than some of the poor unfortunates who were destined to meet their soulmates only when they reached their midlife.

“LA, huh?” Jinyoung mused, now that the shock had passed. “If they’re not just there as a tourist, I guess I’d better work on my English.”

“There’s no time like the present, since you’re still in school.” His sister cracked her knuckles. “That was good practice on doing a distance reading. Thanks, Jinyoung. Minki, want me to check yours while I’m at it?”

“Go for it,” Minki said, lifting his finger. “Maybe mine will be from Italy or something and I’ll have an excuse to run off to Milan.”

Jinyoung’s sister sprayed down his finger and shone the purple light on it. Minki’s thread appeared almost like it was straining tensely compared to Jinyoung’s which had hung loosely. His noona ran her finger along it again and closed her eyes.

It took close to ten minutes before she opened them again. “Weird,” she said. “The coordinate reading was almost the exact same. Los Angeles again. Probably even the same neighborhood.”

Minki bounced up and down in his seat enthusiastically. “Oh my god, Jinyoung, what if our soulmates are twins? And what if that neighborhood they’re in is Hollywood? WAIT, WHAT IF OUR SOULMATES ARE CHRIS AND LIAM HEMSWORTH?”

“They’re married and way older than us, so no,” Jinyoung said. “Noona, when’s his fated encounter?”

“Also six years from now, in the fall.”

“It’s all so clear,” Minki said in a dramatic voice, lifting his eyes heavenward. “Six years from now, the two of us going to study abroad in scenic California, encountering our Hollywood soulmates and moving into Bel Air mansions…”

“Why is his thread so tense, noona?” Jinyoung asked.

“That? That indicates a tug on Minki’s fate energies by the other party. That person—subconsciously, most likely, at this stage—wants Minki to be nearer.”

Jinyoung frowned. “Which means my soulmate doesn’t?”

“That’s not something you necessarily need to take as a negative. There could be any number of explanations. For example, your soulmate isn’t at a point in their life where they’re focused on romance. Or perhaps they have an easygoing personality type. Tense threads generally indicate one half of the connection is a bit clingy, so perhaps your soulmate is simply the kind of person who is fine giving you space, Jinyoung.”

Minki wrinkled his nose. “Ugh. I totally don’t want a clingy type.”

"And yet you’re connected to one by destiny all the same,” Jinyoung shot back. He massaged his pinkie. He was happy at least that the connection to his soulmate was strong. They’d probably have a beautiful romance together which would match all of his very high ideals, and it would change his life for good in the most beautiful way imaginable.

It’ll be six years until the next step of this journey, he thought to himself, watching his thread dissipate as his sister turned the overhead lights back on. But when it happens, I’ll be ready. This is just the prologue of my love story—the best parts still have yet to come.