“Jeonghappiness” became an official MRS project. It happened at the request of Hoshi who pushed Dasinai to make it so.

Jeonghan stayed at MRS and was always accompanied by someone, whether that person was Arin or Hoshi or some other person from MRS. It was the same arrangement that Larali was in, so MRS became a kind of suicidal depression rehab for both of them.

Jeonghan was hateful and bitter as usual, but Arin could see right through all the insults he hurled at the people around him who were trying to be friendly; even if he didn’t show it, he enjoyed their company, as they knew about his curse and didn’t fault him for his animosity. He pretended to hate it, but at least he stayed. He didn’t try to break himself out of MRS, and that was a good sign. He knew he needed this, especially after Hyojung was no longer there to keep him in check.

Arin had learned never to take Jeonghan’s abuse to heart. She had even been prepared to hear him attack her about killing Hyojung, but he never mentioned Hyojung again. Instead, he made fun of her hair, her clothes, her taste in music, telling her she gained weight and looked like a pig. Mostly, he made fun of her relationship with Jun.

Arin had a very strange relationship with Jun. She stayed in love with him for many many days, and he stayed in love with her, because he always got a dose of the potion when he kissed her during extraction. They became an unofficially official couple at MRS. People thought they were dating, and perhaps, to some extent, they were.

They looked forward to seeing one another everyday, and every extraction session was an excuse to make out.

Arin had almost forgotten the reason for this intensity: Woozi. She couldn’t let the potion’s effects fade away, or she might fall in love with Woozi instead; he was her soulmate after all. However, whenever she thought about the fact Woozi was her soulmate, she hated it. She didn’t want him; she wanted Jun. At that moment, she couldn’t imagine loving anyone else.

In the back of her head, she knew that she only loved Jun because of the potion; it wasn’t real, but it felt so real in Arin’s heart. When she remembered that this passionate, all-encompassing love that was possessing every part of her was just a potion, she got angry. She didn’t want it to end. She didn’t want to wake up one day and feel nothing. She was also terrified of the idea that he would wake up one day and feel nothing as well.

It troubled him as well. They often texted during late nights and talked about it - the transience of their romantic association, and how it bothered them. The truth was they liked it; it was a kind of romantic high they could never get enough of.

“I feel like I hate him sometimes, you know,” Jun texted her one day. “Woozi. I’m jealous of him, because I know your thread leads to him.”

Arin could not fault him for that jealousy, because the truth was that she also felt jealous of Larali, and Larali was the last person anyone should be jealous of. Arin often shook away and ignored those thoughts when they came, but sometimes, especially when she knew that Jun was going to see her, she could not help it.

-

Ever since his confession, Woozi had stopped coming by to see Arin. Two weeks had gone by, without even a word from him.

So when Arin came home one night and found Woozi’s shoes at the door, she was surprised.

When she didn’t find him in the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, or living room, she knew he was in the office. She didn’t want to disturb his work, so she waited until he came out himself.

He did come out many hours later.

He looked completely drained of energy, like he hadn’t slept in days. There were bags under his eyes, and his hair was oily from lack of showering.

“Hi,” he said when he saw her.

“Hi,” she replied.

An awkward silence ensued. Woozi’s confession hung over them like a shadow, making any kind of natural interaction between them impossible. But Arin was concerned about him. He looked like a mess.

“Are you okay?” she finally managed to ask.

Woozi shook his head and lowered it. “I was so close, Arin. So close to finally catching the killer. but he got away, again.”

Woozi clenched his fists and sighed heavily.

“ me,” he murmured. “ me. that guy. I hate this so much.”

He collapsed on the sofa and rubbed his head.

Arin longed to help him. Seeing him so upset was upsetting her. She felt a searing hatred toward that man he was pursuing, less because he and killed a girl than for what he was doing to Woozi right now.

“I’m so tired, Arin. I’m tired of carrying the heavy burden of bringing him to justice. I hate it.”

“Another trail will turn up soon,” she tried to be encouraging, but he shook his head.

“The more time passes, the less likely it will be that I’ll find him,” Woozi said. “And now… I feel like I’ve lost hope. I would need a miracle to find him.”

A miracle…

The word got Arin thinking about magic. She wondered if it could be the solution to Woozi’s problem. Maybe people at MRS could help Woozi track this guy down with their miraculous abilities.

Jun was the first person on her mind. She knew he spent many years trying to track her down before he finally arrived at her doorstep. She remembered him telling her that one way he tried to track her down was from Minghao’s grave…

It was then that the idea hit her. Could this man be tracked down from his victim’s grave? Could the two be considered soulmates, even if he and killed her?

Arin remembered the reception couple, how bad they were for each other, how the man was sleazy and disgusting, and the woman just bore it. She remembered something that Jun had told her about the couple: “Just because you’re soulmates doesn’t mean you’re good for one another.”

It had been a disturbing thought for Arin when she first heard it. The idea of soulmates had been so heavily romanticized in all the stories, so to hear that it could manifest in the relationship between the reception couple had made her feel let down.

However, the idea was now giving her some hope; maybe the man who killed Mihyun was her soulmate all along? Maybe the red thread connects from her grave to that man? Maybe Jun can help Woozi track him down? Jun can be the miracle Woozi was searching for all along.

“I think I know someone who might be able to help you,” Arin said.

She called Jun right there and then, and put him on speaker for Woozi to listen in on the conversation.

“Hi Arin! I was just thinking about you,” Jun answered as soon as he picked up.

From the side of her eye, she could see Woozi flinch hearing that.

“Hi, Jun,” Arin quickly replied. “You’re on speaker right now, and Woozi’s here.”

“Woozi, huh? He’s there?”

“Yes. I… I mean… we wanted to ask you something…”

“What’s up?”

“Could you help Woozi find someone?”

“Find who?”

Arin explained the situation to Jun: she told him that there was an ex-boyfriend who and killed a girl and got away, and that Woozi wanted to find him. “Could you see if there’s a thread coming from the gravesite to him?”

“Theoretically, yes. Threads do stay intact, even on corpses. And yes, that man could still be her soulmate, even if he and killed her. But still, it’s tricky business following someone’s thread. It requires immense concentration from me and a lot of time. Depending on how far away the two are, it could be days before I manage to follow it.”

“Could you try?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I do.”

“I can try, for you only.”

Arin could not help but blush at that.

“First thing’s first, if Woozi knows which cemetery it is, let me meet him there and he can lead me to her. I’ll see if she has a thread, and if she does, I’ll dedicate a day or two to following it.”

“Thank you, Jun. This means a lot to me, and to Woozi too.”

“Anything for you.”

Arin blushed. She did not want to do this in front of Woozi, but it seemed like Jun did. “Thank you Jun,” she said.

“I love you,” Jun said. Deliberately.

“Bye Jun,” Arin said, quickly hanging up before he said anything else.

She turned to Woozi, feeling the need to apologize, but Woozi seemed less interested in the love part than he was in everything else.

“What thread are you talking about?” Woozi asked as soon as she hung up. “And how will it help me find him?”

“Jun sees red threads of fate,” Arin explained. “Every pair of soulmates is connected with the thread, and maybe the killer and his victim are connected.”

Woozi narrowed his eyes. “Soulmates? But he killed her.”

“Just because two people are soulmates, doesn’t mean they’re good for one another,” Arin said. As she said it, she looked at Woozi, and wondered if they would be good for one another. Woozi was not sleazy or disgusting like the man from the reception couple, nor did he seem capable of and murder like Mihyun’s killer.

However, he did seem capable of other bad things: spying on people, invading privacy, stalking. She remembered just how nosey he was when they first met; how he wouldn’t leave her alone no matter how much asked him to. In hindsight, she was glad he never left her alone. His nosiness was the reason he was able to help her when she had no one else to turn to.

“Thank you, Arin,” Woozi said to her. “This means… so much. Really. Thank you.”

Arin felt the sincerity of those words in her skin. She felt them not only in the way he said them, but also in the intensity of the way he looked at her as he did.

Woozi had given her so much in the time that she knew him. He helped her in so many ways, and even gave her a place to stay when she would have otherwise been stranded and alone. It was nice to finally feel like she was able to do something for him now.

A/N: hello shameless plug but watch nu’est’s latest comeback mv for “inside out” and listen to the album and also stan nu’est THANKS <3