“How is she?” YongGuk asks as soon as I leave GeeNa’s.

It’s dark but I can still somewhat see him sitting and waiting on HimChan’s bench. “She’s asleep. That’s all that matters.” I take a seat next to him. “Is that why you’re out here?”

He sighs deeply leaning forward. “That’s part of it. HimChan wanted to come check on her, but I felt that might not be a good idea. Since GeeNa is his ex-girlfriend and you are his soul mate.”

My heart stops. “S-soul mate?”

He turns his face slightly and looks at me through the corner of his eye. “You’re special, Nami-shi.”

My lips go numb, breath stuck in my chest.

“You see something that we can’t. I’m right, aren’t I?”

“D-Dae.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “How do you...?”

“Ever since I met you, I’ve been watching you. At first I thought you were weird, possibly crazy for following us around that day, but then I saw you at school and I dunno. I noticed you fall a lot. I’ve seen you fall first hand too. You’re not losing your balance or anything. There’s nothing in your way, you just...fall, like there’s something no one can see.” He pauses and leans back stretching his arms and letting them rest behind the backboard. “It’s kinda hard not to wonder, ‘what’s tripping Nami-yah.’”

I bite at the inside of my cheeks.

“When you get up, you usually do this weird thing with your feet. Like you’re kicking off a spider web. Only you can feel it, no one else even knows it’s there.” He catches my eyes and smiles. “I had no idea until a month ago. You know DanHae-yah?”

I nod, his cousin.

“She has a little sister DanYi-yah. I offered to watch them one weekend and took them to the park.”

I think back. The park? “Ah! the little girl!”

“Exactly. That was Dan-Yi-yah.  She ran off without her sister or me. When we found her, you and HimChan were walking away. I decided not to say anything because you were on a date, but instead played with the girls and chalk. I asked DanYi-yah about the drawings and she said Unni and Oppa drew it.” He chuckles. “And then she pointed at the pink line connecting the girl and boy drawings and said, ‘Unni did this too!’ I’m not familiar with Japanese folklores, but my Mother used to tell me Chinese ones when I was little. My favorite was the Red String of Fate.”

He stops taking and stares off into the shadows. “‘There once was a boy in a faraway village. Walking home one night, he was stopped by an old man who tried to tell him of the strings. The man pointed to a girl and told the boy that they were bound by a red string tied to their ankles. Still being a child, the boy picked up a rock and threw it at the girl. Some years later his parents arranged his marriage. When he first met his wife she was wearing a veil to cover half of her face. He asked why she wore the ornament and she explained that she had a scar. She told him that when she was younger, a boy threw a rock at her and she’d been marked ever since.’” He laughs to himself. “Nami-shi, you’re the modern day old man...aren’t you?”

I inhale. “Actually in Japanese culture, it’s tied around the pinkie finger.”

He takes my hand and holds it up to the light. “So there’s a string tied to this little finger?” He wiggles my pinkie and I smile. “Not quite, wrong hand for me.”

“Oh.” He sets the hand back at my side. “So you are connected to HimChan-ah, right?”

I sink into the bench. “I am. I’m really happy to have found him. I’ve always wanted to share all of my firsts with my soul mate.”

YongGuk looks at me in such a way that I can’t help but feel a heaviness in my chest. “How’s that going?”

“He’s only taken my first date.” I begin to feel embarrassed talking about this to YongGuk. “He’s tried to..you know...but I’ve reacted badly.”

“What? Kiss you?”

I cover his mouth with my hand. “Shh!”

He pushes my arm away. “What? You were dating for almost a month and he never kissed you. You’re even soul mates.”

I cross my arms. “You think I’m happy with that? I can’t help it, and then he eventually gave up trying to altogether.”

He folds his hands across his face. “You are just...something else.”

What’s that supposed to mean?!

“Anyways there was one last thing I needed to tell you about HimChan-ah. I think I know why he called everything off. He doesn’t ever talk to his ex’s so this means you’re special.”

I try to look at YongGuk clearly but he’s hiding a little.

“A while back he dated this girl. I don’t really know her name or anything. It’s not my place to ask, but they were really close. From my knowledge, she called it off because of a misunderstanding. They tried dating again but something happened. What, I’m not sure, but there is one thing I know. HimChan-ah doesn’t talk to any of his ex’s after they break up. The fact that he still talks to you must mean something. This girl is just a part of his past. She likes to pop into his head and play with his feeling when he begins to find happiness, so please, try to understand him. We don’t all find ourselves lucky enough to have second chances, and his could be chasing after him.”

He grabs my hands and pressed them together.

“One of these hands is connected to one of HimChan-ah’s. You mustn't give up. Do anything and everything for happiness. It’s not everyday that soul mates can find each other so easily.” There is so much sorrow in his voice that I can only hear mumbles. “Do it for both of you.”

“Hyung!” Zelo calls out from HimChan’s front door and I pull my hands back.

“We should get going,” I hush. “The guys are waiting.”

GeeNa, YongGuk...why are you making me feel so guilty? I love HimChan, but not like GeeNa...and don’t know if I can love him to the degree that YongGuk is asking. I mean for Shinto’s sake! I lose it every time he tries to kiss me. Maybe these threads aren’t always right. Maybe I wasn’t born for this.

“We’ve got a movie going,” Zelo says as the both of us wander in.

“Oh, what is it?” I ask noticing that they’ve taken down the forts.

“200 Pound Beauty, it’s the only movie left in the house,” HimChan answers playing with the DVD player.

“Ah, Kanna-San, Daiseikou Desu!” I smile.

“You’ve read the manga?” Zelo gasps climbing over YongGuk to see me.

“Anni, but my Aunt loves it.” I take a seat on the sofa and YongGuk sits to my left with Zelo at my feet.

“Move over,” HimChan laughs and I scoot to the side letting him sit on my right. We’re all pretty squeezed, but it’s not uncomfortable.

I try to focus on the movie, but end up staring at HimChan’s knee. The actors in the background say something funny and the boys laugh. HimChan laughs so hard that he slaps his legs. I see the thread bounce up and down with his right hand. Wait. Right hand? Mine’s on my right as well. Usually they’re opposite. What side is GeeNa’s on?

Left?

No. It is. But TaeHoon’s is...is it right or left?

Are they also the same? I’ve never noticed. This is all so weird. Weird and unsettlingly wrong.

By the time I finish my thoughts the movie is halfway over and Hanna is yelling at her manager.*

    *Part of the movie. Please watch it ^^ it’s pretty great. link

“Nami-shi?”

I look at HimChan who looks barely awake. “Dae?”

“My room is the one to the right. You can sleep in there if you can’t make it back to GeeNa-shi’s house.” He turns his head against the couch and falls asleep. I glance at YongGuk who is also asleep and realize that odd sound, the one I’ve been hearing for the past ten minutes, is Zelo...snoring softly.

I let the movie continue in fear that I might wake one of them while turning it off. I’ve got to fix things. The more I think about it, the more I see that I wasn’t born to see the strings, but to fix them and that’s exactly what I am about to do.

I step outside and walk over to GeeNa’s house. Using the key-code she gave me the day before, I push open the door find her thread. She stirs as her pinkie finger tugs in my direction, but she’s so exhausted that she doesn’t even make a sound. I go back to HimChan’s with her thread in hand.

They broke up over a misunderstanding, right? Maybe there is no other girl. Maybe he just said things that didn’t make sense. YongGuk said that I’m different, that he doesn’t treat me like his other ex’s, but that’s not true. Today he acted so normally around GeeNa that even I forgot about their past, that is until GeeNa left. But he cares. He cares enough about her to try multiple times...to see her. All of this is one big misunderstanding.

My feet shuffle through HimChan’s house.

Where are the scissors? Kitchen?

I riffle through the drawers looking for them.

Isn’t this proof enough that the threads are wrong? I can so easily give him up. GeeNa can’t, therefore she deserves him more. A life with TaeHoon doesn’t sound that bad.

I find the scissors and sit down on the floor. My breath stops. I can’t hear anything but my heart. Tears won’t stop coming. This has to be the only way.

I hold the blades to my thread. When I snap them closed, nothing happens. The thread moves through them effortlessly. I sigh deeply. Maybe...

I wrap my hair around the thread. My black locks stay wound around it.

So every part of me can interact with them. I didn’t realize.

I secure the thread with my hair and sandwich it between the scissors. Hair grows back. Love is forever. I’m making things better. It was what I was born to do.

A/N: I was going to wait until I was able to get my chapters back, but that's taking a bit longer than planned... owells, I mostly wanted to get my replies to the comments. I feel so bad that their lost ;-; But alas...the story will go on.

I'm putting this and some of my other stories on my Tumblr, so that I don't lose them again. I mean I have them saved somewhere else but they look so rough and raw...it's pretty bad. But I'm updating there too. you can follow me if you like, if not, I won't cry or anything ;_; it's not like I put much effort into it or the proper linking... anyways~

I also lost a few subbies ._.'

but I'm not going to worry about it because I've still got the lot of you! /hugs

hope you'll endure my re-uploading. I finished chapter 21 and was about to un-hide it before the AFF fiasco. Please respect Jason. He's doing his best for us.

Thankies for reading, subbing, commenting....or whatever it is you do! /throwshearts

-Meng

@toowhiteforkpop : soon o-o she will be happy soon, and I will stop all this nonsense.