Haerin’s guilty gaze was making Onew uncomfortable but he tried his best to simply focus on the cool ice resting against his cheek. The fair was still lively and loud on the outside but the backstage area was almost completely empty.

“Noona, why don’t you hang out with us for the rest of the day?” Minho invited.

Haerin glanced at him then back at Onew uncertainly, before she shrugged. “Sure, I’ll just change out of this outfit,” she gestured to her pure white ensemble before walking to the dressing rooms.

A few minutes later, Haerin was back. This time she was dressed in a casual outfit consisting of jeans and a loose T-shirt. Onew couldn’t help but notice that even in an outfit as simple as jeans and T-shirt, she stood out.

“Let’s go.” She grinned at all of them while looping her arm through her cousin’s.

A few minutes later, Haerin had completely forgotten about her humiliating episode with Onew and was instead having lots of fun with the members.

“Let’s go there!” Key excitedly pointed to some clothing stores. He dragged Jonghyun away with him.

Meanwhile, Taemin wandered off towards an ice cream parlor and Onew followed to make sure he didn’t get lost.

That just left the two Choi cousins who decided to browse the stalls themselves.

It was after half an hour that the six teens met back up. Key’s hands were laden with shopping bags and Haerin gawked at the amount. She was a girl and even she didn’t shop that much!

“What did you buy?!” Minho gaped at Key.

The fashionista sheepishly admitted, “I got a little carried away.”

The SHINee members rolled their eyes; this was a pretty normal occurrence with Key. It’d become sort of an unofficial rule to never let Key go shopping on his own.

Key excitedly pulled a few articles of clothing from his bag and showed them off.

“And this,” he gushed, holding out a red woolen scarf. “It’s made from the best quality wool. I got this at a pretty cheap price at this stall. Just feel it, the wool is so soft.” He practically the scarf into Taemin’s hand.

The maknae felt the fabric and nodded in agreement passing it to Jonghyun who then passed it to Minho.

“Wow, he’s right.” Minho spoke in amazement. “Here, feel it you guys.” He held the scarf out.

Haerin reached for it at the same time that Onew extended his arm; both of them grabbed onto opposite ends of the scarf at the same time.

“Oh, s-sorry.” Onew stuttered and tried to release the scarf but he’d somehow managed to get his fingers tangled in the woolen strands.

As Onew clumsly tried to extract his hand from the scarf, Haerin tried to help him but found that her fingers were caught in the web too.

“W-Wait, Onew-shii, don’t pull!” she warned but it was too late.

Onew pulled his hand loose but a single strand of the woolen thread was wrapped firmly around his little finger.

Key gasped as his newly bought scarf frayed at one end. “My scarf!” he mourned.

Haerin shot the diva an apologetic look while Onew guiltily tried to pry his finger free.

When the two hand finally managed to get their hands untangled from the scarf, Haerin patted Key’s shoulder encouragingly.

“I’m sorry about the scarf, Key. Come on, let’s see whether we can get a new one at a discount price; may be my friend’s the owner of the stall. Where’d you get it from?” Haerin began leading the saddened man away.

“It was from this stall named ‘Fate’” Key answered.

Onew froze suddenly.

Fate. Red string. Shawl. Tangled hands. Soulmate.

Onew gasped in realization.

‘You’ll be bound by the red string of fate’

Onew recalled how Haerin and his fingers had been connected by the red strands of Key’s scarf for a short moment. The scarf that was bought from a store named Fate. The red string of fate.

‘And then you’ll know she’s the one…’

Onew gazed after Haerin’s fading figure. ‘She really is the one…’

I know it's been a really long time since I updated but I've been having writer's block. That and I'm lazy :P

Anyway, I'm really sorry about the wait but here's a new chappie :D

I think some of you are becoming impatient with the slow progress in the story and for that I would like to apologize. But like I said before, I've been having writer's block so.... yeah.

Anways, thank you to those who commented and subrscribed.

A big shout out to Cookie_learnt_to_fly for the up-vote. Please continue to love and support the story <3