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“Good afternoon Soonyoung” a cheery voice called from the brown wooden door that led to Soonyoung’s room at the nursing home.
“You ready for today’s story?” The voice asked, just as kindly, as it came closer to Soonyoung’s weak body, lying in bed.
“Who is it?” Soonyoung asked fraily at the person, now standing in front of him, with a bouquet of sunflowers in his hands.
The voice sighed lightly, almost sadly, and said: “It’s me, Chan, I come by every day, remember?” Chan explained, softly squeezing Soonyoung’s frail hand.
“Aaah Chan, yes I remember, you look so young” Soonyoung said, his eyes lighting up slightly with the sight of the younger, coughing slightly at the end of his sentence.
Chan gave him a glass of water, and sat down on a chair besides the bed, still smiling at his old friend.
“Of course I do Hyung” Chan started, smiling, “I only found my soulmate a few years ago, and as we both know, I stopped aging at 18, until I would meet my soulmate, right?” Chan explained again, patiently, searching for Soonyoung’s eye contact.
“Aah yes, of course, I remember now” Soonyoung said while nodding his head slowly in contempt.
“Where’s Seokmin? It’s been awhile since I have seen him” Soonyoung asked, looking hopefully up at Chan. Chan shook his head, smiling vaguely at the older man, running a soothing thumb over his wrinkled hand, he always asked that. Soonyoung had gotten old. Very old. But despite being identified with alzheimer’s a few years back, forgetting his life as a member of Jihoon’s gang, and almost everything else, he would always remember Seokmin’s existence. Just not the fact, that he was already dead. In reality, Soonyoung had forgotten a lot of his life with Seokmin as well, just not Seokmin in general. He knew who he was, and he knew they were soulmates, and loved each other endlessly, he just forgot a whole lot of their life together.
The doctor’s had told Chan, that if he could come by, every day, and tell him a story from his past, he might be able to remember certain things.
So that was what he did. He never used Soonyoung or Seokmin’s names in the story, he always waited for Soonyoung to either realise it was them, or fall asleep.
“Are you ready?” Chan started, earning a nod from Soonyoung. “Today I will tell you a love story, about a couple that were willing to do everything for each other. Even die”
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Soonyoung had been sent on a mission. He was one of the finest assassins out there, and Jihoon put a lot of trust in him. Especially when it came to assassinating certain targets. Soonyoung had done it many times. The trick was to stay hidden, don’t look to long at your target’s face, and just shoot. He was used to it, it was a routine, something he just had to get over with, so he could go on with his day, nothing special. But this time was going to be different, he could feel it. The picture Jihoon had given him of his target, had stroke an odd chord in Soonyoung’s system, it was like something had pulled in his soul, when he had first seen the man. He was quite handsome, Soonyoung would admit that, but that was all Soonyoung could pinpoint about him. There were nothing else special about him. But Soonyoung was still uneasy as he was situated on the rooftop of a tall building, waiting for the black SUV to pull up on the road. His target was the son of a man, one of Jihoon’s customers wanted to get revenge on. and what better way than to kill their only child? His name was Lee Seokmin, and Soonyoung felt that he somehow should know the man, but he didn’t.
The car finally pulled up the road, and came to a stop in front of the house across from Soonyoung, just as he had expected. As he had gotten in position, and pointed his gun at the back door of the car, he had felt a weird pull in his stomach, but he chose to ignore it, it was probably just nerves. The first people to get out of the car, was what Soonyoung determined to be security guards, they always were. One of the men clad in black, went to open the door, Soonyoung was pointing his gun at.
Once again he felt the weird pull in his stomach, and a thought ran through his mind. He knew for a fact that his soulmate type, was, the red string of fate, where two people are tied together in their soul, by an invisible string, which would constantly pull them together until they would finally meet. The pulls would grow stronger, the closer the two people would come to each other. Soonyoung had always felt the slight pulling in his body, but this was absurd. He had to focus. So he quickly discarded of the thought, and got ready to fire, putting his finger on the trigger, focusing on the door, that was slowly opening.
The door finally opened, and Soonyoung held his breath, as Seokmin stepped out of the car. He was even prettier in real life. Soonyoung quickly shook his head, snapping himself out of his daze, and aimed the gun at Seokmin’s head, but just as he was about to shoot, a strong pull shot through his own body, and he almost dropped the gun, slightly losing his balance as well. As he once again claimed his balance and aimed at Seokmin, stress quickly catching up on him, he had to get his job done quickly now, before it was too late, he made eye contact with Seokmin through the lense. Soonyoung jumped back in surprise, and just stared down at the man. The only logical explanation to how Seokmin had located his position, was because he to had felt the pull. And that’s when reality dawned on Soonyoung. They were soulmates.
How ironic life could be. An assassin and his target, were soulmates. Soonyoung almost wanted to laugh. How was he supposed to kill him now? What was he even supposed to do now? The thoughts were running through Soonyoung’s mind, as he continued to look at Seokmin. And he finally got an idea. He did what any other logical person would do, and shot a wild shot at the car, ran down from the rooftop, attacked the confused security guards, knocked Seokmin out and kidnapped him.
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“So you say that one of them kidnapped the other?” Soonyoung asked in mild disbelief looking confused at Chan.
“Yep” Chan answered quickly nodding his head with his eyes closed, holding back his laughter.
“How romantic” Soonyoung said ironically and rolled his eyes.
Chan chuckled slightly at that, and continued the story.
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“I thought I told you to kill him, not knock him out and kidnap him” Jihoon said in pure disbelief at the sight in front of him. Soonyoung stood with Lee Seokmin, the man he told him to kill, hunched over his shoulder, knocked out cold.
“I know that boss, but I acted on impulse, and yeah” Soonyoung tried to explain, trailing of at the end, running out of logical things to say to the smaller male’s cold stare.
“Acted on impulse my ass Soonyoung, what the hell?” Jihoon exclaimed annoyed at his employee, he always did his job without flaw, so why this now?
“Well, I know you are not a big fan of this kind of thing, but, he’s my soulmate, what was I supposed to do?” Soonyoung tried to reason with the older male, knowing he had a thing against the whole soulmate system. What it was, Soonyoung didn’t know.
Jihoon groaned loudly as he ran a hand across his face, he looked like he was ready for the lord to just take his soul and let him die in peace. Soonyoung didn't blame him.
“Of course you are soulmates” he started out in a spiteful voice, “what’s the next thing gotta be? No wait, don’t answer that, just find a way to deal with this” Jihoon ordered pointing a finger at Seokmin, gesturing to ‘this’ as he left the room.
Soonyoung was now left alone with an unconscious Seokmin, and he had no idea of what to do. He hadn’t expected to get this far, and he was now at a complete loss. He had found his soulmate in the most unexpected and inconvenient way possible. And all he could do now, was to wait for him to wake up.
Soonyoung decided that it would be better to place him down on the floor. Firstly, because he was heavy, secondly, because the floor was better than the table. Soonyoung kneeled down beside the taller man, and stared at Seokmin’s resting face, waiting for some sign of him waking up. But there were none. He really did knock him out cold, maybe he should have been a little more careful.
Soonyoung wasn’t a very patient man, and after a few more seconds of staring, he decided that enough was enough, and poured a glass of water in the man’s face. How long the water had been in that glass, on that table, was unknown, and Soonyoung didn’t want to find out. But the plan worked, and Seokmin shot up from the floor with a high pitched scream and wide eyes, causing Soonyoung to fall back on the floor, with an equally girly scream leaving his mouth.
They sat like that for a moment, screaming and staring at each other, until Seokmin finally stopped screaming, and instead yelled: “What the hell?!” still looking at Soonyoung with bewildered eyes.
Soonyoung didn’t know how to respond, and instead just continued to scream, the sound now being closer to an uncertain hum in the background.
“Would you stop that and explain to me what in the world is going on here?” Seokmin asked, gesturing to the dark room they were situated in. It was actually a interrogation room, but Seokmin didn’t need to know that.
Soonyoung closed his lips together and looked awkwardly at Seokmin, he took in a few deep breaths before finally answering: “So, if you don’t remember it, we are soulmates” he started of, earning a quick nod from Seokmin “And well, you saw me and all that stuff, and I kinda just acted out of blue, because I know that if I’m spotted I have to kill, which I actually had to do anyway, but then I figured that we are soulmates and I couldn’t just kill you, you know” Soonyoung explained rather sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck, and running a hand through his bright orange hair, watching as Seokmin’s eyes grew wider and wider with every word he said.
It took Seokmin a moment to gather his thoughts around the information he had just received, but he finally started out in an uncertain, small voice: “So you are telling me that you are an assassin, sent out to kill me?” looking to Soonyoung with narrowed eyes and knitted eyebrows.
Soonyoung simply nodded in response at the other's words.
“And we are soulmates, how ironic” Seokmin uttered, a small chuckle leaving his lips as he shook his head, his black hair flopping slightly against his forehead.
Again Soonyoung nodded in response at their comical situation, it was rather laugh worthy.
“So what now?” Seokmin finally asked, rather uncertain about the whole situation.
Soonyoung looked at him for a bit, while tilting his head to the side. Soonyoung knew very well what now, how he was supposed to tell Seokmin it, was another case.
“Well, now you have a choice” he started out, figuring that to be the safest way to drop the bomb.
Seokmin nodded slowly in response, waiting patiently for Soonyoung to continue.
“You either become part of this gang, or get killed” he said slowly, “the choice is yours” he quickly added, trying to avoid eye contact with the younger male.
Seokmin sat in silence for a moment, staring at the floor. Soonyoung didn’t know if he should say anything, or just let the words sink in. He decided on the latter, and waited for Seokmin’s response.
“So you are telling me, that I either become part of a gang or die?” he finally asked still a little uncertain.
“Yes, that’s basically it” Soonyoung said, nodding his head as he talked.
“Well that’s an easy choice then” Seokmin stated, earning a curious look from Soonyoung, “I’m gonna join your gang of course” he stated, smiling the brightest smile Soonyoung had ever seen in his entire life. It reminded him of the sun.
“Really? Just like that? No life regrets or anything like that?” Soonyoung was quick to ask out of worry for the other.
Seokmin simply shook his head and said: “My dad’s and mine relationship isn’t that deep, really, he won’t miss me” rolling his eyes.
Soonyoung nodded his head in understanding and reached a hand out towards Seokmin, and said: “Well then, welcome to the gang, Seokmin” a smile gracing his face, making his cheeks reach his eyes.
Seokmin gladly took his hand in his, and was about to say something, when he stopped himself, clearly wondering about something, only to continue with: “I never got your name”
Soonyoung laughed in response and quickly said: “It’s Soonyoung, Kwon Soonyoung, it’s nice to meet you” squeezing Seokmin’s hand slightly.
Seokmin returned the squeeze, and without any hesitation said: “Soonyoung, can I say something?” still smiling brightly at him.
Soonyoung nodded in response, curious to what Seokmin wanted to say.
“Considering that you are an assassin, orange isn’t the most discreet hair color you could have gotten yourself” his bright smile never faltering.
The words only caused Soonyoung to burst out laughing. He wasn’t a moment in doubt that he had made the right decision.
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“Orange hair, sounds to me like he looked like a carrot” Soonyoung said, looking funnily at Chan.
“I’m in no doubt that he did” Chan answered, chuckling slightly again. He still remembered Soonyoung’s brightly orange hair. He had lost a bet to Seungkwan and had to dye his hair orange, even though Seungkwan wasn’t able to see it, because of his color blindness at that time. It had been a sight either way. He really did look like a carrot, but it had suited him, more than it would anyone else.
“So he just joined the gang like that? No hassle?” Soonyoung asked in a wondering tone, looking to Chan again.
“Oh no there were a lot of trouble” Chan started out, “First of all, he didn’t know how to shoot a gun, so they had to train him in that” he explained, looking back to his own memories of trainníng Seokmin in using the different gun types, almost having his head blown off a few times. He had even managed to almost hit Seungkwan in the foot once. Seungkwan wasn’t very happy with that.
“Secondly, he had a no kill policy, but we’ll get back to that later” Chan started again, earning a confused look from Soonyoung.
“Oh, and thirdly, they kinda had to fake his death, which had turned out to be harder than originally thought, but they managed” Chan added, nodding slowly at his own words.
“How?” Soonyoung asked in curiosity.
“They filmed a video where he got burned to death and send it to his father” Chan started, earning a morbid looking face from Soonyoung, “Of course it was only a doll, don’t worry, they just made it look rather real, the father believed it nonetheless” he finished explaining, as Soonyoung’s face turned back to its original calm expression.
“It all sounds rather familiar” Soonyoung suddenly said, staring down at his own hands, “But I can’t quite pinpoint where I have heard it all before” he continued, his grey eyebrows knitting together in confusion.
“Nevermind forget it, please continue the story Dino” Soonyoung said, without much thought to his words, but something welled up inside of Chan when he heard his old friend use that name. Dino had been his gang name, and nobody had called him that in years.
He decided to continue the story to see where it might lead them.
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It had been four months since Seokmin had joined Jihoon’s gang. And in the course of that time, Soonyoung and him had grown closer. Of course they had, they were soulmates. Soonyoung had come to realise that him and Seokmin had a lot of things in common. Their bad humor being one of them. Jihoon was growing rather tired of the pair from time to time, with their stupid antics and silly jokes. But the one thing that itched Jihoon’s nerves the most, was when they started to talk like an old married couple.
“Grandma, will you still love me when I have wrinkles and grey hair” Seokmin would start in an old man voice.
“Oh my grandpa, you already have grey hair and wrinkles, but I still love you” Soonyoung would answer in an old woman imitative voice.
Whereafter they would hug each other lovingly and laugh like maniacs, declaring their undying love for each other.
Jihoon had once ordered Jisoo to shoot them, to which he declined, saying it was against his policy to shoot old people. Jihoon took a weekend off after that episode.
During these four months, Seokmin had also been living at Soonyoung’s apartment, slowly creating their own, very domestic life. They would cook together whenever they had the time. Watch movies and series together, everything from horror to romance. Dance around in their underwear to Shinee, and belt out to sad love songs in the living room, earning complaints from their neighbours in the process. Soonyoung had never felt happier in his entire life. No one would ever expect the happy couple in apartment 152 were members of a gang.
The other inhabitants of the apartment block they lived in, just assumed that they worked in a local coffee shop, and had really odd working hours.
Soonyoung found it funny how his life had changed in the span of a few months, it was something he never could have imagined, and he was, if he had to say so himself, probably the happiest man on earth.
But as we all know, happiness never lasts for long.
Jihoon had received a job from a long term customer, the required Soonyoung, Seokmin and Joshua to be at the scene. The job was simple, just make sure that a package is delivered safely to another man, and that was it. But they still had to be careful, everything could go wrong, especially on missions like this.
Soonyoung was, once again, situated on a rooftop across from the scene, where the package where to be delivered. Up until now, he hadn’t spotted any other people at the scene, which was a good sign, bt he couldn’t relax just yet. The buyer hadn’t arrived yet, and Soonyoung had to stay in his spot. From where he sat, he could see Seokmin hiding in an alleyway not far from where Joshua stood with their customer and the package.
Everything was going according to plan, much too Soonyoung’s nervousness, it was to easy.
As the buyer finally showed up, and got handed the package, only to get back into his car, Soonyoung almost thought that everything would turn out fine. But then he heard it, the first gunshot. Soonyoung was quick to react, but he failed to locate the shooter, so he found it better to get on grounds level, to support the others.
As Soonyoung reached the ground, the first person that caught his eyes, were Seokmin.
He was huddled behind a dumpster, the gunshots had stopped for a while, but Soonyoung knew it wasn’t over just yet. So he used what little time he had, to run towards Seokmin.
“Hey, you’re gonna be okay” Soonyoung reassured as he took Seokmin’s shaking hands in his own.
Seokmin had been on many missions before, just not one where they ended up in a confrontation. It was clear that he was scared, Soonyoung had been that the first time he had ended in a situation where he actually had to act, but he had gotten used to it by now. Seokmin was stil green. He didn’t even want to kill.
Soonyoung was about to say something else to Seokmin, when his head shot up and stared straight behind Soonyoung. Before Soonyoung had any chance to react, Seokmin pushed him out of the way, and fired his gun.
Soonyoung saw it all in slow motion, the bullet that slowly grazed Seokmin’s right shoulder, and flew into the dumpster behind him. And how the bullet Seokmin had fired, shot straight through the other shooter’s chest, making him fall death to the ground.
Seokmin breathed in heavily, as he slowly dropped the gun to the ground and took a hand to his shoulder, trying to ease the pain. Soonyoung as quick to get to him, and carefully put him down on the ground.
“Seokmin, what in the world was that?” Soonyoung asked in desperation as he applied pressure to Seokmin’s wound.
“He was gonna shoot you” Seokmin slowly responded, looking into Soonyoung’s dark teary eyes.
Soonyoung lightly slapped him on his left arm as he said: “But what about your policy?” in a worried tone.
“It was you or him, that’s quite an easy choice to take” he stuttered out through clenched teeth.
Soonyoung stared down on him, taking all of his features in, he had known for a while that he loved Seokmin, but the feelings that ran through his body in this exact moment, was something different. And without hesitation, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against Seokmin’s lips.
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“This really is a romantic story” Soonyoung told Chan, as he reached for his glass of water and took a few sips.
“It truly is, but it gets even better later on, just you wait” Chan reassured Soonyoung as he gently rubbed one of his hands.
“I have a hard time imagining that” Soonyoung admitted, sending Chan a wondering smile.
Chan returned the smile a sad look flashing in his eyes, and started talking again.
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After the incident, Seokmin was quickly back on his feet. It had only been a minor wound, and Soonyoung was there to help him through the slight trauma he had gotten, after killing another man. But as he had already said, it was him or Soonyoung, and ha would do everything for Soonyoung.
Years passed with the two of them living together as they always had done. Late night slow dancing in the kitchen. Duets at 3 A.M. in the morning. Living their domestic life to the fullest, as they slowly watched on as their rival gang disappeared, never to be seen again. Seungkwan and Joshua had been the only ones from their gang to leave, and never be heard of again. The two of them and Chan, still managed to stay with Jihoon, until Jihoon decided that it was time to quit this job, and let a new generation take over. This was in their thirties, and Soonyoung and Seokmin had moved out of their old apartment, only to move a few blocks down the street. They lived close by Chan, who had remained young for so many years, actually to the point where they started referring to him as their son. Much to his dismay.
Over the course of time Seokmin had grown sick. It had started around a year after he had been shot, falling in and out of sickness, but never anything serious. Until he reached an older age. In the start of his forties, Seokmin had suffered from a very bad flu, he almost didn’t anything for weeks, and he had trouble breathing. Soonyoung had been worried, but the doctor had told them to just wait it out, it would pass on, at some point. The doctor had been right, and after three weeks, Seokmin was back on his feet again, with no sign of him being sick. At least not to Soonyoung.
One day when Soonyoung was at work, Chan had come to visit Seokmin. Seokmin had called him over, because there were something he needed to talk to him about. Chan hadn’t known what to expect from his long time friend. But what Seokmin had told him, hadn’t even occurred in his wildest imagination.
Seokmin was sick, he knew that. But Seokmin knew why he was sick, that he didn’t know. It had all happened the day he had been grazed by that bullet that was meant for Soonyoung. The people who had attacked them hadn’t only been after the package, but Soonyoung as well. Soonyoung was a great and feared assassin, and they had tried to get rid of him, by firing an infected bullet at him. But it had hit Seokmin instead. At the time he hadn’t known it was infected. But he had figured a few weeks later, but decided to keep his mouth shut about it. The infection took time to kill, as it had barely hit him, and therefore took more time to infect his body and work, but it was working, and it was slowly, but surely, killing him.
Chan hadn’t known what to do with the information, but he had promised Seokmin never to tell Soonyoung about it.
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A few years later, the infection had gotten a hold of Seokmin. His inner organs had one by one slowly started to malfunction, and he was now unable to walk. This was in their sixties. And Seokmin was placed in a white hospital room, when Soonyoung entered through the door, a bunch of yellow sunflowers in his hands. Seokmin’s favorite.
“How are you doing?” Soonyoung asked, as he placed the flowers in a vase with fresh water.
“Been better, been worse” Seokmin said as he shrugged his shoulders, smiling at the sight of the beaming flowers.
Soonyoung nodded in response, as he slowly took a seat beside Seokmin’s bed, grasping Seokmin’s weak hand in his own, running a comforting thumb across it.
“Grandma, do you still love me despite my wrinkles and greying hair?” Seokmin asked in an attempt to make Soonyoung smile.
It worked, and Soonyoung broke into a wide grin, as he answered Seokmin: “Of course grandpa, I’m sitting here right now, aren’t I?” squeezing his hand for comfort.
Seokmin beamed one of his signature smiles at Soonyoung, his eyes curling up into crescents, and something within Soonyoung started to break. There was something he wanted to ask Seokmin, and now might be one of his only chances.
“You did this for me, right?” he asked out of nowhere, causing Seokmin’s eyes to open wide as he looked up at Soonyoung from the bed.
“Who told you that?” He managed to ask despite his shock.
“No one, I’m not stupid Minnie” Soonyoung started, raising an eyebrow at the younger “We are connected by a string of fate, whenever something bad happens to you, I feel it, you should know that” he explained, earning a long sigh from Seokmin, followed by silence. Soonyoung spoke again: “Why?” he asked gaining Seokmin’s eye contact once again.
“Because I love you” he answered resolutely, looking into Soonyoung’s dark eyes.
“Is that reason enough?” Soonyoung asked, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat.
“Of course it is” Seokmin started, this time he squeezed Soonyoung’s hand for comfort “If it hadn’t been for you, I would have been stuck with my father’s strict rules for all of my life, having to inherit his stupid company and all that crap” he explained, earning a chuckle from Soonyoung “You saved me from the most boring life ever, and gave me all I ever wanted” he continued, as Soonyoung finally looked at him again “Freedom” he trailed of with a smile, as Soonyoung leaned in to kiss him softly on his forehead.
Seokmin had slowly closed his eyes, and let out a deep breath, a smile still gracing his lips, as his hand slowly grew weaker in Soonyoung’s grip. Soonyoung felt the first tears roll down his face, as he pulled away to find Seokmin’s peaceful resting face in the white bed. He looked like an angel. Soonyoung felt a weak pull in his soul, and he knew, that Seokmin’s soul, was moving further away from him, but they would always stay connected.
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“Seokmin” Soonyoung slowly said, his eyes distant and glassy and voice hoarse.
Chan turned to look at him with wide eyes.
“You remember?” He asked in wonder, almost fearing the answer from his friend.
“Of course, how could I even forget all of those things? I’m such a horrible person” Soonyoung started out, the first tear rolling down his wrinkled cheek. “He died for me, Chan, and I forgot all about him, except for his name and face” Soonyoung uttered in a whisper, the tears now streaming from his eyes, his hands and shoulders shaking. “How could I forget all of that? I loved him, I love him so much” he corrected himself, while Chan started to wipe away his tears.
“It’s not your fault that you forgot, I’m sure he wouldn’t blame you” Chan tried to reassure him, but Soonyoung shook his head.
“It’s been twenty years Chan, and I will forget this again tomorrow, even though I can feel the string in my soul pulling me towards something every day” he explained with saddened eyes, and that was when Chan realised, that Seokmin wouldn’t find peace, before Soonyoung stopped living as well. That was their soulmate curse. The one couldn’t live without the other, the string would continue to pull them towards each other, until they would never separate.
Soonyoung had put himself back into the bed, and was now staring up into the white ceiling.
“I owe him everything Chan” he said in almost a whisper.
Chan only nodded in response, trying to find the right words to say. Soonyoung had regained his memories many times before, only for them to disappear again the next day. But this time, was worse than the others. He remembered it all.
“Chan, I want to see him” Soonyoung started off in a distant voice, “I want to see Seokmin” he finished as he slowly closed his eyes.
“Soonyoung?” Chan asked in a stifling voice, the tears welling up in his eyes as he didn’t receive an answer.
“Soonyoung” He tried once again, this time shaking his shoulder slightly, still not gaining a response.
The tears slowly started to spill from his eyes, as he squeezed Soonyoung’s lifeless old hand in his own.
He was gone.
It took Chan a moment to press the emergency button. The fact that he was now alone, slowly settling into his system. He had met his soulmate late in his life, and had stayed 18, while all of his other friends had either passed away or had gone missing. Soonyoung had been the last one left, and all Chan had back now, was his soulmate.
But this was what he been trying to gain for so many years, Soonyoung’s happiness, and he could only hope that now Soonyoung had finally found peace, and got to spend one last moment with Seokmin. The red string of fate they had shared, had after all, never left their souls, and would bind them together, forever.