Chapter Text
The first time it happened, Jisung was twelve years old.
He remembers the confused expression on his parents faces when he attempted to catch the thick string that was between them. He tried to hold the string with his tiny hands once and once again, but the red line always vanished from his hand just to seconds later appear again, linking his parents.
“Jisungie, what are you doing?” His mother asked when she saw his son trying to catch the air for the tenth time that day.
“I’m trying to catch it with my hands.” Jisung said simply, trying one more time to hold it, only to pout when he saw that was impossible.
“Trying to catch what?” It was his father who asked this time. The family was seated on the sofa, with Jisung between them, knees on the floor as he stared the red line that was laying on the sofa between the two adults.
“Can’t you see that, dad? The string. It’s on your finger.” Jisung said, pointing at his father’s little finger that was involved with a red line and following the string up to his mother’s little finger. “And it’s connected with mom’s.”
Their parents just looked confused at Jisung, clearly not knowing what their son was talking about.
And at that very moment, at that very early age, Jisung discovered he had a gift. He could see the red string that connects two people who are fated to be together.
After some time he was so used this peculiar gift on his life that he started to ignore it, the red lines was to him as important as an ad at a bus station was for average people, everyone knew it was there, but no one really paid attention to it.
Within the years, he started to notice some facts about his stranger power.
1. He saw it with his mom and dad, but in reality it was more difficult to find two people connect than he thought, either it was because they were apart from each other at the moment or either it was because the couples he’d see wasn’t really fated. So most of the times he would just see a huge amount of red lines that goes to nowhere he can follow with his eyes.
2. The stronger the connection of two people are, the thicker the string is. He saw strings that were thick as a twine like his parent’s and he also saw strings that were so slim that he almost couldn’t see it.
Which leads to the third fact: The strings can break. Two people that were destined to be together could no longer be. But that would only happen when the damage is too strong. He verified that when he saw the thick string that held his sister Seulgi to her boyfriend break. He remembers the hurt on her eyes and the sound of her sobs on his shoulders when she told him how the guy she was so in love betrayed her with another girl for almost a year. From that day until now, the string in his sister fingers was cut and just suspended on the air, leading to nowhere.
And he saw it many more times after that, in so many friends, so many broken hearts and cut strings that he almost stopped believing in it. He only didn’t because he also saw love.
He saw couples who were not fated but still lived happily on each other company. People that chose to be together and were satisfied with the result of it.
But he also saw love in it’s purest form. He didn’t stop believing in the accuracy of the strings because when he wasn’t living alone, he saw his parents everyday, smiling and loving each other like the time had never passed. He didn’t stop because he sees the strong and unbreakable red line that ties Park Woojin and Park Jihoon everyday at college. He sees it on how Woojin understand Jihoon without the boy having to say anything, he sees it when he accompanies Jihoon to the dance department bringing lunch because Jihoon knows Woojin tends to forget to eat. And he sees it everyday when the string shines a bright red when they are holding hands on their way to cafeteria.
That’s why Jisung believes in love and specially in fate, because when he sees how Woojin and Jihoon just fits so perfectly together, all his doubts vanishes. And he is 100% sure that not even the most perfect not fated couple can match against such a strong bond that the red line meant.
He just couldn’t wait to find the end of his own string.
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The first thing Jisung noticed when he goes to Uni after the summer vacation is Seongwoo’s little finger.
When he said goodbye at the cinema to Seungwoo two weeks before, the tall boy’s red line was slim like a strand of hair, signaling that his fated was far away from him. But now, as Jisung frowns his eyebrows paying attention to the other man’s hand, he can see that the string just grew thicker.
What happened?
“I know I have pretty hands, Jisung hyung.” He hears Seongwoo’s voice as the man approach him from the entry of the class “But can we go to cafeteria already? I’m hungry.” The black haired man that was now standing right in front of him says with an ironic smile on his face. He picks up Jisung’s notebooks that was on the desk and put inside the latter’s bag. “You’ve been staring at my hand since I got inside the classroom, what’s wrong?” He asks as he places the latter’s bag on his back.
“Your nails are dirty.” Jisung finally says and laughs when he sees the tall man immediately looking at his own nails with wide eyes. “Let’s go, Seongwoo-ah.”
When they got to cafeteria, Jihoon and Woojin were already there, both side by side eating in silence. Jisung and Seongwoo quickly sit on the table in front of them with their respective lunches.
“So kids.” Jisung asks when he finishes chewing his noodle. The three younger men simultaneously stares at him and he smiles at the attention. “How was vacation?”
“I did what I do the best. Nothing.” Seongwoo says with a proud smile on his face and the couple in front of him just rolls their eyes. Jisung just laugh at the situation and smiles amused to the guy beside him.
“Woojinie won a street dance competition last week.” Jihoon announces and his boyfriend gives him a shy smirk, preferring to focus on eating his food.
“Oh really?” The latter says looking pleasant. “And what was the prize?”
“Nothing really, but I won from a really good dancer that I didn’t expect to, so that’s already good enough.” Woojin says grinning. “He was really good, he did all those b-boys moves and everyone went crazy.”
“But Woojin was better.” The pink haired man next to Woojin says, his eyebrows arched and his chin up, a proud smile on his face as he look to his boyfriend. Jisung smiled fondly at the both of them, seeing the red line on their fingers shining.
“Why I wasn’t invited?” Seongwoo asks, looking betrayed. He was actually from the theater department with Jihoon and Jisung but he had a big interest on dance as well.
“Sorry hyung, it was a last minute call so we didn’t get to tell you.” Woojin says apologetically. “Next time i’ll make sure to call you so we can compete.” He says, winking at Seongwoo who was now pouting like a child, soon after the pout turns into a comprehensive smile and they continues the chat.
“What about your vacation, Jisung hyung?” It was Jihoon who made the question, turning his attention to the latter that was now in the process of slurping a noddle inside his mouth.
“My vacation was no vacation.” The light brown haired said some seconds later. “I was so busy preparing and studying to finally get my master degree that I almost hadn’t time to myself.” He says with a heavy sigh. “And there’s also Seulgi wedding’s plans so i’m kinda worn out.”
Jisung’s sister is going to marry in four months and Jisung is helping her with all he can. After her horrible experience with her supposed fated one, Seulgi met a nice guy on her job and one year later they got engaged. Their strings didn’t match, but he made her happy so Jisung was content with that.
“Oh that’s right, Seulgi noona wedding is close, how’s the preparation?” Ong asks, finishing his last bite on the meal.
“It’s going great, soon she’ll send out the invitations, do you guys already know who you’re going to take?” Jisung asks curiously, a smirk on his face.
“Well, I was thinking about inviting a guy from the dance department. He has a handsome face and a nice smile, do you guys know him?” Jihoon says playfully, wrapping his arm around Woojin shoulders, who just fake a shy smile to his boyfriend.
“Oh my god, stop flirting in front of us, I can’t handle it anymore.” It was Ong who protested, making the four of them laugh hard.
After the lunch, the group disperses, each one of them going to different directions on the campus to solve their respective issues. Jisung goes to a practice room close to the dance department. To finish his masters, his teacher said he had to take one class of modern dance, so that was exactly what he was going to do. He goes to the bathroom to change clothes and when he arrives the classroom thirty minutes earlier, no one was there, except for one guy who was calmly dancing to a Sam Smith’s song.
Jisung entered the room silently, trying to not be noticed. The room looked like a normal practice room, with nothing except a big mirror on the wall and a sound system at the corner.
He sat on the floor and as he leans on the wall and put his bag by his side, he watches the guy in front of him moving along to the song, totally unaware of his presence.
After some seconds Jisung finds himself mesmerized by the performance of the man, who was wearing a serious face as he concentrates on the song. The blonde man in front of him was using a sleeveless shirt and Jisung could see the muscles of his arms flexing as he slowly moves according to the beat. He saw the man do a flip when the song reaches it’s climax and unconsciously starts clapping in awe, his eyes widen in admiration. The sudden clap startles the blonde man who stops dancing and looks frightened to the source of the sound.
“Omo. That scared me.” The guy says when his eyes finds Jisung sitting with his crossed legs in the corner of the room.
With the man now standing, Jisung could take a better look on his face. The light yellow hair of the man was glued to his forehead that was dripping sweat because of the exercise, he was breathing slowly, his chest going in and out as he tried to catch his breath, and Jisung couldn’t stop himself from thinking that the guy was too hot for his own good.
“I-I’m sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” He said after a few seconds, trying to look composed in front of the guy.
“It’s ok. I just didn’t see you there.” The blonde replies as he lift his shirt to wipe the sweat off his face, revealing his defined abs in the process and Jisung could only swear on his mind and wonder what he have done on his past life to deserve this kind of torture.
“Are you here for the class?” The other man voice take Jisung out of his thoughts.
“Y-Yes.” He replied, a polite smile showing on his face as he ignores the burning on his cheeks. “Are you the teacher?” Jisung asks with arched brows and curious eyes. The handsome guy doesn’t reply and just laugh instead, showing his white bunny teethes, and if Jisung wasn’t already thinking that he was the most beautiful man on earth before, now he didn’t have any doubts of it.
“No I’m not. But I’m kinda of her assistant so I’ll be helping out with the classes.” He says walking towards Jisung and sitting by his side. “I’m Daniel by the way, Kang Daniel.” The hot guy, Daniel, says, offering a hand to Jisung, who hesitantly takes and shakes it.
“I’m Jisung, Yoon Jisung.”
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Jisung-ssi.” Daniel says with a bright smile that made Jisung feel things that he’d very much prefer to ignore at the moment.
He also preferred to ignore the slight discomfort on his chest when he saw that the thick red string on the other man little finger led to a way far away from where they were.