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“Momo, are you following that damn string again?” Seiko asks from the kitchen.
“Um- N-no!” she exclaims nervously. She’s standing at the door putting on her shoes as quietly as possible.
“Uh-huh,” her grandma says, utterly unconvinced, “Don’t run off too far and remember the ritual.”
Momo hums in affirmation, “Okie dokie.”
She hears her grandma sigh before turning on the water to wash whatever veggies she would be cooking that night. As always, Momo never gets far. The second she reaches the gate, the little red string tugging at her pinkie disappears. Before it fades away, she watches the ribbon fly in the wind. She runs back into the house.
When Momo meets Jiji, she wonders if he’s at the end of her red string. Part of her hopes he is, he’s so cool and he’s really good at sports. Her crush grows with his stupid jokes and friendly nature. He’s the only one who treated her with kindness.
Jiji makes fun of the spell she performs and in retaliation she takes it out on her grandma. Seiko has a look of disappointment in her eyes, but ultimately she sighs and moves on. Momo no longer sees that stupid red string on her pinky. She forgets about it, but the memory of it lingers.
At school, she hears the girls around her talk and laugh. Thankfully, none of it is geared towards her. Still, she feels lonely listening in on a conversation whispered between two friends.
“Did you hear? Kyomoto had her first kiss!”
“Oh? With who?”
“With Endo!”
The two girls whisper excitedly. Momo takes her pencil and starts doodling in the corner of her sketchbook. She wonders if they were soulmates, childhood best friends destined to be together. Part of her is curious why people would date or engage in shared affection if they weren’t meant to be.
When Momo makes up with Seiko, she swears she sees a glimpse of shining red. It’s not on her though, it’s on Seiko’s shoulder. The shining mark disappears with a second glance.
Momo asks about it and her grandma asks if Momo is sick and hallucinating.
The incident makes her question what she saw. She remembers reading about people who had matching marks on their skin that only they could see. There are so many variations in which two people can be bound to one another, and there are so many stories written of two lovers finding their hearts intertwined.
Momo asks if her grandma believes in soulmates.
“Soulmates are just as fake as ghosts,” there’s a bitterness to her tone outside of her deadpan reminder of the harsh words Momo had once told her.
Momo wonders why. Maybe her grandma had a soulmate once.
“Mann, I wish I knew my Mr. Right.” Miko sighs into her desk.
“How do you know?” The question comes out of Momo’s mouth before she realizes.
“Huh? Well I guess you just know. It feels right.”
“Do you believe in soulmates?”
Kei laughs, “You’re so funny, Momo. You read too many of those webnovels.”
The day her boyfriend broke up with her, Momo sees red that reminds her of a faint memory. It’s what compels her to sit at that boy’s desk. It’s what kickstarts the greatest adventure of her life.
She unlocks a spiritual power she’s never known she could have. She makes a friend. Sometimes out of the corner of her eye, she sees a red knot on Okarun’s pinkie. It reminds her of a moment she had with Seiko when she was younger.
“Granny, what is the red string for?”
“The legends say that two people are destined to meet and love one another if they are connected by that string. They’re called soulmates.”
“So, I have a soulmate?”
“Everyone has a soulmate, Momo. It’s the person you surround yourself with and choose to love every day no matter what the universe tells you.”
“...okay?” It leaves her confused.
Now that she’s older, she gets it. The different types of love and the difference between platonic, romantic, and even sexual kinds. She wonders if the universe selectively picks out a romantic bond.
When Aira eats with them for the first time after the Acrobatic Silky encounter, Momo is shocked. Behind Aira is a large tangle of ribbons. Only one ribbon comes off her ankle. It’s messy and large. It stays in Momo’s vision for more than a slip of a second, disappearing when she blinks and tries to take in what she just saw.
She’s not sure if the tangled ribbons is from Aira or from Silky when she realizes that Aira has the spirit’s powers.
“Hey, Shiratori, do you believe in soulmates?”
“What kind of dumb question is that?” she shrieks, “Soulmates don’t exist, why? Are you trying to control me with your evil powers?”
“No, I’m just curious. And why not? Spirits and aliens exist,” Momo replies.
“If they did exist, then I would have one.”
Momo doesn’t talk about the large tangle behind her, it will need smoothing out and care for her to find who she’s destined to meet.
She catches Seiko’s weird look at her, questioning why Momo would ask such a thing.
After Aira and Okarun leave, her grandma turns to her, “You can still see red strings”
“Only out of the corner of my eye, and not always.”
“I see.”
“How did you know?”
Seiko lets out a laugh, “You were always obsessed with the little red string on your pinky. You used to ask if we could go on a grand adventure to follow it. Never learned that you could only see it within the boundaries we have set here.”
“Can you see them?”
Seiko shook her head, “No. There is a feeling when two soulmates are next to each other. Like electricity. Everything else isn’t visible to me.”
Momo nods, there’s been an evident difference in their power.
“Did you ever meet your soulmate?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“...Were you ever curious?”
Seiko narrowed her eyes at Momo, “Don’t ask too many questions. But no, I knew they exist, or at least that some people were meant for each other. Alright enough of that, help me clean up.”
She follows her grandma into the kitchen.
“Jiji?!?!”
She’s not expecting to see him at her door, the embarrassing impression leaving her mind. He’s as goofy as she remembers him. The introductions go around the room as he meets Aira and Okarun.
She doesn’t catch the look on Okarun’s face as she catches up with Jiji, but when she looks over his shoulder and catches his eye, she’s distracted immediately. Her jaw almost drops, in the corner of her eye, several red ribbons fly out from Jiji. Attached to her, Okarun, Aira, and more trailing out the door.
What the hell? She’ll have to ask her grandma later.
At school, she follows Jiji’s red strings everywhere, tripping and tangling herself on air, gaining strange looks from her friends. Unlike the other red strings, Jiji’s doesn’t seem to fade away unless he’s right in front of her. Unlike the other red strings, Jiji’s felt tangible and suffocating.
When she finds Okarun, she also finds a pang of jealousy, knowing Jiji was nearby with the way the red string tugged on the boy in front of her.
It felt… unfair to know all of the relationships around her and who they were meant to be with, yet so unable to find her own soulmate.
The jealousy bubbles deeply inside of her when Taro and Hana are reunited. She almost misses it, not expecting two mannequins to have their own red strings of fate. When she arrives home, she sees it as clear as day. She wants to scream, it’s not fair. How can they? Everyone around her is in love, falling in love, or will fall in love with those they have already met. When will it be her turn?
She doesn’t see Okarun’s concerned face from her frustrated reaction. Upset and anger filling her up like a bucket, threatening to spill over any second. At night, when she’s calmed down, and she’s waiting with Hana, she resigns to her fate to never find love.
She does her best to ignore the damn strings. Getting better at avoiding the topic of her strange side steps when Jiji’s strings tighten. In the midst of active avoidance, she doesn’t notice the concern slowly spreading through her friend group. Even Aira knew something was up.
Then she has to start packing for the trip to the cursed house. She’ll be alone with Jiji and Okarun. The two still don’t get along. Okarun thinks he’s the reason why she’s been distant and lost. He’s blind to the glint of red on his pinky. Blind that in his spirit form, the deep red shines the same as the ribbons. A cursed reminder of the reality of the nature of the universe, aura, and souls.
Before they leave, Okarun comes by early. He requests to talk to Momo alone. They stand outside near the gate taking in silence before he speaks.
“What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“Miss Ayase… you’ve been avoidant since Jiji came. Especially after Taro and Hana.”
Momo sighs, “Do you believe in soulmates?”
“No..? You asked Miss Shiratori that too…”
“They exist,” Momo affirms, “I can see them. Red strings connecting pinkies.”
“Do- do I have one?”
She almost misses the soft blush on his face, “Yeah,” she admits quietly.
“Do you know who it is?”
“...No. It ends short.”
“Do you have one?”
Momo shakes her head, “I don’t. Apparently I used to see mine, but I don’t anymore. I don’t know why and I don’t remember.”
“Is that why?”
“...yeah. Jiji has so many soulmates, even Aira has one, and I just… I don’t…”
She wants to cry, curl into a ball and break down, but she’s resolved to confront her overwhelming wave of emotions on her two feet.
“Hey. It’s okay. Who cares, right?”
“What?”
“Who cares? I- I like you, Miss Ayase. And I want to be with you even if the universe or whoever made these soulmate bonds say otherwise. I like you now.”
She almost stumbles backwards. It was bold of him to say these things, unlike him normally.
He moves his glasses up so she can see his eyes.
“I knew something was bothering you, and I thought you would tell me. I want you to tell me these things. And-”
Momo gives him a hug, tears welling at the corners of her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry-”
“I like you too,” she says, squeezing him.
He squeezes her back and she can feel the ghost of a smile where her neck meets her shoulder.
“You’re right. It’s stupid and I like you now.”
“I’m glad.”
They pull away and he leads her back inside. His warm hand holding hers tightly as if she would disappear if she didn’t. An Orpheus guiding his Eurydice home. When they’re back inside, under good lighting, she catches a glint of red.
On her pinky, Okarun’s red string tugs on hers. She never sees them again.