Felix glanced down at his phone and sighed before he shoved it back into his pocket. He glanced up at Jisung, his eyes softening at how Jisung kept glancing back and forth along the street. Felix had only planned to wait a while with him since he was quite curious about who you were as well, but they have been waiting for longer than Jisung had verbally anticipated and you still haven't turned up yet.

"Jisung," Felix called, his voice showing mild distress.

"Yeah?" Jisung looked behind him at his friend, his brows furrowed and his eyes holding a glare that was not meant for Felix.

"Are you still waiting?" Felix asked, ignoring the firm gaze thrown at him. "It's been an hour."

Jisung nodded, his lips pursing tightly as if to prevent the negative thoughts from being voiced. You would be here, he believed. You promised him. "Yeah. I told them I'm not leaving unless they show up."

"Oh... I..." Felix sighed in confusion. "What is the situation, exactly? Did you have to give them something important?"

Jisung was already reluctant when he mentioned that he planned to wait with him. Felix chalked it up to Jisung being possessive of your relationship and chose to stay behind anyway. But, seeing that it has been an hour and most students have already left the school premises, this felt like an urgent matter rather than a slight obsession of a new crush, which was still just an assumption on his part. He knew nothing about you and who you were to Jisung, after all.

"No, but it is about something important," Jisung replied with his eyes dead-set on the street far down. "They promised me they would be here, and I told them I won't leave until they arrive, so I'm waiting."

"Oh... well, I have to leave, though," Felix pointed behind him at the bus-stop far away. "I have to head to the tutoring center."

"You should go then," Jisung urged, waving his hand dismissively without sparing a glance at his friend. "You don't want to be late."

Felix quietly left his side. A part of him didn't plan for his friend to see him act all nervous and fidgety anyway. It was an uncommon sight for him to be all sweaty and anxious like this. Not to mention how pathetic he felt when it dawned upon him that this tightness came from the simple thought of you backing out on your words.

His frown deepened as each seconds tick past and you were still nowhere to be found. He was seriously contemplating heading to where you left off this morning in hopes to see if he would stumble upon the shop you worked in somehow. But you would have already left your work, would you not? Your next job should be the convenience store... no, that was on weekends!

Before Jisung could make sense of his plan to find out where you were, he looked up from the ground and found you rushing towards him with an unamused expression. He breathed out a heavy sigh and straightened his back as you approached him quickly. He threw you a pout when you were within earshot, frustrated that it took you so long to arrive and without an ounce of anger in his being.

"What took you so long?" He whined. "I thought you backed out!"

"I had to stay behind for a bit because someone didn't show up today," you replied. "I thought you knew? I told you not to wait for me."

"When did you tell me?" Jisung asked incredulously.

"I sent you something! I put it on a birdie and sent it to you!"

Oh, that was you.

"[Name], I don't understand birds!" he exclaimed with a growing smile, throwing his arms up in defeat.

You stared at him, eyes wide in deep thoughts. Then, comedically, you pointed a finger at him and tapped against the air. "Yeah, I always thought how much that must suck for you guys," you mentioned, causing Jisung to drop his jaw in disbelief.

"Anyway, I strapped a note on it," you muttered to yourself then, recalling your lunch break when you clearly made sure you tied a ribbon around the sparrow before flying it off to the school. Pouting, you scrunched the side of your mouth. "Maybe it dropped my note somewhere."

Jisung huffed out a hopeless laugh as he began walking, making sure you were following him and never going too quickly for your pace. "You know, people here don't send birds, we use phones," he commented. "You should probably invest in one."

You grimaced, reaching to your pocket and pulling out an old smartphone. You showed it to him, waving it, and said, "I do have one."

The look of betrayal Jisung flashed you was dramatic at best. He looked like you just told him you hate puppies and that you have purposefully run over a few with your nonexistence car. You rolled your eyes at him, not really in the mood to deal with whatever stunt he planned to pull about you having a phone and not telling him so you just handed the device to him.

"Just add your number in," you said.

He grinned as he snatched your phone away from your hand. He examined it initially, his brows failing to hide a judgemental scrunch when he realized about what year the smartphone came out in. He was quick to disregard that as he unlocked your phone; he wrote a mental note to himself to remind you to give your phone a password.

You could hear his excruciatingly obnoxious typing sounds and you prayed for the your phone's poor screen. After he was done, Jisung gave his mobile a call to make sure he made no mistake before handing it back to you. His grin was cheeky and wide. It seemed like he was up to no good.

You turned it on to check for your contacts. It wasn't hard to find him. With no relatives and no friends, you only got a few essential numbers stored in your phone, like your boss and your co-workers. But the thing that made his contact pop out the most was the name he set for himself. It left an immediate frown on your face.

"Best friend Han?" You questioned, blinking at the red heart emoji sparkling next to his name.

"Mmhmm." He nodded as he showed you his phone. "I put your name like that too, my best friend!"

You looked at his phone, a fit of giggle bubbling up threateningly when you saw the same red heart next to your name. "Do you add hearts to everyone's name or are you just weird when it comes to me?" you asked when he retreated his hand to look at his screen.

He innocently scrolled at his phone and puffed out his cheeks. He let his cheeks stay jutted out with a pursed smile as he shook his head. "No, it's just you. And it's not weird, it's..." He told you, his eyes rolled up to the sky as he thought for a while. "I don't know what it is. I just felt like doing it."

The hysteric laughter that once surfaced reduced to small, gentle hiccups of joy under your breath. That was a very Jisung thing to say; impulsive but somehow it worked out to his favor, and the impulsivity brought you solace due to how closely you related it to him. Putting your phone back into your pocket, you nodded at him as a simple response.

You two shared a moment of silence. For once, Jisung chose to delay a topic of choice and instead to enjoy the laid-back sensation where both of you walked quietly down the street, presumably where the bus-stop was since you hadn't raised the idea of teleporting both of you back to his home yet. You, too, enjoyed not having to constantly think of something to say despite rather liking how chattery Jisung has been with you so far.

"So..." It took Jisung a while to clear his throat and break the silence. You perked up at his voice but didn't turn to look at him. "How's your day been? How is work?"

You were quick to shrug in response. "Normal. Nothing special happened. I did my job and stayed away from people when I can."

"That's not very fun." Jisung frowned. "You should at least try to befriend other people, you know? They might be able to help you down the line."

"I don't like asking for help," you pointed out honestly, causing him to laugh.

"I know. I learned it the hard way," he muttered to himself, faintly throwing a smile your way but you weren't paying attention to him.

"What about you? I'm sure there are plenty of juicy drama circling a high school?" you asked after clicking your tongue in mild annoyance, turning the topic on him quickly.

"I'm not a very big rumor person so I don't know anything about that," Jisung said with an innocent shake of his head. He then slammed a fist to his palm upon thinking of what happened during lunch, and suddenly his excitement spiked. "Oh, my friends told me they saw us together this morning and they asked me about you!"

Your eyes widened in amusement as you looked over at him. You fidgeted your fingers and asked, "What did you say? You didn't say anything stupid, right?"

"Of course not! Why would I do that–wait, hold on," Jisung paused with squinted eyes. He looked at you, a weak finger pointing up at the sky then at you. "Why do you care if I said something stupid? That's not like you."

You stared at him innocently. "What if you spill my secret?"

His jaw slowly dropped as he processed your words. The light came back into his eyes and he made a noise of acknowledgment, a silly grin appearing on his lips as he laughed out the embarrassment. He initially thought you cared because you might have fancied one of his all very attractive friends, and somehow the thought didn't sit well with him. But then he remembered: you have never met any of them before, so how could you?

"You should have some faith in me. I might talk a lot but I never reveal any classified information!" He patted his chest to emphasize how trustworthy he was, a move that did nothing to convince you but he thought it was cool so he did it anyway. "But really, though, I didn't say anything. They just kind of guessed who you were and I never responded."

You huffed out a laugh. "What does it look like we are? We're friends."

"My friend Hyunjin saw you brush my hair and he thought it was evidence for something more intimidate," he said. "He was all up my ass about it. He even guessed if we're soulmates, and then Seungmin had a whole pessimistic debate with Felix and it's just all messy!"

You laughed in bewilderment, not so much at what Seungmin and Felix were debating about but more so at what his friend had suggested you two to be. Soulmates were not a foreign concept to magic-wielders; the concept itself came from one of your kind and anonymously traveled over to the fictional world of the normal people. But to think that you and Jisung were predestined to be meet each other and, on some sense, like each other was not plausible to you.

Besides, non-magic wielders having a magic-wielder as a soulmate was very rare, if it even happens at all.

Jisung had looked at you weirdly when you laughed. He waited for you to explain what about it you thought was funny, and you gave him a quick shrug.

"I think I would know if we're soulmates, Jisung," you said, slapping a hand to your hip and shaking your head. "Ahh, soulmates... that is hilarious. I will never understand why you people make such a big deal out of it."

Jisung tilted his head to the side. His opinion on soulmates has always been neutral. It was certainly a romantic idea; to have one special person created just for you. Truth be told, Jisung secretly yearned for a love similar to the ideals that soulmates hold—a bond so strong that two people can feel each other constantly, an understanding so special that two people can tell what the other is feeling without the need for words.

A conditioned unconditional love that lasts across time and space.

It was a great ideal because it wasn't real, and that it rarely happens. Jisung would love to experience it if he was given the chance. But the idea of soulmates just didn't feel real enough for him to make a big deal out it. It could be true, but so far he hasn't been shown evidence that it was.

"People think it's romantic," he told you. "It's also an out-of-reach idea, and people tend to go after unavailable things."

"It's not out-of-reach," you said. "Most of us can find our soulmates with magic. For me, I can find them just by following my fate string."

Your casual tone should not be paired up with words like those. Widening his eyes in surprise, Jisung turned to you quickly and he asked, "Wait–so it's real? Like soulmates are an actual thing?"

"They are. Everyone has a special person, Jisung. People aren't creative enough to make up such a vivid concept, it had to came from somewhere," you informed, crossing your hands in front of your chest. "But it's not that big a deal, though. There are a lot of cases of soulmate reject."

"Oh, I've seen those in stories before." Jisung snapped his fingers in acknowledgement, as if he found a solution to a world crisis.

"Good, so you aren't one of those who believe soulmates have to love each other," you muttered before looking up at him. "Soulmates are a little different than what you might expect. The red string they share actually stores the feelings and memories. The stronger the feeling, the stronger the string is, meaning the more magical it is. If you never share any memories or feelings with your soulmate, it's just a string."

He nodded at the newfound information. How he wished he could tell Felix all about this! That freckled boy would be so energetic (and probably a little smug) to hear that soulmates are, in fact, a real thing. Jisung could almost hear the disbelieving scoff in Seungmin's voice, bright with retorts despite having the blatant truth mapped out in front of him.

"You can store magic in your string?" Jisung asked suddenly then, trying to keep the conversation going.

You nodded at him, then you shook your head in thoughts. It was a rather complicated concept, but it also wasn't. There were a heaping amount of interesting cosmic laws to how soulmates work, and you didn't know where you could begin explaining it.

"Yeah, it's so soulmates can help each other out in desperate situations. It is a form of magic that even non-magic users can, I guess, subconsciously utilize," you said. "Obviously, normal people don't actually get to cast a spell with it because you guys know no spells. But, when soulmates are together, the string acts as a shield to fend off bad luck or accidents. Those things."

The soulmate string links two people together. The more in love with each other soulmates are, the stronger the magic is. It is, however, not tragedy-proof. There will always be death within the laws of the universe; the cosmo feeds off of the human soul because it needs energy to protect those it chose to stay alive. Love is great but it is not above the truth, and the truth is that everything comes to an end.

The soulmate string cannot prevent death from happening. It in turn causes it—when one dies, the other goes shortly after. But it also does not. The most humane thing about that was its voluntarily occurrence. People chooses to fade. When a spouse dies, the other spouse soon follows. When a best friend dies, the other best friend soon follows. When a child dies, the parent soon follows.

The human spirit yearns so hardly for their other half that death becomes voluntary. That is what makes soulmates a big deal, you supposed.

"Magic needs to go through a certain medium, like how I have to use my strings to manifest my magic," you added. "When an emergency comes, the soulmate string can be our last resort. It's never really used, though, since that requires breaking the string and transferring the magic."

Jisung raised a brow, getting more and more intrigued with more information. He asked, "I suppose something bad happens if you break it?"

"I don't think it's too bad. The person who breaks the string will be forgotten by their soulmate, that's all." You shrugged. "Since the magic builds on your memories and feelings, when you break the string, you just release everything and set them free."

"What? Why would they do that!" he exclaimed.

"Magic have consequences," you replied. "You get one good thing and another bad thing happens."

Jisung shivered. That took a dramatic and miserable turn. It would make an interesting story plot but knowing that it could happen in real life made him feel an unknown sense of fear. The complete memory erasure of an important person, all the unknown feelings of nostalgia that always caused pain to him... those would bother him.

Glancing at you, he blinked to himself as the thought of how you could have easily just erased yourself from him floated into his head. He wondered why you never chose to do that even though you didn't start out being fond of him at all. And he felt glad that you still haven't tried to do that to him yet. He hoped you never would. It would be a shame to forget about you completely.

"You can see who your soulmate is, right?" He suddenly asked, both wanting to break free from the negative thoughts and because he was curious.

You hummed a little, bringing your right hand up to your face and glaring at your pinky finger. The red tie slowly appeared in your sight and you scoffed. Never have you ever obsessed over such a trivial thing before, it had always just been a long strand of string to you and nothing more. Whoever was at the end of it likely never cared as well, since they never tried tugging at it.

"I can. I just never looked for them," you said.

"Oh... can you see who my soulmate is?" Jisung asked then.

You rolled your eyes a little and turned to him with a faint groan. Reaching out to grab his hand, you held his finger gently and waited before the red knot appeared around his pinky. You pinched the thin string carefully, your eyes widening in surprise when you saw the bright redness coursing through the lining of it. The vibration surrounding it was strong, which either meant their mutual feelings for each other was strong or that his soulmate was near.

"There is magic in here," you said, shifting your gaze to Jisung. "You've not just met your soulmate already, you built a relationship with them."

"I have?" Jisung whispered out in anticipation.

His heart picked up its pace suddenly at the knowledge that he has brushed shoulders with his soulmate before. His mind raced to check past all the faces he's met and interacted with before and he tried to guess, as best as he could, who his soulmate could possibly be.

This has just gotten exciting, the suspense was killing him slowly.

"I can try to pull at the string but if it gets too long, we're not going to follow it to the end," you said, carefully grabbing a hold of his fate string with your fingers. Glancing up at him, you warned, "Don't come crying if the universe made the wrong choice."

Jisung nodded. He watched you intently as you continued to pull at the string, going at a fast pace until you abruptly came to a stop. You huffed out in frustration, unsure why the string was not leading you anywhere. It usually should, especially if the soulmate was standing at a distance. Jisung's string felt in place, as if it got cut off somewhere and was no longer attached to someone from a far distance.

With furrowed brows, Jisung tilted his head and took a step closer to you, his voice urgent as he asked, "What is it?"

You blinked at your hand as you continued to pull at the string. Eventually, you made it to the last millimetre of the string just to find a knot attached and burning at your own pinky. Confusion clouded your mind for a second before it was replaced with disbelief and refusal. You let go of the string and grabbed onto Jisung's hand, then you dropped his hand and raised your own, pinching your fate string instead