The strings couldn't work with one hand.

You have never considered such a circumstance before; the circumstance when only one set of your fingers work while the others were rendered completely useless. It was so suddenly presented to you that you weren't able to think of any plausible solution aside from struggling through the pain and hoping you could somehow make the patterns work with one hand.

You remembered seeing your mother do it when she was multi-tasking around the house so at least you could have faith that it is possible to do that.

After finding an empty alleyway, you reached the far corner of the dark space and slid down against the dry, rocky concrete wall. Even puffs of air went in and out of your lips as you tried to regulate your breathing and not cause any more pain within yourself; the broken hand and the torn skin were hurtful enough. Glancing down at your hand, your previously steady breath came out shakier than ever upon the reddening bulge, glazed over with the pouring blood that stained the blue string.

You couldn't feel your arm anymore when you poke at it, but somehow the pain still lingered strong. It looked ugly.

"Okay... okay..." You kept reminding yourself as you reached to blindly a loose end of your blue string.

It was submerged with your skin entirely, you found out. Using the wrong string for a power-type spell was already bad enough as it channeled unnecessary energy. But you had to keep using it for pain-reduction to keep yourself from collapsing from the injury, causing the string to keep draining your blood through the tissues of your skin by wrapping its bladed surface tighter around your arm.

You had no other choice but to dig your nails through the gap where the string was etched into, hoping to needle out an opening for you to lose your finger through and tug the string out slowly between your flesh. Tears welled up in your eyes at the agonizing pain when you ever so lightly pulled at the hem of the string, peeling it away. It felt like the sharp end of a blade running across your skin repeatedly, the sharp and stinging pain gutting you with each inch you take off.

The pain-reduction spell was losing its patience with you. You had less than enough blood to give.

Opting to take breaks between each little peels, your heart clenched at how hopeless you were, and a bitterly triumphant smile slowly eased its way to your face. This situation hit home for you—being in trouble and being alone. You welcomed this eerie nostalgia, even relaxing into it so you could feel better about this situation.

A loud exhale left your lips as you let your arms drop to the ground, your eyes rolling skywards at the clouds, and your smile dimmed with satisfaction when it suddenly hit you that you could kindly take your time with soothing the pain out. You didn't have anywhere else to be anyway.

Your phone suddenly rang, snapping you out of your thoughts. Letting it ring for a while, you clicked your tongue at how insistent the caller was before you fished it out of your pocket. When you saw Jisung's name flashed across the screen, your heart halted with a stumble.

Oh god, what were you thinking? Someone out there was desperately looking for you. Han Jisung has been looking for you all over the place.

"[Name]! Where the hell are you?" Jisung's panicked voice came out as a shout when you picked up.

"I... uhh," you gulped down a harsh breath, "I mainly ran straight. You will see a mini-park when you leave the shopping area and go straight. If you turn a corner around the crossroad, you will see an alleyway. I'm just far inside."

There was shuffling on the other side. You could hear Jisung call out to his friends before he pressed his phone back to his ears and he huffed with each step, not quite running but walking fast enough to be out of breath. You didn't dare hang up. He sounded angry when you finally picked up the call and you assumed he had things to tell you. While he stayed silent to follow your direction, you decided to hold your phone between your ear and your shoulder as your hand went back to business.

"You better be okay when I get there," Jisung scolded, his mind flashing back to the bloodied arm you got before you ran away. "How could you just up and leave like that?"

"I'm sorry–" you winced with a squint of your eye, a yelp leaving your lips when a particularly sharp inch tore at your skin.

Jisung furrowed his brows immediately, the grip on his phone tightening as he picked up his pace. "[Name], what is that? Are you okay?"

"Yeah... no, actually. But I am dealing with it," you said through gritted teeth. "Anyway, I just got overwhelmed and my first response was to run away."

Jisung sighed in defeat. He couldn't blame you for that, especially since he knew how much you hated being under the spotlight and how much the crowd drains you out. He just wished you could have asked him for help so he could have done something. He could have left with you to fix your hand, which he assumed you would much rather not go to the hospital for. But you were still in pain, and the fact that he was not there to help you was breaking him apart.

It felt like a piece of his heart just left his chest and started to roam around the world looking for you, and he couldn't protect it. He has no idea where it would go and what would happen to it.

"I think I'm here–oh, please be there," Jisung muttered as he turned a corner and walked straight into the alleyway. He hung up the phone and shoved it in his pocket, his legs rushing until he finally saw you sitting all the way at the back corner.

His heart dropped at the sight of you. Hair stuck to your forehead due to the sweat, your bloodied arm still a raging color of fresh redness, and you were breathing heavily in pain as you tried finishing off with the tightened blue string around your forearm. Jisung felt tears brimming behind his eyes as a lump of fear jumped to this throat, forcing him to let out incoherent sounds of protest as he rushed to approach you before dropping to his knees.

"No, no–what are you doing? Stop, you're hurt–you're hurting yourself."

His voice came out croaked and his hands were fumbling in the air, somewhere close to yours in hopes to stop your movements. But still, he wasn't sure if he should stop you because he knew he wasn't knowledgeable enough in this matter.

"Jisung, I have to do this. This has gone far too deep," you explained calmly despite wanting nothing more than to break down in front of him. "If I try to heal it, the string will get ripped out of my skin. It'll hurt way more than me doing it slowly now."

His friends finally made it to the end of the alleyway then, and you could only give all three of them a firm nod before returning to Jisung.

"You can help me by making the pattern I taught you this morning. Can you do that?" You groaned out.

Jisung nodded. "Wh–what do I have to do?"

"Just go into my bag and find a green string, the same amount I made you use this morning. You are going to have to make it for me because my bones are shattered," you instructed, feeling him pause in the middle of going to your backpack. And when Jisung gave you a verbal agreement, his voice was much more watery than before. "After you make it, try slotting it onto my hand."

Jisung was trying very hard to focus on his task. His eyes darted between his hands and you, his mind jumping between remembering what to do and feeling anxious that you were literally going through so much pain right in front of him. He felt like crying, the tears threatening to spill over little by little, but he held it in just so he could appear stronger than his heart was.

You could see him trembling from your peripheral vision as you focused on taking the previous blue string off your forearm, and you could tell by the way he was cursing that he had to start over multiple times. Jisung was getting frustrated, fearsomely frustrated that he couldn't get the pattern done faster, and he was starting to blame himself for everything that has happened thus far.

However, no matter how much you wanted to help him out, you couldn't break concentration on your task. You have learned to lean into the pain now. If you turn to talk to him, you would have to start over again. You just need to have faith that he remembered what you taught him.

Standing not too far behind you both were the rest of the boys. Awkwardly and unsurely, they stood close to each other and stared ahead at you both. What they witnessed just then were still vivid in their mind, but while demanding an explanation from you or Jisung, they planned to keep quiet for now at this tense minute.

"Should–should we do something?" Felix whispered after he leaned towards his two friends, his eyes focusing on the dry blood staining your skin. The continuous urge to puke lingered in him, and he could taste the sour beneath his tongue.

None of them replied to him because there was nothing to say.

Hyunjin barely understood how you didn't die or how the car got more damage than you did. Seungmin figured out what your identity was, but the process of realizing everything that he thought was fake was, in fact, real gave him a reality check he did not appreciate. Felix was on the verge of throwing up, both the sight of flesh and the confusion of it all contributing to his weakened mind,

All three of them were having issues of their own. How were they supposed to go about helping you out? Besides, this whole incident happened because of them, technically. If they hadn't started bickering with each other, this would not have happened.

Jisung screamed in joy when he was finally done with the string. He smiled at it before looking at you for confirmation, but you were still trying to take off the remaining of the blue string. Furrowing his brows painfully at you, he waited patiently before you suddenly collapsed against the wall with a relieved sigh, the string dropping to the ground after you let go of it. Jisung felt the rocks on his shoulders roll away too as soon as you were done.

"I did it! This is right, I hope?" He said, presenting you the pattern.

You looked at it, your eyes squinted in thoughts before you gave him a faint nod. "Yeah..." you reached your working hand out to him, your fingers spread widely, "Put it on."

Jisung blanked out then. He has only ever seen you do this with both hands! He was barely skilled at it, let alone sticking the pattern to only five of your fingers! Shaky eyes trailed towards your face and at your fingers, then he gulped as he eyed his own hands—Jisung didn't know what to do. He couldn't even begin transferring the string to your hand.

"I..." He suddenly turned behind him then, yelling at his friends. "Can you guys come and help me, please?"

The three scurried over to you quickly, kneeling by your side and wordlessly listening to Jisung's explanation. A lot of suggestions were made as all four of them fumbled with the patterned string on Jisung's hands, trying their best to shrink it all fit at the tip of your fingers and to use your palm as leverage. It took a while but they finally managed a messily constructed string figure.

Without a second thought, you immediately cast a healing spell and palmed your bloody forearm. The pain vanished gradually and your wounds sealed itself up in a fading manner. The boys watched the process unfold; blood suckled back into your flesh and your skin sewing itself together seamlessly. It was so unreal that it almost looked as if the sight was generated by a computer program.

"Oh, thank god," you huffed out as you raised your arms in front of your face to wiggle your fingers, feeling all of your muscles move freely unlike before.

Seeing your arms going back to normal, Jisung relaxed upon relief. And although the dry blood stains still served as a reminder of what had happened, he took off his schoolbag and scooted closer to you so he could move your arms away and dive right into your embrace. His arms went around your torso as he slumped down onto the ground, sprawling across it.

You widened your eyes, completely taken by back his action. Not only did you smell like metal, but you also looked like a damn dirtbag. And all of his friends were just there, watching you both with careful eyes. "Jisung," you whispered. "I'm bloody, don't do this."

He whined with a shake of his head, stubbornly tightening his arms around your waist as he adjusted the position of his head on your chest, and he reached for your previous injuries hand, lacing his fingers through yours loosely and leaving it on the ground. After all that preparation, he finally let himself stare off into a distance, clearing his head to listen to your heart beat.

It had always calmed him down to hear it. Just the idea that you're alive and there next to him was delightful.

A pout inched its way to his face when you asked him to move again because your blood could be staining his white uniform. Jisung insisted on holding onto you at the moment, and he only relaxed when you heaved a sigh and gently patted his head in defeat.

Looking up at the three boys, all with faces of confusion, you pursed your lips together. "I'm sure you three have questions."

"No shit we do," Hyunjin said, his brows furrowing finally as he looked at you.

You told them everything. Almost everything, at least, minor details of how your family fell to its deathbed and how exactly does magic as a whole work. That could come later. For now, it was the overall the gist of what would clear their confusion about who you are, both as a magic-user and as a person who has lived among non-magical people. You watched their suspicious faces turn into clear understandings of the situation.

Hyunjin was the first to stand up after silence ensued. Everyone turned to him with curious eyes, waiting for his next move, and they were all taken back when he wordlessly turned around and just walked out of the alleyway. Not protesting his action, although still unsure why Hyunjin had reacted the way he did, Seungmin and Felix both gave you and Jisung a glance before they got up and left with Hyunjin.

You sighed loudly when you knew they were out of earshot, your hand dropping from Jisung's head to his waist. "Do you think I scared them away?" you asked then.

Jisung hummed in genuine thoughts, not seemed to be taken back by his friends' actions at all. "No, I think we have done worse things to each other," he commented truthfully. "They can handle this. If I can handle it, so can they."

You breathed out unsurely, your anxiety getting the best of you. While not quite caring how your relationship could be affected by your background, since you've always had people leave you for it anyway, you wished hard that it would not ruin Jisung's friendship with them. For one, it would be cruel to make him choose between his friends and you. For two, you got second thoughts about who he would choose if the dilemma proposes itself to him.

You continuously doubt your place in Jisung's heart. He would go insane if he knew you didn't trust your place in his heart to be on the top priority because he's got you placed before himself at all times. He knew that before when you two just realized you guys were soulmates, he knew that when he started whispering those 'I love you's differently after you fell asleep, and he knew that now with his arms around your waist and his head still pressed against your chest in refusal to let go.

If you go, he will soon follow. It is the tradition of soulmates, it is the tradition of love.

"[Name]..." His voice was muffled when he looked up at you, his eyes innocently wide and sparked with sincerity. They were the way he always looked at you, and they always managed to make your heart jump with affection.

Your hand instinctively flew up to his head, playing with his hair as your eyes softened upon the vulnerable atmosphere. Jisung played with your finger, his movement bashful and shy before he held your hand and let it lay on the ground.

"I... " He sighed. "Next time when something like that happens, please don't run away again."

You pursed your lips together, feeling rather guilty that you had put him through such stressful events. But the remorseful feeling vanished as soon as he spoke again.

"It scares me to not be there when you're hurt. Even if I may not be of much help, I want to at least be there so you aren't alone," he explained before he looked up at you again.

There was something in his eyes. A swirl of florescent light, something celestial but different than the usual ones you have seen. A kind of affection that traverses what you used to know from him. He was looking at you differently, you could tell for the first time.

"I love you so much. Please don't do that again." He whispered to you.

And somehow, you just knew he had meant that. He meant that confession in the most loving, the most romantic way possible. It wasn't the ones he throws at you during mid-conversation, the ones he would say with a goofy smile on his face when he made a mistake. This was real; as real as the double knots he pretended to tie on your soulmate string that one night so it would not be broken, and as real as the feeling of his lips on your eyes when he kisses you goodnight thinking you wouldn't know.

"I'm sorry," you muttered under your breath, your eyes facing forward. "I..." You sucked in a shaky breath, but you felt ready, "I love you too."

Jisung's eyes widened for a fraction, he had not expected you to say it back so quickly. He thought he would have to wait a little while for it, which he didn't mind at all. This was a pleasant surprise, and he hugged your tighter for it, a tender smile and a soft blush growing on his face.

He felt childish for being so overjoyed over something so small, even though it is never something small when it comes to having your deepest feelings be returned by the person of desire. You've got to be really lucky for the universe to time your moments right like this. It seemed like the stars loved you both enough to hand you over to each other, and how fortunate it was that they got it right this time around.

Footsteps could be heard from not too far away and you looked up, anticipating the arrival of three boys. Felix was the first one to stop in front of you, followed by Hyunjin and Seungmin who trailed behind slowly. You raised an eyebrow at the giddy boy, watching as he knew and pulled his hand out from behind his back to reveal a small paper bag.

"We got you something!" Felix exclaimed as he handed you the bag.

He sat on his heels and watched expectantly as you pulled out a small keychain knitted into a cartoon squirrel with dirty brown strings. You couldn't help but let out a low chuckle as you dangled it in front of your face. This must be from the fact that you use string magic, but unfortunately, these strings would probably not do you much good due to how low the quality was. You weren't supposed to separate the squirrel anyway.

Jisung snickered for a moment and he shrunk back towards you when he received three glares.

"Sorry about what happened, it was our fault," Hyunjin said. "This won't make up for it but we hope you will take it anyway."

"I paid for it, by the way," Seungmin chimed in. "These two just found the store and picked it up."

It was the thought that counted. You haven't received a gift from anyone but yourself in a long time, and this one single keychain felt like ten missed birthdays mashed into one.

Giving them a