our delicate string | 최범규

1: invisible string.

- ⭐️ -

THE BOY HAD chestnut hair. his name was Choi Beomgyu, a quiet (and often reserved) music-oriented teenager. he lay fast asleep in the comfort of his bed, unconscious of what he is soon about to discover.

his alarm blasted in his ears, shooting the boy's figure up wide awake. he rubbed his tired eyes and slammed the alarm clock one too many times until it was silent...or maybe broken..

his face rested in his palms as he furrowed his eyebrows from the inside of his hands, feeling a sort of silky texture tickling his face.

afraid of what the possibilities may be, he slowly removed his hands from his face to see his left hand looped in red silk string that stretched all the way into the abyss, he couldn't tell where the string ended.

"what the-" he kept pulling at the string but it felt useless, it was so long as if it were endless. it was as if he were playing tug-of-war with the air and he was losing.

he shrugged, grabbing the scissors from his desk and attempting to cut the string. the boy was confused. it was as if the red string was indestructible, refusing to be destructed in anyway.

he couldn't undo, cut, unravel, or remove the string at all.

the boy was quite bright.

but, in this case, he placed the other side of the string on the bottom of his drawer and tried to pull on it as much as he could. he soon realized that there was no end to this string, nor could it possibly be broken by human nature.

"how do i get rid of this?" he sat on his bed, exhausted from his morning struggle.

"beomgyu-ah, are you awake yet?" he heard his mother yell in the distance, all the way from the kitchen downstairs. he widened his eyes, surely if he couldn't break the string, maybe his mother has a solution?

"coming!" he dashed downstairs, the string still attached to his finger as he made eye contact with his mother.

"mom, i need your help." he sighed. "can you help me take this string off my finger?" he lifted his hand to show the string that stretched endlessly with no stopping point.

his mother looked at him with a confused look on her face. "sweetheart, did you stay up all night playing games again?" she sighed, turning back to the pancakes she was cooking on the stove. the pancake lifted up in the air as she caught it in the pan perfectly, silently clapping for herself.

"no, mother i'm being serious." he walked closer to her. "look!"

the old woman looked at his finger in pure understanding, confused as to what the boy's talking about.

"sweetheart, there's no string on your finger." she smiled and held his cheek motherly. "i think you've been overworking yourself with schoolwork lately, especially with exams coming up, hm?" she hummed. "maybe we should go take a walk together, go shop-"

"i swear i'm not going crazy." beomgyu held his head, frustrated. "i feel it tugging at my skin, it's a vivid red string!" he soon apologized for raising his voice at his mother.

his mother sighed before diverting from the topic to their kitten in the living room. "go feed Lilac, she doesn't eat if you aren't the person she's receiving food from." she chuckled, setting breakfast on the table for her and her son.

Beomgyu grabbed the cat food from the counter and placed it into a bowl, walking over to his pet who was sitting unbothered in the middle of his living room.

"Lilac," he pet the cat to calm her down before feeding her the food. "hey." he whispered as the cat's ears perked up. he pointed to his finger and placed it next to the kitten. "you see this red string don't you?"

"choi beomgyu, if you don't leave Lilac alone with that invisible string." his mother sighed and shook her head, annoyed with this whole string act. "you should invite your friends from school over to take you out of those thoughts." she worried about him.

"mother, you don't get it." he began to trudge back and whine all the way to the kitchen to eat his breakfast in silence.

but all that went through the boy's mind was one question:

what the heck is happening?

- ⭐️ -

the girl had pitch black hair, length to her shoulders, luscious and beautiful. her eyes complimented her hair, giving her an intimidating look. though, that was not the case.

the girl, Aera, was the sweetest soul in her town. her majestic ambiance could light up an entire room. her smile, stretching from both sides of her face. she was beautiful inside and out.

she may fast asleep quietly, her head resting at the top of her piano in the corner of her bedroom, exhausted from her practice all night. her recital was soon resulting to her lack of sleep lately for the past two weeks. light yet dark eye bags decorated the bottom of her eyes, showcasing her exhaustion.

"Aera." the girl's father knocked on the door of the girl's room. after no response, he turned the doorknob and entered to see his daughter fast asleep in a seated position. his eyes widened with fear for her body, which would definitely be in pain after sleeping in such a position all night.

"Aera." he tapped the girl and removed her head from the piano, awakening the girl. she woke up drowsily as if she had been drunk, though she wasn't, just sleep deprived. her eyes were half closed as she rubbed them to see a string attached to her fingers.

"honey, why would you fall asleep at your piano?" he looked at his daughter in a confused manner, though she was too tired to comprehend anything her father was saying. "let's go get some water, hm? to help wake you up?"

"okay, but first" she held out her hands to his face. "can you help me take this red string off my fingers?"