Destiny or Coincidence ✔

Destiny

With each step I take, my body gets heavier trying to weigh me down from getting home. I zip up my jacket once I feel the cold breeze on my skin and continue to drag myself down the familiar streets. My stomach churns as I reach the street where Taehyung and I met last night. Although I accused him of trying to kill me, I know that he saved me from the cart that was going to run me over. A small smile spreads across my face thinking about our unexpected meeting, as I look at the vendors starting to set up for the day.

"Excuse me, dear, can you help me set up my cart please?" I turn to see an older lady pointing at her cart.

I look at her for a couple seconds as I realize she looks familiar. "You're the same lady who's cart almost ran me over yesterday," I accuse.

She holds her hands up in defense. "You can't blame a clumsy old lady," she says with wide eyes. My annoyed expression falls as I shake my head with a small smirk and let her lead me to her cart. "Anyways, my cart didn't run you over. That handsome man saved saved you. It looked like I was watching a romantic comedy with the way you too were bickering."

My heart clenches the mention of Taehyung. "Yeah well don't look too deep into the situation," I mutter.

She looks up at me from hanging her sign confused. "Was he not a good person? He seemed so sweet yesterday helping me pack up my items."

I kick the block under the cart's tire to keep it from moving. "No, he's a good person. He's quite amazing actually," I move to the side and the lady offers me a seat across from her. "He's so in love with the idea of love. Although it's hard to get behind those same ideas, he's the kind of person anyone would be lucky to build a life, a family, a home with him," my smile falters as I continue. "He deserves someone as equally loving as him."

I look back at the lady to see she's already looking back at me with sympathy written all over her face. She reaches across to hold my hands and puts a handkerchief in them. It's then I realize I've been crying. I take it to wipe my tears as she starts talking. "I'm guessing you don't think you're deserving of that love you're talking about?" I nod slightly as I play with the handkerchief in my hands. "You don't see it, but you are. You deserve love and be loved, and don't go rolling your eyes on me now. I'm old and wise, so pay attention to what I have to say. " she says as I attempt to roll my eyes at her statement.

She gives me a light smack on my hands for my rudeness and continue. "Your hardships are none of my business, but I can tell they've kept you from trying to look for the love that no one provided in the past," she takes a deep breath as she reaches for my hands again, "Just because we don't receive love from the people who mattered to us the most doesn't mean we stop looking. It should actually motivate us to keep looking for what we want. Love is more than just eternal happiness. It's late night arguments and shared struggles and baggage. It's not perfect, but the flaws in love is what makes it worth it." She gives me a gentle squeeze as I try to understand her logic. "Take it from someone who ran from it for so long. When I finally wanted to give myself that chance, it was too late." I follow her gaze across the road to an older gentlemen spraying water on his plants outside his flower shop. He shifts his gaze towards us and gives a warm smile and a small wave then goes back inside his shop and embraces a woman who I assume is his wife.

I look back at the woman in front of me looking at the couple lovingly. "It's your life and you do with it what you want, but my advise, don't wait to be my age to take your chance. I'm not miserable, and I got to do a lot of things in my life, but at some point it gets lonely."

I nod, understanding what she's trying to say, as I wipe the last of my tears. "I feel so stupid," I say with a chuckle, "I'm crying over a man I've known for less than 24 hours."

"Sometimes when you meet the right one, you know it. Even if you've only known them for a short amount of time. You just need a little push to get there," she explains with a mischievous grin on her face, and my eyes widen.

"You pushed your cart to me on purpose?!" I ask in disbelief. "Why?"

She looks around her set-up and I realize what her business is when I see the pictures of palms and her table cart had tarot cards on the side. "I guess you could say I had a sense that you two were supposed to meet."

"Doesn't that beat the whole aspect of things happening due to destiny or coincidence?"

"Sometimes it needs a little push," she said with a smile. "Anyways how you two met is not important. What's important is that you did. Now are you going to go to him now or wait until it's too late," she scolds.

I roll my eyes at her tiny lecture, but finally make up my mind. I silently got up and bowed to her respectively. "I forgot my alpaca I won at the fair yesterday. I'm gonna got back for it, and maybe stick around, and have breakfast with him. We'll take it from there," reaches for one of my hands and squeezes it one last time.

"May the universe gift you with the happiness and love you deserve," she wishes in a gentle voice.

I make my way back to his apartment. No weight is no longer felt down on my body as my feet quickly make their way back to him. I rush down the streets with my heart accelerating the closer I get back to him. I see him rush out of his apartment holding my plushy in his hands and stops when he sees me across the street from him. His face lights up when he sees me which motivates me to throw caution out of the wind and run to him.

He's so close to me I can almost touch him, but I never reach him as I feel something hit me. "Jin!" I hear him call out as my vision goes dark.

"Wake up. Are you okay?" I hear that beautiful low voice call out to me. I feel someone nudging and shaking me as I finally open my eyes to look at him. I see him and I feel as fond of him as earlier. It feels like when we met except there's a foreign look of confusion and worry in his eyes.

"Sir, I apologize for knocking you down. Are you okay?" he asks.

"Sir?" I repeat confused.

"You were about to get hit by a vendor's cart, are you in any pain? Would you like to be taken to a nearby clinic?"

Now I'm really confused. Why is he talking to me as if he doesn't know my name? And getting hit by the cart happened yesterday. My eyes leave his face to look around, and I notice I'm no longer in front of his apartment. We're back on the sidewalk we had already met. I look down at Taehyung's appearance and see that he's wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Was I unconscious this whole time? This was all a dream.

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Idk if you all noticed that every chapter after Taehyung's was in Jin's POV. Now you know why... 👉👈