𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝘭. 𝘫𝘦𝘯𝘰 ✔

02

Here it is! He silently cheers when he finds the old book from where he had left it last time. He quickly flips the pages where he sees a faded portion of the page. There are small scribbles, but he assumes it was names. Moon Taeil.. Johnny Suh.. 

Those names aren't familiar to him. He flips another page, and sees an introduction about the Red String of Fate, which he opts to skip. Jeno scans the book quickly and lands on the part where it somehow look like instructions to him.

"You can cut red strings.." he whispers and his eyes quickly reads the next passages. 

•••

"Jeno? Jeno!" Mark calls for his name again, which he looks over to him uninterested. "What's up with you, dude? You've been acting so weird since yesterday," Mark points out and sips his cola.

Lucas who's beside him snickers, but Jeno maintained a straight face, still looking uninterested. "He must be lovesick," he commented.

"Or he's contemplating about his life so far," his youngest friend, Jisung, commented as he slides his food tray on the table before taking the seat next to him. "'Sup hyung."

Jeno simply nods his head in acknowledgement and kept quiet, which earned confused looks from his friends. "Say, what if one day, you woke up and you suddenly can see red strings of everybody?" he questions, sounding like it was simply a train of thought.

"Red strings?" Jisung asked. "You mean.. like, red string of fate?"

"Yeah."

"I dunno, I guess look for my soulmate?" Mark shrugs his shoulders. "I didn't really pegged you to be someone interested with that Jeno."

"Just a thought.." he murmurs. Mark's answer is definitely going to be the general answer if he decides to ask the whole campus and frankly, it was his initial answer too; but suddenly, he had lost interest with the whole soulmate thing when he learned that Mark is his soulmate.

Out of all the people, why Mark? He didn't really see him to be someone to have a romantic relationship with, and Mark didn't really look like he's into him either. If there is a chance that his friend has an interest in him, even if it's smaller than dust, Jeno would be convinced that the red string is legit. So why did the stupid red string paired them together?

Just as he's rambling inside his head, the book came into his mind almost instantly. He makes a scissor using his fingers, which Lucas automatically gives him a rock in return, assuming that he wanted to play rock paper scissors all of a sudden.

He ignores him, and carefully, delicately, takes the red string on his opposite hand, earning yet another round of confused looks from his friends. It felt like a real string against his fingertips, yet it confused him why he isn't tripping to any of them if he can touch them.

Mark looks at him intently, waiting for something to happen. Jeno snorts a laugh, not waiting for another moment to pass by, he snips the string with his hand scissor. He watches in amazement when the red string shrivels like a withered leaf, turning into millions of dust until it disappears.

He looks at his pinky finger and the red string is gone. Mark's finger who used to have a red string similar to him is absent of such thing. It worked.. He can't believe it actually worked, but he felt like it was too anticlimactic. That's it?

Nothing feels weird with him. He assumed that there's going to be some effect if someone breaks off your red string, but he surprisingly feels fine. Is it because he didn't really feel anything for his friend other than friendship?

Mark who was already talking to Lucas didn't look like something is wrong either. "Are you okay, Mark?" he brought himself to ask.

"Yeah.. why?" he raises a brow at him.

•••

When he returned home that day, his parents were already arguing by the kitchen like always. Now he's convinced that nothing that have happened are merely his dreams or his imagination. He's not crazy yet, and he's sure it's not the effect of any hallucinogens that one might have slipped in his drink when he wasn't looking.

He ignores them as usual, but their loud voice became harsh whispers when they saw him pass by. There was no use pretending they're simply having a quarrel, their harsh words resonated against the four walls of their house. It was always like this, and Jeno is growing tired of hearing it.

Should I cut their red string off? 

Jeno gazes at the red string connecting both of their pinky fingers. They're soulmates, so why? Why do they argue so much? He suddenly thought about the red string on his finger hours ago. It was long gone hours ago, and he had cut it without a second thought. 

Will he and Mark end up like his parents if he didn't cut their red string?

He thought maybe fate can also fuck up sometimes and pair people that don't go well together. The best example of it were his parents. They constantly argue over the littlest things which keeps him awake at night, so he opts to work at night to escape the harsh reality.

At some point, they did love each other? Or was it simply just an attraction that faded over the years? In the end, was there no love at all? Were they only in love to the idea of them being in love? If he was the product of their love, then who is he now?

Jeno squeezes his eyes shut before taking the book he needs to review for his upcoming exams and shoves it inside his duffle bag. And then he strides to the kitchen where his parents usually argue. They halt from their harsh words with each other. With a blank look, he grabs the red string that has gotten entangled with each other and cuts it without a second thought.

He didn't waste anymore time to wait for a reaction. Was that the right thing to do? He didn't really spent time thinking it through, but he is glad that the shouting has stopped.

He leaves the house for his work, but he waits outside for a moment. He severed the red string, so one of them is bound to follow him outside and realize their mistake. After all, he's their son and only son. Or was it that he has become a stranger to them that no one followed after him?

He dips his head and stares at the ground. His heart feels a little constricted and he feels suffocated. What did I just do? Jeno fights off the tears that were attempting to dampen his dry cheeks, but he is quick enough to wipe them away before they could.

This is the reality.

"I always do my best to get what I want, but why don't I feel happy?" He just wanted to make them stop and look at him, and maybe, just maybe, remember him that he's still there. He can hear them, he can see them, he can understand them. Don't they see they're hurting him too?

Sniffling, he turns his heels to the direction of his part time work like the usual. But that night, their house became peaceful like it used too.