Red String Of Fate

Jisung's POV

What was that? Did they see it too? I clutch my chest, my knees shaky, breath airy. I feel scared...

That has never happened to me. It felt like they had some kind of superpower and sent electricity racing through my nerves straight into my mind. 

Where even was that place? I don’t remember going to a place like that, or standing on that cliff, or them…

Yet something about it also is so familiar. How?

Once my heart rate has returned to normal, I remember to run the bus, I can’t be late for work otherwise Chan will kill me. 

I arrive just in time, jump off the bus and sprint inside the store with minutes to spare, “I’m here! I’m here! Don’t yell at me!” I shout as I see Chan checking his watch.

“Well done, Jisung. You made it in time.” He says without a smile. “Can you clear the store? There’s been a few new arrivals, we just need to sort them out before the interviewee arrives this evening.”

I sigh and wipe the sweat from my brow, I still feel the adrenaline in my body earlier from that. “Hey Chan, can I ask you a question?” 

“Sure,” Chan says, walking into the back of the store. 

He points at me to pick up a giant crate of supplies as he does the same and we carry them to one of the free shelves at the back.

“Say for example, there was someone who you’ve never met but when you touch them-”

“I’m gonna stop you there Jisung,” Chan interrupts. His brow raised with suspicion, “you can’t go around touching people you haven’t met…”

I groan, “No! That’s now what I meant! I do know them… kind of…”

“What’s their name?” Chan asks, crossing his arms.

I pause… before quietly muttering under my breath, “I don’t know.” 

Chan clicks his fingers and opens his mouth to say something, probably to lecture me on why I can’t touch strangers. 

“Wait just listen okay! I FEEL like I know them, although I don’t know them… but I accidentally knocked them over and tried to help them up and when their hand touched mine, I felt electricity run through my body. So… I have one very important question…”

Chan raises his eyebrows expectantly as I struggle to get the question out. Will he think I’m crazy? Am I crazy? “Are s… s… s… SUPER HEROES REAL?”

Chan just bursts out laughing. Great. He does think I’m crazy. “No Jisung, super heroes aren’t real.”

“Well then what happened?” I ask, eyes wide, needing an answer.

Chan just sighs, unloading the items from the crate on the shelves, “sounds like a soulmate to me.”

“A soulmate?”

“Yeah… you know? Like somebody you’re meant to be with? You may not know them but you know them. You just… feel it.”

Could it be? Could they be my soulmate? Nah. Superheroes are much more logical. I smirk, “Chan hyung, do you believe in soulmates?”

Chan scoffs, “Jisung do you believe in superheroes?” I start whining but he just throws a loaf of bread at me, “just start stocking the shelves Jisung.”

At the end of my night shift I say goodbye to Chan and get the bus back home. I look out the window but I don’t actually focus on anything. 

I just focus on Chan’s suggestion. Soulmates? Is that even real? I remember that girl/boy…

I run through my memory trying to place their face. I can’t shake the feeling that I have seen them before… but where?

The bus pulls up to the bus stop and I walk to get off, accidentally brushing past someone as shockwaves hit my body, freezing me in place. It all comes back.

The sea. The cliff. Them. They’re smiling but their eyes tell a different story. Sadness inked into every crevice of their face as a single tear is rolling down their cheek. I’m reaching out my hand to stroke it away. I’m touching their cheek.

I’m transported back. The person has turned around now. It’s them… again…