Strings of Fate

Prologue:

“Mommy, why does everyone have strings between them?” Jimin asked as he looked at the string that was attached to his mother’s chest extending from where her heart was to his own heart. He played with the thin, yet durable, maroon string. Jimin’s mother watched Jimin curiously, wondering what Jimin could mean and why his hands looked like they were playing with something in the air.

“What do you mean sweetie?” She questioned him softly as she leaned down to pick up her five-year-old son and held him in her arms. Jimin smiled at her sweetly and pointed to the string that only he could see.

“Why do you have a string going from your heart to mine?” Jimin motioned to the string he was playing with. But of course, his mother couldn’t see the string and as such had no idea what Jimin was talking about.

“I don’t see any string Jimin. Are you feeling alright?” Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at her son, a bit concerned.

“Mommy can’t see the string? It’s right here Mommy, look!” Jimin grabbed his mother’s hand and brought it to the string only to gasp in surprise when her hand passed right through it. He looked at her hand in disbelief and then stared at her wide-eyed.

“Mommy can’t feel it either?” He asked, his voice displaying his confusion.

“Jimin-ah are you feeling sick?” His mother brought her hand up to check his temperature. Jimin shook his head and began to kick his legs to be let down; so his mother set him back on the ground. Jimin continued to look at the string connecting him to his mom with furrowed eyebrows, confused by it.

“If Mommy can’t see the string...then only I can?” Jimin whispered to himself as he grabbed the string yet again tugging on it lightly, a puzzled frown forming on his face. Jimin’s mother watched him with worried eyes and when Jimin looked up to see the worry on her face, he suddenly smiled at her, deciding that he really was the only one who could see the string.

“I’m okay, Mommy! I was just playing a trick!” Jimin ran off to play in the living room and forgot about the strings that he saw.

Chapter 1

“Jimin! Jihyun! It’s time to get up or you’ll be late for school!” Jimin heard his mother calling from downstairs. Groaning, the brown-haired boy rolled around in his bed for a few seconds before opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling. His groggy mind was slowly awakening as he felt the early rays of the sun peeking in from behind the curtain on his window and landing on his bed. Still, he lay there not wanting to get up, thinking about how unfair it was that school started so early. However, once he heard his mother’s voice calling him and his brother again, he finally got up.

“I’m up Mom! I’m getting ready!” Jimin yelled so she would be able to hear him through the closed door.

“Good. Jihyun! Are you up yet?” Mrs. Park called out to her other son who still hadn’t responded.

Jimin waited a moment but there was still not a peep out of his little brother. He knew his mother was going to have to take more drastic measures to wake up his brother. And on any other day he’d join in on the chaos that came with trying to wake up Jihyun, but this morning he just felt exhausted. Probably because he’d stayed up much too late yesterday, (more precisely this morning) working last minute on his essay over the book they’d been reading in class.

With one last frustrated sigh, the teenager headed to the bathroom and began his morning routine. Once he had taken care of his business he hurried into his room to pick out an outfit for school. As he began changing, he glanced at the clock on his bedside table and upon realizing the time, began to hurry up. He wasn’t necessarily late yet but he was bordering on it.

Throwing on a white button-up and skin-tight ripped jeans, he checked himself in the mirror before deciding to also wear his oversized light blue sweater since it was early September and starting to get cold outside. He went over to his dressing table, picked up a pair of silver cross earrings and a few rings, and quickly put them on. He glanced at his reflection in the full-length mirror hanging over his door, taking a moment to assess his look. He nodded, satisfied with it. Grabbing his backpack, he began stuffing it with the things he needed. Once he finished, he slung it over one shoulder and exited his room heading straight to the kitchen. There he found his father turning off the stove and setting the plates of food on the table.

“Good morning,” Jimin’s father greeted him as he looked up, “you look tired.” Mr. Park noted while motioning for him to come eat.

Jimin nodded, “Stayed up too late to finish an essay.”

“Ah,” Mr. Park nodded in understanding, “how is school going? And what about dance club, I can’t remember, do you have practice today?”

“School’s going okay; we’ve got exams coming up in about a month, and no, no practice today. Mrs. Lee canceled all club activities for this week. She’s busy preparing for teacher evaluations this week and making sure all our papers are in order for the club. We resume next week,” Jimin answered as he sat down and set his backpack aside before digging into his breakfast.

“I see. Well, let me know if there’s anything you need. I know I’ve been busy this month, but my workload is decreasing so I’ll have more time to spend with you and Jihyun now,” Mr. Park promised as he also began eating.

“Don’t worry about it Dad, I know you get busy but I appreciate the time you make for us all,” Jimin gave his father a reassuring smile. Mr. Park hummed in acknowledgment as Jihyun entered the kitchen along with Mrs. Park who was lecturing the younger man for always getting up so late.

“I said I’m sorry Mom!” Jihyun complained as he took a seat beside Jimin and picked up his silverware to begin eating, a pout on his face.

“You say that every time but don’t make an effort to change your behavior, one of these days your father and I won’t be around to wake you up. What are you going to do then?” Mrs. Park continued to scold her youngest child while also taking a seat at the table to join her family for breakfast.

“I’m just tired Mom, I promise I’ll be better about getting up on my own tomorrow. I’m not always up as late as you like to believe,” Jihyun grumbled as he took another bite of his pancakes. Mrs. Park sighed and shook her head while giving her husband a pleading look, asking for his help with reprimanding their son.

“I’m holding you to that promise Jihyun. Not just tomorrow but every day after that. It’s okay for us to wake you and your brother up once in a while. But for you, this is becoming an everyday thing this last month,” Mr. Park chided his son, giving him a serious look to which Jihyun mumbled his assent.

“Good. Now eat up, do you want any more pancakes Jimin?” Mrs. Park asked Jimin as she reached for the stack in the middle to grab one more for herself and prepared to give him one as well.

“I’m good Mom, Dad already gave me a lot but thanks,” Jimin pointed to his plate with his fork.

“Ok, how about you Jihyun?”

“I’m good too. Thanks, Mom.”

“And you dear?” Mrs. Park turned towards her husband who smiled at her and nodded indicating he’d like one. The family ate together while occasionally asking each other questions about what was going on in their lives and informing one another of important events that were coming up. Jimin watched the conversation unfold between them, a joyful smile on his face.

He loved mornings like this where they all had the time to eat together and he could see the bonds between them strengthen. The strings connecting each of them to one another glistened and it was always such a beautiful site to Jimin. Though he could no longer remember when he first began seeing the strings he had come to realize early on that he was the only one who could see them. And while he wasn’t sure why that was, he didn’t really care to figure out the reason. He just enjoyed the fact that he could see them. He benefited from knowing what kind of relationships people had with one another, it made navigating certain social situations much easier.

Knowing when someone was meant to be an acquaintance, a close friend or even an enemy could make all the difference in interacting with others. Jimin had become acquainted with many colors of strings over his sixteen years of life but he had yet to decipher them all; and even those he had, he could never be 100% sure about.

However, he was pretty certain that any shade or tint of red symbolized love. He knew this because he was certain the maroon strings connecting him to his parents symbolized love between family, specifically the love shared between a parent and child whether biologically related or not. The reason he was so sure about this is that he saw so many of these maroon strings between people and it had always been between parents and their children. Similarly, the pink strings he’d see were always between siblings; just like the one he shared with Jihyun.

Then there were the salmon-colored strings that he’d see between relatives such as cousins, grandparents and grandchildren, aunts/uncles with nieces/nephews, and all the little relationships between kin. Finally, there was the red string itself which he’d see between lovers. Many people who were dating and tons of married couples had the red string between them but there were a few here and there who didn’t.

Jimin felt sorry for those married couples who didn’t have that type of bond. To him, the red string symbolized being romantic soulmates. And he couldn’t wait to find his own soulmate to marry and spend the rest of their lives together. He always felt a certain amount of surprise and jealousy when he found a classmate who had a red string attached to their heart, but he was always happy for them as well. It had to be a blessing to find your soulmate and life partner so early in life.

“Do you two have any plans after school today? If not, we could go get both of you a haircut. I’ve noticed both of you kind of need one unless this is a new style you’re both trying?” Mr. Park looked at his children with imploring eyes urging them to speak up.

“No, I’ve just been too lazy to ask to get one,” Jihyun shrugged and then nodded at his father’s suggestion, “but yeah I’d like to get one today, however, I have soccer practice today.”

“We can go after your practice ends then. What about you, Jimin?”

“I think I’m going to forgo it for now. It’s going to be winter soon and I like having it longer in the winter. It’s not unbearable at the moment and I kind of like it,” Jimin answered, playing with the ends of his hair.

Mr. Park nodded accepting Jimin’s answer and then turned to Jihyun, “Alright, text me when practice ends for you and I’ll pick you up to take you to the barbers.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jihyun agreed.

“Good, now hurry up both of you it’s already seven forty,” Mrs. Park mentioned as she glanced at the clock on the dining room wall. Jimin shoved the last of his food into his mouth, gulped down some water, and grabbed his backpack ready to start the trek down to school. Jihyun did the same, then the two put on their shoes waved goodbye to their parents, and headed out the door. As they started their ten-minute walk to school, the two brothers chatted with one another about school and friends.

As they walked Jimin observed all the strings surrounding him. They were literally everywhere. Thin floating strings lined the streets all around him but mostly above him. Jimin remembered how annoying he’d found the strings to be when he was younger because he didn’t know how to make them disappear from his view. Even though most of the time the strings that weren’t attached to him seemed to float around and slightly above him, thus never truly obstructing his view completely, they were still annoying. He had still been aware of all the strings that were floating above his head and it had bothered him that he was seeing strands of string coming from people’s bodies. It made navigating the world confusing in his early years because his attention was always drawn to the strings.

But as he grew up he learned he could focus on anything other than the strings and like magic they’d vanish until he let his mind drift again. Jimin had discovered it was his default state to see the strings and so he’d actually have to concentrate on something to stop seeing them. At first that had been hard and he’d have to concentrate really hard to stop seeing the strings, but by the time he was six, he had mastered that particular skill and could make the string disappear from view whenever he wanted with minimal concentration.

By the time he was seven, he figured out how to limit which strings he saw at any given time. That helped tremendously when he was at home and only wanted to see the strings between the people in his house and not the billions of strings that would be going through the house connecting other people to each other. He was able to do the same thing at school so he only saw strings for those near him or in his classroom and not everyone in the building. Being able to do these things made moving through the world so much easier.

“Kyung’s birthday party is coming up this weekend and I wanted to ask if you wanted to come,” Jihyun spoke up as the two crossed the street at the crosswalk.

“Did he invite me?” Jimin turned to look at Jihyun but didn’t stop walking.

Jihyun shrugged. “He asked me if he should. You two aren’t that close but he still likes you and thinks you’re a cool hyung so he was wondering if you’d want to come if he invited you.”

“I’ll come if he invites me but I don’t want him to invite me unless that’s what he wants. But besides that wouldn’t it be weird for me to show up? I’d only know you and him.”

“You’d also know Suho and Kito.”

“Even then. It’d be a little awkward to just be around you guys since I’m so much older,” Jimin paused in front of the next crosswalk to wait for the cars to pass by.

“You’re only two years older than us hyung, It’s not such a big difference,” Jihyun complained while rolling his eyes, then he started crossing the street once the walking sign was illuminated.

“It isn’t but it’s enough for me to feel awkward if I’m the only one there who’s my age. Kyung should invite his friends or your friends rather than me. I’d end up having to babysit all of you instead of enjoying the party anyway.”

Jihyun laughed at that and shook his head, “You would not! But I get your point. I’ll tell him he should just invite his friends since the guest list is supposed to be limited... I think.”

“That’s a good idea,” Jimin chuckled as they approached the school building, “I’m surprised he wanted to invite me though.”

“It’s because you let me invite him to your birthday party last year, I think he wants to be courteous and invite you to his party in return,” Jihyun mused as he paused before the school gates, allowing other students to pass them.

“Ohhh that makes sense. Well in that case he really doesn’t need to. Tell him I appreciate the sentiment but he should invite all his friends instead,” Jimin nodded towards the school building on the left, “Now go to class and behave or Mom will throw a fit over you being late.”

“If I’m running late that means you are too,” Jihyun gently shoved Jimin and the two laughed before hurrying off to their respective buildings to get to class. Jimin hurried into his classroom for the first period. The classroom was already filled with students sitting in their assigned seats or standing around their friends waiting for the teacher to arrive and force them back to their seats. Jimin weaved himself around his classmates to his seat near the windows on the left side of the room. Taehyung, his best friend, was already seated in his seat which was beside Jimin’s.

The lavender-haired boy smiled at Jimin as the elder took his seat and took out his things. Taehyung was connected to Jimin by a blue string attached to their chests. As a child, probably around the age of six, Jimin had deduced that blue was meant to symbolize friendship. He had learned this when he started school and a bunch of blue strings had formed around him connecting his classmates to one another. However, the blue strings were a little peculiar as they didn’t always attach to people’s hearts like the red ones did.

A blue string could attach to a person’s pinkie, their wrist, or their heart. At first, that had confused Jimin, he couldn’t understand why that was and had no reasonable explanation for it. But as he grew older and paid attention he made some conclusions based on his own relationships and what he saw around him. The blue strings on people’s pinkies were fragile and temporary. Those bonds wouldn’t last throughout a person’s lifetime. They were made quickly and they disappeared once the two people stopped talking to each other, usually when one moved away from the other. The blue strings coming from the wrist were stronger, they didn’t disappear with space or time, from what Jimin could tell those relationships lasted a lifetime. Distance and time could not break those bonds.

The same was true for those blue strings connecting people’s hearts together. It took Jimin much longer to understand the blue strings attaching people’s hearts together, and he never really figured it out until Taehyung came along. It was thanks to Taehyung that Jimin realized that the blue strings on people’s hearts were the deepest form of friendship, a friendship so pure and precious that it couldn’t even be described in words. He could tell Taehyung anything and he knew he’d never be judged or criticized for it. The friendship between them was more than just being best friends, it was like having a platonic soulmate. Someone who could understand him completely and help him through anything.

Jimin felt so lucky to have this type of bond because he knew not everyone did. There were people out there who never managed to have a blue string attached to their heart, only ones on their wrists and pinkies. He felt bad for them and hoped, even if it was later in life, that they would find someone to bond with in such a meaningful way.

“Good morning Jiminie!” Taehyung’s cheerful voice reached his ears and made him smile. Taehyung always made him smile so easily, which wasn’t surprising given their relationship.

“Good morning Tae. How was your weekend?” Jimin looked up at the other once he’d finished getting his things out of his bag. The other was wearing a long-sleeved red v-neck shirt with buttons along the sleeves paired with dark blue jeans that had tears along the thighs and knees. He had on one earring that was just a single diamond and another earring that had a thin chain dangling from a pendant that reached just above his shirt. There were also a few fingers that had rings on them and his hair was styled back. Overall he looked very handsome and Jimin admired his style.

“It was good except I forgot about the essay until you texted me so I ended up staying up all night to finish it. I’m assuming it was the same for you?” Taehyung implored with a raised eyebrow.

Jimin nodded, “Yep, was up till three am trying to finish it. It’s probably not that great but I think it’s enough to pass.”

“Same for me. Anyway, did you hear? There are two new students at our school.”

“Oh? Who’d you hear that from?”

“Anna, she says she had to go to the principal’s office this morning for some reason and she saw two guys there who were being given their class schedules. Apparently, both of them are hot,” Taehyung giggled as he wiggled his eyebrow at Jimin who laughed along with him.

“Well, that’s cool. I wonder if either of them will be in our class,” Jimin mused. And as if the universe was providing him with an answer, the teacher walked in followed by a tall black-haired boy with a cute face. The boy wore a gray unzipped jacket allowing the black shirt underneath to be seen along with faded denim jeans and a dark blue beanie covering his hair except for the bangs in front.

“Quiet down everyone and return to your seats. We’ve got a transfer student joining our class as of today,” Mr. Yung spoke up to gather the class’s attention. The class settled down, everyone returning to their original seats and their curious gazes falling on the new student.

“Introduce yourself,” Mr. Yung instructed, motioning to the new student to step forward once everyone had quieted down.

“Hello everyone, my name is Jeon Jungkook,” Jungkook bowed before continuing, “It’s nice to meet you all. I hope we can all get along.”

As Jungkook stood back up, Jimin observed the strings that were already there. Two maroon and one pink coming from his heart, three blue from his wrist, and one purple on his elbow. Then he watched as the new strings began to form; a common site for him. New relationships were built every day between people, and if they were meant to be even remotely significant, Jimin would see the strings form. He watched as many thin blue strings sprung from Jungkook’s pinkie and made their way around to different students in his class. Jimin noted no new blue strings were coming from his wrist but a new blue one arose from his chest and made its way to Taehyung’s chest.

Jimin blinked, surprised to see it, but then he smiled. Taehyung had always been special so of course, the lavender-haired boy would have two blue strings attached to his heart. Jimin was glad for that, Taehyung was all heart so having two friends to whom he felt so connected to, was something he truly deserved. Being distracted by the blue strings, Jimin hadn’t noticed the new string on his chest at first. But then his eyes caught sight of the new string that gleamed in the morning light shining through the window. His eyes widened as he stared at the new string.

White.

A color he’d never seen on a string before. Jimin raised his hand and took hold of the new string, feeling how soft it was. He was shocked, it felt like satin. All the strings he’d encountered so far had always felt like cotton. Jimin’s eyes followed the string to the new student and blushed when he noticed the black-haired boy was already looking at him.

Obsidian eyes focused on Jimin’s mocha-brown eyes as silence permeated the air around them. Neither was able to look away. The spell between them didn’t even break when Mr. Yung instructed Jungkook to take the empty seat behind Jimin. Jungkook nodded, not breaking eye contact with Jimin, and then made his way to his seat while Mr. Yung started class. Jimin’s eyes didn’t leave Jungkook’s until the other passed him offering him a small smile as he did. Even after Jungkook had left Jimin’s site, Jimin’s mind lingered on the white string and Jungkook. He wondered what this new string meant and what kind of relationship he was destined to develop with the other.

But right now wasn’t the time to ponder on those thoughts so Jimin blinked a few times, willing the strings to disappear so he could focus on the projector screen and pay attention to the lecture.