#hobific

“You know, you’re so lucky Hobi,” you said as you leaned your shoulder against your best friend’s shoulder. You sat together on the couch in his living room, mindlessly watching whatever was playing on the tv. 

“And why am I so lucky?” He asked, looking at you with a playful glint in his eyes. 

“Because you have a string,” you replied. Although you couldn’t see the red string wrapped around his left ring finger, you were still envious of what he had. 

Hoseok was taken aback by your sudden statement. He rarely spoke to you about the red string of fate, as it was a sore subject for you. He could count on one hand the number of times that you had spoken to him about it and every conversation concerning the matter left you with tears welling in your eyes. You had always reassured him that you had accepted your fate, but Hoseok could see with each reassurance that you uttered that you were hurting. “They are so lucky to have you.” 

“I guess,” Hobi replied and you were surprised, to say the least, by Hoseok’s indifference. “I’m not sure if they would be happy to have found me whenever we find each other,” Hoseok confessed. Hoseok had never shown a lot of enthusiasm for his soulmate and you figured that it was because he didn’t want to brag about having a soulmate. The lack of a red thread around your finger was a sore subject for you and Hoseok’s confession made you realize that you weren’t only one who struggled with the red string of fate. 

Wrapping both of your hands around Hoseok’s right hand, you looked into his eyes. “You are amazing, Hobi. One day your string is going to lead you to your soulmate and I know that they will be happy and grateful to have you in their life. I may not have a string, but every day I am thankful because I have you.” 

Tears gathered in Hoseok’s eyes at your words as he hugged you tightly. “I love you,” he mumbled with his lips against your hair. 

“I love you, too,” you said in reply. It wasn’t uncommon for you and Hoseok to express your love for each other. You had known Hoseok for so long and it was only natural for you to love each other, even if it wasn’t the kind of love that was bound by the red string of fate. 

After breaking away from the hug, you looked at your phone to check the time and sighed. “It’s late. I need to go home. I have a long day at work tomorrow,” you said with regret in your voice. 

Hoseok nodded his head and smiled. “Text me when you get back home, so that I know you made it back safely,” he said. 

“Of course!” You replied. Before you could stand up, Hoseok took your hand in his and pressed his lips against your forehead. 

“Thank you,” he said. 

You wanted to say that you should be the one thanking him for always being there for you and for being your friend, but you kept those thoughts to yourself. Instead you stood up and smiled at him. “I’m always here for you.” 

As you made your way home, you thought only of Hoseok. He was such an amazing person and you couldn’t imagine your life without him. Although you had always known that one day that your friendship with him would diminish when he found his soulmate, you had long since decided that you were going to make the best of your time with him. The gods had left you to your own devices and it was up to you to make the best of your situation.

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Bringing your coat closer to your body, you waited at the bus station for the bus to come. It was a particularly cold Autumn night, the light from the full moon doing nothing to provide warmth. A cold shiver ran down your spin as a harsh cold wind blew orange and red leaves on the street. It had been a very long day at work and you were looking forward to coming home and making yourself a nice cup of tea to warm and calm your nerves.

As you waited for the bus to come, your thoughts drifted to your grandmother and the stories that she used to tell you. The story of the red string of fate stood out to you, especially since you had spoken about the red string of fate with Hoseok the previous night. The story spoke of the ancient Chinese gods tying an invisible red string around the fingers of those who were destined to meet each other in a certain situation or help each other in a certain way. The ancient deity that was in charge of the red string was said to be Yue Lao, the lunar matchmaker god. Your grandmother told you that the two people connected by the red string were destined to be lovers and partners for all of eternity, regardless of circumstances. She also told you that this red thread is what had brought your grandparents together and subsequently, your parents together. Although the story of the red string was supposed to excite you, it always left you feeling hopeless and alienated. You had never seen the red string of fate and you were certain that you would walk this life in loneliness. The lack of a red string had you feeling as though you were walking an interminable night. 

The screeching of a large blue bus pulling in front of the bus stop brought you out of your lamentation. You quickly walked into the bus, scanning your bus pass and quickly scouting for a seat. Relief washed over you when you saw an unoccupied window seat and you walked over to claim that seat as yours. It was a nuisance, but you got car sick easily and you needed to sit, or stand, by a window whenever you were in a moving vehicle. Once you sat down, you pulled out your phone and earbuds to listen to music. You set the music setting on shuffle and let your playlist randomly choose songs for you to listen to. After the music started to play, you decided to scroll through your social media accounts on your phone and see what you had missed while you were at work. Your body jolted forward as the bus made another stop. The jolt was unexpected, especially considering that the bus had come to a gentle stop. As you pushed yourself upright, you noticed a red string tied around the ring finger of your left hand. 

It can’t be, you thought to yourself. This must be a joke. 

With gentle care, you touched the string to make sure you weren’t hallucinating. The thread felt soft and light. The string was even more beautiful as it was illuminated by light from the Moon. With a gentle tug on the string, you looked to see where it would lead to. Your gaze followed the whereabouts of the string, finding that it led to the front of the bus and that the string continued out of the bus. The tension of the red thread felt tight. It was now or never. 

Quickly, with a sense of unspeakable urgency, you pressed one of the many buttons found in the bus to signal to the bus driver that you needed to get off the bus. You stashed your phone and earbuds back into your purse and swiftly exited the bus once it came to a full stop. Your gaze focused solely on the red string tied to your finger and you followed its path without giving any care to your surroundings. You had spent a long time telling yourself that you had accepted the gods leaving with you alone, but that lie held no truth to it. 

With every step that you took, you tugged the red string towards your body as if to tell your soulmate, “Please, find me.” 

You were so caught up in the stressful excitement of the idea of meeting your soulmate that you had failed to notice that you were about to bump into someone. 

Oomph. 

Looking up from the red thread that was connected to the person that you had bumped into, you found yourself briefly looking at their back. They quickly turned around to apologize, but the apology was caught in their throat as you tugged at the red string on your finger with enough force to bring your soulmate closer to you. He placed his hands on your waist, as he had done countless times before, and stared at you in awe. His smile was bright and reminded you of home. How could you have not seen this before? Looking back at your time with him, the signs had been so obvious. The countless late nights, the way your hand always seemed to find his, the whispered I-love-you’s. It all made sense. 

The quiet moon that had plagued your life had been out-shined by a bright and warm sun for longer than you had realized. With or without the red string of fate, there was no doubt in your mind that you loved him. 

“I lost. Again,” Hoseok whined as he set the controller down on the glass coffee table and stood up from the black leather couch to stretch his arms and legs. 

“It’s not my fault you suck at Mario Kart,” you replied as you set your controller next to his. 

Hoseok shook his head and smiled. “Do you want something to drink?” 

Nodding your head, you grabbed one of the unused paper plates on the coffee table and started to doodle with a pen that Hoseok had lying around. “Sure!”

While Hoseok left to go to his kitchen to grab a drink you felt your phone vibrate, interrupting your mini art session. 

You set the paper plate down and typed in your phone’s passcode to read the full message.“Did you give it to him yet?” Your friend asked. Feeling your heart threaten to leap out of your chest, you sighed and started typing your reply. 

“I’m just about to!” You typed with fake enthusiasm. Looking down at the paper plate that you had been doodling on, you set aside your phone, face down, and wrote down a set of numbers. 

You stood up as Hoseok came back into the living room with two drinks. Your heart heavily hammered against your chest. It’s now or never. You threw the paper plate at Hoseok’s shoulders and he jumped in surprise. 

“Was I actually supposed to catch that? Because I didn’t,” Hoseok said as he looked at the white paper plate that you threw in his direction. He placed the drinks on the coffee table and walked back to the paper plate to pick it up. 

“I got something for you,” you said as you sat back down on the couch, just a couple feet away from him. At first he inspected the little doodles that you had drawn and smiled. You had a habit of creating little drawings on random things and Hoseok loved to find your random doodles on napkins, paper cups, sticky notes, etc. The warming feeling in his chest only lasted for a brief moment, until his eyes landed on a phone number that you had written. 

“Is this--” Hoseok asked, his eyes wide with joy. Your heart skipped a beat as you saw him smile. If things weren’t so difficult, you would have smiled along with him. It was hard not to smile when he smiled. 

Instead you nodded your head and replied, “Yup, it’s her number. I knew that you wanted to get to know her more, so I asked her if I could give her number to you.” Hoseok looked at you and continued to smile at you as if you were a gift from the heavens. His brown eyes sparkled with excitement and for one moment you didn’t feel like you wanted the ground to swallow you whole. It felt nice to know that you were the reason that he was so happy, even if it was just for a moment. “She was excited when I told her that you were interested in getting to know her more. You should text her.”

“Thank you so much!” Hoseok said. He took you by surprise and tackled you against the couch, giving you a bone-crushing hug. You should have been used to this by now, but every time he surprise-hugged you it felt warm and new. 

“It’s no problem. I’m always here to help,” you said after wrapping your arms around him.

“You really are a great friend,” Hosoek said. He let you go and took out his phone from his pocket. “I’m gonna go text her now. Maybe she would like to see a movie with me?”