Part of Me | jaeten.

prologue

Growing up, I have heard of so many make-believe stories which groomed me to be dubious of almost everything. Anything that I have never seen or experienced myself, to put it simply, was pure fiction to me. To name a specific example, perhaps one of them was when someone told me how I'm going to meet my soulmate.

Or at least, that's how I understood it.

I never believed in such a thing—at least with the manner how one would be able to figure out that this certain someone is their other half. Unfortunately in my universe, unlike those fiction stories my ridiculous friends have persuaded me to read, writing on your skin won't leave the same mark on your soulmate's skin. It's absurd. If my soulmate is the type who would constantly forget about carrying a notepad with him or her, my skin would probably be filled with scribbles of dates and to-do lists everyday. Although on the contrary, it's possible that my other half can be like Taeyong hyung—a total clean freak. Which would mean my skin would forever be scribbled-free. The only downside is that if I was living in that universe where skin communication—or whatever you call it—was possible, a soulmate like my hyung won't even leave me clues.

That started bothering me ever since I met an old lady while I was on my way home from school. I was 17 that time. I remember that day, a pretty awful one to be specific, since my exam results were worse than the last semester. It was a big thing for me as I was trying to at least keep my rank of being the 3rd in my batch, and the pressure from my father wasn't a least bit motivating at all.

I was wallowing in self pity when someone suddenly blocked my path and touched my arm. I would've normally snapped and cursed given with the kind of mood I was in; grumpy, frustrated but completely clueless on how to relieve the stress when I was too mentally drained to do anything at all. How bad can that be.

But surprisingly, I was calm.

Sad approaching borderline numb if that was a better description.

The old lady begged for food, which at that moment I didn't have, although from a few meters away, I was aware that there was a convenience store that sells small packed meals for 3, 000 won. And maybe the sadness I was feeling stirred and amplified the feeling of empathy within me.

I told the old lady to wait for me on that same spot, jogged towards the convenience store and grabbed the last stock of the meal I was planning on buying. At least fate still showed a bit of sympathy to me when it left me that last piece.

The moment I walked out of the store, I spotted the lady sitting on the edge of a flower box, her frail arms wrapped around her knees as if she was trying to keep herself warm. When she saw me, she flashed a crooked smile that delivered an unspoken feeling of gratitude. At that moment I felt warmth bloom inside my chest, but more so regret that I couldn't offer that much to her.

"Please take this." I remember my 17-year old self tell her, and she bowed and received it with her wrinkled, shaky hands.

She reminded me of my grandmother, which was probably the main reason why I hesitated to leave her immediately, but I thought that there was no other reason for me to stay. I was about to turn my heel and leave when she lightly touched my arm again, and what she said next surprised me.

"Son, don't allow the loneliness to control and take away your happiness. Soon, you will meet your other half, and that person will fill up that void within you. Just keep doing what you love, keep fighting for it no matter how much other people would speak against it, and that connection will find its way to you."

I was too stunned to move, too confused to even properly process what she said. It was all too sudden. How could she have possibly known there was that sense of emptiness within me?

She mumbled a "thank you" and slowly disappeared at the corner of the building, and before I could even find my voice again and ask what she meant, she vanished and was nowhere to be seen, which made me even more confused than I already was.

I never believed in prophecies, predictions, fortune-telling, palm reading or anything of that sort.

But after that encounter, there was something within me that shifted.

What she said sounded vague and general, and she could have just said it to anyone else.

But for me? I didn't know why my gut feeling was telling me otherwise. It just sounded so personal. Felt so personal. As if she knew what I would've wanted to hear and I just didn't realize it.

Maybe, just maybe, that encounter made me slightly anticipate that there's really someone out there who's destined to complete me.

After all, believing wouldn't really make me lose anything, would I?

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Hiiii! so this is my first fanfic for my beloved otp jaeten :D this is actually a oneshot but it's really long it might be too overwhelming if I just put it in one chapter so I divided it into 5 parts (including the prologue) instead. I'm dedicating this to all my co-jaeten stans out there ❤️ I hope you'd like this!

I'm about to finish the last part so it'll be a huge fulfillment for me since I've been conceptualizing this fic for months already ;;;;