The Universe Makes Mistakes Sometimes - Touch

Baskstory and Beaches

Yukhei was exhausted and his back was starting to hurt. For such a little old woman, Rosemary sure weighed a lot.

"Goddamn why do you weigh so fucking much!"

"Language!" She replied, slapping him upside the head, "And, kid, I have two metal hip and my left leg is a prosthetic. I have so much metal in my body, the old hag in room twenty four thinks I'm a robot."

Yukhei clenched his teeth and kept on running. To the sea, Rosemary had said, he's near the sea.

Yukhei had to make it there before Jungwoo...did something stupid.

He had to.

"So are you, like, a witch or something?" Yukhei asked.

It was obviously true. She knew where Jungwoo was, where their soulmarks were, all their greatest joys and fears. Heck, Yukhei wouldn't be surprised if she was an all-knowing being.

"No, idiot, I'm not a witch."

"Then how do you know all about Jungwoo and I?"

The woman sighed deeply.

"Look, kid, you might now believe this but I don't care because I'm old and my time is limited. I believe that Jungwoo is my son reincarnated."

Yukhei stopped in his tracks.

What the fuck?

But he couldn't let surprise hold him for long. Jungwoo needed him.

"So you're Jungwoo's...Mom?"

"No, idiot! But I think he's my son, Lee Taemin, reincarnated. He looks so alike him, I thought my Taeminnie had come back to me. Seeing his face...it was like I'd been cut open and left to bleed and finally, someone had come and stitched me back up. I'm sure of it, I'm sure my Taeminnie is locked somewhere in that young man, and that's why. That's why you have to save him...I can't lose him again."

"Again?" Yukhei asked cautiously. The woman was always so sarcastic and rude, hearing her like this, vulnerable and wounded, she seemed old and tired.

"Taemin commuted suicide. Forty years ago."

"Oh...I'm sorry."

"It's okay because we have a second chance now. You can save him when you couldn't last time."

"Last time? I was Jungwoo's soulmate back then, too?!"

"Of course," Rosemary replied, "Choi Minho was your name. Usually, people have one soulmate in their life - if they have one at all - and a different one in their next. But you and Jungwoo...I'm convinced that you two were destined to be together since the dawn of time. And in every life you find each other and fall in love again and again. But there's always the same demons, the same troubles, the same ending. But I won't let it be that way this time. Because I've seen the ending and we're going to change it his time."

The two fell into silence and Yukhei kept running, the sound of lazy waves slapping against rocks starting to reach their ears.

They could see the beach now. Stretching out before them, each grain of sand glistening like opals under the sun.

Is Jungwoo seeing the same sight too?

He was confused. Very confused. But scared. Scared for Jungwoo, and also slightly scared for himself.

If he and Jungwoo had been soulmates since the dawn of time and had never once ended up together...would they end up together this time?

"Rosemary...I was that...that Minho guy, right?"

The elderly woman hummed in response.

"So I died back then, right? How did I die?"

"You died in a fire. In that lifetime, a group of stupid teenage boys were the demons. They set your home alight, not knowing that you were in it. In this lifetime, the demons are-"

"Taeho," Yukhei spat. The name tasted like thick tar in his mouth.

"Yes, that's true. And Jungwoo's father too. Though you must remember they are not the demons themselves. The demons are only held inside of them."

"Bullshit!" Yukhei swore. This time, Rosemary did not touch him, "Taeho is from the pits of hell! There's no way the demon is 'only held inside of him'. That bastard hurt Jungwoo!"

"That is true," growled Rosemary, equally poisoned by the name of Jungwoo's fiancé - or ex fiancé as he was sure to be, "Taeho does serve to rot in hell. But Jungwoo himself holds a demon inside of him. And Jungwoo does not deserve to rot in hell."

"You're whacked up, lady," Yukhei spat, "Jungwoo isn't a demon."

"Not Jungwoo himself. But he holds a demon inside of him. It is why he keeps pushing everyone away. I think after Jungwoo met me, he started to regain memories...no, not memories...feelings...that he used to have as my son. I think Jungwoo is scared. I think he knows in his heart how it has always ended. With you both crashing and burning. He's trying to protect you both...fruitlessly."

"Jungwoo...he's scared?"

"Very scared," the woman added.

"And he's about to jump, Yukhei. We must find him. Quickly."

~~~

So some added backstory :))

Will Yukhei make it in time?? 😈😈