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ashimataru · 3 years ago

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Red String Travelers Joongdok AU

CW: major character death

A/N: Im trying out this tumblr thing and moving a thread on my twitter to here. Why not :D Also i added more words and more in depth detail compared to my twitter thread here.

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Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja have known each other for years and have traveled with each other for as long as they could remember.

They would walk long distances exploring and gathering materials. Then they would find areas to rest for the night and get up to travel once more.

They first met when Kim Dokja was extremely ill.

Yoo Joonghyuk passed by Kim Dokja’s town during one of his travels and Kim Dokja begged Yoo Joonghyuk to join his journey.

Saying... if he were to only live for a little while longer he wishes to see the world one last time.

Yoo Joonghyuk obviously refused seeing as he would be a burden.

That didn't deter Kim Dokja though. So he forcibly became a thorn in Yoo Joonghyuk’s side.

This made Yoo Joonghyuk have to deal with the fool until they found a cure.

Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja have been traveling together since.

Yoo Joonghyuk’s goal for being a traveling nomad in the first place was to one day reach the stars.

Having someone to accompany him made the travels less lonely. Overtime Yoo Joonghyuk had gotten used to Kim Dokja's presence. They banter and argue quite a lot but despite these fights, he always finds his way back to Kim Dokja. As if something was attracting him to Kim Dokja.

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Naturally enough, Yoo Joonghyuk had not a clue that they were tied together by fate.

He only realised in the dead of night.

Both of them set up camp in the silent night of the forest. The breeze blew quietly around their camp with Kim Dokja quietly resting in a tent not too far from Yoo Joonghyuk’s.

Yoo Joonghyuk stayed awake in the dead of night to mark out the map of their next destination. When he drags his finger along the map, tracing a circle around a location, he notices something glow in the corner of his eye.

He found that it was a thin red thread that curled and looped on the map and led off onto the ground.

Yoo Joonghyuk traced the thread upwards and saw it bounded to his pinky finger.

‘The Red String Of Fate’ Yoo Joonghyuk remembered reading it in a book once.

He never gave much care for tales or superstitions. He never even considered the possibility of it being real.

He tugged the thread, playing with it experimentally. Yoo Joonghyuk pulled it a distance away from him only for the thread to magically extend by itself.

He then followed the thread that twirled and spun along the ground outside and saw it lead to Kim Dokja’s tent.

His breathing turned erratic, his nerves not seeming to calm down. He crouches lowly to the ground, having the grass blades brush up against his clothing.

There was only one conclusion... but he still had to check for himself.

He had to know.

He pulled up the flaps of the tent and saw Kim Dokja. Kim Dokja sat on the ground touching the red string wrapped around his pinky finger adoringly.

Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk met eyes.

After a brief moment of staring Kim Dokja flashes a genuine smile and lets out a breathy laugh.

A real genuine smile. Not like the other ones where he smiles and tells Yoo Joonghyuk that the pain in his head doesn't hurt.

Kim Dokja pulls at the string playfully, “I suppose we are bound by fate now." He pauses then he starts chuckling to himself. "You’re stuck with me forever hahah!”

From that day onward, the small gentle occasional brushing of their hands or how their thighs touch while sitting together is much more noticeable.

Sometimes Yoo Joonghyuk unconsciously protects his hand that has that red string attached to it. Or other times when Yoo Joonghyuk loses direction or tends to get nervous he traces his fingers along the string, feeling the smooth thread between his fingertips.

As for Kim Dokja, he would twirl it around his pinky or he would try to run as far away from Yoo Joonghyuk to see how long it would stretch out.

One time, Yoo Joonghyuk caught Kim Dokja staring at it.

Just staring.

He would roll around in his sleeping bag outstretching the hand with the thread attached to it and would just stare.

Kim Dokja looks at it with such awe and aspiration it's as if he can't believe what he's looking at is real. He used to rub his eyes uncontrollably when the both of them first came to see their fate being intertwined. Yoo Joonghyuk lectured him about that.

Sometimes he would ask ridiculous things such as… 'Is this an illusion?' 'Is this a dream?' 'Punch me Joonghyuk-ah.'

Yoo Joonghyuk, already used to his antics, told Kim Dokja to research more about the topic in hopes of answering his questions.

So from then, every town they visited or stayed in for an extended period of time Kim Dokja would bolt to the nearest library in search of everything and anything related to The Red String of Fate.

Gradually, the two of them accepted their fate. They got used to having a glowing string being connected to their pinkies.

Yoo Joonghyuk preferred this much more. He could chase Kim Dokja down more easily whenever he wanted to run off dangerously.

Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja had settled down in an inn within a secluded town.

Their beds separated by a metre, the orange light lit the room dimly and both men lay in their beds awaiting sleep to overtake their bodies.

"Joonghyuk-ah." Kim Dokja called out to him lazily.

"Hm?"

"Hypothetical question; what if somehow a giant octopus opened a universe portal in the sky━"

Yoo Joonghyuk rolled over to his side and glared at Kim Dokja from where he leaned on his arm.

'Where is he going with this...'

"━and it grabbed me and swallowed me whole?"

Yoo Joonghyuk internally scoffed but once he locked eyes with Kim Dokja's expectant expression he actually thought of answering his crazy nightly questions.

"Then...I would use the string to pull you back."

"Ahaha Hyuk-ie actually answered me genuinely!" Kim Dokja began laying on his side with his head pressed into the pillow as he laughed gently.

"Hmph." Yoo Joonghyuk turns back around and lays on his back, closing his eyes.

A beat passes.

"Joonghyuk-ah."

"Hm?"

"What if the string was cut...?"

Yoo Joonghyuk didn't like how that question sounded. But it isn't the most concerning thing Kim Dokja has ever said to him so he brushes it off.

"Impossible. It can't be cut."

The Red String of Fate. A string that connects two people for all of their life times and eternities.

A bright red string which intertwines their pinkies and will always lead to the other. No matter the twist and turns it takes and paths it has to travel to. That was absolute. There was no way for it to be cut.

It's true Yoo Joonghyuk did not know much about the string connected to him as much as Kim Dokja did but he knew that much at least.

And even if there was a way to break the connection, Kim Dokja would tell Yoo Joonghyuk.

"But what if it can be cut!"

Yoo Joonghyuk can feel a migraine approaching.

"Even if it could be, which it can't, I'd still stay with you."

Yoo Joonghyuk hears the ruffling of bed sheets and then the other speaks again.

"Just... don't let me drag you down... Okay?" Kim Dokja questions into the silence of the night.

"You don't drag me down." He speaks it through gritted teeth, tired of Kim Dokja's midnight shenanigans.

"Just say okay!"

He sighs. "Okay."

━

The both of them now presently travel through the desert this time.

They talk about useless topics with Kim Dokja doing most of the talking.

Yoo Joonghyuk listens quietly as they walk through the heavy and humid sand. Kim Dokja occasionally complains about the heat and questions how the hell Yoo Joonghyuk wears all black in the desert.

Kim Dokja suddenly stops walking.

Yoo Joonghyuk sees Kim Dokja walk slower and leaves his peripheral eyesight. Yoo Joonghyuk wants to turn back and glare at Kim Dokja, wondering what has him so distracted.

Before he could ask Yoo Joonghyuk notices the ground under them is wavering. Like it's ready to move.

Kim Dokja realises the situation they are in and swiftly pushes Yoo Joonghyuk to the side.

Yoo Joonghyuk attempts to glance back and ask him what he was doing, but before he can do that Kim Dokja cuts him off.

“Yoo Joonghyuk.” Kim Dokja says quietly barely above a whisper in the desolate desert.

He begins pulling out a knife from his waist pocket.

Sand starts to flow up from the air and breeze past both of their hair.

The ground immediately started to break in and the sand began falling.

Quicksand.

“It was a good journey, wasn’t it?” Kim Dokja speaks solemnly with acceptance in his eyes.

The sand began rapidly pulling down Kim Dokja with it.

Yoo Joonghyuk now realised why Kim Dokja had pushed him backwards.

“KIM DOKJA!” He tried to scatter down into the pit but each step he took more sand fell and collapsed onto Kim Dokja's sinking body.

The hole ate Kim Dokja’s legs and slowly his torso started to fall in.

All Yoo Joonghyuk could do was watch. His breath quickened and his mind started to orbit.

Yoo Joonghyuk tried reaching for Kim Dokja's hand.

He was too far out of reach.

Kim Dokja's arms reached out to him and he looked up with a sad smile at the other man.

Yoo Joonghyuk couldn't tell through the sand flying everywhere and the panic filling his bones but he swore he could see tears running down Kim Dokja's cheeks.

The ground pulled and tugged at Kim Dokja, swallowing him whole. Yoo Joonghyuk tried using his other arm to grab the string that was pulled taunt from the pressure. He began pulling the string up, hoping to pull Kim Dokja out of the hole with it.

Yoo Joonghyuk looked at him with desperation, his eyes widening in terror. No words came out, only his strained breathing.

“Don’t let me drag you down, yeah?”

As soon as Kim Dokja spoke those words he used the knife that he held up in the air to make a clean cut to the red string.

SNAP!

The impact from being disconnected from his soulmate forcefully threw Yoo Joonghyuk onto his back a distance away from the quicksand.

The sand bursted into his vision and Kim Dokja went out of sight.

Yoo Joonghyuk coughed heavily and covered his eyes from the sand.

He quickly recovered and urgently scrambled to his knees, the sand sticking to his knees and falling into his boots.

He moved to where Kim Dokja was only to see nothing there.

The sand shifted and bubbled after it sucked in Kim Dokja.

Yoo Joonghyuk’s breath fastened.

No. NO. Nonononono━

“KIM DOKJA!” He called out.

The sound of the shifting sand and wind blowing replied to him instead.

'Don’t let me drag you down, yeah?'

“KIM DOKJA COME BACK HERE!” Yoo Joonghyuk yelled with so much force it hurt his voice.

'What if the string was cut...?'

'Impossible. It can't be cut.'

He clawed at the sand. His mind became blank and so he desperately dug at it in a useless effort.

His hands moved in a repeated act, pulling out chunks of sand and throwing it behind him only for more sand to fill in its place. Despite that he still dug, again and again.

'But what if it can be cut!'

'Even if it could be, which it can't, I'd still stay with you.'

He couldn't feel tears in his eyes. Maybe his heart hurt so much it pained him to cry. His heart throbbed; it felt like a part of him got ripped out.

His hands that were constantly digging, found only the sand that buried Kim Dokja.

'Just... don't let me drag you down... Okay?'

'You don't drag me down.'

Yoo Joonghyuk brought his hand up to his face and saw that the string which was once long and ever stretching now lay short and cut.

The glow no longer there.

'Just say okay!'

'Okay.'

His hands grazed and red from the sharp pieces of rock laying in the sand. He pulled at the cut string on his pinky.

It no longer stretched like it used to, it no longer led to a familiar cheeky smile he knew so well.

Yoo Joonghyuk pounded at the sand with a clenched fist so hard his knuckle turned white.

“Give him back.”

He repeated these words until he became exhausted. He dug at the sand more and spoke those same words over and over.

The sound of rustling leaves and the howling of nocturnal animals knocked him out of his trance.

His eyes are full of sand from digging and arms are sore.

He dug until the moon rose above the clouds.

He looked towards the night sky.

What was he doing looking for the stars when a star was right next to him? Notes: For my own belief of the Red String of Fate AU i like to think.... the string can only be cut if the other person genuinely wants to cut it. This usually applies for break up AU's as well, where someone gets upset and cuts the thread. I also like to think if you want to reconnect your thread you have to sacrifice your most happiest/important memory to connect the string again. It just brings alot more angst hehehe.

#orv fics #orv #omniscient reader #omniscient reader's viewpoint #joongdok #yoo joonghyuk #yoo joonghyuk x kim dokja #kim dokja #orv au #orv kdj #orv yjh #omniscient readers viewpoint #red string of fate #im sorry for this #i hope this brought you pain #I MIGHT (might) post on ao3 idk ill think about it

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