Chapter Text
The red string of fate worked in practical ways. When soulmates were far enough away from each other, the string would only visibly stretch out so far, a meter or so, before fading away to nothing—otherwise the whole world would be a tangle of red string. When the soulmates were within sight of each other however, it would stretch out between the distance apart the two were—but the string wouldn’t get caught on chairs or tables; it wouldn’t knock over cups or vases; it wouldn’t entangle somebody walking between them. No, only the soulmates could touch the red thread; it was only physically tangible to them.
Seokjin learned right away how grateful he was for that—because the last thing he needed in the microbiology lab course he taught, was for the stupid red string to start knocking over various glassware and supplies on the students’ work benches as he walked around to assist them.
Of course, maybe even more than that, the last thing he needed was for his soulmate to be one of his obnoxious undergrad students.
Jin was in his second year of obtaining his master’s degree, and that included being a teaching assistant—a job to help pay the bills while he still took courses and worked on his thesis research. He didn’t mind it, and now that it was his second year teaching this specific lab course, he figured it would be smooth sailing for the semester.
And it was, for the first handful of weeks. Sure, any class had some rambunctious students, and Jeon Jungkook was what Jin would describe, only in privacy of course, as a little shit. But that wasn’t anything Jin couldn’t handle.
The microbiology lab was part of a small, upperclassmen course, so it included a mix juniors and seniors. Jungkook was a senior, and Jin attributed his attitude to how close he must have been to graduating. It wasn’t even that Jungkook was a bad student—he did well on the worksheets, and while his skills with micro techniques weren’t perfect, Jin had certainly had other students make worse mistakes and bigger messes. It was mostly his attitude that was the problem.
“What would happen if I licked this?” Jungkook had asked in week two of the course, referring to a dish with E. coli colonies growing on it.
Seokjin just blinked at him for a moment. “I’d prefer you didn’t do that.”
The kid scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I’m not going to. I’m just curious what would happen to me if I did.”
Jin blinked again. “You’d get really sick. Hospitalized.”
Jungkook huffed a laugh, looking over at his friend and lab partner. “Cool.”
Seokjin sighed. Sometimes he just didn’t understand undergrads. But when it seemed that answer was enough to indulge the boy, he moved on to help his other students with actual questions regarding the tasks at hand.
And that was the general pattern with Jungkook. He’d say things and ask questions not out of interest in the material, but to get a reaction out of Jin and a laugh from his friends. Sometimes Seokjin would indulge him in banter, stirring laughs from the other students and Kook himself. But other times he had to put on his stricter teaching façade, asking Jungkook to tone it down, having to remind him to pay attention or calling him out on times he should have been paying attention. Overall, for the annoying student he could be, Jin felt like he could handle him well. And Jungkook didn’t seem to hate him for it, so that was good.
That didn’t mean by any stretch of the imagination, however, that Jin would have ever thought Jungkook was his soulmate.
But one day, on week five of lab, as students were filing in before the period started, Seokjin was writing on the whiteboard when he noticed. He first felt a weird tug at his wrist, the one holding the dry erase marker, and the glimpse of red caught his eye enough for him to lower his hand. He furrowed his brow, at first just confused and maybe even in denial, until his brain properly registered what was attached to the base of his wrist. Still not fully processing it all, he allowed his gaze to drop, to follow the red string, and when his eyes landed on Jungkook, having just walked into class, at the other end of it, his heart dropped.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he muttered under his breath, and Jungkook stared back at him with about just as much confusion in his expression.
It seemed as the revelation sunk in though, Jungkook began to smirk. The rest of the class had taken notice too, giving gasps, some whispering, Jungkook’s friends gawking and laughing.
Jin realized he had to take charge of the situation before it got out of hand. Or before Jungkook said something stupid. He set the marker down and walked over to the front work bench, leaning against it as he addressed the whole class.
“Okay, let’s settle down. Listen, I know you all like getting out of lab early, and this should be a quick one, so for the sake of all of our time, I’m going to ignore this…elephant in the room.” This seemed to hush the students, which Jin was grateful for. Nothing like promising a short lab to get them under control. His gaze turned towards Jungkook, who was still frozen in front of the door from when he first walked in. “And Jungkook will stay after lab, and we’ll figure out how we’re supposed to handle the situation then. Sound good?”
Jungkook swallowed hard, nodding and walking towards his seat as the rest of the class murmured agreements as well.
Jin gave a quiet sigh of relief. It meant he too could ignore this new problem for at least another hour. “Great. Let’s get started.”
~
For once the boy almost looked shy, while he waited as students gradually wrapped up and filed out of lab. He said bye to his friend, who offered to wait in the student breakroom, but Jungkook insisted he didn’t. They had to wait for a couple of slower paced students to finish up the lab tasks, but they cleaned up quickly, and then it was just the two of them. Them and their red string of fate.
And by then, Jungkook’s shyness had faded. Once again, he had the audacity to smirk. “So…”
“No,” Jin deadpanned.
Jungkook furrowed his brow, and then his lips pouted a little. “I didn’t even say anything yet!”
“Your tone did,” Jin returned, stuffing his belongings into his bag. He would have to clean up the lab room after he sorted this out—luckily no one needed it directly after his class. He walked over to the door and held it open. “Come on.”
Jungkook huffed, slinging his bag across his chest and rolling his eyes as he walked over and through the door. He waited in the hall for the older to lead them down to the Biology department office.
“Hey Hyun,” Jin greeted, grabbing the attention of the assistant at the front desk. “Add/drop period is long over, right?”
She nodded. “Weeks ago.”
“Withdrawal?”
She glanced at the computer screen, probably at a calendar. “Ended Monday.”
Jin sighed. It was Wednesday. Stupid seven encounters. If only he had run into Jungkook in the halls more often. “Is Dr. Yang in his office?”
“I think so,” she said, and Seokjin could feel her gaze trailing down to the red string, even after he turned, Jungkook following after him to the professor’s office.
The course was part lecture—taught by the professor—and part lab—taught by Jin. The lab grade would contribute to 25% of the students’ overall grade in the class. You couldn’t take one without the other, and considering Dr. Yang was Jin’s boss and the professor for the class, he figured he would have the final say on what they should do.
After knocking on the door and hearing a voice call them in, Jin opened the door, immediately getting to the point as he stepped in. He held up the red string. “Hey, so uh…we’ve got a problem.”
It took a moment for Dr. Yang to assess in the scene in front of him—to recognize Jungkook as one of his students, to see the string that attached him to Jin, and register why that was a problem. When he finally did, the professor chuckled. “Well, this may be a first.”
“Withdrawal period ended a few days ago, but maybe they can make an exception,” Jin said.
Before Dr. Yang could express an opinion, Jungkook snapped his gaze to Jin. “Wait, hold up a second. I never agreed to withdraw—I can’t drop the class.”
“It’s just an elective bio course, it’s not a requirement,” Jin argued.
“Yeah but it’s five weeks into the semester, so it’s too late to join any other class. I need the credits. Can’t I just transfer to another lab section?”
“It’s a small course, there’re only two lab sections.”
“So I can move to the other one.”
“I teach the other section too, genius.”
Up to that point, Jungkook had seemed stubborn, maybe even cocky. But with the news that he couldn’t just switch into another lab section to fix the problem, his expression turned more serious—more worried. Maybe even panicked.
“If I have to drop this class, I won’t have enough credits to graduate this semester. And I—I’ve already been accepted into a program for next semester, but it’s contingent on my graduation. Jin, I—what am I going to do?” he pleaded.
It was something about his eyes. Wide, doe-like. Sparkly? Something about them, brought a new feeling over Seokjin. It was powerful. It told him he was Jungkook’s hyung, and he should help him. It told him Jungkook’s future was his too, and for the younger to be prevented from graduating, from furthering his education, was wrong and unfair. That Jungkook being hurt was his own hurt. He was overcome by how much he cared.
Jin chewed on his lip, studying the younger for a moment before returning his gaze to Dr. Yang. “Is too unethical for him to stay in the course? Maybe I could switch labs with another TA?”
Dr. Yang leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk, considering for a moment, but he shook his head. “It’s too late in the semester to try to train someone new. Or for you to jump into teaching a completely different lab, for that matter…” His gaze stared off into nothing as he considered for another moment, and then he blinked, looking between the two of them. “This just happened today, correct? Nothing’s happened between the two of you.”
“Of course not,” Jin said, almost offended at the prospect. He would never act inappropriately with a student.
“You’ve never spent time together outside of class?”
“Never.”
“It would have shown up sooner if we had,” Jungkook said.
And he was right. It was week five. Naturally, they’d bumped into each other a couple times in the hallways of the department, which was bound to happen since they were both studying biology. But if they had been seeing each other outside of the department, their seven encounters would have happened within the first few weeks of the semester.
Dr. Yang nodded, sitting back in his chair. “What did you do in lab today about it?”
Jin glanced towards Jungkook before turning back and giving a shrugged. “Just ignored it and taught the class like normal.”
The professor gave a small smile and raised his hands in a shrug. “Then it doesn’t sound like a problem. The way I see it, if nothing changes, it’ll be fine. Jin, maybe be start grading blindly if you don’t already, to discourage the chance of any bias, but besides that…keep things the way it is, the usual student-teacher boundaries, until final grades are submitted.”
Seokjin nodded, a sense of relief washing over him. “That’s fair. Thank you.”
“Now, if other students come to me with an issue, if it does seem there’s a bias, or you’re not acting appropriately—we’ll have to address it. So let’s not let it come to that, okay?” Dr. Yang said, more sternly this time. It was clear he was giving them a generous out, and in doing so, he recognized it could backfire.
Dating students was of course not allowed, so even though they were soulmates, they couldn’t even come close to acting that way. They would have to keep strict boundaries for the rest of the semester, virtually ignoring the string, their bond to each other.
Jin nodded again. “It won’t.”
Jungkook shifted on his feet, looking down to the floor. “Yeah, it won’t.”
~
Stepping out of the professor’s office and back into the hall, Jin arched a brow at Jungkook, whose gaze was still downcast to the floor. He didn’t understand, considering how lucky they’d just gotten with solution offered to them. “This is good, right?”
“I get to graduate, so yeah. Guess it’ll have to be,” the boy muttered
Jin shrugged as they started walking down the hall. “I mean, it’s really not hard. Think about it: lab only meets once a week. And there’s—what, ten weeks? Left in the semester. That’s not so long, then we can worry about how to deal with this.”
Jungkook stopped in his tracks, causing Jin to have to turn back to look at him. “What do you mean ‘worry’? And ‘deal with’? We’re soulmates. We’ll date, won’t we?”
Seokjin glanced around to make sure they were alone, stepping closer to the boy and saying in a hushed voice, “It’s that kind of talk that’s crossing a boundary. That will get us in trouble.”
Jungkook rolled his eyes. “It’s just the truth. Or is that not what you want by the end of all this?”
Jin’s expression turned blank as he studied Jungkook, trying to figure out how serious the kid was being. Why was his concern right now, of all things, after almost losing out on graduating on time, about dating?
“I—I don’t know you, Jungkook, outside of a student context,” Jin tried explaining, keeping his voice even, emotionless even. The last thing they needed was to turn this into some dramatic issue, to start pining for one another and cry over how they couldn’t be together—that would be ridiculous. “And right now, I don’t want to. I don’t want to even think about any of that yet, because that’ll only make it more complicated. Can we please just focus on getting through the semester for now?”
Jungkook shifted his bag, huffing and turning around to start walking down the hall in the opposite direction. His voice was hollow as he called back, “Sure.”
The red string grew out longer and longer between them, as Jungkook walked away and Jin watched him wordlessly. It was going to be a long semester.