#why is woojin quoting shakespeare the funniest thing

[soons-swimmingfool]

The Rose to my Romeo

In which you’re just trying to write a paper but it seems like destiny has other plans.

Libraries were one of your favourite places, they were quiet and soft; usually you’d love to be at the library, but not today. Today, you’re at the library to work on a paper you swore you’d start five days ago. The blank page in front of you has been staring at you for over an hour already and you’re at the point of snapping your entire laptop in half (and probably the chair you were sitting on too). It wasn’t like you didn’t know what you needed to write, you knew everything already, but finding the words to start the paper was always something you struggled with. You’d erased seven different introductory sentences because they just didn’t feel right. Your group chats kept saying that every sentence you sent to them was already really good, but that wasn’t exactly helpful. Slowly your mind begins to wander to less frustrating topics, but you quickly snap yourself back. You had suffered through three lectures today and it was already nearing six in the evening, all you wanted to do was get some words (that weren’t complete shit) on the paper and leave. You bob your head to smooth beats and type out the fourth sentence you had written. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was the best out of what you had come up with and you decide that you can always change it once the body of your paper had been completed. Somewhere along the line of bobbing and typing you start to slouch, pushing your laptop farther from you, you rest your head on the desk. A paragraph goes by like this before you drift off to sleep.

You blink twice and groan when you realize you fell asleep at the library. It’s 8:28pm and you only have three hundred words on the page. You sigh, but ultimately decide to work for at least an hour more so that you don’t feel like complete garbage for falling asleep. You go to start typing but feel a small tug on your pinky finger. Looking down, you see a red string tied around your finger and for a second you think you’re still sleeping. You look around and see a group of girls looking at you and the string while giggling. You figure you’re probably not dreaming, but then who the fuck thought it would be funny to tie you to a string that seemed to be going nowhere considering the twisty route it mapped out. You look around the rest of the library and see red string littered over what’s more or less the entire third floor. You shake your head, you’re about to get back to work, but you hear the girls disappointedly whisper about you not following after the string  so you save what little progress you’ve made and pack up all of your things (honestly the curiosity is killing you anyways). You wonder about just who in the heck did this and why. To be perfectly honest, you find this kind of fun, that is until you make your way over to the table of girls who were giggling earlier. You walk up to them without really paying attention to where you’re going so when a backpack and pair of sneakers enter the corner of your vision you look up at the three girls who are still giggling. Horrified, you follow the string with your eyes and confirm that the string runs under the table. Fuck that, you think, I’m taking this shit off. You go to remove the string from your pinky, but the person who tied this must have been a boy scout (or just kinky tbh) bc damn you and your double knot. The girls have given up on trying to be discreet and just out right laugh when you can’t get the string off. They all pick up their bags and move their chairs so you can crawl under their table. They wish you good luck after you get back up off the floor and you curse the person who did this to you in your head. Unfortunately for you (and fortunately for the girls) that wasn’t the only table you had to crawl under, seven tables later you start to pray that whoever is at the end of this string has life insurance bc bitch what the fuc k im gonna kick your ass hoe. You end up circling one bookshelf over 12 times and you’re  t i r e d  but you’ve already made such a fool of yourself that what else could go wrong.  The string is starting to get long so you take a break so that you can start winding it up around your arm (and totally not because you’re winded from walking around the library). Back into action, you follow the string all the way to a door. I’m almost done, you think. You’re about to kick down the door and storm in to find the bitch who did this to you, but before you can you look up and realize something utterly infuriating. THE. DOOR. SAYS. MENS. You hate them. You haven’t even met them. But you hate them. A lot. wHO THE FUCK DOES THIS AND THEN HIDES IN THE MENS BATHROOM BITCH???? You get so heated, even if I have to stay here the entire night im not moving until this bITCH comes out of there! You take a seat at the table nearest the door and it only takes 2 minutes for you to realize that you look like a whole fool. In those 2 minutes, one person has entered the bathroom and many have passed by your table. They all give you the same what the fu k are you doing??? look. You can’t really blame them though, you admittedly do look pretty crazy sitting down with a red string attaching you to something in the men’s lavatory. You sit there for another 40 seconds and it’s at that moment that you realize that the person who did this may not even be inside the bathroom! They may have just tied you to the sink (you really hope that it’s the sink) and left. Fuck this and them you think while you rummage through your bag for something to cut the damn string off your pinky. As you’re digging through however, you feel a tug on your pinky and whip around to see sHIT CUTE BOY HOLY SHIT HE’S CUTE (smh so much for killing him)!!!  You see that he’s also connected to the string by his own pinky.

“Are you the one who did all this?” You ask with narrow eyes.

Without answering your question, he looks between both of your pinky fingers and asks, “Have you ever heard of the red string of fate?”

That was so lame it was charming you think, but aloud you say, “No, why don’t you tell me about it?”

Without missing a beat he takes the seat in front of you and goes “Long story short: you and I are soulmates.”

It’s been a pretty long time since you’ve laughed that hard.

“I don’t even know your name and you’re calling me your soulmate?” You continue to laugh at him as he gives you the stink eye (which may or may not make your heart flutter a little bit).

“What’s the thing Romeo said? If Juliet was named Rose he’d still like her? Names don’t matter in the game of love.” He draws out the word love and accentuates it with a raised eyebrow.

You snort at him, “Romeo said that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. I can’t believe you.” You start to laugh outright now, “Why would Romeo say he’d still like Juliet if she was named Rose?”

“Because he’s a romantic guy! Like me! They were soulmates and so are we!” the unknown boy is practically bouncing in glee right now.

You look at him , “Uhm, hello, tHEY DIED?!”

“Good point. Who else can we be then?” he starts pondering the options in his head and over his shoulder you see the three girls walking towards the stairs. You hear them squeal and they give you thumbs up before turning and all but tumbling down the stairs. You turn red in response. The boy in front of you shouts out in triumph “I know who we can be!”

You wait for him to tell you, but it seems like he’s waiting for you to ask so you do, “Who can we be?”

“Well for starters, you could be my girlfriend.” He snickers at the flush on your face and is obnoxious enough to wink at you as well.

“I’d ask who you think you are, but I know you’d either say “your boyfriend!” or “your soulmate” so I’ll just tell you this: if you weren’t so damn cute you’d be pretty fucking creepy.”

“You think I’m cute?” He smirks at you.

“I mean if we’re gonna be soulmates then you better hope so, buddy”

He grins at you and for a second your world kinda just falters and you catch yourself thinking woah wtf maybe we are soulmates. He gives you a soft look and before you know it he has your hand in his. “Here, I’ll take this off for you, my friends told me you were having a hard time.”

“Your friends?” You can feel your face heating up again, his hand is strong yet gentle and it makes you feel things.

“Those girls. They were giving me progress reports. I have a video if you’d like to watch!” He’s struggling with the knot and for a second you worry that he really got both of you stuck and you’re going to have to cut off your pinky, but then you see him try and stifle a laugh and you realize that he’s faking so he can hold your hand.

“You have a video?! Great, 15 minutes of me crawling under tables and looking like a complete idiot.”

“Actually, it’s 13:57 but—” He looks up and smiles at you (holy shit) he unties your pinky completely and gets to work on his.

“I can’t believe you.”

“Can’t believe that I went through all this trouble to ask you out or that I’m your boyfriend?”

“I still don’t even know your name—aND WHERE DID YOU GET ALL THIS STRING?!!”

He laughs softly, “I’m Woojin, and I may or may not have ran to the nearest dollar store after the idea popped into my head.”

It’s your turn to laugh as you respond “You’re more of an ‘act before you speak’ type of guy aren’t ya? I’m Ashley by the way, and please do not say you’ll still like me even if I was named Rose.”

“You see, now this is how I know we’re soulmates, I was actually going to say that.” You roll your eyes at him as he continues, “Your name is Ashley? I think there’s a name that suits you better than Ashley.”

“I swear if you say Rose…”

“Nope.”

“Your girlfriend?”

“No, but I like that too.” He smirks.

“Your soulmate?”

“Good guesses, but still wrong.”

“I give up, what is it?”

“Babe.”

“I hate you.” You get up to leave (honestly it’s to hide the flush) but Woojin grabs you by the arm first.

“No you don’t! We’re soulmates, Ashley!” He turns the two of you around and you feel the table behind you. “Tell me how you really feel, Ash.” He places both hands on the table behind you and leans on them. You look around because tHIS IS A PUBLIC SPACE PLEASE BACK UP!!! But you realize that there aren’t many people at the library at 9:30 on a friday night.

“Fine!” You take a breath and look him in the face “You’re stupid” He looks appalled and you laugh more from the mix of nerves and the face he’s making, “but I like you.”

“That was terribly cute, would it be okay if I kissed you, like,  right now?” He, quite frankly, looks enchanted.

You guffaw at him, but nod anyways. You wrap your arms around his neck and when he leans down and your lips meet you can almost taste the fate.

Part 1/? of the (Fake)Soulmates!au