i don't know why i've been putting this off for a while (because i'm so scared for some stupid reason and it's not a big deal), but i'm going to be moving blogs and...rebranding, you could say.
because of my...rebranding, i will not be airing out the url of this new blog publicly. however, if you're a mootie or a reader (or if you're my tumblr idol (⁎⁍̴̆Ɛ⁍̴̆⁎)), feel free to dm or send an ask (with your anon off) for my url!! i might be the one dming you first hehehe
i'll be putting all of my work into a big archive list and i won't be deactivating this blog (even though i wanted to on multiple occasions) for memories.
long emotional sentiment essay attached below:
this blog has been a nice place to stay, but i think it's time to leave this identity ive made for myself behind :(: i consider this a learning experience for me since i was new to tumblr and sucked at a lot of things. i don't like my writing on this blog and don't like being associated with it anymore. i'm no longer an incorrect quotes blog (and should have mentioned earlier that people should stop spam liking my incorrect posts because it drives me nUTS but i was too afraid to say anything aNYWAYS), only ogs will remember the disgusting blue and yellow theme that i had going (yeah, it was that bad).
there are countless things i want to say, like a super duper long appreciation post for the interactive readers :') you guys are the best (please dm me for my url i will literally give it to you in a heartbeat). also another super duper long appreciation post for my og moots who dipped last year/deactivated and my current moots, even if we barely talk and interact now :')
this has been a very interesting journey, and i'll appreciate this blog, but i won't miss it.
i don't know why i've been putting this off for a while (because i'm so scared for some stupid reason and it's not a big deal), but i'm going to be moving blogs and...rebranding, you could say.
because of my...rebranding, i will not be airing out the url of this new blog publicly. however, if you're a mootie or a reader (or if you're my tumblr idol (⁎⁍̴̆Ɛ⁍̴̆⁎)), feel free to dm or send an ask (with your anon off) for my url!! i might be the one dming you first hehehe
i'll be putting all of my work into a big archive list and i won't be deactivating this blog (even though i wanted to on multiple occasions) for memories.
long emotional sentiment essay attached below:
this blog has been a nice place to stay, but i think it's time to leave this identity ive made for myself behind :(: i consider this a learning experience for me since i was new to tumblr and sucked at a lot of things. i don't like my writing on this blog and don't like being associated with it anymore. i'm no longer an incorrect quotes blog (and should have mentioned earlier that people should stop spam liking my incorrect posts because it drives me nUTS but i was too afraid to say anything aNYWAYS), only ogs will remember the disgusting blue and yellow theme that i had going (yeah, it was that bad).
there are countless things i want to say, like a super duper long appreciation post for the interactive readers :') you guys are the best (please dm me for my url i will literally give it to you in a heartbeat). also another super duper long appreciation post for my og moots who dipped last year/deactivated and my current moots, even if we barely talk and interact now :')
this has been a very interesting journey, and i'll appreciate this blog, but i won't miss it.
i don't know why i've been putting this off for a while (because i'm so scared for some stupid reason and it's not a big deal), but i'm going to be moving blogs and...rebranding, you could say.
because of my...rebranding, i will not be airing out the url of this new blog publicly. however, if you're a mootie or a reader (or if you're my tumblr idol (⁎⁍̴̆Ɛ⁍̴̆⁎)), feel free to dm or send an ask (with your anon off) for my url!! i might be the one dming you first hehehe
i'll be putting all of my work into a big archive list and i won't be deactivating this blog (even though i wanted to on multiple occasions) for memories.
long emotional sentiment essay attached below:
this blog has been a nice place to stay, but i think it's time to leave this identity ive made for myself behind :(: i consider this a learning experience for me since i was new to tumblr and sucked at a lot of things. i don't like my writing on this blog and don't like being associated with it anymore. i'm no longer an incorrect quotes blog (and should have mentioned earlier that people should stop spam liking my incorrect posts because it drives me nUTS but i was too afraid to say anything aNYWAYS), only ogs will remember the disgusting blue and yellow theme that i had going (yeah, it was that bad).
there are countless things i want to say, like a super duper long appreciation post for the interactive readers :') you guys are the best (please dm me for my url i will literally give it to you in a heartbeat). also another super duper long appreciation post for my og moots who dipped last year/deactivated and my current moots, even if we barely talk and interact now :')
this has been a very interesting journey, and i'll appreciate this blog, but i won't miss it.
i don't know why i've been putting this off for a while (because i'm so scared for some stupid reason and it's not a big deal), but i'm going to be moving blogs and...rebranding, you could say.
because of my...rebranding, i will not be airing out the url of this new blog publicly. however, if you're a mootie or a reader (or if you're my tumblr idol (⁎⁍̴̆Ɛ⁍̴̆⁎)), feel free to dm or send an ask (with your anon off) for my url!! i might be the one dming you first hehehe
i'll be putting all of my work into a big archive list and i won't be deactivating this blog (even though i wanted to on multiple occasions) for memories.
long emotional sentiment essay attached below:
this blog has been a nice place to stay, but i think it's time to leave this identity ive made for myself behind :(: i consider this a learning experience for me since i was new to tumblr and sucked at a lot of things. i don't like my writing on this blog and don't like being associated with it anymore. i'm no longer an incorrect quotes blog (and should have mentioned earlier that people should stop spam liking my incorrect posts because it drives me nUTS but i was too afraid to say anything aNYWAYS), only ogs will remember the disgusting blue and yellow theme that i had going (yeah, it was that bad).
there are countless things i want to say, like a super duper long appreciation post for the interactive readers :') you guys are the best (please dm me for my url i will literally give it to you in a heartbeat). also another super duper long appreciation post for my og moots who dipped last year/deactivated and my current moots, even if we barely talk and interact now :')
this has been a very interesting journey, and i'll appreciate this blog, but i won't miss it.
okay .. but these chinese trainees were HEAVILY edited to make people believe their performances were awful, when in reality the performances really arent that bad at all? i see u mnet ..
i don't know why i've been putting this off for a while (because i'm so scared for some stupid reason and it's not a big deal), but i'm going to be moving blogs and...rebranding, you could say.
because of my...rebranding, i will not be airing out the url of this new blog publicly. however, if you're a mootie or a reader (or if you're my tumblr idol (⁎⁍̴̆Ɛ⁍̴̆⁎)), feel free to dm or send an ask (with your anon off) for my url!! i might be the one dming you first hehehe
i'll be putting all of my work into a big archive list and i won't be deactivating this blog (even though i wanted to on multiple occasions) for memories.
long emotional sentiment essay attached below (but i can't put a keep reading cut because i'm on mobile sobs):
this blog has been a nice place to stay, but i think it's time to leave this identity ive made for myself behind :(: i consider this a learning experience for me since i was new to tumblr and sucked at a lot of things. i don't like my writing on this blog and don't like being associated with it anymore. i'm no longer an incorrect quotes blog (and should have mentioned earlier that people should stop spam liking my incorrect posts because it drives me nUTS but i was too afraid to say anything aNYWAYS), only ogs will remember the disgusting blue and yellow theme that i had going (yeah, it was that bad).
there are countless things i want to say, like a super duper long appreciation post for the interactive readers :') you guys are the best (please dm me for my url i will literally give it to you in a heartbeat). also another super duper long appreciation post for my og moots who dipped last year/deactivated and my current moots, even if we barely talk and interact now :')
this has been a very interesting journey, and i'll appreciate this blog, but i won't miss it.
i keep getting tagged in a quiz about which enha member you would vibe with, and i'm too lazy to make a tag post so i'll just let everyone know that i got sunghoon. everyone pretend to be shocked.
pairing: soobin x gn!reader
genre: angst with a happy ending, enemies-to-lovers!au, soulmate(ish)!au, immortal(ish)!soobin
word count: 4152
event: #summerscape for @kpopscape
gfx credits: @enha-woodzies (best mom amiright)
author’s note: oh my gosh. this has been a while ride, to say the least. I'm sorry about the extremely overdue upload but ill make a post afterward to explain what happened T-T. I hated the old plot so I tried to change it last minute but I feel like it backfired. try to ignore that golden key part...it was for the previous plot but it was too late to pull this section out. regardless of all the bumps, thank you for the support on my first mini-series! it means the world.
warnings: death(ish), reincarnation
tag list: @spookybias @shamrockfish
<- part two
Soul Keeper
/səʊl/ /ˈkiːpə/
Noun
1 A human being that is selected by members of The Board to be turned immortal for a period of time. They are given a name list once every millennium and destined to look for the souls of human beings on that list. They have to store these souls and return them to The Board to be recycled. The cycle repeats until The Board decides that they no longer need to use a Soul Keeper and lets them out of the curse as a mortal in the free world.
“It's the riptide, the grain of a strong gale
One ridge of a rugged universe
Feet leave no prints
And vision is without sight
And yet when most I wink
Then do mine eyes best see the unknown
As we commit our bodies|
We become absorbed
Multiple dimensions wait for us
There might be a world
Where day and night coexist
Beside an ornamental flower
A tree stretches out its hideous branch
The perfectly square mirror reveals a twisted scene
In that dream, I face a completely different me
Thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay
And when we wake at this tunnel's end
“What vision awaits?”
━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━
Soobin was nervous. He played with the loose thread on his sweater as he watched you curiously make your way towards the golden light streaming from the ground underneath.
You turn to face him as you continue walking in reverse towards the light. “Why aren’t you coming?” He hesitantly trudges along the patchy grass when you beckon him with your hand.
It seemed different with you this time. He had done this procedure so many times, with countless people, but today just felt...wrong. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t pull through with the task, and could barely look you in the eye.
Or could he?
The both of you stand towering over a glowing patch of soil. You kneel eventually, observing it, thinking about what you should do.
“We should dig into it and see what’s under. I’m sure that this has something to do with the carousel.” Soobin states.
“What if something weird comes up...like, a monster.”
He laughs, the dimples accentuating his already flawless features. “You’re nuts for saying that.”
You mockingly pout and stare him down. “A whole carousel just sat itself down in the middle of a forest, Choi Soobin. I wouldn’t be surprised if mythical creatures existed here.”
Soobin contemplated his words but decided to say them anyway.
“What if I was a mythical creature?”
You tilt your head with a confused smile. “What do you mean?”
“Ah, whatever. Just get to digging the soil. I am confident that there won’t be any monsters. If there are, I’m always here.”
“There’s already a monster here.”
“Oh? Where?”
“The one standing opposite of me.”
“I should just leave you here to starve and die.”
“Hey!”
━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━
The both of you hadn’t talked about the steamy make-out session that left some unwarranted feelings in your frail heart, and you didn’t really want to. You knew that you had acted out on impulse and to be quite frank, you barely knew the boy. He didn’t really know you either, and you weren’t sure if you would become a summer fling or a long-time lover.
Either way, the relationship wouldn’t last. Eventually, you would have to go back to the city and Soobin would stay here with the rest of the boys. You couldn’t bear to experience the awkwardness and tension in the friend group if you were to expose your relationship. It would feel like you had ruined the dynamic.
The both of you sit in silence, quietly plowing at the soil with your bare hands. The bantering between you two had left the premise as soon as your lips touched.
You’re careful to not get dirt in the beds of your nails. Soobin, on the other hand, aggressively digs at the soil, as if he doesn’t have time to lose.
“Are we not going to talk about what happened just now?” You quietly inquire. It was worth a shot.
“What happened just now?” He didn’t meet you at the eye, instead opting to focus on his digging.
“Oh, come on. If you don’t want to talk about it we don’t have to. Don’t act like you didn’t know what happened.” You sigh. If he’s going to act like this, it wasn’t worth swooning for him anymore.
“Look.” He finally gazed up, his eyes gleaming with some sort of determination.”I wasn’t supposed to kiss you, okay. I was supposed to finish- this.” His hands flailed aimlessly, a mechanism to help him phrase his words. “I was supposed to finish this task, then I would leave.” He continued, voice lowering in fear.
“What are you talking about? Is this some sort of act? What task..? Oh my gosh, you’re not making any sense. Go back to being oblivious and playful.”
“At least we found a key.” He mumbled. He was right. In his large calloused palm sat a small golden key. Its omniscient glow is long gone, replaced with dull gold.
Soobin suddenly seemed to know a lot of things. He was a lot more knowledgeable in the span of 48 hours than when the both of you had first met. It irked you how he seemed to know something that you didn’t. You were afraid of what he could do with this knowledge, and whether he would use it against you. He had already (maybe unintentionally) broken your heart.
“Um,” Soobin stands up abruptly, legs almost giving way. “I know what to do with this, actually. I um- I saw it somewhere in Jongseong’s book...the carousel! Yeah, there’s a keyhole somewhere on the edge of the carousel. We just have to slot it in.”
You raise an eyebrow in suspicion. Your mind was only filled with burning questions and you were tempted to let them all out on Soobin, but you exercised your self-control and remained collected. It was weird that he hadn’t told you about this newfound information when he had first found it, however.
“Alright, we’ll find the keyhole together. What if something bad happens? I'm not taking responsibility. Also, since you seem to know so much...where are my friends?”
Soobin just continued to trudge on in front of you, quickly searching for the keyhole and stopping to insert it inside. He chose to leave you hanging with your question, his lack of a civil response catching you off guard.
“Hey, lovebug. Before we put this in, I just want to tell you that I’m sorry. Sorry for everything.”
You scoffed, a weird feeling growing inside of the pits of your stomach as you watched his mood shift once again. “Oh, come on! You literally did nothing to me, besides be a pest at the beginning of our relation- friendship. I was the one who held a grudge against you.”
He sighed, still fiddling with the key in his limber fingers, and turned to look at you. His sincere eyes bored holes into yours and you found yourself drifting away, and away, and away, and away…
“...yeah, just know that I love you. Don’t ever forget about me.”
Huh? The L-word? He just- you just- he just said the coveted word to you in the most casual way possible and you hadn't even tuned in to the conversation.
“I- I’m sorry. I didn’t hear everything. Your eyes...they’re very beautiful.” You stammered. You hadn’t realized that your rigid personality had been softened by the Soobin's company for the past three days.
Soobin gazed at the view in front of both of you. The sun was beginning to set and reality hit you like a dump truck when you realized that it had been 48 hours since Beomgyu when missing. Since everyone went missing.
Instead of the purple and pink hues that you had seen the day prior, the skies were slowly turning into shades of peach...or beige. There was a word for it for this color, you had seen it before, learned it before, somewhere in high school art probably.
Sarcoline.
The skies were sarcoline. A beautiful shade, you had to admit, but you remember being told that it was mainly the shade used for flesh. On some people, it would be darker, on others lighter, but you recall it being one of the most beautiful colors existing in mankind.
The fact that you were seeing it today for the first time plastered on the clouds was stunning. It was a worldly phenomenon that you had never seen happen in real life (or from the internet for that matter).
Soobin grabbed your wrist and shook you out of your dreamlike trance. “We don’t have time. If you didn’t listen to what I told you just now, just know that I genuinely love you, and I’m sorry. Sorry for being an A-hole, but mainly sorry for later.”
You could only open your mouth into an o-shape as you blinked at him in response like a broken doll. “You’re literally not making any sense right now-”
“Just listen, okay!” He lowered his voice ten-fold when he saw you curl up and flinch. “I’m sorry, but listen to me for the last time and don’t question.”
Your head was practically pounding from the stuff you wanted to know. Why are you apologizing? Why do I feel like you’re hiding a bunch of things from me? Why are you so scared?
However, you didn’t want to anger Soobin, and you didn’t want your rebellious actions to hinder whatever elaborate scheme he was planning to pull off.
“Alright. I think we still have around a minute.” Soobin placed his hands on your shoulders and flipped you to face him. You noted how his eyes were slightly watery and how his palms on your shoulders were shaking.
On instinct, you cup his face.”Hey, what’s wrong? You know you can tell me anything. We still have time, as you said.”
“Just repeat after me.” He sucked in a sharp breath, similar to the one he did when he first revealed the news of this horrifying carousel to you and your four friends.
“I, the only actual lover of Choi Soobin-”
“...what?”
“We don’t have time! Just do it.”
“I...the only actual lover of Choi Soobin…”
“Swear to remember him…”
“Why would I forget you?”
“Just do it!”
“...swear to remember him…”
“For the rest of my life…”
“...for the rest of my life…”
“Even if I’m not living.”
“...even if I’m not living... this is unnerving. Soobin, are you trying to kill me?” You genuinely asked, fear in your eyes. Maybe you had fallen in love with a psychopath. You had only seen that scenario happen in movies, but perhaps you were a potential victim of Stockholm Syndrome.
“No! I would never intentionally! Just, I have to do this, okay? It’s my job.”
Your voice wavered and you stepped away from him in fear. "Your job is to kill me?”
“Not exactly.” Your world seemed to stop moving. You felt like your feet were being plastered to the ground. Your eyesight blurred and the corners of your vision drew a grey haze. You felt like you were entranced, being controlled in some way.
You can’t even focus on anything anymore, but the last thing you hear is Soobin.
“I’m sorry I had to do this again, but you have to remember that I really do love you, and I’ll see you again.”
-
Soobin was an immortal. He had known it for almost all of his life, particularly when he turned 21 and stopped aging. He had watched members of his immediate family pass away from old age, then the descendants of his family members, then their children, and so on. He had questioned why he was destined for this life, to live like this as he watched the progressive world move on in front of him. He alone was trapped, with no one to talk to and nowhere to go. The only thing people said to him was: “It’s so amazing how you can maintain your youth for all these years!” Or, “You don’t look your age, young man.”
When he was supposed to turn ninety physically (but still looked like a Calvin Klein model), he received a letter in his rusty mailbox. He never checked his letterbox, there was no need to. He hadn’t made any friends in the fear that they wouldn’t understand him and leave him behind, so no one ever sent him pen pal letters or birthday wishes. That day, however, something in his heart told him to open the mailbox and see if any yellowed papers were waiting to be read, or if wrongly delivered mail had shown up.
He opened the red and rusty letterbox to be met with a single envelope. It was yellow like he had expected and had probably been sitting in the letterbox for a very long time. Expecting it to be spam mail or something a very, very, an old friend had sent him, he carefully opened the seal to be met with information that he did not want to hear.
He was told that he had been selected to be a Soul Keeper. Dumfounded and angered, he tore the letter into tiny little shreds and threw them across his garden patio. After hundreds of years, these shreds would eventually grow into sarcoline-colored daises, but Soobin never realized.
Soobin had been doing this odd job for almost three thousand years, he had lost count after the first thousandth one. Was his job tiring? Yes, extremely. He had been emotionally and physically drained with looking for people on his selected list and the process of learning how to become detached from them was exhausting. He never asked for this life, but fate had never been kind to him.
━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━
Circa 1948
A dimpled boy carefully weaves his way through the crowd of townspeople. His tweed shirt and brown beret blend in with the rest of the crowd, even though he was never one of the people here.
If anyone sitting on a balcony looked just a few feet down, they would see this boy looking for something, looking for someone. The boy’s eyes scanned deliriously over everyone else, his height giving him an advantage.
Ah! There, in the far right corner, he could see it. “Marie’s Patisserie and Cake”, was the large and faded billboard that could barely keep itself steady on the top of the small shop lot. It swayed in the wind and wobbled ever so slightly as if it would tumble down on a civilian in any minute. He quickly and skillfully swerved through the ocean of women and children until he stood right in front of the bakery.
From the entrance, he could see a few people looking at the food. Not too many, just the perfect time to sweep you out with the excuse that you’ll be back in a few minutes. You won’t be needed there anyway.
“Ah, Soobin! Come in, come in!” Mrs. Marie caught him staring and ushered him in with the wave of her arm. You looked up from the dough you were rolling and caught his eye, slowly beaming into a small smile.
“Hey,” he carefully made his way into the bakery. It was homely, a bit rugged, and musty, but the food here was god-like. A bite into any of Mrs. Marie’s goods and you would feel like you were walking on fluffy clouds. “Mrs. Marie...could I steal your little assistant for a bit? It won’t be long, I promise!”
He hated lying, but he was used to it.
“But this is their shift!”
You turned to Mrs. Marie and gave her a pout, followed by some disgusting puppy eyes. She always gave in whenever you did that.
Soobin watched as you used your sole persuading tactic on her and visibly saw her falter. Checking his watch to see that the both of you wouldn’t have much time together, he added:
“There aren’t that many people here right now. We’ll be fast, I promise.”
“Alright, alright! Go have fun. You children have to be careful though!” She sighed and waved you too off.
Excitedly, you removed your grubby uncleaned apron, leaving it next to your unfinished rolled dough. You grin at him and grabbed his hand as the two of you run out together.
“Where are we going?”
“I have something I want to show you.”
His long legs gave him the upper hand as he took large bunny sprints, eventually slowing down so you could catch up.
“Bin, you don’t have to rush. You know Mrs. Marie is going to forget about me in the span of five minutes anyway.” You added, confused at his ferocious and exhilarating spirit.
“Yeah but this is really important and I don’t think I have time. Just run like it’s your last race.” He looked back to see your hair swept up by the wind, your smile so wide that it would shatter his heart if he ever flipped it upside down.
Which was what he was going to do. He had to do something that he hated, again.
The two of you eventually halted to a slow jog but his grip on your hand never loosened. It felt like your hand was turning blue.
“Isn’t this...beautiful?” He looked down at you, panting but content.
In front of both of you was a miraculous sunset. Colors exploded all over the clouds, tainting their surface as if it was a canvas. The sun was barely afloat, much of its sphere now below the surface of view. Yet, it still shined just as bright, but not to the point where it damaged your eyes to look at it.
“Yeah, it is. I’ve never seen a sunset like this before. The colors are so beautiful...the shades...I am in awe.” You beamed and looked up at Soobin, giggling in the process.
He wrapped his arm around your shoulder and rubbed it comfortingly. “The color is called sarcoline. The shade you really like. It’s kind of similar to the color of skin, don’t you think?”
“I can see it, but that makes it sound kind of disgusting.”
“What? Flesh on clouds is disgusting?”
“Oh, come on, Bin! You can’t say that in front of a sunset as stunning as this one! Way to ruin the mood.” You pulled away from him and started jokingly hitting his shoulder.
“In all seriousness, I brought you here for another reason.”
"Oh?"
You secretly hoped it was because he wanted to confess to you. The both of you had been "seeing" each other for a few months now, your first encounter being at the patisserie. From that day onwards, there was never a label placed on your relationship. Occasionally he would do something scandalous like holding your hand or back hugging you in front of the townspeople, who would deem it as inappropriate, but you secretly liked it. You liked him.
“Okay,” he heaved in a long breath and exhaled as you watched with anticipation. “I want you to repeat after me.”
“Whatever you say, I’ll do.”
Oh, his frail heart. His eyes faltered and he opted to look at the very interesting piece of granule below his feet.
“I, the only actual lover of Choi Soobin-”
“I, the only actual lover of Choi Soobin.” You said with confidence, your eyes brightening when you heard him say so. “This is such a creative confession.”
He could only weakly smile when he continued. “...swear to remember him…”
“Yes, I’ll swear to remember you.”
“For the rest of my life.”
“For the rest of our lives.”
“Even if I’m not living.”
“...even if I’m not living.”
Soobin watched in awe as you recited the entire statement in confidence, and did it again, and again.
“Of course, Soobin! I’ll be yours!”
It was perfect timing. Rather, unfortunate that you had to go like this.
Suddenly, you felt your body tensing up. In fear, you instinctively grab onto Soobin’s shoulder, and your eyes falter. Through the silts of your vision, you see him waste no time in pushing your hand off, his eyes telling an unknown story.
“I’m sorry we had to go through this again.”
━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━
Circa 2050
Soobin barely manages to climb on the grandiose steps towards the fortieth floor with tense hands and wobbling steps. The booklet containing his resume barely manages to stay in the clasps of his arms and his face says: “I’m a rookie who doesn’t know how to handle job interviews.”
At the top of the flight of stairs are two large glass doors. Two security guards in white uniforms paired with similar colored gloves bow at him and push both doors open, leading to a Wolf of Wallstreet-Esque office that towered over the state of Seoul.
“Soobin! That's your name, isn't it? It’s great to hear that you managed to pass the first two steps of hiring, but now you’ll have to meet me. Don’t be nervous, I would just like to have a casual chat with each of my possible future employees.”
His heart stopped at that all-too-familiar voice, unable to muster the courage to lift his head up. The red fluffy carpet did look very interesting, the patterns, the swirls, it was probably handmade in a secluded place in Libya for all that he would know but obviously he-
“Soobin?”
“Huh? Oh-” Lost in a trance, he glanced up to immediately see your condescending smiling face. That familiar, condescending smiling face.
He looks down again, a million thoughts knocking on the door of his mind. His time as a Soul Keeper was over, the two of you weren’t supposed to meet again. He had been officially let off after finishing his last few tasks and had mentally prepared himself to never see you again.
However, he stands in front of you thirty years later. For once, both of you are on the same level, mere mortals just trying to find their way around the real world. He was turning 27 soon, he had finally started aging six years ago, but he was just as naive and young as any new job hunter, lacking experience and losing his one-up: his powers as an immortal, along with other things that came with being a Soul Keeper.
He had met you around four times throughout the course of his career. It wasn’t coincidental, that was for sure. You had been on his list exactly four times. No one else had been on his list twice. The world had seven billion people and he truly believed that it was fate that had brought the both of you together for the fifth time.
Now, you were finally achieving everything you wanted. The business, the corporation, the true success. You were finally able to live your life peacefully and age well, retiring and experiencing a full life that so many people took for granted.
You always had a similar personality throughout the course of every meeting: mean and cold on the outside, often judged and shunned for your personality, but hiding a genuinely kind and compassionate one on the inside. Perhaps it was your trauma of being Soul Kept so many times or the battles of life that always made you turn out the same way.
“Hey! Sorry, I was zoned out.” He disguised his shock and overwhelm of emotion with a simple statement, body in full acting mode (something that he was very used to doing).
You laughed out of courtesy and gestured him to sit down. Your smile had never changed, just as wide and sweet as all those millenniums ago, but never quite reaching your eyes.
“Let’s start with something that I’m sure everyone has asked you: Why do you want to work here?”
Soobin sighed, finally mustering up the courage to look you straight in the eyes. “If I’m going to be honest, I initially wanted to work here because it was the closest to my house, but now that I’ve met you, I want to stay...because of you.”
You widened your eyes, your hands tensing and your business stance breaking for just a moment.
Soobin continued, “Do you feel it?”
Silence ensues. It feels like a light-year until you respond softly.
“Feel what?”
“This.” He gestured at the space between the both of you.
“Yeah,” you embarrassedly say, “it’s too strong to ignore.”
A sharp inhale was followed by a palm lightly placed on your right cheek. “Our universe grants every soul a twin - a reflection of themselves. No matter where they are or how far away they are from each other, even if we- they- are in different dimensions, they will always find one another. This is destiny; this is love.”
pairing: soobin x gn!reader
genre: angst with a happy ending, enemies-to-lovers!au, soulmate(ish)!au, immortal(ish)!soobin
word count: 4152
event: #summerscape for @kpopscape
gfx credits: @enha-woodzies (best mom amiright)
author’s note: oh my gosh. this has been a while ride, to say the least. I'm sorry about the extremely overdue upload but ill make a post afterward to explain what happened T-T. I hated the old plot so I tried to change it last minute but I feel like it backfired. try to ignore that golden key part...it was for the previous plot but it was too late to pull this section out. regardless of all the bumps, thank you for the support on my first mini-series! it means the world.
warnings: death(ish), reincarnation
tag list: @spookybias @shamrockfish
<- part two
Soul Keeper
/səʊl/ /ˈkiːpə/
Noun
1 A human being that is selected by members of The Board to be turned immortal for a period of time. They are given a name list once every millennium and destined to look for the souls of human beings on that list. They have to store these souls and return them to The Board to be recycled. The cycle repeats until The Board decides that they no longer need to use a Soul Keeper and lets them out of the curse as a mortal in the free world.
“It's the riptide, the grain of a strong gale
One ridge of a rugged universe
Feet leave no prints
And vision is without sight
And yet when most I wink
Then do mine eyes best see the unknown
As we commit our bodies|
We become absorbed
Multiple dimensions wait for us
There might be a world
Where day and night coexist
Beside an ornamental flower
A tree stretches out its hideous branch
The perfectly square mirror reveals a twisted scene
In that dream, I face a completely different me
Thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay
And when we wake at this tunnel's end
“What vision awaits?”
━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━
Soobin was nervous. He played with the loose thread on his sweater as he watched you curiously make your way towards the golden light streaming from the ground underneath.
You turn to face him as you continue walking in reverse towards the light. “Why aren’t you coming?” He hesitantly trudges along the patchy grass when you beckon him with your hand.
It seemed different with you this time. He had done this procedure so many times, with countless people, but today just felt...wrong. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t pull through with the task, and could barely look you in the eye.
Or could he?
The both of you stand towering over a glowing patch of soil. You kneel eventually, observing it, thinking about what you should do.
“We should dig into it and see what’s under. I’m sure that this has something to do with the carousel.” Soobin states.
“What if something weird comes up...like, a monster.”
He laughs, the dimples accentuating his already flawless features. “You’re nuts for saying that.”
You mockingly pout and stare him down. “A whole carousel just sat itself down in the middle of a forest, Choi Soobin. I wouldn’t be surprised if mythical creatures existed here.”
Soobin contemplated his words but decided to say them anyway.
“What if I was a mythical creature?”
You tilt your head with a confused smile. “What do you mean?”
“Ah, whatever. Just get to digging the soil. I am confident that there won’t be any monsters. If there are, I’m always here.”
“There’s already a monster here.”
“Oh? Where?”
“The one standing opposite of me.”
“I should just leave you here to starve and die.”
“Hey!”
━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━
The both of you hadn’t talked about the steamy make-out session that left some unwarranted feelings in your frail heart, and you didn’t really want to. You knew that you had acted out on impulse and to be quite frank, you barely knew the boy. He didn’t really know you either, and you weren’t sure if you would become a summer fling or a long-time lover.
Either way, the relationship wouldn’t last. Eventually, you would have to go back to the city and Soobin would stay here with the rest of the boys. You couldn’t bear to experience the awkwardness and tension in the friend group if you were to expose your relationship. It would feel like you had ruined the dynamic.
The both of you sit in silence, quietly plowing at the soil with your bare hands. The bantering between you two had left the premise as soon as your lips touched.
You’re careful to not get dirt in the beds of your nails. Soobin, on the other hand, aggressively digs at the soil, as if he doesn’t have time to lose.
“Are we not going to talk about what happened just now?” You quietly inquire. It was worth a shot.
“What happened just now?” He didn’t meet you at the eye, instead opting to focus on his digging.
“Oh, come on. If you don’t want to talk about it we don’t have to. Don’t act like you didn’t know what happened.” You sigh. If he’s going to act like this, it wasn’t worth swooning for him anymore.
“Look.” He finally gazed up, his eyes gleaming with some sort of determination.”I wasn’t supposed to kiss you, okay. I was supposed to finish- this.” His hands flailed aimlessly, a mechanism to help him phrase his words. “I was supposed to finish this task, then I would leave.” He continued, voice lowering in fear.
“What are you talking about? Is this some sort of act? What task..? Oh my gosh, you’re not making any sense. Go back to being oblivious and playful.”
“At least we found a key.” He mumbled. He was right. In his large calloused palm sat a small golden key. Its omniscient glow is long gone, replaced with dull gold.
Soobin suddenly seemed to know a lot of things. He was a lot more knowledgeable in the span of 48 hours than when the both of you had first met. It irked you how he seemed to know something that you didn’t. You were afraid of what he could do with this knowledge, and whether he would use it against you. He had already (maybe unintentionally) broken your heart.
“Um,” Soobin stands up abruptly, legs almost giving way. “I know what to do with this, actually. I um- I saw it somewhere in Jongseong’s book...the carousel! Yeah, there’s a keyhole somewhere on the edge of the carousel. We just have to slot it in.”
You raise an eyebrow in suspicion. Your mind was only filled with burning questions and you were tempted to let them all out on Soobin, but you exercised your self-control and remained collected. It was weird that he hadn’t told you about this newfound information when he had first found it, however.
“Alright, we’ll find the keyhole together. What if something bad happens? I'm not taking responsibility. Also, since you seem to know so much...where are my friends?”
Soobin just continued to trudge on in front of you, quickly searching for the keyhole and stopping to insert it inside. He chose to leave you hanging with your question, his lack of a civil response catching you off guard.
“Hey, lovebug. Before we put this in, I just want to tell you that I’m sorry. Sorry for everything.”
You scoffed, a weird feeling growing inside of the pits of your stomach as you watched his mood shift once again. “Oh, come on! You literally did nothing to me, besides be a pest at the beginning of our relation- friendship. I was the one who held a grudge against you.”
He sighed, still fiddling with the key in his limber fingers, and turned to look at you. His sincere eyes bored holes into yours and you found yourself drifting away, and away, and away, and away…
“...yeah, just know that I love you. Don’t ever forget about me.”
Huh? The L-word? He just- you just- he just said the coveted word to you in the most casual way possible and you hadn't even tuned in to the conversation.
“I- I’m sorry. I didn’t hear everything. Your eyes...they’re very beautiful.” You stammered. You hadn’t realized that your rigid personality had been softened by the Soobin's company for the past three days.
Soobin gazed at the view in front of both of you. The sun was beginning to set and reality hit you like a dump truck when you realized that it had been 48 hours since Beomgyu when missing. Since everyone went missing.
Instead of the purple and pink hues that you had seen the day prior, the skies were slowly turning into shades of peach...or beige. There was a word for it for this color, you had seen it before, learned it before, somewhere in high school art probably.
Sarcoline.
The skies were sarcoline. A beautiful shade, you had to admit, but you remember being told that it was mainly the shade used for flesh. On some people, it would be darker, on others lighter, but you recall it being one of the most beautiful colors existing in mankind.
The fact that you were seeing it today for the first time plastered on the clouds was stunning. It was a worldly phenomenon that you had never seen happen in real life (or from the internet for that matter).
Soobin grabbed your wrist and shook you out of your dreamlike trance. “We don’t have time. If you didn’t listen to what I told you just now, just know that I genuinely love you, and I’m sorry. Sorry for being an A-hole, but mainly sorry for later.”
You could only open your mouth into an o-shape as you blinked at him in response like a broken doll. “You’re literally not making any sense right now-”
“Just listen, okay!” He lowered his voice ten-fold when he saw you curl up and flinch. “I’m sorry, but listen to me for the last time and don’t question.”
Your head was practically pounding from the stuff you wanted to know. Why are you apologizing? Why do I feel like you’re hiding a bunch of things from me? Why are you so scared?
However, you didn’t want to anger Soobin, and you didn’t want your rebellious actions to hinder whatever elaborate scheme he was planning to pull off.
“Alright. I think we still have around a minute.” Soobin placed his hands on your shoulders and flipped you to face him. You noted how his eyes were slightly watery and how his palms on your shoulders were shaking.
On instinct, you cup his face.”Hey, what’s wrong? You know you can tell me anything. We still have time, as you said.”
“Just repeat after me.” He sucked in a sharp breath, similar to the one he did when he first revealed the news of this horrifying carousel to you and your four friends.
“I, the only actual lover of Choi Soobin-”
“...what?”
“We don’t have time! Just do it.”
“I...the only actual lover of Choi Soobin…”
“Swear to remember him…”
“Why would I forget you?”
“Just do it!”
“...swear to remember him…”
“For the rest of my life…”
“...for the rest of my life…”
“Even if I’m not living.”
“...even if I’m not living... this is unnerving. Soobin, are you trying to kill me?” You genuinely asked, fear in your eyes. Maybe you had fallen in love with a psychopath. You had only seen that scenario happen in movies, but perhaps you were a potential victim of Stockholm Syndrome.
“No! I would never intentionally! Just, I have to do this, okay? It’s my job.”
Your voice wavered and you stepped away from him in fear. "Your job is to kill me?”
“Not exactly.” Your world seemed to stop moving. You felt like your feet were being plastered to the ground. Your eyesight blurred and the corners of your vision drew a grey haze. You felt like you were entranced, being controlled in some way.
You can’t even focus on anything anymore, but the last thing you hear is Soobin.
“I’m sorry I had to do this again, but you have to remember that I really do love you, and I’ll see you again.”
-
Soobin was an immortal. He had known it for almost all of his life, particularly when he turned 21 and stopped aging. He had watched members of his immediate family pass away from old age, then the descendants of his family members, then their children, and so on. He had questioned why he was destined for this life, to live like this as he watched the progressive world move on in front of him. He alone was trapped, with no one to talk to and nowhere to go. The only thing people said to him was: “It’s so amazing how you can maintain your youth for all these years!” Or, “You don’t look your age, young man.”
When he was supposed to turn ninety physically (but still looked like a Calvin Klein model), he received a letter in his rusty mailbox. He never checked his letterbox, there was no need to. He hadn’t made any friends in the fear that they wouldn’t understand him and leave him behind, so no one ever sent him pen pal letters or birthday wishes. That day, however, something in his heart told him to open the mailbox and see if any yellowed papers were waiting to be read, or if wrongly delivered mail had shown up.
He opened the red and rusty letterbox to be met with a single envelope. It was yellow like he had expected and had probably been sitting in the letterbox for a very long time. Expecting it to be spam mail or something a very, very, an old friend had sent him, he carefully opened the seal to be met with information that he did not want to hear.
He was told that he had been selected to be a Soul Keeper. Dumfounded and angered, he tore the letter into tiny little shreds and threw them across his garden patio. After hundreds of years, these shreds would eventually grow into sarcoline-colored daises, but Soobin never realized.
Soobin had been doing this odd job for almost three thousand years, he had lost count after the first thousandth one. Was his job tiring? Yes, extremely. He had been emotionally and physically drained with looking for people on his selected list and the process of learning how to become detached from them was exhausting. He never asked for this life, but fate had never been kind to him.
━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━
Circa 1948
A dimpled boy carefully weaves his way through the crowd of townspeople. His tweed shirt and brown beret blend in with the rest of the crowd, even though he was never one of the people here.
If anyone sitting on a balcony looked just a few feet down, they would see this boy looking for something, looking for someone. The boy’s eyes scanned deliriously over everyone else, his height giving him an advantage.
Ah! There, in the far right corner, he could see it. “Marie’s Patisserie and Cake”, was the large and faded billboard that could barely keep itself steady on the top of the small shop lot. It swayed in the wind and wobbled ever so slightly as if it would tumble down on a civilian in any minute. He quickly and skillfully swerved through the ocean of women and children until he stood right in front of the bakery.
From the entrance, he could see a few people looking at the food. Not too many, just the perfect time to sweep you out with the excuse that you’ll be back in a few minutes. You won’t be needed there anyway.
“Ah, Soobin! Come in, come in!” Mrs. Marie caught him staring and ushered him in with the wave of her arm. You looked up from the dough you were rolling and caught his eye, slowly beaming into a small smile.
“Hey,” he carefully made his way into the bakery. It was homely, a bit rugged, and musty, but the food here was god-like. A bite into any of Mrs. Marie’s goods and you would feel like you were walking on fluffy clouds. “Mrs. Marie...could I steal your little assistant for a bit? It won’t be long, I promise!”
He hated lying, but he was used to it.
“But this is their shift!”
You turned to Mrs. Marie and gave her a pout, followed by some disgusting puppy eyes. She always gave in whenever you did that.
Soobin watched as you used your sole persuading tactic on her and visibly saw her falter. Checking his watch to see that the both of you wouldn’t have much time together, he added:
“There aren’t that many people here right now. We’ll be fast, I promise.”
“Alright, alright! Go have fun. You children have to be careful though!” She sighed and waved you too off.
Excitedly, you removed your grubby uncleaned apron, leaving it next to your unfinished rolled dough. You grin at him and grabbed his hand as the two of you run out together.
“Where are we going?”
“I have something I want to show you.”
His long legs gave him the upper hand as he took large bunny sprints, eventually slowing down so you could catch up.
“Bin, you don’t have to rush. You know Mrs. Marie is going to forget about me in the span of five minutes anyway.” You added, confused at his ferocious and exhilarating spirit.
“Yeah but this is really important and I don’t think I have time. Just run like it’s your last race.” He looked back to see your hair swept up by the wind, your smile so wide that it would shatter his heart if he ever flipped it upside down.
Which was what he was going to do. He had to do something that he hated, again.
The two of you eventually halted to a slow jog but his grip on your hand never loosened. It felt like your hand was turning blue.
“Isn’t this...beautiful?” He looked down at you, panting but content.
In front of both of you was a miraculous sunset. Colors exploded all over the clouds, tainting their surface as if it was a canvas. The sun was barely afloat, much of its sphere now below the surface of view. Yet, it still shined just as bright, but not to the point where it damaged your eyes to look at it.
“Yeah, it is. I’ve never seen a sunset like this before. The colors are so beautiful...the shades...I am in awe.” You beamed and looked up at Soobin, giggling in the process.
He wrapped his arm around your shoulder and rubbed it comfortingly. “The color is called sarcoline. The shade you really like. It’s kind of similar to the color of skin, don’t you think?”
“I can see it, but that makes it sound kind of disgusting.”
“What? Flesh on clouds is disgusting?”
“Oh, come on, Bin! You can’t say that in front of a sunset as stunning as this one! Way to ruin the mood.” You pulled away from him and started jokingly hitting his shoulder.
“In all seriousness, I brought you here for another reason.”
"Oh?"
You secretly hoped it was because he wanted to confess to you. The both of you had been "seeing" each other for a few months now, your first encounter being at the patisserie. From that day onwards, there was never a label placed on your relationship. Occasionally he would do something scandalous like holding your hand or back hugging you in front of the townspeople, who would deem it as inappropriate, but you secretly liked it. You liked him.
“Okay,” he heaved in a long breath and exhaled as you watched with anticipation. “I want you to repeat after me.”
“Whatever you say, I’ll do.”
Oh, his frail heart. His eyes faltered and he opted to look at the very interesting piece of granule below his feet.
“I, the only actual lover of Choi Soobin-”
“I, the only actual lover of Choi Soobin.” You said with confidence, your eyes brightening when you heard him say so. “This is such a creative confession.”
He could only weakly smile when he continued. “...swear to remember him…”
“Yes, I’ll swear to remember you.”
“For the rest of my life.”
“For the rest of our lives.”
“Even if I’m not living.”
“...even if I’m not living.”
Soobin watched in awe as you recited the entire statement in confidence, and did it again, and again.
“Of course, Soobin! I’ll be yours!”
It was perfect timing. Rather, unfortunate that you had to go like this.
Suddenly, you felt your body tensing up. In fear, you instinctively grab onto Soobin’s shoulder, and your eyes falter. Through the silts of your vision, you see him waste no time in pushing your hand off, his eyes telling an unknown story.
“I’m sorry we had to go through this again.”
━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━
Circa 2050
Soobin barely manages to climb on the grandiose steps towards the fortieth floor with tense hands and wobbling steps. The booklet containing his resume barely manages to stay in the clasps of his arms and his face says: “I’m a rookie who doesn’t know how to handle job interviews.”
At the top of the flight of stairs are two large glass doors. Two security guards in white uniforms paired with similar colored gloves bow at him and push both doors open, leading to a Wolf of Wallstreet-Esque office that towered over the state of Seoul.
“Soobin! That's your name, isn't it? It’s great to hear that you managed to pass the first two steps of hiring, but now you’ll have to meet me. Don’t be nervous, I would just like to have a casual chat with each of my possible future employees.”
His heart stopped at that all-too-familiar voice, unable to muster the courage to lift his head up. The red fluffy carpet did look very interesting, the patterns, the swirls, it was probably handmade in a secluded place in Libya for all that he would know but obviously he-
“Soobin?”
“Huh? Oh-” Lost in a trance, he glanced up to immediately see your condescending smiling face. That familiar, condescending smiling face.
He looks down again, a million thoughts knocking on the door of his mind. His time as a Soul Keeper was over, the two of you weren’t supposed to meet again. He had been officially let off after finishing his last few tasks and had mentally prepared himself to never see you again.
However, he stands in front of you thirty years later. For once, both of you are on the same level, mere mortals just trying to find their way around the real world. He was turning 27 soon, he had finally started aging six years ago, but he was just as naive and young as any new job hunter, lacking experience and losing his one-up: his powers as an immortal, along with other things that came with being a Soul Keeper.
He had met you around four times throughout the course of his career. It wasn’t coincidental, that was for sure. You had been on his list exactly four times. No one else had been on his list twice. The world had seven billion people and he truly believed that it was fate that had brought the both of you together for the fifth time.
Now, you were finally achieving everything you wanted. The business, the corporation, the true success. You were finally able to live your life peacefully and age well, retiring and experiencing a full life that so many people took for granted.
You always had a similar personality throughout the course of every meeting: mean and cold on the outside, often judged and shunned for your personality, but hiding a genuinely kind and compassionate one on the inside. Perhaps it was your trauma of being Soul Kept so many times or the battles of life that always made you turn out the same way.
“Hey! Sorry, I was zoned out.” He disguised his shock and overwhelm of emotion with a simple statement, body in full acting mode (something that he was very used to doing).
You laughed out of courtesy and gestured him to sit down. Your smile had never changed, just as wide and sweet as all those millenniums ago, but never quite reaching your eyes.
“Let’s start with something that I’m sure everyone has asked you: Why do you want to work here?”
Soobin sighed, finally mustering up the courage to look you straight in the eyes. “If I’m going to be honest, I initially wanted to work here because it was the closest to my house, but now that I’ve met you, I want to stay...because of you.”
You widened your eyes, your hands tensing and your business stance breaking for just a moment.
Soobin continued, “Do you feel it?”
Silence ensues. It feels like a light-year until you respond softly.
“Feel what?”
“This.” He gestured at the space between the both of you.
“Yeah,” you embarrassedly say, “it’s too strong to ignore.”
A sharp inhale was followed by a palm lightly placed on your right cheek. “Our universe grants every soul a twin - a reflection of themselves. No matter where they are or how far away they are from each other, even if we- they- are in different dimensions, they will always find one another. This is destiny; this is love.”
please stop putting kpop before your morals, it's literally music and people who don't even know you exist and the blind devotion to them is unsettling.
i literally cannot believe literal children are saying racial slurs to people they don't even know online, when did the community become so disgusting? kpop is genuinely not that deep please stop defending idols who have obviously done or said wrong things.
holding accountable ≠ canceling them
kpop community is so racist and disgusting, please do better. please protect your fellow fans, we're in this together and we need to stand up for what's right. stand up for your poc fans first, not for your idols. please just stop putting kpop above your morals i'm literally begging you to be a decent human being it shouldn't be this hard
hello, guys! we've decided to make an official post for this ever-growing family to keep track of the members and for those who wish to join. and also because we're old enough to forget easily djksjsdk this post will update if there are new additions!
disclaimer: this is just for fun and by no means intended to exclude or insult anyone.
feel free to message us if you wanna be a part of this lowkey fam ✌🏻
hi! i would like to recommend the sarcoline summer by fluffi for the summer theme! i hope that's all right :)
♡ thanks for the rec for our weekly theme !! the fic is now in the reblog queue. stay tuned for the compiled masterlist of fic recs at the end of the week!
So sorry, this isn’t a cover with the instrumentals, but yeah, here it is /3 also, remind me to buy a pop filter because my breaths are so loud lol. this song requires l u n g s. excuse the pronounciation, not me best /3
