Post Season 3 AU where, years after his final round as Front Man, Inho hears from an old contact.
The games are being held in South Korea once more, they tell him. The VIPs just can't seem to stay away.
But there's an issue. Their recruitment numbers are low. Players aren't joining up at the same rate that they used to - not even calling the number on the card - and the VIPs aren't happy.
Inho has nothing to do with the Games anymore. But he's intrigued. With the world in disarray, people should be joining. They should be desperate for more money than they can dream of. His old role of Front Man still seems to have a hold on him, because he goes to investigate.
He knows all the Recruiters' old haunting spots, and almost immediately happens upon a recruitment attempt in a cold corner of Ssangmun station.
He doesn't know why he picked that subway station in particular (except that he does. Of course he does) but he's glad he doesn't have to search long. From across the rails, he watches the Recruiter slap a young man around for close to fifteen minutes before finally handing over a very familiar card.
The Recruiter leaves. The young man studies the card, frowning, and and Inho studies him, waiting.
And then a train arrives. Inho curses his luck and tries to catch sight of the young man through the windows and rushing crowd.
He sees him, standing in the same spot, but the young man's not alone. He's speaking to someone.
A man with an umbrella. The umbrella's closed and held carelessly just over his shoulder, positioned in such a way that Inho can't see the stranger's face. But he sees the man's hair - waves of it, a mass of brown fluff that's painfully ridiculous and achingly familiar - and just the corner of one eye, crinkled in a smile as the the stranger holds his hand out to the young man.
With a frown, the young man hands the card over, hesitant. The man with the umbrella slips it into a breast pocket, quick and efficient, then pats the young man's shoulder, leaning close and saying something Inho can't possibly hear in the din of the station.
And then, with one last pat, the stranger sends the young man on his way.
The young man leaves the station with a look on his face that says he doesn't know why he's walking away from the chance of a lifetime. Like he doesn't understand how someone convinced him to turn his back on the Recruiter's promise. But still. He leaves.
Then the man with the umbrella turns, and almost immediately meets Inho's eyes. He smiles. Waves.
Inho is rooted to the spot. He doesn't think he's breathing. The world seems to tilt around him.
Of course, at that moment, the train leaves. Inho continues to stare, as if he can see right through the metal and glass and silent passengers at the man across the station. When the train is finally gone, the platform is nearly empty.
The man with the umbrella has disappeared.
But Inho knows, somehow, he'd just seen Seong Gihun standing across from him, smiling and waving and holding Inho's gaze like no one else ever has.
A dead man. Or a dream.
Either way, Inho thinks, after all these years of wandering in grief and regret, alone and aimless, Inho finally has a goal - an old friend - to track down.
To ban the celebrity future spouse questions. People even go too deep into it. There's not even a person present. But numerous readings are done on their appearance, personality, fears, strength,weakness, trauma, love language, etc etc etc. And there's no need to be curious about any of that. And also no you are not gonna get a reading that confirms that it's you. Cuz every reading speaks about you then.
There might not be one happy ever after reading. Maybe there will be multiple marriages. Don't get disappointed.
I respect your opinion but I'm afraid the first part isn't exactly what my post will be about; I'm mostly looking to give a guide on how to navigate fs readings so I was wondering if people had confusion or questions regarding fs readings. Your second point is kinda relevant, I did mention something similar here so I guess I'll include what I said in that post.
I'm not going to address the possibility of multiple marriages or no happy ending tho
It gives people an unnecessary sense of doom. It's pointless to talk about breaking up when nothing has even started yet. We don't go into a relationship with the idea that the relationship will be doomed; because your actions will match your belief without you realizing it, you are basically doing self-fulfilling prophecy on yourself and ruining your own relationship. It's called self-sabotage.
The concept of fate is also arguable. Are people destined to marry many times (was it decided for them the moment they were born) or do people's actions lead to that situation? It cannot be proven that everything in life is already pre-determined. But do you know what's proven? Cause-and-effect.
Cause-and-effect
Every action has an effect, every one of them, whether you realize it or not. The effect will be felt whether by the same person and/or someone else. It will be felt right away or sometime in the future. The person who feels the effect can choose how to respond; how many choices and how much control they have over their response depend on their situation (eg. poor people may have fewer choices than rich people). But when they act-- whether it's willingly or forced, their action will have an effect. The cycle will repeat. Everyone gets a set of circumstances that is a combination of fate/luck (eg. genetic) and cause and effect (eg. people's actions).
If you want to believe in spirituality, sure, the Universe might put some things/people on your path but how you respond to those things is on you. I might have been born with a high susceptibility to anxiety genetically, we can say that this is purely fate and pretty unfair; but people's actions toward me and my choices influence how that anxiety will manifest and how it will impact my life. People were shit to me (cause) which made my anxiety worse (effect). I forced myself to work on my anxiety over and over (cause), which made it better (effect), which allowed me to pursue some opportunities and meet more people (effect), which led me to becoming who I am (effect). Was I meant to be the person I am like it was a work of fate, or did my actions lead me to becoming who I am?
People can argue that we are 'destined' to meet some souls in this life,
But I would say what you do with those people are all on you and them; whether you guys want to marry, be friends, be distant friends, be in no contact etc. To believe that things are fixed, or you are destined to have multiple marriages take away accountability from people and minimize the influence of cause-and-effect. Marriage and divorce don't just suddenly happen. There are things that lead to a lot of things in this world, and some of those things are within people's control. We are not powerless puppets, our actions can increase/decrease the likelihood of success and its influence on our lives, as showed through cause-and-effect.
Let's say Person A cheats (effect) because they do not work on their issues (cause). Their partner, Person B chooses to leave (cause) and learns from their experience (effect), they now able to recognize a good partner for them (effect) which influences their attraction to Person C (effect), they get into a relationship and they get married (effect). Is this fate? Or did a series of actions taken by Person A and Person B influence this? What if Person B chose to stay for whatever reason? Do you think Person B will recognize that Person C is better for them when they meet Person C? If Person B didn't recognize that Person C was better for them which led them to not get married, is this fate? Which part is fate? Which part is people's actions? None? Both?
I'm not going to hype people up into thinking their marriage will be all sunshine and rainbows
The same way I'm not going to encourage people to approach their future relationship with the belief that it will end with a divorce or a breakup as if it's an unavoidable fate independent of the influence of their actions. I'm realistic, not pessimistic. Knowing possible problems in a marriage is productive, because it can help us fix the problems before or the moment they happen, its purpose is to increase the likelihood of success. But it's not my job to tell people whether their marriage will end or not (especially when it hasn't even started, especially when we don't even know how much is fate and how much is due to people's actions), it's their and their partner's responsibility to make sure it doesn't end or end badly.
If people want to argue that "spouse can die and death is not within our control so it means it's fated for some people to have multiple marriages", my reply would still be that it's pointless to know at this time. Focus on one thing at a time; after they die only then you start thinking about second marriage. Even then, to marry again or not is still up to you, the Universe may put another 'soulmate' on your path but it will not force you to start a romantic relationship with that person or cage you inside a church to get married. The first marriage hasn't even started yet, imo there's no need to start thinking about multiple marriages as if it's entirely predetermined and as if it cannot be influenced by our own actions.
