A girl with her long, dark hair tied in a high ponytail was standing in front of the Great Temple of Aphrodite dressed in her Sunday best—a long, white gown fashioned like a toga with a golden beaded belt just below her bust. On her feet she had a pair of silver sandals with wings sticking out from the back of each of them. They were Hermes sandals and had cost her an arm and a leg to purchase off the black market. Extremely rare. All in all this wasn't an outfit that she liked to flaunt very often because it was difficult to move around in and didn't rank particularly highly in specifications, but this was a special occasion and it seemed appropriate.

Today was the day that Gemma was to be married.

Standing beside her was a man wearing a black-and-red samurai outfit, his silver katana blade hanging brazenly at his waist. Usually he liked wearing an outlandish dragon helmet on top of his ash brown hair, but he had done away with it today. Headgear was not welcome at the Great Temple of Aphrodite because the goddess thought of it as an affront to her.

"Ready?" he asked.

Gemma nodded. Taking his hand, they slowly walked up the massive stone steps of the temple, entering into its hallowed halls. On both sides, oil lamps burnt brightly in their bronze vessels, showering the massive hall with a warm glow.

"Lovers," a tinkling voice echoed around them, "welcome to the Great Temple of Aphrodite." It belonged to the beautiful lady who was reclining on her velvet chaise at the front of the hall. Beside her, one servant was wielding a large fan made from white peacock feathers, while another was feeding her grapes. As they approached, she stood up from her perch and smiled at them with those luscious red lips.

Slut.

Gemma never liked Aphrodite. The bitch was always trying to lure men to her side with her winsome smile and unrealistic figure. Did she really need to wear so little? The tiny piece of cloth she had on was barely enough to cover the essentials. Gemma glanced down at her own assets. Even after augmentation, they were fairly modest compared to Aphrodite's Fuji apples. At least Ryu didn't seem enamoured by the vixen. The same couldn't be said about the dude standing behind them—and his female companion looked less than impressed with his salivating.

They were no longer alone in the temple hall. Several other couples had popped up around them, all of whom were now looking at the huge clock face hanging on the wall behind the goddess. The countdown timer had begun. Thirty seconds to go.

"Marriage is sacred, and should you wish to gain the blessings of the gods you will have to prove your sincerity. It will not be an easy task, so should anyone wish to withdraw, I would be most delighted to... entertain you."

Gemma swore she caught Aphrodite giving her a taunting look as she spoke, and she scowled.

Get on with it, bitch.

She snuck a glance at Ryu—he was still stiff as a rock, unwavering in the face of Aphrodite's temptations. Already several other couples had dropped out, choosing to take up the goddess's offer instead. Opting to forge ahead was a big gamble because there could be much to lose if they failed, so it wasn't surprising that others chose the easier path. Marriage wasn't for everyone.

With five seconds left on the clock, Gemma tilted her right foot so she was balancing on the tips of her toes. The tiny wings attached to her shoes fluttered with excitement.

"Ready?" she asked.

Ryu's grip tightened around the black hilt of his katana.

"The time has come. May love prevail. The heart is the key." Aphrodite raised her hands into the air, and in the next second the surroundings went dark.

#

"Yes! Finally!"

Gemma removed her thick, black headphones from her ears and stretched out her arms, stifling a yawn. It was already five in the morning—didn't seem to make much sense to go back to bed now. 

The surroundings were still bathed in darkness. Her roommate Rowan couldn't sleep with the light on, so she had to resort to doing her stuff in the dark. 

The only light in the room was coming from her laptop screen, which was now showing her the array of prizes she had won from Aphrodite's quest. There was a sabre with a ruby hilt, a new set of chainmail with higher defence specs than her current one, a load of precious stones that could be used in the welding of improved weaponry—and last but definitely not least, the limited edition Lovers' cuffs that provided the wearer with an incredible speed and agility boost, while looking spiffy to boot. The only way to get those exclusive cuffs was by defeating Aphrodite in her quest over a two week period, and so far only one other pair had achieved the same feat.

Marriage. Piece of cake. Take that, bitch.

With a couple of clicks of her mouse she had stored all her loot in her inventory. Succeeding in that quest had earned her quite a lot of experience points too—she was now a hefty Level 68 and ranked in the top five in her League of Gods guild. Top spot was still elusive, but no matter, she would get there one day.

"What time is it?" Rowan's sleepy voice mumbled from under the covers. She fumbled for her phone. "Five? Shit. Go to sleep, Gem. Stop playing that stupid game."

"That stupid game is called League of Gods. And it's not stupid."

Yawning again, Gemma typed a couple of sentences into the game's chat engine.

<Stargem: Good game! I can't believe you just sliced her into two with your katana. That was epic. In a good way.>

She drummed her fingers against her desk, waiting for a reply. Seconds later, the chat window blinked. Gemma leaned forward to read the response that had come through.

<Dragonryu: I got lucky.>

<Stargem: No need to be modest. We all know that you were the one who sealed the win. Who would have thought the challenge gem was hidden inside Aphrodite herself? The game makers must have been taking the piss.>

<Dragonryu: They did give a hint. The heart is the key.>

<Stargem: Right. Bet you were the only one who noticed that. Everyone else was just too busy staring at her massive boobs. The challenge chat room was just filled with lewd comments.>

If there was one peeve she had with the game it was that they liked to dress female characters in unnecessarily sexy clothes. She knew it had a whole lot to do with appealing to the main target market—horny males—but there were still a number of female gamers out there, like her. It was almost impossible to go into the game store and buy clothes that didn't bare too much flesh. It was either you had to expose half your boobs, your midriff or most of your legs. Or perhaps all three.

<Dragonryu: That I didn't notice. Surely in a marriage challenge, monogamy is a basic requirement. Ogling at another woman's assets in front of your wife hardly seems like the best way to win at marriage.>

Gemma laughed. That was Ryu for you. Sometimes she wondered what sort of a guy sat behind that samurai avatar. Dragonryu was the top player in the local guild and had been occupying that position for almost three months now. It was a guild record. They first met while battling rampaging Titans in the June special event—Ryu made a name for himself by singlehandedly cutting down two of the five Titans while the rest of the team struggled with the remaining three. That was almost two years ago and back then Gemma had only been a novice in the game. Several hundreds of battles and challenges later, Dragonryu and Stargem were one of the most formidable tag teams on the multi-player RPG platform.

<Dragonryu: I'm logging off. Got to bust out someone else's homework before sunrise. Seeya.>

<Stargem: Catch you later.>

Gemma logged out of the game as well, heading to the bathroom to wash her face. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, running her fingers through her tangled hair. It looked like a bird's nest as usual. 

They said that people liked indulging in role-playing games because they could live vicariously through their avatars, becoming a completely different person from who they were in real life. For Gemma, that much was true. Her avatar—the butt-kicking, crossbow-shooting Stargem—had long, silky hair, violet eyes and a tall, hourglass figure. The real Gemma Yang—twenty year-old second year student at the Faculty of Computing—had a dark pixie bob, thick, black-rimmed spectacles and hadn't grown an inch since she was fifteen. She lifted up the front of her shirt and squeezed the rim of fat at her waist. 

It seemed to have expanded a little since the last she checked.

#

"You know, maybe if you spent a little less time on that stupid game and more time actually being sociable, you might actually be able to get a date."

Gemma and Rowan were sitting in the lecture theatre listening to their silver-haired professor drone on about Python codes. Other than Professor Tanuj's deep, monotonous voice, the only other sound that could be heard was the frantic typing coming from the keyboards of every other student in the hall. Almost everyone had their laptops open in front of them—even Rowan, although she wasn't actually taking any notes. Gemma had a notebook on the table and a traditional wooden pencil in her right hand, with another stuck behind her ear. Biting on the end of her pencil, she tried to summarise what the professor was trying to get at in her mind, then quickly scribbled it down onto the paper.

"League of Gods is not a stupid game. It's a way of life."

The retort came from the bespectacled boy sitting on Gemma's left, who was now glaring at Rowan indignantly. This was Moon Hanbin, the boy from Busan and also one of Gemma's best friends. He always wore grey T-shirts and only owned one pair of jeans, which he wore to lectures every single bloody day. 

Rowan and Hanbin had a rather bizarre co-existence. They hated each other most of the time, yet they still hung out together anyway. There were times when Gemma thought they were a little masochistic because they seemed to enjoy tormenting each other.

"It's stupid because she could use the time much more fruitfully than talking to geeks like yourself through that game!"

"To do what? Talk to geeks like me in real life?"

"Mr Moon, Miss Yang and Miss Lee, is there something you want to share with the class?" Professor Tanuj's voice boomed in their direction. All eyes in the lecture theatre suddenly swung their way.

Gemma threw her hands up into the air and shook her head. It wasn't even her in the first place!

Professor Tanuj frowned, then turned his attention back to his slides.

"It's your fault," Hanbin snapped, pointing at accusatory finger at Rowan.

"Just shut up guys."

"Seriously, I'm talking about important things here." Rowan folded her arms and sank back in her seat, pouting. "It's already nearing the end of our second year at university and you're still single. How is that possible? I mean, just look around you!"

In the Faculty of Computing there was a 1:20 ratio of females to males—some stereotypes were true. The concentration of testosterone in this lecture theatre was probably the highest in the entire campus, but Gemma had not been romantically involved with anyone since she first stepped foot in here. Rowan on the other hand had already cycled through five boys over two years and was now on a self-declared hiatus. The last guy she dated and dumped was still giving her lovelorn looks from across the lecture theatre.

"If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. If it's not, then there's no point fretting about it. It's all up to destiny," Gemma replied.

Rowan rolled her eyes. "Enough with the destiny mumbo-jumbo. Do you honestly believe those stories about the red strings of fate? It's just an old legend! It's about as real as the Monkey King and Pigsy."

"Blasphemy. The Monkey King is real," Hanbin interrupted.

"Look," Rowan leaned over and took hold of Gemma's pencil, "the red string doesn't exist. And if it does, you control who you want to tie it to. Don't tell me there's not a single person in this entire room that catches your eye? He doesn't even have to be in our year. What about the senior students? There are some hotshots there. Like Hayden Chung?"

Gemma gulped.

"Hayden Chung is gay," Hanbin interrupted again.

"No he's not."

"He wears branded clothes, has hair that's nicer than yours, plays for the frisbee team and spends all his free time in the gym. That's all the tell-tale signs."

"You're just jealous because he's smarter than you, more handsome than you and far more popular with girls than you. Besides, he's dated girls before."

Gemma had to agree with Rowan on this one, and it had nothing to do with the fact that she had had a crush on Hayden since she was thirteen and he was that dashing senior from the year above. But she was a pragmatic person and she knew there were some things, or people, that were strictly out of bounds for someone like her. 

Hayden was one of the rare specimens in the faculty that broke all sorts of stereotypes about what a computing student should be like. That was why the other boys in the faculty (like Hanbin) hated him to the core yet also secretly wanted to be just like him. Ninety-nine percent of the people in this room probably had avatars on League of Gods—Hayden Chung was part of the one percent who didn't need one because he already had everything going for him in real life.

"That's just a ruse to cover up the skeletons in the closet," Hanbin insisted.

"Mr Moon, this is the second time you are interrupting my lecture. I think—"

The bell rang before Professor Tanuj could finish what he wanted to say, and the next moment the commotion caused by students packing their bags and filing out of the lecture hall saved Hanbin's ass. The trio quickly shoved their things into their bags and hurried out before their irate professor could catch hold of them.

"I know you're interested in him. Don't even try to lie about it." Rowan wasn't about to let the topic slide, even as they squeezed their way down the corridor towards their tutorial room. "As far as I know he's single now, so you should just give it a shot! What's there to lose?"

"Uhh, everything?" Hanbin answered on her behalf. "If he rejects you then you'll become the laughing stock of the entire faculty—no, make that entire campus, because Hayden Chung is on the top ten list of eligible bachelors in the university."

"Guys, enough. Don't you have anything better to do than worry about my love life?" Gemma sighed in exasperation. She clutched at her books and hurried into the tutorial room, sliding into an empty seat. "I'm perfectly fine with the status quo, so can we just leave it at that?"

If it was meant to be, then fate would lead her to her soulmate one day. There was no point in rushing it. She glanced down at her bare wrist, stroking it with her index finger. Was there really an invisible red string tied there, connecting her with that one significant other she would meet later on in life?

#

Perched on top of one of the bookshelves at the back of tutorial room T-02-01 was a small, skinny figure wearing a striking red suit—red shirt, red tie, red jacket, red trousers—juggling a ball of red thread in his hands. 

Jun hated the colour red but he didn't have much of a say in the uniform. It didn't help that it was one size too big for him and he was practically swimming in it. He had followed the three friends over from the lecture theatre, where he had almost fallen asleep because of the lullaby from the dull lecturer. Clutching the ball of thread in one hand, he fished into his jacket pocket with the other, taking out a small white card that had two names and profiles written on it—one on the front and one on the back.

"Gemma Yang," he read out loud. He flipped the card around. "And Hayden Chung."

It seemed easy enough.

Jun was a faerie and a novice working under the God of Marriage, and this was his very first independent assignment. During training, he had heard plenty of horror stories from some of the senior faeries about how the two people they had been assigned to were located on opposite ends of the globe—that would have been hell. Luckily for him, Gemma Yang and Hayden Chung were students at the same university and same faculty one year apart. It was going to be a breeze. If he did well enough on his first few assignments, he might even have a good chance of a promotion.

He took a quick scan around the room, smiling when he saw the number of red strings looping all around, tangling in dozens of big and small knots, crawling along the walls and floor and heading out through the open windows and doors. 

Lucky people, he thought, to have their soulmates decided so early on. 

Of course, there were still a fair share of those in the room who had no signs of a red thread wound around their wrists, including the fifty-five-year-old data analytics professor who had just walked in. Some of them would likely go their entire lives without ever having one. 

He had once tried asking his boss about how people's fates were determined—why did some of them meet their soulmates right from the start, whereas others were destined never to find one? All he received in response was a sly grin and a patronising pat on the head. "Heaven's secrets cannot be revealed, kid," was what he was told.

Jun peered down at the bookish girl with the pencil behind her ear, who was now flipping through her file to pull out her work while her two friends continued bickering across her. Gemma Yang—never had a boyfriend, never held a boy's hand, never kissed a boy. He glanced down at the card in his hand again.

"Well it looks like that's all going to change, Miss Yang."

Hopping off the shelf, Jun skipped his way down the aisle of desks, taking care not to trip over any of the messy threads criss-crossing around the room. He stood in front of Gemma's table for a moment, studying the face of his very first client.

"You should listen to your friend," he said, jerking a thumb towards Rowan, "because she knows what she's talking about. Anyhow," he took the loose end of his ball of red thread and deftly looped it around Gemma's wrist, "nothing to worry about because your saviour, yours truly, is here to give you a hand." He tied the string tightly with a dead knot, a broad, cheesy smile spreading across his face. "Now, off to find the love of your life."

The enthused faerie pranced down the corridors of the faculty building, hunting around for the person he was looking for. 

Hayden Chung—final year student and all-around stud of the Faculty of Computing. 

The problem with the card that Jun had on hand was that it didn't provide photographic ID. The gods were sometimes unreasonably insistent about not keeping up with the times, hence the low-tech, handwritten assignment cards. That meant that he had to rely on his skills of deduction to find the people in question. It had taken him close to three days of lurking around to locate Gemma and he hoped it would be much easier to find someone as popular as Hayden. And sure enough, he had barely searched for half an hour when Lady Luck dropped the prize right under his nose.

"Hayden, that was not what we agreed on. You said it would just be the software algorithms assignment."

"Yes yes, but that was before Tanuj assigned one for Python too! I've got a frisbee match tomorrow. I just haven't got the time to faff around with all this. I'll pay you double."

"It's not about the money. I'm also swamped with my final year project. I don't know if I'll have the time—"

"Just help me out here. It won't take you that long anyway. You're like the god of computers."

"I think that's your nickname."

"Doesn't matter. Anyway I'll take it that we're good? I need it by next Wednesday, so take your time."

Jun immediately swooped in the moment his sharp ears heard the faintest hint of the name "Hayden" being mentioned and a couple of minutes later found his target sitting alone in a dark corner of the library. The boy had a lean build and an angular face, with a floppy fringe that covered his eyes when he bent forward to read the assignment sheets lying in front of him. 

Handsome, but a little tacky, thought Jun. 

The casual black Final Fantasy T-shirt and worn out jeans didn't exactly fit the stereotype of a campus heartthrob. Jun strolled over and peered across the boy's shoulder to take a look at what it was that was making his thick, straight brows knit together in a frown.

A series of code that made no sense to Jun whatsoever. Faeries didn't need to use computers, so what use was there for code?

"Seems a little lonely. But don't you fret about a thing because the amazing Jun is here to the rescue!"

Checking his assignment card once more, Jun quickly verified that the name on the card matched the name that had been scribbled on top of all the sheets of paper littered across the desk. Hayden Chung. This was him.

Taking the other end of the red string, Jun hummed a cheery tune as he tied it around the boy's wrist, watching gleefully as the string sealed itself in place. Now, the two people at the two ends of the string were connected by an invisible bond that would one day lead them to each other. This was the magic of destiny—and he, Jun, had just played a part in bringing joy and happiness into the lives of two people. A sense of pride immediately welled up inside him as he admired his own handiwork.

Well that wasn't hard at all!

Now all he had to do was report back to headquarters and drop his assignment card off, then he could collect his next assignment and lead another couple towards marital bliss.

Jun stuck around for a bit, then he followed Hayden out of the library when the latter hurriedly shoved all his things into his rucksack and dashed out. Stopping at the top of the stairs leading out from the library block, Jun waved goodbye to his first client, even though the boy would never be able to know of his existence nor the role he had played in shaping the fellow's destiny. The red string that he had just tied shimmered playfully under the sunlight, connecting all the way to an unsuspecting girl sitting in her tutorial class.

"May you find each other soon and live happily ever—"

The piercing screech of tires skidding across the tarmac and a resounding crash cut Jun off in mid-sentence. His jaw dropped. Kicking up his heels, he flew across the quadrangle towards the gate, stopping in front of a black Honda only to see his client lying unconscious on the ground with blood slowly seeping onto the tarmac.

"What in flying warthog's name!" Jun exclaimed, staring down at the boy. 

The latter's limbs were sprawled in awkward positions—his left arm was most definitely broken in multiple places, and possibly also his left leg. The horrified driver of the Honda had rushed out of his vehicle and was now frantically dialling for an ambulance. A small crowd had gathered around the accident site, whispering and pointing at the victim and perpetrator.

Jun bent over, muttering a silent prayer to the gods as he hesitantly placed his right index finger under the boy's nose. The next second, he squealed in fright and collapsed backwards onto the ground.

Nothing. There was nothing.

The boy wasn't breathing.

What did that mean? What did it mean if someone stopped breathing? It meant that the person was dead. D-e-a-d, dead. Kaput.

Within minutes the paramedics arrived at the scene, hurriedly shifting the boy onto a trolley and shuttling him into the vehicle. Jun remained slumped by the roadside, watching helplessly as the ambulance zipped down the street and disappeared round the corner, taking his unfortunate client with it.

Dead? But how?

He could still see the red thread trailing down the road—the thread that he had just tied on that boy's wrist moments ago. One minute they were in the library and the next, the dude was past tense.

Reaching into his jacket, Jun fished out the tiny red manual that supposedly contained everything a faerie needed to know about creating destiny. He flipped through the pages one by one, scanning the words that were printed inside. Nothing in the book told him what he was supposed to do if one of his clients suddenly kicked the bucket before he found his true love. Why would it? This was an impossible situation! 

According to the rules, once the red string was properly tied onto the wrists of the couple, they would be guaranteed to eventually meet and fall in love. Only after that, upon the death of one of the two, would the red string disintegrate. If someone was meant to die before he found his soulmate, then that person shouldn't have been given a string in the first place! Why would Hayden Chung have been bound to someone if he was going to be six feet under?

Jun felt a terrible headache coming on. His assignment card still sat comfortably in his pocket and he had successfully tied the string to the two people whose names had been on that card. It should have been a wrap, but all of a sudden it had spiralled into a full-blown disaster.

What was he supposed to do now?

#