Xiumin jolted awake when his alarm sounded at 5 AM sharp. He heaved a deep sigh as he knew that today was the big day. He knew that he should be starting his morning routine soon, but reluctance kept him in his bed. He took a few calming breaths before he ran his hand over his face. He frowned.

"Huh?" Xiumin felt something strange on his hand and turned on the light by his bed to get a closer look. "What the-?"

There, clear as day, around his right pinky, was a red string. He tugged at it and touched it to confirm that he was really seeing this and that the string was real, but how did it get there?

Clacking his tongue, Xiumin went to untie the string from his pinky, thinking that it must've been his sister playing a prank on him, but he startled slightly when he found out that he couldn't remove it.

"Hey, what's wrong with this thing?" Xiumin tugged at it and attempted to break it, but the string wouldn't move. If anything, he thought it tightened around his pinky.

"Ugh," he grunted in annoyance as he got out of bed to grab a pair of scissors. He carefully placed the string between the scissors and snapped it shut. His eyes went wide with confusion and astonishment, when the string wouldn't get cut.

"What?!" he exclaimed, continuously cutting into the stubborn piece of string. "Hey! Get off already," he grumbled, but the string still didn't break. Xiumin shook his head in bewilderment, giving up on using the scissors and following the long thread of the string. It went out of his bedroom, but when he tugged, it felt loose.

What kind of elaborate prank is this?

Intrigued and a little freaked out, he picked up the red string and followed it out of his bedroom. Xiumin's eyebrows flared up when he saw the string splitting up into different directions. One part lead to his sister's room, while two more strings went to his parents' bedroom. He scratched his head as he saw one more string go all the way down the stairs and he shook his head.

"I'm still dreaming," he decided. "Okay, Xiumin, change of plans. Lay in bed for another hour or so, wake up properly and then head over to pick up Luhan and try not to humiliate yourself for White Day. Okay, that's good," he mumbled to himself, going back to his room. Everything should be back to normal if he rested for another hour. His nerves were getting to him. He made sure to put the jewelry box in a fancy, pastel pink paper bag and threw in the note he scribbled on just for the heck of it. Then, he went back to bed and promptly fell asleep.

Xiumin woke again with a start. He blinked his eyes sleepily, stretching himself and checked his alarm clock. He gasped at seeing the time and jumped out of bed. Crap! He was running late.

"Oh no, oh no," he chanted as he hurried to get himself cleaned up and gathered all of the gifts. He ran down the stairs and headed to the kitchen to get a slice of toast.

"Ah, good morning, honey. Are you excited for White Day? Did you get gifts for all the sweet girls at school?" his mother greeted, handing him his coffee.

"Eh, sure, Mom. Sorry, I'm late," he apologized. "Think you can get me coffee to go?"

"Coffee to go? Minseok, I'm not a coffee shop," she tsked, but put his coffee in a travel mug anyway. "Don't rush when you drive!" she told him as he pecked her on the cheek and grabbed the coffee from her hand.

"Got it! See you later!" he greeted, rushing off to get to the van. However, once he started driving to pick up Luhan, he only now just noticed something being terribly off.

As he looked around, at his environment, Xiumin abruptly stepped on the brake and the van came to a skidding halt.

"What. The. Hell?!" he gaped as he looked outside, seeing hundreds, maybe thousands of red string slung haplessly over the asphalt, the streets, criss crossing over each other, intertwining with one another, tied in knots, high strung and hanging loose. He swallowed, lifting his hand to run it through his hair when he noticed, to his horror, that a red string was still tied firmly around his pinky.

"WAH!" he startled, trying desperately to remove it from his hand. The string wouldn't budge, however, and stayed firmly on his hand. "What-?" Xiumin whispered, staring at it in disbelief. What the heck is going on?

A car honked behind him, startling him from his thoughts. He lifted his hand to apologize and continued the drive to Luhan's house.

It's in your head, Xiumin. Calm down. This isn't real.

He repeated those three sentences over and over again until he got to Luhan's place. The boy himself was already waiting for him, waving as he approached.

"Hey, did something happen? You're running a little late, Baozi," Luhan grinned, putting three bags and a large paper bag in the van before he got into the passenger seat. Xiumin hadn't responded much and still didn't do anything when Luhan was strapped in and ready to go.

He looked at the older boy in anticipation, but frowned when Xiumin didn't do anything. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, staring ahead of him. Luhan followed his gaze, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Yo, Baozi, let's go, we're gonna be late," he urged, but Xiumin still didn't respond. "Yoohoo, earth to Baozi," he waved his hand in front of Xiumin's face and this was effective to get the boy's attention.

"There we go. Come on, what's gotten into you?" Luhan asked, leaning back a bit when Xiumin turned sharply towards him.

"Tell me you're seeing this," he said, but Luhan only frowned.

"Seeing what?" he asked, pulling a face.

"That!" Xiumin pointed outside, but Luhan couldn't see anything. He narrowed his eyes at Xiumin and the older boy sighed, lifting his hand to point at his pinky. "This," he clarified, showing him the red string, but again, Luhan squinted his eyes at Xiumin's pinky and shook his head.

"You had a manicure?" Luhan guessed randomly, receiving a punch in the arm. "Ow. Uncalled for," he rubbed the soreness away. Xiumin's eyes widened when he saw Luhan's pinky.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, startling the younger teen. "You have one too!" he stated. "Wait. Why is it attached to mine?"

"Okay, what's going on? You're acting really weird," Luhan finally prompted looking at his hyung. He reached out to touch Xiumin's forehead. "Are you sick? Maybe you should stay home."

Xiumin slapped Luhan's hand away. "I'm not sick! I don't understand why you can't see this," he muttered in frustration.

"See what?" Luhan asked.

"The- the-!" Xiumin sighed. "Never mind. I didn't sleep well," he reasoned, taking a gulp of his coffee.

"If you say so," Luhan shrugged, looking outside, not a care in the world.

Xiumin took off, swallowing when he saw the countless red strings outside, but pretended not to notice them. He moved his hand uneasily, seeing the string split, leading to who knows where. Was he under some kind of magic spell? Why could he see it and Luhan couldn't? Was Luhan pranking him? No, not likely. Chen would do so, but not Luhan. He knew how extra nervous he was this day, so he wouldn't do something to stress him out even further.

"So, you're ready for White Day?" Luhan asked carefully, proving what Xiumin had thought before.

"I'm never ready for White Day," he replied flatly, the freaky red strings aside...

"You'll do fine, Baozi, just say what comes to mind," Luhan patted him on the shoulder.

"Y-yeah, just like that," Xiumin nodded, but felt a lump form in his throat when he parked the van near the school. They got out of the car and Xiumin grabbed his stuff. Luhan unloaded the van himself, heavily packed as he attempted to walk towards the school building. Xiumin couldn't help but grin in amusement at him.

"Hey, aren't you gonna help me out?" Luhan asked.

"Nope. Thought I made that clear?" Xiumin chuckled.

"Yah, Baozi-ge! Come on, man," Luhan pleaded, but Xiumin shook his head when he noticed that students had noticed Luhan hauling so many gifts. He did not want to be at the center of attention along with him.

"Good luck! See you in class!" Xiumin easily walked away, still grinning to himself. He happily chose to ignore the red strings in the building as well, though he found himself watching his step now and then.

"KYA! Did you see Luhan-oppa, Jae-yah, did you? Did you? DID YOU?!"

Xiumin stopped abruptly and turned around to follow the exceptional voice of excitement, seeing Jae being shook around like a helpless rag doll as her friend, Lili, jumped around in pure glee.

"Uh, what's so exciting about that, Lili?" Jae asked in confusion, her almond-shaped eyes blinking innocently at her, though they shone worriedly at her friend.

"He brought so many gifts!" Lili squealed. "I wonder what he got me! Oh, I wouldn't care much, I'd be so happy if he remembered to get me something- he's so popular," she cooed in exasperated defeat and Xiumin was endlessly amazed at how she was able to switch moods so easily, and express all of them like it was the most natural thing in the world.

He sighed and checked the clock. He had some time before the first class would start, and since Jae was already there, maybe he should just get the biggest hurdle over and done with and hand her her gift. He bit his lip, straightened himself and gathered up his courage as he started to walk towards her.

"Whoa!" Xiumin was caught by surprise when the string around his pinky was suddenly yanked with much force, making him turn around. "What? N-no, I'm going this way," he turned towards Jae's direction again, but something yanked on the red string again. Trying not to put too much attention on himself, he futilely tried to break it again. "Wah!" his hand was pulled again, so Xiumin had no choice but to follow. The pull of the string brought him all the way towards the indoor gym where a group of students had already gathered.

Xiumin stared in confusion and mild embarrassment at them, still trying to walk away, but the string wouldn't let him. "Hey, what gives?" he whispered quietly, suddenly noticing a group of girls laughing loudly nearby. At first he thought they heard what he said and were laughing at him, but their laughter wasn't directed at him at all.

"I just got a new cover for my phone as well," a girl with pigtails said to the group of girls. She showed them her phone, but the cover looked cheap, and this caused the girls to laugh again.

"Is someone talking to us?" A snobby girl asked out loud, obviously to taunt the girl with pigtails.

"I don't see anyone, all I see is an ugly, cheap phone cover floating in the air, like it's been plucked from the garbage bin," another girl with red hair said.

More laughter.

Xiumin frowned at seeing the interaction, starting to feel a little angry at seeing these girls gang up on the girl with pigtails. He felt even more sour when he recognized one of the bullies, the snobby one, to have given him chocolates on Valentine's Day as well.

"Look at it. It's not cute, it doesn't even have bling on it! Who are you trying to impress?" Snobby girl asked, the girl in pig tails nearly bursting into tears.

"I- I just want to make friends," she said quietly, holding the phone close to her chest as though she was ashamed.

The red string tugged at his hand again and watching the girl with pig tails made him realize something. On Valentine's Day, a girl had suddenly stopped him in the hallway when he was in a hurry. She had to tug on his sleeve for him to even notice her.

Xiumin-oppa, h-happy Valentine's Day. I know it's not much, but I hope we can be friends.

She had smiled at him and Xiumin felt a little embarrassed that he had nearly forgotten about her. He knew he had bought the right amount of gifts, as much as he had received, but this girl went completely past him.

Time to remedy that, he suddenly decided. He grabbed the gift he intentionally wanted to give to the snobby girl and followed the red string to lead him to the girl with pig tails.

The laughter died down when he came into sight, but Xiumin didn't feel nervous this time. It hurt him a little when the girl with pigtails immediately shied away, as if she knew that he had forgotten her and that he was only there for the other girls.

"Xiumin-oppa!" the group of girls suddenly squealed, all sweetness and rainbows. "Happy White Day!" they greeted, the snobby girl straightening her hair as if she was ready to accept his gift. He felt a little bit like a jerk, but after seeing how she treated her classmate, he didn't feel too guilty about it.

"Happy White Day," he greeted casually, then turning towards the girl with pigtails. She naturally startled as he approached her and for a moment he hesitated in his step. What am I supposed to say? The red string tugged again, and he could see that a part of it lead to her. That had to be there for a reason, right?

"Hello," he started, knowing that a greeting was the right start.

"X-Xiumin-oppa? Uh, I mean- h-hello," she replied ever so shyly. He smiled and extended the gift to her.

"I'm not good with words, but I remember yours," he continued. "The chocolates were delicious and I hope you still want to be friends," he said sincerely, chuckling a little at seeing her stunned expression. "Happy White Day."

The girl moved slowly when she accepted his gift, opening it with a slight tremble in her fingers. He was surprised himself when he realized that the gift he gave her was a bunch of brand new phone covers and accessories. Her face lit up immediately and he heard the girls behind him gasp in awe at the gift.

"Oh, Xiumin-oppa! Thank you! Thank you so much!" she smiled gratefully, making him smile as well. He blinked when the red string around his finger felt a little lighter and saw to his surprise that the string that linked him with her had broken and disappeared.

When the school bell rang, he was hit with sudden realization. Maybe there was a way for him to get the red string off his finger. He just had to follow where it lead him to and maybe it would break the links he had with other people and everything would be back to normal! It was worth a shot...