The first time Eijun saw the red thread on his pinky was the day he woke up at the hospital with a splitting headache after he'd been hit with a baseball. It wasn't anything serious and he hadn't even had a concussion, but his friends had been worried and his coach more so, having only taken up the position of "coach" as a favor to the previous teacher who had retired. He thought it had been a prank and he tried pulling on it to see what was at the end
When Wakana walked in and saw him, she thought he'd lost his mind, "What thread Eijun? There's nothing there...are you sure you're okay?"
He'd promptly dropped it, not wanting to stay in the hospital longer than necessary. They had a game soon!
But it never went away and he never saw what was at the end. After he'd been released he'd tried pulling at it to see what it was attached to. He gave up after 10 minutes of pulling, the pile at his feet never ending. He'd also tried cutting it but when he stopped thinking about it, it would reappear on his finger as if nothing had occurred. One time he even tried following it, but when it led him to the station he gave up and went home
It wasn't until nearly a month later, while Wakana was hanging out in his room with a magazine that he thought to give it a name
"What did you say?" he turned away from his homework (hey, he studied sometimes!)
Wakana giggled, "I asked if you believe in the red string of fate."
Eijun's gaze briefly went to his finger, "What's that?"
"You really weren't listening, where you?" Wakana walked over to his desk and showed him a picture of some celebrities who had - he briefly read the headlines - tattooed red rings on their pinkies, "The Red String of Fate is said to connect soulmates. Or I guess depending on what legend you believe, it connects you to people who will leave an impact in your life. But I think soulmates is more romantic, do you believe in that?"
He wasn't sure if it was because of the string on his pinky or all the manga he read but he answered seriously, "Of course! I'm sure everyone has a soulmate just waiting for them somewhere. It wouldn't make sense to not have one."
Wakana laid on his bed and sighed, "Yeah, but how would you know who it is? I mean, if we could see the thread it would be easier to find them but we can't. How do we know if the person we like is 'the one'?"
Eijun turned back to his work and mused aloud, "I guess...I guess it's just someone who understands us. Who gets us. But it would be easier if we could see it, huh..."
After that discussion Eijun couldn't let the idea go. He read up as much as he could about the legend of the Red String and found that his was probably attached to his soulmate. It only made sense. If it was more about the people who left an impact on him, then surely all his friends would have been on the other end, but they weren't
He was also tempted to follow it many times, but always walked back home when he ended up at the station. Once he went so far as to see what train it ran along and found that his soulmate was probably in Tokyo.
I wonder who they are
In the coming months, Eijun became so accustomed to the string that he no longer followed it. It became a source of comfort and when he finally made the trip to Tokyo, thanks to Seido scouting him, he didn't think to look for his soulmate, his mind completely immersed in the baseball before him
Eijun wasn't sure what possessed him to say it, but right before he left for Tokyo he dragged Wakana away and told her about the string
"Eijun...you do know that's a legend, right?"
"Please Wakana, when have I ever lied about something like this?" He needed someone to believe in him and Wakana was the only person he could think of to confide in. She sighed and crossed her arms
"OK, let's say I believe you, what now?"
And this is why Eijun felt like he needed to tell someone. While in Nagano, it was easy to just look at the string fondly. The concept of his soulmate was more abstract, but now that he was going to be in Tokyo..."They're going to be there! I'll know who they are, what if they don't like me? Or I don't like them?"
Wakana smiled, "You do know that who you love isn't set in stone, right? If you don't like them then that's it. Just find someone else and if they don't like you, well, when have you ever been one to give up? Besides, I don't think anyone would not like you."
They both grinned at how true her words were. Even the people in Nagano who called Eijun an idiot or annoying still liked him
When Eijun boarded his train to Seido he was excited because he would be playing baseball at a new level but also because of the possibilities involving his soulmate. What would she be like? He'd only ever been close to Wakana and she was almost like his sister. Would his soulmate be like her? Or would she be more quiet and reserved? Would she want to go on dates often? He blushed, would she want them to hold hands and kiss him when they parted?
As the train left the tunnel, Eijun noticed his thread flicker and become lighter. He frowned and brought it closer to his face. It was still there but it looked more transparent
Training at Seido was much harder than he expected. Not only did he have to wake up at ungodly hours (hours he wasn't unaccustomed to but when you add a video game obsessed senpai, it did become difficult waking up), but they trained until late and nearly every day. Add to this his workload from school and Eijun had little to no time to think about his soulmate. In fact, the few times he did have the strength to look around and see where the thread led, he found that it was a mess
While in Nagano the thread always followed a simple path to the train station, here in Tokyo, at Seido, the thread looped and crossed at nearly every corner. He'd read about this somewhere. It meant that his soulmate was close and he briefly wondered if they also went to Seido. It would make sense, since the thread spanned the whole training area and he wondered if it was one of the managers
He tried to conjure up their images in his mind, but he'd always been too distracted by baseball. He knew who they were but right now he was blanking out, his mind more focused on how sore his limbs were and how much he really needed to get out of his sweat soaked clothes. In a minute, he closed his eyes
That's when he heard his laughter, "Hey, Sawamura, I thought you were going to be Seidou's Ace. Can't be the Ace while lounging around the floor like that!"
Eijun grit his teeth and tried to stand up but his muscles protested. He felt like a lamb trying to stand for the first time! And him. He was prancing around like practice was a piece of cake! "Miyuki Kazuya!" he cried out from the floor, slowly rolling up to sit, "I will become Seidou's Ace, just you wait!"
Miyuki's grin didn't fade and, was it just Eijun's imagination or did it grow? Not a second later Kuramochi appeared, his hyena laugh the perfect compliment to Miyuki's amusement, "Hey! Someone help the first years up!"
It took some effort but with the help of their new team, the first years made it back to the dorms
It was about a week later when Eijun thought about the whole soulmate thing. He'd been taking a break from school work when his phone went off, a message from Wakana
Have you found them?
He scratched at his head, grumbling a bit at how little time he had to devote to his soulmate search. He'd found a recent article that talked about seeing other people's threads. It mentioned that some people could see others, which made it hard to find their own, and that some people only saw the one. Eijun assumed he was the latter but once he came to Tokyo things had changed slightly
For one, he'd seen a similar thread attached to Kuramochi's pinky and when he'd first seen it he'd been slightly horrified. Was he his soulmate? He's quickly investigated the thread and found that no, they weren't destined for each other. He's sure everyone had given him weird looks the day he'd followed the thread but seeing it lead outside of Seidou made him sigh in relief
But that also opened up the possibilities that...well, that his soulmate wasn't a girl. It made him blush slightly. He'd never really thought about what gender his partner would be, if he ever had one. He knew his family wanted him to have kids and even he thought of that once or twice for his (very distant) future. But one could have a child and be with a man. Plus, he'd been too preoccupied with baseball
Really, his search for his soulmate had now become more difficult
He sent her a quick reply: No, too many threads!
She would surely ask about what he meant and he considered just calling her but that's when the door to his room opened. He fumbled with his phone for a second and then turned to see who it was, a slightly annoyed expression on his face
Miyuki Kazuya stood there in a long sleeved shirt, sweat pants, and a coffee in hand. He was grinning again, "Ohhh, are you actually studying?"
Eijun scowled, "What are you doing here Miyuki Kazuya!"
"Heh, no need to call me by my full name Sa-wa-mu-ra," was the only reply and Eijun felt his heart thud a little faster, "Kanemaru was looking for you, said you might be hiding but it looks like you're being good, Later."
The door was closed and Eijun exhaled, not having noticed he was on edge
Because of course Miyuki Kazuya was his other problem. That sneaky and foul mouthed catcher had been stringing him along for weeks, always getting out of catching for him and on the rare case that he did catch for him, their time was limited. It was frustrating to have to share him with the other pitchers! It made him want to become the Ace even quicker but that's not the only reason Miyuki was a problem
He was a problem because Eijun kind of liked him. After the whole Kuramochi incident he'd been left thinking about how his soulmate could be male and Miyuki's stupid grinning face had been the first thing to pop into his head. All the subtle touches, the glances, the grins shared while on the mound, everything came to him in a rush. The next time he saw Miyuki he took a peek at his hand only to find himself startled
Miyuki's thread, barely noticeable, was severed
He'd pitched terribly that day and had been switched out much too soon
He'd never read anything about severed threads! That night he'd tried researching some more but every article he read never mentioned this before. When he first found out about the string he'd tried cutting it but it always came back. How was it that Miyuki had actually cut it? Over the next few days he thought maybe he'd seen wrong. Maybe the thinness of the thread only made it appear that way, but no
Miyuki's thread really was broken
A/N: oh god finally this draft is out! it's been sitting in my pile for awhile now and even though i've gone ahead and published it, i have no idea where i'm going with this, ESP after that ending xD that was totally not planned but it happened. this time i remembered to post this here but def find me on ao3 as needsmoresleep and also, i just posted some of my writing on wordpress and made a writing blog. can also find me on there as needsmoresleepwrites .wordpress .c om. Also the formatting on both sites is way better bc those line breaks are supposed to be spaces *clenches fists* thanks for reading! hope you guys enjoy :)