"Things can change, Sangwoo. I told you, right? History. It happens again and again. People have power, they abuse it, and eventually they fall." Minjun turned his hand, palm up, a small light appearing there. He felt the potential for more just underneath. For heat, for fire, for such power. But he knew he was still limited in his abilities. Maybe he would always be.
"There are theories that soulmates meant that people from anywhere, top, bottom, in-between, they'd have to work together. Come together. And I think that might be true. That's why the government doesn't want people to find their soulmates anymore. And when people do, they indoctrinate them right away. Make them fight for them."
He stopped, finally at the section he wanted to be at. His eyes followed the rows of books, his hand still holding the light so he'd be able to see.
"I guess if you're dirt poor and your soulmate is some swanky rich dude, it ain't gonna translate great, is it?" Sangwoo came up behind Minjun as he stopped, watching the row of books with him as his friend scanned it with the light. Minjun knew so many cool little tricks these days, he was so proud of his buddy.
"I hope I have a soulmate and he's minted, has a nice car and some expensive pool I can chill in." A boy could dream, couldn't he? "If I marry a rich dude, does that change my status?"
Could he get rid of the black mark he had that kept him out of basically everything. Even on low level standards, he was the lowest. It sucked.
"Technically. Well. These days, technically, if you find a soulmate, you have to enlist with them. You'll be a unit. And that means that you have the same status as every other unit, until you show that you are way more badass than everyone else." Minjun smirked and then, finally, got out a big book, definitely old. He carried it over to the table and opened it. "I believe that soulmates... They are tied to reincarnation. Being born again. You know what I mean?"
"Still a better life that this one. I always wanted to enlist but I can't with the black mark. They told me I can only enlist after so many hours of unpaid service for the government." So basically, he had to earn the right to enlist - he had to prove he was better than his father to be able to join up. "I like to be paid, you know? I gotta afford rent." Lately, he was just a garbage man. And not collecting, he sorted and carried it off to the burner - he literally lived in a landfill these days.
"Born again? Like -- you lived before? How would you know though?"
"I know, I know." And, yeah, Minjun had given Sangwoo money before, anything to help him out. He made an all right living doing accounting for people, since that allowed him pretty good hours and independence and it really wasn't difficult for him, but he knew things were very different for his friend.
One of the many reasons things had to change. "And yeah. Past lives. There is actually a lot of scientific evidence, I know it just sounds like weird legends. And the idea is that mostly we only know subconsciously, so... In dreams, we might remember. But there are ways to bring it over into awareness. That's one of the things I want to read up on."
"Cool. I like it." Sangwoo sat down next to Minjun and grabbed another beer, sliding it over to his friend. He looked at what he was reading but to him, it was all squiggles and drawings. He could write his hand and that was about it, honestly. So he knew the letters for his name-- sometimes. "I hope in my last life, I was a swanky billionaire who blew all of his cash on hot boys and that's why I got bad karma."
Seemed about right, honestly. "Do you think karma is real? Do I have a shit deal cause I was a shit person before?... Do you always come from the same family? Like was I once my great grandpa?"
"Nah. I think it's the soul that stays the same, the core, but everything else changes. Male or female, family, all of that." Minjun turned to look at Sangwoo, shaking his head. "Injustice is injustice. There's no thing like karma. As nonsensical as that black mark."
He looked back at the book again, frowning. "I feel as if I remember stuff. Sometimes when I wake up, just barely. I've been writing it down and... I don't know. I feel like I know someone. Someone I'm supposed to be with."
"I dunno, I get the logic. I mean, would you want to hang out with a criminal? I guess it's just nice to know. They say you can inherit that shit." Or at least he'd heard that much. He wondered if he had inherited it - probably, he stole all the time and he broke into places, he picked fights and did drugs. He wasn't exactly a good boy.
"Is that someone like your soulmate or something?" Sangwoo wished he could have dreams like that but he just never did. "Most of my dreams are about food. I dreamt I was a big waffle yesterday and you poured syrup all over me... it was weirdly sexual."
"Huh. Did I eat you?" Minjun laughed, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair. "But yeah. I would like to only hang out with criminals. I don't want people who respect the fucked up rules of this society."
He finally reached for the beer, taking a long sip and exhaling after, looking at nothing in particular. "I have a soulmate. I don't know who they are or where. That's why I want to learn how to find them. I can already... Like, do you know what I could do, if I could fight in a unit with my soulmate?"
"Nah, just made me sticky." It was still weirdly sexual. "I don't think I know the rules... I know that I'm bad, you're good and I can't get in a library." So yeah, he knew some stuff. He looked at the page curiously and studied the pictures. They were nice, he liked pictures. "I dunno what you could do but I fear what you would do."
Cause Minjun was crazy sometimes, he cared too much and he'd give his life for what he cared about. "Don't do any crazy shit when you're powerful."
"I will do a lot of crazy shit," Minjun promised, smiling as he wrapped an arm against Sangwoo and leaned against him, gesturing at the pictures. "That first picture shows what I was talking about. Reincarnation. See? That's why there's different couples, but they always have the same eyes. To show the point." Window to the soul and all that. Minjun assumed it wasn't literal, but he couldn't be sure.
"Cool. Gotcha." Minjun was so smart, he always found that fascinating. "You always teach me new stuff, nerd. Without you, I'd know nothing." And that made him happy to some degree, his life was only what it was cause Minjun made it like that. "So tell me, king of the nerds, once you get the soul mate and the power and stuff... what are you gonna do? Cause you can't be a one man army."
"I could be, actually. If I wanted. Well, not an army. More like... a bomb, you know? Because, really, if you know how to do it, it only takes a spark."
He looked around them, then snipped his fingers. The friction was enough to bring heat, to remind his magic how to do it and there it was. Just a small flame, on the tip of his thumb. "See, if I lit fire to one book here now, in a few? The whole place would be ash."
"Yeah but you'd take me and you down with it. See, that's the issue. You can only do it if you hurt yourself and that's the part I hate. You'd burn shit down and then what? You're dead, the government keeps going and everyone remembers you as a terrorist. And your family gets the black mark." It wasn't worth it, Sangwoo knew that 100%. He knew how shit like could be, Minjun had it pretty cosy overall.
"I am not talking about literal fire, Sangwoo. It will need something more effective to actually change the status quo. Subterfuge, espionage, sabotage, whatever. It takes a lot to bring about a coup d'etat. But if I was to find my soulmate, that would bring me closer, you know?" Minjun flashed Sangwoo a smile, closing his hand into a fist and letting the flame go out. "I need better connections, a better understanding. In the future I want, the black mark won't exist."
"You gotta lot of dreams, Minjun. I'll help you any way I can but I can only help so much. I got no powers, no assess and people don't respect me. I can only do what I can." He knew he was kind of useless but what other option did he have but to support his friend? "If you need me, I'll be there. And no one would protect you like I would." He raised his beer to Minjun and smiled. "I got your back."
"You may have magic, you know?" Minjun looked at him, frowning. "I mean... The only reason that I found my own potential is because I looked up how to do it, studied and then I learned. I could actually help you. If you wanted to see if you had the potential." The thought hadn't occurred to him before, but...
"There's no reason you'd not have magic, just like me. Maybe even more powerful."
"I won't have magic. Guys like me don't. I mean, come on, you can't get more average than this. I'm literally... I dunno, I couldn't even work out where to start." He looked at the book and then stared at it for a while before pointing at one symbol. "That's an s. Ssss." He knew that cause his second name was Sangwoo and it started with a Sss noise. "S for Sangwoo."
Nodding wisely, Sangwoo turned to Minjun. "We'd be here all day if I tried to learn this shit."
"You don't have to read. Magic isn't about stuff like that. Look, come on. You trust me, right?"
Minjun turned to Sangwoo and stepped close to him, then he lifted Sangwoo's shirt a little, enough to get a hand on his chest. He looked at him, lowering his voice. "Close your eyes, all right?"
Maybe he could do this. Guide someone through meditation.
"Are you seducing me cause I know I had the weird waffle dream but ... I ain't into you." Even so, he huffed out a sigh and closed his eyes, trying to refocus. He took a breath and tried not to feel stupid... but he did feel stupid. He'd rather try to read that stand here, eyes closed, his best friend touching his chest.
"...What do I do now? If you kiss me, I will punch you."
"I won't kiss you. Now hush. Just focus, listen." Minjun rolled his eyes, but then he tried to focus himself. Tried to remember how he had done this. Maybe it would be easier for Sangwoo. He had had to rationalise it, think his way through it before he could finally unlock things. Maybe for Sangwoo it would be different. "Don't think. Just feel. Imagine the sun. The light, the heat. Imagine it coming from your heart."
To help along, Minjun conjured up his own magic. Maybe that could help, it was said that magic could enhance itself."
"Okay." Sangwoo did, he hadn't had much time in the sun in his life but when he had, it had been perfect. He pictured the one time he'd been able to just lay around in the sun and do nothing - he had been a kid there, lying alone in the park while the other kids played. He loved how warm it got. He kept that image in his head and then imagined that he swallowed the sun and it went down his throat and to his chest.
"Okay, did it." He imagined it... was it over? Could he open his eyes yet?
"Yeah. Just.. Sang-ah? Look down." Minjun slowly withdrew his hand and he saw it still, right above Sangwoo's heart. The glow. That had been the first sign he had seen as well. "Magic. That's yours. In you."
And he felt no envy that it might have come easier to him. He just felt happy. They had been friends forever. There was nothing he didn't want to share with Sangwoo. "Can you feel it still?"
"Uh, feels warmer?" Sangwoo looked down and pulled a face, unsure how to feel. He raised his hand to try and cover it but the light stayed there. Huh, what did he do now? He tried to imagine that he flipped the sun off switch and slowly, the light flickered, dimmed and went away. "The fuck."
That was crazy. He didn't look like he believed it still. He looked up at Minjun, so baffled. "Since when was I magic?"
"Since always. You just didn't know. Same with me. It's limited magic, but it is magic. You can try now, like... When I do this." He turned his hand and focused. "You know, bring up the light. I think about it and it just... I mean, in my case, I tend to think about it from a scientific point of view, but really..."
The light was there and he glanced at Sangwoo. "Just see if you can do it."
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"There are theories that soulmates meant that people from anywhere, top, bottom, in-between, they'd have to work together. Come together. And I think that might be true. That's why the government doesn't want people to find their soulmates anymore. And when people do, they indoctrinate them right away. Make them fight for them."
He stopped, finally at the section he wanted to be at. His eyes followed the rows of books, his hand still holding the light so he'd be able to see.
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"I hope I have a soulmate and he's minted, has a nice car and some expensive pool I can chill in." A boy could dream, couldn't he? "If I marry a rich dude, does that change my status?"
Could he get rid of the black mark he had that kept him out of basically everything. Even on low level standards, he was the lowest. It sucked.
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"Born again? Like -- you lived before? How would you know though?"
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One of the many reasons things had to change. "And yeah. Past lives. There is actually a lot of scientific evidence, I know it just sounds like weird legends. And the idea is that mostly we only know subconsciously, so... In dreams, we might remember. But there are ways to bring it over into awareness. That's one of the things I want to read up on."
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Seemed about right, honestly. "Do you think karma is real? Do I have a shit deal cause I was a shit person before?... Do you always come from the same family? Like was I once my great grandpa?"
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He looked back at the book again, frowning. "I feel as if I remember stuff. Sometimes when I wake up, just barely. I've been writing it down and... I don't know. I feel like I know someone. Someone I'm supposed to be with."
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"Is that someone like your soulmate or something?" Sangwoo wished he could have dreams like that but he just never did. "Most of my dreams are about food. I dreamt I was a big waffle yesterday and you poured syrup all over me... it was weirdly sexual."
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He finally reached for the beer, taking a long sip and exhaling after, looking at nothing in particular. "I have a soulmate. I don't know who they are or where. That's why I want to learn how to find them. I can already... Like, do you know what I could do, if I could fight in a unit with my soulmate?"
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Cause Minjun was crazy sometimes, he cared too much and he'd give his life for what he cared about. "Don't do any crazy shit when you're powerful."
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He looked around them, then snipped his fingers. The friction was enough to bring heat, to remind his magic how to do it and there it was. Just a small flame, on the tip of his thumb. "See, if I lit fire to one book here now, in a few? The whole place would be ash."
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"Your life ain't worth the cause."
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"There's no reason you'd not have magic, just like me. Maybe even more powerful."
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Nodding wisely, Sangwoo turned to Minjun. "We'd be here all day if I tried to learn this shit."
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Minjun turned to Sangwoo and stepped close to him, then he lifted Sangwoo's shirt a little, enough to get a hand on his chest. He looked at him, lowering his voice. "Close your eyes, all right?"
Maybe he could do this. Guide someone through meditation.
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"...What do I do now? If you kiss me, I will punch you."
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To help along, Minjun conjured up his own magic. Maybe that could help, it was said that magic could enhance itself."
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"Okay, did it." He imagined it... was it over? Could he open his eyes yet?
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And he felt no envy that it might have come easier to him. He just felt happy. They had been friends forever. There was nothing he didn't want to share with Sangwoo. "Can you feel it still?"
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That was crazy. He didn't look like he believed it still. He looked up at Minjun, so baffled. "Since when was I magic?"
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The light was there and he glanced at Sangwoo. "Just see if you can do it."
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