“That is…” Kisa shakes her head. “I’m really quite certain this thing is alive, somehow.” She reaches out with a finger as if to poke it, but her skin passes through it. She tries again, to no avail. Kisa raises her pinky to her face and stares at the knot with burning intensity.

“What are you trying to do?” Seokga asks with laughter in his voice despite himself. The thread returns to red from blue. “Goad it into speaking? I think that’s stretching the bounds of what’s possible.”

“If anybody could do it, you could,” she replies, nose crinkling in confused concentration. “Go on, try.”

“What?”

“Try to make it admit to being a sentient creature.” Kisa turns her hopeful eyes onto him. “Please,” she adds, and he sighs, setting down the phone. It seems Hwanung will have to wait. Kisa has somehow mastered the art of puppy-dog eyes to the extent that Seokga will willingly behave like a fool for her.

He fixes his eyes on the thread, which seems to him to be putting special effort into looking like ordinary red string. “String,” Seokga says with a very menacing, authoritative air, “reveal yourself!”

Nothing happens.

“It was a good effort,” encourages Kisa. “Try again. Perhaps use some threats. You’re historically very good at that.”

He preens under her praise. How kind of her to notice. “Yes, I am.” Seokga clears his throat and proceeds to tell the Red Thread of Fate, in great and gruesome detail, how he is perfectly capable of finding a pair of craft scissors and chopping it up into small, shredded pieces. If he’s not mistaken, the thread shivers. Yet nothing else happens.

Except Kisa’s laughter. Her shoulders are shaking and she’s clapped a hand to her mouth. A grin pulls at the corner of Seokga’s lips as Kisa shakes her head. In his lap, Hwanin begins to giggle, too, although it’s clear that the baby has no idea why he’s laughing.

“This is concerning,” Kisa half-gasps. “Whenever you say the most horrible things, I laugh.”

—squash—squash—

Whatever this squashing is, Seokga intends to put a quick stop to it. He shrugs, attempting to appear nonchalant and failing as the thread carries his bright golden triumph down to her. He glares at it before realizing that Kisa is looking at him with those godsdamn twinkling eyes of hers.

“I think it’s time you use some of your threats on Hwanung.”

Ah. Right. With a start, he yanks his phone out of his brother’s gummy grip and makes a face of disgust as he wipes the saliva-ridden device on his pants. Kisa laughs then leans over to take the baby from him with a knowing smile, and a small part of Seokga feels as if he is on the precipice of finding something he once lost.