Cursed | Yang Hongseok

•11

I just stood there, staring blankly at the most beautiful, yet strangest man I've ever met, not being able to process what he just told me.

"Hongseok, what you're saying isn't true. I mean, it can't be true. I only met you a few weeks ago, there's no way that woman was me." I said with a shaky voice, trying to step a bit further from him. However, I didn't really have anywhere to go, since we were standing on the roof of the building, and the exit was guarded by that Shinwon guy.

"Xia, I think both you and I know who's right and who isn't." Hongseok said in a tone that for some reason sounded terribly convincing. "All I'm asking you to do is listen to my story. I know it'll sound imaginary and impossible, but I just need you to listen to it. After I'm done talking, you can decide whether or not you want to trust me, although something's telling me you already do."

That's not true, I wanted to say, but I didn't, because deep inside, I knew that I was wrong. The wall that was hidden in the deepest part of my brain suddenly started to crack, but not completely. In order for that to happen, I felt like I needed to know the rest of his story. Only then would I be able to decide what to do, and who to believe.

"Alright." I said after a lot of hesitating. "I'll listen."

Hongseok just nodded, and then sat on the edge of the roof.

"I suggest you take a seat, too. This is going to be a rather long story." He said, patting the space beside him wih his hand.

"Aren't you afraid of falling?" I asked, taking a seat next to him after a lot of hesitating. I wasn't really scared of heights, but the sight bellow my legs still made me feel quite uncomfortable.

"Not really." Hongseok said, looking down without any fear in his eyes. "Anyways, I'll start talking whenever you're ready."

"If I wasn't ready, I wouldn't have come here in the first flace, Hongseok." I said seriously, which made him smile ever so slightly.

"You have a point." He said, and then looked straight in front of himself, as if he was trying to recall some memories. "It all started one thousand years ago..."

*

Flashback: China, 1020. (Hongseok's P.O.V)

I never even imagined how much I would miss my home once I would leave it to fulfill my soldier duties. Days were so long and monotonous, which made everything even worse. Sadness has been an ineviteble friend of mine for quite some time ever since I arrived to China, until one day, when I was put together with eight other soldiers.

"You shouldn't be sad over everything you encounter, Hongseok. That makes you weak in the eyes of many people." Hoetaek, one of them, said to me when he saw me being sad yet again. Him and I weren't getting along well at the beggining, but now I accepted his disciplined behavior. This was a constructive crituque, after all. Or so I've hoped.

"Don't listen to him, Hongseok." Hyunggu, another soldier from my army said. "Being said is normal. It's what makes us human."

"We don't really look so humanly when we're killing people." Another soldier called Wooseok said. He was the youngest in our army, yet he was considered one of the most ruthless fighters.

"It wasn't our choice to be put here, being forced to kill and do all those terrible things." Another soldier called Changgu said. "It's true that we must obey the orders that are being given to us, but not all of us enjoy killing others."