Cursed | Yang Hongseok

•18

"Let us go!" Yuto growled angrily, trying to somehow free himslef of the invisible trap we were under.

"Yuto, you're not exactly helping." Jinho said seriously, and then turned towards the brunette. "Look, we actually come in peace, as crazy as it sounds."

"Oh, really?" The girl asked sarcastically. "It surely doesn't seem like that to me."

"It's true." Hongseok tried to explain calmly. "How about you release us and then we'll tell you everything. I promise."

For just a second, the girl seemed to hesitate.

But then, a serious expression appeared on her face again.

"...No."

The moment she said that, I felt as if an invisible force pressed my lungs with an incredible strength, cutting my air supplies immediately and making me suffocate.

"H– Hongseok... D– do something..." I barely managed to say. I tried grabbing his arm for support, but then I remembered that I still wasn't able to move.

"Let her go!" Hongseok shouted, slowly starting to lose his patience.

"No, I don't think I will." The girl simply said. "You see, I sensed some kind of immortality magic on the four of you, so torturing you would be useless. But if you want your friend right there to survive, you better start talking."

"I–"

Whatever it was that I wanted to say never left my mouth, because I already started seeing black spots in my vision, singnaling me that I'd probably black out any time soon.

But, just when I thought this was how it all would end, another female voice spoke from somewhere.

"...Let them go, Miyeon."

Within only a second, I felt both of the spells thrown on me disappear, which caused my body to collapse on the floor, gasping for air that now felt sweeter than ever. Hongseok qiuckly kneeled beside me, checking if I was okay.

Besides Hongseok's face starring at me worryingly, I noticed two more pairs of female shoes on the floor, which caused me to lift my gaze curiously, and carefully get up soon after that.

"Are you okay?" Another unfamiliar girl asked me, but I wasn't really sure if that question was genuine or not. Just like the brunette from before, she was very pretty, but her hair was long and blonde, bangs falling messily over her symetrical face.

"I think so." I said quietly, not wanting to make any of them angry again.

"I'm sorry that you were welcomed in such a strange way." The third one said. Her hair was also blonde, but much shorter. "Our friend Miyeon here is just very protective of us, since she's the oldest."

"That's true." The girl who they referred to as Miyeon admitted, feeling a little embarrassed. "But I'll apologize only after I hear why you're here."

"Fair enough." Hoetaek said, clearing his throat. "The five of us, plus four other people, are suffering from a very complex curse. Xia, who you almost murdered a minute ago, isn't really immortal, but she is being reborn every time she dies – and all because her husband was a jerk one thousand years ago."

"I see." Miyeon nodded, and then turned towards the two other girls. "What do you think about this?"

The girl with longer hair and bangs hesitated for a second, but then she finally spoke.

"I think we should give them a chance." She said coldly. "Even if they are lying, we can easily get rid of them."

Miyeon just nodded, and then turned towards the third girl.

"What about you, Yeeun?"

The girl with short hair whose name turned out to be Yeeun didn't hesitate like the girl before her. Instead, she immediately spoke what was on her mind.

"I agree wirh Soojin." She said. "We should listen to what they have to say before deciding anything else."

Miyeon seemed to be in her thoughts for only a few seconds before she quietly nodded.

"Very well, then." She said, turning towards us. "You can come in, and we can discuss your issue like civilized people. And after that, we'll see if we should keep it civilized or not."

A/N: This chapter was a bit shorter than usual, but I wanted to upload it before Tuesday to make up for not uploading on Friday. If everything goes right, there should be another update on Tuesday too :)