‘WHAT?’

‘Yes, you heard right. You guys are the only ones who have both boys and girls staying in the same villa.’ The teacher sighed. ‘and because of that, I have to stay with you in this villa too. There’s no way of switching because we have an odd number of students and there are many who are sharing the same rooms. Therefore, you guys have to stay together.’ Miss Kim Hye Jin whined.

The students weren’t happy. It was something so unexpected and awkward. No one knew each other and now they have to stay with each other? They want to go against it but it seems like the teacher was firm with what she said. All four teens sighed and picked their bags. They all headed to their rooms. Luckily, the school was smart enough to assign the rooms, rather than allow them to select their own. Boys were on the first floor and the girls plus the teacher stayed on the second. Sunny and Ji Yoon helped one another carry the bags up, whereas the boys just got into their rooms and well, who knows what they’re doing.

The girls decided that Ji Yoon should take the room furthest from the stairs and Sunny the room nearest to it because the room looks bigger and Sunny indeed needed a bigger room. They separated ways and Ji Yoon started to look around her new room. The room did not look bad unlike the outside of their villa. Ji Yoon opened the closet and started unpacking her bag. She took out all of her clothes and started to hang them on hangers. Ji Yoon is a neat type of person. She doesn’t like mess. She was the one who would always clean up after people at home. The chores were hers, only hers, as her older brother left the family to run away. Ji Yoon then took out her old but working phone to send a text to her brother. They were close but they never really met after the incident. She paused for a moment before turning her phone off. ‘Why should I even bother?’

On the other hand, Tae Hyung was lying down on his bed. He couldn’t believe that he has to stay with girls and a boy who is so arrogant. He was really hoping he wouldn’t have to meet mean guys but now, he thinks that it’s his fate to be bullied. He turned around with his tummy on the bed and unlocked his phone. He clicked on the Notes icon and typed.

This time, I will not let anyone bully me like how I did before.

Tae Hyung stared at his phone. He sighed and closed his eyes. He was determined to be stronger and better this year. He was going to have friends and not be an outcast like before. Tae Hyung got up from the bed and went out of his room. It was 10AM and he had nothing to do. He sat on the couch and waited for the rest to come out of their rooms. He the television and a loud voice screamed through the room.

‘Oh my god.’ Tae Hyung cried as he slipped in shock. He got up from the floor with his ears closed, ignoring the fact that his hurts, looking around for the remote control.  He scrunched his face when he couldn’t find it anywhere. The lady on the television was screaming her lungs out for god knows what reason and Tae Hyung didn’t like it. After stumbling and being all clumsy, he finally found the remote that was under the table and turned down the volume. The television was left on maximum volume by the previous owner. ‘What a joke.’ Tae Hyung hoped that the others were not startled by it. He flipped through the channels and watched whatever that was on. Nobody came out, not even a single person. Tae Hyung puffed up his cheeks in disappointment. How can one stay in their room for more than an hour?

It is true, Tae Hyung was not someone who can sit still.

Tae Hyung decided to visit the pantry behind him while leaving the television . He opened the fridge and found lots of vegetables and meat. It surprised him that the school even provides them with food in the dorms. Feeling a little hungry, Tae Hyung decided to cook himself a meal in the meantime. He the fire on the stove and placed a pan with a little oil on it. He sliced some onions as well as chili peppers. He then sliced a block of meat into small pieces. ‘Meat would suffice till dinner, right?’ Tae Hyung then dumped everything into the pan and jumped when the meat started sizzling. ‘S..stop sizzling….’ He blocked himself with a lid and squint his eyes in fear of the oil jumping everywhere.

‘GUYS!’

‘GUYS COME ON GET OUT OF YOUR ROOMS!’

Sunny began knocking every door in the villa. She ran down the stairs with a small brown notebook almost slipping but she managed to catch herself before falling. Tae Hyung who was in the kitchen with his meal stared at the girl with so many questions. After several knocks, Min Hyuk went out of his room with his annoyed face. Ji Yoon on the other hand brought another small notebook down.

‘TAETAE GET YOUR HERE!’ Sunny exclaimed. ‘Stop giving the blank look!’ Tae Hyung who was half-chewing his food walked towards the small living room where the other three sat with his bowl of meat and vegetables.

Min Hyuk then snatched the bowl from Tae Hyung’s hand and munched on some. ‘Thanks.’ Tae Hyung just sat there flabbergasted, then snatched it back. How dare he, that’s my food!

‘Okay, listen and stop munching. Ji Yoon and I found something weird in our rooms. I’m not sure if you guys found anything in the guy’s room but we found notebooks from the previous students who stayed here.’ Sunny was spitting fire. She was speeding through her words and that made the boys crease their eyebrows. ‘It’s kind of old but it was taped under the bed. Well, so obviously……. The school didn’t clean our beds and just changed the sheets but that’s not the point. This villa, it’s not…’

‘safe.’ Ji Yoon added before Sunny could finish. ‘There are weird things going on here. It might affect us.’

Tae Hyung who was sharing his bowl of meat stopped eating and blinked. Min Hyuk left his mouth opened after what he heard. Both boys turned their heads to face each other laughed. ‘What kind of nonsense are you talking about?’ Min Hyuk laughed. ‘There’s no such thing. It’s a school.’

Furious, Sunny flipped the pages and throw the notebook onto the table. Min Hyuk who was still laughing, picked it up and read the page out loud.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi new students.

I am your senior, Park Yi An. Now that you’re reading this, this means that you guys are staying in this Villa. You guys have to be careful. This is not some average Villa. Things will happen and it is going to get a little tough. Despite that, I’ll be with you. You are never to tell anybody about this. You have to keep it within the four of you. Teachers are not allowed. If you are to spill the beans, you won’t be able to live well here and… I won’t be able to help you.

………, all the best.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Min Hyuk flipped the other pages but it was blank. His hands began to tremble. He looked at Sunny and a rush of electricity rushed through their bodies as they continued to stare at one another. Ji Yoon and Tae Hyung who were witnessing this started to shake their bodies. ‘Come back to your senses Tae Yang.’

-

The four kids were standing in one circle, hands holding tightly. All four of them open their eyes and looked at one another in shock. Everything became black in less than a second. They tried to let go of each other’s hands but a force was holding all of them together.

‘Now that you guys are bonded. Never enter or be in the house alone. Work together to save yourselves and you will be free.’

A high pitched sound was then heard and all of them covered their ears, screaming, before falling to the ground in pain.

They were then back to reality, with everyone on the ground, passed out. Tae Hyung was the first to slowly wake up and noticed that he was back in the villa. The pounding in his head didn’t stop. In pain, he tried to wake the others up but no one budged. He got Min Hyuk on his back and placed him on the couch. He hesitated a little before carrying Sunny and then Ji Yoon. What now? His head hurts but he can’t leave the others behind like that. He tried waking Sunny up this time and her eyes shot wide open as soon as Tae Hyung touched her.

‘Wh..what happened? Who was that talking?’

‘I don’t know, but for now help me wake them up while I heat some water for all of you.’ Tae Hyung held his head before going to the pantry. He didn’t know what was going to happen but whatever the person said sounded so real to him. It felt like as if the person is indeed with them. With all of them knocked out, there’s no reason to believe that whatever they went through wasn’t true. Tae Hyung the gas stove and place a kettle full of water on top of it. He then went over to Sunny and the rest to check on them. Min Hyuk was fine, but Ji Yoon started to look very pale. He approached Ji Yoon who was lying on Sunny’s lap and placed the back of his palm on her forehead.

‘Damn it, she’s burning.’

-

Everything went on as per normal. Everyone in the villa became a little bit more awkward especially Ji Yoon, since she woke up seeing Tae Hyung’s face beside hers. Min Hyuk on the other hand managed to wake up before 1PM. He too, just like the rest of them felt a little dizzy. No one talked about what happened. The teacher who came in to fetch them also felt a tinge of awkwardness in the villa, but decided to ignore it.

After the meeting at the Auditorium, everyone had their own classes. A not-so new side of the strict school was seen again and people who were late had to stay outside of the Auditorium. Tae Hyung and Sunny were in the same class, and Min Hyuk and Ji Yoon were in another. Even though their classes were side by side, everything felt so far away. These kids felt a little lost inside. As usual, everyone had to meet new people and sit with new people. All the students were hyped and excited to meet new friends. Ji Yoon and Min Hyuk who entered the class together looked around and saw that everyone was already sitting down, chatting with their partners. There was a mixture of guy-guy, girl-girl sitting so Ji Yoon and Min Hyuk awkwardly decide to sit together. There was only two seats left anyway.

‘Okay class! Settle down.’ The teacher who was standing at the front raised her voice to go over the noise. ‘I see that you’ve found your own partners. I won’t change the seats unless I find you guys disrupting my class or any other teacher’s classes. We won’t start class just yet, so let’s do some self-introduction session.’ Without a second of thought, everyone started to groan at the thought of doing introductions.

Introductions were always a burden. Nobody likes standing up and introducing themselves.

One by one students started to stand up to introduce themselves. Most of them had simple introductions like their names, which room they live in, what they like to do but some had weird introductions that include people they admire and stupid jokes. Soon, it was both Min Hyuk and Ji Yoon’s turn. Min Hyuk who was so ready to get over this introduction thingy stood up. He gave a wide smile before returning to his ever so arrogant face before introducing himself. The female students were in awe at how good looking he is. Ji Yoon who heard the giggles and praises wanted to just roll her eyes at them because he is not as nice as his good looking face. After much wait, it was Ji Yoon’s turn to speak. She stood up and looked at everyone with eyes that were deemed indescribable. The class started to quieten down. She gave a slight smile before saying her name.

Many looked intimidated by her but she doesn’t care. Ji Yoon then sat down with her arms crossed, setting a not so good first impression. Min Hyuk who was observing her felt that this was not the Ji Yoon he saw at home.

Does this mean that the curse has started?

---------------------------------

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hi guys, I know I've taken so long just to post this but CHAPTER TWO is finally done! I hope that you would enjoy reading this. See you soon! Hopefully not this long :( 

For those who are already subscribing to this or am following, I hope that you can give me some comments for this story. I know it might still be too early but at least I know that there are people here. Hehe. See you soon readers! ❤