An issue occurred to me the next day. “Where the hell is the bathroom?” I mean not only did I have to take a shower, but I needed go to the bathroom so badly I thought my bladder would burst at some point.

I carried my toiletries and clothes as I wandered the corridors searching for a possible bathroom. Honestly by that point it could have been an outhouse and I would have taken it. I had to go that bad.

When I rounded the corner to the hallway I was welcomed by a door slamming into my unprepared face. Although, I highly doubt you could ever be prepared for a door slamming into your face.

I fell backwards and all my toiletries laid on the ground. A half- body stepped out from the bathroom and looked down at me. It was Yang Yoseob smirking down at me. What the hell? Why did I have to see him this early in the morning? It really wasn’t good for my health.

“Having fun down there?” I stared at him with upmost annoyance, but then I took in the situation. Yang Yoseob was before me with just his boxers on and his hair was still wet. In fact his upper body still had water droplets here and there. I was surprised to see he actually had abs that could compete with many guys and put them to shame. Despite how even now he was wearing his gloves I could not deny his body was chiseled to an appropriate extent. Not the over bearing kind of fit, but…

Stop ogling him Mi Kyung.

I looked at the wall and rubbed my forehead to make him assume my face was red from being hit by a door and not his extremely attractive body. “Well, if you call getting hit in the face by a door fun then, yes, I am having the time of my life.”

I began to gather my things off the ground. Surprisingly he helped me. I grabbed my shampoo from him. “Thanks.” I refused to meet eyes with him.

We both stood up and the awkward thing of us going in the same direction every time we tried to walk past each other happened. I was very wary as to not touch his bare skin, not necessarily because of my death that would follow. I just wanted to keep my heart from exploding in a feverish lore.

He finally stopped and grunted a low guttural sound. “Just walk past me already ok?” I obliged and side stepped him easily as he remained still.

I turned around to see he had already disappeared around the corner. Deep breaths. I took a moment to gather myself before I finished getting ready. At least I finally could go to the bathroom.

When I went down stairs I had about another half hour before school would start and I was hoping the distance of the mansion would be about the same as my house because I was not planning on getting to school late.

Once I reached the bottom of the steps I saw that the guys were all gone except for Yoseob waiting by the front door. He had his gloved hands in his pockets and his backpack on top of his uniform. I’ve seen him in the outfit every single day, but somehow I saw him differently this time. But, I wasn’t exactly sure how.

“Where’s everyone else?” He groaned as he opened the door. “They made me stay behind to wait for you. Without at least one of us you can’t navigate out of the forest or get to school without getting lost.”

I could tell by his begrudging actions that they had forced him to do everything. Well serves him right for trying to kill me.

The walk wasn’t exactly terrible. We managed to come up with a set of boundary rules. He would walk in front of me and I would walk a couple feet behind him, but when we walked through the forest there was an exception to that.

“You have to grab onto me because if you are not attached to me then you will definitely get lost.” I scoffed and rolled my eyes, this guy had to be out of his mind. “How could I get lost when you would be not even out of my eye sight?”

He sighed rubbing his temples in frustration. “It’s just the way the forest works.” I stared at him though. It was hard to believe they had a magical forest. He threw his arms up. “You know what fine. Just get lost in the forest for all I care.”

He started ahead of me, but I ran to catch up with him. Despite how crazy it was I had to believe him after what I saw the other day in the park.

I latched on to the back of his school blazer not necessarily in desperation, more like that was the first thing my hand could come into contact with. He momentarily stopped to turn and smirk at me. “Change your mind?” I avoided his grinning eyes, hoping he didn’t get the chance to see how embarrassed I was. “Shut up and walk. If I’m late to school you’re so dead.”

He chortled, but started walking. “I think I could kill you before you even could manage to make a move on me.” I snapped back at him tugging on his jacket. “I think I of all people would know that.” I didn’t even have to bring up the night he tried to kill me, he already knew what I was talking about.

We kept walking in the forest and it was silent, but after a while of just walking through the underbrush of the trees he spoke. “Look, it’s not like I would have enjoyed killing you or anything. It was something I thought I had to do since you saw me alright? But, don’t think I’m apologizing or anything. I’m just informing you that I’m not some psycho killer that murders teenage girls as a hobby.”

It really wasn’t an apology and I wasn’t sure if I should be upset for him not apologizing, but he seemed to earnestly mean what he said. So at least I knew he wasn’t killer. Just incredibly stupid and not a critical thinker. I almost smiled.

I remembered the day in the park and the reason why he and all his brothers wore gloves. “Why are you guys the way you are?” It seemed appropriate to know.

Yoseob didn’t seem offended, but I could tell he was bitter towards the subject. “You mean why we are poison to anything we touch?” His voice dripped with acid and it wasn’t towards me.

“I didn’t exactly phrase it that way, but I suppose so.” He scoffed and his back stiffened a bit. “You might as well because it’s true. It is all because of a curse that was set upon our ancestors.”  

I took his moment of openness to find out more about their secrets. “Why was the curse put on you guys?” He slid his hands in his pockets and looked up at the canopy of trees above us as if he were seeing something completely different.

“Our ancestors were known for being the village medics. I heard that people said they could bring anything they touched back to life. Ironic what happened to them huh?” I didn’t respond assuming he wasn’t really asking for an answer.

“Newcomers came into the village and they claimed to be medical professions that surpassed any of the remedies our ancestors could produce. But, our ancestors found them for what they really were. Witches. They weren’t good witches that used the medicinal herbs to cure the sick either. They dealt with black magic way beyond their own control or any human’s control matter of fact.” A cool breeze blew past me and I could see ahead that we were reaching a clearing or the end of the forest. I hardly had paid attention to where we were walking.

We grew nearer to the opening. “The witches wanted to handle the issue of our ancestors not just because they found out the truth, but because they were competitors in the profession. They figured that the best way to get rid of them and punish them was by making it that they and any descendants of theirs would have this curse. A curse that anything we touched with our bare skin would die.”

Finally we stepped out of the forest and into the park that I usually crossed paths with Yoseob every day. I turned around to see if the forest was still there, but it had completely disappeared.

He turned around causing me to let go of his jacket. He had a bitter smile on his face. I would too if I had his life. “I told you that forest was weird. Happy you didn’t go off on your own now, aren’t you?” I figured that the subject of his curse had completely been dropped.

The best I could do was to act as if I hadn’t been given a horrible history of his family line. I crossed my arms and started walking so he wouldn’t see maybe the pity I had for him in my face. “Whatever, let’s just get to school already. I’m not letting all of this ruin my perfect attendance.”

We didn’t talk the rest of the way and we--per agreed--remained exactly five feet away from each other as we walked. So he could still keep an eye on me, but we wouldn’t look close. Not like I would hate the idea of being seen with him, but most likely it would raise suspicion why out of nowhere we suddenly walked to school together.

I wasn’t bothered by his presence, my mind was preoccupied. The whole rest of the day at school I couldn’t think straight. The curse that was put on them just bothered me. How could such an awful thing be true?

Witches? Curses? Magical forests? Was I really thinking about crazy things like that during Math?

“Mi Kyung!” I snapped to attention to see Na Kyung was staring at me from her seat. “What’s wrong? You didn’t answer any of my calls last night.” I thought about my answer.

She looked worried, I would be too if she didn’t talk to me for a whole night. I glanced over my shoulder to see from the other side of the room sat Yoseob. He was in my class, Class 1-A. Why couldn’t it at least be Kikwang or Dongwoon to have the same class as me?

At least then I could have pleasant company watching over me instead of a pair of intimidating eyes boring into the back of my head. “Mi Kyung are you even listening to me?”

I turned back to see Na Kyung really staring at me with worry filled eyes. “Sorry my phone hasn’t been working and it probably won’t be for a really long time so don’t freak out.”

“You’ve been acting weird all day though.” I sat up in my seat to look a bit more alert and not totally off in another world where curses and witches existed. “I’m fine, just tired.”

“Girls would you like to share something with all of us?” I could feel Yoseob’s stare intensifying like lasers at the back of my head.

I shook my head and smiled the most innocent smile I could manage. “No, sorry about that.” The class went back to whatever they had originally been doing.

I released a sigh of relief. If I didn’t start acting normal not only would my life be in risk, but so would be my school career.

I managed the rest of the day without any other slip ups luckily, but Yoseob was like my shadow. Even though no one else seemed to notice I felt so self-conscious that I couldn’t even eat lunch without feeling uneasy.

It was ridiculous because now that I think about it I hadn’t eaten anything for nearly two days or maybe longer. I think the only thing that kept me going was the crazy new life I had now and the insane truths that followed it. And I wasn’t really affected at all by my hunger.

At least that was until field hockey practice.

I had made it through nearly the whole practice with just doing warm ups and light conditioning, but once it came to our daily scrimmage with each other I began to feel wobbly and shaky.

My stick was in my hand and I was running down the field after the ball, but my vision began to go blurry. I was going in and out of consciousness, but I tried to manage at least a goal or to keep standing.

My foot caught in a small hole in the ground though and I fell over. Once my body hit the ground every thing went black and I could only hear the faint screams of my teammates as they rushed over. There was no way I was getting up after this. I was definitely out for the count.

I knew one thing for sure before I out though. Yang Yoseob and his brothers all running towards me from the bleachers.

I wasn’t sure if I should feel relieved or scared out of my mind.

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Hey there! Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed and please do subscribe, upvote, and or comment:) See ya in the next update! Hopefully I get a poster soon hah >.<

~Happyfeet