Woozi and Jun went to the cemetery together that very night. Arin could not join, of course, as she could never be in front of Jun when her voice had the power to kill him.

She did not know what happened on that trip until the following morning at 6am, when she had to take the potion with Jun.

“Turns out the girl does have a thread connecting her to someone a few degrees south-east from her gravesite,” Jun told her. “I can help him follow it toward the source, but there’s a problem. It will probably take more than 12 hours. So if I do this, I won’t be there to take the potion with you at MRS...”

Various solutions were discussed. Finding another lover for Extraction was one of Arin’s suggestions, but Hoshi said that was not possible, since it was difficult to tell exactly when the potion faded away for the potion to work on another. Hoshi suggested they wait until after the voice elimination operation to do this, but Arin wanted to get this off of Woozi’s chest as soon as possible.

In the end, they decided that Arin would meet them after 12 hours, wherever they would be, with a secure gag in , for the potion dosage renewal. Woozi would pick her up, since he was the only one who could face her without dying.

-

Jun, Woozi, and a few other mages from MRS’s Recruitment Unit had set off on the journey that morning. Jun needed the extra help, for he had to be very focused on the thread as he followed it on foot. If he lost focus even for a second, he’d lose it among all the red threads he saw around him, and he’d have to start all over from the gravesite. Jun needed a lot of help to pull it off; someone had to feed him, pay attention to the surroundings, and even cover for him while he went to the bathroom.

Arin had not realized how hard it was until she spoke to Woozi on the phone to ask about the progress. He told her that Jun was working very hard, despite the exhaustion and the strenuous effort of focusing on one thread for so long.

When it was near 6pm that day, it was time to meet Jun for the potion dosage. Arin looked forward to seeing him, even for just a minute. She had missed him the past twelve hours.

Woozi had arrived to pick her up in his car. He looked relaxed when he arrived, like he had faith this was going to work, and he would finally find the person he’d been chasing for so many years.

“Hi!” he greeted her as she opened the door to the passenger seat, ready to climb in.

She froze when she saw what was on the passenger seat: binoculars.

“You can just move them to the back,” Woozi said nonchalantly. “I bought them, thinking they might help Jun.”

The binoculars triggered flashbacks that made Arin lightheaded and dizzy: the concert. Chilli. S.Coups’ purple face. Minghao. That had been the last time she had ever touched a pair of binoculars.

“What’s wrong?” Woozi asked as he watched Arin’s eyes quiver at the sight of the binoculars. “Hey… what’s wrong,” he repeated when she remained frozen.

She closed her eyes and tried to shake the memories out of her head. Now was not the time to be traumatized. She picked up the binoculars, climbed into the passenger seat, and put them on her lap. “Sorry,” she said. “The binoculars unlocked some painful memories.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“I used them in the last Chilli concert I ever attended,” Arin said. “So you can imagine…”

“Oh. I didn’t know people used binoculars in concerts.”

“Most people don’t,” Arin replied. She remembered how Minghao used to make fun of her for using them. “But I liked to use them. They helped me see Chilli up close...”

Arin sighed a heavy, painful sigh as the events of that fateful night flashed through her head.

“Now you can make new memories with them,” Woozi said. “Like now, I’m using them to help Jun see what’s up ahead, so maybe now you can replace that bad memory with a better one.”

Arin smiled and nodded.

“Now, let’s find that lover of yours…”

-

Jun was about a half hour drive away. Woozi had Jun’s live location on GPS and was going in that direction.

“So, let me get this straight,” Woozi said as they were driving. “Jun can see people who are meant to be soulmates?”

“Yes.”

“And are you his soulmate?”

The question stumped Arin. She hesitated to answer it, because she knew the natural follow-up to the question took her somewhere awkward. Woozi didn’t know that he was her soulmate, and she wasn’t even sure she wanted him to know.

At the same time, Arin wondered why she had the right to know this, but he didn’t. If she knew, so should he. It felt unfair for her to control that information and to keep it from him.

“I guess not,” Woozi replied when she took too long to answer the question.

“No, Jun and I are not soulmates,” Arin confirmed. She waited for him to ask a follow-up question that never came.

The conversation was instead interrupted with Woozi’s ringing phone. Naturally, Arin glanced at his phone screen, which was attached to the windscreen as a GPS. The name of the person calling was “Eyes.”

It made Woozi panic for a moment, and he hung up immediately.

“Eyes?” Arin asked, narrowing hers.

“Yeah… it’s umm… it’s a client of mine,” Woozi said.

“Eyes” called again almost immediately, and Woozi hung up again. This process was repeated a couple of times before Woozi asked Arin to just turn the phone off. Arin did as he asked and removed the phone from the windscreen to turn it off.

Whoever “Eyes” was, they clearly made Woozi anxious. Arin was curious, but she could tell that Woozi wanted to be secretive about it. Still, she decided to ask.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just that she’s… she doesn’t stop.”

“Stop what? Calling?”

“Yeah. It’s nothing. Just work-related things, no need to worry about it,” he said quickly.

Arin would have believed him, but Woozi became unusually quiet after that.

He also stopped at the next gas station even though they were already late and the gas tank was half full. He claimed he needed to go to the bathroom, and took his phone. Arin knew he was calling that “Eyes” person, and didn’t want her to hear it.

Arin couldn’t help but be curious. Who was “Eyes” and why was her name “Eyes”? Was it a nickname? Did she have pretty eyes? Big eyes? Or maybe it was creepier than that… maybe she was some kind of spy that had her “eyes” on him?

When he returned to the car and climbed into the front seat, he still seemed troubled. He tried to smile at her when she looked at him inquisitively, but she could tell it was a forced smile masking something deeply unsettling.

“What’s wrong?” Arin asked.

Woozi froze when she asked him that, like he was surprised that she noticed something was off with him. He stumbled on his words as he tried to answer..

He was acting strange and secretive all of the sudden, and that lack of openness unnerved her. She did trust Woozi, but now that it seemed like he had something to hide, Arin felt a lot less comfortable, even anxious. Her trust issues even made her weary of him; maybe this Eyes person was related to her? Maybe he and Eyes were both out to get her? Maybe he wasn’t taking her to Jun and instead tricked her into getting into a car alone with him so he could take her far away and...

She began to fidget with her fingers as her imagination ran wild. He noticed her fidget, and sighed guiltily.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know I said I’d be open with you, and here I am now, being all elusive about her.”

“It’s none of my business. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to.”

Woozi’s eyes remained fixated on the driver’s wheel in front of him. “It’s not that…” he sighed. “The reason I don’t want you to know about her is… well… I was in a kind of relationship with her. And, well... you know... I don’t want to tell the person I’m interested in now about an ex…”

Arin relaxed. Knowing just that was enough to restore that briefly lost trust. She was curious about his past with Eyes, but she didn’t want to push him. He clearly didn’t want to talk about her, and she understood that.

“You don’t have to say anymore,” Arin told him. “I understand.”

Woozi nodded. “Let’s go now,” he said, clearly eager to change the subject. “We’re going to be late.”

-

Jun was just a few minutes away now. Woozi had to pull over to prepare Arin for the meeting with him. This meant being handcuffed and gagged, and Woozi was the one who had to do it.

They both had to go into the back seat to be in the right position for it. Arin had already prepared the handcuffs and the gag, having just ordered them from a questionable website the day before.

“This is strange,” he said as she handed him the equipment.

“I know, but it’s necessary.” She turned her back to him and put her hands together behind her.

He took hold of her gloved hand to cuff it.

“I understand the gag, but are the handcuffs really necessary?” he asked her.

“Yes. And make sure they’re tight too.”

Arin was determined that the cuffs would be extra tight and secure this time. After all, Jitae’s death could have been prevented if that had been the case. That death had been haunting Arin for a long time, because even though she was gagged and her hands were tied behind her back, she was able to loosen the rope and take the gag off. If only her wrists had been tied more securely back then, Jitae could have been saved. A mistake like that would never happen again.

Woozi cuffed her right hand first, then her left hand. “Is that comfortable?”

“I don’t want it to be comfortable. Tighter.”

Woozi tightened it a little, but Arin still found it too loose.

“Tighter.”

Woozi hesitated and tightened it again until it was squeezing her wrists through her gloves, which were a convenient barrier between the cold, hard metal and her skin.

“I feel like I’m hurting you,” Woozi said.

“I’m okay. Now put that around my mouth.” She signalled to the gag.

Woozi sighed. She turned to see what was taking him so long.

“I… I feel bad doing this.”

“I won’t ask you to do it again.” Arin promised. “I’m having the operation next week, so I just need it this one time.”

At the mention of the operation, Woozi’s lips tightened and he went quiet for a second. “Do you mean the operation to get rid of your voice?”

“Yes.”

“But… why would you put yourself through that?”

“You know why…”

“Just…” he trailed off and shook his head. “Just… just be with me,” he sputtered suddenly.

Arin went stiff. She was not expecting that.

“I know you’re under some potion’s influence right now or whatever,” Woozi added. “But I need to say this: you don’t need to lose your voice to be with me, right? Your curse doesn’t work on me, so let me be the person you depend on. I don’t want you to lose your voice...”

Arin wished she was in the right headspace to respond to him, but she was confused and anxious. So many different feelings converged and became muffled as she tried to think of something to say. On one hand, she loved Jun, but on the other hand, she was tempted by the idea of keeping her voice and making it work with Woozi at her side.

“It… It’s not that simple,” Arin finally responded. “Even if I am with you, I will still love other people. I want to have friends. I want to see Chilli live. I want to eventually have children and start a family. I can’t do that with my curse. You are special, Woozi, but I want to love other people. I want to be a part of this world without worrying about my voice killing people…” her voice cracked, and she couldn’t help but let out the tears that had been threatening to fall.

Before then, she had avoided thinking about her voice and what it meant to lose it, and also what it meant to keep it. It had given her so much anxiety to dwell on it before, so she had postponed thinking about it for as long as possible. But now, Woozi was making her think about it.

“We can figure something out,” Woozi looked very troubled by the tears in her eyes. “Please don’t cry…”

Arin was still handcuffed, so she couldn’t wipe the tears from her eyes. She tried to use her shoulders, but failed.

Woozi reached out and wiped them away himself. Arin was afraid to look at him as he did it. She was afraid of drowning in the depth of the affection in his eyes, afraid of confronting his feelings.

“Don’t do the operation,” Woozi said as he caressed the tears off her face. “Let’s figure something out together, okay? Let me help you figure it out.” His voice soothed her tears to a halt. She gave in to the temptation to lift her head and look at him.

In that one moment of eye contact, Arin felt something begin to shift inside her. It was like the hold the potion had on her was weakening, wavering, setting her free.

A/N: A long chapter to make up for the week I missed, and for being late this week. sorry guys, there was some family stuff with Ramadan and Eid and whatnot but yeah I'm back now!

Anywho I'm still working on this story every day, and I'm at the point in the writing process where it feels like the ending of the story is fast approaching. It's really exciting! You know what else is exciting? SEVENTEEN 8TH MINI ALBUM woohoo