9^th February 2017, 8.00PM

The pleasant surprise was evident on her sister’s face.

Krystal could see it all. She could see the glimmer of hope on Jessica’s face. She knew that the older Jung was thinking that she was trying to put their feud that had been going on for years away and start anew. She also knew that if Jessica knew the real reason why she invited the older woman to eat dinner with her at a fancy restaurant, Jessica would be devastated.

“Order what you want,” Krystal chirped with fake enthusiasm. The smile on her face was too bright and big, in her opinion. Her face ached and she badly wanted to stop smiling. “It’s my treat tonight, unnie.”

Jessica beamed at her younger sister. “No, it’s okay,” she replied, obviously still pleased that Krystal had wanted to eat dinner with her. Maybe it was the perfect time to repair the sisterhood between them that had never been there in the first place.

Krystal bit the inside of her cheeks in order to stop herself from snorting out loud. Instead, she called the waiter over and told him what she wanted. Jessica did the same thing and when the waiter left them, only silence remained.

“How have you been, unnie?” Krystal asked softly. Thinking about how she had been treating her older sister, she thought that maybe it was time to change. Even though her sister had never played her role as her sister, that did not mean they could not start now. Maybe this whole Mirror incident might make the two Jung sisters closer.

Speaking about Mirror, Krystal still thought that it was weird how she did not remember the former at all. It was like Mirror had never existed in her life. It was so sudden. It was even the first time she had ever heard about The Heartless Curse. But since the other nine graduates were convinced that she was one of the people who cursed Kwon Yuri, she believed it too.

Well, it was not totally impossible. Her hatred for the was very deep, anyway. Krystal would also believe it if someone told her she was the one who killed the bully.

A small smile reached Jessica’s lips and she laughed almost bitterly, snapping Krystal back to reality. “Not good,” Jessica answered nonchalantly. “I’ve got a job as an interior designer at this company and it has been stressing me out lately.” Another small smile appeared on her lips. “But I can manage,” she concluded her answer. “What about you, Krystal-ah?”

Terrible, Krystal wanted to say but she refrained herself from doing so. I don’t know who the hell Mirror is and I badly want Baekhyun to be mine but I can’t and–

“Krystal?” Jessica called out to her gently, snapping her from her thoughts abruptly.

The younger Jung went red as she realized that she was so immersed with her own thoughts that she was spacing out. Still embarrassed, she responded, “Nah, pretty much normal. Nothing much happens.” Liar, liar, pants on fire.

“Unnie, may I ask you a question?” Krystal asked with hesitation clear in her voice.

“You already did,” Jessica pointed out with an amused smile etched on her face.

Krystal faked a smile. Just as she was about to ask the question, the waiter returned with their orders. He placed the plates and glasses on the table before walking away with the tray tucked under his arm.

Krystal looked at her food, her appetite suddenly disappeared. She did not feel like eating anymore. She picked up her fork and stabbed at the spaghetti Bolognese repeatedly before she finally ate some of the food.

“What is it that you wanted to ask me?” her older sister asked quizzically as she began eating normally.

Krystal looked up and stared at her sister. She waited until Jessica’s eyes met hers before she spoke, “How have you been holding up after Yuri was sentenced to death?”

Silence ensued as soon as the question was asked. The question hung in the atmosphere uncomfortably. Krystal fidgeted as she waited for Jessica’s response. She felt bad for asking her older sister that question. Of course her sister was sad at first before she finally was able to move on.

“I’m not going to answer that question,” Jessica said quietly.

The social worker flinched guiltily. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I didn’t mean to make you feel sad.”

A small smile was formed on Jessica’s pretty lips. “It’s okay,” she replied.

Another moment of silence enveloped them after that and Krystal tried to search for things to ask her older sister so that she would spill what she knew about Yuri. Just as she was racking her brain for things to say, her eyes spotted the tattoo on Jessica’s right shoulder. The X seemed familiar somehow. It reminded her of the scar that was found on Hyoyeon’s and Jonghyun’s dead bodies in the picture that Mirror had sent to her.

Could it be…?

No, it could not be, right?

There was no way her sister could be connected to all of this. Her sister was far too absorbed in her own little world to even care about her much less about any curse. Besides, Jessica had never believed in such things, anyway. But then again, it was not impossible for her sister to be connected to this Mirror thing.

“Which part of America did you get that tattoo?” Krystal voiced out her wonder out loud. She observed her sister carefully. Since she studied psychology, she knew about body language.

Her sister was sitting with her right leg crossed over the other. She continued to eat not showing any kind of abnormal reaction to Krystal’s question. “Nah, I got it in New York City with Jiyong, my friend from there. He had also just come back to Korea,” she replied.

“Why X? Why didn’t you choose another pattern?” she asked suspiciously.

Jessica, however, merely smiled mysteriously at the question. She leaned forward slightly as though she wanted to share a secret with her. “That’s for us to know and for you to find out,” she whispered to the younger Jung.

As soon as Krystal heard her sister’s words, a chill went down her spine. For a moment, she thought that her sister was acting very weird with all the mystery but then, her sister laughed out loud, causing her to be taken aback. “Nah, just kidding,” the older Jung said, smiling in amusement. “Jiyong oppa wanted the pattern to be that way and I just went along with it.”

I see, the young woman was tempted to say. Instead she just nodded like the good girl she was trying to act like.
 

Krystal sighed softly as she waited for her guy best friend to pick her up from the restaurant after the tremendous dinner with her sister. She felt horrible for prying into her sister’s business. All this while, she had never cared about what her sister was doing but now, she felt guilty.

The guilt was trying to eat her alive as the only time she had ever shown concern to Jessica was for her own personal gain. It was wrong of her to do that.

It’s not like Jessica unnie has ever shown any concern to you, Krystal thought to herself just to make herself feel better. Her attempt was futile, though.

After the dinner, Jessica had left first as she said that she had some matters to attend to in her workplace before she was able to go home but Krystal did not mind. In fact, she was pleased instead. She did not want to be around Jessica’s presence any longer as she would just feel worse than she already did.

After the older Jung had left, she had immediately called Baekhyun for him to pick her up and being the good best friend he was, he told her he would be there in fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes was a long time. She did not have the patience to wait for that long. She did not want to think about the dinner, her sister, Mirror and whatever else that had been stressing her out anymore. She needed Baekhyun to distract her. He had always managed to put her mind off things that had been bothering her.

That was one of the reasons why she was in love with him.

At long last, a familiar car reached the parking lot. The car parked itself at an empty lot and Krystal approached it quickly, wanting to get out of the place as soon as possible. She opened the car door which had been unlocked so that she would be able to enter.

“Thanks for coming,” she said to the older guy as she entered the car. She closed the door and buckled her seatbelt.

“No problem,” Baekhyun replied, flashing his usual smile that never failed to make her stomach flop. “I will always do anything, everything, just for you, Krystal-ah.”

Even though his words were cheesy and seemed like it came from a B-grade movie, she knew that he meant it. The sincerity in his words was too obvious to be missed. A small smile formed on her lips. As expected, being with Baekhyun would always make her day brighter, or in her case, her night better.

“Why?” the question slipped out of before she could stop herself. Silence filled the air as Baekhyun pondered over how to respond to her question. She wanted to slap herself for asking such a question but at the same time, she was nervous to receive the answer.

“It’s because I love you,” he said simply.

Krystal could have sworn that her heart had stopped for a little while. Her cheeks went red slightly and she was glad that it was dark enough to cover the colour of her cheeks. Her heart began to beat faster. Oh, how much she would love to tell him that she loved him too but then, the older guy only saw her as a best friend, nothing more, nothing less. Or so she thought.

“I know that I’ve been saying that I love you for countless of times,” Baekhyun started quietly. “But I do mean it.” He looked at her directly in her eyes. “I’m in love with you, Krystal. Always have been, will always be.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. She had never expected those words to come out of his mouth. She had been yearning to hear that from him for such a long time but now when he finally said it, she felt numb. For a moment, she was happy to know that the guy she was in love with reciprocated her feelings. But then, she remembered Mirror’s warning.

Date Byun Baekhyun and either you or he will suffer the same fate as them.

Silence enveloped them once again as Krystal thought about how to reject him without hurting his feelings. She knew that it was impossible. She could either make both her and him happy by accepting his confession but at the same time risking one of their lives or she could reject him and their feelings would be hurt.

Between hurting and death, it was obvious which one was a better choice.

Suddenly, her phone beeped and Krystal was glad for the sudden distraction. Her sudden happiness soon dissipated as soon as she saw the message. It was from a private number.

I’ve warned you once and I’m warning you again: If you accept his confession, either you or he will end up just like Kim Hyoyeon and Kim Jonghyun did. –Mirror

Tears filled her eyes as soon as she read it. She and Baekhyun would never be able to be together. Mirror was making sure of it by threatening her. That wanted them to suffer by trying to hold back their feelings. Krystal gritted her teeth in anger.

At that moment, she really hated Mirror. She badly wanted to kill Mirror for doing this to them – all of them.

What have I ever done to deserve this? She wondered to herself desperately.

You’ve done horrible things, obviously.

“I’m sorry, Baekhyun oppa, but I don’t return your feelings,” she forced herself to say even though she badly wanted to tell him how much she was in love with him.

It was a tragic love story, really – a man and a woman who were in love with each other but could not be together because of a psychopath who threatened the woman that she would kill either of them if they ever got together. It would be the perfect drama. She was absolutely sure that the ratings would soar.

“I do love you, oppa,” she heard herself say. “Unfortunately, I only love you as a best friend.”

The sharp intake of breath that Baekhyun took in was audible. Krystal had to fight the instinct to cry. Her heart was hurting so much and she knew that he was hurting too. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that no sorry in this world could describe how sorry I am.

A fake smile made its way to his lips. He let out a nervous chuckle. “It’s okay,” he said quietly. “But we’re still cool, right? We’re still best friends, aren’t we?”

As much as Krystal wanted to assure the older guy that they still were best friends no matter what, she suddenly felt that she could not do this any longer. She could not have Baekhyun so close to her yet so far away from her. She could not joke around with Baekhyun without feeling the ache in her heart, knowing that they could never be together.

A lump was formed in and she had to swallow it.

“No,” she replied with tears in her eyes. She turned her face away from him so that he would not be able to see her face and so that she would not be able to see his. She did not want to see the hurt in his eyes. She did not want to see the confusion on his face. She could not stand seeing it.

“I can’t be friends with you, knowing that you have feelings for me. I can’t act like any of this did not happen. I can’t. If I ever see your face, I will always be reminded of it,” she said ruthlessly. “Get over me, Byun Baekhyun. I’m not worth it.”

Then, she unbuckled her seatbelt and pushed the car door open. “Thanks for coming but I think I’ll take the bus,” she said her last words before leaving the car and slamming the door shut.

As soon as she began to walk away, the tears spilled at last. She could no longer hold it anymore. The sadness that was crushing her was too much. She could not stand it.

Are you happy now, Mirror? Are you satisfied? Are you secretly laughing at my misery? Are you gleefully looking at me and snickering at me for my tragic love story? You may have won this round, Mirror, but I swear that I will destroy you once and for all.

I swear that I will hunt you down and kill you for all the miseries you’ve caused me.

You deserve it for being such a .

Just wait, Mirror, and I’ll come for you.

I will come for you and when that moment happens, you will regret messing with Jung Krystal. I will make sure that you regret it even if it costs me my own life. People like you need to be taught a lesson.

It was the first time that she had ever harboured such hatred for someone.

9^th February 2017, 9.00PM

Do Kyungsoo did not like police officers. He had never liked them and he doubted that he would ever like them.

To him, police officers were all nosy and annoying. Not to mention persistent too. They asked too many questions. They pressured people too much and they definitely did not respect people’s privacy.

But there was one particular policewoman that he really disliked – Kim Taeyeon.

The woman had rung his doorbell repeatedly before he finally opened the door and invited her in, being the perfect gentleman he was. He placed the cup of tea that he had made for her on the table in front of her but the woman did not even touch it.

“What brings you here?” he asked, feeling suspicious as he sat down on the opposite of her.

“I have a question to ask you,” the older woman stated emotionlessly.

Kyungsoo cracked a small smile. He was not surprised with her answer. He had expected it anyway. “I told you, I was alone the night I found–”

“I’m not here as a police officer, Kyungsoo-sshi,” she interrupted abruptly. “I’m here as an acquaintance. What’s your connection with Mirror?”

Silence filled the air as he pondered over what to answer. The hesitation was clear on his face and he did not know whether he should answer truthfully or not. It was obvious that he did not expect that question to be asked. “I don’t have any connection with Mirror,” he answered monotonously.

“Please don’t lie,” she said with a tint of warning in her voice. Her eyes were shooting daggers in his way and it was evident that she was feeling irritable. It would be better if he told her the truth, right?

Kyungsoo scoffed. Why should he tell her the truth? What benefit would he be able to gain from her? She could offer him nothing. She had no use to him so why should he tell her things? “I’m not telling you ,” he told her bluntly.

Taeyeon let out a loud, sharp laugh but her eyes told him that she was giving him a final warning. It was either he gave her some useful information or something bad would happen. Kyungsoo had a feeling that the older woman had no hesitation about hurting him in order to get answers even though she was a policewoman.

“Mirror is a ,” he said to her conversationally. “She will do whatever it is necessary in order to get what she wants. She’s burning with anger, rage and revenge. She’s damn dangerous. Good luck in handling her.”

“We know that,” she said simply and once again, silence filled the air before she chose to break it. “Girls love to hear, criminals will not do. Do you know the answer to the riddle?”

He smirked as soon as she had asked the question. What did she think? Of course he knew the answer. Everybody that knew who Mirror was would know the answer to the riddle. “What do you think?” he asked purposely trying to irk her.

Taeyeon, who realized what he was trying to do, did not fall into his trap. Instead, she answered calmly, “I think you know the answer to the stupid riddle.”

“You’ve got your answer then,” he replied. “So you may leave now.”

The police officer just snorted. “Tell me the answer,” she demanded irrationally.

Did she really think he would give her the answer just because she asked him to? As if. Life did not work that way. Just because you badly wanted something did not mean you would get it. “That, you have to solve it by yourself,” he said to her. Then, a feeling of pity washed over him for her – for all of them. If he were in their shoes, he would have been so afraid. “I shall give you a clue,” he stated.

“What clue?” she asked as she leaned forward, not making the effort to hide her interest.

“During the interrogation last time, what did I refuse to do?” he told her the clue in a form of question to get her thinking. From what he remembered in Taeyeon’s profile that Mirror had created, the police officer was really intelligent. Surely she would be able to solve this simple riddle?

“You refused to admit that you had company when you found the body,” she answered almost immediately.

A smile formed on his lips as he heard her answer. “You’ve got it, then,” he said, obviously pleased with her.

A look of confusion crossed over her face and just as she was about to open and ask more questions, her phone rang. She fumbled for her phone inside her bag and pulled it out. Before she pressed the answer button, Kyungsoo had already seen what was written on the screen.

Byun Baekhyun is calling…

9^th February 2017, 10.30PM

Taeyeon looked up at the neon sign outside the nightclub. The light was flashing on and off, attracting people’s attention. She looked at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a simple white low-cut shirt. At least she was not wearing skimpy clothes like the other girls.

With a small sigh, she flashed her ID to the bouncer. The bouncer just looked at it briefly before letting her enter, not bothering to really check whether it was fake or not. Well, that was not a surprise considering the number of high school students inside the club.

Taeyeon thought that it was obvious they were high school students. The way they acted told it all. Some of them were more obvious than the others. She scoffed at them. If she were in her police uniform, she would have thrown out all of those students but since she was in casual clothes, she had to restrain herself from the temptation.

She looked around the nightclub, trying to locate where Baekhyun was. On the phone just now, the younger guy sounded dead drunk and she wondered what had happened that caused him to be that way. It had to be something really bad as Baekhyun was not usually like this.

At long last, she spotted the younger guy sitting while taking his nth shot at the table where bartenders served. She made her way to him, bumping into numerous people in process. At long last, she reached him and took a seat next to him. She snatched the glass away from him and placed it down on the table.

“Noona, that’s so mean of you,” he whined childishly as his words slurred slightly.

Taeyeon just looked at him with no trace of emotion on her face. “Come on, Baekhyun,” she said patiently. “Let’s leave this place. You’ve had enough to drink.”

Instead of coming with her, Baekhyun let out a bitter chuckle. “I haven’t had enough to drink, noona,” he retorted. “No alcohol in this world would be enough to fill up the gap in my heart. My heart is hurting, noona.  It hurts so much. I need something to numb the pain. I need something to make me forget.”

“And out of all things, you chose alcohol to make you forget?” she screeched at him in disbelief for his stupidity. “You’re such an idiot. Alcohol doesn’t make you forget. It makes you drunk and crazy.”

“I know that now,” he replied wryly.

Taeyeon let out a sigh that she had been holding back. She hated seeing Baekhyun this way. Baekhyun had always been such an optimistic person. To see him so broken and scarred scared her. She knew that everybody had their own vulnerability but to see Baekhyun’s so exposed was terrifying. “What happened?” she asked softly, placing her hand on his lower back in order to give him some comfort.

Baekhyun turned to her and tears filled his eyes. He tried to blink them away but a tear managed to slip on his cheek. “My life is over,” he moaned. “She hates me now. How am I supposed to live with this?”

Confusion clouded her senses as she tried to piece what had happened. “Why do you think she, whoever this she is, hates you?” she challenged.

A dark chuckle escaped his lips and he could not stop himself from laughing. He was laughing at his wretched misery. He was mocking himself for getting his heart trampled on. A bitter smile reached his lips. “I crossed the line,” he explained as he grasped the edge of the table to keep his balance.

“I confessed to her just now and she rejected me,” he continued to say, his bitter smile never did leave his face. “She told me she could not stand being best friends with me anymore because of the feelings I have for her. She told me she could not bear to see me.”

Taeyeon wanted to say something to comfort the younger guy but before she could do that, Baekhyun had beaten her to it.

“Five years, noona,” he said, his voice breaking slightly. “Five freaking years I’ve been harbouring feelings for her and she trampled on my heart like it was a piece of ! I have feelings too, you know? If only I could turn back the time, noona, I would have not confessed to her.”

“Stop lamenting about it,” she ordered, not able to take his complaints any longer. “This has happened and nothing you do can change it. You must move on, Byun Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun ignored her advice. Instead, he asked rhetorically, “Aren’t girls supposed to love hearing a confession from a guy?”

She opened to say something but then snapped it shut as her mind started whirling. She looked at the younger guy in surprise but he just continued to blabber some nonsensical things that she no longer heard. But his constant talking was annoying her so she held up her finger to his lips in order to silence him as she began to think.

Aren’t girls supposed to love hearing a confession from a guy?

Those words kept on repeating itself like a broken record in her mind. She distinctly heard the change of music in the club but she could not bring herself to care. She was lost in her own thoughts.

“During the interrogation, what did I refuse to do?”

“You refused to admit that you had company when you found the body.”

It was then Kim Taeyeon got it. The answer was too obvious that she felt so stupid for not realizing it earlier. She was a police officer. She should have gotten it right the first time. But then again, the riddle was not exactly accurate.

Girls love to hear, criminals will not do.

Was it not obvious?

Aren’t girls supposed to love hearing a confession from a guy?

Well, some girls loved hearing a confession from a guy even though she did not love him back but all girls loved hearing a confession from a guy that they were in love with. As for criminals, most of them would not confess to their crimes at first unless evidence showed otherwise and they wanted to plead guilty in order to reduce the sentence that they would get.

“Mirror wants you to solve the riddle of the hidden message. She will be collecting the answers in a week’s time.”

“Collecting the answers?”

“You’ll see.”

Taeyeon knew now what Mirror wanted from them. The answer to the riddle was indeed confession but what Mirror wanted was not the word ‘confession’. The wanted them to confess to what they had done ten years ago.

Mirror wanted them to confess to cursing Kwon Yuri with The Heartless Curse. How she wanted them to confess, Taeyeon did not know but one thing was for sure.

“She will do whatever it is necessary in order to get what she wants.”

What Mirror wanted, she would get it no matter what.

Taeyeon turned to Baekhyun with panic evident in her eyes. “We must arrange a meeting with the eight others as soon as possible,” she stated.

Author's Note:

Hello everybody! I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. This is one of the chapters that I've been looking forward to write since the start of this story. I feel so happy that I've reached the fifteenth chapter although it takes quite a long time to write until here. There are more than twenty chapters to go and I hope I'll be able to complete this story.

I'm really thankful to everyone who has been supporting me in this story. Thank you so much for putting up with this author that updates very late. As I've stated before, updates will be totally random so no promises on when I will update. April and May will be tough on me as I've got a lot of exams and projects.

Thank you for subscribing, commenting and upvoting! I really appreciate it. Enjoy reading the next chapter! :)