"I was in love once." 

Hayi never truly loved Junhong. 

"He was so friendly and charming. He had the brightest smile. He was always willing to help out, no matter what the task was. He was so thoughtful and generous and sweet. You could just look at him and feel happier instantly. For me, there was no better feeling than being wanted and given attention. There was nothing better than him smiling at me."

Her heart always belonged to someone else.

"No one believed me when I talked about him. No one would give him the time of day when I brought him to school. They'd just look at him weirdly. I thought it was so strange. I thought... I just couldn't stand those looks if it were me. You see, that's why I had to leave."

He wasn't crazy. Because the world was even crazier. 

"All they could see was a doll. A terrible, terrible doll that was malformed and disgusting. That look was one of contempt. How could I carry around such an ugly doll and still love it with all my heart? Because I didn't see a doll..."

She saw the boy of his dreams. Just like he saw her.

"He danced for me. Just like I sang for you. The way he danced was so amazing. It was a talent I both envied and adored. I loved to watch him dance. And then, one day, he told me he couldn't dance anymore. He didn't feel safe. He didn't... He didn't... he told me he didn't love me. He told me there was only way he could dance again. I wanted him to dance forever. And that's why... that's why..."

She let him kill her. 

Junhong wasn't about to let her do the same. She was right. He had family and friends. People he cared about before he found Hayi huddled on top of a garbage dumpster. 

"You know I'm stronger than you," Junhong started, standing up and keeping himself in a steady, cautious stance. Hayi had her back to him, her hands still in the warm soap water. "You know I can beat you." 

"It's more than just that. I already have you right in the most vulnerable spot. You love me, Junhong, you love me with all your heart. You are stronger physically, you are smarter mentally... but you've opened your heart too foolishly. You think you can hurt the one person you've completely given yourself to? By hurting me, you're hurting yourself. Drive me away and that darkness is going to consume you, even with me gone. It's craving that light - the light that always trusts far too easily." 

He cursed her for telling the truth. He cursed himself for letting himself get into this hellhole.

One step towards her. It was one cautionary, consoling step. For deep down, he thought that the illusion his eyes were plagued with would come back if he could just hold her again. One step and she sliced the air between them, soapy bubbles flinging off the sharp kitchen knife. "I tried to protect you. I tried so hard. I couldn't anymore." 

Another lunge towards him, the tip of the blade ing forwards with intent to kill. Junhong stepped back, the back of his hip stabbing into the table corner. 

"You know, he used fire on me. Threw me against a wall, my hand shattered and my eye fell out. But he loved playing with the fire." 

There was no use trying to block her words out of his mind. They haunted him, like banshees clutching onto his spine and ripping the very courage that usually held him up so tall. He wanted to despise her. As an act of trying to convince her and himself, he grabbed a chair by the legs, pulled it over his head, and smashed it against the table. The wooden edges were sharp and splintered, he knew they'd guaranteed pain. Now, to draw incentive to lung back at Hayi.

... But there was nothing. Even now, with blade drawn and empty, glassy eyes, there was nothing he could hate about her. She was in the same position as him once. She had loved too easily, too naive for the darkness. She, too, was once perfect prey. Now, it had turned her into a desperate predator. 

"Hit me with those stakes, Junhong! Hit me! Please," she had screeched at first but it had slowly turned into a dreaded sob. "Just hit me. Break me first. Break me before the darkness comes to take both of us!" 

His head pounded with the inevitable, giving him all the reason to do as she said. She had tried to kill him, the love she proclaimed for him was a lie, she was selfish, and she was anything but good. She was even giving him the chance. Hayi was allowing him to overcome her. Hayi was trying to make him better than her. 

Like hell, he was no better. Because as much as he wanted to be valiant and noble, sacrificing his heart for his life, he couldn't. He was too much of a coward and had too much of a heart to let any harm come to her. It was why he had picked up the doll – the poor, scorched china doll with soft honey hair and a beautiful brown eye. He loved too easily but he also loved too hard. 

Hayi began to sob some more as he hung his head in defeat. 

"No, no, no, no!" she cried, clutching the knife close to her chest. "No, please! Please, why can't you do this for me? Why can't you give me the one thing that I want? They're going to make me –"

"Because I'm going to give what you need. And you need to sing."

In Junhong's mind, he was doing the right thing. He was doing this in the name of love. Like Hayi did when she allowed herself to burn. To burn in the hellish fire, to be maimed like some sort of game. 

Hayi had found herself in the same place as Junhong did. Her love had also begged her to do the same. He had demanded her to whack him with the baseball bat, shatter him to pieces so he would have to do no harm. His eyes were filled with such sadness and defeat, that even though he had no heart, she heard it shatter again like the most perfect porcelain plate. Her love had tried to get her to do the right thing to. 

Finding herself in his position, she swore she felt something inside her become cold and icy. She felt a hardening, as if she was trying to protect herself. She wasn't. She was going to have no control. She was going to be reminded of the curse. The curse she was born with. The curse Junhong was born with.

To love all the values and virtues, all the good attributes of a person, so much that the evil demons inside do no matter, even if they're set out to harm whoever comes close.