It wasn’t a pretty day that day. The rain had been pouring relentlessly, banging  down against the ground like miniature nails. The earth had melted into the streams around. Roads had become pools of murky water. The sky had been dull the whole morning and in the afternoon, Dohyun and Miyong were taking their new born baby boy to be baptised at the church in the middle of town. They couldn’t drive; the road conditions were too terrible so Miyong held her son under a cloak over her chest, gently holding him in place whilst Dohyun held an umbrella over his wife and son, allowing the rain that had luckily softened to fall over him.

“On all days…” Dohyun sighed, complaining once again. He looked up at the sky and almost tripped on a rock that had been brought down on the pavements from the newly formed streams on the roads.

“Be careful, silly,” Miyong continued on her way carefully, watching her each and every step. “And as I’ve already said, our baby was born yesterday – a sunny day, not today!”

“Yes, yes, okay, yes, you’re right… But then again we’re naming him today…”

“Oh gosh, Dohyun. We’ve got to name him, too. Can I please name him Jongin on the register?”

“I thought we decided Kyungsoo? I don’t particularly like Jongin, actually.”

“I hate Kyungsoo, I told you ages ago! Okay. Fine, no Jongin or Kyungsoo. Jonghyun? Jong…dae? Jong…min?” Miyong almost slipped on the ground but Dohyun didn’t notice. He was too busy thinking.

Miyong was becoming agitated.

“We both liked Jongin first. You didn’t complain…”

Dohyun nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I did like Jongin.”

“Please can we have Jongin? Kim Jongin? Our son?”

Dohyun was stuck in deep thought as they approached the road heading to the church before he decided he liked the ring of Kim Jongin.

“Okay, our son is now Kim Jongin. We’ll register him after we baptise him, yeah?”

Jongin wriggled in Miyong’s arms and Miyong patted him gently with care, cooing at him. Dohyun grinned goofily at his young family, feeling proud of his son and his beautiful wife.

The two didn’t notice an old woman step out and block their path until Dohyun knocked into her, pushing her down onto the wet floor. In seconds she was splattered with mud. Dohyun lifted her straight to her feet, apologising profusely.

The woman was not happy. Not at all.

“You’ve made a grave mistake,” the old lady glared at Dohyun. Miyong suppressed a laugh and Dohyun ended up smirking at the woman childishly.

“Listen, old lady, I didn’t see you and I’m sorry, alright?” Dohyun raised an eyebrow, trying to stop grinning evilly at the hideous old woman.

“Your blindness will cost you your son,” the old lady eyed the baby in Miyong’s arms. “Give him to me until he turns ten, to which you can have him back.”

Dohyun and Miyong were startled to silence. The woman kept her steady gaze.

“How about no, you crazy woman,” Dohyun shook his head, angered by the idiocy of the woman in front of him. She really was ugly.

“Do you want forgiveness? If you do, I only have ten years to live and in this time, I would like to raise a child. I will gift him with all the joys life can bring and he will live a long, prosperous  life. If you don’t hand the boy over, I will curse him so that if he experiences any form of love, he will die. Choose wisely.”

“Right, you old hag. You think you can curse him… with your ugly, dumb- face?” Dohyun acted out like the twenty one year old he was, ridiculing the woman.

“I take that as a no, then,” the woman eyed the baby widely, as if… cursing him. Miyong tried to cover him away from her long, evil, sinister gaze but it only took seconds. The woman turned away and walked off.

“Yeah, yeah, keep walking you insane old freak!”

“Dohyun, stop it,” Miyong snapped. “I don’t like that woman. Leave her alone. Let’s just go to the church, okay?”

Dohyun nodded and put him arm around Miyong, still grasping the umbrella over the three of them under the light drizzle.

Miyong her son’s head and felt a surge of pain inside her heart. Something felt wrong. Gulping, Miyong stopped Dohyun and wanted to check her son. She unwrapped him enough to check his temperature and vital signs.

Little baby Jongin was not breathing.

“He’s not breathing GET HELP!” Miyong shrieked at the top of her voice. Dohyun dropped the umbrella in the mud and ran to the nearest door. He banged against it hard until a kind man opened it, revealing two young children behind him.

“Yes?” The man said.

“Please, call help! My son isn’t breathing…” Dohyun wept suddenly, pointing towards his wife and son. The man dashed right over and took the boy from Miyong’s grip. His two sons followed him.

“Please, quickly, come in from the weather, I can try and resuscitate the boy,” the man said.

Dohyun brought his wife into the dark house. The door was shut behind them.

“Yunho, go and call the ambulance and take Junmyeon with you,” the man ordered quickly. Yunho, the older of the two nodded and grabbed his little brother’s hand before running off to the nearest phone whilst the man began attempting to resuscitate baby Jongin.

Miyong wept in Dohyun arms. Dohyun, on the other hand, realised that perhaps the woman’s curse was correct.

Maybe if they left, Jongin would survive.

Miyong wept on the floor and Dohyun went to the kind man.

“Sir, his name is Kim Jongin,” Dohyun wept. The man nodded.

After a few attempts, the baby came to life once again. When the ambulance arrived, there was no sign of the boy’s parents. The kind man, Sanghun, didn’t see them leave. His sons observed the baby unhappily.

“Daddy, he’s all wrinkly,” Yunho looked at him with disgust.

“He’s a baby…” Sanghun looked at the boy. The ambulance crew told Sanghun to look after the boy for the moment as he was alright. They asked him to care for him until they found the parents.

Sanghun picked up the boy and put him into Junmyeon’s cot upstairs.

When he came back down, a letter had been posted through the door. Sanghun picked up the paper and read it.

 

 

Just moments before, the couple had found the old woman. The woman was extremely satisfied as she turned into thin air right in front of them. Before she left, she told the two that if they continued to live and love him, even if they didn’t have him with them, he would die. There was only one way out of the curse. He had to fall in love with the right person and the curse would be lifted.

Miyong and Dohyun made their decision together, sobbing uncontrollably.

 

 

Sanghun re-read it in complete shock.

“Dear kind sir, please keep our son. His name is Kim Jongin. Please don’t show him any love or he will die. In order for our boy to live, we must die. We leave him with you. Please, please don’t show him love, please… We sincerely beg this of you. His curse will be broken when he falls in love but if he experiences love with someone who is not his true love, he’ll die.”

 

 

And so, Kim Jongin was brought up without any sign of love.