The library was dark and stuffy, the only light coming from the single lamp lit in the corner, far away from the door and any prying eyes. It was the middle of the night and, even though he knew he ought to be sleeping, Baekhyun was poring over old tomes to see if he could find something – anything – that might tell him more about his family’s curse.

Thankfully he wasn’t having to do it completely by himself. Kyungsoo had offered to help him, much to Yixing’s chagrin. What they were doing was very much against Madame’s rules, and Kyungsoo could lose his job – or worse – if they were discovered. But Kyungsoo was fairly fearless, and he’d only laughed when Yixing had pointed out how much trouble he could get into for helping Baekhyun.

So the two of them sat on the floor with the lamp between them, straining their eyes as they flipped page after dusty page in the old family books Baekhyun had found.

It seemed like a hopeless task. Baekhyun had already looked through these books about a billion times on his own, and nothing had stuck out to him as particularly important. But these old tomes were his only lead, and he’d be damned if he was going to give up without a fight.

Kyungsoo’s surprised voice interrupted the quiet of the library. “Did you notice that the back of this book’s binding is sticking up?”

Baekhyun glanced up at the book in question. It was the earliest family ledger of the bunch. He’d looked at it hundreds of times by now, and he’d probably noticed the binding at some point but he hadn’t really thought it important. “It’s, like, hundreds of years old. Of course it’s falling apart a little bit.”

But Kyungsoo shook his head, frowning. “I don’t think so, Baek. I think there’s something…” Wrinkling his nose, he used his fingernail to slit the paper on the back cover of the book.

“Hey!” Baekhyun exclaimed. “We’re going to get in a hell of a lot of trouble if Madame finds-!” But he stopped suddenly.

Kyungsoo peeled back the aged brown paper to reveal a folded, yellowed piece of paper underneath. Somebody had hidden the paper beneath the binding of the book.

Kyungsoo carefully took out the folded piece of paper and deferentially handed it to Baekhyun, who unfolded it with trembling fingers.

The paper seemed positively ancient, like it was in danger of crumbling into nothingness at the slightest breath. It appeared to be a letter, written in looped, barely legible handwriting that was smeared in some places and faded in others. Still, it wasn’t difficult to get the gist of the letter.

“I think it’s a love letter,” Baekhyun said. “From Kim Hoik.”

“Kim Hoik?” Kyungsoo said, curious, peering over Baekhyun’s shoulder. “The found of the Kim dynasty. Huh. That’s interesting.”

“What’s interesting?” Baekhyun wanted to know.

Kyungsoo jabbed his finger at the faded greeting, which professed undying love for someone with the initials WYW. “Whoever he wrote this letter to, it doesn’t appear to be his wife. His wife’s name was Gong Namjoo.”

Frowning, Baekhyun opened the family tree and pulled it closer to him so he could compare. “But look,” he said, jabbing at the dates on both the letter and the family tree. “This letter was written in 1834, the same year Kim Hoik married Gong Namjoo.”

Kyungsoo pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Well obviously Kim Hoik wasn’t feeling all that matrimonial towards his bride.”

But Baekhyun was focusing on the WYW in the greeting of the letter. “WYW…” he murmured. “What do you think her name was?”

“Yewon,” Kyungsoo said, pointing at a part further down in the letter. “I think he’s calling her by her name here.”

“So how do we find out who she was?” Baekhyun demanded.

Kyungsoo clapped him on the shoulder. “I don’t think we can, buddy. This letter is over a century old, and it would be hard to find anything about this girl even if we had her surname to search by. Besides, it’s probably not important.”

“How do you know?” Baekhyun demanded hotly. “This could be really important. Why else would this letter be hidden in the book?”

Kyungsoo shrugged, stifling a yawn. “I really don’t have a clue, Baekhyun. But it’s late. Maybe we should call it a night.”

Dawn wasn’t far off, so Baekhyun was forced to agree. He needed at least a couple hours of sleep before facing his advisers and Madame the following day. So he shelved the books, carefully tucking the letter into his pocket, and bid Kyungsoo goodnight.

Despite Kyungsoo’s presumption that it would be impossible to find out anything about the mysterious W. Yewon, Baekhyun was determined to at least try. Unfortunately, as he had learned early on during his stay with the Kims, his time was not his own, and he found very little free time to follow up on his rather ambiguous lead.

Even when he was able to shut himself up in his office without his aides or bodyguards, Madame had it set so every single webpage he visited on any of his computers was reported to her. Even if he had been able to search for W. Yewon, Madame would have known about it immediately and undoubtedly put a stop to it.

Baekhyun came up with a rather ingenious way around Madame when Yixing came to bring him a little midnight snack before retiring for the night one evening.

Baekhyun, who was hunched over a report at his desk, nearly tearing out his hair, looked up and said, “Xing, do you have a personal computer?”

Yixing looked a little taken aback by the question. “Do you think we’re living in the dark ages? Of course I have a laptop.”

Baekhyun beamed. “Can I borrow it?”

Yixing was instantly wary. “Why?”

“Because Madame has my web usage tracked, and she can’t know what I’m doing,” Baekhyun explained.

His friend was even more wary now. “And just what are you doing that Madame can’t know about?”

So of course Baekhyun had to tell Yixing everything, about the letter he and Kyungsoo had found in the ledger and about the mysterious and elusive W. Yewon.

Yixing was even more skeptical than Kyungsoo had been. “Baek, this letter was literally written almost two hundred years ago. What makes you think you’re going to find this girl with a common given name like Yewon?”

“I have to try,” Baekhyun insisted.

So Yixing gave in – as Baekhyun had hoped he would – and went to retrieve his laptop. “You’ve got an hour,” he said when he handed the computer to his friend.

Baekhyun immediately pulled up a search engine and typed in W. Yewon. The first page of results was nothing but youtube videos, artists, singers, and a spa in Los Angeles, California. The next several pages proved equally useless.

He changed tact, this time putting in W. Yewon along with the date 1834. This time, much to his surprise, he found a relevant article about five pages in. It was an old article, listing non-war related executions in Korea throughout the last several hundred years.

Yixing peered over Baekhyun’s shoulder. “Holy . So this W. Yewon was executed, huh?”

“If this Woo Yewon is the same W. Yewon in Kim Hoik’s letter, then yes,” Baekhyun said, skimming over the few sentences accompanying her name. “It doesn’t say much here. Just that she was executed for unholy liaisons, whatever the hell that means.” 

“Well, at least you’ve got more than you had to begin with,” Yixing said, taking his laptop back. “Even if you don’t have the whole story yet. You might want to try checking with some local historians at the universities in town. They might know more about it.”

Baekhyun gave him a wry smile. “I thought you didn’t want me to pry into my family’s history?”

“Well you’re going to do it anyway, so I may as well help you,” Yixing said with a dramatic sigh. “Now get some sleep already.”

If Baekhyun had thought it was difficult to get some alone time to privately research W. Yewon, getting free time to visit a university – without his bodyguards – was impossible. Yifan and Zitao followed him like silent – but scary – shadows, and getting away from them was out of the question. Not that he had any extra time between work and learning how to properly run the Kim family.

In the end, he had to try subterfuge. Weeks had passed while he hadn’t been able to follow up on his lead, and he was starting to get desperate. So he went to Madame.

“What do you want?” she demanded nastily when he entered her private lounge.

He couldn’t blame her for being suspicious. This was the first time he had sought her out on his own before. He bowed low, respectfully. “Madame, I have a favor to ask.” She snorted as though this was amusing, but nodded for him to continue. “There’s a professor at Seoul University who wrote a rather excellent paper about international commerce. I’d really like to speak with him, to discuss our company’s policies. But I think it would make him feel uncomfortable if my bodyguards were to come with me.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “So you’re asking permission to leave your bodyguards behind while you go gallivanting around town?”

“No, not at all,” Baekhyun assured her quickly. “I fully except Yifan and Zitao to accompany me to the university. All I ask is that they remain outside the professor’s office while he and I discuss the international policies. Just for his ease of mind. I would hate for him to cut our meeting short.”

Madame squinted at him as if trying to find some chink in the plan he had presented to her, but in the end she nodded. “Fine. I will inform your bodyguards that they are to wait outside the office while you meet with the professor. But just know, Kim Baekhyun, that this will be the last time I am lenient with you. If you try anything, it will be the end of you.”

“It’s Byun Baekhyun,” Baekhyun replied automatically. “And don’t worry, Madame. I just want to speak with the professor.”

Yifan and Zitao were obviously displeased with having to stand outside when Baekhyun went to meet Professor Lim, whom Yixing had orchestrated a meeting with outside the network of Madame’s spies, but they did as they were told. 

“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice,” Baekhyun said, bowing low when he entered the office and closed the door behind him.

Professor Lim, who was quite old and sporting a long white beard, smiled. “Of course, Mr. Kim. But I must say, I’m surprised as to the nature of your inquiry. Not many people these days care about things like this.”

Baekhyun motioned for the professor to keep his voice down, just in case Yifan and Zitao were listening from outside the office. “It’s actually very important to me, Professor. I think this Woo Yewon holds the secret to my family’s history.”

“You mean the curse,” Professor Lim said with a smirk. “Oh yes, my boy. Everyone who knows anything about this city's history knows about the 'curse' on your family.”

Baekhyun pulled out the letter he had been hiding in his jacket and handed it to the professor. “I found this hidden in the back of one of the old family ledgers,” he explained. “I think it’s addressed to Woo Yewon, who would’ve been executed not long after this letter was written. It’s also about the same time that my ancestor, Kim Hoik, married his wife.”

Professor Lim took the letter and examined it. “Yes, you were quite right in your assumption that Woo Yewon and the W. Yewon in this letter are the same. She was executed because it was discovered she was carrying on an affair with Kim Hoik. She was just a maid, far beneath his station. Normally people of your ancestor’s station had many mistresses and it was socially acceptable, but Woo Yewon had the lofty aspiration to become his wife. His family certainly couldn’t have that.”

“So the unholy liaison I read about was her relationship with Kim Hoik?” Baekhyun asked eagerly.

“Not quite,” Professor Lim said, still examining the letter. “Premarital intimacy was to be condemned, of course, but not by death. No, Kim Hoik’s family accused her of witchcraft, and so she burned at the stake as a witch.”

“Was she?” Baekhyun asked breathlessly.

Professor Lim chuckled, handing the letter back and removing his glasses. “You believe in witches, do you, Mr. Kim? No, she was just a young girl who dreamed a bit too high. Poor thing. She must have felt so betrayed.”

Baekhyun frowned. “Why?”

“Because her former lover, Kim Hoik, was the one who first accused her of witchcraft,” Professor Lim explained. “He said that the only reason he’d been with her was because she’d used her black magic on him. This letter you’ve shown me certainly suggests otherwise.”

Baekhyun thanked the Professor and rejoined his bodyguards. If they had heard any of the exchange that had taken place inside the office, they didn’t comment on it.

Late that night, when they were finally alone in Baekhyun’s apartments, he told Yixing everything he had discovered. Yixing held up a hand to stop him. “Uh uh. No way.”

“No way what?” Baekhyun demanded.

“I know you’re going to suggest that this Woo Yewon was a witch who cursed your family,” Yixing said. “And I refuse to listen to such nonsense.”

“But maybe it’s not nonsense!” Baekhyun insisted. “I mean, think about it. She thought she was going to marry Kim Hoik and then he betrayed her. Maybe she cursed his family in retaliation.”

“She wasn’t a witch, Baekhyun. Witches aren’t real,” Yixing said seriously. “She was just a poor girl who got used and abused by someone with power. Things like that, unfortunate though they may be, happen all the time.”

Baekhyun pouted. “Say what you want, but this is the best lead I’ve found. This family is cursed, and I don’t want to be another victim of it. I’m going to find a way to break it or I’m going to die trying.”