"Ah, finally! Summer break! Summer break! Summer break!" An excited Jongdae chanted as he ran out of his detention.

He made his way home after a tiring 10 months of school. It was getting dark outside and Jongdae was rushing home. He ran past the usual stores he would in the morning but backtracked at an unusual site. All the stores were closed except this odd, out of place antique looking store. Being the curious guy he was, Jongdae made his way to the store. It wouldn't hurt to explore, now would it? The bells on the door chimed as he walked in and he heard a faint 'hello' from the back. His greeting was twice as loud as the one he'd gotten. Oh well.

As the boy was walking around, an odd deck of cards caught his sight. The box was plain with a design on it but something about it was so intriguing that he was compelled to buy it. "Ahjumma," he called out to behind the counter. 

"Oh, hello there." 

The lady behind  the counter responded before her eyes landed on the box he was holding. 

"How may I help you?"

She asked with her gaze following Jongdae's hands that were bringing the box to the counter.

"Ah, I was just hoping to purchase these," he said pointing to the deck. 

The lady laughed before shaking her head. "Take them. No cost. I've been wanted to get rid of them for a while anyway."

"no, no, no. how could I possibly-"

"take it, son. It'll make me happy."

"aahh thank you so much!" Jongdae smiled and bowed respectively.

"I'll come back again!" 

"Son! remember this. Think carefully; choose wisely" he stared at her in confusion before leaving. 

After getting home, Jongdae got comfy in sweatpants and grabbed a bowl of ice cream before sitting down to watch a movie.

***

As the ending credits rolled at twelve O'clock Jongdae got up to go to sleep. He pulled out the deck of cards and placed them on his table before throwing himself onto his bed for his precious sleep. 

Eyelids drooping and in between sleep and reality, Jongdae thought he saw his cards glowing. 

"I'm asleep. I'm pretty sure I'm asleep."

The glowing didn't stop so he pulled out his phone. 

From: Jongdae 
To: Joonmoney hyung

    Hey hyung. come over right now. I bought these playing cards today and they're glowing.

From: Joonmoney hyung
To: Jongdae

    Go to sleep Jongdae, you're drunk

From: Jongdae
To: Joonmoney hyung

    Hyung please. I'm perfectly sober. I'm not kidding. They're ing glowing. Hyung please. I need you.

From: Joonmoney hyung
To: Jongdae

    The things I do for you, you little . I'll be there in 10

Jongdae rolled in his bed and sat up while staring at the glowing cards. Turning his camera on, Jongdae took a picture of the cards as they were glowing. As he looked at the picture he took, his brows furrowed in confusion. In the picture the cards weren't glowing but when he looked up they still were. The design of the cards was still there though.

Ten minutes later Jongdae got a call from Joonmyun, he picked up immediately. "You wanna open the door?"

"Maybe."

Jongdae hung up and went to open the door letting joonmyun in. They went back up to Jongdae's room.

"You don't smell like alcohol, so where are these glowing cards?"

Jongdae pulled Joonmyun to his dresser and pointed at the still glowing cards although the glowing had started to fade and the design on the card was replaced by foreign writing.

Whoa. You weren't lying, Dae." Joonmyun picked up the cards, "And they're warm too. What does this writing mean?"

Jongdae looked at the cards closely, "I don't know. They didn't have writing before." He pulled out his phone and went to the picture he took earlier and showed it to Joonmyun, "They had a simple design before they started glowing. This is too weird hyung. Cards shouldn't change designs." 

"Jongdae, cards shouldn't even be glowing in the first place. Did the person you bought them from tell you anything?"

"It was a lady, and no, they were free, she said she just wanted them gone." Jongdae scrunched his nose

"You took cards from a random lady. For free?" Joonmyun stared at Jongdae 

"Yes."

"I cannot with you anymore." Joonmyun put the cards back down, "Lets look online and see if there's any history on them. Then tomorrow let's go see if we can ask the lady about them.

Jongdae nodded and walked back to his bed, grabbed his laptop off his side table and pulled open Google. "Ah, I remember something the lady said before I left. She told me to think quickly and choose wisely. I didn't understand what she meant."
Joonmyun looked back at the cards. The scripture on them looked like they had four words. "Think quickly. Choose wisely."
Jongdae looked at him

"Try searching those words." Joonmyun looked back at Jongdae while he started to type away at his laptop.

"Okay, so, I'm not getting anything." Jongdae pouted

"Try 'old antique playing cards'." Joonmyun suggested as he sat down beside Jongdae

"Hmm." Jongdae's eyes scanned through the search results, "Aha! I  think I got something!" He clicked open the link.

"It just says that there were some old cards that rich people played to get rid of their boredom. This doesn't help." Jongdae and Joonmyun continued to search some more but didn't get any answers

"Holy- look at the time. Jongdae its two o'clock!" Joonmyun jumped up

"Oh wow, I didn't even realize. Its too late to go home, stay over. We can go to the shop tomorrow and see if the lady can answer our questions?" 

"Are you sure? Won't your parents mind? What about clothes?" 

"Yeah! Nah, they leave for work early in the morning, besides they love a perfect kid like you. And you're smaller than me, you can fit in my clothes."
Joonmyun nodded and Jongdae made room on his bed for him. 

"Night hyung!"

"Night idiot."
_________________________

When the two woke up the next morning, Jongdae gave Joonmyun some of his older and smaller clothes to wear. After getting dressed, they headed out to the store. 

"I swear it was right here,"  Jongdae stated as he stood in the spot the store was. 

"Are you sure it was here? Maybe we should walk around or ask the neighboring stores?" They nodded and made their way over to the store. 

"Ahjussi, would you happen to know if there was an antique store next to yours?" Joonmyun asked politely. 

"Antique store around here? Of course not. There wasn't and never will be." 

"Ah, thank you anyway!" The two males bowed and walked out. 

"Hyung, the store really was right here! I'm not lying." 

"I know you aren't. There's something very wrong about these cards and this whole situation, Dae. Very wrong. How about we head to the library?"

Jongdae and Joonmyun made their  way to the library and asked for the old history section as soon as they arrived. They scanned through many different aisles and shelves until Jongdae spoke up. 

"Hyung! Hyung, over here! I think i found something." 

"Yeah? What is it?" 

"It was in the myth section, but i found a book with the same foreign writing on the cards." 

"Then what are you waiting for to read it?" 

"Sorry, sorry." Jongdae skimmed through the useless information in the book before stopping as he found something interesting. 

       Jung In Soo was a man who believed in things that weren't realistic. He believed magic existed and could be done by humans themselves. The man wasn't a bad person but the way the others percieved him was weak, the sole reason being that he was afraid of many things. In Soo didn't bother paying attention to their stupid words but he'd had it one day. That day he crossed all lines.

"Aye, Soo, you aren't going to play with us again today? Too scared to lose?" One of the females laughed and the others laughed along with her. 

"I'd rather be alone," He seethed and started to walk away. 

"Of course you want to be alone. You never want to play with us. People like you don't fit in our cirlce anyway. Go sit in a corner and be afraid of everything like the wuss you are," The whole room burst into laughter at the comment, a few words of agreement flying here and there. 

In Soo's hands balled into fists before he growled out at everyone. "I hope this same game ruins your life and everyone else who plays it. I hope your fears consume you. I hope you get stuck and never come out. I curse you all and your foolish card game!" 

Jongdae immediately shut the book, giving Joonmyun a look. "The cards are cursed." 

Joonmyun wasn't paying attention and was in his own world, "What did it mean by the fears consuming you."  

"We could find out." 

"Dae, seriously?" Joonmyun eyed his friend.

"Yeah." Joonmyun looked at Jongdae again, but something changed in his eyes this time

"Dae?"

"I'll text everyone. We'll meet at my house tomorrow and play this game. Let's see if we can beat the curse. I think we can. Don't you hyung?" Jongdae turned his head and look Joonmyun right in the eye. Joonmyun back off a little at his friend's odd behaviour.

"Kim Jongdae. Get a hold of yourself. We could put everyone's life in danger. We don't even know what kind of game it is." Joonmyun turned around,

"I'm going to get rid of those cards."
_______

Back at the house Joonmyun ran up to Jongdae's room and grabbed the cards off of his table the turned around and started to walk right back out the house.

"Hyung! What are you doing! The lady gave the cards to ME! It's my decision what should happen to them!" Jongdae ran after Joonmyun
Joonmyun ran to the little river by Jongdae's house and emptied the card case into the water. When Jongdae caught up he gasped at the sight of the cards floating away. "HYUNG! How could you!"

"Dae. They. Are. Cursed. They're probably dangerous. And you want to put your friend's lives at stake just to see what the game is about? Get a hold of yourself!" Joonmyun grabbed Jongdae's shoulders and shook him

Jongdae turned his head away from Joonmyun not replying him.

"Fine. I don't care. I'm going home. Do whatever you want Jongdae." Joonmyun let go and went home

_______________

That night Jongdae lay on his bed holding his head trying to calm an oncoming migraine. Those cards had a weird affect on him and he felt it. When he was Joonmyun earlier he wasn't acting like himself. It was like the spirit of those crazy old people came over him. 

No matter how hard he tried, sleep decided not to welcome Jongdae that night. He rolled around his bed trying to make the pain in his head go away. During the early hours of the morning Jongdae's head started to feel lighter and painless. He decided to go get a glass of water but when he got up in his bed his mouth dropped open. The cards were placed on his dresser. He got up and went over to them. They were all there packaged properly, intact and dry. There was no sign of what Joonmyun did to them earlier. Jongdae freaked out. "It's the curse. The curse wants me." 

He ran to his phone and called Joonmyun. After several rings he finally picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hyung! Joonmyun hyung!"

"Jongdae?! What the hell man! Why are you calling me at- why the hell are you calling me at 4 in the morning!" Jongdae could tell that his usually calm and composed hyung was getting angry

"Hyung! The cards. They're here. They're sitting on my dresser. They look exactly like they did right before you threw them in the river!" Jongdae was close to crying from the shock, "Hyung I think I got the curse!"

"What in the actual- Jongdae! Did you swim in the river and collect the cards? Are you a maniac now!?"

"NO! No hyung! I swear! I didn't! They just appeared here!" 

"What the." Joonmyun rubbed his forehead

"What do I do hyung!?" 

"Do we really have another choice? Tch. As much as I hate this, we need to play. Play the damned game. And win. Text the boys in the morning. Tell them to come over tomorrow act like there's nothing wrong. We can't have them running away. We have to win Jongdae. Do you hear me. WIN."

"Alright. Alright hyung. I'll talk to you later then, I guess. My head hurts. I'm going to take medicine and sleep." 

"Night dae, don't do anything stupid please." 

Jongdae hung up and went to grab a tylenol and water. After taking them he finally got his sleep.

In the morning after much contemplation and a long deep breath Jongdae pulled out his phone

From: Jongdae
To: My loyal es
    
      Ooyy. Everyone meet at my house tomorrow @ noon!  Found something interesting to show you!!

He took a deep breath and threw his phone to side. He really hoped that everything went alright. His friends meant a lot to him and he needed to win to keep them alive. 

Looking at the cards with new determination Jongdae left his house for fresh air but not before muttering, "I will own you." to the cards.