"What the hell was that?"

"I don't know."

"Come on, Mino. You can tell me. What was that out there?" Jieun squinted her eyes. "Don't make me force it out of you. I can tell the others about the situation—"

"Okay, okay!" Mino exclaimed, stopping her from continuing. He rubbed his neck. "I don't know what it was. Honest. Don't give me that look, Jieun. I'm serious." He sighed. "All I remember is that I just really wanted to get this voice out of my head and I just wanted to kill."

"Kill what?"

"I don't know. Something, anything. I just wanted to see blood and mass murder." He shivered. "It's disgusting when I talk about it now, but at that time, it was the most beautiful image I had in my head."

"So you were becoming a psychopath?" Jieun said. She reached over to his ears. "How are your ears, though? That must've been painful."

"I think I can't hear as well with my left ear anymore," he said, disappointed. "My right ear is okay. Clogged with blood, but Naeun said that she's getting something that will help with that."

"That's good," Jieun said. She sighed. "I can't believe that the curse could do such a terrible thing to you."

"I can't believe that you managed to pull off that lie," Mino said. "You'd think that those three would catch on with our situation, but obviously that's not the case."

"That doesn't mean that you should loosen your guard."

"I know, I know. I'm not an idiot."

"That's not what I was trying to say—"

The door opened. Jieun and Mino looked up, noticing Taemin and Naeun coming into the room. Naeun seemed rather happy as she swung her bag back and forth. She skipped over to Mino's side to check on his ear.

"Which ear was the one where you think it's clogged with blood?" Naeun asked.

"My right one," Mino said, pointing at it.

Nodding, she pulled out a couple of items from her bag. She started mixing several liquids together, along with strange cubes that dissolved in the liquid. Mino gulped, but he kept quiet, knowing that it would be wiser to let Naeun do whatever she was doing rather than question her skill.

Taemin glanced over at Jieun. "Are you busy?"

She pointed at herself. "Me?"

"No. I was talking to the chair," he said sarcastically.

"Oh. The chair's not busy. I think you should take it out for a walk or something. Who knows, maybe you can sit on it outside," Jieun replied rhetorically.

Taemin glared at her. "Is this funny to you?"

She gulped. "No sir."

"Are you busy?"

"No."

"Then follow me."

Jieun glanced behind her shoulders. "What about Naeun and Mino—"

"They'll be fine," Taemin said, grabbing Jieun's wrist without letting Naeun see. "Come on."

He pulled her out of the room, much to her surprised. Nevertheless, she followed. She had no reason to run, so why not?

The two walked out of the room and out of the inn. He led her through the crowd until they arrived at a certain building. 

"What is this place?" Jieun asked. Her eyes rolled over to a helpless villager being pummeled by a couple of other creatures, who were standing right in front of the store. She gulped.

"You still have that bracelet on you?" he asked.

"I can't take it off," she said.

"Good. We're selling it," he told her. "Let's go."

Jieun widened her eyes and dug her heels against the ground, preventing him from pulling her any further. He stopped and glared at her, while Jieun brought the wrist with the bracelet closer to her chest.

"You can't do that!" Jieun exclaimed. "I don't want to die!"

"Relax," Taemin said, tugging her inside the building. "These guys are professionals. They know how to get rid of an enchantment—"

"No, no, no! I don't care!" Jieun shouted. She grabbed onto the corner of the wall, while Taemin continued to pull her other arm. "I am not dying! I'm not dying now, I'm not dying tomorrow, I'm not dying at all!"

"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed. "You are such a baby!"

"Yeah, a baby who wants to live!" she shrieked.

"It's not going to hurt! You're not going to die!" He blew his bangs to the side. "Just stop and come with me!"

"No, no, no!" Jieun yelled. Her heart raced in fear. "I'm not going to die!"

"Damn it, Jieun! It's not so bad!" he repeated. "All we're doing is breaking the spell on that bracelet so that we can sell the bracelet for a higher price!"

"Who the hell cares about that? Damn you and your sneaky money tactics! That's basically like killing me to get money!" Jieun screamed.

From the building, Myungsoo quickly rushed down to come to their side.

"Dude, Taemin," Myungsoo said, panting. "They want something else to trade. Have you gotten the item, yet? They've been hearing someone screaming outside, and they want to kill that person to shut them up. We better hurry and trade before they do that."

Jieun paled, while Taemin gritted his teeth.

"You idiot!" Taemin hissed. "That was Jieun screaming about not wanting to die! Now—"

I wish we could just go to a better place than this dump! Jieun pleaded, nearly in tears.

Crack!

The bracelet made a slightly larger opening. Golden powder fell and touched the ground. A spark of light immediately blinded the three. She gasped, and so did the boys. The three squinted their eyes from the blinding light as they felt something them into the light. 

When the spark disappeared, so did the three. Everyone continued to mind their own business, pretending as if they did not see such a light. However, no one could forget the brilliant radiance that struck their eyes. It was an awfully familiar radiance that certain older folks recognized.

It is here, some creatures thought, rushing to their king. The Galaxial Wish has appeared.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Mino cried out.

Out from his ear, a red leech-like bug crawled out. When it caught sight of Naeun, it screamed at her until she pulled it out of Mino's ears with a tweezer. It kept screaming at her until she sliced it up. Once it was dead, she began to grind the bug in a bowl, adding more ingredients to creature something else.

"How's your ear?" Naeun asked him.

"That was gross," he complained. "You shoved that thing in my ear and it started moving around. I could hear it moving! It's like having a spider in my ear, except it was really warm and felt like it was eating my brain."

"Stop exaggerating and tell me how you feel. Can you hear again? That parasite should've cleared out the blood," she explained.

"Well, it surely did that. I can hear fine, now. Maybe better," he commented.

"Good. Now, what's the problem with your other ear?" she asked.

"I just can't hear as well with it. I don't feel like it's clogged or anything. It just feel like it's deafened or something."

"Well, let's see if this works," Naeun muttered. She added some other special spices to the bowl and began to grind a leaf with unusual features and colors. It kind of looked like a feather, but when she blended it with the ingredients, it made a crunchy sound.

"What's that?" Mino asked curiously.

"Fairy wings," Naeun said. "It's illegal, but I found some in the black market."

"Fairy wings? Don't fairies need that to fly or something?"

"It's also their source of living! Without it, they die!" Naeun said in a rather happy tone.

"You people disgust me," he muttered.

"Hey, these fairies are bred for one purpose: to provide the market with its fairy wings. Now, show me that one ear and let me put this on it."

Mino lied down with the deafened ear facing up the ceiling. Grabbing a brush, Naeun carefully applied the new mixture on his ear. She slathered it around his ear and even in the inside. He squirmed, not liking the brush poking his skin and the medicine sticking to him.

"I can't help but think about all the vulnerable fairies who died just to help someone hear," Mino muttered.

"You just be quiet and sleep on it," she instructed him.

He let out some grunts until he saw Naeun cleaning up the table. As she tidied up the room, he couldn't help but ask her a few questions.

"When did you meet Myungsoo and Taemin?" he asked.

"Why are you so curious?" Naeun asked back.

"I was just thinking that Jieun and I receive so many help form you guys, but we hardly know anything about you."

"That's true. You guys are pretty needy," Naeun agreed. She sighed and stopped folding her clothes. "To be honest, I met Myungsoo first."

"Really?"

"Yep. Except, I can't really remember what he told me. I just remember him waking me up and apologizing. Later, when I woke up, he was lying down besides me, but he had no memories of doing such a thing. I think it was just a dream or something," she explained.

"When did you meet Taemin?"

"Right after I met Myungsoo. The two of us roamed around and we saw Taemin." She paused. "I guess we're the same as you. Honestly, it's always Taemin who's bringing someone along with our group. Then it's up to the newcomers to decide whether or not they want to continue with us or not. It's funny, though. Every time they leave, they end up dying. It's like they're not supposed to leave."

"That reminds me, didn't Taemin say something about one of the teammates attempting to kill him earlier? Is that one case of the newcomers coming and leaving?" Mino asked.

"Exactly. This time, it was different though. You two came right away when Hyeri disappeared. It usually takes some time before people join us," Naeun said. 

"Does that mean we're different?" He frowned. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily. It's just weird," Naeun said. She stopped for a brief moment. She shuttered, then looked out the open windows. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"There was suddenly a space of nothing out there."

"Like someone disappeared?" He paused. "Teleportation?"

"No. In teleportation, a creature is able to dissolve itself to matter and experience an intense speed as it reaches its destination in seconds. This is different." She lifted her hand in the air. "It's like something existed here, but then stopped existing." She turned to Mino. "It's not a normal power."

He paled. "A-A curse?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. She inhaled slowly through her nose. "It's clean. It's soothing. Not a curse. Curses don't give you this kind of feeling."

"So what is it? Why did you take notice of it?"

She frowned, unable to answer that question herself. She stood still and closed her eyes, listening to the wind whisper the answer to her. Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open and she held onto her breath.

"I can't sense them," Naeun whispered. "That's why I noticed."

Mino scrunched his eyebrows. "Okay, Naeun, as if much as I understand that this world is magical and all, I can't understand anything you're trying to tell me. Can you simplify that to something I can understand?"

"I can't sense him. I can't sense Taemin. He's not breathing," Naeun said nervously. "I can't sense Myungsoo, either. Jieun doesn't exist." She quickly turned to pack. "I can't sense anything. None of those three are breathing."

"You can sense someone just by their breaths?" Mino tuned a whistle. "Wow, amazing."

"What are you doing? Get up! Pack up!" Naeun exclaimed, scolding him.

"Is it that bad?" Mino asked. He pointed to his ear. "What do I do with this stuff?"

"Who cares about you? Those three are missing!" Naeun shot him a glare. "Taemin is missing! Jieun is missing!"

She rushed around the room, gathering her belongings and other important items. Mino watched before getting up on his feet and collecting his own items.

She forgot Myungsoo's name. he realized. She quickly ran over to him and slapped a cold white paper against the ear with the mixture. He howled when there was a sharp sting, but she ignored him and prepared to walk out of the room. 

"Damn it, woman!" he muttered, grabbing his shoes. "Is it so hard to wait for an injured boy to pack his stuff…?"