Naeun raised her chin high up in the air. She lifted her fingers to her side, extending them as if she was reaching out to something. Mino stared at her with an odd expression. She frowned, then brought her hands closer to her chest.

"It's strange," she muttered. She turned to Mino. "I can feel them again, but it fades away quickly." She scowled. "How far could they be…?"

"You still can't locate them?" Mino asked.

"Hey, don't give me an attitude when you're even more useless than me," Naeun snapped, glaring at him. "If you got any powers on you, why don't you use them to track those three?"

Mino awkwardly placed his hand over his neck. "I would, but I haven't unlocked my powers yet."

Naeun smirked. "That's what I thought. Now, follow me!"

She continued walking with Mino following behind her.

At one point, Mino looked down at his hand. His neck was beginning to throb. There was an intense emotion that bubbled in his chest. He was starting to look at the creatures as sacrificial objects, but for what?

It took him a lot of strength to try to look away from the creatures and to move on ahead. He tried to convince himself that the medicine was starting to show side-effects, but Naeun didn't say anything about side-effects. At least, he didn't remember he saying anything like that.

Naeun turned and frowned. "What are you doing? Let's go!"

"U-Um, yeah," Mino muttered. Oddly enough, he managed to regain his senses and took one more glance at the creatures. They were no longer blood targets in his mind. Instead, they returned to looking like their usual self.

Mino took a deep breath, then exhaled before following Naeun's footsteps as they headed into the deep parts of the forest.

When Jieun woke up, she saw Myungsoo completely worn out and sitting besides her. She slowly got up from the ground, but flinched when a sharp pain hit her head. He took notice of her, then gave her a weak smile.

"Relax," Myungsoo told her. "You've just come back from the dead. You're going to feel sore all over."

"Ugh…" moaned Jieun as she still tried to sit up. She glanced to the side, where Taemin was still laying down, unconscious. "Is he okay?"

"He'll be fine. It's better if he's sleeping, though. The longer he sleeps, the less crazy his powers become," he said.

Jieun crept closer to Taemin. "Is he dead?"

"No, not exactly. He's not exactly dead, but he's just resting. Judgment takes a lot of will and energy. He's probably fighting for yours and his life," Myungsoo told her.

"What do you mean? My life is fine, isn't it?" Jieun asked. She touched her cheeks. "Yep, I'm a hundred percent in flesh."

Myungsoo chuckled. "Sure, but the thing is, the contract you signed with Taemin makes him your lawyer. He needs to defend your purpose of living again, and he's always on-point with that. I remember him fighting for me. Even Naeun went through Final Judgment."

Jieun paled. "A c-contract?"

"Yeah." He paused when he saw Jieun's horrified expression. "You did sign the contract, right? There would've been no way for you to escape death if you didn't sign it."

"Well, I sort of signed it," Jieun murmured. She looked at Taemin. "What happens if you sign the contract mid-way?"

Myungsoo's eyes widened. He quickly got up on his feet and stared at Jieun, flabbergasted.

"Why would you only sign it half-way?" Myungsoo cried aloud.

"I thought my thumb would get infected—"

"How the hell would your thumb get infected? You're already dead," he pointed out. He ran his fingers through his hair and stared at Taemin. "Oh boy. This is going to be a mess."

"W-Why?" Jieun stuttered.

"No one has ever left the contract like that. At least, that's what Taemin said. Who knows what kind of hell he's going through right now," Myungsoo murmured. He groaned and put his hands over his face. "I shouldn't have forced him to do Final Judgment! I'm such an idiot!"

"I-I'm sorry," Jieun apologized awkwardly. She stared at Taemin, then gently touched his knee. I'm so sorry, Taemin.

Myungsoo let out an anguished cry, letting his frustrations echo up to the sky.

"…Did you hear that?" Naeun whispered. She stopped, and so did Mino. Mino pretended to listen, mocking Naeun and silently reminding her that he wasn't capable of doing whatever her powers did. "I heard Myungsoo! I heard his cries!"

"Great!" Mino exclaimed, clasping his hands together. "Where are they?"

Naeun looked up at the sky. "Up there."

Mino looked up. "They're dead?"

Naeun scowled and smacked his stomach. "No! They're up at the skies!"

"How is that possible? Is there another little village up in the sky?" he asked her.

"Not at all. At least, not up here," she muttered. She frowned. "It's like they escaped to another dimension…"

"Perfect! Then we'll go to another dimension, too!" Mino said in a rather positive tone. 

Naeun frowned and hit his stomach again. "Idiot! Do you think we can cross dimensions that easily?"

"I-I'm sorry," Mino mumbled as he hugged his poor stomach. "Ugh… That really hurt!"

"You deserved it for being stupid," she snapped. She glance up at the sky. "How the hell did they get over there?"

"Let's ask around," Mino suggested. "Maybe we'll find somethi—"

He stopped abruptly in the middle of his word. His neck started to throb again. He could feel the curse mark getting hot to the point where he wanted to take off his scarf and reveal the scorching mark. 

Damn it! he cursed silently, clenching his teeth. What's going on with this? It was quiet before, so why is it—

He turned and saw himself in the window. He gasped and flinched as the sight of seeing his eyes fill into a color of abyss black. He couldn't see his pupils at all. The white continued to disappear as the black color stretched itself across his eyes. He started breathing hard, unable to keep himself calm and in control.

Calm down, calm down, he told himself. I can get though this. Just don't let Naeun look—

"Mino!" Naeun called him. The way she called him so suddenly caused him to flinch. He looked up, meeting eyes with Naeun. Her eyes widened as the sight of his strange eyes. "Mi…no?"

The mark on his neck appeared on the floor. Naeun's eyes widened, and she started to step back. She gasped for air and stared down at his feet, then back at him. She started to notice that on one side of his neck, there was a black aura coming out from the scarf.

"Curses," she whispered. She looked down at the mark, which was starting to get bigger. "This all makes sense… This all makes sense! While we were trying to get here, all these strange things started happening to us. This all makes sense! It's all your fault! It's your—"

He didn't let her finish. Rather, something in him didn't want her to finish.

He lunged towards her and grabbed her head, causing her eyes to wide. Then, picking her up by her head, he growled and threw her against the nearest rock, bashing her neck against the boulder.

Blood dripped down from her head as she started to feel dizzy. Her visions blurred, but she managed to catch the sight of Mino rubbing the bloodstain on his fist, along with eyes filled with a dangerous black shade. He reached over to her forehead, then pressed his cold thumb against her forehead.

It's your fault, a disturbing voice echoed in her mind. It made her want to claw her ears; she wanted to tear them apart from her mind. Pass it on.

Her world turned black, and she fell into a small concussion.

Myungsoo lifted his head. For a moment, he felt like a part of himself was lost. Chills crawled up his spine.

"What's wrong?" Jieun asked softly.

"I don't know," he muttered. He looked up. "I just felt like something bad happened to someone I'm close with…" His eyes widened. "Could it be my mom?"

Jieun scowled. "I thought you had no memories of families."

"Well, I'm assuming that my mother is still alive somewhere in this world or something. You have a family of your own, too, right?"

Jieun curled up into a small ball. "I'd rather not talk about them."

"Why not?"

"It's a touchy subject."

"Isn't it always?" Myungsoo asked her. He sighed. "Isn't everything a touchy subject?" He frowned. "Isn't anything about love always a touchy subject?"

"I suppose it is." She glanced at him. "Is there someone you like?"

He stared at her from the corner of his eyes. "Is that something you want to know?"

"It's not me," she said, as if she knew that he was pretending to hint that it was her. "You hardly look at me." She paused. "You like Naeun, don't you?"

He flinched, but he faked a laugh. "What? Me? Like Naeun? Come on, Jieun. You're just scared that I might have feelings towards you."

"You bother Naeun all the time, but that's the only way you can get her attention. She likes Taemin." Jieun's eyes softened as she looked at the sleeping boy. "I know that she likes Taemin. I've seen the way she looks at him."

Myungsoo snorted. "You see love in those eyes? I don't see love in her eyes at all."

"See? That's you being jealous, isn't it? You know, isn't it better to just tell her the truth? You'll appear less cowardly and perhaps more heroic."

"Then what about you? You like Taemin, too, don't you?" he blurted. 

Jieun blinked her eyes. Did she like Taemin? If she did, she couldn't recall the last time she blushed or skipped a heartbeat for him. Was Myungsoo saying this because he was just getting riled up, or did it really seem like she liked him?

"Taemin doesn't want romance in his life. It messes up his powers," Jieun stated, changing the subject.

"Is that some sort of excuse?" Myungsoo asked bitterly.

Jieun couldn't say anything else. She just looked at the ground for a long time, then back at Taemin.

"Love sure is hard to do," she commented.

"Of course," Myungsoo muttered. "Now, think of a way out of this…dimension and how to get back to Naeun and Mino. I don't know how long we've been out, but I'm sure that Mino and Naeun are worried over us. Who knows, Naeun might've been attacked."

"And Mino?"

"That kid's a smart one," Myungsoo said. "I'm sure he found a way to survive."

"I hope so," she mumbled, thinking about his curse. 

"…amn…Damn…"

Jieun's and Myungsoo's eyes widened. They looked down and saw Taemin trying to lift his eyes. His throat was parched and he only extended his hands, motioning for water. Jieun attempted to help him sit up, but yelped when her hands came in contact with him. His whole body was burning, and touching him was like directly touching the flames at a campfire.

Myungsoo pulled Jieun and dragged her to a nearby river, which happened to be behind a golden bush.

"W-What's going on?" Jieun stuttered.

"Get the hell down and stay down in the freaking waters!" Myungsoo shouted. Their feet touched the body of water and they continued to sink down.

"Why? What's going on?" Jieun asked back, raising her voice.

"He's going to start a forest fire! He woke up too suddenly and he's going to rage mode!" he yelled. "Stay in the water and don't get up unless you want to burn your head off!" Myungsoo clawed Jieun's shoulders. "And I mean it. You will get your head burned off if you rise." He looked at the direction they had come from. "Deep breaths!"

"Wait, I—"

"Now!"

The two inhaled loudly and dived below the water. A second later, Jieun could feel the water boiling. She could see a blurry image of Myungsoo motioning her to go lower, where it seemed to be cooler. 

For the longest time in Jieun's life, she stayed underwater, waiting for the white flames to disappear from the surface. She wasn't sure how things looked up the surface, but below, it was beautiful. It looked like white flares swimming in the sky, like clouds swimming in the blue atmosphere after a nice day of rain.

I wish, she thought as her heart raced in awe, that Mino and Naeun could come here and see this.

Gold specs appeared around Jieun. They floated in the water, trying to find ground as fast as possible. Myungsoo, who had been keeping an eye on her, watched the specs shimmer and shine. The second they stopped glowing, her saw Mino and Naeun sinking onto the floor. His eyes widened, and he couldn't help but freak out. He quickly grabbed ahold of the two by their shirts, then floating up to the surface as soon as he knew that the flames had cleared. Jieun followed his lead, but was shocked to see Naeun and Mino in his hands. 

Once the two rose to the surface, Myungsoo dragged the two bodies to the shore. He quickly checked their pulse and breathing, leaving Jieun to stand still in utter shock.

From the golden bushes, Taemin appeared. He looked like a terrible groggy mess, but he seemed capable of walking. When he looked down at the river bank, his eyes widened as he noticed that Mino and Naeun were unconscious. He quickly scrambled down the small hill and to their side.

"What the hell happened?" Taemin asked. He paled. "I didn't do this…right?"

"No, you sure didn't," Myungsoo muttered. "Don't worry, they're breathing." Taemin let out a sigh of relief. Myungsoo looked up and glared at Jieun. "Alright, spill it. What the hell is your power?"

Jieun paled. "I… I don't know—"

"Don't give me that lame excuse!" Myungsoo exclaimed. "What. Is. Your. Power?"

Taemin stared at Jieun. "Did you do this?"

Jieun brought her hands closer to her chest. "I-I don't know!"

"Spill it, Jieun!" Myungsoo shouted. "You could've drowned them! You could've drowned Naeun! They could've died!"

"Jieun," Taemin called her name. She slowly looked at him. "If there's one thing you have to know about our group, then it's that we don't keep secrets from each other. No matter how bad or how good it is, we don't keep secrets. Now, tell us. What did you do, and what is your power?"

"I… I just don't know!" Jieun stammered loudly. Her whole body shook as she looked up at the sky. "Look, it seems like it's going to get dark. Can we just go to sleep and talk about this tomorrow?" She looked at Myungsoo, but noticed that he demanded anwers now. Helpless, she looked at Taemin straight in his eyes. "Please? I'll tell you everything in the morning during breakfast. So… Just give me the night to clean up my thoughts."

Myungsoo almost marched towards her. "Are you toying with us? Do you think we're idiots? I—"

"Myungsoo, leave her alone," Taemin said in a serious tone.

The older boy dropped his jaws. "You can't be serious, Taemin."

"We'll talk tomorrow," he said. He looked at Jieun. "You better keep your promise."

"Taemin, but—"

"Okay," Jieun interrupted, nodding her head. She bowed a little. "Thank you so, so much…"

Taemin looked behind his shoulders, staring at Jieun for a second. Then, with a bitter look, he marched up the hill, searching for any useful tools he could use for the night.

Author's Note: Yikes. It's been nearly a month since I've updated. I'm done with college apps, but I have finals coming up next week… Again, sorry for the late update, but it seems like it might be a while until I get to post my next update (well, hopefully I'll jinx this).