Year 2017, Seoul

Sihyung leaned her head against the window of the car, closing her eyes in pain. Her manager, Baek Yoon, glanced at her through the rearview mirror when he heard her inhale sharply.

"Princess, are you getting the headaches again?" He asked out of concern. Sihyung nodded and massaged her temples.

"It's because of curse," she muttered. Sihyung slid the ring off her index finger and scratched at the small fan tattoo. It was because of the curse she had to go through those headaches almost daily and relieve the horrific memories of her past life. It was because of the curse that Sihyung couldn't sleep at night and was always tossing and turning in bed. Everything going wrong in Sihyung's life now was because of the stupid curse.

Yoon's fingers tensed around the steering wheel when Sihyung mentioned the curse. His nails dug into his palms and left crescent shaped indents in his skin. It was his fault that the curse was placed upon Sihyung. If he had arrived at the scene of the confrontation earlier—no, if he had realized she was missing in the first place, she wouldn't have to go through that pain every day. It could've been him, who wasn't important to the future of Baekje, that would suffer from the headaches and not Sihyung, who had shouldered the responsibilities of repairing the ties between Baekje and Silla. If Yoon had simple been a better bodyguard that day, Sihyung would've been able to continue living as “the angel of Baekje.”

Sihyung knew what was going through Yoon’s head at the moment; every time she had headaches, he would apologize profusely and not say anything for the rest of the day after he gave her the medication to relieve the pain. She reached forward in her seat behind Yoon and put her hand on his shoulder. Yoon jumped in his seat, but regained his posture when he realized it was just Sihyung trying to comfort him.

“If I wanted to blame someone for this curse, the blame would be on Lee Jihwa and not you,” she reassured him. “I chose to confront her myself that day, and no one could’ve done anything abo—”

Sihyung was cut off by her headache getting worse. Her eyes shut from the pain, but she managed to crack on eye open to check the tattoo on her finger; it had turned orange, which meant that the pain of her headaches would intensify.

“Yoon…” She croaked out. “The pills.”

As soon as Yoon heard those three words, he pulled over the car and lifted up the arm rest. By now, Sihyung had begun reliving the worst moments of her life—which was what Lee Jihwa had cursed her with—and screamed when she saw everything in flames. Yoon had found the small glass bottle when Sihyung screamed the first time; he let out a scream himself when he realized that it was empty.

“Lee Jihwa, if I ever find your reincarnation in this world, I will end their life!” Yoon got out of his seat behind the wheel and opened the door to the back seats. He pulled Sihyung into a hug and rubbed her head as she continued to scream and hold her head in pain.

"It's okay," he whispered. "You're safe with me. I won't let any of them hurt you."

Sihyung stopped screaming after she felt Yoon’s embrace. She sat there quietly, her eyes still closed, and cried, her tears soaking through his navy bomber jacket and staining the oxford shirt beneath.

“Somebody save me,” she whispered. Yoon hugged her tighter and continued rubbing her head, hoping that it would get her to calm down in some way. Sihyung’s hands had found their way around Yoon’s back and began holding onto the slippery fabric tightly.

“Sungwoo, please… save me.”

That was the last thing she said before she out in Yoon’s arms.

“Baek Yoon! I told so many times to give her pills as soon as she felt pain from the headaches! Why— Mother!”

“We used them all when she was filming for Love Notebook! She had headaches everyday and I couldn’t just let her continue acting like that!”

“You two, stop fighting! You’re both at fault here. Yoon should’ve told us about running out of pills, but you should’ve given him more than one bottle.”

Sihyung woke up to the sounds of the Baek family arguing over the phone. Yoon had moved back to his seat behind the wheel after Sihyung had fallen asleep and called his parents to see what he could do about Sihyung’s constant headaches. When he heard his bomber swish because of Sihyung moving around, he glanced at the rear view mirror and hung up on his parents when he saw that she had woken up.

"Yoon, how long have I been out?" She asked, rubbing her eyes. Yoon sighed in relief when he realize her headache was gone.

"It's been approximately half an hour since you fell asleep, Princess. We still have about a ten minute drive until we arrive at the broadcasting station," he said as he started up the car. "There’s still about twenty minutes before the script reading officially starts, so please relax.”

Sihyung nodded and leaned back in her seat, snuggling into Yoon’s jacket that smelled like laundry.

“Hey Yoon?” She said after a short silence.

“Yes Princess?”

“Please stop calling me ‘Princess’,” she said quietly. “It’s been almost a thousand and four hundred years since that Jin Sihyung died. I never want to relive that life again, so please… just don’t.”

“I’m sorry, but in my eyes, Jin Sihyung will always be the eldest princess of Baekje who did as much as she possibly could for her kingdom. And I’ll always be your bodyguard Baek Yoon who’ll stay by your side and protect you, even if the entire world is against us.”

…

Sungwoo had two cans of coffee in his hands as he paced around the break area of the building. To give Kang Siyoo the other can of coffee or to not give her the other can? That question had been running through his mind for the past five minutes.

“She can interpret it two different ways. One, she’ll take the coffee and see me as a nice co-star, which is what I want her to see me as, or two, she’ll reject it and think I’m some weirdo sunbae that’s trying to hit on her,” he muttered to himself.

Siyoo and the second male lead, Jisoo, had walked into the break room together, and were laughing at something Jisoo had showed the younger girl on his phone. When she saw Sungwoo, her eye smile slowly disappeared and it was replaced with a polite smile, one that you would give someone you're not close with in order to not be seen as a cold person. Sungwoo's hands clenched around the coffee cans in jealousy at first, but he quickly relaxed his hands when he realized that he had nothing to be jealous over.

"I haven't even said a single word to her outside of the script reading. What's there to be jealous of?" He thought, slapping himself in the face once. Siyoo and Jisoo were now standing in front of the vending machine Sungwoo had bought the two cans of coffee from seven minutes ago.

Jisoo placed his hand on Siyoo's head and ruffled her hair, "Pick out whatever you want. Oppa will buy it for you." He sent her a wink, which got him another slap on the arm from Siyoo.

"I don't even call my older brother 'Oppa.' What makes you think I would call someone as uncool as you 'Oppa?'" She laughed. Jisoo raised his eyebrows as if he didn't believe her, but he quickly dropped them and laughed as well.

"I was just joking! I don't want to have such a short, uncute girl call me 'Oppa' anyways!" Jisoo proceeded to compare the heights between the two, placing his hand on top of Siyoo's and lining it up with the bottom of his chin. Siyoo scowled at him and smacked his arm again.

"Since you offered, I'll get the most expensive drink in here." Siyoo turned her head around and took a five thousand won note out of Jisoo’s hand and stuck it in the machine. She pressed the button of the only 5,000 won drink, not even bothering to look at what it was before buying it. When she took it out of the machine, she let out a groan.

Sungwoo turned his head around from the window when he heard the can drop into the retrieval bin. He watched as Siyoo moved the can of coffee from her left hand to her right. The familiar green logo at the top made him smile when he saw it. She had picked the exact same can of coffee as him;, which meant the two of them had similar taste in drinks. His little moment was soon interrupted when he saw Siyoo hand to can of coffee over to Jisoo.

"Why are you giving it to me if you chose the drink?" Jisoo asked as Siyoo placed it in his hands.

"I don't drink coffee. I have trouble falling asleep, so if I drink it now, I won't be able to sleep later," she explained. Sungwoo glanced down at the two cans in his hands and sighed when he realized that he wouldn't have an excuse to strike up a conversation with her. He placed the extra coffee on the windowsill and opened the other one, walking out of the break room as Siyoo and Jisoo continued to chat.

“So there was a third option,” Sungwoo chuckled bitterly. He one last sip of his coffee before tossing it into the trash bin next to him. He suddenly hated coffee.

...

Shiin's Corner

god this story is so unorganized brb sobbing at how choppy my writing is this chapter