If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.

(Demian: The Story of Emir Sinclair's Youth)

"Kim Donghyun!"

Woojin yells as he enters their shared dorm. He goes straight to their room, opening the door abruptly. He was greeted with the view of Donghyun slowly sitting up on his bed.

"Why are you so loud?" He asks, annoyance evident in his voice.

Woojin disregards his question and just moves closer to his best friend, looking Donghyun over from head to toe. "Are you okay?" He asks frantically.

Donghyun raises an eyebrow at him. "Of course, I'm okay. Are you?"

Once again, Woojin doesn't answer. Instead, he directs some more questions to him. "Why did you talk to Jihoon alone? Are you crazy, Donghyun? You know how wary I am of that guy!"

"I haven't seen Jihoon since last night, Woojin. What the hell are you on about?"

Now, it's Woojin's turn to be confused. "What?"

"I haven't seen him nor talked to him. I haven't talked to anyone but you, actually. I've been here since this morning." Donghyun sighs, his face contorting into a mixture of confusion and worry.

"Are you serious? Are you being sincere right now?"

Donghyun stands up and smacks him on the head. "Why would I lie about talking to Jihoon? And more importantly," he smacks him one more time, "why would I lie to you, you idiot?"

"So he lied to me?" Woojin wonders out loud, the question directed at himself.

"Who lied to you?" Donghyun asks. In that moment, someone knocks on their front door.

Donghyun looks at him first with a worried expression before leaving the room to open the door.

Woojin slumps on Donghyun's bed, trying to be calm and collecting the scattered thoughts on his mind.

It doesn't make sense. If it involves Jihoon, nothing will make sense.

Donghyun appears at the door again. "Someone's looking for you."

"Who?" Woojin asks.

"Park Jihoon."

"You're a ing liar!" Woojin shouts at Jihoon as soon as he saw him. Donghyun grimaces and instinctively moves closer to Jihoon and his best friend, unconsciously creating a barrier between the two.

The anger is clearly directed at Jihoon, but he just looks at Woojin, amused. Jihoon stays standing in front of their door.

He smiles, eyes twinkling with mischief and something more. Something evil. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." Woojin fumes. He closes his right hand on Donghyun's wrist. "Donghyun isn't someone you should mess with."

Donghyun looks at both of them, conflicted. "What are you two talking about?"

Jihoon walks a few steps to their direction. Woojin moves back, pulling a confused Donghyun with him.

The other laughs and directs his attention to Donghyun. "Get out." His voice is sickeningly sweet to the ears, as if what he said isn't downright rude.

Woojin expects his best friend, as the law-abiding and respectful person that he is, to be offended. Instead, Donghyun pulls his hand from Woojin's hold, catching the other off guard.

And as if in a trance, he slowly walks to the door and shuts it behind him. Woojin is too shocked to react. Jihoon just laughs again.

Hearing him laugh, Woojin's anger comes back. "What did you do?"

Jihoon just shrugs. "Nothing, really. I just told him to get out. You heard that, didn't you?"

Woojin suddenly pushes Jihoon, who's left stumbling backwards. "Stop trying to be smart with me!"

"What?" Jihoon asks, a little annoyed but still amused. "It's not my fault kind kids are easy to manipulate."

"And besides," he continues, looking at Woojin so intensely it's almost scary. "I'm not the one who sold his best friend to the devil."

This triggers Woojin to hit him, but he finds himself unable to move. "What the-- stop this now!"

Jihoon had the audacity to pout. "But you were being rude."

Woojin gives up trying to move and just settles with shooting daggers at him with his eyes. "Donghyun didn't even talk to you so stop ing lying!"

Jihoon looks at him with a serious expression. "I wasn't lying. He just doesn't remember the deal. No one ever does."

Once again, Woojin's mind turns blank. What?

"But you know what?" Jihoon asks, smiling once more. This time it looks genuine, like he's having the time of his life. "That's the best part. They've given up someone else's life for a wish, and they won't even remember it. Now, that's rude."

Daniel crosses Woojin's mind. But doesn't hyung remember his deal with Jihoon?

"About that stupid senior of yours, though," Jihoon says, as if reading Woojin's mind, "he's a special kind of human, that's how he retains his memories. Too bad he's not special anymore since he made a deal with me. Heaven's gonna be sad, you know?"

Jihoon moves closer to an immobile Woojin and absentmindedly runs his hand through the other's hair. "But you're still here, afterall. And you're special to me. So why don't you just stop being a little and actually cooperate?" He smiles at him.

Something inside Woojin lights up with Jihoon's words. 'You're special to me.'

This annoys Woojin even more. " off!"

Jihoon presses his lips together in a thin line. "Let me correct that: stop being an annoying little ."

"Why don't you stop ruining my life?" Woojin asks back.

Jihoon raises an eyebrow at him, acting innocent. "But I didn't ruin your life. You ruined it the moment you showed yourself to me."

Woojin struggles again with whatever force is trying to lock him down. Unsurprisingly, he fails. Jihoon laughs. "But you can fix everything again."

He abruptly stops his actions and looks at Jihoon. His mind is telling him not to believe whatever Jihoon says, but a part of him still hopes to fix things, so Woojin listens.

Jihoon senses this and starts to speak again. "I am not human, as you may know. My job is to take a piece of soul from people like you. You see, whenever a human makes a wish to us, he has to sell someone else's life too." He smiles longingly, as if remembering a happy moment from the past.

"It's fun to do that. You can never tell how much humanity a person is willing to give up in exchange of a granted wish. Even someone you know so well," Jihoon leans in to whisper into Woojin's ear, "can give you up for their benefit."

Woojin clenches his teeth to try and calm himself down. There's no use fighting against a demon like Jihoon, he knows that.

"What will happen to the person who made a wish?"

Jihoon stares at him for a long time before answering. "A piece of his soul dies along with the other person."

"A piece of his soul?"

"Yes, a piece of his soul. One part of his life. But Woojin, you should know that a person cannot survive with a broken and incomplete soul like that. Soon enough, they start to break themselves apart too."

"The missing piece eats them up from the inside and makes them weak, hopeless, vulnerable. Death just becomes a bonus at that point."

Images of Donghyun suffering flashes in Woojin's mind. This fills his heart with sadness and desperation. "What can I do to call off your deal with Donghyun?"

Jihoon smirks, eyes twinkling once again. "At last, you're cooperating."

He reaches for Woojin's hand with his and locks their fingers together. Jihoon looks into his eyes.

"Join me."