3rd POV

“Donghae, I´m pretty sure about this,” Hyukjae sighed, “even if it´s hard to believe.”

Donghae was sitting down and eating his breakfast. Earlier that morning when he was shaving, he noticed a dark blue mark on his arm. At first, he dismissed it as a bruise after bumping who knows where, but when Hyukjae arrived in the bathroom to brush his teeth, he was given a stern look.

“It´s just a bruise,” Donghae mumbled with his mouth full, “talking about vengeful spirit is taking it too far.” He the jam from his thumbs and stood up.

“Donghae, I´m worried,” Hyukjae whined but received only a sweet kiss on his protruding lips and a goodbye smile before Donghae was off to work.

Well, not like this could possibly shut down someone like Lee Hyukjae. You have to understand who this fella actually was. First and foremost, he was Donghae´s soulmate. Secondly, he was a shop keeper at the local wine shop. And last but not least, he was a supernatural enthusiast with an eerie ability to see ghosts. To make things clear, so you wouldn´t think that the ghost seeing ability was the fruit of Hyukjae´s supernatural imagination, he could always see ghosts and only afterwards began investigating to understand, what he was actually seeing. And what he was seeing now, was frightening him to the bones.

Lee Donghae on the other hand, didn´t let something eerie like ghosts get in the way of his daily life. Don´t get him wrong, Donghae did believe Hyukjae´s ability to sense otherworldly beings, only he refused to be scared of them. He couldn´t see them and that gave him, as Hyukjae would say, false sense of security, ´When you can´t see something, it doesn´t mean it´s not there.´ Like this morning, Hyukjae told him that the mark on his arm is definitely a pinch mark by a vengeful spirit. Donghae didn´t know about any person that would hate him so much to want to curse him. He also didn´t know anyone recently deceased. If he let thoughts about curses and spirits get to him, he would turn into an anxious man. That´s why he walked into the office with ease.

“Donghae, good morning,” he was greeted in unusual mournful atmosphere. His colleagues were all standing and whispering with sad expression on their faces. Donghae joined them quietly with a question.

“It´s about Eunji, she passed away yesterday. Her parents just sent the funeral invitation to the office.”

“That´s horrible,” Donghae frowned, he didn´t work closely with Eunji but as far as he knew, she was a kind person and well-liked, “What happened?” They didn´t know but it was sudden. They talked about accidents and then debts and possible suicides. That´s when Donghae walked away, he didn´t like gossiping, especially not about those that passed away. The whole day the atmosphere in the office was enveloped in the black veil of Eunji´s memory.

When Hyukjae came home from work, Donghae was already there, he was just changing into comfortable clothes with solemn face. That made Hyukjae nervous, he´s been on his tiptoes the whole day anyway. The lanky man swiftly strode towards the unsuspecting Donghae and pulled the opened dress shirt from his shoulders. He grabbed his arm and unfortunately found exactly what he expected. Donghae´s bruise grew bigger, the dark purplish mark started on his forearm, covered the elbow fully and was now halfway towards the shoulder. Hyukjae bit down his tears.

“How did it become so large?!” Even Donghae now admitted the seriousness of his injury. “I should see a doctor.”

“I´m telling you it has nothing to do with that!” Hyukjae was already half panicked, knowing exactly what caused this purple terror on his lover´s body. “It´s a curse and it´s spreading real fast. We need to stop it before it kills you.”

At first, Donghae wanted to set Hyukjae in place and ask him to take him to the hospital, but then he calmed down a little and remembered that even if it had nothing to do with spirits, he had to trust his lover and at least see if there is the possibility.

“Alright, let´s talk first,” he agreed.

Donghae put on a tee and went to sit down on the sofa. Hyukjae in the meantime chose to calm his nerves a little by making tea. He was leaning against the kitchen counter and waiting for the water to boil. His heart was beating erratically, all possible terrible thoughts were passing through his brain, all scenarios resulting in Donghae´s death. Filling the cups with hot water, he took a deep breath, wiping his tears.

“You were crying?” Donghae asked first thing when Hyukjae bent down to place the cups on the coffee table. The dyed mop of hair shook but the red glassy eyes were enough of a proof. Sighing, he grabbed Hyukjae by his hips and sat him close next to himself so he could cuddle him. “What do you think is happening?”

“Gjenganger, it´s got to be it,” Hyukjae frowned running his fingers gently over Donghae´s arm. “Are you sure there isn´t anyone who passed away in your extended family or something? Could you call home and ask?”

“I don´t know about anyone,” Donghae wondered if he should call his mother.

“You know,” Hyukjae began, “I also worried that it was somebody that hated me and wanted to use you to hurt me, but I made some calls today and really couldn´t think of anyone. Not to mention that no spirits popped up around here today.” Donghae could see how seriously Hyukjae was this whole matter taking and finally admitted to himself that this was most likely a ghostly doing.

“I do have a colleague at work who passed away but we didn´t really talk much, I knew her just by her face and light talk we had randomly by the coffee machine or so,” Donghae extended his arm to grab the mug with tea. “You kept talking about revenge, but we barely knew each other so it´s probably not her.” And then his grip loosened, and the