You broke your word, you broke your vow,
So you will suffer for it now.
You hurt my child, I’ll hurt yours too,
Make her feel what mine’s been through.
A hardened heart that’s limp and stale,
Doomed for loves that always fail.
They’ll die before her very eyes.
She’ll call their names to their demise.
Your girl will never love with ease,
For every lover’s heart will cease.
From here on out, this girl is cursed,
And this can never be reversed.

The curse resounded in Arin’s head as she rushed up 13 flights of stairs toward the rooftop where she lived.

She knew the curse by heart, though she never memorized it. That’s the thing with magic: when a spell is imposed on you, it becomes etched into your heart, and its words echo in the depths of your subconscious for as long as you live.

Pft magic? Yeah right, like that’s real. Well, yeah, it is very much real, and Arin had to learn that the hard way. By “hard,” we mean that the three people she loved most in this world had to die before it all became clear to her.

One. Two. Three. Each just as painful as the other.

Whenever the faces of the people she killed with her own tongue came to her mind, Arin would tremble and start compulsively picking the skin around her nails. She wished she could erase the memories of their choking faces, but alas, trauma never leaves you.

Did you know that choking faces can turn purple? A really dark and scary shade of purple. Arin’s least favorite color. “Least favorite” is an understatement; she hated that color with a burning passion because of all the traumatic memories they bring. She hated it so much, she couldn’t even buy Chilli’s latest album because it was purple.

Chilli was the name of her favorite band; it consisted of four members: Vernon, Mingyu, Wonwoo, and, of course, her beloved S.Coups. S.Coups was definitely her favorite! She had posters of him plastered all over her walls. His autograph was displayed in her shelf as if it were some kind of holy grail. She loved him so, so, so much.

Sadly, her love was a curse. Literally.

She was deathly afraid of hurting them, but she knew that as long as she kept a safe distance from them, it would be okay. Even if she couldn’t go to concerts or attend fansigns or take part in their events, it was okay. She resolved to love them from behind her screen.

The same was true of this Joshua person. Now that she knew his name, all she needed to do was stay away from him, and he’d be safe. Her curse only worked when she was in the presence of the person after all.

Joshua.

The name settled itself within Arin’s memory like a parasite. It was like the name had a life of its own and wanted Arin to remember it, because it knew the power it held there. It was futile to try to forget it, because the more she tried, the more it would stick.

Joshua.

What a wonderful name. A biblical name. A foreign name with historical origins that date back thousands of years.

Joshua.

Thinking about the name kind of felt like playing with fire, irresistible but dangerous. Dangerous because it had the power to kill if it found itself on the tip of her tongue...

You see, whenever Arin said the name of a person she loved out loud, in front of that person, that person chokes to death before her very eyes. If that had happened to you three times, you learn to take precautions, and Arin’s precautions involved never seeing the people she knew by name, which meant she had to push away all of her old friends, lock herself up in her meager little home, never go to school or college, and only go out to work or buy stuff necessary for her survival: food, chocolate, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, Chilli merch, and cat food. That was about it.

Speaking of cat food, Meemo was now hungry. When Arin finally reached the rooftop and entered her home empty-handed, Meemo was not very happy.

“I’m sorry, Meemo,” Arin said, rubbing her cat’s head.

And, yes, that was the cat’s actual name. Meemo. Arin could say Meemo’s name out loud, no tragic death involved. Somehow, the curse didn’t work on animals, and so Arin was allowed to love her Meemo and call her name as much as she desired.

So yes, Arin was not as lonely like you’d expect someone cursed to “never love with ease” would be. She had Chilli. She had Meemo. And she also had ~. Yes, you read right, ~. A squiggly line. A tilde or whatever. That was her friend’s name. Literally. Her friend’s name was “~.” How do you pronounce that? Well, you don’t. Which was the whole point. ~ is not an aural name, not a name you can say out loud. ~ is a visual kind of name, a name that you can see, that you can write out, but you can never say. That protected ~ from Arin’s curse.

Just like Meemo, Arin was allowed to love ~, and she did love ~ very very much.

~ was like an older sister to Arin. She had came into Arin’s life after the curse was initiated. ~ had known that Arin was cursed, you see, because ~ was a mage. A witch. A shaman. A wizard. A sorceress. A magician. Whatever you want to call it. Arin always preferred “mage” though, because it sounded the nicest, and ~ was very nice.

Of course, ~ was not her actual name. ~ had another name too, a name that Arin did not know, nor did she ever want to know.

Hey ~! Arin texted her one and only human real-life friend later that night. I need to go out again. Meemo needs her cat food. And I need toilet paper. Arin pauses. And chocolate, she adds, remembering the chocolate bar she craved at the convenience store.

You were just out today though, ~ texted back almost immediately.

Yeah. But the counter boy told me his name, Arin explained. So I fled. Now his shift is over.

Oh no… he was the boy you liked, right? Please be careful Arrie.

Yeah, don’t worry. Planning to never see him again!

That’s for the best, ~ replied. Anyways, I’ll release the enchantment again. Remember, avoid that boy at all costs!

Arin waited until ~ worked her magic. You see, to protect Arin and everyone who could become a victim of her curse, ~ had enchanted the building so that Arin could not leave and other mages could not enter. The enchantment was only released when Arin absolutely had to leave to retrieve something, like cat food.

Whenever the enchantment was released, Arin would feel it in her body. It was like her skin loosened and her muscles relaxed, and she felt free.

“I promise I’ll get your food this time,” Arin called out to her bitter cat as she put on her hoodie.

When she opened the door to leave, however, she was met with the sight of her landlord, Yoon Jeonghan.

A/N: oh gosh introductory chapters are always the hardest ^^
anywho hope you enjoyed. I'll be posting a chapter ever 3/4 days!