As soon as she saw Jeonghan, Arin quickly pushed the door forward so that Meemo was not in his line of vision; there were no pets allowed in this building, and if the landlord caught her, she would be in very deep trouble.

“Where are you off to, Missy?” he asked as he crossed his arms. He always called her Missy. She hated that.

Arin hesitated.

“No going out for you today,” he said before she had the chance to reply. “The stairs are dusty, I need you to mop them.” He had a smile on his face, but it was the nasty kind of smile, the smile of hateful people.

“But I already mopped them today,” Arin mumbled, nervously picking the fold of her nails.

“Do it again,” he quipped. “I checked the cameras, and I saw you scrolling through your phone and getting distracted by that dumb boy band you like. You probably missed a spot.”

Jeonghan, of course, knew about her love for Chilli. It was hard to hide it from him considering all of the posters on her walls and the stack of albums adorning ever corner. And Arin was indeed the kind of person to get distracted from work checking for social media updates from Chilli. Any notification that the group posted a Tweet or a fancafe post or an Instagram update, she immediately took a break to consume that content. And today just happened to be a very active day for the Chilli members on Instagram.

But even though she did get distracted, she never let those distractions affect the quality of her work. No matter how many times she had to stop cleaning to see Chilli updates, her work was still thorough. She never “missed a spot” like Jeonghan thought; he just wanted to find something to pick on her for, and there was nothing she could do to argue with him about it.

“I’ll get right to it, Jeonghan,” she told him. A part of her hoped the curse would actually work this time, but, of course, it didn’t. The reason for that was all too clear: she absolutely hated her landlord, and the curse only worked on people she loved.

So Jeonghan was, unfortunately, safe from her curse.

“I better not see even a speck of dust,” he said as he began to make his way back down the stairs to where his room was, “or I’ll take it out of your paycheck for incompetent work!” That was the last thing he said before descending down to the 13th floor, where his apartment was.

Jeonghan was her landlord and her employer. He owned the entire building, and he made his living renting it out to wealthy tenants. The building was quite luxurious, with its gleaming marble floors, high golden, chandeliers and gold encrusted window frames. Not to mention the state-of-the-art technology in every apartment—the facial recognition software, voice-controlled lighting and temperature, endless security measures, self-sterilizing door handles, private elevator entrances—it was just so fancy.

Jeonghan had hired Arin to clean and do maintenance on the building, and in return he gave her a below-minimum wage salary and a place to stay on the roof of the building, which was nothing like the rest of it. The roof was meant to be a storage unit for furniture and carpets, but Jeonghan moved the storage to the side to make a very small space in which Arin could stay.

The walls were made out of vinyl panels, and the bathroom was open to the rest of the studio and was the size of a broom closet; there was no AC or heater, and she lived with one electric socket that she used for her mini fridge and to charge her phone interchangeably. Worst of all, the elevator door that led to the roof was not working, and Jeonghan refused to pay the money to fix it. As the elevator usually opened directly into the tenants’ apartments on other floors, she could never use it; she always had to take 13 flights of stairs.

It wasn’t an ideal working and living situation, but she was lucky she even had a job at all. Someone like her could have never been able to work in a place that required her to interact with people, because that entailed calling them by their names…

In this place, however, there was only one person she had to interact with, and it happened to be someone she hated. The meant everyone was safe, and Arin had some money and a place to live, miserable as that place was.

Muttering curses under her breath, Arin went back into her home to fetch the cleaning supplies she needed to clean the stairs again. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Meemo staring up at her with wide, shiny eyes.

“Do you want me to get fired?” Arin asked her hungry cat.

Meemo meowed.

Arin sighed and said, “fine, I’ll go get you food now. But if Jeonghan catches me, it’ll be your fault!”

Swiftly, she rushed down 13 flights of stairs, well aware of the security cameras recording her every move. If Jeonghan checked them, he would probably ban her salary for two months.

She made it down the stairs and to the exit unnoticed and crossed the street toward the convenience store. All she needed was cat food and chocolate and she would be out of there. She sped through the aisles, eyes fixated on the items she needed. It was only when she got to the counter that she looked up and realized she was face to face with Joshua.

He smiled at her. “Hello.”

Arin’s nails dug into the cuticles on her thumb.

“You came when you thought my shift ended, didn’t you?” he asked. “Unlucky for you, the other guy called in sick and I’m taking his shift.”

Arin bit her lip. The name “Joshua” began to repeat in her head incessantly. It was like the curse wanted her to say it, like it wanted to work the black magic that has been idle for four years now.

Arin should have fled again, but something held her down. Maybe it was the desire to not return home to her wide-eyed, sad and hungry cat. Maybe it was the curse preventing her. Maybe it was just the shock of suddenly coming face to face with something you didn’t expect. Or maybe it was the voice in her head calming her down, telling her there was no danger. Even if she did say his name, he wouldn’t die. She didn’t love him. He was just a crush, and the spell was very explicit that only people she loved would die.

Joshua took the cat food from her hand and began to scan it. “I know this might be unwelcome, and maybe I freaked you out last time, but I just wanted to get to know you,” Joshua confessed. “I see you come around here often, and I always found you so mysterious and interesting… and… yeah… that would be 10,200 won.”

The curse began to echo in her head, ringing like a loud, unpleasant gong in her ear. Something about the curse tempted her, made her want to say his name there and then despite the risk. It was like reverse psychology; when you know you should not to do something, you want to do it even more. Like the devil was whispering in her ear. Just say it! It’s okay. It’s a really nice name, and he’s not going to die! Do you love him? No, you don’t even know him! He’s a cute boy. A little crush. The curse won’t affect those kinds of people.

At one point, she couldn’t hold herself.

“Joshua,” the name sprung from her lips without warning. It came out of like an unbridled sneeze that she could not have controlled. She covered as soon as she said it, eyes wide with horror at what might happen before her very eyes.

For a split second, she felt hopeful, but soon enough the initial signs appeared and his breath hitched up in his throat.

Please, please, please, don’t, she began to beg the dark magic that she felt swirl all around her.

Joshua began to cough and gasp for air.

I don’t love him! I don’t even know him. Please stop. She begged in her head, as if someone could hear her pleas and feel sorry for her.

His face began to turn red, and Arin just began to cry. She would have closed her eyes or ran away before facing the traumatic sight of someone dying for the fourth time, but the curse made her stand there and watch, and she could do nothing to stop it.

Joshua’s collapsed onto the floor behind his counter, the color of his face morphing into the dark and ugly shade of purple Arin was all too familiar with.

She could see the struggle in his wide, horrified eyes and his spasming body. She could see that he looked straight at her, imploring her to do more than just stand there and cry.

When his body stopped squirming and laid to rest, dead, Arin could finally break out of the curse’s control and flee back to her building.

Her body was trembling so much, she was barely able to place her finger on the censor to open the front gate. She ran up the stairs as fast as she could, barged into her home and collapsing into her mattress, sobbing.

She could never forgive herself. The curse ate its next victim, four years later, all because she was careless.

Her heart burned as if it were literally on fire. That was what heartbreak feels like, but this was more than just heartbreak. It was an agonizing combination of guilt, despair, and hopelessness.

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/N: Joshua always plays the role of ill-fated crush in all my stories. Sorry josh ^^”